Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

Author:Kathleen Grissom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

IN THE NEXT days we stop at other farms. They got slaves to sell, so others are tied up with us, but I’s the only girl. It’s cold and I’s too scared to cry and all the men stay quiet as me. They keep their heads down and move ahead, and I wonder why they don’t have no fight. Then I hear two of them talking at night and find out that one man was already killed for getting loose and trying to run.

In those next days Jake don’t leave me alone. After he takes the rag from my mouth, he keeps talking smart until I finally sass back. He laughs. “Oh, listen to this one from the big house! Don’t she think she’s somebody! I guess we’ll get to find out what she looks like when they take those fine clothes off and set her up on that block for everybody to see.”

That scares me enough to start me crying, and after that, every chance he gets, Jake rides up beside me and tells me about what’s going to happen to me up on the block. I keep telling myself don’t pay him no mind. Miss Lavinia won’t let that happen. I know she’s sending Papa George for me any time now.

In the end it’s good that Jake is there. At night the traders talk rough about me being a woman and what they wanting to do to me, but Jake tells them that his daddy sent him along to make sure I get to the auction without no man on me. “She’ll bring more money, never been used yet,” he tells them.

They keep me tied at the end of the line. One of the men has a bad foot, but that don’t stop them from making us move fast. I keep up good enough, but after three days of walking, my feet are so puffed up that when I take off my shoes, I can’t put them back on. The man tied next to me watches me when I set them to the side. Before we get up again, he clicks his tongue and nods at my shoes and then at my feet, letting me know that I got to put them on. “I can’t,” I whisper, “my feet is too sore.” But he nods again, and when I shake my head, he pushes his legs out for me to see both his feet swoll’ up and bleeding. I see what he’s telling me and put my shoes back on, and after that I don’t take my shoes off no more no matter how sore they get.

Sometimes we stop for food and water, but tired as we are, we’s always ready to get going again. None of us has warm clothes to keep out the cold, and when you move, you work up a heat. At night they give us some blankets.

After about three days, my bowels start moving on their own. Up to then I don’t let myself go like the men do when the drivers tell us to squat.

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