Original subtitles

* Say you want me to moan

* You say you want me to cry

* You say you want me to tell my story

* One time 'fore I die

* Say you want me to moan and cry

* Say you want me to cry and moan

* Say you want me to tell my story

* One time 'fore I'm gone

* Oh

* Oh, 'fore I

* Oh, oh, 'fore I

NARRATOR: In the early 19th century, the Port of Havana, Cuba

was the capital of the most profitable traffic of the western world,

slavery.

Once-free black men and women were brutally seized from their homes and families

on the dark continent

and chained like wild beasts to the filthy holes of slave ships.

Condemned to be chopped.

Slavery was legal, and slaves were valuable merchandise.

Even the royal families of Europe derived thousands of pounds

from their investments in the slave trade.

Only the strongest of the black captives survive the long and perilous

voyage across the Atlantic to be marched to Havana's great slave market.

These once-proud people, some of them kings and princes in their own land,

were felt by avaricious hands, and auctioned off to the wealthy Cuban landowners,

to tend the vast sugar and tobacco fields and breed more slaves.

Strong young bucks and wenches were handpicked from the best tribes

to breed a new race of prime slaves.

One such breeder was Tamboura, an African king enslaved and drawn

into a forbidden alliance with Dona Marianna, his owner's mistress.

Averted by their riches, the landowners mated their blacks in love arenas,

for the amusement of their friends and jaded mistresses.

Like the perverse Marianna, whose lust allowed her to be loved even by her slave,

Rachel.

The color line was rigidly enforced for black man and white women.

But Marianna, attracted to Tamboura's savage beauty, let lust outweigh caution,

and took Tamboura as her lover.

For a black man to even look at a white woman would have brought fatal results.

Tamboura was made an example, so that every slave would know what it meant

when a black touched a white woman.

For Marianna, the seeds of disaster became all too really so.

I'm going to have a baby.

Tamboura's! A little black bastard, my baby.

RACHEL: I will take care of everything. No one will know.

He will be my child.

NARRATOR: They fled to New Orleans, where Marianna had her black baby, Drum.

Rachel raised him as her own, and Marianna

became the most celebrated madam in New Orleans.

By 1860, there appeared another breed of slavers,

like Hammond Maxwell, of Falconhurst.

Most civilized nations had condemned slave trading.

But slavers got around this problem and made a fortune

by breeding their blacks like horses,

and selling their issue to the cotton plantation.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

That nigger, who is he?

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Drum.

He's the son of my inner slave, Rachel.

What a splendid animal he would be, huh?

Stripped down, naked?

Oui! Perhaps a good fighting nigger.

Oh, no! Quel dommage!

Dommage?

Yes, pity a body like that surrounded by beautiful women,

being wasted as a bartender.

You know, I wouldn't mind owning him.

Mon cher DeMarigny!

I didn't know you were in the market for a stud.

I'm always in the market for a young stud.

Mon cher Lazare.

(LAUGHS) Well, I'm going to tell you girls, I've spent a lovely afternoon with you,

and I'd sure hate to lose you now, but your time's up.

DeMARIGNY: Hammond! Hammond!

Oh, yes!

Oh, DeMarigny, hi! How you doing?

Bonsoir, Hammond. How did the sale go?

Oh, good, good.

$30,000 worth of niggers went in less than three hours.

HAMMOND: And there's plenty more to come.

Fantastic!

Listen, that Yankee baboon, Lincoln, gets himself elected and starts a war.

C'est impossible! Oh, no, no, no, no.

It's not impossible at all, mon petit.

Every Southern legislature is seriously discussing secession.

Well, we ain't going to worry about that kind of hen shit!

Ha!

Abolition ain't never going to take roots in these here parts.

Never.

Bye-bye, Jack. Marianna!

Hammond. I got to talk to you 'bout my daughter, Sophie.

Not now, Hammond.

Sure, now! Why, what's wrong with now?

Could we do it tomorrow morning?

Aw! Meanwhile, enjoy yourself.

Why, that's a hell of an idea!

Gentlemen! Gentlemen!

(MUSIC STOPS)

When all passions have been spent,

and all buttons have been rebuttoned, eh?

(ALL LAUGH)

There will be a pugilistic encounter, in the courtyard.

(ALL EXCLAIMING EXCITEDLY)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I don't care, you can't be with me.

Regardless, what it is...

(BOTH WHOOPING)

You got fire!

DeMARIGNY: Well, go and amuse yourselves for a while, eh?

We will have a marvelous evening.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Pompey's not coming!

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

His owner decided not to let him fight a week before his match in Baton Rouge.

(CURSING IN FRENCH)

That will cost him his life.

Mon Dieu! I will not be made to look like a fool.

I invited 30 of my friends here tonight, and I promised them a fight.

That is not my responsibility.

Drum must fight my nigger tonight.

That is impossible.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

If you do not do as I ask, I shall withdraw my patronage from this place.

And all of my friends will do likewise.

I can also persuade the city officials to shut you down.

I realize it seems a simple thing,

but when I don't get my way, I can be ruthless.

I will destroy you, Marianna.

You don't give me a choice.

Absolutely none.

Cherie.

(EXCITED CHATTERING)

Gentlemen, gentlemen!

Is there anyone who has not yet made his bets?

MAN: No! No!

No? Good!

Then let the fight commence.

(ALL CHEERING)

I hope you got a hard head, boy, 'cause you're gonna need it!

(CROWD CHEERING)

On your feet, you piece of merde! Fight!

