The Mulatto Queen: Mae Belle Reeves
A narrative on the life of a mulatto woman in the 19th Century South who sheds her black heritage for life as a Southern aristocratic woman.
Mae Belle Reeves: The Mulatto Queen
My name is Mae Belle Reeves. I was born on May 3, 1840 in Miles Creek, Alabama. My mother was a Miss Ida a middle skinned black woman with deep brown eyes and curly black hair peppered with gray. Mother was a sweet yet very stern and about work all the time. I remember her hands being rough from the years she spent in slave labor picking anything from cotton to tobacco. She was born a slave yet worked for her freedom and her master let her go in 1840 while she was pregnant with me and gave her freedom papers. Momma Ida also worked to free her mother Grandma’am Lila Belle. Momma kept their freedom papers bound in her old worn bible. Momma and I lived in a small cabin in a small freedmen community called Miles, Creek. Momma worked for old man Mr. Payton he owned the Miles Creek store. It was the only store in our freedmen village. It supplied us with breads and other foods along with household materials. Momma cleaned, stocked, organized and did many runs for Mr. Payton. She worked from morning to late evening. While Momma worked I was entrusted to the care of my Grandma’am Lila Belle. She was a pretty high yellow skinned woman with hazel eyes and long thick curly white hair. Grandma’am Lila was a smart woman she was born a slave yet because of her light skin her master kept her as a house slave. She was entrusted to the care of her master’s daughter. While the master’s daughter learned her studies she would teach Grandma’am Lila to read and even write a little. Grandma’am Lila passed that knowledge on to me and other children in Miles Creek even though we had to hide that knowledge from whites who passed through looking for runaway slaves. For in Alabama it was illegal for slaves and freedmen to read and write punishable by death. Yet despite that Grandma’am continued to teach me. I learned quickly to read specifically my bible and also how to write a little.
When I turned 10 in 1850 I began to accompany Momma into the local town of Trinity, Alabama to buy stock for the Miles Creek store. Momma told me to stay by her side, not to be reading & writing, not to look at a white woman directly in the face but to look down, not to speak to white men unless spoken to and most importantly not to accept anything from a white person. I hated these things I looked white and I should have the same treatment as they did. When we arrived in Trinity, Momma showed the town officer her freedom papers. We entered into a local store and got the materials needed for the Miles Creek store. While waiting a middle aged white man said to me “Why, child you are a pretty red haired mulatto nigger. Whose your master?” I was confused I didn’t have no master. I was a freedwoman. I looked away and ran up to Momma who was paying the store owner. The white man grabbed my arm and said “Don’t you turn away from me while I'm talking to you! Answer me!” About that time Momma grabbed me to her side and said to the man “Oh she is jus a silly lil chile. We are not slaves we are freedmen.” The white man with a sly grin on his face responded “Why shooks. If she was a slave I would pay high price for her. You all are freedmen. Well there are other ways to get you.” He chuckled and walked off. Momma got the materials and we hurried out of the store. While we were saddling up our donkey and leaving Decatur the white man stopped us again. The white man asked Momma “Do you all live in Miles Creek? That freedmen village?” Momma replied in haste “Yes and we’s got to get going!” We left hurriedly on our poor mule.
When we returned home Momma was not normal. She paced our cabin floor talking under her breath. Grandma’am Lila looked worried and began to comb my hair as she always did after a long day. Though this time she was very rough and fidgety. I began to cry and Momma slapped my face! She spoke so sternly to me that my heart sank and I was numb. She said “Look you are going to have to grow up! You can’t be so brittle and easy. We will not always be here for you! Stand on your own and look to God because He alone can save you!”. She then left the cabin. I sat there still in Grandma’am Lila’s lap with me eyes pouring rivers of tears. Grandma’am Lila soothed me with her little song “Hush Child, Moses will set you free.” While she finished combing my hair she told me that “Momma was a little shaken up and that she only loved me.” A few minutes later Momma returned. She was calm yet cold, she looked like she was holding back tears she said to me “Baby, the South aint no place for such a pretty Negro girl as you. White men and their lusts will devour you. And I can’t always save you. So tomorrow night you will leave with Mr. Patrick Smith and his wife who are going North to Michigan. That place is much safer for you. God will keep you and you will be somebody great.” I began to cry and yell “Momma No! I don’t want to go! Please, Momma!” She ignored my cries and said “Rest now child. I’ve done much prayer and it’s for the best. The South is too dangerous. At any time the white people could re-enslave any of us, Nut I birthed you a free woman for you to be free! And I will never allow you to be enslaved while God is my keeper and you are under my care!”. Grandma’am Lila and Momma began to hum that old song “Hush child, Moses will set you free.”After a while I had no more tears to cry and went to sleep waiting for tomorrow night.
