Slave Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

basket of good things she had been holdin’ back for Aggie to eat
’cause she’s nursin’ and needs the nourishmentation.
    Wook showed me her new baby brother. It felt so good to hold him – so soft. Aggie and Rufus be so proud. I see why. Their baby boy is so beautiful. Aunt Tee seen to it that Mas’
Henley ’llows new mothers a week free from the fields after havin’ a baby. Aggie will get to be with her son for a whole week – just him and her.
    I finally got a chance to talk to Wook and I found out about her gettin’ married. Like I suspicioned, Wook hates bein’ married. But Mas’ Henley made her marry Lee. See, Miz
Lilly keeps up with the girls who come of age, and she tells Mas’ Henley. When Wook turned fifteen, he told her to choose a husband. When she didn’t, he picked out Lee – said
they’d make strong babies. “Lee don’t love me,” she said. “And I don’t love him. This aine no marriage.”
    “Aunt Tee and Uncle Heb didn’t love each other when they got married, but they grew to, later on. Maybe you and Lee will come to care ’bout each other.” I didn’t
believe what I was sayin’ and neither did Wook. How can they, when they don’t even-now live together? Lee can only get passes once in a while.
    Is that goin’ to happen to me? When I come of age, is Mas’ Henley gon’ make me marry somebody just so I can have babies for him to own? I won’t let that happen to me. I
won’t.
    Saturday
    All week we been busy cleanin’ the Big House. Winter dirt been scrubbed away to make room for summer dust. We’ve all worked until our hands be raw and our backs
ache. Aunt Tee made a salve to help the soreness. She makes me watch when she’s makin’ up stuff. I know the recipes to all kinds of salves and potions, but she done forbidden me to tell
anyone her secrets. It makes me feel bad sometimes that Aunt Tee tells me her secrets, ’cause I’m scared to tell her mine.
    Later on
    An old gamblin’ friend of Mas’ Henley’s, Stanley Graves, been here for a day or so. Miz Lilly been takin’ her meals with William. Not that she wanted to,
but to spite Mas’ Henley. She don’t ’prove of his gamblin’.
    While Spicy and me was a-servin’ dessert, we overheard Graves and Mas’ talkin’ about abolistines. I listened to as much as I dared. Graves say they think the abolistines might
run a man for president of the United States. I know ’bout the president from study time. He’s the mas’er of all the other mas’ers. If the president is a abolistine, then he
can do ’way with slavery and the mas’ers can’t stop him.
    I heared a new word. Cecession. I’m gon’ add it to my list of words to know.
    Third Sunday in May
    I read the calendar on Mas’ Henley’s desk. It is Sunday, May 22, 1859. Rufus talked ’bout the Garden of Eden this mornin’. God’s garden, filled
with peace, love, no hurt, no sufferin’ and no slavery. There aine no such place ’round here and that’s for sure. All through service we could hear Mas’ Henley and Miz Lilly
fightin’ again – shoutin’ mean words, flyin’ every which way. That means it’s gon’ be hard on Spicy and me when we have to ’tend her. She just as soon slap
us for bein’ in the room as to not.
    After Sunday late meal, I came here to write in my special spot. I just wrote B-O-A-T, and I sees a boat full of people sailin’ past Belmont on their way somewhere. I wave at them. They
wave back. Wonder are they thinkin’ ’bout me the way I’m thinkin’ ’bout them? Wonder are there any abolistines on that boat?
    Days later
    Rained all yesterday and today – no scary thunder and lightnin’ – just a steady drip, drip, drop. Been so damp, mould is creepin’ up the side of the
kitchen walls. We spent the mornin’ scrubbin’ the walls down with vinegar water.
    After last meal, Aunt Tee sent Spicy down to the stables with Hince’s dinner. She come back just a-smilin’. “Well, I do declare,” say Aunt