The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

[singing] Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, Miss Jane

Happy Birthday to you.

[clapping]

Jane: Lena, whatchu put all these candles on this cake for?

Man: Ma'am, now just blow 'em out. Just blow 'em out.

Jane: No, I ain't got enough breathe to be blowing out these candles.

[blows out candles]

Woman: See there!

[laughing, clapping]

Voices: Happy Birthday, Jane!

Jane: Mmm, gonna be here with me this time next year, Lena?

Lena: God willin', God willin'.

Jane: Don't wanna be here by myself now.

Woman: I'm gonna be here with ya, Jane.

Jane: Oh Mary, I know you gonna be here.

Mary: Yeah, child.

Jane: Oh, [unwrapping gift, clapping]

Woman: Happy Birthday! [laughs]

Man: Hello, Miss Jane.

Jane: Well, hello, Jimmy. Come on in.

Jimmy: Happy Birthday.

Can I speak with you, Miss Jane?

Jane: [paper rustling] Jimmy, let's go on outside before they stuff me full a cake.

Jane: Me help? How?

Man: By goin' with us down to the courthouse, when we get ready to move.

Jane: I'm 109, 110. I'm too old. Can't do nuttin' but get in the way.

Jimmy: You can inspire the others.

Jane: Jimmy,

whatchu got goin' in the back of your head?

Jimmy: We gonna have one of our girls drink from the white people's fountain down at the courthouse.

Jane: The white folks' fountain?

Ha Ha. That old Lou and Edgar won't let her get anywhere near that fountain.

You know, when they passed that segregation law,

that old Lou come 'round slobberin and hollerin', I tell 'em

Edgar, if you touch me, I take my cane and cut your skull! [laughing]

Jimmy: We want Gidry to arrest her. If one of us did it, we'd just get beat up.

Jane: Now, what you want old fat Gidry to arrest her for?

Jimmy: So we can march down to the courthouse.

Jane: Oh Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, you see, these folks around here ain't ready for nuttin' like that yet.

Man: That's our job.

Jane: Talk to 'em, Jimmy. Talk to the young ones.

Jimmy: We don't have that kinda time, Miss Jane.

Jane: What else do you got, Jim?

I've been carryin' a scar on my back ever since I was a slave.

Man: That's precisely why we need you; your mere presence will bring forth the multitudes.

Jane: Jimmy, understand, believe it or not, I was once young myself.

Jimmy: That girl is gonna drink from the fountain tomorrow, Miss Jane.

Jane: Well,

God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.

Jane: I'll wait for Him to give me the sign, Jimmy,

and He's right most times. I'll wait on Him.

Jimmy: That girl is gonna drink from the fountain tomorrow, Miss Jane.

[airplane motor]

[car passing by]

[car driving on gravel road]

[door slamming, footsteps on gravel]

Man: Excuse me,

[dishes clinking]

I'm a, I'm looking for Miss Jane Pittman.

Man: Well, you'll find Miss Jane in the last cabin on your left, down that lane.

Man: Thank you, thank you very much.

Lena: Tell me again, whatchu wanna know about Miss Jane for?

Man: I'm writing a feature story.

Jane: A what? Is this for radio? I'm gonna be on television, the Ed Sullivan Show.

Man: No, ma'am. It's, it's, ah, for a magazine from New York.

Jane: Oh, always prefer Brooklyn myself.

[laughing]

Jane: Oooh, you wanna know how come I live so long?

Man: Well, I'd like to hear whatever you have to say.

Jane: 'Bout what?

Lena: You don't have to say a thing to him, Miss Jane.

Man: I understand you were a slave.

Jane: Lots of peoples was slaves.

Man: Well, yes, but you're still alive.

Jane: Jus 'bout.

[birds tweeting]

Man: Well, I, I thought maybe you could tell me what things were like in those days.

Jane: In those days?

Hmm.

[cane tapping on porch]

Tomorrow.

Lena: Miss Jane's tired. She'll decide tomorrow.

[people walking, cars driving by]

Radio: This morning marks Bayonne's first brush with the so-called Civil Rights Movement.

There's a group of negro agitators confronted Sherriff Gidry at the white folks-only drinking fountain at the courthouse.

There were no serious injuries reported, although several arrests were made.

Jane: Well, it's her son, Jimmy, that got into jail there. She can tell ya.

Man: Well, I want to do an interview with him as soon as things settle down,

but I, I came down here to talk to you, Miss Jane. Are you a 110 years old?

Jane: Hmmpf. So they tell me.

Man: How far back can you remember?

Jane: How far back you wanna go?

Man: Well, ah, the war. Can you remem-

Jane: What war? Second World, First World, or that, that Cuban War?

Man: Y - you remember the Spanish American War?

Jane: Spanish American War! [laughs]

I can do a whole lot better than that.

Man: Do you remember getting your freedom?

Jane: I hope I never forget it. How far back you wanna go? You wanna go back that far?

I'll go back as far as you wanna go.

Lena: Now you don't have to tell him nothing, Miss Jane.

Jane: I know that, Lena, but if I don't, he's just gonna sit here and worry me half to death.

Man: You mean, it's alright?

Jane: How far? You want me to go back as far as I can go? That's even further than when the freedom come.

[clicks on the tape recorder]

Jane: That thing ain't gonna bite me, is it?

Man: Oh no, ma'am, no. It's just a tape.

[laughing]

Jane: Oh my, my, my.

Well, where to start, where to start, Lena.

Lena: Honestly, I wouldn't talk to this man here.

Jane: Lena, you just fill in the gaps.

Lena: Huh, well, I can see who got their mind made up.

You might as well start with them over there.

Jane: What. Oh these?

Lena: Hmm.

