Black Male

There is always freedom in the truth.

"Miss Abigail, darlin', why are you out here all by your lonesome this close to the cotton fields?"

"I don't see where that is any of your concern, Mr. Rigsby."

"Beg pardon, ma'm, it is my concern for such a fair young lady as yourself to be out this way, unprotected should there be any unruly advances by a slave."

"Nonsense, Mr. Rigsby. The slaves are adequately submissive and obedient in their place and present no possible harm to me or anyone else."

"Please, Miss Abigail, call me Ben."

"I see no reason to do such a thing."

"Now, my dear, I would like the idea of us being friends. Allow me to walk you back to the manor house, if you please."

"I have no interest in being in your company, Mr. Rigsby. If you will excuse me."

"Now, Miss Abigail, don't . . . . get back to work, boy! The rest of you, as well!"

"Mr. Rigsby, I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop following me."

"Your father would be most irate toward me if I allowed something to happen to such a fair damsel as yourself, Miss Abigail."

"Then I shall talk to father about how unpleasant I find your company, Mr. Rigsby."

"Now, how can such a lovely young flower as yourself be so unkind? Miss Abigail! Come back! Don't hide from me! Where are you, you naughty girl? Aha, there you are!"

"Take your hands off of me, Mr. Rigsby! Release me at once!"

"Now, now, Miss Abigail, don't be that way. You ran here behind this tree so we could have a little privacy, didn't you, my dear? How about a little kiss?"

"Stop! Someone help!"

"Don't fight me, you little hussy! You know this is what you want!"

"Mr. Rigsby, you're hurting me!"

"Stop resisting and it will all be better!"

"Oh! No! Someone, please, help me! Aah! No!" 

"I told you not to fight, you wench!"

"You insufferable, . . . "

"Aagh! That hurt! Stop, Miss Abigail!"

"Come near me again, and I'll beat your brains in with this stick!"

"You fancy yourself a fighter now, do you, Miss Abigail? Have at it then!" 

"No! Stay away! I mean it! Aaah!" 

"Now, I've got you! Ha-ha-ha-ha! That's it, my lovely. Ah, you've grown tired of resisting, haven't you, my dear! Ha-ha-ha! That's it, my lovely. Now you shall, . . . Miss Abigail? Miss Abigail? Are you playing opossum, Miss Abigail? Miss Abigail? No! NO! Never did I mean to strike you so hard, Miss Abigail. You're just unconscious. Yes, you must be. I'll not be blamed for any wrong doing. Absolutely not. I'll gather you up and move you closer to the cotton field, so a slave will be held accountable. That's what I'll do. Come here, my lovely. Allright, my pet. Now where is the way back to the cotton field. Must be . . . . . "  

Clutching the battered form of Abigail in his arms, Ben Rigsby stood face-to-face with approximately no less than forty slaves staring back at him as they stood in the cotton field.

"You boys need to tend to your work right now!"

"Yessuh, we're pickin' da cotton."

"I found poor Miss Abigail in the woods. Looks like an animal might have gotten to her."

"Yessuh, we saw you find her in the woods, didn't we, fellas? Saw you go in as well, remember, Mistah Rigsby?"

"Well, she got away from me, that's all. Then I found her in this state."

"She looks dead to me."

"She's badly hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if one of you did this to her."

"No sir, we wouldn't do that."

"I sure wouldn't be surprised. No, I wouldn't. Sam, you're the youngest. Run to the house and tell Mr. Gibbons that Abigail has been hurt."

"Yessuh, mistah Rigsby. I sho will."

"I suspect it is going to be one of you dirty animals what harmed her. I see that being the case right off."

"But we didn't harm her, Mr. Rigsby, but we saw who did."

"You saw them? Who did you see, Tom? Who?"

"We saw someone who plans on gettin' above the white man's law."

"What's that supposed to mean, Tom?"

"Means the one who hurt Miss Abigail was a white man who don't want to hold to white man's law."

"Rigsby! My daughter! My poor Abigail!" 

"I found her like this, Mr. Gibbons. Found her in the woods."

"Oh, my angel. Put her in the wagon, immediately. Sam, go summon Doc Pickens, tell him Miss Abigail has been hurt."

"Yes, sir, mastah Gibbons." 

