“Jim, darlin’, what happened? What’s wrong? Tell me, Jim. Oh tell me it’s not-” “She’s sellin’ me, Sadie. I’m leaving.” Her face fell and I could tell that she was holding back tears. There is nothing as horrible as telling the person you love that you might never see them again. Being sold was not like going off to war, it was nothing like a white person could understand. Being sold was becoming someone else’s property, like a new horse or cow that they can brand and whip, that they can mold into a new version of yourself, more obedient, more worked, more scarred. I never expected my daughter to look up at me from the bed and not know what to say, for once in her bright life. “Papa, you can’t leave us. Papa, if you leave, then we-- then we-- Papa you can’t!” she cried out, rushing forward to hug me. “Now Elizabeth! You stop that! I ain’t leavin’ no one if I have a say in it, ya
“Jim, darlin’, what happened? What’s wrong? Tell me, Jim. Oh tell me it’s not-” “She’s sellin’ me, Sadie. I’m leaving.” Her face fell and I could tell that she was holding back tears. There is nothing as horrible as telling the person you love that you might never see them again. Being sold was not like going off to war, it was nothing like a white person could understand. Being sold was becoming someone else’s property, like a new horse or cow that they can brand and whip, that they can mold into a new version of yourself, more obedient, more worked, more scarred. I never expected my daughter to look up at me from the bed and not know what to say, for once in her bright life. “Papa, you can’t leave us. Papa, if you leave, then we-- then we-- Papa you can’t!” she cried out, rushing forward to hug me. “Now Elizabeth! You stop that! I ain’t leavin’ no one if I have a say in it, ya