Oph. Well, I 'll do what I can. Come here, Topsy. How old are you?
Topsy. Dun no, missis.
Oph. Don't know how old you are? Did n't anybody ever tell you? Who was your mother?
Top. Never had none!
Oph. Never had any mother? What do you mean? Where was you born?
Top. Never was born!
Oph. You must n't answer me in that way, child; I 'm not playing with you. Tell me where you were born, and who your father and mother were.
Top. Never was born; never had no father nor mother, nor nothin'! I was raised by a speculator, with lots of others. Old Aunt Sue used to take car of us.
EnterJANE, DINAH, and ROSA. Jane. Laws, missis, there 's heaps of 'em! Speculators buys 'em up cheap, when they 's little, and gets 'em raised for market.
Oph. How long have you lived with your master and mistress?
Top. Dun no, missis.
Oph. Is it a year, or more, or less?
Top. Dun no, missis.
Jane. Laws, missis, those low negroes, they can't tell; they don't know anything about time; they don't know what a year is; they don't know their own ages.
Oph. Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?
Top. [Grins.]
Oph. Do you know who made you?
Top. Nobody, as I knows on. I 'spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me.
Oph. Do you know how to sew?
Top. No, missis.
Oph. What can you do? What did you do for your master and mistress?
Top. Fetch water, and wash the dishes, and rub knives, and wait on folks.
Oph. Were they good to you?
Top. 'Spect they was.
Dinah. [Lifting up both hands.] Good Lor, what a limb! What on 'arth Mas'r St. Care want to bring on dese yer low nigger young 'uns here for? Wont have her round under my feet, I know.
Oph. Well, go to your work, all of you. [Exeunt JANE, DINAH, and ROSA.] Come, Topsy, to my room.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VII.--A Bed-room. MISS OPHELIA and TOPSY.
Ophelia. Now, Topsy, I 'm going to show you just how my bed is to be made. I am very particular about my bed. You must learn exactly how to do it.
Topsy. Yes, ma'am.
Oph. Now, Topsy, look here; this is the hem of the sheet--this is the right side of the sheet, and this is the wrong; will you remember?
Top. Yes, ma'am.
Oph. Well, now, the under sheet you must bring over the bolster--so--and tuck it clear down under the mattress nice and smooth--so; do you see?
Top. Yes, ma'am.
Oph. But the upper sheet must be brought down in this way, and tucked under firm and smooth at the foot--so--the narrow hem at the foot.
Top. Yes, ma'am.
[Adroitly snatching a pair of gloves and a ribbon, and hiding them in her sleeve.] Oph. Now, Topsy, let's see you do this.
[As TOPSY goes to make the bed, the ribbon hangs out of her sleeve.] Oph. [Seizing it.] What 's this? You naughty, wicked child--you 've been stealing this!
Top. Laws! why, that ar's Miss Feely's ribbon, an't it? How could it a got in my sleeve?
Oph. Topsy, you naughty girl, don't you tell me a lie; you stole that ribbon!
Top. Missis, I declar for 't, I did n't; never seed it till dis yer blessed minnit!
Oph. Topsy, don't you know it 's wicked to tell lies?
Top. I never tells no lies, Miss Feely; it 's jist the truth I've been a tellin' now, and an't nothin' else.
Oph. Topsy, I shall have to whip you, if you tell lies so.
Top. Laws, missis, if you 's to whip all day, could n't say no other way. I never seed dat ar--it must a got caught in my sleeve. Miss Feely must have left it on the bed, and it got caught in the clothes, and so got in my sleeve.
Oph. [Shaking her.] Don't you tell me that again! [The gloves fall out.] There, you! will you tell me now you did n't steal the ribbon?
Top. Laws, missis, I did steal dem ar gloves--but I never did take dat ar ribbon, in the world, never!
Oph. Now, Topsy! If you 'll confess all about it, I won't whip you this time.
Top. Well, den, missis, I did take de ribbon and de gloves both, I did so.
Oph. Well, now, tell me. I know you must have taken other things since you have been in the house, for I let you run about all day yesterday. Now, tell me if you took anything, and I shan't whip you.
Top. Laws, missis! I took Miss Eva's red thing she wars on her neck.
