I Am Sold


by Anonymous

The noise was scaring me. The crowds were cheerinhg and shouting excitedly. I could not see anything but the other boys and girs near me were also frightened, even the older ones. It was hot and dusty and I could not see my parents. A speck of dust landed in my right eye and as I rubbed to remove it my eye became sore. I couldn't get it out.

A man came and took me by the arm. I did not struiggle as he was a huge man and looked very rough. He pulled my hands up around the back of my neck and tied them together with twine. He tied my wrists tight and now I had no chance to remove the painful speck of dust from my eye. I began to cry. The man roughly pushed me. My rists hurt. He put a collar around my neck, the rope from the collar was around his hand. I could not see much through my tears. The sun was streaming into the hut. He pulled me along and I stumbled and fell. He picked up a stick, the sort I had used to herd pigs in my village. I was even more scared now. The man pulled me into the sun light and I could hear laughs and shouting. I looked around and saw my mother. She smiled at me but I could see how sad sge was. My father struggled but the two men held him tight and I saw one hit him with a long whip. He looked at me and I started to cry anew.

My father continued to sruggle but was held firmly. Then I noticed a man dressed in long red robes. He walked up to my dab n father and gave orders to one of the men holding him. The man held my fathers arm out stright and the man in the red robes touuched his arm. he held it and then let go. The crowd shouted. The man in red moved to my mother. The man holding her pulled down the robes she had on, showing one of her breasts. My mother stood still but a tear fell down he cheek and I wanted to run to her, but I could not. The man covered my mother up again and the crowd shouted out loudly. The man shouted back at them.

The people here did not speak the same as us and I became so scared that I felt my water flow down my insuide leg and onto the sand . The man holding me shouted at me and then hit me in between my legs with the stick. I ssreamed in agony and bent over. The man hit my bottom hard witht he stick and laudghed. The crowd laughed loudly and shouted at the man holding me. He grabbed me by the neck and tuned me around with my back to the crowd. More shouting and cheering.

I was tired. I had not slept really since the men had come to the village , their lighted torches blazing, pulling my father from the bed, then my mother and me. My grandfather was killed by a man with a sword. We were led away with some others from the village. We had travelled for days, with only a little food and water. One of the men from the voillage had died on the water and another woman I knew on the roadway in a country we did not know. I was still hungry. I called to my mother and she told me that everything would be alright and that I must be brave like my father.

The senatore was bored. His wife was at their estate in Scicily and he and his foreman had deciede to visit the slavemarket. They had no intention of buying but wanted to pass the time of day.

The senatore admired the three slaves on display, the man was strong, he could work the mine and the estate in Scicily. He would be dead within three years bt would have easily covered hiscosts after one year.

The woman would be a maid for his wife. He owed her a gift.

The boy, he is pale and thin and about ten years old, is beautiful and would make an ideal house boy. He looked thin but had good buttocks and fine yellow hair. The slav brought from Britain were often blond but this boys hair was almost bleached white in the sun. His face was pretty like his mother. They were a sorry pair indeed, but the man, he presumed to be the boys father, was strong and if the boy developed in the same way he would make a fine addition to the Senator's Roman household.

The senotor instructed his foreman to make the winning bid. As one of the wealthiest men in Rome he always outbid others to gain ewhat he wanted. He and the foreman returned to the villa.

The man drags me back the the hut, unties me wrists and shuts me in with the other boys. I am still crying and I do not know what has happened to my parents. One of the bigger boys who speaks the same language as me comes up to me and tells me to keep quiet. he hits me in the stomach and it hurts so much I fall down. I crawl into a corner and cry. Some time later we are thrown bread which we eat quickly and then afterwards the man who had hit me with the stick comes and pulls me out of the hut. I cannot see my parents anywhere now. I cab only sob and do what this man makes me do. He pushes me inot a cart and another man gets in with me and holds the rope that is fixed to the collar. Another man whips the horse and we begin a journey. The bulidings are huge. I have never seen sucj a place. The sun is hot, it is never like this in my country where it rains all the time. There is dust all about. Many people, all talikng in a way I do not Brightly decorated places and peole. Some look at me. I am naked in the cart. I smell. I dont like bathing but I know that I small bad. I would wash if I could. I wish I knew where my mother was. I want her now. where is she....I cry and the mnan pulls my rope hard so that I fall onto the floor of the cart and I am looking at his knees. He slaps me around my face. It hurts but not like my father used to do when I was bad. I stop crying and just sob. The man smiles. He is happy I am not making so much noise I suppose. I sit quietly between his knees looking up at him. Will he be in charge of me from now on. I dont know anything and I am confused and tired. The mans robes are clean but a brown colour. He is a servant. We had those in my village and they did not look like us.


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