Queen (15 page)

    chief, who was buried according to the tribal ways.

    James was fascinated by the intricate, exotic ceremonies, and found

    himself wondering about the relationship between man and the spirit

    world. These people did not believe in his God, but they believed in some

    powerful metaphysical force that caused awe in James. He thought that

    Chief Doublehead's personal dilemma exemplified the tragedy of all his

    people, of all the tribes. In order to live in peace with the white men,

    they had to surrender to them, because they could not win against them

    in war. Their land, pristine, primeval, was too valuable to be left to

    their stewardship, for it was unproductive. The march of progress could

    not be stopped, yet, surely, in this vast country, there was land enough

    for all? James approved of the concept behind the treaties, whereby the

    Indians gave land for white settlement in return for the right to live

    in peace on what was left, and he cursed those whites who coveted what

    the Indians still had. When he saw the wonderful, empty landscapes on

    which the Creek and Cherokee and Chickasaw still roamed, he envied them

    their freedom, and thought it was a sweet and simple life to live as they

    did, taking from the land only what could be replenished, living from the

    land that gave to them in abundance.

    At the same time, in his darker moments, he knew how much money he could

    make if he could persuade them to part with some few acres of it. He

    cherished the idea that perhaps he could wrest a private treaty from

    Chief Doublehead, as

    BLOODLINES 85

others had done, and make that land available to settlers on a legal

basis, and be rich beyond imagining.

When wealth did come to James, it was indeed from land, but not quite as

he expected. Successful as James and Washington were in all their

endeavors, the real money came to them when Thomas Jefferson, the

president, put an embargo on all shipping from United States ports.,

    "Tom's gone mad!" Andrew cried, and railed and fumed, and swore it would

    bankrupt the country, which it very nearly did. James only vaguely

    understood why Jefferson had taken this action, but thrilled to be

    friends with a man who called the president Tom.

    As James understood it, Britain, at war with France, had put an embargo

    on American ships sailing to European ports, and Napoleon retaliated by

    putting an embargo on American ships sailing to British ports. Jefferson

    put an embargo on all American shipping, to try to bring the two warring

    factions to reason with regard to neutral American commerce.

    "Cutting off his nose to sprite his face," Andrew cried again, stomping

    on the floor in rage.

    The effect of the embargo was catastrophic. Some smart companies and

    ship's captains found their way around it by using ports in the

    Caribbean, but few goods came into America, and fewer left. The dormant

    secession movement in New England woke up sharply, because theirs were

    the ports most harshly affected, but Southern cotton growers, and those

    around Nashville, suffered as well. They could not get their cotton to

    British markets.

    The farmers lived in hope that the embargo would be repealed, and tried

    to continue to pay their debts. Cash money was scarce and promissory

    notes abounded.

    " Danmed paper!" Andrew cried again. "It will be the ruin of us. Hard

    currency is the only honorable money!"

    James and Washington obliged their customers to the limit of their

    financial ability, which was now considerable. When all else failed, they

    accepted land in payment of debts, and by the time the embargo was lifted

    they owned over fifty thousand acres. With the resumption of trade, the

    price of land rocketed to the sky. James and Washington sold half of what

86 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

they owned at formidable profit, and bought yet more.

    Washington was drawn more and more to the South, to Natchez. He loved the

    lazy, unhurried river life, and bought some barges to carry cargo between

    Natchez and New Orleans.

    James's passion became a farm he had accumulated outside Nashville. It

    was the first estate he had ever owned, and he enjoyed the role of

    country squire. He gave soirees and picnics, and entertained the notables

    of the town. A frequent visitor to Andrew's house, he became involved in

    the politics of the South, and of the frontier, and met several of the

    rising young politicians of the day, Henry Clay and his son Henry junior

    from Kentucky, John McKinley from Tennessee, and John Coffee, a military

    man, and Andrew's aide. John Coffee and Andrew owned the Cloverbottorn

    Horse Race Track, and James and Andrew, the two Jacksons as they were

    called, were always to be seen at the meetings. Both men loved the sport,

    and Andrew owned several blooded horses.

"You will never amount to anything."

    His father's last words to him were the fuel to the engine of James's

    ambition, and yet he could never convince himself that he had achieved

    enough to prove his father wrong.

. Thus James became one of the landholding gentry, though still in trade,

the owner of a small cotton plantation, a cotton gin, a successful

business, a breeder of racehorses, and Massa to more than forty slaves.

He had never attended a slave auction, nor had he ever sent one of his

slaves to the block.

    Family gathered to him as rapidly as money. After his sister Martha died,

    Eleanor came from Ireland with her second husband, Thomas Kirkman, and

    their children, Mary Letitia, James, and little Tom, together with

    Martha's two girls, Mary and Anna. Thomas had an astute mind for

    commerce, and James put him in charge of the store. Sara and Jimmy came

    with their four children, Mary Ann, Jane, Robert, and Ellen. James

    employed Jimmy in his land office. Shortly after arriving in Nashville,

    Sara gave birth to a girl, who was called Letitia, in honor of Hugh's

    wife, in Baltimore.

    Surrounded by loving family, rich and successful, still young enough and

    handsome enough, James had almost all his heart desired, except two

    things. He had no shadow, no personal manservant, as Andrew had Alfred,

    and he had never found a woman to love.

    BLOODLINES 87

    The first was easy. He discussed his need with Andrew, and Andrew sent

    Alfred looking. It took a year, but finally Alfred found a winner.