The next night after evening supper Momma combed my hair while Grandma’am Lila packed me in a straw sack some sweet onion bread, an old blue dress, my comb and her old tattered bible. Mr. Patrick Smith and his wife Mrs. Smith came and we left for the North. Momma waved goodbye as we trotted past in Mr. Patrick Smith’s small mule pulled wooden carriage. Grandma’am wept as she watched us go. I did nothing all my tears were gone. I was alone in the world on a journey to an unknown place. We traveled about two miles when out of nowhere we were ambushed! White men known as slave riders shot Mr. Patrick’s mule and turned over the carriage with us in it. They hit us in the head with part of their guns and I blacked out. When I awoke I was chained with three other blacks at an auction. I looked as much as I could for Mr. Patrick and his wife but I didn’t see them. Then a man pushed me out before a crowd of white men. The auction man yelled 1,000 dollars for the young red haired mulatto Negro girl. A man purchased me. Come to find out it was that same man Momma and I met at the store. When he got me he said to me “I told you I would get you! You are mine’s now. Tell me your name?” I replied “Mae Belle” and he said “You are a Reeves now for I purchased you and I am your master James Willis Reeves.” This started a new chapter in my life.
Master Reeves was quite gentle and kind to me the very opposite of the picture Momma and many other folks painted of white masters being “vile and evil”. We arrived on his plantation; it was large one of the biggest in Morgan County, Alabama. It stood three miles south of the city of Decatur, Alabama. The big house was made of tan brick with marble and large white pillars in the antebellum style. Master Reeves assigned me to household duties along with the other house slaves he had working in the big house. I cleaned and cooked for Master and his wife Madame Caroline Elaine Portland-Reeves. She was very beautiful with blonde hair and gorgeous emerald eyes and had a distinct Northern accent and air about her. She was very kind to the house slaves who worked in the big house. When she saw me she said “Why you are a pretty mulatto Negro. One of the prettiest I have seen!” I blushed and went to fulfilling my duties. Madame Caroline and Master Reeves had one child a 5 year old boy named Harry Willis Reeves. Much of our work in the big house was just a laborious as our field slave brethren. Yet deep inside I was drawn to the aristocratic and high life of Madame Caroline. When they hosted dinners and parties for other plantation aristocrats Master Reeves had me to assist in the menial tasks such as taking plates and serving dishes. He even allowed me to sit in and observe the style and mannerism of high society Southerners. I was a good observer and mental memorized all the delicate and dignified mannerisms of Southern aristocratic women and the wants and desires of Southern men. All the while I grew in my knowledge and many of the visiting plantation owners complimented Master Reeves on ym beauty and my grace and air about me. Master Reeves thus began his courting of me despite the major facts that He was a white man and I a mulatto and that He was 10 years my senior. He held off on many of his ambitions with me until I grew.
In 1855, I was 15 and fully blossomed. Field slaves as well as my house slave counterparts said “I was the prettiest slave they had seen.” I was not surprised for I was the only mulatto on the plantation! I had long curly red hair with hazel eyes and a smooth light tanned skin tone. Soon Master Reeves began to resurrect his moves and jester toward me and began to stop much of my labor. All the other slaves could see that he was courting me to be his mistress but I could not and
didn’t think much of his gestures. I was consumed at observing Madame Caroline’s life as the lady of the plantation, the wealth and privilege she had and I began to envy her. I was just as fair and beautiful as she was and m skin not to different from hers. As Master Reeves took much more interest into me I fed into them. Not out of love for him but out of love for the possible wealth and luxury. For in Alabama if a white man takes on a mulatto mistress they had to be compensated for and treated as a second or subordinate wife. Soon he completely stopped my household work and made me the companion of his wife Madame Caroline. He gave me gifts of clothing, jewelry and a beautiful room in the big house much to Madame Caroline’s displeasure. Yet it was nothing she could do about it. I became the second lady of the House the mistress of Master Reeves. I was the envied by fellow slaves and the enemy of my lady Madame Caroline. Master Reeves visited my bedchamber often and on March 13, 1857 I gave birth to my first child A son named Michael Willis Reeves. He was a white child in skin tone with Master Reeves’ black hair and my hazel eyes. Master Reeves took much pleasure in our newborn son and made him apart of his will and testament. He raised him like his other white children because you could not tell the difference. When Madame Caroline heard of it she threw a fit but was kept in line by Master Reeves. When he placed my child in his will and I was permanently enthroned as his mistress and true love. People who visited could hardly tell my son had Negro blood in him. My son was taught to read and write and how to run the plantation. I vowed to God, Master Reeves and myself never to tell my child of his Negro blood.
