The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Read Online Free PDF Page A

snoring.

Massacre
    The next thing I knowed the sun was shining bright and somebody was hollering, “Patrollers.”
    Everybody jumped up and made it for the bushes. Big Laura hollered at me to grab Ned and run. I had already passed Ned, but I leaned back and grabbed him and almost jecked him up off the ground. Half the time I was carrying him, half the time I was dragging him. We crawled under a bush and I pressed his face to the ground and told him to stay quiet quiet. From the bush I could still see the spot where we had been. The big slow-wit was still out there. He didn’t know where to turn to or what to do. Like he wanted to go in every direction at the same time, but he didn’t know where to go. I wanted to call him—but I was scared the patrollers might see him coming toward us. Then the patrollers came in on horses and mules. Patrollers was poor white trash that used to find the runaway slaves for the masters. Them and the soldiers from the Secesh Army was the ones who made up the Ku Klux Klans later on. Even that day they had Secesh soldiers mixed in there with them. I could tell the Secesh from thepatrollers by the uniforms. The Secesh wore gray; the patrollers wore work clothes no better than what the slaves wore. They came in on horses and mules, and soon as they saw the slow-wit they surrounded him and started beating him with sticks of wood. Some of them had guns, but they would not waste a bullet. More satisfaction beating him with sticks. They beat him, he covered up, but they beat him till he was down. Then one of the patrollers slid off the mule, right cross his tail, and cracked the slow-wit in the head. I could hear his head crack like you hear dry wood break.
    I wanted to jump up from there and run—but what about Ned? I couldn’t leave him there—look what Big Laura had done for me just yesterday. I couldn’t take him with me, either—they would see us. I stayed there, with my heart jumping, jumping, jumping.
    The patrollers moved in the bushes to hunt for the rest of the people. They could tell from the camp there must have been lot of us there, and they knowed we was still close around. They moved in with sticks now to look for us. I could hear them hitting against the bushes and talking to each other. Then when they spotted somebody, a bunch of them would surround the person and beat him till they had knocked him unconscious or killed him. Then they would move somewhere else. First you would hear them hitting against the bushes lightly, then after they spotted somebody you would hear them hitting the bushes hard. Now, you heard screaming, begging; screaming, begging; screaming, begging—till it was quiet again.
    I kept one hand on my bundle and one on the side of Ned’s face holding him down. I was go’n stay there till I thought they had spotted me, then I was getting out of there fast. I told Ned be ready to run, but stay till I gived him the sign. I was pressing so hard on his face I doubt if he even heard me, but all my pressing he never made a sound. Small as he was he knowed death was only a few feet away.
    After a while the patrollers left. They went right by us, and I could hear them talking. One was saying, “Goddamn, she was mean. Did you see her? Did you see her? Goddam, she could fight.” Another one spit and said: “They ain’t human. Gorilla, I say.” The first one said: “Lord, did you see Gat’s head? Made me sick.” Another one: “Gat all right?” Another one: “Afraid not. Afraid he go’n die on us.”
    They passed right by us, and my heart jumping, jumping, jumping. I kept my hand on my bundle and I kept Ned quiet till the last one had passed. Then I relaxed a little bit. I took me a deep breath and looked up at the sky. It was quiet, quiet, not a sound. I mean you couldn’t even hear a bird. Nothing but the sun—and the dust the men had raised thrashing in the bushes. I could see the sun streaking through the trees down to the ground like a long slide.