"Tonight, we present a landmark in television entertainment." "Roots. "The true story" Alex Haley uncovered  in his 12-year search across seven generations of his ancestry." "After two years of production, we present this saga..." ""... in an epic motion picture:" Roots." "The current best-selling novel is the television event of the year." " From primitive Africa to the South..." " Sold." "...Roots "sweeps across a young" America bursting with the dreams  joys and hardships of a vibrant country and people  through the years of slavery  the Civil War..." " Are we gonna whup them Yankees?" " Yeah!" "... reconstruction  and the struggle to survive." "We want you, nigger." "A film spanning more than 100 years." "Generation to generation." "Continent to continent." "Slavery to freedom." "Hear me, oh, African." "The flesh of your flesh has come to freedom." "We are free." "Roots. "Starring:"" "Now, we are proud to present the triumph of an American family." "Roots." "Omoro!" "We have a very strong son." "Being born is hard work." "We will give him a very good life." "We've given him life." "Good or not good, that is for Allah to say." " What do you call him?" " We call him baby boy." "We will call him that until his father chooses a name for him eight days from today." " Peace be unto you." " And unto you, brother." " You are the most important man here." " That is true." "Tell me." "You know about these things." "Should a child be named after a person or a thing?" "There are no rules." "Either way he will take on attributes of that name." "A person or a thing?" "It shall be for you to choose." "I hope, Brima Cesay, that you won't be offended if I say that you have helped very little." "Omoro, do you believe your wife has been faithful to you?" "Brima, why, yes!" "I know she has." "Then you are truly the father of the child?" "If the child is yours, so is the problem." "I have lessons I must teach." "Kunta Kinte." "Behold the only thing greater than yourself." "Three years at the helm of the "Mary" "Rose." Impressive, Captain Davies." "Thanks, Mr. Vilars." "May I ask why you left the "Mary Rose"?" "The ship was sold to another owner, who refused to honor my contract." "As simple as that?" "A man keeps his word or he does not." "They did not." "There was nothing to say." "Captain, your credentials are fine." "The best I've seen." "Good enough to lay any doubts to rest." "Captain Davies your vessel, sir." "The "Lord Ligonier"?" " Yes." "She'll be ready by month's end." " Her cargo?" "Tobacco, from here to England hardware of various sorts from England to Gambia there to pick up available spices." "What need of the hardware?" "Our main cargo will consist of slaves." "We'll be taking on slaves." "I see." "Welcome aboard." "Kunta Kinte, Kunta Kinte!" "Come finish your food." " But, I'm all..." " No, you are not." "Come finish it." "Yes, Mother." "How is the she-goat?" "Her belly is large." "She'll have the kid soon." "Before the next moon." "Maybe twins." "If she had twins, you would find some way to take the credit." "My breakfast bowl is empty now." "Feed the goats." " All right." " Take care." "Yes, I will." "He works well with our goats." "I know." "You might tell him so." "He tells himself often enough." "He's 15 rains." "All boys of 15 rains have a partnership with impatience." "That will pass." "As quickly as yours passed, Omoro?" "Kunta, it is so." "I know it is absolutely so." "If you know then, how are we taken to manhood training?" "A hood is placed over a boy's head." "Then he is taken to the secret place of manhood." "When he returns he knows everything men must know." "And his foto is like that of a man's." "His foto?" "The foto of a man and that of a child are not the same, you know." "But do you know how this difference gets done?" "There is cutting and blood." "The she-goat!" "Kunta!" "Come back!" "Can I help?" "I must do it." "Father." "The she-goat?" "Yes, Father." "There was a leopard." " You're not harmed?" " No." "I drove it off, but..." "How did you drive it off?" "All you have is a slingshot." "That's what I used." " There is much you have to learn." " Yes, my father." "The first thing is that all men make mistakes." "I lost a goat to a lion when I was your age." "This I received from the lion, and I learned." "Now you must learn from this." "Never run toward any dangerous animal." "Never." "Do you understand me?" " Yes, Papa." " You said?" " Yes, Father." " Good." "Then that is all that needs to be said on this matter." "Don't forget to bring firewood home." "No, Father." "I will not forget." "We took on 250 pair of wrist shackles." "Two hundred and fifty, yes." "Go on." "Same number of neck rings." "Two hundred and fifty neck rings." " Chains and shackles to outfit." " Yes." " Two dozen thumbscrews." " Thumbscrews?" "Are those necessary?" "They have an advantage." "If you're looking to punish a nigger that's one way of doing it without damaging the goods." "Have you ever seen a thumb after a thumbscrew's been used?" "Yes, sir." "Many a times." "But a comely nigger bitch is rarely bought for the way her thumbs look." "Thumbscrews, two dozen." "Last item." "Two branding irons marked double "L" for the "Lord Ligonier."" "Aye, captain." "Necessary." "Weigh anchor tomorrow?" "No." "We'll stay dockside for two more days." "I prefer to set sail on the Sabbath." "Seems the Christian thing to do." "Aye, sir." "Whatever you say." "Thank you, sir." "Thank you, Mr. Slater." " Do you know what Sitafa said today?" " How would I?" "He said that some have heard axes in the woods." "Some think it's the white toubob." "You know what I think?" "I think work's being done in the place for manhood training." "That's possible." "Do you think I'm right?" "Women do not know of such things." "I do not think women should be speaking of such things." "Kunta." "You have been a very good boy." "I want you to know that." "A very good boy." "Our boy has just left." "A man will return." "Don't fight, boy." "Come on." "This way." "You must go." "Quiet!" "Face this way." "Hoods off!" "I am the Kintango." "Kintango." "As children must not anger their fathers, you must not anger Kintango." "As dry grass does not challenge the fire, you will not challenge me." "You will do everything I tell you to do." "You will do it when I tell you, for as long as I tell you to do it." "I am the Kintango!" "Children left Juffure village, if men are to return." "You must arrest your fears for a fearful person is a weak person and a weak person is a danger to his family to his village and to his tribe." "If any are unable to become men you'll be treated forever as children by your families, by all in the village." "You will never be allowed to marry for your offspring will be weak and unworthy of our people." "I won't permit you to be unworthy." "I think he's trying to make us afraid." " They do not have to try anymore." " I'm not afraid." "What is your name?" "Kunta Kinte." "Kunta Kinte." "Yes, sir." "Sit." "If there was a tribal war and the enemy was nearly surrounded what should be done next?" "We will fully surround the enemy." "No." "The goal of war is not to kill." "The goal of war is to win." "By surrounding the enemy, you force him only to fight harder." "If you leave him an escape route he will leave and less blood will be spilled on both sides." "For a warrior of the Mandinka, courage is not enough." "But, sir." "Won't the enemy attack you again?" "It is impossible to kill an enemy." "You may kill a man, but his son is your new enemy." "A warrior respects another warrior, even when he is his enemy." "A warrior kills only to protect his family or to avoid being a slave." "We believe not in death, but in life and there is no object more valuable than a man's life." "The way of the Mandinka is not easy but it is best." "Everything all right, sir?" "Yes, Mr. Slater." "Everything seems fine." "I was checking to see if all is in readiness down here." "Everything's ready, sir." "Make no mistake about that." "How many men do you think we'll be able to fit in here?" "Begging the captain's pardon we'll be taking on women as well as men." "Women take up less space than the bucks." "What you have to estimate is how many women to how many men." "There's a certain mix that's the most efficient and profitable, sir." "How many, Mr. Slater?" "A hundred and seventy, more or less." "Yes, sir." "Thank you." "Tell me, Mr. Slater how many voyages like this one have you made?" "Oh, my, sir, that's a poser now." "I'd say... 18." "Eighteen!" "That's 17 more than I've made, so I would imagine that below decks, you're the expert." "That's very kind of you, captain." "What are they like the blacks?" "They're just a different kind of breed, sir." "A man breeds a dog for hunting and breeds another sort of dog for his family." "Blacks are slow-minded but strong." "They're made for slavery like you're made to run this ship." "The natural order of things, eh?" "Yes." "Yes, I could understand that, I suppose." "It's good for them, us taking them like that." "They're better off for it, sir." "I'm not sure I understand that part, Mr. Slater." "For one thing, there's Christianity." "We're bringing them to a Christian land." "That's better for them than the heathen Allah they got now." "That's the first thing." "Second is we're saving them from being eaten by their own kind." "They do that, you know." "Cannibals, all of them." "As I said before, Mr. Slater below decks, you're the expert." " I'll get us there and back." " That's good." "I'll keep as many alive as can be kept alive." "Well, then we'll both be doing our job, Mr. Slater." "Surely that's as it should be." "Aye, aye, captain." "You leave the cargo to me." "I speak their language, you might say." "Their language?" "So to speak." "They have no language..." "No need of it." "Just grunts and groans." "Ability to wrestle is ability to uphold the honor of your village." "It is a test of strength." "The stronger you are, the more honor to your people." "You learn to shoot a bow by watching." "You learn to track prey by listening to hunters." "But there is only one way to learn to wrestle and that is to do it." "Who will be first?" "Kunta Kinte." "Very well." "Who will be next?" "And now who will be next?" "I'm not strong or brave enough to be a man." "We're all strong enough." "We will all be men." "You will see." "Kunta Kinte. ...a panther has courage." "So does a wart hog." "Which kind of courage should a man have?" "The best kind." "If it is for certain that you are not yet a man and that is for certain then you are certainly not a philosopher." ""The best kind" is not an answer, Kunta Kinte." " Well, a wart hog's courage." " Why?" "A wart hog never retreats or gives up." " Hunters admire the wart hog's courage." " That's right." " They say a wart hog is very brave." " That's right." "And all the hunters usually end up killing that wart hog." "They all usually end up eating that brave wart hog." "I should have given up when we were wrestling?" "We were not wrestling." "I was wrestling." "You were charging and flying and landing." "You were the wart hog, Kunta Kinte." "Thank you for teaching me these things." "You may go." " Thank you." " You already thanked me." "Oh, yes, sir." "Kunta Kinte." "I can teach you many things, but I cannot teach you courage." "Not even a wart hog's courage." "That is something you will take with you wherever you go." "What did he say?" "He wanted me to tell him a few things about wrestling." "Land ho!" "Where away?" "Three points off the port bow, sir!" " Congratulations, sir." " Thank you, Mr. Slater." "Africa." "Kunta Kinte, here is your task." "You are to leave this camp and catch a bird." "Not kill the bird, mind you, but catch it  and return with it alive and well." "Ow!" "Wait!" " Look what you did!" " Sorry!" " I didn't mean to..." " Father!" "Father!" "But, sir, I am a Mandinka warrior!" "I no think you Mandinka warrior." "Not yet." "I'm training to be a warrior and I'm assigned..." "To speak to your elders without giving your name?" "No." "I am Kunta Kinte, a Mandingo, from the village of Juffure." "Peace to you, Kunta." "I am Kadi Touray." "I am traveling with my family to Kerewan." "Is it far?" "I have been assigned to catch a bird without using a weapon and..." "And to knock over my midday meal and not apologize to my daughter?" "No, I have been assigned to..." "Kunta Kinte, my daughter, Fanta." " Peace to you." " Peace to you, Kunta Kinte." "My daughter that you were going to apologize to...?" "I'm sorry for not apologizing louder when you hit me." "It's one day to Kerewan." " Peace to you." " Peace to you always." "Peace to you, warrior." "I hope you catch your bird." "Keep moving!" "Go on, move!" "Move!" "Damn it!" "Kunta Kinte, are you to be a child forever?" "You were sent to catch a bird." "Did you forget?" "I did not forget." "Then you decided to disobey..." "I saw white men." "What did you say?" "I said, I saw white men." "Slater!" "It's been six months." "How are you?" "Older but not wiser, Mr. Gardener." "Meet Captain Davies." "Captain, this is Mr. Gardener." "Bring any rum?" "Yes." "Fine, let's talk." "To your health, captain." "A welcome to Africa, you see." "Thank you, Mr. Gardener." "Very kind of you." "Now then, captain can you tell me how many blacks your vessel will hold?" "One hundred and seventy." "One hundred and seventy?" "You people think this is easy to do." "It ain't." "There's ships slaving everywhere." "Competition the likes of which you ain't never seen." "If I can't catch enough blacks I buy them from their own chiefs, and they're pricey." "I have neither time nor temperament to hear your price-raising maneuvers." "Moneys will be discussed later." "The question now is, can you capture or buy 170 healthy blacks and deliver them to my ship?" "I'll capture some." "I'll buy some, I'll fill your hold." "I'll deliver." "For the rest of your lives, you must be on guard against white toubob and their black traitors." "Listen closely to me and do as I say or you may be stolen and taken to a place outside our world forever." "Never be alone when you can help it." "Never be out at night when you can help it." "And if you are alone, always keep away from any high weeds or bushes." "If ever you see much smoke away from any village it is the white man's fires, which are always too big." "And when you are close to where he was his scent remains in the air." "It is a smell like a wet chicken." "And most importantly, remember that Kunta Kinte saw the white man less than two days' walk from where we are now." "The white man is here." "There now remains but one more test on the path to manhood." "It has to do with your fotos." "You have seen that a man's foto and a child's foto are not the same." "This change will be made in our traditional way by cutting." "Hold out your fotos." "This paste takes away the feeling, so there will be less pain." "This thing to be done also was done to us and our forefathers so that you will also become, all of us, men together." "You will soon return as men to your homes and to your farms and in time you will marry and life everlasting will spring from your loins." "Which of you will speak to be first?" "I have your things all packed for you." "You are a man now, and a man must have his own hut." " You cannot stay with us now." " I know that." "Yes." "Your things are inside." "Here is your spoon and bowl and cup as well as your sleeping mat." "Ah, sleeping mat..." "Now that there is room in this corner your father will build a shelf for my needles and threads so that your little brother will not lose what I need, and..." "Your father built a hut for you." "It is next to Brima Cesay." " I will find it." " And you will thank your father." "A woman should not tell a man what to do." "Excuse me." "Here are your things." "Thank you." "Grandmother, peace unto you!" "What are you doing?" "Warrior!" "Hunter!" "You were a dirty- bottomed baby when I first saw you!" "When you forget that, I'll remind you again!" "You can grow as tall as a tree, I will still be your grandmother!" "And you will still respect me, do you hear me?" "I hear you." "And do you understand that you do not know everything cannot do everything and that Allah is still considered greater than you?" "I understand that, yes." "That's good." "But now that you are a man what will you do?" "Sit under that tree with the other men and make important decisions?" " Is that it?" " I do not yet know." "Well, while you are waiting to see there is a good thing you can do for your mother." "There were tears when you were away." "There was sadness, Kunta." "She mentioned building a shelf but said Father would do that." "What about Lamin, your baby brother?" "Is there something you can give him?" "A gift for him would touch your mother." "Do you think he would like a drum?" "Oh, I know he would." "Good." "I'll make a drum for my brother." "Tomorrow I will hunt for a log to make such a drum." "Again!" "Get back in line!" "Get in there!" "Get in there!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" "Come on, move!" "Come on!" "Get in there!" "Move!" "Put more irons in that fire!" "Move!" "Come on!" " Next!" " Get in there!" "A week or two more, sir." "Unless you wait to carry 200." "I expressed my wish." "Aye, that you did, sir." "It's all a matter of philosophy." " Philosophy?" " Aye, sir." "It's a question of loose or tight pack." "If we used tight pack, we'd pack them in laying on their sides like they was silver spoons, to get 14-inch shelf space to a nigger." "We can carry 200 of them." "How many will we have left alive, by your reckoning?" "That's hard to say." "More will die but we start with more." "Well, it's my responsibility, Mr. Slater." " A hundred seventy is enough." " Aye, sir." "Some agree." "Loose pack has its point." "Better chance of bringing more through the passage." "Mr. Slater." "Is there another cask of rum about?" "I'm sure there is." "I'll see to it." "I thought you didn't drink, sir." "I have done many things on this voyage that I've never done before." "Kunta Kinte." "Omoro!" "My son." "Kunta!" "Come on." "Stay in line, let's go." "You heard him, let's go." "Move, move!" "Come on, move." "Yeah, move them." "Move." "Bring them all over here." "Step along now, step along." "Come on, in you go, in you go." "Come on." "All right, lock it up." "Kunta Kinte." "Your family?" "My family is well." "I know they are." " Your family is well?" " They'll be coming after us." "I know they will be." "Only you were taken?" "It was nighttime but I am sure my father fought them off." "You saw my father." "He is a very great man." "A very great warrior." "Were there many who raided your camp?" "Yes." "Did you hear your father cry out?" "Did he call your name?" "Did he just cry out?" "He just cried out." "You still have two sons, Binta." "But now one is forever outside your embrace." "Forever outside of us all." "Allah!" "Allah!" " Lay aloft!" "Check the topsail." " Aye, sir." "Hands to the braces handsomely, handsomely." "Aye, sir." "Topsail secure." "Lay the starboard sheet." "Kunta." "Kunta Kinte!" "Wrestler will they come after us, our warriors?" "We're too far." "The canoe-house has traveled three days." "Our warriors will follow." "There is no trail to follow in the water." "Then we are alone." "There are other Mandinka men." "I heard a shout." "Kunta!" "Kunta Kinte!" "Kunta, listen to me." "Listen to me." "There are other tribes." "I've heard them." "The Wolof, the Fulani, the Serere, and some I do not know." "We are not alone." "Wrestler when the boat moved, my stomach came up and spilled." "I am ashamed." "Do not be ashamed." "It happened to me." "Yes." "Now when my stomach comes up, there is nothing." "Only bitter spit." "Wrestler, I am a man, a warrior!" "We have been chained in the white man's boat for many days." "Allah sees." "He understands." "He knows you are a man." "He knows!" "Is there anything else?" "Aye, sir." "Time they got on deck and danced." "Exercise, keep them in condition." "Gives us a chance to muck out the hold." "Their stench." "A bile-puking smell down there." "We can cull out those not worth feeding." "Yes, yes, yes." "And look over the wenches." "I am Christian and I command a Christian ship!" " Aye, sir." " I will not lead men into sin." "Sin?" "Fornication." "Pardon me, but you ain't never sailed a slave ship before." "What are you getting at?" "You gotta give the men their ease in their off-duty." "It don't hurt the cargo." "In fact, it's good for them." "This is how we bring heathen souls to Christ?" "Captain, sir, if I was you, with all respect I'd leave the gospel to private prayer." "And Sunday meetings, of course." "Very well." "That will be all." "Aye, captain." "Do you want a belly-warmer then?" "That will be all!" "Aye, aye, captain." "Allah Allah the merciful." "Allah the all-powerful." "Allah the compassionate." "Please hear my prayers." "Allah." "Allah, please." "Look alive." "Look alive!" "Lay above deck." "What is it?" "I do not know." "If they let me out of here I'll jump off this boat and swim to the riverbank." "Hurry." "Come on, come on." "Let's go." "Move, move, move." "Come on, get out of there!" "Move, you monkeys." "There is no riverbank." "Wrestler, where's the riverbank?" "Where is the earth?" "The earth is gone!" "Hurry along!" "Come on." "Over here." "Don't blame you for standing windward." "They stink fierce." "First batch on deck." "Want to look them over?" "I do not." "Appear a likely cargo, sir." "We'll lose some to flux." " Mr. Slater." " Aye, sir?" "Let's get them clean, please." "Aye, sir." "I believe in clean cargo." "Cleanliness is next to godliness." "It pays off in pounds and pence." " Mr. Slater." " Yes, sir." "On your feet." "Come on, you dirty heathens." "Let's go!" "Carry on with your duties." "Aye, sir." "Heave away, bo's'n!" "Get those wenches up and forward." "Handsomely!" "Get them up and dance them, damn your eyes!" "I want them well-danced." "I want them exercised." "Jump!" "Jump!" "Get them up!" "All of you." "Keep jumping." "Higher." "Higher!" "What is it that they're saying?" "How would a white man know?" "African mumbo jumbo is what it is, more than likely." "I don't understand their language but I can guess what they're saying." "What might that be?" "They're telling us to sleep lightly." "But then I've not slept well since this voyage began." "I know the wherefore of that, I believe." "Possibly you do." "Hold it." "You'll get some." "Kunta." "Kunta." "Kunta Kinte." "You do not eat?" "When I eat the white man's food, I throw up." "So do I. But eat the food, Kunta." "Listen to me listen carefully." "You're a warrior." "A warrior must eat, to be strong to kill his enemy." "Eat the white man's food." "Live, Kunta." "Live and be strong." "Be strong to kill the white man." "Hey, Tom." "We got a dead one over here." "Another one?" "Yeah." "Yeah, he's dead all right." "Open them." "Mr. Slater!" "There goes a hundred guineas to the sharks." "Dearest Elizabeth:" "If only you could know how much I regret having taken this command not only because I am apart from you and the children but because it..." "Yes?" "Who is it?" "Mr. Slater, with something for your chill." "Come in, Mr. Slater." "Here you are." "Mr. Slater!" "I've told you my views on fornication." "Yes, sir." "You did, right enough." "Just a belly-warmer, sir." "Little flesh, take the chill off cold sheets." "Shouldn't be a problem for you, a high-born Christian man." "I'll be by to fetch her in the morning." "Sleep well." "I do not approve of fornication." "My name is Thomas." "It's my Christian name." "Well, now..." "What'll I call you?" "Of course." "You don't understand anything I say, do you?" "Merciful heaven..." "Kunta." "Kunta!" "Wrestler, I was dreaming." "I dreamed I was hunting." "Running faster than I ever ran before." " Listen to me." " I was hunting a great bird whose wings stretched from one riverbank to the other." "It turned and flew towards me and I saw it was all white." "All white." "Its great flapping wings swallowed me up." "And choked me." "They choked me." "I opened my eyes and I was here." "In the belly of that terrible bird." "We will kill the white man and we will go home." "It's in Allah's hands." "It is in our hands." "Allah made us warriors." "Mandinka warriors." "When we were up in the sun, I counted them." "I saw 20 with knives and killing- sticks that make fire." "Ten more are in the long poles pulling the ropes and great cloths." "And the chief who stands and watches." "There are 40 of us taken up out of here together." "I have listened." "Three times the Wolof beats the drums." "That means there are 160 people." "Some are women." "But at least 100 are men." "With 100 warriors, a chief could raid a village and take the cattle." "With chains on their feet?" "You have seen the iron they put in the hole and turn and the ankle-irons open?" "One of them wears it on his neck." "I could get it." "If we had a plan." "If we had a signal when we could all move." "But we're different men." "We can't talk." "We're different tribes." "Men chained together are brothers." "We are all one village." "Who cannot speak the same words." "Who is Mandinka?" "Who speaks the language of the Mandinka?" "I am Okiyu, the wrestler, from the village of Jaihutswa." "Who is Mandinka?" "I am Mandinka." "I am Bowayo, from the village Kafure." "Falilu, from Ubowa." "Oetebu, from the Fatawbe village." "Listen, Mandinka." "Those who speak other words, words of the Wolof of the Serere, the Fulani talk to the man chained to you." "Teach him your words." "Learn his." "We will be one village." "We will destroy our enemies." "And we will be one village!" "We will kill!" "We will win!" ""We will live"!" ""We will live"!" ""Last on" Roots:" "My breakfast bowl is empty now." " There are