“There she lay in the parlor, her face as calm as if she had never known the harshness of brutal guardians, the agony of poison, the terrible pangs of dissolution. Death had at last given her peace, the peace which passeth understanding.”
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“There she lay in the parlor, her face as calm as if she had never known the harshness of brutal guardians, the agony of poison, the terrible pangs of dissolution. Death had at last given her peace, the peace which passeth understanding.”
December 11, 1899 dawned gray and cold, rain blowing in waves with the winds up Cherry Street. Agnes Willis spent the day at work as a “scrub woman,” or cleaner, before meeting up with Gilbert Farmer and returning with him to her Cherry Street tenement. They took supper with the neighbors. A blade was needed to cut the chicken and Gilbert offered up his knife, a folding dirk. Its edge glittered.
Sources:
Guyette, Elise A. Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburgh, 1790-1890. University Press of New England, 2010.
Williamson, Jane. “African Americans in Addison County, Charlotte, and Hinesburgh, Vermont, 1790–1860.” Vermont History Vol. 78 No. 1: 15-42, 2010.
Whitfield, Harvey Amani. “African Americans in Burlington, Vermont, 1880–1900.” Vermont History Vol. 75, No. 2: 101-123, 2007.
These Dark Mountains
“There she lay in the parlor, her face as calm as if she had never known the harshness of brutal guardians, the agony of poison, the terrible pangs of dissolution. Death had at last given her peace, the peace which passeth understanding.”