Things were well until 1860 when that old Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Master Reeves went wild. He was a strong support of the secession of South Carolina and pushed for Alabama to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. Master Reeves ranted that “No northern Yankees will tell me what to do with my property, my slaves!” Great strife began to happen in the already fragile marriage of Master Reeves and Madame Caroline because she had pro-Northern sympathies since she came from Northern wealthy aristocrats. Madame Caroline left and moved into Master Reeves’ townhouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Master Reeves began to be stricter on
the slaves. He had their work load increased and the time the spent in work elongated. I shed no tears for the suffering of the slaves. It was their lot and the fact of whether they deserved it or not; wasn’t my choice to decide but was answered by nature in making them black and thus slaves. Master Reeves left to join the war in August of 1861. The next day I had my last child by Master reeves a beautiful girl named Elizabeth Berry Reeves. She had my red hair and her father’s grey eyes. Mr. harry Master Reeves’ eldest and only child by his wife Madame Caroline took reigns of the plantation while his father fought in the war. Harry was a weak man in my eyes and not fit to run this great plantation. He stayed in his room and entertained Abolitionist voices. Those war days were very bleak. Starting in 1862 we had to begin rationing food to slaves. Alabama’s economy was very great and strong before the war but during it the economy sank. The slaves had begun to get a little wild and unruly. Mr. Harry being infected with his mother Madame Caroline’s pro-Northern sympathies led him to be soft on the slaves. I was angry ‘how could he undermine the system that sustained him?’ I would not allow it! I contacted the local plantation owners and told them of Harry’s pro-Northern sympathies and his freeing of his father’s slaves while he fought in the war. The Morgan County sheriff Mr. Watts came with the Decatur city judge and they threatened to try Mr. Harry for treason and war crimes if he did not either join Southern forces or keep a tighter grip on the plantation. This seemed to scare Mr. Harry because soon he fled North to New York.
Thus I took the reins of running the Reeves plantation. It was a hard job all three of my white overseers quit refusing to be subject to a Negro woman. It was such a shame good white men quitting and I had to result to using nigger men to oversee other nigger slaves on the plantation. I promised the three older Negro men I chose to be overseers that they would gain their freedom once Master Reeves returned from the war. I worked the slaves we produced small amounts of cotton to sell. Food was also very short. I went from having the slaves fed twice a day to once a day to then 3 days a week. I continued to write to the Mayor of Decatur for help but he had received several letters from various plantation women asking for help. I sent letters to
President Jefferson Davis for help but no answer. I also desperately wrote to Master Reeves all he did was give me his love and told me to continue to run the plantation that he would be home soon. I was overwhelmed to the near point of depression. It was 1863 and this bloody war was still going on! The tyrant Abraham Lincoln and his union devils wanted to destroy our Southern life and heritage. As I looked in the eyes of my 6 year old son Michael and 2 year old daughter Elizabeth I got determined. They were not hungry yet I could not afford more leisure luxuries for them. I continued their studies despite the conditions. I also began to work amongst my slaves remembering the farming methods of my mother. We began to produce enough food for a sufficient daily meal for the slaves and a gracious little extra for myself and my house niggers. I also began to feed and house in the vacant slave cabins wondering poor white women and their children who constantly roamed the rural area of Decatur looking for food. Things were okay for a while until on April 3, 1864 I received notice that Master Reeves had died in combat. I fell to my knees and began to weep and sob. To make matters worse his old traitorous wife Madame Caroline a public Southern unionist had his body disposed of. I was full of anger. Master Reeves left his wife Madame Caroline the plantation but she refused it and thus it passed to my children. He left for me a humble fortune of 300 dollars. I held a public memorial for him despite the advancing Union devils tearing through Alabama and evil Sherman destroying the South. 100 people attended the ceremony. I wore a deep violet red dress with black lace, and a red velvet hat embroidered with black lace and a black veil to cover my face. Many complimented me and said my beauty was at its best in mourning. I railed at them inside of me calling them fools for it was because of them that Master Reeves was dead. Their war had destroyed all matter of civil order in the nation and God is judging his poor child the South for not destroying the Union devils earlier. The slaves also became unruly not working and leaving the plantation at will because they expected freedom from the advancing Union army. So I gave many of them eternal freedom in death, I burned slave cabins and had many of them severely beaten. Yet their rage burned on until I was confined with my children and my loyal house slaves to the big house. I couldn’t sleep fearing the advancing Union army and a raiding mob of slaves.
