Queen (22 page)

    Tired of the war, the British amassed an army of ten thousand veterans,

    who had served under Wellington against Napoleon, and prepared an

    invasion of America on two fronts. One army, under Sir Alexander

    Cochrane, took Maine and declared it part of New Brunswick. He seized

    Nantucket and made a foray into Long Island Sound. New England demanded

    Washington make peace and threatened secession from the Union.

    Another British army, with Jamaica as its base, was to attack New

    Orleans.

    Andrew had a spy in Florida, where some British units were inciting the

    Seminole to revolt, and got wind of the invasion plans. He implored the

    government to send him south, but Madison, perhaps because the peace

    negotiators in Belgium were close to an agreement, delayed his response.

    So Andrew acted on his own accord, with only the blessing of Governor

    Blount of Tennessee. He was now the military commander for the Southwest,

    so he took his troops to New Orleans, declared martial law, engaged every

    able-bodied man he could find, and waited for the British.

    He needed money for the venture, and James, once again, was only too

    happy to oblige. This time he would be repaid, not in cash out of

    Andrew's pocket or the federal treasury, but in something far more

    valuable than money.

    Andrew had succeeded in having John Coffee appointed as a surveyor to map

    the new territories acquired from the Creek, and Coffee's boundaries

    erred on the other side of caution. Once the survey was complete and

    Andrew had returned from New Orleans, a company was to be formed, the

    Cypress Development Company, with Coffee and other friends as its prin-

    cipals, and James as secretary, to promote and develop vast acreages of

    this new land. To the surprise of everyone except James, Andrew, who was

    a prime mover of the enterprise, took only a few modest shares in the

    company. James guessed that it was because of his political ambitions.

    Andrew did not want

128 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

his reputation to be sullied with the taint of speculation.

    The British landed near New Orleans, but Andrew did not wait to be

    attacked. He sent a small army into the British lines, under cover of

    night, and produced chaos and confusion. When the British reorganized

    themselves to attack, Andrew had completed his defenses. The British

    forces, unused to the swampy land and unprepared for Andrew's

    unconventional tactics, were routed.

    The battle of New Orleans was fought and won by Andrew at the beginning

    of January. Unknown to him, or to any of the participants, the

    negotiators in Ghent had signed a peace treaty between Britain and the

    United States the previous Christmas Eve, two weeks earlier, but the news

    had not yet reached America.

    Nor did the Americans care. Andrew was hailed as the greatest general

    since Washington, the one true, unsullied victor in a useless war, even

    if the war was officially over when the battle was won. The country went

    wild for him, and he was proclaimed a hero. At a convention in Hartford,

    the New Englanders had agreed on an ultimatum that unless there was peace

    they would secede, but tore up the paper on the news of the victory and

    the subsequent news of the peace.

    There was nothing his country would not grant him. All Andrew had to do

    was ask.

    James, jubilant, assumed Andrew would run for president, and undoubtedly

    be elected. He had visions of himself as a powerful figure behind

    Andrew's throne, but the hero disappointed him. He was not ready for

    elective office yet; he enjoyed being a general far more, and there was

    work to be done.

Because Andrew wanted Florida.

    It had been Andrew's ambition from the beginning. Florida had been held

    by the Spanish until Napoleon defeated them, and then the western section

    of it, which bordered the Gulf of Mexico, was annexed as a territory by

    the United States. The peninsula itself, still governed by Spain, was a

    wild and lawless land, peopled by pirates and hardy settlers, runaway

    slaves from Georgia and South Carolina, buccaneers, mercenaries, and

    criminals of all classes. During the war, the British had successfully

    incited some of the locals to revolt, and now the native Seminole

    Indians, together with some Creek who had

    BLOODLINES 129

fled Alabama, took up arms. Andrew believed that the South was not safe

until Florida had been brought to heel. He offered his services to the new

president, James Monroe, and marched to Pensacola, leaving his affairs in

the good hands of his friend James Jackson.

Who didn't know what to do with the rest of his life.

James had settled into a comfortable routine. Partly because of his

financial success and his industrious relatives, and partly because of his

friendship with Andrew, he was one of the most prominent citizens in

Nashville. He and some others had founded the Arst Academy for Females,

he was on several boards and committees, and he had political ambitions,

but he was bored. His personal life was full and happy, although there was

a small tragedy when Jimmy Hanna, Sara's husband, died of a fever, and

Uncle Henry had passed away, but otherwise Sally and the children, Eleanor

and Tom and their family, and Sara and hers flourished.

    He had achieved so much, and yet none of it was original, none of it was

    unique to him. Even his plantation had been created by someone else;

    James had simply acquired it in one of his land deals.

    He had outgrown Nashville, which once had seemed so perfect to him.

    He wanted to do something grand and extravagant, like Andrew, but he knew

    he was not suited for military endeavors. At the urging of John Coffee,

    he went to inspect the land in northern Alabama that had been acquired

    in the Creek war, and fell in love with the wonderful, empty country.

    A vision came to him, of a great estate that he would create, a vast

    cotton plantation that would be one of the finest in the country, and he

    would be a pioneer in this new territory, one of the first white settlers

    on the land so newly acquired, and one of its leading citizens.

