Dominion (36 page)

“Didn’t have no church buildin’s,” Zeke told Dani, “but that was all right because
we
was the church, and that made us feel powerful important. We’d meet in our slave quarters or outside. The mens would rise up and tell Bible stories. Ol’ Zachariah, he’d always say, ‘The day’s acomin’ when negroes will be slaves of none but God Almighty.’ We’d look at him big-eyed and didn’t believe him. That was when no black man dared to think of freedom except by runnin’.”

A man appeared in the portal. Dani could sense his meanness.

“That’s Daniel,” Zeke said. “They called him the nigga driver, the overseer. He’d sooner beat the breath out of you than draw one of his own. We was scairt of Daniel, I won’t deny it. We’d set on the floor and pray with our heads down low and sing soft. But when you’re praisin’ the Master, you just can’t stay quiet too long, and next thing we knew, Daniel he’d come and beat on the wall with the stock of his whip.”

Dani watched Daniel do this very thing and heard him threaten, “I’ll come in there and tear the hides off your darky backs.”

“Now ol’ Daniel,” Zeke went on, “besides likin’ his liquor, he took special pleasure in whippin’ coloreds. He’d strip us to the waist and take a cat-o’-nine-tails and bring up the blisters to where you’d pray God would take you home then and there. And then he’d bust the blisters with a wide strap o’ leather fastened to a stick handle. You’d be all blood from the neck to the waist.

“Sometimes they’d strip us naked when they beat us, and that was the worst, the women and the children seein’ you humiliated like that. Wasn’t enough to break your skin; they tried to break your spirit, and sometimes they succeeded and black folk lost their self-respect. Womenfolk would git us a sheet and grease it with lard and wrap us up in it, and sometimes we’d wear it under our shirts for three or four days after a bad beatin’.

“Ol’ Daniel, one day Isaac sassed him, and Daniel he took Isaac down toward the pond. We knowed that was terrible bad ’Cause he usually whipped us in front of each other to teach a lesson. Well, an hour later he come back without Isaac, and Isaac’s wife was wailin’ ’cause we all knowed what it meant. A few days later somebody found Isaac’s body floatin’ in the pond, and some folk said, ‘That ol’ nigger just didn’t know how to swim.’ Course, Daniel got away with it, but just for a little while. ’cause we knowed God would get him one day and do worse to him than we ever thought of. And sure enough, he did. Once I seen him through the portal, like Lazarus seen the rich man. Just for a moment, but I saw him in hell and he saw me here, which must have made hell even worse for him.”

Dani shuddered. “Daniel. Ironic that he had a biblical name.”

“There was men that beat me named Peter and Timothy, and the meanest woman I ever knowed, that was Martha. Always thought it strange to hear those Christian names of folk who didn’t understand what bein’ a Christian meant. Always felt sorry for them, knowin’ that unless they repented, Elyon’s avenging angel would take ’em down to the pit.”

“I’m surprised you could live under that kind of oppression,” Dani said.

“A man can live under anything long as he keeps his eyes on the prize, on what will be instead of what was and what is. I’d think about the ol’ ship Zion takin’ me across the Jordan, away from Egypt and Pharaoh, into that land of milk and honey. I’d think about Jesus and how he suffered so much more than I did because of car-ryin’ the sins of me and ever’body else, includin’ ol’ Daniel. And I thought to be punished for my own sins, much less Daniel’s, was more than any man could take. Sufferin’ ain’t all bad, you know. That’s one of the lessons I learned since bein’ here and watchin’ what goes on in the Shadowlands—faith falters where it should thrive and thrives where it should falter. Most God’s chillens fail the test of prosperity but pass the test of adversity. How’s that for some lessons?”

Dani nodded her approval. “I look forward to learning them myself.”

“Sufferin’ shouldn’t surprise God’s chillens, that’s for certain. Peter say, ‘Do not be surprised at the fiery trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ.’”

Dani watched through the portal of the past as another scene materialized.

