Matriarchs

                                                      CHAPTER I

“Not on this day, not on pappa’s day, Minnie thought.  Out of all the days of the year; why would there have to be trouble today?  And such terrible trouble at that.  Lord have mercy on my soul, how could I have caused a scandal like this on my pappa’s birthday.”   The majority of Minnie’s extended family had made wonderful plans for the day.  Family and friends would gather together and surprise Minnie’s father, William Heard for his birthday.  The family always had huge celebrations, both on his birthday and for Christmas.   There would be lots of food, drinks and a treasure trove of memories.  The white folk would be standing out on their porches gawking at the large crowd of birthday revelers gathering at the huge house William and his brothers had built.  Even though an inordinate number of her immediate family lived in such close quarters they never allowed familiarity or petulance to breed contempt for one another.  All the folk Minnie loved and knew to be kin planned to be here tonight.  The fact that this horrible sequence of events had happened today caused her to cry until her lovely hazel eyes were red and swollen.  At the vibrant age of nineteen, Minnie herself was probably the most beautiful young lady in North Georgia.  She had a voluptuous body, long black hair that streamed down her back, and a beautiful fair complexion.

The events of this morning had changed Minnie’s entire life course.  All because Will Jennings had to be such a low down dirty dog as Minnie’s mother, Jane Heard so aptly labeled him.  At least that’s what Jane called him when out of hearing range of any white folk.  Will Jennings happened to be one of the richest most powerful white men in the state of Georgia.   He was a very animus man who had an eye for enticing black females.  A sexual deviant who spent most of his time having illicit sexual thoughts of alluring black females. Yet, he had total disdain for the black male.   Will Jennings used the black family for producing money off the sweat of their brow.    Mr. Jennings also hid many deep dark personal and family secrets from his prominent cabal of southern gentlemen that he called friends.  One of his most closely guarded secrets was his verbal and physical abuse of both  his son Will Jr. and Heather, his devoted wife.  Heather and everyone else called Will Jr.  by his nickname ‘Beau.’

As for the Heard family members that built this spacious house that had such beautiful carpentry and craftsmanship.  Not one of them neither man or woman even shared partial ownership of the home.   Each in some capacity or another worked for and lived on Will Jennings property as either blacksmiths or sharecroppers.    In this, the year of our Lord 1911.

 That morning Minnie’s Uncles Frank and Buddy Lee had convinced her father and their oldest brother William to slip off into town so that they could privately celebrate his birthday.  His brothers would start him out with a haircut, a hot lather shave, a hot scented bubble bath and some new coveralls.  After all Jane had been hinting that he could use some new britches and a shirt.  Surprisingly, William agreed to go. More than anything else the man was a sun up to sun down workaholic.  Meanwhile while the men were off in town, back at the house William’s other seven brothers and two sisters-in-law were coo