goats to be fed." " Yes!" " Take care." " Yes, Father." "I will." "Captain Davies, your vessel, sir." " The "Lord Ligonier"?" " The same." "She'll be ready soon." " We'll be taking on slaves." " I see." "Welcome aboard." "Come on, get out of there." "Move, you monkeys!" "There is no riverbank." "Where is the earth?" "The earth is gone!" "It's time to look over the wenches." "I command a Christian ship!" "But, captain, sir..." " I will not lead any man into sin." " Sin?" "Fornication." "Will our warriors come after us?" "No." "There is no trail in the water to follow." "Then we are alone." "Come in, Mr. Slater." "Just brought her as a belly-warmer." "Didn't figure it'd be any problem for a man like you." "Sleep well." "Oh, merciful heaven." "I don't understand their language, but I can guess what they're saying." " And what might that be?" " They're telling us to sleep lightly." "We will kill the white man." "And we will go home." "We're different." "We can't even talk to each other." "We're different tribes." "Men chained together are brothers." "We are all one village." "Who cannot speak the same words." "Listen, Mandinka." "Those who speak other words words of the Wolof, of the Serere, the Fulani talk to the man chained to you." "Teach him your words." "Learn his." "We will be one village." "I'm Mandinka." "Do you understand Mandinka?" " Captain Davies, sir?" " Come in, Mr. Slater." "How did you pass the night?" "Restfully, Mr. Slater." "Didn't mean to trouble you." "Nothing, nothing." "The ache and fever." "From lying at anchor in that African river." "What is your concern, Mr. Slater?" "Is the wind shifting?" "No, it's fair across the stern quarter." "It's not the sails that worry me." "It's that sound." "Sound?" "I don't hear any sound." "Aye, that'd be the point." "There's a time after they settle in and get the idea." "When they get to thinking in a few weeks they're too weak to be trouble." "Till then, there could be uprising." " Shackled hand and foot?" " Mark me, captain." "They're treacherous, murdering beasts." " I cannot believe a risk of uprising." " Oh, it's been known, sir." "When I served in the king's frigate we came on a slaver." "Its canvas shredded on the yard." "The blacks rose for sure, sir." "Wasn't a white man left alive." "We saw bodies lashed to the ratlines." "We hanged them, sir." "They was a dead loss to their owners, them niggers." "I take your point, Mr. Slater." "Well then, your orders?" "Can you not strengthen your guard, Slater?" " Aye, captain." " Surely, armed men in good health can restrain chained men in weakened condition." "As to that, I put my trust to another advantage." "They never been in this dodge before and we have." "We know all the tricks to the trade." "I'm sure you do, Mr. Slater." "You may go." "Aye, captain." "Would you need a belly-warmer again?" "Keep those legs going." "Come on, you monkeys." "Come on, you bloody apes." "Keep moving!" "Come on back here, you wench." "Come on back." " Get her, men." " Get a rope on that wench!" "Jump, damn your eyes!" "Jump!" "Not now." "Get that wench!" "Get her down!" "All right, you fool!" "What were her words?" "I could not understand." "What was she doing untied?" " Nothing, sir." " Nothing?" "I'll have you passed under the keel." "Let's see what you say after your belly's been ripped." " Mr. Slater, be fair now." " Fair?" "If it's fair you want..." " You said we could have a wench." " After work." "When the sails was rigged and the decks were shining and we was in Bristol fashion." "But I didn't tell you to crawl out of your britches..." "A Mandinka maiden must have strength." "I'm no longer a Mandinka maiden." "You won't get a farthing at the end of this voyage!" "And I'll have your hide for the balance of the payment." " You ask any of the other men..." " Keep your britches on!" "I don't have to ask the other men anything." "I can see!" "I've seen enough to know I'll keelhaul you or any other man who don't do what I tell him..." "Allah is Allah." "There is no God but Allah." "Don't damage the cargo!" "Drive them below!" "Drive them below!" "Drive them below!" "Drive them down!" "Come on, you damn heathen." "Allah, the merciful." "Allah the compassionate." "Take this man to paradise." "Let him see Mohammed the prophet." "Let him taste the joys of the faithful." "Drop anchor!" " Captain Davies, please." " This way, please." " Captain Davies?" " Forgive me, sir." "I've been somewhat poorly." "Welcome aboard." "Mr. Andrews, is it?" "No, sir." "John Carrington." "Your servant, sir." "I've forgotten the effluviums of a slave ship when not filtered through vinegar." "And, sir, I do not comprehend how you can abide it." "Custom, sir." "Custom and avarice." "Yes, sir." "My instructions were that Mr. Andrews represented the owner's interest." "I am factor for Horace Andrews and Company." "Mr. Andrews is in Williamsburg, in Virginia." "The House of Burgesses is in session." "And, for those who know the governor, land grants." " Chair, Mr. Carrington." " Thank you." "Did you have a good voyage?" "My first officer's dead." "Ten seamen and the ship's boy, a third of my crew." "Well, God rest their souls." "But the lifeblood of commerce is goods, sir." "Goods!" "How fares your cargo through the passage?" "3000 elephant teeth have survived the voyage." "You are a pretty wit, sir." "A pretty wit." "Elephant teeth, indeed!" "140 Negroes were loaded on "Lord Ligonier..."" "...at the Gambia River." "Oh, loose pack." "Well?" " Ninety-eight lived as we made port." " Ninety-eight?" "I have known slavers to make port with less than half alive and still show a profit." " My felicitations, captain." " How soon can I unload?" "Directly we warp your vessel to the wharf." "I want you to secure for me flowers of sulfur to burn in the hold." " I wish to see my ship clean." " Naturally." "You'll be carrying tobacco to London." "And in London?" "Goods for the Guinea coast and then on to the Gambia River." " For more slaves." " Indeed." "Thus does heaven smile upon us point to point in a golden triangle." "Tobacco, trade goods, slaves tobacco, trade goods and so on, ad infinitum." "All profit, sir, and none the loser for it." "Mr. Carrington, do you ever wonder?" "On what topic, sir?" "To what end?" "As to whether we're just as imprisoned as those chained in the hold below?" "I do not follow, sir." "It sometimes feels that we do harm to ourselves by taking part in this endeavor." "Harm?" "What harm can there be in prosperity, sir?" "What harm is a full purse, I'd like to know?" "No." "No." "I doubt that you'd like to know." "I doubt that either of us would truly like to know." "Would you like to come to the auction?" "You've never seen anything like it." "No, I am sure I have not, Mr. Carrington." "I do know that I am not interested in seeing it now." "Or ever." "Well, well, now." "What have we here, huh?" "Easy, fella." "It's hard enough to mend three months on a slaver without new whip weals to salve." "Bench marks again." "This fellow's bones are showing through." " Is it festered?" " Not more than usual." "Laudable pus." "Merely laudable pus." "Penny's worth of tar and he'll be fit for auction." "Tar." "Will they be ready on the 7th?" "There's a horserace." "I would take advantage of the attraction." "Coat them with oil." "Flaxseed oil covers a multitude of skins." "Give the wild ones laudanum, the dull ones a dollop of brandy and may the buyer beware." " You sent for me, Mr. Carrington?" " Yes, sir." "Here is the text for an advertisement I wish to place." ""Just imported in the ship "Lord Ligonier," Capt. Davies from the River Gambia, to be sold in Annapolis on Wednesday, the 7th of October next a cargo of choice, healthy slaves."" "I'll put "slaves" in big type, sir." "Yes." "And I should also..." "I shall want handbills." "Broadsides to pass out at the race." " There is a bit of a poser, sir." " How so?" "These are busy times in the printing trade." "Politics!" "We have Burgess Patrick Henry's speech in the Virginia Colony." "The new Townshend Taxes are worse than the old Stamp Act." "I am with Burgess Henry in my passion for liberty but business is business." "I will pay hard money for my handbills." "Fanta." "Is it the same, you think?" " Is what the same?" " The moon." "Is it the same we see in our land?" "I do not think so." "Nothing here is the same." "The people, the food, the animals, the trees." "I do not see why the moon should be the same." "Good." "Why does that matter to you?" "I would hate to think my mother and little brother can see that moon but cannot see me." "That would make them seem closer, I think." "Being close and not touching is like eating and not swallowing." "We will beat them." "You'll see." "You can say that." "A warrior is taught to say such things." "A warrior is taught to fight." "Your father would say that I am right." "And where is my father now?" "No." "Since we were taken from our homes I have learned another lesson." "What lesson?" "I have learned to stay alive." "We were to meet here." "Ah, there he is." "Up to now, I worked my place myself." "But I cleared two new fields." "I reckon if I could buy a likely nigger or two I could maybe put up a hogshead of tobacco." "Crab cakes!" "Crab cakes?" "Crab cakes?" "He only paid 20 pounds for the wench and she was four months showing." "And then if she didn't take the pox and die!" "I told him if he'd bought a cow at least he'd have the hide and tallow!" "They're a no-account bunch." "They gets them all greased up trying to fool somebody." "Trying to grab any one of them be like trying to pinch a watermelon seed!" "Massa Reynolds might want one of them, maybe." "Let's see if there's any women for him." "When I was a lad, we had indentured bondservants." " Stout Cornishmen and Scotsmen." " Scourings of Newgate prison." "Pickpockets and highwaymen." "And if one runs away, you couldn't tell him from any Englishman." "But take a black slave, and they're always black." "Some are prime-looking, Fiddler." "Massa Reynolds don't act like that." "Not regular." "Sometimes on Christmas." "But he don't buy with night-wrestling in mind, see." "Gentlemen, your attention I beg." "As advertised, we have a fine cargo of healthy slaves recently landed from the River Gambia." "They've made a fine passage and are in prime condition." "We have spry young bucks, sound of limb and tooth." "Tractable, free of colics and heaves." "And wenches!" "Fine, strapping wenches of an age for breeding or field work." "Terms of trade, for cash or good bills of exchange from men known to me or Mr. Carrington." "We have a rather large inventory of servants to offer." "Marcus, get the first fine batch up here." "Careful!" "We don't need damaged goods." "Get them out." "The gentlemen are waiting." "Come on, wench!" "Wenches, gentlemen, first to whet your appetites." "Those desiring to inspect the items for defects please step forward." "The first item for sale." "A fine black pearl, indeed." "She's in fine condition." "Made the trip above decks." "You'll find no marks." "She's young, supple and strong." "Posture, boy, posture." "Use her to wash, to weave, to plow, to sow what you will." "A good investment." "She'll raise you a fine litter of pickaninnies." "That's enough." "But, as the whore said, turning from bottle to bed:" ""Enough of pleasure." "To work!"" "It's time to proceed, gentlemen." "Time to start the bidding." "Who'll offer me 100 pounds for this wench?" "Do I hear 100 pounds?" "We'll start at 50." "I have 50 here." "Give me 55." "I've got 60 over here." "Sixty-five." "Do I hear 70?" "Who will give me 80?" "Eighty over here." "Ninety over here." "One hundred fifteen?" "One hundred fifteen once twice sold to Robert Calvert of Virginia." "One hundred fifteen pounds." "A very shrewd purchase." "My felicitations." "My pleasure, sir." "And I anticipate she will be my pleasure, sir." "Now calling your attention to the next item." "A wench sound of wind and body." " The bidding..." " We will see each other again, Fanta." "We will." "We will." "Good lines to that one." "Look at his eyes." "He's not even close to being broken." "Now here's a prime young buck just picked from the trees." "Bright as a monkey..." "Good bones, sinew." "Free of defects." "Good teeth." "Good for Carolina rice, tobacco or corn." "Pull like an ox, carry like a mule." "See for yourselves." "He's free of heaves, piles, pox." "He's young, biddable." "A fine animal, gentlemen." "I'm going to start the bidding at 150." "Don't waste time." "He's the pick of the herd." "You won't find his like these days." "Who'll give me 150?" "One twenty-five." "Gentlemen, I sold a buck half of this for 200 guineas a fortnight ago." "Now, who'll start me at 125?" "One thirty-five." "One forty." "One fifty, Sir Robert." "One fifty-five." "Do I hear 160?" "Sir Robert?" "Put this buck to the wench you just bought." "One fifty-five, once." "Twice." "Sold!" "Your name, sir?" "John Reynolds." "Spotsylvania County, Virginia." "Lot four, number three." "Mr. John Reynolds." "Spotsylvania County of Virginia 155 pounds." "Your bill of sale, sealed with the Lord Townshend's stamps affixed." "Intolerable." "Ten shillings to convey your own property." "You Virginians have the truth." "Parlous state we've fallen into when London can interfere with our commerce." "I avoid politics." "I have enough trouble raising my tobacco." " Yes, sir, well there he is." "I can throw in the manacles." "The collar and chain should suffice." "No manacle." "Well, now, we'll have to give him a name." "Do you fancy the classics?" "'Tis all the fashion to have Psyches and Caesars running about." "A pantheon of nymphs and satyrs." "Delightful." "I like solid English names for my servants." "Fiddler, do we have a George?" "Yes, sir." "There's Sukie's George, born last planting time." "Well, then..." ""Toby." Yes." "His name shall be Toby." "Oh, and Mr. Carrington?" " Sir?" " You're not dealing with a child, sir." "I don't understand." "My meaning should be found in that carbuncle on black Toby's back." "I want it lanced before he's loaded." "I hadn't noticed it before." "Probably because it was covered with pine tar." "Somehow." "I shall fetch the doctor." "Fiddler." "Don't you make no trouble." "Ain't going to hurt you." "You just stay quiet now." "You belong to Massa Reynolds." "That's all there is to it." "You ain't no more in Africa, Guinea man." "Listen to me if you want to live." "You in America now." "You hear me talking, nigger?" "You in America!" "Aw, poor African boy..." "You don't know what I be saying nohow, huh?" "Look out, we got a loose one!" "If he's killed, I want two others." "Mind it, now!" "Gentlemen, gentlemen!" "Gentlemen." "Pardon me, gentlemen..." "Hold still, now." "Come on now." "Get yourself over there." "That's it." "Here, stay put now." "Damn it!" "Hold still." "Ain't you got no brains at all?" "You do what I say or I's gonna go hard with you." "Move again and I'll pull your behind out through your nose." "You sure this old horse couldn't make it home without a shoe?" "That beast is property." "A wise man takes care of his horses and slaves if he wants to prosper." "Never thought about it like that." "It's a smart way, for sure." "That's how come you never have no runaways." "Mr. Ames says it's because of the whip." "Mr. Ames is a different sort of man." " Fiddler." " Yes, sir?" "Pick up the mallet and put it in the toolbox." "What you got in your head?" "What you thinking about?" " Want me to give him a stripe or two?" " No." "Might be a problem." "He's always looking around." "He ain't never relaxed." " Fiddler?" " Yes." "You told me he was the best of the lot." "You do recall that." " Did I say that?" " You did." "I don't recollect saying..." "From now on, if he acts up I'll hold you responsible." "Understand?" "You mean I gets to turn this here Guinea man into a proper field hand?" "A field hand who speaks the King's English and does exactly as he's told." "As a matter of fact I'll give you six months to accomplish that." "I don't quite know how to thank you." "You sure know how to make my day happy." " Your pleasure, for sure." " Just do as I say." "That's all I expect from my niggers." "I love you, massa." "I'm riding ahead to the inn to get me a tankard of ale." "Catch up with me after that horse is shoed." "You gonna leave me a paper saying it's okay to be out here?" "'Cause any white folks come by are liable to take us for runaways." " Yes, they would." "So I wouldn't take too much time with that shoe." "Yes, sir." ""Wouldn't take too long with that shoe."" "I'd right enough say I wouldn't take too long." "You hear massa, Toby Guinea man?" "You hear him talk about making you a righteous field hand?" "Lord, you don't even know your name." "First lesson!" "You Toby, and I's Fiddler." "I'll rip your hide if you don't do as I say." "You don't know where you going." "You don't know about hoeing tobacco." "You don't know about no Mr. Ames with no whip." "You don't know how to talk." "Get up." "Go on." "You on a wagon." "This is a wagon." "You say "wagon."" "You say "wa-gon."" "Good, Guinea man!" "Massa give you a new name." "Massa say you named Toby." "That's who you is, hear?" "Toby." "I's Fiddler." "Fiddler." "'Cause I plays for the Christmas and the Jubilee." "Sarah's Fiddler." "That's me!" "Now you say "Toby."" " Kunta." "Kunta Kinte." " No, that's your African name." "Massa give you a new name." "Massa say you named Toby!" "What's the matter with you?" "Turn me loose." "Kunta Kinte." "You Africans all alike." "Crazy!" "Massa say you name is Toby." "That's who you is!" "He can do anything he wants." "Ain't nothing you can do about it!" "I've been scrambling most of my days to get where I got." "I eats in the big house kitchen." "I got pine boards in my cabin." "And it don't take much coughing to get corn whiskey for my medicine." "That is fine living and I'll be damned if I lose it on account of you, Guinea man." "You take my meaning?" "He don't speak the King's English, Fiddler." "You better learn." "You best learn or you're gonna get the bloody back." "And me too, maybe." "Get up now!" "There it is, old African." "Massa Reynolds' land." "Them's his niggers." "This is home!" "Get up there, boy!" "Hello!" " Papa!" " Hello, sweetheart." "What did you bring me?" " What'd you bring us?" " Hold on." "I'll be right there." "Let me get down." "I done stole a whole sugar loaf at Annapolis." "Now you shares it around, hear?" " Now what about my music?" " Wait a minute!" "One at a time." "I have surprises for all of my ladies." "However, there are no stays and no music from London." " Why not?" " John, why ever not?" " It's politics." "Damn politics!" " John, your language!" " It's true." "The merchants will not import British products because of duties." " It's ever so unfair to the girls." " However I do have some stays, and I do have some ribbons and I do have some music, printed in Boston." "Right over here." "Everybody gonna get some." "Let me show you something." "This here is a Guinea man." "African!" "They catch him running through the woods." "Massa bought him off the ship." "You keep away from him." "He a wild African!" "Oh, yeah, he a bobcat, for sure!" "Some of you never seen no African nigger." "You just listen to Fiddler." "This Guinea man don't know English." "I'll be the one teaching him what he got to know." "Come on, boy." "Here, this way." " John, it's fabulous!" " I'm going to try a bow." "Welcome back." "Good to see you, sir." "Ames." "Would you excuse us while I have some words with Mr. Ames?" "Some brandy might help cut the dust." " A new foal to show you, sir." " Good." "I have something to tell you." "What's tobacco, sir?" "Six pounds a hundredweight on the wharf." " Down a shilling." " Aye." "These are hard times for small farmers." "I have some new seed for the spring planting." "Cotton." "Egyptian." "Long staple." "Recommended by Mr. Wylie." "They've slaves to spare to clean the cotton." " I'll stick to tobacco." " You may be right, but we'll try a small cotton field." "An experiment." "You know best." "Also, I bought a hand at auction." " Straight from the ship?" " Yes." " I'll put him down as a half-hand." " Why?" "He's a strong one. 17 or 18 by the look of the teeth." " Surely he's a full hand." " Mr. Reynolds I've had niggers fresh from the trees." "You can't get no more work from them than a pregnant wench." "I'll put him down as half a hand till he's broke." "You may be right, Mr. Ames." "I've set Fiddler to do the breaking." " Fiddler?" " Aye." "There's a craft to breaking a nigger, same as a horse." " Horses don't break each other." " Fiddler's in charge until I say otherwise." " Aye." "Don't go away, African." "Fiddler's coming." "Hey, you." "Toby." "Brung you vittles." "Here." "Hope I don't have to keep bringing your vittles down here." "Then you can eat in the cook house." "Take them chains off." "Things get better once you stop being African." "Start being nigger like the rest of us." "Go on, boy." "Them prime grits there." "Can you say "grits"?" "Say "grits."" "Dummy." "Here, I made sure old Rachel dipped you up a piece of pork fat." "Here." "Yeah, yeah, that's good, boy." "That's pork." "Can you say "pork"?" "Pigs." "You know." "You one of them Guinea men don't like pig meat." "You could have told me." "No." "I guess not." "Don't make sense." "Believing that Jesus don't like ribs and fatback." "You better be eating all them grits 'cause there ain't no more coming tonight." "Grits." "Good boy." "Good night, Toby." "Dummy." "Grits, dummy." "I'll allow that you just making sounds." "'Cause if you call old Fiddler a dummy I might feed you to them hogs." "They ain't choosy about what they eat." " Fiddler." " Mr. Ames." "Evening to you, sir." " Enjoy the trip to Annapolis?" " Yes, sir." "Mr. Reynolds told me about your arrangement." "Yes, sir." "Interesting arrangement." " Good night, Fiddler." " Good night to you, Mr. Ames, sir." "Mr. Reynolds owns you Fiddler is going to teach you but sooner or later, nigger, you're mine." "Listen to me." "Do you hear me?" "I am Kunta Kinte, son of Omoro." "Listen, little brother cricket." "Go to the village of Juffure and say to Omoro and my mother Binta and my grandmother, Nyo Boto..." "Tell them I have been taken across a great river to the land of the white man." "Tell them I see men and women here of the Fulani tribe the Wolof tribe, the Hausa tribe." "But they have all forgotten Allah." "Tell them I will never be like them." "I will escape from this place." "I am a Mandinka warrior and I will do it." "Tell them I am alive and will not forget them." "And tell them, do not forget me." "Do you hear me, little brother?" " Try again, you're doing very well!" " Oh, no, Ames." "You've been around their stink all day." "How can you believe they're nothing more than monkeys?" "You underestimate them, sir." "Oh, I underestimate them, do I?" "Well, let me tell you something." "I've been working blacks since I came here." "But you're not with them like me." "And people say that a nigger is suited to being a slave." "Take my word, that isn't true." "You do not believe in the natural ability of the white man to dominate the black?" "Correct, sir." "Slaves aren't born." "They're made." "No offense, but you told me you started out as a bound boy on the tidewater for seven years." "Aye, driven to the field with a cuff and a curse, like them." "But at the end of seven years, I was free." "Take one of your hands here." "Seven years from now he'll still be black, still be a slave!" "It's fear, and the whip to rub it in." "That's what makes a slave." "Brother William, what say you?" "We're at loggerheads here." "We need a third vote to break the tie." "I won't challenge a man at his own specialty." "But Ames spends more time with blacks than with whites." "So he knows them very well." "John, I don't mean to intrude, but..." "You're not intruding, love." "What is it?" "Well, the blacks are inferior to us." "They are incapable of learning all but the most basic of concepts." "Yes?" "Yes, most hold to that, my dear." "Then why should we be afraid to teach them?" "If they are incapable of learning why is it a crime to teach them to read?" "And if they can be taught to read, they must be able to learn." "I'm sure I've overlooked something." "I just don't understand." "I've seen bears taught to dance too." "But it's not a graceful sight." "Surely not a natural one." " You think they can learn to read?" " Yes." "In a rudimentary fashion, but that's where the danger lies." "You see, a slave is ignorant." "I mean, he eats, sleeps, and labors and is happy." "If we allow him to learn to read, he begins to think." "Then he becomes unhappy." "No, they've a simple spirit, and I think we serve them best by making simple demands." "Well said." "Very well said." "Do you think they have feelings?" "I mean, like we do?" "They have needs and hungers and passions." " But no, not precisely as we do." " Needs and hungers?" "Passions?" "Such talk!" "And from a doctor!" "A doctor's best medicine is honesty and I was being honest." "Now that's enough, you two." "My brother has a way with children and ladies." "I envy him." "I have fancy theories." "I'd like to show him life in the raw." "Like that hand you bought off the ship four months ago." "Toby?" "How is he doing, Mr. Ames?" "Fiddler's doing his best." "But he's still in chains." "Still in chains after four months?" "John, that's not usual, is it?" "Well, he's not usual, my dear." "He's not like one of your niggers born here." "He's freeborn." "That's dangerous." "He's a smart nigger." "Still won't answer to "Toby."" "You contradict yourself." "He can't learn his own name..." "He knows his name." "It's the new name we gave him he doesn't want to answer to." "There's a difference." " Hey, Mary!" " Afternoon, Fiddler." " How's