Les Blancs

by Lorraine Hansberry

  ELIZABETH Why it’s Everett Sweet, Zeb!

  ZEB Who—

  He rises from the table with a quizzical expression and goes to the door and looks out to where EVERETT is sitting astride his horse.

  EVERETT (Abruptly) I’m looking for a good overseer, Zeb Dudley.

  ZEB (Feeling his way) Well, what you come here for?

  EVERETT I heard you had some experience driving slaves.

  PREACHER (Coming and standing behind ZEB in the doorway, while ELIZABETH looks on with interest in the background) Well, you musta heard wrong. This boy ain’t cut from what makes overseers. He’s a farmer.

  ZEB (Scanning EVERETT with his eyes, interested) I helped out once on the Robley place. I can handle blacks if I have to. But how come you interested? You Pa don’t ’low no overseer on his place.

  EVERETT My father is ill in bed. I’m master at our place now and I intend to grow cotton there—a lot of cotton, and I want and need an overseer.

  PREACHER (To ZEB) Tell him you don’t know nobody ’round here for that kind of work, Zeb.

  ZEB (Shrugging the PREACHER’s hand off his shoulder) Leave me be, Preacher. (To EVERETT) HOW much you figger to pay?

  EVERETT I’ll go as high as fifteen hundred if your work is good. And if you up my yield at the end of the year, I’ll give you a bonus.

  ZEB Your word on that, sir?

  EVERETT You heard. But I want cotton.

  ZEB (Vigorously) For two thousand dollars—I’ll get them slaves of yourn to grow cotton ’tween the rows!

  EVERETT You’re on. Be at our place early tomorrow.

  ZEB You got yourself an overseer!

  EVERETT touches his hat to them and rides off. ZEB gives a yell and wheels and picks up his wife and whirls her around happily. She too is very happy. The PREACHER watches their celebration and sits down in his defeat.

  Two thousand dollars! (He tousles the hair of his kids and gets to the PREACHER at the table) You a book-learned man, Preacher, help me figger that. Fertilizer, tools on credit, so’s mebbe I could put the whole two thousand t’ward two prime hands—

  PREACHER (Looking at him sadly) So that’s what it’s come to ’round here. Man either have to go into slavery some kind of way or pull out the South, eh?

  ZEB AW, come on, Preacher—

  PREACHER YOU think a man’s hands was made to drive slaves?

  ZEB If they have to, Preacher, if they have to … Or mebbe you think they was made to sit idle while he watches his babies turn the color of death?

  PREACHER Zeb, I seen your daddy the day he come ridin’ into this here country. Perched up on his pony with a sack of flour and some seed. And he done all right with them two hands of his. He dug in the earth with ’em and he made things grow with ’em. (He takes ZEB’s hands) Your hands is the same kind, boy.

  ZEB Leave me be, Preacher.

  PREACHER They wasn’t meant to crack no whip on no plantation. That ain’t fit thing for a man to have to do, Zeb. (Pointing after EVERETT) Them people hate our kind. Ain’t I heard ’em laughin’ and talkin’ ’mongst themselves when they see some poor cracker walkin’ down the road—about how the ne-gras was clearly put here to serve their betters but how God must of run clear out of ideas when He got to the poor white! Me and you is farmers, Zeb. Cotton and slavery has almost ruined our land. ’N’ some of us got to try and hold out ’ginst it. Not go runnin’ off to do their biddin’ every time they need one of us. Them fields and swamps and pastures yonder was give to us by Him what giveth all gifts—to do right by. And we can’t just give it all up to folks what hates the very sight of us—

  ZEB (Frightened inside by the sense of the speech) You talk for yourself, Preacher! You go on bein’ and thinkin’ what you want, but don’t be ’cludin’ me in on it. ’Cause I ain’t never found nothin’ fine and noble ’bout bein’ no dirt-eater. I don’t aim to end up no redneck cracker the rest of my life, out there scrapin’ on that near-gravel trying to get a little corn to grow. Allus watchin’ somebody else’s plantation gettin’ closer and closer to my land! (A cry of anguish and a vow: his only claim, his only hope for something better, the one thing he can cling to in this life:) I’m a white man, Preacher! And I’m goin’ to drive slaves for Everett Sweet and he’s goin’ to pay me for it and this time next year, Zeb Dudley aims to own himself some slaves and be a man—you hear!

