Cane River Part 8

Elisabeth heard each of her children a.s.sessed, as well as herself and her husband. The overseer winked and smiled at his betters behind the table, proud to display his knowledge.

"A strong, healthy buck. Prime field, no injuries. Strong as an ox. No defects. No less than fifteen hundred dollars..."He has the hernia, pulls up now and again. Past prime, but useful to get others to work. With the fiddling, he should bring twelve to thirteen hundred..."Auntie's getting slow, but good for the house and cooking. Eight hundred would be fair..."Deaf and dumb, but you won't find better with a hoe. The lash gets her attention, if there's need. Bidding should start at nine hundred dollars..."The uppity one is set aside, she and her daughter both."

The a.s.sessors kept steadily at their work until each one of the slaves was accounted for. They finished as the sun disappeared behind a dense thicket of pine trees to the west.

The slaves avoided looking at one another after the inventory. They trudged back to the quarter against the murky darkness in silence, shoulders hunched and jaws slack. Even the children did not speak.

They made fires and quickly prepared the evening meals. Some hardly ate at all, wanting just to go to bed and close their eyes until the morning light.

Elisabeth and Gerasime lay down on their narrow pallet pushed up against the far corner of their one-room cabin.

"We have dollars on us now," Gerasime said.

"We always had dollars on us," Elisabeth said.

"This is different. The sale is certain."

They lay on the pallet without speaking, Gerasime's chest to Elisabeth's back, his knees tucked up behind hers under the threadbare blanket. Finally Elisabeth thought he had fallen asleep, until she heard his voice punch through the darkness.

"You been a good wife. If we don't end up on the same place, I don't want another."

"I'm through, too."

"We made some fine children, wife."

"We did, husband."

When the plantation bell rang out the next morning, they were still folded together in the same position.

9.

E ugene Daurat wiped at his puffy eyes. He had slept fitfully the night before, dreading the arrival of the second day of the auction, but he took his role as executor to the Rosedew estate too seriously to waver now. The day was cold and soggy, like his spirits. Rain had come down in sheets for most of the night, raising the river to dangerous levels and leaving the ground soft and yielding. The heaviest rain had eased its pounding after sunup, but already the day had seen several driving showers. Despite the weather, the turnout was a good one. Most of those who attended were locals from the different communities along Cane River who had known the Derbannes. They came from Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Isle Brevelle, and Cote Joyeuse. But they also came from beyond Cane River, from as far north as Campti and as far south as Monette's Ferry and Point Coupee. ugene Daurat wiped at his puffy eyes. He had slept fitfully the night before, dreading the arrival of the second day of the auction, but he took his role as executor to the Rosedew estate too seriously to waver now. The day was cold and soggy, like his spirits. Rain had come down in sheets for most of the night, raising the river to dangerous levels and leaving the ground soft and yielding. The heaviest rain had eased its pounding after sunup, but already the day had seen several driving showers. Despite the weather, the turnout was a good one. Most of those who attended were locals from the different communities along Cane River who had known the Derbannes. They came from Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Isle Brevelle, and Cote Joyeuse. But they also came from beyond Cane River, from as far north as Campti and as far south as Monette's Ferry and Point Coupee.

There had been endless details to take care of, contracting the a.s.sessors, advertising the upcoming sale in the Natchitoches Chronicle Natchitoches Chronicle for the required thirty days, and setting up the property for sale. Eugene had been consumed for weeks with preparations. Although he considered himself very capable in the art of trade, he had not felt up to the challenge of peddling human beings himself, so he had hired an experienced auctioneer from Natchitoches. There were twenty-nine slaves to be auctioned off before the day was out, and his devotion to the memory of Louis and Francoise Derbanne obligated him to get the best price for each one. for the required thirty days, and setting up the property for sale. Eugene had been consumed for weeks with preparations. Although he considered himself very capable in the art of trade, he had not felt up to the challenge of peddling human beings himself, so he had hired an experienced auctioneer from Natchitoches. There were twenty-nine slaves to be auctioned off before the day was out, and his devotion to the memory of Louis and Francoise Derbanne obligated him to get the best price for each one.

He had Solataire put planks down across the cypress-lined entrance of Rosedew to keep the wheels of the carriages and wagons from sinking into the mud, starting at the front gate and ending at the barn. Chairs and benches had been placed around the big house, but it quickly became clear that the day was so stormy, they would have to squeeze into the barn. They crowded in as many chairs as they could, but there was only enough s.p.a.ce for the ladies to sit.

The opening day had gone as well as could have been expected. Rosedew itself, along with the house and all of its outbuildings, had been sold to Henry Hertzog, a no-nonsense neighboring planter with a wide, solid face and stocky build.

