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A Woman Called Truth : SOJOURNER TRUTH

Terms in this set (82)

FIRST WOMAN: Tell your story, Belle.
SOJOURNER: But who will listen? Who will hear?
[SONG: SOMEBODY CALLIN' MY NAME]
OH, HUSH, HUSH, SOMEBODY CALLIN' MY NAME.
SOJOURNER: My name? Which one's that, I wonder? Oh, I've had a bunch of them in my day. And a bunch of days for each of them. Yes, indeed, I've lived a life, I have. "What if there is no heaven?" a fellow once asked me. "What if you never get there? What'll you say then?" "I'll say, 'Bless the Lord'." I told him. "I had good time thinking I would!".
[OTHERS ad-lib responses "amen" etc., as if at a lecture or a tent meeting.]
SOJOURNER: I was born a slave in Ulster County, New York. Oh, yes, there were slaves up there, too. Not so many as in the South, and not so profitable, either, so there was some talk up in the capital about changing the laws, but it took it's time doing me any good. Must have been 1790 something I came into the world. On a bed of straw in the slave cellar. Nobody bothered to make note of my birthday. Nobody made note of a calf's birthday, either, not even its mama. Mama, papa, my brother Peter, and me. There were other children too, but I never knew them. All sold away. Mama called me Isabelle, but that shortened to Belle. My last name belonged to my master, just like me. Belle Hardenburgh. Master Hardenburgh's Belle. Master Hardenburgh was a kindly man, but he was getting old.
MAMA: Isabelle! Peter! Wake up.
SOJOURNER: Mama? What is it?
MAMA: Hush, not so loud. There are babies sleeping.
SOJOURNER: Has something happened?
MAMA: No time for that now. You must swear to me that you will never lie.
ISABELLE: Mama, why are you...
MAMA: Isabelle, do as I say!
SOJOURNER: Yes, Mama.
MAMA: Will you ever lie?
ISABELLE & PETER: No, Mama.
MAMA: And you will never steal?
SOJOURNER & PETER: No, Mama.
MAMA: And you will always obey your Master?
SOJOURNER & PETER: Yes, Mama.
MAMA: Good. Now, children, listen hard what I tell you tonight, even if I told it all before. I want you to remember it always, because you will be told many things after I'm gone.
SOJOURNER: Where are you going, Mama?
MAMA: Just listen. There is a God, and He sees everything. You must never forget Him, you hear? He lives in the sky, high, high up in the sky. And if ever you are beaten or cruelly treated...
SOJOURNER: Master doesn't beat us, Mama?
MAMA: Isabelle, will you hush? [in italics] Listen to me.
SOJOURNER: Yes, Mama.
PETER: Yes, Mama.
SOJOURNER: I'll remember.
MAMA: Good. Now, look. Do you see those stars?
SOJOURNER: I see them.
AUCTIONEER: I want to thank you folks for coming here today. Now, you all knew Charles Hardenburgh. He knew quality and demanded it. I expect you'll want to keep that in mind when bidding on the goods we are offering you today. Get up there girl.
SOJOURNER: Mama?
NEELY: Well, come on then, girl. Get those sheep moving
SOJOURNER: Mama!
[SONG: GOODBYE BROTHER]
NOW, GOD BLESS YOU, NOW, GOD BLESS YOU,
IF I DON'T SEE YOU NO MORE
SOJOURNER: Now my name is Belle Neeely- and the war was begun. Master Neely beat me often, beat me hard, and I never understood why.
NEELY: Woman, what do you want of me now?
SOJOURNER: (A pause) Mama? Mama, I see you there. Don't go! Mama, please? He hurt me, Mama. Master Neely hurt me bad. Mama? (A pause.) God? God, you know it isn't right for Master Neely to beat me like that. Mama told me to do what's right. I'm trying. Could you kill him? (She quickly reconsiders.) No. NO. Could you find me another master? I'll be waiting for your answer. Mama says you'll always hear me, so now it's up to you.
MRS. NEELY: Sell it. Sell the land, the store, the girl. Let them have it all and get us out of here, John, before there's nothing left of us worth saving. Sell it, John, please let us go...
SOJOURNER: I thank you, God. I grew up tall as any man around. Learned to curse like a man, too. A quiet speaking man named John Dumont offered three hundred dollars for me. My name was Belle Dumont, now.
SISSY: Put that laundry away now, Belle. No work today.
SOJOURNER: What's that, Sissy?
BOB: I'm Bob, from Catlin's place.
SOJOURNER: I'm Belle, from Dumont's.
BOB: Do you dance?
SOJOURNER: No.
BOB: Do you walk?
SOJOURNER: Sure, I walk.
BOB: Then, let's walk.
SOJOURNER: All right.
[OTHERS continue and conclude their dance]
[BOB and SOJOURNER re-enter, laughing]
SOJOURNER: Oh, I'm ranting on so! I don't talk like this to anyone, but you, Bob, you know that?
BOB: I like to listen to you talk.
SOJOURNER: That's good, because I can't seem to stop. Before you, there'd be days go by sometimes when I never said a word to anybody, except for "Yes, sir," and "No, ma'am,".
