Wind In Her Hair

WIND IN HER HAIR

I was invited to stay at my uncles’ Plantation during the summer months, and I had the place to myself when I was there. My uncle owned the place, but wasn’t there at the time, but had told me to enjoy myself in his absence. I was able to go riding if I wished, and even had a small cottage for my own use on the plantation. There was a stream that flowed under a bridge, close to the cottage and I could see that it had trout in it, but for some reason I wasn’t too interested in fishing at the time.

I had my meals at the main mansion, and each time that I came back to my little cottage, I found that my bed had been made up and the place had been made neat and tidy. Then one day, my uncle came back and took me on a tour of the plantation, telling me that he had to be leaving on another trip right away. As he was telling me this, we were touring the slave area of the Plantation, where they lived and I could see a lot of the slaves that he said that he owned that worked the plantation for him. As he said this, he told me that if there was a female slave that I felt that I wouldn’t mind bedding down with, just to let the overseer to know about it, and he would see to it that she would be made available for my needs. He told me of this especially nice one that he had just purchased at a bargain price from his sister, whom she had to sell, as she was moving to Europe. She was supposed to be a housemaid, but he hadn’t seen her working there yet. He told me as to how she seemed different from the rest of the slaves, and how he thought that she had a bit of class to her.

It was a few days later that I happened to see the slave that had been cleaning up my cottage when I was out of it. I happened to come back early, while she was still making up the bed.

“I am done soon, sir, I’m sorry”.

“No problem. Are you the one that has been doing this all the time since I’ve been here?”

“Yes sir”.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Nat, sir”.

“Are you married or have a boyfriend?”

“No sir”.

“Have you been here on the Plantation very long?”

“No sir. I just come recently”.

Then I knew that this was the slave that my uncle had been talking about. She was different from the others all right, and in the flour sack dress that she was wearing, it did nothing to hide the beauty of her. It was no wonder that he had not seen her around the main mansion, as she had probably been tossed in with the other slaves and made to wear a flour sack dress, just like the others.

My mind was racing a mile a minute. My uncle had told me that if there was a certain slave that I wanted to bed down with, that all I had to do was to see the overseer. Well, I had just found that certain slave and I had more then just thoughts of just bedding down with a common slave. My uncle had been right. This slave had class and was different from the rest. In fact, she was different from any young lady that I had ever seen.

“Then as soon as you’re finished here, I want you to go up to the servants quarters. I’ll give you a note to take with you. When you get there, you’ll be given a bath and dressed in an outfit suitable to be taking a ride with me out in the country. You do know how to ride a horse, don’t you?”

“Yes sir. But I am just a slave. What is the meaning of this?”

“Do you normally talk back to someone in authority?”

“No Sir”.

“Alright then. While we’re gone, I’ll have them gather up all your things from where you’re staying now and have them delivered over here, cause you’ll be sleeping here in this cottage starting tonight. You’re to be my personal maid. You’ll have your own room. Is that understood?”

“Sir, I have nothing over there. It was all taken away or stolen from me. All I have is this flour sack dress that they gave me. I have not even shoes to wear on my feet”. As she said that, she stood there with her head hanging forward on her shoulders in a rejected stance.

Her long dark hair was tied loosely in the back, and was down to her waist. The flour sack dress was tied with a cord at her waist, and it was evident that she was a very shapely young woman. This young lady was of mixed blood, with a lot of it from Native American heritage.

With that, I got a piece of paper and scribbled out a note and signed it, and gave it to her. “Your things will be returned to you in due time. Go now, and give this note to the head mistress, and tell her if there’s any question about it, that she’s to see me”. I watched her go, and then I went off myself in search of the overseer, to talk to him about this young lady that I had suddenly taken a liking to.

I found him in the cattle barn, talking to some of the workers there, and took him aside and asked him if he was aware of the new slave that my uncle had bought. He told me that he hadn’t seen her yet, but that he had been told that there was a new slave on the Plantation.

