The lives of two slaves

Teagu and his sister Comar have seen the slave hunters arriving in their village and they try to escape. They fail. The slave hunters take them to the European slavetrader's fort. The march there takes several days. They are chained together and stumble and fall.

Several of their older relatives die on route. At the slave fort they are sold to the Europeans for some bead wrist bands. Here Teagu and Comar are separated, they don't know if they'll ever see each other again. It's hot. Comar becomes ill from the bad air, but she survives.

Not everyone does. The slaves sometimes wait months for the slave ship to come and pick them up. Though life was hard in the fort, that's nothing compared to what it's like on the ship. Teagu is chained to the floor with the other men in the narrow hull. It's dirty, and stiflingly hot.

People get sick and vomit and defecate on the floor. Illnesses spread, and many die around him; their bodies... are thrown overboard. Teagu doesn't get to see the sun for the whole journey. Comar fares somewhat better in the women's quarters.

On this trip the captain has actually miscalculated the food rations. There is not enough for everyone. To save food, several slaves are thrown overboard. Teagu and Comar both survive the trip to North America. Now it's time for them to be sold at an auction.

They are being kept separate but are able to see each other from afar. So they hope that they might be sold to the same place. They only need to wait four days for the auction, while others have to wait for weeks. During this time they are inspected. The future owners want to be sure that they're buying healthy and strong slaves.

To look better and more healthy, the slaves' hair is shaved and they are oiled to look shiny. The auctioneer has said that the slaves are only to be sold in families. But that's only to make sure he'll be able to sell the old and weak together with the fit and strong. So this does not apply to Teagu and Comar. They are bought by different people and end up far from each other.

Teagu is being taken to a cotton plantation in the South, while Comar ends up in Boston. In the home of her owners, she becomes a household slave. Their owners give them both new names. Teagu is called Coffey and Comar: Mary Anne. The owners' symbols are burned onto their bodies, like they do to cattle.

Life on the plantation is hard. Most slaves don't even survive for ten years. Teagu toils in the fields from sunrise to sunset, and is given very little to eat. At night he sleeps in a narrow dormitory. The slaves lie on straw directly on the dirt floor.

One night Teagu can't take it any longer and decides to run away. But the dogs and the men catch up with him. He is punished. The foreman puts a shackle with bells on him. If Teagu tries to run away again, the foreman will hear where he is.

At the same time Comar has somewhat easier chores in the household of her owner. She doesn't need to work as hard in the day as Teagu in the fields. But since she is a girl there are other threats. Since the slaves don't live long, there is a constant need for new slaves. And to get more slaves without paying for them, the owners or the foremen make the women pregnant.

Comar is raped. But at this time Comar's owner does not need any more slaves so her kids, Venus and Betty are auctioned away. There are laws to protect a horse from violent treatment, but no laws to protect the slaves. It's not even criminal to beat a slave to death.