Read The Time Travelers' Handbook Online
Authors: Lottie Stride
The Time Travelers' Handbook (13 page)
You are crouched in a small, dark, dusty space, and there's someone beside youâa young man, and he looks terrified. He is hiding from something. Things are not looking good. You have landed in the state of Alabama, and the man beside you, who is called Benjamin, is a slave on the run.
Nearby, you hear loud voices and heavy footsteps. You are about to ask who is out there, but Benjamin motions you to keep quiet. His freedom depends on not being found. So does his life. You hear furniture being moved, doors slamming, and dogs barking in the distance. Then, silence.
Benjamin breathes a deep sigh of relief. He's safeâfor now, anyway.
He is hiding from federal marshals, who are the men whose job is to catch Benjamin and send him back to the farm and the miserable life that he has escaped from.
Benjamin is traveling on the Underground Railroad. He tells you that the owner of the building you are hiding in is a “station master.” You realize you are squashed into a secret space behind a bookcase. When you come out from behind it, you expect to see a station platform, or at least some train tracks, but you don't. This is because the railroad you are about to travel on is no ordinary railroad.
Making Tracks
Benjamin was born on a farm about 18 miles south of here. As a slave, he was the property of the farmer. This meant he could be bought or sold at any time. Life for slaves on the farm was incredibly hard. Benjamin was beaten if he did not work hard enough and he saw many slaves killed.
Benjamin's parents were slaves, but they weren't born slaves. Many years ago, they were taken by force from Africa by slave traders and brought to America.
All Aboard
⢠The Underground Railroad isn't a railroad at all. It is the name given to routes that stretch from the south of the United States to the north and into Canada. They are called “underground” because they are secret. Runaway slaves, known as “packages,” are helped along the route by organizations of people who work to end slavery.
⢠Roughly every 12 miles along the Railroad, there are safe places for the runaways to stop, rest, and eat. These places are called “stations.”
⢠The Railroad moves runaways from the southern states of the U.S.A. where keeping slaves is legal, through the northern states, and all the way to freedom in Canada. Because slaves are owned by their masters, it is illegal for them to run away, or for anyone to help them escape. Punishments for doing so are harsh.
⢠Though the man who runs the safe house you and Benjamin are in today is known as a station master, the people who travel with and guide the runaways between stations are called “conductors.”
⢠Benjamin, and people like him, need all the help they can get. Big rewards are offered to anyone who catches runaways. As a result, not only do federal marshals hunt themâprofessional bounty hunters and ordinary people are looking for them, too.
Moving On
A conductor has arrived to help Benjamin. Her name is Harriet Tubman, otherwise known as General Tubman, or Moses, because of her success at guiding people to freedom. She has helped hundreds of people escape north, so Benjamin is in good hands.
You ask Harriet if you can go along, too. She agrees. First, however, she gives you some stern advice that may save your life.
Follow The Signals
â¢
Travel at night.
You will be harder to spot. Look out for the North Star and head toward it. It will guide you north to Canada and to safety.
â¢
Stay among the trees.
Trees will hide you from view, but they can also help you find your way. Look at their trunks. More moss grows on one side than the otherâthe side facing north should have more moss.
â¢
Look out for safe houses.
A lamp hanging from a post outside a house is a sign that it is safe for you to stop there. You will find somewhere to rest and a good meal.
â¢
Sing along.
Listen to the songs sung by fellow runaways. Some songs contain advice to travelers. One song called “Wade in the Water” advises a traveler to stay close to rivers and wade through them to throw tracker dogs off your scent.
â¢
Keep moving.
It is legal for slave owners to hunt for their slaves anywhere in the Unite d States. The only safe place is Canada. The Canadian government refuses to send slaves back to their owners. Sadly, Canada is a long way north of Alabama.
You've just touched down in Ancient Mesopotamia, an area now known as Iraq. The Sumerians (the name given to the people who lived there in 3100
BC
) are a brainy bunch. They are good at building, farming, math, astronomy, and all sorts of other things. They're extremely good at inventing things, too. Some experts think that they may even have invented the wheel, so keep your eyes peeled for proof.
It might not look like it, but the man sitting down right beside you is busy inventing right now. He's writing. Time travelers will tell you that the Sumerians were the first people in the history of the world known to have used writing. This is a truly historical moment, so sit yourself down and join him.
The Write Stuff
Even though the Sumerians are very smart, they haven't invented paper. The man hands you a wet clay tablet to write on. There are no pens or pencils in Mesopotamia either, so he lends you one of his spare writing sticks, called a stylus. It has a pointed end for making marks in the wet clay.
Write Here, Write Now
The man tells you the reason he is writing is because people need a way to keep records of the crops they are growing, and the things they are making. He is using the very earliest form of Sumerian writing, a writing that will change and develop over the next 2,000 years.
He makes the symbol for barley, something Sumerians grow a lot of, by pushing his stylus into the soft clay, and drawing lines, like this:
The finished symbol looks a bit like some of the logos you see around in the present, but not like any word you have seen before. The man draws more picture symbols and asks you to guess what each one means (see the
answers
).
Writer's Blocks
Back in the present, you will find quite a few clay tablets that have survived from Sumerian timesâmaybe even the one your friend is working on right now. The reason for this is that all the inventing the Sumerians did made them rich. As a result, people who lived around them grew jealous and attacked the Sumerians, attempting to steal from them. One way they would attack was to burn Sumerian buildings. Inside burning buildings, the clay writing tablets got baked hard, and were preserved for centuries.
Invent Your Own Writing
Why not try your hand at creating your own Sumerian-style symbols for things around today that you like best?
You will need:
⢠a pencil ⢠some paper ⢠a sharp stick ⢠some modeling clay ⢠a rolling pin ⢠an oven
Use the pencil and paper to design some personalized symbols. You can create a symbol for anythingâa car, a plane, a skateboard, a pizza, a cell phone, your mother, whatever you like. However, make sure the symbols are simple, so you can copy the shapes into clay.
Next, it's time to make a clay tablet. Take a fist-sized lump of clay and roll it out, using a rolling pin, into a square shapeâabout a half inch thick. This will be your tablet.
Use the sharp stick (the stylus) to make your symbols in the clay tablet. The best thing about your own Sumerian tablet is that you don't need an attacking army to bake itâjust bake it in your oven, following the instructions on the package of modeling clay. Remember, ALWAYS cook with an adult and ask permission to use the oven.
When your clay is baked, carefully remove it from the oven and let it cool. Maybe a kid in 2030 will find it and use his TT handset to come back to visit you to ask what the symbols mean.