===== CONTENTS: (i) License (ii) Quick Note (iii) Characters FREDERICK DOUGLASS (All Scenes 1-8) (iv) Historical Notes and Liberties ===== (i) License This play (without significant alterations to the original text) can be noncommercially produced by anyone, anywhere, and distributed in any medium without further permission from or obligation to the author P. Aaron Mitchell than that this entire License section be presented to the audience (in a manner easily intelligible according to the medium). This play (without significant alterations to the original text) can be commercially produced by anyone, anywhere, and distributed in any medium without further permission from or obligation to the author P. Aaron Mitchell than the following: (i) this entire License section must be presented to the audience (in a manner easily intelligible according to the medium); (ii) for each person involved in the production, a "copy" of the play must be newly purchased from paaronmitchell.com (or through approved channel); (iii) on your honor, if the gross revenue of the production exceeds 1 million USD, then 1% of the total gross revenue will be paid to P. Aaron Mitchell as royalty in a timely manner. If you enjoy this play, consider buying a copy of the original text, complete with the author's historical notes, to read at your own leisure, from paaronmitchell.com. ===== (ii) Quick Note If a writer begins with "how to read" something, you should generally run - but maybe this is an exception. This play is meant for internet video. Each scene is quite short, no more than a few minutes at most. The line-breaks are in place to help the actors find the internal music of the dialogue. In the same way, you will likely enjoy it more if you read aloud - but, while reading, simply ignore the line-breaks, reading from punctuation to punctuation as you normally would, and let the rhyme and rhythm of the language emerge. ===== (iii) Characters FREDERICK DOUGLASS, slave to Thomas Auld, loaned to Edward Covey for one year in the 1830s EDWARD COVEY, farmer of about 300 acres in Maryland BILL HUGHES, cousin to Edward Covey, member of Covey household BILL SMITH, slave to Samuel Harris, loaned to Edward Covey SANDY, older slave to Williame Groomes THOMAS AULD, inheritor through his deceased wife of part of Anthony estate, including slaves KATY, older slave (cook) of Anthony estate DANIEL WEEDEN, preacher SOPHIA AULD, sister-in-law to Thomas Auld MRS COVEY, wife to Edward Covey, non-speaking MISS KEMP, disabled sister to Mrs Covey, non-speaking, member of Covey household CAROLINE, slave (cook) to Edward Covey, non-speaking ===== FREDERICK DOUGLASS ===== 1. (Covey's farm by Chesapeake Bay.) D - Frederick Douglass, C - Edward Covey (to enter) ----- D: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me! You have taken me from my fa- ther and mother and trod upon my head as if I were a dead forgot- ten broken reed and not a man. You've cracked me open, bleed- ing, in this cursed land of human chattel need- ing love but battered since my birth with hate. With blows and curses rough I'm shattered. Lo, I make myself a worm here plead- ing on my knees. But for all your goodness still I burn here meeting miseries at each turn here. I am starving. I am weak. I am wounded to my wooden blood and bones - O God, I seek You, please! I beseech You on Your Throne to see me. Simply speak and You can free me! Aren't You God? Aren't You God? You'll have me dodd- er, groping through my hell here, hoping till the end, but finding only failure, pinned and nailed here to this cursed cross of slavery till I die? You gave me life and breath and bravery just to watch me cry out, wri- thing to my death, until I lie down in my grave be- neath the soil for my sky? It cannot be, O God! Or am I the one who doesn't see? that You are nothing but the need of my desperate brain, that I deceive myself with some imagined Help- er for me and my wretched pain, and that there's no explain- ing my horrid lot except that You are not? that You never were? and I am just deranged, the rot- ting afterbirth of a strange and pur- poseless creation? Or worse that You for your own unknown elation make my hurts and wounds to multiply and will give Yourself divers- ion in my suffering till I die? I cannot believe that, God! I cannot believe that all I compass, when I stand awed before Your wondrous sunrise with all I am inside like the raw d- eep wail of a trumpet s- ounding joy, is only frail reprieve or accident! That I cannot believe! No, I swear it that in everything I perceive the marks of Your love - in the bay and its clouds above and the horse's mane and the dove- white water in the rain- squall fall- ing on the Chesapeake ships - O God, above all, those ships! that upon this Friday's gray horizon eclipse themselves from my eyes and across the tides and ocean's wide ellipse fly zealously into the sunlight's open rays. O illuminated freedom! Dear God, so suddenly with those ships there - I can see them! - are come better days! C (entering): You there! Frederick! You stray s- on of a dog! Don't run! ===== ===== 2. (Covey's farm by Chesapeake Bay.) D - Frederick Douglass, C - Edward Covey, S - Bill Smith (away) ----- C: You lazy ungrateful cow! What are you doing!
