I was so pleased when Sara Daise accepted my invitation to read from my historical fiction book Swift Currents.
Sara is a professional Cultural History Interpreter who has just finished work at the McLeod Plantation in Charleston, SC.
She is focused both personally and professionally on researching the past to uncover jewels of wisdom that will inform the present and build the future.
Sara reads excerpts from Swift Currents, with an emphasis on Callie, one of the book’s featured characters, who emerges from enslavement to become a leader in her community during Civil War times.
David Bruce Grim interviewed Sara Daise about her commitment to advance the human condition by better understanding our shared American stories.
The first excerpt is during Callie’s enslavement when she meets her brothers under a live oak tree to tell them that Massa is sending her away from Oakheart and her family to go to work on another plantation.
reading from pages 58-60
The second excerpt is after the Union army chased the Massas away and “freedmen” are living under supervision of the military. One day, old Bella catches Union soldiers stealing from her cabin and scolds them, lightly.
reading from page 152 to the end of the section
For the wisdom BB brought, and for her love of him as a brother, Callie often rerouted her thinking after talking to him. But, this day she had not come to him to be rerouted. Beyond a dreaded detour to care for the woman at Tidal Flats plantation, Callie had determined that there must be a change in her life. She just did not know how it would come to pass.
Callie had taken enough breath to begin. “BB, you know I been good fuh dishyuh Bowen famly all deese yeah. Do all I kin mek sho me and mine be safe. We mek bes we kin outta haad time—but I ain sho—jes don seem like I kin do da no mo. Kyan (can’t) put up wid Massa no mo—him lie en hateful.”
Lucas arrived just in time to hear the last line.
“Whoa, sista ooman, wha you tink?”
“I gah fuh go, Lucas!” Her pitch and projection carried out to the sweet potato diggers, though only her angst, not her words, was understood by the field hands looking up from their labor.
Lucas stared at her intently. Then, with a glance at BB, his eyes asked why he was smiling at Callie with a look combining admiration and bemusement. “Mek huh see some sense, BB—ain nuttin funny fuh laugh at.”
As he watched his younger sister’s beauty become contorted with her anguish, BB’s brow furrowed. “Taak sista, wha Massa done do now?”
“Gon sen me way, BB, tek me from my chile. Mek me go dis day!” At this she allowed her strong outer shell to crack and tears to roll down softened, angular cheeks. As she settled, nestling into BB’s substantial embrace, she explained that Massa promised Massa Feller he would send Callie to help his sick wife, at least until his daughter returned from Charleston. She hated most of all not knowing how long she would be away from Sunny.
BB started to respond. “My haat fulla yo pain, Callie. You know we gib Sunny good kyah. Ain nuttin gon hahm da sweet chile.”
But Callie cut him off. “BB, supm goin on roun yuh, rile up Massa en all dem buckra (white people).” BB had learned from Lucas of talk in town about Yankees being out at sea or some such nonsense. Easing Callie was his first concern, but he wanted to know what she had heard at the feast.
She described how she had never seen these men so worried, but more than that, they looked and acted scared. They talked of now being a special time. “Dey tell Massa bout whole buncha Yankee boat head dis way from Virginny—Massa DeWitt say fuh sho dey come yuh cause dis haaba (harbor) be so deep.”
BB reasoned, looking at Lucas, “Yankee come dis way—da why dem buckra blow up dey own lighthouse. Dey mus know dey kyan (can’t) keep Yankee from deese yuh islan.”
Lucas mused. “Ol Bowen sho nuf try. Him tek food en odda ting tuh de foat (fort) ebby day.”
Callie asserted, “I sho ain wan leave my chile when Yankee man roun yuh fuh fight. Lawd know wha turble ting be bout.”
“No need fuh worry bout da, Callie.” BB reasoned, “You go cross de islan in de boat wid Lucas. Goot way fuh fine wha so tween buckra and Yankee.
All contact was not avoidable, however, and on Oakheart, Callie and BB were heartened by the kind demeanor of the Army Captain who conducted an orderly entry onto the plantation. However, after the troops had camped there for several days, there were allegations that the acquisition of supplies was not always carried out in the good manner exemplified by the Captain.
Old Bella surprised Union troops leaving her shanty, taking spices from the only shelf where she could store such things. She surprised them a second time when she said: “You boys ain gah fuh tief (steal) from me. If oona need dis, I gib oona. If oona belly ain full, we gib oona food fuh eat.”
The soldiers received her forgiveness without celebration, but thanked her for her kindness and started to leave.
Bella then asked, “If oona tek dem dry leaf wha season de pot, pot ain gon tase so good. Leave me da en I kin cook up supm gon mek finga git lick en mout say tank you.”
Confronted as they were with a tiny, dark woman acting feisty and benevolent, they acceded to her request, muttering to themselves as they walked away. Bella called out to them, “Oona wan eat dishyuh day, I cook fish fuh oona. Nex day, come yuh dayclean en you laan how fuh git dem fish out de wada. Den I show oona how fuh cook em up jes right.”
It’s great how you have brought together voices from all aspect of American life.
Thanks for your efforts! Sara sounds so knowledgeable and so aware, we want more!