That night, as Louella prepared to sleep under the oak trees in the empty fields, trepidation iced over her heart. How could the Oakland Plantation be the place God was directing them to since she hated the sight of oak trees—hated lying under so many while they traveled? How could she make a home in a place that would continue to remind her of one of the most painful days of her life?
William went off to pray. He was gone until daybreak. When he returned, his eyes seemed bright and hopeful. Louella didn’t know if she was prepared for what his prayer time had yielded, so she asked, “What’s with Robert having a nineteen-year-old daughter that ain’t nobody ever heard of before?”
“That’s Robert’s business to tell.”
Louella put hands on her hips as she sat up. “You got any kids running ’round here? Am I about to be surprised by someone walking up to me saying that you they daddy?”
“Louella!”
“Don’t Louella me, when you’ve held on to a secret like this for years.”
Sighing deeply, William sat down next to his wife and rubbed her belly. “The only children I’ll ever have will come from you.”
She felt silly badgering her husband. William wasn’t like Robert. She trusted him to be true.
He grinned at her a moment, then said, “We’re almost home, Louella. We didn’t just stop here so Robert could visit with his daughter. God directed us here.”
Louella pulled her blanket against her chest. “What are you saying?”
“God has given us the Oakland Plantation. I don’t know how, but I know it’s meant to be ours.”
Louella’s eyes were explosive with disagreement. “But you said we were going north. We’re still in the South.”
Putting his hand in hers, William planted a kiss on her forehead. “Can you trust me on this? The people are weary. We’ve already lost Lily. I can’t take the risk of losing anyone else. And with the baby coming . . .”
When she didn’t respond, William added, “I heard you ask Rachel about your mother. She might not be in this town, but what if she’s somewhere in South Carolina?”
She didn’t want to be in a place with tons of oak trees, but she didn’t want to give up on the chance of finding her mother either. And William was right about the weary state of the people. The journey had been long. They needed a place to call home.
With a deep, heavy sigh, she said, “Let’s go and see if we can find a resting place for our people.”
When they packed up to leave that morning, Percy, Bessy, Wiley, Rachel, Elmira, and several others from the low country gathered their few belongs and headed for the mountains with them. By the time they descended on the Oakland Plantation, the group of fifty that left Mississippi had ballooned into almost two hundred. Louella prayed they were headed to a land where they could once and for all find happiness.
* * *
They traveled up the North Carolina mountains by way of the Winding Stairs and the cool winter breeze. It was now December, and the cold in the mountains bit harder than any cold Louella had experienced in Mississippi. They each donned scarfs and heavier clothes as they found their way to the Oakland Plantation. For miles and miles, wherever her eyes looked, Louella saw dry grass and leafless trees. More oak trees than she’d ever seen on one plantation.
Doubt set in again. But as they came upon dozens of empty cabins, Bessy said, “This where the enslaved people lived before freedom came.”
“The cabins don’t look like much,” Robert said as they all walked the land, headed for the big house.
“Like the cabins we left behind,” Femi said. “All in need of repair that we never had the time to do.”
Louella saw a smile creep across William’s face. He told the group, “God has given us an opportunity here. Did you notice the crumbling breastwork as we entered the city?”
Percy said, “The Yankees tore it down during the war.”
“With all the disrepair I’ve seen since we entered this area, seems to me we’ve journeyed to the right place.” William looked around at the group. “We have skills that can be put to good use in this area.”
Louella was quiet, but she saw the logic in what William said. She also saw all the trees that surrounded them. Their group had the skills needed to repair these cabins. But they were supposed to be going north. To stop here almost seemed like giving up.
William turned to Robert. “We’ll need your help on this one. I doubt it’ll go over well if all of us descend on Mrs. Serepta’s house at once. Maybe you should go ahead of us and tell her what we’re about.”
Gary slapped his knee as he laughed. “Robert is probably the only one of us that won’t get shot walking up to the front door.”
Other members of the group laughed and giggled about the comment, but Louella didn’t find it so funny.
* * *
They camped out about a mile away from the quarters where enslaved people once lived, and they waited as Robert, William, and Louella took one of the wagons and rode to the Oakland Manor. While sitting in the wagon, Louella took in the expanse of the place.