My worst fears came to past on October 26, 1864 Union forces under the command of Brig. General Robert S. Granger fought against Confederate forces under General John B. hood in the battle of Decatur. The Union had 5,000 men and we Confederates had 39,000 men. I thought surely our Confederate forces would crush the Union demons. Yet they did not for on October 29, 1864 the union forces captured the city of Decatur, Alabama. It was pure Hell on earth. The Union forces burned down our city! They raided my plantation yet found little for I had my valuables hidden underneath the house. They had mercy on my house other than burning my fields and ransacking my house. I was bitter the evil of the white men murdering their own kind and the hideous slaves dancing in jubilee. I was angry! Our town was occupied by Union forces. I was forced to free all of my 500 plus slaves. A remnant though of 50 remained and continued to work and try to rebuild. I sat on my porch in bewilderment watching how as the quick breeze of the wind an ancient society had fallen. My heritage was gone. Yes I was negro but I passed for white the white system blessed and hurt me. With the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9th, 1865 our Southern fate rested in the hands of blood avengers. These radical republicans quickly began to try to decide our Southern fate. I instilled Southern pride and Union hatred in my children. I began to wear black for rest of my life for the death of my father the South. I also had black curtains put on the windows. I only came out of the house to enter town for items for the house and to do a little gardening. On April 15, 1865 my heart rejoiced over the death of the tyrant Lincoln. I’m glad he finally paid the price for the evil of his ways. Yet greater evil followed him!
Legal amendments in years that followed passed to grant citizenship to negro men, abolish slavery and give equal protection under the law to white and black men. I scoffed at the pride of the Negro freedmen. For a few years blacks filled our Alabama State legislature when we were re-admitted to the Union in July 13, 1868. Disorder reigned; lazy blacks frolicking around not working. And the few Negroes that stayed on my plantation barely worked. Their arrogance and evil joy made me sick. Yet I regained order when I began to establish sharecropping on my plantation. The 50 some Negroes that staid were indebted and tied to my land to work it in exchange for food, housing and clothing. Order was fully established again in 1874 with the good ole democrats back in power in Alabama. They passed laws that were strict on the Negroes. Yet the local whites considered me and my children white and accepted us into their society for we passed for white. My 20 year old son Michael began to help with the managing of the estate. He also began working as a legal assistant to the attorneys in Decatur. Our city was rebuilding and recovering. On July 3, 1877 I remarried. I married Mr. Patrick William Stately a former Confederate captain now judge of Decatur city. He received a Civil war stipend and a lucrative salary as a judge. Even though he was 67 and I was the ripe age of 37 way past my youthful days for a woman. My daughter Elizabeth who was 16 and beautiful was married to Mr. John Sterile Lewis a wealthy owner of the Lewis estate and a Senior Statesmen and former Civil war veteran. He was 58. I was so glad that my daughter was financially cared for and blessed. I still though longed for the former days of the antebellum plantation order and for Master Reeves yet I continued to look forward and still wore black for the death of the South. I lived in peace with my husband Patrick Stately until his death in 1897 at the age of 87. He left me a fortune of 3,000 dollars and a new townhouse in Mobile, Alabama along with many renovations on my plantation house. I am currently 57 and survived the Civil war. I have seen the South at its prime in the time of war in its death and in its resurrection. I benefited from the Southern plantation system. I may have Negro blood in me but I deceived society by my near white skin. My story is a story of ambition, and drive born a free mulatto woman and now a wealthy “white” woman who conquered her Negro blood.
