Harriet's Quilt

	This story is a general work of fiction in 7 parts inspired by a reading of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Although the main characters are fictitious much of this story is based on actual historical figures and events. Reader’s discretion is suggested.
	HARRIET'S QUILT - Part II

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J

im wuz there when I came outta my mamma's belly. He helped to cut the cord an' wash me clean, cos' mamma wuz too weak to carry me still. Then he went an' tole' mamma I wuz the prettiest baby he'd ever laid eyes on. That's when mamma smiled an' said, �Then you should help take care of my pretty baby for me, Jim�.

Then Jim, my Jim looked up at her an' smiled. �I think I just might, m'am�.

My Jim took care of me good; I wuz his to protect. He made sure I wuz fed. Even when mama wuz too done tired to feed me, Jim would steal them cow's milk for me. It woulda been crazy if Mister Douglas had gone an' caught him doin' the deed. But ol' Jim wuz a clever'un an' he never gone an' got hisself caught.

As we grew together, Jim had to fight them other slave boys. Yea, my Jim always had to show that I be his an' no one else's. It wuz when I wuz sixteen that I had gone the mutherin' way an' be heavy with child. Jim felt my belly an' tole' me, �we are gonna git ourselves a pair of boys, Harriet,� then he frowned, but I ain't sure if I am goin' to be there when they are born...�

Shor' enuf', the next week Mister Jones from the plantation down the road, offa' Missus Douglas' own farm. Mister Douglas had just gone an' died on her an' she wuz left with no money to run the farm on her own. Us s'pectin' slaves are always wirth mo'money an' so Missus Douglas thought I should go with Mister Jones.

Mister Jones handled me kindly at first. But them white folks always treated us kindly, they'd sooner killed theysels' off fightin' an' warrin' than hazard damaging them there goods by harming us. �My Black Beauty�, he'd call me, �my Black Beauty' like I be an object for him to possess an' own, a plaything for him to observe an' admire as he wishes.

But I ain't sure, cos' he might be right though. All my life, I've only been known to work an' work an' work to the skin of ma' bones. Nothing I have is mine to own. Even them twins, of Jim an' myself, were taken from me the day after I'd stopped nursing'em an' sold further down south to some other plantation. They were not the only ones, a'course - others, from my belly an' other bellies, were sold off by Mister Jones too. All I could do wuz just produce more slaves to be sold off. I had no children none like my master's, we wuz just be producin' more workers for them plantations.

We darn' seemed no better than them animals truly. Even them horses on the plantation, they gets to rest some, in the evening. We merely be there to work when the rooster calls an' when the sun shines no mo' at the end of the day, we go back to the barn an' rest in fear of our master. If they come back unhappy, for whatsoever reason, they might well tie you up an' give you a sound whuppin' till your back split open for some chokecherry tree.