Queen (78 page)

prospects. Although she believed in the idea of confederation, she had no

faith in Jefferson Davis as their leader. She had met him several times

when James was alive and active in politics, and was astonished when he

was chosen as their president. The Confederacy needed a visionary general,

not a pedantic schoolmaster. An intelligent and erudite man, Davis had an

unpredictable temper, and was given to prolonged bouts of melancholy.

Sally had known many powerful men, with Andrew Jackson, whatever his

faults, as the greatest, and could not see in Jefferson Davis the dynamic

aura of natural leadership. Whatever his political skills, he had no

charisma, and in a moment of absolute panic, Sally saw the unraveling of

the complex tapestry that had so recently been woven. Unlike Lincoln,

Jefferson had no popular mandate and few skills of oratory, and she could

not imagine anyone following him to death or glory. The South was bound

together by a single idea and a single issue, slavery, and for that moment

of panic she could not imagine that the idea itself was strong enough to

bind them through the prospective crisis. The Union had been based on a

single idea and a single issue, but

    QUEEN 473

that idea was freedom. Was slavery as powerful an ideal?

    Still, she had no choice but patriotism and cast aside her doubts.

    Provided Lincoln did nothing rash, and the South nothing to provoke him

    beyond its simple existence, they might prevail.

    In March, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president of the United

    States of America.

And still there was no war.

    In April, Lizzie gave birth to a son, who was christened James, after his

    father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

    Transcendent emotions flooded Jass as he held his new son for the first

    time. A new boy for a new country. It seemed so fit and proper, and Jass,

    who had never been unusually religious, was moved to an extraordinary awe

    of God, his creator. He fell to his knees, prayed for a peaceful life for

    his new son, and made a most sacred, solemn oath to defend the boy's

    patrimony with every drop of blood in his body.

On the same day, the Confederate States demanded the surrender of Fort

Sumter, and when the Federal commanding officer, Major Anderson, declined,

Southern bombardment of the island began. Anderson surrendered two days

later, and two days after that, Lincoln declared a blockade of Southern

ports and called for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months.

The immediate Southern reaction was simple indignation. If Lincoln thought

he could whip the South in only three months, he had better think again,

they told each other.

    Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded from the Union,

    a rampaging mob attacked Union troops in Baltimore, there was a stirring

    parade by the Alabama Dragoons through the streets of Florence, and Jass

    enlisted as a private in the 4th Alabama Regiment.

    He looked very fine in his uniform of simple gray, uncluttered by

    decoration. He had not discussed his intention to enlist with any of his

    family, but had gone with Henderson to a meeting at the Wesleyan, Hall

    in Florence. He heard the speeches and watched the fellows enlist, and

    the ladies present gave them little Confederate flags as they did so.

    Jass knew he had no choice. He could easily have avoided military ser-

    vice, for he owned more than twenty slaves and was, by de-

    474 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

cree, exempt. He could as easily have formed his own regiment-he had the

financial means to do so-and ridden off to glory as their colonel. He could

easily have deferred any decision until the course of the war was known.

    But not to fight was the coward's way. Jass believed in his cause, and his

    sons, William and James, gave quickening momentum to his ideals. He had

    heard the cries that it was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight, for

    the slave-owning rich were a small minority in the South, and to give the

    lie to that, he resisted a commission. He enlisted as the common man

    enlisted, and would fight beside the common man, for the common cause.

    Lizzie fainted when he told her, and on recovering, screamed her distress,

    but Sally's heart filled with love for her son, and pride that he had so

    stalwartly heard the call.

    Her heart was overflowing again now as he stood before them to say his

    good-byes.

    It was a perfect April, a day he would dream of in the dark nights to come.

    The family was gathered on the veranda, slaves watching from a distance.

Henderson was near the magnolia tree saying good-bye to his wife. They had

debated his enlistment several days before it happened, but briefly, because

Letitia was in favor of it. She was proud of the man she had married, a good

honest laborer, and believed it was his God-given duty to fight for his

country. She didn't love him as Jass loved Easter, or even as Lizzie loved

Jass, but she was fond of him, cared for him, and while she would miss him,

she doubted that any real harm would come to him. The war would not last

long, a few months at most, and it would be almost two months before he came

within sight of a Yankee army. And even if he was hurt, or killed, she would

have reason for pride in him. She had been happy with him for the few short

months of their marriage, but it was the fact of her marriage that was most

dear to her. Life as a widow was infinitely preferable to life as a

spinster, which had seemed to be her fate but a few months before.

    Henderson, on the other hand, was excited at the prospect of a few battles,

    and bloodying some Yankee noses, for he was bored with his life as an

    overseer. It was the same thing,

    QUEEN 475

day in, day out; the only challenge was the weather, which no one could

predict, and keeping the niggers in line, which wasn't hard when he held

the whip. Married life had been interesting for a few weeks, but Letitia

was a stem taskmaster, always on his back about something or other. She

had less patience with niggers than he did, and was forever urging him to

flog them more, which made life difficult because he remembered and

respected Mitchell's advice to him-it had served him well. Letitia kept

a good house, and was obliging in the cot, but he had started to miss his

freedom.

    He went to see Mitchell, who agreed he should enlist, and agreed to visit

    The Forks from time to time to check that things were running smoothly.