Sitting arou- nd glazy- eyed and hateful, screwing away th- e day's hou- rs, chewing the air against your upright patient benefactors! You conniving arrogant bastard! While on the backs of your cow-faced consorts the sun is blazing, you're lying pride- fully sideways in comfort grazing on dreams like grass! It seems you're the mas- ter now, huh, mass- a Fred! Huh, mass a! D: No, Mr Covey! I swear I never as- ked to be here! I pass- ed out over near the horse and mud for the force of the sudden sun blazing out from the spring clouds on me and for the blood that's run down my skin like rain from the sores on my back where you cane- d me! C: So, now I'm to blame! See what I get! 
D: No, sir! I mean - C: And I'm sure I believe it that the angels came to Ear- th and relieved you from your wor- k and flit- ted you nur- se-like to the sea- side, Moses Fred! I'm cer- tain the Big Massa said he chose you, His lead- bodied cow, to sou- nd some trumpet out till the country melts, instead of ear- ning your bread by the sweat of your brow like everyone else! D: No, Mr Covey! Please! Can't you see me s- treaked with welts and gore? I cannot tell th- e taste anymore of health- giving food from mud! and I mouth the latter like cud for hunger's sake! I seld- om eat! I am sore and spattered red with my own dead insides from the rash an- gry beat- ing you Cain- like lash- ed into me yesterday! 
C: You insult me! D: No, please! I pray!
I beg you! Let me clutch your leg for mercy! Just please don't hurt me anymore today! O God, Mr Covey, see how I degra- de myself like earth be- neath you!
I lick your boots!
I squirm here like a tooth- less leech who needs you, my despot, just to eat! O, give me a little respite, Mr Covey! Let me sleep for I am weak and hungry!
My blood is gone out from me and I feel like I am about to release myself from my body's mortal holding!
Let me sleep, Mr Covey! Let me rest, or you will know me no more as Fred but as one de- parted sinking lead- like into earth- en darkness. C: You worth- less heartless cow! 
D: No, Mr Covey! S (away): Mr Covey! Look out the horse has broken his harness and is bolted! C (exiting): Get the rope and hold him!
Watch out, the gate is open! (Douglass runs into the woods.) ===== ===== 3. (The woods by Chesapeake Bay.) C - Edward Covey, H - Bill Hughes, S - Bill Smith, D - Frederick Douglass (non-speaking) ----- C: Frederick, you coward sow! Come out, you proud hog!
You're powerless! You're lost! You're no bog turtle to survive out here in this wilderness, and even if you were the hour would still cost you half your shell curdled off your back - for I swear I will take that at least of your skin! You'll know hell first-hand! Just let me catch you again! And this lightning storm will be like a friend- 's murmuring compared to the frightening lash of my whip's end on your torn and gurgling flesh! H: Here is fresh blood and the broken mesh- ing of a wolf spider's web. He is thresh- ing a trail through the cattails - here are threads of his rent shirt; look, here he collapsed as if dead and vomited. He is hurt. Here upon his knees he crawled ominously near these copperheads nesting in the muddy dirt. He is retching. He is desperate and wretched and cannot make it much furth- er. C: Frederick, I'll un-burd- en you! I'll scrape the weight off your black- skinned back! I'll turn it in- to pulpy chaff for you and wrack you, laugh- ing, with my spitting whip, you idiot flitt- ing pig! What is your plan! Where will you go! Come dig yourself a hole and fit yourself inside its span, you pride- ful unman- ly wallow- ing hog! Where are my dogs! Run and hide while you can now, Fred! For my hounds are coming to swallow you! I know you're around!
You're here!
You're listening! And how sweetly you must be glistening with sweaty fear of the teeth about to hunt you down and drag you back to me! Where are my dogs! H: The pack was three hundred yards off, tied fast to their logs when Frederick broke away and you shouted. Bill heard you say to get the pack out of their tethers, and they were coming fast for their excitement and the rowdy weather when you and I spied this cane smashed in where Fred came into the wetland. They should still be on our heels! Listen, I can hear them bark! C: Hark there, Frederick! Hark! You hear the hounds! Come out fast before you're found by beasts in their biting frenzy! I do not ask!
I am not friendly toward you! But Christ my Lord who was pleased to make you my ungrateful slave would find it hateful of me not to save you! Do you not hear His grace in my voice! Make your choice! Come out, and I swear I'll only flay s- kin from your back for your benefit, whereas when my dogs attack, your degenerate bones will splinter int- o their mouths and there'll be no end to the s- pouting of your veins! Your blood will spill in the rain- puddles and ripple! For the rest of your life you'll be brain- lessly troubled by pain and deformed like a cripple! H: Here they come! But some of them do not come straight! C: Frederick, my son! It's almost too late! I swear for my part on Christ that I'll only whip you!
