Chapter 12: Building lives

{date:2020-09-03p}

In the spring of 1869, Grant was inaugurated. While Lincoln’s inaugural had been marked by a war which was already developing, and Hamlin’s marked by the inception of a peace and the “internal colonization” plan that Black Alabama, at least, celebrated, Grant’s inauguration seemed to herald a new era of boredom. Most of the nation looked forward to this.

Jeff and Vickie Ralston barely looked up to read the news when it got to Warren’s station. Jeff had finished building the house, and Vickie had to furnish it. She had bought only a few pieces of furniture before, and those were for children.

They got it furnished, though, and they moved in.

A group of children walked to the school each morning, and Anne joined them happily. It looked like an awfully long distance to Jeff, but it was virtually flat.

Nobody else took the route Junior did, but he seemed to enjoy his lessons with Mrs. Warren. From his reports, he enjoyed the break times with baby Tertius, at least.

Vickie had begun in the evening class that the school called “very advanced.” It met only once a week, and she decided to keep attending it. It told them something about the level of education in the area that Vickie, who had only learned to read from Jeff was very advanced.

That left Jeff the problem of advertising for work. The other Negro carpenters in the area were farmers who worked construction during the times that their farms didn’t need them. They were known to the freedmen who had been slaves in the locality, and they had done other work since emancipation which built their local reputation.

Jeff needed steady work, and he could find no way to solicit customers. The local newspaper mourned the Union victory, primarily because that victory had freed slaves; the local freedmen didn’t touch it. Anyway, they had just learned to read; when they wanted a service, they didn’t think of looking at printed advertisements to find it.

General Warren was willing to tell his customers, but he was almost never in the store these days. Junior apparently ate dinner with the clerk, Juliet Tanner, most days. The Ralstons invited her to supper one night, and Jeff took her around the house, showing her the good points of its construction. She reported later that she had recommended his skills. Jeff got the impression that her classmates would really prefer his services when they were in the market for a cabin, which they might be in ten years.

Vickie talked to her classmates, and these were really in the center of the community’s communication network. They were the people who had learned to read when it was illegal to teach slaves to read. Some had been preachers and still were.

His first job after his own house, though, didn’t come from any of those sources. The Green-Butler mills were building another spinning mill. Actually, they had built another mill, and now they were building the walls around it. Construction had gone more slowly than planned, which did not surprise Jeff; it would not surprise anyone with experience in the construction trades. Planting season had intervened, though, and the work force had gone home. Mr. Kent, one of the millwrights, had told them that if they left, they shouldn’t come back. They hadn’t.

“Look, I’m a master carpenter,” he told him and Mr. Mallory, the other millwright. “I can do rough framing, but I need to be paid master-carpenter wages.”

“Show up for six full days next week, and we’ll pay you that scale,” Mallory said

He did, rather to their surprise, and they did.

He asked the names of their old crew. They included some, but not all, of the crew that had worked on his house. He talked with the ones who had been missing from Mallory’s and Kent’s list and that he’d noted as good workers. He also noted ones on the list to recruit into his crew if he got enough other work.

The last two weeks, he worked on the mill, it was essentially as a foreman, even if still only paid a master-carpenter wage.

Still, they told him that Green was planning another addition the next year, and they would be perfectly happy to subcontract building the structure to him. They wanted to build machinery; they only built the walls and roof because they had to.

Perhaps the person outside the Ralston family who was happiest that they had completed their house and move in was Sam Warren. He didn’t dislike young Jeff; he was quite happy that he still visited the house most days. He just wanted him to go home at night.

Now that the legislature was adjourned for the planting season, he sometimes made love to Deb twice a week. He could have done it so silently that young Jeff couldn’t possibly hear; he couldn’t have done it so that Deb couldn’t have imagined his hearing it.

The first session of the legislature -- especially the senate -- had been mostly about organizing themselves. They had passed a desperately needed tax bill, and they had passed an omnibus bill removing all the color distinctions in various state laws. He spoke in favor of that bill.

“Several gentlemen have suggested that this bill is unnecessary because the state constitution already abolishes these racial distinctions. The constitution does, but that doesn’t make the bill unnecessary. I think that one of the obligations on the legislature is to keep the laws of the state in obedience to the national and state constitutions. This bill will begin to do this.”

He kept the northeastern bloc neutral on this bill. They abstained from voting, which passed the bill 25 - 21.

