The Chains

By Christopher Patkowski

This story takes place on plantation in Georgia, America’s Deep South. An Englishman is confronted with realities of the slavery system. He cannot comprehend the cruelty of such life as he is exposed to the ruthless treatment of African slaves. At the same time he is enchanted with the beauty, strength, and bravery of the enslaved race. His outlook on life undergoes a drastic change, his ideas of evil and good take on new meanings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Patkowski
• Release date: Aug 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310763786

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The Chains

By

Christopher Patkowski

The Chains

Patkowski, Christopher

Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved

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(License notes) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

The Chains

Chapter I

My skin is black, my charcoal body smooth. I have eyes, and ears, and arms, and legs, long fingers. I can talk and smile, I can run, and dream. And I do feel. I feel love and yes hatred. Hatred at those white, cruel men, what makes them different? I am a woman, but not an animal, not their stock, not their chattel, not their property.

Why? Oh God why? Why do they think that they are different, superior, all powerful beings? We are not their cattle. But we are their slaves, and they can do with us whatever they wish to do. They can beat us, separate our families, sell us, and yes even kill us. We are nothing in their eyes. But they are so ugly, and cruel, they are the animals, not us. God, why? Is this hell? Why are we being punished in the worst of terms? But what have we done to deserve this abomination? Is this earth, God’s kingdom? No, it cannot be, we are in hell, all of us. But who are they? Who are those white men with whips, dogs, and guns? Who are those ignorant, lazy, and godless white women? Those kids, unruly and mean, and ugly, yes, ugly. If this is hell, who are they? They live in those big houses, eat the best food, and act like gods. Who gave them this right? God how could you, how could you have done this atrocity? How could this be earth, whose is this land anyway? Are they human? Cruel, and arrogant, without hearts or souls! Then why are we here? Why are we the slaves? What have we done to deserve this? They consider us to be animals. Nothing else but domesticated animals, without souls or identities, they have no human feelings for us. They feed us only so we can work, and toil for them. There is no hope for us that this will ever end. Those white men, the owners of us, they are cruel and ruthless, without hearts and souls, they have no humanity, vicious beings that is all that they are, and I am a woman, yes I am, not their stock, damn it, I am a woman, not their cattle. It felt good to have the sun on me yesterday, sitting in the meadow with kids running around and playing, yes they were playing and laughing.

