Yes. What a lovely love story. You should write it as either an historical volume, or a historical novel. The later would easily make a movie. It has all the elements. -- Stephan On 28 Jun 2007, at 14:54, qvarizona wrote: > What a great love story! Thank you, Paul. > > --Joanne > > Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Joanne, speaking of > slave narratives, my wife has an ancestor who is > included in the slave narratives. Her ancestor told the following > story. > > "I was never a slave. Although I was born somewhere about 1855, I > was not > born in slavery, but my father was. I'm afraid this story will be > more about > my father and mother than it will be about myself. > > My mother was a white woman. Her name was Tempie James. She lived > on her > father's big plantation on the Roanoke River at Rich Square, North > Carolina. > Her father owned acres of land and many slaves. His stables were > the best > anywhere around; they were filled with horses, and the head > coachman was > named Squire James. Squire was a goood looking, well behaved Negro > who had a > white father. He was tall and light colored. Tempie James fell in > love with > this Negro coachman. Nobody knows how long they had been in love > before > Tempie's father found it out, but when he did he locked Tempie in > her room. > For days he and Miss Charlotte, his wife, raved, begged and > pleaded, but > Tempie just said she loved Squire. "Why will you act so?" Miss > Charlotte was > crying. "Haven't we done everything for you and given you > everything you > wanted?" > > Tempie shook her head and said: "You haven't given me Squire. He's > all I do > want." Then it was that in the dark of the night Mr. James sent > Squire away; > he sent him to another state and sold him. > > But Tempie found it out. She took what money she could find and ran > away. > She went to the owner of Squire and bought him, then she set him > free and > changed his name to Walden: Squire Walden. But then it was against > the law > for a white woman to marry a Negro unless they had a strain of > Negro blood, > so Tempie cut Squire's finger and drained out some blood. She mixed > this > with some whiskey and drank it, then she got on the stand and swore > she had > Negro blood in her, so they were married. She never went back home > and her > people disowned her. > Tempie James Walden, my mother, was a beautiful woman. She was tall > and fair > with long light hair. She had fifteen children, seven boys and > eight girls, > and all of them lived to be old enough to see their great- > grandchildren. I > am the youngest and only one living now. Most of us came back to North > Carolina. Two of my sisters married and came back to Rich Square to > live. > They lived not far from the James plantation on Roanoke River. Once > when we > were children my sister and I were visiting Rich Square. One day we > went to > pick huckleberries. A woman came riding down the road on a horse. > She was a > tall woman in a long grey riding habit. She had grey hair and grey > eyes. She > stopped and looked at us. "My," she said, "whose pretty little > girls are > you?" > "We're Squire Walden's children," I said. "She looked at me so long > and hard > that I thought she was going to hit me with her whip, but she > didn't, she > hit the horse. He jumped and ran so fast I thought she was going to > fall > off, but she went around the curve and I never saw her again. I > never knew > until later that she was Miss Charlotte James, my grandmother > [Narrative > taken by Travis Jordan, NC Vol. XI, part II, pp.106-8]. > > The records say as follows: > Squire Walden married Tempie James by 28 March 1832 Halifax County, > North > Carolina bond. Squire was the son of William[3] Walden of adjoining > Northampton County, North Carolina (where Rich Square is located). > William > (born about 1782) owned 164 acres in Northampton County and was > counted in > Squire Walden's household in the 1850 census. William was the son of > William[2] Walden of Surry County, Virginia, where he owned 74 acres. > William[2] was the son of William[1] Walden who was a "Mulatto" > presented by > the Surry County court for profane swearing in 1747. He owned 221 > acres and > slaves in Surry County, and was probably the child of a white > woman. The > family was associated with the Chavis family since many members of the > family used Chavis as a middle name. > > Tempie James was probably the daughter of Benjamin James who was > head of a > Halifax County, North Carolina household of 7 "other free" in 1810 > and owned > 141 acres there in 1818. He descended from Andrew James, a slave > freed in > York County, Virginia, in 1678! > > Paul > > > > --------------------------------- > Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. > Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.