BOB: Is that so?
SOJOURNER: (Laughing) I know you don't believe me, but it's so. (Growing serious) I don't seem to fit in at the Dumont's, Bob. Never have fit in anywhere. Not with the white folks, and not with the black. I'm different, and I don't know why.
BOB: You are different. I knew that right off.
SOJOURNER: Well, I just wonder why. Do you ever think about God?
BOB: Not much.
SOJOURNER: I do. Sometimes I think that Master Dumont is God.
BOB: He's not. If there is a God, he's no slave-owner.
SOJOURNER: Master Dumont's kind to me.
BOB: Belle, I've got to tell you something.
SOJOURNER: What?
BOB: We... have to be more careful.
SOJOURNER: What do you mean?
BOB: We better get back.
SOJOURNER: Bob, what is it?
BOB: Master Catlin says he'll kill me if he catches me coming to see you again.
SOJOURNER: He knows?
BOB: He doesn't want Dumont getting my children. He's picked out a girl for me on his own place. Belle, I have to take care. He'll kill me, just like he says.
SOJOURNER: But he'd never catch us up here. You just have to stay away from the house, isn't that right?
BOB: I don't know. Maybe. I want to see you, but...
SOJOURNER: You have to! This little bit of time we've been together, it's... I forgot how to be lonely, Bob. I can't be that way again, don't you see? I won't be able to stand it.
BOB: I know. I know.
SOJOURNER: You will come to see me again, won't you?
DUMONT: Feeling better today, Belle?
SOJOURNER: Yes, Master, almost back to my old self.
DUMONT: You take it easy one more day. I don't want you down with that fever all over again.
SOJOURNER: Yes sir.
DUMONT: Um... Belle, have you seen Bob?
SOJOURNER: No sir. Bob has no reason to come here.
DUMONT: Well, if he should turn Catlin's been looking for him.
SOJOURNER: Yes, sir.
[As DUMONT turns to go, BOB appears. A second later, CATLIN appears]
SOJOURNER: Bob!
DUMONT: This is my place. This is my business. And I'll have no slave beaten to death on my property. Get your boy and get you out of here.
SOJOURNER: Master, please. He'll kill my Bob.
DUMONT: I'm sorry, Belle. I've done all I can.
SOJOURNER: NO! There were other Pinxters, but no Bob to dance at them. I heard Catlin beat him so bad that day, he was never the same, never the man I knew. Master Dumont gave me a husband named Tom, and I bore children: Hannah and Elizabeth and a little boy I named for my brother, Peter. My brother... close to me still as Mama's stars and just as far away. Hadn't seen him in years, not since the day we were sold away from Mama. Never did see him again. Saw Mama once and Papa, too. They'd been set free, because they were old and tired and weak. Too old to work, too old to sell. Set free to wander homeless, free to get sick, free to be cold and hungry and alone. The day Papa came to visit me, we stood by Master Dumont's gate in the snow.
BAUMFREY: Who'll care for us, Belle? Who'll do for us now that we can't do for ourselves?
SOJOURNER: I will, Papa. Just as soon as I'm free.
BAUMFREY: Can't wait that long, girl.
SOJOURNER: Every day after that, I'd come to the gate and put my feet in the snowy prints there, until my papa's prints just melted away.
DUMONT: Belle?
SOJOURNER: Yes, Master Dumont?
DUMONT: I want to tell you something, Belle. Something important. I've never had anyone work as hard for me as you do, slave or hired hand. Now I'm sure you've heard about the state law that's going to set you free in two years...
SOJOURNER: Two years, Master?
DUMONT: That's right.
SOJOURNER: When I first heard about the law, people told me it said ten years.
DUMONT: That was eight years ago, Belle.
SOJOURNER: That long?
DUMONT: I've got a proposition for you, Belle. Give me one more year of the kind of work you've been doing, and I'll sign your freedom papers a year early. One year from now. This time next summer.
SOJOURNER: My freedom.
DUMONT: One more year, Belle. That's a promise.
SOJOURNER: My freedom! My freedom! I'd work like twenty men, I told Master Dumont, and I did. Day and night. Field work in the heat of the sun. Laundry by the light of the moon. An hour or two of sleep sometimes; other times, none at all. Never mind if my back ached or my feet were blistered and my hands were bruised and sore. I had plans! Oh, I had big plans.
PETE: Tell me about the house, Mama.
SOJOURNER: Already told you, Pete.
PETE: Tell me again.
SOJOURNER: No, Pete. Out of my way. I've got work to do.
PETE: Tell me anyway.
SOJOURNER: You sure are a pesky child! We're going to have our own little house someday, Pete.
PETE: Where?
SOJOURNER: Don't know yet, but it'll be someplace special. High on a hill, maybe, close to the stars. Soon as I'm free, I can work for wages. Then I'll bury your freedom, too.
PETE: And Hannah's? And Elizabeth's?
SOJOURNER: And Hannah's and Elizabeth's. And my mama and papa will live with us, too.
PETE: We'll take good care of them!
SOJOURNER: That's right! All of us close and warm and together, the way my mama always said. Would you like that, Pete?