A narrative on the life of a mulatto woman in the 19th Century South who sheds her black heritage for life as a Southern aristocratic woman.
Mae Belle Reeves: The Mulatto Queen
My name is Mae Belle Reeves. I was born on May 3, 1840 in Miles Creek, Alabama. My mother was a Miss Ida a middle skinned black woman with deep brown eyes and curly black hair peppered with gray. Mother was a sweet yet very stern and about work all the time. I remember her hands being rough from the years she spent in slave labor picking anything from cotton to tobacco. She was born a slave yet worked for her freedom and her master let her go in 1840 while she was pregnant with me and gave her freedom papers. Momma Ida also worked to free her mother Grandma’am Lila Belle. Momma kept their freedom papers bound in her old worn bible. Momma and I lived in a small cabin in a small freedmen community called Miles, Creek. Momma worked for old man Mr. Payton he owned the Miles Creek store. It was the only store in our freedmen village. It supplied us with breads and other foods along with household materials. Momma cleaned, stocked, organized and did many runs for Mr. Payton. She worked from morning to late evening. While Momma worked I was entrusted to the care of my Grandma’am Lila Belle. She was a pretty high yellow skinned woman with hazel eyes and long thick curly white hair. Grandma’am Lila was a smart woman she was born a slave yet because of her light skin her master kept her as a house slave. She was entrusted to the care of her master’s daughter. While the master’s daughter learned her studies she would teach Grandma’am Lila to read and even write a little. Grandma’am Lila passed that knowledge on to me and other children in Miles Creek even though we had to hide that knowledge from whites who passed through looking for runaway slaves. For in Alabama it was illegal for slaves and freedmen to read and write punishable by death. Yet despite that Grandma’am continued to teach me. I learned quickly to read specifically my bible and also how to write a little.
When I turned 10 in 1850 I began to accompany Momma into the local town of Trinity, Alabama to buy stock for the Miles Creek store. Momma told me to stay by her side, not to be reading & writing, not to look at a white woman directly in the face but to look down, not to speak to white men unless spoken to and most importantly not to accept anything from a white person. I hated these things I looked white and I should have the same treatment as they did. When we arrived in Trinity, Momma showed the town officer her freedom papers. We entered into a local store and got the materials needed for the Miles Creek store. While waiting a middle aged white man said to me “Why, child you are a pretty red haired mulatto nigger. Whose your master?” I was confused I didn’t have no master. I was a freedwoman. I looked away and ran up to Momma who was paying the store owner. The white man grabbed my arm and said “Don’t you turn away from me while I'm talking to you! Answer me!” About that time Momma grabbed me to her side and said to the man “Oh she is jus a silly lil chile. We are not slaves we are freedmen.” The white man with a sly grin on his face responded “Why shooks. If she was a slave I would pay high price for her. You all are freedmen. Well there are other ways to get you.” He chuckled and walked off. Momma got the materials and we hurried out of the store. While we were saddling up our donkey and leaving Decatur the white man stopped us again. The white man asked Momma “Do you all live in Miles Creek? That freedmen village?” Momma replied in haste “Yes and we’s got to get going!” We left hurriedly on our poor mule.
When we returned home Momma was not normal. She paced our cabin floor talking under her breath. Grandma’am Lila looked worried and began to comb my hair as she always did after a long day. Though this time she was very rough and fidgety. I began to cry and Momma slapped my face! She spoke so sternly to me that my heart sank and I was numb. She said “Look you are going to have to grow up! You can’t be so brittle and easy. We will not always be here for you! Stand on your own and look to God because He alone can save you!”. She then left the cabin. I sat there still in Grandma’am Lila’s lap with me eyes pouring rivers of tears. Grandma’am Lila soothed me with her little song “Hush Child, Moses will set you free.” While she finished combing my hair she told me that “Momma was a little shaken up and that she only loved me.” A few minutes later Momma returned. She was calm yet cold, she looked like she was holding back tears she said to me “Baby, the South aint no place for such a pretty Negro girl as you. White men and their lusts will devour you. And I can’t always save you. So tomorrow night you will leave with Mr. Patrick Smith and his wife who are going North to Michigan. That place is much safer for you. God will keep you and you will be somebody great.” I began to cry and yell “Momma No! I don’t want to go! Please, Momma!” She ignored my cries and said “Rest now child. I’ve done much prayer and it’s for the best. The South is too dangerous. At any time the white people could re-enslave any of us, Nut I birthed you a free woman for you to be free! And I will never allow you to be enslaved while God is my keeper and you are under my care!”. Grandma’am Lila and Momma began to hum that old song “Hush child, Moses will set you free.”After a while I had no more tears to cry and went to sleep waiting for tomorrow night.
