Winter was beginning to blossom into spring on Radford Plantation. Far out from the boundaries of the fields, the War boomed continuously. Brothers were pitted against each other. Father and son turned against one another, and cities were seized to pieces. The Yankees and the Rebels spat venom in the form of bloodshed, but all the while Radford Plantation kept churning. It was systematic and every day was the same. Bright and early at five in the morning, the slaves were woken from their seldom-peaceful slumber. They ate their monthly cornmeal rations and the field workers went out to pick the cotton, hoe the rows, and fertilize the Radford livelihood. The house slaves would prepare breakfast for the family, wash the linens, and remove routine dust. It was better than being in the fields all day, but the constant demands of the Radfords were enough to drive a person to insanity. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡomP5S6ULAd
Sarah was new on the plantation. She resided there only a week. At age 16, she had been on two plantations thus far. The first was a family in Kentucky from the time she was born until she was eleven years old. They sold her because “living with her parents was making her an inadequate worker.” As if this lifestyle was even considered living at all. From there, she was sent to Alexandria, Virginia. She worked for a nicer family until a couple weeks ago when they brought in a new shipment of slaves and decided to clean out the old trash. Sarah was then bought by the Radfords, a wealthy family in Richmond who had just faced a loss of slaves due to typhoid fever. The Radfords claimed they wanted young Africans because they were leaner and better suited for work. Sarah was glad when she got off that train the previous Tuesday. Even though she was in shackles and manhandled, the smell of the three hour ride was worse than being tossed off the train at the plantation. At least she had fresh air. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoglFLn802S
Now, a week later, Sarah was starting to get into the swing of things. She hadn’t done anything to warrant a whipping yet, so that was a good sign. From what she’d heard, there had never been a slave of the Radfords that had escaped a beating in the first week of their stay. She considered herself more than lucky… she was blessed. At this time it was 5:30 in the morning and Sarah laid on her cot, staring up between the cracks in the ceiling of the barracks. The morning light was just beginning to seep in. “Get up!” Georgie, a 30 year-old man and the head of her barracks, yelled. “I know that you’re new, but when I say ‘up,’ I mean it.” Sarah rubbed her eyes and stepped down onto the straw. She was dressed in nothing but a piece of ripped cotton that barely managed to cover her. “Mr. Radford’s son is comin’ back from the college this mornin’ and he’s gone be gettin’ his own one of us. His pick. So get y’alls asses out there and look mighty if you want to get it good.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXSNBe6FsZl
Sarah tapped on the shoulder of Greta, a 25 year old who’d been there for years, next to her. “Who is it that’s coming?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV5aavGUWOR
“Jonathan Radford. He’s back from the University of Virginia and here to stay. He gets one of us girls. Whoever gets chosen goes and lives in the Big House. Own room and everything. Daily meals, too. Jonathan’s a fine boy. Twenty years old and he’s quite the dapper fellow, if I do say so myself.” Suddenly, everybody was running. “He’s here.” Kicking dust on her way, Sarah sprinted with her gangly legs to the side of the dirt road that led to the front door. She was so short that she was almost scared he wouldn’t see her in the crowd. His horse stopped right next to a weeping willow and he jumped off and handed the reigns to the stable boy. A middle-aged woman with not a wrinkle to her face rushed out, petticoat and all, down to meet her son. The boss, a graying Charles Radford, followed behind at an even strolling pace with a younger girl (perhaps a preteen) coming afterwards. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeJFzpkzu1V
“Mother!” Jonathan cried. How he missed his mother so dearly. It had only been a couple months since he’d last been home for Christmas, but it felt like a year. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsM6Lddnpuj
“Jeanette, let the boy breathe,” Charles interrupted. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGazl7391tw
“How’s school, son?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPtG753Qsjx
“As good as it could be while only a few acres out men are shooting each other to smithereens.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqWhbKM2hj
“It’s the times. All is good here, though, and I am glad that this next month of vacation is going to be spent with us. Your sister missed you.” The little girl standing offside stepped forward and Jonathan bent down and opened his arms. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WuWi2OvXH
