STAIRWAY TO HELL

 

STAIRWAY TO HELL

 

Angelina Maria Courdaban, the daughter of Don Jose Courdaban and a black woman, named Eliza, were taken by a raiding party to be sold at auction in America. They were purchased at a slave auction in Charlestown harbor and taken to the estate of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, a wealthy slave owner.

Session’s daughter, Betsy DeVos Sessions, for some unknown reason, secreted Angelina and her mother in the attic of the mansion for the past seventeen years. She could not abide slavery, but continued to live in the lap of luxury because of it.

The mansion was rapidly decaying from the incessant humidity of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was no problem to replace the mansion as Sessions had more than enough slaves to do the work, even if the sugar cane harvest had to be delayed.

 

 

 

 

 

Angelina knew she had to get out. Her mother had just died and it was a miracle that no one knew of the hiding place or Betsy’s supplying them with food, water and clothing, since 1840. She felt lucky to be alive, after seventeen years. Maybe her luck would hold up. Maybe she could avoid capture. Maybe she could avoid the lash.

She left the steps, barely skirting a fallen ceiling! A good omen?

She took her first steps outside into the sunlight that she had only seen through a tiny window in her attic sanctuary.

One of Session’s overseers spotted her immediately! He tore off her dress (one of a type wore by most slave owner’s wives), tied her to the whipping post and called the other slaves to watch the punishment, boasting that this is what happens when slaves do not follow the rules.

The whip made huge, bloody welts on Angelina’s back. After twenty lashes, she was cut down. Other slaves threw salt on her wounds. She was taken to one of the slave shacks and nursed, but to no avail. She died less than a day later.

Betsy DeVos, strangely, shed nary a tear. She went about her business as the oldest daughter of Sessions.

She never looked back…