Fight, you bastard!

I don't wanna fight you. Why do you wanna kill me?

If I don't fight you, my master's gonna kill me!

(CROWD CHEERING)

Drum, you nigger, nancy boy,

you've been living too long with all these whores!

(SCREAMING)

(CROWD CHEERING)

(SCREAMING)

Voila Drum! The victor!

(CROWD CHEERING)

I hope you killed the bastard.

Drum, you were wonderful!

You're showing more life on the ground than you did on your feet!

What will you do with him?

Since he doesn't seem to have any balls,

he won't miss the ones he's wearing.

Would you sell him?

Merde, I give the bastard away.

To Madame Marianna?

(LAUGHS)

Take him, he's yours.

For that superb fight, Drum,

you shall be rewarded.

You have already rewarded me. Blaise?

That piece of merde is no reward. What would you like, Drum?

Name anything!

A woman.

A woman?

A woman of my own.

(LAUGHS)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

You shall have your wish.

Lazare, get that flesh peddler, Maspero.

Tell him to bring his best stock of wenches and parade them

before our Drum.

You all right?

(GRUNTS)

Your name is Blaise?

I'm Drum.

You're gonna stay at Madame Marianna's. We're gonna be friends.

Friends?

You damned near killed me.

Come on, hurry up! Get them moving!

I'm sure Drum must be getting very impatient by now, huh?

MAN: Come on, come on, come on! Move! Move! Faster, faster!

Faster. Run. MAN: Go on.

Quickly, quickly! Go, go! Tres bien! Up, up, up!

Come now, Drum, one of these is forever yours.

Choose her, huh?

Allez, Drum. Get a closer look.

Feel the merchandise.

(LAUGHS)

Oh, what's the matter, Drum? You're bashful?

Let me assist you, since I am much more experienced in these matters.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no!

I'm afraid this poor wench is totally unsuited for you.

Since both of her titties would not fill one of your hands.

DeMARIGNY: Turn around. Stand still. Show me your ass.

Well, I...

Ooh!

Very interesting.

No.

Oh!

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

DeMARIGNY: This one seems not only to have the spirits, but I think perhaps

the promise of a fine sheath for your rapier, Drum.

Get her over here. MAN: Move.

(SCREAMING) No. No. No.

Our Drum has another fight on his hands, huh?

(SCREAMING) No! No! No!

No, no. Why are you fighting me, girl?

Ain't no nigger gonna rape me. I was raised for a white master.

No white man could ever love you like I will.

I want this one.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

You have made a splendid choice.

My master was saving me for his son.

But my master died and the son never come back.

So I ain't never had a man.

You have a man now, Calinda.

Up till now.

You like me better being a virgin?

That's white man's thinking.

Always afraid something bigger and better has been there before them.

(GASPS)

Now, Drum, it's time to repay me for my generosity

in giving you this beautiful woman to enjoy any way you want.

I would like to join you.

She's mine.

You said so yourself. She's mine alone.

Don't worry. I don't want your woman, Drum.

You can have her all to yourself.

But you...

Your beautiful body.

Well, that would please me.

You'll love it, Drum.

Now. You'll love it!

(SCREAMS) No! Let him be! Let him...

You black bitch. I'll kill you.

Leave her alone!

If you were a white man, I would kill you in a duel.

But it would be too quick, too easy to put a bullet in your brain!

With a nigger, there are other ways.

Painful ways that take a long time.

I assure you, Drum,

you will not like it.

(SLAMS DOOR)

Marianna?

I wants me a live-in whore for back in Falconhurst.

I want her to be white, a good talker, and a good dresser,

and don't drink.

You mean like a mistress?

No, I want her to run my house,

and raise up my little daughter, Sophie.

She's been getting into mischief and running wild like she is.

What you seem to want, Hammond, is a wife.

(LAUGHING)

No, I don't want no wife. I had me two.

The first one, Sophie's mother, oh, she was a pretty little thing.

But meaner than a plowed up snake.

And the second one run off with a melodrama actor.

That's why I want a whore.

So I won't think she ain't and then discover that she is.

You want a whore to raise your daughter?

Well, it'd be a whole lot better than one of them high family gals,

that goes around spreading her legs for her brothers and cousins,

every which all.

No, I figured a woman who'd been a-whoring

ain't likely to want a young gal a-doing the same thing.

If you gather my meaning.

I'll see what I can do.

You know that Mandingo boy, Drum?

I'll give you $2,000 for him.

For Drum?

I'll take him back to Falconhurst. It'd be a nice place for him.

We don't grow no cotton, just niggers.

I'll take good care of him, and he'll be a breeder.

I just don't want to sell him, Hammond.

$2,500? You think on that.

Rachel?

I've been thinking about Drum. What a fine man he's grown up to be.

And you're such a good mother to him.

I sometimes forget I ever gave birth to Drum.

He's the only person I have ever loved.

Except for you, Marianna.

And he looks so much like his father.

Better looking than his father.

You've always hated him. Why, Rachel?

Let it lie.

The past is as dead as Tamboura.

You're right, as always.

Come on, Drum. Sun's up.

Let's me and you do a little sparring. We can do this shit later on.

No, maybe somebody will see us.

No, those white folks are all passed out. They were whoring and snoring and drunk.

Come on, you got a lot to learn.

All right. All right.

I want you to remember what I showed you.

I want you to keep your hands up high.

I want you to go for the heart and the head.

I want you to remember that! Now watch me, okay?

The heart and the head, right?

