came, Ulys rented a small frame house for them at Seventh and Lynch Streets down by the river, far from the fashionable neighborhoods Julia had known as a young belle.
Soon after the family was reunited, Julia discovered that Ulys was not thriving in his new profession. The business was faltering and discord flourishing between Ulys and Henry, their estrangement worsened by rising tensions in the office that mirrored the mood of the country. Cousin Henry and several other employees emphatically sympathized with the South, while Ulys and William Hillyer, an energetic young lawyer from Kentucky, supported the Republican cause. Most of their debates were friendly, but as disagreement over slavery threatened to divide the nation, their arguments became more contentious.
Julia had always known that Ulys found slavery distasteful, but she did not realize how strongly opposed to it he had become until, without giving her any warning of his intentions, he freed his only slave, earning himself fresh recriminations from his father-in-law. “I would free your slaves too, were they mine,” Ulys told Julia.
“Fortunately, you can’t,” she retorted indignantly. Although as her husband Ulys controlled her property, Papa retained legal title to her slaves, so Ulys could not force her to give them up.
“Most of the farmers around White Haven employ paid labor,” Ulys reminded her. “Your father’s insistence upon keeping slaves has made him unpopular.”
“Papa is good to his slaves,” Julia protested. “As am I, and I’m certain Jule and the others would not thank me for casting them out and forcing them to fend for themselves.”
“Why don’t you ask them and see?”
• • •
Holding her breath, scarcely daring to move lest they hear her, Jule froze in the hallway outside the couple’s door, awaiting Julia’s answer. Gabriel placed his faith for deliverance from slavery in themselves and in the Lord, but Jule had placed hers in Julia and her abolitionist husband. Would Julia call his bluff? Would she seek out her slaves, one by one, and ask them if they would prefer freedom to servitude?
Jule already knew how she would reply if asked. “You’ve been as kind to me as any mistress could,” she would say gently, but with unmistakable certitude. “Given the choice, though, I’d like to make my own way in the world.”
She and Gabriel could be free at last. He could minister to colored folk from a pulpit instead of preaching around a campfire. She could dress the hair and beautify the skin of the ladies of St. Louis, white and colored alike, and maybe someday count herself among the Colored Aristocracy like Madame Pelagie Rutgers. All Julia had to do was accept Ulys’s challenge, step out into the hallway, and ask.
But instead Jule heard her mistress say, “I refuse to discuss this anymore.”
Heartsick, Jule silently retraced her steps and stole away, down the hallway and outside, where she gulped air and fought back sobs of grief and frustration. Julia, the curious, questioning girl she had known in the days of ginger and cream, had grown into a woman who accepted things the way they were for no better reason than that they had always been that way.
“We could run,” Jule told Gabriel the next time the Grants visited White Haven. She lay in his arms in the hayloft, having slipped away after putting the children down for their naps. “I have money saved up, not enough to buy us free but enough to get us north.”
Gabriel was silent, thoughtful. “If we got caught,” he eventually said, “after they brought us back, they’d be likely to sell one of us, or both. They wouldn’t keep us together and risk us trying again.”
“So we won’t get caught.” She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows to study his expression, her heart thudding with fear and hope. “I’m tired of living like Dinah, jumping at shadows and being grateful things ain’t worse. Let’s take
Soon after the family was reunited, Julia discovered that Ulys was not thriving in his new profession. The business was faltering and discord flourishing between Ulys and Henry, their estrangement worsened by rising tensions in the office that mirrored the mood of the country. Cousin Henry and several other employees emphatically sympathized with the South, while Ulys and William Hillyer, an energetic young lawyer from Kentucky, supported the Republican cause. Most of their debates were friendly, but as disagreement over slavery threatened to divide the nation, their arguments became more contentious.
Julia had always known that Ulys found slavery distasteful, but she did not realize how strongly opposed to it he had become until, without giving her any warning of his intentions, he freed his only slave, earning himself fresh recriminations from his father-in-law. “I would free your slaves too, were they mine,” Ulys told Julia.
“Fortunately, you can’t,” she retorted indignantly. Although as her husband Ulys controlled her property, Papa retained legal title to her slaves, so Ulys could not force her to give them up.
“Most of the farmers around White Haven employ paid labor,” Ulys reminded her. “Your father’s insistence upon keeping slaves has made him unpopular.”
“Papa is good to his slaves,” Julia protested. “As am I, and I’m certain Jule and the others would not thank me for casting them out and forcing them to fend for themselves.”
“Why don’t you ask them and see?”
• • •
Holding her breath, scarcely daring to move lest they hear her, Jule froze in the hallway outside the couple’s door, awaiting Julia’s answer. Gabriel placed his faith for deliverance from slavery in themselves and in the Lord, but Jule had placed hers in Julia and her abolitionist husband. Would Julia call his bluff? Would she seek out her slaves, one by one, and ask them if they would prefer freedom to servitude?
Jule already knew how she would reply if asked. “You’ve been as kind to me as any mistress could,” she would say gently, but with unmistakable certitude. “Given the choice, though, I’d like to make my own way in the world.”
She and Gabriel could be free at last. He could minister to colored folk from a pulpit instead of preaching around a campfire. She could dress the hair and beautify the skin of the ladies of St. Louis, white and colored alike, and maybe someday count herself among the Colored Aristocracy like Madame Pelagie Rutgers. All Julia had to do was accept Ulys’s challenge, step out into the hallway, and ask.
But instead Jule heard her mistress say, “I refuse to discuss this anymore.”
Heartsick, Jule silently retraced her steps and stole away, down the hallway and outside, where she gulped air and fought back sobs of grief and frustration. Julia, the curious, questioning girl she had known in the days of ginger and cream, had grown into a woman who accepted things the way they were for no better reason than that they had always been that way.
“We could run,” Jule told Gabriel the next time the Grants visited White Haven. She lay in his arms in the hayloft, having slipped away after putting the children down for their naps. “I have money saved up, not enough to buy us free but enough to get us north.”
Gabriel was silent, thoughtful. “If we got caught,” he eventually said, “after they brought us back, they’d be likely to sell one of us, or both. They wouldn’t keep us together and risk us trying again.”
“So we won’t get caught.” She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows to study his expression, her heart thudding with fear and hope. “I’m tired of living like Dinah, jumping at shadows and being grateful things ain’t worse. Let’s take
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