On the other hand merciless men with their families, full of pompous pride just because they are white, but then who are we? Why us? Lord, why have you given them such powers? I hate them, their white bodies, their wives and children, their huge houses, their parties and clothes. They have it all and we have nothing, there is no hope in this land. Desolate land they have established, a feast for themselves, and scraps left for us. The sun shone bright yesterday and the kids playing, it felt warm and good. It was great, forgetting them for few hours. They were not there, just us the slaves, a moment of happiness, without those devils, those inhumane handlers of this wasteland. Why Lord, why this hell, why have you given them this much power, and nothing for us? Are we the sinners? Why us? Why are we the slaves? Lord, answer my question. I demand to know, I have a right to know. We are not their cattle for breeding and selling and working to death. My body is smooth, my blackness is beautiful, my children pretty and smart. Yes they are smart and great. Why us? Why my children? Are they going to sell them? Selling families, separating mother from children, husbands from wives. Why this hell? Who gave them such powers and rights and none to us? We are totally at their mercy; their whims and hatred are ruling us, and our children. Why bring daughters and sons to this world? Why bring them into this wicked setting? They will end just like us, treated as animals not humans. But I can talk and smile and think and yes hate, hate those inhuman keepers, those children of Satan. They leave us with nothing, just enough to survive and work, all the time from dawn to dusk, every day.We live like the cattle that they keep in the barns. They treat their horses better than us. How did we get here and for what reason, Lord? My arms, my fingers, my beauty, all they take as theirs, as it would belong to them, as they are the owners of my black body, of my slave soul. Demeaning and wretched time, why were we born into such atrocious conditions? Cruel, why are they in power, the things I would do to them, million ways of killing them are not enough. They with their crooked pride, and artificial lives empty of love or any other human feeling, they are the animals not us. This hell is for us, but the real place of reckoning is for them, they all end up there after death, all of them including their wives and children, they must be there after they are done doing their cruelties here.. The promised land, where is our promised land, where we can live our lives as humans that we are? My smooth, dark skin, my dreams and hopes, my being, my freedom; they all belong to me, they are mine, my children are mine, not theirs. My two children, the pretty twins, they cannot be sold off, they must be with me, they must stay with me, they cannot take them away from me, this cannot happen, Lord if you exist you will not let those creatures, those ungodly humans to take my children away. My body, my slave soul, my being still belong to me, and no Lord you cannot take my children away from me, this will not happen, it cannot happen, this would be too cruel, there must be mercy somewhere, this hell cannot continue, cannot go on in this fashion. We are people, we are human, and have souls and feelings. Why Lord, why us? We do not deserve such vicious treatment. Yes, hell this is and nothing more, but hell on earth. Why we suffer so? Those white men beating and raping and killing. Is there no hope? Could they just all go away, disappear? Then we would be free, we could go on loving and singing. We could be free. Free! Freedom! The white people would be gone, and no more of this abomination, why it does not happen so? Lord we pray too, why you do not listen to us, we are the ones who need mercy, we need freedom and food and clothes and houses like theirs. Why must we suffer so? Please Lord take them away and leave us alone in this land, it belongs to us not them. They do not work hence have no rights to it. They just have guns, and power and dogs, and whips, they beat and rape us at will. These are our children not theirs. They have no right to sell us and separate our families, no rights to beat us and treat us as their breeding stock. We are not cattle, we are human, Lord’s children. Who they are I do not know, what brought them to such powers, such extreme cruelty, who gave them these rights to rule over us as evil gods, with no pity or feelings. We are people, God’s children, and more human than they are. We are not going to be their slaves forever, day in day out for infinity to come. We are human, living beings, black and beautiful, I am a woman, my black skin, smooth body, and the thoughts I have make me a human being, a person. Slaves, we are all slaves, worse than cattle, since they do not think or feel. Hate them, hate them, kill them, we must get our freedom, our lives. Clear it was to her, we the slaves, and they the hell keepers, arrogant masters of the universe. No doubt this is hell on earth, but why are we in this position? Who or what made us the damned race; the unwanted ones, except for the pecuniary values that we exhibit, and the breeding that they force on us, let them be damned, killed on the spot, let them feel our pain, let them be whipped and beaten, let them be left without wives and children, they are the ones to be auctioned off, raped and violated. They must experience what we are going through and the tragedies that they have been inflicting. I want to be set free, I cannot take it any longer, cannot stand the vicious behavior of those monsters. I am a human being, God’s child and so are my people. My soul is beautiful and belongs to me, not to them. These are my two children, I love them, they are mine, and they are not to be worked to death or sold off in slave market. They cannot be taken away from me, they are of my body, my soul, my toil, and of my people they are, they do not belong to them, my children are not the slave owner’s property. They are free, and are to be free. I want freedom for my children, I want freedom for myself, and I want freedom for my people. Damn white race, race without feeling, without love. Madness, this life is madness there is nothing human about this damn life hood. We the slaves, they the slave owners, how more insane can it be, more cruel, more unjust, and they are calling themselves human, and treating us like the beasts, which we are not, we are not beasts, we are not animals to be sold off at the market, whenever fancy strikes them, this is not how it is supposed to be. This is all like an awful, sub real nightmare, there is no other explanation, there is no reason for it, those slave owners are vile to the utmost, and the hell is here, and here to stay. But no, you will not work my children to death, you will not whip them and starve them at your whim, they are not your property, they are my children, you have no rights to them, I do not care if you have all the whips and guns and dogs in the world, they are mine, and you have no rights to them, none. My beautiful children are asleep now, sleep kids sleep; let God give you better dream than this cruel damn world can.Hell, it will not be for you.

