For today's post, I'm going to be summarizing this book I finished called, "Sarny". I should be able to finish everything since this book isn't relatively long. Just to let you know the author is "Gary Paulsen", I've read another one of his books called, "Hatchet" at school so when I first saw the book I expected it to be pretty interesting. The protagonist is named, "Sarny" and she is talking about her past. According to her a man named, "Nightjohn" taught her how to read and write. At the time slavery was still a thing and as most people would have already guessed she was black. Soon enough, Nightjohn had escaped the plantation they worked on and Sarny was saddened. She knew he didn't have a very good chance of escaping, unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to help. 

At that point in the story, Sarny was married to a man named, "Martin". There wasn't any talk about escaping between them because she had two children named, "Dellie" and "Tyler". The owner of the plantation that they worked in was called, "Waller" and he worked Martin to death (literally). Not long after Martin died and Sarny was left alone with her two children. News about the Civil War had been known by the slaves in the plantation. They always found out a way to get the papers and read them. One day, a man came onto the plantation with a wagon. All of the slaves knew he was a buyer and would take some of the negroes for sale. Sarny was hiding with her two children in a corner of the dark room. However, the buyer saw her and asked, "Waller" how much they would cost.

After they negotiated a reasonable price Sarny's two children were taken away from her. Once those flashbacks are over the books takes place in the first person perspective of Sarny. The selling of her children had been 7 days ago and Sarny wasn't very happy. Waller had tied her up knowing she would escape if he didn't. Suddenly, loud noises started coming from the top of a nearby hill. It was the Union! They had come to free the black slaves from Waller since he was the owner of the plantation. Waller was already firing behind a box when a blue soldier went behind and shot him directly in the chest. Then the soldier freed Sarny telling her she was now free. Almost immediately, Sarny grabbed as much food and clothing as possible before leaving to find her children!

While on the journey Sarney meets up with one of her friends back at the plantation. She was a young girl named, "Lucy". At first, she was reluctant to let Lucy join but after a few minutes of begging, she agreed. The two set off on a journey to find Sarny's children. After a few days, the both of them stumbled across a carriage carrying a white woman. She gracefully got off the carriage and greeted Sarny and Lucy. They were both skeptical but replied in the same manner. The coachman (the man who was driving the carriage) jumped off as well and Sarny was surprised to see he was a black man. The white woman introduced herself as "Miss Laura" and asked if there names. Once everyone was done introducing themselves "Miss Laura," asked whether Lucy and Sarny would like to work for her.

Sarny and Lucy were immediately put into an outrage saying they weren't anyone's slave anymore. However, the coachman explained it wasn't meant to be slavery and actually a paying job. Sarny asked that if they agreed where would they be going. "Miss Laura," said they were to go to her home in "New Orleans". Sarny quickly said yes and told Miss Laura about her lost children and how they were supposed to be in New Orleans (a Union soldier told her that). The four people got into the carriage and headed off to New Orleans where Miss Laura lived. Okay, let me just spoil the rest of the story because we aren't going to get any further. Miss Laura says that because Sarny was such a great person she would give her fortune to her. That meant Sarny would have about $84,000 in a matter of seconds. The main reason behind this was because Miss Laura was going to die soon and she wanted to pass her money to someone she dearly respected. THE END.