Which Way Freedom (12 page)

“Minna an' little Daniel here?”

Obi knew immediately by the sad look in the man's eyes what the answer would be.

“They leave Green Hills. They with Master an' Mistress on the mainland.”

Daniel's round face sagged. Joshua continued. “Minna ain't want to go, Daniel. First they try an' force she, but she put up a fuss. Say she have to stay here till you come back. Then Master tell she that they goin' across the river to the farm where you an' Gabriel is. I knowed they lie an' was goin' farther inland.”

Obi put his arm around Daniel's broad shoulders, wishing there was something he could say to comfort his friend.

“They probably went to Master's house in Charleston,” Joshua said. “Don't fret, they be fine. You see them again.” Daniel stared blankly at the bleak, drizzling sky.

Obi looked around him. He wanted to ask this man if he knew a tall, black woman named Lorena, but Daniel's questions were more important for the moment.

“So many runaways come from the mainland when they learn the Yankee here. They think the Yankee go free them. They's a mess of 'em camped up in the high ground on the plantation. The soldier tell us to do our usual task. Say now we grow rice for the Treasury Department, whatever that be,” he said, shaking his head. “Them Yankee soldier don't know nothin' about runnin' no plantation.”

Daniel looked dazed. “My cabin gone too?”

Joshua nodded. “We tell the Yankee don't put nobody new in there 'cause that cabin belongs to somebody. But they don't listen. Say they needs someplace to put all the fugitive peoples.” He tugged gently at Daniel's sleeve. “Come, rice in the pot. You and your friend eat somethin'.” Joshua had his small, three-legged iron skillet in the field with him.

He smiled kindly at Obi. “You an' your friend can sleep in my cabin till you find someplace.”

“You a kind man, Joshua. Where you find room for us when you have a wife an' four children?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “We find a chink of space for you on the floor.”

Thanking him, Daniel said, “We go to the quarter an'

find a place to clean ourselves and rest.” They left the rice fields and walked along the supply canal used for flooding the fields during the growing season.

“I know this happen, Obi,” Daniel said as they continued walking. “Slave don't have nothin' belong to he—not he woman, child, cabin—not even he self.”

When they reached higher ground, Obi couldn't believe his eyes. Green Hills was twice the size of the Phillips plantation.

Behind the large, two-story family house, with its porch running almost its entire width, stood stables, barns, a lake, and a terraced garden. Another field, where peas, okra, corn, and other crops were grown, ran parallel to the family house and ended near the slave quarters.

An avenue of oak trees shaded the large lawn that let to the house. Blue-coated men milled about the lawns and gardens. Tents in the background reminded Obi of the camp they'd just left. Obi stared at the soldiers, realizing this was the first time he was seeing a Yankee in the flesh.

They headed for the slave quarter but were stopped by two soldiers posted at the edge of the field, just beyond the row of cabins.

The men watched Obi and Daniel as they approached. “All fugitives have to report to the superintendent and the captain.”

“Then you have to go to the camp with the other fugitives,” the second soldier added.

Obi and Daniel looked at each other, both of them having trouble understanding what the soldiers were saying.

“I live here, but my cabin give away to someone else, suh.”

Now the soldiers stared at Obi and Daniel as if they didn't understand them. Obi was thinking that the biggest difference between the Yankees and the southern whites was the way the Yankees talked. It sounded as if the words were trapped inside their noses.

Daniel tried to explain again. “Suh, we not runaways. We belong to Master Turner.”

A portly older man with long, red sideburns came toward them from the direction of the fields. Instead of a uniform, he wore a black frock coat.

“More fugitives?” he asked, peering closely at Daniel and Obi.

“They claim they belong here,” the soldier said. “At least I think that's what they're saying.”

“We not runaways. We belong to Master Turner, suh,” Daniel sighed wearily.

The man in the frock coat talked slowly to Obi and Daniel, as if he were addressing very young children. “Your master is a traitor. The United States government therefore has seized any property belonging to him. Do you understand?”

Obi didn't understand and neither did Daniel.

