Savannah Affair Part 01
Prequel: Bo and Joshua
This story is entirely fictional--as any student of the history of the Civil War will attest. Warning: I have done only a little research to ensure the accuracy of the history and the geography. This is about people, not places, wars or events. All characters in this story are over 18 when the actions described take place. I understand that some readers shy away from black-white stories, particularly if they involve slavery. If that is you, you probably want to skip the Prequel, although the same issues will resurface thereafter. WARNING: non-consensual sex is depicted--which is undoubtedly historical. As of now about nine of the novella's parts have been written and need to be edited. © Copyright, 2025, Brunosden.
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Prequel....
It's 1841. Late summer. The first wail of a newborn from the owner's bedroom is heard late in the night. Beowulf Thomas Howell has been born and is yelling the first of his loud, throaty cries. Rosemae, the mother, is doing well, attended by several housemaids, one of whom is a seasoned midwife. The bedroom is in Howellwood, a stately plantation on thousands of acres, about half in wood, the other planted, on the Savannah River, about 100 miles north of Savannah, nearer to Augusta. It's a prosperous place, with hundreds of slaves, really a city unto itself with a large wharf for the loading of indigo and rice and the unloading of treasures from abroad. Life for the owner family is lush and pleasant. And the lusty cries of the baby belie the demanding, privileged, exciting life that he will to lead!
Boboy (as he was immediately dubbed by his Dad, Beauregard Howell) was the third boy and the sixth surviving child sired by the barrel-chested planter to his buxom wife of twenty years. Only one had died at birth. Bo was a "late" child, more than seven years younger than his nearest sib, a sister. A "mistake" Beau joked.
Beau was a giant of a man, in physique and character, with a voracious appetite for food, bourbon and sex--not necessarily in that order. A large beefy face, crowned with rusty hair topped a barrel chest and, absurdly spindly legs. He was "king" of his domain. Thus, he had countless bastard children, some still on the plantation, born to various attractive young female slaves. (He refused to use the lamb intestine condoms on the plantation claiming "his" folks were all disease-free, although he did so in town at the brothels. Besides babies born to his slaves were money in the bank.) Beau loved his wife, and she loved him. He was not present at the birth; men never were. Actually, he was in another room in bed with the newest young housegirl.
It was the custom of young "Southern Belle" brides to ignore their husband's sexual peccadilloes--provided they were only with women of color--or men. Neither was considered a threat to the marital union. No whoring around in the public halls of Augusta or Savannah with fallen white women (although he did it anyway). And certainly no affairs with other plantation wives (a condition, he was pleased o meet). As she aged, Rosemae expected some playing around, within limits. In fact, they longer slept in the same room.
Beau had slept (actually never "slept"--typically quick sexual rolls in the slave quarters or the "cot" he kept in the alcove of his office) with many of his more attractive female slaves and a good number of his better-looking young male bucks. There was one particular favorite whom he continued to bed for twenty years--Priscilla, a "house-slave" of some beauty and sexual talent. Priscilla had given birth to one of many of Beau's children (not with his wife), a boy, almost a year to the day before Boboy entered life. Unlike the other babies born on the plantation, at Priscilla's wheeling, Joshua had been kept on and not sold in his youth.
He had never become attached to one of the younger men, however. Way too dangerous. A man fucked more than a few times tended to become attached to the partner.
Rosemae knew that Beau had probably fucked Priscilla (she'd never use that word, but often thought it; never could she imagine him "making love" to a slave), but she knew that Priscilla had not asked for it or seduced him, and she liked the coffee-skinned woman. So she had kept Priscilla on in the plantation house--even after Joshua had been born. So there was already a nursery where Joshua had been unusually privileged to remain with his mother--even after he had been weaned. After Boboy's birth, Priscilla naturally became his nursemaid, even wet-nursing him for Rosemae. Thus, Priscilla's room was adjacent to the nursery. And she minded both boys religiously.
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