What happened to me makes me believe that we are all hooked up, wired for different magnetic attractions. I went as far in North Carolina as Red Caste students were allowed to go — eight years of elementary school and three years of high school. My family was the Elmer Jenkins farm family. We were owned by a Blue family, the Scotts. The Scotts owned our land, our house, barn and us. They could decide to sell us with the land, or sell us one at a time. The overall theory of Red Caste management varied with the master. In North Carolina the situation was that Mr. Scott was about as much the owner of my family, as he was of his house slaves. In fact he may value the house slaves more because he probably got all of them at a specific individual price. Most of the (Red Caste) he got in his inheritance for free, or we were born into servitude.
My name was Elmer Jenkins Jr., and there were 13 in my family. We went to the same school with our masters the Scotts, but even though Mr. Casper Scott had 3 wives, and various slave women around his house he had only two children in senior high. Then several in elementary school, I wondered as a kid what was wrong with him, why so few? I remember thinking about that as a very small child in our school.
Mary Beth Scott was my exact age, and Finnus Scott was one year older than me and his sister, but he was a weakling and was behind in school. He started a year late. The excuse we Red children heard was, ’ That Finnus was very sick.’ but he looked good to me, with the build of a girl, but like a healthy girl.
My father told me from the time I was little and working in the fields, “The Scotts always say, “Red Caste are our servants, not our slaves.” but think of two things son, the master of a man can feed his slave as he wants. Mr Scott says, “My Red’s get 50% of the crop, and I get 50%”. Well he makes the divisions, and if a man wants a whipping he would say, “Master I think your pile is bigger than mine.” That’s number one. Every one of Scott’s Red Caste farmers has been whipped, including me, not in a long time, but I was whipped when I was 35 years old, for low crop production, and excessive spoilage of crops. It was I thought beyond my control, but my theory didn’t matter, I got ten licks on my back that cut the skin.
Then number two to determine if Red Caste are slaves, look at your sisters son. How many times have you seen Mr. Casper Scott drive his truck over to our house, and walk in the door to say, “Lucy!” or, “Roberta!” or would yell upstairs for “Judy, you will be working at my house this week.” If they don’t jump up and run down to his vehicle, he may pull their hair, or smack their behinds with his strap. He owns your sisters son. They aren’t going over to Scott’s home to snap beans for his wives. I’m sure they do that also, but that little boy of Roberta’s was not fathered by a teacher at school. It is a little Casper Scott, but it will grow up as a Red Caste slave of it’s father, or it’s brother Finnus.
At graduation I was 17 years old, and Finnus was 18. The thing was that all blue 18 year olds, or at least one per family, were being drafted into the United States Army, which was called the North Carolina Army in our state. They wore N.C. on their sleeves rather than U.S. but we didn’t see many of the Army in our little towns, around the mountains where I lived and grew up. We saw only troops on buses passing through and trains full of troops. Sometimes we read newspapers about the Mexican War. It was either the 3rd or the 6th Mexican War. Go figure that, but even if the fight was in Panama or Brazil or Peru, well it was called by the papers another, ‘Mexican War’. I can’t figure that, it never made sense to me or to anyone else I talked to. Then you have to consider all the people I talked with were Red Caste, Blues didn’t talk to Red children, even Blue children didn’t.
Going back to me and my situation, well when I graduated from high school there were 168 of us Red slaves of Scott ownership, who graduated, and the two Scotts went first to pick up their diplomas. It was also their school. The school building was in their side yard. Only the two Scotts got their diploma first and all the rest of the graduates, even sat in a lower place than the Scotts. It’s a wonder the school wasen’t closed right then because the high school Scotts were then finished. We were also in the classrooms with the two important ones, the whole of our school careers. My teachers all recommended to Mr. Scott that I go to college, but that was to be a teacher. I was good at math, and science. I wanted to go to college.
About the time of graduation my father was always talking to me — trying to calm me down about Finnus, Finnus was asserting his rights with my two younger sisters Judy and Betsy. They were 14 and 15 years old, and Judy was my favorite and barely 14. Finnus was just like his father and would walk right in our house and yell, “Betsy we have work for you over at my house. Hustle your butt downstairs or expect some strap marks on your pretty legs.”
When I graduated my father said, “You should pick a girl or two son and apply to Mr. Scott to marry them. I think there is a northern farm he controls on the Pike Creek Road, and maybe he would give that one for your use. All the girls at church think your the best boy in every way. You know which four have put in to marry you, as if your father would decide for you.
“What I don’t like about having young wives is that either the father, or his son Finnus can come at any time and get them for a week.”
“Well son if you were Finnus wouldn’t you take advantage of women that you actually owned?”
“Probably,” I said, “but I still don’t like it.”
“I can’t think of any way around it. You will be punished if you mess with girls and don’t have permission. Might as well get married and raise a family, his or yours.”
Well I forgot about our talk until later in the same week father was called to the office of Scott Sr. I figured it was about growing more beans. Or getting some hogs to raise. We had put in to have more hogs. We only got about half of what we produced, and we always wanted to do better. Meetings dad was called to, about the farm, were mostly about that –farm adjustments.
Well father drove back home on the tractor late that night and woke me up. Usually he was home for supper, maybe a late supper, but supper.
“Elmer,” he said and shook me. I was really asleep because I had been stacking bundles of fire wood all day. I was dog tired. I liked the exercise of the farm, you can’t be a good wrestler unless you really work yourself, and I was accustomed to being this tired, but I always was slow to wake unless someone had a fire, and screamed it, my smaller brothers did that to get me moving. “Get up son! I can barely believe it!” dad yelled beside my bed, “That son-of-a-you-know what has promoted you!”