Eugene pulled out his watch. The auction was scheduled to begin at three o'clock, but people had started arriving shortly after dinner, coming early to get a closer look at whatever particular Negro they had in mind to buy, or to visit with the neighbors they knew would attend. Buyers and spectators exchanged pleasantries, waiting for the start.

Everything was ready, except that Dr. Danglais had not yet arrived. If he didn't come soon, they would have to begin without him. The sooner the auction got under way, the sooner it would be over.

Eugene kept to the front of the barn near the partially open door, where he could view both the packed-tight crowd inside and any late arrivals. Women and men formed separate groups. Several branches of the Rachals were represented, Emanuel Rachal from Cloutierville and Antoine Rachal from Isle Brevelle from the white side of that family and Jacquitte Rachal from the free colored. The Widow Greneaux sat and chatted with Oreline and Tranquillin, Narcisse Fredieu's new young wife. Eugene noted that Henry Hertzog had not come back for the second day, although his brother, Hypolite, stood with a small clump of men that included Narcisse and Joseph Ferrier, Oreline's husband.

Doralise and her married daughter, Elisida, stood off toward the back of the barn. Doralise was stone-faced, hard-edged, and detached, and Eugene was careful not to exchange glances with her in this mixed crowd.

Dr. Danglais made a noisy arrival through the open front gate, his horse's hooves drumming against the wooden planks and churning up sodden clods of mud. Eugene went out into the light rain to greet the doctor, helping him dismount. Eugene did not want to go back into the barn but knew that he must.

The barn had the dank, sour-damp smell of decomposing hay, wet horseflesh, and bodies packed too close.

Eugene escorted the doctor to the back of the barn, weaving past the seated ladies and the groups of standing men. They stepped behind the quickly erected barrier of corded hay where the slaves waited. Old Bertram separated himself from the others and stepped forward.

Dr. Danglais gave Old Bertram a tight-lipped nod. "I do not forget how you looked after me when my father died," he said.

Eugene looked behind Old Bertram at the Rosedew slaves gathered, some looking frightened, some dazed. Pressed close together against the side wall of the barn were Suzette, Gerant, and Philomene.

Gerant was his only son, Philomene his only daughter. The boy had Eugene's small ears and a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of his nose. Suzette had called Gerant clever with his hands, and it was true, the boy had a gift. He could work with wood, carving complicated and pleasing shapes as well as figuring out how to take odd pieces of wood and put together a chicken coop, carve a b.u.t.ter paddle, or craft tools. But he always seemed withdrawn and shy.

Philomene was another matter entirely. Eugene found his chestnut-haired daughter unsettling, sometimes even frightening. Philomene's jaw, when she concentrated, set along exactly the same lines as those of his mother's. Her long hair was a springy explosion around her head, making her look too fierce for a nine-year-old girl, and her eyes were hard and flat.

Eugene pulled Suzette to the side. Keeping his voice low, he told her, "I will be buying in Gerant."

Even as Eugene saw the relief catch hold in Suzette's face, Philomene dropped Gerant's hand, stepped over to them, and motioned for Eugene to stoop so she could whisper in his ear.

"My name is Philomene Daurat," she said in her high little-girl voice. "I already saw you choose Gerant instead of me to live with you." She swallowed hard and went on, "And you will leave all of us in the end, even Madame Doralise."

Eugene stared at Philomene for a long moment, as if frozen, and then took Dr. Danglais by the sleeve and walked him out toward the front of the barn. Suzette was too meek to put the idea into Philomene's head that the girl could take his last name. Where had that come from? And those other things she said. He would never leave Doralise. He didn't know what to make of this strange girl, his daughter.

Eugene had not planned it to turn out this way.

At one time he had really meant to free the children, but Gerant and Philomene had seemed to be doing just fine on Rosedew whenever he visited, and the years had slipped past. He had been preoccupied with his own affairs and his obligations to the Widow Derbanne. But he did think about them, he did bring them gifts. Gerant would accept them shyly, but Philomene would reach out for them without hesitation, as if they were her due. By the time he looked seriously into what it would take to give them their freedom, the rules had changed. The laws discouraged even his inquiries. If he could get around the new decree that slaves could not be freed until they reached the age of thirty, they would still revert to being slaves if he did not move them out of the state within one year. And even if he managed to buy them and take them out of the country, what would he do in France, starting over again with two mulatto children?

How had everything become so complicated?

Eugene settled Dr. Danglais into the front of the crowd and gave the auctioneer his nod to open the proceedings. They brought Old Bertram out first.

There was a carnival tone in the air. Auctions were serious business, but they were community entertainment as well, social gatherings not to be missed. A few of those in the barn looked away discreetly as Apphia pleaded for her daughter Laide, sold away to a planter from upriver. When Amandee, a man who could lift a two-hundred-pound bale of cotton, began to sob loudly as the mother of his children was loaded into a wagon, leaving him behind, many in the crowd were unmoved. It was business. It was necessary.