Heart and the head. All right!

Okay, now you try it. Come on.

BLAISE: Heart and the head. Right. And don't swing, punch!

Heart and head. Come on! Come on!

That's it! That's it! That's beautiful, boy.

I'm sorry. Sorry, Blaise! I'm sorry.

Yeah, so am I. You're learning too damn fast.

All right, heart and head!

Drum! Will you stop this fisticuffing?

You know Madame Marianna don't want you out here fighting like a street dog.

If she caught you, what would she...

I gotta fight, Mama.

I wanna be a champion fighter.

What a man wants and what a man gets ain't always the same thing, now.

Especially a black man.

RACHEL: As for you, Blaise...

Maybe a black man ain't free as the wind yet,

but he ought to be given a fighting chance.

That's whip post talk, son.

Oh, Mama.

Stand over there, nigger, unless you want to die first.

In that other fight, Drum, I'm afraid I underestimated you.

So this time I'm giving you a far worthier opponent than Blaise.

Allow me to present Babouin!

A champion of certain unpleasant skills,

as you are about to learn.

You are going to fight him with your fists,

he fights with a knife.

Come on, whore house boy. Come on, get your eggs cut off!

Cuts good, don't it? Sharp as a razor.

Enough of this foreplay. Hold him.

Now for the coup de grace.

Stop it! Stop it!

(GASPS)

(SCREAMING)

Drum! Drum! Drum! Drum! You kill a white man, you'll get killed!

BLAISE: Drum!

Drum.

If you think you have much longer to live,

you're even a dumber nigger than I took you for.

Mama!

Mama!

Marianna!

Marianna!

You can't stay in New Orleans any longer.

DeMarigny will kill you.

He should be arrested and jailed.

But it would be the word of a white man against a black man.

You're a slave, Drum. Don't ever forget that.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

Come in.

Madame.

Come here, to me.

Take off your shirt.

This belonged to your father.

He believed while he wore it, he would have the strength and courage of the lion

he had taken it from, back in Africa, many years ago.

Mama always refused to speak of my father.

Tamboura was a royal Hausa. A king.

And the handsomest Negro I have ever seen.

You remind me of him a great deal.

Rachel was so close to me that at times, I feel like your own mother.

Go now. I want to rest.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

You think? Yeah.

Why, I hope so. Lord have mercy.

I'm gonna squeeze it out here, now.

WOMEN: Ooh!

HAMMOND: All those red ones and one black.

(WOMEN LAUGHING)

Hammond! I have good news for you.

Good news? Well, I could use me some good news,

I couldn't buy a decent nigger today.

I have decided to sell you Drum.

Good!

Just one condition.

You also buy his friend, Blaise.

Well, that'd be fine, if'n this Blaise be a sturdy boy,

and he's got a stud's making. That'd be fine.

Of course.

He's also got a girl he's close to.

I don't want no attachments. I'm using him for breeding.

And I found a woman for you.

Did you?

But she's not a whore. I hope you're not disappointed.

Well, I'd ask for a whore.

Well, she's tainted.

She's a young woman from a good family who was indiscreet.

Well, that ain't a whore. But it ain't exactly a lady either.

Would you like to meet her? Yes, ma'am, I sure would.

Hammond.

Miss Augusta Chauvet. Hammond Maxwell, of Falconhurst Plantation.

Ma'am!

Perhaps you'd like to talk to her for a while.

No, I could never talk to no white lady.

She'll do just fine.

You quite sure, Mr. Maxwell?

Oh, yes, ma'am.

I ain't gonna be pinching on you and feeling you,

like I does my nigger wenches.

I ain't getting you for bedding and breeding, you know.

You won't get me, Mr. Maxwell, you are hiring me.

You're a white woman, all right.

(WHISPERS) I'll come back to get everybody tomorrow.

Well, Gussie, what do you think?

Oh, he's much handsomer than I imagined.

And he's rich.

I just could manage to fall in love with him.

And become Mrs. Hammond Maxwell.

Well, y'all would be my first house guest.

What for I can't go with you?

'Cause the new master doesn't want you.

I'll run away, where you is.

You can't do that. They'd only find you, send you back and beat you.

Well, then I'll tell them I'll kill myself.

Be better if you never chose me that night.

Drum.

We never see each other again?

It could be never.

(CRYING) Drum. Don't go.

I love you.

Don't go.

Please.

I love you, Calinda.

But maybe niggers shouldn't love.

White folks say we can't, because they think we're animals.

Drum, we never be a-sleeping in each other's arms.

Never be a-holding and kissing.

I'll never be seeing you in the morning waking up.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

WOMAN: Drum! Mr. Maxwell is waiting for you!

Don't go!

(CRYING)

I understand it's beautiful out there.

Oh, I'm so excited.

Be happy.

Goodbye!

HAMMOND: You're gonna be so happy, wench.

Mr. Maxwell.

Miss Augusta, ma'am!

Who is that?

This is Regine, ma'am.

I bought her for you this morning,

I thought she'd make a nice house servant for you.

Well, thank you, Mr. Maxwell.

Less, o'course I get a hankering for her myself.

Which I reckon I already do.

Regine, it's better if'n you sit back in the other wagon.

Drum! Come on up here and see if you can drive this rig.

You obeys me, boy, we gonna get along just fine.

I'd rather have you like me than hate me.

Ain't nothing to do with a sulky slave, except to sell him.

Lordy!

HAMMOND: 'Course you do have some human blood in you, you ain't all nigger.

