Bloodline: The Richardson Story

By Richard Pierce

The Richardsons are black family that has just inherited a plantation in Virginia. The family is still in mourning because of the loss of the oldest son; Dominion Jr. Dominion Jr. was killed in a boating accident while on vacation about 6 months ago. The family consists of Dominion, a major league baseball player who was injured during the playoffs. Dominion is a good spirited, happy go lucky person, who loves his wife and his son. His wife is Michelle is a strong woman who is very opinionated about things she believes in. The Richardsons daughter name is Angelina, who is just like her mother. The youngest child is Ricky. Ricky has not spoken since the death of his brother. The Richardsons has taken Ricky to at least half a dozen psychiatrics to see if they can get him to speak. They all said that the reason that Ricky has not spoken is because he feels responsible for the death of his brother. The Richardsons, after many discussions and Dominions insistence decided to move into the house. As a part of the Inheritance the owners of the house live rent free. The property has made money since the 1900s. The Richardsons moved into the house hoping for a fresh start. Everyone was happy and settling to a new environment.
The family had a great second night. But in the morning, Angelina came running into the room yelling that she heard Ricky speaking. The family shrugged it off as Angelina was dreaming or imagined it. The next night while the family was having family night dominion saw something at the end of the hallway that looked like a mist. Dominion gathered the family in their master bedroom but they couldnt wake up Ricky. As the mist came closer the room felt colder. Just when they felt all was lost Ricky woke up and the room started to warm up. The family packed a bag and left. The problem was that they discovered that anytime Ricky went to sleep the mist would appear. The family had also noticed that even though they left the house the mist still seemed to follow them. The family was frantic to figure out why this was happening and if it had anything to do with Ricky. Every time the mist appeared it was getting closer and closer to attacking the family. The Richardsons were racing against time to find out why the mist was following them and what did it have to do with Ricky. But time was running out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503562547

Richard Pierce

Richard Oziel is a graduate of Boston University and a real estate developer. Although never published before he has co-authored two other books which are ready for publication: INTIMATE DETAILS, a story of a vice-presidential candidate whose relationship with two prominent women - and his own secret past - threaten to blow open a tight Presidential race, and CRY AT MIDNIGHT, a story of international intrigue centered around a female interpreter for the State department, her lover - a renowned photojournalist with a devastating story involving the military's involvement in germ warfare, and a rogue undercover agent with information about a planned al Queda attack on the west. He is thirty nine years old, and has matured in the turbulent international times just prior to and after 9/11 with a perspective of that generation.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

S o much had happened in a short period of time but Michelle thought that this move was the craziest thing yet. It was Friday August 4, 2008, and the Richardsons were driving toward their new home at Ravenswood, a plantation in a little town that no one ever heard of. The name of the town is Ivor, Virginia. Ivor is so small that people that lived in Virginia hadn’t heard of it, better yet; the town has only one stoplight. Michelle laughed to herself because who would have ever believed that a black family, especially hers, would inherit a plantation that used to buy and sell slaves. Yes, she had allowed her husband, Dominion, to talk her into this madness. Michelle smiled to herself because the last thing that Dominion, her love and her husband, had said to her was I know if anything goes wrong with this move to Ivor I’ll pay for it dearly. Michelle agreed and thought that Dominion would certainly pay for it if anything—and Michelle meant anything—went wrong. But the Richardson family desperately needed this new start—any new start—after the last year that they had , Michelle thought.

The Richardsons consisted of Michelle, Dominion, Ricky, Angelina, and Dominion Jr. Michelle was five nine and brown skinned. Michelle had natural beauty but was sexy more than anything else. She had shoulder length hair and it was all hers. Well, most of the time. Dominion was six feet and light skinned with a semi-muscular body. Dominion was a very handsome man but acted as though he didn’t know it. That’s one of the reasons that Michelle loved him. He wasn’t conceited at all. Their son, Ricky, was eight and looked just like his father. You couldn’t tell the difference from their baby pictures. Angelina, their daughter, looked like her mother and was already five foot seven at ten years old. Their oldest child, Dominion Jr., had died six months ago in a boating accident while they were vacationing. Dominion Jr. had looked like both parents and would have been twelve.