Oph. You did, you naughty child! Well, what else?
Top. I took Rosa's yer-rings--dem red ones.
Oph. Go bring them to me this minute, both of 'em.
Top. Laws, missis, I can't--they's burnt up!
Oph. Burnt up? what a story! Go get 'em, or I 'll whip you!
Top. [Crying and groaning.] I can't missis, I can't no how! Dey 's burnt up-dey is.
Oph. What did you burn 'em up for?
Top. 'Cause I 's wicked--I is. I 's mighty wicked, any how. I can't help it, no how.
Enter EVA, with the coral necklace on her neck. Oph. Why, Eva, where did you get your necklace?
Eva. Get it? Why, I 've had it on all day.
Oph. Did you have it on yesterday?
Eva. Yes; and what is funny, aunty, I had it on all night. I forgot to take it off when I went to be.
Enter ROSA, with a basket of newly-ironed linen poised on her head, and the coral ear-drops shaking in her ears. Oph. [In despair.] I 'm sure I can't tell anything to do with such a child! What in the world did you tell me you took those things for, Topsy?
Top. Why, missis said I must 'fess; and I could n't think of nothin' else to 'fess.
Oph. But, of course, I did n't want you to confess things you did n't do; that 's telling a lie, just as much as the other.
Top. Laws, now, is it? Why, how curus!
Rosa. La, there an't any such thing as the truth in that limb! If I was Mas'r St. Clare, I 'd whip her till the blood run, I would! I 'd let her catch it!
Eva. No, no, Rosa! you must n't talk so, Rosa. I can't bear to hear it.
Rosa. La, sakes! Miss Eva, you 's so good, you don't know nothing how to get along with niggers. There 's no way but cut 'em well up, I tell ye.
Eva. Rosa, hush! Don't say another word of that sort.
Rosa. Miss Eva has got the St. Clare blood in her, that's plain. She can speak for all the world just like her papa.
[Exit ROSA.] Oph. Well, I don't know anything what I shall do with you, Topsy.
Top. Laws, missis, you must whip me! Ole missis always whipped me. I s'pects 's good for me.
Oph. Why Topsy, I don't want to whip you. You can do well if you 've a mind to. What 's the reason you won't?
Top. Why, missis, I 's so used to whippin'.
Oph. Well, I shall shut you in this closet, to think of your ways a while.
Eva. [Goes up to Topsy.] Poor Topsy, why need you steal? You 're going to be taken good care of now. I 'm sure I 'd rather give you anything of mine than have you steal it.
Top. Ha! ha! dat ar 's curus! Well, I 's gwine in de closet--mebbe I 'll come out better. [Goes in.]
[Exeunt EVA and MISS OPHELIA.
SCENE VIII.--A Veranda. ST. CLARE lounging on a sofa. MISS OPHELIA sewing.
Ophelia. Topsy!
Topsy. Hear me!
Oph. Let me see if you can say your catechism; and if you can you may go and play. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
Top. [Repeating very rapidly.] Covenant being made with Adam not only for hisself but for his posterity, all mankind 'scending from him by ordinar transgression, sinned wid him, and fell in him, in that fust generation.
Oph. Stop! stop!! stop!!! Topsy. Why, how are you saying it?
St. Clare. Why, what 's the odds? I don't see but that it makes as good sense one way as the other.
Oph. St. Clare! now--how can I teach this child if you will take so? And now you 're laughing!
St. C. I 'm done. Proceed. Topsy! you careles
s hussy, mind yourself! Be sure you get everything in right end first. Now for it!
Oph. Into what state did the fall bring all mankind?
Top. Fall brought all mankind into a state of sin and misery. Please ma'am----?
Oph. What, Topsy?
Top. Dar 'ar state Kintuck? De Lor' knows dey has sin and misery 'nough dar!
Oph. Hush, hush, Topsy!
St. C. No personal reflections, Topsy!
Top. Please, missis, can't I go play? Dar ar 'bout the generations was so curus! Never kin get it right nohow!
St. C. O, yes, coz, let her go. I want you to go up stairs and look at a new carpet I 've been buying for Eva's room. There, Tops, there 's some candy for you. Next time get the words straight.
