The Conjure Woman, Charles W. Chesnutt [reading women txt] 📗

didn’ knowed w’at ter make er it fer a minute er so. Fus’ he ’lowed he must hab de yaller fever, er de yaller janders, er sump’n lak dat’! But he had knowed rale dark folks ter hab janders befo’, and it hadn’t nebber ’fected ’em dat-a-way. But bimeby he got up o’ff’n ’is han’s an’ knees an’ wuz stan’in’ lookin’ ober de crick at de clay-bank, an’ wond’rin ef de clay he’d b’en eat’n’ hadn’ turnt ’im yaller w’en he heared sump’n say jes’ ez plain ez wo’ds.

“ ‘Turnt ter clay! turnt ter clay! turnt ter clay!’

“He looked all roun’, but he couldn’ see nobody but a big bullfrog settin’ on a log on de yuther side er de crick. An’ w’en he turnt roun’ an’ sta’ted back in de woods, he heared de same thing behin’ ’im.

“ ‘Turnt ter clay! turnt ter clay! turnt ter clay!’

“Dem wo’ds kep’ ringin’ in ’is yeahs ’til he fin’lly ’lowed dey wuz boun’ ter be so, er e’se dey wouldn’ a b’en tol ter ’im, an’ dat he had libbed on clay so long an’ had eat so much, dat he must ’a’ jes nach’ly turnt ter clay!”

“Imperious Caesar, turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away,”

I murmured parenthentically.

“Yas, suh,” said the old man, “turnt ter clay. But you’s mistook in de name, suh; hit wuz Ben, you ’member, not Caesar. Ole Mars Marrabo did hab a nigger name’ Caesar, but dat wuz anudder one.”

“Don’t interrupt him, John,” said my wife impatiently. “What happened then, Julius?”

“Well, po’ Ben didn’ know w’at ter do. He had be’n lonesome ernuff befo’, but now he didn’ eben hab his own se’f ter ’so’ciate wid, fer he felt mo’ lak a stranger ’n he did lak Ben. In a day er so mo’ he ’mence ter wonder whuther he wuz libbin’ er not. He had hearn ’bout folks turnin’ ter clay w’en dey wuz dead, an’ he ’lowed maybe he wuz dead an’ didn’ knowed it, an’ dat wuz de reason w’y eve’body run erway f’m ’im an’ wouldn’ hab nuffin’ ter do wid ’im. An’ ennyhow, he ’lowed ef he wa’n’t dead, he mought’s well be. He wande’ed roun’ a day er so mo’, an’ fin’lly de lonesomeness, an’ de sleepin’ out in de woods, ’mongs’ de snakes an’ sco’pions, an’ not habbin’ nuffin’ fit ter eat, ’mence ter tell on him, mo’ an’ mo’, an’ he kep’ gittin’ weakah an’ weakah ’til one day, w’en he went down by de crick fer ter git a drink er water, he foun’ his limbs gittin’ so stiff hit ’uz all he could do ter crawl up on de bank an’ lay down in de sun. He laid dere ’til he died, an’ de sun beat down on ’im, an’ beat down on ’im, an’ beat down on ’im, fer th’ee er fo’ days, ’til it baked ’im as ha’d as a brick. An’ den a big win’ come erlong an’ blowed a tree down, an’ it fell on ’im an’ smashed ’im all ter pieces, an’ groun’ ’im ter powder. An’ den a big rain come erlong, an’ washed ’im in de crick, ’an eber sence den de water in dat crick’s b’en jes’ as yer sees it now. An dat wuz de een’ er po’ lonesome Ben, an’ dat’s de reason w’y I knows dat clay’ll make brick an’ w’y I doan nebber lak ter see no black folks eat’n it.”

My wife came of a family of reformers, who could never contemplate an evil without seeking an immediate remedy. When I decided that the bank of edible clay was not fit for brickmaking, she asked me if I would not have it carted away, suggesting at the same time that it could be used to fill a low place in another part of the plantation.

“It would be too expensive,” I said.

“Oh, no,” she replied, “I don’t think so. I have been talking with Uncle Julius about it, and he says he has a nephew who is out of employment, and who will take the contract for ten dollars, if you will furnish the mule and cart, and board him while the job lasts.”

As I had no desire to add another permanent member to my household, I told her it would be useless; that if the people did not get clay there they would find it elsewhere, and perhaps an inferior quality which might do greater harm, and that the best way to stop them from eating it was to teach them self-respect, when she had opportunity, and those habits of industry and thrift whereby they could get their living from the soil in a manner less direct but more commendable.

A Victim of Heredity Or, Why the Darkey Loves Chicken

I went to North Carolina a few years after the war with some hopeful views in regard to the colored people. It was my idea that with the larger opportunities of freedom they would improve gradually and learn in due time to appreciate the responsibilities of citizenship. This opinion, based on simple faith in human nature, which is much the same the world over, I never saw any good reason to change.

There were a few of my dusky neighbors, however, who did not shake off readily the habits formed under the old system, and I suffered more or less, from petty thievery. So long as it was confined to grapes on the vine, or roasting-ears, hanging fruit, or an occasional watermelon, I did not complain so much; but one summer, after several raids upon my henhouse, I determined to protect my property. I therefore kept watch one night, and caught a chicken-thief in the very act. I locked him up in a strongly-built smokehouse, where I thought he would be safe until morning.

I made up my mind, before I went to sleep, that an example must be made of this miscreant. Knowing that the law in North Carolina, as elsewhere, was