    He took Sally on a trip to inspect the new territory, and she shared his

    enthusiasm. She knew he was bored, knew he needed some new challenge, and

    the prospect of building a home to their exact requirements intrigued

    her. She also remembered her early dreams with her first husband, of

    moving to the wilderness, and creating a sylvan idyll, and there was

130 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

enough of the girl in her and enough of the pioneer to want that still.

    Acquiring the land was easy. The Cypress Development Company struck a

    dcal with the government to exploit the area. Prior to Andrew's departure

    for Florida, the dining room at the Hermitage became a new boardroom, of

    peace not of war, and one in which James was a welcome participant. In

    long and cheerful sessions that went on till well past midnight, often

    fueled by liquor, they envisioned the development of northern Alabama.

    The lots would be decided according to John Coffee's survey. County

    boundaries were established. A new town would be laid out. It was to be

    called Florence, after the city in Tuscany, and architects and town

    planners were to be brought from Europe. It would be the finest city in

    the South, a cultural center and capital of a new Eden that would be

    peopled by those most honest and industrious of souls, the simple

    farmers, backbone of America.

    These were heady and exciting days for James, who, as secretary of the

    development company and Andrew's associate, was at the very center of the

    activity. He threw all his energy into the enterprise, and yet did not

    forget himself.

He had a surprising visit from someone he had not seen in several years.

Jimmy Doublehead, son of the chief, was living on a Chickasaw reservation

to the south of Nashville, near Huntsville, and heard that James was

involved in the new company. He came to see James to ask a favor. He

wanted him to buy a particular piece of land.

    They rode together to the place Jimmy had in mind, and when James saw it,

    his heart skipped a beat. A few miles south of where the new town of

    Florence would be, at a confluence of two rivers whose banks were lined

    with untidy cypresses, the land was rolling and gentle, ideal for cotton.

    Some small distance from the river there was a hill, and it was this hill

    that interested Jimmy.

    "It is a holy place, sacred to my people," he told James. "It is a place

    of the old ones."

    In the Indian mythology, the spirit of a warrior did not die with his

    body, but simply moved to a higher plane, and was available to the living

    for advice and counsel. Once a year,

    BLOODLINES 131

old Chief Doublehead had called the other Cherokee chiefs to this place,

and they had listened to the guidance of the old ones.

    James was deeply moved by the land and its significance, and felt humble.

    "Why have you come to me, Jimmy?" he asked the young man.

    "Because you were his friend, and you were kind to our people," Jimmy

    said. "You will preserve his memory."

    James spent the afternoon exploring the land, and told Jimmy he would buy

    it, no matter what the cost. Already he could see a mansion rising on the

    sacred hill, but he was determined to do as Jimmy asked, and preserve

    Doublehead's memory.

    "I will put a wigwam here," he said, pointing to an open space at the

    edge of the little hill. "And it will be available to a family of your

    tribe for all time, so that they may be near the old ones."

    Jimmy said nothing, but bowed his head, in what James thought was

    gratitude. He could not know the despair that Jimmy, and all the Indians,

    were experiencing at this loss of their land. What Jimmy had done was

    pragmatic, but not his most desired solution.

The deal for the land was simple. The Cypress Development Company

guaranteed to develop a minimum number of acres, and the government would

receive two dollars an acre regardless of whether the land was sold or

not. Whatever else was bid would be profit to the developers.

    The auction was a circus. The first five thousand acres sold at an

    average of forty-five dollars an acre. The end of the war and the

    resolution of the old arguments with Britain, the swarming tide of

    immigrants from Ireland and Europe, and the availability of the new land

    opened the floodgates to settlements, and buyers flocked to the sales.

    The past president, James Madison, came with President Monroe. A

    potential presidential candidate came when Andrew Jackson made a special

    trip from Florida to bid for a lot. Out of respect for his service to the

    country, no one bid against him. The only land that was sold at the

    government minimum was sold to Andrew.

132 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    The gentry from five states came. Farmers from major, medium, and small

    land holdings came. Newcomers bought their first lots. Poor whites bid

    for a few scrubby acres to get a start in life. River frontage and the

    town sites fetched the highest prices, eighty-five dollars an acre.

    Church sites were purchased by Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and

    Roman Catholics.

    The directors of the Cypress Development Company bought land for personal

    use or for private resale. Apart from the site of his plantation, James

    bought twelve lots for himself, and another three in partnership with

    John Coffee.

    By the end of the four-day sale, James was rich beyond his wildest

    imaginings.

On the afternoon of the last day, he drove Sally to the place that was to

be their new home, and she loved it as much as he. Together they chose a

name. It would be called The Forks of Cypress, for it lay where the two

rivers, the Big Cypress and the Little Cypress, joined. He told her of its

holy significance, and that he believed the land was blessed.

    It was a magic time, a cool, crisp day, and the winter sun lay low on the

    horizon. Sally wandered away to inspect the property, and James was on

    his own for a few minutes.

He stared at the land. His land.

"You will never amount to anything."

    His father's final words to him rang in his ears, and he laughed out

    loud, for he had proved them so wrong. He shivered at the awesome

    achievement, and thought it was the cold, but then he saw a small group

    of Indians standing on the path at the bottom of the hill, staring at

    him.

    They did wothing and saidnothing. They simply stared at him, or at the