Sarah?" " She be right enough, I reckon." "Cooking in the big house." "Doing right by massa judging from the size of his belly." "He gets any bigger, he ain't gonna be able to see his business." "No point in looking at a business if they ain't nobody buying." " You a terrible man!" " Right." " Ain't it the truth!" " That's right." "Let me give you a hand." "Here you go." "Fanta." "Fanta!" "You hear that, Mama?" "He call me "Fanta." That African talk?" "Never mind that talk." "You leave that boy be." "I ain't do nothing." " He started talking to me first." " Here." "Get along now." "Let's get back to the garden before Mr. Ames comes." "Come on." " Fiddler." " Get on up back here, now." "Fiddler." "You and me run maybe?" " What you say?" " You and me go away from here." "We ain't gonna run nowhere." "There's no place to run to." "There's no place for us except where we be right now!" "You hear?" "Besides it's so nice this time of year." "We ain't gonna go no place till snow come." " What's snow, Fiddler?" " Never you mind, boy." "Let's get on back to home." "I've gotta teach you the difference between "manure" and "massa."" "There ain't that much difference when you gets down to it." "Giddap!" "Get up, Toby." "If you don't understand I got a dictionary in the butt end of this whip." "You do what Mr. Ames says now, Toby." "I didn't ask for your help, Fiddler." "That's a fact for sure but Toby here..." " "Toby here."" "He doesn't even answer to his name." "These African Guinea men, when they hears a loud voice sometimes they just ups and freezes." "So I shouldn't be shouting at your nigger?" "Oh, no!" "He ain't my nigger." "He's rightly Massa Reynolds' nigger." "Though he did give him to me to teach up." "All right." "You go over to Toby you get him to working, or I'll cut both of you!" " Yes, sir..." " Now!" "Yes, sir, Mr. Ames, right away." "Get yourself up, and get to work." "Right now." "Got him up and working, boss, just like you told me." "Mr. Ames?" "I'm doing my best, sir." "Don't be scared." "You talk good enough to talk to me." "Plenty of times." " What you doing in here?" " Trying to talk to him." "He African." "You can't talk to him." "He talked to me, that's for sure." "Call me that word again." "Fanta." "There was a girl back there in the holding pen." "She come with him from Africa." "That'd be her name." "You and her about the same age." "But now she gone, and so should you be." "That Guinea man eats girls like you for breakfast!" "I ain't never been breakfast for nobody." "You go on." "You got no more to say to him." " Go on!" " I got one more thing to say to him." "I saw." "I ain't told nobody yet." "But I saw." "Fiddler!" "I want to talk to you." "Yes, Mr. Ames!" "Come on." "What can I do for you, sir?" "Get your fiddle and go to the house." "Mr. Reynolds has a friend from the junction." " They want some music." " Yes, sir." "You come to the right man for that." "Yes, sir." "Said you wanna hear me play." "Here's your chance." "Give me that stuff." "Look at those stars." "Clouds look full of snow, don't they?" "Not snow, rain!" " Fiddler!" " Yes, sir!" "Sir Robert Calvert and I are waiting!" "Coming." "On the way!" " Let go!" " Fiddler..." " The man." "I know the man!" " How you know him?" "When Massa Reynolds pay money for Kunta that man there pay money for Fanta." " Where that man come from, Fiddler?" " Junction, Ames say." " That's 15, 20 miles." " Days, Fiddler." "How many days?" "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you!" "Now let loose my fiddle!" " Fiddler!" " Yes, sir." "You've never heard a black make music like this one." "I've heard a number of them." "They all have that flair." "Dancing and happiness." "It's inborn." "Nature of the beast." " Come along, Fiddler." " Yes, sir!" "Stand up straight, now." "You wants to see my Auralia, Mr. Ames?" "Don't be like that." "He like to give you a new calico." "You been talking about a new calico." "So get in." "Oh, it's all right, child." "Get inside." ""Find me some flowers."" "Mrs. Reynolds wants to decorate for Massa Reynolds' birthday." "Flowers, this time of year." "Birthday?" "What's that?" "Massa's birthday next biggest thing to Christmas." "And what's that?" "Christmas?" "Bunch of answers to that." "Christmas was when Jesus up and got himself born." "When white folks gives each other what none of them need." "Mostly it's the one time of year we gets to eat good!" "Get so I can burp and say my amens at the same time." "Christmas happen at nighttime, Fiddler?" "It happen when it happen, I reckon." "How come?" "I don't see Auralia no more at night." "She always with Mr. Ames." " What they doing in there?" " What they doing?" "What you think they be doing?" "Mr. Ames grunting and puffing till dawn?" " I hear." "They be doing the same way they does back in Africa, I reckon." "Her and Mr. Ames you think they talk?" "I suppose she ain't said nothing 'cause if she do, I'd know." "Never did figure out what that girl say she saw." "Hey, Toby." "Look what I got from the kitchen!" "I got..." "Damn you!" "Didn't you think nothing about me?" " About you, Fiddler?" " Yeah, me." "Me, me, me!" "You know what's gonna happen to me?" "I gets to sleep on a mud floor!" "I gets to eat after the pigs." "You was mine to turn into a good nigger." "You go running off and everything I worked for, it'll all be gone!" " Fiddler want me stay?" " No!" "You can't stay with them broke-off chains!" "You done done it to me now!" "You done done it, so you got to go now." "Tonight!" "Ames see you with them leg-irons broke, he'll go hard on you." "Fiddler come with Kunta." "No." "It's too cold and I'm too old." "Hound dogs would catch us before we get more than two miles!" "By yourself you got a chance maybe." "Not much, but a little." "You should've left them chains alone." "Chains ain't right for a nigger, Fiddler." "Lord." "You sure is some mighty child!" "Here." "Kunta never forget you." "You help Kunta be free." "What it like to be free, African?" "What it like?" "Must be something special." "Out, boy, out!" "Get the dog off him." "Get up!" "I know you understand me." "Toby." "You're going to learn to answer to your name." "Fiddler!" "Fiddler!" "They got him!" "Miss Reynolds?" " Yes?" " Pardon me, ma'am, but could I see Massa Reynolds?" "I believe he's studying the scriptures." "The man's a Christian saint, he is." "But it's powerful important." " Very well." "You will wait here." " Yes, ma'am." "James." "Put some oil on it." "It's a bit dry." "He'll see you now." " Thank you." " Don't overstay your welcome." "No, Miss Reynolds, would never do that." "Take him up." "Tie him off." "Fiddler, he's a runaway." "I cannot countenance that sort of behavior." " Do you understand "countenance"?" " Yes." "But you told me he was mine when we was bringing him back..." "But since he ran away, you didn't do a very good job." "Isn't that a fair deduction?" " You understand "deduction"?" " Yes, massa." "I understand..." "Mind your tone, mind your tone." "Mind it well." "Some adjustments will be forthcoming as a result of all this." " Yes, sir." "I just hates to see a prime field hand ruined..." "I want every buck and wench to the barn!" "You paid good money for that African Guinea man." "You shouldn't..." "You're going to see how a bad nigger gets turned good." "You got a investment." "Lord God!" " Are you quite finished, Fiddler?" " Yes, massa." " Old Fiddler's finished, right enough." " That is correct." "Mr. Ames is now in charge of the African." "You failed me." "And what we'll do about that we'll discuss at a later time." "Yes, sir." "James." "Your name is Toby." "I want to hear you say it." "Your name is Toby." "You are going to learn your name." "Let me hear you say it." "What's your name?" "Kunta." "Kunta Kinte." "When the master gives you something, you take it." "He gave you a name." "It's a nice name." "It's Toby." "And it's going to be yours till the day you die." "Now, I know you understand me." "And I want to hear it." "Again!" "I want to hear you say your name." "Your name is Toby." "What's your name?" "Kunta." "Lord, God, help that boy." "They gonna whup him dead." "What's your name?" "Say it." "Toby." "Who are you?" "Say your name." "What's your name?" "Toby." "Aye." "Say it again." "Say it louder so we can hear." "What's your name?" "Toby." "My name is Toby." " Aye." "That's a good nigger." "Cut him down." "Don't you care what that white man call you." "Make you say Toby." "What you care?" "You know who you be." "Kunta." "That's who you always be." "Kunta Kinte." "There's gonna be another day." "You hear me?" "There's gonna be another day!" ""Last on" Roots:" "Sold." "Your name, sir?" "John Reynolds, Spotsylvania County, Virginia." "Your massa give you a new name." "Massa say you name Toby." "Kunta!" "Kunta Kinte!" "Hey, Toby!" "Look what I got from the kitchen." "I got..." "Chains ain't right for a nigger, Fiddler." "Kunta never forget you." "Helped Kunta be free." "What it like to be free African?" "You're going to learn to answer to your name!" " What's your name?" " Kunta Kinte." "What's your name?" "My name is Toby." "Hey, Toby." "Dip of water, Toby?" "No." "You sure?" "Here." "Well, when you feel the need you know where to come." "Some things even an African nigger can't do without." "Nigger." "You, nigger." "I'm talking to you." "Get somebody to load the crate on the wagon." "You may be as dumb as hog fat but you're as strong as an ox." "Nigger." "Keep loading." "You, big buck!" "There's two more wagons to load." "I want to get started for market before dark." "Oh, Toby." "You work very hard for this boss man." "It'll be two days." "I'll bring you back fit, fed and all in one piece." "No, sir." "Can't be done." "No one can guarantee he'll be coming back." "He's got runaway blood in him." "I have to use the whip so much, it's a wonder he's got hide left." "Too much spirit for his own good." " I don't want no trouble." " Toby be good nigger for massa." "Don't send Toby away." "Toby be good field hand." "Good field hand." "It's all right, Toby." "You be a good field hand, you can stay here." "Toby stay." "Toby stay." "Toby be good now." "Toby be real good." " You work real hard now." " Toby be good field hand." "Squire John, this is the finest harvest celebration in Virginia history." "May well be, Miss Constable." "The tobacco crop's the finest ever." "The festivities should be in keeping." "My brother, William, has cause to celebrate." "Cash from this crop will pay what I owe him." "Every last pound, shilling, penny and farthing of it." "And to meet your brother socially is indeed a rare treat." "A young lady has to be not well to be awarded the pleasure of Dr. Reynolds' company." "If I weren't the only physician in town, I'd have time for society." "I suspect that if Providence hadn't taken my brother's good wife and make him single there'd be less illness among the ladies." "Squire Reynolds, you are a caution!" "Niggers don't put enough toddy to wet the glass or quench the thirst." "Excuse me, my dear, I'll correct the condition." "I'll join you, John." "Anne, Miss Constable." "I didn't want to discuss your debt in front of Miss Constable." " Family finance ought to be private." " True." "True, that's very true." "But since you raised the subject my practice takes time away from property management." "I need more field hands if I hope for profit." "I have to have cash for that." "I need the money you owe me." "Distrustful of your own brother?" "Distrustful of the amount you drink and what it does." "So be it." "I drink too much and you worry too much." "And we'll both meet our Maker too soon as a result." "I'll be much happier when I arrive." "Ah, Miss Constable." "Here you are." "Is Miss Constable your patient?" "With the Hippocratic oath and accidents of birth it's a hectic life I lead." "You mustn't be too harsh on John." "Don't forget that he's your brother." "What I mustn't forget is that he's your husband." "Toby?" "I'm all set to play to the hoedown." "Wanna come hear me?" "Toby?" "What you doing?" "When you gonna quit that?" "White folks don't like that kind of praying." "Sooner or later, you gonna have to forget that African stuff." "Make white folks mad and scare niggers." " Fiddler scared?" " Sure, I'm scared." "Scared of snakes and lung fever and white folks." "Hope I ain't being too hard on the snakes and lung fever." "Papa, don't worry." "Toby be good nigger for massa." "Sure." "That make me laugh, all right." "I figure you got something in your head when you do that." "Hey, what you got in your head?" " What's this?" " A safo." "Some kind of charm?" "You see this?" "Rooster feather." "This bring Kunta spirit." "Hair from horse make Kunta strong." "Bird bone, that bring me luck." "Why you need all that?" "I ask you why you need all this?" "How come, Toby?" "The last wagon going out this afternoon." "They all be drunk." "Kunta be free." "No!" "When a nigger run off, they be meaner than ever to the rest of us." " They won't do nothing bad to you." " You gonna try again, huh?" "I remember when you got me moved." "I slept in the barn in the winter." "That ain't nothing like when they catch you..." " lf they catch me." " Toby..." "Kunta, there ain't no way to beat the law." "The law gets read in white churches." "Niggers can't carry no guns or sticks." "20 lashes if you get caught with no traveling pass." " Ten..." " lf you look them in the eye." "30 if you raise your hand to them!" "You lie, they cut your ears off!" "I know the law, Fiddler!" "Then you ought to know there ain't no way to beat it!" "White folks live by it." "And niggers die by it." "Maybe this time I'll make it to the Calvert plantation." "Maybe I will find Fanta." "But it don't matter." "Since they take me from my home and bring me here the only time I be free is when I run away." "Sometime it seem like being alone and being free is all the same for a slave." "You don't be free." "You be dead." "Then I be free." "Fiddler?" "Fiddler!" "That be Luther." "Calling me to the hoedown." "I gonna celebrate the harvest." "I'm gonna play a hoedown like you never heard played before." "Them niggers be stomping and yelling and laughing and slapping their knees so ain't nobody gonna see nothing." "Not even them wagons leaving for the market." "But I really be celebrating seeing the last of one dumb African nigger." "Fiddler." "Goodbye, Fiddler." "I hope it be a good goodbye Kunta." "Hope it be something." "Listen to them." "Mr. Reynolds is too soft on niggers." "Enjoying themselves while a white man's got to work." "Doesn't seem right that I gotta drive all night on the worst roads, neither." "Sorry I couldn't let you a nigger to help offload it." "I don't let niggers off the plantation." "This way they don't know which way is east or west." "If I let one go to the tobacco market, he'll know where that is." "Then he'll figure out where someplace else is." "Next thing, he'll know which way to the north." "I understand, but it would've been nice to have a strong buck to help me offload." "Good evening, sir." "Come on, Ted." "George, this is Calvert's plantation." "The end of the next crossing." "I say we owe our rumps a rest." "I want that slave back, Mr. Grill." "Yes, sir, Mr. Reynolds, but how do you want him back?" " Alive is one fee, dead's another." " Frankly, I'd prefer him dead." "Killing a runaway slave is easy enough, squire." "It don't make as good an example." " Plus you lose your investment." " That's true enough." "He cost me 155 pounds." "He's worth a lot more now." "You wanna make sure he stays put this time." "Mr. Trumbull's right." "You let him get away and every nigger on your place will be gone." "Do what you have to do." "You'll find me a fair man with money." "Yes, sir." "We know what to do." " Well, we best be underway, squire." " Good day." "You want me to go with them?" "Yes, I want you to go with them, Mr. Ames." "But I don't think I'd like you to come back." " I warned you about Toby." " You did." " I warned you many times!" " Indeed!" "You forgot to warn Toby." "It's your job, your responsibility." "He made a fool of you." "You be off my property by nightfall, Mr. Ames." "Ain't nothing a nigger can do that don't make Massa Calvert's plantation better." "All right now, old fox or weasel." "Or whatever you is you better get on out of here." "Here, now whatever hungry animal you is you better get out before sunup." "Oh, nigger." "Nigger!" "This the Calvert plantation?" "You got one African girl around here named Fanta?" "Her name Maggie." "Now you go to the barn and stay put." "I never seen you." "Remember that when they catch you." "I never seen you." "Fanta, here." "Fanta." "What they do to you?" "Everything." "I don't understand that African talk no more." "Say it plain in English so I understand what you're saying." "What you mean, say it plain in English?" "I put all that African talk clean out of my head." "I don't talk it." "I don't even think it no more." " Fanta..." " No." "Maggie." "It's the name they give me." "It's what I go by." "Maggie." "What name they give you?" "Toby." "Toby." "It's a better name than some I heard about." "Take how we think." "Take how we call each other." "Damn!" "The white man don't leave us nothing!" "I am young Massa Calvert's bed wench." "Any children come out of me supposed to be his, supposed to be brown." "I can touch you so you feel better but we can't be with each other like we want." "White man don't even leave us, us." "Fanta." "Fanta." "I want you now." "I need you." "If the sun's on this side, we're heading north." "That where freedom be." "Say yes, Fanta." "I can't stay here much longer." " How far?" " Don't know." "It don't matter." "We just keep going till we reach north." "Please, come with me." " What you gonna do once you get there?" " I'll find a job, make money." "What job you gonna get?" "What white man's work you know how to do?" "They ain't got no tobacco." "They ain't got no cotton." "They ain't got nothing up north for a nigger to pick." "Come with me now, Fanta." "Maybe we can get away from this place together." "Maybe back to our home." "Been a long time." "My father, Omoro, close to 50 now." "Grandma Nyo Boto, she'll be 68 if she's still living." "My baby brother, finished with manhood..." "You talking crazy." "We can make it!" "Now I told you!" "My name is Maggie!" "A clear win!" "Two legs on you, judge." "Or more?" "10 pounds, that was the wager." "Pay up." "Don't want me saying you don't pay your debts." "10 pounds, coin of the realm." "You'd do as a tax collector, Thomas." "You've no objection to us taking our ease at your trough?" "No, no." "Drink your fill." " Looks like you've come a long way." " That we have, sir." "Chasing a runaway." "Seen any nigger that might fit the bill?" "You know no toubob can make it through the woods like Mandinka!" "We stay away from people, we can make it to the north and be free!" " Maybe we can find more runaways..." " No!" "No, now I'm here!" "And I'm gonna stay here!" " Stay a slave?" " I'm gonna stay alive!" "I'm gonna stay warm instead of cold." "Fed instead of starved." "I'm gonna stay." "I'll do what they say long as I suck breath." "A dead nigger ain't help nobody." "Not a dead nigger!" " You can't mean it..." " Hush!" "I mean it!" "I mean every word." "Get out of here and leave me be." "It's daylight." "Get out!" " Let me talk with you, woman!" " Please, no!" "No!" "I don't want to hear it!" "This is where I is!" "This is where I'm gonna stay, long as..." "Maggie, who's in there with you?" " You know that nigger?" " I never saw him before." "Trumbull, that's him!" "Damn nigger!" "Oh, you'll live, but fixed so you'll never run again." "Or..." "No!" "Well, the lad's made his choice." "Toby." "Toby." "Fanta!" "It's delirium." "Fanta." " That foot is still festered." " Yes, sir." "Slave catchers!" "They're worse than animals." "Cruel just for the pleasure." "And stupid." "One swipe of the ax and they ruin a valuable piece of property." "Well, I never thought this boy would linger for..." " What is it, three weeks?" " Yes, sir." "Nothing more to be done, except wait for the fever to break or to kill him." "I'll tend him." "I made a poultice." "Elderberry leaves and sulfur." "It can't do any harm." "I sent that mulatto girl Genelva to fetch me muslin rags to pack him with." "Fanta." "Luther has to drive me to Janesburg." "Pox and British chain shot are killing the troops." "Mr. Harlan." "If this boy dies before I get back, shroud and bury him." "Get Cassius and Hannibal to start digging a grave." "Lord knows what sickness he has." "Understand?" "I understand." "I'll take care of it." "Slave catchers." "Castrating butchers." "What're you doing here?" "I was worried about Toby." "We was friends back when we belonged to your brother." "I'm a patient man so I'll tell you one more time." "I own you." "You, Toby, Genelva, all of you." " I thought you'd understand." " Massa, we understand." "A crippled field hand, a mulatto wench and an old fiddle player." " Fine way my brother paid his debts." " That's the truth." "Mr. Harlan, find something for this mulatto girl to do." "I know Genelva since your brother." "She's no good for the fields." "You don't need her inside." "Only thing she's good for is breeding." "Yes." "The babies might be worth something." "You'll have no truck with her." "You're too old." "We'll find a young buck to breed her with." "Yes, massa." "Bell told you to go fetch." "Get to it." " Luther, we're late for Janesburg." " Massa doctor, Toby?" "I've no idea if he'll live." "If he dies, he'll have himself to blame." "I don't hold with what they did to him." "But a slave who runs off doesn't warrant any prizes." "Luther." "You ain't gonna die." "Bell ain't gonna let you die." "You alive!" "Ain't that fine?" " Slave catchers." " That's right." "We figured they catch you, maybe they kill you." "But you ain't." "But look what they do to me, Fiddler." "Look what they did to me." "What kind of man would do that to another man?" "What kind?" "Why didn't they just kill me?" "Why they don't just kill me?" "Maybe they did." "Toby." "We at Dr. William now." "We belong to him." "We ain't at the squire's no more." "How come?" "Massa Reynolds couldn't get his price for the tobacco." "So, you see, the money that he owed to Dr. William..." "We the money he owed." "That's how he paid it off." "With us." "Tell me now, Fiddler." "What kind of massa this new man?" "He's the best, that's what he be." "I been his cook for years." "He's a good massa." "She's the one see you through the fever." "Almost a month." "I'm Bell." "He figure because he got half a foot, he ain't a whole man." "Well, you can tell your friend, Toby half a foot don't make a man no less unless, of course, he want to be." "There's something for him over by the stove." "If he wants to eat from now on he can walk on over to my kitchen door." "You can't run no more." "You tried." "More than most." "You can't run no more." "That's all there is to it." "If I can't find a way to run then I just lay here and die." "I just lay here and die." "These for you." "Massa says I doesn't do no sparking with Luther." "He say we can't even talk." "I heard." "Massa means what he says." "He catch you around Luther, you'll be sold quick." "Ain't that way with us, Bell." "We loves one another." "Luther's real gentle with me." "He ain't like them young bucks." "They just wanna push and shove." "But Luther, he likes me just to talk to." " Sometimes we just..." " Still, massa's got his rules." "We just see to it he don't catch us." "Then you just looking for trouble." "You talk like a woman don't care about men." "Oh, I care, honey." "I just haven't found a man I wanted in 10 years." "What about Toby?" "Oh, Toby, that fool runaway nigger." "What makes you think I care about him?" "The way you been fretting whether he live or die." "Whether he walk or not." "Ain't acting like a woman don't care nothing for a man." "Maybe it's been so long since you seen a man you wanted you just done forgot what it feel like." "You're a smart gal, Genelva." "Keep an eye on them loaves." "Don't make them burn." "I see you found the crutches." "Here's a pair of massa's old boot." "He gave them to me." "I ain't gonna need no boots again." "Never." "I stuffed the toe so's the boot'll fit snug." "If it ain't right, I'll pull some stuffing out or put more in." "No!" "I seen that ugly stump already!" "Don't be foolish!" "Don't you know nothing?" "Don't you understand?" "I ain't gonna need no boots again, because I ain't gonna walk again!" "Well, you throw them out then." "Because I ain't gonna." "Fiddler say you come from Africa." "Say you always bragging." "Don't brag." "Ain't no need to brag." "Fiddler say even when you ain't talking, you proud." "Real proud about being an African." "Yeah, I'm Mandinka." "I'm Mandinka fighting man." "You surely are some brave Mandinka fighting man, Toby." " What you fighting now?" " Shut your mouth!" "I don't see why I have to do that." "I can say anything I want." "And you sure can't do nothing about it, can you?" "Fighting man." "I think you gonna make it." "Lord be praised, Toby." "You gonna walk!" "Woman, I done told you, my name ain't no Toby." "I am Kunta Kinte, son of Omoro and Binta Kinte!" "A fighting man from the village of Juffure!" "I gonna do better than learn to walk." "I gonna learn to run!" "Damn it!" "I gonna learn to run." "Genelva." " What you doing here?" " I's come to see you, Toby." "You ain't never talking to no one." "Thought you might need coaxing." "Harlan been looking for you." "He looking in the wrong place." "He think I'm looking to old Luther." "He don't know nothing about what a gal really wants." "What you talking about?" "I ain't talking about nothing, Toby." "I done all the talking I'm