Part 13 (1/2)

I remember the night they shot him, remember it well. I was down the quarters sitting up with Grace Turner. She wasn't feeling too good, and me, Olive Jarreau and Lena Was.h.i.+ngton was sitting up with her. We was inside talking when Etienne Bouie came by and knocked on the end of the gallery. I went to the door to see what he wanted and he told me what had happened. He said, ”Jane, guess what? They done shot Long.” I said, ”Don't tell me that, Etienne. Don't tell me that, no. Don't tell me that, now.” He said, ”Yes, they shot him. He's not dead, but they fear for his life.” He said he had just seen Manuel Ruffin and Manuel had heard it over the radio in Bayonne. Manuel had got in his car and come home because he was scared the white people might start war over this. Etienne and Manuel was going through the quarters telling the people what had happened. They tried to get Just Thomas, the head deacon, to go ring the church bell, but Just told them he wasn't getting in white folks' business. Grace told Etienne to come in and have some coffee, and before you knowed it the house was full of people. Unc Gilly got down on his knees and told us to pray for Long. But do you think they was go'n let him go on living? Not after what he had done for the poor.

Now, you mean to tell me out of all the doctors you got in a hospital, not one of these doctors know what he's suppose to do-if to go in the front or the back of a man to keep him from bleeding to death? You trying to tell me that? What you got them there for if they don't know how to operate? No, they didn't want stop the bleeding. They had paid them guards to kill him, and now they sure wasn't go'n save his life in no hospital. I wouldn't be a bit surprise if one day they don't find out them doctors didn't help kill him in that place.

Look like every man that pick up the cross for the poor must end that way.

Miss Lilly.

After Long came in office and gived us free books we got our first teacher here on the place-Miss Lilly. Miss Lilly stayed up the quarters with me all the time she was here. When they made me cook I had to move up the quarters because they wanted the cook to live closer to the front. Since I didn't need all of the house for myself I let the teacher have one half and I kept the other half. Every teacher that ever taught here, long as I was the cook, stayed up there with me.

Miss Lilly was a little bowlegged mulatto woman from Opelousas. A big pile of black hair, she used to pin in a roll on top her head. The people used to go up to the church and look through the window at her teaching the children. Half of the people on the place had never been in a school, and for a while everybody wanted to know what Miss Lilly was like. Sometimes you would find somebody standing at every window up there looking inside at her. After they got used to her up there, though, they stopped going. The children was about ready to stop, too. Miss Lilly was too tough on everybody. She didn't just want lesson, she wanted the girls to come there with their dresses ironed, she wanted ribbons in their hair. The boys had to wear ties, had to s.h.i.+ne their shoes. Brogans or no brogans, she wanted them s.h.i.+ned.

The children put up with that a couple months, then they stopped going to school. Everybody got sick. If it wasn't cold, it was headache; if it wasn't headache, it was belly ache. Miss Lilly started taking medicine to school. A little brown bottle of asafetida, a little clear bottle of castor oil. When she called roll and missed somebody she went out looking for him. She wouldn't teach the children who was already there, she had to go out looking for the lost lamb. When the children saw her coming, they let out cross the field. Sometimes they headed the other way, toward the river. I would see them from the big house. The boy first, then a little while later Miss Lilly. She could really run for being bowlegged like she was. Poor thing.

Now the next thing she wanted, she wanted everybody to have a toothbrush. People didn't have money to buy bread with, but Miss Lilly wanted them to have toothbrushes. She gived everybody a week. The end of the week, n.o.body had a toothbrush. Some of the children had been rubbing soda over their teeth; some of them rubbed charcoal over their teeth; but none of this was good enough for Miss Lilly. She wanted them brushed. She went to the store and asked for two dozen toothbrushes. She was go'n pay for them herself and the children could pay her back when they got the money. Clarence Samson, the brother who used to run the store, told her he didn't have no toothbrushes and he wasn't ordering none. People found out he was ordering toothbrushes for n.i.g.g.e.rs they would tar and feather him and run him out of the parish on a rail. Miss Lilly asked him what if he said he was ordering the toothbrushes for white folks. Clarence said they would laugh at him so hard he would pack up and leave of his own. Miss Lilly didn't argue with him, she walked out of the store, and that weekend she went to Bayonne and got a brush for every child.

