Mama Ruth looked to Papa. He knew she would not take one step off the plantation unless she had a full understanding of things at hand. She had a lot of questions she wanted answered. Callie wanted to know too.
Papa took one of his hands holding Little Charlie and rested it on Mama Ruth’s shoulder. “Come inside the cabin, Ruth, Callie. Let me tell you everything that has happened and how it is that we are leaving here today. But then you have to promise me we will move quickly!”
They all went into the cabin. Hampton had so much to tell them about meeting Raleigh at the crossroad and everything that he saw and did at the fort and how they could be considered free.
Sitting at her papa’s knee, Callie could not believe his words could be true.
CHAPTER TEN
Leaving
May 27, 1861
Later that day
Callie thought Papa came in like a strong wind to push out the clouds after a heavy rain. Things were moving fast. Callie thought she liked it but she also felt it was too fast to suit her. Papa talked fast too. She especially liked the things he was saying. His plans seemed to have adventure running all the way through them. But they scared her too. She had never left Belle Hill Farm for even a day. And now Papa was saying they were leaving forever. She felt the world was all mixed up and swirling around inside of her even more.
“Ruth,” Papa said, “I want you to start packing the things you want to take. I’m going up to the house to speak with Catherine Warren.” He paused, and suddenly his voice became very heavy.
“No matter what, she deserves our respect and friendship. She has done right by us. She never broke her promise to us.”
Callie became all eyes and ears. This was no dream happening. This was truly real.
“I’ll stay behind here and help with your little boy so your wife can pack,” Lieutenant Jessup said, reaching for Little Charlie. Papa nodded his head in thanks.
“You come along with me, Callie,” he said, taking her hand. “Speak your piece to Suse. I don’t know when you’ll see her again.”
Callie was glad he said that. She guessed she did want to see her and say her farewell, though she didn’t really know what she would say to her. She wasn’t sure she knew the words to say good-bye to Suse.
• • •
Papa knocked at the door.
“Catherine,” Papa called to her in his sweet, soft voice. “It’s Hampton. Catherine, could I please have a word with you?” Callie had hardly ever heard Papa refer to Mistress by her first name. Papa stepped back off the porch and waited patiently with Callie in the yard.
Moments passed. No one came to the door right away. Papa knocked again. Callie wondered why no one came to the door. She was sure Papa’s knock was loud enough. She wondered if Mistress Catherine didn’t come to the door because she was feeling as afraid as she was.
What Papa was saying frightened Callie. What he was talking about, freedom, was only spoken about like a faraway dream—a dream that might never come. But this day freedom was finally here. It was hard to believe.
To Callie it was all so confusing. Her head felt dizzy. Her stomach was churning. She felt jumpy inside, but in her heart she felt that same shining light that shone on Papa’s face. They were changing their lives forever.
The door opened but Miss Catherine did not open it very wide. When Papa went up to the porch, she stepped outside to speak with him. Callie hoped Suse would be with her, but Miss Catherine was alone. Callie stayed in the yard hoping Suse would see her from the window and come downstairs.
The sun was bright and high now. Callie put her hands up to shield her eyes and looked up to Suse’s window. Callie could not see Suse’s face, but Callie was sure she was standing there in her window, peering down into the yard. Suse was not timid like her mother. When she pulled back the curtains, Callie waved and motioned that she should come downstairs. She waved at her again, but Suse closed the curtains and did not come out to the yard, either.
Callie wasn’t so sure if she wanted to say good-bye forever or just farewell to Suse. Maybe, she decided, it would be nice to have a friendly talk with her. But it was probably too late for that now.
Then Hampton turned to his daughter.
“Go on gather your belongings, Callie,” Papa said gently. “Tell your mama I will be there directly.”
• • •
When Callie got back to the cabin, Little Charlie was still resting on his pallet sleeping peacefully. Mama Ruth had all the blankets spread out on the floor. Lieutenant Jessup was happy to help. Mama was telling him what he could put into a blanket so that it could be tied into a bundle. When Mama Ruth looked up and saw Callie, she smiled. Callie looked around the room that was their cabin.
“It’s so empty,” she said.
“It’s not much,” Mama Ruth said to Lieutenant Jessup, “but it is all we have.” Then, she spoke to Callie.
“Callie,” she said, “I have something for you to pack in your bundle. I have been saving this and holding on to it, waiting for the right time to give you this.”
She handed Callie a package wrapped in store-bought paper. There was something soft inside.
“What is it?”
“Open it and see.”
“Should I wait or open it now?”
“Yes,” Mama Ruth chuckled. “Open it now.” Callie quickly untied the string holding the package together.
“It’s . . . so pretty,” Callie said, smiling and unwrapping the package. “It’s calico, blue calico cloth.”
“Yes,” Mama Ruth said. “I’ve been saving this cloth for you, my Calico Girl.” She smiled a wide smile. “I never knew when I’d get the chance to piece out the dress for you or when you’d be able to wear it.”
“How did you get it?” Callie asked.