[Exeunt ST. CLARE and OPHELIA.] Enter JAKE, AMANDA, and other negro children. Top. Dar now, ye niggers! I 'se gittin' eddecated, I is; 'cause I b'longs to Miss Feely. I larns catechize every day, and you por trash don't. Laws, you 's runnin' wild all the while! What doos you know? Doos you know you 's all sinners? Wal, you is, everybody is. White folks is sinners, too--Miss Feely says so; but I 'spects niggers is the biggest ones; but, lor! ye an't any on ye up to me. I 's so awful wicked there can't nobody do nothin' with me. I used to keep old missis a swarin' at me half de time. I 'spects I 's the wickedest crittur in the world.
Jake. Ah! Den ye 'll go to torment one dese days, anyhow. Ye won't be quite so crank then.
Top. No I shan't--I 's bound to go to heaven, I is.
Amanda. No ye won't neither!
Top. Shall too! Miss Feely 's bound to go thar, and they 'll have to let me come too; cors she 's so curus they won't nobody else know how to wait on her dar! Come, now, be still touching that thing of mine, or I 'll crack ye over!
[Exit JAKE, running with TOPSY'S thimble. TOPSY follows, with all the rest, in pursuit.]
SCENE IX.--An Arbor, looking out on Lake Ponchartrain. UNCLE TOM and EVA.
Eva. O, Uncle Tom, I 'm going to read you some such beautiful places!--now, this: "Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne; and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold." Only think of it! [She turns to another place.] And, now, this: "And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass, mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory over the beast stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb; saying, Great and marvel- lous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints." [Pointing to the lake.] THere 't is, Uncle Tom! see! there 't is--a sea of glass mingled with fire!
Uncle Tom. What, Miss Eva?
Eva. Don't you see--there, that water? There 's a "sea of glass mingled with fire."
Uncle T. True enough, Miss Eva. [Sings.]
"O, had I the wings of the morning,
I'd fly away to Canaan's shore! Bright angels should convey me home,
To the new Jerusalem." Eva. Where do you suppose new Jerusalem is, Uncle Tom?
Uncle T. O, up in the clouds, Miss Eva!
Eva. Then, I think I see it! Look in those clouds! they look like great gates of pearl; and you can see way, way beyond them--far, far off--it 's all gold. Tom, sing about "spirits bright!"
Uncle T. [Sings.] "O, what hath Jesus bought for me!
Before my wondering eyes Rivers of pure delight I see,
And streams of Paradise. "I see a band of spirits bright,
That taste the glories there; They all are robed in spotless white,
And conquering palms they bear." Eva. Uncle Tom, I 've seen them! They come to me sometimes in my sleep, those spirits. [Sings.]
"They are all robed in spotless white,
And conquering palms they bear." Uncle Tom, I 'm going there.
Uncle T. Where, Miss Eva?
Eva. [Rising and pointing up.] I 'm going there, to the spirits bright, Tom; I 'm going before long.
Oph. [Calling from a distance.] Eva! Eva! child--come in; the dew is falling! you must not be out there!
SCENE X.--A Veranda. ST. CLARE and MARIE reclining on lounges.
Marie. I say, Augustine, I must send to the city after my old doctor Posey; I 'm sure I 've got the complaint of the heart.
St. Clare. Well; why need you send for him? The doctor that attends Eva seems skilful.
Mar. I would not trust him in a critical case; and I think I may say mine is becoming so! I 've been thinking of it these two or three nights past; I have such distressing pains, and such strange feelings.
St. C. O, Marie, you are blue! I don't believe it 's heart complaint.
Mar. I dare say you don't; I was prepared to expect that. You can be alarmed enough, if Eva coughs, or has the least thing the matter with her; but you never think of me.
St. C. If it 's particularly agreeable to you to have heart disease, why, I 'll try and maintain you have it. I did n't know it was.
Mar. Well, I only hope you won't be sorry for this when it 's too late! But, believe it or not, my distress about Eva, and the exertions I have made with that dear child, have developed what I have long suspected.
St. C. O, here comes cousin from her excursion. [Enter MISS OPHELIA and EVA.] Well, coz, what success in the religious line? D id you find a preacher?
Oph. Wait till I put my bonnet and shawl away. [Exit.]
St. C. Here, Eva, you come to me.
