CRITICAL RACE THEORY: Cuban insurrection: A Story Of Love, Betrayal & Guilt PART THREE & CONCLUSION

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EPISODE FOUR

“Senor Linton!” the lookout shouts, “a fishing boat approaches.”

“Smuggler?” Harry Linton calls out.

“Possibly!”

Harry Linton hurries down to the docks. The short good-natured tobacco man, likes to welcome the smugglers, personally.?Linton built his reputation on having?the best Cuban tobacco and finest cigars anywhere in Florida by maintaining a personal relationship with smugglers like Tolomeo. ??However, instead of discovering shipment of Cuban tobacco, the good-natured plantation owner finds Tolomeo transports human cargo ___ his nephew, Pedro, three badly wounded white men and a strange looking and stranger-talking Negro.

“Tolomeo, my friend!” Harry Linton exclaims, “What ill-fortune has brought you and your passengers to Florida?”

Tolomeo recounts the story of Narciso Lopez’s ill-fated invasion in as few words as possible, before begging the plantation owner to give them ‘sanctuary.’

“Of course, your friends can stay,” Harry exclaims. “You and your friends will be safe here .”

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Harry Linton wants to make as much money as possible. Like John Quitman, Harry, also a member of Curacao’s Sephardic community, brought his slaves to Florida to seek his fortune. Harry’s successful tobacco plantation is based more on smuggling than planting. But Harry’s success does not result from a greedy exploitation of black smugglers nor a cruel abuse of his slaves. Harry is successful because he is a good person and everyone loves him.

“Sukki!” Harry calls out for his headmistress,?a tall matronly woman who carries herself with an unmistakable air of authority. “Send someone to bring stretchers and transport these wounded men to the manor house.”

“Hank! Tom! Get stretchers and take these gentlemen on up to the house,” Sukki instructs two black men in a knot of black gathered in anticipation of unloading smuggled goods from Tolomeo’s fishing boat. Then Sukki addresses a short, plump black woman at her side. “Maizie, you prepare rooms for master’s guests” ___ indicating the white men. “Then send for the healers!” The black slaves immediately scatter in different directions to carry out Sukki’s orders.

“Now please, see to the needs of our, ah, other guests,” Harry instructs his headmistress, ?indicating Tolomeo, Pedro and Yerby. “Find them a decent cabin.”?

Sukki’s fair skin and fine features betray her Creole lineage and her authoritative tone of authority indicates that she is more to Harry Linton than a house servant. Indeed, Sukki’s parents still live on a plantation close by New Orleans. Her mother is the planter’s mistress and the planter is Sukki’s father. Sukki instructs others to lead Tolomeo, Pedro and Yerby to the slave quarters ___ a compound where rows of the sturdily built, neatly organized cabins encircle a simple chapel set on a small community meeting ground. As Negro servants scramble to carry out her instructions, Sukki scowls at the other Negro onlookers. “Get back to doin’ your work,” she snaps. “Y’all can’t be standin’ around all day, gawlin’

when there’s work to be done.” Though Sukki does not raise her voice and speaks quietly, everyone obeys, instantly.

Tolomeo turns to Harry Linton. “I cannot remain, my friend,” he says to Harry Linton, “I must return to Cuba. But I leave my nephew and senor Yerby in your care, my friend.”

The plantation owner eyes, Frank Yerby, curiously before saying, “They may stay as long as they desire, my friend.”

With that. Tolomeo returns to his fishing boat, hoists the sail and sets a course for Guanabacoa.

For the next several weeks, Sukki and Harry Linton’s household nurse the three injured white Americans back to a reasonable degree of health. And as soon as they are able to travel, Ross Pary and the Metcalf brothers, board a steamer bound for New Orleans and, from there, take a paddle wheeler up the Mississippi to Natchez. However, Pedro and Frank Yerby remain at Harry Linton’s plantation for several more months. Pedro even introduces some of Harry’s Negroes to the Lukumi Voodoo cult and even conducts Voodoo ceremonies, with Harry Linton’s permission, in the slave quarters, in front of the chapel. Harry even uses Pedro as one of his overseers making certain that the tobacco stored in the plantation warehouses is sorted, packed and shipped properly. Tolomeo returns to Harry Linton’s plantation on several occasions in order to visit Pedro and deliver Cuban tobacco that he obtains from the hacendados. Though he enjoys working with Harry’s people and his life begins to take on an air of normalcy, Pedro remains restless and troubled .

?One day Pedro confides to Yerby. “Senor Frank, I have been thinking about Carlota a lot recently.”

“Her death was a great loss to you, my friend. She will always remain in your thoughts.”

“Her death weighs heavy on my soul.”

“Carlota knew the dangers she faced when she left Guanabacoa,” Yerby reminds the young Cuban. “There were too many soldiers for her to leave home.”

“I want to go to Natchez and see Se?or Pary!”

?“Why do you want to see him?” Yerby asks, “How can he help ease your pain?”

“I cannot stay here, Senor Yerby,” Pedro explains. “The longer I stay the more ashamed I feel.”

“Why is that?”

?“Carlota died to save him,” Pedro explains. “I need to know whether her death and the death of my son was worth the sacrifice.”

“If Carlota had obeyed you,” Yerby rationalizes, “she would be alive today.”

“If I had stayed with her or allowed her to come with me,” Pedro replies, “she would be alive today.” Pedro looks into Yerby’s eyes. “It was my duty to protect her. No matter what she did or why she did it, it was my responsibility.”

When Pedro tells Harry of his decision, the Jewish planter has misgivings. “This is not a time for you to go roaming about Mississippi, my friend,” he warns. I told your uncle that I would care for you.”

“I thank you for your concern, my uncle’s friend,” Pedro responds, “but I can care for myself.”

“He’s making Carlota’s mistake,” Yerby observes.

“What mistake is that, senor?”

“You both ignore reality.”

Harry sighs. “I hope Tolomeo doesn’t blame me,” he says to Pedro, “when he learns that you are slaving on some white man’s plantation.

... or hanging from some white man’s tree, Yerby thinks to himself.

“Don’t worry, senor Harry,” Pedro responds. “My uncle already knows what I must do. He is the Babaluaye, no?”

You can’t put an old man’s head on a young man’s body, Yerby thinks to himself.

“You will need a letter ___possibly several,” Harry Linton tells the young Cuban.

“What kind of letter, senor?”

?“A letters for the steamer captain and one for the sheriffs and paddy rollers,” Harry says. “Mississippi’s paddy rollers are particularly vicious. When they catch fugitive slaves, they either kill them, outright, or they maim them, permanently. Even a letter might be of little use if you fall into the clutches of a paddy roller.”