gonna do tonight." "See, talking don't do nothing that feels good." "Doing that's what makes me feel good." "Luther." "I been looking all over for you." "What you doing out?" "Felt the need." "I was in the outback house." "Not with Genelva?" "Don't you lie to me." "No." "She don't care beans about me." "I'm too old, she says." "Toby's got her scratching and howling." "Toby?" "Gimp foot and all." "Guess you don't limp in bed, do you?" "One thing solved, Genelva." "Good to know I won't have to waste my time keeping an eye on you and Luther no more." "You get on back to your cabin for now." "I'll ask Dr. Reynolds to see if it's all right for you and Toby to make the beast." "You're one lucky nigger, Toby." "One lucky nigger." "Here them melons you want." "Come noontime, they still be cool." " You really don't care none?" " About what?" "Every no-account nigger on this place is snickering and laughing at you." "They say Genelva teased you into horsing into bed with her." "Helping her and Luther to trick Mr. Harlan so they could skip off." "Was you horsing in the bed with her, is that so?" "Could be." "You think she pretty?" "Oh, I expect she pretty enough, but me, I likes a different kind of face." "What kind?" "Kind of face you got, Bell." "That Mandinka face." "Mandinka?" "What you talking about?" "I ain't no African." "I'm Mandinka." "We a proud people." "And I'm American!" "I was born here." "My mammy and my daddy was born here." "And I ain't no African." "Bad time all around." "Genelva running off." "No more sense than a mealyworm." "Luther too." "Old fool." "Make massa mighty angry." "Got no driver." "Just a bad day." "On top of all that, you call me an African." "I won't do it again, Bell." "Never!" "Toby!" "Toby?" "You think Toby would be a good driver for me now that Luther's run off?" "Please, massa." "It's strange times, Bell." "We're fighting the British." "I heard about that." "Nearly two years." "Now the British are offering freedom to slaves who'll join their army and fight." "Toby driving, he'd be gone from the plantation overnight, even for days." "A great temptation for a certain kind of slave." "One with runaway blood." " You see the connection?" " Yes, sir." "Well, that's good." " It just seems funny, though." " What seems funny?" "You trust Luther, and he run off on you." "You don't trust Toby none, and he loves you better than anybody else on this whole place." "It just seems funny." "Bell, how sure are you?" "Oh, I wouldn't be talking, massa, if I wasn't sure..." "Get out." "You win, Bell." "But he better not run off." "He damn well better not run off." "Driver!" "Ain't that a bang, now." " Oh, I expect it's good enough." " You expect?" "Is that all?" "Fiddler, how come Bell talk the doctor into this?" "I don't know." "Ask Bell." "Maybe she like you." "I don't want nobody liking me!" "You'll get your wish talking like that." "This is the land of the toubob." "I'm Mandinka warrior!" "I can't walk with these people and talk with them." "Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord!" "Horse." "I hear tell that you ain't a horse." "I hear tell that you think you a mighty crow." "I hear tell that you fly from here all the way to Annapolis and back again." "Well, horse, you look mighty like a horse to me." "You sure smell mighty like a horse." "I'm saying that you is a horse." "What you think you is don't matter a damn bit." "That Mandinka talk don't matter a damn bit, neither." "You give it up." "Let it go." "You is a nigger, Toby." "Plain old nigger, is all." "Massa Reynolds is waiting." "Let's go." "Well, what?" " You told Bell you could drive?" " I can drive." "You better drive this horse fast and quick." " How come?" " Barn door is still closed." "I'll go fetch Master Reynolds." "You look fine way up there like that." "Why, Bell?" "Why you do this for me?" "I see you crippling by the vegetable garden." "You don't like that." "You with your runaway blood." "Driving, you'll be all over the country." "You'll get your fill of wandering and won't think about escaping." "You're a good woman, Bell." "I told massa I'd be responsible for you." "You wouldn't run off." "You promise?" "Africans!" "Americans!" " Toby, pull off to the side for a bit." " Yes, sir." "Whoa, boy." "Whoa." " I'm going for a walk." " Yes, sir." "You wait here." " I'll be back shortly." " Yes, sir." "I'll be right here." " How's little Anne?" " She's more like you every day." " She has your eyes, you know." " No, no." "You have my eyes." "Oh, God, you feel so good." "Hold me close." "Closer." " You know what I dreamed last night?" " No." "Last night I dreamed I wanted to be a darkie." "Why on earth would you want to be that?" "So an overseer could come fetch me for you." "So an overseer could say:" ""Here's a comely wench, Dr. William." "Do you want her?" "If you want her, here she be for you." "Here she be."" "And then I could run away." "But only so you could come after me." "Would you like that?" "I never see white folks carry on so." "They're so happy, they can't believe it." "They keep saying, "The British has surrendered." "The war is over." "Freedom is won!"" "Ain't that just fine, though." "White folks be free." "I been tossing at night about their freedom." "Been the mostest thing on my mind." "Sure is one happy nigger now." "Don't have to worry about the poor white folks no more." "You funning, Fiddler." "You best not let them catch you doing it." "Mammy Bell?" "Missy Anne!" "Uncle said I get cookies." "You sure can, honey." "Mammy Bell will let you have anything you want." "Little angel." "Doctor loves her like she was his own." "Well, maybe she is, the way I heard it." "That's gossip." "That ain't the doctor's child." "That's John Reynolds' child." "Ain't no proving that kind of foolish talk." "It's just nigger gossip." "I got to drive early." "I like driving." "Everybody's got to get up early, Fiddler." "He was thanking you." "He was just saying why he had to get to bed early." "Good night." "Good night, Bell." "Well, what's this?" "That's for you." "What's it for?" "It's for grinding corn in." "Where's the part to grind the corn with?" "Well..." "I thought I'd bring that by your cabin tonight." "Well, I usually eats my supper around about sunset." "I usually cooks way too much." "Then I bring the grinding part by tonight." "I made corn bread." " I like corn bread." " You like chicken and dumplings?" "I do." "And there's a stew made with peanuts and yams with butter." "We had them in Africa." "I liked them." "We can eat now if you want to." "Or we can sit and talk." "That be fine." "Which one be fine?" "Eating or talking?" "Whatever you wanna do." "Massa just sit in his study and do his papers all day." "They going to the Emmett plantation for the Thanksgiving celebration." "Fiddler say massa's gonna take him to play." "You probably drive them." "That's right." "The white folks gonna choose General George Washington for president." "I heard that." "Corn bread." "What you say?" "What you made me to grind the corn with." "First time in 22 years since I been on this plantation any man ever made something for me." "I made something for you too." "That be fine." "That be right fine." "Ain't seen you after dinner much lately." "Turning in early?" "Driving's hard work, huh?" "Hard." "That's right, hard work." " I found out something last night." " What?" "Why Luther cry when him and Genelva got sold to different places." "How come, you think?" "Wasn't strong enough." "He didn't want to be by himself no more." " Think a man by himself is strong?" " I do." " Tell you what I think." " What?" "I think you the biggest fool I ever saw." "Why, because I wanna be strong?" "Nothing makes a white massa happier than seeing a nigger all by himself." "Ain't no bigger battle he can win than keeping niggers apart." "Strong and stubborn ain't nowhere near the same." "Nowhere near." "You giving the white folks the biggest victory ever." "I ain't never gonna be no Christian man." "I know that." " Won't never eat pig meat." " I know." "I expect sometime I ain't easy to be with." "I know you ain't." "Now, I'm asking y'all here to pray for this union that God done made." "And pray that they stays together." "And that they don't do nothing, nothing to get themselves sold away from one another." "And pray that they have good healthy young'uns." "You sure y'all wanna get married?" " I does." " I does." "Then in the eyes of Jesus jump over the broom into the land of matrimony." "Now that you bought the cow, Toby, you can get all the milk you want!" "Toby?" "How come you left the wedding?" "It's yours too." "You jumped the broom too." "I was thinking about my village and family..." "I'm so happy I don't wanna hear that African talk." "You're not Kunta Kinte." "You're Toby." "You belong to me." "And I belong to you." "And we both belong to Dr. Reynolds." " Dr. Reynolds." " Emmett." " I'm so glad you could come." " My pleasure." "I think you'll find some friends." "Seems like all I done all my life is wait to jump when the white folks call." "Fiddler?" "Fiddler, you all right?" "Of course not." "But it don't matter none." "Know what would happen if I died in the middle of fiddling a hoedown?" "The white folks would be mad as all get out because the fiddling had stopped." "Don't be talking the old ways." "It only makes trouble." " Is you Mandinka?" " Mine are the Akan people." "The white folks, they give me the name Pompey." "But my real name is Boteng Bediako." "They calls me Toby." "My name is Kunta Kinte." "I heard of a village named Jenay Kinte once." "That's my father's brother." "That's his own village!" "Never forget those things, Kunta Kinte." "We got to remember the old ways and pass them on to the children." "I feel sorry for blacks born here." "They don't know who they is." "They from Africa, yet they ain't." "They from the white folks' land and they ain't." "It seems to me like there's a tribe of strange new people that is lost." "They got no remembering of old ways to help them, to tell them who they are." "The most ways I want to be helped is back to my own land." "You talking escape?" "But they catch niggers and send them back." "Not if you smart." "Not if you got a plan that will get you north to the people they call Abolitionists." "They hides niggers." "And then they makes them free." "And when the time come, I'm heading north." " You will go alone?" " Unless you wants to come with me." "I ain't never wanted nothing more in my life." "Nothing!" "You listen for the signal." "When you hear that, follow the sound of the drum." "Come as quick as you can." "When I hear it, I will come quick as I can." "This drummer, he gonna send a message by drum." " We get north, to freedom..." " Stop that!" "Don't you wanna be free?" "Stop all that African talk about drums and all that stuff." " The drummer said if..." " He don't know." "I know." "I never tell nobody this before." "Not nobody here." "Before I come here I was on another plantation." "You ain't my first man." "The first was when I was just a girl." "We wasn't married Christian." "Massa didn't believe in Jesus for niggers." "I loved that man." "His name was Ben." "We had two little baby girls." "One night he run off." "I helped him." "He was gonna get free." "And then fetch me and the babies." "And we all be free." "But they catched him." "They catched him and they hanged him." "And they sold off my..." "They sold off my babies." "Never seen those sweet babies for the rest of my whole life." "You keep talking about Africa and getting free and something terrible is gonna happen." "One more terrible thing happen in my life, and I just die." "I just die." "Bell why you tell me this now?" "Why?" "Well, Toby she had a hard time." "Bell's not a young woman." "But she's all right." "And you have a beautiful young daughter." " Go see her now." " Yes, sir." "Oh, Fiddler." "Go on!" "Toby, look." "Ain't she pretty?" "Got a name for her already." "Just the right name." " We gonna call her Kizzy." " Kizzy?" "In Mandinka talk it means, "She stay put."" "She never be took from you." "Just you rest easy." "Massa Reynolds gonna wanna know where we get the name Kizzy." "He gonna wanna know whether it's a Christian name." "I don't know what to tell him." "I don't know much about this lying." "It come easy after a time." "Being around white folks make it so." "Say it's a family name." "Bell's side." "He believe that, you think?" "Pretty, ain't it?" "Shines like a baby's behind." "Yeah, he'll probably believe it." "Now, hush up." ""Probably." I can't take no chance on no "probably."" ""Probably" is as good as it gets for a nigger, Kunta." "Now you make your peace with that." "Now if you wants to talk you go right on ahead and talk." "I can hear you." "Gonna play me some music." "Play me a song I wants to hear." "I'm tired of all the time playing white folks' song." "I got my own song to play." "I just got to name her Kizzy." "And when she grow up I'll tell her what Kizzy really mean." "Tell her about her grandma and her grandpa and the village back in Africa." "Tell her about her peoples back there so she know she wasn't born to be no slave in the white folks' land." "Yeah, that's what I'll do, Fiddler." "Fiddler, what you think?" "Fiddler?" "Fiddler." "Now you know how it feel to be free, Fiddler." "Now you know what I always talking about." "Ain't free a fine way to be, Fiddler?" "Being free." "Ain't it a fine way to be?" "How come?" "It's the way I was named." "And my father." "And his father." "It's the way this child gonna be named." "She got to know about her peoples and their ways." "I the only one that can teach her the Mandinka way." "Proper naming of her, that the first place to start." "Make this child stand strong and tall." "You ain't never give up, is you?" "Not for me." "Not for nobody." "I love you, Bell." "I ain't never love no one the way I love you." "Don't ask me to give this up." "Not unless you really want to hear my answer." "Only answer I can give." "Kizzy!" "Behold the only thing greater than yourself." "The drums." "What you gonna do?" "You ain't gonna leave, is you?" "This is your home." "No, it's not my home." "But this my child." "And we family." "Girl, your name is Kizzy." "From special people, baby Kizzy." "Special." "You're gonna be a special kind of woman too." "Your name means "Stay put."" "But it don't mean "Stay a slave." It won't never mean that!" "You is the daughter of Kunta Kinte of the village of Juffure, on the banks of the river Kamby Bolongo." "His father is the Mandinka warrior, Omoro." "His mama is Binta." "The warrior Omoro was the son of the holy man Kairaba Kunta Kinte." "In the time of the 17th realm, Father Kunta Kinte..." ""Last on" Roots:" "Make a lesson of him." "You let him get away and every nigger on your place will be gone." "Can't find a way to run, then I just lay here and die." "You surely are some brave Mandinka fighting man, Toby." "What is it you're fighting now?" "I think you gonna make it!" "Lord, be praised, Toby." "You can walk!" "Jump the broom into the land of matrimony." "You talking escape?" "I ain't never wanted nothing more in my life." "Got a name for her." "We're gonna call her Kizzy." "You ain't gonna leave?" "This is your home." "It's not my home." "But this my child." "And we family." "Your name means, "stay put." But it don't mean stay a slave." "It will never mean that." "Ninsemuso!" "Ninsemuso, girl!" "Yes!" " Kizzy!" " Papa!" "Kizzy!" "She knows her name!" "What you laughing at?" "That's the Africa talk you told me." "Like you teached me "yhiro" is the tree and "tilo" is the sun." " You got that right, Kizzy." " Ninsemuso!" "I'm laughing because Africa ain't the talk." "It's the place." "Mandinka is the talk and the people." "This horse ain't gonna answer to the name Ninsemuso." "Because in Mandinka talk, "ninsemuso" mean "cow."" "Kizzy!" "Been looking for you, Toby." "I want to talk to you if you has time." "Ain't got no time now." "Massa wants this filly groomed and curried proper." "Besides, I know what you want to talk to me about." "Come, Ninsemuso." "Come." "Papa thinks you want to ask him about us jumping the broom." "Marrying up." "Know what it be like when you jump the broom?" "I would dress up in a brand new dimity Mama make just for the wedding." "Not for wearing any other time in my whole life." "And you be in a new black suit, finer than the preacher himself." "The preacher will put the broom down on the ground." "And the preacher says, "Now, you two gotta hold hands and jump over the broom into the land of matrimony."" "Now!" "Kizzy?" "You know what you gotta do so the wedding be real?" "Kiss." "Ever kiss a boy before?" "Of course not." "You the only boy I know and I ain't never kissed you." "Want to?" "I do." "Right out there is profit on the hoof." "Young Noah." "Yes, fine field hand." "What we need, speaking as overseer is one of those new Whitney cotton gins." "Do the work of 10 lazy niggers." "Purchase of a gin, Mr. Ordell, wants cash." "You've cash, sir." "Farmers in Georgia and Alabama pay high for a slave to clear out new fields for planting." "Noah would bring in cash more than enough for a down payment on a gin." "You're new here, Mr. Ordell." "Most of my chattel were born on this place." "Like Noah." "Young Kizzy." "That's Mammy Bell's girl." "I have a covenant with my slaves, all of them." "They know if they obey my laws and rules they can live their lives on this plantation and never be sold." "And if they break your rules?" "Disobey your laws?" "Well, that's quite another matter." "Of course." "Kizzy is a child." "And look at her flouncing around with that Noah like they's fixing to jump the broom." "If they ain't already has." "Know what I mean?" "I do." "You her mama!" "Don't it fret you that she can walk in with a big belly and that Noah be to blame?" "We know that boy from birth." "I know his mama since I was sold here over 30 years now." "Noah got the look of the Wolof people." "I remember them from when I was in Africa." "Keep to himself, don't say much." "If he say "Good morning," it be his last good word of the day." "Well, I like Noah." "He's quiet and proud." "Only one thing wrong with him." "What's that?" "He's just like you." "Maybe you two so much alike you'll never get along." "I didn't say I couldn't get along with him." "Glad to hear that, 'cause Kizzy wants him." "That's for sure." "And if that gal gets herself a man like the one I got me she can't help but turn out to be one happy woman long as she live." "Mama!" "Papa!" "You all hear the news?" "Missy Anne gonna be here tomorrow!" "She's coming back!" "First time in four years!" "I heard." "Massa got me grooming that filly on account of it." "Missy Anne!" "Ain't that fine, Mama?" "Surely fine." "I remember the way you two young'uns used to go morning till night." " I remember." "I never forget when she saw you after you was born." "She was just old enough to talk." "She said:" ""Mammy Bell, she look like a little nigger baby doll!"" "She give me a doll when I was sick." " She was my best friend." " Can't be." "She was, Papa." "The bestest friend I ever had." "Even if she be "toubab."" "Don't you use that word, "toubab"!" "You teaching her that African stuff?" "You want her whipped?" "I don't say "toubab" with white folks." "I say "white folks."" " See to it Missy Anne's room be ready." " Yes, Mama." "See to it that them andirons be polished up shiny and..." "What's that?" "They's letters spell out my name." "Missy Anne showed me." "She showed me about reading and writing." "That say Kizzy." "K-l-Z-Z-Y." "Don't you never do that again!" "No reading." "No writing." "Never!" "You hear me?" "White folk know a nigger can write, that nigger be whipped!" "That nigger be sold!" "Yes, ma'am." "Massa be in the best mood when Missy Anne be here." "Happy as can be." "It's good for him and for everybody." "Don't you do nothing to cause trouble." "Go sit and eat." "Yes, Mama." "Missy Anne teached me the reading and writing." "You was children, playing games!" "Now you all growed up." "Are you saying Missy Anne ain't my friend no more?" "What I saying, honey, is when people is children it don't matter who or what they is." "When they grow up, things change." "Especially with white folks." "You and Missy Anne, things could be different now." "If things ain't the same, don't you fret none." "You got enough love washing over you from your papa and me that it won't make no never mind." "Eat." "Missy Anne coming back." "It don't seem possible." "She's truly coming back." "The happiest white man in all Spotsylvania today be Massa Doctor." "He got more than just a niece to set his eyes on." "More true flesh and blood than a niece." " Hush up with that gossip." " Can't hush up the whole county." "Everyone heard how Squire John Reynolds called out massa about carrying on with his missus." "Good thing he didn't find out she not his child." "We don't want her to find out." "So hush up." "It's impressive, isn't it?" "The affection they feel for my niece." "A white woman's a rare sight here, doctor." "Yes, it's rare." "Times past, my sister-in-law used to be a frequent visitor here but those were times past." "Oh, Uncle William!" " Oh, I can scarcely believe it!" " Welcome back." "Mammy Bell!" "Mammy Bell!" "Oh, Mammy Bell!" "Mammy Bell!" " Toby." "Mama Ada." " Welcome back, Missy Anne." "Where is she?" "Where is she, Mammy Bell?" "Kizzy!" "Kizzy!" "There you are!" "There you are!" "Oh, my friend!" "My dearest friend!" "Oh, Kizzy, look at you." "You're all grown up!" "You're not my little nigger baby doll anymore!" "Help me unpack." "I want you to see all my new things." "Oh, Kizzy!" "Toby." "I wants to talk with you, if you has the time." "If it's about jumping the broom with Kizzy, I ain't got the time." "It ain't that." "Wants to talk to you about your crippled foot." "Noah, what you care about my old foot?" "I heard you got it trying to escape." "Folks say you know everything about escaping." "I need to learn." "I know about chores." "Massa want that filly cleaned up for Missy Anne." "You wanna know about currying, you welcome to come along." "Let me see this one again." "I just don't know, Kizzy." "Which should I wear to supper with Uncle William?" "Why not wear both?" "I'll starch and iron up the ruffles and when you want, I'll help you change." "Oh, Kizzy, you do have the most wonderful ideas!" "Kizzy?" "I'll tell you a secret if you promise never to tell anyone in the world." " I just have to tell somebody." " I promise." "All right." "My great-great-great-grandfather lived in England before he came here." "Now, his father was a baron." "Next to the king, that's very important." "My father said that my great- great-grandfather was the griot of the Mandinka tribe back in Africa." "Next to the chief, that's the most important thing to be." "I'm serious, Kizzy." "Anyway, the one who's the baron now is my..." "See, that would be..." "He's my fourth cousin." "And he's very young." "And tall." "And handsome." "And I let him kiss me!" "More than once." "Lord of mercy!" "And when I left he wrote me a letter." "A love letter." "I must have read it a thousand times." "Would you like to hear it?" "Oh, dear, I hid it so well I've hidden it from myself!" "I declare, Kizzy, just the thought of him makes me feel I'm about to swoon." "I'm all aglow." "Feel my hand, Kizzy." " You surely flushed." " I know." "Mama made you lemonade because it's your favorite." "I'll get it." "Dear Mammy Bell." "Where is that letter?" ""Miss Anne Reynolds."" "What I want to know is why you so set on trying to escape." "Me, I was born a free man in Africa so I wanted to be free again." "But you were born here." "You got no idea what freedom is." "Well, I feel in my bones that freedom is a good thing I don't has." "If I stay here, the overseer get massa to sell me away from Mama Ada." "Away from Kizzy!" "You be sold, you stay alive." "You run away, you be dead." "You wrong, old man." "I takes my chances and I gonna live." "I'm not just gonna try to escape." "I'm gonna do it!" "I'll show you something." "Stole me this." "White folks got knives." "Guns." "Whips." "Axes." "Dogs." "Lowlife trash to help track you down." "Even got no-good niggers to help them." "Ain't gonna stop me." "I'm going North where white folks called abolitionists and Quakers helps niggers be free." "I'll come back and fetch Kizzy and take her to freedom." "Gonna do it, Toby." "Ain't nothing gonna stop me." "Nothing." " Maybe Bell was right." " What you mean?" "Maybe there ain't no difference between some niggers born here and those born in Africa." "Then you tell me what you know?" "Yeah." "I'll tell you." "A stock barn ain't no place for a field hand to be." "I just helping out Toby, sir." " Always in the wrong place, ain't you?" " No, sir, Mr. Ordell, sir." "You've been breaking the rules." "Squire's rules." "My rules." "You hankering to be sold off, keep it up." "One more time, and you'll be heading south as fast as I can boot you!" "Now, get!" ""And I can only hope that you return some small part of the affection, nay, love I feel for you." "Your adoring servant."" " Adoring, Kizzy." " That's a love letter, all right." "You must swear you'll never tattle about this." " I swear." " On the Bible." "Where is it?" "Here it is." "My old Bible." "Now kiss your little finger and swear." "I swear." "If you ever tattle, you'll be damned to hell." "Oh, I wouldn't never, Missy Anne." "Remember when we used to play school?" "I'd be the teacher and you, the pupil?" "I remember." "You were such a good student, Kizzy." "You even read from the Bible." "I remember you reading this exact thing." "See if you can still." "No, Missy Anne." "I couldn't do that no way." "Massa ever find out..." "Who's gonna tell?" "I want to see if you've forgotten what I