Poor Miss Lilly.

One evening Miss Lilly was coming from down the quarters when she heard Oscar Haynes' two boys, Tee Bo and Tee Lo, crying up there in the tree. It was getting dark, she couldn't see them, but she could hear them plain as day. One cry a little while and stop, then the other one start off. This one a little while, then the other one. Miss Lilly stood at the gate looking in the yard. Oscar had green moss burning under the tree. People used to keep a smoke like that in the summer to keep away mosquitoes, but tonight it wasn't mosquitoes. Miss Lilly stood at the gate a while, then she came in the yard. Oscar and Viney and them sitting out there on the gallery. n.o.body saying a word. Just sitting there in the dark. Up in the tree Tee Bo and Tee Lo crying. One a little while, then the other. One a little while, then the other. When Miss Lilly got closer to the tree she saw the two sacks up there.

”What's going on up there?” she asked.

”That's you, Miss Lilly?” Tee Bo said. Miss Lilly could hardly understand him with his mouth pressed up against the sack.

”That's me,” Miss Lilly said. ”What's going on up there?”

”Daddy smoking us,” Tee Bo said.

”Come out of that tree,” Miss Lilly said.

”These sacks tied,” Tee Bo said.

”Stop fooling with me,” Miss Lilly said. ”Come down from there.'

n.o.body on the gallery said a thing. Just sitting there in the dark. Not even looking at Miss Lilly out there in the yard.

”Do I have to come up there?” Miss Lilly said. ”Come out of there.”

”These sacks tied, Miss Lilly,” Tee Bo said.

Miss Lilly made two little jumps to reach the sacks, but didn't come nowhere near reaching them. Then she went up to the gallery and looked at Oscar and them sitting there in the dark. She wouldn't say a thing. They didn't say a thing. Acting like she wasn't even there.

”All y'all crazy?” she asked.

n.o.body answered.

”I asked is all y'all crazy?” she said again.

”No business sa.s.sing old people,” Aunt Julie said. Aunt Julie was Oscar's mama.

”No business sa.s.sing old people?” Miss Lilly said. ”You whip children when they sa.s.sy old people, you don't smoke them. Get them children down.”

n.o.body answer.

”You hear me?” she said to Oscar.

”I'm hearing everything you saying,” Oscar said.

”Well?” Miss Lilly said.

”You better go on up the quarters to Miss Jane,” Oscar said. ”Teacher or no teacher.”

”I leave when them children come down,” Miss Lilly said.

Oscar didn't say another word. When he got up, Viney said: ”Oscar be careful. The law on her side.” He didn't say nothing to her, either. He came on down the steps, picked up Miss Lilly with one hand and started with her toward the gate. Miss Lilly screaming and kicking now. ”What you doing to me? Put me down. Animal, animal. Put me down. Help. Help.” Oscar pushed the gate open and set her on the ground, then he gived her a big whack on the behind and went on back in the yard. Just before he went on the gallery he throwed another piece of green moss on the fire to keep the smoke going up the tree.

Miss Lilly went from house to house, trying to find somebody to go down there and make Oscar stop smoking his children. When she couldn't find n.o.body down there she came up to the house and asked me to come go with her to see Robert Samson. I told her the same thing Robert Samson was go'n tell her-leave it alone. She asked me if I knowed what I was saying. I told her I knowed what I was saying-leave it alone. She said she still wanted to talk to Robert. I took her over there. Robert told her to stick to her teaching and let people raise their children the way they wanted to. We came back home. Miss Lilly taught the rest of the year, then she went home to Opelousas and never came back.

After Miss Lilly, then came Hardy. Joe Hardy was one of the worst human beings I've ever met. A little short, oily-face black man with a' open crown gold tooth right in front. Telling poor people the government wasn't paying him much, so he would 'preciate it if they could help him out some. Poor people selling all their little gardening to give Joe Hardy money; selling eggs, selling chickens, killing hogs and selling the meat, to give Joe Hardy money. This wasn't enough for him, he had people raising onions and potatoes for him. Used to take the children out in the field in the evening to hoe and plow his onions and potatoes. Telling the children that one of the lessons our great leader Mr. Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton taught was for children to learn good honest labor.

