We visited the Houston Museum of
Fine Art last weekend. The temperature was about a thousand degrees and humid
as only the Gulf Coast can get in August, and after walking just a few blocks, the air conditioning in the museum was wonderful. We saw a lot of art
and artifacts from all over. But one artifact attached to a wall in a great big
shadow box unsettled me. Look at the photos.
Look at the strips of linen that are interlaced over the child’s face, hinting at her facial
features. Maybe creepy, maybe just poignant. The strips of cloth also remind me of the lattice-work crust my mother would put on
her apple pies. The painting on her chest represent her heart and her parents—grieving
parents I would imagine. Parents who spent a lot of money to prepare and bury
their daughter for eternity. I’m glad they don’t know she is now a wall exhibit
half a world away. I have granddaughters who are not much older than this four-year-old
mummified Egyptian girl who died 2,000 years ago, whose earthly remains now
adorn a museum wall in Houston, Texas. I hope that 2,000 years from no earth
girl’s carefully wrapped remains wind up adorning a museum wall on Mars or
somewhere half a galaxy away.
Going back 155 years, not 2,000
years, look at another photo. This is Sarah Katherine Stone, a young woman who
was raised on Brokenburn Plantation in Louisiana.
She was about 20 years old
when the Civil War started. In 1853, she became a war refugee. who fled to Tyler, Texas, where it was safer.
Not an unfamiliar theme, continuing to the present day wherever war happens.
Civilians where the fighting erupts, bug out. One difference is that the Stone
family, led by Katherine’s widowed mother, left their home with a good number
of their slaves, which constituted a huge portion of their wealth as Southern
planters.
Miss Stone was a diarist and journal
writer, who wrote about the terrible war being waged around her home and how it
was affecting her one family. Her daily entries reveal feelings and intelligent
reflections as multi-layered as the wrappings covering the little mummified Egyptian girl’s
face.
They reveal a young plantation belle who had to ride through the night to
escape an invading army. They reveal a person of wealth who bemoans the loss of
the comforts and trappings of wealth. They reveal a girl scared of the violent
behavior of freed slaves. But her words also reveal a level of grit and
perseverance that are commendable.
I used Miss Stone’s journal as inspiration
for one of the few women characters in With Might & Main. Several of
her journal entries are included, as I’ve put a primary source quote at the
beginning of each chapter.
In contrast to the character inspired
by Miss Strawn, I’ve created Olive, a young woman born into plantation slavery
who was designated as playmate, companion, and later the personal servant of her
white mistress. Their story and relationship
are only sidebars to the military tale of With Might & Main, but the
two women do open a gate for highlighting the civilian side of a complicated
time in war-ravaged Louisiana.
I’ve finished the rough manuscript
of With Might & Main, and hope the editing will be done in time for
an end of September book release. Hope you will stay tuned.