taught you." ""And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly." "I per..." "Perc..."" "It's "perceived." It means, "you saw, you knew."" ""I perceived that this also is vexation of the spirit."" ""For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom..."" "Is that you reading, Kizzy?" "Uncle William, it was only a trick." "Kizzy and I are making up a joke to play on Mammy Bell." "We're gonna make her think Kizzy knows how to read." " Her eyes will pop out of her head!" " I forbid it." "Whatever you say, Uncle William." "But it was only a trick." "I'm not blaming you, darling." "Miss Anne doesn't understand the importance of such things." "But I'm surprised at you, Kizzy." "You want to play a cruel joke on a fine woman like your own mama, Mammy Bell?" "Get dressed as soon as you can." "I've got a special present for you." "Finish unpacking Miss Anne's things." "And no more tricks." "Yes, sir, massa." "Mammy Bell's as true a woman as the Almighty ever let draw breath." "You come along as soon as you can." "It's all right, Kizzy." "You needn't be afraid." "You keep my secrets and I'll keep yours." "You mustn't be a fraidy cat." "I'll protect you." "I'll always protect you." "You know that." "I gots to talk with you." "Wait." "Got to tend Missy Anne." "She's leaving tomorrow." "She come around, you got no time for nobody." "Especially me." "She gone, we have all the time we wants." "Ain't all that much time left, Kizzy." "There was a plot by runaway niggers to kidnap the governor massacre the white people and set fire to Richmond." "The plot was hatched by a handful that was part of a slave ship revolt led by that African nigger, called himself Cinque." " Where did you hear this, Mr...?" " Moore." "Tom." "Got a place on the west edge of the county." "Nothing so grand as this." "It was in Valhalla." "I was buying chickens." " You're a chicken farmer?" " Fighting chickens." "I farm some cotton but I don't have much land or a flock of slaves." "Who can afford them with prices rising the way they are?" "Like some more, though." "I got a mind to get me a couple and breed my own." "Maybe I'll only need one, if I find the right one." "You heard news in Valhalla?" "Yes, sir, it was in Valhalla I heard the news." "Thank God and a few niggers who found out about it and told." "The plot's been crushed and most that started it is behind bars." "Patrols are on every road from here to Richmond looking for the rest." "I figured it was only neighborly to warn other plantation owners..." "On my way back home, sir." " Very neighborly, Mr...?" " Moore, sir." "Tom Moore." "Mr. Moore." "Best thing about this trip was seeing you." "And getting that fine filly for a present." "I have a better idea for a coming-home present." "You're part of it, Kizzy." "The most important part." "What you talking about?" "It's going to be a surprise." "I have to ask Papa first." "I've made a traveling pass so you can come along with your papa, Toby when he brings the filly next week." "I'm coming over with Papa?" "Hooray!" "Special for the surprise." "Now, run tell Uncle William I'm ready to go." "Got everything there." "Much obliged." "Cotton-picking time makes for dry throats." "Go on about what you were saying." "Well, some of these patrollers are catching these runaway slaves and skinning them alive." "Some set them on fire right on the spot." "As an example, you might say." "It puts the fear of God in other niggers." " Yes, what is it, Kizzy?" " Missy Anne ready to go." "Yes, all right." "Fine-looking wench." "You'll have to excuse us." "It was very considerate of you to come." "Maybe I'll bring my missus by for a social visit." "She'd surely like to see this fine place." "Very considerate, indeed." "You children wanna get bit?" "Get out of here!" "Goodbye, sir." "Oh, my dear." "William!" "Oh, thank you for a lovely time." "Kizzy." "Good to see you." "And Mammy Bell." "I'll see you soon." "I'll send Toby with your new filly." "I'd appreciate it." "I'm looking so forward to seeing Mama and Papa." "Bye!" "Got to go tonight." "Maybe not get another chance like this." "Things'll be quiet here next few days." "You and Toby be off at Missy Anne's." "Massa be gone on his doctoring rounds." "Overseer be checking the wagons come to ship cotton." "Maybe ain't only the bestest chance." "Maybe my last chance." "Overseer just waiting to find some reason to ship me off." "Bound and sold." "No different from a bale of cotton." "Patrollers are catching runaways." "Burning and skinning them alive!" "I heard." "Just got to find my way past them." "Oh, Noah." "Wouldn't it be fine if things were different?" "And you could stay here, and we could marry up and raise young'uns to be strong and happy as we'd be?" "It surely would be fine." "Got no time for dreaming." "Excepting about you, Kizzy." "Then ain't nothing for it but to find you a way past them patrollers." "Protect him, sweet Jesus." "From the patrollers and the slave catchers." "Be to Missy Anne's plantation before long." "Where we at?" "First time I think about where I was." "Why, we be where everybody is." "Between east, west, north and south." "East, where the sun come up and the water is that takes moons to cross." "West, where the sun sets." "Don't nobody know what's out there." "South, that's where they work niggers till they drops dead." " North the place to be." " Not for you." "Don't think about north." "That be trouble." "Stay right where you at." "Don't know where that be." "Don't matter." "You stay here." "That's why I name you Kizzy." "In Mandinka talk that mean "you stay put."" " Where you going?" " On our massa's business." " Horse thieving?" " No, sir." "We got traveling passes." " What's your names?" " Toby and Kizzy." "Show the passes, Kizzy." "Show the passes!" "Virgil, get over here and read this." "Yep." "That's what it says." "Toby Reynolds and Kizzy Reynolds." "He belongs to Dr. Reynolds." "He know my Massa Greaves." "I ain't no runaway!" "I was stole!" "They stole me away to sell me south!" "Tell my massa!" "Tell Massa Greaves!" "Here, get out of here." "Don't pay no mind." "Lying niggers say anything." "Get!" "Yes, sir, boss." "That could be Noah." "Same thing could happen to him." " What you talking about?" " He took off." "He be a runaway now." " When?" " Last night." "Oh, Papa, I'm so scared." "Well, overseer didn't miss him before we left." "He'll have a day's start." "Longer he gone, better chance he got." " You mean it?" " Yeah." "Each day go by, it be harder to follow." "Trail get cold." "Just like tracking an animal." "Dogs will lose the scent." "How long, Papa?" "If he can stay free a week, he got a good chance of staying free." "I'm gonna pray for that." "Papa said it's okay." "Isn't that wonderful?" "Isn't that a fine surprise?" "It means that Uncle will make a present of you." "You'll be my slave." "We'll be together forever." "You won't have to be afraid because I'll protect you." "Always." "Wouldn't you like that?" "I likes you." "You my best friend." "Always was." "But..." " But what?" " Seems so much happening suddenly." "It's wonderful!" "You'll come here to live." "Here with me." " Never lived no place but massa's." " It'll be nicer." "You'll have a room of your own." "Right next to mine." "Never been away from Papa and Mama." "Papa Toby will be back and forth." "We'll be over to see Mammy Bell." "Oh, it will be better than ever for us." "And it will be legal!" "You hear me, Kizzy?" "Legal." "Don't know about legal." "Well, legal is..." "It's just the law." "Blacks are slaves, we own them." "That's how it is." "I know." "Just don't understand it, I guess." "Think of it this way, Kizzy." "It's the natural way of things." "It's because white folks are smarter than niggers." "Like men are smarter." "Everyone knows that, for heaven's sake." "You mean, that's how God made it?" "Exactly." "If it wasn't right, he'd change it, wouldn't he?" "Expect so." "Abolitionists want to change it." "If we weren't friends, I could have you punished for mentioning them." "I know that." "But we are friends." "So I'll explain it to you." "They are evil people." "Like Quakers." "They're against God." "They is?" "Kizzy!" "Papa wants to get back." "Don't want to run into patrollers after dark." "Kizzy, don't you want to be my slave?" "Aren't you my friend?" "Of course I'm your friend." "I has to ask my mama and my papa." "Oh, no, I'll ask." "I want to." "I'll be at Uncle's in a week." "I'll ask then." "It's to be our secret." "Just yours and mine." "Oh, how happy Mammy Bell will be!" "She'll cry just from joy when I tell her." "Oh, Kizzy, isn't it wonderful?" "We have the most wonderful secret of all." "Noah's just slipped off to visit a girl." "He's that age." "Only gal he's interested in is here." "Bell's Kizzy." "He's run off, doctor." "I'd swear on it." "The longer we wait, less chance we have." "As it is, we'll have to use the dogs." "All right, Mr. Ordell, do what you have to do." "The past two weeks been as grim a time I have seen on this place and you two get cheerier every day." "We cheery for the reasons the white folks is angry." "Noah been gone a week and ain't been caught." "You ain't the only cheery ones." "Missy Anne drove in smiling." "She got a surprise." "She gonna tell us tonight." "I been doing nothing but thinking of Noah since Missy told me." "She gonna ask if I can be hers." "If I can be her slave, legal." "And live at Massa John Reynolds' plantation." "Damn white folks!" "They got no right to take a child from us." "Go easy, Toby." "Kizzy still with us." "I'll ask massa." "He listens, not like most whites." "I don't like it." "Every time Missy want something, she get her way." "I wish Noah were here to make me free like he be." "He is free, Papa." "I know it." "I just feel it in my bones." "He's free!" "That's Ada." "Oh, Lord, have mercy!" "Oh, my child!" "My child!" "Oh, my child!" "Oh, my child." "Mama Ada, come on now." "Come on back to your cabin." "My boy!" "He put up a fight, sir." "Noah?" "He had a traveling pass." "He ain't told me how he got it yet, but he will." "Honey, why don't you just sit down and wait?" "Toby?" "Dr. Reynolds says he'll be wanting to see you and Bell." "Yes, sir." "He ain't interested in seeing you." "Just your papa and your mama." "Bell." "Toby." "This plantation here is home." "It's home for all of us." "All being part of the same family." "Negro as well as white." "Members of a family have responsibilities." "They have rules." "Or it'd be impossible to live together in peace." "Understand?" " Yes, sir." " Yes, sir." "If any of you break the rules, my rules, I have no choice but to remove him for the good of the rest." "I could forgive, but that would be like leaving a rotten fruit in the barrel to spoil everything around it." "It's not fair." "You come." "I have to show you this." "This is a traveling pass." "Noah confessed it was forged for him." "By Kizzy." "It's a copy of one Miss Anne gave her." "All right." "Noah's been sold, what's left of him." "And Kizzy..." "Oh, God, no." "No, massa." "You can't sell Kizzy too." "No, massa, not my baby, not my child!" "Oh, massa, not my child, not my baby!" " Massa, massa, please!" " Bell." "Massa, beat her!" "Do anything you want to her, massa." "Tear the skin off her worthless hide." "Please, massa, in the name of Jesus, have mercy." "Me and Toby, we give you our lives, massa." "Massa!" "Forty years!" "Forty years I serve you." "Don't that count?" "You did your job." "She disobeyed." "She must suffer the consequences." "Please?" "Please, massa, I beg you." "Please don't sell her." "Please, massa." "She's already been sold." "Oh, then, massa, please sell us with her." "Don't split the family." "You never been that kind of man." "Tom Moore owns Kizzy now." "Ordell will take her away." " Massa..." " I don't want to go!" " God, my baby!" " No, no!" "Uncle William." "Poor Mammy Bell." "Mama!" "Papa!" "No!" "Mama!" "No!" "Papa!" "Get back there!" " Get back!" " Missy Anne, please!" "Missy Anne, please!" "Please help me!" " Missy Anne!" "Please help me!" " Back!" "Mama!" "Papa!" "I don't want to go!" "Missy Anne, please!" "Oh, Kizzy." "My baby..." "I swear, Uncle William, in all my life I have never been made such a fool of." "To choose that buck when she had such an opportunity." "She's no different." "She's as stupid as all the rest of them." "What a shame." "What you doing?" "Mandinka people believe that if you save dust from a footprint someday they come back." "Like naming her Kizzy was supposed to make her stay put." "Well, either you lied to me, old man, or you been lied to." "That child's gone from us and she ain't never coming back." "You hear me?" "Never!" " Boy!" " Yes, sir?" "Know where she belongs?" "Yes, sir." "He say put her in the cabin at the end." " You know your name?" " Kizzy." "Kizzy Reynolds." "Kizzy Moore." "I bought you." "You're my property now." "Cost a fair price." "Enough for a payment on a cotton gin." "Well, Kizzy, I'm gonna get my money's worth right now." "I'd rather not hurt you, but I ain't got no time to play..." "You gonna be all right." "You'll be all right." "My name's Malizy." "I's the cook." "You best know about Massa Tom Moore." "He's one of them white men that likes nigger women." "Young ones." "He'll be bothering you most every night for a while." "Used to bother me, but no more." "No sense in fretting." "Ain't nothing you can do." "He stud you till you has a baby." "Then he leave you alone." "Massa Tom Moore no worse than most white men." "Even fair." "Depends on you." "He figures you gotta deserve what you get." "When I has my baby he gonna be a boy." "And when that boy grow up I promise you one thing:" "Massa Tom Moore gonna get what he deserve." "Welcome, Mr. Bennett." "Welcome to our home." "It's not so fine as what you're used to." "Your smile will make any house a mansion." " For heaven's sake." " Well said, sir." "You have a gift." "No, not in comparison to my boy, Sam, here." "He's a terrible one for the ladies." "Yes, sir." "Not much to choose from here." "I don't keep many slaves." "Mr. Bennett, won't you step inside and rest yourself?" "Thank you, ma'am." "Kizzy, girl." "That driver got his eye glued on you." "Just glued!" "Smile at him." "Bee needs a sniff of honey to keep him buzzing around." "I'd sooner die than smile at that peacock." "Girl, pride is a deadly sin and you is too young to die." "Mama?" "I..." " I can't eat supper with you tonight." " Why you can't?" "Gotta get the chickens ready." "Massa showing off to some gamecocker." "Massa!" "I made you a special supper, all the things you like." "Can't help it." "Me and Mingo gonna be getting them birds ready." "Now, what you getting all fussed about?" "It ain't my fault." "Go on and say it." ""Georgie, I swear you loves them roosters more than you loves your own mama." "Why can't you be like your granddaddy, the African and get some learning?" I'll tell you why." "Nobody gonna cut off my foot for no damn fool runaway." "Keep your mocking tongue off my daddy!" "Least he weren't like you, slave down to your bones." "You think you smart?" "I may not be much older than you but I am your mama and I'll make something of you." "You gonna do as I say." "All right, Mama." "I'll tell massa, "I can't tend your chickens tonight." "My mama wants me to eat supper with her."" "Get on out of here." "Thank you, Mama." "I think Massa Bennett wants to see old red." "Yes, sir!" "Come on there, red." "Show him that gamecock, boy!" "Here he is, old red!" "Come on, now." "Come on." "Catch it if you can, now." "You badass, come on." "Bad chicken." "Look it." "Come on." "Come on." "Time you got pitted anyway." "Catch it." "Catch it." "Enough." "Don't run him to death." "Nothing gonna kill that red devil, except a spur." "It's a fine bird." "Your stock will strengthen our breed." "That's all, boys." " Boy?" " Yes, sir?" "You have a sure hand with a gamecock." "Thank you, sir." "But ain't nothing I knows except what massa and Mingo teached me." "Where's that fancy nigger of yours?" "Last I saw, he was chasing a plump chicken with a speckled bandanna." "I bet you give that man of yours one devil of a time." "I be by myself, thank you." "Look here..." "How is you called?" "Kizzy." "Look here." "These are for you, pretty Kizzy." "Thank you." "Massa Moore be mighty obliged, you weeding his garden." "Woman, you has a sharp tongue!" "But I likes you." "Yes, I likes you in spite of yourself." "What you say me and you go out walking this evening?" "What you want with me?" "What any healthy man want with a fine-looking woman." "You can want what you want all you want." "Now, look here." "I ain't gonna be here but for this week." "Ain't you got any heart?" "If I do, Mr. Fancy Driver nobody take it free or buy it cheap." "His ears must be ringing!" "Well, Sister Sara, my lungs is in the service of the Lord." "Amen!" "Daddy, you supposed to baptize Joshua Clayborne." "Yes." "Thank you, Matilda." "Excuse me, ladies." "Always good to see you, angel." "How's Georgie been treating you?" "It's my hope you and my boy gonna jump the broom." "Good wife like you just what he need to steady him down." "Miss Kizzy." "I so partial to that sinful boy of yours that I ashamed of myself." "But I ain't gonna give him time until he mends his ways." "That's what I'm saying!" "We got to grab the evil, a scaly creature by his slimy neck, you see and then you just shake him out!" "I say you shake him good!" "And then you tussle him on down, you see and then you tell him straight out." "Tell him straight out." "You say, "Get thee behind me, Satan." "I say, get thee behind me."" ""The Lord, the Lord am with me!"" "I say, "Get thee behind me, Satan!"" "George Moore, you stop this second!" "Oh, well, it's always so nice to see a new face at the services." "I'm so glad you could join..." "You is mocking my daddy!" " You is no-account, George Moore!" " Wait..." "Excuse me a minute." "Tildy!" "I's sorry." "You know I don't mean nothing against your daddy." " Don't nothing matter to you?" " You matter to me." "Even though you always a preacher's daughter." "Save that for them giggling ninnies who follows you around." " Come here, Tildy." " Leave me alone, George Moore." "Go on, do what you want." " It ain't nothing to me." " Oh, it ain't, huh?" "Then how come you shaking?" "I wanna show you what does matter." "Something I ain't showed other girls." "If you's handing out kisses, where do the line start?" "I ain't handing any out." "What you giving that chicken trainer, young George?" "George is special." " He anything to you, girl?" " He my son." "You the boy's mama, huh?" "Well, Lord, Lord, don't that beat all!" "Look here if you's going home, I thought I'd see you safe to your cabin." "You thought wrong as usual." "Come on now, what you scared of, girl?" "I ain't scared of nothing, least of all you." "Shouldn't be no reason I can't see you home, should there?" "Do the boy know the massa's his daddy?" "He used to ask, but I never told him." "If he has a notion, he don't ask no more." " He gonna find out someday." " Not from me." "Ain't nothing I wants to crow about." "I used to pray that George'd kill Massa Moore when he was old enough." "But I got older and wanted my boy to be older too so I give it up." "Don't you be talking about niggers hurting white folks." " You know it ain't healthy." " Ain't no fear of that." "They closer than finger and thumb off to those cockfights with old Mingo every week." "Well, this is my place." "Do the boy stay here with you?" "He stay where he's happy, with his chickens." "Well, what we standing out here for?" "Let's go inside." "You wanted to see me home safe." "I's safe now." "Thank you and goodbye." "I thinks you powerful lonesome, Kizzy." "Well, if I is, it ain't for the likes of you." "Woman, you has a lot of pride." "But I admire you for it." "But I's a prideful man myself." "And you ain't nourishing it." "Now, you can go on in there and shut the door on me but if you do, do it for good." "Because I ain't gonna come knocking no more." "Well?" "What you standing out there for, fool?" "Look at them stags go at it." "Ain't it something?" "Easy, easy!" "You'll have your day." " Ain't you scared?" " Scared?" "I love these birds." "They like my babies." "Good boy." "It's time they mated." "That's what the ruckus is about." "Nothing's more ornery than a game bird without a covey of hens to soothe him." " It's the way of nature." " It's the way of dumb critters." "It's fine for them." "I ain't no dumb critter." "Won't think or live like one." "And I sure don't want to be treated like one." "Tildy..." "Time I was getting home." "What you looking at me like that for?" "You is a gentle man." "Something about you brings out the gentle in me." "Sam Bennett." "What's your real name, Sam?" " Just that." " No, it ain't." "That's your slave name." "My slave name's Kizzy Moore." "My real name's Kizzy Kinte, after my daddy." "What is you talking about?" "About where we come from." "About Africa." "What we was before we were slaves." "Nothing's a bigger pain than a nigger with Africa on his mind." "What's so grand about Africa?" "You know I drive and see more than most Africans dream about." "You don't know how much an African can dream." "While driving, ever come upon the Reynolds plantation?" "I reckon I have passed it." "It's about four hours away from here." "Why?" "I got some folks I know there." "At least I think I do." " Who that?" " My mama and my daddy." "And I'm longing to see them." "You're a girl full of longings, ain't you?" "Yes, I is." "Girl, don't put no hex on me!" "I'm not putting a hex on you, fool!" "I'm writing your name." "S-A-M." "Where you learn that?" "Young Missy teach me, on another plantation." "Well, best you just forget it." "Massa don't like black folks reading and writing." "Why you worried what massa like?" "I's only worried about you." "I don't want no harm to come to you is all." "Come here." "Kizzy, if I didn't know better I'd say you was working on getting me fat." " All this food you handing out..." " Don't want you fat, Sam." "Just trying to keep up your strength." " Come here." " Leave me be." " I got work to do." " So has I!" "Come on, now, stop." "Lord, Lord." "Look here..." "I sure is thirsty, girl." "Has you got any water in here?" "Fetch me some." "I glad to do that." "Got some lovely fresh spring water." "I'm taking it from the bottom of the barrel so it'll be nice and cool." "Oh, that's good." "Here's your water, Samuel, dear." " Why'd you do that?" "!" " Never say "Fetch me."" "You want something from me, I glad to give it." "But you ask." "Bedding me don't mean you can abuse me." "I slave enough." "I won't be your slave." "Come here." "I mean, please." "Pretty Kizzy, please come here." "See now?" ""Please" gets his self pleased." "Honey, what's wrong?" "Come on, tell me what's wrong." "Oh, Sam, I loses everybody." "Everybody." "The first boy I ever loved." "Noah, he was sold away." "Then they took me from my mama and my daddy." "Now you'll go away." "Hush, girl, come here." "Oh, Sam, what am I gonna do after you're gone?" "What am I gonna do?" "Same as me." "Go on living one day at a time just like we always done." "Come here." "We got a whole lot of night left." "Mama!" "Mama, I wanna talk to you!" ""Good morning, Mama." "How you feeling this morning?" " Fine..."" " I want to talk about you." "Ain't you ashamed of yourself?" "Everybody knows that driver's been in your cabin these nights." "Don't you care about how I feel?" "It's a scandal." "I can't go nowhere without people laughing and winking." " I won't stand for it." " What won't you stand for?" "You let my mama be." "I know all about you." "And I's warning you." "You leave my mama be." "Afraid I can't do that, boy." "I'm marrying your mama." " Sam?" " Massa always told me if I find a girl I want to marry, he'd buy her." "Well, I asked him." "And he's agreeable." "Kizzy, I can't leave you." "And it ain't for lack of trying." "The boy's right about me, far as I know." "I've had a bunch of girls." "That ain't no secret." "I've been a rolling stone so long I don't know any other way." "I never stopped being lonely till I met you." "Scared me half to death, wanting somebody so much." "But I want you, Kizzy." "Will you have me?" "I can't answer you now, Sam." "I got to puzzle things out." "Puzzle fast." "We ain't got much time." "I admire the way you stand up for your mama, boy." "Does you proud." "I reckon he's a good man, Mama." "I reckon I could be wrong." " I can't leave." "You need me." " Don't you fret." "Besides, we'll see each other all the time." "He being a driver and all, and me..." "I travel with Massa Moore." "Mama..." "You give me all you could give me." "You got some happiness coming to you in your life." "Oh, Georgie." "I loves you." "It's gonna be all right, Mama." "Don't you fret." "It'll be all right." "Everything has its price." "How much for the boy?" "I'll be straight with you." "No amount of cash could pry George from me." "He's the best natural-born chicken fighter there ever was." "That nigger's my fortune and my future." "I don't disagree with you, Tom, but I was obliged to try." "Selling him would be foolish and you're no fool." "Thank you, sir." "I've dined on French food from Philadelphia to New Orleans." "Nothing lingers on the palate like good country cooking." " That was a fine meal, ma'am." " Thank you, sir." "Mr. Bennett, can I offer you the hospitality of my slave row?" " Not tonight, thank you." " You sure?" "Nothing rounds off a meal better." "A great tradition of civilized living." " Some other time." "I'm a bit tired." " Up to you, sir." "Can I get you anything more?" "No, thank you, ma'am." "If you'll excuse me, I'm about to retire." "Mrs. Moore, Tom." "Fine meal." "I'm feeling sluggish myself." " Mind if I walk