Queen (29 page)

    most formidable foe to prove that he could win. After the battle he would

    be in a state of high sexual arousal, flooded by the lifeforce, and then

    he would force himself on whatever woman was available to him-white

    trash, Indian, or nigra, it made no difference to him. If no women were

    available, he would relieve himself with his hand.

    Like his commanders, he had an unshakable faith in the divinely ordained

    destiny of the white man to rule this land. He respected Indians as

    fierce warriors, and loathed their despoiling presence on what should be

    his. He could not understand why his father had to make do with a few

    scrubby acres, when these naked heathens had limitless vistas. It was his

    per-

    170 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

sonal quest to wrest the land from the natives and give it to his family.

    He saved his pay and kept his vow. Because of the land sales around

    Florence, the price of land near Nashville dropped to an affordable price,

    and he bought five fair acres. He built a log cabin with his own hands, and

    moved his parents down from the mountains. They managed a good life for

    themselves, but the farm could not support him as well, so John Coffee

    found him a job as assistant overseer on a small plantation in Georgia,

    Before long he had the top job.

    He ran the plantation as a military command, with military discipline, and

    while the slaves hated him, they dared not disobey him. To add some spice

    to what might have become tedious, he took to baiting the strongest and

    angriest of the hands, to try to provoke them to run away, or to rebel

    against him. He respected strong niggers for their strength, while he

    despised them for the color of their skin. Keeping weaklings and women in

    line was no challenge to him; testing himself against strong men was the

    true measure of his masculinity.

    Still, he missed his family, and when John Coffee contacted him with a

    possible job closer to home, he took the first opportunity he could to call

    on his old brigadier. He came with Coffee to Cap'n Jack's wedding at The

    Forks of Cypress, and was appalled by what he saw. He believed what his

    parents had taught him, that the blacks were an inferior race of animals,

    who had been put on earth by God to serve the whites. He had no patience

    toward those Massas who were lenient with their slaves, and would

    cheerfully have murdered an abolitionist if he ever met one. The fact that

    James was treating niggers benevolently was abhorrent to him, and he agreed

    with Coffee that James needed some spine. He saw it as his good Christian

    duty to bring order to the chaos that was The Forks of Cypress.

    He employed an assistant, his brother Albert, who shared his views on

    slavery, and the two of them instituted a rigorous discipline at The Forks.

    The lash was used as and when Harris or his brother saw fit, which was

    often, troublesome slaves were chained up at night, and slave catchers

    roamed the boundaries with guns and bloodhounds.

James protested at Harris's severity and the cost of the man- BLOODLINES 171

power, but Harris assured him he needed six months to bring the niggers

to heel, and then his iron grip would relax. James, distracted by

political affairs, agreed.

    Yet Harris was clever. He understood James's passion for his blooded

    horses, and that the men who ran the stables were handpicked. He put a

    slave catcher near them, just in case of trouble, but otherwise he left

    them alone. He was a keen gambling man himself, and actually admired

    those stable slaves, such as Monkey Simon, or Micah and Ephraim, who knew

    their job and were content with the world of horses. The field hands were

    Harris's prime concern, and while he resented the ascendancy of the house

    niggers, he left them, for the most part, alone.

Except for Annie.

    Black women, nigra women, had a powerful effect on Egbert Harris. He

    fantasized about them, and in his erotic dreams saw himself as a prize

    stallion subduing bucking black mares. He hated them for the sexual hold

    they had over him, but he could hardly restrain himself from taking them,

    by force preferably, for rape proved him to be the ultimate victor.

    He controlled his urges most of the time, and most of the women did not

    interest him-the old, or the fat, or the young girls-but Annie was none

    of these things. Annie was a challenge. Annie, beautiful and with a full,

    rounded body, became the object of Harris's most urgent desires. It

    didn't matter to him that she was the mother of a young child; it didn't

    matter to him that she was married; he wanted her, and hated her for

    making him want her.

Annie was completely aware of Harris's sexual interest in her, for she had

seen it too often, in too many other men, and was just as aware of his

hostility to her. Harris ffightened Annie. She doubted he would attempt

anything because of her marriage to Cap'n Jack, but she did not trust him,

and made some special chants to protect her house and her family from him.

    Her greatest concern was not for herself, or even for her husband,

    because he lay under the wing of the Massa's protection, but for her

    baby, Easter.

    Easter was gorgeous, a chubby, happy infant with a constant, gurgling

    laugh. Everyone loved her, but, apart from her parents, none more so than

    Jass.

172 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    The toddler Jass lived in an odd world. He was adored by his family, and

    Tiara, his mammy, but he was the second son, and A.J. had pride of place in

    everyone's affections. His mother tried to spend as much time with Jass as

    she could, but she was a busy woman, with a household to run and a family

    to raise. His father was usually closeted in his study and Jass seldom saw

    him. So Jass, who had the run of the plantation, attached himself to Cap'n

    Jack, and, through him, Easter.