I told him that I was taking over full responsibility of her, even though my uncle didn’t know about it, but that he had mentioned that I might be interested in her, just before he had left. I told him that she had some clothes and personal items taken and stolen from her, and that I wanted to see to it that they were returned to her. He said that he would see to it that it was taken care of. I told him that the items could be delivered to my cottage, as she would be my live-in servant from now on.

As I saw the changed look on his face, I turned and headed for the horse barn. At the stables, I talked to the stable master for a while about the horses. We went out to the fence to gaze out at the horses that were out in the pasture and I looked over at the six or so riding horses that were out there in one section of the grazing fields. I pointed out two of them, and asked about how they would be for myself, and a young lady that I would be riding with, later on that morning. He told me that I couldn’t have made a better choice, so I told him to have them ready to go for riding for the rest of the day, within the hour. I had to hurry, to get up to the mansion to talk to the head mistress, to tell her what I wanted to have her to have Nat dressed in, if possible, I got there just in time, from what I was told, and I gave my instructions to her. Also, I told her to have the cook prepare us a light lunch to take with us on a horseback ride in the country.

Then I went to my own cottage and changed into a riding outfit and went to get the horses. They were just being fitted with their saddles, so I didn’t have to wait very long and then I was off, leading the young filly up to the mansion.

They must have seen me coming, as they were walking with Nat out to the hitching rail, just as I got there. I got down from my mount to help her up onto hers, but before I did, I took in the sight of the beauty of her. How could this young lady ever be a slave to any man or woman?

They had found a perfect riding outfit for her. It was a tan coloured deerskin-riding blouse with frills hanging from the chest and around the back. She also had on a pair of buckskin trousers with frills hanging from it as well. She was wearing a pair of moccasins. They had left her hair loose, to fly freely in the wind. She definitely resembled her native ancestry. She was beautiful.

As I took her hand and led her to her mount, she let go of my hand and without any assistance, she mounted the horse herself. I saw that she had done that quite easily and knew then that she would be able to handle herself on a horse. I took the lunch that the cook had prepared for us and put it into the saddlebag and mounted up myself and then we were off, as the group that was gathered there waved us good-bye.

I had studied a map that I had seen in the study of the Plantation, and I had decided on following a certain trail that we were on. I had kept the horses going at a steady clip, until the grade started to get fairly steep, and then I slowed down and let Nat catch up to me.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine, but I’m wondering where you’re taking me?”

“There’s a small lake a little farther up, and I thought we’d have lunch there. Then after that we’ll cut across country to a look-out point to see the view from there and then head back”.

Suddenly Nat pulled her horse to a stop. “But why me. I’m just a slave girl. I have no business being out here with you. If I get caught by my owner, I could be whipped to within an inch of my life”. Nat had turned her horse and was nudging it suddenly to return on the trail that we had just come up on. I quickly turned my horse around and blocked the path with my own mount. “Hold on now, Nat. You’re forgetting that I’m the owners nephew, so there’ll be no whipping young lady”.

“But why me?” she asked again.

“I’ve been here for almost two weeks, and I’ve been bored to hell and back. Even before I came here, it was the same thing with my life. Then when I saw you this morning, something came over me, and I knew that I couldn’t let you out of my sight. I had to find out why I had that feeling about you”. I turned my horse so as to continue on up the slope.

“Nat, you weren’t meant to be a slave girl in a flour sack dress. Your clothes will be returned to you, but at my cottage. You’ll be staying there from now on in your own room, and fixing my meals. Go back to the plantation and leave the horse at the stable and then go and stay in my cottage till I get back there. I’ll continue on with my ride by myself, if you feel you can’t go with me. Perhaps I was pushing you too fast?”