and enjoy a cigar?" " Of course not." "I may be a while." "If you're tired, don't wait up." "That's very considerate of you." "Well, good night." "Good night." "Don't catch anything on your walk." "There's a little nip in the air." "Sam?" "It's been quite a while, huh, Kizzy?" "I haven't got all night." " No!" " What did you say?" "No, massa, please." "I'm gonna be married." "I know that." "I agreed to it, didn't I?" "Got me another boot." " Massa loan me the rig today." " He treat you good letting you have this rig." "And traveling passes too." "Oh, he one fine massa." "Treat me just like I's white!" " Yes, you gonna like it up there." " Sam?" " What?" " Take me." "Where?" "What you talking about?" "To Mama and Daddy at the plantation." "I don't know about that." "That's four hours away." "Please." "I ain't been away since I got here." "I'd do anything to see my folks to tell them about us." "Sam, take me there." "I won't ask you anything again as long as we live." "Come on, now, back off." "You'll have us in a ditch." "OI' Toby went about two years ago." "After your mama, Bell, was sold to the traveling slaver he just faded." " Lord, that crazy African." " What do you mean, crazy?" "All he ever talked about was running away." "Plotting about escaping till he die and him not hardly able to walk." "I was with him when he passed to glory." "Did he say anything before he died?" "Nothing I could make no sense of just jabbered away in African." "He kept saying something like:" ""Belong..." "Belong" something." "Were it Kamby Bolongo?" "That's right." "He kept saying it over and over." "Like he were praying." " Kamby Bolongo?" "What that mean?" " It mean "river."" "It was one of the first things he ever taught me." "I sorry about your folks, miss." "I sure miss that old African." "I'd like to be alone for a while." "Daddy, Mama." "Wherever you be oh, I miss you so." "I'm sorry you died without my comfort." "I guess you worried about what happened to me." "Well, it ain't so bad." "I've had my sorrows just like you, and my joys." "I got me a son, George." "I wish you could see him." "He's tall and strong and he got a grin that'll break your heart." "You'd like him, Daddy, I know you would." "I told him how you were looking for a log to make a drum when the slave catchers took you." "And about your real name being Kunta Kinte." "And Kamby Bolongo mean river, and "ko," a fiddle." "Sometime he seems to forget." "But he's a good boy, Daddy." "He's just young, that's all." "Soon, I'm gonna get married and I'm gonna have more children." "And I'm gonna teach them about freedom so they can teach their children." "I promise you, Daddy, your dream will not die." "Someday we gonna be free." "I don't mean to trouble your mourning but we better be getting back." "Get up, there." "You won't work in them fields no more, neither." "You gonna be in the big house with the missus." "Oh, and one other thing." "I knows you a proud and sassy woman..." "Lord knows I loves you for it." "But massa massa can't abide a nigger gets above herself." "You gonna have to walk softer when you're up there in the big house." "That sun getting low." "We gonna be in a world of trouble." "Step lively, lazy beasts!" "Come on." "Get up there!" "You abused my good nature." "I said be home before dark." " I'm sorry..." " I'll put you back in the fields." " No, massa." " Give you real work." " Maybe you'd appreciate the good life!" " I'm sorry, massa." " I might not buy her!" " No, massa, please don't." "Bed down the horses." "They're lathered up!" "Yes, sir, massa." "I'm sorry, massa, powerful sorry, massa." " I'll deal with you tomorrow." " Bless you." "Bless you." "Oh, he powerful mad but he'll be all right." "He gonna be all right." "I don't ever, ever wanna come that close to trouble again." "I'll take care of the horses and come back and help you get your things together." " Is you all packed, darling?" " No." "What you mean, no?" "We's leaving here early." "No, Sam, I ain't going with you." " I thought you loved me." " I do love you, Sam." "You is a good and loving man." "You've made me happier this week than I've ever been." "I won't forget you, but I can't marry you." "Sure, you just got the last-minute wobbles." "No, Sam, I can't marry you and no two ways about it." "Oh, now, Kizzy." "Tell me what I done wrong, huh?" "I'll make it up to you." "It ain't your fault." "There ain't no making up to do." "It's just that we're too different, that's all." "I forgot who I was for a while." "I'm sorry." "Forgive me." " You think you better than I is." " I didn't say that." "No, but I hear it just the same." "Funny part is, you do the massa's business same as me." "Think I don't know Massa Moore was here?" " You knew?" " I seen him come from the house." "Why didn't you say anything about it today?" "Kizzy, now, what you expect me to say, huh?" "What you expect me to say?" "That's the way it is." "Weren't nothing I could say about it." "Yes, there was!" "You could have cared." "You could have cared!" "The massa can take my body, but he can't touch my spirit." "He can't touch my dream of being a free woman." "When they bought you, you gave them your soul for free." " Kizzy..." " Oh, goodbye, Sam." "Kizzy, don't say I ain't got no dreams, 'cause I has." "It just ain't big as yours." "Well, I hope it come true for you, Sam." "Now that Bennett's birds are packed, we better crate these." "We got us some dates to fill around this county." "These birds is raring to go, and so is I." "Them birds is going, Mingo, but you're staying here." "You ain't looking too good lately." "You need rest." " I all right, massa." " Anyway, you too old for this travel." "George here can handle things on his own now." "But, massa, cockfighting is all my life." "I ain't taking away the chickens, you can still tend and train them." "Massa, Mingo, he fine, just fine." "Sure, he been feeling a bit poorly but he's one of the finest cockfighters alive." "You know that." "I made up my mind, boy." "Mr. Bennett admired you too much for me to overlook it." "You is my main trainer now." "We'll make a pile of money." "Gonna be two names gamecockers talk about:" "Tom Moore and his boy, George." " One more thing." " Yes, sir." "Find a wife quick, you hear?" "I don't want you catting around, spending up your gumption." "Yes, Massa Moore." "Mingo, look, I..." "Don't fret, boy." "It been coming a long time." "And he right." "You is ready." "I teached you everything about chickens." "There's things you know nobody can teach nobody." "Old man, I..." " Thanks for what you give me." " You the only one to give it to." "And I wanna thank you." "Georgie." "Yes, sir." " Take it, boy." " No, no, I can't." "Take it, boy." "You the cock of the walk now." "Take it!" " Thank you, ma'am." "Much obliged." " Thank you, sir." "Okay, giddap there!" "Mama!" "Wait till you hear the news!" "Mama..." "Why didn't you marry him?" "Sam wasn't like us." "Nobody told him where he come from." "He didn't have a dream of where he's going." "I's sorry." "Hey, look here." "Master made me head trainer today." "That nice." "Mama, I know how you feel about cockfighting and all." "But listen to me one time." "I'm gonna tell you something." "I loves being a cockfighter." "I's proud." "Ain't nobody know them birds better than I do." "I'm gonna make a name for myself." "And get me some respect." "But not by running like your daddy." "No." "I'll pit them birds until I can buy myself free." "I'll look straight ahead the rest of my life, not over my shoulder." "Another thing I'm marrying Matilda." "She don't know yet." "I don't think she'll put up a fuss." "There's hope for you yet." "Hope for us, Mama." "Hope for both of us." "A little for me." "But a whole lifetime of hope for you yet." " One thing, Georgie." " What's that?" "Don't believe everything massa says." "Don't you trust that man." "What you talking, Mama?" "Why, massa, he treat me fine." "Why, he more like a daddy to me!" ""Last on" Roots:" "Kizzy, there you are." "There you are." "My friend." "My dearest friend." "This is a traveling pass." "Noah confessed." "It was forged for him by Kizzy." "Noah's been sold off, what's left of him." "And Kizzy." "Oh, God, no." "No, massa, you can't sell Kizzy too." "Mama!" "Mama!" " Oh, no!" "Please don't." " Mama!" "Mama!" "Missy Anne, please, no!" " Come on, I haven't got all night." " Please." "I'll be married in a while." "Well, I know that." "I agreed to it, didn't I?" "Got me another boot, Kizzy." " I can't marry you and that's it." " You think you better than I is." " I didn't say that." " I know Massa Moore was here." "The massa can take my body, but he can't touch my spirit." "I still dream of being a free woman." "You is my main trainer now." "Gamecockers will talk about two names from now on:" "Tom Moore and his boy George." "I loves being a cockfighter." "I's proud." "I'll make a name for myself." "I'm gonna pick them birds until I can buy myself free." "I hate that puffed-up Squire James." "There's no one I would rather beat." "The winner!" "The winner!" "Squire James, do you see the winner?" "Only the first." "Thank you, brothers." "What you mean, your last fight?" "You been sold?" "Nope." "I'm a nigger what owns a nigger." "I bought my own freedom papers." "Bought yourself?" "A slave could do that?" "All you need is a willing master and the money." "And I got a bill of sale to prove that I own me." "Took me near 20 years." "But I done it." "Saved every penny." "More than $2000!" "I could have bought free sooner if I was just a field hand." "But trainers of fighting chickens, like you and me, George we cost the most." "Your no-account massa, do he ever share the winnings with you?" "Then you can do it too." "Save up." "Got my wife, Tildy, Mama Kizzy and two young ones." "Likes to bring them presents." "That takes money." "Presents, huh?" "And fine clothes for yourself?" "Stuff like that?" "I'm a sporting man." "Now, sporting men got their ways." "Chicken George." "I admire your handling of the white." "It was well-fought, Chicken George." "Well-fought." " Thank you, sir." " Let's go, Marcellus." "Gonna be your own massa." "And that's the best part, George." "Being free." "Can't nothing be better than that." "Who'd have thought old Marcellus go and buy himself?" "Stand and hold, you murdering black!" "Massa Moore." "All right, what do you got in there?" "Fighting cocks, sir." "Belong to Massa Moore." "He asleep right here." "Massa Moore!" " You know a nigger named Nat Turner?" " No, boss." " Massa Moore!" " Lf you know anything about Turner I'll put this musket in your teeth and pull the trigger." "Do you hear?" "Yes, sir, I hears you." "Massa Moore!" "Hey, now." "What's going on around here?" "What's your name?" "Moore." "Tom Moore." "What the devil's your name?" "You all right, Moore?" "Is he your slave?" "Of course he's mine." "Tell me, what is going on around here?" "We're wasting our time." "This nigger's harmless and this cracker's drunk." "Let's go." "What did you call me?" "What did you call me!" "I'm no cracker!" "I'm Tom Moore and I own my own land, and I don't owe nobody a penny!" "And I fight the best string of chickens in Caswell County!" "Tom Moore is no cracker!" "Another one." "Gentry, aristocrats." "They treated me worse than a nigger my whole life." "Still do." " Tell me something." " Yes, massa." "We've been cockfighting almost 20 years, right?" " That's right." " It don't matter that we got money." "It don't matter." "I know, massa." "It seem like every time we get a new brood of chickens, I says:" ""Maybe this one." "Maybe this one's gonna be champion." "Gonna beat old Squire James." "Some big fancy fighter, like!"" "You and I got the same secret hankering." "In some ways, we are more alike than any white man and nigger ever." "I would die happy, if I could beat him just one time." "Once." "And I would be the happiest man in Caswell County." "Massa, you ever hear of a slave named Nat Turner?" "No, never heard of him." "Them white men, they looking after him." "He must be a runaway." "Massa Moore?" "We's home, but there don't appear to be..." "You killed him!" "You killed my Tom, you black heathen!" "Miz Moore, he ain't dead, he's..." "Look, Miz Moore, I swear, I didn't kill no..." "You're with Nat Turner!" "You killed Tom and you're out to kill me." "Listen to me, I swear..." "Stand still!" "Stand still, you mealy-mouthed, psalm-singing son of a..." "Oh, Lord, you're gonna have to help me." "I can't stay awake and they're gonna murder me in my sleep." " Please help me." " Whatever you say, my dear." "Oh, Tom!" "Thank God, you're alive!" "Of course I'm alive, woman." "I thought Chicken George had killed you." "Chicken George kill me?" "What kind of blather is that?" "What's all that shooting about?" " The niggers are killing white folks." " Are you addled?" "What niggers are killing white folks?" "Nat Turner." "That Nat Turner, he's doing it all." "I heard that name before." "Who is this Nat Turner?" "Come on, come on." "How long she been like this?" "Started about three days ago ever since she heard about what Nat Turner was doing." "Now, you sure this true?" "Ain't some scaredy tale she heard?" "It true, George." "It gospel true." "It started in Virginia." "In South Hampton County." "A whole gang of blacks went from plantation to plantation killing whole families, even the babies." "Even the poor little babies." "And you here all by yourself, poor thing." "I could see it in their faces, see it in their eyes." "They was planning." "They was plotting!" "Calm down." "I'm home now." "Everything's gonna be fine." "Don't you fret." "Don't fret?" "Here, here." "What do you think of that?" "Piece of grid or bone or something." "Or ground glass." "I found it next to my plate last night." "The niggers are putting glass in our food." "They're trying to kill us, and we gotta do something about it." "Massa Moore gonna smooth her feathers down." "You'll see." "You keep talking like she crazy lady." "She ain't the brightest person but the fact is, Turner is killing white folks and that ain't no scaredy tale." "Tildy Massa Moore knows we ain't going out killing no white folks." "He gonna let this woman know." "All that man knows about is cockfighting." "That's it." "You know why, Mama?" "Because I made him somebody." "Made me somebody." "I'm Chicken George!" "Don't you ever want nothing else out of life, George?" "Got what I want, Mama." "I'm a sporting man." "Of course, if I could be a sporting man and my own massa too, I'd be alive, but I'd be in heaven." "Mama, can I be a sporting man?" "Eat your supper." "You too, Lewis." "Time enough to be what you'll be." "And it's true, Mama." "Massa been more like a friend than a massa." "Don't you never say that!" "He can't be a friend." "He's white." "Toubob!" "I know what I'm saying, George." "Was a time when I thought the bestest friend I had were white." "Missy Anne." "We were the bestest friends in the world." "She teach me how to read and write." "But when I needed her most, Missy Anne, she turned her back on me." "She never lifted a finger to save me." "Your grandpapa was right." "You can never trust a toubob." "Massa ain't gonna let nothing happen to me or mine." "He saved me from them patrollers already." "Saving his prize trainer." "Saving his best friend was what he was doing, Mama." "It's all gonna be forgotten in a day or two." "Soon as they catch this Nat Turner white folks stop acting crazy." "I was coming through Washington County with the massa I overheard this fat sheriff tell him:" ""The thing we gots to do, Mr. Moore..." Says it like that there." ""...is take the sheets off your beds put them over our heads, like this here." "When the darkies comes he thinks we's ghosts of hell." "He'll run for sure." "There's one thing darkies is afraid of and that's ghosts and haunts."" "Bedsheets!" "Sakes alive, whatever gave them that notion?" "Hi, George." "You got any ideas about rising up and killing me and my missus you just forget them." "You come near the house I catch you with so much as a sharpened nail on you I'll blast you to kingdom come!" "Massa, you can trust us." "Trusting blacks got whole families dead." "I'm sleeping with a shotgun in case you're thinking of breaking in." " Massa, we..." " Matilda!" "You bring all the cooking knives to the main house." "You do the same for the cocks' fighting spurs." "Get back." "Get back or I'll splatter you to hell." "Get!" "There be your fine friendship, George." "No matter who they is they all be toubob." "Well, to do like Marcellus done and buy ourselves you, me, the children and Mama Kizzy it costs near $6000." "How you figure that?" "Marcellus paid over $2000 for himself." "Now, I'm a trainer, and younger too, see?" "So you gotta allow $2500 for myself." "Tom a slave trader figure he just coming into his good working years so he'd cost a thousand dollars." " Lewis?" " Five hundred." "Too young to know what he's gonna do." "Oh, my God." "Me, George?" "Fifteen hundred." "Tildy, honey you still a breeder." "What about your mama?" "She old." "I'm thinking massa throw in her freedom as a favor, see." "Five hundred, no more than." "That's $6000." "We ain't got enough to buy us our own baby." "If we's lucky we could save it 10 years." "As soon as massa gets right in his head, we start cockfighting again." "Ten years?" "Then we's free, Tildy." "We's free, honey." "Oh, Georgie." "My sweet Georgie." "The best trainer in all the county be scratching for mushrooms." "Better than chopping cotton." "You could be doing that." "Oh, yeah, ain't I the lucky one?" "George?" "What...?" "Dead." "Shot three, four times." " Ever seen him before?" "You know him?" " No." "But I got my reckoning." "Nat Turner's boys." "Trying to get away." "Headed cross the river there." "He cross the river now, George." "Amen." "George how come you figure he be smiling like that?" "Chicken George." "Yes, sir, Squire James." "Morning, sir." "Morning." "I'm on my way to make Mr. Moore a proposition." "If he should accept, would you object to leaving here?" "I don't rightly know." "Don't rightly know what a proposition is." "Well, I have a friend arriving within the month from England." "He's bringing 20 of his best fighting cocks." "Together, we shall issue a challenge to fight all comers for a purse of $30,000." "I want to buy you to train and handle my birds." "I'll promise you the usual trainer's share and your freedom in five years." "Massa Moore said there ain't gonna be no more cockfighting..." "As long as that bloodthirsty Nat Turner is loose?" "Don't worry, that's over and done with." "They caught him three days ago." "Hung him." "Left his body out to rot." "The rest of the savages scattered." "I understand there were only 80-odd blacks involved." "Not exactly Armageddon." "Well, at any rate, I'll be talking to Mr. Moore this after..." "Squire James, sir?" "This is Tildy." "My wife." "We got us a family and..." "Don't worry." "I wouldn't split you up." "Wouldn't do to have an unhappy trainer, now, would it?" "No, sir!" "I wouldn't be unhappy!" "I'll talk to Tom Moore right now." "I hope it can be worked out." "Yes, sir." "I sure hopes you can work something out too." "Damn aristocrat thought he could buy you for $3500." "That's chicken feed." "Massa Moore, you don't need me." "You ain't fighting." "I am now." "The troubles are over." "Yes, sir, we are gonna be fighting now for real money." "$30,000 in the purse and side bets starting at $250." "We'll squeeze the last two bits out of James and his Englishman friend." "But he say he set me free." "Ain't for him to say." "You're gonna fight my chickens." "You're mine." "You are my property, George." "You'll beat the Englishman and anyone else who comes." "It don't matter how much is offered." "It don't matter how much I saves to buy myself free." "You ain't gonna let me go for no reason." "You're my nigger." "Can't you get that through your thick skull?" "Yes, sir." "It got through that time." "I understands it all now." "You ain't got no more use for this." "But I sure do!" "Don't, George!" "You can't." "Tildy told me about that dead boy." "About the gun." "You can't do what you're thinking on." "I'm gonna do it." "I'm gonna kill Massa Moore." "He done the worst thing that a man can do to me." "He took away all my hopes." "What about your family?" "They ain't got no hopes so long as he's alive." "Man ain't worth a chicken!" "He ain't alive." " Get out my way!" " Don't do it!" "It be the worst sin!" "Killing him?" "It's like killing a dog." "No, damn it, no!" "He's your daddy!" "I was never gonna tell you." "But you has to know." "When he bought me from the plantation, he brought me here." "I was no more than 16." "He come to my cabin that first night and he forced himself on me." "All I knew was that it hurt." "It hurt so bad." "That don't matter now." "I love you more than anything in this whole world." "But you can't do what you gonna do." "You be damned for your sin forever." "It'd be killing your own flesh and blood." "He is your papa." "You his boy, George." "You his boy." "Now, what we gonna do we gonna bury that poor boy and his gun and we'll say some words for him." "Then we going back and we gonna make out the best way we can." "That's what we gonna do." "Yes, Mama." "I just want to know one thing:" "Are you my daddy?" "Sure am." "How could you do this to me?" "To your own child?" "I got 20 like you spread from Caswell County to Charleston Harbor." "You know me, George." "I always liked a fresh nigger gal." "It's hard to believe, but your Mama Kizzy was fresh once." "What you gonna do?" "Don't rightly know." "But I know I ain't fighting your chickens." " You better or..." " What you gonna do, sell me?" "No, George." "I ain't gonna sell you." "I'll sell your boy." "Or maybe Matilda." "That's what I'm gonna do." "What you gonna do?" "I'm gonna fight your chickens massa." "$500!" "$500 right here on the Englishman's bird. $500." "Hear that, George?" "$500!" "There's gamecockers here from as far as Texas." "Some from Florida." "They come a long way to lose to Tom Moore!" "Next, the bird of Sir Eric Russell to fight the bird of Tom Moore!" "Tom Moore!" "Tom Moore!" "Tom Moore!" "Tom Moore seems to be the local favorite." "With the county scum." "Five pounds, 15 ounces!" "Tom Moore, weigh your bird." "Six pounds even!" "We gotta get him all the way back to England!" "Get that Britisher, Tom!" "Sport of kings?" "I stand corrected." "He and his friends disqualify it as a gentlemen's sport." "He mighty puffed up!" "Take him down a peg or two!" "I wonder where his red coat is?" "I wonder, do he fight foxes too?" "Or just run from them!" "Let me speak!" "If I may." "Oh, let him speak!" "I like that girlie way he talk." "Mr. Moore considering your extra ounce, let's waive any particular limits to our personal siding funds." "That would suit me, sir." "Would $ 10,000 be agreeable?" "Or is that beyond your faith in your creature?" "Time." " You hear that?" " $ 10,000?" "$ 10,000!" "Get that Britisher's bird, Tom!" "Counting on you, Tom!" "You're our boy!" "Here's to you!" "Go get him!" "Can he do it, George?" "Can he?" "You know what I'm asking." "Can I be sure you'll handle him to win?" "You might just lose to spite me." "I'd feel a heap easier if I felt you wanted him to win." "Don't know about you, George but I want to win and be champion." "The Speckled Red wins I'll set you free." " You mean it?" " You're my boy, George." "Wouldn't lie to you." "Come on!" "Massa Moore's Speckled Red will be the winner!" "Bill your birds!" "Sir." "Come on!" "Get ready to pit!" "Pit!" "Retrieve the birds!" "We're doing fine, just fine." "I think we got him." "Free." "We gonna be free." "Make it 20,000." "You, sir, have a bet." " Let's fight." " Let's have re-pit." "Pit!" "The winner!" "The bird of Sir Eric Russell!" "Well at least you free." "Squire James' bird will fight the next challenger." "About that $20,000..." "In all candor, your bird had no right in the same pit as mine." "The charcoal was bred at the cost of 8000 pounds." "Your bird fought admirably." "Testament to his handling and training." "Perhaps we can solve your debt in some mutually satisfactory fashion." "All I got is the land and you slaves." "Nowheres near the money I bet." "England." "We'll call it square if you go." "Just a few years, to train somebody." "I'll set you free when you get back." "Wrote it and signed it." "All legal." "Certificate of manumission the law calls it." "And you can have my hand on it." "I'll keep the family together." "I swear it." "Bet no darkie from here ever got to England before." "No, I don't want no crying." "None of y'all." "I'm your husband and pappy and I'm telling you." "A few years!" "That's no time at all." "Be back!" "You'll see." "I won't say take care of the children because I know you will." "I won't say take care of Mama because you'll do that too." "But I will tell you to take care of you because you're the most important reason I'm coming back." "You take care of you for me." "Come back to me soon, George." "Come back to all of us." "You can count on it sure as the sun rises and sets." "You can all count on Chicken George." "Mama." "Do one thing for me, George, honey." "Tell the children once more before you go." "Don't you never forget who you are." "Your great-granddaddy's name was Kunta Kinte." "Son of Omoro a Mandinka warrior." "Proud." "Proud!" "You be proud too." "Because that African blood flows through you." "As long as you know you comes from him that we all come from him you know why we be strong." "Why we gonna stay strong." "Why we gonna stay together no matter how far apart we be." "Ma'am, I's afraid I might have took the wrong turn." "That ridge yonder, that north?" "You is right." "That's north." " Thank you kindly." " Sure." "Could