Thomas: a Slaves Tale

By Kenneth Moss Bilal

This is a story about Thomas a slave whose Mother was killed while defending herself in front of Thomas a little boy, Thomas was traumatized. He went into a zombie like coma where he would not respond to anyone except his Aunt. Thomas awakes from his coma, finding himself in a wagon moving down the road with his Aunt, they were sold to another plantation. Thomas was raised in the house of the master where Thomas meets Thomas Jefferson, Thomas is loaned out to Jefferson on occasions. Thomas meets George Washington. He is put into the continental Army where he becomes a Scout, then head Scout. After the Revolutionary War he flees to New York but not before he liberates some fellow soldiers who were also slaves. There he becomes the leader of what was called Coloured Town.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664174252

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Copyright © 2021 by Kenneth Moss Bilal.

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.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/10/2021

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CONTENTS

The Scouts

The Road to Canada

Moon

The Irish

The Engagement

The Ring

The Wedding

The Wedding Party

The Wedding Party

The Train Station

Thomas was nine years old when his Mother Lily was killed by Mr. Willis, who killed his mother because she refused to give in to his drunken desires. She fought him and hit him with a corn grinder. Willis screamed, which terrified Thomas, who was hiding in the corner of the slave cabin behind the potbellied stove that they used to cook with and get heat in the winter.

BLACK BITCH! he shouted, pulling his knife. He leaped upon her, stabbing her in her left breast. She then did something Thomas would never forget—she bit Mr. Willis on his throat, and with all the strength she could muster, she ripped open his jugular vein. He staggered back, dropped the knife, trying to stop the blood gushing from his neck. He looked so surprised, mouth open in disbelief, and then he fell dead on the hardened wood floor. His mother looked at Thomas, reaching with her right hand. She tried to call his name, then she collapsed. Thomas, his eyes filled with tears and paralyzed with fear and terror on his knees in his mother’s blood, put both of his hands over his ears and screamed and screamed until he passed out.

Thomas did not know what happened after that, only that he was in a wagon moving down the road. He remembered the trees and the sky and some birds flying. He had no chains on him as his arms and hands were so small and scrawny. They had a rope around his neck loosely as he had not said a word in months and would not move, even when they hit him with a belt.

He had been sold to a different master with his aunt Rosie, who was a very good cook. Normally, you never sell a good cook unless you have another cook better or at least as good. Thomas would reflect in his older years that it was probably because Auntie Rosie really knew spices and herbs and knew what was poisonous and what was not and how to combine them. He was thrown in to seal the bargain. So Thomas, who now spoke, asked, Auntie Rose, where we goin’?

Thank you, Jesus, you done brought him back, Auntie Rose said. She reached for him, but the chains kept her from him. He reached for her, but the rope stopped him and they could only touch with their fingertips.

While in the wagon Auntie Rosie, looking around as not to be heard, told Thomas, trying to speak as softly as possible, Don’t y’all say nothing no matter what! Ya hear? Thomas acknowledged with a nod of his head.

In Master Pettigrew’s plantation in Virginia, Master Pettigrew wasn’t the worst nor the best, but he did have a sweet tooth and he loved Auntie Rose’s cakes and cobblers and thought he had made a great bargain in having a great cook and a young slave that maybe could work. But because Rosie was so good, she managed to have Thomas in the kitchen as a helper and have everybody thinking she was the only one who could make him do anything. Thomas quickly became at ten years old a fairly good cook under his aunt’s tutelage. He became an expert in spices and OK with the herbs, so he didn’t have to work in the fields.

One day, the house was in a panic. Master Pettigrew was shouting, telling the house servants to clean up and break out the good silver and fine china as he was having a very special guest. It was the governor of Virginia, and his name was Thomas too. There was a magnificent