But my big dog Brice will you rip you apart and split your bones from the meat! H: What are they doing! S (arriving with dogs): I'm sorry, Mr Covey! The dogs compete with the storm for tempestuous wetness, warmth and beat! They are wild with bestial heat and perform no calling except that of carnal nature! H: Hear each bitch yawling while big Brice mates her! C: You dumb black mutts! You're all sluts and beasts! But with my knife I'll at least cut s- some sense into Brice! Listen now, Frederick, and wince for what's coming when I find you, the price you'll pay! I wonder, pray, have you never under- stood nor even thought twice why the worst slaves are confined to my care to be broken! I will not blind you or burn you or tear you open in any way that others will discern, but I will slice off something no white man will degra- de himself to check! And which black defect you for shame will keep an ab- ject secret, never nam- ing what you lack! S: Mr Covey! C: Hear him, Fred- erick! Listen! Lo! Big Brice so head- strong, remind you, Fred, of anyone you know! How he can yelp! How he is squeaking! Now he's a whelp and a weakling pissing blood! He is least of all mutts for what he is missing! And soon enough you'll be wishing you had what he too doesn't! And anyone who cares to puzzle it or reckon it will have to wonder at some instance why you, Frederick, never had any descendants! ===== ===== 4. (Cowshed outside Thomas Auld's farm, hillside.) D - Frederick Douglass, K - Katy (to exit and enter), A - Thomas Auld, W - Daniel Weeden ----- D: Aunt Katy! It's me - K: Damn! Get be- neath my feet, you evil ghost! I plead the blood of Jesus, most High, to save me - D: Aunt Katy! It's me! I'm - K: Take your hating and haunting and your grot- esque bleeding and go vaunting back to the black sky, you disbelieving boast- ing sci- on of the dead!
I stand on Mount Zion! D: It's Fred! K: I make the cross and testify! D: Dammit, I said I'm Fred- erick! K: Come quick, Lord! Save your lost little lamb from this res- urrec- ted and damned living corpse! D: Stop it! No more! I've for- ded swamp and briar in this darkness, and with gore now I am mired like a carcass, but I am alive! And I am sore- ly tired! Dying! Bleeding! Hungry!
this night's beatings have undone me and I will expire if you don't bring me something to eat! Please! K: O God! O help! Sweet Jes- us! Master Auld! A (entering): What's this screaming! Katy, Reverend Weeden is waiting for his meat in the dining room and you're out here shrieking at the moon like you want a walloping - K: I thought a ghost was following me! A: Christ! K: He attacked me! A: Get back be- side the column-beams of the shed-wall out of the fall of moonlight so I can see! D: Master Thomas, please, it's me! It's Frederick. But this night deceives you of my countenance, for I have been out in this seething storm for hours, weeping, bleeding, my flesh is crowded with welts and injury, and wounds are wound in- to the crown of my head from menacing briar-thorns and the wild pound- ings of Mr Covey's warm- est violence! And in a whitening flash of the storm I believe I was struck by lightning for m- y bones collapsed within my skin and I lapsed into a blindess that has lasted even while I climbed this familiar in- cline up to your farm. A: Enough now, Fred! You alarm me! You look a devil!
Get back before I help! D: I alarm myself!
I tell you I crawl on the bevel of a blade, Master Auld! And the shade draws near!
I am dying here! Help me! W (entering): Mr Auld, I heard all th- is clamor and thought I'd - Good God, what manner of man or creature am I seeing? K: I thought it was an evil spirit, sir! A: Don't go near it yet, sir. D: It's me! Frederick! Please! A: Yes, now I perceive in the moonlight indeed it is Fred! But my God, boy, you'd freeze the red blood of a beast just to look at you! How'd you come to this state? D: By the hate of Mr Covey, that has broken over me with more blasts and unreasonable weight than this unseasonable northeast- er! My hour draws late!
I am a feast for crawling things and time! I die! W: Not yet, say I! Will it be God's will to fill the earth with dead unjustly? Only trust me, Frederick! If brother Covey has spill- ed your blood or life's quick by ill- ness of sin then God must be on your side to convict him now through your tongue! Speak to us, son! It is not yet your hour! D: But, lo, I am a worm and not a man! W: Speak, boy, for I say by holy power that you can! D: He has murdered me! Crushed me!