“Ol’ Master Jacobs, now he was a religious man, but only as it suited him. You know that ol’ Negro spiritual, ‘Everybody talkin’ ’bout heaven ain’t goin’ there’? Applies to blacks and whites and every color folk, and sure did apply to Master Jacobs. He’d have the traders come in and he had this big ol’ stump, and after selling off hosses and cattle, he’d parade up the slaves. He’d take their scars from beatin’s and fix ’em up with some brown tar he’d put on hot, burn right into your skin, ’cause the higher price come with the smoother skin. He’d strip ’em to shows off their muscles.”

“Did you think much about trying to escape before you finally did?”

“Thought about it every day—a man wants freedom not just in the life to come, but in the life he’s livin’ now. If it was just me, would’ve been easy, ’cause it was either get free or die and be with Jesus and be really free. I even thought of takin’ a few of the meanest overseers with me—I don’t deny it—but I didn’t. I was heaven bound and I knew they wasn’t. Besides, when I still had Nancy and the chillens, I knew I couldn’t escape with them, and I wasn’t gonna leave them or has them get beaten ’cause I runned off. I’d never leave my family. Sooner die a thousand times than do that.”

Dani looked at Zeke with admiration, seeing so much of her daddy in him. She treasured this Christian heritage going back two generations before her father. She wished she’d known more men like Zeke and Daddy on earth.

“But after Nancy and Ruth was gone and Abe growed up, I didn’t have to wait no more. Wanted to be free. Free in Ohio, free in Canada, or free in heaven.”

Dani looked through the portal and saw a man come to Zeke, a well-dressed man, the master.

“Now, Zeke, I know you’s happy livin’ here with me. And you know I takes good care o’ yous, don’t I now, boy?”

Dani realized the man was talking down to Zeke, talking poor black slang, but not knowing quite how to do it.

“Yessuh, Massa Jacobs,” she heard Zeke respond, “I was jus’ sayin’ to the niggas what a good massa you is. Thanky, thanky so much fo’ bein’ such a good massa. Yessuh, I thanky.”

The man seemed to hesitate, as if he wondered whether Zeke might be working in a little sarcasm at his expense. He seemed to dismiss the thought, as if Zeke’s mind were incapable of such craft and subtlety.

“Well, Zeke, I just want to be sure you’d talk to me if you ever got wind of this Underground Railroad nonsense. You ever hear anything about that, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

“Sure I would, now, massa, sure I would. I heard stories of course. Underground Railroad? Now if that don’t beat all. Can’t believe some a dem darkies would play with such foolishness. Don’t realize how good they got it, that’s what I says. No suh, must not be a brain in dose dark heads.”

Dani looked over at Zeke next to her, surprised at his words. He had a big smile on his face. They both listened as Jacobs spoke again.

“All right, there’d maybe be some reward in you tellin’ me, specially if we caught a few runaways. Maybe give you one of my old silk shirts to wear for your own. How would you like that, Zeke?”

“Yessuh, yessuh, massa, you can count on Ol’ Zeke. One of your silk shirts, you say? Now, wouldn’t that be somepin’ fancy? Yessuh. Ol’ Zeke be the first to tell you, massa. Silk shirt, you say?”

The master nodded his approval, slapped Zeke on the back, and sent him on to his work. “Yessuh, yessuh, I’d tell you all about it iffen them fool slaves tries to run,” Zeke said as he turned to shuffle off. Then under his breath he added, “The day I start ridin’ a pig sidesaddle.”

The master stopped short. “What was that you said, Zeke?”

“Oh you know me, massa. Jus’ mumblin’ mah fool black head off, that’s all. Said the day’s gettin’ on and I gotta feed them pigs and polish yo’ saddle.”

“Oh, yes, of course, Zeke. Good boy. You’re a credit to your race.”

“Yessuh, kind o’ you to say so, thanky massa, thanky.”

The scene shifted to that night. Dani saw a big plantation party. It was getting late, and the house slaves were finally done with all the serving and washing. They’d gathered outside with the field slaves, away from the party. They were singin’ and dancin’ up a storm. One of the masters peered out the window and joked, “Look at them nigger fools hoppin’ around to their darky music!”

Dani felt disgust at this scene. It troubled her and she looked to Zeke for answers.

