Queen (77 page)

    quently hired out to others, and their Massa paid for their services, so

    Parson Dick made the short journey to the Coffee plantation on the other

    side of Florence with his warrant of travel in his pocket, and quickly

    took charge of the household. As he was serving port one evening, a guest

    commented on the excellence of his manners. Massa Coffee laughed, and

    said he hoped so, the damned nigger was costing enough. Then Parson Dick

    found out that Jass was receiving forty dollars for his hire, with not

    one cent of it going to the slave.

    QUEEN 467

    Expert at simple arithmetic, Parson Dick multiplied forty dollars a week

    by fifty-two, and realized that if the money had come to him he would be

    earning over two thousand dollars a year. Parson Dick was stunned. He

    knew he had value as a slave-on the block he would have fetched a

    splendid sum, perhaps as much as three thousand-but that was a once only

    figure, and this new sum represented a regular income. Like every slave,

    he longed to be free, longed to be paid for his labor, but because the

    dream of freedom was so elusive, he had never bothered to work out what

    he might earn when that glorious day came.

    Two thousand dollars a year! It was a phenomenal sum, and it infuriated

    him that Jass was receiving that money and not he. Later that night he

    sat in the kitchen with Ruby, the Coffee housekeeper, with whom he had

    struck, up an immediate friendship, and poured out his grievances to her.

    Ruby was completely sympathetic, completely understanding, completely

    supportive, and even more bitter about her circumstances than Parson

    Dick. She had been owned for many years by a Massa in Georgia, had nursed

    him through his ailing final days, and on his deathbed, he had promised

    her freedom. Once the old man had gone, his surviving relatives saw no

    need or reason to honor the pledge, and had sold Ruby to her present

    owners.

    Fueled by Parson Dick's indignation, she worked out what her weekly value

    might be, and the pair realized that, jointly, they would bring in over

    three thousand a year. If they were free. The figures shocked them.

    They also realized that they wanted to be together, to be a pair, to be

    married, but they had no way of achieving it or, if they did marry, of

    living under a common roof, for they had separate Massas and lived on

    different plantations. It was remotely possible that if they told their

    Massas of their love, then the Coffees might trade their butler for

    Parson Dick, or the Jacksons swap their housekeeper, Pattie, for Ruby,

    but it was unlikely. It was too complicated. Slaves chose their partners

    from other slaves on their own plantation, not from the world at large.

    And neither Parson Dick nor Ruby wanted to be wed in slavery. The life

    they envisioned together in the Coffee kitchen was as a working pair,

    living in freedom, earn-

    468 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

ing their joint income. Much as they adored each other's company for the

short week they were together, the driving force for both of them was

their innate fury at their status. Desperate overachievers, they lived in

the ill-founded hope that excellence at their jobs would earn them their

freedom. They preferred to maintain that fury, and that hope, by being

forced to live apart when they were so blatantly intended for each other.

    If they were free, they promised each other, it would be different. And

    they would be free, one day.

    They sustained a curious relationship by sending occasional messages to

    each other by way of other slaves. When the seed merchant made his rounds

    of the plantations, his boy would bring messages of affection from Ruby

    to Parson Dick, and the draper's assistant would return the sweet

    nothings when he joumeyed, by a rambling route, from The Forks to the

    Coffees.

    The excitement surrounding the election of Lincoln had persuaded Parson

    Dick that freedom for the slaves might become a reality, and so the lack

    of any action by the Yankees against the state of South Carolina was an

    especially bitter blow for him.

    "Never going to happen," he told Cap'n Jack, slurring his words through

    a small pond of brandy. "We ain't never going to be free. "

    Cap'n Jack agreed with him, and they both got even drunker, and swore

    eternal friendship. Then both were sick, and passed out, and had foul

    heads the next morning.

In the big house, New Year's Eve was an even happier celebration than

Chfistmas. Jass and Lizzie gave a party for friends and family, and even

though Lizzie was still distressed by her mother's death, she had come to

terms with it, and was, again, a splendid hostess. William, George, and

Alexander came with their wives and new families, and Elizabeth and Tom,

with their hordes of children. Sam Kirkman, their eldest son, was with

them, and Elizabeth his wife, and Elizabeth his baby daughter. Sam had

graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard, and was now practicing medicine.

Jass joked that if there was a war, Sawbones Sam would be in his element,

but everyone laughed, because nobody believed anymore that there was going

to be a war.

    QUEEN 469

    Queen was allowed to watch the dancing from the hallway, but when the

    clock struck midnight she was alone.

    They sang "Auld Lang Sync," and then Jass raised his glass in a toast.

    "To the South," he cried, and most of them raised their glasses.

    "To the Union," Sam Kirkman said softly in the silence while they drank.

    No one cheered, no one drank with him, and it soured the party atmosphere

    for a while. But Lizzie was too good a hostess to let a little thing like

    politics, and an argument between close relations, ruin everyone else's

    fun. She organized music and dancing and distracted the children with

    silly games.

    Sam's quiet affirmation of loyalty to his country depressed Jass. He

    watched the games with Lizzie for a while, and kissed away the few tears

    she shed because Becky was not with them to celebrate. Becky had always

    loved parties, as did Jass, but now he was a different man, and Sam had

    killed his appetite for celebration. He wandered away from the group, and

    tried to avoid his nephew.