PETE: I'd like that Mama.
SOJOURNER: Then move yourself along so I can get to my work!
SISSY: Mmmmmmm-hmmmm, here she comes, our fine Mistress Isabelle, queen of the slave cellar. Master Dumont's prize. You'll be wanting the spot closest to the fire, I suppose, won't you, Mistress Isabelle? Wouldn't do you for you to catch a chill now, would it? What would Master say if we let his Belle catch a chill? I'll tell you what he'd say. He'd say, "Look at my Belle. Will you look at that girl? Sick as a dog and see her work. Nothing stops my, Belle. No, sir!"
SOJOURNER: What's the matter with you, Sissy?
SISSY: What's the matter with me? What's the matter with you, girl? Can't you see you're hurting the rest of us when you work like that? Next thing you know, Master will have us all up night and day. What'll happen to our children, then? And the old folks? When are they supposed to rest?
SOJOURNER: Master promised me my freedom if I..
SISSY: When's a master ever kept a promise to a slave? He just told you that to keep you working 'til you drop, afraid you might let up with the new state law coming round.
SOJOURNER: Master Dumont's always been fair to me.
SISSY: We're slaves and he's the Master. What's fair about that? I thought you were smart, girl, but I was wrong. You are stupid. Horses work 'til they drop and so do you. It's stupid in a horse and it's stupid in a slave. Working hard won't free a one of us. Just kill us sooner, that's all.
SOJOURNER: Look at the stars, Mama said. And there they are, same stars for all of us. Mama and Papa, and Peter- (in a whisper) and Bob. Folks tell me that Bob's dead. Is that right, God? They say he just gave up and died. I'm not going to listen to Sissy and the others, God. I can't let them stop me. But I get so lonely sometimes when they won't talk to me. Sometimes I want so bad just to talk to somebody.
[SONG: LORD MAKE ME MORE PATIENT]
PATIENT, PEACEFUL, PATIENT
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
SOJOURNER: Master Dumont? Master Dumont?
DUMONT: What is it Belle?
SOJOURNER: It's time sir. Your promise.
DUMONT: My promise?
SOJOURNER: That I'd go free. A year before the law. This summer.
DUMONT: Oh. Oh, yes.
SOJOURNER: I've worked hard for you master. I have.
DUMONT: Yes. We depend on you, Belle. I don't see how I can get through summer and the harvest without you- or hw my wife would manage the heavy fall chores...
SOJOURNER: But Master, you promised.
DUMONT: Is it so bad for you here, Belle? I've given you a home, clothing, food, a husband...
SOJOURNER: This is not my home, these are not my clothes, my food is not my own. I take it only because I would starve without. The children old Tom has given me are slaves he's given you! I want my freedom, Master. I have earned it. I want only what's been promised me. I want only what's right.
DUMONT: I'm sorry, Belle. We need you. It's only one more year.
SOJOURNER: One more year! Is that fair?
SISSY: Fair? You stupid girl. Working hard won't free a one of us. Just kill us sooner, that's all.
SOJOURNER: I stayed on through the summer and helped with the livestock and crops and the kitchen garden. I stayed on through the fall. I did their spinning and put up their preserves and smoked their meats for the winter store. But after the first frost, when the busy time was over, I took what was not given to me, but what was mine, sure as I had entered it- my freedom.
PETE: Mama, don't go!
SOJOURNER: I have to, Pete. You know I do. I have to leave you for a little while so we can all be together later. Together and free.
PETE: But, Mama, I'm afraid.
SOJOURNER: No need to be. You and your sister will be safe here with the Dumonts. For all their faults, they'll never harm you. Look at the stars, you hear? And remember. [PETE walks out the scene] Mama? Up there with the stars, now. Papa, too. Never lived to see me free. I left just before dawn and walked toward the rising sun.
[SONG: MANY THOUSAND GO]
NO MORE MISTRESS' CALL FOR ME,
MANY THOUSAND GO
SOJOURNER: When the sun had met me halfway, I stopped, and before me was the home of some Quaker folks. They talked in a peculiar way, but there was nothing wrong with their thinking.
ISAAC: Yes, what is it?
SOJOURNER: I'm Belle. From Dumont's place. This is my baby, Sophie.
ISAAC: I see. I am Isaac Van Wagener, and this is my wife, Maria. Is there something we can do for thee, Belle?
Master Dumont, he told me that I'd be free if I worked extra hard all year. And I did. Then he told me I had to stay, just the same. That's not right, is it? That's not right.
MARIA: Sit down, Belle. Let me take thy baby. I'll put her to bed.
SOJOURNER: I knw Master Dumont will come for me, growing angrier every step of the way. I thought it best not to go too far.
MARIA: I hope this will please thee, Belle.
SOJOURNER: Oh, yes ma'am.
DUMONT: So, Belle, you've runaway from me.
SOJOURNER: No, Master, I did not run away. I walked away, because you promised me a year of my time. You said I could go free, and I did. That's all.
DUMONT: You'll have to come straight home with me.
SOJOURNER: No, Master, I won't.
DUMONT: I'll take the child. I'll take Sophie.
SOJOURNER:
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