Heaven and Hell by John Jakes Page B
Authors: John Jakes
Tags: United States, Fiction, Historical fiction, General, Romance, Historical, United States - History - 1865-1898
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began to wind through glinting salt marshes, close to home. How he loved South Carolina, and especially the Low Country. His son's tragic death had transformed him to a loyalist, although he still perceived himself to be a moderate on every issue but one: the inherent superiority of the white race and its fitness to govern society. Cooper was at this mo- \ ment about ten minutes away from an encounter with a man who carried
Southern loyalty far beyond anything he ever imagined.
His name was Desmond LaMotte. He was a great scarecrow of a man, with outlandishly long legs, which hung almost to the ground as he rode his mule through the marshes near the Cooper River. His arms I were equivalently long. He had curly carrot-colored hair with a startling I Lost Causes 39
streak of white running back from his forehead; the war had given him that. He wore a neat imperial the color of his hair.
He came from the old Huguenot stock that dominated the state's town and plantation aristocracy. His late mother was a Huger, a Husuenot name pronounced You-gee. The war had cut down most of the young men in both families.
Des was a native Charlestonian, born in 1834. By the time he was fifteen he'd reached his adult height of six feet four inches. His hands measured ten inches from the tip of the little finger to the tip of the thumb when the fingers were spread. His feet measured thirteen inches from heel to big toe. So naturally, like any strong-willed, contrary and defiant young man with those physical characteristics, he decided to become a dancing master.
People scoffed. But he was determined, and he made a success of it. It was an old and honorable profession, particularly in the South. Up among the hypocrites of New England, preachers always railed against mixed dancing, along with dancing in taverns, Maypole dancing (it smacked of pagan ritual), or any dancing with food and drink nearby.
Southerners had a more enlightened view, because of their higher culture, their spiritual kinship with the English gentry, and their economic system; slavery gave them the leisure time for learning how to dance.
Both Washington and Jefferson--great men; great Southerners, in Des's view--had been partial to dancing.
Early in life, whether riding or thrusting with a foil or idly tossing a horseshoe with some of the children of Charleston's free Negro population, Des LaMotte demonstrated an agility unusual in any boy, and remarkable in someone growing so large so quickly. His parents recognized Page 43
his ability, and because they believed in the benefits of dance instruction for young gentlemen, they started his lessons at age eleven.
Des never forgot the first stern words of his own dancing master. He'd committed them to memory and later used them with his own pupils: .
The dancing school is not a place of amusement, but a place of education.
And the end of a good education is not that you become accomplished dancers, but that you become good sons and daughters, good husbands and wives, good citizens and good Christians.
In the five years preceding the war, well and happily married to lss Sally Sue Means, of Charleston, Des had established a school in s on King Street, and developed a thriving trade among the Low ntrv plantations, through which he made a circuit three times annu
»ways
advertising in local papers in advance of his visit. He never d for pupils. He taught a little fencing to the boys, but mostly he 40 HEAVEN AND HELL
taught dances: the traditional quadrilles and Yorks and reels, with the dancers in a set or a line that would not compromise their morals through too much physical contact. He also taught the newer, more daring importations from Europe, the waltz and polka, closed dances with the couples facing one another in what some considered a dangerous intimacy.
An Episcopal divine in Charleston had preached against "the abomination of permitting a man who is neither your fiance nor your husband to encircle you with his
Southern loyalty far beyond anything he ever imagined.
His name was Desmond LaMotte. He was a great scarecrow of a man, with outlandishly long legs, which hung almost to the ground as he rode his mule through the marshes near the Cooper River. His arms I were equivalently long. He had curly carrot-colored hair with a startling I Lost Causes 39
streak of white running back from his forehead; the war had given him that. He wore a neat imperial the color of his hair.
He came from the old Huguenot stock that dominated the state's town and plantation aristocracy. His late mother was a Huger, a Husuenot name pronounced You-gee. The war had cut down most of the young men in both families.
Des was a native Charlestonian, born in 1834. By the time he was fifteen he'd reached his adult height of six feet four inches. His hands measured ten inches from the tip of the little finger to the tip of the thumb when the fingers were spread. His feet measured thirteen inches from heel to big toe. So naturally, like any strong-willed, contrary and defiant young man with those physical characteristics, he decided to become a dancing master.
People scoffed. But he was determined, and he made a success of it. It was an old and honorable profession, particularly in the South. Up among the hypocrites of New England, preachers always railed against mixed dancing, along with dancing in taverns, Maypole dancing (it smacked of pagan ritual), or any dancing with food and drink nearby.
Southerners had a more enlightened view, because of their higher culture, their spiritual kinship with the English gentry, and their economic system; slavery gave them the leisure time for learning how to dance.
Both Washington and Jefferson--great men; great Southerners, in Des's view--had been partial to dancing.
Early in life, whether riding or thrusting with a foil or idly tossing a horseshoe with some of the children of Charleston's free Negro population, Des LaMotte demonstrated an agility unusual in any boy, and remarkable in someone growing so large so quickly. His parents recognized Page 43
his ability, and because they believed in the benefits of dance instruction for young gentlemen, they started his lessons at age eleven.
Des never forgot the first stern words of his own dancing master. He'd committed them to memory and later used them with his own pupils: .
The dancing school is not a place of amusement, but a place of education.
And the end of a good education is not that you become accomplished dancers, but that you become good sons and daughters, good husbands and wives, good citizens and good Christians.
In the five years preceding the war, well and happily married to lss Sally Sue Means, of Charleston, Des had established a school in s on King Street, and developed a thriving trade among the Low ntrv plantations, through which he made a circuit three times annu
»ways
advertising in local papers in advance of his visit. He never d for pupils. He taught a little fencing to the boys, but mostly he 40 HEAVEN AND HELL
taught dances: the traditional quadrilles and Yorks and reels, with the dancers in a set or a line that would not compromise their morals through too much physical contact. He also taught the newer, more daring importations from Europe, the waltz and polka, closed dances with the couples facing one another in what some considered a dangerous intimacy.
An Episcopal divine in Charleston had preached against "the abomination of permitting a man who is neither your fiance nor your husband to encircle you with his
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