Juliet had fallen into the habit of eating dinner, but the dinner she brought from home, with Deb. She sometimes continued this, but often ate in the store. He got the impression that he had often been the subject of the discussion until young Jeff had joined the table.

Sam still took responsibility for the cornfield, but Deb was both teaching young Jeff about the vegetable garden and using him for stoop labor.

Teacher got a description of the state law which abolished the color code. It was printed, and she passed out a copy to each of the students one night to take home for practice in reading. There were a lot of things on there which surprised Ab. Justice, such as it was, on the plantation had been by decree of the overseer or Massa. There had been no trials as such.

Now, there were trials, and Negroes could testify, and they could serve on juries. Ab had testified in church, but Teacher explained how this was different.

On the plantation, marriage had been only for whites. The Union had come in, and Negroes could marry, too.

Now, white men could marry Negro women, and Negro men could marry white women.

Well, Negro men could. That didn’t mean that a freedman like him could marry a teacher.

On the other hand, all the Negro men he knew were freedmen, and all the white women he knew these days were teachers.

And teachers did get married. Teacher Kendrick had and was now Teacher Warren.

Ab knew what marriage was. The missionaries said that you shouldn’t fuck except with the woman you were married to. They said you shouldn’t fuck anyone unless you were married. The missionaries said many things, like not picking cotton on Sunday. They were happy enough to marry couples with their children looking on.

He had always known that babies came from fucking. Back when he got his first fuck because Brina thought that any resulting baby would look to Massa Dawes like his own, that babies came from fucking was what they both knew, what everybody knew.

So missionaries said that you shouldn’t, but they knew that you would and lived in a world where you did. It was just like they said that you shouldn’t pick cotton on Sunday, but they wore cotton.

Now, Teacher followed the rules. She didn’t even teach on Sunday. But Teacher Warren had a child, so married teacher fucked. That was sort of in the rules, too, though the preachers didn’t quite say so.

And that gave him the picture of Teacher fucking. He didn’t want to have that picture in his mind, but he had it. And he couldn’t get it out of his mind.

“Deb, do we really have to furnish the parlor this year?” Sam asked.

“Not really. Is something wrong with the store?” This was the second year in a row that Sam was talking about delaying the last furnishing of their house. She married him for richer or for poorer, but she expected him to lay out the problems in the store; it was her income, too.

“Not with the store. I may have been improvident in my planning. We need a room for Tertius, and the upstairs is unfinished. We can afford to build another room, but probably we shouldn’t do that and furnish the parlor the same year.” That was especially true if this was the year he’d go on a cash basis with his suppliers. He’d told her that he would do that the previous year, though, and he didn’t want to keep promising her. It was bad enough that he kept promising himself. The store had made a greater profit the past year; it was just that the profit didn’t turn into cash until his customers had sold their cotton.

Sam sent word by young Jeff to his father asking him to come around.

When he did in midafternoon, Sam opened the last door in the parlor. “This is supposed to be a stairway,” he said.

“You need one.” Sam gave him a boost, and Jeff swung himself up and sat on the wall with his shins at Sam’s face level. He took his time looking around, and then he dropped down.

“So, what do you want up there?”

“I figure a room for Tertius, one he can grow into,” Sam said.

“You could do it that way. There are windows up there at each end. You could put in a stair, have it end at a landing, put up walls all around, and put in a floor for that room. With the window open, it would get some air, and it would be fine for Tertius. For Tertius.”

“Why do I suspect that isn’t what you want to do?”

“Because,” Jeff said, “if you have other children, especially girls, you’ll have to build something more. And, if you do, you will have to knock down a hell of a lot. You can turn around easy on the landing I described. A long flooring board cannot.”

They finally agreed that Jeff would give him a set of firm prices or several stages of the work less the price of the lumber and shingles. The shingles were only for the dormer-window stage. Sam would get a price for the lumber, and the sum would be what it would cost him.

The robbery case was finally coming to trial. Judge Singleton, the circuit judge, had come to Lowndesboro and opened the courtroom in the courthouse. Several lawyers “rode circuit,” hiring their services to anyone who had a case before Singleton. Also riding the circuit with them was the circuit prosecutor, Robert Steuben.

