I am a Professor of mathematics at the University of California, It took me a lot of challenges just to attain my current status, and all these that I have achieved is through the help and influence of my parents but especially my mother, I dedicate all the things I have achieved to her, I am also not forgetting the almighty God, for the strength that he has always given our family throughout the good and the harsh times, thanks should also go to Mrs. Gloria Brown who happened to be the mistress of the plantation that I was born and grew up in a state known as Georgia.
I was born in a small village in Georgia, in the middle 1830s, a time when the United States was going through a lot of slave trade activities, and to many, the trade was accommodated and seen as the order of the day, during this period the Blacks were seen as inferior and as a result of this perception on the minds of the people living at that time, they had to own black people that would act as their servants and through this, the black community was denied access to basic needs such as proper health care, good education and the participation in the certain activities that are of impotence to their lives such as voting and public opinion exercises.
As I had said earlier that I am a Black who was born in South America, with one sister Sharifa who is a renowned cloth designer, we grew up in an era when the slaves were being mistreated as they were forced to undergo a lot of physical and psychological abuse they had to cope with this because there was no other way of surviving the harsh treatment that was being injected on the blacks regardless of an individuals age or gender, and it was very difficult for a black individual to become successful and built a name for himself as the blacks were denied the chance to showcase their potentials in public (Weiner, 94).
Did I mention to you that when I was a kid I was very playful, and this is one reason that helped me to attain some attention from our plantation mistress Mrs. Brown, I barely remember an incident that occurred ad its from this incident I attracted much attention from her, that was in the year 1939 at the age of seven, I was playing football with my friends who were children of fellow plantation workers, one of my friends kicked the ball way too far and the ball landed into Mrs. Brown’s compound, she had to come out and look at what was going on in her compound (Oliver and Horton, 93). This made the other boys run away as they were afraid of her harsh punishment, I was stunned to the extent of not running like the other boys, I had to be responsible for the mistake caused by the boy who kicked the ball to her compound.
As she was coming towards the playing ground, I was busy figuring out an excuse that would convince her not to punish me or report me to my mother, that would be a little too torturous, I came up with an excuse that I think made her like me even more and would give me favors that saw me be what I am today, as she approached me furiously she asked me “why did you kick that ball into my compound you brat” (Elliot and Smallwood, 62) I was composed and simply replied her “we wanted your grandson to come to join us”,she cooled down and asked me for my name were I gave her my name and eventually asked me to go pick my ball and asked me to go visit here later.
I highly believe that this incident transformed my life completely because I would frequently visit Mrs. Brown and from my frequent visits to her place I would play with her grandson Timothy, Mrs. Brown suddenly changed her attitude towards the Blacks and started treating them with some respect, at first my parents were against the idea of the frequent visits to her place but with time they were ok with it (Kolchin, 39).
The changed traits of Mrs. Brown was felt when she started to work hand in hand together with the black women in the plantation field, she would frequently come with her daughter in law to the farms and they would join hands together in the farming process, this cooperation between the white and the black women resulted to the formation of a bond, that transcends above the race of the individuals, the men were totally left out of this plan as they were always out there performing other duties (Work Projects Administration, 117).
My mother together with her friends were astonished with the new behavior of their mistress who initially was very bossy and arrogant has suddenly turned to be very humble, caring and understanding, they frequently helped her undertake her house chores and helped her in the production of the clothes, my mother occasionally took my sister and it is from these visits that she was able to become the a renown designer, this is because she was sometimes given the opportunity to produce some clothes.
The close relationship that existed between the mistress and my mother made it easy for me to undertake my studies much steadily, I was able to share books with Timothy who was going to a private school, and I managed to get the best grades that enabled me to go to the University, I was denied the entry to the university but Mrs. Brown came in and facilitated my admission to the institution of higher learning.
I had achieved this because of the close relationship I had with our plantation mistress, the other boys never felt close to her and they had to the perception that the whites were hostile people who had no feeling, but I came to realize that they are human beings too.
Works Cited
Elliot, Jeffrey and Smallwood, Arwin. The Atlas of African-American History and Politics: From the Slave Trade to Modern Times. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1997. Print.
Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery: 1619-1877. New York: Hill and Wang. 2003. Print.
Oliver, James and Horton, Lois. Slavery and the making of America. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. Print.
Weiner, Marli. Mistresses and Slaves: Plantation Women in South Carolina, 1830-80, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Print.
Work Projects Administration. Slave Narratives: A Folk History Of Slavery In The United States From Interviews With Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives Part 5. WhiteFish: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print.