“A while back, Mistress hired me out to her friend, Mrs. Edwards. And Mistress made me promise that I would do my best to make Mrs. Edwards happy. Mrs. Edwards was very happy with my dressmaking skills. After I finished the sewing for her, she wanted to pay me real money. But Mister Henry did not agree.
“ ‘What can I do for you, then?’ she asked me.
“ ‘Of all things,’ ” I told her, “ ‘I’d like a yard of calico, to make my daughter, Callie, a real dress to wear.’ She was a kind woman. She gave me not one yard, but two yards of it as payment for my work. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Oh, Mama,” Callie said. “Oh, Mama, Mama, Mama, this is beautiful,” she said, hugging her. Callie hugged the cloth and Mama Ruth so tight. She could hardly wait to get out of her itchy slave clothes.
The calico cloth had little blue flowers on a cream- colored background. “I know how much you love this fabric,” Mama Ruth said, and she kissed the tear that rolled down Callie’s cheek. Then she laughed a little. “Calico Girl,” she called her. “As soon as I get a chance I am going to make you the prettiest dress. You’ll be proud to wear it. It’ll make you feel like you are a brand-new person! There is even enough here to make a bodice, too.”
Callie smiled, hugging the cloth. She looked down at her linsey-woolsey. Then she looked at the old party dress Suse had given her.
“Mama? What should I do?”
“Do about what?”
“This dress Suse gave to me.” Callie held it up. “I do not want it. I don’t know what to do with it, either.”
“Don’t you want to take it with you?”
“No, Mama,” Callie said.
“Then give it to me, Calico Girl. I’ll put it in my bundle. My sewing needles can always find a use for an old party dress,” she said, laughing. Mama Ruth smiled at Callie and then she started crying.
“Why are you crying?” Callie hugged her.
“Callie,” she said. “You keep calling me Mama. You didn’t call me Mama Ruth. You called me Mama like I was your mama and not another name.”
Mama Ruth was so happy. Callie didn’t know what to think. She never thought about calling Mama Ruth anything but Mama Ruth. Now
that their lives were changing it was as if everything inside her mind was changing and getting free too. So much good was happening. And she had a feeling that so much more was going to keep happening. But things were far from the kind of good that she wanted for her family, all of them.
She wished Joseph could be here with them, and she wished Little Charlie felt well enough to join in the happiness.
“I’m glad to be leaving and going to freedom,” Mama Ruth said, sighing and closing up the bundle. “I pray the army doctor can help my little baby.”
One of the last things Callie placed into her bundle was the little doll Joseph made for her that night after Calper’s Cave. Joseph was good with his hands. Callie didn’t know how he could create some of the things he did. The doll was made out of dried corn husks. There was a swatch of pink calico wrapped around it for the body. He attached a twig to the back. The very top of the twig was made into the shape of a star, which hovered over the doll’s head.
“This is for you, Callie-girl, so you never get lost again and you will always remember our stars,” he had said, hugging her.
The doll was all Callie had left of Joseph except for his old boots, which she would have had to wear when she outgrew her own. One thing for sure, Mister Henry always made sure they had good leather shoes. She took off her boots and placed them in her bundle. She put on Joseph’s boots and laced them up. At least his boots would be able to walk into freedom, she thought.
“We should be on our way now,” Papa announced, standing in the doorway of the cabin, folding papers and placing them into his shirt pocket.
“Catherine gave me Callie’s freedom papers,” he said. “I don’t know what we need them for now,” Papa said. “But I took them anyway.”
Callie’s heart swelled with excitement!
“Did you talk to her about leaving?” Mama asked.
“Yes,” Papa said, nodding. “It is done.”
• • •
Callie rode on the horse with the lieutenant, while Mama and Little Charlie rode with Papa.
She could not say she understood her feelings. They were leaving the only home she had ever known and they did not ask the master or mistress for their permission. Callie felt that she had slipped out of her own skin.
As they rode off through the gates of Belle Hill Plantation, Callie looked back at the house. Her old life flashed in front of her. She could not help but wonder if this was the life she would truly leave behind. It had been all she ever knew. The Big House of Master and Mistress Warren had always been so full of life and so big and grand. There was always much coming and going. Now the house and the farm looked so small, so hollow and empty, as if there were no life to live there ever again.
With every step of the horses’ feet, as the estate became smaller and smaller to her eyes, she prayed and hoped that they were gone from there for good. She was glad to be leaving this place where a person had no choice, no say in his or her life. She thought of poor Joseph, wherever he was, and the other men, who were bought and sold or split apart from everything they loved.
“What do you think of all of this, Miss Callie?” Lieutenant Jessup asked as they rode together on the horse.
At first she thought to say she didn’t know. But then she caught the words before they spilled out of her mouth and said, “I want all of us to have a say over our own lives and what we do for the rest of our lives,” she told him proudly. “Yes, that is exactly what I want.”
PART TWO
The New World Begins
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Fort Monroe, Freedom’s Fortress
May 27, 1861
Later that same day
Arriving at the fort, Callie could not believe her eyes. The fort looked like a castle as she had seen in one of Suse’s books. But she had never seen a castle that stood on an island like this. The fort looked sturdy and strong. The walls were made of stone. Lieutenant Jessup said the walls were ten feet thick. The walls of the fort looked as if it would never fall down.
