The daily life of a slave was a sad day to live. It was a dark, gloomy, depressed day filled
with over work, harsh punishments, unfair treatments, and family breakups. Some slave
women were even raped by their white slave masters and produced kids that were born of a
mix. They called this mix mulato. Slave Willie Mae Moore, was a product of this mulato mix.
She was a mulato slave brought up on the Magnolia plantation in Louisiana. She was about the
age of 18, the daughter of Virginia Moore and her slave master. Unlike most slaves, she was
lucky enough to be able to live on the same plantation as her mother. Willie Mae picked cotton
during the day and would often tend to little Grace and Max, the children of slave master, Mr.
Charles Thibodeaux (her birth father) and his wife Mrs. Mary Thibodeaux. Willie Mae also dealt
with the disadvantages of being a mulato born girl and being the biological child of Master
Charles Thibodeaux. This journal of Willie Mae gives an account of her life on the Magnolia
Plantation from the hot days in the fields, her times with the Thibodeaux children, experiences of
a mulato girl, to the worst case of knowingly being the biological child of her own slave master.
May 12, 1828 Late Evening
For the past years of they lives I look unto these chirn eyes everyday knowin a truth they might not ever know A truth they will never be allowed to know These chirn are the same chirn I share blood with The lil white babies I like to call em Of course I say that to myself If Massa ever heard me say those words from my tongue he would probably get me real good with a lash on my backside Talking about my own father here nah The man that I bleed the same blood of The man that suppose to be my father but made me his own slave This man did not even see myself in him Earlier I sat with the lil white babies clothing em washin em off and feedin I set there and pretty much care for em like they were my own chirn I cared for them like a sister would do Sometimes I like to pretend that I am some kin to em I think to myself then they wont ever take me in as a sister to em no matter how much I might like it but I wont like it I could never get myself to knowing what Massa do to Ma long ago I could never accept it but if he allowed me to I would think that I would not even want to
because them white babies would call me they own slave one day I thought of all these things today while washin them white babies Today I almost let a tear go from my eye but I can hear Ma tell me dont worry myself but the white babies look like me a little I can see myself in them I know Ma can to but I know she dont wanna think of nothin to do with Massa When I wash the babies I try to be kind to em but its kind of hard to when I ain gettin the same love as em from our father Sometimes I just look at em and hate em for it
May 15, 1828 Late Evening
Today white men came down from the North I guess friends of Massa They look around on the land and spoke real good about everythang I heard I got to sit around em when I went washin the white babies today One of the men look at me like I was a dirt rag but I know he only look at me like that because he saw that I was a light skin girl nigger I only ask myself did they know that Massa was my father The white men just gave me a long stare they knew to not
say nothin If they were to speak any word about this light skin on my body it would have been a hell hole in the house today Massa dont like a word to be spoke about it I know it is because he knows the true story about my light skin how he took Ma into the coop and had way with her but he will never talk about it to no one even to Miss Thibodeaux she knows the story but she cant accept it I like to think it makes her curl inside to know her husband shared himself with a slave woman she usually just gives me a crazy stare most times While the northern white men were there Massa had me do less work than I normally do They like to show how well slaves are treated here down south but us slaves know and feel the truth every day of our lives here It ain no hidin that
May 16, 1828 Afternoon
Get to write since Massa had to leave on some leave away not long ago Im feelin much sick We work real hard in em fields this mornin I can feel the pains goin from my feet up to my neck from gettin so much cotton this mornin Ma not feelin so well either she caught a bleed while in the field today I think a thorn cut her on her hand I could only think about when the time here would ever be over for us slaves I guess this the thing God made us to do Massa
always say that we doin what we supposed to be doin Some of us listen I heard some others say different than what Massa teach us If Massa ever heard that that man would have lashes from his feet to his head While gettin the cotton all I could think of is when night fall thats when we able to stop and go in for a dinner We pickin cotton from the mornin to the night from wake up bells to sleepin time but this morning I was called to the Thibodeaux house to wash the white babies and feed em before headin to the field It took me long than what it normally take When I asked Miss Thibodeaux about eatin she gave me a nasty stare and turned away and said pick time I know that woman sees her husband all in my face from my hair to my nose my eyes and my lips She only wants me around the babies because im the only one to wash em off the way they will sit for I sometimes feel she wants me around em to see how different we are because she knows I can never get the life of a real Thibodeaux chile and I don want it It just hurts to know I have a part of these mean ol people runnin in my veins and if I to ever birth any chirn out of this womb they would have the same part of this family in they veins to I dont want to have any part of a Thibodeaux in my veins I will remember this day for the rest of my life that I could not eat because I had to care for kids of hateful people and people that I shared the same blood sometimes I wish they would think of me as one of em just so I can have the same right as the white babies
May 28, 1828 Evening
I would like to write in this here book everyday I find I really like it im the only slave on the plantation with one im the only slave here that knows how to write I learned this from my times in the house caring for the babies I would find all kindsa papers in the rooms and I just started to write the words down Massa would hang the nigger for tryin to read I used my time in the past caring for the babies as a time to look around into a world not known to niggers I think it may have helped me If Massa caught me writin in this book he would know that I knew to write and read so it been a long time that I write in my book Today Miss Thibodeaux had some kin come by the house today I was in the house washin the white babies when they were there When I come out of the washin room for the first time I was able to set eyes on one of the Thibodeaux kin the woman looked me up and down and said to Miss Thibodeaux yah got a light nigger in the house if I knew any better nah the nigger lookin like someone close in the family She then walked off Those words cut Miss Thibodeaux said to me look what you did get on out of here nigger pick time I was so hurt that I wanted to pick today Im lookin down at my skin and wish Im as dark as Ma wish im as dark as all the others in the field I tried to use a thorn to cut this light skin off today I wish I could pluck my eyes out break my nose bone and look like all the others with flat noses dark eyes and still nigger hair but I have to live with this body all my life
May 30, 1828 Night
I heard them say Massa comin back to the plantation soon Us slaves dont know when but we know soon Miss Thibodeux ain call me in the house to care for the white babies since the Thibodeaux kin came to visit they say that Massa heard what happen in the house the other day from the Thibodeaux kin and it may
June 12, 1828 Late Evening
Been a long time I write in my book Massa came back home late night ran into our hut and caught me writin in my book He heard what had happen in the house that day with the Thibodeaux kin and came to look for me He saw me writin in my book and slang a iron handle at my head Knocked me clean out for days After that I had to get care from Ma everyday after bein in em fields When a nigger would be ill us slaves still had to pick I felt my head would come off I was in so much pain the past days When I would try to sit Ma would say it will be alright I dont believe it though my birth father tried to kill me and any day nah he can because I belong to him That night when he caught me up writin they say Mrs. Thibodeaux told him that I had went around tellin the Thibodeaux kin that I was a kin to the family and that Massa was my father It started a fight in the Thibodeaux family and now I may be gettin sold to the DeBoise family out in St Francisville Louisiana and I know im never gon write in this here book again
Historical Fiction
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Very well done