Lord, Lord, Lord.

I have had these things ever since I can remember.

Man: Two rocks?

Jane: You don't know a whole lot, do ya?

[music]

[horses neighing, walking]

[footsteps]

[chicken clucking]

Old Jane: Oh, it was a cold day.

Wet and muddy, I will never forget it.

The red army they come first, officers on horses and troops just walking.

They was half dead, dragging their guns in the mud, they were so tired.

Some of 'em weren't much older than I was.

Officer: Ma'am, would it be asking too much if we could use some of your water?

We don't have very much time.

Woman: I'd be honored, Sir.

Colonel, would you do me the pleasure of taking some brandy wine?

Colonel: Well, thank you kindly. I would like that.

[horses neighing]

Woman: Tycee! [clapping hands]

Tycee! Don't just stand there gaping. Get them troops some water.

[water splashing]

Man: Here you go, boy.

Old Jane: These are the same ones, mind ya, that told their peoples when the war was getting started:

"Keep my food warm. I'm gonna kill me a few Yankees and be home for supper."

Man 1: Colonel! Colonel!

Man 2: Over there!

Man 1: Colonel, I seen 'em. They're right down the road. They're right behind me.

Colonel: Ma'am, I am truly grateful, and God bless ya'll.

Woman: Our hearts are with you.

Man 3: If it was left up to me, I'd turn them niggers lose if it was left up to me.

Man 4: Yeah, if the Yankees won. Have to give the Yankees hell!

[horses galloping]

[gunfire in background]

Woman: Tycee, what are you doing standing there for? You go get some more water.

Tycee: What for, Mistress Bryant. They're all gone now.

Mrs. Bryant: Oh, you don't think Yankees drink water too? Don't ya hear that rifle fire?

Tycee: I gotta haul all that water for them Yankees too?

Mrs. Bryant: You don't want to get boiled in oil now, do ya?

[horses neighing]

Tycee: They're comin', they're comin'! The Yankees are comin'!

Mrs. Bryant: Where?

Tycee: Over there.

Mrs. Bryant: Oh my God, they're coming right through the fields!

Where's the Master?

Tycee: He's there sw'mping 'round the tree.

Mrs. Bryant: Stop pointing.

You watch your tongue; there may be the devil.

Now you hear me. Don't you say one word about the Master or one word about the silver,

or they gonna skin you alive before they boil you in oil.

Man: Dismount!

Mrs. Bryant: How'd ya do?

Man: Ma'am.

Mrs. Brandt: May I offer you some brandy wine?

Man: Why, thank you, Ma'am.

[horses walking and neighing]

Man: What happened to your shoes?

Tycee: I took mine off. They hurt my feet.

Man: What's your name?

Tycee: Tycee, Master.

Man: They ever beat you, Tycee?

You can tell me.

What do they beat you with?

Tycee: Cat-of-Nine tails, Master.

Man: Why they'd whip you?

Tycee: I go to sleep lookin' after the young mistress's children.

Man: You're nothing but a child yourself. How old are you right now?

Tycee: I don't know, Master.

Man: Tycee, I am not a Master. I am plain old ordinary soldier.

My name's Corporal Lewis Brown. Now can you say Corporal?

Tycee: No, Master.

Corporal Brown: I bet you can. Go on, try.

Tycee: I can't say that.

Corporal Brown: Can you say Lewis?

Tycee: Yes, Master.

Corporal Brown: Alright. Well, you call me Lewis,

and I'm gonna call you something besides Tycee. Tycee is a slave name.

Now, back in Ohio, there's lots of pretty names for a girl like you.

Tycee: What names you got?

Lewis: Oh, Eloise,

Sophie, Margeurite, Jane.

Tycee: I like Jane.

Lewis: OK, you take it.

From now on, your name is Jane.

Not Tycee anymore. Jane.

When you get older, you change it to anything you want,

but until then your name is Jane.

Man: Load up!

Man: Come on!

Lewis: If anybody gives you any more trouble, you just come on up to Ohio and tell me.

We'll fix it.

[music playing]

Voice: Come on!

[bell ringing]

Old Jane: A year later, Master Bryant called us all together.

We knew somethin' big was happenin', 'cause he had on his best suit and his top hat.

Master Bryant: Now everybody that can stand or crawl gotta hear this.

Man: That's all of them, Master Bryant.

Master Bryant: Alright then.

I got something to read to ya'll. These papers come through while the war was still goin', but

there wasn't any point in reading them until now.

Whereas on the 22nd day of September in the year of our Lord, 1862,

a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States,

containing among other things the following:

To wit, that on the first day of January in the year of our Lord 1863

all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state,

the people where are shall then be in rebellion against the United States

shall be then thence forward, and forever, free.

Well, it just goes on like that.

Now, all I want to say is that

ya'll can stay and work on shares; I, I, I can't pay ya nothin',

since I ain't got nothin' myself,

since them Yankees went through here last time.

Ya'll can stay.

Ya'll can go.

Just as you please.

Now, if, if ya'll stay,

I promise

I, I'll be as fair, as, as fair with ya, as I've always been with ya'll,

and that's that.

[people laughing and shouting]

[man yelling]

Now, you just shut up your mouths here.

You comin' in here, telling about I'm leaving. Where to? What you gonna do?

[Thunder and rain]

Man 2: What do we care? We's free to choose.

Man 3: There are all kinds of places to go. Gold in California.

Man 1: Hold it, hold it. Whatcha gonna eat?

Man 2: We'll all to eat food!

[laughing]

Man 1: How you gonna to pay for all this food, you big young buck?

Man 2: With money, Unc, same as any other free man.

Unc: And from where is you getting this fortune?

