White Ribbons Of Peace

"In memory of Eliza and Emily" Twelve Years a Slave, Eliza Berry's life marked by cruelty, a tragedy of slavery. She rose to lower heights as she plucked the cotton with her bare hands Stooped over she pulled the cotton from the bolls, fine cotton that it was ! Twelve years of slave-hood, her daughter taken for her beauty was separated from her youth... Haggard, hollow-eyed and filled with sorrow she worked soberly for she would not be sold, she was not for sale ! Eliza wept tears of grief but, there was nothing she could do, her daughter had been taken away from her. Come back—don’t leave me—come back, mama, was her last cry until distance intervened and then all was finally wholly lost. Foot Note: Eliza never saw or heard of Emily. In the cotton field, always and everywhere she was talking to her. Only when absorbed in that illusion or asleep, did she ever have a moment’s comfort, afterwards.