As soon as he was properly seated at the bench, Singleton addressed the jury panel: “Now, we are going to have several jury trials. I’m going to try to keep them all today, but justice is more important than schedule. We are trying cases according to current Alabama law. You will hear two lawyers speak in each case. Each will try to convince the jury of the facts and will try to convince me of the law. You must decide the case in accordance with what I say the law is. That is not because I am always right; it is because I am on the record. If either lawyer -- or, more practically, the lawyer on the losing side -- thinks I’m wrong about the law, he can appeal it to higher court, called the appellate court. If somebody in the jury room has another interpretation of the law, nobody else can ever hear that. Now, I’m going to ask each of you whether you feel that you can decide these cases according to current Alabama law.

He went around and asked. Everyone said that they could. The jury pool contained 18 Negro men and nine white men. Sam thought that this was much whiter than the present balance of the county.

When the jury for their case was being chosen, the men were called up individually in some order that Sam didn’t understand. One white man was excluded for knowing Tolliver and three Negroes for knowing Sam. They ended with jury of seven whites and four Negroes.

Steuben went first, and the first witness he called was Juliet. Tom Black, Tolliver’s defense attorney, rose in objection.

“Your honor, this is using an ex post facto law. The law that allows Negro witnesses was passed after the alleged actions about which the testimony is to be taken.”

“Mr. Steuben?” asked the Judge.

“Two points, your honor. First, the law was passed simply to bring the statute book into conformity with the constitution of the state. The constitution forbids racial distinctions, and the constitution takes precedence.

“The second, and more important, point is that the section of the statute regarding court testimony is a regulation of court procedure, and it was passed well before this trial was begun. The prohibition in the United States Constitution of ex post facto laws protects us from doing something and having the legislature making it illegal later. A criminal act may be punished even though there are no witnesses to it. A man does not lose any rights because he thought when committing an illegal act that the only witnesses would not be allowed to testify and then he finds out that they were.

“I’ll accept Mr. Steuben’s second point,” the judge said. “As long as I can rule on the law, I will not go to the state constitution. The testimony will be heard.”

Juliet testified to what had happened. She said, “Mr. Tolliver thought that Mr. Franklin had bought on credit.”

“You don’t testify on what Mr. Tolliver thought,” Steuben said. “Did he say that?”

“He said, best as I can recall, that since I had given credit to a ‘nigger boy,’ I could give credit to him.”

“And had you given credit to Mr. Franklin?”

“No. When they are paid after picking, some of General Warren’s customers give him some money beyond what they owe. The Franklins had done that, and they were still buying on that. I didn’t explain that to Mr. Tolliver. General Warren told me that when anyone who wanted credit was not on a sheet, they should ask him. I was to use the sheets, but I wasn’t to make a new one.”

“And these sheets are sheets of paper with a special purpose?”

“Yes sir. The general puts the man getting the credit on top, and we file them according to that name. On a second line is the name of anyone else in the family who can sign for things.”

The Judge thought that Steuben was leading the witness shamefully. Black, however, didn’t object; the credit system needed some explanation, and this was one way to get it.

Steuben called Boot Franklin to describe what had happened and then Sam to confirm the rules for credit at the store.

“Did you tell Miss Tanner to refuse credit to anyone you hadn’t been vetted by you?”

“Yes. She is a young woman, and I figure that customers would take offense at her refusal of credit.”

“Do you charge more for credit purchases than for cash purchases?”

“Yes. both prices are displayed. We say we give a 10% discount for cash.”

Finally, the prosecution rested. Black’s first witness was the defendant. He led him through a rather disjointed description of the incident. Steuben rose.

“Did you take the piece of calico with you?” he asked.

“I’m going to pay for it.”

“I ask you for a yes or no answer.”

“Yes,” Tolliver said.

“Did Miss Tanner say that you could?”

“She said I couldn’t have the credit she gave that nigger.”

At this point, the judge intervened. “Mr. Tolliver, you are giving testimony in a court of law. When you are asked a question which can be answered yes or no, you answer with one of those words. If you want to explain, do it afterwards.”

“No.”

“She did not say that you could take it?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Mr. Steuben.”

“Thank you, your honor. Mr. Tolliver, did you threaten Miss Tanner if she would not let you take the cloth.”

“I was never going to rape the nigger wench. That was just talk.” Tolliver had just demonstrated why witnesses are well advised to answer as briefly as possible.

“But you did threaten to rape her?”

“Well, yes.”