“Why is that, senor Harry?”

“ Few of those ‘peckerwoods’ can read.”?

On the day of his departure, Harry gives Pedro two sets of clothes. “In New Orleans, the finer you dress, the safer you will be. would be. Not so in Mississippi.”

“Why not?”

“White Mississippians give uppity Negro a quick and painful lesson in humility,” Harry warns. “In Mississippi, wear these shabby clothes and act real humble-like. Mississippi folks are real touchy when it comes to uppity Negroes. As long as you act quiet and humble-like and show my letters to any white man asking about your business, you might reach Ross Pary’s Moonrise Plantation, safely. That is ?if the patty rollers don’t get you.”

“May I see your letter?” Yerby asks.

“Of course,” Harry responds:

To Whom It May Concern:

Pedro and Frank are free Negroes from Cuba. They bear a message of commercial importance to Mr. Ross Pary, at Moonrise Plantation, outside Natchez, Mississippi on behalf of Harry Linton, of Key West Plantation where Pedro and Frank currently work.

Harry Linton, Key West Plantation Key West, Florida”

?

On the day of his departure, Pedro blesses his Lukumi initiates and Harry escorts them to the dock and boards them on a steamer bound for New Orleans. The trip from Key West is uneventful. Harry is well known to the steamer captain who he keeps well supplied with Cuban cigars. By the time Pedro disembarks in New Orleans, his heart is light and can think of nothing other than reuniting with Ross Pary at Moonrise Plantation. Yerby and Pedro board a riverboat leaving New Orleans that makes a scheduled stop at Natchez. The riverboat captain allows them to book passage in the cargo section, however, before docking in Natchez, he puts the two Negroes ashore at a slave trading site some distance away from their destination. The slave traders pay riverboat captains to drop Negroes, unaccompanied by a white man, at an isolated location, where slavers grow rich catching and selling ‘free’ Negroes.

****

“Sheriff, my friend, Pedro and I thank you for your accommodations,” Yerby says. as the sheriff opens the door to their cell. Buck Wilson, who was told that they were traveling with a letter to Ross Pary from the Linton Plantation, arrested Pedro and Yerby as soon as they disembarked from the river boat.

“Well, niggah, if you keep talkin’ lak that, I might just keep you here another night jus so I kin learn you some manners! We don’t cotton to uppity darkies ‘round here.”

To say that blacks in Mississippi are oppressed, abused and dehumanized is like saying that the sun is hot and the earth is round. A black man who behaves with the slightest show of dignity is branded as ‘uppity’ and there is no worse offense in Mississippi than being an ‘uppity’ darkie. Some ‘uppity’ darkies receive a ‘mild’ whipping, one that draws blood and leaves scars, but does not interfere with Negro’s ability to work. Some ‘uppity’ darkies suffer more severe physical punishments that can result in broken bones, blinding in one eye or permanent metal shackles. Many repeat ‘uppity’ darkies are murdered by being hung, beaten with whips or fed to vicious dogs. Negroes are expected to shuffle about and grin continuously. They say ‘suh’ at the beginning and end of each sentence and bow constantly, displaying only the humblest of attitudes. White Mississippians believe that no darkie can ever be too humble.

Sheriff Wilson examined the foreign darkies papers. Even though they looked real enough, he didn’t like these funny-acting darkies coming into his county without proper notice. He’s already been asked by the local slavers about when he was going to release them. The big buck could fetch over a thousand dollars ___ even if he couldn’t speak English. Wilson could get himself a fat finder’s fee for both of them. The ‘nigger breaker’ would learn him to speak English soon enough. Wilson reflects. And the other niggah spoke English too damn good for my liking. But Wilson decides to telegraph Natchez before releasing these darkies to the slave catchers. Two foreign darkies are on the way with a message for Mr. Ross Pary at Moonrise.” When Wilson receives confirmation that Ross Pary expects them, the sheriff frees Frank and Pedro and notifies the slave catchers that the two darkies are spoken for. ?However, Pedro and Frank have not walked a half day towards Natchez when another sheriff detains them once again, deciding Frank Yerby needs to be taught some manners. After their second release with a stern warning, a third sheriff, preoccupied with finding a runaway, allows them to go their way, after inspecting Harry Linton’s letter. Fortunately, Pedro and Frank encounter no paddy rollers, but their journey is punctuated with stares, abusive language and threats from every white person they encounter. Pedro’s inability to speak English allows him to ignore the white folks threats. He merely shows Harry Linton’s letter to any white person that he encounters and mumbles “Moonrise.” Actually, Pedro speaks English well enough having learned from his uncle so that he could assist Tolomeo with smuggling tobacco. In Key West, Pedro spoke English to recruit and teach?slaves the Lukumi way. Now he chuckles to himself as he speaks only Spanish.

Yerby’s speech and arrogant manner, on the other hand, makes him stand out like an abolitionist seeking to free the slaves. Each time Yerby opens his mouth, he attracts attention and angers some white man. Yerby learns to forget a victim’s guilt and a victim’s survival. Yerby learns that he cannot look any white person in the eye, he must mumble when he speaks and he must learn to coon by scratching his head, shuffling his feet, bucking his eyes and grinning foolishly at whatever a white person says with a hefty amount of ‘yaw suhs.’ Yerby also learns to ‘coon’ when accepting verbal insults and the occasional kick in the rear. Once he masters the role of the happy darkie, Yerby is allowed to ‘shuffle along’ to Natchez and Moonrise Plantation. wards his destination. It takes three weeks, traveling Mississippi’s backroads, before , Frank and Pedro pass through the gates of Moonrise Plantation and walk up to Ross Pary’s manor house.

“Se?or Ross!” Pedro laughs, “I found you! I found you!” Ross Pary crosses over the veranda of Moonrises’ manor home and descends the stairs to the path where the two Negroes stand forestalling the two sweaty, filthy darkies from coming up the stairs and stinking up his manor house. ?To the shock and surprise of onlookers, black and white, Pedro enfolds the Mississippi planter in an enthusiastic hug. “My journey was formidable.” Pedro exclaims to Ross once he releases him, “the distance was far and the hardships were many, but now I have found you, my friend.”

“Yes, yes, Pedro,” Pary replies. “It’s good to see you.” But the master of Moonrise plantation gives his visitor a cold, hard stare and the only sign of hospitality Pary shows Pedro is a stiff and his tight smile barely masking his annoyance. ?The two Negroes already annoyed the master of Moonrise by causing a stir among Natchez’s local white folks with the telegraph messages from sheriffs in three counties. Pary had hoped that one of the sheriffs would detain the two Negroes, permanently. But such was not the case and here they are.?“I was informed that you and Frank had arrived in Mississippi and were coming to Moonrise,” Ross tells Pedro. “I’ve been expecting you ___ and him.” Ross casts a look at Frank Yerby.

