This is the first chapter of An Untold Love Story about a black slave and a white woman, a woman who, apart from being deeply in love with the wrong man, also owned him during slavery. This dramatic story of forbidden love between black slaves and white slave owners occurred several years before the United States Civil War, a war between the slave states of the South and the States of the Union in the North that would have great consequences for the freedom of slaves.

Although the main plot is focused on the challenges that this white woman faces to defend her love for a slave who is her master, it also produces certain ambivalent emotions between a slave and her owner in a society where blacks are considered less than whites. When you hear this story of forbidden love during slavery in America, you will wonder if the black slave was really in love with a woman, or he was really just obeying the orders of his master, who was a daughter of the owner of the plantation.

Script

How did a white woman during slavery fall madly in love with a black slave?

If you have time, I will tell you the personal story through this narrative about the impossible love of a white woman with a black slave, but, you will also know many questions and answers that were part of the thought, as well as her dreams, hopes, fears and determination to fight. For a love that seems impossible in a time when love between a black man and a white woman was forbidden.

My name is Katherine Grant, daughter of Robert Grant, one of the most powerful plantation owners in Virginia. I hope you like this story of an impossible love, which occurred during the civil war in the United States, in which the freedom of all slaves was at stake, depending on the outcome of the civil war between the southern Confederate states and the Union states, also known as the North.

In 1861, the American Civil War broke out between the confederate states of the south and the Union in the north. As everyone must know, The United States was divided into different regions and the southern states, which were in favor of slavery, joined together to form the Confederate States. They wanted to become independent of the rest, which was increasingly opposed to slavery, and form their own country.

This impossible love story begins on my father’s plantation, which was located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County. in the state of Virginia, which produces cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo and employs hundreds of black slaves. The main figure of the story is centered on a slave who unknowingly stole the heart of her owner, a white woman, who is telling you her story.

Several days before the civil war breaks out, in which nobody knows how many men will die, I am sitting in the old rocking chair on the terrace of the big house on the plantation. I observe from the distance the black slaves who work hard with shackles on their feet, picking cotton under a blazing sun, at a time of the year during the summer, which seems eternal for my taste. Many consider that slaves were capital goods if we look at them from a modern economic perspective, although for plantation owners they were purely and simply a workforce, arms to harvest crops, work in the fields, and collect crops.

I silently ask myself, “What will happen after the war ends? I really don’t know. If the heat is unbearable, sitting under the shade on this terrace, where I I can feel the fresh air on a hot and humid day like this, out of here, it should be worse. I tell myself, and I also wonder how difficult it must be for those who
have to work all day during the summer, when the sun is constantly on your back?, If I think about it, why do I complain so much about my situation?

Due to their slave conditions, all the workers are half naked. Some show on their bodies the hardness of work, and no matter whether the sores on the feet or hands are painful, they must work in the fields from sunrise to sunset six days a week. That is the reality of slaves in the plantations in the southern states. I wonder if this kind of work is slowly killing them. The answers that came to mind. It is something that nobody seems to care about, especially when they consider these black slaves less than human.

There are very few male slaves who get to know their grandchildren. They could be the product of the brutality of the work or because the children of the slaves are sometimes sold without the parents knowing to whom or where. I can also see the marks of the last wounds of those who do not accept orders from their owner’s slaves, who have to work from sunrise to sunset, without rest and without complaining. If, they try to escape, they are chased by furious and hungry dogs, under the command of men with shotguns on horses.

The fleeing slaves, when they are caught, after receiving several ashes in the back, are locked in the hot and rotten hole, under the ground as punishment without water for several days. Some survive the punishment, others do not.

There are stories that some slaves can buy their freedom and be free black men, but not on a plantation like this one, where slaves, apart from not receiving payment for their work would take a lifetime to buy their freedom, because the master, who owns the slave, is the one who sets the price.

Due to the hard work, the intensity, the constant use of the same dirty rags, and the bad smell that always occurs when some slave is rarely allowed to clean up, either because of the little or no Personal attention that is given to these slaves by their owners or because they don’t receive enough water to drink, let alone bathe. It is one reason why none of the owners want to be near these slaves, including myself.