I got on my overalls and shoes and went into the living room. I was still working into my boots in there. I wasen’t looking up at him when he started talking, “I’ve been at a lawyer’s office all day son swearing lies to free you from slavery.” I was still groggy from exhaustion and said with a yawn, “Come on dad, you what?”
“I swore a pack of lies so Mr. Scott could promote you to Blue Caste. Now the Supreme Blue Judge Prescott M. Banks, has signed the papers, and now Elmer your as Blue as Finnie, or that precious virgin Mary Beth.”
“So start at the beginning dad, just why did Mr. Scott want me to be Blue Caste? He must have a powerful reason for that, I can’t remember anyone at our church giving such a testimony, and I would have remembered something like that. I’ve read in the newspapers that very rich red’s in the cities could buy their freedom, and a sub-Blue status, but I’m not rich, it said in the papers that they were considered by real Blue’s as ‘half-Blue.’ “
“Only Blue Castes get drafted into the Mexican War, and to save little weak Finnus he had to claim that you are his natural child. You go to war instead of Finnus. You can’t even live here anymore because your not a Red slave, as of this afternoon at 3 PM.”
“Where do I live then?”
“Well it’s a week before you take the train and chug out for training near Austin Texas with the N.C. Trooper Battalion.”
“I don’t know the first thing about being a soldier. I never shot a gun, it’s against the law for a Red Caste to have firearms.”
“Well your as Blue as they are now, by court order, and Scott is paying you 500 credits for pocket money, and you live in his house until you get on the train. Casper Scott is going to train you with guns every afternoon. Finnus your new brother, will go to Richmond to stay with relatives until you are through using his room, he left this afternoon on a bus. Finnus told his father, “I don’t think Elmer Jr. likes me much. When he learns to fire a gun he may try it out on me! Also he’s a wrestling champion around these parts for the Reds, and he may just arm wrestle me and break my arm, so bad it can never be fixed. I’m afraid of him.”
So you will sleep in Finnus’s bed and Mr. Scott will buy you appropriate Blue Caste clothing. You sure can’t go out wearing little Finnus’ duds. If you come home for a visit, he will have another room for you, but he thinks that you have an appitude for college, and maybe you would rather go to school after the service? You will swim in his pool, and eat with his family. He has sworn what you are his natural son.”
“That can’t be true,” I said, “I even look like you. My hair is your color. You were a wrestler, and have the build for it. Casper is like a twig, with a wilted leaf, and also he has a beer belly. He could not be my father.”
“The judge brought that up, in a polite way, but Casper swears that he had your mother for a couple of months when you were conceived. In Wanda’s family there were some fantastic scrappers. You could have been a recessive gene from her line of descent, how the hell does anyone know? Anyway not being a slave is worth lots. I wouldn’t call for scientific tests! You are now not a slave son. Who cares if Casper or I supplied the sperm?”
“I’m not even 18, all the called up soldiers have to be 18.”
“Casper swore to that also, and so did I, not that slaves have any standing in a Blue court. So now your Elmer Scott, and eighteen years old, by court order.”
“God bless the court!” I said.
“Yes, and if you live through the army, the 6 years, or whateveer term you stay in the service of the United States, your father Casper will give you fee simple a deed to that northern farm, or 25,000. credits. With the farm you will own whatever Red Caste family lives on it when you get back. Finnie will get the remainder of the farms, and slaves. The princess will get money to get her married to some rich person. You will probably do better with the inheritance than the other small Scotts that are now in the lower school here.
Right now son 25,000 credits seems a better deal, but who knows in six years.
So tonight son, you will just go out and get on our tractor, crank it up and go over to the Scott house, Casper said, ‘Amy will be at the door to meet him when he comes up tonight, and spend the night with him.’ Then he calls this girls name, and a blond beautiful slave servant girl came in the room. I hope son that you go enough sleep already tonight. Your not going to sleep anymore with Amy in your bed. Now you won’t have to slip around with girls at the chruch picnics to kiss, and not do much more, after wrestling on Sunday afternoons. Your Red life is offically closed. At our church every prayer will have your name in it, believe me, I know our church. The members love you already, now they will worship you.
You don’t need to take anything with you Elmer your brothers, sisters, and mother will know about this tomorrow. Your brothers will wear your old clothes. I know you love your books, but there is absolutely no reason to take those, the Scott’s have many more. Just go over and meet Amy tonight This is the very best thing that ever happened to a slave boy, in our part of the mountains!”
He hugged me goodby on the porch and said, “One more thing I learned about the army. You aren’t promoted for killing the enemy, as one would imagine, but for challenging and defeating your superior officers. It is a screwey idiot system, but meant for you son. You can damn well beat all the candy assed officers above you. The Blue training is for officers, and there is a core of professional lower class men who you will lead, how many you lead depends on your rank.
The soldiers challenging officers fight naked with just hands, and try to kill the other person, or make them surrender. Killing other cadets, or those who are training you, or anyone else in the army, gets you their rank, and ears. You are the worst nightmare of those, ’sit on their hands’ Blues. If they surrender you clip off their ear tops, and make them your slaves, or sell them. If you kill them you wear their whole ear on your coat, just like Indians wore scalps. Whole ears are like dangling medals they speak of in textbooks once were son. I learned that all today. There is so much son that I never knew, none of us Red Caste knew. The Blues tell us only what they want us to know. Newspapers and books are right only to a point. I never understood how blood-thirsty the masters were in our world.
So go forward son and beat the stuffings out of them with your natural talents. Kick them and scratch their eyes out, cut off their ears, and think about me and what we endure here in slavery, think about me son as you squeeze each Blue neck!”
Written by Ray Cates RCates216@aol.com
Mailing address: 2505 NW Magnolia Ave. Ocala, Florida 34475
Fax number 1-352-629-1573 phone number: 1-352-629-8198
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