Queen (11 page)

fast. Many in New England, with Boston as its capital, were resolutely

opposed to any expansion of the original thirteen states, believing the

result would be unwieldy.

    "What they really mean is that their own power and influence would be

    reduced," John said.

    Many in the South, the slaveholding states, wanted to break away and form

    their own country, a slave country, or to extend the number of slave

    states so that their own influence would be increased.

    Virginia was the glue that had kept the country together. Although it was

    a slaveholding state, it was balanced between the two major factions,

    North and South, slave and free, and it had produced giant men and giant

    minds, who had a dream of America and the ruthless will to make that

    dream a reality.

    "I don't know how long it can last as it is," John said. "But it will

    survive in some form or another. America is inevitable."

    The issue of slavery confused James most of all. The few blacks in

    Philadelphia were free, but were largely disparaged and despised by the

    whites. Jungle bunnies, they were called, who were lucky to be allowed

    the crumbs from the white man's table. Yet they were not enslaved. Again,

    John provided clarification.

    "It is New England again. The great argument of the federation was that

    the Puritans and Calvinists and Quakers would not tolerate slavery, and

    the Southern states would not abolish it. A compromise was reached, but,

    like all compromises, it is hardly satisfactory, because it leaves the

    issue unresolved."

    The compromise was that the Northern states would be free states and the

    Southern states slave states, but neither side was happy with the status

    quo. The Southerner wanted new, slaveholding territories admitted to the

    Union, thus increasing the power of the South, and the North as strongly

    resisted the expansion of the Union under those terms.

    None of this helped James's confusion. He did not know what he thought

    of slavery because he had not yet encountered it. He knew of free blacks

    in Philadelphia who were doing

62 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

extremely well. One, a sailmaker called Fortan, was reputed to earn over one

hundred thousand dollars a year. At the other end of the scale, Mrs.

Bankston's blacks were hardly literate.

    "They were not meant to read or write," Mrs. Bankston sniffed. "They are

    put here to serve us, to atone for the sins of their ancestor, Ham, who

    mocked his father, Noah. God cursed them for it. That is why they are

    black."

    Certainly, the black staff served James well, and he heard that during a

    recent outbreak of yellow fever, when many whites had fled the city, the

    blacks had stayed, and volunteered to work in the hospitals.

    He felt inadequate to argue with Mrs. Bankston because she claimed the

    Bible as her authority. James had only a superficial acquaintance with the

    Good Book. So he shrugged his shoulders on the matter of niggers and

    slavery, because it did not directly concern him, and went about his

    business.

In the first flush of his flirtation with Philadelphia, he had abandoned his

intention to go west, to find some idyllic spot and build a simple country

life for himself, but his growing confusion at the contradictions of the

city rekindled his earlier dream.

    He had thought America to be a classless society, but quickly discovered he

    was wrong. If there was no ruling class as such, there was certainly a form

    of aristocracy, with wealth as its bloodline, and its members could be at

    least as arrogant as their more illustrious counterparts in Europe.

    John was a citizen of some standing, and invited to many fine houses. He

    took his brother with him sometimes, to introduce him, because James was

    young, and handsome and eligible. James discovered that he enjoyed being

    the center of attention for the many charming young ladies of the elite. He

    flirted with them outrageously, to their delight, and the greater, evident

    pleasure of their mothers, who saw him as a potential suitor for their

    daughters. Invitations flooded to him, and he was invited to the annual

    Pemberton ball, the finest evening on the Philadelphia social calendar.

    The display of wealth was almost too gaudy. He had never seen such opulence

    and extravagance. The tables were heaped with food, hams and lobsters and

    crabs and pheasant and ven-

    BLOODLINES 63

ison and tempting cakes and trifles, and fruits he had never before seen.

    The men were simply but handsomely attired in dark velvets, as if they

    did not want to distract from the beauty of their female companions. The

    women were gorgeous. The younger wore elegant, simple gowns, cut low to

    reveal their breasts in a way that James found delightfully shocking.

    Their mothers and aunts were more cautiously dressed, but still the

    rainbow colors of the silks and satins and velvets enchanted him, and the

    clusters of jewels on necks, fingers, arms, and ears dazzled his eyes.

    The splendid musicians played lively gigs, black servants dressed in

    white kept his glass filled with champagne, and he danced as heartily as

    ever in his life.

    Giddy with happiness, he was introduced to his hosts and their daughter,

    Lucy Pemberton. He smiled his most mischievous smile, told Lucy how

    pretty she was, and begged to be allowed the honor of a dance.

    Somewhat to his surprise, Lucy found a place on her card for him

    immediately, and accepted his arm. To his further surprise, many of those

    watching applauded as the couple stepped to the dance.

"You will never amount to anything."

    James wished his father could see him now, for he had already amounted

    to something, an eligible young bachelor with money in his pocket,

    dancing with the most desirable young lady in the city. He had been in

    America for only a year, was hardly on his way, and yet he was already

    more than his father had been.

    Lucy's dress was in the French Empire style, and exceedingly low cut.

    James could hardly take his eyes from her delicious breasts, which must

    bounce from their muslin restraints, he was sure, if she danced too

    energetically.

    "We haven't seen you before," Lucy said sweetly, and James turned on his

    most charming, self-effacing smile.

