Yellow Crocus: A Novel Read Online Free Page A

need no other lovin baby
     
    Mattie continued the gentle song, rocking slowly, confident of lulling Miss Elizabeth to sleep.
Go to sleepy little baby
Go to sleepy little baby
Come and lay your bones on the alabaster stones
And be my ever lovin baby
     
    Miss Elizabeth lay with her silky soft head against Mattie’s strong, warm arm. Her open pink mouth glistened with saliva and breast milk; heavy, limp arms flung back at her sides. Mattie gently wiped away the pooled milk in the corners of Miss Elizabeth’s mouth before deftly transferring her to the bed they shared in Mattie’s small anteroom. Miss Elizabeth tipped her head back to protest. Bending over the baby, Mattie rested her hand on the girl’s back to settle her back into a deep sleep and waited patiently until she heard the sound of rhythmic breathing. After a last pat, Mattie turned away to go to her family.

     
    An unbroken string of Mattie’s ancestors going back to her great-great-grandparents had lived at Fair Oaks since its founding in 1690. The plantation, which sat on the northern bank of the James River, was part of the Virginia Company’s westward expansion. As was customary, land grants were given in proportion to the number of people a grantee imported to tame the land. Commander Theodore Pryne had the funds to bring thirty Europeans and Africans as indentured servants, so he was given fifteen hundred acres to plant. All indentured servants, both European and African, agreed to work off their debt for seven to fifteen years. After that they were to be released and given five acres of land, a bushel of seed, and the freedom to pursue their own fortunes in the New World.
    Quickly the landed gentry realized that their plantations would not be profitable if they paid their workforce. Thus Mattie’s African ancestors were not turned free or given the means to farm for themselves but held in perpetual bondage after the Virginia Assembly passed a law in 1705 clarifying once and for all the status of Africans in the colony. It declared “all servants imported and brought into the Country…who were not Christians in their native Country…shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves within this dominion…shall be held to be real estate.” In addition, social status for slaves would be transferred from mother to children rather than from father to child. Those changes in social codes ensured eighteenth-century planters of Virginia a steady supply of workers.
    Family lore held that Mattie’s paternal great-great-grandfather would have been free had the assembly waited but two months to pass this law: his indenture was to be completed later in 1705. As it was, none of her ancestors had secured their freedom from the peculiar institution known as slavery. Naturally they all imagined living as one of the free Africans in Charles City County, Virginia, with varying degrees of envy and rage.

     
    Mattie hurried down the muddy footpath to her family’s cabin. Though it had been her home for her entire life until three months ago, she was nervous. She had never been away from the Quarters before. Would she be accepted back after being “brought in”? She did not know anyone who had moved to the Big House.
    Anxious and excited, Mattie arrived at the unfinished plank door and took a deep breath before pushing it open and crying out “Hello.” There was no response. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and she saw that no one was there. She sighed. She went back out to look for her son and Poppy, starting with Rebecca’s cabin.
    Rebecca was a strong, substantial woman who was always on the move. She and her husband, Lawrence, took pride in their cabin and their three children, all kept as clean and tidy as possible. Always ready to offer an opinion—asked for or not— Rebecca had volunteered to feed Samuel as soon as word came that Mattie was being brought in. Deeply grateful Rebecca had milk to spare for her son,