This is a story of a house slave of a very prosperous plantation in Charleston, South Carolina. Not just any house slave, a mulatto house slave.
The Edwards family has made their profit and fame off of their well established plantation for generations. Even the slaves had worked for generations at the plantation.
In 1825, Joseph Edwards inherited the plantation after his father had died. He later married a young woman of high class named Elizabeth. She gave birth to her eldest son Charles and two years later she bore another son named Nicholas.
They were both very charming but many things seperated them from each other. Charles was always a more aggressive child than Nicholas. Always waiting to pick a fight. Nicholas however, had a kind and gentle heart while Charles had tended to be quite cold.
As kids, Nicholas and Charles had no friends. For they were home schooled and didn't have time to make friends. Their father realized Nicholas had wanted someone to play with while Charles was always learning, striving for perfection.
One day Joseph had been buying slaves off an old business partner. Joseph noticed a little girl with sun-kissed skin, loose Brown curls, and big green eyes playfully running around the fields with some of the other children. She seemed to be no older than Nicholas. Joseph learned that she was the child of an affair between one of his partner's female slaves and a military man who had been shot in combat. From what little his business partner had told him, he learned her father was a prominent man before his death but his name was unknown.
Joseph bought her off him for a pretty penny and so she became the boys' friend till the age she would be able to work in the house and serve the family.
Charles would always tease her for her birth; following all the rumors he had heard about children like her who were conceived from an affair. He would push her, kick her, hit her and anything else that would make her scared of him and embarrassed of herself. Nicholas had always been their to protect her from him as much as he could, even at a young age.
This girl, besides her troubles, ends up having a great story to be told. Her name was Janae.