I had to get away by myself to do some thinking. I suddenly dug my heels into the horse’s flanks and took off up the gentle slope at a good gallop. Leaving her behind. Soon the ground levelled out and I was able to keep going, but I let the horse run at a slower pace. Then suddenly, I heard the sound of hoof beats close behind me. I turned my head and saw Nat, with her hair streaming in the wind behind her head gaining on me, with a broad smile on her face. As she came up abreast of me, she yelled out, “You’ve got the lunch, and I’m getting hungry. Where’s this lake that you were talking about?”

“Right over there”, I pointed off to the right, and then she could see the blue waters of the small lake through the aspen trees that lined the lake.

As we came up to the lake, I held up my hand for her to stop and to be quiet, as there was a doe and her twin fawns at the waters edge having a drink. After they had their fill of refreshing water, the doe snorted a warning to her offspring’s and they slowly disappeared into the underbrush. As we walked our horses closer to the lake, we dismounted and let them have their fill of water and then tied them to some brushes to feed on some grass as we sat on an outcropping of rock at the waters edge to have our own lunch.

“Nat, why didn’t you go back like I told you to”.

“I told you, you had the lunch and besides, after you first saw me this morning, I didn’t want to let you out of my sight either. Then all of a sudden, all of these crazy things started happening to me because of this guy that had strange feelings about me also. I just couldn’t help myself. I had to find out what was in store for me. I’m sold from one owner to another, and go from fine clothes to having to wear a flour sack dress. Then I’m whisked off to having all these maids see that I get a nice bath and my hair washed and dried and then I’m clothed into this fancy riding outfit, to go off riding with the nephew of my master. Who tells me that I am to be sleeping in his cottage from now on. He wanted me on this ride, and that’s where I’m going”.

“You’d do anything I told you to do, wouldn’t you?”

“I’m a slave girl, and you’re a master, so I have to”.

“Well I’m going to go in for a swim. I’ll just go down there a ways and you can just wait here for me”.

Saying that, I left her sitting there and picked my way through some underbrush to another rocky ledge and started to take my clothes off. I was just about finished, when I heard a loud splash from where I had left Nat sitting on the rocky point of land. I couldn’t see her, but she called out to me.

“What’s keeping you. The waters fine, come on in”.

It didn’t take me long to get out of the rest of my clothes and take the plunge and swim over to where she was. After our swim, we went back and got dressed and we prepared our horses for riding again. I had swung up on my mount, and had one hand on the pummel, and she came over to me, leading her horse and put her hand over mine and looked me in the eye.

“You could have ordered me to take my clothes off and gone swimming with you just then, and I would have had to have done it, but you didn’t. Why?”

“You figure it out”.

I turned my horse and walked it out to the path and then let it run at an easy pace towards where the cliff was that had the lookout view. Nat was close behind me.

I saw that there was an open space ahead of us, but that the trail we would have to take was clearly visible. Before I knew it, Nat had urged her mount to a greater speed and had passed me as if I was standing still. It was evident that she was interested in a race, so I spurred my horse on to a greater speed. Try as I might, I was not able to catch up to her, and I had to slow down when I saw that my horse was becoming winded.

When she saw that I had slowed down, she stopped her horse to let me catch up to her, and then fell in beside me.

“You win Nat. Where did you learn to ride like that?”

“My former masters’ stableman taught me to ride. He was Indian too. He said that it was the Great Spirit that really taught me to ride like that, and that is why he had my father give me the name that I have”.

“Isn’t Nat your real name?”

“No. It’s just my nickname. My real name in Cherokee is Natachumtou. That means She that runs free with the wind in her hair”.

I thought this over, mumbling it to myself as I did so.

“How free could you be, when you are a slave to another person”
“What did you say?”

“Oh nothing. I was just talking to myself”.

Suddenly, I could see that we were coming up to the edge of a cliff.

“Nat, we better get off the horses here and tie them up and walk from here. I wouldn’t want to get too close to the edge with them, in case they get too excited”.

