Les Blancs (31 page)
Authors: Lorraine Hansberry
A close-up shot as
EVERETT
’s
hand reaches out and takes
HANNIBAL
’s
cheeks between his fingers and turns his face from side to side to inspect his eyes
.
There is only one thing I have ever heard of that was proper for an “educated” slave. It is like anything else; when a part is corrupted by disease—
Suddenly with all his energy
HANNIBAL
breaks for it
.
ZEB
Get him, Coffin!
The driver tackles
HANNIBAL
and throws him to the ground, and
ZEB
comes over to help subdue him, while
EVERETT
stands immobile, slapping his leg with his riding crop
.
EVERETT
… when a part is corrupted by disease—one cuts out the disease. The ability to read in a slave is a disease—
HANNIBAL
(
Screaming at him, at the height of defiance in the face of hopelessness
) You can’t do nothing to me to get out my head what I done learned … I kin read! And I kin write! You kin beat me and beat me … but I kin read … (
To
ZEB
) I kin read and
you
can’t—
ZEB
wheels in fury and raises his whip
.
EVERETT
restrains his arm
.
EVERETT
He has told the truth. (
To
ZEB
,
coldly
) As long as he can see, he can read …
ZEB
arrests his arm slowly and slowly frowns, looking at
EVERETT
with disbelief
.
You understand me perfectly. Do it now.
Astonished and horrified
,
ZEB
looks from the master to the slave
.
EVERETT
nods at him to proceed and the man opens his mouth to protest
.
Proceed.
ZEB
looks at the master one more time, takes the butt end of his whip and advances slowly toward the slave, who comprehends what is to be done to him
.
EVERETT
turns on his heel away from the scene, and with a traveling shot, we follow his face, as he strides through the woods and as, presently, the tortured screams of an agonized human being surround him …
Fade out
End of Act Two
FADE IN:
EXTERIOR. PLANTATION GROUNDS—
LATE NIGHT
.
The shadow of a man ingeniously strung by all four limbs between two saplings, each of which is bent to the ground away from the other. Two male shadows loom near and a voice says: “All right, guess we might as well cut him down now … gangrene must’ve set in.”
DISSOLVE TO:
INTERIOR. HIRAM SWEET’S BEDROOM
.
He is in bed and conducting a violent tirade. A medicine bottle smashes against the fireplace and we move across to his bed where he is in the midst of an angry denunciation of
ZEB
and
EVERETT
,
who both stand in the center of the floor affecting various moods of defiance, fear and impatience
.
MARIA
stands near her husband’s bedside, wringing her hands for fear of what the mood will do to a cardiac
.
EVERETT
reaches out in a restraining gesture toward his father
.
HIRAM
Don’t you put your murderous hands on me!
EVERETT
(
To his mother quietly
) Who in the name of God told him about it?
MARIA
(
Shrugging
) One of them, of course.
They look at the one lone house servant in the room, who casts his eyes quickly away
.
HIRAM
None of your business who told me! Should have been told before of your doings. Should have been told when you hired this
—this—GET THIS CREATURE OUT OF MY SIGHT AND OFF MY LAND BEFORE I SHOOT HIM!
ZEB
All I got to say is that I done as I was told, sir. I was just following instructions …
SWEET
Get him out of here!
MARIA
Please leave, Zeb.
ZEB
Yes ma’am—but you got to tell him I just done as I was told.
EVERETT
Oh, get out.
(
ZEB
exits
)
MARIA
Now, darling, just calm yourself—
HIRAM
(
To
his son) So this is the way you took over the plantation.
SERVANT
Dr. Bullett, suh.
MACON BULLET
enters in a jubilant mood, with a newspaper
.
BULLETT
Have you all heard the news—?
MARIA
Why, Macon, wherever are your manners today—?
BULLETT
I’m so sorry, Maria, my dear.
He bows to her a little and greets the two men, and then resumes his excitement
.
Have you heard the news?
EVERETT
What news—
BULLETT
Why, my dear friends, the conflict has come to life! Gentlemen, ma’am, we fired on Sumter two days ago. The South is at war!
There is total silence for a second, and then
EVERETT
and
MACON
whoop with joy, and
EVERETT
climbs up and pulls a scabbarded sword from above the mantelpiece and begins to wave it about, alternately embracing
MACON
.
MARIA
Son, will you have to go?
EVERETT
Oh, Mother, of course, if I am offered a commission!
MARIA
(
Handkerchief to her eyes
) Oh, my little darling.
Then, slowly, all notice
HIRAM
,
who has been stricken quiet and sober by the news
.
HIRAM
(
With great sadness
) You fools … you amazing fools …
MARIA
Now, Hiram—
HIRAM
The South is lost, and you two are jumping around like butterflies in your happiness.
EVERETT
Lost! The South is going to assert itself, Papa. It is going to become a nation among nations of the world—
HIRAM
Don’t you know that whoever that idiot was who fired on Sumter set the slaves free? Well, get out the liquor, gentlemen, it’s all over. (
Pause
) A way of life is over. The end is here and we might as well drink to what it was.
BULLETT
Now, look here, Hiram—
HIRAM
Look where? What do you want me to see? You look. You step to the window there and look at all those people that you and your kind have just set free.
EVERETT
Oh, Papa, what is all this nonsense?