The next night after evening supper Momma combed my hair while Grandma’am Lila packed me in a straw sack some sweet onion bread, an old blue dress, my comb and her old tattered bible. Mr. Patrick Smith and his wife Mrs. Smith came and we left for the North. Momma waved goodbye as we trotted past in Mr. Patrick Smith’s small mule pulled wooden carriage. Grandma’am wept as she watched us go. I did nothing all my tears were gone. I was alone in the world on a journey to an unknown place. We traveled about two miles when out of nowhere we were ambushed! White men known as slave riders shot Mr. Patrick’s mule and turned over the carriage with us in it. They hit us in the head with part of their guns and I blacked out. When I awoke I was chained with three other blacks at an auction. I looked as much as I could for Mr. Patrick and his wife but I didn’t see them. Then a man pushed me out before a crowd of white men. The auction man yelled 1,000 dollars for the young red haired mulatto Negro girl. A man purchased me. Come to find out it was that same man Momma and I met at the store. When he got me he said to me “I told you I would get you! You are mine’s now. Tell me your name?” I replied “Mae Belle” and he said “You are a Reeves now for I purchased you and I am your master James Willis Reeves.” This started a new chapter in my life.
Master Reeves was quite gentle and kind to me the very opposite of the picture Momma and many other folks painted of white masters being “vile and evil”. We arrived on his plantation; it was large one of the biggest in Morgan County, Alabama. It stood three miles south of the city of Decatur, Alabama. The big house was made of tan brick with marble and large white pillars in the antebellum style. Master Reeves assigned me to household duties along with the other house slaves he had working in the big house. I cleaned and cooked for Master and his wife Madame Caroline Elaine Portland-Reeves. She was very beautiful with blonde hair and gorgeous emerald eyes and had a distinct Northern accent and air about her. She was very kind to the house slaves who worked in the big house. When she saw me she said “Why you are a pretty mulatto Negro. One of the prettiest I have seen!” I blushed and went to fulfilling my duties. Madame Caroline and Master Reeves had one child a 5 year old boy named Harry Willis Reeves. Much of our work in the big house was just a laborious as our field slave brethren. Yet deep inside I was drawn to the aristocratic and high life of Madame Caroline. When they hosted dinners and parties for other plantation aristocrats Master Reeves had me to assist in the menial tasks such as taking plates and serving dishes. He even allowed me to sit in and observe the style and mannerism of high society Southerners. I was a good observer and mental memorized all the delicate and dignified mannerisms of Southern aristocratic women and the wants and desires of Southern men. All the while I grew in my knowledge and many of the visiting plantation owners complimented Master Reeves on ym beauty and my grace and air about me. Master Reeves thus began his courting of me despite the major facts that He was a white man and I a mulatto and that He was 10 years my senior. He held off on many of his ambitions with me until I grew.
In 1855, I was 15 and fully blossomed. Field slaves as well as my house slave counterparts said “I was the prettiest slave they had seen.” I was not surprised for I was the only mulatto on the plantation! I had long curly red hair with hazel eyes and a smooth light tanned skin tone. Soon Master Reeves began to resurrect his moves and jester toward me and began to stop much of my labor. All the other slaves could see that he was courting me to be his mistress but I could not and
didn’t think much of his gestures. I was consumed at observing Madame Caroline’s life as the lady of the plantation, the wealth and privilege she had and I began to envy her. I was just as fair and beautiful as she was and m skin not to different from hers. As Master Reeves took much more interest into me I fed into them. Not out of love for him but out of love for the possible wealth and luxury. For in Alabama if a white man takes on a mulatto mistress they had to be compensated for and treated as a second or subordinate wife. Soon he completely stopped my household work and made me the companion of his wife Madame Caroline. He gave me gifts of clothing, jewelry and a beautiful room in the big house much to Madame Caroline’s displeasure. Yet it was nothing she could do about it. I became the second lady of the House the mistress of Master Reeves. I was the envied by fellow slaves and the enemy of my lady Madame Caroline. Master Reeves visited my bedchamber often and on March 13, 1857 I gave birth to my first child A son named Michael Willis Reeves. He was a white child in skin tone with Master Reeves’ black hair and my hazel eyes. Master Reeves took much pleasure in our newborn son and made him apart of his will and testament. He raised him like his other white children because you could not tell the difference. When Madame Caroline heard of it she threw a fit but was kept in line by Master Reeves. When he placed my child in his will and I was permanently enthroned as his mistress and true love. People who visited could hardly tell my son had Negro blood in him. My son was taught to read and write and how to run the plantation. I vowed to God, Master Reeves and myself never to tell my child of his Negro blood.
