Divinity Travels

By Eddie A. Showers

When Horus Prosper was a little boy in Youngstown, Ohio during the 1980's, his Grandfather, Houston Ward, would share with him detailed accounts about their family history, the most significant of which establishes how his Caucasian, third Great Grandfather, Big Papa, acquired his opulent estate, as juxtaposed to how his African, third Great Grandmother, Big Mama, endeavored to withstand the many inhumane oppressions deriving from racism's evil reign inside the Antebellum States of North America.

Through the knowledge of his familial heritage, Horus was able to identify how the philosophical principles behind the politics that are driving a System of Mass Incarceration in America today is simply a modernized transformation of the same Black Code, Jim Crow, and Slavery Laws that governed the country's despicably racist past. As verified through Horus candid narration of how he persevered a harsh prison sentence for a nonviolent drug offense in the State of Ohio by trusting self awareness, moral decorum, and a healthy antidote of meditation to stimulate the full potential of a third eye spiritual consciousness that ultimately concentrated his collective thoughts and actions on accomplishing his divine purpose in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667877426

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Copyright 2023 by Eddie A. Showers

All Rights Reserved

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Cover Design by LaQuise Publishing and Design Coviction

Editing by Eddie A. Showers

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ISBN 978-1-66787-741-9

eBook ISBN 978-1-66787-742-6

AUTHORS NOTE

Divinity Travels is a creative memoir. All of the characters within it are actual people, some of whom are identified by pseudonyms to protect the privacy of the individuals involved. Taking into account that I wasn’t present when the history of my ancestors occurred, much of the dialogue and events revealed at the beginning of the story derived from any parents and grandparents recollection, combined with what I imagined took place during the period of time in which my predecessors existed. Aside from that aspect of the book, Divinity Travels is considerably more nonfictional of a read than it is a creative one.

This work is dedicated to my supportive, devoted, and loving parents, Mr. Floyd Showers Jr. & Mrs. Brenda L. Showers, and Mr. Albert Neal Jr. & Mrs. Hixie Neal, who’ve journeyed with me through each of my stages of maturation, and also through the many challenges I’ve faced in life. With warm-hearted affection, I sincerely appreciate their living example inspiring me to believe in no burden being to heavy, or obstacle being too great, for unwavering faith in God to overcome.

This book is also a special tribute to my beloved wife Alvinetta Showers, and our beautiful daughters, Andre’ia, Teryn, and Amari, to whom my unchanging love is willed to endure, everlastingly.

Table of Contents

Prologue

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Prologue

"For nations, as for people, self-interest is always the governing principle. And no country, specifically

including the United States, should be trusted

further than it is bound by interest"

–President George Washington

If I were granted one wish in life to make a positive difference in this world, I’d wish for humanity to resist it’s propensity to become forgetful. In my humble opinion, it doesn’t matter if being forgetful is intentionally administered on our behalf, or if we’re suffering from a terminal mental condition, all aspects of any retention deficiency will impede our ability to strive for moral progression because it force us to relive lessons that we’ve already ascertained. And each time we allow amnesiac episodes to prevail us as a society, the issues associated with the lessons we relearn, invite the consequences attained during the process to escalate the discord we earn. Which begs the question, how much more turmoil must we subject ourselves to endure before our infamous history incite our conscience to heed when certain people in positions of power are leading us to relive the same past disputes and atrocities that our ancestors labored arduously over to reconcile? Historical accounts provide graphic depictions of how it literally took spilling their own blood to the death before irretrievable years of mass tragedies eventually shocked them back into their natural senses; thus, allowing them to carry on with resolving critical societal issues by means of diplomacy, like perfectly sane, and normal people do. Why countless promising souls ended up departing from this terrestrial globe prematurely, unnecessarily, and so foolishly, is beyond my level of rational comprehension.

Hence my point. Have we truly forgotten how easily we can be lied to by Whole Governments, Partisan Politicians, Men of the Cloth (whose forte is brainwashing people) and also by, Powerful Business Executives who run multinational corporations with gargantuan appetites to gain possession of commerce affairs in their mainland and abroad? It’s the principle reasoning behind why, The United States Military, and whatever covert services it can provide is used to subvert destabilized governments that don’t comply with safeguarding American interest. Evidence of this sort of ill-gotten activity is documented by history per the role past businessmen in our country played when they convinced, President William McKinley, to undertake sovereignty over the Philippines. The significance of that chess move empowered the United States to acquire a highly sought after global position in the world for the purpose of pursuing commercial opportunities that dispensed mammoth profits to white businessmen who distributed tangible merchandise inside Chinese markets.