  PREACHER Yes … I hear. And I reckon I understand. And all I kin say is—God have mercy on all of us …

  CUT TO:

  INTERIOR. RISSA’S CABIN—LATE.

  Within, a collection of slaves have formed a play circle around which various individual members of the group sing and perform “Raise a Ruckus.”

  ALL

  “Come along, little children, come along!

  Come where the moon is shining bright!

  Get along, little children, get along—

  We gona raise a ruckus tonight!”

  Outside the cabin, HANNIBAL and SARAH linger a moment before going in.

  SARAH (With a sense of conspiracy) I seen you this morning, Hannibal.

  HANNIBAL (Who is tuning his banjo) Where—?

  SARAH You know where! Boy, you must be crazy!

  HANNIBAL looks frightened. Then waves it away and smiles at her and takes her by the arm and leads her to join the others. HANNIBAL begins to accompany on his banjo. JOSHUA is in the center of the singing circle, rendering the verse.

  JOSHUA

  “My old marster promise me

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  That when he died he gona set me free

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  Well, he live so long ’til his head got bald

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  Then he gave up the notion of dying at all!”

  ALL

  “Come along, little children, come along!

  Come where the moon is shining bright!

  Get on board, little children, get on board—

  We’re gona raise a ruckus tonight!”

  SARAH

  “My old mistress promise me

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  (Mimicking)

  “Say-rah! When I die I’m going to set you free!”

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  But a dose of poison kinda helped her along

  Mmm Mmm Mmm

  And may the devil sing her funeral song!”

  SARAH pantomimes gleefully helping “Mistress” along to her grave with a shoving motion of her hand. The chorus of the song is repeated by all. A man is now pushed out to the center. He gets the first line out—

  MAN

  “Well, the folks in the Big

  House all promise me—”

  His eyes suddenly grow wide as the camera pans to a slave who has just entered the cabin. It is COFFIN, the driver. The others follow his gaze and the song dwindles down and goes out completely, and the people start to file out of the cabin with disappointment.

  COFFIN (Looking about at them in outrage) Jes keep it up! That’s all I got to say—jes keep on! Oughta be shamed of yourselves. Good as Marster is to y’all, can’t trust none of you nary a minute what you ain’t ’round singing them songs he done ’spressly f’bid on this here plantation.

  When the last of the guests are gone, including SARAH, HANNIBAL settles in a corner on the floor, and COFFIN turns his attention to RISSA, who has been sitting apart from the festivity, mending by the light of the fire.

  RISSA ’Spect you better get yourself to bed, Joshua. H’you this evenin’, Brother Coffin?

  COFFIN There ain’t supposed to be no singin’ of them kind of songs and you knows it good as me!

  RISSA H’I’m supposed to stop folks from openin’ and closin’ they mouths, man?

  COFFIN This here your cabin.

  RISSA But it’s they mouths. Joshua-lee, I told you to get yourself in the bed. Don’t let me have to tell you again.

  COFFIN (To HANNIBAL who has been sitting watching both of them with his own amusement) Wanna see you, boy.

  HANNIBAL I’m
here.

  COFFIN Yes, and it’s the only place you been all day where you was supposed to be, too.

  HANNIBAL looks uncomfortably to his mother, but she studiedly does not look up from her mending.

  Jes who you think pick your cotton ever’time you decides to run off?

  HANNIBAL Reckon I don’t worry ’bout it gettin’ picked.

  COFFIN (To RISSA) Why don’t you do something ’bout this here boy! I tries to be a good driver for Marster and he the kind what makes it hard for me.

  HANNIBAL And what gon’ happen when you show Marster what a good, good driver you is? Marster gon’ make you overseer? Maybe you think he’ll jes make Coffin marster here—

  COFFIN You betta stop that sassy lip of yours with me boy or—

  HANNIBAL Or what, Coffin—?

  COFFIN You jes betta quit, thas all. I’m—

  HANNIBAL “—one of Marster Sweet’s drivers”—

  COFFIN And thas a fact!

  HANNIBAL Get out this cabin ’fore you get smacked upside your head.

  RISSA (Looking up from her sewing) I ’spect that’ll be enough from you, Mr. Hannibal.