“I missed you, Jonny. I really did.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7KPaRJIhNh
“I missed you too, Mary.” After giving Jonathan a kiss on the cheek she was ushered back inside by one of the house slaves. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleHHshVkfb
“Well, son,” Charles put his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and turned him to face the clump of female slaves waiting eagerly to hear the verdict. “Your choice. Which one catches your eye?” Jonathan poked and prodded through the slaves in the front and appraised each one of them with disgust. After going through a few more, he landed upon Sarah. Sarah glanced down, as was expected of her, but had she looked him in his brown eyes, she would’ve seen something soft. Something caring. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCCqD5IMnA
“What’s this one’s name?” Jonathan asked his father. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRQ3yIZEQE
“Sarah. Just bought her last week in my ventures to restock after the typhoid breakout. Got her from the Clints in Alexandria. She’s 16.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmF4qm6hNNT
“I choose her,” Jonathan said simply. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLx36wS4Rp6
“Are you sure? There are much older, more experienced – “ 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXox7YyBNro
“I said that I choose her,” he spoke assertively and with finality. Jonathan turned to a nearby house slave. “Take her in and get her cleaned up. Show her the bedroom and her clothing. I will be in there momentarily to talk.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tv4E5FGTF
The house slave pulled Sarah’s arm forcefully. Sarah kept her head down as she passed the Radfords, but in her head she was thanking God that she was chosen. Despite the work being around the clock, the work was considerably lighter and the odds of getting whipped were diminished. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq89wM2azV
There was a knock on the wooden stairwell. It was Jonathan and he entered cautiously. Very slowly and carefully, he sat on the edge of Sarah’s bed. “I just want to talk to you… I don’t want you to be scared of me. I’m not like my father. I have a liberal mind, and I will treat you as a human, not an animal. You have two arms and two legs, just like me. I simply need you to handle certain tasks for me. Non-consensual sexual relations will not be one of those tasks. Do you understand me, Sarah?”238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfjdN1rKZX
“Yes, sir.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKkDPpYrAb
“I don’t require honorifics. Just calling me Jonathan is fine. However, in the presence of my father, please use the honorific. We have guests coming to dinner tonight. The Fairley family from New Kent. Be in the dining room at 6:00. Betty will give you instructions. Please come to my bedroom tonight at 10:00, Sarah.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4ydaI7MBY
“What did you talk to the nigger about?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLuOkKJDLo7
“She is still a human with a beating heart and feelings. Anyways, why are the Fairleys coming?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZtBXTtZVGJ
“Roger and Caroline are bringing Daisy to see you.” Daisy Fairley had an irrational infatuation with Jonathan. She was 18 and from the young age of seven, their parents were pushing them together. Daisy was all for it, but Jonathan was not in the least interested. Daisy was a beautiful girl with long, blonde curly hair. She had bright blue eyes and thin lips with high cheekbones. But that was it… that’s all there was to her. She wasn’t the smartest individual and her personality was paper thin. Jonathan grunted in dismay. “Just suck it up for tonight, please? She is very excited to see you.”238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8OCLsSlZ3Z
“I wouldn’t care if she wasn’t excited. The fact of the matter is that I don’t want to see her, and I will not put up an act in order to suit her.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKZbnu1rhs
“Jonathan,” Jeanette grabbed her son’s arm, “You are my child and will do as I say, and you will be pleasant at dinner or so help me God. Be lucky I’m getting to you and not your father. He’d have a fit if he saw the way you are acting.” Jeanette left Jonathan in the hallway and he crossed his arms petulantly. A couple hours later, the Fairleys’ carriage arrived and Jeanette dragged a moping Jonathan outside to greet them. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrIM4Oq97v
Daisy was the first out of the carriage and she sprinted forward, “Jonny!” She swept her hair behind her ear and kissed Jonathan’s cheek. “It’s been forever since I’ve seen you. We have a lot of catching up to do.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP8gRDdQe5V