History also reminds us about Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, and his associates affiliation with a United Fruits Corporation, back during the 1950s. Secretary Dulles and his camaraderie, utilized said corporation to capitalize from the deceptive practices of a notorious psychologist named, Edward Bernays. Mr. Bernays was an expert at devising highly intellectual schemes to manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses. He’s the mastermind behind the propaganda used to overthrow, from that era, a newly elected nationalist named, President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, of Guatemala. When Secretary Dulles and Mr. Bernays followed through on their conspiracy ploy to oust President Guzman from power, it enabled the board members and majority stockholders of United Fruits (Allen Dulles, John Moors Cabot, Thomas Dudley Cabot and Robert Cutler) to avoid selling back to Guatemalan farmers any uncultivated land out of the 550,000 acres they owned; in so doing, they secured the surfeit of dividends that United Fruits accrued inside what was once Guzman’s country.

Comparably, how soon have we forgotten about, President George W. Bush Jr., unyielding determination to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq so his Vice President, Richard B. Cheney, oil and infrastructure company, Haliburton, could generate billions of dollars by obtaining free access to Saddam’s vast oil reserves? With the aftereffects of that not so long ago power move still flashing, You’ve Been Tricked Again signals off in our minds, it’s even more clear now than it’s ever been for us to acknowledge that Corporate Power has transcended the realms of just attempting to influence policymakers in our country, to actually becoming thee policymakers in our country.

As an American citizen, it’s outright shameful to think about how misleading manifestos to Liberate, Educate and Christianize foreign people of color has been used almost effortlessly to dupe millions of our nation’s young men and women into taking up arms for World Wars, the Vietnam War, the Gulf and Afghanistan Wars; thenceforth, inheriting Psychological Disorders, Physical Disabilities, Mysterious Ailments, Racial Caste Systems, the Great Depression, Harsh Crime Legislations, the Crack Epidemic, the 08’ Recession, the Opioid Pandemic and Mass Incarceration Afflictions for our concomitant rewards. With these type of dismal realities stomping on the consciences of our country’s Veterans, Blue Collar Workers and Poor People, may the Powers That Be hope to receive sweet mercy from God All Mighty when the soldiers from each branch of our military start recognizing when they are being, LIED TO.

To date, preeminently affluent white men untruths have wreaked ample mental, social and financial havok upon the lives of the past twenty generations of poor Americans, while the wealthy elite continue to secure A-1 health care benefits, luxurious residential estates and copious familial trust inheritances through every single calamity this nation proceeds to encounter. It’s always the usual old state of affairs at play, make poor people battle through the strife of racial tensions and the destabilization of foreign lands, while rich people reap the benefits from all the massacre. I sorely regret how Americans keep forgetting that the last point I just made is another, Valid One.

When I look at today’s political environment and see the polarization of a diverse citizenry inside our country taking place, it’s extremely disappointing to view an array of beautiful faces whom once upon a time Pledged Allegiances with one another during childhood, yet, we’re struggling extensively to reach solid grounds in regards of our birthrights, responsibilities as citizens, and basis for action towards the common good being equally mutual as full-fledged adults. Surely we’ve never forgotten how in elementary school our teachers began every morning of lectures by making us swear to the U.S. flag in unison that we were One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice, For ALL. Well then again, maybe we don’t remember such an innocent and patriotic flashback in time judging by our country’s excuses for subscribing to an unhealthy endowment of selective memory. But for those of us who cherish the solidarity being promised amongst a divergent group of individuals, to this very day it makes us proud to be Americans anytime we recall how pledging an allegiance to the flag would descend from our vocal cords as if a waterfall of iridescent rivers were flowing thru our classrooms in perfect symmetry. The sheer idea of having, Liberty and Justice for All would fill my spirit with enthusiasm, optimism, and tranquility at this actual moment except, I’ve matured to well within my fourth decade of age and yet I’m still having to evaluate this modern white nationalistic political climate via a lens of retrogression making it awfully difficult to perceive the inspirational wording in our Pledge of Allegiance as a true description of this, For The Common People, By The Common People Democracy.