Things were well until 1860 when that old Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Master Reeves went wild. He was a strong support of the secession of South Carolina and pushed for Alabama to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. Master Reeves ranted that “No northern Yankees will tell me what to do with my property, my slaves!” Great strife began to happen in the already fragile marriage of Master Reeves and Madame Caroline because she had pro-Northern sympathies since she came from Northern wealthy aristocrats. Madame Caroline left and moved into Master Reeves’ townhouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Master Reeves began to be stricter on
the slaves. He had their work load increased and the time the spent in work elongated. I shed no tears for the suffering of the slaves. It was their lot and the fact of whether they deserved it or not; wasn’t my choice to decide but was answered by nature in making them black and thus slaves. Master Reeves left to join the war in August of 1861. The next day I had my last child by Master reeves a beautiful girl named Elizabeth Berry Reeves. She had my red hair and her father’s grey eyes. Mr. harry Master Reeves’ eldest and only child by his wife Madame Caroline took reigns of the plantation while his father fought in the war. Harry was a weak man in my eyes and not fit to run this great plantation. He stayed in his room and entertained Abolitionist voices. Those war days were very bleak. Starting in 1862 we had to begin rationing food to slaves. Alabama’s economy was very great and strong before the war but during it the economy sank. The slaves had begun to get a little wild and unruly. Mr. Harry being infected with his mother Madame Caroline’s pro-Northern sympathies led him to be soft on the slaves. I was angry ‘how could he undermine the system that sustained him?’ I would not allow it! I contacted the local plantation owners and told them of Harry’s pro-Northern sympathies and his freeing of his father’s slaves while he fought in the war. The Morgan County sheriff Mr. Watts came with the Decatur city judge and they threatened to try Mr. Harry for treason and war crimes if he did not either join Southern forces or keep a tighter grip on the plantation. This seemed to scare Mr. Harry because soon he fled North to New York.
Thus I took the reins of running the Reeves plantation. It was a hard job all three of my white overseers quit refusing to be subject to a Negro woman. It was such a shame good white men quitting and I had to result to using nigger men to oversee other nigger slaves on the plantation. I promised the three older Negro men I chose to be overseers that they would gain their freedom once Master Reeves returned from the war. I worked the slaves we produced small amounts of cotton to sell. Food was also very short. I went from having the slaves fed twice a day to once a day to then 3 days a week. I continued to write to the Mayor of Decatur for help but he had received several letters from various plantation women asking for help. I sent letters to
President Jefferson Davis for help but no answer. I also desperately wrote to Master Reeves all he did was give me his love and told me to continue to run the plantation that he would be home soon. I was overwhelmed to the near point of depression. It was 1863 and this bloody war was still going on! The tyrant Abraham Lincoln and his union devils wanted to destroy our Southern life and heritage. As I looked in the eyes of my 6 year old son Michael and 2 year old daughter Elizabeth I got determined. They were not hungry yet I could not afford more leisure luxuries for them. I continued their studies despite the conditions. I also began to work amongst my slaves remembering the farming methods of my mother. We began to produce enough food for a sufficient daily meal for the slaves and a gracious little extra for myself and my house niggers. I also began to feed and house in the vacant slave cabins wondering poor white women and their children who constantly roamed the rural area of Decatur looking for food. Things were okay for a while until on April 3, 1864 I received notice that Master Reeves had died in combat. I fell to my knees and began to weep and sob. To make matters worse his old traitorous wife Madame Caroline a public Southern unionist had his body disposed of. I was full of anger. Master Reeves left his wife Madame Caroline the plantation but she refused it and thus it passed to my children. He left for me a humble fortune of 300 dollars. I held a public memorial for him despite the advancing Union devils tearing through Alabama and evil Sherman destroying the South. 100 people attended the ceremony. I wore a deep violet red dress with black lace, and a red velvet hat embroidered with black lace and a black veil to cover my face. Many complimented me and said my beauty was at its best in mourning. I railed at them inside of me calling them fools for it was because of them that Master Reeves was dead. Their war had destroyed all matter of civil order in the nation and God is judging his poor child the South for not destroying the Union devils earlier. The slaves also became unruly not working and leaving the plantation at will because they expected freedom from the advancing Union army. So I gave many of them eternal freedom in death, I burned slave cabins and had many of them severely beaten. Yet their rage burned on until I was confined with my children and my loyal house slaves to the big house. I couldn’t sleep fearing the advancing Union army and a raiding mob of slaves.