And that's probably why you gonna hate me sometimes.

But that's all right. That's just the human part of you coming out.

Just one thing I don't like about you, Drum,

is you don't talk niggerish enough.

You talk like a school teacher.

(LAUGHING)

HAMMOND: You ain't had no education, have you?

No, sir.

Well, that's good.

'Cause it's against the law.

Yes, sir!

Can't own no property neither, you know why?

So as I can't buy my freedom.

You sure you ain't had no education?

No, sir.

When we get back to Falconhurst,

you see if you can't talk more like my other niggers.

Go on.

Drum, you and Blaise take the luggage into the hall.

What a beautiful house.

HAMMOND: I can't take no credit for it, my daddy built this house long years ago.

But I know you're gonna enjoy your stay here, Miss Augusta.

Come on around with the bags there, boys, that's it, come on.

Oh, my goodness!

(HAMMOND LAUGHS)

Now, don't you pay any attention to those two old boys, Lucretia Borgia.

They're not worth a penny of your thoughts.

(LAUGHING)

Oh, Mastah Hammond!

How be you, Lucretia Borgia?

Oh, now, don't you go asking how everything be.

Gotta be all right, as long as I'm tottering.

Oh, I know that. Lucretia Borgia, this is Miss Augusta.

Lucretia Borgia been with me all my life, ever since I a little sucker.

Got my titty milk from her.

And I craves you two be right friendly.

HAMMOND: I got the prettiest apron for you.

It's good to be home. That food down at the Century Hotel was just awful!

Drum!

Drum!

You fetch your master! This place is a pigsty!

You tell him. You tell your master

I absolutely will not stay in this house unless it's cleaned and fixed.

Now, go on, get! Get!

You know a best thing to do when a white woman get her hair across her ass?

Just get the hell out of the way.

And that's why I ain't gonna come back till supper.

So you go gather up some bucks and wenches, and mops and brooms,

take them up there, and tell them do any damn thing in the world

Miss Augusta wants them to do.

And you and Blaise, you take the room over the kitchen.

And l tell you what, tell them to put Regine in the bedroom over mine.

That'll fix 'em.

Regine gets the room over his? With the stairway there?

Guess she's gonna be his bed wench.

Bed wench? Bed wench!

What a vile, vile word!

You get her a broom, and you put her to work!

Regine. Miss Augusta wants you sweeping and cleaning.

(SOBBING)

What's the matter, Regine?

Drum, I been to five different places in the last two years.

That's fine. Just fine. Thank you.

Oh, my worthy! Sure is a lot of dust!

You getting in between all those little lines there?

That Miss Augusta, a mighty efficient woman.

Lordy, but she sure got a tongue on her.

Who are they, Poppa?

Them? Drum and Blaise. They gonna be our new house servants.

They is pretty nigger boys.

Can I have them whipped if they're naughty?

Shut your mouth. I does the whipping around here.

Miss Augusta, this is my daughter, Sophie.

Miss Augusta's gonna be like a momma to you.

Lucretia Borgia like my momma.

Well, all right then, I'll be like your aunt. Aunt Augusta.

Uh, you ain't gonna do that regular, is you?

(CLEARS THROAT)

Well, I see you've been a-messing in the kitchen.

This sure ain't kitchen wench cooking. It's mighty pretty.

Well, I might say, I do have a definite tendency toward perfection.

AUGUSTA: Seeing as you're in such a good humor, Mr. Maxwell,

I would like to have two extra girls to work in the house.

Edna and Phronia seem very competent.

(HAMMOND LAUGHING)

They too young. I can't have them in the house with Blaise and Drum.

I don't like to breed them that young.

Mr. Maxwell.

AUGUSTA: Sophie shouldn't hear those things.

Poppa, why don't you put Blaise with Balsam and get some good suckers out on her?

And Drum, give him Elvira. She's a pretty wench.

And everybody's saying she's in heat.

Sophie! There's a present for you in my room.

It's on the bureau, wrapped up. You go get it.

Though Sophie is 18,

speaking personally and as a lady, I find this talk intolerable.

Well, Miss Augusta, you just not acquainted

with the young ladies hereabouts on these plantations.

You see, they're playing house with their brothers and their cousins

and their friends, from the time they get their hair on the wedge.

Excepting, of course, my daughter, Sophie.

Mr. Maxwell, you are crude. Very, very crude.

I never said I weren't, ma'am.

Well, one thing I will not stand for

is intercourse between the slaves inside the house.

Do you expect me to waste these boys a-serving the table?

These are strong boys. They got strong yearnings.

Their sap is a-rising.

Now, I don't give them wenches, then they gonna be after the white ladies.

And then I gotta castrate them.

AUGUSTA: Heavens, no!

Let them have their wenches.

Just restrict the intercourse to the back rooms over the kitchen.

Blaise! Balsam is your'n.

Drum! Elvira is your'n.

And I'm a-going to give a brand new shiny silver dollar

to the first one of you who gets his wench knocked up.

Thank you, Mr. Hammond.

Drum, you still ain't talking niggerish enough.

Did I hear you say, "Mister" instead of "Mastah"?

Yes, Mr. Master!

(LAUGHING)

That'd be a joke.

I ain't never heard a joke from a nigger before.

Go on, get out of here! Get to humpin'!

HAMMOND: Lordy!

Must you persist in being a vulgarian, Mr. Maxwell?

Miss Augusta, you just got to get used to the idea that nigger fornicating

is what Falconhurst is all about.

If my niggers stop fornicating, then we stop eating.

