The Plantations Daughter

We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil,

Fighting for our Liberty with treasure, blood and toil;

And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose

near and far,

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag, that bears a

Single Star!

Hurrah! Hurrah! for Southern Rights, Hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a

Single Star!

First, gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand;

Then came Alabama who took her by the hand;

Next, quickly Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida,

All rais'd on high the Bonnie Blue Flag, That bears a

Single Star!

Ye men of valor, gather round the Banner of the Right,

Texas and Louisiana, join us in the fight;

Davis, our loved President, and Stephens, Statesman

rare,

Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag, That bears a

Single Star!

And here's to brave Virginia! The Old Dominion State,

With the young Confederacy at length has link'd her

fate

Impelled by her example, now other States prepare

To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag,That bears a

Single Star!

The Bonnie Blue Flag.

That, that was the song, the song I was forced to sing ever since I was a little girl. Being born and raised in the south, on the brink of war. Their names, the names of loved ones no longer remembered. Brother against brother. Uncle against nephew. War changes people and never for the better. Born and raised in Atlanta Georgia, on my father's cotton plantation. My name, well you should know my name. My name is Catherine Ann Miller. A Yankee's daughter at heart.

I was only four when my mother died. Pneumonia took her away from me when I was but a child. I would have no one to help me grow, nurture me into a proper lady of the South. My father, stricken by grief, he took his own life, never to see day light again. Both of my deceased parents left my older brother Seacle, and I with the farm. With no relatives to turn to, my brother took charge of the farm. He was always good to me, he cared for me like any mother would. He fed me, clothed me and taught me all I needed to know. Or what he thought I needed to know. Everyday he taught me that I was to hate the negroes and was to act as if they were beneath me. I never took one word to heart. My parents had never agreed with the confederates and their cruel ways to negroes. But my brother had always been bitter towards them.

As my brother grew older and stronger so did his feelings towards the negroes. Soon our rich cotton farm was a plantation, run by the slaves, but owned and overseen by my brother. He had bought fifty four slaves to be exact. From the day he took their lives and stripped them of their rights as human beings, he treated them like dogs. For the first time I protested against him. But he took it as nothing more than the dirt beneath his feet. I never forgave him for that.

Soon he had become very wealthy, and I was nothing more than one of his slaves. The only use he found in me was the house work, or ladies work as he called it. My brother, being a successful man of business, had many parties and threw extravagant banquets for all of those whom he did business with. I was never allowed to attend, with my brothers simple explanation of me being too vain and not knowing when to keep my mouth shut. So as he would enjoy his wealth I would he shoved behind the curtain rarely ever seen, like an artifact on display. On one particular occasion of one of my brothers banquets, I had just so happen, to of been spotted and caught the eye of one of my brothers associates. He raved about my beauty and said I was simply darling and had to be his. My brother, always had money and opportunity on the mind. So he snached right out of the air. I was offered as a gift to the man in return for support of our fine farm, and like that I was sold, snatched up like a fish in a net. My brother gave me no options and no way out. So off I was, being herded as if cattle owned by an insufferable idiot of a man.

As I began a new chapter of my life. Away from the only place I ever called home, new challenges reared their big ugly head at me and came rampaging in at full speed. I was now living on yet again another plantation. But this wasn't just any plantation with only a few slaves. This had to be the biggest, with hundreds and hundreds of slaves. The man I was auctioned off to was extremely wealthy. He told me that he had had it hard starting off with only a small inheritance of one million dollars. He said that his bloodline would run on forever and one day rule the country. This fowl man's name was Christian Trump. He told me in order for his bloodline to continue on in years to come, he would need an heir. The thought of marrying him sickened me. I would not be thrown around like a rag doll for some child of a man. No I wouldn't do it. So as you would except I rejected the man. He didn't even regard it. He simply said you will accept once you see what I can offer you. I took it as a childish challenge and accepted. Knowing in the back of my mind, that I would come out on top.

Everyday of living on that plantation was torture. Having to look upon the cruel labor being forced onto the negroes, while sitting back and getting swooned over. I simply can not take this anymore, it is simply torture to watch them be treated unfairly. however I am devising a plan to help them in the fields whether my help is accepted or not. I can not simply sit back and do nothing, while they work like dogs. I am completely capable of doing physical labor. My head was swimming with ideas, when suddenly, what I believe to be the most devious plan entered my mind. I as a woman not able to work, would disguise myself as a man, looking for work. I wouldn't be bothered by the negroes, as some men would be. I would simply just disappear and Catherine Ann Miller will never be seen again, and out from the swamps in Florida would come August Evergreen. It is simply brilliant! As I planned my own demise, a memory came into mind. The memory of my parents, this is what they would have me do. So as I left the rich man's house full of things, I used to have. I set off to return as the very thing that I am not. I set off to be a man.