Chapter One
Rose was so happy that she was out of this god damn place, she had suffered so much as a house slave but not as much as her mother and sister who were field slaves and toiling the plantation. It was 1818 4 years since the French left the island and the British took over but slavery still was happening, during the French revolution the French had freed the slaves but after the British won the island they reinstalled slavery though it was abolished in England and the slave trade was stopped since 1803. Rose could have pass for white she had those bluish grey eyes that sparkle in the sunlight and sometimes changes colors but as soon as she was born , her father and master did not free her because even though she looked white she was still a slave.
Soufriere St.Lucia was still very French in every way, the buildings, the food , the dress and the language was very French. Rose’s father Adlain Breaux’s family were originally from France. Rose would miss the her home and her family but she had to escape. She remembered the day she left, the overseer was whipping her friend a field slave called Pete, Pete was like a brother to her and she was not going to let this evil slave master hurt him. Rose had fare well than most of the slaves, she was a house slave because she could pass for white. Her father who was also her slave master had raped her mother Mary who was in her younger days a beautiful dark slave. It was not love but power and control that’s is why he raped her mother. As soon as Rose was born, he only let her mother name her and took her right into the main house becaue Rose could pass for white but Adlain did not free his child because she still had nigger blood in her but he made sure that she had the best education and was tutored like his “white” children, even though he had offered her best education , she still had to serve him and his family, his wife her stepmother, the misses hated Rose, when the master was not looking she would beat and burn Rose with a hot iron. The Misses could not understand why her husband had let this nigger come into their house. Yes she looked white but she was still a nigger. Her husband had plenty of children with many of the slave women, she did not understand why this one was special and Rose did her best to ignore her misses and accept her life as it is. She felt that she could use her position as a house slave and that of the master’s daughter to help her friend Pete. Rose came back to reality and stop the overseer from beating Pete. Rose then with a strong sense of justice tells him , no she commanded him. “ Stop whipping before I get you fired! Rose ordered and the overseer looked at her like she was mad and said to her “ So now the nigga wants to be the Misses of the house, alright I will not whipp the blackie if you take his place” Rose just realized that even though she was the master’s daughter, she was stil;l a nigger and Rose took the place of Pete and was whipped very badly. When she went to her to her mother’s hut bleeding and injuryed and her mother stated to her , you aren’t anything special, you are a slave, you not white. Her mother kept saying to her, get those delusions. And then Rose said to her mother, “ Mama I need to get out of here, I cannot stay here any longer. I can pass for white, I don’t want to leave you but I tired of this life, mama. And her mother looked at her and said “ girl child and where would you go” and Rose said “ Mama I think I can pass for white, the master gave me a good education, I can escape to America or England and be a governess” and as soon as she said an old slave named big Tom came running into the hut and said “ De planation is on fire, the Master rounding up all his family and the house slaves and trying to leave the estate.
“ Who start de fire, ?” her mother asked
And the slave said “ They tink, it is ole smiliey Jack” Jack was an a factory slave, who did everything to escape, Miss Mary the overseers coming we must go and they could hear the overseers coming and Mary turn around for Rose but Rose was gone.
Rose hated leaving her mother in than awful place but she had to try to escape and find a better life, she knew sooner or later that after the fire was put out and they counted all the slaves before they realize that she was gone. Rose ran as fast as she can away from the estate. She ran into the bushes and she heard men coming looking for her saying “ We need to find that nigger before we lose our stations” these men were poor whites who were given jobs as overseers. From a distance Rose could have seen a carriage, she realize that it was the same carriage that were bringing nice dresses from Europe and it was the same one that was heading to the Castries harbor, she saw her ticket but how she was going to escape without the overseers notice her and she heard bells and whistles and she heard Ole smiley Jack voice and other slave voices she recognized taunting the overseers , she did not know where these slaves came from but she heard them and all the sudeen she heard snap, guns firing between the slaves and the negroes and she could see the smoke coming up from the planation and she thought this was a chance and as the guns were firing Rose race to the carriage as fast and as possible and jumped into the back of it under all the beautiful dresses and as she hid under the dresses the carriage started moving, almost as if it read her mind. She knew she was on her way to a ship where she begin her new life but she knew that she would miss her mother and the other slaves but she needed to get out of there. She needed to live and that’s exactly what she would do once she reaches freedom.
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