CHAPTER 1 THE COLOR OF THE ENEMY OCTOBER 1779 BELLE OAK PLANTATION COOPER RIVER SOUTH CAROLINA The deep sweet smell of the Cooper River flooded my nostrils Home At last I was home The wagon trembled beneath me and I clutched my seat as we turned onto a small dirt path Before me wide watery rice fields stretched far as I could see Look Maggie my father said This is your future
A grander future I could never imagine I told him It’s good to be home That morning I’d begged to come along with him on his daily rounds of the fields He’d been reluctant which surprised me I’d just returned to Belle Oak after a long summer in Charles Town and Father knew I was longing to see the gardens and the fields Ever since I could remember my father took me with him on his rounds of the fields I was his only child and my father promised I’d inherit the plantation someday even though I was a girl I wasn’t exactly a normal girl though I hated my daily lessons in handwriting music and dance And I hated being shut up in the house surrounded by thick walls I’d much rather be traipsing about the plantation with my father Worse I hated the summers we spent in Charles Town Like many other planters we escaped the low country summer heat and mosquitoes by moving to our city home in Charles Town But in truth I felt more suffocated in Charles Town than I ever would in the country humidity
I spent much of the summer at my Aunt Kate’s house She made me suffer through social events and afternoon tea determined to teach me to be a proper lady She felt it was her responsibility I was as she put it a motherless orphan I’m not an orphan at all I’d exclaim louder than a proper lady should I have Father Aunt Kate would sigh Exactly my point Margaret My mother died shortly after I was born so I never knew her Kate my mother’s sister was a wealthy young widow with no children of her own We were a perfect match or so it seemed I loved her I truly did but her constant nagging was tiring Last summer I’d turned thirteen and Aunt Kate was more persistent than ever I spent hours in her drawing room learning to stitch and to curtsy Like a royal lady Kate told me Royal lady I’d spat Soon we shall be free of the British and their royal ways Kate shrugged Dear mercy she said the ideas
your father puts into your head My father held Patriot beliefs but Aunt Kate remained loyal to the British She blamed the Northerners for causing a fuss We are much better off under King George’s rule she often said And she always followed her words with But ladies shouldn’t concern themselves with war My only relief during those summers was my friend William an apprentice at Thornton’s Cabinet Shop William was my age and he never expected me to act like a lady He spoke to me as honest as he would if I were a boy Finally after many grueling months in Charles Town I was home at Belle Oak Plantation My father had taught me the workings of a rice plantation how the rice paddies had to be flooded and then drained Our slave workers fought to keep birds and insects away from the fields during growing season After harvest the female slaves flailed hulled and polished the rice before packing it into barrels for shipping