Without wanting it, my eyes look intensely in the distance to a black man, strong, sweaty and handsome, who always has a smile on his face despite his harsh situation as a slave. For some reason, this black slave is the center of my attention. Without anyone noticing it in me, I discovered at that moment, how
attractive this black man is , and more when he is closer to me, my body gets so tense, and my heart beats much faster.

Could it be’ that I am in love? Or could it be a feeling of infatuation at the physical attractiveness of this slave? Why does this black slave produce that emotion in me?, As a way to get to know a little about these black slaves. I called Jenna, a black female slave, who for years worked as part of the servitude for my father, cooking and taking care of everything in the big house. A black woman whom I love, as if she were my mother.

Jenna, yes, my young lady! Who is that slave with the blue shirt and a smile on her face who is picking up cotton? She answered me, He was a slave recently.” bought by your father to gather the harvest. His name is Joseph, my young lady. Do you want me to bring it to your presence? No, it’s not necessary. I replied to her. Giving the impression was not important to me.

For some reason, sometimes I can’t stand the explosion of different emotions in me. As a woman, I am attracted to that black man. It is something that cannot be denied, talking to myself, and more when I cannot erase the images of him in my mind for several days, but also the fantasies that every woman has when she finds a man that she likes.

Admitting that this black slave is the reason for my fantasies is an idea that took time to accept. Although thousands of emotions and thoughts run through my body. I was confused, ashamed, excited, but at the same time scared, and more so when everyone repeated out loud that black slaves will always be below white men, but above all, they cannot have any type of contact or conversation with a white woman, and more so when that woman is the owner of slaves, even if that black slave is the man who is stealing the heart of a white woman. “Love” is an impossible word right now, Which I’m afraid to say out loud.

One of the great problems with this obsessive thought is that for a white woman like me, it is forbidden to like a black slave, let alone conceive some kind of romantic relationship with him, much less, let my fantasies of a woman in love, have control of my emotions and my body. Getting together in bed with that man without being married, because right now, this type of relationship between a slave and her master is prohibited. It is something that causes me some anxiety.

How terrible is it for a white woman like me when I’m not allowed to marry the man I love? The answers could be known by everyone who has ever been in love, but in situations different from mine. No matter how much that man is part of my heart, no matter how much that man means to me as a woman, the sad thing about it is, he will never have the opportunity to know my feelings as a woman in love. Why our relationship can not be? Why can’t I tell this man how much I love him? Maybe because, it is a marital relationship condemned by everyone, but not for me, and that is not fair. I live in a society where men rule and women obey without question.

It is forbidden for a white woman to look into the eyes of a slave man without the company of her husband, it is a rule of the time that I hate at this moment. But as the owner of that slave, that rule does not apply to me. That’s what I think!. I don’t even want to think about what others would say or do if
they discovered my feelings towards a black man. A black man who unknowingly made my heart fall in love, without saying a word, a smile, much less some gesture of love.

In this case, don’t even think about it. Anti-black groups that are against interracial marriage between a black man and a white woman would not allow this type of marital union, and let’s not talk about my father, the owner of the black slave who is stealing my heart. It would be a danger to both of us.
When it comes to a white woman who falls in love with a black man, and more so if that man is a slave. It would be a shame for the family, and sometimes the moral repudiation of the white woman. That also means a shame for a white woman and the certain death of the black man, who dared to look with love at
a white woman.

Sometimes, I wonder silently, “If God cares how a woman feels?” “If in heaven, our skin color ceases to exist,” If in God’s eyes, we are all equal? If a white woman has the divine right to feel love for a black man, Knowing a little about the king of heaven, a product of my Christian with faith, I know that for our creator, everything is possible. I have faith that it will be so. Thoughts, words and wishes that come to mind in times of frustration for a woman when she falls in love with the wrong man.

This prohibition of this type of romantic relationship between a black man and a white woman, no matter how handsome that black man is or how much one woman wants it, it is something that takes away my sleep, and more when the southern states prefer a civil war with the union rather than allow the liberation of all slaves.