But that wasn't enough for Hardy either. Now he had to start messing with the young ladies at the school. Every time you looked around he had one of the young ladies staying at school helping him correct papers. One day he kept Marshall Bouie's daughter, Francine, up there. Marshall and two of his boys came looking for Hardy. They found him and Francine sitting at the table talking. Night already. Lamp burning. Papers stacked to the side-him and Francine sitting at the table talking. When Marshall walked in, both Hardy and Francine jumped up. Marshall told Francine to go on home, he would deal with her later. Then he told Hardy to blow out the lamp and close up the school, because he wanted Hardy to come go somewhere with him and his boys. After Hardy had propped that post behind the door, Marshall marched him through the quarters back to the graveyard. The two boys tied Hardy to one of them little pecan trees, and Marshall took a stalk of jobo cane, and every time he hit Hardy you could hear Hardy from one end of the plantation to the other. Manuel Ruffin cut Hardy loose round midnight. He said he just got tired listening to Hardy moaning over there. He said he knowed he wasn't go'n get any sleep, so he got a butcher knife out the kitchen and went over to the graveyard and chopped him loose. Soon as Hardy got loose, instead of him going on where he came from, no, he want go to Bayonne and tell the law on Marshall. Sam Guidry sleep, now-Hardy woke him up. ”A man tried to beat me to death.” Guidry: ”Look like he did a halfway job.” Then Guidry told Hardy he knowed all about him, and as a matter of fact he was thinking about talking to him one day himself. He told Hardy he had no intention of 'resting Marshall; on the other hand he was giving Hardy about one minute to get out his parish. He told Hardy he was going back inside and wash the sleep out his eyes; he was go'n put on his gun belt, then he was coming back with that four-batt'ry flashlight to look for him.

n.o.body down here know if Guidry found Hardy that night. Maybe he just told him that to scare him out the parish. But after that night n.o.body round here ever seen or heard of Hardy again.

For a year and a half we didn't have a school on the place at all. Going into the second year we got that LeFabre girl.

The LeFabre Family.

Mary Agnes LeFabre comes from a long line of Creoles back there in New Orleans. Her grandmother was one drop from being white herself. Her grandmother had been one of those ladies for white men. They used to give these great b.a.l.l.s before the war, and the white men used to go there to choose their colored women. They didn't marry these women, but sometime they kept them the rest of their life. The one who took this girl's grandmother was called LeFabre.

She named all her children after him. Some of them didn't want these children to carry their name, but old man LeFabre didn't mind. When he died he left them money and property-even slaves. And for the rest of her life, Mary Agnes was trying to make up for this: for what her own people had done her own people. Trying to make up for the past-and that you cannot do. 'Specially somebody pretty like she was. She was medium height, but a little thin. She reminded you of some of these dagoes round here who call themself Sicilians. But she wasn't fat like most of them get. She had long black hair, black as any hair I have ever seen, and it used to come way down her back. Sometimes at night when she got ready to comb it I used to ask her let me help. She would sit on the floor in front of me-that same Mary Agnes LeFabre.

After the war, the family moved from New Orleans to Creole Place. What brought them to Creole Place, I don't know; maybe they had people there already. You had always had some mulattoes there, since long before the war, and now it got to be a settlement for them.

The people at Creole Place did everything for themself. Did their own farming, raised their own hogs, their own catties, did their own butchering. Had their own church-Catholic; built their own school and got their own teacher. The teacher had to come from there just like the priest had to come from there. Gived their own dances, their own parties, and people like them was the only ones invited. No matter how white you was if you didn't have Creole background they didn't want you there. Same for them who left. Some went North and pa.s.sed for white; others joined the colored race. But no matter what they did, once they left they couldn't go back.

