Name: [Akachi… “The name given to me is Tomas” ]
Age [Twenty]
Gender: [Male]
Sexuality: [Undetermined ]
Personality: [Rather quiet and reserved. More interested in the spiritual world than this one. Hard worker, has a very passionate personality but doesn‘t feel the need to show it with words.]
Biography: [Truly Akachi past is veiled in mysticism and traditions. His tribe had prided itself in being very contacted to the earth, the gods, and even the darker side. The were all ’witch doctors’ of sorts. Providers of curses, blessings, poisons, cures, and potions, many tribes knew to keep their distance. Though hard work was no stranger to the tribe as they trained everyone to be self efficient. He was not the son of one of the Elders of the tribes, but at a very young age they saw great potential in Akachi. They took turns training him, all except the “Chief”. He said spoke of how Akachi destiny would not lay with the tribe.
When Akachi reached his tenth dry season was when the pale skins came. The tribe did not bother with the men that came through the forests. Though soon the newcomers came to them. At first it seemed that they were there to share stories of their strange God and to learn of their language as well as to teach their own. Akachi and the other younger children of the tribe were rather intrigued with the newcomers. But the Chief and the Elders were very weary of them. They even instructed and commanded that interactions should be kept at a minimum. And the Tribe obeyed. But it wasn’t long after that did the newcomers multiplied, bringing more than just humble priests and adventures to their world.
By Akachi’s fourteenth season, he had learned enough of the language taught by the newcomers to hold a broken conversation with them. And most of the ’fathers’ of the newcomers could mix and match his own language that they could understand each other. They told him of how that they could trust them but no the men who shot stones. Taking back this information along with some of the trade goods that he was given for some of what his tribe produced, he found that two of the tribes members were already missing. It was a shock. But no one knew where they had gone or what had happened to them. Other tribes came to them for curses and other evils to turn the newcomers from their lands. The tribes told of raids that have befallen them and how more than just one or two had been taken from them or were now no where to be found. It was then the Elders told the tribe any interaction with the white newcomers were forbidden. Akachi followed this rule, but when three more went missing in the next year Akachi took it upon himself to find out.
In the night, he snuck to the large building the priests called the house of their God. Quietly he crawled into one of the windows. Surprising one of the ’fathers’ he called for help before Akachi could tell him who he was. The priest demure changed when he spoke to him. “Run, hide, they are coming now,” the preist said as he pushed and directed the young man to another room. But it was too late, shouts and loud bangs could be heard from out side. And while Akachi was fast. He could not out run a horse. And the last thing he remembered of that night was being hit a cross the back of the head then nothing.
When he came to, he was already on a crowded boat. His tribal wear was stripped for simple cloth that covered him but little more. All around him were cries and angry shouts. Everything was so confusing. But he did recognize a face, a son of one of the elders that had gone missing a couple of days before was laying still across from him. He could tell that the man was trying to achieve communing out side of his body. Akachi knew that it was perhaps the only way one could deal with this strange and rather frightening situation. So for the long boat ride it was all that he could do.
Much of what happened to him next was that of many Africans of that time. He was taken from the boat, sold to the highest bidder, beaten till he accepted his new life, put to work, beaten if he made a mistake or didn’t work hard enough, beaten when he didn’t show the proper respect. Many whipping scars now run a long “Tomas” back. The new name was perhaps the hardest to take. Or perhaps the forced sermons he was to listen to. Even now he didn’t believe that the god of the men that he was now working for deserved his praise. Instead in secret a long with a few other slaves started to worshiped their gods. He even found that many recognized the tribe he was from and asked for special potions and the like from him.
Though tales of a slave that had been named “Toby” had reached the plantation Tomas now worked for had been killed for performing a ritual. The body of the slave was out on display for three days as a warning to all slaves. Tomas had to see the body, for fear it was the elders son. And unfortunately it was a confirmed fear. The now eighteen year old looked to the body with a mixture of hatred and sorrow. Though in Tomas’ heart he knew that his father knew, he worried about the spirit’s anger and being lost with out the proper rights to the body. In the dead of night he came back to where the body hung from the tree. Cutting it down and taking it into the woods with a few other slaves from his plantation, they performed the rights and buried the body.
A successful mission that only caused harsher rules for slaves of all the plantations of that county. But Tomas had chosen wisely in the men he picked to help him, and they all kept their mouth shut even though the reward was great. The reward being a less work, a pick of who you wanted to marry, or if they were ’married’ already less work for their wives and children for a good month. But after that there was a plot to get rid of the masters of certain plantations begging to form. Luckily or perhaps it was the gods, Tomas never knew which exactly a full moon came on a very important night in his tribe. It was also a night of a dance to keep the slaves entertained and also for different owners to find pairing so the slave population could be more tailored made for them. And amidst all the distractions Tomas was able to sneak into his master’s house a place he had never been. Though with the help of one of the house slaves, he was able to put a special instrument meant to steal the luck of the master under the bed.
While on the way back to the party Tomas and the House slave were caught by their master. When he questioned the both of them what they were up to, Tomas grabbed the waist of the female stating they wanted some time alone. The clearly drunk master bought the story making some rude comments about “jungle love’ and how they will be married in the next coming weeks. This idea while not unpleasant to Tomas, riled his nerves. The house slave was not someone he thought of then more than a slave. But the instrument worked its ’magic’ and with in a few days a drastic hardship befell the family. A foreman while drunk set half of the tobacco they had been harvesting on fire. It was time to sell some of the only possessions the family was willing to loose, slaves.
Tomas was an obvious choice and on the morning of his “twentieth birthday”. He stood in nothing but what the good gods gave him. It was all done to show his muscular build. Feeling like a horse, it was a shock not only to him but to the rest of the room when a woman bought him. Madame Winter, was the woman’s name and told him of how her house was ran. It was a strange notion to the field slave to be sure to start having to wear clothing that not only covered him more but were slightly more stiff. And while he did not like the attire, he was very thankful to the luck charm(( as he convinced the house slave that had helped him before to swipe the from under the master’s bed)) that he was not put to work as hard as he once was. ]
Assigned master: [Madame Winter hasn‘t found another home for me yet. ]