Since the conversation has descended to this level,

I feel I can voice my feelings concerning your bedding with Regine every night.

Well, I don't do it every night. It's bad for my liver.

I don't think you should do it at all.

Now, Miss Augusta,

you ain't gonna start a-meddling around in my poontang, now is you?

Good morning!

My, what a beautiful day.

HAMMOND: What's going on here?

I just thought I'd bring a little breakfast for you and your lady love.

You thinking this be funny?

No. I'm thinking you two are probably quite hungry.

Regine?

It ain't proper for a white woman to be serving a nigger wench.

And it isn't proper for a white man to make love to a nigger wench.

What we been making ain't love, Miss Augusta.

HAMMOND: You planning on doing this again?

And why in heavens not?

Because, if'n you do, I can't be having me no bed wench.

I know. That's the idea.

You got to make your butt go up and down with the horse.

Hold up there now. That's good!

That's good, Drum, hold up there. Hold now, whoa, horse!

That's real good.

I craves you do some supervising for me, too, Drum,

and I want you do the whuppings.

I'd rather not do that, Mr. Hammond.

You're gonna be my number one boy. You're gonna have to do that.

Now, don't you stand up to me now.

Best nigger I ever had did that, and he made that mistake.

He made another one, too, he let his pecker get him in trouble.

I don't want nothing like that happening to you.

So don't you go running off wherever your pecker points, you understand?

You craves to play with me? I knows a nice game.

You get away from me, Miss Sophie.

You is a pretty boy, and you is a-gonna play with me.

Blaise and the other bucks do, and you is, too.

Miss Sophie, I'll tell your father.

You tells him and he'll skin and bile you alive.

I'll say you raped, done raped me.

Miss Sophie!

She a-starting in with you?

Ain't a boy on this place that don't wants to run when Miss Sophie a-coming.

Always unbuttoning they pants and a-playing with them.

Miss Sophie a bad one!

Why don't somebody tell Mr. Hammond?

'Cause she white!

Why no boy dares go tell Mastah Hammond.

They's scared for fear he'll kill them.

Perhaps he'll kill Blaise. Or even worse, castrate him.

Blaise.

You been fooling with Miss Sophie?

Is that what she says? 'Cause I don't know what you mean.

You know what I mean.

Letting her unbutton your pants and play with your snake.

She's lying and she's trouble.

She follows me all around with her titties sticking in my face.

But I ain't never touched her.

Either you're lying, or Miss Sophie is.

Drum.

If'n I looks through a keyhole, I see Miss Sophie on the other side

peeping back at me.

Now, who you gonna believe, that bitch or me?

Just making sure, Blaise. Just making sure.

Well, Drum, since you been supervising, everything is looking good.

Real good! I'm proud of you!

Real proud of you!

Why don't you never play with me?

You're worse than hell.

You get a nigger killed, no matter what.

I don't want to play with you.

Well, if'n you don't, I just tell my poppa you tried to rape me.

(DOOR OPENS)

Get out of here, you damn nigger!

Listen, Miss Sophie, you play your damn games with the other bucks.

Blaise is my friend.

If your poppa found out, hell, he'd kill Blaise.

Mind your own damn business!

Get. Just get!

Blaise. What the hell were you doing?

Are you following me around, spying on me?

I was afraid Mr. Hammond might find you.

You heard him talk about nutting slaves.

And you still don't believe me, you think I'm lying?

It's plain Miss Sophie's chasing after your fly like a horny toad,

but I'm not so damn sure you don't want her to catch up.

(HORSES NEIGH)

(GRUNTS)

Stop it!

Drum! Blaise!

LUCRETIA: Stop it!

Both of you, just stop it!

Stop it! Stop it!

Mastah Hammond don't stand for no slave fighting.

Mastah Hammond whup you raw, Blaise, he sees them bruises.

Balsam, better keep him out of sight for a couple days,

till those bruises heal!

Now, just look at you, Drum.

Why you got a bad eye. Mastah bound to notice it!

I'll think of something.

You sure got a pretty body, Miss Augusta.

Miss Augusta, I gotta be going to Mastah Hammond now.

Regine? Yes, ma'am?

Wouldn't you rather be with Drum, instead of Mr. Maxwell?

Here, now. Walk around a little mite for me, Regine.

I likes to look at you.

You got a pretty shape to you, Regine.

Not as pretty as Miss Augusta.

That a fact? Mmm-hmm.

Miss Augusta got a real pretty shape.

That so?

She got the prettiest shape I ever see, black or white.

REGINE: She got a tiny waist,

and a ass that go like this.

Skinny legs. She got skinny legs.

That so?

And titties! You likes big titties, don't you?

Oh, you know I loves big titties!

She got big titties!

She do?

Well, I can't tell a fucking thing underneath all that clothing she's wearing.

Sure you can. You just gotta know how to look.

AUGUSTA: A social life is very important.

Well, what if I'm happy without me one?

Seems little point in having a fine house, if no one comes to visit,

Mr. Maxwell.

Women! They always got to have what they call a social life.

Why are you looking at me in that odd fashion, Mr. Maxwell?

Poppa! Drum's got a mark on his eyes. Suppose he's been fighting?

Drum! Where'd you get that bruise on your eye?

I was carrying a ladder. I tripped and it hit me in the eye.

You lying? I knows when a nigger's lying. Got to.

A nigger lives with lying. You don't want to tell me. Who you been fighting?

I haven't been fighting, master.