Cap'n Jack was in his early twenties when he came to James. His previous

Massa, in Virginia, had seen the potential in him, and had taken the

youthful slave, Jack, into the house, and trained him as a manservant. He

also taught Cap'n Jack to read and write, which was unusual among slaves,

and forbidden in some states. Cap'n Jack took full advantage of the ben-

efits that had come to him, worked hard and well, and made himself

indispensable to his Massa, who was old and infirm. He had a habit of

calling everyone "Cap'n" because he could not bear to use the word

"Massa," which accentuated his slave status, and eventually became known

as Cap'n Jack himself. Andrew Jackson was a frequent visitor to the

estate, on his many trips to Washington on government business, and Alfred

and Cap'n Jack became friends. When Cap'n Jack's Massa became mortally

ill, Alfred suggested to Andrew that he buy Cap'n Jack on James's behalf.

    Despite the fact that this almost certainly saved Cap'n Jack from the

    auction block, he seethed with resentment about this change in his

    ownership. He wanted to stay and nurse his old Massa. He didn't want to

    be uprooted from the only home he had known, in pleasant Virginia, and

    be carted off to the frontier to a man he didn't know. Besides, he

    cherished the hope that his Massa would free him in his will. This was

    not to be. Although the old man was fond of Cap'n Jack, he did not

    believe in the practice of freeing niggers, no matter how loyal they had

    been.

    "It the block, or the backblocks," Alfred told him with a wheezy chuckle.

    Cap'n Jack was forced to admit that his dream of freedom had been false,

    and having no alternative, he accompanied Alfred and Andrew to his new

    Massa, but went with bad grace,

    For the first few weeks it was a disaster. Cap'n Jack did as he was told

    by James, but with ill humor, and never extended himself. To reinforce

    his bitterness at his status, Cap'n Jack stopped calling white men

    "Cap'n," and called James "Massa," with scarcely concealed contempt. It

    made James

88 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

angry. He had paid a thousand dollars for Cap'n Jack, and hoped for a

servant as loyal and obliging and inventive as Alfred was to Andrew, not

this surly, if competent, man, who never questioned anything, and never

took any initiative.

    He lost his temper with Cap'n Jack, and threatened to sell him, but Cap'n

    Jack only shrugged.

    "If'n that make you happy, Massa," he said. "To buy an' sell niggers."

    That made James angrier, because Cap'n Jack had touched his conscience.

    James was still ambivalent in his attitude to slavery. He had acquired

    slaves because it was the done thing, because it was expected of him, and

    because only slaves performed certain jobs. It was also true that he

    enjoyed the status that having so many slaves gave him. He believed

    himself to be a benevolent Massa, he never went to an auction or sold

    slaves away, and, for the most part, he treated his slaves well. His

    lenience had declined over time. He allowed his foreman on the plantation

    to use the lash mildly, or some of the children to be chastised with the

    switch, but he persuaded himself that his slaves were better looked after

    than any in the district. Ephraim, and Tiara and Micah's boys were almost

    like sons to him.

    He lived in the South and slavery was the way of the South. He had not

    made his fortune on their sweat and labor, but by his own sharp brain and

    endeavors. He thought his slaves responded well to his treatment of them.

    They seemed loyal, and obedient, and none had ever run away. There were

    some dissenters, a couple of troublesome young men on the plantation, but

    James put this down to intemperate youth, and a few stinging lashes from

    the foreman's whip soon brought them to heel.

    Still, the practice troubled him, although less and less as the numbers

    of those he owned grew larger, and he knew them less well, and was less

    involved in their lives. He calmed his conscience by telling himself that

    slavery was best for these people, who were illiterate and not able to

    survive in the white man's world, but most of the time he tried to avoid

    thinking about slavery, or freedom, as an issue.

    Cap'n Jack was the living proof that he had compromised some of his

    ideals, and that made him angry. He discussed the problem with

    Washington, when his brother passed through

    BLOODLINES 89

Nashville on his way home to Ireland, for a visit to the old country.

    Washington had no problem with slavery. He owned a number of slaves in

    Natchez, who operated his fleet of barges between that city and New

    Orleans. A natural leader of men, a natural authority figure, but with

    chann and good humor, Washington kept his slaves well disciplined, but

    although he tolerated harsh punishment, he enjoyed finding less extreme

    ways of solving problems.

"Don't get mad," he told James with a laugh. "Get Irish."

James got Irish. He called Cap'n Jack to his study one night, ordered him

to sit, and produced a bottle of good whiskey. He poured drinks for both

of them, and asked Cap'n Jack to explain his problem.

    Cap'n Jack couldn't believe this was happening.. Slaves were discouraged

    from drinking liquor-often it was forbidden to them-and no one, not even

    his first, much-loved Massa, had ever asked him what he felt. What he

    thought, yes, but never what he felt.

    Sullen at first, he sipped on the whiskey, and felt the fire race through

    him. He didn't know how to say all the things that raged in his heart,

    but the liquor released his tongue.

"I ain't free," he blurted out.

    "No, you're not," James agreed calmly. "You're my slave. "

    "An' what gives you the fight to own me?" Cap'n Jack retorted. He was

    astonished at himself. Such audacity would surely get him flogged

    tomorrow, but it was done now. In for a penny, in for a pound. He was

    going to be punished anyway; he might as well make the most of his crime.

    "I don't know," James replied, honestly. "But it is the way of it."

    "Then the way is wrong," Cap'n Jack insisted. He gulped on his whiskey