Anita Wills second book, Pieces of the Quilt: The Mosaic of An African American Family is a Non-Fiction Narrative of African American History, It is available through Amazon.com, and will soon be available at retail stores, Alibris and Books in Print.  The book is written from a Historical and Genealogical perspective, and weaves together the lives and times of Ms. Wills ancestors. This entry was submitted by Ms. Wills who has graciously allowed us to publish this excerpt.

One of the ancestors chronicled in Pieces of the Quilt, is Great-Great Grandmother Leah Ruth-Warner, who was born in Guinea West Africa, in 1818. She was kidnapped and enslaved in 1830, by Dutch Traders (according to her oral testimony). She stated that they were taken five miles down the coast and held on a Dutch Ship. The year was 1830 and selling African Slaves was against the law. The traders got around the law by taking their cargo to Bermuda to be seasoned. Leah and the others were eventually taken to South Carolina and sold. Leah was purchased by Robert Ruth of Beaufort District South Carolina. He was not a large Plantation owner, and had no more than seven slaves. By the 1850 most of the slaves he owned belonged to Leah. She had several children by him, and by her husband Jack Warner. When Leah became hard to handle, she was sold away from her children, to Hilton Head SC. Her son Samuel (my Great Grandfather), never forgot the image of his mother on the Auction Block.

The light-skinned children of Leah were sold to Savannah Georgia as house servants. Amazingly Leah and her husband Jack were sold together, along with their children Isabella and Georgy.

From 1857 until the end of the Civil War Leah had no idea where her children were. During the Civil War Great Grandfather, Samuel Ruth was rescued by the 54th Massachusetts and taken North. The other children Daniel and Emma, remained in Savannah. After the war, they were house servants to the Dillion Family there. Daniel was attending school and Emma was learning Housekeeping.

Leah remained with Jack until his death, and the death of her son Georgy (she said he was killed). By that time their daughter Isabella was in Savannah, Georgia and married. Leahs son Samuel Ruth located her about 1889, and took her to his home in Pennsylvania. By that time he was a prominent farmer there. She spent her waning years telling the Grandchildren about her life in Guinea, and how she wanted to go there. She died peacefully at the age of 97 in 1915.

Leah told stories that had a touch of sarcasm and wisdom in them. One of the stories she told was of Mr. Fields the Overseer of the Plantation. She said that every morning as she headed for the field, he would run after her and the others on his horse. He used a whip to hurry them along, and she often felt the sting of the whip on her back.

When slavery ended, Leah asked, does that mean Fields can no longer whip us? He had been coming out following them on his horse and submitting them to his whip. She was told no, he no longer could whip them, they were free. She waited until the next morning and when Fields came after her on the horse she stopped and turn around. She grabbed the whip and pulled and Fields fell on the ground. He belonged to Leah, as she whipped him almost to death. She was pulled off of him, by her fellow ex-slaves. That was the last time they saw Fields.
 

This was my Great-Great Grandmother, who was known as a woman who was sent to the fields and worked harder than the men. She may have bowed, but she did not break. At the age of ninety-seven, she sat on her front porch closed her eyes, and joined the ancestors.