by Eryn Cardichon
Dear Hagar,
I’m writing to you hoping you’ll be able to read and understand this. I know that literacy is a rare skill to have in your time, and it may be hard to understand, but the year is currently 2025. You see, I was born in the early 2000s, 2006 to be exact, and it is currently eighteen years later. WAIT—do not crumple up this letter; I can prove that I am from the future. In a couple of months, President Polk will announce that gold has been found in California. This will cause an uproar and start the California Gold Rush. When that happens you can pick the letter back up.
In 2027, GRACE & GRAVITY will be edited and published by the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Submissions for Volume 12: Grace in Justice are open through November 15th.
Believe me now?
Look, I’m not writing this letter to frighten you, or as some sort of prank. I’m sending you this letter because I care about you and want to encourage you.
You may not know me, but I know about you, Hagar. I can’t tell you how or why but just understand that I know what your life has been like until now. My name is Eryn Cardichon, and I’m a Black girl in America. But my version of America is wildly different from your version. You are a free woman now, but you were born a slave on a plantation. Your mother Alice was a slave, which by birth made you one as well. However, there was so much more to her story that you may not know. Alice was born a free woman who ended up being a slave, and Rufus Weylin, your father, was her plantation master. I assume you were taken care of and raised by your paternal grandmother and great-aunt, so I’m sure you know more about your father than your mother. Your mother was a strong woman who had deep beliefs. She never liked anything holding her down, so when she was a slave she attempted to run away a couple of times, ultimately getting caught and punished. But she loved you. With all her heart and soul. She was the one who gave you your name. Although your father claimed to love your mother, he would push her to do things that she didn’t want to do and control her. One day he went too far and lied. He told her that she sold you and your brother. She couldn’t deal with the thought of living in this world without you. So she ended her life.
This isn’t to make you hate the idea you have in your head of your father or to make you mourn the loss of a mother you never knew.
It’s to tell you about love.
Whether or not you have it in your life now, I wanted you to know that you had it in your life at some point.
There’s one more person I feel I must tell you about. Her name was Dana. She’s the young lady who taught your brother how to read, and the woman who saved your father multiple times throughout his life. So I want you to talk to your brother, see if he remembers his tutor, and then I want you to talk to Nigel; yes, he was your father’s childhood friend but he also was a close ally of Dana’s. Ask him what really happened the night the Weylin mansion caught on fire. You need to hear Dana’s story from someone you trust, someone you can see, and not just through a letter. Through your parents’ history, you might be able to understand why you grew up the way you did.
I understand it’s not easy to be a Black girl in America since I am one, but being a Black girl in my time is completely different than it was in yours. Your father may have freed you, but you and I both know it wasn’t enough. I can’t imagine how hard it is to make a living when you cannot work. Seeing everything unfold with white supremacy and not being able to do anything about it, it’s discouraging. But I don’t want you to be discouraged and I want you to help those who feel like they can’t do anything about their situation. I won’t lie and tell you things will automatically get better, but if you continue to band people together and fight for equal opportunities, you will make a difference.
I told you earlier that your mother was strong. Well, you might have heard from Nigel or even your grandmother that she was stubborn. They’re mistaken.
She was determined. Your mother was born free but married a slave. She was determined to live a life with him in a world where he was free, so she ran away. She got caught and became a slave for trying to help one escape. Rufus bought her and she was determined to leave, determined to defy him. Until she had you and your brother. She begged for your father to set you free—which he did eventually—but when he didn’t immediately set you and your brother free, she ran away with you, determined to have her children grow up free from the chains of slavery. It was her life sacrifice that finally urged him to sign your free papers. You see, determination is a powerful thing and many times it’s disguised as something we call love. Alice could have run away years ago without you but because she loved you, she stayed with your father, gritted her teeth, and went to him each time he called for her. That was how strong her love was for you.
With time we will reap the rewards of the determination of our ancestors. I stand side by side with people of all colors, with the same amount of rights as me. I grew up with loving parents who each had jobs, I went to school among people of all colors as well. I have an education and am currently furthering it. I can do so many things because of that sacrifice and because of the love I have in my life. So again I want to encourage you to never give up hope. Band together. Once people work together, the tallest mountain in the world would be as easy as a molehill to get over.
In about twenty years, slavery will be abolished (I know… twenty years… I told you determination is a slow process). But that’s just the first milestone. So much more will change in the future.
Work with the people in your life, make friends you can trust, and be determined. You take after your mother, Alice, who lives inside you. Use her spirit to stay strong. Use the love she had for you. I believe in you and I hope that you will believe in me. No one can know about this letter though, as it could alter the future if the wrong person finds out about what’s to come. You need to burn it. Take the words I have written in this letter and imprint them in your mind. Never forget what I have told you. I wish you the best of luck and I pray that amid the darkness you will be reminded of this letter and see that light at the end of the tunnel because it is oh so bright.
Goodbye Hagar, and be safe.
With Love, Eryn Cardichon
Eryn Cardichon is a Howard University student studying chemistry. Although Eryn is studying in the science department, she has always had a special place in her heart for English and writing. Throughout her high school career, Eryn felt she had lost her writer’s voice since the curriculum her high school enforced focused on structured responses over creativity. Eryn is fond of this particular piece as she feels this piece, one of her first written in college, truly captures her voice. She hopes to continue to be able to write freely on the side as she pursues her studies.