    They found a young man, Tom Parsons, to fill in as temporary overseer,

    and when Henderson went with Jass to the Wesleyan Hall, he had already

    decided to join up. He waited till Jass took the plunge first, for Hen-

    derson thought it was sensible that the two of them be in the same

    regiment. Jass Jackson was his bread and butter, and he'd be able to keep

    his eye on the Massa, who wasn't, in Henderson's opinion, cut out to be

    a soldier. He was surprised, and a little disappointed, that Jass went

    in as a private. If he'd been an officer, Henderson could have been his

    sergeant, but there was never any point in telling Jass when he had his

    mind made up, so Henderson had accepted his fate and followed his Massa.

    Now, standing under the vast magnolia, he kissed Letitia politely, said

    all the right things, he hoped, mounted his horse, and waited to follow

    the Massa again.

Jass shook William's hand. The boy had been excited at seeing his father

in a soldier's uniform, but now fear assailed him and he was close to

tears. His training stood him in good stead, and he didn't cry, but hugged

his father hard. Jass kissed Mary, and said good-bye to the little ones,

then moved to his mother.

    Neither said anything for a moment, and both smiled a little, but without

    joy.

" I hate to see you go," Sally said.

    "I hate to have to go," Jass told her, although it was not entirely true.

476 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    Sally embraced him. "Be brave," she whispered. "Do your duty." She didn't

    want him to go and she didn't want him to die, but he had to go, and she

    put her faith in God that he would not die. She knew that she would have to

    say good-bye to all her sons, for all had enlisted, and it was probable

    that one of them, at least, would be wounded, or worse. But a man was

    either brave or he was a coward, and it had comforted her during the last

    dark days before Jass's departure to know that all her sons were brave.

    Jass held her close for a moment, and the truth of his circumstances hit

    him hard. He longed for war, he longed to prove himself in battle, he felt

    he had wasted too many years of his life, an idle, rich man's son, and now

    he had the opportunity to be the man he had always promised himself he

    would be. But he had to face the truth of it. It was war, and he might die.

    The smell of his mother caressed him, the smell he had known all his life,

    from before his memory of it. This is what he wanted to take with him; this

    is what he wanted to remember of home, the loving embrace of his mother.

    He had another memory to take with him, but it was not of home. It was of

    the woman he cherished and to whom he had never been a failure. It was the

    memory of Easter, plump and full now but as exciting to him as she had

    always been. He had spent some of the previous night with her, after Lizzie

    was asleep, and when dawn came he told her something that was important to

    him.

    "If anything should happen to me," he whispered, "always know that I will

    have loved you until the moment of my dying. "

    He knew that she understood, because she hadn't wept, as Lizzie had been

    weeping for days, but had held him to her, and had hummed a lullaby from

    some place deep inside her soul, just as she had on their very first night

    together, and he had drifted to sleep in her arms, knowing that he was

    loved.

    Easter was standing with Queen, at the end of the veranda, watching him say

    good-bye. Jass moved reluctantly from his mother to Lizzie, whose face was

    blotchy with tears.

    "This is it, my dear," he said, for want of anything better to say. He

    wished he could think of some intimate truth to give her in farewell, but

    he could not say to her what he had said to Easter, because it was not

    true.

    QUEEN 477

Lizzie was distraught. "I can't bear it," she cried.

    "I'll come home safe, I promise," he said. Suddenly, he grabbed her, held

    her to him, kissed her hard, and forced his tongue into her mouth. For

    suddenly he hated himself. The memory of his farewell to Easter rang in

    his ears, but she was a nigger, and Lizzie was his wife, mother of his

    children. It was Lizzie he was ready to die for, to protect.

    "I love you," he whispered harshly, when his mouth was free. But Lizzie

    would not let him go. She hung on to him for dear life.

"Don't go," she screamed. "You don't have to go!"

    Letitia Henderson clucked in disapproval, and glanced slyly at her

    husband. She thought Mrs. Jackson would have had a greater sense of

    proper behavior.

    Jass tried to pull himself away from Lizzie, but she clutched at him,

    tried to drag him back, screaming at him.

    Sally moved to help, but Lizzie was a frantic woman, and Sally too frail.

    None of the other slaves dared touch their hysterical mistress, and so

    Jass had to do the unthinkable.

He called to Easter and Queen.

They did what had to be done, and pulled Lizzie from him.

    "Go now, Massa, quick," Queen said, when he was free. Lizzie was sobbing

    desperately, in Easter's arms, but still Jass couldn't go. There was one

    more thing to do.

    They looked so frail, so helpless: his old mother, his weeping wife, and

    his little children. Even William, trying so hard to act like a man, was

    obviously only a boy. Someone had to take care of them.

"Look after them, Queen," Jass begged. "They need you."

    It was a sublime moment for Queen. The Massa, her father, had given her

    charge of his family. It was a sacred trust.

"Yes, Massa," she promised. "Good luck."

    Family matters done, he was anxious to be away. He walked quickly to his

    horse and mounted, and together he and Henderson galloped away down the

    drive.

Queen ran to the edge of the lawn, to wave farewell. Easter had given

Lizzie to Sally's care and now walked slowly to join her daughter. They

stood together and watched Jass go.

Queen looked at Easter, with the question that was always

478 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

in her eyes. She had asked her mother outright, only a few days ago, when

Jass first enlisted. Seeing him dressed like a soldier had frightened Queen;