Man 2: Honest wage for an honest day's work.

Unc: You don't know nothing about outside. You belong right here on this plantation.

Jane: Ya'll do what ya'll want. I'm headin' for Ohio.

Unc: What about them padaroes, honey?

Jane: They got Yankees now. No papers now. I'm just as free as a mouse.

Unc: They ain't gonna beatcha, and they didn't kill ya before because you belonged to somebody.

Now you ain't owned but by faith, Tycee.

Jane: My name's Jane, and I'm headed for Ohio so as you point the way North.

Unc: Very well, Miss Jane. North bes that a way from here. Now,

the sun's on the right in the morning and on the left in the evening. You got all this?

[thunder and rain]

All right, now remember. God bless you, child.

[mumbling the background]

Old Jane: Missus had tears in her eyes, and she was kissin' all the peoples goodbye.

Hmm. She even kissed me. [laugh]

[music]

Jane: We walked for days through the swamps, staying off the main roads

cause them padaroes would kill a free man quick as he would a runaway slave.

No one knew where we was headed, so, Big Laura, tough as any man, showed the way.

[music]

[footsteps]

[voices murmuring]

Big Laura: Come on, Jane, come on.

[woman screaming: The padaroes! The padaroes!

[guns shooting, baby crying, screaming]

{yelling, screaming, fighting}

Jane: You wanna go to Ohio with me?

If anybody asks, these just two plain old rocks,

not the iron and flint that Big Laura used but two plain old rocks.

Make sure they get to Ohio the same time we do.

Old Jane: So, Big Laura's little boy, Ned and me, we started walking toward Ohio.

[dog barking]

There wasn't much left of the South in those times.

All the Yankees couldn't lift and take with them, they burned.

Once in awhile though, you'd see somethin' still standin'.

Woman: You! Get away from my fence.

Jane: Excuse me, ma'am. Could you tell me which way to Ohio?

Please, ma'am!

Woman: If you don't get away from my fence, I'm gonna have that dog there point the way to Ohio!

[dog barking]

Jane: I just wanted to know if I was headed the right way.

Women: I don't know nothin about no Ohio. Get away from my fence!

Jane: We headed on then. Can you tell me if there's a spring around here?

Woman: You don't see no spring around here, do ya?

Jane: Me and this boy are awful thirsty.

Woman: Stay there.

[footsteps]

[dog barking]

Women: You don't think I'm gonna let you foul this cup with your black mouth, do ya?

Hold yer hands out.

[water pouring]

Woman: Don'tcha all think I love niggers just because I'm given you water.

I hate cha'll. Hate cha! All of ya!

You're the cause of all the trouble we're having around here. All this ravishin' and burnin'.

Yankee and nigger soldiers all over the place. They stealin' and killin'.

They done killed my boy and my man, and yer the cause of it,

and I hope to God they kill you! I'd kill ya myself if I weren't God-fearin'!

Look whatcha done to me! Look whatcha done!

Look whatcha done to me! [sobbing]

[music]

[horse and wagon]

Man: Whoa! You two must be pretty tired standing on that grave.

Hat so well dried, can't tell who it belonged to.

Lot of 'im in there though, whoever they was. Where ya'll goin?

Jane: We headin' north.

Ned: We headin' north

Man: Ya ain't goin' nowhere standin' there.

Come on now.

[wagon rattling]

Man: Headin' north, eh? Where the big freedom, hey?

Well, you gonna have to cross a river, you know.

Jane: River?!

Man: The Mighty MIssissippi.

Jane: I ain't crossin' no river, nothin'!

Man: You gonna cross the Mighty Mississippi, or you all ain't headin' north.

[horses galloping]

You two keep still. I know these two. Let me do the talking,

Man 2: See you gotcha you some niggers there, Joe.

Joe: Yessir! For the Bonduron's place.

Can't say they much, but you got to start with somethin', sure!

Man: Feed 'em. They'll grow.

Joe: Will do, yessir.

[wagon rattling]

Joe: You two, get off here.

Jane: Where the river? I don't see no river.

Joe: Never mind. Just get off!

Ned: I don't see no river.

[wagon rattling away]

[music]

[banjo playing]

Captain: Where do ya think ya'll goin'?

Jane: Me and this boy here are headed for Ohio.

Captain: Ohio? Who ya'll for?

Jane: We ain't for nobody! We just as free as you are.

Captain: Well, alright, little free nigger. You got money?

It take a nickel to ride on here. You got a nickel each?

Jane: No, sir.

Captain: Then got on back. Lucas, take care of them.

[music]

Old Jane: So, we walked and walked. Round in circles, probably.

Keeping out of the way of rednecks and padaroes, who was on the lookout for freemen.

Finally, we was so tired and hungry, and not knowing where else to go,

I signed on at the Dyer plantation.

I didn't know it was going to take me twelve long, hard years to get off that place.

They no rocks. Ned knew that. They flints for making fire.

Man: Is she all right?

Lena: Oh yeah.

That's just Miss Jane's way. She'd like to take advantage of her age that way,

skipping goodbyes and all. Says she had too many anyway.

Voice: Uh, excuse me. Gotta whole bunch of telephone messages here for ya.

Man: Oh, thank you.

Jane's voice: In slavery, you had two dresses, a pair of shoes, and a coat.

[typing]

[birds tweeting]

[crunching]

Jane: Say, you like that stuff?

Man: Yes, ma'am.

Jane: That's homegrown, you know. Not from no can.

You ever ate sugar cane before?

Man: No, ma'am.

Jane: I know you ain't never chopped none.

Man: [laughs] No, ma'am, I haven't.

Jane: Man has to chop sugar cane for awhile 'for it learns to appreciate it.

