"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." "J 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." "l can't marry you and that's it." "You think you better than I is." "l didn't say that." "l 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 q2000!" "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." "lt 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... .. .l 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 q6000." "How you figure that?" "Marcellus paid over q2000 for himself." "Now, I'm a trainer, and younger too, see?" "So you gotta allow q2500 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 q6000." "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 q30,OOO." "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 q3500." "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." "q30,OOO in the purse and side bets starting at q250." "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 1 6." "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 íust want to know one thíng:" "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." "q500!" "q500 right here on the Englishman's bird. q500." "Hear that, George?" "q500!" "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, 1 5 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, Iet's waive.. ." ".. .any particular limits to our personal siding funds." "That would suit me, sir." "Would q10,OOO be agreeable?" "Or is that beyond your faith in your creature?" "Time." "You hear that?" "q 1 O,OOO?" "q1 O,OOO!" "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,OOO." "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 q20,OOO-- ln 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:" ""lf l 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." "l 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." "l 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!" "ls 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 wearíng us down." "Wearíng 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." "Subtitles by sdl Media Group" "[ENGLISH]"