Queen

were because of her curse. He broke his leg when his horse reared at a

  snake. His favorite hunting dog was gored by a wild pig. His best

  fighting cock was killed in the pit. His newborn baby died. He had two

  bad seasons with his cotton and had to sell some of his slaves. Annie was

  one of them.

  She was bought by an old man who had a big building with

  142 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  some looms in it, where other slave women made cloth that was sold at the

  market. Annie only helped them at first, but one of the women taught her

  the craft, and she became an excellent weaver. She liked the other women,

  and they were kind to her, but she was always sad, because she missed her

  mammy.

  She'd been there about six months when her new Massa called her into his

  office one day. He told her to take off her dress, and he took off his

  pants and he did what her first Massa had done, only he wasn't so rough

  and it was all over very quickly. He made her swear never to tell anyone

  else about it, and he called her to his office every few days after that,

  and did it to her again.

  The other women knew because he'd done it to all of them as well, and

  they told the ways to get rid of a baby if one came along. But Annie

  didn't listen to them, because she wasn't going to have a baby by a white

  Massa. She hated them all too much, and she knew what herbs and grasses

  to eat that would keep a baby away.

  She also put a curse on her new Massa, but it didn't seem to work at

  first. Then one night there was a fire in the warehouse and most of the

  cloth was burned, and some of the looms. She was sold away again, this

  time to a big plantation where they needed someone to do the weaving.

  This Massa was quite good to her, and the overseer, because she was good

  at her job, and kept herself to herself, and didn't make trouble. She

  never became friends with any of the other slave women because they were

  a little scared of her. They knew she could make magic because she cured

  a baby boy who was sick with a cough. She built a special fire of

  strange-smelling herbs in his shack and made him smell the smoke, and he

  got better.

  After that the young girls came to her when they needed cures, or a

  potion or a spell to make someone love them, but she would never put a

  curse on anyone for them, because that was her special gift, and she

  reserved it for herself.

  She was indescribably lonely. She longed for some company, some contact

  with another human being, and for a while she had an affair with a field

  hand, but he was suspicious of her power, and married someone else. Her

  reputation for being gifted spread throughout the plantation, until

  eventually even

  BLOODLINES 143

  the overseer and the Massa heard about it, and they made jokes about her,

  and teased her to do magic for them.

  The Massa's wife, the Missy, didn't tease her though. When her daughter was

  sick with the whooping cough, she came to Annie, and begged her to make the

  child well. Annie built her fire of special herbs and sticks, and made the

  child smell the smoke, and slowly, over the next two weeks, she got better.

  After that the Missy came to Annie whenever any of her children were sick.

  Sometimes Annie could help and sometimes she couldn't, but she was always

  honest with the Missy, because she knew the limit of her own knowledge and

  power.

  She might have been happy at that plantation, except that people, white or

  black, came to her only when they wanted some healing. Otherwise, they

  seemed frightened of her, and left her alone.

  The young Massa, the Massa's son, was a boy when Annie first came to the

  plantation, but he had grown up, and was a young man now. He started

  spending time with Annie, and even though he laughed about her skills, she

  thought him kind. Then one night he came to her and ordered her to get un-

  dressed, and he raped her. She knew she was his first woman, and so she was

  inclined to forgive him, but then he started laughing at her, and telling

  everyone how he had been broken in with the witch.

  So she put a curse on him. Two months later, he was bitten by a cottonmouth

  when he was swimming naked in the river. Everyone knew he died from the

  snakebite, but no one believed it was natural, because she was a witch.

  Young Massa had said so. 01' Massa got very angry, and ordered the overseer

  to beat her, but not to mark her skin. He stripped her naked and hit her

  with a wooden bat. She had livid bruises for weeks afterward, but he was

  clever and did not break the skin. When she was healed, ol' Massa called

  for the auctioneer and sent her to the block.

  They took her by cart to a big city, and to some long, low brick buildings,

  where a hundred other slaves were locked in iron cages. They put her in a

  cage and gave her bread and cornmeal to eat. Some of the other slaves tried

  to be friendly to her, but she didn't talk to them because she was scared of

  144 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  other people. She heard that there was to be an auction soon, and over the

  next few days lots of Massas came to inspect what was being offered. A lot

  of the Massas were interested in her, because she was very beautiful, but

  she made a chant, to stop anyone buying her.

  On the day before the sale, a black man came in, very fashionably

  dressed, a house nigger, she guessed. He looked at all the slaves, and

  then he came to her pen, and looked at her for a very long time, without

  saying anything, and she felt an odd feeling, for the first time in her

  life, that this man would never hurt her. He tried to talk to her, and

  she didn't say very much in case she was wrong, but she didn't make her

  chant.

  The man went away and came back a little while later with his Massa. They

  talked about her and asked her some questions, and she gave them honest

  answers. They asked about her weaving, and she pointed to her simple

  skirt, which was of her own cloth. They felt the texture of the material

  and inspected the weave. They made her turn round and take off her

  bodice, and inspected her skin for scars of a lashing, but there were

  none. As they were taking their leave, the house nigger turned back to

  her and smiled.

