But now he had to find some way to
702 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
get her away from here, out of his life, and away from the possibility of
harm, which loomed so large on his horizon.
The striker who took Queen back to Beaufort delivered her to the back of
the hotel. Queen went to her room, and wondered how she could face Mrs.
Benson. She knew her Missy must be furiously angry, for she had missed at
least one feeding time for William, and although she had claimed sickness,
Mrs. Benson must surely have checked her room, and found her gone. Yet the
maternal side of her also worried for William, who seemed so helpless when
he lay in her arms, so dependent on her milk, on the sustenance she gave
him. She felt guilty about what she had done, but was inspired by Davis,
and so she went to Mrs. Benson's room, ready for anything.
She heard William before she saw him, because the boy was yelling as if
he had never been fed. Queen's spirit sank, but she tapped on the door
and went into the room.
"There you are at last!" Mrs. Benson cried.
Mrs. Benson was certainly angry, but it was not quite the wrath that
Queen expected. Although the words were harsh, and the tone, there was
also a tinge of relief in her voice. William was on her knee, and she was
trying to feed him bread soaked in warm milk, but he didn't want that.
Queen started an apology, but Mrs. Benson had to have her say.
"The boy's been awake all night long," she complained. "I haven't had a
wink of sleep, nor poor Mr. Benson, with so much on his mind."
The room was a mess, for it was true: Mrs. Benson had been up half the
night, trying to calm William, and change his linen, and at the same time
assure her husband that all was well. It was another hot day, and she was
cross with Queen for causing this interruption to her domestic
arrangements, but not for anything else.
"I's sorry," Queen apologized again. She had expected to be sacked, but
now she didn't think that was going to happen, or not until William had
been fed. She went to the boy, who quieted immediately and sought her
breast through her blouse. Queen smiled at him, and told him to be
patient. She sat on a chair and fed him, while Mrs. Benson made vain
attempts to clean up the room, which smelled of baby.
"Aren't you going to tell me where you've been?" she
QUEEN 703
demanded of Queen, and rang the bell to summon servants.
Queen was puzzled. Although tetchy, Mrs. Benson was almost friendly to
her, as if she'd been a naughty girl who had done some silly trivial
wrong, and, the crisis over, was expected to share her naughty secrets.
She tried to think of some lie that would satisfy Mrs. Benson, but none
came to her.
"'Men let me guess," Mrs Benson said, and sat at the table. "You've been
with Abner's father, perhaps?"
Queen did not look at her, but concentrated on the feeding William. She
felt a rush of fear, because she did not know how Mrs. Benson knew of
Davis or what her reaction would be. She blushed, and kept her head down.
"Oh, don't be silly, Queen," Mrs. Benson laughed. "I saw you in the
street yesterday, the way you looked at that wretched union man and told
Abner he was his father. I know you lied to me when you told me you
didn't know him."
Queen's fear gave way to relief, for now she understood how Mrs. Benson
knew, and it didn't seem devious.
"Yes, m'm" was all Queen said.
There was a knock at the door, and a maid appeared. Mrs. Benson ordered
a tray of breakfast for two, and busied herself at the washstand. She
chattered about nothing and everything while she waited for breakfast,
and Queen began to think that the woman was trying to make some girlish,
foolish contact with her. She felt kindly toward Mrs. Benson, and
relieved that someone else knew her secret.
The staff arrived, and Mrs. Benson had breakfast set out on the table,
while Queen changed William and put him down. When she came back from the
nursery, Mrs. Benson was sitting at the table and another place was laid.
For Mr. Benson, Queen assumed, but again, Mrs. Benson surprised her.
"Sit down here with me," she said, "and have some breakfast, I'm sure
you're hungry."
Queen was very hungry; she'd had nothing to eat since her dinner the
previous night. She pulled out the chair, sat on the edge of it, and took
a piece of toast.
"That's not enough," Mrs. Benson said. "We have to look after you, for
William's sake."
She piled a plate with eggs and toast, passed it to Queen, and began to
eat herself.
704 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
"Now," she said when Queen had relaxed sufficiently to feel comfortable.
"Tell me about Abner's father."
Still, Queen was cautious, and Mrs. Benson giggled.
"He's so very handsome," she said, like a schoolgirl with a crush. Queen
smiled too, and told her a little of Davis. Not much, just trivial,
womanly things, and Mrs. Benson's eyes were bright with gossip and she
shared a few secrets of her own married life. When they were done, Mrs.
Benson took her shopping, but said they should be off the streets that
aftemoon for she had heard that there was to be a big strike parade and
there could be trouble. It was best for the women to keep out of the way.
Queen was entranced by her consideration, and felt herself warming to
Mrs. Benson as the day went on. From the hotel windows, they watched the
parade of strikers through the street in the early afternoon, with Davis
being carried on the shoulders of some of the men. Queen was filled with
pride, and pointed him out to Abner. White workers lined the streets,
jeering the procession, and there were some fights.
