My Story: Slave Girl - The Diary of Clotee, Virginia, USA 1859

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The heartbreaking diary of Clotee, a slave-girl in one of America’s notorious plantations. To her, freedom is just a word – but it’s the most important word in the world. “Freedom is one of the first words I teached myself to write. Down in the Quarters people pray for freedom – they sing ‘bout freedom, but to keep Mas’ Henley from knowin’ their true feelings, they call freedom ‘heaven’. Everybody’s mind is on freedom… While fannin’ this afternoon, my eyes fell on ‘freedom’ in a book William was readin’... I been spellin’ it F-R-E-D-U-M. I put the right letters in my head to make sure I remembered their place. F-R-E-E-D-O-M.”