by Gina Danna
“Thomas, I just don’t know.”
“Jaquita, as God is my witness, I love you and I can’t live without you,” he proclaimed loudly, staring deeply into her eyes, clutching her hand painfully.
She glanced at the ceiling.
Thomas shot her a questioning glance.
“I’m looking for lightning bolts, the type God would rain down on you for lying.” Even her conclusion made her want to laugh, though why she wasn’t sure. “Seeing as there are none, and you look rather intense, I guess I must believe you.”
Thomas gave her a tight lopsided grin. “So will you marry me, my love?”
Again, her whole world was turning upside down. She wanted to marry him. She loved him, but he also drove her crazy! Inhaling deeply, she paused and then gave him a quizzical look, her eyes starting to blur again.
“Don’t we need witnesses?”
Clarence and Aunt Lila came out of the side rooms.
“We’re here for you, Miss Jaquita,” Clarence stated.
Aunt Lila looked at her and winked. “I told you to stay clear of those white boys, all mischief and such.”
Jaquita laughed, wiping her weeping eyes. “That you did. I should’ve listened.”
“I thank God you didn’t!” Thomas picked her up and spun her around in his embrace. Slowly he lowered her, the smile gone and a concerned look in his eye. “Will you marry me? Right now?”
“Why?” Her stomach flipped between his sudden change and the uncertainty she couldn’t stop.
“Because I love you,” he whispered in her ear before he tugged on her earlobe.
“I love you,” she whispered back. “And yes, I will marry you.”
He grinned ear to ear. “Father, if you please!”
She giggled. “Good thing you finally woke up.”
“I agree.” He squeezed her.
“You won’t be able to do that much longer.”
He turned, a questioning glance on his face, and then it hit him. “When?”
“Late next summer, the midwife reckons.”
“Huzzah!” he yelled, picked her up and spun her about the room.
“Put me down before I get sick!” she warned as bile started up her throat. It retreated when he put her down.
“I love you, Mrs. McHenry.” He kissed her deeply, so much that she couldn’t breathe but wouldn’t move for any reason. Inside, her soul sang.
The priest rattled off the ceremony and they answered the vows, but Jaquita only heard his love and that was all she needed.
~The End~
Author’s Notes
During the time of slavery and not long after, mixed relations were strongly frowned on and even outlawed in some states. In this story, Jaquita is referred to as a mulatto because her mother was a slave and her father a white man. Her children were then referred to as quadroon with one grandparent Black and rest 3 parts white, and the next with more white heritage were called octoroon. Yet, by any 19th century viewpoint, any portion of Black could make that person subject to slavery because of the African blood in them. The destruction of the peculiar institution was the only way to change this way of life and it was fought over for four years in the American Civil War.
The Abolitionist movement had been in existence in the US since the early 19th century and grew in numbers by the time the War broke out. The sins of slavery were argued over by most of the country, so why hadn’t it abolished slavery? The problem was, there were multiple abolitionist groups and they fought amongst each other, over money, over if the freed slaves should be sent back to Africa or not and whether they should be given the right to vote, once they were freed. The last argument is what started the women’s suffrage movement, as white men considered giving Black men the right to vote, but not white women. In the end, Black men did get the right to vote fifty years before women could.
There are multiple resources used for this book. A few listed would give the reader a taste for the peculiar institution and its meaning on Americans in the 19th century.
Bibliography
“The Plantation Mistress” by Catherine Clinton
“From Slavery to Freedom, A History of Negro Americans” by John Hope Franklin & Alfred A. Moss, Jr.
“Soul by Soul, Life Inside The Antebellum Slave Market” by Walter Johnson
“Black Slaveowners, Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860” by Larry Koger
“Without Consent Or Contract, The Rise and Fall of American Slavery” by Robert William Fogel
“Within the Plantation Household, Black and White Women of the Old South” by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
“Masters of The Big House, Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century South” by William Kauffman Scarborough
“The New York Abolitionists” by Gerald Sorin
“The Peculiar Institution, Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South” by Kenneth M. Stampp
“Harriet Jacobs, A Life, The Remarkable Adventures of the Woman Who Wrote ‘Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl’” by Jean Fagan Yellin
About the Author
A USA Today Bestselling author, Gina Danna was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and has spent the better part of her life reading. History has always been her love and she spent numerous hours devouring historical romance stories, always dreaming of writing one of her own. After years of writing historical academic papers to achieve her undergraduate and graduate degrees in History, and then for museum programs and exhibits, she found the time to write her own historical romantic fiction novels.
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Now, under the Texas sun and with the supervision of her three dogs, she writes amid a library of research books, with her only true break away is to spend time with her other life long dream - her Arabian horse - with him, her muse can play.
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www.ginadanna.com
www.facebook.com/GinaDannaAuthor
www.twitter.com/GinaDanna1
Also by Gina Danna
Hearts Touched By Fire
The Wicked North
Unconditional Surrender
Rags & Hope
The Better Angels
Authentic Storm
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Stand Alone Titles
Her Eternal Rogue
The Wicked Bargain
This Love of Mine
Great & Unfortunate Desires
A Merry Wicked Christmas
To Kiss A Lady
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The Gladiator
(Ancient Rome series)
Love & Vengeance (Book I)
Love & Lies (Book II)