THE HIEROPHANT CHRONICLE

Missy Shaw was my Godmother, she was a true historian and I enjoyed the lazy afternoons sitting on the floor listing to stories of her life. The stories shared in class compelled me to share her story with you. Missy Shaw was born in the Mississippi Delta area to the slave Cali she was a cook for the Shaw family. Missy Shaw story; I am telling you was told to her by Lilly she was the record keeper for the slaves that belonged to Lester and Henry Shaw.  
Master Henry grew cotton a small operation he had some pigs, chickens, a mule, and five slaves. At one time, it was a fairly large plantation, started by Lester Shaw and his wife Annabel. Master Shaw had one boy and five girls the last girl born two year before Missy. As the story goes, Master ran a tight ship so to speak, but loved to gamble and slaves where won and lost. Cali was one of those wins along with Onus, now Cali was Choctaw and Onus was African. Their story is sketchy at best; Onus found a young Cali near dead and nursed her back to health. He suffered beatings and near starvation but he would not leave her side until she was well. Onus was big and strong and bull headed when it came to Cali he protected her and she followed him.
Onus was a hard worker and was favored by his owner, and was revered by the other slaves. However, his owner’s son hated him and so did Gant the white poor overseer, which was the worse kind. There were a whole mess of them Gant’s, none of them no account they hired out to oversee the n_____’s! He would have killed Onus but they feared the reaction it would cause. So the first change he got after his Paw died  he got rid of Onus and Cali The age of Cali was some where in her teens best any one could guess when her and Onus came to the Shaw’s.
Cali was a lovely child with spirit to boot talented and worked side by side with Onus. When Master Shaw brought them home he turned them over to Buck a big black who ruled his charges with a whip and a fist. The story goes Buck took them down to the cabins he was eyeing Cali, they stopped in front of a cabin. Buck told Onus he did not want any trouble and he was going to bed Cali good and proper. Now while he was saying this he was reaching to grab Cali and raised his whip to hit Onus. Onus was reported to say I will kill you as he hit Buck in the jaw knocking him out. He and Cali went into the cabin and rested.
Early morning coming out of the cabins, Buck was lying dead where he had fallen hitting a rock on the back of the head. We was all standing around when Master Shaw came down form the big house, he saw Buck on the ground and demanded what happened. Onus told him Master said, “Get him buried you’re in charge now get them to work” and walked away. Onus turned and told us he would bury him, we went to work and worked harder that day and every day since. After a while, the plantation was running like a well-made time piece Master was fond of them. Cali still looked like she was in her teens Onus worked right along with the rest of the field hands and Cali worked all over cooking, cleaning, washing ,whatever was to be done.
Now Master had sent Henry and the girls to school up North, for an education there was a good time had when they came home for a break. We took care of the Shaw’s and they took care of us. In fact we often laughed we did not know who owned whom, we was a family.
Cali was a rare gem and some thought she was the reason times where good, a blessing from an Indian god or even a Voodoo princess. She would pick different weeds and boil them together with a chosen rock, her and Onus was the only ones who drank it stunk. The time was I Lilly enjoyed being who I was.
That carried on about two summers it was 1850.  A baby girl Claire had joined us she was about two Master wanted a boy. Now the gambling shindig was coming to the plantation. The Master’s who would come to play where good to there darkies and the shindig moved every year from one players plantation to another. It was our time to shine, but something terrible happened. On the day of the party Master Shaw wanted everything just right this was the second time they would come to his plantation to play, and he was far better of now then he was then. A pit was dug to roast a pig, those that did not go to the field with Onus that morning was busy doing something.
Now Ms. Annabel told Cali to go get her some berries down by Pearl River it was less than a mile or so from the back of the house. Normally if you where sent from the house to the river you went with another, not that day. When Onus and the rest came out of the field early that afternoon because of the party he started asking were was Cali. All that was going on she had not been missed, about that time Ms. Annabel yelled Cali’s name. We got to the back of the house to see Cali fall to the ground. Onus was first one to reach her with Ms Annabel right behind him. She was bloody and beaten her clothes barley hanging on. Onus picked her up he was crying no sound just rivers of tears streaked his dusty face. He started toward cabin row when Ms. Annabel told him to take her to the house he was told once more to take her to the house this time it was the Master. He did what he was told; there was a dry room of from the kitchen where the sick would stay. Cali was in and out she would moan then nothing she was barely alive. As things where gathered to tend to her Onus knelt by the cot he had placed her on. She came around and said something to Onus that made him cry more. We had to get the Master to get him out of there so we could tend to Cali.
Master Shaw gathered everyone and told them that she was hurt but would be all right and he wanted everybody to carry on as if nothing happened because guests were coming. He told Onus to go to his cabin and stay there, someone told the Master handed him a jug. The party was held and toasted a success by those that came, even though there was a dark cloud that loomed among us. The Shaw Plantation shined that night, it was if there was a blanket of peace and clam every one had a good time. It was Sunday afternoon when the last guest left he was a Doctor that was always invited but never showed. For the breath of me, I do not call his name but he was a good man.
As mentioned before Lilly is telling Missy Shaw these stories. In return, Ms. Shaw had a way of telling the stories as if Lilly was taking to you. She would often interrupt and say enough with Lilly’s stories they get weep pee from here. I did not mind, Lilly’s tale would make me weep. So being quite articulate, she tells the rest of the story.
Cali was raped and beaten she was a virgin; Onus was her angel he never touched her. It took months for her to heal and to find out Onus was dead and she was going to have me. Onus knew who had hurt her because she told him, Gant the overseer they had left. Onus left sometime during the party, he knew where they stayed. You had to go by there place, if you went to Vicksburg. He killed Willie Gant who had scratches all over his face, he had hurt Cali. Two other brothers were killed by Onus, and they killed him in the battle. Some of there associates came by and saw the bodies, took Onus body lynched it and set it on fire as the story goes.  
Cali survived but did not have the spirit she had before that day. Lester Shaw got sick and could not run the place anymore so Henry came home. The summer of 1850 is when I came along it was a hard birth and took the live of Cali. Annabel Shaw named me Missy and raised me along with her daughter Claire. Lester Shaw died that winter. Now Henry had learned to be a clock smith up North and did not like the plantation life. Ms. Annabel taught me how to read and write along with Claire.
When Lester died, some young slaves ran away Henry did not care those just left old slaves. By the time I was ten Lilly died she was easy in her hundreds. Henry would go to Vicksburg and Claire and I would worry him to death to go along a couple of times it worked. I still remember seeing the Vicksburg Court House for the first time it was amazing the railroads, the Mississippi river, huge boats, people going here and there overwhelming. Claire and I got little sleep the two days we were there. We had heard talk of a possible war because in 1859, the Mississippi state convention adopted an official resolution calling for secession from the Union if an abolitionist was elected president.
There was a lot of talk I recall about what would happen if Abraham Lincoln became president. Claire had Henry pick up all kinds of reading material so we could share it with mother. Annabel Shaw was my mother in every sense of the word and she taught me well. It was 1861 the once proud plantation was no more, it was a humble place where Annabel Shaw lived with her son Henry, daughter Claire and Missy and three slaves. I know that all the slaves of the Shaw’s where blessed because our owners where a minority in a land of promise and indifference for those of color. Then there was War Between the States changed our lives forever, and that’s another story.