Whenever Michelle and Dominion talked about their move to any of their friends, the first question was How can the Richardsons be the heirs to Ravenswood, a plantation from the old south? It was funny when they found out because Dominion said, Are you kidding me? This has got to be a joke! Dominion even asked where the cameras were. Everybody had a good laugh about that, but the really funny thing is that Dominion was serious; and they had, indeed, just inherited a plantation. Dominion knew that his great-great-grandfather was white. Dominion also knew that his great-great-grandfather, Simon, had abandoned his white heritage and had left his father’s plantation to move north with a slave—whom he later married—named Selena. But Dominion was always told that Simon was disowned and never spoke to his father or sister again. So the Richardsons could be traced back to the plantation, which meant they were also traced back to one of the biggest scandals in the old south. A rich white man turned his back on his heritage and the old southern way life to marry a slave. In those days, things like that just didn’t happen. The slave certainly would have been killed.

The lawyers explained to the Richardsons that the only other living heir’s name was Samuel Farley, but he had been deemed incompetent and was a ward of the state. Samuel had lived at Ravenswood for as long as the lawyers could remember until he had started to hear and see things. In the end Samuel was found cowering in the upstairs study of the house and was removed. When they found Samuel, the story went that he looked like he had been scared out of his mind. Samuel was placed in Claremont Institute in Petersburg, Virginia. The Duffys had always been well off, so the estate was well taken care of. In fact, whoever lived on the estate lived rent free for the last one hundred years.

After Samuel was committed, the lawyers started to look for another heir. They searched and searched for months to see if they had overlooked someone. They searched for five more months and still couldn’t find anybody; then when the lawyers thought they would never find an heir, one of the lawyers’ friends started laughing and told the lawyer a story that he had heard about how, back in the mid-1800s, the original owner of the Ravenswood had disowned his only son and the son was never heard from again. The lawyer exclaimed, Wouldn’t that be ironic if the only living heirs turned out to be the descendants of the disowned son! About four months later, it was true. Only, no one had thought about Simon, the disowned son that had run away with a black slave.

Actually, once it was determined that Simon had run north to New York, where his wife Selena could be free, the rest was easy. They had traveled along the Underground Railroad to Harlem, New York; it was quite easy to follow the rest of the trail. The Duffy family tree was an impressive one and was well known in Harlem. The descendants had all distinguished themselves in one way or another, so it wasn’t long before the trail ended with the Richardsons’.

The current Richardson family tree consisted of Dominion and his sister, Celia, who lived in Maryland. Celia didn’t want any part of the house or anything else and had quickly relinquished all rights. She had actually suggested that the plantation be torn down, but the property was under strict guidelines by the will that no structural changes could be made on the house. As a matter of fact, any heir had to live in the house for five years even before any major changes could be made.

The lawyers explained that the last living heir from the original owner, Mathew Duffy, was Samuel; but he had been committed to Claremont, a psychiatric institution in Petersburg, Virginia. He was married at one time, but that marriage didn’t produce any children; and his wife had moved out when they were divorced years ago. Samuel had lived in the house almost all his life until he was found in one of the upstairs studies. The lawyers didn’t go into details about what happened to Samuel; they simply told the Richardsons that he had lived alone for a long time, had lost his sense of reality, and had to be committed. That was another thing that Michelle had brought up. She didn’t want to live in a house where a crazy man lived. But in the end, something that appealed to Michelle was that they would basically live free for the next year for as long as they lived in the house.

Dominion had argued that they needed a fresh start after the death of their oldest child, Dominion Jr., and that moving would help. Michelle agreed about the fresh start but was adamant about not wanting to move into a plantation that used to buy and sell slaves. Dominion then argued that the family needed to get out of the house that they were in—or better yet where Dominion Jr. died—and made the argument that while they decided what to do next or whether to sell their old house or not, they would be able to live rent free as part of the stipulation in the will. Michelle felt that they could sell their current house quickly and buy a new one. Dominion said that even though they had money, he was injured and wouldn’t be playing baseball for a year; and they wouldn’t have any income unless Michelle went back to work. Michelle was a teacher but hadn’t worked in the last couple of years because Dominion was a minor league baseball player who was paid well. Michelle felt that they were doing fine although, to herself, she did recognize that Dominion not only would be out of baseball for a year, but also might never play again. At least that’s what the doctor had said.