  HANNIBAL I say what I please to a driver, which, as everybody know, next to a overseer be ’bout the lowest form of life known.

  COFFIN Why? ’Cause I give Marster a day’s work fair and square and don’t fool ’round. Like you, f’instant, with all your carryin’ ons. Draggin’ along in the fields like you was dead; pretendin’ you sick half the time. Act like you drop dead if you pick your full quota one of these days. I knows your tricks. You ain’t nothin’!

  HANNIBAL Coffin, how you get so mixed up in your head? Them ain’t my fields yonder, man! Ain’t none of it my cotton what’ll rot if I leaves it half-picked. They ain’t my tools what I drops and breaks and loses every time I gets a chance. None of it mine.

  COFFIN (To RISSA, shaking his head ruefully) Them was some wild boys you birthed, woman. You gona pay for it one of these days, too.

  RISSA (Putting down her sewing finally) What was I supposed to do—send ’em back to the Lord? You better get on back to your cabin now, Coffin.

  COFFIN exchanges various glances of hostility with them and leaves. As soon as he is gone the mother turns on the son.

  RISSA Where you run off to all the time, son?

  HANNIBAL That’s Hannibal’s business.

  RISSA (With quiet and deadly implications) Who you think you sassin’ now?

  HANNIBAL (Intimidated by her) I jes go off sometimes, Mama.

  She crosses the cabin to his pallet and gets a cloth-wrapped package from under it and returns with it in her hands. She unwraps it as she advances on him: it is a Bible.

  RISSA IS that when you does your stealin’?

  He sees that the matter is exposed and is silent.

  What you think the Lord think of somebody who would steal the holy book itself?

  HANNIBAL If he’s a just Lord—he’ll think more of me than them I stole it from who don’t seem to pay nothin’ it says no mind.

  RISSA H’long you think Marster Hiram have you ’round his house if he thinks you a thief?

  HANNIBAL He ain’t got me ’round his house and I ain’t aimin’ to be ’round his house!

  RISSA Well, he’s aimin’ for you to. Said last night that from now on you was to work in the Big House.

  HANNIBAL (In fury) You asked him for that, didn’t you?

  RISSA He promised me ever since you was a baby that you wouldn’t have to work in the fields.

  HANNIBAL And ever since I could talk I done told you I ain’t never goin’ be no house servant, no matter what! To no master. I ain’t, Mama, I ain’t!

  RISSA What’s the matter with you, Hannibal? The one thing I allus planned on was that you and Isaiah would work in the Big House where you kin get decent food and nice things to wear and learn nice mannas like a real genamun. (Pleadingly) Why, right now young Marse’ got the most beautiful red broadcloth jacket that I heard him say he was tired of already—and he ain’t hardly been in it. (Touching his shoulders to persuade) Fit you everywhere ’cept maybe a little in the shoulder on account you a little broader there—

  HANNIBAL (Almost screaming) I don’t want Marster Everett’s bright red jacket and I don’t want Marster Sweet’s scraps. I don’t want nothin’ in this whole world but to get off this plantation!

  RISSA (Standing with arms still outstretched to where his shoulders were) How come mine all come here this way, Lord? (She sits, wearily) I done tol’ you so many times, that you a slave, right or not, you a slave. ’N’ you alive—you ain’t dead like maybe Isaiah is—

  HANNIBAL Isaiah ain’t dead!

  RISSA Things jes ain’t that bad here. Lord, child, I been in some places (Closing her eyes at the thought of it) when I was a young girl which was made up by the devil. I known marsters in my time what come from hell.

  HANNIBAL All marsters come from hell.

  RISSA NO, Hannibal, you seen what I seen—you thank the good Lord for Marster Sweet. Much trouble as you been and he ain’t hardly never put the whip to you more than a few times.

  HANNIBAL Why he do it at all? Who he to beat me?

  RISSA (Looking only at her sewing) He’s your marster, and long as he is he got the right, I reckon.

  HANNIBAL Who give it to him?

  RISSA I’m jes tryin’ to tell you that life tend to be what a body make it. Some things is the way they is and that’s all there is to it. You do your work and do like you tol’ and you be all right.

