" Last time Jamie down at the barns, Papa talk to him about Belle bein’ his real mama. Jamie get mad, say Papa don’t know what he talkin’ bout. Jamie say he a white boy. Papa say, ‘No, you a nigra, just like me.’ Jamie go runnin’ off, and now he don’t go down to the barns no more. He gettin’ too old for this, Abinia. And his mouth gettin’ too smart. It time he know he a nigra; he got to learn to work like one. "

― Kathleen Grissom , The Kitchen House