Mrs. Benson made a lot of complimentary comments about Davis, and tutted
about the violence, and Queen forgot that she had said that the
ringleaders ought to be shot. Queen saw Mr. Benson standing in the street
with some other businessmen, watching the parade, and she asked why he
was not with his wife. Mrs. Benson said something vague about business,
and suggested that Queen must be tired and should have a nap.
Queen was very tired; she hadn't really slept since yesterday. She took
Abner to her room, lay down with him on the bed, and fell fast asleep
with her son in her arms, dreaming of the boy's father.
She awoke, some hours later, at sundown, to an urgent tapping on the door,
and she heard a fierce whisper.
"Queen!" It was Mrs. Benson. "Wake up-!"
She roused herself, blinked the sleep from her eyes, and opened the door.
Mrs. Benson slipped into the room and shut the door. She was agitated,
apparently frightened.
"You must go to him, Abner's father," she whispered, her eyes wide with
fear. Queen, still fuddled by sleep, did not quite understand.
QUEEN 705
"Get him away," Mrs. Benson said urgently. "They kno
w where he is, and
he is in danger."
Queen was awake now, and caught Mrs. Benson's sense of fear but didn't
know what to do. She looked at Abner.
"I'll keep Abner safe with me till you return," Mrs. Benson assured her.
Still it didn't make sense to Queen; she went to Abner, picked him up,
gave him to Mrs. Benson, and looked about the room, pulled at her dress.
"Quickly, take a horse from the stable," Mrs. Benson said, with more
urgency than ever. She clutched Queen to her.
"There will be terrible work done this night," she whispered.
"It is the Klan."
For a split second that might have been an eternity, Queen was petrified.
She knew of the Klan. She had seen the dark seeds of it outside Decatur
when the masked men had burned the barn, careless if any died in the
conflagration, as one woman did. She first heard the formal name on her
journeys, this avenging servant of Lucifer, and she was told the rivers
of the South held countless bodies of those secretly done to death, and
the earth held the unknown graves of those who had been burned from life.
She panicked for Davis. Reassured by Mrs. Benson as to Abner's welfare,
she ran to the stables, saddled and mounted a workhorse, and rode into
the twilight, the gloaming.
She did not know that she was followed by a masked white man, who had
bound his horse's hooves with cloths to deaden their sound.
82
They gathered in the forest at night, for darkness was their friend, and
what they did could not withstand the glare of the sun, for it was obscene
to God. They claimed divine inspiration for their work and that they stood
on the right hand of the celestial throne, but, like the archangel Lucifer,
they had fallen from grace, never to rise again. Their symbol was a cross,
but it burned with the flames of hell, from whence it had come. Their robes
were black, as befitted their satanic origins, but they wore white hoods, to
keep their faces hidden from the angels. Their trumpets were clarion calls
to violent death.
In the bright light of day they might have seemed like ordinary men, far
too mild for the work they did, and they needed anonymity to make them
brave. Often they knew their victims well, and had grown up with them, and,
cowards, could not kill their helpless fr-iends without the mask of night.
They took strength from their numbers, which were spread wide throughout
the land, a huge and hideous secret society whose leaders traveled far from
their own homes to spread their demon seed.
So a man had come to them from far away, and stood before them now, in
front of the cross of fire. They chanted prayers and sang loud hymns, and
did not know that the cacophony made heaven weep.
"This is our land," the speaker roared at them. "White man's land, given to
us by God's covenant. But the vile nigger would steal it from us, and we
must fight and kill, for if we do not stop them now, where will it end?"
They loved their country and had fought for it honorably in the war, but in
defeat they would not surrender their cause. Killing became their creed.
706
QUEEN 707
I am not ashamed to be a white American. I am not afraid to die in
defense of my country and my way of life. I am not afraid to kill to
defend my country and my way of life. It is my sacred duty."
They claimed they did not hate the nigger just because he was black.
"Miscegenation is our destruction. The African black was a harmless,
docile animal, happy in the place that the Bible had allotted him. But
liberal Yankees and the lecherous Jew have inbred with the creature, and
created a new and impure race who think themselves our equal. They would
take the very food from our mouths, and the land from our people."
Most of all, they feared one thing.
"And rape our women!"
And had one solution.
"They must be chopped out root and branch, if the tree of white hope is
to survive."
The leader stopped, and a lone voice cried the response to the catechism.
"Let them bum! Let them bum!"
All the voices took up the cry, until the night resounded with the
chanting.
"Bum! Bum! Bum!"
"Let the nigger bum in hell!"
83
ToMrs. Benson it was all so simple she could not understand
why there was any dispute. It was a covenant with God, and
anyone who disputed it was blasphemous and heretic. Initially,
her fury had not been directed at the nigras, for they were
ignorant animals, led piteously astray by atheists. The Repub
lican party was to blame, and its monstrous leader Lincoln,
who, with Satan's help, had devastated the South, freed the
slaves, and brought anarchy to what had been Eden. When
708 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
Lincoln was struck down by an avenging angel who acted under divine
direction, Mrs. Benson fell to her knees in awe of what her Maker had
wrought. But the damage to the South had been done, and must be corrected.