“It is a commanding structure—impenetrable,” Lieutenant Jessup said. “It was built to last forever,” he added, almost in awe himself.
The fort stood there as if to say, “I was built here to protect all who live inside. I am standing here for a reason and I shall not be moved.”
Like a castle, it had a moat. Beyond the moat was another wall as thick as the outside walls. There were small arched windows that served as lookout places. To get inside, a stone-covered walkway led to a door of the fortress. Sentry soldiers with rifles and bayonets stood all around. So much was happening all at once.
To enter the fort, Callie and her family had to dismount from the horses so they could register with the sentry guards. Lieutenant Jessup took the horses in through the gate and the Wilcomb family were counted and listed on the roster. Callie and her family stood at the gate with seven or eight other freedom seekers.
“This is Freedom’s Fortress,” Callie heard one of the men say to someone.
Callie liked that two of the soldiers knew Papa and were friendly to them.
Once inside the fort, Callie was glad to find Lieutenant Jessup there waiting for them. She could have missed him standing there if he had not called to her papa and waved. Her eyes were so full of looking around. It was nothing anyone could have imagined. Callie had to look at everything twice. There were wagons and mules and soldiers everywhere.
They had to be careful where they walked, since they shared the road with the horses carrying soldiers and mules pulling wagonloads of supplies. All of a sudden, there was a big commotion. A mule bucked and kicked. He toppled over the wagon. Provisions and supplies went everywhere. It startled Callie and she bumped into the lieutenant, almost knocking him over.
“You’ll get used to all the noise and commotion,” he said, smiling and straightening his hat.
Groups of soldiers were marching this way and that. More soldiers appeared out of nowhere running with bayonets. People moved quickly as if they were hurrying to get things ready for something. Giant cannons were being hauled up to stone towers. There were people who weren’t dressed as soldiers drawing pictures of everything happening in the fort. Newspaper people were talking to the soldiers who were standing around. It was hard to imagine that such a place existed so close to Belle Hill Farm.
It felt like a little town inside of a town for soldiers, with so much life going on and so many moving parts. There was even a general store, a tailor shop, and a blacksmith.
Strangers were everywhere: Other families like Callie’s were walking around. She could tell some of them had walked a long way to get here; they moved as if they were not sure where to step. There were so many other kinds of people, all walking and talking and working together. But still others walked as if they had grown up living in this fort their whole lives. It was like nothing she had ever seen before.
“Are we going the right way to get to the doctor?” Mama asked. Her face looked worried.
“It’s right up ahead,” Papa said, pointing toward a brown building.
There was a building at the back of the fortress for the the freedom seekers. Papa and Lieutenant Jessup had a place where they could put their things and sleep. Callie saw many other contrabands who walked about so freely. Some of the men carried shovels, picks, saws, and other tools, going in one direction or another. A group of women were starting to plow up plots of land to plant seeds. They waved and Callie waved back.
“What does all of this mean?” Mama Ruth asked Papa, her eyes wide. She still seemed so nervous after all of this.
“I don’t rightly know, Ruth, but we’ll see day by day. This is all happening so fast, I don’t reckon anybody truly knows. For now, we are free, and have protection,” Papa said to Mama Ruth, sounding confident in order to help settle her nerves.
“Protection,” Mama said, as if repeating the word would help soothe her. “Will we be at the doctor soon?”
“Yes,” Papa said. “We are walking in that
direction. I didn’t tell you earlier, but I have been hired by the Union Army to be a scout in Lieutenant Jessup’s regiment.”
“My superiors believe your husband would be a fine addition to my men,” Lieutenant Jessup added. “I recommended he be given a position myself.” And there was such pride in Papa’s face at that.
“And I know the soldiers and officers are in constant need of mending and sewing, Ruth,” Papa said.
Callie looked from Papa to Mama. She was still wearing Joseph’s boots. He was not here to walk into freedom with them, but it felt right that something of his was on freedmen’s grounds.
“The hospital is right up ahead here,” Lieutenant Jessup said, pointing.
“You mean we can go in there and get the doctor to help us?” Mama asked.
Lieutenant Jessup looked at Mama and then at me.
“Ma’am, you are free. You are free to choose what you want for yourself and for your family,” he said.
“Free to go to school?” Callie said.
“Yes, ma’am.” The lieutenant grinned. “Over there is Tyler Villa,” he said, pointing to one of the buildings.
“They all look the same,” Callie said. “I wonder how anybody can tell which one is which.”
“You’ll get used to it, Miss Callie,” he said. Then he turned to Mama Ruth. “A schoolroom has been provided for the children,” Lieutenant Jessup said.
“You mean Little Charlie and I can learn to read and write?” Callie was excited to hear that news.
“Look, Charlie.” Callie had to walk behind Papa to see his face. “Look over there,” she said, pointing. “That’s our schoolhouse. Hurry up and get well, so we can go to school together. We’ll be going there to learn when you feel better.” But he never lifted his head from Papa’s shoulder.
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