Specifically I am writing to Linda and her mother and grandmother.
Dear mothers, I know I cannot even begin to fathom the agony of giving birth to a child, loving them more and more as they grow up, and then having them ripped from your arms and sold to another plantation states away. It's hard enough for me to be away from my 5-year-old nephew, an incredibly sweet, clever, and imaginative child, a Skype session here and there being the only contact I have with him. Never knowing what happens to your child after they're sold like chattel -- what they grow up to be, what hardships make them long for their mothers' embrace and protection, what they could accomplish had their humanity been fully recognized -- is one of the cruelest acts slaveholders have inflicted upon you. It's not your fault. I can't offer any solutions, but I wanted to admire the strength and huge capacity for love you have maintained in such a violent system. I hope you live long enough to see the Emancipation Proclamation fully take effect, and you are able to reunite with your children somewhere, somehow.
Dear Linda, their hatred for black women really has zero logic, doesn't it? They say black women are inherently promiscuous and incapable of any sort of love besides sexual, yet it was white male slaveholder who stripped you of your childhood innocence and promised to "make you a lady" to clear his own conscious of his acts of sexual violence. Worse yet, he stops you from being with your true love. In America, the most honorable black men are still ten rungs under the most vile, despicable white ones. I am sorry you experienced trauma rather than the teenage love affair every 15-year-old girl should have if she wants one. Please know that you should feel no guilt over what this cruel system has forced you to do to gain some semblance of agency and autonomy over your body. You're human, and no racist words, actions, or people can ever make that untrue.
Sincerely,
Natalie Johnson
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