Play along with your subconscious; Sunday’s Word Association.
Join here.
1. Intimidated :: threatened – bullied
2. Brush :: teeth
3. Masquerade :: Phantom of the Opera [song]
4. Procedure :: method – program
5. Tattoos :: I have one!
6. Square :: circle
7. Tuck :: stuff
8. Boyfriend :: 1st! – Bobby
9. Badass:: ROFL! [no comment, but I LIKE it!]
10. Thousand :: millenium
~end Mutterings
[scroll down below my book review for comments]
Last week, for Green Thumb I shared a photo of the Texas Sage bush with the macro setting and the bee in the blossom. I also mentioned that at the base – the root ball of the sage, I had planted a Don Juan Climbing Rose so it would intermingle in the branches of the bush…this is a photo of the Don Juan in bloom; amongst the sage bush. I love the contrast of the faint gray leaves of the sage with the stark, bright, rich greens of the rose plant.
Another of the rose bushes we have in our yard is the patented one…called, Tamora. It’s a beautiful, rich creamy peach coloration and a very rich, wonderful rose fragrance. It happens to be one of my favorites. But for a whole different meaning. Tamora is where my mom grew up. She was always telling me of her youthful days in Tamora. So it has a deep connection only because of the variety’s name.
This photo shows one of six roses we have along the lower front windows of our home. In this section of our property, I have planted canna lilies in the background which outgrows the roses by several feet, and against the red used brick it makes a dramatic effect of color! Also amongst the roses are two vibrant lemony yellow hibiscus and two San Diego Red bougainvilleas. This spring I just planted the bougainvilleas so they’re not quite up above the rose bushes yet. I’m hoping by next year they’ll also be good for the background. And one last thing is in the rose area and that’s my amaryillas…they’re only blooming in early Spring, but the elongated leaves that remain are contrasting also, so they too give off a great foliage contrast.
~end Green Thumb
[scroll down below my book review for comments]
BOOK REVIEW
Recently, I finished the book recommended by Mary at Mary’s Writing Nook a few months back, and I hafta admit, it was very good. Tho, I still remain wondering just why she was determined to put herself through the grueling ordeal of hiding out in a crawlspace in her grandmother’s home [her grandmother was a free slave] for over seven long years. Determination and will power. I truly think, the stress of being able to see my children and yet, not be able to touch them, talk to them and physically show my love for them, I just don’t think I could have withstood the turmoil and strife – I would have tried much harder to escape sooner as she became quite crippled of the cramped quarters for seven long years. * I’ve been wanting to write up a synopsis of my reading experience for about two weeks now, and I’m just now getting around to it….
Eventually, she did become a run-a-way slave and fled, with the help of others, to the Northern “Free States” of America.
Upon finishing the book, I wanted to do some more research. My first stop was the Latter Day Saints’ website to check on the perhaps genealogy of her ‘owner’. I found out, of course, during the reading of the book, she was writing under a pseudonym of Linda Brent. Her real name was/is Harriet Jacobs. Of course the only possibility of there being any kind of records on her would more than likely be in the censuses. I had to find out just who “Dr. Flint” was.
With more research online, I found that Harriet’s parents were two slaves. Her mother was black, Delilah, and her father was a white slave, Daniel. She was, of course, by statutes of North Carolina and around the other slave states, a slave herself. So, she was what we call today “Mulatto”. Her first owner was a certain woman, her mother’s slave-owner and mistress, Margaret Horniblow. Ms. Horniblow taught Harriet to read and write. When her owner died in 1825 or there about, Harriet was ‘willed’ to Margaret’s niece…a daughter of Dr. James Norcom [this is in fact the memoirs "Dr. Flint"] After years of torment and sexual abuse, [she in the timespan had two children of her white lover who wanted to buy her freedom, but it was all refused by the Dr.] -after years of abuse and escaping from the clutches of the Dr. and his plantation, she holed out in her grandmother’s only to finally escape by boat to Philadelphia. Finally, in 1842, she became a free woman. Her goal in life.
She, Harriet [aka Linda Brent], eventually wrote her memoirs only to be turned down by several publishers stating that her biographical work was too shocking. In 1860 or 1861 the work was accepted and eventually published. [I was lucky enough to find a hard cover reprinting of her original story.]
To my astonishment, nearly being complete with the reading of the book there was mentioned a ‘special lawyer’ in Boston I believe —-and doing my usual nosing around on the ‘net, I find out that this lawyer was the same ‘white lover’ of hers back in her slavery days…the father of her children! And this man, the father of two kids…a son Joseph and daughter Louisa [both names are changed in the memoir tho!]. The lawyer, free man, consensual lover was none other than Samuel Sawyer…eventually he became a politician and prospered as a United States Senator.
Also near the end of the writing, I read where she quoted that her owner had one time issued a reward [substantial amount back in the 1800's] for her capture. $100. Again, I did some researching and found the actual newspaper document/reward issued for her capture…posted by Dr. James Norcum
In the census of the 1860′s she is: “during the American Civil War. In 1860, she is listed as a nurse in the employ of Nathaniel Parker Willis.” [I have yet to go searching for this through LDS site. But, I will soon]
Harriet eventually resides in Washington D.C. and died at the wonderful age of 84.
Further reading:
Also, the father of Harriet’s children? Samuel Sawyer? I found his obituary from the New York Times, dated: February 25th, 1892
[taken from my computer's screenshot]
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I must mimic Mary’s words she posted some time ago, back in February, this book comes highly recommended by me. If you love to learn about what the black people went through during the slave years –this is one excellent reference. Can be read online also. Just do a Google Search.
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After this book was finished, I began reading, by my son’s recommending –Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. This book will take me all summer more than likely to read. It’s a huge book! Over 1000 pages. And very small print! [I even requested from Large Print –a book of much larger print, but I never heard back from them…like Bud said, it’s probably impossible and the printing price would be exorbitant with it being extra long in the first place.