Dominion was a minor league baseball player that was injured and had been placed on the disabled list of inactive players. The doctors felt that it was less than 50/50 if he would ever play at a professional level again. Dominion had done very well playing ball, but the fact remained that he was injured. Dominion believed that he would be playing again in another year. The fact remained that if they moved into the Ravenswood, the estate would pay for the upkeep of the house; and there wasn’t any mortgage. The house was paid for and literally wouldn’t cost the Richardsons any money, not even taxes. There was an abundance of money from the house, but the money was for the house. The original owner, Simon Duffy, and his family had done well even though it had started off the backs of slaves. But with that money, they made excellent investments; and the family had been wealthy, and most of that wealth was maintained if not grown throughout the last hundred and sixty plus years.

CHAPTER 2

E veryone agreed that they had to get out of their old house. The house just hadn’t been the same since the death of Dominion Jr. His memories were everywhere in the house. The house had become a tomb of sadness. Dominion’s youngest son, Ricky, hadn’t spoken a word since the accident. He would laugh and cry without making a sound but would not speak. Ricky had seen doctors and psychiatrists, but there was nothing physically or mentally wrong besides feeling guilty about the death of his older brother. The doctors concluded that Ricky felt responsible for the death of Dominion Jr. and was in a way punishing himself. That was the final deciding factor that the Richardson family decided to move into the plantation. Michelle finally agreed but placed all responsibility squarely on Dominion’s head.

A lot of things had gone on at the plantation, little good but a lot bad. The plantation had been built by a slave owner, Matthew Duffy. Most say that he was an excellent businessman, but he owned and sold slaves.

The lawyers had given Dominion and Michelle a history lesson of the family. The lawyers had documents and copies of birth certificates. They even had notes from interviews from people as the search went on for an heir. Michelle was a teacher. She loved this kind of stuff. Michelle knew the history of the house better than her husband did. Simon Duffy was the son of Matthew Duffy, who was her husband’s great-great-great-grandfather. Simon had fallen in love with a young slave and secretly slept with her; then the unthinkable happened. The young slave named Selena became pregnant. When his father Matthew found out about the affair, he threatened to disown his own son and promised that the mother and the baby would be killed. From that point on, father and son never spoke again.

Simon and Selena left the plantation that very night under the fear of death; well, at least Selena would have been put to death. But the fighting between Simon and his father had started long ago. So Simon and Selena ran; with very little money they ran. They often had to pose as master and slave while they traveled so as not to raise suspicion. Even during those times when it was necessary to play master and slave, Simon hated it. He had always hated it. The whole idea about master and slave repulsed him, and he loved Selena. Simon and his father had had many fights on that topic of how to treat their slaves. Simon felt that the blacks deserved to be treated with respect and even deserved a wage for working. Simon felt that blacks should be treated equal even before he met Selena, and she became pregnant.

Simon and Selena didn’t have time to pack or plan their escape. They left with the clothes on their backs and literally the money that Simon had in his pocket. Soon most of their money was gone, and a ragged white man with a tattered pregnant black girl did not look good and would raise many questions. They thought they would never make it, especially trying to hide from the people that Simon’s father had out trying to find them. But other people had heard about the slave owner and the slave on the run. Fortunately for Simon and Selena and all their descendants, the abolitionists operating the Underground Railroad had heard about them. They also knew that Mathew Duffy was trying to find them and that there was a bounty placed on both of their heads; Simon because he was in love with a slave and was having a baby and Selena because she was a runaway slave.

As they traveled whenever Simon and Selena heard people coming, they hid until they saw who the people were. As the story goes, they heard people coming toward them so they hid; then they heard a man’s voice say, Ya’ll come on outta there! We ain’t gonna hurt ya’ll. Besides, ya’ll ain’t hiding very well anyway. Simon and Selena froze; fear gripped their every fiber. They had little money left to pay, nothing to bargain with. Simon squeezed Selena’s hand and told her not to move. Simon stepped defiantly out of their hiding place. He was tired, hungry, and scared to death; but he was going to protect his woman no matter what. That’s why Selena loved Simon and agreed to run away with him; they loved each other, regardless of their skin color. Simon stepped out with nothing but a defiant look ready for anything; but instead of a mob or the clan they met Ben Brown, a sturdy black man with a wide smile. He looked at Simon and said, If ya’ll don’t hurry up, we gonna have a heap of trouble if fin that posse comes back round dis way. Dem been trying to find the underground railroad for months.

