allowed that there were several intelligent and literate blacks, and
several who had done well for themselves as free men, mostly in the North,
but they were the exceptions
BLOODLINES 167
that proved the rule. She worried if she was simply rationalizing what was
finally unjustifiable because she understood that the South could not
survive economically without slavery, but she also rejected the argument
that slavery was cheaper than paid labor. She knew how much their slaves
cost them, both in purchase price and upkeep, and the sums were
astounding. Mostly, she believed in the institution because of the
benefits it brought to both races.
The validity of slavery, to Sally, was that it was so simple. If only the
troublemakers could understand those benefits, as so many of their house
niggers did. If only the screaming would stop.
She worried about James. He was making himself physically ill with worry,
and could scarcely keep control of his temper these days. She understood
that it was not only because of the slaves. For some reason, James was
obsessed with the matter of Andrew's election, and she guessed that
something had happened to make him doubt his support of his mentor. She
knew this must cost her husband dear, for Andrew was his greatest friend.
He adored the man, as a son might adore a father, and believed Andrew was
partly responsible for their considerable wealth. She knew James had
doubts about some of Andrew's beliefs and convictions, but she did not
understand why the election was of such consuming interest to him.
Sally loved Rachel, but she didn't like Andrew. She thought him arrogant,
overbearing, and selfish to a degree she had seldom encountered. He was
condescending to Rachel, and she believed that he probably blamed his
wife for their inability to have children of their own. She had watched
Rachel change over the years, from a bright and vibrant woman to a dour
and ailing recluse who seldom left the house and lived only through her
vainglorious husband, and had devoted herself to his welfare and her
sons, who were not her sons.
She disliked the influence that Andrew had once had over James, she was
appalled by Andrew's cavalier attitude to money, and horrified by his
hanging of the missionaries in Florida, and the execution of the boy,
Woods, during the Creek War.
If James had finally realized that Andrew was not his best friend, if he
had come to understand that Andrew was simply
168 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
using James for his own purposes, if James was able to break Andrew's
spell over him, then perhaps some good would come out of this terrible
time.
If only the screams would stop.
As a mother, Sally had other worries. A.J., her darling, her beloved, her
firstborn son, was going away to school. A.J. had been taught by tutors,
as the girls were, but now James and Sally had decided he needed to be
educated in the company of other boys. There was no suitable school yet
in Florence, and so he was being sent to the Stevens Academy in
Nashville. He would live with Eleanor and Thomas, and Sally was sure he
would be well looked after, but her mother's heart ached for her son; she
would miss him dreadfully, and worry about his safety. He was only eight
and far too young to be going out into the world on his own, but she was
a strong woman, and boarding school was in her son's best interests. She
tried to devote herself to making his last few weeks at home memorable,
but the unpleasant atmosphere that began at the slave quarters pervaded
the house and their lives, and she found herself constantly distracted
from what she perceived as her matemal role.
If only the screams would stop.
The new overseer, Egbert Harris, loved his job, because he loved war, and
he believed that keeping the niggers under control was a continuing war
of attrition that he was determined to win.
He had been bom to a poor farming family, pioneers, in the Great Smokies,
and Harris's early years were unrelentingly arduous. His father scratched
a living as best he could from their humble acres, and made illegal
whiskey in a still in the forest to supplement their meager income. His
mother's life had been one of ceaseless child raising in impossible
circumstances, and half her brood had not survived infancy or their early
years. Immigrants from Wales, they had trekked to the frontier in the
early days, and bought their acres on the best land they could afford,
putting their faith in the bounty of America. But their farm was near the
Cherokee land that straddled the Georgia border, and they were subject
to constant harassment by raiding parties. One of their daughters died
from a Cherokee arrow.
BLOODLINES 169
Egbert, their third surviving son, was a tough and resourceful boy, for
whom the frontier was home. He shot his first deer at seven, at nine he
caught a bear in a trap, and when he was twelve he killed and scalped his
first Indian. Hoping to make his way in the world, he left home when he
was fifteen, and went to Knoxville, where he worked in a stable and
developed his skill with horses. When he heard that Brigadier John Coffee
of Nashville was looking for volunteers for the militia, to fight the
British, he rode to Nashville in a day, offered his services, and was
accepted.
The army became a second home to him, and he loved the life. Adept at
living from the land and sleeping rough, he survived the rigors of the
winter march to and from Natchez, and was promoted to sergeant. He fought
in the Creek War, and revered his direct commander, Coffee, and his
general, Andrew Jackson. He believed implicitly in the hierarchy of the
army; he obeyed his officers and his men obeyed him, without question or
demur. When a firing squad was needed to execute the mutinous boy, James
Woods, Harris volunteered. The possibility of dying himself in any of the
battles was of minimal concern to him. He did not believe he was going
to be killed, but if he was, he would put up a heck of a fight first.
