Chapter 27 #2
“Then you’re Ella. Do you wish to speak?” He continued when she rapidly shook her head. “Do you, Zinnie?”
“I will, sir.”
“Very well. You’re here versus the courtroom because you cannot testify against Tolliver. This isn’t an interrogation. It’s an interview. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you leave Mississippi with Tolliver?” I nodded. “Was that as you wished?”
I was all too familiar with Master Ryland’s brutality. He could and would sell me or my children at first opportunity. Fear sat on my heart, clogged my head. Still, I couldn’t lie despite Ryland Tolliver’s threats. “No, sir. It wasn’t.”
“While in Mississippi, or any time since, were you paid for services provided to the Tollivers?”
I shook my head. “No, sir. Never!”
“Describe those services.”
It was impossible to capture the past twelve years—their terror and hardship. Still, when I finished Judge Warrington was temporarily speechless and had to clear his throat before continuing.
“The complaint states your daughters are his.”
I studied the floor in silence.
“Not exactly how one treats one’s relatives.” He sighed heavily. “You are free to travel to Texas if you wish, but if you do you’ll need to leave your children here, or risk them being unjustly enslaved in Texas. What’s your preference?”
It felt like he was asking something bigger than his question. I inhaled nervously. “I never want to be separated from my children and do not want to go to Texas.”
“Do you wish to petition for your freedom?”
His question shook me. My voice trembled violently. “Yes, sir. Not just for me.” I looked a white man in the eye for the first time in my life. “For my whole family.”
Judge Warrington ordered everyone to be present the next day.
If I slept that night, it was fitfully in between praying for myself, Buck, my children—and rocking that sweet Nettie, relieving Alretha and soothing myself in the process.
I wouldn’t recover if any of us was sold in Texas or elsewhere, and entered that courtroom the next day deathly afraid, recalling the case Coraline told us about the man’s wife being sold into whoredom when he lost.
“This is day three of these proceedings, so I’ll be brief.
Mr. Stone, I see your client elected again not to be here.
” The judge ignored the lawyer’s apology.
“Other than Ryland Tolliver’s disdain for this court, several other matters are clear.
The defendants are terrified of him. They lived with him under duress, and not of their free will. ” He paused. “Who is Alretha?”
The sheriff answered. The judge continued. “I’m convinced the plaintiff intends to sell the defendants when arriving in Texas. It would be unjust of me to allow that to happen. I hereby rule that they are fully emancipated due to being residents in a free state.”
My mind played tricks on me. I heard but didn’t register the judge’s full meaning and trembled in disbelief while listening. Ryland Tolliver was ordered to pay all court costs. The lawyer’s sixty-dollar bribe was to be given to us as seed money to assist in establishing ourselves as free women.
“As for Alretha, Widow Peterson relinquishes all interest, stating ‘she’s been trouble from the beginning.’ She and her child are also liberated. Certificates of freedom will be provided to all individuals named within this case.”
My body trembled harder as he read the names of my beloved.
“I will need surnames for each.”
Ella answered immediately, quietly. “West, please, for me and my boys since this place has been good to us.”
“And you, Zinnie?”
My mind raced uncontrollably. “I… sir… you’re saying we’re truly free?”
“That’s correct. Your last name, unless you choose to use Tolliver?”
“Never, no, sir.” Uncontainable tears flooded my face. “Zanitha Freeman, please.”
What felt like cool, lifting breezes wrapped about me. I would never again belong to anybody.
The children danced. Sang. Gave God praise. Alretha bowled over in disbelief, wept with relief and chose the surname Grace for herself and that precious Nettie born on the eve of freedom, and whom I couldn’t stop holding. I kissed her forehead, ecstatic that she would never experience bondage.
“What happens now, Mama? Do we still get to marry?”
I hugged Juniper with one arm while safely snuggling Nettie in the other. “Yes, little bit, and as free women!” The Allens need not pay that beast a penny for my daughters’ hands in marriage. “And you’ll have new dresses!”
With my portion of the sixty-dollar payment Judge Warrington ordered and the money Coraline held for me, I could buy beautiful dresses without Coraline pitching in and still have somewhat of a nest egg for my family.
I’d never handled financial affairs and the notion was daunting.
I reminded myself I could count and had managed households that weren’t mine.
This would be for us. I would learn whatever needed learning.
I vacillated between disbelief, fear, and hopeful expectation the entire day. I understood Alretha choosing her surname. Perhaps freedom would be gracious where slavery had never been. Daring to dream of bright possibilities left me giddy, even nauseous as we waited for the sheriff to release us.
Hours passed before he arrived, and when he failed to open our cell, I froze in fear. Had Judge Warrington reversed his decision? “Judge wants you to remain in custody until Tolliver pays the court cost. It’s a safeguard since the man hasn’t cooperated with anything thus far.”
“And my husband, sir?”
“My turnkey says he claimed he was with Tolliver voluntarily, but it was probably intimidation. We’ll see what the judge can do about it.”
I lay awake that night thinking, fantasizing, wondering if Buck would like the last name I’d chosen.
I dreamt of strange things like curtains, dishes, and doilies; and selling the harvests of my garden for a living.
When the cell door creaked open near sunrise, I lost all dreams of bliss.
There was no Buck. Only Sheriff Kimpton.
“This isn’t news I like delivering, but Tolliver didn’t appear in court those last two days because he’d already left the state. Unfortunately, your husband went with him.”
The world spun beneath me. Sorrow froze my soul and stole my ability to speak.
Don’t do it.
The last words my love mouthed to me encircled my head.
They were an admonishment not to lie to the judge by choosing Texas.
Not to submit, but to resist. To choose truth and my children.
Even if doing so meant life without him.
Dazed and shattered, I stood like a statue as Alretha and Ella embraced me.
I moaned. I wept, grieving the separation from my beloved husband.