  She went to the block the next day, and a few Massas bid for her, but

  then suddenly the Massa with the house nigger made a bid that was much

  higher than anyone else's and everyone gasped in astonishment. She was

  sold to him. The Massa came to her, and told her he was sorry that she

  would have to stay here for a few days until transport could be set up,

  but he made arrangements to have her moved to the auctioneer's own slave

  quarters, which were a little more comfortable, and she wasn't barred in.

  I She guessed that her new Massa must be very rich, because when the slave

  cart came for her, there were four other black men, field hands, in it,

  and a lighter-skinned man who was immaculately dr
essed. He said his name

  was Parson Dick, and he spoke differently from the others, almost like a

  Massa. Four slave catchers had been employed to take them to their new

  plantation, and they traveled for four days, staying in the slave quarters

  of cheap inns at night. To her surprise, they weren't chained at any time.

  "New Massa said not," Parson Dick told her.

  BLOODLINES 145

  Not that she, or anyone, could have escaped. One of the slave catchers

  was always on guard, and they had guns.

  Besides, where would she escape to?

  At the end of the fourth day they came to a fine plantation, with fields

  ready, although no cotton had been planted. There was a big mansion on

  a hill at the end of the drive, but it wasn't finished yet. Workmen were

  putting glass in the windows, and slate on the roof, and the grounds

  around it were still wild, and not yet a garden.

  They were delivered to the overseer, a middle-aged man called Evans, and

  he warned them that he would not tolerate troublemakers or runaways. For

  all his bluster, Annie didn't think he was a very strong man, and the

  field hands sniggered softly when he turned his back to greet the Massa.

  The Massa welcomed them, and told them he expected them to work hard, but

  that if they did he would treat them well. The house nigger was with him,

  smiling, Annie thought, at her.

  The overseer took them to the slave quarters, a collection of newly built

  huts around a clearing, and assigned them their places. As they walked

  there, the house nigger walked with them, and pointed out the Massa's log

  cabin, in a field behind the big house, and said he'd be moving into the

  big house next month.

  Annie's room was as good as any she had ever had, small and bare, with

  a small window, a chair and a bunk, but it had the smell of new timber,

  and that pleased her.

  The house nigger came with the Missy, and she was very kind, and said she

  would organize some new clothes for Annie, who had only the dress she

  wore. She admired the weave of that dress, and said she hoped that Annie

  would be happy making lovely cloth for them.

  The Missy left, but the house nigger stayed.

  "I's Cap'n Jack," he said. "I's the Massa man."

  Annie shrugged.

  "Ain't nuttin' to be afeared of here," he said. "Ain't no one to hurt you

  here. "

  Annie shrugged again. She always got hurt, eventually.

  Cap'n Jack stared at her for a few moments, then told her he'd come by

  to see her again soon and left.

  146 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  Annie sat down on the bunk and stared at the place that was to be her new

  home.

  Some people at her old plantation said she had the gift of second sight,

  but although she could see the future, it wasn't true. It was simply that

  Annie knew that nothing good was ever going to happen to her.

  18

  Cap'n Jack was fascinated by Annie from the first moment he saw her. A sad,

  silent woman in a pen at the slave market, she seemed filled with dark

  secrets, and some inner pain that Cap'n Jack guessed came from beating or

  rape, or from being sold away from her family. She bore her grief with such

  quiet dignity that Cap'n Jack wanted to take her into his arms and hold her,

  and never let anyone hurt her again.

  He told James about her, and that she was a weaver, and James's eyes

  glinted with a spark of an idea that he wouldn't reveal to Cap'n Jack. They

  went to Annie and inspected her, and James was impressed. Cap'n Jack was

  pleased to see that she bore no scars from the lash on her back, but knew

  that some Massas had subtler ways of inflicting punishment. The following

  day, at the auction, there was some bidding for Annie, but then James

  surprised everyone by offering a price well above the highest bid. Cap'n

  Jack looked at him in surprise, but James only shrugged.

  "She can do the weaving," he said.

  When they got back to The Forks, James told his builders he wanted a

  weaving house, and put Cap'n Jack in charge of it. Cap'n Jack went to the

  slave quarters to pick out a site, but it was for Annie, and he wanted to

  keep her apart from the others.

  There was a small grove of oaks halfway between the big house and the slave

  quarters, with a clearing in the middle, just large enough for a small

  house. This was the spot that

  BLOODLINES 147

  Cap'n Jack chose. Here, Annie would be half hidden from the world. James

  approved of his choice and ordered a loom from Atlanta.

  The new slaves were delivered a few days later, and were greeted by Evans,

  the foreman. Evans had been with James in Nashville, and was really an

  overseer, but James didn't like the title. Evans was gruff and shouted a

  lot, but was not really a strong man. Cap'n Jack doubted that he was the

  right man for the new job. In Nashville they'd had only forty slaves on

  the plantation, including the house niggers, and here there would be

  nearly a hundred working in the fields, and several more in the house.

  Evans organized the field hands, and Cap'n Jack was left in charge of

  Annie and the new butler, Parson Dick.

  He took Annie to a hut, and tried to talk to her, but she only shrugged.