    Jass loved the baby Easter. When she was very little, Annie would put her

    outside on a blanket and Jass would sit near her; playing in the dirt and

    burbling to Easter as if she understood every word he said, when few people

    yet understood him. As they grew, he would point things out to her, or

    brush flies from her, and give her pieces of his apple, which Easter was

    too young to eat. Sometimes Tiara would put him down for his nap in the

    same cot as Easter, and then Jass snuggled up to the baby girl, and told

    her he loved her more than anything. If he was taken away from her to go

    back to the big house, he would cry his distress, and sometimes threw a

    temper tantrum. Since he seemed so happy with the girl, they left him with

    her often, or with Cap'n Jack, who would walk with Jass around the garden,

    and play with him, as fathers play with sons. It was Cap'n Jack who spanked

    him if he was naughty, and Cap'n Jack who gave candies when he was good.

    Jass knew that Easter was Cap'n Jack's little girl, and because he regarded

    Cap'n Jack as some sort of uncle, or even as a father, Easter became his

    sister.

    In the ugly months of Harris's rule, Jass and Easter seemed to be the only

    ones who were oblivious to the general despondency.

    Annie saw Harris watching them sometimes, and watching Easter when Jass was

    not there, and worried for her daughter. She knew, they all did, of

    children sold away from their slave mothers, and she distrusted Harris so

    violently she thought him capable of anything.

    But Harris was not looking at Easter, or Jass. He was looking at Annie.

    She was weaving at the loom one day, and was sure she saw someone outside.

    She went to the window, and then to the door, but could find no one.

    BLOODLINES 173

    It happened again, a few days later, and when she went to the door, she

    saw Harris loitering under one of the oaks, with an ugly smile on his

    face.

    She saw him again when she went to bathe in the creek. It was fall, and

    soon the water would be too cold to swim. She stripped herself naked and

    dove into the clean, fresh, icy water, and swam for a while, but then she

    heard a movement in the bushes, and saw Harris standing on the bank,

    watching her.

    She didn't tell Cap'n Jack because there was nothing he could do. If he

    lost his temper, which he might, and accosted Harris, which he might, or

    complained to Massa, which he might, things could very well get worse.

    She avoided Harris as much as she could, and kept Easter inside the house

    with her, and Jass when he was with them.

    She heard an odd noise one day, a small rattle on the windowpane. She

    thought it must be the wind, or a bird, or something fallen on the roof,

    and ignored it. She heard the rattle again, louder now, and realized that

    someone was throwing small stones at the window, as if to attract her

    attention.

    She went to the door and when she looked out she saw Harris standing

    underneath the trees, some distance away, staring at her. He was rubbing

    his hand over his groin.

    She slammed the door and ran to her baby, and held her fast, and dared

    not let her mind think of what Harris was doing outside.

    It happened again. She tried to ignore the tiny volley of pebbles, but

    crept to the window. Harris was there, under the tree where he always

    stood, so that no one from the slave quarters could see him. He had

    pushed down the front of his trousers, and was caressing his naked self,

    in her full view.

    Annie felt a fear she had not known since she came to The Forks. She

    stared in horror at Harris, almost unable to move. At the moment of his

    self-induced climax, she turned away, and wept. She was terrified by what

    he might do the next time the urge came upon him.

    She told Cap'n Jack that night, late at night, because she couldn't

    sleep, and he knew something was wrong. She wept her distress, and her

    fear. He was not to do anything rash, she insisted, and certainly not

    tell the Massa.

Cap'n Jack held her until her crying was done, and told her

174 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

he would think of something. Eventually Annie, exhausted, fell asleep.

But Cap'n Jack did not sleep. He lay awake for much of the night, churning

with rage at what Annie had told him. He felt as if his wife had been raped.

His first instinct was to attack Harris, but he knew that was stupid. He

would be beaten for it, and nothing would be solved. He then thought of

telling James, but doubted he would be believed. James would ask Harris, and

he would deny it, and things would go on as before. He cursed his slavery,

and cursed himself for being black, and dreamed of what he might do if he

were free. Toward dawn he realized what he could do. It was so simple, he

was surprised he had not thought of it before. He had to get Annie and

Easter away from here, and to do that he, and they, had to be free. He would

ask James to fulfill the promise he had made all those years ago.

He would ask for his freedom.

    Surely James must grant it. Cap'n Jack had worked hard and loyally for so

    long, and what could the Massa want from him? He would bide his time, and

    wait until James seemed to be in a good mood, which wasn't often these

    days, and ask for his freedom. He would take Annie and Easter away, to the

    North, and find a good job, and build a little home for them, and they

    would be happy.

    He fell asleep in contentment, and woke an hour later to the sound of the

    morning call.

Harris, meanwhile, had come to another conclusion. Loathing the power that

Annie had over him, detesting his weak body for its fascination with her,

appalled that he had exposed his need for her, in daylight, in public, he

knew there was only one way to save himself from a violent action toward

Annie that might get him into trouble.

He had to be rid of her.

    21

As it transpired, Cap'n Jack's timing could not possibly have been worse.

    In the November elections, Andrew had won a slight majority of the

    popular vote, but not enough to give him victory in the electoral

    college. According to the Constitution, the matter would now be decided

    in the House of Representatives, state by state. The three contenders

    were Andrew, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford, secretary of the

    treasury.

    The kingmaker would be Henry Clay, who had also run for president but was

    not one of the final three. Clay's votes, and his influence on the

    states, would dramatically affect the outcome.

    James was astonished that Andrew had not won. The people loved him, and

    his supporters had been the most strident and demonstrative. That he had