Turn age

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Wallace Turnage, a slave for most of his teenage life, was a very important man in American history. At the time, slavery was very popular among the whites in the South, because it was an extreme money maker. Most large plantation and slave owners were filthy rich and just got richer by selling slaves and having them harvest the crops. However, the northern states were mostly all opposed to slavery and were ready to fight for their opinion. Abraham Lincoln played a big role in the opposition of slavery, making public speeches and convincing the North that slavery was wrong. The tension between the the states was incredible, and it was all because of slavery. As it was stated in documents, books, and even diaries, the conditions the slaves lived in were extremely poor. Wallace Turnage wrote a diary during his slave life, and David W. Blight read his diary and wrote a book based on the diary entries of Turnage and another slave who also kept a journal. “A Slave No More”# sheds some light on the truth about slavery and slave life that has been kept hidden or brushed off by the white southerners during that era. The journal Turnage kept has incredible facts about his five attempts at escaping to the Northern, free states.
Turnage was born in Snow Hill, North Carolina on August 24th, 1846 being the son of a fifteen year-old enslaved woman and a white man. At the age of 14, he was sold to the Richmond slave trader Hector Davis for $950. Davis shortly sold his new, profitable, teenage slave to James Chalmers for $1,000. In today’s money value, that would be about $25,575. Not all slaves were worth this much, but Turnage was a young, healthy boy who did not have any wounds, which was sign of cooperativeness. Later would his owners find ...

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... the bushes. After the man stopped shooting, Wallace ran towards a cornfield as fast as he could. He ran past people working in the field and men that were chasing him. He also ran and jumped over a ditch that the dogs chasing him fell into. Wallace made it back to Pickensville, about a 23 mile trek, and asked his friend at the church if he could stay for awhile and have something to eat. The man let him stay and gave him food along with water. Wallace stayed up in the church steeple for a few days, watching the roads through the window. He saw his Master pass by everyday going to the store, but made sure he was hidden from sight. One evening, Wallace decided to go outside for some fresh air, while wearing bright white straw hat. A man passing by had seen Wallace, and asked who was there. Wallace laid down in the corn and tried to hide, but the straw hat betrayed him

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