Unfortunately, I’m prone to believe this deep dismay in my eyes is partially attributed to a decades long agenda on the behalf of conservative think tanks to undermine public education whether through vouchers, charter schools, or crude assaults on teacher unions. Adding to the fray are narrow minded, power hungry politicians who are responding to these far right think tanks by circulating popular prejudices and dissimulating claims in general society to reassure the personal preferences of certain aspiring and incumbent public officials, prevail over doing what’s right for all of the citizenry inhabiting this resilient country of ours. One need only to perceive how Republican politicians are presently campaigning on the premise of castigating the teachings of Critical Race Theory while resplendently confident in the stratagems ability to deliver a winning electoral message, regardless of it’s sabotaging nature. They present no worry or make no mentioning of the Cover Up’s and Big Ol’ Antebellum Lies that many educators have been teaching our elementary school, middle school and high school students for well over a century now; nor do they express any concerns over the role The United Daughters of the Confederacy demonstrated when they promoted a Lost Cause myth about the South fighting honorably for states’ rights, even though they knew full well their brothers, cousins, uncles, fathers, grandfathers and husbands fought for the South during the Civil War to uphold slavery. But to the contrary, Republicans have essentially chosen to vilify bonafide educators who understand the importance of ensuring our schools indoctrinate a more diverse course of study inside it’s classrooms while also prioritizing a practice of sustainig equity within the curriculum.

As I ponder to myself, I’m wondering, What’s really so wrong with updating our nation’s history syllabus so that it includes many of the Native, Asian, Hispanic and African American abolitionists, inventors, physicians and entrepreneurs whom exhibited the moral courage to earn highly exceptional achievements in life, despite having to overcome behemoth injustices in their face? I summed up my thoughts by determining that any notion of it being unwelcoming or offensive to broaden the historical perspectives of our youth, is ridiculous. We’ll be doing a major disservice to who we purport to be as Americans, if we proceed with basically settling for our educational institutions teaching every pupil from a toddler stage, to young adulthood, predominantly about the accomplishments of white people. Because the hard truth is people from all ethnic backgrounds have made, The United States, the Strong Power it represents in the world today. Besides, there’s a Strength, Beauty and Richness intertwined within our country’s diversity; moreover, the time has been long overdue for us to learn about all of our history so we can thereby embrace our collective successes, and partial differences, with a single mission to truly be united as One People, coexisting together with genuine civility under, One Flag.

Like all the other country’s on earth, we harbor many facts about our history that won’t always feel pleasant to learn. But the uneasiness we’ll encounter is there to serve as a stimulant that activates any dormant impulses we may posses which’ll contribute towards motivating us to be more receptive of our nation’s diversity. In lieu of that fact, it’s significant to note, the inner anatomy and five senses that validate the commonalities we share are hints from God to help us realize that though our outer appearances may vary, the unseen essence of our souls is both one and the same. We’ll be able to determine if humanity is making progress with accepting that truth, the more we begin to recognize how different races of people are beginning to respect one another as valued human beings.

However, currently one of our most arduous problems reside in the fact that many Republican politicians are focused on concealing parts of our history, if not flat out burying any facts within it that has the potential of causing white people to have to deal with those discomforting feelings I recently mentioned. Instead of growing from the pains of our past, white traditional conformists have hijacked a common sense approach towards the way our underpaid teachers are teaching their diverse student bodies throughout our educational system by stigmatizing it as a representation of being, WOKE (Wrongs On Kids and Employers). Upon which time, they’ve configured this virulent WOKE ideology into a social grievance for the purpose of metastasizing a culture cancer in our country that further distort any existing misconceptions we may already presume about one another. Yes, it’s definitely true, as I distinctively indicated previously in this prologue, we’re currently living in a country whose far right intellectual elite are intentionally provoking multitudes of white people to relinquish their ability to be empathetic towards, or even interested in, the perspectives and achievements of other races of people. And they’ve had free reign to play on the typical impulses of Caucasian people through Conservative Media Outlets to guarantee that Disunity is sustained within the masses.

Need I never forget to mention how one would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to deny acknowledging the art of ruse and subterfuge that white traditional conformists, G.O.P. co-conspirators, are unleashing upon us to prohibit the country from treading the type of ground that would ultimately condition the psyche of society in a manner that’ll permit the masses to acclimate themselves into a multiethnic force in the world that takes tremendous pride in having attained the mental, physical, and spiritual capacity to prosper during life as, One People. But, like I’ve been alluding to throughout this prologue, there are certain conservative politicians and various groups of white supremacists in our country who despise the mere notion of such a reality evolving into existence because it repudiates their own prejudice beliefs, as well as, weakens a bias political sector in our government that is hell-bent on refusing to share an equal portioning of the American Pie. Subsequently, stirring up the ever-so sensitive racial issues between people while being strategically manipulative with propaganda to further polarize our nation will persist to be, Thee Tool of Practice, for right-wing reactionaries.