Another thing, you still ain't talking niggerous enough.

Except for master.

Now, you get every one of my bucks out in front of my house.

I'm going to find out who you been fighting with. Go on.

Where be Blaise?

Where be Blaise?

Now, somebody here is going to tell me where Blaise is.

Where is he?

Where is he, I asked you.

In the kitchen.

HAMMOND: What you two boys fighting about?

What you two boys angrifying about?

It wasn't a real fight, Master Hammond.

We were sparring and training like we used to in New Orleans.

You spar?

It looks like a bull run across his face.

You call that sparring? Well, I call it fighting!

Who started it?

I did! I started it.

And I'd do it again, too!

Two lying niggers.

Two niggers a-fighting, and I don't allow no fighting.

Five whuppings for you, Drum!

Thirty for you, Blaise. You started it! Now, get to walking.

Now, Hannibal,

you be careful!

Just hit them on the fat part of their rumps.

And don't hit them on the knockers.

Now Blaise! Now Blaise!

Get out of here! Get!

That be 30! That be 30! That be 30!

That bastard!

I get 30, he get five.

You leave Drum be!

He the best friend you ever had!

That white ass licker ain't no friend of mine!

Drum tried to keep the mastah off your hide.

He tried to keep you from being sold or something worse.

Ain't nobody gonna sell Blaise no more.

Oh, that's cemetery prattle!

I was born free as any white man and I'm gonna stand up to it.

I'm hauling myself North the first chance I get.

A runaway?

Blaise, the road patrol will get you for sure.

I'll die trying.

They'll heel hang you, tree top tall.

Until you swing and dry in chains!

Or maybe they'll lop off your tassel and feed it to the hogs.

Or maybe they'll sell you to that whip snapper, Mastah Montgomery.

Who he?

Satan himself! The worst of the slave traders.

To hell with him!

I got freedom in my heart, and I'm gonna grab it!

HAMMOND: Don't dawdle, Sophie! Eat your dinner.

Miss Augusta, you is perfect, just like you say you is.

Ever since you come here, everything is looking better, including Sophie.

No, I ain't. Yes, you is!

For someone that ain't exactly a lady,

you sure know how to make a house a home.

Oh, Drum.

Drum, I'm thinking 'bout giving you Regine!

Now, I ain't sure, but mayhaps!

How long you figure it'd take you to knock her up?

We'll have no more of that talk while we're eating!

Why, Miss Augusta, I reckoned that you'd be happy to hear about that.

I can get me a prime sucker out of him and Regine.

And, if'n it's a male, I can get $2,000, $3,000 for him in New Orleans.

Mr. Maxwell, you have every right to run this plantation as you see fit.

But you have put me in charge of the house and I forbid,

forbid any further talk about the sordid details of your business in my presence!

Sit down!

Mr. Maxwell, I am a white woman, not black.

And don't you dare use that tone of voice with me.

I'll use any goddamn tone of voice I want to use.

And I'll say any goddamn thing I want to say.

Then you'll be saying it to somebody else!

If you will excuse me, I am going to my room.

I am packing my bags and I am leaving!

(SHOUTING) You ain't leaving!

You intend to chain me to the bedpost, Mr. Maxwell?

It's time you learned some manners

and conducted yourself like a white man and not a Negro.

Who you calling a nigger?

I got you from a whorehouse and you ain't even a whore!

(CRYING)

Oh, let her go. Let her go to hell.

Eat your dinner!

(AUGUSTA CRYING)

I am sorry, Miss Augusta.

I know nothing of conversing with polite ladies.

I know nothing of culture. I'm a slave trader.

And of course, you've seen them

dragging their line of hapless creatures along the road

like some catfish on a string.

Well, that's all I am, and all that stands between me

and that is the treasures of this household.

I need you, Miss Augusta!

Mr. Maxwell,

that story that Marianna told you, that was false.

She felt you would not accept a lady.

The truth is, Mr. Maxwell,

I am a pure woman!

Sophie! I have some wonderful news for you.

Your father and I, we're going to get married.

Oh, Poppa! You ain't gonna marry that uppity bitch!

Shut your yapper, child!

My dear Augusta, as you can see, my daughter plainly needs manners.

Well, now that I'm gonna be your stepmother,

I want you to be refined and educated in the best possible manner.

Your father and I agree you should be sent

to Miss Pentecost's school for young females in Mobile.

Poppa, no I ain't!

Yes, you is!

Hammond, I think we should be planning on our first party.

AUGUSTA: Our engagement party. HAMMOND: Yes.

AUGUSTA: I think we should invite the Holcombs and Dr. and Mrs. Redfield,

and Mr. and Mrs. Gassaway.

Poppa! You send me away,

and I'm gonna tell you something you ain't gonna like.

What?

One of your bucks has been fooling around with me.

Who? Who? Who? Who be that? Who be that?

Who be it?

Blaise! It was Blaise!

Blaise! Blaise!

You come with me!

HAMMOND: I ain't gonna talk about this in front of Miss Augusta.

I'm gonna hear about this from A to Z!

Now, what'd Blaise do? Nothing, Poppa!

Nothing? I was just a-saying that!

You wasn't just a-saying that!

I was just a-saying that to get you mad.

Sophie, I'm gonna turn you upside down until the lie pop right out'n your mouth!

Now, you tell me!

Blaise wanted me to unbutton his pants!

Did you? No.

Then what? Then what?

Well, then he told me to close my eyes and hold my hands out

like this.

Go on.

