No matter how the wind and the stars carried the news
The slaves knew
Sherman was coming
All they had to do was wait:
As they sang the Spiritual “Why can’t I Wait on the Lord?”
They had the patience to know He may not come
When you call Him
But He always comes on time

My great great grandmother was a slave holding inside
Her the first of our family to be born
Free
Sherman came burning the hate
And greed freeing my ancestors
My great great grandmother who had never seen her own face
Carried her free baby and a sterling silver hand mirror away

Cornelia whom we called MamaDear was the first
To be born free

MamaDear married Watson and birthed
Three sons and a daughter
MamaDear gave her youngest son the sterling silver mirror
When he graduated from Fisk University

We forget the enslaved had no way of knowing
What they looked like except through the eyes of those who loved them
The men had no shoes to wear other than their feet became leather
Both were precious
Grandpapa had shoes and the mirror

Some in the family say
The mirror was stolen
But how can you steal when you were

When I left my parents’ home I was the youngest daughter I took only
Two things:
A diamond pendant Sister Althea gave me for eighth grade graduation
And The Sterling Silver Hand Mirror
I am 81 years old: I have both still

This is drawn from “The New Book.”