"No," he laughed. "I just got off the boat."

    Lucy trilled a silly laugh and told him how worried she was about the

    conditions in Ireland.

    "Indeed, they are terrible," James agreed, his eyes drifting to her

    bosom.

64 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    "With all those peasants dying, how will we ever get our supplies of

    linen?" Lucy twittered.

    James said nothing because he could think of nothing to say. He tried to

    keep the smile on his face, and concentrated on Lucy's breasts, but they

    had lost their attraction for him. He finished the dance and delivered Lucy

    to her parents, and shortly afterward he left the party without telling

    John of his departure.

He walked home with a dull and simmering anger churning in his stomach. He

was appalled at Lucy's callousness. Peasants, his friends, were dying, and

all she could think about was her precious linen. He couldn't blame her; she

was just a silly, vapid girl who didn't know what she was talking about. He

directed much of his anger at himself, because he did know better, and he

began to question his goals. Although he had worked hard, he had been idle

in the pursuit of his dream since he had come to America. He had taken what

he had been given by his brothers, but had created nothing for himself. He

was doing well by other people's standards, but not nearly well enough by

his own. He had been sidetracked by his need to be accepted as a member of

this new society, but it was all glitter and frippery. He had not earned his

invitation to the Pembertons'; it had come to him for superficial

reasons-because of his looks, and his family, and his bachelor state.

    He was not his own man; he was other people's toy. He had abandoned his

    principles to pursue social acceptance; he had allowed himself to be

    seduced by wealth and glamour and-that word that he hated-class. In his

    depression, other aspects of life in Philadelphia became distasteful to

    him. He was tired of the interminable political arguments about what

    America should be. America was America, and that was enough. He was bored

    with the constant raging against Britain and France; he had fought that

    battle in his youth, and had come to America to be free of it. Yet he was

    angry at the way both Britain and France seemed to be playing games with

    the new country, the British Navy harassing American ships, and the French

    emissaries trying to seduce America into the Napoleonic cause. He wanted a

    simple life, with no great, moral issues to consider.

    BLOODLINES 65

    John and Uncle Henry had eased him into this new world and he was

    grateful for it, but it was time to strike out on his own.

    He had money. Quite apart from what he earned, the sum that had come to

    him from his father was sitting in the bank, earning interest. When he

    first heard of it, James refused to touch it, determined to keep his vow

    that he would take nothing from his father, but Uncle Henry had called

    him a fool.

"It's your money, boy," he said. "Will you send it back?"

    James didn't send it back, but neither did he use it. He decided to save

    it, in case he ever had need of it.

    His problem was that he didn't know what to use it for. Or where to go.

    Or what to do.

    He was distracted from his new melancholy by the arrival, as promised,

    of his younger brother.

Washington bounded off the boat and into America with a zest and energy

that left James breathless. Unscarred by life, full of Irish blarney,

bright-eyed and apple-cheeked, Washington ripped into life with careless

abandon. Women adored him, men shook their heads in wonder, and everyone

envied his joyous youth. Mrs. Bankston mothered him, John and Uncle Henry

took him into the business, and James found in him the same rapture of

companionship that he had found with Scan.

    He brought them family news. Eleanor had married again, to an older

    merchant, Thomas Kirkman, and they had a daughter, Mary. Sara and Jimmy

    also had a daughter, another Mary, and a second child on the way. Martha,

    their other sister, was grievously ill, and Eleanor was taking care of

    her two girls.

He brought no news for James from his father.

    Jugs was pining for James, but did not want him to return. The social and

    political situation had got worse since the socalled Act of Union with

    Britain. The persecutions of the Catholics continued with unabated

    ferocity, and mass evictions of the peasants had turned half the country

    into homeless wanderers.

    "But to hell with Ireland," Washington shouted in glee. "We're here now!"

    He could find nothing bad to say about the country. When it snowed and

    others grumbled of the cold, he built snowmen.

66 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

When it rained, he said it reminded him of Ireland, and when the sun

shone, he turned his face to it, and said home was never like this. In the

stifling summer he said it made him appreciate winter more, and in the

winter he said how much he would enjoy the summer. In the spring he was

the first to cast off his heavy clothes, and in the fall he stood before

the changing leaves and applauded them for their fabulous display.

    "If this is good," he said to James, "how much better is it in the

    wilderness?"

    James couldn't tell him. He'd never been farther than Baltimore.

    "Man, what are we waiting for?" Washington urged. "There's a whole world

    out there."

    He was the stuff of pioneers, ready to take on anything with a laugh and

    a smile, ready to put his muscles to any task, ready to carve out his own

    life.

    He had wild dreams of becoming a hunter and living in a log cabin by a

    brook in some sylvan glade. He wanted to catch a bear. He wanted to watch

    beavers build dams. And he wanted to see an Indian.

    "Nashville," John said, tapping a letter with his fingers. Uncle Henry

    nodded.

    James was uncertain. He hardly knew where Nashville was, although they

    did a fair business with the settlement.

"Isn't that a long way away?"

"Out west," John agreed. "Hundreds of miles."

    "Thirty days traveling if you make good speed," Uncle Henry concurred.

    Nashville was almost the frontier of the settled world. Beyond it was