When the Yellow Jessamine Dies
Prologue
History raves about the heroics of men in war….
yet during every conflict, and the peaceful years between,
women too were there.
The year 1776 was when everything began to fall apart. This document called the Declaration of Independence was signed urging us as the colonies to brake away from Britain. A man by the name of Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet also asking the American Colonies to overthrow British rule. I read "Common Sense" almost religiously, and finally the last straw ,for me anyway, was when the British captured New York City, not far from my home.
Trouble started not long after I was born in 1760.The Proclamation of1763, the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and the Boston Massacre. All of these denying our rights ,and treating us as children unable to act or think for ourselves.
Besides the war, my life really changed the day my mother died. I was coming home after taking care of the children of the family I was working with, when I found my mother dead in her bedchamber. She had been sickly the better part of her life and with my father gone before my five brothers and sisters and I were left homeless .Well, until Uncle Maxwell, my mothers bother, who didn't even know my mother was alive until two years ago, showed up. Then we were alls sent to his South Carolina plantation.
As we approached the plantation I saw hundreds of Negroes all working in the cotton fields. Old and young alike. I never thought of slavery until that moment and I knew it was wrong. Didn't the Declaration state '…all Men are created equal'?
I soon learned that Uncle Max didn't invite us out of the goodness of his heart. He wanted us to work ride along side his slaves. I knew he didn't think much of us. See ,my father ,Black Moon, was Indian and my eight year -old sister Augusta and I took after him in looks while my thirteen year-old brother Joseph-Grey Wolf , fifteen year-old Nathaniel Running-Deer ,and two year old Remembrance-Little Moon took after Mother.
When my mother was just a girl, she was captured by the Iroquois Indians. Gradually she began to love them as her own and married into the tribe. I was born Elizabeth Shining-Star soon after. My brothers and sister s and I grew up in the tribe and I loved it. My mother used to tell me stories of the "white world" " and she made sure each of us learned English, but I loved my father and grandmother dearly and followed them everywhere. Papa died suddenly when our village was attacked , and Mama decided it was time to return to the white man's world.
Mem would stay in in the care of Uncle Maxwell's maid ,Sarah, and Nat, Joseph, Augusta and I would work in the house as well as some outside work.
Sarah's brother, Peter, caught my eye and we would spend our days together. He confided in me that he was a spy for General Washington's army. Uttering such words could get any man , killed especially here in South Carolina .
My brother Nat, wanted to join rebel army as well. Though Indians, Negroes , and Mulattos ,were not allowed to fight in the Continental Army, Nat figured that since he looked white he could lie and be admitted .Papa had fought in the Indian Wars and he wanted to follow in his footsteps. I knew that he was just a boy, and not ready for war. However he was a boy and ,I just a girl, and he could very well go off and I couldn't stop him.
Though I decided that if Running -Deer could go off and fight in this war, I would too. I secretly joined the Daughter's of Liberty here in Charleston. When I could get away I would join the women in placing lantern on trees. We would stage mock hanging s of cloth or straw figures and dress them like British officials. The hangings were meant to show tax collectors what might happen to them if they tried to collect taxes. We also used other methods to strengthen the cause. Some of us visited merchants to urge them to sign the no importation agreements. Others even threatened people who continued to buy British goods.
Life here was alright. Except for Aunt Caroline, Uncle Max's wife, who hated the thought of us even being in her house. She was a weak woman and did absolutely nothing. She was cruel to her slaves and to my brother s and sisters and I. She and Uncle Max had one boy who was eighteen and ran off to fight with the Americans and two little girls, Rosemarie and Sally who were two and four. Uncle Max said he didn't want his son to go ,because they were Quakers . I doubted that because why would a man who supposedly believed all people-men ,women, nobles, and commoners-were equal in God's sight own slaves? And why because being a Quaker was looked down upon, did he never set foot in a Quaker church , but s Protestant one instead? He was no Quaker, just a coward afraid to join any side.
Time passed quickly while the friendship between Peter and I blossomed. I never told Peter's secret and he never told mine. That didn't mean he liked it. He believed this was a man's war, and women were just to stay home let them fight it. How wrong he was , I told Peter often. Weren't women the ones who planted and harvested while the men were gone? Did they not make hoes and cloth and flags for Washington's army. They had the worst job of all, staying home and waiting for word of their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers.
"I have to go." Running-Deer said that morning.
"No, you don't have to." I said. "I can't lose you like Mama and Papa."
"I'll be fine."
"I hope so". I said as he mounted his horse .Two months later we received word that he had been killed in battle.
I thought that after that Joseph wouldn't want to join but by 1780 he was hankering for war. He wanted to revenge Nat's death. I let him go, what else could I do? He'd be alright .Like his name he was as quick and as silent as a wolf.
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Chapter One-1780
"Whoever said you were safe unless you were on
the battlefield, sure as hell wasn't a woman."
-Sarah, True Women
It was strongly believed that the southern colonies had a vast amount of Crown supporters , just waiting for the chance to pounce on the rebels who were making all this fuss for silly things like taxes. And so, the war shifted to the South, Truth of the matter was we didn't need this war , we already had a civil war of our own. Brothers against brothers, and father s against sons. Tories hated Patriots and Patriots hated Tories. So strongly that Patriots would perform series of "tests" to see who was Tory and who was not.
1780 was also the year the French entered the war, and Benedict Arnold captured Camden and Charston .They took over the city with their many men and wagons.
Also with Running-Deer dead and Grey-Wolf gone most of the work around the house fell to the now twelve year-old Augusta and I. Mem ,at six was still too young to work. Besides , Mem was Aunt Caroline's pet. She would dress and curl her blondish hair like a doll.
Uncle Max was losing slaves and money rapidly. The redcoats promised freedom, the patriots, now excepting blacks, victory. It didn't matter which. Both called the slaves to take up arms and leave the plantation. Only the old young, or some who had something to lose stayed. Samil a slave I met working said he had something to lose, me. How silly I had been to think that was all it was.
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