she have a cup of water?" "The road be dusty." "Surely." " Yes?" " Begging your lady's pardon, but is your name Missy Anne Reynolds?" "Missy." "Nobody's called me Missy for over 1000 years." "But my maiden name was Reynolds, yes." "I'm Kizzy." "I'm sorry, but I don't recollect any darkie by name of Kizzy." "Another cup." "We got no money, Tom." "And with you out of fighting, none of it's coming in." "What do you plan on doing?" "What are we gonna do, Tom?" "We sell the slaves." "All we can do." "Except for Kizzy." "We'll keep her." "Why will we keep Kizzy?" "She's too old to fetch any kind of price, my dear." "And I'm too old for you to be worrying about any other reason." "Mr. Harris over in Alamance County he's expressed interest from time to time." "We can do business." "What about Chicken George?" "What happens when he finds out you sold his family?" "What you gonna do?" "He won't come back white, my dear." "He'll still come back a nigger." "And, really, what's a nigger to do?" "Glory hallelujah." "He's back." " Excuse me, missy." " What y'all want?" " Am I near the Harvey plantation?" " Nearly there." "Do you know the Harveys?" "Oh, my!" "Oh, my!" "What are you giggling at?" "I'm giggling at you, Chicken George!" "My Tom don't talk about nothing excepting his daddy." "My son Tom?" "And my man, Tom." "Then you..." "You my Tom's woman?" "I'm called Irene, sir." "Irene." "Well, let's see you." "My boy studied me well." "He picked a fine woman." "Oh, my." "They told me that you was a handsome man but they didn't say how grand you are." "Oh, I ain't nothing special." "Yes, I am." "And now..." "Where's my boy?" "I'll take you to him." "What is it, honey?" " Man wants his horse shoed." " Have him get back." "I'm busy." "He don't look like the getting-back kind." "Daddy?" " My daddy!" " Ease up." "You about to crush my ribs." "Ain't you something to see?" "You're grown about as big as a bull!" "There ain't a patch on you." "You came back in style." "Tom, where your mama?" "Back in our cabin, near the chicken coop." "I'll see you later." "Hey, little one." "You all right?" "Here, chickie, chickie, chickie." "Sometimes I feared I'd never see you again." "Nothing this side of hell could keep me away." "My heart's beating so fast, about to fly to pieces." "Tildy, honey." "I is free." "Massa Moore gave me my papers." "George!" "First he said he never said no such thing." "Then he said I ought to stay on and "Help your daddy," he said." "I told him I didn't have no daddy." "You ought to see him." "Old, stinking of corn." "The plantation's gone all to the seed." "Mama Kizzy." "I know." "Massa Moore told me she died last spring." "You was her joy." "Oh, girl I missed you sorely." "If you take all the houses in all of Alamance County they still wouldn't be as big as that place where the old king lived." "He calls it a "castle."" "Y'all get now." "Me and Daddy going into town for supplies." "I want to hear more about grand folks." "There be time for stories." "You got chores." "You too, Virgil." "Especially you, Bud." "I'm so glad to be home." "And I sure do love my first grandson!" "Here, take this boy." "What's going on?" "Massa Harvey, this here's my daddy." "I've heard a lot about you, Chicken George." "Howdy do, sir." "Your family's mighty glad to see you." "You still at the Moores'?" "My daddy's a free man, massa." "Massa Moore give him his papers." "Is that a fact?" "You're welcome to stay here if you can mind the work, George." "Why, thank you, sir." "I appreciate it." "All right, let's get on out of here." "Get on back." "I expect you before sunset." " Morning, Tom." " Good morning, massa." "I see folks regard you highly, Tom." "Guess they likes me well enough." "Ain't many blacksmiths in the county." "Nigger!" "Yes, Massa Brent?" "Coming, boss." "Yes, sir?" "Can't you see I'm thirsty, boy?" "Yes, sir, Massa Brent." "Let this run nice and cold for you." "My brother's thirsty." " Yes, sir, powerful hot." " Not you." "This old buck here." "The name's George Moore, sir." "I don't care what your name is, slave." "You just fill me this dipper mighty quick." "I ain't no slave, Mr. Brent." "No, sir, I ain't." "This here my daddy, Massa Brent." "He a free man." " Let's see your papers, "free man."" " Want me to whup him?" "You daft?" "Can't whip free men like they're just niggers." "Come here." " Staying at Harvey's?" " Harvey say I could stay." "Do he, now?" "He do." " Sam Harvey ought to know better." " What you mean?" "We got a law here, Mr. Free Man." "You stay in this state more than 60 days you get to be plain nigger again." "Did you see that nigger's face?" "Tom was so proud the way you stood up to Evan Brent." "Showed him what a black man could be." "Maybe I showed him wrong." "Better learn to keep his head down." "He raise it up, they find ways to smack it back down." "Tildy." "I can't leave you." "I can't." "I knows, honey." "I knows how you feel." "But you the first, George." "The first in this family not to be a slave." "I remember you telling me about your grandpa." "They had to cut off Kunta's foot to keep him from escaping." "You can't turn your back." "And you can't steal the hope of freedom from your children." "Then you want me to go?" "Listen to me." "My man." "My beautiful man." "I got to stop myself from getting on my knees and begging you to stay." "It's so lonely when you was away." "I like to dried up and died." "Tildy." "You decide." "I'm married to a free man, George Moore." "I ain't about to live with no slave ever again." "War!" "It's war, boys!" "Our boys attacked Fort Sumter!" "It's war!" "Long live the Confederacy!" "It's war, boys!" "It's war!" "Well, this is what we've been waiting for, huh, boys?" "Are we gonna whup them Yankees?" "No, no, no." "I said, are we gonna whup them Yankees?" "Tallyho!" "Tallyho!" "What they yell, Granddaddy?" "Tallyho!" "I guess that means:" ""Watch out, little fox." "We after your hide!"" "Well, it's time for Granddaddy get back into the world." "I told all the stories I got and I gotta go find me some more." "Virgil." " Y'all be good boys, you hear?" " Okay, Daddy." "Somewhere somebody's saying:" ""If I only had a trainer like Chicken George..."" "I don't know where it is or how far away." "It don't matter." "I'm coming back for you." "Don't you never give up on me." "First slave, he weren't always a slave." "Before he was a slave, he a free man in Africa." "And he was called Kunta Kinte." "One day he went into the jungle to fetch some wood to make a drum." "There, slavers catch him and they sold him into slavery." "Then they chop off his foot so he couldn't run away." "And Kunta Kinte had a daughter." "Kizzy." "And he teach her some words he brung from Africa." "He teach her Kamby Bolongo." "Mean a river." "He teach her "ko" mean a fiddle." "She remembered and she teach her own son." "And the son of Kizzy was the man folks call Chicken George." "And he raised hisself from slavery and became a free man." "My daddy." " Why ain't they shoed yet?" " Doing my best." " My troop's tied down." " I gets them done." "You better." "Army don't like you any more than you like us." "The faster you finish, the sooner you go back." "Yes, sir." "Get out of my way!" "What's going on?" "There was a white boy, captain." "Trying to steal food." "Massa, I swears there was a white boy in here stealing." "I don't see no boy." "Any of you see a white boy?" "All I see is a full-grown darkie with his hands full of stolen grub." "What's the matter?" "Ain't we been feeding you?" "Captain, sir, I swears to God." "Evan?" "I think you hit it right on the head." "It's a fact." "We ain't been feeding this nigger proper." "You is skinny." "Is he skinny?" "Look at them ribs." "Look at that rib poking out." "See that?" "Why don't you just tuck it in for him?" "Nigger, why, you ain't nothing but skin and bones." "Excuse me, ma'am." "Please?" "Maybe y'all got scraps I could eat?" "Poor child." "Come on in." "Much obliged, ma'am." " Sit down while I fix something." " Thank you." "I ain't no beggar, ma'am." "Been working land in South Carolina with my wife, Martha." "Then the fighting started and we had to get." "The war ruined the crops." "Even the rabbits left." "Since then, it's been nothing but walking and asking for food." "And you takes it too when you can, ain't that true?" "Come back here!" "I said, come back here!" "Tom, what in the world is going on here?" "This here thieving boy earned me my cracked ribs you wrapped up so pretty." "I was just hungry." "Finish your plate." "I been hungry in my time too." "Go on." "What's your name?" "George, ma'am." "George Johnson." "Well, we already got one George and you so young." "I reckon we'll just have to call you "Old George."" "Eat up, Old George." "You got enough for another helping, ma'am?" "You got belly enough for another?" "It's not for me." "It's for my wife, Martha." "Your wife with you?" "Yes, sir." "Outside." "Martha, come on." "Come on, it's all right." "It's all right." "This is Martha." "Pleased to meet you." "I couldn't let you work in the fields." "That wouldn't do." " Maybe you could be an overseer." " I can do that, sir." "I can't pay much." "Just good food and a place for you to sleep." "That fine with me, sir." "Mighty fine." "Good." "I'd like to see you get started right away." "Thanks, sir." "Much obliged." "Well, I is the overseer." "Well, ain't that fine?" "Yeah, I reckon it all right except..." "Except what?" "Tom, what exactly is a overseer?" " You fooling me?" " No, sir." "Then you is the most ignorant boy I ever did see." " Ain't there slaves where you're from?" " Not hardly." "Mostly poor white people like me." " Lewis?" " Yeah, Tom?" "Gonna learn Old George about overseeing." "Why should we?" "White folks make enough trouble for us as it is." "If George don't be overseer, maybe massa find someone who knows how." "Who likes doing it." "You being overseer, you need a whip." "Can't be one without it." "Supposing this here your whip." "And suppose you want this here slave to fetch yonder bucket of water." "How you gonna get him to fetch it?" "Go on, go on, show me." "Excuse me, Lewis." "Y'all mind fetching me that bucket?" "That ain't how you goes about it." "Now you watch me." "Watch me good." "I'm gonna show you how you talks to slaves." "Nigger!" "Yes, sir?" "Fetch me this bucket of water." "Aw, massa!" "Ask some other nigger." "I is powerful tired." " Tired, is you, you black trash?" " Yes, sir." "Maybe this here will perk you up." "Oh, no, sir, massa." "Don't." "Please don't whip me!" " Is you tired?" " No, sir." "I is feeling right lively." "See how lively I is, massa?" "See, massa?" "Please, massa." "Please, please don't whip me." "I'll be good." "You watching and learning, boy?" "No." "I couldn't do that." "I couldn't whup Lewis." "I don't want you to either." "You gotta make like you might." "No!" "I likes Lewis." "Like him or no, you're the overseer, he the slave." "Can't never forget that." "Are you teaching me to be mean?" "I'm teaching you to stay alive and how to keep skin on our backs." "Don't you ever call me "sir" again." "Do you hear?" "Yeah." "Massa." "Nigger." "They're wearing us down." "Wearing us down." "We been fighting as well as in the good years." "But they just got too much." "We kill off a company, they send down five to take its place." "We capture a cannon." "They ship a new battery." "He's right." "We gotta hold on long enough to turn this about." "Sam." "We need everybody to rally around the Confederacy." "And I don't mean just moral support." "We'll give all the help we can, Evan." "Frankly, we're out of cash." "Of course I'll give the horses and food I can." "The Confederacy can have my silver service." "Lila." "Are you sure you want to do that?" "You know what it means to you." "They are entitled to all we have." "Matilda, come with me." "Tom, Irene, somebody, hurry!" "It's me." "She's having the baby!" "Well, I'll go get Matilda." "Don't worry." "What should I do?" "Old George, looks like you already done it." "Tom what keeping that baby?" "Ain't no particular time for a baby to be birthed, Old George." "Maybe I just ought to go in there." "Why don't you let Matilda and Irene look after her." "Ain't nothing they don't know about birthing." "Give us a smoke of your pipe, Tom." "Thank you." "Your Martha's fine, Georgie." "She's sleeping now." "I ain't heard no baby cry." "Martha's a young girl." "She got plenty of time for more babies." "I ain't no preacher but I'd like to say something." "This here little baby we don't know what he might have been but we knows one thing:" "If he like his daddy he'd a growed to be a good man." " Amen." " Amen." "You's all my friends." "You's the only friends I ever did know in all my life." "You's like my family." "Martha and me, we thanks you." "Tom." "Who that?" "It's me, Jemmy Brent." "What you doing here?" "We're whipped, Tom." "The South is finished." "Evan and them others can keep fighting, but I'm getting out." " You got to help me, Tom." " Why should I help you?" "I know, Tom, I know." "You're grieved at me, and you got a right." "But hard times are coming." "For both white and black folks." "We got to learn a new way of getting along together." "Isn't this as good a time as any to start?" "What you want me to do?" "If I stay in uniform, they'll probably catch me and they're hard on deserters." "Here's the key to my place, to company shops." "I got some regular clothes in there." "Fetch them for me." "I knew I could count on you." "I knew it." "I'll wait right here for you." "Right here." "Trust has got to start somewhere." "Let it be here and now." "Let it be us." "I wouldn't blame you if you don't go." "But I'll never forget if you do." "Nigger." "Tom?" "What are you doing still here?" "Where's Tom?" "What'd you done?" "Well." "You sweet thing." "Oh, no, massa." "I'm not gonna do you no harm." "I wouldn't hurt you." "I just want a little kiss." "You brought my clothes." "That's good, Tom." "Honey, it don't matter." "Tom, there ain't no harm done." "Just having a little fun." "Makes no difference between you and me." "I believed you." "I wanted it so to be true." "I believed you." "I got no more time for jawing." "Hand me them clothes and I'm leaving." "I do believe you are looking for a whipping." "You ain't gonna do nothing to me." "Now, how you figure that?" "Because I ain't gonna let you, Jemmy Brent." "Ain't you now?" "Ain't you?" "No." "No, Tom." "You're one dead nigger." "I'm gonna have to kill you, boy." "Help me!" "God darn it, help me." "Listen to me, Jemmy Brent." "Listen to me." "Take this message with you to hell:" "The last hands that touched you on this earth was my black hands." "Him or me." "It were him or me." "Captain Brent's brother is missing." "Any of you all seen Jemmy Brent, speak up." "Some of you must have seen my brother." "They found his horse no more than a mile from here." "Damn niggers." "They wouldn't help none if they could." "Where'd you get them lumps, boy?" "Got's me kicked by a plow horse, massa." "That's mighty curious." "You being a blacksmith, you ought to know better." "Got to watch out for the animals." "Even a plow horse kick out when he paining enough." "Any animal that pains that much should be put out of its misery." "You ain't seen the last of me, nigger." ""Last on" Roots:" " Master made me head trainer today." " That nice." "I'll pit them birds until I can buy myself free." "You'll stay and fight chickens." "It don't matter how much I saves." "You're mine, George." "Can't you get that through your thick skull?" "It got through that time." " You'll be worse." " Killing massa?" " That's no more than killing a dog." " No, damn it!" "No!" "He's your daddy." "Don't know about you, but I want to win and be champion." "If Speckled Red wins I'll set you free." "The bird of Sir Eric Russell is the winner!" "Don't want no crying." "None of you all." "Your husband and your pappy and I'm telling you now." "A few years." "That's no time at all." "Be back." "I'm married to a free man, George Moore." "I ain't about to live with no slave ever again." "War, boys, it's war!" "Are we gonna whup them Yankees?" "I believe you want a whipping." "You won't do nothing because I won't let you, Brent." "Captain's brother has been missing." "If any of you seen him, speak up." "You ain't seen the last of me, nigger." ""To all commanders in the field, from General Robert E. Lee:" "After four years of arduous service  marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude  the Army has been compelled to yield  to overwhelming resources." "I need not tell the survivors of many hard-fought battles  who remained steadfast to the last  that I have consented to this result from no mistrust of them but feeling that devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that attends the continuance." "I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen." "You will take with you satisfaction coming from consciousness of duty faithfully performed." "And I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend you his blessing and protection."" "It's over, folks." "The war is over." "God save the Confederacy." "Freedom." "Freedom." "We's free!" "Freedom!" "Freedom!" "Free!" "We's free!" "Freedom!" "Freedom!" "Hey, we're free!" "We're free!" "Freedom!" " Who that, Rufus?" " Lewis, from the Harvey place." " What was he bellowing?" " Something about freedom." "Free?" " Nigger must be crazy." " Yeah, must be." "Come on, mule." "Come on!" "Lewis, what you standing around for?" "We's free." " Who say that?" " Came over the telegraph." "The war's over." "The South gave up." "Slavery's no more!" " You be fooling with me, I'll..." " Not fooling you." "I's here to tell you." "It is the God's truth." "Free?" " Mama?" " Yes?" "Why you look so sad?" "This is a celebration." "Thinking about your dad." "Wishing he was here." "Don't fret." "Chicken George be coming back now that freedom's come." "You come dance with me instead of slaving at the table." "Come on, just one dance." "I guess I don't have to ask if you've heard the news." "I don't know what it means, what it'll do." "I guess no one does right now." "I'll try to hold on to the farm." "I'm not sure how." "You all may want to go off on your own." "But you can stay if you want." "I can't pay you anything." "Everything I have is tied up in the crops." "Maybe you could farm some of the land and share the crop with me." "We all have to think about what to do." "I don't know what it means." "Say hello to your mom for me." "What'll it be, Harry?" "Well, let's see now." " I need..." " Mr. Brent." "I been waiting a long time." " I'll take care of you when I'm ready." " I was here first." "Now look here, you no-account black." "It's all right, Evan." "I'll drop by a little later." "No need for that now." "Well?" "Loaf of bread and a bag of grits." "Thirty-six cents." "Hello, Evan." "Senator!" "Doggone, it's good to see you!" "Like old times." "I thought you was in England." " I've just returned." " Did you see that?" "Did you see?" "You won't believe how they carry on." "Can't even call them niggers." "At least, not to their faces." "Well, I wouldn't fret, Evan." "Let the "niggras" have their day." " What you mean?" "The same thing as old Uncle Richard told me as a boy." "Old Brer Rabbit, when he can't get through one way he change his way and by and by, he get where he want to be!" "I get you now, sir!" "I get you!" "That's right." "We is free at last." "All right." "We is free at last!" " Yeah!" "We's free!" " Free." "Ain't got no more massas." "Nobody going to whup us again." "Nobody gonna abuse our women." "No..." "That's right." "Freedom taste good, don't it?" " Yeah, I can taste it!" " Baby!" "Well, maybe it taste good but it sure ain't gonna fill our bellies." "How is we gonna feed our children?" "How we gonna find shelter?" "Now we is free, what's we gonna do?" "I say we go where the pickings is better." "Yeah, yeah." "Go where?" "Do what?" "Well, I don't know right off." " Must be someplace." " You is ignorant." " Bone ignorant." " Here now." "Ain't your fault, we's all ignorant." "We is just what the massas wanted us to be." "None of us been taught to earn our keep in the white man's world." "We gonna leave, we better learn how to do for ourselves first." "Well, what you say, Tom?" "What you say we do?" "I say we stays here and farms, like we been doing all our lives." "Not for Harvey." "It gonna be part our own land for our own selves." "Our dirt we farms!" "Well, now, hold on a moment, Tom." "All I knows all I ever seen is this plantation and that little town of shops." "I want to see the world, Tom." "What is freedom if you can't go nowhere?" "Of course you can go." "That the whole idea of freedom." "You wants to wander for a while, ain't nobody gonna stop you." "Same for all of you." "But maybe we don't have to go." "Maybe now we can find what we wants right here." "I say we gotta give freedom a chance." "And here is as good a place to start as any." "Besides what's our daddy gonna do when he gets back and we's all gone?" "How we know he coming?" "All them years he been gone, and no word." "He coming back because he say he gonna come back." "Your dad ain't never said nothing in his life he don't mean." "Hear me?" "Just asking, Mama." "I don't want to hear no more about leaving." "Ain't nobody going nowhere till my man come back." "We is a family and we is gonna stay a family." "Tom?" "Martha and me sure would like to throw our lot in with you." "If you wants us, of course." "Wants you?" "You just try getting away." "And you'll hear hounds baying at your heels before long." " Come with me." " Where we going?" "I's gonna spark you in moonlight." "Yes, you is!" "That gonna be some sparking with two young ones." "Don't argue with me." "Just come along." "Damned if I'll give my niggers any part of my farm." "It's been in my family over a hundred years." "I'd as soon sell out to some carpetbaggers." "I'm with you." "The niggers is putting on enough airs without owning land." "They can all own land, far as I'm concerned." " What you saying, Archie?" " Their graves." "They can own them all they want." "I respect your sentiments, but we gotta be realistic." "Somebody has to work our land and niggers are done as slaves." "I don't like it either, but I got no cash for wages." "I got to parcel out shares." "I'll never owe a black nothing except a whipping." "I always pay my debts." "You are living in the past." "You can't go around whipping blacks." "Feds won't allow it." "He's talking sense, boys." "There'll be a judge here, and the Army'll back him up." "We ought to string up a few of them." "Just to set an example." "Now you're talking." "There's more minus than plus to that." "It sounds good..." "I'll tell you about plus and minus." ""Plus" is what I come out of the war with." "I come out "plus" a Yankee ball in my knee." "Come out "plus" a limp I'll have the rest of my life." "And I'm "minus" my brother, sheriff." "And I'm telling you no white man killed him." "No white man killed another in the last month of war." "Niggers did it!" "Every step I take, every time my leg twinges on me I recollect who's responsible for the "pluses" and "minuses" I gotta live with now." "I recollect who done it to me." "Niggers!" "Well, gentlemen, I think I'd better leave now." "I'm bound to uphold the law." "Gave my solemn word to do that." "It seems to me that the law ain't what this meeting is about." "Just a minute, sheriff." "I'm going with you." "Senator." "These men respect you, and surely you're not for violence." "I agree that misdirected violence is dangerous, Mr. Jackson." "What do you say?" "We ain't heard from you." "What should we do, senator?" "It's my intention to acquire property." "A great deal of property." "If it was anybody but you, I'd say you was plumb crazy." "The land ain't worth a horse's apple without slaves." "Our niggra, under the misguided new business arrangements is to receive a share of crops he works." "But before that profit is paid his costs are deducted:" "Grain, tools, wagons, mules, horses, feed." "Somehow he never manages to catch up on the costs, right?" "It doesn't matter who works land." "What counts is who owns it." "Property is power, always." "Whoever has the land has the people." "I guess you know what you're doing." "Be assured I do." "By and by, Brer Rabbit, he gonna get where he want to be." "Tom!" "Tom!" "Where've you been with the water?" "We got some thirsty mouths." " Tom!" " Reeny?" "What?" "What is it?" "What?" "Rufus just came in from town." "Telegraph say a white man killed President Lincoln last night." "Shot him in the back of the head." "He's dead, Tom." "Still daylight left to work." "Did you hear her, Tom?" " Lincoln's dead!" " I heard." "I know he's dead." "It won't be for nothing!" "I won't let his dying be for nothing!" "Tom?" "What is it?" "To your cabins, everybody." "Quick!" " Tom?" " I don't know." "You keep out of this, Harvey!" "Lewis!" "Tom!" "Come on, come on!" "Let's get a line here." "Get some water on this!" "Jesse, come on, come on!" "Everybody!" "Hannah!" "The barn's on fire!" " Everybody move." " Come on." "Hurry up!" "Pass the bucket." "Pass it." "Move it, move it, everybody." "Buckets!" "It's getting bigger!" "Hurry, before it spreads!" "Get the bucket!" "Back!" "Get back!" " Back!" "Watch out!" " Faster, faster!" "Free at last." "I don't understand it." "I just don't understand it." "We won't let them get away with this." "We worked too hard to raise our crops." "Nobody gonna ride in here and trample everything we got in the world." "We ought to get guns and fight back." "Who we gonna fight?" "Damn!" "I don't know." "We can't let them do this." "They won't let us live here." "We should get out!" "No!" "We ain't gonna do no such thing." "We's staying