He burdened me with hunger and unceasing toil and pushed me to work in the storm and heat until I boil- ed over sweating, shaking, convulsing while he beat me till my head was jetting blood and my back was shred- ded to flood- ing over with my tatter- ed gory insides! He drives me into my grave! O, Mr Auld! If not as a fellow man who matters to you before God's level eyes, at least save me as your slave! A: Indeed I shall, Frederick! O God, how I crave justice from that negligent rustic piece of trash! Though I invested you unto his lash - and I admit I loan- ed him you to break you - yet I am fledged of neither cash nor stone and I would not have him make you useless. Katy bring to this poor man whatever left ov- er ash- cake you have from - W: Stop! Not so! I have spoken once with God's ow- n voice tonight and I feel again more than this storm-front his right- eous unbend- ing law upon me! Mr Auld, you will succor this man with neither supper nor sleep! Katy, you will suffer him neither cake nor butter nor water for he is not your wretched sheep- like wander- ing kinsman only! But rather you more truly guessed it when you told me he was an evil ghost! He is Fred but so steep- ed in sin that no honest friend to him would host him nor give him bodily aid! You are right to be afraid, Katy! Run as fast as you can for the pistol I keep in my baggage and I warn you with the wrath of God that if it's not in my hand soon I will use it on you! Go! And though you are young and new to our faith Mr Auld yet I believe Our Lord choo- ses early to show you where you must store up your treasures! Would you give this boy the pleasures of food and snor- ing rest while evil fest- ers in every measure of his essence and eternal being! Would you make infernal test of God by freeing this boy from the mortal lessons that will keep his sins from sequest- ering him to hell forever! I say we dare not lack reverence for God's dread laws! We must send this boy back or kill him dead where he crawls! D: Mr Weeden, you are insane! A: You watch your lan- guage, Frederick! W: All that he says is stain- ed with sin! D: Mr Weeden! Please! W: Dare not believe him, Mr Auld! Let not the white reas- on you've been given in Christ now lose its lustrous light to lies! A spirit of vice on this boy would truss us tight- ly to millstones and pull us deep down into a ris- ing lake of hellfire! For only take and weigh the devil-choir sound of his weep- ing with the sac- red ways you know are wise, and you will see that he is spir- aling round in sin's painful conflagration towards infernal eternal damnation! D: Mr Weeden! Mr Auld! A: Be quiet, Frederick! For I believe I hear the voice of God! W: This boy has been negligent in his duty; he is unregenerate and hastening rudely away from his overseer who was only chastening him for how he disobeyed; he has made crude and cowardly desertion into woods as dark as Had- es where who knows what further incursion of evil waylaid his soul; and now in conniving tirade his goal is to make a blind blade of anger for you to use against your neighbor; who knows but in time he would cut you loose from your Savior! D: O God, I am poured out like water! W: See how his sin grows hotter! This - the burning of one who refuses learning from the Most High! O God, I know it's better that Frederick lose his life than infect Thy servants, Mr Auld or I! Only give my hand the strength to carry out this instance of Thy vengeance! Stand forth, Mr Auld! And if doubts are still about you, just bear witness to his semblance of one already dead! Indeed, he's been struck by lightning!
Is there any more frightening- ly certain emblem of God's wrath on you, Fred! D: Master Auld! A: Run, boy! Run and pray his bullet misses you! W: Behold, boy, this is what I must do by God's aw- ful law! But by His mercy I swear it hurts me more than you! D: Master Auld! A: Run, Frederick! Pray God turns the shot! Run towards Mr Covey with your heart bent wholly on forgiveness and maybe God will stop the hammer or send this bullet wide! But I must stand aside from God's command- ments! Only run! Run! W: O God, let Thy will be done! ===== ===== 5. (The woods by Chesapeake Bay.) D - Frederick Douglass, S - Sandy (to enter) ----- D: O God, what are you! How far you are from goodness and mercy! And how hard you are in heart - you worthless parcel of my brain! I am insane! There is no God! There is no God, and I am a tott- ering nobod- y brought by plain and simple odd- ity of incle- ment chance to circum- stance of pain and plodding an- xious horror and s- calding borrowed time, before no more I have a mind to even know I am no more nor ever was and never- mind because my know- ing even does me noth- ing! I am nothing! I am just another black-mothered incarnation of cosmic self-hatred, empty space and nothing! And nothing I can say makes all this regurgitation of my suffering even matter anyways! And now I die! By my blood scattered and by starvation I lie down from my senses in this endless stupidity into senseless lividity and smell and then nothing! Nothing! S (entering): Good God, boy, what hell has been hunting you and what have you come through! You look like you've swum through blood and run through twisted mud- dy briar- brambles and blades of fire! You're a shambles of wir- y flesh undone from too little frame! D: And everyone else the same! S: