Spake As a Dragon by Larry Edward Hunt Read Free Book Online Page A

Fortunately, they did not hurt any more of the family. The
only other death was to Scarlett’s overseer, a trusted black man we
called Uncle Willie. While trying to guard the doorway, to prevent
the marauding band from entering the house, the leader of the
Indians killed him.”
    She tells the two girls how Robert had
been gone only three months when he came riding home – a hero. He
admits to Malinda that he personally had never fired a shot at any
Indian. He said he saw a few, but they were friendly, and they only
were interested in trading. At one time he had a marauding Indian
in the sights of his rifle, but thought this savage was a man, a
man just like he with perhaps a family too, he could not do him any
harm. He let him escape.
    Malinda explained she had saved only a
few things from the main house before it was totally consumed by
the fire.
    “ The Bible! Did you save
Father’s Bible,” your father asked?
    “ It’s strange – your
father was never a deeply religious man, but it seemed he valued
that Bible more than anything he owned. She continued, “Sometimes
late at night I would see him thumbing through its old pages – not
reading you understand, searching as if he were looking for
something.”
    Malinda continued with her story. She
told the girls that during the next couple of years Scarlett was
rebuilt, but never to its former splendor. After returning from the
Indian Wars, their father was never satisfied on the plantation. He
yearned to get rid of the ‘farm’ and find someplace where the
stench of slavery could not be smelled, and the memories of the
past could be forgotten. In 1850, he got his wish; the Congress of
the United States passed an Act granting un-settled land in Alabama
to the Indian War veterans. The amount of land granted was 80
acres. Eighty acres wasn’t much, but it would belong to him.
Scarlett was ‘his,’ it had been willed to him, but he wanted
something of his own. He wanted to be a pioneer just like his
grandfather had been before him. He was the son of a plantation
owner, educated in the finest schools back east. He had always
stood in his family’s shadow now he hungered to build his own
reputation from the ground up.
    In the spring of 1852, he went to the
county courthouse and applied for his allotment of 80 acres of
land. While there, he discovered the government had passed another
Act granting an additional 80 acres. Now he could obtain 160 acres
or one-quarter of a section. The land allotments were granted to
him; within two months he had given a Power of Attorney for
Scarlett to his brother. He always believed the plantation should
have been divided equally between himself and his brother, but he
was hesitant to do so since he was afraid our pilgrimage to Alabama
might result in failure and we might have to return to Scarlett. He
kept possession of Scarlett and allowed Isaac his brother to live
there. Scarlett was his to run as he saw fit.”
    She told Mattie Ann and Lizzie how the
family left South Carolina on the 4 th of July 1852 –
Independence Day. Yes , Robert thought, Independence
Day !
    “ Our wagons were loaded
and ready to begin the long, arduous trip to Alabama. Three freed
slaves requested to go with us. Sary, as you know was a wiry, no
nonsense, five foot tall, kick butt and take names type house
servant who is practically a member of our family wanted to go with
us. She was with me through the births of all you children. She
told me if more were to come she was going to be right there, too.
Sary was married to Jed.”
    She explained how Jed inherited the
name Uncle Jed after he took over the day-to-day operations of the
farm following the death of Willie – he and his son Jefferson were
going to Alabama too. Jed and Sary’s only daughter Sarah had died a
year earlier from the fever. Nathaniel, Jed and Sary’s older son,
had moved his wife Elsa and ten-year-old son Nate Junior to a farm
adjoining Elsa’s family back in North Carolina. Nate had