Unbound

Unbound

Juvenile literature in free verse
"When Mama tells me
I'm goin
to the Big House,
she makes me promise
to always be good,
to listen to the Missus
n never talk back,
to lower my eyes
n say, Yes, ma'am,
no, ma'am,
n not to speak
less spoken to first."
Grace is heartbroken when she's being sent up from the quarters
to the Big House where the planter and hid wife live. She's being
torn from her beloved family. She will be living in a little room off
the kitchen at the white people's beck and call.
Grace is a child who must learn an adult's share of hard truths
overnight. She'd better keep her ideas to herself. The missus, in
particular, is very mean. Even the slightest assertion of her humanity
could get Grace whipped sold at auction and taken far far away.
Imagine going into a scary living situation under that kind of pressure.
One evening Grace overhears a conversation between the master
and his wife. Finances have taken an unexpected turn for the worse.
They are debating on which slaves to sell and settle on her mother and
toddler half brothers. The master will take care of business the next
morning.
"Fear sits on my bones
heavy as a barrel of lard.
Waves of sickness
roll over me.

The auction block's
a putrid place,
Uncle Jim said.
Folks is pulled n poked
like they's a prize heifer.
You hear auction,
n you run,
he said.
Auction's nothing
but weeping mamas
n whimpering children."
Running is very perilous. Armed men with dogs trained to be
savage ride around looking for runaway slaves to turn in for money.
Savage punishments, often permanently maiming, are meted out to
returned runaways. But family members sold away at auction are almost
never seen again.
This story has an unusual twist. Rather than trying to escape
to the north, Grace and her family seek freedom in the Great Dismal
Swamp, a refuge for runaways. The lifestyle was a perilous one with
fierce wild beasts and hunger taking a constant toll. But a number of
people chose it over being owned as property.
Just recall that although this story is set in the past slavery
has not gone into the oblivion it deserves. In fact there are more
slaves today than back then. There are too many 21st century Graces
separated from families, overworked, abused, deprived of even the
basics, and unable to acquire the functional literacy that would hold
the key to a future. We must take any chance we have to bring this
ugly truth into the light of day.
On a personal note, I had quite the day today. I started out in the
Community Garden planting garlic and getting some winterizing out of
the way. My chore was to chop down the tangled and taller than me sun
gold vines in one of our greenhouses. I did save all the tomatoes.
The green ones will ripen on my windowsills and extend for me the
sweet taste of summer. John has promised to put in fall spinach and
that has me some excited. Then I went to Amber and Brian's early
Halloween party. Katie and Jacob came up from Portland. There was a
really fun crowd. And, of course, the food was divine. An afternoon
to remember. I wore my footed zebra pajamas I got at Belfast Goodwill
last week with Kat.
A great big shout out goes out to the community crew, Katie and Jacob
who drove down, and Amber and Brian, the hosts with the most.
jules hathaway



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