Eliza's Window

Hello friends,

I am taking a break between Valentine's Day cards to share something that so profoundly touched my heart that I knew I had to try and translate what I saw through my camera lens to paper. 

Last week my husband and I went to Middleton Place.   Middleton Place is an 18th century rice plantation and National Historic Landmark comprising 65 acres of America's oldest landscaped gardens, the Middleton Place House Museum and the Plantation Stableyards.   The gardens reflect the elegant symmetry of 17th century European design.   From 1678 when Edward Middleton settled in Charlestowne until the end of the Civil War the Middleton family owned 19 working plantations encompassing some 63,000 acres.  The Middleton's also owned more than 3,500 slaves to run those plantations over a 187 year period.

Meet Eliza Leach

(1891 - 1986)

Eliza Leach was a garden worker for 40 of her years before cooking in the Middleton Place Restaurant.  She was the last to live in the cabin now known as Eliza's House.  She lived as her predecessors before her.  She continue to chop her own wood for the fire and carry her water from the well.   A woman of spirit and true grit I'm sure.  It is unclear to me at this time whether Eliza was brought to America as a slave or if she had been born on the Middleton Place Plantation to slave parents.  What is clear is how profound Eliza's House affected my sensibilities.  I photographed the cabin and rooms but kept coming back to the sober and austere room that was Eliza's sleeping quarters.  A small wooden bed with probably some sort of mattress (maybe flour sack cloth filled with chicken feathers) and a quilt.  A wooden cross hung sideways above the bed.  A small wooden chair in the corner given by the lady of the Middleton.  Pegs on the wall to hang clothes and a small dresser.  I stood there by myself looking through one window and out the other - as if looking through a soul.  What kept Eliza at Middleton Place once she was free?  Was it familiarity, security, a love for the people of Middleton who became her family?  Maybe a little of all.  I just don't know.  I don't know if she was married or had children.   What did she do in the cool of the evenings.  Did she look out this window and dream, or did she just go about her business stoically.  I feel certain she was a spiritual person.  And I'd like to think there were a lot of prayers said as she sat in the wooden chair by the window.  

Eliza's Window

And I'm pretty sure at age 95 when she passed that the Lord took her by the hand and lead her home to freedom.   Well done good and faithful servant.

Homeward Bound

I spent the entire day on the grounds of Middleton Place soaking in as much as I could.  On the following Monday I began to sketch the window from my photograph thinking in terms of a mixed media piece.  But after creating the piece and photographing it I was able to see what I really wanted to convey.  I wanted people to see beyond the obvious, to see through a different lens. 

Eliza's Window

Have a lovely weekend

Sincerely,

Susie ~