-
[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]