There Are Those

By Mary Johnson

There are Those is the story of a strong-willed young woman whose ideas were ahead
of her time. She was born in Alabama in the 1800s when women were treated like
possessions. They were sometimes victims of abuse without recourse. They had no
say, could not vote, own property, nor work outside their homes without the permission
from a man. They were subjected to the rule of fathers, husbands, brothers, and
male employers, if they were fortunate enough to gain employment.

The main character, Evinaida Corbitt, fought to change these conditions. She joins a
group called the Suffragettes. Their aim is to gain suffrage for women. In addition to
the female equality struggle, she was also born a mulatto which brought on another
type of discrimination.

She is proud of her family and thinks they are the best there is. Her heart is broken
when she becomes aware of her grandfathers true feelings, and his sagacious actions.
When family secrets and deceptions are revealed, they prove to add to the burden
and hurt this young woman bears. Still, truth is resurrected from a grave of lies and
Evinaida becomes aware of the skeletons in the closet.

Irregardless, there are those who know what they are to accomplish and set about
getting the job done, no matter what the costs. These are most often forerunners,
as was Evinaida.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499016383

Book preview

PRELUDE

There are Those is the story of a strong-willed young woman whose ideas were ahead of her time. She was born in Alabama in the 1800’s when women were treated like possessions. They were sometimes victims of abuse without recourse. They had no say, could not vote, own property, nor work outside their homes without the permission from a man. They were subjected to the rule of fathers, husbands, brothers, and male employers, if they were fortunate enough to gain employment.

The main character, Evinaida Corbitt, fought to change these conditions. She joins a group called the Suffragettes. Their aim is to gain suffrage for women. In addition to the female equality struggle, she was also born a mulatto which brought on another type of discrimination.

She is proud of her family and thinks they are the best there is. Her heart is broken when she becomes aware of her grandfather’s true feelings, and his sagacious actions.

When family secrets and deceptions are revealed, they prove to add to the burden and hurt this young woman bears. Still, truth is resurrected from a grave of lies and Evinaida becomes aware of the skeletons in the closet.

Irregardless, there are those who know what they are to accomplish and set about getting the job done, no matter what the costs. These are most often forerunners, as was Evinaida

CHAPTER I

You have probably heard the expression: The more things change, the more they remain the same. I was talking to an elderly woman, a distant relative, not long ago. During our conversation, I realized that what was previously just a cliché is actually very real. She told me the story of a woman named Evinaida and her family. They lived in Alabama during the 1800’s and the early 1900’s when women were not even considered citizens of the United States. Evinaida was not like other women of that day. She was unique.

Differences between her and others of that time, were that she was a suffragette and mulatto. This is the way the story was told to me:

It was night. Ominous rain-filled darkness was all about him. A darkness that succumbed, only sparingly, to the flickers of lantern light. A young man, Evin by name, had made his way from Henry County, Alabama to Larue County, Kentucky.

The rain, and lack of moonlight, now made travel more difficult. It was getting colder. The farther North he went the colder it would get.

All he had with him were his old mare, some traveling provisions, and his Bowie knife, a gift from his family’s former master.

His intention was to travel to Ohio and take the Ohio River into Canada.

His plan had been to stick mainly to the woods and sustain himself by hunting small game. It was rumored that in Canada they could live together in peace. Interracial couples were tolerated. He had promised his expectant fiancee that he would return as soon as he had secured a proper place for her and their unborn child.

A sudden rain storm was making his progress difficult. To get out of the rain for awhile, he stopped briefly in a small town a few miles past the Kentucky border. There he entered a small building on the outskirts of town, just off the road. It housed a sort of trading post and saloon combined.

Welcome, stranger, the merchant said. Whacha doin in these parts this time of night, and in this weather? His voice sounded both inquisitive and suspicious. A few colored male patrons sat at the bar talking to each other. Hearing the bartender’s greeting, they looked at the young man standing in the doorway, dripping wet.

As if prompted, two of the men began a conversation with each other.

They spoke loudly wanting the stranger to hear. Heard there be a bounty for some young fella. Rumor has it, he got some lil chickadee in the family way, and just run off somewheres. There be a postin at the Sherrif’s. Sho’ don wanna be him—bounty be offered by a fella called WS—big man in parts of Alabama, the one said to the other.

The news of the bounty caused Evin to alter his plans. He was sure he was the young fella they were looking for. He knew he could not explain himself. Bounty hunters would never listen. Now, he could no longer travel openly. He could not go back. His only hope was to keep moving forward.