Eva. [Climbs into her father's lap.]
Oph. [Within.] What 's this! You wicked little hussy, you! Come out here! Come out this very minute!
St. C. What new witchcraft has Tops been brewing?
Enter MISS OPHELIA, dragging TOPSY. Oph. Come out here, now. I will tell your master!
St. C. What 's the row, pray?
Oph. The fact is, I cannot be plagued with this child any longer! It 's past all bearing; flesh and blood cannot endure it! Here I locked her up, and gave her a hymn to study; and what does she do, but spy out where I put my key, and has gone to my bureau, and got a bonnet-trimming, and cut it all to pieces to make dolls'jackets! I never saw anything like it, in my life!
Mar. I told you, cousin, that you 'd find out that these creatures can't be brought up without severity. If I had my way, now, I 'd send that child out, and have her thoroughly whipped; I 'd have her whipped till she could n't stand!
St. C. I don't doubt it. Tell me of the lovely rule of woman! I never saw above a dozen women that would n't half kill a horse, or a servant, either, if they had their own way with them, let alone a man!
Mar. There is no use in this shilly-shally way of yours, St. Clare! Cousin is a woman of sense, and she sees it now, as plainly as I do.
Oph. I would n't have the child treated so, for the world; but I am sure, Augustine, I don't know what to do. I 've taught and taught; I 've talked till I 'm tired; I 've whipped her; I 've punished her in every way I can think of, and she 's just what she was at first.
St. C. Come here, Tops, you monkey! [Topsy comes.] What makes you behave so?
Top. 'Spects it 's my wicked heart; Miss Feely says so!
St. C. Don't you see how much Miss Ophelia has done for you? She says she has done everything she can think of.
Top. Lor, yes, mas'r! ole missis used to say so, too. She whipped me a heap harder, and used to pull my har, and knock my head agin the door; but it didn't do me no good; I 'spects, if they 's to pull every spear o' har out o' my head, it would n't do no good, neither--I 's so wicked! Laws! I 's nothin but a nigger, no ways!
Oph. Well, I shall have to give her up; I can't have that trouble any longer.
St. C. Well, I 'd just like to ask one question.
Oph. What is it?
St. C. Why, if your Gospel is not strong enough to save one heathen child, that you can have at home here all to
yourself, what 's the use of sending one or two poor missionaries off with it among thousands of just such? I suppose this child is about a fair sample of what thousands of your heathen are.
Eva. [Beckons to TOPSY, who follows her to the end of the veranda.]
St. C. What 's Eva about now? I mean to see.
Eva. What does make you so bad, Topsy? Why don't you try and be good? Don't you love anybody, Topsy?
Top. Dunno nothing 'bout love; I loves candy and sich, that 's all.
Eva. But you love your father and mother?
Top. Never had none, ye know. I telled ye that, Miss Eva.
Eva. O, I know; but had n't you any brother or sister, or aunt, or ----
Top. No, none on 'em; never had nothing nor nobody.
Eva. But, Topsy, if you 'd only try to be good, you might----
Top. Could n't never be nothin' but a nigger if I was ever so good. If I could be skinned, and come white, I 'd try then.
Eva. But people can love you, if you are black, Topsy. Miss Ophelia would love you if you were good.
Top. [Laughs.]
Eva. Don't you think so?
Top. No; she can't bar me, 'cause I 'm a nigger! she 'd 's soon have a toad touch her. There can't nobody love niggers, and niggers can't do nothin'. I don't care! [Whistles.]
Eva. O, Topsy, poor child, I love you! I love you, because you have n't had any father, or mother, or friends; because you 've been a poor, abused child! I love you, and I want you to be good. I am very unwell, Topsy, and I think I shan't live a great while, and it really grieves me, to have you be so naughty. I wish you would try to be good, for my sake; it 's only a little while I shall be with you.
Top. [Weeps.]
Eva. Poor Topsy! don't you know that Jesus loves all alike? He is just as willing to love you, as me. He loves you just as I do, only more, because he is better. He will help you to be good; and you can go to heaven at last, and be an angel forever, just as much as if you were white. Only think of it, Topsy, you can be one of those spirits bright Uncle Tom sings about!
The Christian Slave: A Drama Page 6