Escape

chapter 2 Wagons, Plantations, and Slaves

The wagon was waiting for me when I walked out of the grand front doors of the main plantation home. The wagon was pulled by my father's finest horses, Jimmie and Neck. Neck had got his name because he had a long neck and compared to his pure white body and head, he had one brown spot on his neck. Jimmie had got his name because his breeder was named James, or Jim for short, but Jim or James seemed too bland and boring for a jumping, little colt with brown dots scattered around on his bright, white coat. Father had set up the wagon cover and was sitting under the shady part of the vehicle with the reins tight in hand.

I gave Nan a hug and climbed up onto the passenger seat. Father gave me a warm smile, waved to Nan and called for the horses to move along. Just as we always did before Father went to a slave auction, he and I rode around the plantation to see which areas needed more workers and which areas had the right amount. We decided that we only needed one more young girl to work in the kitchen and a young boy or two to work in the cotton fields. Father and I had made a pact that if there was a family that was going to be split up or had a valuable member within it, we would do everything in our power to make sure we bought the entire family or as much as we could.

Father typically had a joke for me when we were alone, or sometimes when others were there. Once, Father told me a hilarious joke at one of Mother's parties just to embarrass her. It made us laugh so hard that her face turned as red as the rose Father was wearing on his lapel. I waited for him to tell me a joke, but it never came.

Instead he said, "Savannah Grace, now tell me why I have Jimmie and Neck driving us to this slave auction." This surprised me. What was I supposed to say to that? I thought for a moment and finally came up with...

"Because...because Jimmie and Neck are our finest horses and we want to look professional at this auction?" I replied, even though it was more of a question than an answer.

"Well...yes, but I heard that Sir Edwards Wrongsworth and his snobby son will be there as usual, but they will be showing off the ever so perfectly bred, perfectly mannered, gorgeous horses that they just bought from a famous breeder from New England." he said with a mock snobby air, with his nose pointed high and his lips pursed so tight that it looked ridiculous (and exactly like Sir Edward Wrongsworth and his brat of a son).

"And we want to show them that our horses are far better than any New England bred horses a man could ever buy!" his voice rang louder as he continued. "Isn't that right Neck and Jimmie!" he called with a triumphant flourish, thrusting his fist in the air and giving me a flirty, competitive smile. He raised one eyebrow and winked the opposite and both burst out laughing.

We rode straight and true down the plantation driveway and towards town. As always, we passed by the Wrongsworth plantation and I warily looked towards the grounds of the property. Not one Wrongsworth relative was awake yet, but every slave was exhausted as worked in the tobacco fields. Mr. Wrongsworth had his slaves wake up before the sun rose and work till the moon was high in the sky. He had them work on holidays, he had them work in the rain and a slave was never too sick to work. The only illness that would keep a slave in bed, was a deadly one, one that almost never came about. This disease required blood letting and most people died instead of recovering. Nan had told me once that she reckoned that a poor slave would rather go live in God's land than work on the devil's land that is the Wrongsworth plantation. Those horrible slave owners were so terrible and cruel, so vicious and mean, that I could not bare the thought of how life would be if I was treated like that. It made me shiver in the radiating Louisiana sun.

I was so caught up in my nightmares that I did not notice that we were entering town until Father began telling me the day's plans. We were to go to the post office and send away the invitations for Mother's summer gala. All of her friends and all of Father's politicians from the Baton Rouge town administrating board were to attend. Then we were scheduled for a fitting at the city tailor shop to pick up my new dress for William's homecoming ball this evening. Then off to the slave auction and later to the county train station to reunite with William. He had been in the army for one year, as training since he was taking after Father in climbing the ladder of governmental success by becoming a private in the armed forces of the United States of America.