He talk to me about the future—me wasn’t used to that. Me have no future until Micah draw me into his. When we free, he say. When we free, we gon’ go and find me family. We gon’ go and find your wife. We gon’ have our own land. We gon’ have pickney, and our pickney have them own pickney, and none of us gon’ work in the fields again. “He make me say me wife’s name. Me not say it since me lose her. Susannah. It was our evening ritual, when we make our way back from the fields. We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on
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