Indigo by Beverly Jenkins Page A

his eyes. "I—don't wear a scent."
    He leaned over and inhaled the sweet fragrance lingering against her trembling neck. "That isn't a scent?"
    Hester fought to speak in a calm tone. "It is vanilla."
    "Vanilla?"
    "Vanilla."
    "Vanilla that is placed in sweets?"
    "Yes. I don't see the value in wasting coin on real scents, but I am a woman and I do like to smell nice. So, I use vanilla, just as my aunt did."
    Hester had no idea what this interlude meant or where it might lead, but she was still shaking. He was a powerful presence and she could feel that power arching around the room like captured lightning. She stood in order to put distance between herself and the man on the cot.
    "I'll—bring you your supper later and go up to the meeting."
    He nodded, then watched her go.

Chapter 5
    As Hester drove her small buggy to the church for the meeting, she, like all other abolitionists, looked forward to the day when slavery would be abolished, thereby making the oft times secret work of the vigilance committees no longer necessary. Until then, committees like the one in Whittaker were desperately needed to provide the runaways with lodging, food, clothing, and medicine. Members also informed the former slaves of their legal rights, saw to the fugitives' establishment of a new life, gave direction, guidance, and in many instances secured small amounts of money and letters of introduction to potential employers.
    Vigilance groups existed from Maine to California. Some were large, others small. Some boasted members from a variety of races, while others, like the committee in Detroit, were all Black. Regardless of a committee's size or makeup, all fashioned themselves after one of the most dedicated committees of the abolitionist era, the New York Committee of Vigilance, founded in 1835 by a Black man named David Ruggles. Ruggles personally assisted the secret passage of hundreds of runaways to the quasi-free areas of the segregated north, one of the most prominent runaways being the great Frederick Douglass.
    To further the cause, Ruggles often visited the docks of New York to make certain slaves weren't being smuggled in on arriving ships. He went door to door in some of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods to inform domestic workers that under the laws of New York imported slaves were free after residing in the state for ninety days. Under his leadership runaways were invited to address the audiences at some of the New York committee meetings and relate their struggles for freedom.
    Mr. Ruggles eventually severed his ties to the New York group due to a problem with his eyesight, but continued to offer his personal assistance to those seeking freedom.
    Yet over twenty years later, slavery still fouled the land. Like the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Supreme Court decision denying Mr. Dred Scott's petition for freedom had been a blow to the cause of abolition. The court stated in part that because the men and women of the race had always been considered inferior, the race had no rights a White man was bound to respect. Slaves continued to escape however, despite the court's outrageous decree. Their refusal to remain chattel made the continued existence of the Vigilance Committees imperative.
    Like many of the other committees in the country, Whittaker's Vigilance Committee used a modified version of the Order's coded methods to communicate secretly. Bea Meldrum served as the area's messenger because her egg deliveries and doctoring took her all over the county. Hester had been alerted to this evening's emergency meeting, not by anything Bea had said, but by the color of the cloth in the egg basket Bea had left on the porch that morning, The cloth had been red, the standard color for a committee summons. The number written with paraffin on the shell of one of the eggs told the meeting's time.
    Hester could hear the voices of the choir rehearsing as she entered Whittaker's A.M.E. church. While the choir rehearsed in the