Unit 9

When you are reading a story, it is important to know when and where the events take place. The time and place of a story are called setting. Some authors tell you about the setting directly, like this:

1. In hot July of 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg raged for a third day.

Other authors may smply hint at the setting as they describe the actions or feelings of a character, like this:

2. Aaron felt the sun beating on his body and the sweat streaming down his face as he lay in the hills of westrn Pennsylvania praying the Rebel scouts wouldn’t find him

Before you read the story that follows, look at the activity 3. Think about the questions as you read the story. Record your beginning and your ending times.

Freedom is an important part of American life. But not all people in America were always free. It took many years for some people to gain their freedom. In the story you are about to read, you will learn how one man fought for his freedom – and won.

Something to Lose ________________________________________

Corinna Harmon

When Joe was about seventeen, his owner James Betts smashed him on the side of the head with a stick. It has been a bad day with only a small crop harvested. When Betts told Joe to burn brush, Joe said he wouldn't on such a dry, windy day. Then the stick hit him.

James Betts stared at his slave. He felt horror and disgust over what he had done; he wished he could run away, hide, punish himself. His mind was boiling as he raised his arm to strike Joe again.

Joe knocked Betts to the ground, twisting the stick from the man's hand and holding it against his throat. He felt relaxed and balanced, his own blood cooling his cheek.

"I can kill you now," he said to Betts, who lay stunned beneath him. "If you ever hit me again, kill me, because I will surely kill you. I'm not afraid to die, so you can't frighten me. I can kill you now, but I'm letting you live."

Joe left the stick on Betts' throat and walked to his cabin to rinse his face. Supported by other slaves who had watched the fight, Betts stumbled to his house and lay on his bed beside the open window.

Betts was puzzled by his own feelings. Instead of anger or revenge, he felt relief. Always after he flogged a slave he felt dirty, guilty, and ashamed. But he did not feel bad now, because Joe had beaten the fury out of him. Joe had already punished him; he did not have to punish himself.

In the white light outside he saw Joe walking away across the pasture carrying an iron rod as if it were a reed. Betts' constant feeling of loneliness fell away from him for a moment. He wasn't close to anyone —not his family, not his wife —but he felt close to Joe. Watching Joe's brown back, Betts fell asleep.

He never threatened Joe again.

While the slaves tore down a rotten rain gutter, they told stories they'd heard about the war between the colonists and the British. Silas swore that a slave who joined the army would earn his liberty at the end of the war.

Joe hoped to have Sadie for his wife, but he knew that their babies would be slaves and their grandchildren would be slaves. When Betts died, the black families might be split up and sold here and there. He'd rather be a soldier. At least he would become a free man, even though he would probably never see Sadie again.

He told Betts he needed a pass stating that he was not a runaway slave, so that he could join the army. Betts stuttered in confusion.

"I've enlisted myself. I'd had some comfort in thinking you'd be here on the farm, but I won't try to force you to stay."

And so it happened that master and slave served together in the war for American independence.

Lying on the ground Betts waited to fall asleep so he would lose consciousness of the cold. He dared not move after warming up a tiny patch of earth with his body heat. Spoiled food, blistered feet, heat, cold, thirst—nothing seemed to bother Joe. He didn't care. Nothing was bad or good; it just was. That was life.

During a battle, Betts often saw Joe through smoke and dust, standing easy, unaware of danger. He never seemed to duck, squint, dive, or cringe, even when a cannon ball snapped his shirt as it passed by. He dug trenches or loaded the cannon while men fell around him, as calm as if he were cutting hay. At first Betts thought Joe was the bravest man in the army, but then he remembered what Joe had said. Joe wasn't afraid to die.

One foggy night, Joe ran crouching along a stream to find out how far from his camp the British were camped. Within a mile he found them in a small valley. As he turned back to his camp, he stumbled in the stream, and a British guard shouted an alarm. Guns fired and a dozen men sprinted after him, pausing for a moment when they ran from the firelight into the dark. That was enough to give Joe a safe lead. Soon he saw the glow of his camp's fire ahead.

Leaping lightly onto a stone wall, he felt a small rock dislodge under his foot. As he fell sprawling on the ground, a boulder rolled onto his ankle, pinning him to the ground.

His pursuers reached the wall, some of them stopping, some crossing it only yards from where Joe lay. He saw them against the murky sky, but they didn't see him in the meadow grass. He forced his breathing to slow down as they hunted him noisily. A boot stepped inches from his hand, laying the grass across his skin like a fan.

He heard a surprised yell from the Yankee camp, followed by a cry to follow the Redcoats! A clamor burst from the camp, and his pursuers turned tail. Laughing and grumbling, the Yankees stomped about where the British had stood.

"Get this boulder off my foot," said a quiet voice from the ground.

The ankle was not broken, but sprained and swollen. Joe sat under a tree for a few days. Betts saw that sometimes Joe shook his head and laughed to himself. Betts carried a bowl of stew to Joe and asked him what amused him.

"After I got back to camp the other night," Joe said, "I felt that everything inside me was wrong side up. I thought I had a fever or had eaten something bad. I figured out what it was —I was scared! When those Redcoats caught up to me I was afraid they were going to kill me. I had never felt scared before in my life, so I didn't know what it was."

"You were afraid of dying!" said Betts, laughing. "I guess that means you want to stay alive."

Joe's expression was both sour and amused.

"Why didn't you tell me that wanting to live felt the same as being sick?" he said.

After two years in the army Betts was wounded and returned to his farm. Joe served until the end of the war, when he received his freedom. Betts hired him as his farm manager, and in a few years Joe had earned enough to purchase Sadie out of slavery.

_____________________________________________________________

boulder – a very large rock

murky – dark or gloomy

Activity 1

Fact Questions

Look in the story for the answers to the following questions. Write the answers on your paper.

1. How did James Betts feel when he struck his slave?

2. Why wasn't Joe afraid to fight his mas­ter?

3. How did Betts feel after Joe threatened him?

4. What reward did the slaves expect for fighting in the Revolution?

5. Why didn't Joe want to marry and stay on the farm?

6. What was unusual about Joe's attitude toward the hardships and dangers of war?

7. What kind of mission was Joe on when he was almost captured?

8. How did Joe describe the feeling of wanting to live?

9. What kind of work did Joe do after the war?

10. What did Joe do for Sadie?

Activty 2

Thought Questions

Think over the following questions carefully. Then write the answers on a separate sheet of paper.

1. If James Betts had wanted to prove that no slave could get away with hitting him, what would he have had to do to Joe?

2. How might another slaveholder judge Betts? Was he aware of his danger?

3. What do you think Joe would have done if Betts had refused him a pass to join the army?

4. How did Joe learn that he wanted to stay alive?

5. What was Joe willing to pay for his free­dom?

Activity 3

Thinking about Setting

1. Does the author describe the setting of this story directly, or does she suggest it indirectly?

2. Answer each question, and tell the words in the story that help you know each of the following:

1. In what season does the story begin?

2. In what historical period does the story take place?

c. What was there about the setting that made it easier for Joe to hide from the British?