My worst fears came to past on October 26, 1864 Union forces under the command of Brig. General Robert S. Granger fought against Confederate forces under General John B. hood in the battle of Decatur. The Union had 5,000 men and we Confederates had 39,000 men. I thought surely our Confederate forces would crush the Union demons. Yet they did not for on October 29, 1864 the union forces captured the city of Decatur, Alabama. It was pure Hell on earth. The Union forces burned down our city! They raided my plantation yet found little for I had my valuables hidden underneath the house. They had mercy on my house other than burning my fields and ransacking my house. I was bitter the evil of the white men murdering their own kind and the hideous slaves dancing in jubilee. I was angry! Our town was occupied by Union forces. I was forced to free all of my 500 plus slaves. A remnant though of 50 remained and continued to work and try to rebuild. I sat on my porch in bewilderment watching how as the quick breeze of the wind an ancient society had fallen. My heritage was gone. Yes I was negro but I passed for white the white system blessed and hurt me. With the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9th, 1865 our Southern fate rested in the hands of blood avengers. These radical republicans quickly began to try to decide our Southern fate. I instilled Southern pride and Union hatred in my children. I began to wear black for rest of my life for the death of my father the South. I also had black curtains put on the windows. I only came out of the house to enter town for items for the house and to do a little gardening. On April 15, 1865 my heart rejoiced over the death of the tyrant Lincoln. I’m glad he finally paid the price for the evil of his ways. Yet greater evil followed him!
Legal amendments in years that followed passed to grant citizenship to negro men, abolish slavery and give equal protection under the law to white and black men. I scoffed at the pride of the Negro freedmen. For a few years blacks filled our Alabama State legislature when we were re-admitted to the Union in July 13, 1868. Disorder reigned; lazy blacks frolicking around not working. And the few Negroes that stayed on my plantation barely worked. Their arrogance and evil joy made me sick. Yet I regained order when I began to establish sharecropping on my plantation. The 50 some Negroes that staid were indebted and tied to my land to work it in exchange for food, housing and clothing. Order was fully established again in 1874 with the good ole democrats back in power in Alabama. They passed laws that were strict on the Negroes. Yet the local whites considered me and my children white and accepted us into their society for we passed for white. My 20 year old son Michael began to help with the managing of the estate. He also began working as a legal assistant to the attorneys in Decatur. Our city was rebuilding and recovering. On July 3, 1877 I remarried. I married Mr. Patrick William Stately a former Confederate captain now judge of Decatur city. He received a Civil war stipend and a lucrative salary as a judge. Even though he was 67 and I was the ripe age of 37 way past my youthful days for a woman. My daughter Elizabeth who was 16 and beautiful was married to Mr. John Sterile Lewis a wealthy owner of the Lewis estate and a Senior Statesmen and former Civil war veteran. He was 58. I was so glad that my daughter was financially cared for and blessed. I still though longed for the former days of the antebellum plantation order and for Master Reeves yet I continued to look forward and still wore black for the death of the South. I lived in peace with my husband Patrick Stately until his death in 1897 at the age of 87. He left me a fortune of 3,000 dollars and a new townhouse in Mobile, Alabama along with many renovations on my plantation house. I am currently 57 and survived the Civil war. I have seen the South at its prime in the time of war in its death and in its resurrection. I benefited from the Southern plantation system. I may have Negro blood in me but I deceived society by my near white skin. My story is a story of ambition, and drive born a free mulatto woman and now a wealthy “white” woman who conquered her Negro blood.