Most people ain't never ate sugar cane raw today, black or white.

I work on the Dyer plantation for 12 long years, and I know what went on. I was there.

I guess I must have been about,

I guess I must have been about 22, 23.

Voice: All right, let's go!

[chopping]

Voice: You, you.

Woah.

Man: You all know and trust and love me. So, vote for me! Send me to Washington, to assure . . .

Old Jane: Colored politicians used to come 'round and sign us up for votes,

and more than just a few got sent to Washington,

but Reconstruction never really worked. It wasn't too long for carpetbaggers, black and white,

moved in to take from the South what the war didn't.

For awhile, yes, it looked like things was gonna be alright for us.

We had a little school on the place where we could go at night.

Ned, he must have been about 18 then.

[door bursts open, screaming]

Voice: . .. an education! I'm gonna give you an education!

[fire burning]

Woman screaming: God, no! No!

[woman screaming, baby crying]

Oh, my God! No!

Old Jane: Colonel Dyer was gettin' crazier by the day.

Sometimes, when it was June 4, like the war never ended.

Colonel: There's, uh, no more nigger politicians 'round here.

That schoolhouse up there is gonna stay shut down until I can find ya'll a competent teacher.

Ya'll don't need a pass to leave the place like before.

You all do right by me, and any group stops you on the road,

you just tell me, and I'll fix it right out!

I can't pay ya'll until the end of the year, but you can draw rations and clothing from the store.

If that suits ya, stay!

If that don't,

I catch up with them coattail-flying scalawags and the rest of them hot-footin' niggers.

Old Jane: Ned started teaching the people to write.

He even wrote to Washington DC, but they never wrote back.

You know, he found out about committees being formed that helped the coloreds with their rights,

and so he formed one too.

Ned: . . . and there ain't no such taxes for protecting living.

If someone tries to burn your crop, tell us. We know how to prosecute.

Old Jane: The vigilantes heard about Ned's committee, and they started watching him,

but that didn't stop him none.

[horse galloping]

Man: Where's he at?

Woman: Who? Who? Who?

Man: You know who I'm talking about!

Ned Stephen Douglas! That's who, or whatever he's calling himself these days.

Woman: I don't know where he is.

Man 2: She don't know, Bull!

Bull: Still don't know where he's at?

We'll get him. I'm telling you, that boy of yours better stop being so serious.

I don't like him getting so serious, you understand!

Man 2: She understands!

Voices: Come on, let's go! We'll find him.

[horses galloping away]

[music]

[door opening]

Ned: Ma, what happened?

Jane: [mumbling] Eat your food!

Ned: This! What happened?

Jane: They was here lookin' for you tonight, Ned.

They're fixin' to kill ya.

They will, if you don't leave this place.

Ned: I can't, Mama. You know that.

Jane: Ya got to!

Ned: I can't leave these people.

They haven't got anybody else who will fight for them, except the Commitee.

Jane: Ned, you ain't worth nothin' to nobody dead.

You pack your things now. Take the road to New Orleans, and take a boat leaving' for Kansas.

Ned: You come with me then.

Jane: No, I can't. I can't, Ned. I'm tired here.

Ned: You're comin' with me, Mama. They'll hurt you again.

Jane: They can't do me nothin', Ned. I don't have what you have.

I don't have the urge. I know the land, but you know the peoples.

Got to 'em, Ned. Talk to 'em. Show 'em.

Ned: You have to come with me.

Jane: No. It's not my time.

Ned: I'll stop. I'll stop the teachin's. I'll stop the writing, the letters.

Jane: You know that's not right, and that ain't what none of us wants.

Ned: I don't wanna leave, Mama. I don't want us to separate.

Jane: I know, but it has to be. I knew the day would come.

You know, I never did tell ya, but the first time you ever read to us,

I knew that you was the one.

I won't hold ya back, Ned. I won't hold ya back.

Ned: Mama, Mama, Mama [crying]

Jane: Make me proud. Make me proud.

Ned: Mama, keep them for me.

Make sure they git to Ohio same time we do.

[footsteps on grass]

[sobbing]

[music and galloping horses]

Old Jane: I didn't hear from Ned for a whole year.

I guess that was about '75 or '76, the same year I first saw Joe Pittman.

I had him over to supper, and we started seein' each other from time to time.

and, as things happened b'tweens people, one thing led to another.

[music]

Joe: But after a time, there were too many and no jobs,

and people started freezin' to death of cold.

Others got starvin'.

Then the protests, riots came, and people started going off to other states.

I am still goin' to school, college now. When I'm ready, I'm comin' back home.

In the meantime, here's $3.00

[crinkling]

and God bless you, Mama. All my love, Ned.

Well, Little Mama, took a whole year, but you finally heard from yer boy.

Ever tell him about us?

When you gonna tell him about Clyde Ranch?

Jane: Ain't said I'm gonna go yet.

Joe: Oh, you're goin'. That's all there is to it.

I'm leavin', and you're goin with me.

Jane: Well, how's Ned gonna know where to write to me?

Joe: Well, we'll send him a photograph of us up on a horse, wild west style.

[laughing]

Jane: I ain't gettin on no horse or nuttin.

Joe: Yeah, you're comin' with me, Little Mama.

[laughing]

Old Jane: By then, Colonel Dyer was so forgetful. He'd call us all out to him,

and then he couldn't remember what we was there for.

[laughing]

Colonel: Whatcha all doin', standin' and starin'? Go get on back to work.

[people mumbling]

Joe: Colonel, we're leavin'.

Colonel: You what?

Joe: Jane and me are goin'.

Colonel: Whatsa matter, Joe? Ain't I treatin' you right?