It was a huge house with five arched pillars running the length of the front porch. Oak trees surrounded the sides and back of the house like a barrier. But that barrier hadn’t stopped the treacherous mountain weather from putting a beating on the worn house, which had missing shutters and paint chipped away from what surely had once been a glorious white coating trimmed with black shutters.
“I hate these trees, William. Hate ’em with a passion.”
He put his hand over Louella’s. “Think on good things. Trees are used for more than lynchings and beatings.”
Robert went to the manor and knocked on the door while William and Louella waited in the wagon. It took a few minutes, but a white man who looked to be in his forties or fifties opened the door. He stepped out on the porch and put his hands in the pockets of his overalls. He rocked back and forth on the heels of his shoes as he talked to Robert. Louella saw Robert point to the wagon. The man leaned forward and glanced over at them.
Robert shook the man’s hand, then walked back to the wagon. “He’s gonna see if his mother wants to talk with us.”
William bit his lower lip, then said, “He didn’t say no right off after you pointed toward the wagon. That’s a good sign.”
“The wood on the porch has rotted through in spots. And the shingles are falling off by the front door. I think they need our help,” Robert told them.
“You really think this where God want us?” Louella asked William. “You really want to be all the way up in the mountains like this? It’s cold.”
“Let’s see what the mistress of the manor has to say. You already know what I think,” William told her.
Yes, she knew her husband believed that God had directed them to this location, but could God really be so cruel as to surround them with so many oak trees when He knew firsthand what white men used these trees for?
The front door opened, and a gray-haired woman stepped onto the porch. She waved to them. “Y’all get on in here.”
The woman was smiling at them. Louella had to think hard to come up with a time a white woman had smiled as if she was pleased to be in her presence.
William got out of the wagon and then helped her down. As they walked closer to the house, the woman said, “My boy, Tommy, says you’ve been on your journey for over a year now.”
“We have. It’s been a long journey, but we believe that God has a place for us,” William told her and then stuck out his hand. “I’m Reverend William Montgomery.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Serepta Davis.”
And just like that they were invited inside the woman’s house. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Serepta opened her front door and treated them like welcomed guests as they sat down in her living room. Louella squirmed in her seat. She couldn’t get comfortable. The couch smelled old, not dirty. But the musty scent of age and family clung to the cushions.
Serepta came back into the living room carrying a teapot and a plate that had slices of bread and butter. “We don’t have much to offer. My home used to be a showpiece for entertaining.”
“You have a lovely home,” Robert said.
Serepta glanced around the room. “That’s kind of you to say, but the wear and tear is showing.”
“That’s the matter we bring before you today.” William leaned forward. “As we traveled all the way from Mississippi, we gathered about two hundred other freed men and women. We’re all looking for a place to call home, and we all have skills that are useful for restoring your home to its former glory.”
“You don’t say.” A grin spread across Serepta’s face as she looked heavenward. “God is always surprising me with His goodness.”
* * *
William, Louella, and the rest of their group sat together around a campfire eating meat that had been caught earlier in the day. William wiped his hands on his pants and stood. “We talked to the owner of the Oakland Plantation, and she is truly a lovely woman.”
Hundreds of weary eyes were on William as he spoke. “Mrs. Serepta has suffered greatly since the War Between the States began and hasn’t recovered now that it’s over. Her manor needs restoring.”
Gary looked skeptical. “What’s she offering?”
Louella understood Gary’s skepticism. He had signed a contract to be a sharecropper but got chased off the land after all his hard work. Louella was skeptical herself. Should they put their trust in the kindness of white folks when their kindness was always fleeting?
“Good question.” William nodded in Gary’s direction. “Mrs. Serepta will let us use the empty cabins as long as we agree to work the land and do repairs around her home.”
There was a look of apprehension on Abigail’s face as she asked, “We don’t have to sign some kind of contract and then be forced to stay here like we enslaved again, do we?”
William shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
Then another stood. “I didn’t come out of slavery to end up in quarters like this. I know we all need a rest from the road, but is this the best we can do?”
William looked dumbfounded by the responses of the people. Louella stood and took his hand. “I get what y’all saying. I don’t want to live in these quarters neither, but maybe we should give this a chance. We can always leave and continue on to the North if it doesn’t work out.”
This wasn’t Mississippi, and nobody was holding her prisoner, so she meant exactly what she said about leaving this place if things weren’t as Serepta represented them to be.