People who had lived and died there as slaves might never have dreamed that one day their descendants would walk on this land as free human beings.
I’m Olivia, Olivia S. Benson, and I am the author of this book, For the Love of My Father, which is available on Amazon. Now, today I wanted to share a story, and it’s related to Black History Month, which by the way, there’s an entire chapter in the book. And if you guys have seen the post that I did on Facebook and Instagram this week, you know that everything’s kind of devoted to Black History Month. And in those posts, I mentioned that there’s a whole chapter in the book, and the name of the chapter is Things Buried Alive Never Die.
A Few Years Ago, I Went to Charleston, South Carolina
And along those same lines, I’d like to share a story, which I briefly mentioned in one of the posts. And the essence of it is that a few years ago, I went to Charleston, South Carolina, and I have to say it was not my favorite trip, because for me, the history of slavery is really palpable in Charleston, South Carolina. And so it was slightly uncomfortable and unpleasant.
But one of the things that we did, my husband and I did, was that we went to visit a plantation. And during this visit, you got to see how the slaves lived, what their responsibilities were. A lot of different things. Very, very sad history.
The Depth of What Was Happening
But at the end of the tour, I had an opportunity to walk across the lawn of the plantation. And for some reason, as I walked across that lawn, it just seemed to dawn on me the depth of what was happening.
And the depth of what was happening was that the slaves who had worked on that plantation — and not that I was ever the first person of African descent to walk across that lawn, but for me, the feeling was very clear that people who had lived and died there as slaves might never have dreamed that one day their descendants would walk on this land as free human beings. And for some reason, I just very much felt it in that experience in Charleston, South Carolina, because the history of slavery is very palpable there. I mean, slavery’s been over for a long, long time, but the relics and maybe even the state of mind continues to exist.
The Dream of the Slaves
Now, when I think about things like that, the thing that gets to me is thinking about the dream of the slaves, right? And I think about my grandmother, my maternal grandmother particularly, because she was someone who seemed to have dreams for herself that she knew that she was never able to fulfill. She talked about that she had never gone to college, but that she had since. And she spoke about it often. So I came to understand that it was her dream that she would have gone to college.
Your Greatest Test
And by the way, today I have another one of my cups. This one is, your greatest test will be how you handle the people who mishandled you. So check out the website and check out the cups. And this one’s important because a lot of people have done things to you and to other people. And in the end, your biggest challenge will be doing better to those who didn’t do you right.