Sarah woke up and looked at her two kids; they were asleep, good. The dawn has come and soon the two children will have to go to work in the fields, and she to serve the masters at their plantation house. Her previous owner sold her and her two children at the auction last week. She praised God for the fact that they stayed together. The thought that they could split them up horrified her. She still could feel the effects of the terror that the auction had on her. For one brief, terrible moment she thought that the auctioneers would separate them, terrified she almost lost her consciousness. But thanks God; one planter bought the three of them, she rejoiced, the fact that the kids would remain with her calmed her down. Often she could not find words to express her anger at the situation. She used the word hell to describe this system of slavery. The incomprehensible and abominable treatment often included rapes and beatings. The white man used the slave women as their sexual objects, without any kind of retribution from anyone, not even God she often thought. Those white monsters have taken advantage of slave women as they pleased. Nobody intervened and their wives, mothers and sisters seldom reacted. Those white women acted more human than their husbands, but once they knew that their partners have cohabitated with slaves they could turn just as vicious. The southern society worshipped the white woman. Dinners often started with toast to her. The male southerners claimed that their white women occupied the center of the universe. In this age of chivalry they maintained that their women deserved the best. Real life painted a more obscure picture. The white woman had few rights compared to her husband. She had no right to vote or hold office, and the law bound her to her husband. The southern man idealized her image as the goddess of the south but in reality the true treatment of white women did not fit the ideal. Sure crystal glasses clinked in toast of the southern belle in the beginning of countless elegant, lavish balls and parties. But whether the southern males acted true to these high words raised many questions. The slave woman became an easy target of predatory sexual practices. The law specified no punishment for taking advantage of a slave. The only retributions could come from the wives or mothers, and they never accused the white man, but they sure did blame the victim. The South cherished the white woman but she had nothing to say in this culture. She stood on a pedestal for the others to admire, but only for her features and genre. The white man ruled and had all the rights in this system. Young or old, a lot of them took advantage of the situation. The maturing southern white boys fulfilled their sexual desires by raping the female slaves. Free to do as they pleased, no laws existed to constrain them. The conservative southern belle the society did not make available to them. And often the elders encouraged such behavior for the continuance of the stock and for their uninhabited pleasure. And as simple animals they did behave, causing immeasurable grief and despair. The black man obviously had no recourse in the situation, and if he intervened he could expect beating and even death. They destroyed the soul of the black woman and damaged the pride and dignity of her husband, or father, or brother, often beyond salvation. The slave owner’s wife often could do nothing about the adultery she had to behave docile and submissive to her husband. The kids who came as the result of such criminal unions she did not considered part of the household, and they remained slaves without special deference, but often treated with hate by the betrayed slave owner’s wife.

The forced sexual relationships with white males made life unbearable for the slaves. The planter considered such cohabitation as healthy for the stock. Sure such actions affected the wives and mothers of the perpetrators, but most of all these rapes violated and damaged mentally and physically the women slaves. They had no protection, none. Any members of their families who tried to intervene the planters or their agents beat or killed or sold off to other plantation. They had no legal or social system that would protect them. The rapes often have taken place during victim’s teenage years. An easy target for the violent sexual escapades of the white slave owners, those girls and women were in a hopeless situation. The white male exhibited his superiority by sexual transgressions. These actions exposed the black man’s powerlessness not only about his own plight and condition but also those of his wife’s and daughters’. These crimes degraded the women in the worst of ways and left them bereft of the liberty not only of their souls but also their own bodies and destinies. There for the taking; for any young man ready and aggressive enough to come and exploit them physically, and destroy their dignity and most private liberties. No rights or whatsoever, none. Only kept for their ability to work and procreate.

Chapter II

Sarah knew that at least for now, for some undefined period of time to come, she still had her kids. The auction created strong trauma for her, she thanked God for keeping them