“You heard that I was coming?” Pedro’s face lights up with pleasure. “But how?”

“In Mississippi, we have our ways. But never mind that now.” Pary says, putting on a brave front.?“Welcome. You will, of course, be my guest. I am certain we can find a place for you ___ in our slave quarters.” Then looking at Yerby, he says, “However, I’m afraid that the accommodations for darkies around here are not nearly as grand as those you enjoyed on Harry Linton’s plantation.”??

“I knew you would not forget me,” Pedro says. “I …”

“Yes, yes Pedro,” Pary cuts him off. “I am afraid you mustn’t babble on like that. My Spanish is not as good as it once was. But let us depart to someplace we can chat privately. Away from prying eyes and inquisitive ears.”

Ross shepherds Pedro and Frank around to the stables. ?“Tell me, my friend,” Pary says to Pedro once they are seated in the bridle room, “why did you come to Natchez? I was told that you have a message for me from Harry Linton.”

“I wanted come here to stay with you, se?or,” Pedro replies. “I saved your life and now I am responsible for you.”

“You need not bother about me, now that I am home.”

“Possibly, you could make me your body servant and pay me whatever you believe is fair.” Pedro displays a mischievous smile. Just seeing Ross Pary makes him feel better than he has in months. “I trust you, se?or.”

“I thank you for your trust,” Pary says as sincerely as any womanizing, social climbing ?southern dandy who goal is to break into Mississippi’s upper class can. You may have saved my life, Pary thinks to himself, but what else are darkies good for! Pary paces about trying to figure a way out of the dilemma that pits his basic human decency against his deeply-held racial beliefs. Ross wants to repay his debt but he cannot turn against his belief in white supremacy. Civilization would collapse, if we started to treat darkies like they had rights.?“Pedro,” the white man says. “I will be forever in your debt for saving my life. But I don’t know if your coming to Moonrise was such a good idea.” Then Ross turns to Yerby. “I thought you had better sense than to come here.”

So did I, Yerby thinks to himself, but to Ross Pary, he only shrugs and says nothing. In his prior life, Yerby would have no problem bearing his soul to this white man. Before Yerby believed his intelligence made him equal. Now he knows that he cannot share his thoughts with this white man. The trauma of being forced to ‘coon’ has destroyed his belief in legal and intellectual equality made him recognize that power despises weakness and only concedes to power. Real intelligence is the power to position and impose one’s will on others.?

EPISODE FIVE

Ross Pary’s family ___ brother, Tom, Tom’s wife, Jennie, and their sister, Annis ___ ?all live at Moonrise. Pedro and Frank have been at Moonrise Plantation barely a week before every member of Ross Pary’s family express their hostility to Pedro and Frank for having forced their way onto Moonrise Plantation and upset the natural order of things. But of the two, they especially hate Pedro.

“That nigger is always putting on airs,” Jennie complains to Tom, “When I ask him to do something, all he says is ‘No entiendo.”

“He’s always pretending that he can’t speak English,” Annis chimes in.

?“My gal says his English is just fine down in the slave quarters,” Jennie adds.

“... and when he’s riling up our niggers with his hoo-doo,” Tom says.

“Allowing that foreign darkie, a free nigger and a hoo-doo man to boot, to do as he pleases is disturbing things around here,” Tom complains to his brother. “He’s giving the slave darkies ideas that ain’t good. He’s more than a nuisance. He’s dangerous!”

“Pedro’s all right,” Ross replies. “Have I told you how he saved my life?”

“Yes, several times,” Tom says. Tom is tired of hearing about his brother’s Cuban adventure. “The better class here about don’t care nothing about what happened in Cuba,” he says. “They care about keeping their niggers in line up here in Mississippi.” Hadn’t no business goin’ down there in the first place, Tom tells himself, chasing after some Cuban whore. “You need to lay down the law to that nigger, Ross,” Tom continues. “Can’t have him wandering about anywhere he pleases. It looks bad. It looks like you owe him something. A white man don’t owe a niggah nuthin’ cept a good skinnin’ if he don’t what he’s told.”

“I do owe him something,” Ross says. “I owe him my life.”

“Some folks take offense at us letting some uppity Cuban darkie walk all over us, threatening our womenfolk and acting like he’s the master,” Tom argues. “I don’t understand you. Why are you risking your business and your social standing on account of this darkie?”

“Give me some time,” Ross says. “I’ll send him back to Florida, soon.” ?

“You’re a decent person, brother, but you’re too soft hearted. Let me do what’s necessary. You won’t have to be involved. I’ll take Pedro down a peg and let these other darkies know who is running Moonrise.”

“He’ll adjust,” Ross responds. Before I purchased Moonrise, you and your wife were living in a one-room shack and were happy to take advantage of my soft-heartiness, Ross wants to remind his brother. Instead he asks, “Pedro hasn’t been in any trouble, has he?”

“No, not yet,” Tom admits, “but it’s just a matter of time.”

“Senor Frank!” Pedro announces.

“Yes, my friend.

?“I’m recruiting some Lukumi.”

Yerby’s face twists into a frown. Yerby has not commented on Pedro’s frequent interactions not only with the blacks at Moonrise, but also with those on surrounding plantations as well. But Yerby is worried. Being here with Pedro is like knowing a catastrophe is about to happen but being powerless to prevent it. ?Many of the slaves, still remembering the old gods, respond to Pedro’s teachings about the Orishas. They begin to recalling the old gods and remember the old ways of surviving white supremacy and white oppression. “I am preparing to have a Kari Ocha.” Pedro continues. “I will call on Papa Legba, lord of the roadway, to protect my initiates and make them strong,”

“Please Pedro, my friend,” Yerby pleads, “please listen to me. Let’s return to Florida before it is too late. If you believe that Papa Legba chose you to be his priest, return to your Lukumi on Harry Linton’s plantation. ?They need you and they need you now! Mississippi is no place to initiate Lukumi.”

“But se?or Yerby, so much more needs to be done here than in Florida. Here, the people need to be given courage and the ability to remember who they are.”

“What do you think you can do here?” Some of Yerby’s arrogance has returned. “Isn’t your neck hurting just a little bit with all the bowing and scraping?”