Well, then he put something in my hands and told me to feel it and rub it,

and keep my eyes closed up.

And then he asked me, "How does it feel?" And I says, "It feels good."

And then he said, says, tells me to open my eyes

and I opened them and I looked down,

and it was his thing! I was holding his thing, Poppa!

(MUMBLING)

How long did you hold it?

I dropped it right away, Poppa!

What did you do then?

I ran right off and washed my hands.

Well, how come you didn't run off when it commenced?

I was too a-scared, Poppa!

Sophie, I'd feel a whole lot better about this if you was crying.

I is, Poppa!

(FAKES CRYING)

There, there, darling. Don't you fret!

Ain't but two people in this world gonna know about this,

but you and me.

What 'bout Blaise?

Blaise is gonna be dead!

I'm gonna make up my mind about you.

Time on!

Smart ass nigger!

Take yourself a good look, and see what you're missing.

I can't believe what I'm seeing!

You're going to school faster than that goose shit!

No, I ain't going! Yes you is, now!

Good evening, sir!

How lovely.

Right this way, please.

In here.

Oh, evening, sir.

Oh, Clayton, Henrietta. My goodness gracious,

I'm so happy you all could make it tonight.

Congratulations, Hammond!

Thank you.

Augusta!

Marianna!

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Oh, I'm so happy you could come.

I made the match. It didn't take you very long, querida.

Marianna! Hammond!

My dear.

You're getting a wonderful woman!

Yes, I know!

Everyone looks so very respectful.

Should I conceal the fact that I operate a whorehouse?

Don't be naughty.

There's not a man here who hasn't been to your establishment.

And not a woman ain't a-dying for a look see!

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Mon cher Bernard, you are acting ridiculous.

Don't ever speak to me like that again.

Oh, excuse me. DeMarigny!

Hello, my friend, how are you? Very nice. Marianna?

Oh, uh, boy? Well, just a moment here, how would you like to have a drink?

Tell me what's going on over in New Orleans. I ain't been there in quite a while.

HAMMOND: They want them cheap, so to get them cheap, they gotta get them free.

Hammond, you own some mighty fine looking studs.

Like that one. Is he for sale?

No, he ain't. But I got others.

I got one I'm trying to get rid of,

but I wouldn't sell him to a friend. I'm gonna hang him.

His name is Blaise.

Blaise?

Is that the Blaise I owned?

Oh, no! I ain't gonna tell you what he did.

But he been making a damn fool out of himself,

and I'm gonna have him hung, or worse.

No, no, no, no, no, a worse punishment than death is castration.

DeMARIGNY: You kill a nigger and it's over in a few moments, eh?

But with castration,

the nigger has got to live with no balls the rest of his black life.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Once all the house niggers was cut,

so no strapping bucks running around with their pants popping out

in the presence of white ladies.

How do you do that, Doc Redfield?

Simple.

Just grab him by the balls with one hand,

with sharp razor in the other hand, one swoop and he's nutted!

(ALL MURMURING)

(GLASS CLINKING)

Ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to make a toast.

To castration of all men.

MARIANNA: No more mothers, no more fathers.

Fathers like our dear DeMarigny and Lazare!

Cheers, everyone!

Mr... Master Hammond, there's a slave trader outside wants to speak with you.

He says his name is Montgomery.

That swill pig.

Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen.

There's some people don't know enough not to interfere with a man's social life.

Evening, Mr. Maxwell.

What the hell you want around here?

Just passing through,

and wondering if you've got any niggers you're willing to part with.

I got a boy I wouldn't mind getting rid of.

But I ain't doing no business now, I got a party.

Put your bed down over here in this old house.

It'll be all right, 'cause we full up inside.

Taken kindly.

These good boys or your usual?

These are all runaways!

Well, he ain't gonna run far.

He got a little light foot, so I had to hamstring him.

You don't have to worry,

they're all chained tighter than a bull's ass in fly time.

Well, put them over there in the barn.

But you make damn sure that they're linked to the wall.

'Cause I don't like the looks of none of them.

I didn't buy them 'cause they was daisies.

All right, let's move this cattle into the barn.

MAN: Get'y them up. Come on.

You want to sleep, boy, get your ass in that barn.

MONTGOMERY: In you go, children.

(MOANING)

(SHOUTING IN PAIN)

MONTGOMERY: Well, move!

Well, you think you were tired!

The faster you get in here, the faster you rest.

MONTGOMERY: Move, nigger.

Move when I tell you!

Chain them to the wall.

MONTGOMERY: Don't baby 'em!

The tighter you chain them the less likely they is

to stumble around and hurt they selves.

Well, you be going with me tomorrow, mayhaps.

Who the hell is him?

That's Mastah Zeke Montgomery.

Meanest son of a bitch devil trader in all Louisiana.

Buys runners and uppities

and sells them to the hard ass planters where you're lucky if'n you lives a year.

Blaise! Blaise!

What you want, you white licking snitch?

Damn it, it wasn't me, it was Sophie!

How many times I gotta tell you that?

Till white asses start crapping white shit!

Master Hammond says he's going to castrate you.

Then you best bust these chains.

I'm hankering to be free.

They ain't never gonna let you be free, because you're black.

Black ain't the color of freedom, and white ain't either.

Blood is the color of freedom!

I'll get you loose.

Good night, gentlemen, ladies.

ALL: Good night.

It's wonderful to see you settled and happy.

Good night. Good night.

I'll see you at breakfast.

(BANGING)

(GRUNTING)

(CHAINS RATTLING)

Is any of you bucks wanna go free?