I want tell you a little story just to show how these people looked at things, and this story is true. People here at Samson right now who can back me up. Etienne, Pap, either one of them can back me up on this. Sappho Brown rode through Creole Place and saw the mulattoes hanging lanterns and crepe paper up in the trees. That was Friday. He figured they was go'n have a dance that Sat.u.r.day night so he told Claudee-Claudee Ferdinand-let's go there. Now Sappho and Claudee white as any white man in this parish, but they knowed good and G.o.d well they didn't have no business going there messing round with them Creoles. Both Sappho and Claudee's daddy was white, but not Creole white. Poor white-no quality. Everybody telling them not to go. ”Please don't go down there messing round with them people. You know how them Creole mulattoes act.” But telling this to Sappho and Claudee was like talking to a block of wood. ”We just as white as them. Whiter than lot of them. Anyhow, they go'n have so many people there they won't even see us.” They get on Joe Sipp horse and head out. Creole Place five, six miles from Samson, going toward Baton Rouge. Just before they come up to the dance they tie the horse under a tree and walk the rest of the way. Nothing for them to do soon as they get there but start messing round with these girls. They don't know five words of Creole between them, but the girls speak some English, so they start messing with these girls. By and by the mulattoes get them surrounded. A tall, skinny mulatto in a white cowboy hat did all the talking. ”Who you know here?” Sappho said before he could say we don't know n.o.body here, we just stumbled in, we don't mean no harm, and we don't mind leaving-Claudee said: ”Jacques. Us know Jacques.” If you're at a Creole dance you got to have somebody there called Jacques. ”Us know Jacques.” The tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat said: ”Fetch me Jacques.” Jacques come up-white s.h.i.+rt, khaki pants. Tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat said: ”Jacques, you know these common n.i.g.g.e.rs?” Jacques. ”Non. Can't say I do, Raphael.” Claudee said: ”I didn't mean Jacques, I meant Jean.” Sappho said he started to tell Claudee to please shut his mouth and let's get out of here while they was still able to, but, no, now he know Jean. Tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat said: ”Jean what?” Claudee said: ”Jean-oh-er-Jean LeFabre. Jean LeFabre. Yeah, that's the Jean. Jean LeFabre. But he might not be here tonight. When he told me 'bout the fair he told me he wasn't feeling too good. Headache.” The tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat said: ”But yes. He got the headache over. Fetch me Jean.” Now Jean come up. A little bowlegged mulatto-thick gla.s.ses. Jean: ”What now, Raphael?” Tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat: ”Them two n.i.g.g.e.rs, Jean?” Jean: ”Kee?” Tall mulatto: ”Know them?” Jean went up to Sappho and looked at him a while, then he went up to Claudee. He looked at Claudee longer, and everybody, even Sappho, was getting the feeling that maybe he did know Claudee. Then he backed away, shaking his head. ”Non.” Claudee: ”Come on, Jean, you know you know me. Stop fooling the people. You told me 'bout this dance in Bayonne.” Jean: ”Bayonne? Bayonne? Alcee Bayonne. He live yet? Tell me about Alcee Bayonne and Ad-de-line.” Claudee: ”Who? What? What you talking 'bout, Jean? Town. No man, Jean. Town. Town. Way up the river. Buy meat. Rice. Many people live.” Jean: ”Bayonne? Town? Meat? No cop.r.o.n.” Tall mulatto in the white cowboy hat said: ” 'Nough of this. Langlois, fetch two plow lines off that wagon.”

Sappho said he was running before the tall mulatto mentioned the plow lines, he just started running faster when he heard it. He said the first person he knocked down coming in the gate was a lady and a fat one at that. She was soft soft and smelled sweet sweet and powder flew up in his face when he hit her. The other person he knocked down was a man-short and hard because the man gived him a jolt right in the pit of his stomach. Claudee didn't wait for the gate to clear up, he went over the fence. When he hit the other side he had left a chunk of his leg on that barb wire the size of his thumb. Now, they was on that road for Samson. Sappho said he was already pa.s.sing Joe Sipp horse when Claudee hollered at him to untie the horse. He said to himself: ”You untie him. You the one walking back there.”