“You, my friend,?have been doing most of the bowing and scraping,” Pedro smiles. “In the time that it took us to get to Moonrise, you were shuffling, grinning and ‘yawsuh’-ing and ‘nawsuh’-ing, like you had been doing it all your life ___ like you remember what being a slave is like,” Pedro laughs. “And you still think that you are better than the other black folks around here.” Pedro’s words sting. “I can help some of the slaves become men,” Pedro continues, “just like the white folks here helped you remember how to coon.”?Pedro smirks, “I can accept white supremacy and white folk’s mistreatment as long as I know who I am and as long as I feed my spirit and serve Papa Legba.”

“Do you really think you can make a difference?” Yerby sneers.

Pedro pauses to think. But being an honest person, he quickly gives an honest answer. “No! But I believe I have a purpose here___ Carlota’s purpose. She gave her life for me to come to Mississippi.” Then Pedro smiles, coyly. “Besides, I have met someone and I think I am in love.”

“What!” Yerby exclaims. “This is not good. This is not good at all.”

“I’m in love with Bessie,” Pedro continues. “She is Morgan Britanny’s personal maid and lives on the Finiterre plantation.”

This is really not good, Yerby shudders. This is not good, at all!

From the moment he first saw her, Pedro knew that Bessie was the reason he had come to Mississippi. Bessie was a mulatto. From her African roots came her sensuously-thin body and a graceful walk that reminded Pedro of the tall grass blowing on Cuba’s savannah just in front of ?Sierra Madre mountains. From her white parent, Bessie inherited pale green eyes, fine features and a shock of thick reddish-brown hair, which, when allowed, tumbles mischievously about her face. However. few, if any, ever see Bessie’s hair; her mistress whose unbounded jealousy, ordered Bessie to keep her hair wrapped up in a bright yellow bandana. Bessie eyes reveal the ?wildness of an orphaned animal who must figure out things on its own ___ ?just like Pedro. Bessie’s mood alternates between resentment and longing, hating ?white folks for their evil ways and despising them for rejecting her. Pedro sees in Bessie the soul of a Lukumi priestess, but the mind of a spoiled child. “Bessie is bursting with personal power,” Pedro tells Yerby, but it keeps her in trouble with her mistress.”

The day Pedro met Bessie, he was roaming about Finiterre, the plantation adjacent to Moonrise, owned by Lance Brittany, Ross Pary’s best friend. Bessie sits on a log, nursing a bloody hand wrapped in a wet towel.?She is neither startled nor afraid of the strange black man who suddenly appears in front of her. Bessie merely lifts her hand, removes the towel and says, “See what she did to me.” Bessie’s left hand is pierced through. A jagged, nasty-looking wound just below the knuckles oozes blood, ?exposing a severed tendon that makes her ring finger hang down at an awkward angle. “She stuck the scissors through my hand because she said?that I done her hair wrong.”

“Who is she that did this,” Pedro asks.

“Miz Morgan,” Bessie says. “Miz Morgan Brittany. She’s de mistress of Finiterre.” Tears of pain roll down Bessie’s face, but her eyes blaze with hate. “Then she had de butler throw me down the stairs because I screamed when she stabbed me.”

“Wait here,” Pedro says. “I’ll be back.” Going down to the swamp near the river, Pedro gathers Spanish moss, water mint, lilac and bee balm. Returning he bandages Bessie’s hand making a poultice made of the herbs rolled in the towel. For two weeks, Pedro remains with Bessie, nursing her wounded hand as well as her battered body while ministering to anguished soul. As she convalescences, Pedro teaches Bessie about the Orishas initiating her as his first Lukumi.

After Bessie recuperates, Pedro continues visiting Finiterre’s slave quarters. “That woman is pure evil,” Bessie confides to Pedro.

“Tell me.”

“She has a room where she chains de slaves up,” Bessie tells him. “Then she beats and cuts them.”

“Can you show me this place?” Pedro asks, quietly.

“Sho ___ I can take you there. But you hav ta wait til she’s done gone, else neither of us will leave that room alive.”

Some weeks later, while Morgan and Lance Brittany are away from Finiterre attending a social gathering in Natchez, Bessie secrets Pedro into the manor house and take him up to Morgan’s secret room of horrors. “See the globs of dried blood?” she says holding up a candle to cast its flickering, pale light on the floor. “Over here,” she says pointing to a wall, “she keeps her whips.”

The collection of whips shows ?how seriously Morgan Brittany indulges in her sadistic pleasures. Some of the whips are long with leaded tips capable of slicing?skin to the bone with a flick of the wrist. Another has several leather straps each one embedded with metal spikes capable of ripping the skin from a man’s back. Another is a thin metal rod covered in by a leather sheath. Then there is a long sturdy bull whip that requires a man’s muscular strength to manage. On a side table lie other implements of torture, knives, picks and saws, Manacles, leg irons and chains are affixed to the opposite wall.by metal plates and iron fastenings.

“Just last month,” Bessie tells Pedro, “Miz Morgan whipped old Lucas to death.”

“Why did she do that?”

“Out a pure meaness.”

“What did she do with his body”

“She had the butler bury him out behind the barn.” Tears glisten in Bessie’s eyes. “Come back downstairs and I’ll show you where she buried him.” Out behind the barn, Bessie points out a rounded mound of freshly dug dirt. “That’s where he’s buried.” Hot tears now flood down Bessie’s cheeks. “Lucas was the only family I’d known,” she explains, embarrassed by her show of emotion. ?“Miz Morgan would kill more of us, but Marse Lance won’t ‘low it. So, to spite Marse Lance, Miz Morgan’s start takin’ up with your Marse Ross.”

Pedro raises his eyebrows in surprise. He could not believe that senor Ross would betray Senor Lance’s friendship. “Like I tole you,” Bessie responds to Pedro’s disbelief. “That woman is purely evil.”

“Your mistress offends the Orishas,” Pedro declares solemnly. “Papa Legba will have his revenge.”

In the next two months, Bessie begins recruiting initiates into Pedros’s Lukumi. Voodoo cult. Then one day, when Yerby asks, “How many initiates do you have now?” he is surprised to learn that Pedro has thirteen followers.

“Now I must find a place to call the Orishas to a feast and have a Kari Ochoa.”

Pedro searches for a meeting ground for his Lukumi ?where they will be safe from patty rollers and other whites when he summons the Orishas and they dance the Kari Ochi. He discovers a place, deep in the swamp, where a runoff from the Mississippi accidentally encircles a large area that rises up widening s into wide flat knoll. Spanish moss curtains off the knoll from sight and the area is overgrown with watery trees and foliage. Even at high noon sunlight cannot shine directly down on the knoll. At night, during a full moon, the area glows an eerie white and the air is heavy with the sickly-sweet smell of wild orchids, decaying cypress and rotting magnolia trees. Infested with water moccasins, cottonmouths and alligators, the knoll is dangerous for anyone who forsake the old gods. Sloping up from the murky waters on all sides, Pedro builds a foot bridge at each end, constructed of fallen tree trunks and large rocks held together with vines.