In the 21st century, this shameful low road that the Republicans are choosing to pursue (many scholars have concluded) is the only road left for them to travel down. By coercing citizens to find a clear majority compromise with each other through all kinds of misinformation that’s littered with disruption and confusion is almost like asking an assortment of people to accomplish the impossible. Republicans know that maintaining such discord amidst active civilian voters will enhance their odds at acquiring positions in politics that’ll empower them to assist the wealthy with augmenting their wealth; furthermore, cultural conflicts increase non-progressive politicians chances of blocking Federal and State Governments from supporting comprehensive policies that address the needs and concerns of a growing ethnic minority populace in our country. And no matter how profound of a precedence their antics is setting in the records of American History, I doubt any rational minded politically conscious individual would be surprised at the levels to which their legacies are descending. Point being, conservative politicians have been known to venture down degraded pastures since the earliest years of our country’s inception; although, the worst part about it is as a people, we’ve readily fallen for their Gross Exaggerations, Conspiracy Theories and Clear Cut Lies practically every single time. Thus, I’m inclined to say, the aforementioned self-interest quote by our nation’s first President, George Washington, was nowhere near more relevant then, than it is today.

But before we can even attempt to dismantle the greed, deception and racism that’s suppressing our Educational Institutions and Sovereign States as a whole, we must first diagnose the primary dilemma that’s causing so many symptoms from our dis-ease to ail us. To state it frankly, America is suffering intensively from a chronic case of dementia. I know this to be true because I grew familiar with virulent conditions by way of being forced to endure the painful task of having to witness my grandfather’s mind get stripped of it’s bygone experiences, daily regiment, and all of the leisure past time enjoyments in his golden years until his spirit could no longer function constructively inside a decrepit body harnessing a dilapidated psyche, in this reality. And if Americans persist to resist learning from the lessons we’ve obtained through the history of our ancestors, I fear our country will be doomed to suffer from the same mental malignancies that eventually initiated my grandfather’s fate.

Previous of dementia restricting him to his bed and cheating him out of his sense of being until infection dislodged his soul from this physical state of existence, his personality retained such an amiable quality to it that it made relaxing in his presence seem like I was accompanying a true manifestation of dedicated benevolence. I’m sure if you had the privilege of welcoming my grandfather’s acquaintance, you would’ve adored his mild mannered good natured character traits in the same appreciative proportion that me and each of my loved one’s certainly have. But, prior to carrying on with disclosing anything else in concern of my family’s history, I feel compelled to point out how you’ll discover no far-fetched exaggerations, dissimulations or flat out lies being proffered within this narrative. The only records, analysis and drama you’ll learn from upon reading about my ancestors and myself, is a precise representation of nothing except, The Absolute Truth. With that being perfectly understood, I feel extremely honored to profess to you that my grandfather’s reputable name is, Houston Ward.

It’s been well over a century since Houston first began founding his place in this world, and just like the average person from his generation is laying at rest alongside the people that preceded them, his shortcomings, accomplishments and controversy surrounding him in the city where he’s from, has since then been, forgotten. Yet, the full magnitude of that forgetting can never truly be assessed unless an individual took the time to completely understand the scathingly brutal inequities that grandpa persevered to salvage his peace of mind during the onerously oppressive, Jim Crow Era, in these here, United States of America. Finding a way to endure the many cruel and tormenting circumstances of those times meant navigating through a tempestuous path in life that developed into a enigmatic odyssey of both tragedy and triumph. Houston thoroughly epitomized how working hard to earn our keep in this world takes more resilience than what’s being portrayed through the weight of ones résumé to establish.

While grappling with the harsh reality of white men despising his ability to receive a fair share for the selling and exchange of goods he produced, based solely on the colored component of his complexion, illustrated the primary reason as to why Grandpa Houston wasn’t nearly blind to the sources of envy that were plotting his unwarranted plummet from prominence. His Achilles’ heel was more predicated on an inability to convince himself into believing that anyone’s covetous desires would actually materialize into murdering an upstanding man in the community who belonged to such an affluent family as his. But his struggle to comprehend one of the most horrendous miscarriages of justice a person could possibly endure would eventually condition that (Surely They Have Boundaries) perspective of his into recognizing how the malevolence inside those whom were seeking to destroy him, implemented zero restraint when performing their vested interest in erasing any documented existence of his legacy within their, Jim Crowism City, altogether.