Simon and Selena went with this tall, sturdy, black man named Samuel Brown. Simon didn’t trust the man at first, but Selena told him that every slave has heard of the underground and the people that organized it; and Samuel Brown was a name that she had heard many times. Even with the help of the underground, the journey was a hard and difficult one. They would travel at night. They hid during the day hiding with mostly other slaves and some whites, who were sympathetic to the flight of the slaves. It took months but eventually they arrived in New York.

CHAPTER 3

S imon and Selena were married and settled down in 1842 in Harlem. They settled in the black part of town where Simon was respected by the people because he had left everything for the love of a black woman. Simon and Selena worked for one of the first organizations that fought for the rights of black people.

They had a son named Marshall. Marshall married Anna May and had two children: a son named Marshall Jr. and a daughter named Hadley. Marshall joined the Union Army when war erupted between the states. He was proud of his father, who had defied everything for his mother. Marshall was raised on stories of how the underground had helped people. He couldn’t wait until he was able to fight for freedom and make a difference.

Marshall joined the Union Army in 1862 to fight for the cause his father had stood for. He received many medals for bravery. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and stand for a cause. Marshall served with honors and was the highest ranking Negro officer of that time. Marshall served in the army for fifteen years. While on leave and heading home for a couple of days, he encountered four white men, who were lynching a black man they thought was getting uppity. Others in the group started attacking and raping his wife while two small children looked on in horror. As he had done so many times before in the army, he rode to the rescue. But this time, he rode in alone. He killed two of the murderers. Oh, how he hated them! He saved the family but was fatally wounded. Marshall died about three weeks later, but in doing so, he helped another Negro family and their descendants have a future. He was a hero.

Even though she lost her husband, Anna May kept the family together. Her son, Marshall Jr., became a doctor and served the people in his community but never married. Marshall Jr. died in an accident while trying to cross a bridge during a storm, on his way back from helping to deliver a baby. The bridge collapsed and he was killed.

Hadley grew up close to her mother. She was married and had one child, a girl named Cary. Cary was a school teacher in Harlem. She was known as an organizer and a leader in the community. She was as well-known as her grandparents were which helped her and her family to be easily respected. That history eventually played a part in the family being discovered.

Cary remained in Harlem and educated the children of Harlem. That’s where she met her husband, Thomas, in 1911. Cary met Thomas at church, where she liked to spend a lot of her time. Thomas had just moved to New York from the south. From the moment they met, they were always together. Thomas opened up a grocery store. Thomas and Cary had three children: two girls and a boy. The children were named Rachael, Cary (after her mother), and Thomas Jr. Rachael was sickly as a child and died at the age of fourteen. Thomas Jr. was a labor organizer in his area. He organized the workers of the factory where he worked for better work conditions. Thomas Jr. was the first person of color to effectively create change for the colored people in the work place in Harlem. Thomas convinced the owners of the factory that when an employee is unhappy, it hurts the production of the business. Thomas Jr. became a leader in his community, and he married his local pastor’s daughter named Gabrielle. They had two children named Martin and Mary.

Cary married and became pregnant at seventeen. She left for South Carolina with her husband, Benjamin. Cary and Benjamin lived on a farm until Benjamin was killed while trying to stop three white men from lunching another man in his own front yard. After the death of Cary’s husband, she returned to New York with her two children, Annabelle and Diane. Thomas Jr. had written Cary and told her that she could come and stay with his family and that there was plenty of room. Thomas Jr. and Cary had always been close, up to the time that she got pregnant and left.

Cary stayed with her brother until she met Aaron. Aaron had one child, and his wife had died of smallpox. Aaron opened up a general store. Cary and Aaron were married in 1941 and moved upstairs from the store. Times were tough. People of color and white people were starving. Aaron’s had an altercation with two men trying to rob him and a fire was started. The fire swept through the store and soon engulfed the upstairs also. Everyone was killed except for Aaron because he had chased the robbers outside of the store, had gotten into a fight, and had been hit from behind. Aaron’s child, along with Cary and her two children, died on that day.

Aaron was heartbroken about his wife and the kids. He swore that he would find out who had done this and kill them. About four months after the fire, there was talk around the neighborhood that a local thief and his cousin had committed the robbery. There was also talk that a pocket watch was seen that belonged to Aaron. The next thing that people knew was that the two men were dead, and Aaron had vanished. Aaron was never seen or heard from again.