“Suh, you returnin' me to Master Turner?” Daniel asked patiently.

“I just told you,” the man said calmly. “Your master is our enemy. Anything that belongs to him, we have the right to take.”

Now Obi understood. “We ain't free, then, suh?” Daniel asked.

“That's not for me to say.”

Daniel stared intently at the man. “We belong to you, suh?”

The man's face reddened. “No. You belong to the Treasury Department.”

Obi recalled that the man in the field had also mentioned this Treasury Department thing. Obi wondered what it was.

“I have to get back to the mainland, suh, to find my wife an' baby.”

“What? I don't understand. You—”

“Master send me to work for the Confederates. Then he leave an' take my wife an' baby with he.”

“You were at the camp on the other side of the river?” The man stared intently at Daniel as if he didn't want to miss a word he said. “You were both there?”

“Yes, suh,” Daniel answered.

“Could you tell us how many artillery there are? And men?”

“Yes, suh. I know all that.”

The man looked at the soldiers. “Maybe the captain could use these two.”

“Maybe,” one of the soldiers said. “These blacks know the territory. Maybe they could show us where there's a weak spot in the Rebel shore defense.”

Obi lost interest in the conversation. He wanted to eat, sleep, and then scour the island and find Lorena.

The man looked at Obi. “What do you know about this area?”

“Don't know nothin', suh,” Obi answered.

Daniel continued. “Suh, can I go to find my wife an' baby?”

“I think that's dangerous.”

“I know how to find my way, suh.”

“Could you guide someone through these swamps?”

“Yes, suh. Know them well.”

The man turned to Obi. “Could you do the same?”

“No, suh. Don't know about no swamp nor how to do nothin'.”

“These slavers wouldn't have you if you didn't know anything,” he snapped.

“He a first-rate carpenter, suh,” Daniel said.

Obi glared at him. He didn't want these men to know what he could do. He wasn't going to be around here for long. Daniel reminded him of Easter's letting the Colonel know that she was a cook.

“We may need carpenters,” the man said quickly. “But until that time comes, you go with the others tomorrow to the rice field.”

“And you,” he said, turning to Daniel, “come and see me. Superintendent James. Got that?”

Daniel nodded. “Yes, suh, but I have to go back to the mainland.”

“Well, maybe we can help each other. You come see me and the Captain tomorrow.”

Daniel nodded. “Yes, suh, Super … Super …”

The soldiers laughed at him.

Got a nerve to laugh, funny as they talk,
Obi thought.

“Superintendent James,” the man repeated.

“Yes, suh,” Daniel mumbled.

“The slave quarter is filled up,” the man said. “You'll have to stay in the camp with the others.” He pointed beyond the terraced garden to an area Obi hadn't noticed before. There were makeshift shelters—sticks with pieces of old cloth and canvas thrown over them—lean-tos with canvas over the space where a door would normally have been, and a few stick-and-mud shacks.

Instead of going to the camp behind the garden, Daniel walked silently to the slave quarter, and Obi followed. Daniel stopped in front of a small, weather-beaten cabin. “That was our cabin,” he muttered sadly.

Obi felt too sorry for Daniel, too weary, to be excited about finally reaching the island. He missed Easter, Buka, and Jason too. They should all be there with him. After all the years of planning and dreaming of breaking free, he still felt like Obi, the slave of John Jennings.

The sons of thousands of white mothers were dying,
and people were beginning to say that blacks could
stop bullets as well as white men.

Lerone Bennett Jr., author
From
Before the Mayflower

May 1862
Imitating the movements of the other men and women in the field, Obi dropped the rice seeds into the small trench and, with his bare foot, covered it over with dirt. He repeated the same process at the next trench, about twelve inches away.

The songs of the yellow and black rice birds created a kind of music to accompany the sowers' “dance” across the field. Obi looked anxiously at the position of the sun. It was about four o'clock—only a few more hours to work.

For five months now, Obi had spent his free time searching for Lorena. He'd managed to talk to the older slaves at Green Hills, as well as the slaves on the other plantations on the island.