Black called several character witnesses, including Walters who testified that he gave credit to Tolliver, and that he had always paid up. That last brought Steuben’s only question for any character witness.

“You have testified that the defendant pays his debts to you. Does he do that in cash, or do you deduct the money he owes you from cotton he provides and you sell?

“I deduct the money, but that’s just how I do it with everybody. It’s no distrust of Tolliver.

Black’s summary was that a simple misunderstanding had been blown up into a criminal case. He stressed how dependent on Warren the witnesses were.

Steuben began by referring to the judge’s introduction about the facts and the law. “The issue of law here is whether a removal of property under a threat is robbery if the robber promises to pay afterwards. I’m going to ask the judge to rule on that, since the judge rules on points of law. You can imagine, though, what would happen if the law said that this wasn’t robbery. An outlaw gang invades a bank; they empty out the safe; as they are riding away, the leader calls out, ‘we will return this.’ When the banker goes to the sheriff, does the sheriff tell him that this wasn’t a robbery?

“In terms of facts, Mr. Black argues that you shouldn’t believe the witnesses because they are obliged to the owner of the property. If you should doubt someone because he has an interest, then you should doubt Mr. Tolliver more. He has the greatest interest. In this case, however, the question of which witness you believe does not arise. Mr. Tolliver testified that he took the cloth; he testified that he did not have permission to take the cloth; he testified that he made a threat to Miss Tanner. If he didn’t say that the threat was what he would do if she tried to stop him, two other persons testified to that, and the defense did not try to refute it.

“The taking property without permission on threat of violence is robbery. And I ask Judge Singleton to say so.”

The judge’s direction to the jury was: “Earlier, I said that you would rule on the facts and that I would rule on the law. I also determine the sentence. Taking property without permission is either robbery or theft. Theft involves a degree of concealment which is not involved here. Commerce is an exchange which is voluntary on the part of both parties. Property may be exchanged for other property, for cash, or for a promise of some future property or cash. The crucial element is consent. Maybe I offer you my cow for your horse; it is not a legal exchange unless you consent. I cannot argue in court that my cow is really worth as much. Now, Miss Tanner is Mr. Warren’s agent, and anyone in the store is entitled to take her consent for Mr. Warren’s consent. If you find that the defendant took the cloth and that Miss Tanner did not give her consent or that any consent was the result of the threat of force, then you must find the defendant guilty.

“If either aspect is missing, if Mr. Tolliver did not take the cloth, if Miss Tanner gave her free, uncoerced consent to his taking it, you must find the defendant not guilty.

“Those are your only choices. The argument that Mr. Tanner intended to pay for the cloth later is a plea for mitigation. That is a matter for the judge to decide.”

The jury went into a room apart from the others.

“Well,” said one of the white men, “I don’t see that the judge left us much choice. Tolliver said that he took the cloth and the girl didn’t say he could. As a matter of fact, she said he shouldn’t.”

“I don’t know,” said another. “Man said he was going to pay. And she really didn’t try to stop him.”

“Massa,” said one of the Negroes, “if I don’t want you to do something, should I grab your arm to stop you?”

“Lay a hand on me and you might not have that hand.”

“So, she said no. It was all she could have done.”

“He has a point,” said the white man who had spoken first. “She was a girl, too, and he was a strong man. You can’t say that her not picking a fight with him was implied consent.”

“I think,” said another white, “that they picked this case to hear early. The white man is clearly guilty, and he is a cracker. The evidence against him is black. Can a jury containing whites convict?”

“What are they going to do if we don’t?” asked another.

“If he is clearly guilty, Massa,” asked another Negro, “are you going to vote to convict?”

Nobody really said no to this, but it was another half hour before it came down to a vote. Then it was to convict.

“Mr. Tolliver,” said the judge, “you have said that you intended to repay the purchase price, and I tend to believe you. Still, this is a state ruled by laws. It can’t be a state ruled by force. You can’t go into a store and tell them that they will give you credit or that you will do them harm.

“So, it was robbery. You might not have understood that it was robbery, but ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you did not understand that what you did was wrong, then you are a danger to society. I sentence you to three years in the state penitentiary.”

“Judge, if I go to jail for three years, my family will starve.”

“That might be an exaggeration, but there are many hungry families out there. I’m not going to reduce your sentence because people for whom you should have cared suffer along with you. The state needs to care for hungry families, but not by easing the punishment of poor people for committing crimes.”