University of Virginia Library

Eli.
Its awful the way our people are lynched.
Its a shame we are driven to this
Desolate place to save our lives, simply
Because I had some influence among
My people and refused to use it to
Suit the white man and injure my people.
I have invoked my god without response.
What else can I do?

Ramech.
Name not thy gods, for I condemn them.
For they have urged to curse thy destiny,
And brought on us this desolate spot as home.

Eli.
Don't condemn me, O Ramech! I may err
In my imploring, but should I not pray?

Ramech.
Pray to the God above. You know I oft
Remind you of our wickedness, and warn
You of this Southern god, the white man
Of this degenerate who despises you, and
Whom I despise and you often adore,
But I will not rebuke thee, dear.

Eli.
For six long days have we been in this place,
Our house all gone and of our stock,
Not one remains. My soul! There is no hope.
Heaven is closed and Negro men must die.
Ramech pray to your God.

Ramech.
I have, and oft. But Eli we are doomed!

Eli.
And have we merited this fearful death,
This slow consuming agony, this famine,
Cold and pain, and O my God still more,
This inward consciousness of griefs stored up
For a long time yet! Look how our flocks
Are all swept off, our gathered crops;
Our children dead, but one, and we as outcasts
From our homes waiting for death to come
We were better off before Abe Lincoln freed us.

Jobel.
Mama, I am hungry. Have you no bread?
My feet are wet and cold.

Ramech.
My precious child! I have no bread.
O God protect my child!

Jobel.
Some bread mama, just a little bread.
My feet are so cold.

Ramech.
(Falling on her knees)
O precious God!
Thou knowest the secrets of our hearts, Thou
Knowest my unworthiness. Not for myself
Ask I thy mercy, but for my child. Lord—
O spare my child, my precious child.
He hath not wronged the lynchers.

Eli.
Ramech, I dreamed last night that our
Long departed Ajax had got home, and
Though he left us before the war I feel
Somehow he's yet alive and will
Visit us before we die. Its thirty-five
Years since we've seen him, he's changed I know.

Ramech.
Heaven forbid that he should come to us
While in this valley of sorrows.

Eli.
I see upon the river a skiff which
Contains a boy, an aged looking boy.
And from my heart he looks much like our Ajax.

Ramech.
It can't be so, what, Ajax, Ajax
The lost boy—long before old
Abe did set us free! Eli you dream.

(A long silence)
Eli.
That's him, he's coming to die with us.

Ajax comes up.
Ramech.
Ajax my boy! Whence comest thou?
Where have you been? Hast thou forgotten me?

(Falls in his arms)
Ajax.
No mother, dear; how could that be?
Thank God we've met but near our family grave,
Father, ere this, is ripe in age. He was
In his sixtieth year when Grant fought so.

Eli.
Ajax, what have you son, we perish.

Ajax.
Nothing have I: big piles I had but
In this land of lynching what ever we have
We have not. The lynchers envied my
Success and it was left with me
To lose my life or my earthly wealth.
I took the one you see me with here.

Eli.
I'm old, I'm cold, I'm hungry, I'm dying,
I yield to all.

Ramech.
Grieve not, we shall not die of
Hunger. Before another night the lynchers
Will be here. They want our blood
Because it is innocent blood. Lets not repine.

Jobel.
Mother I'm sick, this ground is wet to me.

Ramech.
To see thee suffer in the bloom of life,
Thou whom I watched and cheered to
See thee perish thus—O God—.

Jobel.
Mama I'm cold—has the bread come?

Ramech.
O for the days when as a slave I worked.
Thy life would then be spared. But Lincoln
Freed us. Why are we not free now?
Is Lincoln yet alive, and Grant? O God
Blot these remarks from my memory.

She weeps.
Ajax.
Mother, fret not o'er thoughts like these
Let us pray God and wait our doom.

Ramech.
My Lord. My infant child and I once
Thought that you were dead. But tell me
How did you live, we waited long for
Thee to come but all in vain.

Ajax.
We parted—sold as mules. You
With my father's owner, he in another drove.
And I in a disgraceful to some one else.
I kept up with you all, until
The mighty struggle came that freed
Us all and effaced your whereabouts.
I started out in search of you and
Prosperity. I lived quite well but
Seeking higher still, the white man
Envied me, and hence my life was his
When he saw fit, and eighteen years,
I've wandered up and down this world
In search of one dear spot where I could
Rest in peace. It must be
Here to die with you. At first
I feared to land.
O God, this lynching world is full of sin.