HIRAM
(
Slowly pulling on his robe
) I give you my word that they already know about it in the quarters. (
Sadly
) They do not know who or how or why this army is coming. They do not know if it is
for
them or indifferent to them. But they will be with it. They will pour out of the South by the thousands—dirty, ignorant and uncertain what the whole matter is about. But they will be against
us
. And when those Yankee maniacs up there get up one fine morning feeling heady with abolitionist zeal and military necessity and decide to arm any and every black who comes ambling across the Confederate lines—and they will—because they will have to—because you will put on your uniforms and fight like fiends for our lost cause … But when the Yankees give them guns and blue uniforms, gentlemen, it will be all over.
MARIA
Hiram, what are you doing? Where do you think you are going?
HIRAM
(
Pulling himself fully out of the bed
) I am going out to see Rissa.
BULLETT
As your physician, Hiram, I expressly forbid you to leave that bed.
HIRAM
Macon, shut up. My time is over. I don’t think I want to see that which is coming. I believed in slavery. But I understood it; it never fooled me. It’s just as well that we die together. Get out of my way now.
BULLETT
stands back and he exits slowly
.
CUT TO:
EXTERIOR. RISSA’S CABIN
.
HIRAM
stands outside a moment. Somewhere in the distance, a slave sings plaintively.
*
He goes into the cabin.
RISSA
is at the fire, boiling something in a pot
.
HANNIBAL
lies flat on a bed, his eyes covered by a cloth. One or two slaves file out wordlessly as the master enters. Occasionally
HANNIBAL
cries out softly
.
RISSA
methodically tastes an extract she is preparing. She then dips a fresh white cloth in a second pot and wrings it out lightly and starts toward her son. Her eyes discover the master standing clutching at the collar of his robe, himself in panting pain. He is looking down at Hannibal. She looks at the master with uncompromising indictment and he returns her gaze with one of supplication, and drops his hands in a gesture of futility. She ignores him then and goes to the boy and removes the old cover and replaces it with a fresh one. The song continues
.
HIRAM
I’ll send for Dr. Bullett.
RISSA
I doctorin’ him.
HIRAM
But fever—
RISSA
I makin’ quinine. Be ready soon.
HIRAM
I—are you sure …? I think I should get Bullett.
RISSA
(
Without looking up
) He put his eyes back?
Silence
.
HIRAM
I—I wanted to tell you, Rissa—I wanted to tell you and ask you to believe me that I had nothing to do with this. I—some things do seem to be out of the power of my hands after all … Other men’s rules are a part of my life …
RISSA
(
For the first time looking up at him
) Why? Ain’t you
Marster?
How can a man be marster of some men and not at all of others—
HIRAM
(
The question penetrates too deeply and he looks at her with sudden harshness
) You go too far—
RISSA
(
With her own deadly precision
) Oh—? What will you have done to me? Will your overseer gouge out my eyes too? (
Shrugging
) I don’t ’spect blindness would matter to me. I done seen all there was worth seein’ in this world—and it didn’t ’mount to much. (
Turning from him abruptly
) I think this talkin’ disturb my boy.
HIRAM
looks at the face which will not turn to him or comfort him in any way and slowly rises. He starts out and we follow him into the darkness several feet, a dejected, defeated figure, which suddenly collapses. He cries out for help and one by one the lights of the cabins go out and doors close. He crawls a little on the grass, trying to get back to
RISSA
’s
cabin. Inside, we see her at the table again, preparing another cloth for
HANNIBAL
.
She lifts her eyes and looks out the window to see the figure of the man she can distinctly hear crying for help. She lowers her lids without expression and wrings the cloth and returns to
HANNIBAL
’s
bedside and places it over his eyes and sits back in her chair with her hands folded in her lap. We come down on her face as she starts to rock back and forth as
HIRAM
’s
cries completely cease
.
FADE OUT
.
FADE IN:
EXTERIOR. THE VERANDA—EVENING
.
MARIA
sits, dressed completely in black, not moving and not looking where she stares
.
EVERETT
comes up the steps; he wears a Confederate Officer’s uniform and a mourning band
.
EVERETT
Mother …
His manner with her is that of someone seeking very hard to distract another from grief
.
What would you think if I got the carriage and took you for a nice long ride in the cool, out near the pines—?
MARIA
No, thank you, son.
EVERETT
Oh do—it would be so refreshing and cooling for you, and tomorrow I think you should treat yourself to a nice social call on the Robleys—
MARIA
(
Pulling her shawl about her a bit
) Thank you, Everett, but I find it chilly right here tonight. And your father never cared for the Robleys.
He starts to argue a little, but looks at her and changes his mind and relaxes back in his chair and lets his eyes scan the darkness in front of him, where his plantation lies stretched out, as a gentle hymn rises up from the quarters, the same one as in the introduction—“Steal Away to Jesus.”
EVERETT
Yes—you’ve right. Let’s just sit here in the peace and the quiet. The singing is pretty tonight, isn’t it?
MARIA
(
Looking dead ahead
) Peaceful? Do you really find it peaceful here, Everett?
EVERETT
Sure it is, Mother. (
Enthusiastically
) Things are going to go well now. Zeb is beginning to understand how I want this place run; the crops are coming along as well as can be expected, and the slaves have settled down nicely into the new routine of the schedule. Everything is very orderly and disciplined. (
Touching her hand gently
) Above all, there is nothing for you to worry about. This thing will be all over soon and I’ll be home before you know it and everything will be back to normal. Only better, Mama, only better …