“You has to keep watching, chile. I should explains we learned to communicate to each other in codes. Like, we’d be out in the fields and start singin’, ‘Steal away, steal away to Jesus.’ That meant an hour after sundown we’d be havin’ chu’ch. Havin’ chu’ch down at the swamp, so the slaves should steal away to get there.”

“The swamp?”

“Had to go somewhere the masters wouldn’t go to at night. Guess you could call it ‘First Fire Baptized Church of the Swamp’ or somethin’ like that.” Zeke laughed. “Then the next day, all us slaves would wonder if we was in trouble, if the massas had heard us. Once somebody found out fo’ sure everything was all right, they’d start singin’ ‘I couldn’t hear nobody praying.’ We’d talk with each other through the songs. But the ‘Steal Away’ song, one night that had a special meaning. It was the most thrillin’ and scariest night of my life down there.”

Dani started to ask him to elaborate, but he pointed to the portal where she could see her answer just as it happened.

The slaves sang and danced, Zeke playing on his harmonica and a Jew’s harp. “Steal away…steal away to Jesus.” The slaves’ eyes fired up with fear and hope. It was the message they’d been waiting for, the message from Zeke telling them this was the night. The Underground Railroad was going to steal some of them away, either to death or to freedom. It was a farewell party. “We’s prayin’ for you, Zeke,” Dani heard an old woman say. “I’ll sees you in the north or I’ll sees you in heaven.”

Dani watched as Zeke and five others met some white folks down by the swamp. They put them on a wagon, overloaded and slow moving. All seemed to be going smoothly until back at the slave quarters the overseer discovered they were gone. Men on horses and others on foot with hound dogs launched out into the night, chasing them. With Zeke was a family, a man, a woman, and two children, a vulnerable group to attempt escape. When the search party got closer, Zeke jumped out of the wagon, hoping they’d follow him instead of the others. The driver quickly told him he’d meet him in a day and a half at a prearranged place six miles away.

Zeke ran off into the woods, running with his arms outstretched to fill the air with his scent, hoping to attract the dogs away from the wagon. Dani noticed his bulging pockets. After he jumped in the river and swam to the other side, he took out two onions from his pocket, broke them open and rubbed them all over his body.

“Nothin’ messes up a hound like onions,” Zeke laughed. “That was some night. I crossed that river like it was the Jordan itself. Ran like that through the night and into the next day. I heard them hounds abayin’. Elyon went before me and my guardian Zyor, he protected me from the rear. There was a pack of dogs and six men after me, all carryin’ rifles.” Dani saw it in the portal. “Should have caught me long before, but I got them clean away from them other runaways.”

Dani watched with horror as a rifle fired and the bullet exploded in Zeke’s right shoulder, the blood spilling on the thick leaves as he continued to run. Despite his injury, he made it to the rendezvous point and was taken away in a buckboard, laid in the back, supported by a pillow and concealed with blankets. A white woman tended to him while her husband, the driver from two nights before, drove the wagon.

Dani watched as the white family in the buckboard wagon was stopped by the men chasing Zeke, led by the overseer Daniel.

“Lookin’ for a runaway nigger. Winged him good,” Daniel said.

“Haven’t seen him,” the soft-spoken man said. “The Misses and me, we’re just taking our daughter to the doctor.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Scarlet fever. You can take a look at her if you want. She’s wrapped up in the blanket back there.”

“Uh, no, got to be goin’, find them darkies.” The slave chasers backed away from the wagon and disappeared.

Zeke looked at Dani and laughed loud and long. “Scarlet fever, can you beat that? You never seen them boys move so fast. Those peoples in the railroad, they knew what they was doin’, I tell you. They loved Elyon and loved their neighbors, just like Elyon told them to. The Footwashers, Quakers you know, they was like angels of mercy to us. Helped slaves escape all the way to Canada. See, up in Canada black folk could be free and not has to worry about bein’ stole back to the south. Heard it was cold up in Canada on the outside, but always wanted to go there, ’cause freedom’s always warm.”

Dani watched as the Footwashers tended his bloody right shoulder, got him to a sympathetic doctor, gave of their time and money, and risked years of imprisonment to help him. Dani looked on as Zeke died in the arms of the Quakers. They wept over him and gave him a Christian burial.