Outside of my hometown, the antebellum mansion at the old Mount Holly Plantation burned last night. Only the bricks remain. It was a truly beautiful place by all accounts, lovely in its decay. I regret that I never got around to paying a visit.
It was, of course, built by enslaved people, using bricks made by the enslaved. None of the mourning posts on the local Facebook feeds are saying much about that today. I wonder: what would the workmen have thought? Would they have been sorrowful, full of loss for their creation? Would they be quietly satisfied, pleased that Miss Anne could for once not have things all her way? Or would they be indifferent, only calculating on the work and suffering they would be put to for this?
L.T. Patridge 