A Haitian woman testified about modern-day slavery in the federal trial of a Miami-Dade County family accused of forcing her to work without pay for six years.

A young Haitian woman, speaking slowly with tears running down her cheeks, described her life as a ''slave'' -- thinking that suicide was the only way to escape the Haitian family in South Florida that had held her against her will for six years.

The audience listening to her horror story: 12 federal jurors in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom, where Simone Celestin, 23, testified Wednesday at length about her experience in a Kendall home.

''I thought about drinking motor oil or bleach. I decided not to drink the bleach. I chose motor oil,'' she told the jurors in describing her feelings of despair in November 2004 after being beaten for not making a bed for the family.

Celestin's testimony came on the third day of the trial of a Southwest Miami-Dade family -- Evelyn Theodore and her two grown daughters, Maude Paulin and Claire Telasco -- charged with human trafficking and forced labor. If convicted, each defendant could be imprisoned up to 20 years.

Paulin's ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, faces one charge of harboring the girl. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Celestin was taken from her mother at age 5, kept in a Haitian orphanage and smuggled to South Florida, prosecutors say.

Theodore arranged to bring the girl to Miami at age 14 in 1999, under the pretext of being a ``niece.''

Celestin testified about cleaning, cooking and washing 15 hours a day in Maude Paulin's Kendall home and on weekends at Telasco's Miramar home. She slept on a floor, bathed with a bucket and ate leftovers.

ALLEGES BEATINGS

Celestin said she was repeatedly hit by Theodore and Paulin -- they used shoes, brooms, even a mortar, which is used for grinding food. But she said Paulin's husband intervened several times to stop the beatings.

Celestin also said Telasco struck her with a shoe after accusing the then-teenager of scratching her car while washing it.

Although she did not use the word on the witness stand, Celestin was talking about the life of a restavek, which means ''staying with'' in Creole. In reality, it refers to a child forced to work in slave-like conditions.

The trial, which is expected to last through next week, comes at a time when the Bush administration has placed strong emphasis on human-trafficking enforcement. The South Florida prosecution is based on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which was enacted in 2000.

U.S. District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez Jr. is presiding over the trial in Fort Lauderdale because another judge who had the case in Miami had a scheduling conflict.

On Wednesday, Celestin, who received no formal schooling, spoke about her fear of being isolated and beaten -- not knowing who to trust to seek freedom. She became involved with two teen boys, but they could not help her. Finally, a friend of her mother's was sympathetic to her situation and arranged her escape in June 2005.

Celestin wrote two farewell letters for Maude Paulin and her daughter Erika, leaving them on their beds. She got help from one of Telasco's children to write the letters in English.

In her letter to Maude, she said, ''I was treated like a slave.'' In the other letter to Erika, she expressed thanks ''for standing up for me'' when the mother beat her.

MAKES AN ESCAPE

Celestin escaped by calling a taxi and meeting up with a doctor who took her to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. She also got support from a Little Haiti social service agency and a South Florida immigration advocacy group.

Celestin, who worked briefly at a McDonald's restaurant but is now unemployed, learned she still has a father, brother and sister living in Haiti.

On cross-examination, Maude Paulin's attorney, Richard Dansoh, peppered Celestin with questions about her motives, suggesting her goal was to exploit the system to obtain legal residency.

''Your mind was not fixed on finding a way to stay here legally?'' Dansoh asked.

Celestin responded: ``No, it was not.''

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