“Why don’t you come to see our meeting ground?” Pedro asks Yerby once the ground is prepared.

“I’ll think about it,” Yerby replies, searching for a way to decline the invitation.

“Please, senor,” Pedro pleads.

“All that blood and nasty tasting stuff, makes me gag,” Yerby says remembering the first ceremony he attended in Cuba. “I prefer bread and wine. Did you know that I’m a Catholic?”

“You may attend as a witness,” Pedro laughs. “The Orishas will be happy with your presence, as long as you are respectful and offer a gift.”

“If I come,” Yerby says solemnly, “I will certainly bring the Orishas a gift ___ especially for Papa Legba.”

?

For weeks Pedro’s beats the drums unnerving white folks all over the Adams county as well as the adjoining Jefferson and Franklin counties. Paddy rollers scour both sides of Mississippi with lanterns and blood hounds in search of the nocturnal drummer, but they search in vain. The Orishas do not want Pedro to be found. After searching night after night and not finding the phantom drummer, the patty rollers become frustrated and give up their search. And the time comes when Pedro and his Lukumi can feed the Orishas with impunity. On a night when the moon is full, Pedro signals the Lukumi to come to their secret meeting place, celebrate with the gods and celebrate with a Kari Ocha. Even Yerby joins Pedro’s initiates crossing over the makeshift bridges, barely visible during the day and absolutely invisible at night to the sacred Voodoo meeting ground. Pedro encircles a separate area with symbols and signs that lead the Orishas up to a wooden altar laden with gifts. The Lukumi bring cooked foods transported in pails and fruits and vegetables contained in straw sacks, prepared according to Pedro’s instructions. The feast is laid upon a separate table near the altar. Next to the food, Pedro burns incense and offers dishes of herbs nearby bottles of whiskey and wine. In the shimmering moonlight, shadows begin to form the Orishas begin to appear as wispy mists. They follow Pedro’s symbols inviting them to eat and drink. The gods are pleased with the feast.

??

Pedro prepares Omiero, an exotic drink of for the ceremony, while the Lukumi pass the time conversing, telling plantation jokes and sharing the latest gossip. Once the Omiero is ready, Pedro lights two cigars, putting each in a separate ceramic plate. Then Pedro sacrifices a chicken, a lamb and a goat, sprinkling their blood about the circle where the gods dwell. Once the Orishas eat and drink their full, they enjoy the tobacco, as Pedro invites his Lukumi to partake of the Omiero, a concoction of wine and whiskey mixed with blood and hallucinogenic herbs as well as the food remaining after the gods have feasted. After the Lukumi have eaten and become intoxicated with Omiero, Pedro performs the rituals known to the Lukumi since the time the gods walked the earth ___ the rituals that taps into the mystic power as one taps into a maple tree and withdraws its syrup. Through these rituals, the Orishas give the Lukumi the power to speak with the dead, cast spells and control minds.

?

Then comes the Kari Ocha. Pedro beats his drums and calls his initiates to dance and free their minds to accept whatever gifts the gods choose to give them. For hours, the Lukumi dance, reexperiencing events that occurred in the past, receiving visions of what will occur in the future and learning secrets hidden in the present. Only after the initiates collapse to the ground from utterly exhaustion, does Pedro stop his drumming ending the Kari Ocha. As soon as they are able, Pedro’s Lukumi, ?singly, in pairs and in groups, return to their plantations, ?arriving as if invisible spirits, unseen either by the other black slaves or their white overseers.

?

Once they are alone with only the gods as witnesses, Bessie and Pedro use the sacred ground to engage in another, more familiar ritual, practiced by men and women from the beginning of time. Their passionate and ecstatic sounds blend into the swampy darkness. Papa Legba chuckles his approval while the other Orishas take their leave. In Bessie’s arms, Pedro is no longer restless and he . explores, enjoys and nurtures his tender feelings for the woman he has come so far to find. Bessie reaches out to hang onto the muscled flesh of this man who the gods sent to become her lover. Pedro makes love to Bessie as if she were his three-string guitar. Expertly and lovingly, coaxing the sweetest sounds from her lips. While each leisurely explores the wonder of the other, suddenly. their bodies are seized in a grip of passion, convulsing and wrenching before each explodes in an erotic ecstasy. Bessie screams with delight as Pedro moans with satisfaction, each clinging desperately to the other, the fluids of their love draining upon each other’s body, becoming one in mind and soul. Their union culminates in such moments of ecstasy that the lovers lose all sense of reality believing they are alone in the universe. Too late, they learn that they are quite mistaken and that Papa Legba, always the trickster with a swollen penis, makes fools of all ____ even his favorites.?

Pedro holds several meetings for his Lukumi on the sacred ground dedicated to the Orishas in the swamp. But during one of his frequent visits to Finiterre, Pedro reveals something to Bessie that he should have kept secret. ?

“At our last Lukumi meeting,” Pedro confides to his lover, “Ayagunda demanded gunpowder.” They are making love in the secluded grove on the Finiterre plantation where he and Bessie first met. Moved to share everything with ?Bessie, Pedro looks into her eyes. “Guess what happened?”

“What?” Bessie asks languidly, recovering from her last cataclysmic organism.

“Two initiates donated a rifle and a pistol to Ayagunda.” Pedro replies. “They are very fine guns, good quality, practically new.”

“You’re a black man with guns!” Bessie almost shouts, rising up to stare into Pedro’s eyes. “God almighty! God almighty!”

?

Sometimes the person you love is the one that harms you most. This is what Bessie does to Pedro. Actually, Pedro did it to himself. He should never have revealed ?Ayagunda, the god of gunpowder to Bessie. On the other hand, when love should have opened Bessie’s eyes, hate blinds her. She misuses her Voodoo powers to control the minds of others. “God is goan ta tak his vengeance on de white man for de wrong he’s don’ done,” Bessie tells anyone who will listen. “An’ it’s goan ta begin rat heah in Miss’sippi wid a black man wid guns!”

?

The idea of a black man with guns simply overwhelms Bessie’s imagination. She did not know what to make of it. She had not the ability to think about a black man with guns, critically. In the end, Bessie made too much of Pedro possessing guns and not enough of where he got them. This physically-abused plantation-bred, mulatto daughter of a black slave and some white vagrant did not know, nor could she be expected to know, that there was more to resisting white supremacy than one black man in possession of guns.?