    He saw Queen sitting alone on the stairs watching the fun. Since it was

    such a special occasion, he took a glass of champagne to her, and sat on

    the stairs with her for a while, chatting about the evening, and wished

    her Happy New Year.

    Queen had never tasted champagne before, nor any alcohol, and even though

    it was only a small glass, just two or three sips, she loved the sweet,

    sparkling drink, and the bubbly effect it had on her. It made her want

    to dance, and her body swayed in time to the party music. Jass saw what

    was happening and smiled. He stood and offered her his hand, asked her

    if she would like to dance.

    Queen could not believe her cars. This must be what Jane called being

    drunk, for it was unreal to her and wonderful. She sat staring at her

    adored father until he smiled again, and repeated his request. Believing

    him now, Queen accepted his offered hand. Jass led her to the center of

    the hallway, and to the distant music they could hear from the ballroom,

    he danced with her. They were alone, the two of them, in the vast, empty

    hall, the portraits of their ancestors staring down at them.

It was the happiest night of Queen's life.

55

The Southern celebrations continued well into the New Year. Not even the

seizing of United States arsenals provoked a reaction from Washington.

There was a small hiccup in early January when someone burst into the

tavern in Florence, where Jass was drinking with friends, to tell them

that President Buchanan was sending a warship to reinforce the federal

garrison at Fort Sumter, a small island in the middle of Charleston

Harbor. They all raced from the tavern to the telegraph office, where the

news was confirmed. There was general astonishment that it was the

passive, lame-duck Buchanan who had taken this aggressive action, and a

general, sobering realization that there were many federal army forts

throughout the South. If there was to be war, the North had a natural

advantage. A few men immediately enlisted in militia units, for there was

no Southern army yet, while the others champed at the bit for news, and

insisted that Alabama should show her solidarity with the sister state.

    Jass, wanting to be close to the source of news, the telegraph office,

    slept at the hotel for the next few nights, to the distress of both

    Lizzie and Sally, who felt he should be at home with them. For the

    following week, the South held its breath. Six days day later, they heard

    that the ship carrying the reinforcements, the Star of the West, had

    turned about under fire from Charleston shore batteries, and jubilation

    returned. The independence of South Carolina had been challenged, the

    rebellious state had won, and on the same day Mississippi withdrew from

    the Union.

    "The Yankees," Alec Henderson told Letitia, "are all piss and wind." Mrs.

    Henderson clucked at the language, but forgave her husband because these

    were stirring times, and she agreed with him. Still, she determined to

    try to curb his potty mouth when order was restored to the land.

    470

    QUEEN 471

    Momentous news now reached them with dizzying speed. Almost every day,

    it seemed, another state seceded. Florida, and then, to considerable

    rejoicing in the streets of Florence, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and

    Texas were the next to leave.

    When the telegraph officer rushed out to tell the assembled multitude

    that Kansas had been admitted into the Union as a slave-free state, he

    was jeered and pelted with mud and small rocks. He got a cut over his

    eye, but took it in good part. It was only sport, the boys were in high

    spirits, and who needed Kansas?

    Delegates from the seceding states were to meet in Montgomery, Alabama,

    to form a new provisional government. Jass had no official role, but was

    set upon a political career and had many friends of influence, so he

    decided to attend, if only as a spectator. Lizzie and Sally were inclined

    to argue with him, but Jass lost his temper. They were all perfectly safe

    at The Forks, he assured his women; no harm could come to them. The North

    was not going to do anything to hinder the rebellion; they were having

    a peace convention in Washington, for heaven's sake. And even if some

    retaliation did eventuate, at some later time, Florence was a very long

    way from the center of any possible action.

    "What if the baby comes?" Lizzie asked him, crying softly, but even the

    prospect of a new child, another son perhaps, did not deter Jass.

    "You've had babies before, and it isn't quite due yet," he whispered to

    Lizzie. "I'll only be gone for a couple of weeks. "

Thus Jass went to Montgomery, and was present at the creation of a new

country. The name chosen for that new country was the Confederate States

of America, and Jass was profoundly moved. This was how it should be, he

thought; this was how it should have been all along, for the very name

itself represented what he believed America to be. A confederation, a

group of sovereign states banded together in a common cause, not a

federation, which implied surrender of power to a central authority. When

Jefferson Davis was presented to them as president, the bands played what

was to become their

472 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

anthem, and Jass sang "Dixie" as loudly and lustily as anyone there.

    He rode back to The Forks with a full heart. Now that the deed was done,

    it was as if a festering boil had been lanced. He was filled with a sense

    of peace and purpose. He attended his family with care and affection, and

    went about his business with an unaccustomed vigor, for now the new

    country had to be made to prosper.

    It didn't matter that the new country had no treasury, Jass, like many

    others, invested heavily in Confederate bonds, believing them to be

    gilt-edged. They had cotton and powerful allies, for Great Britain had

    to protect the supply of that cotton to its mills in Manchester. Even if

    the North was initially belligerent to the South, it was unlikely to take

    on John Bull, and must eventually accept the fact of the new Confederacy.

    The two nations of America would live in harmony and prosperity, and the

    Jackson fortune would become greater than ever before.

But what was a country without a king? Sally was less sanguine about their