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Back The Darker Face of the Earth Save as PDF
Chapters (27)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Dedication
  7. Cast
  8. Prologue
  9. Act One
  10. Scene 2
  11. Scene 3
  12. Scene 4
  13. Scene 5
  14. Scene 6
  15. Scene 7
  16. Scene 8
  17. Act Two
  18. Scene 2
  19. Scene 3
  20. Scene 4
  21. Scene 5
  22. Scene 6
  23. Scene 7
  24. Scene 8
  25. An Interview with Rita Dove
  26. Biographical Note
  27. Back Cover

White-fearing niggers.

Death-fearing slaves.
PHEBE Ain’t you ever scared?
AUGUSTUS

Of what? White folks?

They’re more afraid of me. Pain?

Every whipping’s got to come to an end.
PHEBE

I heard you’ve been whipped

so many times, they lost count.
AUGUSTUS

They think they can beat me to my senses.

Then they look into my eyes

and see I’m not afraid.
PHEBE It’d be something, not to be afraid.
AUGUSTUS

You have to have a purpose.

Something bigger than anything

they can do to you.
PHEBE (Suppressing a shudder.)
And ain’t nobody ever tried to kill you?
AUGUSTUS

Oh, yes. First time,

I was hardly alive.

They ripped me from my mother

the night I was born

and threw me out like trash.

I didn’t walk until I was three.
PHEBE Lord have mercy.
AUGUSTUS

Mercy had nothing to do with it!

Missy couldn’t stand the sight of me.

Just look at me! It’s an old story.

You’ve stopped trembling.

Now why don’t you tell me

what made you quake that way

in the first place?

PHEBE shakes her head.

Conjuration, I imagine?

Mumble-jumble from that hateful woman.
PHEBE Her name’s Scylla.
AUGUSTUS

Women like her, hah!

They get a chill one morning,

hear an owl or two, and snap!—

they’ve received their “powers”!

Then they collect a few old bones,

dry some herbs, and they’re in business.
PHEBE She told me to watch my footsteps—
AUGUSTUS —or you’d fall lame.
PHEBE

And to keep my mouth shut

when the wind blowed—
AUGUSTUS

—or else the wind spirit

would steal your soul.
PHEBE How’d you know?
AUGUSTUS

You think she’s the only conjure-woman in the world? Why, your Scylla’s a baby compared to the voodoo chiefs in the islands.

They can kill you with a puff of smoke from their pipes—if you believe in them.

Take me: I’ve been cursed enough times to bring down a whole fleet of ships around me—but here I sit, high and dry.

So I guess they must be saving me for something special.

PHEBE looks at AUGUSTUS in wonder; the lights dim as the other SLAVES slowly come on stage, singing as they take their places in the fields. The song sung during the “shout” has modulated into a percussive piece with no words—clapping, sighs, whispered exclamations and grunts punctuate what becomes a work song.

SLAVES

No way out, gotta keep on—

No way but to see it through.
NARRATOR

Don’t sass, don’t fight!

Lay low, grin bright!
NARRATOR/SLAVES No way but to see it through.

Scene 5

SCENE 5

The cotton fields. The light brightens: high noon. JONES enters, looks at the sun and cracks his whip as he calls out.

JONES Noon!