All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann

Author:Jessica McCann [McCann, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks Inc.

Chapter 20

Margaret

The days turned to weeks, and the weeks to months, almost without my realizing it, and summer is suddenly upon us at the plantation.

The rains come every morning, but it’s not cool summer rain like up North. Not the kind of rain that refreshes you, washes you clean.

It comes in hot, heavy drops that cling to the air and to your skin long after the showers have stopped. And it brings all sorts of bugs and vermin with it—rats, snakes, mosquitoes, ticks, leeches—creatures that eat at your flesh, that buzz and hiss and torture you day and night. The rain brings poisonous leaves and vines and weeds that lurk within the swamps and fields and gardens, just waiting to infect your skin, make you burn and itch and swell for days. Worst of all, it brings the fever, which plagues the field slaves all summer long and already has killed more than a dozen at the plantation. South Carolina is a hideous place.

The Beanes left the plantation in early June to vacation on Pawley’s Island, off the Atlantic coast, until the fall. It’s common practice among wealthy planters in South Carolina, Nanny informed me, to escape the heat and disease of the summer. They have overseers to run the plantations and bankers to manage the business of selling the crops, so planters are free to focus their energy on enjoying life. On Pawley’s Island, the men hunt and fish, race horses and play billiards. The women and children spend their days on the beach, playing in the surf and picnicking in the shade. Evenings bring formal dinner parties and cotillion balls.

Preparations for the trip went on for weeks. The family took most of their worldly belongings with them—even the piano was loaded onto a wagon. Dozens of slaves also went along, including Nanny. Mrs. Beane said she wouldn’t be a good Christian if she separated a husband and wife for so many months, so Elbert went along, too. As washwoman and cook, I would have been among them, but Master insisted I stay behind. He’s expecting to find me bulging with motherhood in the fall when he returns.

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