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Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons
creative writing
Context: The text you are about to read is based on the book Hang a Thousand trees with Ribbons and an activity that consisted on writing as if each one of the girls were Phillis Wheatley (an African girl in America) explaining her feelings after she knew that even though she learned to read and write, she won't be able to be free unless Nathaniel Wheatley (Phillis master), signed an important paper.
(Phillis grabs a sheet of paper and begins to write the workings of her mind)
Letter after letter, word after word, I see my writing flourish by the shy light of knowledge. The ink touches the paper, and I am me, the real me. When I write I have no face, no body, no hands, no feet; when I write I am just a soul, ethereal and free. My words grow wings, and suddenly the world around me bubbles away and I can breathe, laugh, cry and think the way I want to. How can I feel so free while writing, when the written word was brought to me by the nation that put me in chains?
A paper. A piece of paper. I almost laughed at how pathetic that sounded. I only needed one piece of paper to be free, as if the words I wrote, no matter with how much love and passion they were written, stood helpless next to the ones written xby my masters. I know white folk will always look down upon me, but Nathaniel? How can he be so cruel as to deceive me and tell me that learning to write will somehow help me? Is he playing with me? I feel betrayed…
Why wouldn’t he give me my freedom? Does he not know how happy it would make me? Maybe he doesn’t understand how much pain a slave endures, maybe he doesn’t know of the terrible journey we must go through to get to this bizarre land, maybe all the lessons he is taught by the reverend fail to show him that for his world to thrive, mine has to be mercilessly destroyed. I wish I could show Nathaniel what it is to be a slave, I wish he could understand the value that freedom holds when one does not have it. I wish he would understand that by wanting my freedom I do not want to leave him, I want to stay with him, but because I choose to do so and not because I have no other choice.
Now I wonder, should I tell Nathaniel all of this? He said he believes in the common man, but I am not sure if he meant slaves. If I don’t ask him, it would mean that I am not even trying to be free, which would be an immense disrespect to my people, my mother and to myself. On the other hand, if I do ask him, he might consider it an impertinence and feel insulted, or worse, he could sell me. What should I do?
(Phillis folds the sheet and places it in a drawer)
Oh Nathaniel, if only you could know how much I love you. Your name is the word that above all others has the power to fill my soul, and to destroy it.