What? D: I am dying! S: Are you trying to die? And why are you out in the rain to do it? Fred, do you know my name? D: Sandy. You can bury me. S: Do I mean you harm? D: No. S: Good. Now lean on my arm and I'll carry you back to Mr Covey's farm. D: Don't you touch me or I'll pluck the eyes from your head, old man! Get back, San- dy! Time for me to be dead and damned! For I swear I am both alread- y! I am nothing already! I am getting unburden- ed of my lunatic self! S: You're hurt and in need of help! D: Certain- ly! But who else isn't! Now fiddle not with the furious dying and keep your next trying word in- side your neck, S- andy, until my lying self-importance is lying wrecked and re- leased from my broken body! Get back! Don't stand be- side me, I am rotting already! Behold, ungodly world drown- ing in space black as pitch, I go down spitting in your face and quit y- ou! S: Frederick! ===== ===== 6. (Sandy's cabin in the woods by Chesapeake Bay.) D - Frederick Douglass, S - Sandy (to enter) ----- D: Hello? Where am I? And can I eat this yellow crust of pan-fried pone - I must, I'm hungry to my bones! S (entering): Ah, welcome to my home, Frederick. D: Sandy! S: Easy! Man, be- lieve me when I say you've sown by devilry and must harvest by sleep. I daresay every piece of my cornpone you've eat- en won't keep down. D: I was starving! I ate it all. S: Yes I've marked it al- ready you are small in grit. D: What? S: It seems you're too tall to get your head low, and too appall- ed with the blind blows and lances of brit- tle circumstances to just flit yourself quiet- ly away from where they're falling. Instead you make unholy riot in calling them to you and then with unslake- d impiet- y you brui- se your own mind with confus- ion and rage, when, at your age, if you kept yourself glued to a way j- ust and unobtru- sive, you'd find days of calm at each loose end of a fraying hour. D: But there's no use in balm nor power anyways, Sandy. You cannot shame me for unmanly behavior, for all is fraud. There is neither Savior nor God nor past nor future, and in the main I am only a pain- ful man-shaped suture between nothing- ness torn mean- ly around me. S: You're blustering unsoundly, for there is certainly god. D: No, there is not. But believe as you will. S: There is White God and Black God and many other gods still. D: What? S: You spill your prayers before the god you've been taught of by white men, right? But why, when he loves them enough to make you their slave, would he troub- le himself to save you from them after? He makes them your masters because you let him. D: That's blasphem- y. God is One. He is the Lord. S: They have fettered and undone you by just juch lies poured into your ears. D: No, it's by their letters and reading and by our fears that they've shored up their oppression. But if God is here He is in the lessons of Christ. And He is our One Father. S: Except you've realized already that's not true, for He does not bother to rescue you from an evil you've despised and endured since birth. First I found you in sick furious fit that God was only injurious insanity, but now you rebuke yourself by puk- ing up the inanity and spit of Christianity. D: You're right. But my enem- y is my tired brain, falling back on regurgitation. In reason I maintain that God is neither black nor white but blight of imagination. S: Wrong. You recoil from darkness to darkness. The heartless white god for the sake of his spoil- ed chosen few make- s you ache and burn and grovel before them while you learn to deplore your- self for surviving in whoredom. But there is more than you revolve in mind or eye involved in earth and mankind, and I my- self am your example. Consider my ample powers and shudder. For did you or anyone ever hear me utter supplication to a white overseer or owner? Did you ever notice I am fear- less and utter- ly without molestation while I roam between plantations for my liveli- hood and this wood for my home? My mighty Black God is good and gives me liberty from harm. Since yesterday has any white man from any farm nearby dared come disturbing my security or raising alarm to collect you from my aegis? My Black God's arm is sturdy against such egregious disrespect. D: Since yesterday? S: Saturday. I expect everybody knows I've kept you here - D: Dear God! Saturday! S: What's the matter? Stay put. D: But it's Saturday now! S: It's Sunday just abou- t sunrise, I think. You slept one day through without a blink of your eyes. D: I have to get to Mr Covey's flying! Or by his blows I'll be stove deep through and lying stowed be- neath his plot of earth in God- knows what mangle of rot and dirt and death! S: Stop! You're a man out of breath with contradiction. There is no God except the one whose benediction and milieu belongs to white men; and you're anxious to die then afraid Mr Covey will kill you! D: Not afraid! Just temporarily unstaid in my tired wits and in my will to tolerate much pain. I'd rather take my last touch of this lonely blind bane between birth and death in my own pre- ferred time and plain meth- od. S: You need rest! D: Get off! Nettle me not! And test not my distaste for striking an old meddl- er in his face! Look, I'm sorry, Sandy, but unhand me and let me pace off into the wood to go my way. You should have let me die on Good Friday. S: I save- d your life. D: You only post- poned