Most of all, he loved the challenge and the sense of camaraderie, and the
adventure. His survival, like his fellows', depended on each individual's
grit and skill and courage, and their collective commitment to each
other. The possibility of not being strong enough, of being killed, was
a direct sexual challenge to him, and he would pit himself against the
most formidable foe to prove that he could win. After the battle he would
be in a state of high sexual arousal, flooded by the lifeforce, and then
he would force himself on whatever woman was available to him-white
trash, Indian, or nigra, it made no difference to him. If no women were
available, he would relieve himself with his hand.
Like his commanders, he had an unshakable faith in the divinely ordained
destiny of the white man to rule this land. He
respected Indians as
fierce warriors, and loathed their despoiling presence on what should be
his. He could not understand why his father had to make do with a few
scrubby acres, when these naked heathens had limitless vistas. It was his
per-
170 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
sonal quest to wrest the land from the natives and give it to his family.
He saved his pay and kept his vow. Because of the land sales around
Florence, the price of land near Nashville dropped to an affordable price,
and he bought five fair acres. He built a log cabin with his own hands, and
moved his parents down from the mountains. They managed a good life for
themselves, but the farm could not support him as well, so John Coffee
found him a job as assistant overseer on a small plantation in Georgia,
Before long he had the top job.
He ran the plantation as a military command, with military discipline, and
while the slaves hated him, they dared not disobey him. To add some spice
to what might have become tedious, he took to baiting the strongest and
angriest of the hands, to try to provoke them to run away, or to rebel
against him. He respected strong niggers for their strength, while he
despised them for the color of their skin. Keeping weaklings and women in
line was no challenge to him; testing himself against strong men was the
true measure of his masculinity.
Still, he missed his family, and when John Coffee contacted him with a
possible job closer to home, he took the first opportunity he could to call
on his old brigadier. He came with Coffee to Cap'n Jack's wedding at The
Forks of Cypress, and was appalled by what he saw. He believed what his
parents had taught him, that the blacks were an inferior race of animals,
who had been put on earth by God to serve the whites. He had no patience
toward those Massas who were lenient with their slaves, and would
cheerfully have murdered an abolitionist if he ever met one. The fact that
James was treating niggers benevolently was abhorrent to him, and he agreed
with Coffee that James needed some spine. He saw it as his good Christian
duty to bring order to the chaos that was The Forks of Cypress.
He employed an assistant, his brother Albert, who shared his views on
slavery, and the two of them instituted a rigorous discipline at The Forks.
The lash was used as and when Harris or his brother saw fit, which was
often, troublesome slaves were chained up at night, and slave catchers
roamed the boundaries with guns and bloodhounds.
James protested at Harris's severity and the cost of the man- BLOODLINES 171
power, but Harris assured him he needed six months to bring the niggers
to heel, and then his iron grip would relax. James, distracted by
political affairs, agreed.
Yet Harris was clever. He understood James's passion for his blooded
horses, and that the men who ran the stables were handpicked. He put a
slave catcher near them, just in case of trouble, but otherwise he left
them alone. He was a keen gambling man himself, and actually admired
those stable slaves, such as Monkey Simon, or Micah and Ephraim, who knew
their job and were content with the world of horses. The field hands were
Harris's prime concern, and while he resented the ascendancy of the house
niggers, he left them, for the most part, alone.
Except for Annie.
Black women, nigra women, had a powerful effect on Egbert Harris. He
fantasized about them, and in his erotic dreams saw himself as a prize
stallion subduing bucking black mares. He hated them for the sexual hold
they had over him, but he could hardly restrain himself from taking them,
by force preferably, for rape proved him to be the ultimate victor.
He controlled his urges most of the time, and most of the women did not
interest him-the old, or the fat, or the young girls-but Annie was none
of these things. Annie was a challenge. Annie, beautiful and with a full,
rounded body, became the object of Harris's most urgent desires. It
didn't matter to him that she was the mother of a young child; it didn't
matter to him that she was married; he wanted her, and hated her for
making him want her.
Annie was completely aware of Harris's sexual interest in her, for she had
seen it too often, in too many other men, and was just as aware of his
hostility to her. Harris ffightened Annie. She doubted he would attempt
anything because of her marriage to Cap'n Jack, but she did not trust him,
and made some special chants to protect her house and her family from him.
Her greatest concern was not for herself, or even for her husband,
because he lay under the wing of the Massa's protection, but for her
baby, Easter.
Easter was gorgeous, a chubby, happy infant with a constant, gurgling
laugh. Everyone loved her, but, apart from her parents, none more so than
Jass.