Until yesterday, no one had heard of his mother. Yesterday, however, he'd found an old woman who'd told him that yes, she'd definitely known Lorena and that Lorena had been sold years ago to a plantation on another island.

Obi hoped that Daniel would return this evening. He
needed to talk to him. He felt he should leave Green Hills so that he could continue his search for his mother, but he wanted to talk to Daniel first. Daniel had been working as a guide for the captain. He led small groups of soldiers through the swamps so that they could gather information and draw accurate maps of the coastal areas. Recently his assignment was more dangerous.

Given false papers stating that he was free, he travelled back and forth to the mainland, reporting on Confederate troop movements. Several times he'd sneaked to the camp to visit Easter, Mariah, and Gabriel before he returned to the island.

The first time he returned from the camp, he had told Obi, “Easter say the Colonel think we drown in the river.”

On his last assignment, he had stopped at the camp again. “Easter say she miss you,” he informed Obi. “I workin' on her. I tell her the Yankee tell you to do your task, then he leave you be. Least he ain't buyin' an' sellin' your hide.”

“What she say?” Obi asked.

“Say she think on it. I sneak her out of there easy, Obi.”

When Obi wasn't thinking about Lorena, he thought about Easter. His mind kept drawing the same pictures: Easter as a little, barefoot girl in shirttails; Easter growing into a young woman. But the image that gave him the most pain and guilt was Easter crying because Jason was no longer with her.

Maybe Daniel would bring Easter with him this evening when he returned. When the sun finally began to set, Obi and the other field hands trudged back to the slave quarter. Obi shared a hastily built shack with a group of other young men who didn't have families. He didn't like sleeping in the crude shelter with so many others, but it was better than being in the squalid camp behind the garden.

As he walked toward the cabin, he saw Daniel waving to him. Obi was relieved. Each time Daniel left Green Hills, Obi wondered whether his friend would return safely. Before Obi could say hello, Daniel practically pounced on him.
“Obi! I hear the General freein' us. Say if we join the army, we get freedom paper an' ten dollars a month pay.”

Obi sat down wearily on the ground in front of the shack.

“What general?” he asked.

“The general who the boss of all these islands,” he said, sitting next to him. “He at Port Royal, another island to the south of us. He startin' a black regiment.” His round face burst into a wide grin. “I been hopin' for this all these months. I want to get into this fight too!”

“I don't want to be soldier or slave. This ain't none of my war. I goin' to find my mother. That's what I want to tell you. A woman tell me that Lorena sent to another island.”

“What island?”

“She ain't know that.”

Daniel's face became serious. “Your ma is a dream of the past, Obi. I bet you don't even remember she face.” He gazed sadly at the purple sky. “Pick up a gun an' fight these slavers. Then you find Easter an' the boy. That the future.” He pointed his index finger in Obi's face as if he were aiming a gun.

“You crazy,” Obi responded. “I never know why you come back here when you have paper sayin' you free. You should find Minna an' take she an' little Daniel to Mexico.”

“I like it fine on this island,” Daniel said. “May not like Mexico. I joinin' the regiment. And I go fight my way out this slavery mess. Piece of this land be mine, an' me an' Minna have a
real
marriage—not a slave marriage, where Master sell you, your wife, an' child.”

“I don't trust these Yankee, Daniel. I think whoever win the war keep us. No, I have to find Lorena, get Easter an' Jason. Then we all leavin' this land of slaves.”

Obi noticed that Daniel avoided his eyes when he mentioned Easter. “You see her this time?” he asked.

Daniel sighed. “The Colonel gone an' Easter leave with he. They's only about fifty soldiers at the shore now, an' a
new colonel. Gabriel an' Mariah an' a few field hands still there.”

Daniel grinned, but Obi knew that he was just trying to cheer him up. “The Colonel and Easter not far. Just a different camp, I sure. I find out where they be. Next time I come back, I bringin' Easter with me.” He patted Obi on his back. “Another thing happen. I find where Minna stayin' in Charleston.”