Once again, we tied the horses to some low bushes where there was some grass growing and they could feed on then she suggested that we loosen the saddles a bit. I hadn’t done this at the lake, and I knew from this that she knew more about horsemanship than I did.

When we walked out to where we could look out over a cliff, I suggested that we climb up a little higher to take advantage of a ledge of rocks that we could sit on to admire the view.

And what a view it was, as it stretched on for endless miles, to the mountains in the distance. We were only several hundred feet above the valley floor below. Nat pointed out three soaring bald eagles, not too far off, soaring upwards with the thermals.

I could tell that she was holding back on talking to me. Her being a slave and myself, as being in the position of being the nephew of the person that owned her. And yet, I could tell that she wanted to talk at times, and here was one of those times coming up.

“If I could only be free like an eagle and spread my arms and soar off into the sky. I feel like I want to run down to the edge of the cliff there and spread my arms and hurl myself off. Then I would be free of being a slave girl for the rest of my life and my spirit would soar up with those eagles flying there”.

We were sitting close together, and I put my arm around her back and put a hand on her shoulder and she looked at me. “Don’t even think of trying that, cause you’d never make it with me here to stop you”.

“What would you care about what happens to me. I am just a slave girl. There are plenty more back there to take when ever you want one. You can take me with you on a horseback ride through the country, and have me as a maid slave, but that doesn’t mean that you can have me”.

She was quiet for a while, as she watched the eagles soaring off into the distance. “There have been many men that have wanted me, but that has never happened. My former master and myself, saw to it that it didn’t happen”. She lowered her head as if she was about to cry, before she continued. “Just after I was born, my Father, who was an Indian warrior, and was captured and put into slavery, tried to escape several times. They hanged him to teach the others a lesson, so I was told. They said that he told others that he would rather die then not to be able to be a free Indian. I have his blood in me”.

I pulled her closer to me as I gave her a hug. “Trust me, the day will come when you will be a free woman”.

It was late afternoon by the time that we got back to the plantation and we rode right up to my cottage right away. After tying the horses at the hitching rack, we went inside, and I was inquisitive as to whether any of Nat’s things had been brought over to the cottage at all. Going into the bedroom that would be hers, I called her in, and she was immediately surprised to see all the clothes, or most of them, and the personal things she had, were all there in the bedroom that she said was missing.

I could see that there were tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes and then she had to wipe them away with her fingers as there were so many of them forming there. As she looked about the room and into the closets and saw the dresser with the things of hers on it, she turned and looked at me and then ran to me and gave me a hug. She didn’t say anything; it wasn’t her place to do such a thing.

Back in the kitchen area of the living section, I saw that in our absence, it had been well stocked with food. “Nat, I’m going to take the horses back to the stables and while I’m gone, you may as well take your time and change, then figure out what you can fix us for supper”.

That evening after Nat retired to her room, I was still up reading a book, until I decided to go to bed also. I blew out the coal oil lamp and made my way into my bedroom, and as the Full Moon was shining brightly into my bedroom window, there was enough light to see by. As I passed Nat’s bedroom, I noticed that it was closed, which I knew it would be. When I got to my own room, I quietly undressed and got into bed, leaving the door open.

I wasn’t lying there very long, before I heard her door open, and soon she was standing at the edge of my bed looking down at me. She was wearing a full-length white cotton nightgown. With the Full Moon shining in the window, she was caught right in its full glare. I watched as she reached down and held unto some of the fabric, so as to pull it over her head as she took it off in front of me and let it fall to the floor. She stood there for a minute, waiting for a sign from me, but I was transfixed by looking at the beauty of her nude body, before I pulled the sheet that was covering me aside, as a signal for her to slip into the bed beside me.

When I woke the next morning, I realised at some time during the night, she had returned to her own room.

After she fixed us a breakfast and tidied up the cottage, which was her duty, I asked her to go fishing with me, so we could catch some trout for supper. She said that she had never gone fishing, and was quite eager to go with me. Things went on like that for several weeks, and we drew closer as friends and each night, she would come into my bedroom of her own accord. I was careful to see that I didn’t make her with child.