To overcome the Legal Enforcements, Municipal Policies and State Legislations substantiating the twisted ideologies behind white tyranny, Grandpa Houston chose to navigate his own course through a treacherous trail of suppression by trusting his impassioned belief in, Jesus Christ, for guidance. Many of the local residents who applied a more agnostic approach to their thinking gossiped about how grandpa’s resolute faith in Christianity, manifested itself in real time as a blessing and a curse. From their point of view, Houston’s persistent obsession with being excessively efficient in everything he set his mind to achieve was a part of what propelled him into unprecedented success for an African-American in their rural community; but, his uncanny ability to be comfortable enough with his faith in Jesus that he feared less about any particular animosity encroaching his merited properties, they believed was thee contributing factor to his downfall. I couldn’t summarize grandpa’s experiences much differently myself. In a number of respects, his life exhibited how executing constructive plans to build financial security in this world is futile without a surefire means of insurance protecting his permanent source of income from the cold calculating instincts of the numerous professional larcenists slithering around in his midst. To grasp the entire scope of how Houston Ward’s destiny transpired, it is imperative that I direct your attention towards the origins from which he inevitably descended from.

CHAPTER

ONE

As a nation, we have been made better by the lives of those whose experiences took us from slavery to freedom.

–Lonnie G. Bunch

To the extent of my knowledge, the origin of our family history derived from an incredibly courageous African-American female slave named, Big Mama. She was a strong, nurturing and no-nonsense class of woman that just so happens to be my fourth generational grandmother from Selma, Alabama. Due to the barbaric practices of slavery that stole, bred and sold black human beings for free labor and profits, Big Mama never knew who her biological parents were, nor did she know what her exact date of birth was. The plantation enslaving her was owned by a white man named, Eugene Marshall Ward, also from Selma, Alabama. Thanks to the massive amounts of land Eugene’s grandfather helped steal from Native Americans, his portion of inheritance granted him one hundred acres of some of the finest Selma soil the city had to offer, the instant his paternal grandparents succumbed to their inevitable dates with the hereafter, in 1826. Sir Ward was just a mere twenty one years of age when a generous sum total of wealth was bequeathed to him, and he wasted no time distinguishing himself from all the other European beneficiaries representing the ruling class of those times.

We have to be mindful that by no means did Eugene Marshall Ward retain any knowledge about placing his hands in topsoil to procure earnings through cultivating crops on his property. To the contrary, his upbringing consisted of enjoying special privileges, having household chores and receiving the best education his parents money could buy. For that reason, Sir Eugene Ward wasn’t your ordinary European inheritor of land in those days because he might not of known how to work his own property, he was a peculiarity because most wealthy heirs had a general idea about digging, hoeing and plowing their fields for agricultural purposes. Sir Ward was more of a white collar capitalist because he preferred leasing out acres of his terrain to farmers who hadn’t become proprietors of their own land, yet. But in the course of a five year period of time, he became conscious of the benefits in learning from any mistakes those farmers made while tilling his domains, which led him to concentrate deeper on whatever formulas and methods they utilized to solve any problems badgering them along the way. From Sir Ward’s advantage point, he was able to absorb all the knowledge that could possibly be retained. And the nicest part about it is, it never mattered if the farmers he was leasing to capitalized from their crops, or if their crops was a failure by the end of the season, The Ward Estate was being compensated whether it’s leasees were profiting, or not.

At twenty-six years of age, Sir Ward decided to stop leasing out his land so he could invest in a raw material that was the leading bread winner for all southern plantations at the time, King Cotton. He set those plans in motion by attending an underground slave auction that surfaced just outside of town. While in attendance, he spent roughly five thousand dollars on some field hands to plant and pick his cotton for him. Then he returned back to his estate believing the time to maximize his inherited wealth, in his own unique way, was finally attainable. The only problem was all the agricultural knowledge and overseeing demands on earth couldn’t contend with an undetectable non-discriminating spirit in the world I begrudgingly refer to as, Miss’d Fortune.

