Love in Tragedy

Love in tragedy Chapter 3

As the weeks passed and Edward grew healthier and healthier, Thomas and Samantha continued working on the farm. As the news was heard on those days the family went into town for supplies and materials. They heard of the southern states wanting to leave the union with the United States and elect their own president. Talk from the town folk was that South Carolina was asking for volunteers to make up a militia. Samantha was worried in her mind that Thomas would end up being forced to join due to his age. She worried secretly about how she was going to raise a young child and keep the farm going and profitable if Thomas joined.

Thomas knew if the news from town was correct and South Carolina and other states left the union, surely there would be a need for a military. He wondered if they would take volunteers or make young men join to create one. He worried about the politics of the news and what Samantha and Edward were going to do if the policies would create hard times for the people in the state. His focus was to continue to work on the farm and raise Edward to learn the ways of being a farmer, but he knew he wanted to fight for his way of life and what his family knew.

“What will you do if there is a war, Thomas”? Samantha asked one evening.

“I will fight to preserve our way of life, the thing we have been accustomed to”. He stated, “If they call for volunteers, I will be the first one to sign so we can get this war over with and I can return to our farm and my family”. Thomas stated.

Samantha knew the passion Thomas had for his state, his home and his family. She knew other men had spoken about the same thing to their wives as she heard the stories from the wives at the market when she was there. She was proud, nervous and scared, as all the wives were.

Winter was approaching and the spring and summer had provided the family with all they needed. There was the tobacco crop from that year, the pigs and chickens that were housed in the barn, and the cattle Thomas had grown from 4 heifers and 1 bull, had now reached fifteen head. Samantha was canning the vegetables from the garden and the fruits from the blackberries along the fence.

Thomas had chopped plenty of firewood for the winter and finished building a new addition to the home. This would be the room for Edward as he grew.

When the temperatures were low and the leaves on the trees were gone, Thomas worked on smaller projects around the farm to prepare for the spring tobacco crop. Samantha continued to sew and bake bread for the home as Edward played in the house and learned simple things from Thomas about farming.

On a trip to town, Thomas sold some goods at the market and found some fabric that Samantha had been eyeing for some time to buy and use to make some shirts for both Thomas and Edward. With the money, Thomas went to the general store and bought a few yards of the fabric and had it wrapped in a nice brown bag, as he planned on giving it to Samantha for Christmas. He also found a carved wooden horse that he also purchased for Edward.

As the weeks went by, Christmas had arrived and Thomas had shot a turkey in the fields of his farm. He dressed it, so Samantha could start to prepare a fantastic meal for the family for Christmas. Samantha had warm sourdough bread, fresh vegetables, blackberry cobbler and the turkey Thomas had killed. As they sat around the table enjoying the meal, Thomas got up and excused himself from the table. As he left the home and walked to the barn and retrieved the fabric and wooden horse he had bought in town weeks before and had hidden them in the hay loft in a corner section so they would not be found until it was time to be removed.

Thomas walks slowly back to the house as Samantha and Edward are looking out the window to see what he is bringing to the house. As he walked through the door, his smile was as large as ever. He walked over to Edward and knelt down and presented the wooden horse to him as his gift. Edwards' eyes lit up as he hugged Thomas with as much strength as his little boy's body could produce. Thomas felt the love of his son and felt his heart become full of love for Edward.

Thomas stood and turned to Samantha, who had tears in her eyes from what she had just watched and how Thomas loved his son and family so much. This was the man she met so many years ago and never stopped for a moment loving him.

“Are you ready”? Thomas asked

“Yes”. Samantha shouted

Thomas walked closer to Samantha and extended his hands to produce the brown bag with a twine bow to her. She smiled and moved closer to him and kissed him with love and joyfulness.

Samantha opened the gift and found the fabric she had seen in town for so many months. She reached out to Thomas and drew him close to her and wrapped her arms around him and kissed him once again with love and happiness. She was excited to get to work on new shirts for Edward and Thomas. The tears gently rolled down her cheek as she loved Thomas , more than anything and, with her son Edward, she was full of love that a mother could only explain.

As the cold temperatures of winter continued, Thomas would go into town to sell their goods at the market by himself. He would bring back supplies and materials each time he went along with the latest news from town. The talk was about the political landscape of South Carolina and other southern states getting closer to selecting a president and a congress. Talks about the abolition of s*****y and states' rights.

As for Thomas, although they had 80 acres, the crops he planted were not so large that he nor Samantha needed slaves. Thomas worked the farm himself with local neighbors helping during harvest times. Samantha was a woman who learned at an early age how to cook, sew, and clean. She had experience on a farm with her own father, teaching her much about a farm. Although they both lived in the south and had a large farm at the time and did not have any slaves, they often brought interesting conversations from town folk whenever Thomas was in town.

For both Thomas and Samantha, neither one of them felt the need to use their money to purchase slaves to do the things they both grew up knowing how to do and did to provide and survive the times. When heckling or conversations led to not having slaves on the farm, they would both just nod or smile and inform people that they liked working on the farm together.

Now that the news from town each time Thomas went was more and more about succession, Samantha found herself worrying more and more about Thomas and what would happen to him. They both talked about it many times, but Samantha could not imagine him being away from the farm or not even returning to it at all. The fear rased inside her at times and would bring her to tears when no one was around.

They both worried that things would get harder as time went on, but tried to continue living the way they had for years and make no quick decisions that might lead to having to sell the farm because of running out of things. Thomas would add another hen to the chicken coupe, he would keep one of the piglets the sow, he would keep one of the calves born in order to have a little extra just in case something happened, and they were unable to get things from town or the market.

Samantha would gather fabrics that were cheaply priced in town at the general store to continue to make clothing for her family. She added an extra row to the garden to grow more vegetables than she could and have available. Extra flowers were purchased to have at home in the event she or Thomas could make it to town for supplies for the farm.

Edward learned about gathering eggs from the hens. He learned how to milk the dairy cow in the barn. Edward was completing simple chores like feeding the pigs, the chickens, and gathering vegetables from the garden. These were the chores Edward grew to do on his own to help his mother and father at any moment he could.