Free Second Daughter by Mildred Pitts; Walter

renters who claimed that they had paid the landlords and the landlords’ children more rent for the land than the land was worth. They were determined not to pay more. “We are paying rent under a system here,” the renters declared, “that was overthrown in England in the thirteenth century.”
    Sheriff Hogeboom had gone to a land auction that had been put off again and again and was further postponed because of the argument. As he started to leave, a shot was fired in the air. Some men, dressed and painted like Indians, suddenly appeared and followed the sheriff and his men. They fired more shots. His men ran, but the sheriff refused to spur his horse because he was a representative of the law and didn’t want to appear a coward. The men dressed like Indians soon left, but one named Arnold, the leader of the anti-renters, chased the sheriff and shot him in the heart.
    Mistress Anna fainted when she was told that her father’s last words as he fell from his horse were, “I am a dead man.” We were all upset and actually sorry for her. She wanted to go home, even though the journey was difficult and the funeral would have long been over by the time she arrived. Still she cried for the master please to let her go.
    The master grieved, too. But he knew that the border wars between Massachusetts and New York and between landlords and renters were dangerous and that the trip was long and hard. He did not want to risk taking the children on such a journey.
    About three months later, Bett showed another messenger into the master’s upstairs room. When she came down she told us, “The master is so sorry that he did not go with the mistress to Claverack. Her mother is dead from grief over Sheriff Hogeboom.”
    The mistress put all of her beautiful clothes away and dressed in black. Her face became thin; streaks of gray began to show in her hair. She moved like a ghost in the house that was still bustling with visitors coming and going to the meetings that were held upstairs. Besides that hustle and bustle, the children were lively and had lots of friends who were in and out of the house. It was Bett’s duty to take them to parties and pick the girls up from music lessons and John up from tutoring, and to see that they got to water picnics.
    Of the four children, I liked Mary, the oldest girl, the best. She had a sense of fairness and could see through the rage and tantrums of her mother. Knowing this, her mother ignored Mary, giving much undeserved attention to Hannah, who was so like herself—demanding, impatient, and often cruel to her sisters. I was also her target. Hannah delighted in telling her mother things about me that caused the mistress to go into rages.
    One day I came in from the field to find Hannah in the middle of the kitchen floor with mud from her head to her toes. She started screaming and the mistress came running into the room wanting to know what had happened.
    â€œShe put me in the water and made me sit there,” Hannah said, pointing at me. With her eyes tightly closed, her little mouth opened with earsplitting screams. The mistress grabbed a green stick and began beating me over the head and arms. Mary cried to her mother that I had not been there. Hannah had played in the mud after being warned not to. With this distraction, I was able to escape back into the field.
    Later Mary came to me and said, “Lizzie, I’m sorry. Hannah is a liar.”
    â€œIt’s not for you to be sorry, you’re just a child.” Then I remembered she was her mother’s child and said, “Thank you, Mary. You are a good girl.” She clung to me, her small arms around my waist, and I began to understand how my sister could let go and feel for some of them. Without the mistress knowing, Mary and I became friends.
    The talk of freedom among the slaves and free Africans did not stop. Josiah and Agrippa continued to petition the governing body. Then one