Throughout this plantation field, folks got sheets knotted on the ends of sticks or thrown over their shoulders like satchels. Inside ’em are needed things — food, clothes, skins of water, and a few tokens, reminders that they are the only survivors of slavery. That said, more than one man’s got nothin; ain’t taking nothin, don’t want nothin, they got all they need — their lives and their freedom.
The preacher say, “As we go from this place, let it not be in fear. The Bible say, God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. We are strong. We’ve endured. And now, God has touched President Lincoln and softened his heart so that he be like Pharaoh and set us free. He’s given power and bravery to the heroes that are carrying out God’s will for our great land. I say to you, don’t be afraid. We go with God to wherever he leads us. He has brought us this far in His love and grace and He will lead us home. Amen?”
Charles say, “Amen.”
The whole crowd say, “Amen.”
The woman in orange yells, “But where we go?”
Preacher leans toward her. “Praise God. . that’s the blessing,” he laughs. “Go where you want. Federal law say you are free. But be cautious. There’s still a war raging, north and south, and there’s safety in numbers. Some of us from the Brown plantation are going north. Others going west.” He opens up to the crowd, say, “Come with us to the lands of milk and honey, away from this place of our captors. Will you come?”
The crowd cheers.
“Make two lines,” Preacher say. “On the right — those going north. The left — those of you who want to go west.”
The crowd rumbles, excited, knocking into each other, going left and right. Charles leans down to Josey. “What you say, Josey? North or west?”
She points.
“West it is,” Charles say, picking her up and pushing his way to the left.
Shots ring over the crowd.
Charles throws hisself over Josey. Other folks duck and scatter. Some clump together. Others lay out on the ground. But Preacher holds his spot on top of that box and let the gunfire come.
Slavedriver Nelson sits on his horse, Maybelle, with his gun in the air, his whip on his side. Twenty or thirty whites are with him. Nelson say to the crowd, “Since when are slaves allowed to gather around like this?”
A black boy yells, “We ain’t slaves no more. We free.”
“Is that right?” Nelson say, and trots out to him. “Where you from, boy?”
“Brown plantation. President Lincoln signed the ’Mancipation Proclamation and free us.” The boy casts his arm out to Nelson. “Here’s the papers.”
“Right,” Nelson say, pushing ’em away. “Maybe they free the niggers of the Brown plantation but niggers from the Graham plantation, the Henderson plantation, and the Reed plantation ain’t going nowhere.”
Preacher say, “You can’t keep ’em here. It’s against the law.”
Nelson prances Maybelle to Preacher, bends down and looks him in his eye. He unbuttons his whip. “Is you presuming to tell me what the law say, boy?”
“Naw, suh,” Preacher say.
“This here’s the Confederate States of America. Lincoln ain’t the law here. This war will prove that.” Nelson trots around to the back of Preacher. “Now then. Take your nigras and you leave here before we punish y’all as runaways.”
Preacher say to the crowd, nervous at first, then loud. “Don’t matter where we leave from. We’ll start our journey from the fields of the Brown plantation. If anyone wants to join us, we’ll be there ’til morning. We are free.”
“You disrespecting me, boy!” Nelson say, pointing his pistol at Preacher now. “I just said they ain’t leaving and you just now invited ’em to come. Did I hear you right, boy?”
Preacher don’t say nothin.
“You couldn’t just shut your black fuckin’ mouth, could you?” Nelson cocks his gun. “You inciting these slaves to run? Is that what you doin?” He knocks Preacher’s hat off with his pistol.
“Naw, suh,” Preacher say.
“Yes. Yes, you wuz.”
One of the white men fires in the air. Its sharp pop sends all the horses in a panic. Maybelle, too. She rears up and throws Nelson. Maybelle comes down hard on one leg, shrieks and collapses, screeching in pitches that ears cain’t endure.
Nelson scurries through the dirt and slides next to her. “Goddamn!” he yells. “Goddamn! It’s broken!” The horse struggles to get up but cain’t.
New commotion from behind the white men stirs the horses again. Annie’s doctor, Dr. Mitchell, comes ’round on his horse, circling the group. “What the hell’s going on here?” he say to Nelson. “I told you I needed ten minutes. Ten.”
Maybelle shrieks.
“Shut up that damned horse,” Doctor say. “I give you a chance, a job, and this is how you repay me?”
Nelson rubs Maybelle and she squeals. “Her leg’s broke, suh.”
“I said shut up your mare,” Doctor say and pull his pistol. “She’s no good now.”
Nelson jumps in front of Maybelle, standing between her and Dr. Mitchell.
She keeps screaming, making too much noise, fumbling to get up, but it ain’t no use.
“Naw, Dr. Mitchell,” Nelson plead. “Don’t do this. Please. If she got to go, I got to be the one that do it.”
“I asked you to do a handful of things for me,” Doctor say. “Notify the men of our meeting and wait for me ’til half noon. Don’t you know this is a war, boy!”
Maybelle shrieks.
Doctor fires.
She don’t shriek no more.
Nelson’s eyes widen.
Dr. Mitchell waves his pistol toward the slaves. “Y’all go back to where you came from. Except for the ones that belong to Annie Graham or these men. You others. . your owners are cowards.”
Nelson whimpers next to his horse and Dr. Mitchell turns away from him.
Everybody moves slowly back to where they were going.
The lady in orange sings:
“Oh! Go down, Moses
Way down in Egypt land.
Tell ole Pharaoh. To let my people go.”
Others join her in song, walking past Nelson with pity in their eyes, watching him cradle his dead horse.
“Get outta here,” Doctor yells to ’em. “Get.” He pauses when he sees Josey and Charles unmoved. Doctor’s strange expression is like he hadn’t expected to see ’em anywhere outside a room where he treated her vapors, or where Charles wasn’t waiting anxiously nearby for her recovery.
The black man in the straw hat throws his hands down and say, “I knew it! Lies!”
Charles continues to stand frozen with Josey’s hand in his as the parade of other brown people pour around him like water past a big rock. His shoulders hang from hope removed, his once joyful face a blank expression.
Dr. Mitchell rides over to him and say, “Charles. I’m going to tell you this like I’m telling the rest. If you leave here, it means that you and Josey are both runaways. And nobody can protect you. We’re at war.” Doctor rides back out to the center of the yard and shouts. “All y’all belonging to Annie Graham. Get back to work!”
Josey looks up at Charles, waiting for him to say something but he won’t look at her. He mumbles, “Let’s gon’ get back to work.”