Joe: It ain't that at all, Colonel. We've been treated very good here,

but I wanna go out and do a little share croppin' on my own.

Colonel: Listen, Joe. I'll, ah, turn over that piece of good bottom land to ya.

You can work it like you want.

Joe, you a good man. I need ya'll around here,

and there ain't much happened since the war,

and there ain't another nigger on this place that can work a horse like you.

You people's the happiest damn creatures on God's green Earth. I wanna do right by ya'll.

Joe: Mighty grateful, Colonel, mighty grateful,

but, Jane and me, we want to go off on our own.

Colonel: You ain't grateful. Hell. You wanna share crop, share crop! See what I care!

Joe: Thank you, Sir.

Colonel: Just a minute. Ain't you forgettin somethin?

Where my $50?

Joe: What $50?

Colonel: Oh, you forgot that, did ya?

Well, I ain't.

That $50 to get you all outta that trouble with the Klutchers.

Joe: That ain't bothers me.

Colonel: Course it ain't! Ya'll mixed up in a little politics there after the war.

Everybody around here knew it.

Joe: I didn't know you paid.

Colonel: Those Klutchers don't stop doin what they do, just cuz ya'll say it holy.

Now, you pay up, or else.

[footsteps on grass]

[music]

Old Jane: We had to sell everything we own.

$1.00 for the chair, $5.00 for the hoe. Shotgun got $7.00.

Finally, Joe did what he had to do.

He sold his beautiful horse, the one he trained special, the one he rode so proud.

Colonel: Well?

Joe: Here's the money, Colonel. I'll count it out, so as you're sure it's all there.

Colonel: It all there.

You're a smart one, ain'tcha?

Well I got news. Time lap come to five more dollars.

Joe: You didn't say nuttin about that.

Jane: But you ain't got no more!

Colonel: I got legal rights, by interest.

Joe: What are ya doin', Jane? That's your wedding ring.

Jane: That's our freedom!

[music]

Old Jane: It took ten days of hard walkin' til we reached east Texas and the Clyde Ranch.

[music]

[horses galloping and neighing]

[music]

[laughing]

Old Jane: Joe was a cheap beggar. Everybody call him, Cheap Pittmann.

He'd bring horses in from Texas, and he would ride the ones nobody else could.

Oh, he was a poet the way he rode.

[horses running, dog growling]

Men shouting: Get'em in there. Come on. Get 'em in! Yah! Yah! Yah! Get 'em in there!

Old Jane: The next summer, Joe brought in a horse like I've never seen before.

It sent a chill down my spine the way it looked.

I knew it was something evil.

[music]

[knocking on door]

Jane: And when I see that old white devil horse coming to Clyde Ranch,

he'd just stand there, keep alaughing at me. Laughing at me, I know it! I know it!

Woman: Be calm. Be calm.

Before we go on, how many children have you given Joe Pittman?

Jane: I'm barren.

Woman: That tis it. Have you told him?

Jane: No.

Woman: [speaking in another language]

This is why he ride the horses, to prove something. This is man's way.

Jane: You think that old horse gonna kill him?

Woman: (sighs) You want the true response?

Jane: Yes.

Woman: [foreign language] Money.

[bracelets jingle]

[wind blows, plates clatter]

Woman: You may go if you want.

Jane: I want to know.

Woman: You are brave, my dear.

Jane: Does that mean that old white devil horse gonna kill my Joe?

Woman: [foreign language] I did not say that.

Jane: But that's answer.

[music, horse walking]

[footsteps]

[horse galloping]

Joe: My Jane, whatcha doin'?

Jane: Let it be, Joe. Please! Let him be. Let him be, Joe! Oh!

Please!

Please! Let him go, Joe! Let him go! Oh!

Let him be! Oh!

Let him be. Let him be.

No!

No!

No! Noooo! No!

[screaming, crying]

Old Jane: We buried him at the ranch. The rodeo went on as always, but before it started,

[bell ringing]

they tolled the bell for Joe Pittman.

When Joe Pittman was killed, part of me went with him into his grave.

No man would ever take the place of Joe Pittman, and that's why I carry his name to this day.

Well, I known two or three other mens, but none took the place of Joe Pittman.

I let them know that from the very start.

[sniffling]

Have I got to the part about Albert Cooper yet?

Man: No, Ma'am.

Old Jane: When Ned, when he'd come back that time from Cooper.

Lena: Not yet, Jane.

Old Jane: Oh, I thought I did. It was . . . I was takin' in laundry then. It was about the turn of the century.

I was fishing that day on my place in Forrest River, when I saw him coming around the bend.

It was 20 years since I'd seen him, but I knew it was my Ned the moment I laid eyes on him.

Yes, I did.

[music]

Jane: Put me down.

Ned: Mm,mm, mm. [chuckles]

I'm getting made 'cause I'm full!

[laughing]

Jane: Well, I made some of my favorite puddin'.

And for you, little bitty.

Woman: Thank you, Miss Jane.

Jane: That's for you.

Ned: So anyway, we, we got used to the small shot whizzing around us,

but when one of those big ones hit, whoa! [laughs]

We sometimes found ourselves in a lively dispute over the proprietorship of the nearest tree.

[laughing]

Woman: Now don't go talkin' like you spent the whole Spanish American War hiding behind a tree. Tell her what the newspaper says.

Jane: You get your name in the newspaper?

Ned: Not me personally, Mama, but I guess folks by now know about the 10th Calvary.

Woman: Miss Jane, the newspaper in Washington say that

the Rough Riders would never made up Sandmond Hill,

if it hadn't been for the black soldiers fightin' beside 'em.

Ned: Ahead of them sometimes.

[laughing]

Jane: And you didn't get hit in all that shootin'?