These winds of war not only reaffirm the attitude of the southern states to keep the black man perpetuated in slavery, but also to maintain the supremacy that the white man should have over the blacks, which makes this relationship impossible. I think that every white man in the South is crazy when they start a war to keep another man in the system of involuntary slavery. Many times I ask God, to hear my prayers, but at this moment, no one is listening to me, not even that impossible love that is breaking the heart of a woman in love.

In this case, my feelings as a woman and as a human being are on the same side, unlike those of the white man, whose feelings of inflated superiority are above reason, without worrying about the negative consequences of these actions, and everything to keep this wrong racist philosophy. Fortunately, I’m not a white man. I’m a white woman, and although I have to accept that, history will judge us both equally.

Starting from this reality, I must accept that no matter how much I like that black man, is something that I must learn to suppress if I want to protect my condition as a decent woman in front of other women in society or in front of my religious faith. But also, if I want to protect the life of this black slave, because if someone discovers that this black slave has his eyes on me or that I have my eyes on him, he is a dead man walking.

What will happen when a civil war ends? What will happen to him? Will he still be a slave, or will he be a free black? Could a white woman have some kind of a marriage relationship with a black man after the Civil War? I’m dying to know the answer.

For reasons, last night I could not sleep, with a disguised reaction of tranquility I walked towards the kitchen, waving with a friendly smile, I directed myself to Jenna, one of the black slave who works in the kitchen. Jenna is someone I trust very much and she is respected by my father. After the death of my mother from a long illness, she became my second mother to me.

She was surprised to see my presence so early in the morning in the kitchen. What can I prepare for you, my young lady? She asked me. No, I am not hungry at the moment. I couldn’t sleep last night, a cup of hot milk would be enough. Jenna. Yes, my young lady! You remember the black slave we were talking about the other day, YES.

My young lady, you are speaking of Joseph, the new slave who works harvesting the crops. Yes, that same slave, the one who always has a smile on his face. I would like you to bring it into my presence. I will do so with great pleasure, my young lady, although I must tell you that your father is forbidden for plantation slaves to enter the big house. Don’t worry, Jenna, I’ll take care of my father’s tantrums. Ok, that’s what I’ll do.

Sitting in one of the chairs where Jenna prepares the meals for the day. When he suddenly entered the back door of the big house, he was the black slaves who, for weeks, have been stealing my heart. At first, I didn’t know what to say, I only knew that his presence stopped time for me at that moment, and my emotions were out of control.

Please, Jenna, let me speak to this black slave alone for a moment. As you say, my young lady, Joseph, Don’t be afraid. I didn’t call you to punish you. As is customary, a black slave cannot look a white woman in the eye, even if she is talking to him. Many say that for respect, for me, it is for fear of being punished. Please, Joseph, look me in the eye and answer some questions that I want to ask you.

Joseph, do you believe in God? Of course, my young lady. Every morning when I wake up, I pray to God, and every night before going to sleep, Joseph, Do you think that everything happens for a reason. Of course, my young lady. That’s the reason why I always see life with optimism, despite my situation.

Is that the reason you always have a smile on your face? I asked him with a smile. And the response from him surprised me! I always appreciate what I have, and I don’t feel sorry for what I don’t have. He said that to me with a smile in his eyes. Of course! To hear his response, which increased my curiosity about this
black slaves.

Joseph, how is it that a slave like you, so intelligent, handsome, and with a good attitude, was sold by his master? It is a difficult story to tell to a young lady like you. For the respect that I owe to you. He told me with a helpless expression on his face. Young lady, there are certain stories that a woman like you should never hear about what happens on the plantations. Story that your father will never tell you, much less a black slave like me, and more when that woman is the owner of the black slave who is talking to her right now.

If you reached this part of this impossible love story between a white woman and a black man during slavery. The conclusion of this story between a black slave and his owner, a white woman, is in the second chapter, which you can read or listen to in the same place.

Thank you so much!