Evin and his fiancée, fearing the wrath of her father, had kept their relationship a secret. The young woman’s father was notorious for his harsh dealings with those who he thought had wronged him. His vengeful acts were always swift and without warning. The couple’s relationship alone was frowned upon. The pregnancy created an even more serious problem. There had been no question in Evin’s mind. He had to make it to Canada. Now, he would have to spend his days in the shelters once used by the Underground Railroad.

This period was only eight years past slavery days, and racial hatred was prevalent and rampant. His complexion was fair but his features were colored. The men at the trading post could turn him in for a share of the bounty.

That night, after leaving the bar, fearing his pursuers were not far behind, he made his way through heavily wooded areas of an unfamiliar forest. If he could just reach the Ohio River, he would be out of harms way and on his way to Canada. He urged his horse forward through the darkness aided only by the light from the moon.

Still, they had found him. The cowardly hired killers had tracked him with dogs. It was 1873. He was not being hunted because he was a runaway slave.

He was being hunted because he loved the wrong woman.

The horses surrounded him. No words were spoken. No explanations were asked or given. Suddenly, he felt a rope around his torso. It pinned his arms to his sides. He fell from his horse to the ground as the horse to which he was now tied, began to gallop away. Leaving the woods, the horse galloped faster and faster, urged on by his rider.

The young man’s head struck a rock, mercifully rendering him unconscious.

He was dragged until he was no longer recognizable as human. His body was buried in a field by his pursuers. The Bowie knife was taken back to their employer, as proof the deed was done. The hunters told him exactly what had occurred. The kill was ordered and paid for.

CHAPTER II

It was WS Corbitt, the former slave master who had hired the murderous crew. He feared no retribution for his actions. The young man would be just another darkie gone missing. WS, a brash and vindictive man, was defending the honor of his youngest daughter, Liza, whom he thought had been violated by Evin.

WS had been born in South Carolina around 1815. He was Caucasian, tall, gray-haired, with dark weather-beaten skin, deep-set eyes that sat too close together and an aristocratic nose. To say he was not particularly good looking would be correct. He had inherited his family-owned plantation and with it, slaves. Around 1858, it seemed that most of the country was up in arms over slavery. This was ridiculous to WS because his family had owned slaves for at least a century. Why upset the apple cart now.

Still, Carolina’s troubles were just beginning. Bickering had started in the state over the issue of allowing slavery to continue in its borders.

A great portion of WS’s wealth had come from slave labor and trade.

As a result, he decided to get out of South Carolina while he still could.

During this period, because the nationwide tone of the hour was heralding war, he sold some of his possessions including some of his slaves. Just before the war actually started, he moved to Alabama.

Alabama, The Heart of Dixie, also to become known as the Cradle of the Confederacy was extremely lenient to slaveholders and gave them a legal right to continue their ownership of slaves. Of course, the year of 1865 brought an end to the War, to slavery, and to that portion of WS’s lucrative business. However, some of WS’s former slaves chose to remain in his household, the parents of Evin included.

They never suspected WS to be responsible for their son’s absence.

WS also owned a female slave by the name of Millie. She was his mulatto bed wench. At least, she was said to be mulatto, she was actually more Indian than she dared to mention. A revelation of that sort would have meant a trip to a reservation, or worse. Millie’s mother was Indian and her father was a white man. Prior to being sold to WS, slavers had killed her parents and kidnapped her from an area near the Texas Panhandle.

They brought her to South Carolina and sold her to a plantation owner as a mulatto slave. Suspecting her to be Indian, he had treated her cruelly and resold her at auction. WS had purchased her for his bed wench.

He also assigned her to help his wife, the Mrs. with his then four girls.

Liza, the youngest and fifth girl was born around nine years before the family moved to Alabama.

Some years prior to the move, around 1843, Millie had a son by WS and named him Benjamin. He was tall like his father, with the same aristocratic nose. His shoulders were rounded. His thick dark hair was mostly straight.

His weather-beaten skin, like his father’s, was now tanned from working long hours in the hot sun. He was moved with the family to Alabama at age sixteen.

Being a man of foresight, WS had paid the midwife attending Millie to falsify the birth certificate. Benjamin was registered at the county seat in South Carolina as a child born to WS’s Caucasian wife. The reason for the deception being; WS was a proud and avaricious individual. He did not want his family heritage falling into the hands of complete strangers because he had no son to carry on his name.

In the 1800’s, as a rule, neither women nor people of color could own property in their names. Therefore, Benjamin because he was registered as his wife’s child, became WS’s legal heir.