Ned: No, never.

I saw men, dead and dying all around me, black, white, Spanish.

I began to feel like I was alive for a reason.

[bowl set down on table]

Jane: Come back to teach?

Ned: I checked around, Mama. You know you don't have a school on the river.

Jane: Well... ain't nothing change here either.

Woman: Yeah, he stopped talking about much he'd have to do, Miss Jane.

Jane: It can get that way. Hmm, mm hmm.

Woman: Yeah, we both so pleased. I know my Ned can accomplish a great deal here.

Jane: You made up your mind, ain't ya, Ned?

Ned: That war in Cuba taught me a lot of things, Mama.

Jane: Well,

Ned, I want to tell ya,

if you're fixin' to use O' Thomas's Church, he ain't gonna let ya.

Ned: I know that it is hard for you to come here

and discouraging when so many said they would come and didn't,

but we must not give up.

We are not alone.

Listen to what Mr. Frederick Douglas wrote to us from the North 50 years ago.

Remember that we are one, that our cause is one,

and that we must help one another if we would succeed.

We have drunk to the drags the bitter cup of, of slavery.

We have worn a heavy yoke. We have sighed beneath our bonds.

We have rised to the bloody lash.

Cruel mementos of our oneness are indelibly marked in our living flesh.

[horses neighing]

Old Jane: And that's where Albert Cooper come in.

He already killed 12 people, black and white. Like chopping wood, he used ta say.

Jane: Why you always talking about killing for?

Albert: I'm the best. I don't brag so much. He, hee! Oh!

Hey, Jane! You cook this up for me tonight. I, ya, tell you something important.

Jane: What's important?

Albert: They talk to me about your boy there, Jane. They don't want him build that school there, no?

They say he could just stir up trouble for niggers. They want him go back, back where he come from.

They don't know Albert tell you this. They want me stop him.

Jane: You mean kill my boy?

Albert: I tell them, I say, me, you, we all can fish on Saint Char River. I tell them I eat at your house.

Jane: Can you kill my boy?

Albert: They don't like he preach on the river way he do.

Jane: Can you kill my boy?

Albert: I do whatever they tell Albert.

Jane: Can you kill my boy?

Albert: Yes!

Yes, I can, Miss Jane.

[music]

[people talking and laughing]

Ned: Mama, Mama! Where you been? What ya runnin' all this way for?

Jane: Ned! You gotta leave this place.

Ned: I'm not going to, Mama.

Jane: You gotta leave Ned!

Ned: Mama, that's just what they want me to do! I ran once, never again.

Jane: Make him take you and Elizabeth out to Kansas.

Ned: Mama. Mama, look at all these people out here.

These are my people; this is my home! Now, they're not afraid!

They came to listen, and I'm gonna to speak.

Jane: Ned.

Ned: You got some black men who'll tell you, that the white man's the worst thing on the Earth,

but let me tell you this: all men are the same.

The same evil you see in Whites, you see in Blacks,

and likewise, the good to be found is in all men, White and Black.

The enemy is not skin!

It's ignorance.

It was ignorance that put us here in the first place.

Ignorance, because the big tribes of Africa warred against each other,

or made slaves out of the smaller tribes.

Our own black people put us in pens like hogs,

destroying entire civilizations with rum and beads,

and it was still the African, this time the Arabs who sold us on the block.

The white man didn't need guns because we were weak.

The French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, they took us because

we were ignorant. We were apart from one another.

You got folks here saying,

Let's go back to Africa. Let's go to Liberia.

Well, I am not African! I'm American, a black American, and proud of it!

Look inside yourself and say , What am I? What else besides this, this black skin?

Do you know what a nigger is?

First, a nigger feels below anything else on this Earth.

He doesn't care about himself.

He doesn't care about anybody else.

He doesn't care about anything.

He'll never be an American. He'll never be a citizen of any other nation,

but there's a big difference between a black American

and a nigger.

A black American cares, and he knows, and he struggles.

That's why I'm telling you this.

That's why I know that no son or daughter of mine will ever be a nigger.

I want my children to be black and proud of it.

This, this land, America, belongs to us all,

but, I don't mean that we own it, but that it's God's,

and that makes it as much ours as any man's.

You are not vested by no man.

Be Americans, but first, be men!

[clapping]

Ned: I'm gonna die, Mama.

[horse and wagon on gravel road]

Albert: Ned. I tell you, you get down outta da wagon.

[cocking the gun]

Get down out of da wagon, Ned!

Man in wagon: Ain't got nuttin' but a double barrel, Ned.

He gonna need both of them to bring me down.

Ned: Take the lumber and finish the school.

Man in wagon: Ned, let me take him.

Ned: Talk to Mama. Talk to Vivian. It's important.

Man in wagon: Ned, you're important. Let me take him.

Ned: Sam, do as I say. Else he'll get us both.

[horse and wagon on gravel road]

Albert: I tell you mama about all dis.

Ned: What took you so long?

Albert: Albert have all de time in de world.

[gunshot]

Albert: They tell Albert, Make you crawl first!

Ned: No!

Albert: Crawl! Crawl! Get down and crawl, and we get this over with!

Ned: No!

[gunshot]

[music]

Old Jane: I can explain all my sorrow and feeling on that day.

I remember talking to him like he was still alive.

For days, weeks, folks always stayed with me

'cause they were afraid I was gonna lose my mind.

Man on radio: . . . to not have a policy which gave any assurances of success

in which the Soviet Union has already effectively, has rejected.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.

President on radio: No, thank you.

Man on radio: In Massachusetts, the possibility that JFK's younger brother, 30-year-old Teddy, running for the 1962 Democratic nomination. . .

