The HARK Journal recognizes student talent from elementary-to-university level.
Enjoy the student contributions below.
Elementary Division
In the early 1700s, there was a girl named Angeline who worked as a slave on a northern Louisiana plantation.
She was only 10 years old but had a full time job picking cotton. She worked from sunup to sundown six days a week. Though she lived near a grand plantation, her family stayed in a shack with dirt floors and no furniture. Life was hard.
Even though she worked all day Angeline still had a wonderful imagination. When she picked cotton, she imagined she was picking sunflowers in her own field where she would run for hours. Some days she imagined herself as one of the plantation owner’s daughters, dressed in a pretty silk dress. Her biggest daydream was to escape the cotton fields and live a life of freedom.
For years Angeline and her family were tortured by the plantation owners. Some were whipped, shackled, or branded for not performing the way their owners expected. Food was scarce, and they often went hungry. However, Angeline knew that she would one day escape. At night, in the dark, her mother taught her how to sew and mend clothes. These skills would help when she finally left the plantation.
At the age of sixteen, she escaped plantation life. She used the skills her mother taught her to earn money to survive. Angeline eventually married and had her own family. Although she never got her own silk dress, she became a seamstress for slave families and made them garments to be proud of. Many of the clothes she made had sunflowers on them. Her daydreaming and determination helped her live a life of happiness that only freedom could give.