Ramech.
Despite our griefs, I will believe, dear boy,
That Providence hath brought thee here to me.
That we might die together.

Ajax.
Mother what awful sights I've seen—
I oft have wished that I had died when young,
Before this dreadful calamity. My blood
Don't move, my mind deranged turns, at what
I've seen this day. The careases of
Men with that of oxen, sheep and hogs—
Did float together down the stream.
I saw two brothers take a stand for right
And there they stood, until the lynchers
Came—and made the one take the life
Of the other—murder his mother's son,
The one who did this work to save his life
Lay down exhausted. Then the lynchers took
His life by slow process and left him there.
The famished buzzards came to his rescue
And tore the quivering flesh. In vain the man
Fought this new foe till breath was gone.

Eli.
Didst thou see this?

Ajax.
That is not half.

Ramech.
Then name it not. I've heard enough.
I'm sick at heart.

Ajax.
I saw—my God I cannot tell.

Eli.
Tell on. The woes of others told to us
May steel us to our own.

Ajax.
I saw a barge of logs loaded down,
With human beings, manacled, emaciated,
Ghastly. They sang and howled out prayers,
And curses and laughter. It was horrid.
With hands outstretched, they beckoned me
To come, but I stood off and watched
And heads of men were thrown at me in rage.
I further noticed a partly eaten body
Mangled and bruised. I shrieked aloud.
And then I saw a sight that captured all.
A mother, deathly clad, who in her arms,
Upheld a child. She cast her eyes on high,
And then she cast her infant from her.
It sank beneath the waves and was gone.
A mother drowned her own dear child.

Ramech.
My God this lynching world.

Ajax.
Hush? I hear the howl of dogs.

Eli.
My son, 'tis but the winds. No human
Being in this wild place save us. And the
“Star Spangled Banner” as that say goes
Doesn't wave here. Me think that song's a myth.

Ajax.
Again I hear the dogs. I'm not deceived.
Mother I dreamed last night I saw
A mountain moving on the waves,
And it had all the semblance of a house,
And my bewildered mind beheld unreal things.
By one of the windows I saw a
Gray haired man stand mute as death
And by his side I saw one young in years
His eyes toward heaven turned: and then again
He hid his face hehind his hands
As if in sorrow.—And behold the old man
Turned his back to him.

Eli.
That means but this—that God in heaven
Has turned against us, and our doom is sealed.
And I will wait my hour in silence.
Fain would I curse, fain would I kill myself,
Would I could die! Already have I lived
Too long—Hunger—Fear, my daily fiends!
Twelve days I've fought you bravely to be
Subdued at last by thee.

Jobel.
How cold it is.

Eli.
Is that a human carcass floating on the water? Look Ajax, look!

Ajax.
The body of a lynched man. Could I
But reach it, and eat once more before
I die.

Eli.
Go get it Ajax. Thou art a swimmer.

(Ajax reaches the water and a band of lynchers rush from the bushes and grab him.)
Ajax.
Oh father help me! The devil has me.
The carcass had its spies. Help! Murder!

Eli.
(Rushes to his son's rescue, with his silvery locks dangling in his face. He rushes in their midst and grasps his boy. The lynchers spear his aged body as if it was a beast.)
Help, for I am stabbed. My God these
Bloody lynchers—But wherefore call
For help when none can aid. Ramech farewell!
Jobel, my child farewell!

(The father and son are lynched.)
Ramech.
O Eli! Ajax! My God of heaven.

(She weeps aloud.)
Jobel.
Mamma, why do you weep? Where is my
Papa? Has he gone to get me some water?

Ramech.
My precious child. My husband and my son
Are gone and the lynchers will surely be
After you. I hear them shriek for blood.
But I am nerved to die.

Jobel.
Why don't my papa come? I dreamed
He brought me some bread and you
Dear mamma and I were in a house.

Ramech.
Sleep again my child, and in thy dreams
Forget the ills of earth and reign on high.
Oh God, please Thou forgive my sins,
And let me die; but Father spare my child!
He hath not sinned. Hush! the lynchers come.
They took my husband and my son.
Ain't that enough? Why trouble me?
I hear the howl of dogs.

Jobel.
My papa won't come. O mamma—

Ramech.
My soul the lynchers are upon me!
O precious God! To Thee I yield my soul,
Do take my helpless child. (The Lynchers rush upon her.)

My child! My own dear child!

Jobel.
Mamma it is so cold. Have you
No bread for me? Where is my mamma?
Mamma—Mamma—Mamma.