  Whatever her hurt was, Cap'n Jack knew it would take time to heal. He

  went outside and Parson Dick made himself comfortable on a log, waiting

  to be told where to go. They were pressed for space. The big house wasn't

  ready, the Massa and his family were crowded into the log cabin, and not

  all the new slave quarters had been finished. In the end Cap'n Jack

  suggested that Parson Dick bunk in with him. The butler made a bit of a

  fuss, saying that things had been different at his old plantation, but

  it was either Cap'n Jack's hut or the shed with the field hands, so

  Parson Dick saw reason.

  Parson Dick settled in and washed at the well. He was finicky about his

  personal cleanliness, and had not been able to wash properly at the slave

  market, nor on the road. He asked to be taken on a tour of the new house

  and to meet his staff, so Cap'n Jack conducted him through the nearly

  finished mansion, and introduced him to old Crosspatch, the cook who had

  come with them from Nashville, and her new young assistant, Julie. Parson

  Dick thanked Cap'n Jack and dismissed him, saying he would like to talk

  to the Missy next. Cap'n Jack was not used to being given orders by other

  slaves, but saw the sense of it and went to find Sally. Parson Dick

  settled at the kitchen table with Crosspatch and Julie and told them how

  he intended to run the house. Crosspatch, who had a short

  148 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  temper, flared, but Parson Dick told her he was in charge and if she didn't

  like it she could complain to the Massa. Julie giggled.

  Cap'n Jack found Sally but she had some other jobs for him, for the

  furniture was starting to arrive from Charleston, and the new drapes and

  rugs. It w
as all in crates, for it had come from Europe, and so they stored

  it all in one of the back rooms in the house until they took possession. It

  was nearly midnight when Cap'n Jack finished his work, but that was not

  unusual these days. Ever since the Massa had bought the land and then got

  sick, Cap'n Jack had been in charge of many of the preparations for the new

  house.

  He went past Annie's hut on the way to his own, but the candle was out, and

  he guessed she was asleep. He hoped the angels would guard her, and went to

  his own hut, where Parson Dick pumped him for two hours about the Jackson

  family, until Cap'n Jack fell asleep, fully clothed, on his bunk.

  He woke at cockcrow, washed at the well, and saw Annie in line for her

  food. He greeted her, and told her she had no work to do until the loom

  arrived, but could make herself useful cleaning up in the house. She nodded

  and was pleasant, but otherwise ignored his existence. Cap'n Jack had his

  meals in the kitchen of the big house, which was the first part of the

  building to be completed, and ate his breakfast listening to Crosspatch's

  complaints about the new butler. She was particularly aggrieved this day,

  because Missy Sally had sided with Parson Dick on some matter of the menus,

  but Cap'n Jack ignored her. Crosspatch was always complaining.

  It was another chaotic day. The builders were Scrambling to finish the

  house, Sally was trying to move furniture into rooms that weren't ready,

  Micah and Tiara were looking after the children, Ephraim was running round

  the stables getting ready for the horses which were soon to arrive, and

  everyone wanted something from Cap'n Jack.

  As he walked back from the stables, Cap'n Jack saw Evans charging around on

  his horse organizing work gangs to plant the new season's cotton.

  The new field hands were a crew of fine and able-bodied men, but, strangers

  to the Jackson household, had no special loyalty to their new Massa, and

  were testing the limits of the foreman's temper and ability to control..

  BLOODLINES 149

  "There gwine be trouble," Cap'n Jack said to himself, but it was not his

  business, and Missy Sally was calling him to help talk sense to the

  gardeners.

  He hardly saw Annie that day, but after his evening meal he filched a

  couple of pieces of fried chicken from the plate and took them to her.

  She was sitting in her hut staring at nothing, and humming some odd chant

  to herself.

  "Got some chicken," Cap'n Jack said.

  She took the chicken without thanks, and ate it with a surprising

  daintiness.

  Cap'n Jack squatted on his haunches and waited till she had done. There

  was silence for a while.

  "It was a purty song you was humming," Cap'n Jack said.

  "African," Annie shrugged. "It from Africa."

  "That where you from?"

  "No," Annie said.

  He asked a few more questions, but she only responded with a yes or a no,

  or a shrug, and then he heard Parson Dick calling him, so he bade her

  good night, and went to find out what the matter was.

  He saw her every evening after that, and always took her some nice scraps

  of food from the main kitchen. She took the food but never thanked him,

  and responded to his questions simply. He told her of his life, but she

  didn't seem interested. He told her of how he had come to Massa Jackson,

  but she didn't seem to care. He told her of the promise offreedorn the

  Massa had given him, and then she spoke.

  "Ain't never gwine happen," she said.

  Cap'n Jack told her she was wrong, that Massa James was different from

  other Massas, but she only shrugged.

  "All Massas the same," she said.

  Cap'n Jack felt cheered. At least she had started to take part in the

  conversations, even if it was on a negative note.

  A few days later the new loom was delivered, and Cap'n Jack had it set

  up in Annie's hut. It was enormous and almost filled the little room, but

  they had no other place to put it until the weaving house was ready.