Lena: There to put your foot in your mouth again. No, oaf it the. . .

Old Jane: Well, back again, huh?

Man: Yes, Ma'am. I, I tried to get into see Jimmy, but uh . . .

Od Jane: But Gidry wouldn't let ya? That old Gidry. He makes me sick.

You ain't hadn't yer fill of me yet?

Man: No, Ma'am.

Old Jane: Well, when did I come to this place?

Lena: Was early 20's, 19 and 25, the time of the Kingfish, you in law.

Old Jane: No. I seem to remember it was before the High Water, 19 and 27.

I'd slowed up in the field, but I rode around to the peoples

to let them know I was still alive and kicking.

Woman: Well, well, if it ain't Miss High Class.

Jane: Just my noon stroll, Lena. My noon stroll.

Lena: Well, that's how it is with the Indian prince. Me, I got work for a living.

[laughs]

Jane: Whoa, Rex, whoa!

Man: Well, hey there, Miss Jane. How ya all?

Jane: Mr. Ralph, what ya doing out here in the fan for?

Ralph: How'd ya'll like to come work inside the main house?

Jane: What for? You ain't thinking I'm too old to work the fields anymore, is ya?

Man: Oh no, no, no. Miss Aberdeen needs help with the two boys, that's all.

How old you now, Jane?

Jane: 70, give or take a little.

Man: Ya'll know how to cook?

Jane: Well now, I've been doing it for nigh on six years. Ain't poisoned nobody yet.

[chuckles]

Old Jane: Sometimes, it seemed like we was one big family.

We played baseball every Sunday. The score would be 50-0 or 41-8.

[voices] . . . We need another one of those home runs. Bring it down a little. . .

[clapping, cheering]

Old Jane: I was too old to play, so they stuck a cap on me from my favorite team,

the Brooklyn Dodgers, and they made me the ump.

I don't mind tellin' ya, I was too old. I was half-blind, really, for them calls,

but they made me ump by a new-batted plate anyway.

Jane: I say, you're out. You're out! I'm the ump. Out!

Old Jane: Oh! We sure had some fun.

We was always looking for somebody to lead em'. They did it during slavery,

they did during the War, and they doing it now.

They always doing the hard times, and the Lord always obliges 'em.

When a child is born, whole folks look at him and ask,

Is you the one?

When Lena had her baby boy, all the folks looked at him and say,

You the one, Jimmy? Is you the one?

'Cause I always knew he was.

Jimmy: You want Dick Tracy?

Jane: You done did your figures for the day yet?

Jimmy: Yes'm. Multiplication tables are coming out of my ears.

Jane: All right. I don't want no funnies today though. Read me the sports page.

I want to hear what they say about my Jackie.

Jimmy: He stoled three bases and hit two home runs.

Jane: He did not.

Jimmy: It says so right here, Miss Jane.

Jane: Unh. I heard the game last night on the radio, smart boy. Dodgers lost.

Jimmy: Yes'm, but so did the Yankees.

Jane: Uh huh! You see there? Jackie and the Dodgers is for the colored folks anyway,

just like Joe Louis was. You know who he is?

Jimmy: You told me, Miss Jane.

Jane: Yeah.

Well, did I tell ya that he let Schmeling beat him the first time just to teach us a lesson? Did I?

Well, he did, but oooh, boy, that second time was somethin' else!

[laughing] Mmm, hmm, mmm.

Old Jane: Unc Gilly used to show us all how Schmeling fell when Joe Louis hit 'im.

Oh, he was famous for that, old as he was,

and years later, that's how he died, showing folks how Schmeling fell when Joe hit 'im.

[laughter]

Peoples in the quarters was takin' notice of Jimmy, how he recite numbers and like school.

They was always sayin', he gonna be a credit to his race, that one.

When he got older, he went away to school. I didn't see him for 10 long years,

and that was the beginning of the civil rights troubles.

Reverend: Help us, O Lord, and show us the way.

[footsteps]

Reverend: Amen.

Jimmy: I'm here for your help. You know what's going on all over the country,

all over the South. I've met the Rev. King. I've eaten at his home. I've been to his church.

I've even gone to jail with him.

I was with him when he was winning the battle in Alabama and Mississippi,

but you people here, my own folks, haven't even begun to fight.

Reverend: Hold it! Hold it right there.

You don't come to our church no more, Jimmy.

Jimmy: I am here now, and I have something to say.

Reverend: You have nothing to say!

You're just fixing to get us into a whole lot of trouble.

[slam]

Jane: Shut up, and listen to what Jimmy got to say.

Jimmy: Well, some people are thinking of carrying guns,

but we don't want anything to do with that nonsense.

Others want to carry flags. Well, what's a flag if you haven't got any meaning behind it?

All we have is our strength, the strength of our people. That's what gives us meaning.

We need your strength. We need your prayers.

We need you to stand with us because we have no other roots.

Reverend: Jimmy. I don't want no trouble for my people.

What you see here is all we are, nothing more than that.

We don't want to lose what little we have!

Jimmy: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I have disturbed the church. I'm sorry.

[footsteps]

Lena whispers: Jimmy.

Old Jane: I was feeling poorly, so Miss Aberdeen was taking me to the doctor that day, when

[sirens wailing]

Sheriff: I'm sorry, Miss Aberdeen, the trouble we having here.

One thing after another since they passed that desegregation law there.

How you doing today, Granny?

Miss Aberdeen: You have to remember, Sheriff, she's over 100 years old.

Don't let all this upset you now, Jane. It's gonna be alright.

Sheriff: You all take care.

Mr. Aberdeen: That everybody? Good.

I wanted to remind every last one of ya'll,

ya'll living on this place for free.