my most certain appointment. You gave me more strife and hurt in- stead of the ointment of unbecoming. Shall I live till my teeth disjoint and I'm gumming my food? till I'm rude with outdated speech and temper? till I'm sec- retly hated by my offspring who must wait on my whimper and groveling? Let me go my way, Sandy, but I understand y- ou were trying to help me as a friend. S: I was and am, truly. D: I know. And duly to my dying end I will be thankful for your well-meaning and compassion. Now good-bye. And leave me to fashion my own short future as I would. S: Fine then. Good. You are uncompliant to loaned perspective though wretched in the one you own. But reflect that - by a pleasure grown to me in those very measures of time you just maligned - I do not mind your disrespectful behavior and ask you on- ly a favor for your own profit. Here is the root off a p- lant. Her fragrance is charm- ed like arm- or for how much my Black God loves her scent and there- fore her bearer. No white man will dare to harm you as long as you wear her behind your ear. D: Sandy, this weed is everywhere underfoot and I don't need it. S: Of course not. But it's a small favor to a friend who pleads it. And then I will let you go. D: Very well. Thank you. Though I put no credence in its ability to show me advantage, yet for your openhanded- ness and understand- ing, I accept. Only respect my command not to follow me. S: So I solemnly vow, if you can honestly promise me, too, to keep that roo- t I just gave you now about you. D: I will do as you've said. Good-bye now, Sandy. Don't follow me. S: Good-bye, Fred. My Black God'll be watching over you. ===== ===== 7. (Outside of Edward Covey's.) D - Frederick Douglass, C - Edward Covey (to enter), Y - Mrs Covey (to enter, non-speaking), A - Sophia Auld (to enter) ----- D: O God, I tremble and mumble in fear for every single simple sound I hear! I saw a nimble- footed deer lope by and tumble- d over groping wild- ly for the root behind my ear! Sandy was right and a more dear friend to me than myself! For my mind is many enemies and I am blind with my antinomies, and I find no help! Every step near- er to Mr Covey's melts me. I am water and venom be- neath my skin! I pray to You God to shelt- er me from him, and then I remem- ber that you are just the disingen- uous stimulus of my brain to my thin and weary heart that it maintain its beating and impart its tenuous energies to my arms and legs for beg- ging and breeding and eating - then I pray again! And I clutch this stem Sandy gave me in crave- n insane be- lief it has some power to defend me from harm, even though its raven flower grows at every haven and every farm in Chesapeake Bay, where every hour under slaver- y dying black men are skinn- ed cra- zily to their carm- ine gore by whips, and crying black women are for- cefully penetrated with hated white worm- s between their hips - but still I make stupid supplication to it to prove it- self my preservation! O God, I am raving and numb! C (emerging from the house with Mrs Covey and Sophia Auld): Good day, Fred- erick! Come here! D: Sir? C: Frederick, you look ill and near to ruin! And forgive me saying but you are fil- thy with more than a few un- treated hurts and too man- y earth- en smears on your fraying shirt. Clean up and get you in- side to rest. D: Sir? C: I mean for you to have a blessed day. For though you ran away hatefully on Friday I know now, gratefully, that such stress of my a- nger was a test of God, which I did not pass. Miss Sophia here has convinced me to ask God's forgiveness and since this is East- er He must be pleased at least in this instance to show me the quickness of his mercy for here first thing you return. Learn from me instead of worsening in your way, Frederick. Take this day to rest and pray before God. D: Yes, sir. C: I understand your doubt - my words are much confection - but this Third Day is about our dought- y God's good resurrection, a day of genuflection and humility, on which it behooves us all to consider how He's proved his ability to loose our servility to death and the grave. Therefore every slave and white man in Maryland has right to draw near His Sav- ior and waive himself from toil. Let us allow the bright oil of Aaron to run anew between us, Frederick. Let it undo our sins unto each other and forswear in- to quondam days any pondering on them or rehash. And hereaft- er let there be less clash between us: I shall be a more compass- ionate master and use the lash less meanly; and you shall serve more keenly and willingly as slave. What do you say? D: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. C: Cer- tainly your thanks is more deser- ved by God's good providence and this best per- son I know: my wife is acquaintance of and ho- pefully now friends with dear Miss So- phia here, who by clemence of fate was visiting late yesterday and delay- ed her departure to impart her sense into me. She's the o- nly one whose clear counsel could pier- ce the haz- y rage I was in. D: Thank you, ma'am. I am glad to see you again. A: Indeed, I am glad to do you some good on this sacred day as Christ would have me do, Frederick. Take your rest and convalesce a little. Mr Covey has left you a bit of cheese and ash-cake on the middle of the table in the kitchen. C: The other hands are at their ease and you can rest with them; or they