Thomas Jr. and Gabrielle raised their two children in Harlem, where they would excel at school. Martin enlisted in the Air Force in 1950. Martin joined the elite group of the black pilots in the Air Force. Martin was married in 1953, but they never had any children.

Mary was extremely outgoing; she ran track and was quite good at it. Some even thought that she could go to the Olympics. By this time, blacks had started playing sports (and not just in black leagues). Mary was at home on the track, and she received a scholarship to Howard University. She attended Howard from 1955 until she graduated in 1959. After she graduated, she started teaching in Harlem, where she met Jason Richardson. Jason, who was one of the few black administrators, was an assistant principal at Harlem High. Mary was immediately impressed by his ability to not only handle students, but also handle adults who were sometimes worse than the kids. He had that charm and huge smile that would immediately put people at ease. After all, that’s what won her over. The two were married in 1969 but didn’t have their first child until June 15, 1972, a girl named Celia. They had their second child on January 13, 1976, who was named Dominion Richardson.

They raised their family in Harlem. With parents as teachers, they were able to give Dominion and Celia what they needed to have: a chance to succeed and knowledge. As black children growing up after the late ’70s with civil rights, and black power was the only topic of concern; the Richardsons were well versed in the cruelties of slavery and human rights. After all, this family was started as a result of slavery and had survived through man’s inhumanity to man. But this family had a different twist. It was common for black families to have white ancestors in their family. A white slave owner could take a black slave any time he wanted. But what made this family so different was that a white man (Simon Duffy) had fallen in love with a slave in Virginia, a forbidden thing; and to make matters worse, he married her in 1842 and changed the course of both families forever.

Celia went to Brown College in ’91. She skipped two grades in high school, so she graduated early. She worked hard at Brown. Celia’s major was early childhood. She wanted to be a specialized teacher. Celia was able to graduate in three and a half years. By the fall of 1994, Celia had been admitted to a graduate program at Brown University graduate school and was beginning her studies. As usual, Celia had received a scholarship; so graduate school wasn’t costing her a penny. Actually, she had offers to do internship at schools before she even started graduate school. But Celia had decided that she wanted to teach and wanted to learn everything about working with kids. She loved working with children. Celia graduated in the summer of 1996 and she was immediately hired by one of the most prestigious black schools in Atlanta.

Dominion went to the University of Pittsburgh, where he received a full scholarship to play baseball, in the fall of 1994. Dominion met Michelle at Pittsburgh during his junior year when Michelle was a sophomore. From the moment they met, the two of them were inseparable. Michelle had come from a poor family and had to work hard for everything that she had gotten and achieved in her short life. Michelle never knew her father, and her mother had died about two years ago. She had one sister that moved around a lot, and she had lost touch with her. Michelle thought that her sister was in New York, but she wasn’t sure. She had even paid a private eye to try to find her, but he hadn’t had any luck. Michelle had the same number for the last three years, and friends knew where to find her; so if her sister wanted to find her, she could. Whenever Michelle had moved, she made sure that she left a forwarding address. Michelle didn’t expect things to last long, and she had lost everyone in her life that was close to her; so that’s why it was so hard for her to expect that Dominion and she would last. After all, he was captain of the baseball team; and there were many women after him. How could he have eyes for only her? But Dominion acted as if the two of them was supposed to be together and couldn’t understand why she didn’t realize that. In spite of her doubts, the two of them were good for each other.

Michelle was studying to become a teacher. She loved to teach and found children to be very challenging and rewarding. She planned to work with those who had special needs. She also hoped that this Dominion Richardson might just be the man for her.

The two of them were happy. In the spring of 1997, Michelle got pregnant with Dominion Jr. Dominion would soon graduate and would be making good money soon for the two of them—or rather the three of them—regardless if he decided to find a job or play baseball. Michelle was in her junior year.

Dominion graduated in spring of 1997 in the top 10 percent of his class with a major in business. But he decided to play triple A baseball for the Atlanta Braves. Michelle stayed at school to finish while Dominion found a home in Atlanta.

Michelle graduated in 1998, when she also graduated near the top of her class. She and Dominion Jr. moved to Atlanta, where she found a teaching job in middle school working with the special needs children. Dominion started to play baseball. Everything was going