As fate would have it, Sir Ward felt confident enough to cultivate ninety-five percent of his land with his first crop of cotton a mere two weeks before the worst rain drought in Alabama’s history ensued. It took another two and a half years of subcontracting his land to farmers who were more financially prepared to weather that drought before he eventually recovered from the brutal lesson that Mother Nature ordained Miss’d Fortune to teach him. What awful luck he had with his first true solo venture in the agricultural business, it resulted in Sir Ward vowing to never invest the preponderance of his riches in a King Cotton basket again. In response to the hardship, he integrated livestock, poultry, peanuts, soybeans, corn and a variety of other vegetables to his farming portfolio. By remaining cognizant of past mishaps, not only did he make skillful arrangements to invent new ways of raising money and transferring dividends to interested investors, but being savvy at predicting when the forces of supply and demand was best suited for exploitation in marketplaces is what eventually earned him the right to see his sprawling estate getting appraised at such an exuberant value; so much so, it made the initial one hundred acres of prime land he inherited appear like a fairly modest acquisition. As the previous reference alluded to, Sir Eugene Marshall Ward wasn’t your ordinary privileged Caucasian man representing the ruling class of those times.

To his surrounding competition it reached a point where everything he invested in was sure to transform into pure gold. Whenever they tried to coax him into revealing what his secret to success was, he’d always keep them at bay with this broadly optimistic response, Everything I’ve attained is possible for anyone who exercise unwavering faith in Spirituality, and their own Mental and Physical capabilities. But on topics pertaining to slavery his views leaned more towards the conservative side on any particular scale of reasoning. His outlook was, Certainly mankind’s very own nature will tell’m slavery is morally wrong. Nonetheless, until America enforce a law that condemns the practice illegal, I’ll continue extracting every bit of milk I can from outta dat dahr free labor cow. Such a shrewd viewpoint was quite typical of Sir Ward’s only business, nothing personal frame of mind, although he did believe getting physically abusive with slaves was demeaning, counterproductive, and awfully unprofessional conduct. That is of course without taking into account the sexual abuse he’d often inflict upon a choice slave of his named, Big Mama Ward.

When Eugene purchased Big Mama way back in 1831, the prospectors revealed her parents were unknown and also that they couldn’t provide him with a birth date because the bill of ownership travelling with her lacked any sort of birth notification proof. From Sir Ward’s belvedere, Big Mama had to be between ten and twelve years of age, but it’s a strong possibility that she was a bit older than her appearance displayed. It touched a soft spot on Eugene’s heart after he learned the history associated with Big Mama, some of which involved a background stemming from a plantation in Birmingham, Alabama that was known for breeding African Human Beings like they were puppies and ranch calves. In lieu of that fact, she was cleaned up and whisked off into an awaiting stagecoach, then sold straight into slavery promptly upon exiting from her mother’s womb. Not even as an infant was she privileged to become familiar with the scent of her mother’s bosom, or even bond with the warm, soft comforting of her mother’s caress. And based on the tragically barbarous circumstances embroiled with the atrocious conditions that her Motherless State of Consciousness was developed under, the McConnell family chose to name her, Little Mama.

After the passage of just over four years of time, the McConnells’ began to sense that Lil’ Mama had already begun to recognize and feel some ill effects from being absent of having a mother, like the white children possessed on the compound. To temper her natural dissatisfaction about the egregious unfairness she was experiencing, they started raising her to believe that having an actual mother in her life was sacrificed so she could fulfill her destiny of becoming, Thee Matriarch Of All Mother’s, to a mass quantity of folks. When the McConnell’s began working her as a field hand during early childhood, she was also brainwashed into believing that a good practice of her duties was necessary to build character and carve her physique into becoming sturdy enough to handle all of the physical responsibilities that came with being a true matriarch of many people. Their motive for instilling those kind of ideas inside Lil’ Mama’s mind proved out to be partly factual, but more so, manipulative and self serving. However, my fourth generational grandmother proceeded to go along with making the best lemonade she could conjure up out of the bitter, sour, and pungent lemons she was given in life, while always coveting the notion of evolving into Thee Matriarch Of All Mother’s throughout her adult endeavors within this ever so tryannical world.

At some point in everyone’s life adversity will find a way to insert itself into our undergoing’s and oftentimes its presence will become known when we least expect it to. Such was the case when filing for bankruptcy forced the McConnell’s to resale Lil’ Mama back into the slave trade to pay off some of the lenders who were terribly serious about recouping the money they loaned them. The prospectors went on to explain if anyone was interested in purchasing Lil’ Mama, she’d be well worth their investment. In her short unfathomably disheartening existence, she already knew how to work the fields plowing oxen, laying corn rows and picking cotton just about as good as any black male slave they could think of. Sir Ward expressed he’d heard enough, then he purchased Lil’ Mama for no other purpose but to use her as a junior overseer of sorts. Shortly thereafter, he pondered in wonderment over how much