have plans to go see s- ome kin, for which you have my permission, too - only eat first, please, and then clean yourself up before you leave. D: Yes, sir. C: We are going to see Mr Wee- den and attend his warning- call and sermon for all the morning. Happy Easter to you, Fred; may your day be holy. D: Happy Easter, Mr Covey. ===== ===== 8. (Inside Edward Covey's kitchen.) D - Frederick Douglass, C - Edward Covey (to enter and exit as needed), O - others: at least Bill Smith, Caroline, Miss Kemp (to enter, non-speaking) ----- D: I am too startled by this strange reprieve and change of heart in Mr Covey to even feed myself the first part of what Miss Sophi- a arranged for him to leave me - indeed from his dange- r I don't yet truly believe I am relieved, and I wager this food for my fortification was not by his own new nature or inclination set out. I am full of doubts about him. But then again, what do I know? The last two days have rout- ed my confidence and show- n me my sense of judgment runs to error well-wide from the mark. Could something such of God's touch win Mr Covey to sudden- ly hark and care for others, or some thunder of coincidence awaken his brother- ly concern? It is Easter - perhaps Christ has earned the joy of another once-forsaken sinner who's turned. C (entering): Ah, Fred. Eating alread- y. That's good. Please, sit down. I let the women go ahead into town so I could carry out something I said I would do. Here's that cane I use- d on you. I promised to keep it in the shed instead of at hand so that my head might clear if I planned to abuse anyone without need. No, please, sit. (Mr Covey goes out.) D: He lies and there is loathing in his eyes and hands - or am I holding my grudges too tightly to behold when God's good judgment and plans are unfolding? C (entering): No, I told you, Fred, please sit. Eat. It- 's a miracle to meet you so early after I did - indeed, I admit - get prayerfully on my knees in pearly- teared need of confession before my Lord for my surly attacks and aggression toward you. Such quick redemption! Look, here is the axe we make boards with for the pigpen. I wish you had taken it when you wen- t into the for- est for your safety. Would you like it now? D: No, sir. C: Well, I will place the axe ou- tside the door then, here beside the machete. And let me bring this shovel in - I keep forgetting to store it under the kitchen's cover by the cupboard in this cor- ner behind your chair, where Caroline keeps it to bang the floor and frighten rats. Is it okay there? D: Yes, sir. C: Well, I guess that's good enough for the time being, but you know I'm seeing a warp in the wood behind your head where you've put yourself against the wall. Let me get read- y this ball- peen hammer off this shelf to straighten it - no, please, wait in your chair; I won't even tamper your hair while I bash this unnatural camber flush, I swear. Just sit tight. There, it looks all right. What, aren't those dishes of victuals worth eating? D: Yes, sir. I'm just needing a - C: Fiddle- sticks, Fred. It's the best day of the year. It's Easter. Let me at least share some salted pork with you. You have your fork. I have this carving knife. Let's feast, for you must be hungry to your life, just starving, right? No, please st- op. Sit. Don't move until you've had some ham. Just hand me that far drink- ing pitch- er and - you stinking carping bitch! D: O God! C: You stupid black cow! D: Mr Covey, get back from me! Please, Mr Covey! Please, stop now! C: I'm going to gou- ge out more of your gore than ever, Fred! And hold you down on the floor and cut off your never- used manhood like I said I would! And then I might just kill you, anyways! D: Stop! C: Defy me, will you! You'll pay s- creaming for it! D: By God I will defy you! I'll forfeit my own life and right to heaven just to drive through your neck your own knife, you Judas-sprung coward! Now is the hour of my wrath and power wrung out upon you, Mr Covey! I will show y- ou the tower- ing fury of a blame- less man! You have sold y- our brothers to injury for only silver survey- chains laid furlows long across the land! Your soul goes for a song, Mr Covey! The fields you farm are full of blood! I'll be lynched but you yourself no inch of me will touch for harm again before you die! Let fly your vio- lence, Mr Covey. I will tear off your arms! C: You bastard braggard! Bill! Bill! Come help me! D: Like hell he will, or I will kill him too! One of us us dying in this roo- m today, Mr Covey! I swear to God it's you! (They fight while others enter.) D: You feel my foot upon your neck now! Do you! Do you! C: I do! D: And I expect you feel the blood-fleck- ed blade you let drop caught between my heel and your throat then too! C: I do! I do! D: Then do not mo- ve while I get up or I will jam it through your gullet and watch your blood puddle on the floor like I'd kill a hog. There! Now shall I unclog your fetid reek- ing soul from your bod- y or will you beg and plead with me not to kill you! C: Please don't! D: I swore to God you'd be dead! C: Please! Please don't, Fred! D: Look at Bill Smith then - with your eyes not your head! Look, before I kill you! Look at his skin, black as mine, and grovel before him, swine that you are, for your life! C: Bill, boy, please - D: Call him Master! C: Master Bill - Master Smith! Please let me live! D: Look at Caroline! Look, now