Meet Sarah Green: A Woman of Purpose

By Cliff Seeney

MEET SARAH GREEN, A Woman of Purpose, is a fictional story and part of an anthology, Big Cliff, based on the life of Clifton Leroy Seeney and the family that was around him in the early part of the nineteenth century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514467503

Cliff Seeney

Clifton I. Seeney, A Navy veteran, tells the story of the life and times of the Seeney Family circa 1920-1940 as told to him by his father, Clifton Samuel Seeney a businessman and a WWII veteran.

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About the Author

Clifton I. Seeney, A Navy veteran, tells the story of the life and times of the Seeney Family circa 1920-1940 as told to him by his father, Clifton Samuel Seeney a businessman and a WWII veteran.

About the Book

MEET SARAH GREEN, A Woman of Purpose, is a fictional story and part of an anthology, Big Cliff, based on the life of Clifton Leroy Seeney and the family that was around him in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Me%20%26%20Cliff.jpg

Peggy & Clif

MEET SARAH

GREEN

A WOMAN OF PURPOSE

CLIFTON I. SEENEY

Copyright © 2016 by Clifton I. Seeney.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2016902713

      ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5144-6749-7

         Softcover      978-1-5144-6751-0

         eBook      978-1-5144-6750-3

All rights reserved. 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 permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/15/2016

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Contents

About the Author

About the Book

Introduction

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Introduction

Big Cliff is a fiction, which must be read in the language of the times, based on the life of Clifton Leroy Seeney and the family that was around him in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Many things are based on facts, if at any time the people or a situation seems to be based on actual people it is just a situation and not actual, fact or people.

The Author of the book is the Grandson of Cliff and many of the stories were from his own father. I hope that this book will open the eyes of those who read it. Life in the early part of the nineteenth century or

Life in Baltimore Maryland was never easy for the colored population then as now. We have over come so many things in the past and we will continue to move forward.

I wish to thank most of all Big Cliff for being what he was, also to my Grandmother Gertrude P Seeney, and most of all Sarah Green Tolson.

This book would have not been if it wasn’t for my daddy Clifton Samuel Seeney. The help of my editor is without doubt the most important part, for without her help in organizing this work it would have been impossible. Many thanks go out to my sister Peggy Seeney for her help in the background of many of the characters in this story.

Big Cliff II

The Life and times of his Family in the Twenties

By Cliff Seeney

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Clifton Samuel Seeney 1923

Like I was saying, Miss Henrietta Seeney was as graceful as a swan. A well educated woman also she was the picture of the new Colored woman, with the manners and charm to go along with it. Her wealth was due to wise investments and the money that her father left her, after years of working as a hood. Carter Solomon Seeney was also receiving Veteran benefit from a wound he received during the Civil War. After some time that benefit went up and he received also the interests off of the arrears from the government.

Miss Henrietta Seeney went to a colored woman’s collage called Spellman. She never married and resigned herself to a life of ease. Many people not only admired her for her beauty but for her wise and talented advice. She was, said many, like her Grandfather Samuel W Chase Sr., a well educated man who taught classes at the AME Churches and at the first black schools for free men of color before the Civil War.

When she walked into the room at Miss Sarah’s house she was a very welcome guest. Sarah, who handled the care and the upkeep of most of Miss Seeney’s houses that were near Franklin Street the 600 block of that Street and other places as well.

All the men there wanted to be near this jewel and they all tried to upstage the others when they had a chance to be near her, which was rare. She rarely came out in public and this was a great opportunity for Sarah to introduce her to her family before they returned back to Virginia.

Sarah was so glade that she got the time to be with her mother and brother. And the fact that her mother got to meet Miss Seeney meant a lot to her. She felt that her life was now turning around and a new way was on its way.

Sarah washed herself all over out in the kitchen across the courtyard behind the house; afterwards she put on her new white dress and her high top city shoes, which were black. The black stockings were a perfect contrast to her new underwear, a style that she was not use to.

She lifted her heavy black hair that she was forming into a bundle and for a woman of forty-two she looked more like a woman of twenty-eight. She now wanted to look younger so she tied it back in a long pony tail, no doubt to show off her wavy hair to any envies eyes.

All the time she was dressing she was thinking of her Mother and Brother who were still in Baltimore. They came to stay for a short while mostly to see the new baby boy that was born to their granddaughter and Cousin. She was wishing that they would stay and hoping that her sister would come up as well. They were very generous to the whole family giving money, to Gurtie for the new baby boy that was born the first of the year.

He looked like a little papoose, just as cute as any Native American baby, just a little darker due to his black heritage.

She was thinking that she felt that his blood was very close because his mother and father were second cousins.

Oh, I will pray that he turns out right but I will keep a close eye on him, during his childhood, she thought to herself.

She knew that it was a common practice for her people to marry in this way. She recalled in her mind that the only way that most Native Americans would be able to get off of the many Reservations, that the white government set up for them, was marrying into the families of the many colored people living near these places was one way.

These Reservations were set up to keep them in confinement, more like a prison than a home. The only way off of the white ran Reservations was to marry someone outside of the tribes. Many whites refused to marry them, but free blacks and Mulattoes were more than willing to add them to their families. Along with this, the ones that wanted to keep their Native American heritage alive often intermarried within their own mixed family.

Once she came to Baltimore she discovered that they too were practicing a form of this in their Quadroon Balls, as they were known. Where young Mulattoes and well to do blacks girls went to a special Ball were young Mulattoes and well to do black young men and many wealthy aristocratic whites came too.

They would pick out the best to be their mistress and in the case of the Mulattoes and the blacks they would pick out wives. This was a good way unlike home to not marry close in the family. Poor Cliff and Gurtie could not do this because their families had neither the money nor the social connection to do so.

Cliff’s mother made a arrangement with her family at home to marry him off too one of the families in Virginia the Tolson’s, who were not Laws, so I guess she thought that it was alright to do. Her fathers twin sister’s son’s daughter.

Sarah remembered that her own marriage was an arrangement. She actually wanted to go to one of the balls here to see for herself if there was someone for her Hattie who was turning twenty now and Zep.

The ballrooms were very beautiful and glittering with a thousand lights, the girls wore white dresses, the young men were very light and handsome some were lighter then her Zep, but she felt that they were not as handsome as her son.

She felt that there was nothing evil or wicked about the balls. Indeed, they were conducted with great propriety. The girls were chaperoned by their mothers. When a young man wished to select one as a wife or a mistress he would consult with that girls mother, or get his father to do so, as was often the case. If he was accepted he must make certain promises, among them one of some financial arrangement with her family. He must also be able to provide, too, for the children that might be born of this union. All of the girls would have to prove that they were virgins.

This she thought would be the way she wanted her other girls to go and her sons, but she knew in her heart that this was the high society of Baltimore Maryland, that she did not belong too. As she left the ball she saw her friend serving dinners to the young men and she waved at her, catching herself at the same time. This was not her world and in no way close to her world.

She was thinking about Jack and she felt that she did want to remarry. She would marry Jack and her children would be pleased with it. Then she started to