“When we git ‘nough guns for ev’ry slave in de county,” Bessie preaches, “there’s nuthin’ des white folk goan do to us anymo’.” Many slaves listen and some even believe her. “When we black folk hav de guns, all de whites goan run away,” Bessie tells them.

When Pedro realizes his mistake and that Bessie’s outbursts are dangerous, it’s too late. Her words cannot be retracted. Even when he explains how dangerous her words are, Bessie will not stop talking about ‘black men with guns.’?She did not understand that white folks were born to kill. They kill for the pure pleasure of killing. Their bible glorifies the exploits of a ruthless Semitic people that attacks and slaughters all its peaceful neighbors. Their secret societies are organized to kill enemies. Their economic systems are based on robbing, looting and killing anyone who gets in the way. Even the Roman Empire whose soldiers hung Christ on the cross as it did hundreds of thousands of others is glorified as a great achievement of western civilization by the leaders of Christianity. White folks would not fear black men with guns; they’d welcome it. Not only did the white men of Natchez have more guns, better guns and lots of bullets, but they practiced killing black people all the time. A black man with a gun in Natchez was like a turkey accepting an invitation to be the guest of honor at thanksgiving dinner. Blacks are good at singing and dancing and praying; blacks are good at emptying white folks chamber pots and tending his fields and picking his cotton. ?Blacks are not good at shooting guns. Blacks with guns are more likely to kill each other than a white man.

Nevertheless, Pedro does not pay enough attention to the catastrophe that awaits him and Bessie. When the Lukumi meet on the knoll on the next full moon, Pedro’s initiates bring more guns and rifles. They also bring cutlasses, machetes and clubs.?Of course, the weapons are stolen as plantation owners in Adams and adjacent counties begin to discover. And they know that the rash of missing guns can only mean that the darkies are up to something.

?

?

EPISODE SIX?

The Natchez’s Civic Club ____ where the good old boys, the leading planters, merchants and politicians, all get together ___ is buzzing. Anything and everything happening in Natchez ___ or anywhere else in Mississippi ____ is discussed at the Natchez Civic Club.

“We don’t want to tip them off that we know something is going on,” one member advises. “Let them make the first move.

“But when we start getting ready, them darkies will know that we know,” another member observes. “There’s nothing them darkies don’t know about our business.”?He looks around at the numerous black waiters rushing about.

“Well, I know one thing,” another planter says, showing off a pair of Colt revolvers, “any blubber-lipped, burr-headed coon who looks at me sideways is gonna get his bubble-eyes blowed out the back of his wooly head.” The white man who is especially antagonistic toward Negroes, has been drinking most of the morning and is more belligerent than usual. He angrily surveys the room. “Just look at them eyeballing us,” he says, “learnin’ about all our business.” The white man drains his glass. “But they’ll see what happens if they try to put their hands on one of these.” The speaker pulls out a pistol and points it at one of the waiters. ?“Hey you, boy,” the planter calls out.

“Me, suh?” the waiter quavers.

“You ___ nigger!” the planter shouts. “Get your black ass over here!”

The waiter shuffles over to the planter’s table. But just before he gets there, a leg shoots out, tripping the waiter who goes sprawling to the floor as the room erupts in laughter. The black man remains where he lays, ?eyes frozen wide in fear.?

“If this darkie even twitches the wrong way, I’m gonna spill his brains all over this floor,” the planter boasts, leveling his pistol at the black man’s head.

“Just calm down, Charlie,” another planter intervenes . “We get your point. Let’s not make a mess. They’ll hav’ ta close the club while they take, God knows how long, to clean up that dead darkie after you splatter his brains all over the floor.”

Morgan Brittany doesn’t know about the missing guns, but she suspects something. Recently, her slaves have been acting strange. They aren’t sassing her or refusing to work or acting sullen-like, but there is something going on ___ something ominous. And it’s just the excuse Morgan needs to visit Ross Pary.

“Every time your darkie, Pedro visits my gal, Bessie,” Morgan complains, “she gets more difficult to handle.”

“What can I do about that?” Ross asks, annoyed at another of Morgan’s unexpected visits which are becoming more frequent. ?Why did I ever get involved with this woman? Ross asks himself. He’s beginning to hate the sight of ?Lance Brittany’s wife with her superior aires and constant demands. Lance is not just Ross’ best friend, the son of one of Mississippi’s oldest families sponsored Ross membership in the Natchez Civic Club as well as the Knights of the Golden Circle. Ross’ architectural business thrives only because of Lance Brittany’s patronage. Ross, hating himself for his betrayal, discovers, in himself, a new-found sympathy for Judas. Morgan Brittany is John Quitman’s niece. She treats Ross like one of her field niggers. On more than one occasion she has threatened to destroy Ross and his family, if he didn’t cater to her whims. But everyone in Natchez knows that what Morgan wants, Morgan gets. All Ross Pary can hope is that she will tire of her affair with a social climbing interloper.

“Your Pedro told my Bessie something,” Natchez’ wild child complains to the up and coming architect from the slums. “Now she’s stirring up the darkies all over the place.”.

“What’s Bessie saying, Morgan?”

“The darkies say she’s been talking about white people running away and freedom.”

“She’s just afraid of you,” Pary laughs. “You know how you’ve frightened all your slaves.” Morgan took Ross up to the attic that she calls her “play room.”

“Why are you laughing?” Morgan asks.

“I remember when you first arrived at Finiterre from up North,” Pary says. “You were a real Connecticut Yankee telling everyone how you would free all the slaves if you could.”

“That was before I discovered the many diversions your ‘Southern way of life’ provides.”?Morgan’s eyes narrow into slits, smoldering with evil. Morgan’s ?soul is now thoroughly contaminated by the South’s culture of inhumane depravity. “Anyhow, Ross,” her breath quickens, “I want you to keep your darkie away from Bessie.”

“Okay, I‘ll tell Pedro that he is no longer welcome at Finiterre.”

“I want more than that,” Morgan shrieks.

“Okay,” Ross says, “Calm down. I’ll take care of it. Wallace!”

Soon an old black man shuffles into Pary’s sitting room used to receive clients. “Wallace, go out to Moonrise and fetch Pedro. Bring him back to here, at once. Do you hear me?”

“Yes suh,” the servant replies.

“And Wallace,” Pary continues.

“Yes suh.”

“Please see that Mrs. Brittany gets back to Finiterre, safely.”

?“Yes suh.”

