It'll Never Happen Again

Book excerpt: Before the great depression started in 1929, times were hard for colored people in the south especially in large cities but not as much in rural areas. Most of the rural areas were littered with sharecroppers who were mostly holdovers from the slavery era and stayed on the land they were born. Most of them had never been any further than the nearest town close to where they lived. Three such families lived on land their families had farmed for years. The landowners were the Holcomb and Nobles and the three families that lived and farmed the land were the Carters, the Longs and the Isaacs. The Carter family was Granny Nettie Adams, her son-in-law, Abraham, his wife, Eve and three kids, the Long family, John Henry, his wife, Florence called ‘Flossie’ and their three kids and the Isaac family of four, William, his wife Cara and two kids. They all lived and worked as sharecroppers on the Holcomb and Nobles’ land just north of Denmark, South Carolina. On December fifteenth 1921, John Henry Long’s wife, ‘Flossie’, gave birth to their third child, a girl named June but ‘Flossie’ died shortly after giving birth due to complications. John Henry did the best he could to care for his three children and hired a neighbor’s daughter to care for his kids while he worked his land. She worked for him for over a year until she wanted to get married and leave Denmark. Initially, he would take the kids to the field with him and his oldest son, Bankston, who he called ‘Banks’, who was only seven, would watch the kids who were Mae Helen, five and the baby, who was barely walking, June and he called her ‘Lil Sis’. One day, Granny Nettie came to the fields to bring her son-in-law, ‘Abe’, his lunch and saw John Henry’s kids and offered to care for them along with her own three great grandkids. Her granddaughter, Eve, worked at the Holcomb’s house as the cook after her mother died in the winter of 1918. She was an only child since her mother died at age twenty three and her father left going to Charleston and never came back. Everyday before he went to the fields, John Henry would bring kids to the Carter house. This arrangement worked very well until the summer of 1923 when ‘Abe’ was killed in an farming accident. His mule kicked him in the head and he was drug with the plow. The news of his death devastated Eve and left her wondering how she, the kids and Granny Nettie were going to make it and be able to farm the land. Eve had loved ‘Abe’ since she first saw him in town at the general store when she was ten and married him when she turned sixteen. ‘Abe’s’ family lived on the other side of Denmark but shopped at the general store like most people in the area. After ‘Abe’s’ death, John Henry began to stay at the Carter’s when he came by to pick up his kids, have dinner and would flirt with Eve. At first, she didn’t acknowledge his flirting but after a long talk with Granny Nettie about John Henry’s flirting and her need for a husband to provide for her and her three kids, she gave in and married him in late 1924. It wasn’t about love because she said she could never love another man after ‘Abe’, it was just about the kids and both of their needs to support their kids. Eve decided to moved to John Henry’s house and Granny Nettie came with them to watch the kids during the day while he worked the fields and Eve continued to work at the Holcomb’s house. At first, the arrangement worked great until the spring of 1925 when John Henry made the boys go to the fields with him to work. Most days, the kids went to the Denmark School for Colored Children. Eve’s sons, Joshua, called ‘Josh’, and Daniel, called ‘Danny’ and John Henry’s son Bankston, called ‘Banks’ would go to the fields some days but John Henry began to make them stay out of school and began to treat Eve’s sons differently. He would beat them with his strap sometimes two or three times a week if they didn’t do what he told him to do in the