You pay me no rent. You pay me no water bill.

You don't give me a turnip out of your garden.

You don't give one egg out of your henhouse.

You pick all the pecans you can find on the place. All I ask for is half, what I never get.

I ask ya for half of the berries you find, and you bring me a pocketful so dirty,

I wouldn't feed to 'em to a hog I don't like.

All right. I let all that go,

but this, I will not let go.

There ain't gonna be no demonstratin' on my place.

Anybody around here who thinks he needs more freedom than he got already

is free to pack up and leave now.

That go for the oldest one. That go for the youngest one. Jane too.

Who the last one had a baby down there?

Lena: Eva's little boy, Peter.

That go for Jane. That go for Eva's little boy, Peter.

Lena: There sure enough is somethin' goin' on.

You know Batlow and Rose down there in Dulaville's place?

Been there now 30 years? Batlow got mixed up in a demonstration in Baton Rouge yesterday.

Mr. Dulaville give 'em 24 hours to get off the place,

after 30 years! Gave them 24 hours to get off the place.

Old Jane's voice: . . . and ask, Is he the One?

When Lena had her baby, we all look at him and ask, Is you the One, Jimmy?

Is you the One? 'Cause -

[click]

[typing]

[phone rings]

Man: Yes?

Operator: I have a telephone call for ya, comin' in from New York City.

Man 2: Hello! Hello, Quintin!

Quintin: Yes, sir.

Man: I'm pulling you; you get to cover the John Glenn story in two days.

Quintin: Look, I know this space shot is a big thing, but this woman is -

well, she's not exactly another human interest story.

Man: Look, Quintin. I'm sure she's fascinating, but

a magazine this size can't survive on a story about an old woman.

I need someone to cover that blast off, dammit!

Now, if you can't go, then I'll send someone else.

Quintin?

Quintin, are you there?

Quintin: All right.

Man: All right, what?

Quintin: I'll be there.

Man: You have to be there tomorrow night.

Quintin: I said I'd be there.

Quintin: I'm leaving today, Miss Jane.

I'm, uh, gonna go watch a rocket take a man around the Earth.

It's, uh, it's never been done before.

Jane: You think I'm crazy.

Quintin: Ma'am?

Jane: I talk to this tree, you know.

Old Sister Oak.

Look at me. I'm goin' on 110 years old,

and now if it ain't the Lord that's keepin' me goin', what is it?

See? I can sit in the sun,

and I can walk, not like I used to, but I do pretty well.

Sometimes, when I feel fair good, I walk all the way down to the road,

and I look at the river,

gently though,

I just come up the quarters apiece, and I sit here, under this old oak.

Look. The peoples done fix me a nice, clean place to sit and talk with my God,

or sometimes, I sit here for an hour, just thanking Him for his blessings,

and then I go back home.

There's only just a few of us left, you know,

and I've seen enough years to last two lifetimes. I don't mind seeing a few more though.

He'll know when to call me,

and when He call me, I'll be ready.

Til then, I just have some of the children read me the Bible and the sports page, and,

and the funnies. I like the funnies too, you know,

and I do enjoy my vanilla ice cream. I have my vanilla ice cream. I like that.

You know, this oak tree, I'm sure it's been here as long as this place been here,

and I ain't ashamed to tell ya that I talk to it,

and I ain't crazy either.

It ain't, it ain't, necessary craziness to talk to the rivers and the trees,

'cause now when you talk to the ditches in the bayous, that's different,

'cause a ditch ain't nothin', and a bayou ain't much more!

[laughs]

But oh, the rivers and the trees,

that's unless, of course, you talking to a China Ball tree.

Anybody gettin' caught talkin' to a China Ball tree or a thorn tree,

they got to be crazy!

But an old oak, like this one here, that's been here all these years

and knows more than you'll ever know,

it ain't craziness, son. It's just the nobility you respects.

Well, you've found all you've come for.

Quintin: Yes, ma'am.

Jane: That's good.

[police sirens]

[people singing]

[tires on dirt road]

man on radio: Today's Sunday's service is from the First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge

and we will continue with some of your favorite music.

[car stopping]

[car door shuts]

Man: Ya'll stayin' right here on the quarters today.

Been some trouble in Bayonne don't want no body else to get hurt.

Lena: Who got hurt? Did my Jimmy get hurt?

Man: They shot him.

Old Jane: Is he dead?

[sobbing and crying]

Old Jane: Who shot him?

Man: Nobody knows.

Old Jane: Somebody knows.

Man: Well I don't know nothin' about it. Ya'll go on back now.

Old Jane: I'm going to Bayonne.

Man: What cha think you gonna find there except trouble Miss Jane. You're to old for that.

Old Jane: Jimmy.

Man: Didn't you just hear me say that he'd been shot.

Old Jane: He ain't dead no nothin'. Only a peace of him dead.

The rest of him is waiting for us in Bayonne.

And I'm going.

Man: Miss Jane, You'd been on my place as long as I can remember

You been part of my family. You raised me and both my boys.

But I'm telling you ain't going to Bayonne today.

Old Jane: Youz gonna tell me now that I have to leave your place?

Man: Those folks ain't you're problem.

Old Jane: Yes they are. The other day they throwed a girl in jail for trying to drink from the fountain.

Today they killed my Jimmy and I say I'm going.

Man on radio: Bayonne was a scene of more violence today. First reports indicate that

negro male prisoner died in a shooting incidence at the jail.

[tires squealing and spinning on dirt road]

[music]

[car door shuts]

[cane tapping the pavement]

[water splashing]

[car engine starts up]

Man: On July 19th 1962, 5 months after the last of these interviews was recorded

Miss Jane Pittmann died at the age of 110

[music]