because we has a right to stay." "This changes nothing." "It means there's some rebs around don't know the war is over." "They won't push us off our land." "We is free men." "Besides they won't get away with it." " What you mean?" "Look here." " I don't see nothing but hoofmarks." " Right." " What's so special then?" " Nothing." "Hoofmarks are all the same." "But suppose they weren't?" "Suppose each hoofmark had something that set it apart." " What you getting at, Tom?" " Those nightriders, that's what." "Stands to reason these riders is some of our neighbors." "Also, most of them bring their horses to me for shoeing." "Now suppose every horse I shoes me from this day on I put a little special mark on it." "Maybe here." "Then we'd have a way of knowing what horse the shoe belong to." "And if we know where the shoe fits..." "Why are you selling?" "The place got run down during the war." "I parceled shares to the niggras but nightriders came." "You don't know who?" "No." "They've been rampaging through the country, destroying crops scaring the niggras half to death." "Last week they tore up everything I planted." "I don't have the heart for farming anymore, senator." "I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, Samuel." "Very sorry." "But business is business." "In anticipation of our discussion, I had this contract drawn up." "$5000 isn't much for a man's life work, senator." "I couldn't agree with you more." "Unhappily, that's quite beside the point." "You've indicated that the place isn't in the best of condition." "And in all good faith, 5000 is the best I can manage." "Think about it." "You might wait for a more satisfactory offer." "We both know there won't be any better offers." "I'll accept." "Good." "That's it, then." "There's just one other thing." "My niggras owe me for seed." "A couple hundred dollars." "They've worked hard." "I wanna wipe the slate clean." " Consider it done." "Here's my hand." " Thank you." "Ain't you done yet, boy?" "Yes, sir, Mr. Drake." "I's trying, sir." "Got to fix it just right." "I guess that's about it." "Much obliged, boys." "Lila." "It's time, Lila." "Lila..." "Oh, Sam, how can we?" "All those years." "I know, honey." "There's nothing we can do." "I'm gonna miss this place, and you folks." "I'm sorry I had to sell, but I didn't have much choice." "The new owner will come in a few days to talk to you." "Meantime, I suggest you put in your new crops." "I'm sure you'll find Senator Justin a decent man to work for." "He agreed to wipe out your debts so you can start from fresh." "Mrs. Harvey and I want to thank you for your kindness and your help over the years." "Goodbye and good luck to you." "Goodbye, Mr. Harvey." "Mrs. Harvey." "Now, what's the matter with y'all?" "Where's your manners?" "Say goodbye to the Harveys and wish them well." " Bye, Massa Harvey." " Bye, massa." " Bye, Massa Harvey." " Bye, Massa Harvey." "You was better than some, massa." "Now that we know who they is, I say let's kill them!" "No." "Why not?" "I didn't know you was particular about killing whites." "There will be no killing." "We go to the law." "White man's law?" "That's right." "Sorry I'm late." "I had to help Martha with some chores." " What we got to do..." " What's that white man doing here?" "What white man?" "They's only one white man in here as I can see." "Old George?" "When the killing starts, like holds to like." "You got no call to talk like that." "He can't help it he white." "I don't care." "I want him out." "And who is you to be giving orders around here?" "I ain't the only one that feels that way!" "I ain't listening to nobody say a word against Old George!" "No, Tom, it's all right." "I ain't one to tarry where I ain't wanted." "Old George...?" "Now I say we ain't going to no law!" "I say we even up our own tally!" "Lewis, you best sit down and shut your mouth." "You said enough for one day." "You're lucky that Mama weren't here to hear you." "I said, sit down, little brother." "I ain't finished with you about Old George." "We gots to go to the law, don't you see?" "Ain't supposed to be no white man's law." "Only supposed to be one law." " The law!" " You daft, Tom?" "You try to set the law on whites, they gonna lynch you." "Maybe, maybe not." "But we got to find out, don't we?" "If we don't give the law a chance, freedom ain't worth a damn!" "Who going into town with me to see the sheriff?" "You is a plumb stubborn fool." " Damn you!" " What are you so all fired up about?" "Why you got to be the one to step forward?" "You ain't even the oldest." "Why you got to be the big man every time?" "'Cause I wants to look my daddy in the eye when next we meet." "'Cause I want our children growing up in freedom." "'Cause too many suffered to bring us this far to go back." "'Cause somebody got to stand up, Irene." "Is that so?" "Well, somebody got to mind his wife and babies too." "Now who gonna do that after they shoots you or hangs you up?" " Irene..." " Oh!" " Don't go!" " Irene." " Oh, please." "Please." " I gots to." "Oh, Tom." "I'm so scared." "Tom..." "I don't want them to hurt you." "I ain't nothing without you, Tom." "I's scared too but I just can't not go." "I hate you for doing this." "I'd give anything, say anything, do anything to make you stay." "But I's proud of you, Tom Harvey." "Oh, I's terrible proud of you." " Now..." " What?" "There's only one thing." "I am going with you." " You's talking crazy..." " I'm going." " Woman, you is..." " Yes, Tom?" "One fine woman." "That's what you is." "You's one fine woman." "Well, well, well." "You are one smart man, Tom Harvey." "Fancy you figuring out something like this." "There's no doubt about it." "You got them dead to rights." "You did good coming to me, though." "Had you told anybody else about this?" "Just my kin." "What you gonna do, sheriff?" "I'm gonna get after them, Tom, but I gotta handle this careful." "This is not just locking up some Saturday night drunk." "I gotta study." "I got to figure out how to handle this." "I tell you what I want you to do." "You go on home and just go on about your business." "Best that folks don't know you got anything to do with this." "Yes, sir." "Take care of it, then?" "Well, I guess I got to, Tom." "I guess I got to." " Tom?" " I think we done right." " I think the law is the law." " What happened?" "He heard me out, and he going after them." "What you two doing here?" "Well, you one crazy fool." "But you still our brother." " You sure?" " He going after them." "Don't worry." "Yeah?" "Can I come in?" "Sure." "You all right?" "I sorry about what happened." "You knows how we feel about you." "Yeah, I guess I do." "After last night, I guess I do." "Don't go on like that." "Lewis got no more sense than a bee when his blood's up." "Don't mean nothing." "If Lewis didn't mean what he said, why ain't he here?" "He come around." "He just needs more time to collect himself." "Well, Tom." "I guess maybe I need some time too." "Well, sure you do." " George?" " What?" "Maybe we been here long enough." "Maybe we best be thinking of striking out for ourselves while we still young enough." "I'm sure you've been concerned about what'll happen now that Mr. Harvey has left." "Let me reassure you that nothing is going to change." "Mr. Harvey's agreement with you will be honored." "You'll receive a percentage of the crops you raise." "Well, what do you say to that?" "It's very kind of you, sir." "But if Mr. Brent gonna be in charge, I don't think my people wanna stay on." "Well." "You're free to go, of course." "Just as soon as you pay up your debt." "What debt?" "According to the farm's ledger, you was advanced $235 in seed, grain and supplies against future crops." "But Mr. Harvey said he fixed that." "Told us we was free and clear." "The agreement's on file at the county clerk's office." "I didn't see that in the deed of sale." "Now you work hard on your share, it'll reduce your debt considerably." "$235 dollars ain't all that much." "But in the meantime, don't nobody try leaving here." "This is a legal matter and the sheriff will lock you up." "Senator, sir?" "Is this what you wants?" "I thought I made it clear, boy." "Mr. Brent speaks for me." "Mr. Johnson." "We're wondering what your plans are, now that Mr. Harvey's left." "I ain't got no special plans." "I'll just go on working my share." "That won't do." "Me and the senator, we got feelings about whites sharecropping with niggers." "Why should a smart boy wanna work like a field hand when there are other opportunities to consider?" "We need someone to keep his eye on things, make sure the work gets done." "The job's yours if you want it." "I ain't much about overseeing." "I'll pay you a good wage and if it works out, maybe your family can move into the main house here." "Now that's fair, ain't it?" " All right." "I'll do it." " Good boy, Georgie." "Good boy." "We'll settle the details later." "Senator?" "I think that's everything for now, Evan." "I'm looking forward to a long and happy association." "You'll find me a fair man to work for if you're willing to meet me halfway." "Next time I'm here, I expect to see all these darkies out in the fields where they belong." "I want you reporting to me regular." "I do hope you're gonna behave yourself, boy." "I surely do." "Oh, howdy, sheriff." "Come on in." "Howdy, Evan." "You know, Evan, we've been friends for a long time." "I want you to know that." "I know that, Charlie." "What's got into you?" "And I'm on your side." "You understand that, don't you?" "Sheriff, you been drinking?" "No, I don't think I could get drunk tonight." "No." "Why?" "Why can't you get drunk?" "I know who every single one of them nightriders is." "I got proof I'm gonna turn over to the Federal Circuit Court judge when he comes next weekend." " You got what?" "You heard me, Evan." "I got proof." "Tom Harvey gave it to me." "I don't want to know what I know." "But I know it for a real fact unless somebody does something." "I'm sworn to do something that'll make me a hated man in this county." "Unless somebody does something to make Tom Harvey pull back his evidence." "Do something like what?" "Evan, I'm sick enough as it is!" "At myself, for letting it go this far." "Do I have to lay out the plan too?" "No." "No need for that." "You've done enough, sheriff." "You've done enough." "I guess I'll just have to see..." "I don't wanna know another word." "I'm an officer of the law." "Sometimes an officer of the law just ain't got no choice in some things." "You understand what I mean?" "Won't nobody misunderstand, sheriff." "I'll see to that." "Well, thank you, Evan." "I'm much obliged to you." "Good night, Evan." "Tom Harvey!" "We want you, nigger!" "Tom." "Tom!" "Get yourself out here, boy." "Or we're gonna burn your kinfolk." "Tom." "Move." "Now!" "George." "They's six of them, Martha." "Six!" "Why should I?" "Like holds to like." "That's what they told me, ain't it?" "Ain't it?" "Thought you was smart going to the sheriff, didn't you?" "This here's a bad nigger!" "Talking about the law instead of doing his work, paying his debts." "So we're gonna teach him how to be a good nigger!" "It's best you study hard what's gonna happen, so you won't make mistakes." "Because you ain't never gonna leave here!" "Never!" "All right!" "Get on with it!" "Damn it!" "Now you leave my nigger be!" "Stay out of this." "Boy needs a lesson." " What's he done?" " He's fixing to set the law on us." "All right, he's got it coming!" "But you put me in charge here and nobody whips my niggers but me!" "Let him do it." " Why you stopping?" " No use." "He's senseless!" "It don't matter." "He'll remember when he wakes up." "If he wakes up." "Now get on with it." "Looks like you're on top of that!" "Make sure you teach him how to be a nigger now!" " Tom!" "Tom!" " God, let him be alive!" "Oh, God, let him be alive!" "Please." "Help him." "Let him be alive." "Irene?" "Irene." "I'm sorry, Irene." "I was just trying to make them think I was doing their job." "You ain't got nothing to be sorry about, Old George Johnson." "You just saved my man's life!" "You just saved my man's life." "I'm sorry, Old George." "I was wrong." "Dead wrong." " Let's get him inside." " He'll be all right." " He's gonna be all right." " Easy." " Careful now." "Be careful." " Easy." "Oh, Tom." "What we gonna do?" "What we gonna do?" "Ain't nothing we can do." "We ain't never gonna get away from here." "Never!" "At least not alive, anyway." "All my fault." "I should've let y'all go when you wanted." " Instead of..." " Now you just hush, Mama." "Don't you go blaming yourself." "We stayed here because we wanted to." "Tom?" "What we gonna do?" "Get my boy out of here." "I don't want him to see me like this." "Martha." "Lewis?" "Yeah, Tom?" "Take that shovel and dig up the floor under Bud's bed." " What you want me to do that for?" " Do it!" "Bud, don't worry about your daddy." "He's gonna be fine." "He's a strong man." "Ain't none stronger." "He'll be up and around in no time." "I'm gonna kill those white men someday." " You shouldn't talk like that." " I'm gonna kill them." "Bible says it ain't right to kill people, Bud." "Do it say it right for them to whip my daddy?" "It don't say that neither." "Then I'm bound to get them." "Which ones, Bud?" "Couldn't see their faces." "I'll find a way to get the ones who done it." "Suppose you make a mistake?" "Suppose you hurt white folks that ain't done your daddy no harm?" "I'll do what I gotta do." "Then I guess you might as well start with me." "I didn't mean you." "Well, I sure am white." "I'm white as a cotton ball." "If you start hurting whites for being white then soon you'll get to me and Old George." "I don't wanna kill you." "That's what happens when you hurt folks for their skin color." "You won't be any better than them." "I hate them." "Hate them!" "Hate them for what they done not because they's white." "Me and mine is white." "But we love you just like our own." "If you'll let us love you." "Oh, Bud." "Oh, my poor little Bud." "This is a cavalry officer's pistol." "Got "J.B." carved in the handle here." "Lord God!" " It be Jemmy Brent's." "Put it away." " Give it to me." "Husband, what is you thinking of?" "They catch you with that gun, they gonna kill you." "I only knows one thing:" "Ain't nobody ever gonna whip me again!" "Ever!" "Someone's coming!" "Blow out the candles." "Open the door slow, whoever you is or I'll blows you apart." "You don't wanna do that, son." "Not unless you gonna make yourself an orphan child." "Daddy?" "My man." "Grandpa." "Chicken George!" "What's this?" "I got news for you." "The old chicken-fighter has come home to roost!" "Look at you." "Good thing you come home after dark, George." "Why you say that?" "I's so old and ugly I might scare you to death in God's proper light." "I don't see you with my eyes I sees you with my heart." " So I is old and ugly?" " What you talking about?" "Was a time when you used to look at me with your eyes." "All right, I'll look at you now." "Come on." "I say come on around here." "You still is beautiful, Tildy." "You still my beautiful woman." "Sure, time has left a few tracks in its passing like it's done me." "But you got a sprinkling of moonbeam in your hair." "Look." "And your eyes..." "Your eyes still have that little girl looking out of them." "I feel like a little girl tonight, George." "Been so long." "It's just like the very first time." "What's going on here?" "Tom whipped, and this Evan Brent in charge." "Nothing that won't keep till morning." "Hush now." "Brent and his like done stole most our lives away." "Let's keep this one night for ourselves." "Oh, my sweet, sweet Mama." "Yes, indeed." "The family sure owes a lot to these two birds." "With the money they won me, I bought us some land in Tennessee." "Land so rich and black you can plant a pig's tail and a hog will grow!" "Daddy ain't you heard a word we said?" "We can't go to Tennessee, can't go nowhere." "You mean Brent and his bunch?" "I wouldn't worry about that none." "I been in worse situations in the war." "What you getting at?" "All right." "Let's look at it like it was a military operation." "Here we are, surrounded by the enemy outnumbered, outgunned and half our troops is women and children." "On the face of it, it looks bad." "Look like we in a hopeless position." "And that's our one strong point." "Don't sound like no strong point to me." "Way I figure it Brent and this senator must be feeling mighty smug." "Like they got us where they want us." "Toeing the line, scared to death." "Well, from now on we gonna do everything we can to make sure they go right on feeling that way." "Clumsy fool!" "Look after Mrs. Randall." "I wanna see what's going on out there." "You dumb black boy." "Can't I trust you to do nothing?" "I want every grain of that back in the sack!" "I's trying, Mr. Johnson." "You ain't trying hard enough." "I don't want no sacks full of dirt." "Those darkies they was bad enough under slavery, but now they's useless." "I's done, sir." "What are you waiting on, boy?" "Get the rest of the sacks out of there!" "Would you move your black backside?" "!" "Move it!" "Move it!" " Well, George." " Oh, Mr. Brent." "I see you've learned." "I wasn't too sure about overseeing them darkies as you well know, but I wanna tell you it beats farming all to hell." " I wanna thank you." " That's all right, son." "Just don't you let up." "Don't you worry." "I keeps on them all the time." "You'll do, Georgie, you'll do." "Oh, please, sir." "Please." "We don't want no more trouble." "If my man goes up in front of the judge they'll kill him, sure." "I got two little babies, sir." "Now what we gonna do if they kills my man?" "Oh, please, sir." "You mean Tom wants to forget this whole thing and drop the charges?" "I swears to God you won't never hear from him again." "Well, you seem like a good girl so I'm gonna do something that I hadn't ought to do." "This is your husband's property." "You do with it what you want to do." "God bless you, sir." "I think that's about everything he asked for." "Thank you, sir." "Just a minute there, boy." "I ain't done with you yet." " Yes, sir?" " Fetch me a dipper of water, nigger." "Yes, sir." "I do believe that's the sweetest water I ever tasted." "Yes, sir." "Fetch you some more, sir?" "No." "But I sure did appreciate it." "You're shaping up into a good boy." "Thank you, sir." "I's trying." "You can run along now." "You see that uppity Tom fetch me a dipper of water, nice and polite?" " Yes, I did." " Did my heart good." "Charlie tells me Tom's wife was in begging to have them charges dropped." "We can rest easy about the Harvey place." " Yes, it looks that way." " Something troubling you, senator?" "It's been my experience one should not depend on an unbroken series of fortunate events." "This idyllic behavior is either to conceal furtive activity or a tribute to George Johnson's ability to work a miracle." " Johnson seems to have things in hand." " I do not reject the miracle." "I simply think it should be put to the test." " Have you been to the farm yourself?" " Not recently." "I've been busy at the store." "A little drive out there, unannounced, might teach us something." "Stop lollygagging." "Put your backs into it!" "You think this is a picnic?" "I got my eye on you." "You put your black back into it, or I'll do it for you!" "Good day, senator." "Mr. Brent." "Hello, young man." "Wanted to see how you're getting on." "Ain't as far long with the planting as I'd like to be." "We's cleaning up what the nightriders did." "But things is coming along." "It's coming along." " Massa Johnson?" " Lewis, what is it now?" "We'd like you to look at the fence we's fixing." "Go on back and keep working, and I'll be there directly." " Thank you, sir." " Go on, now." "The blacks, they just like little kiddies." "Can't do nothing on their own." "I guess we ought to get back to town." "Seems like Mr. Johnson's got his work in order." "Be seeing you, George." " You keep after them, you hear?" " Don't you worry none." "Good day, senator." "Oh, Mr. Brent!" "Mr. Harvey's mules is on their last legs." "They ain't hardly pulling worth their feed." "If I could have me six young mules I could plant another 100 acres." "Senator?" "I think Mr. Johnson's enterprise ought to be encouraged." "I'll get them out here as soon as I can." "Anything else?" "No, I think I got everything I need now, sir." " I'll get six mules out tomorrow." " I'm much obliged." "Mr. Brent!" "You gotta come out to the farm." "It's Georgie!" "All right, missy." "Just calm down." "Tell me what happened." "Georgie had an accident." "I think his leg is broke." " We better go get Doc Farrell." " I went there first." "He's on his way." "But my husband want you to come." "He's afraid the darkies will take advantage and run off." " Mr. Brent, you gotta come." " All right!" "Calm down." "It'll be all right." "Get back to your husband." "I'll ride out soon as I can." "Get!" "Get, you hear!" "Over here, Mr. Brent." "How's he doing, doc?" "He all right, Mr. Brent." "But you ain't." "What are you doing?" "Put that gun down." "We leaving this county." "We're making sure you won't stop us." "You been bamboozled, Mr. Brent!" "Why, you dirty nigger lover!" "Mr. Brent it ain't I loves niggers so much it's just I don't like you at all." "You're not as smart as you think." "That ain't the point." "The point is, we ain't as dumb as you think we is." "Because if we's that dumb, what's that make you?" "We're taking charge." "Drop that gun." "Think I'm crazy enough to ride out here alone?" "I didn't live through no war to walk into an ambush with eyes wide open." "Boy if you got any skin left on that black carcass of yours you're about to lose it." "Where's the rest of them no-account niggers?" "Believe I asked you a question." " Did you hear me?" " No!" "Please!" "They're in the barn." "Come on out of there!" "I know you're in there." "I'll be hard on you if I have to go in there." "Break that door down." "Hold it right there, boss." "Now I'd drop them guns kind of nice and easy like." "Pick up the pop pistols." "Now, what if...?" "This is the way my captain used to teach us to think." ""What if the enemy figures out your first plan?" "What you gonna do?" "Get yourself another plan!"" "Who the hell are you?" "I'm the daddy of these boys." "Don't you remember me?" "You chased me out of the county once." "Now, all I wants to do is leave the county peaceably." "Tie them up, boys." "Tom, he all yours now." "How do it feel, Mr. Brent?" "To be tied up like a hog for slaughter waiting for your flesh to turn to jelly?" "What do you feel like to be on the other side of the lash?" "No, Tom..." "Please." "Time to go." "Get moving." "Get the children back there." "Sit down." "Maria Jane!" "Come on up, Bud." "Got your young'uns, Tom?" "My boy Tom has a good heart and I admire his thinking." "If you bother me or mine ever again I'll kill you." " Let's go." " No." "Not yet." "I know you's sorry to be leaving." "We got to get moving." "I been sitting here, trying to remember." "Been living here maybe 14, 15 years." "I lost count." "I helped Irene birth all the grandchildren." "Seen them grow." "I held her second baby in my arms when she die." "We buried that sweet lamb by the willow." "I knows every chink in every wall the winter wind blow through." "I know it hard, old woman, leaving." "Hard?" "Chicken George you is a foolish old man." "There ain't nothing hard about being happy." "This ain't never been our home." "Never belong to us no way!" "This here is Massa Harvey's nigger quarters." "When we ride out of here, I ain't never gonna think of it again!" "Go on there, mule!" "Let's move on." "Mr. Brent!" "Thank the senator for these new mules." "We never could've made it without them!" "We's here!" "This here our land." "Go on, mule, go on!" "Hold up there." "You get down easy, honey." "Here's home." "Bud." "The first slave in this family was my granddaddy Kunta Kinte." "But he weren't always a slave." "Before he was a slave he was a free man in another country." "A country called Africa." "But then the slavers, they catch him when he went to find some wood to make a drum and they brung him to America." "To a place called Annapolis." "But Kunta Kinte he never forget where he come from." "He never forget Africa." "He never forget the words he spoke as a child." "How "ko" mean a fiddle and Kamby Bolongo mean a river." "He never stop fighting against his chains to be free again." "Not even after they cut off half his foot to keep him from running away." "And before he die, he give that dream of freedom to his daughter." "Kizzy." "My mama." "And before she die, she give that dream to me." "And I've tried to keep that dream alive in all you children till that day come." "Hear me, old African the flesh of your flesh has come to freedom." "You is free at last." "We is free!" "The family did settle in Henning, Tennessee." "Matilda passed away before Chicken George." "And he enjoyed life among his children and grandchildren  until he died at the ripe old age of 83." "The blacksmith, Tom, and his talented Irene prospered." "Their daughter, Cynthia, married a quiet black man named Will Palmer  who came to own the town 's lumber mill." "They had a daughter named Bertha  who attended Lane College  where she met and married Simon Alexander Haley." "In 1921, the Haleys welcomed a son  the seventh generation descendant of Kunta Kinte." "That boy was me, Alex Haley." "I never forgot those stories which my grandmother Cynthia told me." "And in 1963, after I had retired from a career in the U.S. Coast Guard I became obsessed with knowing more about our family more about its history." "It was a search that would take me 12 years to complete." "And those things that I learned, I wrote in a book called "Roots.""