A Journey I will never forget
It's 1847. The Clover family is enslaved on a large plantation in Georgia. All six of the Clovers are separated. Grandma Louise just lost her husband, Joseph, in a house fire before being taken there. Louise is talented in clothes. She knit all the clothes that the Clovers wear, but she doubts her abilities. Martha has been separated from her husband, Hal. Martha is very good with singing, and can dance better than anybody, even better than her mother, Louise. Hal is the workaholic, a very strong man. Hal works on the fields and never gets tired. It is almost as if he enjoys working. Hal and Martha have three children. Maya, first born, just turned 13, and is ready to take on tasks of adulthood in the family. Andrew is second born. Andrew is 11, and hunted game with his father, Hal, back in Louisiana. Andrews the quiet one, but can sure put up a tough fight when he's angry. And finally, Little Emma, third born. Little Emma is only 7, but she has more common sense than any of the three children, which often makes her the babysitter when Hal and Martha are away.
The plantation is roughly 40 miles, and contains around 500 slaves. A common workday for them goes a bit like this: wake up around 5 in the morning and milk the cows. At 6, everybody waters the beans, and children pick the corn and tomatoes. From 7 to 3 the men work on the fields all day long, with short 10 minute breaks in between every two hours. During that time the women pick herbs, gather water, and make clothes. Boys help the men, girls help the women. At 4, all the slaves are lead back to their cabins for a 1 hour break for dinner, (which consists mostly of bread and water) and at 5, all the men repeat fieldwork until 8, and the women repeat the housework. The workday ends at precisely 8:15 every day, and the slaves are allowed to take 2 minute showers in dirty water. Everybody goes to bed at 8:45, and the cycle repeats itself again.
Now, the plantation is owned by a wealthy man by the name of William Goldson. William rarely makes a public appearance, because he owns so much property. He owns 65% of Georgia's land, and turns all of it into slave plantations. But he doesn't run them, his men do. William hires a man and pays him well to run the plantations and order the slaves. The man that runs the Clover's plantation is named Frank Westings, a downright wretched man. Frank cares for nobody except his family, which he can love half the time when he's not drunk. Frank treats all the slaves bad, even the best in performance. He'll whip children and strangle women, he's done it all to make sure the work is done. Sometimes he even kills people who don't listen to him or try to escape without blinking an eye. People believe most of Frank's attitude comes from his excessive drinking. Frank's breath always smells like cigarettes, but the rest of his body sweats whisky. Out of a whole workday, Frank spends half of it drinking, the other half ordering slaves around and beating people. He's got a mean looking whip, and he ain't afraid to use it.
There was a time that everybody will never forget, Frank was highly drunk, and one of the slaves decided to bring one of his children with him, A terribly bad idea in my opinion. The child got in the way of Frank and it all went downhill from there. Frank started to whip the child, the poor child was brusing and bleeding, tears were pouring out of the child’s eyes, the pain looked and sounded peltering, everyone felt sympathy for the child. There was nothing the father could do but sit there and deal with the pain Frank was inflicting on his child.. He wanted to step in, I think everyone did.. but Frank is the type that once he gets started, and he is drunk, he can get physically violent, and if enough jump in, he will revert to dangerous weapons, like guns and knifes, we have seen it before.
The plantation is roughly 40 miles, and contains around 500 slaves. A common workday for them goes a bit like this: wake up around 5 in the morning and milk the cows. At 6, everybody waters the beans, and children pick the corn and tomatoes. From 7 to 3 the men work on the fields all day long, with short 10 minute breaks in between every two hours. During that time the women pick herbs, gather water, and make clothes. Boys help the men, girls help the women. At 4, all the slaves are lead back to their cabins for a 1 hour break for dinner, (which consists mostly of bread and water) and at 5, all the men repeat fieldwork until 8, and the women repeat the housework. The workday ends at precisely 8:15 every day, and the slaves are allowed to take 2 minute showers in dirty water. Everybody goes to bed at 8:45, and the cycle repeats itself again.
Now, the plantation is owned by a wealthy man by the name of William Goldson. William rarely makes a public appearance, because he owns so much property. He owns 65% of Georgia's land, and turns all of it into slave plantations. But he doesn't run them, his men do. William hires a man and pays him well to run the plantations and order the slaves. The man that runs the Clover's plantation is named Frank Westings, a downright wretched man. Frank cares for nobody except his family, which he can love half the time when he's not drunk. Frank treats all the slaves bad, even the best in performance. He'll whip children and strangle women, he's done it all to make sure the work is done. Sometimes he even kills people who don't listen to him or try to escape without blinking an eye. People believe most of Frank's attitude comes from his excessive drinking. Frank's breath always smells like cigarettes, but the rest of his body sweats whisky. Out of a whole workday, Frank spends half of it drinking, the other half ordering slaves around and beating people. He's got a mean looking whip, and he ain't afraid to use it.
There was a time that everybody will never forget, Frank was highly drunk, and one of the slaves decided to bring one of his children with him, A terribly bad idea in my opinion. The child got in the way of Frank and it all went downhill from there. Frank started to whip the child, the poor child was brusing and bleeding, tears were pouring out of the child’s eyes, the pain looked and sounded peltering, everyone felt sympathy for the child. There was nothing the father could do but sit there and deal with the pain Frank was inflicting on his child.. He wanted to step in, I think everyone did.. but Frank is the type that once he gets started, and he is drunk, he can get physically violent, and if enough jump in, he will revert to dangerous weapons, like guns and knifes, we have seen it before.
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