“Do we really?” Jonathan turned slightly away from Daisy to hopefully smother the conversation before it went any further, but Daisy was relentless.238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGiI9TIiaQ
“It’s been almost a year, Jonathan. New Kent is a long ways from Charlottesville and you only come around sparingly.” Daisy lifted up her skirts slightly to go up the stairs into the house and outstretched her elbow, hoping Jonathan would escort her, but he made no such effort. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnDH2oZsoc
“One of these days you will have to settle down and get married. Better to start thinking of it now than waiting until you’re an old man.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0UpcRrfIj
“I’m twenty years of age and nowhere close to being an old man.” Jonathan left Daisy in the hallway without remorse. Jonathan was a very plain-spoken man. He said what he meant and meant what he said. He did not believe in ever beating around the bush. To him, life was too short to always be dancing around the point. It was best to get the words out and waste no time. Dinner would not be ready for almost an hour, so he occupied his time in his father’s study. He found solace in books and knowledge. Jonathan often dreamed that one day he would escape the South and live in the North with the Republican mindset and industrialized lifestyle. He knew better, though. His father would never allow his only son to turn to the other side and keep him as close kin. Jonathan’s options were very clear: stay in the South and have a family or go to the North and be abandoned. For some reason, Jonathan thought the latter sounded better, but dreams were dreams for a reason, and at the height of the War, that’s all they would be. As Jonathan stared blankly at the ink on the page of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, there was a knock on the old wooden door. Sarah came in subserviently. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrB44Anjd6N
“Dinner is ready, sir,” she said timidly, eyes cast downward. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp58EfIzhxH
Jonathan cocked his head for a moment. “Come and sit, Sarah. Please close the door behind you.” Sarah did as she was told. She took a seat in the chair directly opposite Jonathan. She was as still as a statue and knew better than to meet his eyes. Nevertheless, he said, “Look at me.” She did so cautiously. “I have told you about not needing honorifics. Why are you scared of me?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrY54nhsOA
“I am not.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwP6fQL0JM
“Yes, you are. I can read your body language. You sit with a stiff back, your legs pushed together, and your hands clenched defensively into fists.” Sarah did not realize that she was doing all of that. It just felt natural. She continued to look Jonathan in the eyes, in his deep brown eyes that were laced with long, curled eyelashes. She noticed his high cheekbones and curved chin. His jaw was softly rectangular and his nose was long. He was perhaps the most exquisite man she had ever seen. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSvZdg46NtH
Jonathan reached across the way to grab Sarah’s hands. He gently and purposefully unclenched her fists and returned them to her lap. “Relax, Sarah,” he whispered intently. There was a moment of silence between the two. It had just occurred to Sarah that Jonathan was in no hurry to get to dinner. “Do you know how to read?” That was a preposterous question. Any slave that knew how to read would be hanged or whipped to death. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYuPFgOsxB9
“Of course not.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjIIKmtoTSA
“Would you like to learn?” Sarah did not respond right away, so Jonathan pushed further. “Would you?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxoVJBIghB
“I want to, but if I did, I’d be killed.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhzztNiZf1
“I will make sure that will not happen. At the end of the third row of tobacco left of the dirt road, there is a tree with a hole at the base. Meet me there tonight at eleven once everyone else has gone to sleep. I will teach you. Knowledge is power, Sarah, and for your race, power is the key.” Sarah didn’t know what to say, nor did she feel like there was anything to say. Jonathan stood and straightened out his clothing, then offered Sarah his hand and pulled her up. “Please go tend to dinner.” Sarah nodded complacently. She could only dream of learning how to read. She wished she could go to the university and be knowledgeable like the white man, but she wasn’t white, would never be white, and there was nothing she could do about it. Resolving herself to her pre-destined position, Sarah returned to her duties in the kitchen. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsH2VaDITkI