"I'll take her up to the manor, Rigsby, then I want to know which one of these filthy animals hurt her. Oh, my poor Abigail."

"Yessir, Mr. Gibbons. I'll find out, sir. I'll punish them all if I have to! Now you hear that, Tom! I want to know who hurt Miss Abigail and right now! Don't try to cover for your friends."

"It were the white man, Mr. Rigsby. We saw him follow after her into the woods, plain as day."

"What white man did you see, Noah? Who was it?"

"Can't rightly say, Mr. Rigsby. Was too far away, but I could see he was white. Wasn't dressed like we are. He was dressed too nice to be a slave."

"And you didn't see who it was?"

"Nossir, just saw a well-dressed white man."

"Well, I haven't seen a white man out here and I've been with Miss Abigail the entire time."

"Even when the white man attacked her?"

"No, I wasn't with her then. You trying to get smart with me, Noah?"

"Just wonderin' why if you stayed with Miss Abigail, why you didn't see that white man we all saw. And you were closer to her."

"Don't try to get smart with me, Noah!"

"I wouldn't do that, sir. I think learnin' who hurt Miss Abigail will be more important. Don't you, sir?"

"I'll take no more of this. Obviously you are covering for which one of you actually attacked her."

"Excuse me, sir, but if Miss Abigail is still alive, she'll be able to identify her attacker."

"What?"

"Massah Gibbons sent for Doctor Pickens, so she must still be alive. If she recovers, then she'll say who her attacker was."

"She'll . . . . "

"Unless she didn't see who the white man was that attacked her. I wonder if she saw him?"

"Then, . . . well, I'll just head on up to the manor to see how she is doing, and see which one of you boys she says did it, tho it won't matter. Punish one of you is the same as all of you."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Rigsby, sir."

"Noah, what we gonna do?"

"All we can do is wait and see, Ed. Same way we all saw who the attacker was."

"But they gonna blame one of us."

"Won't change what really happened. Come on, boys, gettin' close to sundown. Overseer callin' us in."

"Maybe Mr. Perkins, the overseer, was the white man we saw attack Miss Abigail, huh, Noah?"

"Don't know, Ed. Seems to me that will be up to Miss Abigail."

"If she survives."

"Yea, if she survives, then it might just be one of us again."

"Noah! Noah!"

"Yes, Mr. Rigsby?"

"Master Gibbons wants to see you about what you saw when Miss Abigail was attacked. Hurry along now."

"Yes, Mr. Rigsby, sir."

"Be careful, Noah."

"I know what to do, Ed."

"Listen here, Noah. You better just keep your mouth shut about what you think you saw out on the edge of the field this afternoon."

"Saw a lot of things out on the edge of the field this afternoon. Which thing you talkin' about, Mr. Rigsby, sir?"

"I'm warnin' you, Noah!"

"Yessir, Mr. Rigsby, sir, but I'm just one man. One man out of all of us who was out pickin' cotton seeing all sorts of things out on the edge of the field. Was that twenty of us? Thirty? Maybe more?"

"Don't test me, boy! You keep your mouth shut!"

"Ah, come in, Noah. I would like to know what you saw take place today that harmed my dear Abigail. Did you see anyone who may have perpetrated this deed?"

"I was awful busy pickin' cotton, Master Gibbons."

"I know you was, Noah, and doing an excellent job, I'm sure, but surely you or someone else saw who went after my dear Abigail."

"Well, yessir, as I told Mr. Rigsby earlier, we saw a white man follow her into the woods."

"A white man?"

"He's lying, Mr. Gibbons! He knows it was one of his buddies. Probably several of them beasts."

"Quiet, Rigsby. Now, Noah, are you sure it was a white man?"

"As I told Mr. Rigsby, sir, he was dressed much too nice to be one of us field slaves. He must have been real important. Besides, we are too scared to wander out of the field like that, sir, what with us being watched all the time. How could we get out of the field to attack somebody?"

"Well, somebody is obviously covering for someone else, and I intend to get to the bottom of it and have justice for my dear Abigail."

"Let me have at it with Noah and a couple of the others, Mr. Gibbons. I'll get the truth out of them."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Rigsby. You see, Abigail regained conscious when I sent you out to fetch Noah. She told us who her attacker was."

And Noah gave no visible reaction at all. After all, he was just a slave.