Mothers and fathers were the most likely to be separated. Brothers and sisters were sold in different directions. Sweethearts could only hope they would still be within walking distance of one another.

The spectators embraced what they considered to be the kindnesses of the day. Mademoiselle Landry buying d.i.c.k and Lucy as a pair. The benevolence of Joseph Ferrier and his wife, Oreline, taking in the cook's daughter and one of her children and her deaf-mute sister as well. Old Dr. Danglais buying Old Bertram, long past his prime, for his own house. Jacques Tessier buying Eliza and her son, Clement, together. Monsieur Plaissance buying Auntie Jeanne, close to eighty and nearly blind, for $25, just because she had been his wife's wet nurse.

The auction was considered a success. All of the slaves were sold, most above the opening bid. There was a brisk market for slaves in 1850. Once the bidding started, bargains were quickly struck, money changed hands, mortgages drawn up, payment schedules arranged. Eugene signed off on the proceedings and gathered together the papers sealing all the transactions of the last two days.

The estate of Louis and Francoise Derbanne was officially dissolved.

For a long time Eugene Daurat and Doralise Derbanne both pretended they were asleep in their bed that night, not touching, facing opposite walls. Neither wanted to talk about the day.

Gerant was spending his first night away from Rosedew, sleeping in the back of Eugene's storeroom. He was their new houseboy and would help in the store. Doralise had taken supper out to him earlier and stayed away talking to him for quite a while. When she returned she was unsociable, with few words for Eugene, and she went to bed early.

Cane River society had considered Eugene an eligible suitor when he first arrived among them, and he had been thrown together with any number of acceptable and available Creole daughters of French planters. Instead he was living with Doralise, a free woman of color who filled his days and frequented his dreams at night. Doralise Derbanne, with her smooth hazelnut skin and dark, silky eyelashes.

He would have married Doralise if he could, would have made her Doralise Derbanne Dupre Daurat. But that was against the law, a white man and a free woman of color. Like was only allowed to marry like, white to white, or free color to free color. Mixed could only pair up, and they paid a heavy price for their defiance. But he wanted her so badly that he had bribed the courts to grant her a divorce from her crazy husband, a gens de couleur libre gens de couleur libre who had tried to kill her with a knife one morning as she was fixing his breakfast. And he went down to the courthouse again to gift her his land and his house, to convince her just how sincere he was. who had tried to kill her with a knife one morning as she was fixing his breakfast. And he went down to the courthouse again to gift her his land and his house, to convince her just how sincere he was.

His white neighbors were not as friendly as they had been to him before he moved Doralise into his house, and he could not take her into the homes of any of his white friends or relatives; but they had an active social life among the gens de couleur libre. gens de couleur libre.

At last Eugene heard soft breathing that signaled Doralise had fallen into a disturbed sleep. The entire business with the sale had created a strain between them. The few times they talked about his children openly and frankly, she seemed disappointed in how he discharged his responsibility toward Gerant and Philomene. Doralise reproached him now, even in sleep.

Each time Eugene closed his eyes, he saw a vivid picture of the three of them in the dripping rain that afternoon. Suzette was mouthing words he could not hear as she clutched the two small figures gathered in her skirts. Gerant's tears mingled with the drizzle, his mouth open. Only Philomene was dry-eyed, staring openly at Eugene with a look he could neither identify nor erase.

Unable to lie still any longer, he got up from the bed and found the papers he had left on the table. He had already started to prepare one of the duplicates he would file with the courthouse, copying out in his cramped handwriting his day's work. The weight of the single page of the original record felt insubstantial as he held it. He would have to prepare yet another copy tomorrow before he was finished with this business, before he could place this one with all of the other plantation records, signifying the end of Rosedew.

The room was too dark for him to read the ink on the page. He didn't want to light the lamp and disturb Doralise, and he could recall each entry from memory anyway, each transaction a permanent part of him now. Eugene ran his fingers across the page, guessing at the areas toward the bottom on the paper that contained the names of his children, the lines that described their individual fates.

5 February 1850, sale of community property of Louis Derbanne and Francoise Rachal: To Henry Hertzog for $15,275: a plantation whereon deceased resided on both sides of Cane River, containing 778.76 acres, with all buildings and improvements, bounded on the left bank above by Henry Hertzog, and below by Ambroise Lecomte; on the right bank above by Old River and Alexander L. DeBlieux and below by the Widow Francoise Mulon, free woman of color (fwc).

(sale adjourned until following day) 6 February, 1850 Slave, B ERTRAM ERTRAM , Negro age 70, health not guaranteed, , Negro age 70, health not guaranteed, to Doctor Danglais $345.

Slave, A THENASE THENASE , Negro man age 60, not guaranteed, , Negro man age 60, not guaranteed, to Mr. G. Guy $105.

