Quash assumed that she was being dismissed. She didn’t lift her eyes from the floor or speak, but nodded her head, moved through the door, and returned to her cabin. As she left, she heard raised voices behind her. She felt better the next week, when Perkins directed that all slaves receive their three pounds of pork.

There was a general knowledge on the plantations that some of the young women, especially those who did housework, would be expected to have sex with owners or their grown sons. In return, some favors would usually be granted—either extra food, better living quarters, or perhaps even a trinket or two. Young Singleton, however, had never been known to take advantage of this opportunity, either before or after his father’s death. Even Quash, who would be attractive to a man of any race, never felt that he wanted her.

After her whipping in Perkins’s cabin, she was consoled by Big William, and lay several times with him, usually in a storage shed behind the blacksmith shop. She was attracted to him but realized that he would not have a permanent relationship with her. Although still childless, he and his wife had been together for only a year and were believed to be close and compatible. There would not have been any real stigma if Quash had delivered a child, but she was relieved that she did not become pregnant.

One afternoon, while the Singletons were visiting in Savannah, she was thumbing through a book in the library and glanced up to see Perkins watching her. She pretended to be dusting the bookshelf, then arranged the books neatly and turned to leave the room. He was blocking the door, and she could only stop and wait for him to move. He leered at her and said, “You trying to pretend you know how to read?”

She replied, in the Gullah dialect, that she was just cleaning the house.

He looked at her for a few moments. “You come by my house when you leave here.”

She looked down at the floor and didn’t respond, and he turned and left the room. Quash considered her plight. It was inconceivable that she could disobey directly an order from the overseer, and she doubted that she should consult them even if her mistress or Big William were available. She worked later than usual and then walked down the path. Perkins was in a chair on the porch, and when she looked at him he beckoned her toward him. By the time she got there, he had gone inside, leaving the door open. She heard him say, “Come on in,” and proceeded into the cabin. He shut the door, and they faced each other. She noticed the short whip in his right hand.

She finally asked, “What you want wid me?”