172 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
The toddler Jass lived in an odd world. He was adored by his family, and
Tiara, his mammy, but he was the second son, and A.J. had pride of place in
everyone's affections. His mother tried to spend as much time with Jass as
she could, but she was a busy woman, with a household to run and a family
to raise. His father was usually closeted in his study and Jass seldom saw
him. So Jass, who had the run of the plantation, attached himself to Cap'n
Jack, and, through him, Easter.
Jass loved the baby Easter. When she was very little, Annie would put her
outside on a blanket and Jass would sit near her; playing in the dirt and
burbling to Easter as if she understood every word he said, when few people
yet understood him. As they grew, he would point things out to her, or
brush flies from her, and give her pieces of his apple, which Easter was
too young to eat. Sometimes Tiara would put him down for his nap in the
same cot as Easter, and then Jass snuggled up to the baby girl, and told
her he loved her more than anything. If he was taken away from her to go
back to the big house, he would cry his distress, and sometimes threw a
temper tantrum. Since he seemed so happy with the girl, they left him with
her often, or with Cap'n Jack, who would walk with Jass around the garden,
and play with him, as fathers play with sons. It was Cap'n Jack who spanked
him if he was naughty, and Cap'n Jack who gave candies when he was good.
Jass knew that Easter was Cap'n Jack's little girl, and because he regarded
Cap'n Jack as some sort of uncle, or even as a father, Easter became his
sister.
In the ugly months of Harris's rule, Jass and Easter seemed to be the only
ones who were oblivious to the general despondency.
Annie saw Harris watching them sometimes, and watching Easter when Jass was
not there, and worried for her daughter. She knew, they all did, of
children sold away from their slave mothers, and she distrusted Harris so
violently she thought him capable of anything.
But Harris was not looki
ng at Easter, or Jass. He was looking at Annie.
She was weaving at the loom one day, and was sure she saw someone outside.
She went to the window, and then to the door, but could find no one.
BLOODLINES 173
It happened again, a few days later, and when she went to the door, she
saw Harris loitering under one of the oaks, with an ugly smile on his
face.
She saw him again when she went to bathe in the creek. It was fall, and
soon the water would be too cold to swim. She stripped herself naked and
dove into the clean, fresh, icy water, and swam for a while, but then she
heard a movement in the bushes, and saw Harris standing on the bank,
watching her.
She didn't tell Cap'n Jack because there was nothing he could do. If he
lost his temper, which he might, and accosted Harris, which he might, or
complained to Massa, which he might, things could very well get worse.
She avoided Harris as much as she could, and kept Easter inside the house
with her, and Jass when he was with them.
She heard an odd noise one day, a small rattle on the windowpane. She
thought it must be the wind, or a bird, or something fallen on the roof,
and ignored it. She heard the rattle again, louder now, and realized that
someone was throwing small stones at the window, as if to attract her
attention.
She went to the door and when she looked out she saw Harris standing
underneath the trees, some distance away, staring at her. He was rubbing
his hand over his groin.
She slammed the door and ran to her baby, and held her fast, and dared
not let her mind think of what Harris was doing outside.
It happened again. She tried to ignore the tiny volley of pebbles, but
crept to the window. Harris was there, under the tree where he always
stood, so that no one from the slave quarters could see him. He had
pushed down the front of his trousers, and was caressing his naked self,
in her full view.
Annie felt a fear she had not known since she came to The Forks. She
stared in horror at Harris, almost unable to move. At the moment of his
self-induced climax, she turned away, and wept. She was terrified by what
he might do the next time the urge came upon him.
She told Cap'n Jack that night, late at night, because she couldn't
sleep, and he knew something was wrong. She wept her distress, and her
fear. He was not to do anything rash, she insisted, and certainly not
tell the Massa.
Cap'n Jack held her until her crying was done, and told her
174 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
he would think of something. Eventually Annie, exhausted, fell asleep.
But Cap'n Jack did not sleep. He lay awake for much of the night, churning
with rage at what Annie had told him. He felt as if his wife had been raped.
His first instinct was to attack Harris, but he knew that was stupid. He
would be beaten for it, and nothing would be solved. He then thought of
telling James, but doubted he would be believed. James would ask Harris, and
he would deny it, and things would go on as before. He cursed his slavery,
and cursed himself for being black, and dreamed of what he might do if he
were free. Toward dawn he realized what he could do. It was so simple, he
was surprised he had not thought of it before. He had to get Annie and
Easter away from here, and to do that he, and they, had to be free. He would
ask James to fulfill the promise he had made all those years ago.
He would ask for his freedom.
Surely James must grant it. Cap'n Jack had worked hard and loyally for so
long, and what could the Massa want from him? He would bide his time, and
wait until James seemed to be in a good mood, which wasn't often these
days, and ask for his freedom. He would take Annie and Easter away, to the
North, and find a good job, and build a little home for them, and they
would be happy.
He fell asleep in contentment, and woke an hour later to the sound of the