Read Online My Jim by Nancy Rawles - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nancy Rawles
Tags: Fiction
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Lizbeth cant hear but she know what everybody saying. She holding onto my skirt. Jonnie aint know he bout to be sold. His eyes real dark and big. More white folks than he ever seen.
Miss Watson aint come to the sale. She hide up in the house.
I knows some of them whites cause I done doctors them. I hopes one of them take pity on me and buy me with my family.
We looking everywhere for Jim. Cant finds him nowhere. They selling Mas desk and bed. We next on the block. Thats when I falls to the floor. Jim aint going with us. Miss Watson decide to keep him. A present from her daddy. She got him lock up somewhere till the sale over. Then she gonna take him with her to her sisters place in town.
They carry off the furniture. Now the whole place go quiet.
We gots some fine niggers here. Best in the county. Every one of them sound. Strong and hearty. Mas Watson a good Christian man. He feed his niggers salt pork and let them grow they own greens. First one we got here Emma. She work hard as any man.
Emma cry out when she hear her name.
Mas Stevens come up in the back of the crowd. He sitting on his horse in his high boots.
How much you want for them oxen the farm and all the niggers he say.
Aint a sound in the room when he say that.
Then Emma start to scream. Cora join in moaning. Then all us women wails like we in Africa. Mas Stevens fire his gun.
I gives you twenty thousand dollars he say.
Sold.
That night the mourning songs pass from cabin to cabin. Nobody sleep that night. Lizbeth and Jonnie ask me where they daddy. Why he aint here with the rest of us.
He somewhere safe I says. He gonna come and steal us away.
I turns to the wall when I says it. Everywhere the wall patch with black walnut tar. I stares at the wall like I trying to find a way out.
That night my knife come back. Cora the one got it all long.
What you want with my knife I asks her.
You bout to hurt somebody you love. Thats why I takes it she say. That knife for healing. You gonna need that knife where you going. Make sure you put it to good use.
Cora never make it to Mas Stevens place. She die in a fit while the rest of us gathering our things. We buries her in the Watsons graveyard. We hurries to lay the tobacco leaf over her body and covers her with the ground. Jim put two pieces of limestone for a marker.
Folks try to take what little furniture they has. But Mas Stevens say to leave it. We gots everything you need he say. He tell Banes to march us over to his place.
Banes smell of whiskey. Folks say his job to beat us to death and keep Mas Stevens in whiskey. Banes order some of Mas Stevens niggers to burn our cabins. Folks sobbing now. Grown folks sobbing like children to see they cabins burn.
I cant looks. I keeps the fires at my back. I pushes the children on ahead of me. At Mas Stevens place the children toil longside they parents. Nobody watch over them. Lizbeth cry as we walk. She thinking of Cora I spects.
Cora in a better place I says. And soon we gonna be too.
I knows she cant hear me but she take my hand. She all the way try to make me feel better.
Mas Stevens waiting for us on his horse. I scared when I looks at him. I scared of his boots. His boots and his cane. All these years later I still feels that cane pushing me from behind.
I dont wants my children to know I scared so I looks up instead of down when he talk to us. He look at me too. I aint knows if he remember me but I remembers him.
He show us the cabins. You gonna double up he say. That mean he gonna put us in with his niggers. They aint nothing but skin and bones and they looking at us like we makes a good meal. You think you something. You aint nothing now. Thats what they eyes be saying.
The cabins full of holes. Mas Stevens aint give them no paper to patch the holes. He put me and Lizbeth and Jonnie in with his cook.
Mas Stevens cook name Fortune. He say he name her that cause thats what she cost him. She aint know bout cooking and Mas aint give her nothing to
Miss Watson aint come to the sale. She hide up in the house.
I knows some of them whites cause I done doctors them. I hopes one of them take pity on me and buy me with my family.
We looking everywhere for Jim. Cant finds him nowhere. They selling Mas desk and bed. We next on the block. Thats when I falls to the floor. Jim aint going with us. Miss Watson decide to keep him. A present from her daddy. She got him lock up somewhere till the sale over. Then she gonna take him with her to her sisters place in town.
They carry off the furniture. Now the whole place go quiet.
We gots some fine niggers here. Best in the county. Every one of them sound. Strong and hearty. Mas Watson a good Christian man. He feed his niggers salt pork and let them grow they own greens. First one we got here Emma. She work hard as any man.
Emma cry out when she hear her name.
Mas Stevens come up in the back of the crowd. He sitting on his horse in his high boots.
How much you want for them oxen the farm and all the niggers he say.
Aint a sound in the room when he say that.
Then Emma start to scream. Cora join in moaning. Then all us women wails like we in Africa. Mas Stevens fire his gun.
I gives you twenty thousand dollars he say.
Sold.
That night the mourning songs pass from cabin to cabin. Nobody sleep that night. Lizbeth and Jonnie ask me where they daddy. Why he aint here with the rest of us.
He somewhere safe I says. He gonna come and steal us away.
I turns to the wall when I says it. Everywhere the wall patch with black walnut tar. I stares at the wall like I trying to find a way out.
That night my knife come back. Cora the one got it all long.
What you want with my knife I asks her.
You bout to hurt somebody you love. Thats why I takes it she say. That knife for healing. You gonna need that knife where you going. Make sure you put it to good use.
Cora never make it to Mas Stevens place. She die in a fit while the rest of us gathering our things. We buries her in the Watsons graveyard. We hurries to lay the tobacco leaf over her body and covers her with the ground. Jim put two pieces of limestone for a marker.
Folks try to take what little furniture they has. But Mas Stevens say to leave it. We gots everything you need he say. He tell Banes to march us over to his place.
Banes smell of whiskey. Folks say his job to beat us to death and keep Mas Stevens in whiskey. Banes order some of Mas Stevens niggers to burn our cabins. Folks sobbing now. Grown folks sobbing like children to see they cabins burn.
I cant looks. I keeps the fires at my back. I pushes the children on ahead of me. At Mas Stevens place the children toil longside they parents. Nobody watch over them. Lizbeth cry as we walk. She thinking of Cora I spects.
Cora in a better place I says. And soon we gonna be too.
I knows she cant hear me but she take my hand. She all the way try to make me feel better.
Mas Stevens waiting for us on his horse. I scared when I looks at him. I scared of his boots. His boots and his cane. All these years later I still feels that cane pushing me from behind.
I dont wants my children to know I scared so I looks up instead of down when he talk to us. He look at me too. I aint knows if he remember me but I remembers him.
He show us the cabins. You gonna double up he say. That mean he gonna put us in with his niggers. They aint nothing but skin and bones and they looking at us like we makes a good meal. You think you something. You aint nothing now. Thats what they eyes be saying.
The cabins full of holes. Mas Stevens aint give them no paper to patch the holes. He put me and Lizbeth and Jonnie in with his cook.
Mas Stevens cook name Fortune. He say he name her that cause thats what she cost him. She aint know bout cooking and Mas aint give her nothing to
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