Very soon, too soon for Jonathan’s liking, he sat in the chair next to Daisy. “Nice of you to join us, Jonathan,” Jeanette Radford sarcastically greeted. The dinner had not yet been placed on the table, but the guests were munching on bread and butter. Jonathan reached across for a roll himself and took a bite. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1WwaeaCwZ5
“So, Jonathan,” Roger Fairley, a 45 year old man originally from Roanoke, started, “How’s the University? You’re studying politics, right?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Plpy57oad
“It’s fine, and yes. I graduate next year – that is if I don’t get drafted.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIIN0GuQAx9
“I doubt you’ll have to serve,” his father said. “You’re too high in stature for them to even think about risking your life. Let the work be done by the poor farmers in Alabama and Georgia. They don’t have much to lose. You are the heir to Radford fortune and livelihood. We can’t afford to lose you.” Jonathan was not surprised. Charles often referred to any loss of Jonathan as a financial issue; it was nothing new. He didn’t think that his father ever meant for it to come across like that. It just did, and in his own way, he was okay with that. A few of the house slaves came in with wine and food. Jonathan did not pay them much mind initially, but he noticed instantly when Sarah reached over his shoulder for his glass. He tensed from his spine upward and looked up at Sarah, hoping she would look back at him. She didn’t. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXzIjABBzwP
Sarah may have been a lot of things: a slave, a Negro, and a white man’s property. But the one thing she wasn’t was stupid. With all of the Radfords and the Fairleys around, she knew better than to look Jonathan in the face. She simply poured the wine in his cup and backed away. “Thank you, Sarah,” Jonathan pronounced as she was leaving back to the kitchen. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dNElOHnQM
Sarah turned back, head still down, and nodded. Consequently, Daisy nudged Jonathan in the ribcage. “No need to say thank you,” Daisy said. “It’s not like she deserves it.” Being the stately gentlemen he was expected to be, Jonathan dished Daisy out some of the pork and shook his head. He would not argue about the corrupt Southern morals he had come to despise. He had learned very well to let bygones be bygones. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswsGTi8KYC
“I think we should start making the wedding plans,” Daisy’s mother, Caroline, said without hesitation. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK1MibkDBjC
Jonathan dropped his fork and choked on his fork, while Daisy clapped gleefully. “Excuse you?” Jonathan importuned, once he had caught his breath. Jeanette dabbed her mouth with her cloth. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZsJ5oFuQwi
“Honey, we think it is about time you get started on giving us grandchildren. In these rough times, life is indefinite and we need to make sure we are all secured before us old folk pass.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZEKwY9hhOa
“Old folk?” Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “Mother, you’re 46 years old.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡumau7X1bZd
Jeanette did not respond to her son’s statement of fact. “We just need to cover all our bases.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMDkSNumkK
“Daisy would be delighted to go with you to Charlottesville,” Roger interjected. He pushed his plate forward, signaling his completion of his meal and reached across his wife to his daughter. His kissed Daisy’s hand in fatherly affection. “Wouldn’t you, dear?” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimExf0EtsD
“Absolutely.” Daisy leaned on Jonathan’s shoulder and would not release him from her grasp. “I can just imagine Johnny and I’s little child scurrying around.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDuLxAX8iy
“Then how about April?” Charles chipped in for the first time on the topic. 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZMEdGRYBN
“No!” Jonathan stood, throwing his chair back and stormed out of the dining room into the hallway. He heard no commotion from where he had left, just silence. The sun was just starting to go down, and Jonathan stepped out onto the porch and took in the scenery. The slaves still worked in the fields, pulling up the small amounts of cotton and large bushels of tobacco. He had tried many times before to imagine himself in their shoes, but he just couldn’t. Of course he witnessed how they were treated, but he could never quite understand just how it felt. He was never treated like that, which in all honesty, was the reason why he could never empathize, only sympathize. Jonathan strolled over to the fields where a couple men hoed tobacco. As the man saw Jonathan approach, he hoed more vigorously, keeping his head down at all costs. Jonathan tapped on his shoulder. “Why don’t go ahead and stop for today. You’ve worked hard enough.” 238Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNnrQtKSw5p