The next time that my uncle came back, I went to see him. I found him in his study.

“Jay, how has it been going?”

“Very fine”.

“I shouldn’t have had to ask. From what I’ve been told, you’ve been having quite a time for yourself and that new slave I bought”.

“That’s what I want to talk to you about. I want to have you turn her loose”.

“What? You must be crazy. Why, I can get many times the money that I paid for her”.

“You won’t get any money for her, no matter what. Her father was held as a slave, and he was hung when he tried to escape, rather then live his life as a slave instead of a free Indian. She has his blood in her, and she feels the same way as he does. She’ll give up her own life, rather then to be sold, or to continue to be a slave much longer if I give her up as my maid servant”.

“So, you talked her into this?”

“No, she has a mind of her own. She doesn’t even know that I’ve come to you for her release. If you can’t do it on your own for me, then I’ll buy her from you”.

“You don’t have that kind of money”.

“I’ll get it somehow. It’s a matter of her life or her freedom. I want to see her have her freedom”.

“Why are you so interested in her anyway?”

“I don’t know. She’s just different. She doesn’t deserve to be a slave”.

“She was born from the womb of a slave woman, so that makes her a slave”.

“But her father was a captured Indian, so that gives her certain rights to freedom”.

“She has no rights. Must I remind you that she’s a slave, and as such, she has no rights of any sort”.

“I guess you’re not the type of uncle that I’d care to be associated with in my life”.

“You mean that you’d give up your inheritance over this issue?”

“Inheritance means nothing at all to me, compared to this woman’s freedom. I’ve suddenly decided to head back north where I belong. There’s a certain lawyer that I kind of admire that’s against slavery. I think I’ll just look him up and join forces with him”.

“What’s this lawyers name, may I ask?”

“I think his name is Lincoln. Abe Lincoln. I’ll be packed within the hour, if you’ll have a carriage drive me to the River Hotel. I’ll be on a boat heading upriver in the morning”. With that, I turned and left the room.

When I got to my cottage, I immediately packed my bags and Nat watched but did not say anything. When the carriage arrived, I walked over to her and held her at arm length, and looked her steadfastly in the eye. Then I turned and picked up my bags and put them in the carriage and then took my seat and we were off to the town wharf.

The next morning, I was boarding the Mississippi Belle, just prior to her sailing when I heard my name being called out by an excited young lady, and a carriage came speeding down to the wharf. I could tell that the horses had been driven fast.

“Jay, Jay”, I could see that there was a lady waving a piece of paper as the carriage finally came to a halt as close as possible to the entrance to the loading area. Then, as the lady scrambled from the carriage, I saw that it was Nat.

“Jay, I’m fee! I’m free at last, Jay! Your uncle signed the papers to turn me free”. She was yelling all this as she was running to meet me as I was turning to come back down the ships gangplank.

There were lots of people that stopped to watch what was going on, as Nat ran up to me, all excited. We met at the bottom of the gangplank. “Look Jay. Your uncle signed this paper, which means that I’m no longer a slave. I’m a free woman now and can do what I want to do”. As she showed me the paper, I asked her, “What do you want to do now, Nat?”

“I want to be with you, if you will have me?”

“I’ll definitely have you, but only under on condition”.

Suddenly, the smile on her face fell, as she thought that I was going to disappoint her.

“What’s that Jay?”

“You’ll have to marry me”.

Then her face lit up once again as she said, “Oh yes, Jay. Yes, I’ll marry you”.

It was then that we both hugged each other and kissed, as all the people that had been watching cheered us on with shouts of joy.

As her bags were being unloaded from the carriage, the driver handed Jay a sealed envelope. When he opened it, he read the note that was inside from his uncle, which read, After you marry this beautiful woman, come back and we’ll talk.

Written by James Westhouse, July 2004