Morgan’s eyes narrow and she flashes a hateful look at Ross. “You needn’t bother, Wallace,” Morgan snaps. “If you don’t want me here, Ross, all you need do is tell me to leave. Anyway, I have other matters in Natchez that need my attention.” Morgan gives Pary a wicked look that says, I’m going to make you pay for that, but out loud she says, “Who knows, I might even decide to see if Lance is at the club.”

Despite her threat, Ross is happy to see Morgan leave. But now he has another problem. Tom was right, Ross tells himself. That darkie should know better, but now he’s going to stop visiting Bessie and he’s going to start behaving himself, or I’m gonna let Tom tan his hide until he wishes he’d kept his black ass in Cuba.

When Ross Pary’s man, Wallace arrives at Pedro’s cabin, he is not surprised to see Bessie lounging out front. Wallace has always hated Bessie she rejected his advances when she was but thirteen. Even then, Bessie had a mouth on her. “What you goan do with this, you ole buzzard?” Bessie laughed at Wallace who considered himself a ladies man. Today Wallace has an opportunity to avenge himself for Bessie’s?insult.

?“Gal, where’s Pedro?” Wallace spits out.

“Pedro’s here ’round abouts,” Bessie replies. “What you want him for?”

“Ain’t no business of your’n,” Wallace snaps, “but if you must know, Marse Pary wants to see him right quick. If you know where he’s at, you better tell me ‘fore you get in more trouble than you already in.”

“Trouble? What you mean trouble, you ole coon nigger?” Bessie teases. “I does what I pleases when Miss Morgan ain’t around. And pretty soon she ain’t never going to be around, no mo’.”

“What you talking about, gal?” Wallace sneers. “You better get them foolish notions out your head ‘fore your Mizzus lays a whip to your sassy black hide.”

“I ain’t scared of her no more,” Bessie says flipping her head and allowing her hair to tumble down around their face. “Pretty soon she ain’t gonna be able to whip me and nobody else, neither. Soon black men gonna have guns and they ain’t gonna stand for white folks beating up on their women folk.”

Bessie could not have chosen a worse Negro, anywhere in Mississippi, to rave about black men with guns than Ross Pary’s manservant. Wallace can’t wait to tell Morgan Brittany that he found Bessie lounging about Pedro’s cabin in broad daylight. Miz Brittany will take all the sass out of that gal’s black ass ‘for she done, Wallace smiles. Dat niggah’s sho gonna get what she deserves.

“I don asked you, what you talkin’ bout girl. You talkin’ crazy and crazy talk like dat will get you and dat darkie, Pedro, strung up real quick.”

“Well, you heard what I done said, you old shuffling darkie,” Bessie replies. “Jes wait an’ see. One day we’s goan be free!”

“You jes’ tell Pedro that Marse Pary wants to see him, right now,” Wallace tells Bessie. “And if I was you, I’d tak’ my black ass to Finiterre where it belongs.”

Bessie’s talk about freedom is like telling Wallace that he will no longer be Ross Pary’s man. Nothing frightens Wallace more than the idea of not being a slave. There ain’t a darkie in Natchez who doan want to be Marse Pary’s niggah, Wallace tells himself. Wallace has served the planters class all his life. He is one of the few darkies, the whites allow to preach the gospels to the other slaves. The more Bessie talks, the angrier Wallace becomes. He?never heard such foolishness. Free Black men, indeed! Wallace has been privy to the planters’ discussions. Wallace knows the price of cotton on the European market and the cost of silk from China. He has heard white men discussing topics beyond Bessie’s imagination. The idea of black men with guns, freeing darkies and running off white folks, is not only against the law, it is against God’s will. If this cotton picker thinks black men with stolen guns and no bullets can scare white folks, Wallace laughs to himself, she’s crazy. Only thing these darkies are gonna do is get a bunch of people killed. And before I let this Bessie and her Cuban nigger ruin my life, I’ll see them both swinging from a tree.?

?

Wallace decides he needs to tell Marse Pary about the nigger plot.?But then he realizes that is not such a good idea. Somebody might think it was me, Wallace, Marse Pary’s man, who is behind this trouble. Some of these white folks is mighty mean and dey doan rightly care who dey string up or set the dogs on, Wallace decides he must distance himself from the whole affair. Then he remembers Cobb. He and Cobb share the same way of thinking. Cobb is Judge Smith’s butler and is always looking for news to tell the judge. I’ll tell Cobb. Wallace chuckles. Cobb never tells the judge where he gets his information. Cobb will take all the credit and he’ll leave me out of the whole mess. Wallace is pleased with himself. He is especially going to enjoy seeing Bessie and the Cuban darkie, Pedro get their comeuppance.

Wallace is not as clever as he thinks. Cobb not only tells Judge Smith about the plot, but he also reveals that Wallace is the source of his information. Judge Smith summons Wallace to his court.

“Now, boy,” Judge Smith says towering over Ross Pary’s quavering manservant from behind his great courthouse desk, “what did this gal tell you about a nigger uprising?”

Wallace’s knees tremble and his heart beats, wildly. “Your Honor, suh, Bessie, Miz Brittany’s gal tol’ me dat da hoo-doo man from Cuba done told dem hoo-doo-ers to go steal guns from der masters.”

“What these darkies gonna do with guns?” Judge Smith asks.

“Bessie say dat de hoo-doo man say dat when darkies have guns, de whites will run away.”

“Whites will run away!!!”Judge Smith explodes. “This hoo-doo man gonna put a hex on us, white men, so that we just run away from a bunch of liver-lipped, burr-headed jungle bunnies?”

“Yes suh, ”Wallace mumbles. “An I done come and passed the word as soon as I heard, suh.”

“That’s a good start, boy,” the Judge says sternly, “but you’d better come clean and tell me all you know, or I’ll have you beaten bloody.”

“No suh,” Wallace wails. “You don’t have to beat Wallace. One thing I always know is that Marse Pary will take care of old Wallace. Master Pary loves Wallace as much as Wallace loves Master Pary. I could never betray Marse Pary and Marse Pary would never betray me. Judge, you can trust Wallace.”

“I hope so,” Judge Smith says, “__?for your sake!”

Judge Smith keeps Wallace in jail for a week while he and the Natchez Civic Club discuss ways to handle the situation.

“We need to find all that hoo-doo man’s followers,” one of the planters suggests, “and hang them.”

“Now hold on,” another planter says. “That could be mighty costly.”

“That’s so,” another planter agrees.

“Let’s assess members of the Natchez Civic Club a levy and raise a fund to compensate each owner for any slave that we hang.”

“Why should we pay?” one of the planters argues. “Ross Pary ought to pay the whole fund. He’s the one who brought that hoo-doo darkie here, in the first place.”