she is your mis- tress by my power! She owns every hour of your exis- tence! She owns your body and being! But she does nothing while seeing you in such peril! Surely she'd care if you died! Wouldn't she! She's not terrib- ly inhuman, is she! Beg her, Mr Covey! Beg your former maid! See if she'll lift e- ven her tongue's weight to aid you! Ask your ex- cellent Missus to persuade me to stop! C: Caroline - Miss Caroline! Miss Caroline, please! O Frederick, you bastard! D: What's that, Mr Covey! You're bleeding! You better beg faster! C: Miss Caroline! Master Smith! Please help me! Please, Fred! D: No! Ask Miss Kemp instead! Look at her! With her skin p- ale white like yours! But yours is redder from better days spent in the sunlight outdoors! Has she said yet any clear word for you, Mr Covey! Why is she here? Did you introduce her last night while Miss Sophi- a Auld was staying? Did you hide her? Did you dig her a hole? Did you forget to invite your own sister-in-law to church today be- cause she's broken and disfigured? What does God care! She's right there, Mr Covey, to help you, but has she spoken one word for your release or health? Look at her! She's not witless! Beg! Beg her and beseech her for your life and for forgiveness! Beg, Mr Covey! C: Sister, please! I'm sorry - D: No! Beg me, Mr Covey! Beg me, boy! Pour your supplications on the floor lest I destroy you in my hatred and then mutilate y- our body after! I ache to see your blood spill bursting from your neck! But call me Sir! Call me Master! I might still find some last mer- cy in me that isn't entirely wrecked and will- ed to butchering you! C: Please, Sir! Please, Sir! Please, M - D: No stop! Hold your tongue! O God, what am I become that I'd so tyrannize one of your belov- ed sons to such degradation! At last my eyes behold Your ways, Your own Holy patience! Your will be done! I accept my suffering and part to play in Your eternal plan! There is no Black God, no White God, but God of all Man- kind! One God of Christ who paid the blood-price that we still take from each other in His hope He might make us brothers instead! I am neither master nor slave but good plain Fred, and that is my most sac- red treasure! No man will ever terrify me again! Nor will I endeavor to subjugate other men! True power must stand just- ly and perpetual- ly again- st all evil but it can al- so yield and wait. I will work out my year here on your fields, Mr Covey, and you will show me no further act of hate - or everyone will know the extent of your humiliat- ion. From now on any white man - or black - who dares to fight me will take in- juries twice back what he gives. But other than that I will live in brotherhood to all. And even as I saw in v- ision on Friday the Chesapeake ship-sai- ls blind- ingly bright like angel wings to Eden, so God in His own good time will help me escape from this cursed land into deliv- erance and freedom. ===== ===== (iv) Historical Notes and Liberties Frederick Douglass was born in antebellum Maryland as a slave. When he was about 16 years old (probably around 1832), he was loaned to Edward Covey, who had a reputation for "breaking" slaves. The treatment was severe. On a particularly hot Friday in August, Douglass passed out at his work and then was beaten by Covey with a hickory plank until his face was covered in blood. Left in stupor, Douglass managed to rise and escape through the woods. He went to his master Thomas Auld, who ignored his pleas for release and sent him back to Covey. Hungry and fearful, Douglass was discovered in the woods by Sandy, an older slave with considerable liberty and a reputation for "magic" powers, who induced Douglass to carry a root with him for protection. Douglass took the root and returned to find Covey strangely gracious. But early Monday morning, Covey again attacked Douglass, this time in the stables, where Douglass fought back. Afterwards, Covey never struck Douglass again. In his own words, Douglass described his state of mind in the woods as "passing over the whole scale or circle of belief and unbelief, from faith in the overruling providence of God, to the blackest atheism". This play transposes August to April, setting the ordeal between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This play aims for illumination of character while adjusting places, extremes, and dialogue. For examples: Daniel Weeden was a preacher with a reputation for cruelty to slaves, but he was likely not with Thomas Auld on the night of Douglass's escape; "Aunt" Katy had been antagonistic to Douglass at the Anthony estate, but it's unclear whether she was inherited by Thomas Auld; Sophia Auld had been gracious to Douglass in Baltimore, and extended visits were part of Southern culture, but it's unlikely she was staying at Covey's farm. Such focus on persons over particulars applies to each character of the play. But allow a final example of the above, with editorializing. Frederick Douglass deserves his place as a great man. To make his bright qualities more apparent, this play sets him against the black background of a villainous Edward Covey. But Covey was a white farmer of his time. He was likely no more nor less horrible than others like him. To centralize our repugnance onto one wicked man is generally to ignore the guilt of many others - often including ourselves - whose sins compel him. =====