In Alabama, against WS’s wishes, Benjamin, at the age of seventeen, had married Harriet. She was a tall, rather busty, lovely mulatto girl. She had long, thick, dark hair, a beautiful smile and the temperament to match.

She was also the illegitimate daughter of a bed wench and a plantation owner.

CHAPTER III

The year was still 1873. A log cabin farmhouse sat near the base of a tree lined hill in Alabama. The land held tall southern pines and other evergreen trees, a field of pungent and colorful wildflowers, and red clay dirt. The farmhouse offered its quaint, but stately presence to form a picture perfect, postcard scene. The nearby woods that stretched for miles, offered solace and anonymity to the farmhouse occupants.

Benjamin and Harriet had been given the land, woods included, by WS who held the title. Time passed.

In spite of his negative personality traits, WS was extremely proud and protective of his son, who now had four children of his own. Like most families, the Corbitts lived relatively normal lives.

This particular day, now finally ending, had been a complete disaster.

It had been like an unsolicited harbinger of fate. It was also the day Liza’s child, Evinaida, was born. In the morning, Harriet had sat milking the old cow. Suddenly, its behavior became berserk. It bellowed loudly, stepped into the milk bucket containing the breakfast milk, and bolted from the barn. Something had spooked it.

Catch her! Harriet had screamed to children who were not where they were supposed to be. The cow ran through the open gate and into the field. The gate had been inadvertently left open by someone called, ‘Wasn’t me!’ The same someone who often switched his name to ‘I don’t know!’.

Harriet had thrown up her hands in a gesture of frustration and disbelief.

Just then, her youngest son, Tom, came running around the barn. While still out of his mother’s sight, he put away his pea shooter.

What happened? He asked innocently. Harriet had just scowled at him.

The children had been unruly all day. Their mischief had also resulted in one bloody nose, a perfectly good shoe thrown into the creek by a vindictive sibling, and her week’s wash knocked to the ground by an ensuing scuffle. To top it off, the fish had not been biting. This fact had ruined plans for dinner. What could go wrong—went wrong.

Now, as Harriet and Benjamin sat on the front porch and the children were preparing for bed, a warm September breeze blew across the fields. A few leaves on the old Walnut tree, standing in the front yard of the farmhouse, were turning that faded color of yellow that announces the approach of Autumn.

Looks like next year might be a good one, Benjamin said.

Umm humh, Harriet muttered, thinking about the events of the day.

Benjamin began to talk of plans for the coming year. Harriet sat beside him, attentive, but silent. How he could read the future by the leaves on that tree was a mystery to her. Of course, his keen and uncanny insight was the reason behind recent successes of both his and WS’s families.

It was now fully night and the children were asleep. Benjamin had hardly laid his head on the pillow when he began snoring. Harriet sat on the side of the bed. As was her routine, she brushed and braided her hair. She placed one braid at the back of her head and tucked it into her nightcap. Then breathing a sigh of relief and saying a prayer, lay back on her pillow, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

She was awakened by a tapping at the front door. Still groggy and somewhat disoriented, she groped in the darkness for the small bedside table and the lantern sitting on it. Finding it without destroying the entire room, she lit the lantern and the darkness mostly dissipated.

Benjamin was still lightly snoring, dead tired from the day’s labor.

He seemed to be undisturbed by the noise, or the light. She pulled her woolen shawl from the foot of the bed. Placing it around her shoulders and over her nightgown. Yawning, she headed for the front door. The tapping was becoming more insistent.

Not wanting to wake the sleeping children, she placed her mouth near the door. Who’s there? There was no answer. She repeated her question. Agitation was now displayed in her voice.

It’s Liza! a voice answered. Harriet opened the door. There stood Liza, her sister-in-law. She was WS’s baby daughter. Her expression told of great pain. Managing to motion for her houseman to leave, Liza entered the house. Harriet watched as the Victoria Carriage pulled away.

She shut the door and returned her attention to Liza whose clothing was wet below the waist to the bottom of her skirts. Her long auburn hair, wet from sweat, clung to her head. Her large hazel eyes were filled with tears.

The lovely, young face was now distorted by grimacing.

Harriet, please help me! She said gasping as she was racked by another pain. Harriet helped the suffering young woman to a chair.

She then went to wake the still sleeping Benjamin, saying, Liza is here! Git da midwife! Benjamin hurried to dress. Still half asleep, he managed to pull on his pants. He grabbed the lantern and