destroying property, not murder. But that don’t stop the white man. As for the white woman, she can only turn her eye and sip tea.
—I haven’t borne witness to so much sin since Venice, Massa Humphrey say to Robert Quinn one morning at the dining-room table when only he and Quinn taking breakfast and Homer serving tea.
—And you were raised in this Gomorrah, Robby?
—Aye. As ye were, stop with yer lying now.
—Robert, I left the colony at age eight, you left at what, seventeen? So I beg to differ. And what sort of mischief does a randy lad of seventeen get into?
Robert Quinn laugh, but see Homer looking at him and quiet down. As she leave the room, both man burst into a loud dirty laugh.
—I swear, the old hag thinks she runs this estate, Massa Humphrey say.
—She probably does, I’ll wager.
—You’d wager your poor mum’s arse if you could. I tell you this, though. Even back when I was a young pup, she was already old.
Soon June heat was ’pon Montpelier and Massa Humphrey mother ask ’bout the season and if he not going back to England to commence courting for a wife. He say no lady of good breeding would want a rogue like him, who been living far from the motherland nigh on half a year. Him mother make he swear to not even think about marrying a Creole woman. I’d see you with a Jewess first, she say.
Massa Humphrey soon displeased with how the negrowomens skinny. He don’t want nobody to think that Montpelier can’t afford to feed they slaves so he give instructions to fatten them up. That be the first time plenty negro ever taste meat. Robert Quinn say to him that everybody seem to think that it was nothing for Montpelier to replace a dead slave with a fresh one so nobody bothered much with keeping slaves healthy. Quinn take out two book and show Massa Humphrey how much money waste because Wilkins and the slave-drivers was just plain wicked to nigger. So Massa Humphrey order new kind of food to fatten the niggers up.
A few months after Homer put her there Lilith forget how she get to the great house and say, I be different from them nigger bitches. Me smarter and prettier and me tired of the damn cellar.
—What a mouth ’pon you, you think it goin’ save you from the Johnny-jumpers? Homer say.
After that Lilith shut her mouth and she still. She stop puff her chest out and turn her eye away. Lilith quiet herself and don’t give no trouble when Homer tell her to sort out the cellar and not come up unless told to. Homer remind her that thanks to her no negro safe when they leave the house for the Johnny-jumper taking set on anybody. Lilith know the other niggers don’t like her. They know she have something to do with the missing Paris and that the Johnny-jumpers lay waiting any of them. War broke out between Johnny-jumper and house slave unawares to everybody but them. Whenever a house slave have to go further than the flower house, they always travel in two or three and one of the three was either Homer or Pallas. The Johnny-jumper when they see them would raise alarm but they wasn’t goin’ cross Homer or Pallas, since rumour be that Pallas was allow to carry musket and Homer was capable of any mischief. Johnny-jumper wasn’t safe neither. One day a young one not much older than Paris grab Homer by the hair when she walk past. She point two finger at him eye and by nightfall he got the consumption. Robert Quinn find him so useless that he put him in the boiling house. The Johnny-jumpers wasn’t going stop until Homer hand Lilith over and Homer was not one for people telling her what to do. Lilith suspect that this was not because of her but because of who Homer be. But she know the other house slaves hate her. They have to. For she was thinking that if she wasn’t Lilith she would hate Lilith too.
Lilith was not allow in the other part of the great house so is a long time pass before she even see the mistress. Lilith come upstairs only when Homer need one more
—I haven’t borne witness to so much sin since Venice, Massa Humphrey say to Robert Quinn one morning at the dining-room table when only he and Quinn taking breakfast and Homer serving tea.
—And you were raised in this Gomorrah, Robby?
—Aye. As ye were, stop with yer lying now.
—Robert, I left the colony at age eight, you left at what, seventeen? So I beg to differ. And what sort of mischief does a randy lad of seventeen get into?
Robert Quinn laugh, but see Homer looking at him and quiet down. As she leave the room, both man burst into a loud dirty laugh.
—I swear, the old hag thinks she runs this estate, Massa Humphrey say.
—She probably does, I’ll wager.
—You’d wager your poor mum’s arse if you could. I tell you this, though. Even back when I was a young pup, she was already old.
Soon June heat was ’pon Montpelier and Massa Humphrey mother ask ’bout the season and if he not going back to England to commence courting for a wife. He say no lady of good breeding would want a rogue like him, who been living far from the motherland nigh on half a year. Him mother make he swear to not even think about marrying a Creole woman. I’d see you with a Jewess first, she say.
Massa Humphrey soon displeased with how the negrowomens skinny. He don’t want nobody to think that Montpelier can’t afford to feed they slaves so he give instructions to fatten them up. That be the first time plenty negro ever taste meat. Robert Quinn say to him that everybody seem to think that it was nothing for Montpelier to replace a dead slave with a fresh one so nobody bothered much with keeping slaves healthy. Quinn take out two book and show Massa Humphrey how much money waste because Wilkins and the slave-drivers was just plain wicked to nigger. So Massa Humphrey order new kind of food to fatten the niggers up.
A few months after Homer put her there Lilith forget how she get to the great house and say, I be different from them nigger bitches. Me smarter and prettier and me tired of the damn cellar.
—What a mouth ’pon you, you think it goin’ save you from the Johnny-jumpers? Homer say.
After that Lilith shut her mouth and she still. She stop puff her chest out and turn her eye away. Lilith quiet herself and don’t give no trouble when Homer tell her to sort out the cellar and not come up unless told to. Homer remind her that thanks to her no negro safe when they leave the house for the Johnny-jumper taking set on anybody. Lilith know the other niggers don’t like her. They know she have something to do with the missing Paris and that the Johnny-jumpers lay waiting any of them. War broke out between Johnny-jumper and house slave unawares to everybody but them. Whenever a house slave have to go further than the flower house, they always travel in two or three and one of the three was either Homer or Pallas. The Johnny-jumper when they see them would raise alarm but they wasn’t goin’ cross Homer or Pallas, since rumour be that Pallas was allow to carry musket and Homer was capable of any mischief. Johnny-jumper wasn’t safe neither. One day a young one not much older than Paris grab Homer by the hair when she walk past. She point two finger at him eye and by nightfall he got the consumption. Robert Quinn find him so useless that he put him in the boiling house. The Johnny-jumpers wasn’t going stop until Homer hand Lilith over and Homer was not one for people telling her what to do. Lilith suspect that this was not because of her but because of who Homer be. But she know the other house slaves hate her. They have to. For she was thinking that if she wasn’t Lilith she would hate Lilith too.
Lilith was not allow in the other part of the great house so is a long time pass before she even see the mistress. Lilith come upstairs only when Homer need one more
Similar Books
