R.A.F.T. by Haylie
Dear Friend,
My name is Emma and I am writing to you about all of the new and exciting changes in our time. I am the daughter of one of the nobles of my country. Recently I ran away from the manor I live at with my friend Ava to the town where her family lives. Her father is a merchant, so her family is getting rich very quickly. While on my trip, I learned a little bit about town life. Before I was born the towns where not as populated. Instead, most of the populations were farmers, according to my grandfather. When I went to the town, I found the streets very narrow and there was garbage and human waste everywhere on the sides of the streets. What I also learned about were the guilds. Guilds apparently are groups of workers that are very good at the same craft. Guilds
only allowed the best workers into their group, and they can control how many products are produced and how much they cost by themselves. The only bad thing was that fire was the main danger. All what needed to happen was for someone to knock down a candle or something and then the whole town would ignite and catch on fire. Other than that, towns are very delightful.
I have recently started to feel bad for the peasants. They have to all sorts of disgusting jobs for barely anything. I have been seeing Father start to order some of the peasants that work on our manor grounds to collect leeches. I had heard that doctors have been using leeches for anything but I didn't get why Father ordered the peasants to collect them, but I later discovered that the
doctors bought leeches to use. Curious I followed one of the peasants Father ordered to collect leeches, but what I ended up seeing was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. How the peasants collected the leeches wasn't how I expected it at all. Instead of just getting buckets of water from the pond and picking out the leeches like I thought, the peasants had to go into the water and once they felt a leech start to drink their blood, they would take them off of their bodies and put them into a little sack on their so called "belts".
One of the last big changes that has recently occurred is the Black Plague. I heard that in your country, the Black Plague killed millions jut like in Europe. My mother died in the time of the Black Plague. She first started showing symptoms about a week before she died. My father brought a plague doctor to the manor to treat mother, but his remedies only made her suffer even more. What he did to her was so horrible, that I don't even want to describe it. Almost every day now since she died on March 5, in 1850, just to see if I can still feel the warmth of her love and life, but I never can. It is like there is a big hole inside of me. Even though the Black Plague didn't strike me, it still has been destroying me little by little. I have been going to her grave less and less, because I am starting to relies, even though I don't want to believe it, she is gone and is not going to come back for the rest of eternity. Ever since Mother died, my father has been acting very weird around me. Then he told me I was to be married. Girls getting married at my age of ten is very common, but I never thought it would happen to me. I am to be married to one of the other noble's sons who is one year older than me. Life here is just not fair. Maybe can you tell me about what your life is like?
Sincerely,
Emma