8/26/2023 0 Comments Green flakeSoon after Brigham Young discreetly declined Lyman's request, Green and Martha conceived their first child, Abraham, who would soon be followed by a daughter, Lucinda. Both Green Flake and Martha worked for the Crosby family until Martha's master decided they had paid "a fair price for a colored girl" (Ronald Coleman's "History of Blacks in Utah," 39). Green was married by this time, though his wife, Martha Crosby, was also considered a slave. In fact, Young had given the former slave several acres of land in the Cottonwood area. Brigham Young replied that he didn't know where Green Flake was. To be clear, this assumed that Green Flake was still a slave and asked that he be sold and his price sent to Agnes. A word from you on this subject would be received a favor. Williams told me if he could, he would purchase the negro and pay for him. Her health is also very delicate health and if she could realize something from this quarter it would be a benefit to her. She has a family on her hands for which to provide. Sister Agnes Flake wishes me to inquire of you if there is any chance for her to receive any help by way of the negro man she left when she came here. Agnes had followed him to San Bernardino, but found only poverty there. Her husband had been killed in California by a mule kick. Clearly, Green was considered a slave when Brigham Young received a letter from Amasa Lyman, speaking for the widow Agnes Love Flake. Other members of the black side of the Flake family claim that Brigham Young emancipated their ancestor in 1854. Lucile Perkins Bankhead, a great-granddaughter of Green Flake, says in her oral history (recorded for BYU's Charles Redd Center by Alan Cherry) that Green never was freed. Green was gifted to James, William’s son, as a wedding present in the 1840’s when Green was in his early teens. On January 6, 1828, Green Flake was born into slavery on the William Jordan Flake Plantation in North Carolina. We ourselves are constantly progressing in understanding our own reactions to the world around us, our relationships, our impulses, our inner conflicts and yearnings. Image of Green Flake from Utah State History’s Peoples of Utah Photograph Collection, 1975-1977. Though we may be close enough to them to have similar thoughts and even matching days, we cannot enter their minds, we cannot capture their pasts, we cannot define or possess them. At some point in our eternal maturing, we realize that we can never really know another person, even those with whom we are most closely associated. The answer is that each of us is a unique mystery. Who, then, would be able to tell her story truthfully? Her counselor? Her family? Her boyfriend? Nobody? She would distort it just as she distorted the image she saw in the mirror. Read earlier posts:Ī father of an anorexic daughter said that she, caught in the bondage of her disease, was the least able to tell her own story. Editor's Note: This is the fourth post in a series telling the stories of significant black Mormons in history. Based on t he true story of enslaved pioneer and early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Green Flake, the film explores the courageous story of faith.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |