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Beyond the Rim: From Slavery to Redemption in Rappahannock County, Virginia

by James D. Russell

A vivid story of a Virginia slave woman, lovingly told by her great-grandson

In a unique work of black history with the vivid narrative quality of a historical novel, James D. Russell re-creates the remarkable life of his great- grandmother, a Virginia slave women, in Blackwater Publications’ new edition of Beyond the Rim: From Slavery to Redemption in Rappahannock County, Virginia.

The book tells the story of Caroline Terry—known as “Sis-tah Cah-line” to her now 84-year-old great- grandson—who served as a slave on plantations in Rappahannock and Culpeper counties in Virginia, witnessed the Civil War, and lived to age 108 as a free woman in 20th Century America. As a boy, the author heard this feisty, independent woman relate the stories of her slavery days, plantation life, the Civil War and emancipation. In Beyond the Rim, Russell re-creates the life that his great-grandmother lived, and tells his own story of growing up during the 1920s and 1930s in the segregated society of old Virginia.

Beyond the Rim preserves the memories of a Virginia slave woman as told to the young boy who sat at her table and bedside when she was more than 100 years old. It is a gripping narrative told with humor and insight by a great- grandson who remembers a voice from the past.

“It was my good fortune to have a first-hand chance to listen to her stories of plantation days,” Russell said. “The important thing to me is that I listened to these stories in person and I touched the hand of history.” He calls his book “one of the blessings of longevity,” for it was only because his great grandmother lived to age 108, and that he has lived to his 80s, that he was able to become the story-telling link between such distant generations.

Russell began jotting down stories told by Caroline Terry about ten years ago, hoping some day to get them published. But in a sense the book began more than 60 years ago when young James, then in high school, published a poem he wrote about his slave ancestor in the high school newspaper. It’s been a work-in-progress ever since.

Russell’s great-grandmother led a remarkable life. Born a slave in 1833, she worked as a house servant for at least two masters in Rappahannock County. She was a young woman of 18 years when the Civil War broke out, and she told James about an incident in which she was nearly killed by a Union soldier.

A squad of blue-coated troopers stopped at the plantation one afternoon looking for food and a place to rest. After eating, one Yankee lieutenant began showing off, dancing along the rocky edge of a lily pond, hoping to impress the young ladies present. One rock came loose, and into the pond the lieutenant plunged. When he came up drenched and sputtering, he saw everyone laughing, including a black slave girl. Furious at being laughed at by a black woman, he drew his pistol and pointed at her, with a curse. Only intervention by the young white ladies and plantation master prevented the angry Yankee from ending Caroline Terry’s life then.

One of the relics that James Russell cherishes from his great grandmother is a Colt revolver of the type carried by Union cavalry troopers. Caroline Terry picked up this pistol on a battlefield when she and other local slaves were pressed into service to bury the dead soldiers after a fight. Russell believes she found the handgun on the battlefield of Brandy Station, near Culpeper, where the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War occurred on June 9, 1863. She hid the pistol for decades and passed it on to her great-grandson.

Russell tells these and other tales in his book, which is a blend of recorded history, oral history, family legend and Russell’s own style of dramatizing events as would be done in historical fiction. It includes numerous photographs, both historical and contemporary, of people and places in Rappahannock County that are featured in the book. It also includes a chapter on Russell’s memories of growing up in Sperryville, where he attended a one-room school for “colored” children. His memories span the days from his most memorable meeting with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to his near-brush with death in World War II.

The title of the book is taken from a phrase used by the slaves, who were not permitted to go “beyond the rim,” meaning the boundaries of the plantation. The slaves yearned to go “beyond the rim” and speculated what life would be like out there in the free world. Caroline Terry finally got her chance to live “beyond the rim” after the Civil War, when slavery was abolished. She settled in Sperryville, a small village in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where she lived a quiet life near several of her six children. She died in 1941 at age 108, and is buried only a mile or so from her home at the old Sperryville “colored cemetery” on the edge of the village.

Beyond the Rim is a 110-page soft-cover book with 15 photos, priced at $14.95. ISBN #0976452812. Author-signed copies are available by request.

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