Lance Brittany speaks up. “Ross didn’t bring that Cuban darkie to Natchez, That darkie came of his own accord. Besides, how would it look after all Ross went through in Cuba to be ruined by those of us who remained home?” There is a lot of grumbling.

“I don’t care how it looks!” One planter exclaims. “He’s not even one of us.” “But many of us live in homes that he built,” Lance argues. “We don’t want those Yankee bankers to think that we won’t pay our debts. We still need financing to sell our cotton to England and the financial markets are jittery enough,”

“Lance is right,” one planter agrees.

“Which is why we should support Governor Quitman’s plans for nullification and get rid of the yoke those Yankee bankers have around our necks, for good.”

In the end, the members of the Natchez Civic Club decide to treat Ross Pary the same as the others. If he loses any slaves in the uprising, he will be compensated.

“But not for that Pedro darkie,” Judge Smith decides. “That nigger’s gonna swing and that’s that.”?

“Let’s invite the darkies with guns to a shoot-out,” someone else suggests. “Every sporting white man within three counties will participate. We could raise money for the fund by charging a spectator fee as well as a participant’s fee.”

“We could offer a prize for the one who killed the most niggers,” someone else suggests. “That way the boys won’t mind paying a participation fee.”

“This is serious business,” Judge Smith admonishes the gathering. “You can have a pic-a-nic hanging some other time. Let’s just round up these niggers, hang ‘em and be done with it. We got our womenfolk to think of.”

?

With that the Natchez Civic Club finalizes its plans ans Judge Smith brings Wallace back into his court. “Nigger, we want to know the next time those darkies with guns meet.”

“Well, suh,”Wallace slobbers, “I doan rightly know when dey meet. I doan know nothun’ mor’en what I already don told yo’ Honor.”

“Wallace,” Judge Smith shouts at the cringing slave, “if you don’t get me the information about these darkies with guns, I’m going to have every inch of flesh beaten off your black hide. Do you heah me, boy? I ain’t kidding with you. This is a hanging matter and, after I beat you bloody, I will hang with the other voodoo niggers, if you don’t do exactly as I say. ”

“Naw suh,” Wallace wails. “Yes suh, I will certainly find out when dey’s gonna meet next. Yes suh!”

“And Wallace,”?Judge Smith adds, “make sure it’s within the next two weeks.”

“Yes suh, Yo’ Honor,” Wallace replies bowing low.

“We can’t be just waiting on you darkies, do you heah ?me boy?”

“Yes suh,”Wallace quails. “Wallace is your niggsh awright. Wallace won’t let you down. Naw suh. Wallace’s your niggah, alright, Judge suh

?

Frank Yerby confronts Pedro. “We need to leave Mississippi, now.”

“I can’t leave, now, senor Frank,” Pedro replies.

“Right now,” Yerby warns Pedro, “is the time to bid Mississippi, adios, otherwise you will die here.”

“But, se?or,” Pedro replies, “what about Bessie?”

“Pedro, my brother, we have very little time left to us. We must leave Mississippi!” ?

“Yes,” Pedro says, “I know about Wallace. He spent many days in Judge Smith’s jail. The judge wants Wallace to reveal the Lukumi in two weeks.”

“Understand this, my friend,” Yerby says. “We need to get out of Natchez, as quickly as possible. We need to leave Natchez now!”

?The problem is Bessie!” Pedro says. “What she is saying is the problem. She won’t listen to me. She only wants to talk about the number of guns black men have. It is only a matter of time before the whites will learn about the Lukumi.”

“Pedro, they already know about your Lukumi.”

Papa Legba protect us.”

“Offer Bessie a choice,” Yerby suggests. “Either she runs away with you now ____ or she stays here. In any case, it’s her choice.”

“Her choice?” Pedro barks back. “Her choice. You want me to leave her like I left Carlota? That’s no choice. I cannot leave Bessie. I love her!”

Yerby knows Pedro and Bessie are doomed ___ and so is he if he doesn’t leave Mississippi. “I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” Yerby says, “but there will be a boat going down to New Orleans in five days. Lance Brittany booked passage for me, you and Bessie. I will be on that boat and I hope you and Bessie will on it with me.”

“What about my Lukumi,” Pedro asks.

“Let Wallace know that. two Saturdays from now, blacks with guns will gather at the meeting ground. By then everyone should have run away. And we should be safely on our way back to Florida.”

“What do I tell Bessie?” Pedro asks.

“That, my friend is up to you,” Yerby replies.

Surprisingly, Bessie agrees to meet Yerby at place where the riverboat for New Orleans docks on the appointed day and run away with Pedro. “But we must warn all the black men with guns,” Bessie insists.

“I have already passed word to the Lukumi,” Pedro explains.

“We must be certain,” Bessie argues. “And you must give them your blessing.”

Reluctantly, Pedro agrees and signals his Lukumi to meet at their sacred ground one last time. It is almost a week before the day Wallace tells Judge Smith that the blacks with guns intend to attack. ?But, when they assemble, instead of telling them to run for their lives, Bessie reveals her plan to attack Finiterre, kill Morgan Brittany and burn down the buildings.

“After I burned that bitch’s house down,” Bessie vows. “I will go wherever you want, Pedro, my love”

Looking into Bessie’s eyes, Pedro knows that neither of them will ever leave Natchez alive, yet he is content. He will not leave Bessie’s side.

The paddy rollers summoned by Judge Smith from Adams, Jefferson and Franklin counties as well as Knights of the Golden Circle, the secret society that forms the backbone of the South’s growing confederate army assemble in Natchez, The cold blooded killers enjoy the hospitality of the Natchez Civic Club preparing for the upcoming venture, unaware that, even then, Bessie, Pedro and the Lukumi are attacking Finiterre, setting fire to the barns, stables and the manor house, itself. However, once Ross Pary learns of the conspiracy, he dispatches his most experienced ?slave catcher, Slocum. to watch Pedro’s every movement.??Slocum races to Moonrise to sound the alarm.

“They’re attacking Finiterre!”

Ross leads George and Henry Metcalf, and ten of his overseers to Finiterre where they witness an unbelievable scene of chaos with people and animals running everywhere. Pary catches Pedro’s Lukumi ?unaware and mounts a deadly attack. The white men shoot ten Lukumi dead and wound several others. Once Ross has the situation under control, he hangs all his Lukumi prisoners including the wounded.?Afterwards, Ross Pary and the Metcalf brothers hang Pedro and Bessie, together. But the instant Pedro jerks into the air, Papa Legba appears and whispers something in his ear. Pedro smiles.

?

THE END

??CopyrightEugeneStovallOctober18,2022 all rights reserved