Slave, B ERNARD ERNARD , Negro age 55, not guaranteed, , Negro age 55, not guaranteed, to Emanuel Rachal $350.

Slave, D ICK ICK , Negro man age 50, fully guaranteed, , Negro man age 50, fully guaranteed, to Madame T. Landry $510.

Slave, G ERASiME ERASiME , Negro age 45, not guaranteed, , Negro age 45, not guaranteed, to Hypolite Hertzog $1,305.

Slave, I GNACE GNACE , mulatto age 43, fully guaranteed, , mulatto age 43, fully guaranteed, to Azenor Farron $1,005.

Slave, F RANcOIS RANcOIS , Negro age 40, not guaranteed, , Negro age 40, not guaranteed, to Antoine B. Rachal $1,025.

Slave, A MANDEE MANDEE , Negro age 25, fully guaranteed , Negro age 25, fully guaranteed to Jacquitte Rachal (fmc) $1,555.

Slave, A ZENOR ZENOR , Negro age 25, fully guaranteed , Negro age 25, fully guaranteed to DeBlieux brothers $1,565.

Slave, S OLATAIRE OLATAIRE , Negro age 23, fully guaranteed , Negro age 23, fully guaranteed to Mrs. Eliza Greneaux $1,560.

Slave, M ARIE ARIE J J EANNE EANNE , Negress age 75, not guaranteed , Negress age 75, not guaranteed to Bertrand Plaissance $25.

Slave, L UCY UCY , Negress age 55, not guaranteed , Negress age 55, not guaranteed to Madame T. Landry $605.

Slave, L AFILLE AFILLE , Negress age 40, not guaranteed , Negress age 40, not guaranteed to J. B. Charleville $885.

Slave, E LIZA LIZA , Negress age 27 and son C , Negress age 27 and son C LEMENT LEMENT , age 10 , age 10 to J. M. Tessier $1,615.

Slave, C AROLINE AROLINE , Negress age 24 and S , Negress age 24 and S EVERIN EVERIN , age 2 , age 2 to Francois Gascion $1,030.

Slave, M ARGUERITTE ARGUERITTE , Negress age 25, fully guaranteed , Negress age 25, fully guaranteed to Joseph Ganier Sr.

$1,190.

Slave, E LISABETH LISABETH , Negress age 48, not guaranteed , Negress age 48, not guaranteed to Narcisse Fredieu $800.

Slave, P HOEBE HOEBE , Negress age 30 , Negress age 30 to Benoist Lavespere $900.

Slave, E UGER UGER , Negro age 11 , Negro age 11 to Hypolite Hertzog $750.

Slave, S UZETTE UZETTE , Negress age 26, & child P , Negress age 26, & child P HILOMENE HILOMENE , mulatto age 9 , mulatto age 9 to Joseph Ferrier $1,400.

Slave, G ERANT ERANT , mulatto age 11, fully guaranteed , mulatto age 11, fully guaranteed to Eugene Daurat $975.

Slave, A PPHIA PPHIA , Negress 28 & children P , Negress 28 & children P HEME HEME , 3, & F , 3, & F LORENAL LORENAL , 8 mo. , 8 mo.

to Madame Elisida Metoyer (fwc) $1,400.

Slave, L AIDE AIDE , age 11, fully guaranteed , age 11, fully guaranteed to Antoine Radish $900.

Slave, P ALMIRE ALMIRE , Negress, deaf and dumb, age 30, not guaranteed , Negress, deaf and dumb, age 30, not guaranteed to Joseph Ferrier $950.

Witnessed and signed by Eugene Daurat, executor of the last will and testament of Francoise Rachal, widow of Louis Derbanne Derbanne plantation bill of sale, 1850.

10.

T he longing for each member of her family had become as real to Suzette as the flesh-and-blood people themselves had been and thickened the black fog that surrounded her in her exhaustion day and night. The Ferrier farm was much smaller than Rosedew, but there was only Ferrier, Oreline, Palmire, Suzette, and Philomene to bring in the crops and keep the household running. Suzette performed mechanically, doing whatever was expected of her, struggling to get up and begin each new day. he longing for each member of her family had become as real to Suzette as the flesh-and-blood people themselves had been and thickened the black fog that surrounded her in her exhaustion day and night. The Ferrier farm was much smaller than Rosedew, but there was only Ferrier, Oreline, Palmire, Suzette, and Philomene to bring in the crops and keep the household running. Suzette performed mechanically, doing whatever was expected of her, struggling to get up and begin each new day.

Her family had been divided up among seven different plantations along the nineteen-mile length of Cane River, scattered like the fuzzy dandelion wish-weeds she'd dreamed on as a child. When she was young she would close her eyes and make a wish and then bring the flower up to her mouth to blow the seeds away, giving them up to the capricious winds to find their own direction. After two years on Ferrier's farm she trampled the weeds under her feet without even seeing them.