They bore Lincoln's lieutenant, Johnson, with ill grace, but when the
butcher Grant ran for the presidency, Mrs. Benson and her husband had
vowed to do everything in their power to defeat him and his party.
They were not circumspect in voicing their opinions, nor alone in their
feelings. Politically active, they had been introduced to some charming
people who were members of a social club, originally founded in
Tennessee, that was dedicated to the glory and supremacy of white
America. That the activities of the club included occasional nighttime
violence toward blacks was not distasteful to the Bensons. After the
indignities that defeat in war had heaped on them, the men had to have
some outlet for their energy and loss of honor, and the women cheered
them on. The coming election gave specific focus to their ideals and
their wrath. Wearing black robes and white masks to disguise their faces,
they broke up Republican meetings and parades, and on election day itself
had successfully prevented many from voting. Grant won in spite of this,
by margins that appalled them, and the Bensons believed that while they
had done well, they had not done enough. It also became clear to them
that the most potent way to achieve their aims was to rid the land of the
pestilential black.
When she was little, her parents, devout Protestants, in
structed her diligently. They taught her that the Bible was the
unedited manuscript of ' God, and the foundation of all their
lives. That Jews were the sons of Cain and had murdered
Christ. That niggers were the sons of Ham who had mocked
his father, the patriarch Noah, and God, in revenge, had taken
his soul. That Catholics were idolaters who worshiped graven
images, who bought their way out of damnation, and who gave
to a man, the Pope, the omnipotence of the Almighty.
As
a girl growing up in southern Georgia, she never met a Jew, and she
had never actually despised the nigras for they were not worthy of it.
They were simply nigras and slaves and she had enjoyed the company of
many, as she would enjoy the company of a pet dog or cat. As she grew
older, she came
QUEEN 709
to fear black men, convinced she was an object of their sexual desire, and
she lived in mortal fear of being raped. She might survive the rape, but
could not bear the taint of it nor any issue from it, and would kill
herself and the fetus before she gave birth to a mulatto.
Shortly before the war, and partly because of the Northern belligerence,
she married a very eligible young merchant from Atlanta whom she had met
at her coming-out ball, and who shared her ambitions and attitudes. Both
were formidable overachievers and planned an exemplary life. They
believed devoutly in God and as devoutly in the Confederation, and
detested abolitionists, emancipationists, and all could not understand
the simple truth. White Christians were bom to rule and all others to
serve. America would be a wasteland inhabited by naked savages if it were
-not for white vision, white industry, white intelligence. The blacks had
been rescued from the jungle and brought to this country to share the
white man's bounty, and should be grateful for it. But, like the
senseless animals they were, nothing was ever enough for nigras; the more
you gave them the more they expected, and the only discipline they
understood was the lash.
When the war came, Mrs. Benson's husband enlisted immediately and was
killed in the battle of Antietam.
It broke Mrs. Benson's hearL She ne - ver forgave Lincoln,
she never forgave the Yankees, and she never forgave the ni
gras, who were the cause of it all.
She went back to live with her parents in the country and wore widow's
weeds for the rest of the war. Convinced she would never marry again, she
devoted her life to charitable causes, but longed for a man in her life.
At a social event she met a prosperous businessman from Atlanta whose
health had prevented him from enlisting in the military. He had done what
he could as a civilian, supplying munitions to the Confederate
government, and his patriotism had been rewarded with excellent profits.
Thanks to his poor health and judicious investments in California, he had
survived the war in good shape, physically and financially. His
intolerance of Yankees and nigras was greater than her own, and he fueled
her new hatred, and mended her broken heart. He informed her of the
insatiable sexual habits of the decadent, animal nigger, and
710 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
conjured up a potential nightmare world of miscegenation, in which the
blood of good, industrious whites would be sullied and abased, and the
progeny dragged down to the level of the jungle. He also told her of the
Jewish conspiracy to rule the world and destroy all Christians just as
they had killed Jesus.
They married two years after the war, and devoted their lives to the
single-minded belief that the South would rise again. His zeal and sense
of duty made Mr. Benson a wellrespected member of their club, and they
traveled the state together, forming new chapters, encouraging new
members, and doing the violent errands that they believed would restore
them to God's favor. In all things they were a partnership, and Mrs.
Benson attended meetings with her husband, wore their uniform with pride,
was never far from her husband's side.
Except tonight. She could not be with him tonight. She had done her
night's work, and she sat in the hotel sitting room, rocking William on
her lap, and waiting for his nurse.
Queen rode fast to Davis, unaware that she was revealing his location to
a masked white man who was silently following her. Guards took her to him
when she got to the shack, but she could not persuade them to leave.
"But they know where you are," she cried, for she believed what Mrs.