This is my great-grandma, Christina Levant Platt, at 100 years old, working in her garden. She was born into slavery. Her “owner,” the wife of the family, secretly taught her to read and write, which was very dangerous at the time. She learned to read the Bible.
Christina had 11 children, though she lost two. One of her sons became one of the first black attorneys in the U.S. She sent four of her sons to college in Boston, which was very unusual for that time.
She passed away five years before I was born, but I feel as if I knew her. My family says she would often say, “I put prayers on my children’s children’s heads,” and those prayers worked.
Christina was in Charleston, South Carolina, around April 12, 1861, during the first battle of the Civil War at Fort Sumter. She was working in the cotton fields and saw a man killed by a cannonball. She said the sky was black from the smoke.
As a young girl, she worked as a water carrier for the other slaves and acted as a lookout for the overseer on horseback. She would warn the other slaves when he was coming so they could quickly rise and return to working.
Later, she married a Native American man from the Santee Tribe named John C. Platt. After they were free, Christina made sure to take her children north so they could get a good education, as she knew they wouldn’t receive that in the south.
She lived to be 101 years old and passed away in 1944. She and her husband were the first black family to live in Medfield, Massachusetts.
I have so much respect for my great-grandmother. She gave me strength during my hardest times. Whenever I felt like I was having a tough day, I would think of her and it would help me push through.
Thank you for reading one story of many. 💜
– Brenda Russell