The Reconstruction Journals: Abandoning the South

Dear Diary,

We'd thought about going over to where many former slaves had gone -- Liberia, on the western coast of Africa. But it was too far, too foreign, too many unanswered questions. So we set our sights closer, north of the Mason Dixon, to the growing city of Chicago.

Charlie took it poorly. I always knew he would. He's an inferior steward, of course, of Daddy's legacy. But I can't linger here.

I'm not sure what Debbie or Delilah will do. They both have growing baby bumps, as do I. But they'll have to labor to survive, but it won't be in South Carolina. Samson took one last walk through the fields. He's done a number on all of us in his time on the plantation. Jemima is ripe with her third of his bastards.

As he walked he labeled them. The Black women ... their sired sons and daughters would be 'Joneses.' But for Debbie and Delilah and myself -- our mixed children would be the Freemans.

I'll write from Chicago.

Cassandra Castle ... soon to be Cassandra Freeman