  HANNIBAL And I tell you like I tell Coffin—I am the only kind of slave I could stand to be—a bad one! Every day that come and hour that pass that I got sense to make a half step do for a whole—every day that I can pretend sickness ’stead of health, to be stupid ’stead of smart, lazy ’stead of quick—I aims to do it. And the more pain it give your marster and the more it cost him—the more Hannibal be a man!

  RISSA (Very quietly from her chair) I done spoke on the matter, Hannibal. You will work in the Big House.

  There is total quiet for a while. HANNIBAL having calmed a little, speaks gently to his mother.

  HANNIBAL All right, Mama. (Another pause) Mama, you ain’t even asked me what I aimed to do with that Bible. (Smiling at her, wanting to cheer her up) What you think I could do with a Bible, Mama?

  RISSA (Sighing) Sell it like everything else you gets your hands on, to them white-trash peddlers comes through here all the time.

  HANNIBAL (Gently laughing) No—I had it a long time. I didn’t take it to sell it. (He waits, then) Mama, I kin read it.

  RISSA lifts her head slowly and just looks at him.

  I kin. I kin read, Mama. I wasn’t goin’ tell you yet.

  RISSA is speechless as he gets the book and takes her hand and leads her close to a place in front of the fireplace, opening the Bible.

  Listen—(Placing one finger on the page and reading painfully because of the poor light and the newness of the ability) “The—Book of—Jeremiah.”

  He halts and looks in her face for the wonder which is waiting there. With the wonder, water has joined the expression in her eyes, and the tears come.

  RISSA (Softly, with incredulity) You makin’ light of your old Mama. You can’t make them marks out for real—? You done memorized from prayer meetin’—

  HANNIBAL (Laughing gently) No, Mama—(Finding another page) “And I said … (With longing: the words reflect his own aspiration) “Oh, that I … had wings like … a dove … then would I … fly away … and … be at rest …”

  (He closes the book and looks at her)

  RISSA Lord, Father, bless thy holy name I seen my boy read the words of the Scripture!

  She stares at him in joy, and then suddenly the joy and the wonder are transformed to stark fear in her eyes and she snatches the book from him and hurriedly buries it and runs to the cabin door and looks about. She comes back to him, possessed by terror.

  How you come to know this readin’?

  HANNIBAL (Smili
ng still) It ain’t no miracle, Mama. I learned it. It took me a long time and hard work, but I learned.

  RISSA That’s where you go all the time—Somebody been learnin’ you—

  He hangs his head in the face of the deduction.

  Who—?

  HANNIBAL Mama, that’s one of two things I can’t tell nobody … I’m learnin’ to letter too. Jes started but I kin write a good number of words already.

  RISSA (Dropping to her knees before him almost involuntarily in profound fear) Don’t you know what they do to you if they finds out? I seen young Marster Everett once tie a man ’tween two saplin’s for that. And they run the white man what taught him out the county …

  HANNIBAL (Angrily) I took all that into account, Mania.

  RISSA YOU got to stop. Whoever teachin’ you got to stop.

  HANNIBAL (Tearing free of her) I thought you would be proud. But it’s too late for you, Mama. You ain’t fit for nothin’ but slavery thinkin’ no more.

  (He heads for the door)

  RISSA Where you going?

  HANNIBAL With all my heart I wish I could tell you, Mama. I wish to God I could believe you that much on my side! He steps quickly into the night and the camera comes down on RISSA’s deeply troubled face.

  DISSOLVE TO:

  EXTERIOR. THE FIELDS—MORNING.

  Close-up of a pistol in a holster slung about a mounted man’s hips. We move back to see that it is ZEB astride his horse in the fields, surrounded by the drivers. A work song surrounds the dialogue.

  ZEB (Shouting a little because he is out of doors and topping the singing) … the hands are to be in the fields an hour and a half before regular time and we’re cuttin’ the noon break in half and we’ll hold ’em an hour and a half longer than the usual night quittin’ time.

  The drivers look at each other with consternation.

  What’s the matter?

  DRIVER Jes that these here people ain’t used to them kinda hours, suh. Thas a powaful long set. ’Specially when you figger to cut the midday break like that, suh. The sun bad at midday, suh. They kin get to grumblin’ pretty bad, suh, and makin’ all kinds of trouble breakin’ the tools and all.