The first link be the only one to bust,

I don't want no chains rattling around behind us.

SLAVE: They'll still catch us! BLAISE: No, they ain't!

We fix it so they can't follow.

This man, he can pass as a white man, a slave dealer.

And we'll be his cattle walking along behind his wagon.

SLAVE: Mastah Montgomery gonna tell them road patrol.

Come tomorrow morning, there won't be any Mastah Montgomery or Mastah Hammond.

We'll kill them, and all the rest, including the house niggers.

We'll be up North before anybody hear.

If'n we're lucky!

Well,

it's been a lovely evening and it has to come to an end.

I'm gonna retire.

I thought we'd get up early in the morning and have a good breakfast.

Lucretia Borgia's probably the best cook in this whole area.

Drum,

now that I'm gonna be mistress of this house,

Mr. Maxwell won't be wenching anymore.

(METAL CLANKING)

BLAISE: (WHISPERING) Kill Montgomery's niggers first.

(GRUNTING)

What do you niggers want?

Now, get your black asses out of here! Get!

(GUNSHOT)

You ain't breaking no more nigger heads, white man.

(GLASS BREAKING)

(FIRE CRACKLING)

Drum, Drum! Drum, look!

Master!

(BANGING ON DOOR)

What?

Master Hammond! There's a fire!

Oh, damn it!

Well, run, boy, wake the others!

(BANGING ON DOOR)

DRUM: There's a fire!

House servants, get buckets, get kettles, fill them up with water!

Wet some sacks!

That fire spreads, there's gonna be hell to pay! Now, get!

Now get along, get! Get!

(BANGING ON DOOR)

Drum, go see who that is.

Where Mastah Hammond? Where Mastah Hammond?

We know about the fire!

It ain't the fire! It ain't the fire! Where Mastah Hammond?

LUCRETIA: Where Mastah Hammond? Lucretia Borgia?

Oh, Mastah Hammond, they coming to kill you!

What? They coming, Mastah Hammond!

Who is? Who is? Lucy see it, I see it!

They're coming, they're coming!

All them niggers are coming! All them niggers that come last night!

And Blaise! They get loose!

They got bars, pitchforks and sickles and they are coming!

Gassaway, there's two horses saddled in the stable.

You take them, ride them over to the Whitcomb Plantation and bring help!

And a patrol on the road, if you can find them!

Drum, get them boys out of the kitchen,

start packing that furniture against the windows, the doors and everything! Go on.

Now, ladies, ain't no sense in getting scared, you all gonna help, too.

So, go on, do what you can. Boys, come on in here!

These cupboards is full of guns. You take all you can handle.

We don't want to mess around reloading. Here. Here.

We got enough here. We got shotguns here. Plenty here! Take all that!

(NEIGHING)

(GLASS BREAKING)

(WOMEN SCREAMING)

They're armed!

BLAISE: Get back! Everybody get back!

(CLAMORING)

We gotta go at it different.

They have guns, they shoot.

We've gotta burn down the house, and kill them if they come running out.

Burn them. Get back to the barn and bring back burning logs and torches.

Come on, move.

They armed. They got guns!

Get me water, get me rags! Hurry!

If they get a torch in here, we'll be trapped! We must charge them!

Will, get the powder and shot, boy, go get them!

Mr. Hammond, there's another way.

There ain't no other way.

Talk to them, Mastah Hammond. Go out and talk to them.

I ain't talking to no wild black wooled niggers!

Those people are your friends, Mastah Hammond.

Do you want them living or dead?

Tell Blaise that if they give up, they won't be killed.

I ain't the only one that's got the decision to make.

The law got something to say about that.

Then let me go out and talk to them.

Perhaps.

Hammond! You are not seriously considering a negotiation with niggers?

You wanna be killed by niggers? Huh?

Oh, very well, let him!

Go on, boy. Go on, do what you can.

Blaise!

Blaise!

DRUM: I want to talk to you, and I ain't armed.

What do you want?

You gotta listen to me, Blaise!

You're outgunned, and more white men are coming.

There's nobody coming.

We're gonna kill everybody in that house!

We may even stick some of the black meat into some of those white women.

You gotta use your head! Listen to me!

I ain't listening to anything.

Master Hammond promises that if you surrender, you won't be killed!

You take the word of a lying, killing white man?

I believe Master Hammond.

You believe him?

They take our men and turn them into good and faithful dogs,

happy to eat a white man's leavings!

To tell us what wenches to pleasure like horses.

They sell our children, and then we lick their hands.

Use your head, Blaise!

You'll all be hung when they get you! After they nut you first!

(GUNSHOTS)

(WOMEN SCREAM)

You goddamn fool!

You let him shoot! No, I didn't!

You let me go out there so they could shoot Blaise!

HAMMOND: No, I didn't!

One of those bullets was for you, Drum.

We've got an old score to settle, haven't we, eh?

(GRUNTING)

(SCREAMING)

(CLAMORING)

Take the house!

Kill them! Kill them!

(ALL SHOUTING)

(GLASS BREAKING)

(GUNSHOTS)

No! No! No!

Stop!

Let's go!

(SCREAMING)

(WOMEN SCREAMING)

(CLAMORING)

(GUNSHOTS)

(GASPING)

You're gonna have a nigger!

I'll do this one!

Drum! I'm not going to hurt you!

(GUNSHOT)

(GUN CLICKS)

You zany not to kill us when you got the chance, boy.

(GUNSHOTS)

You better run.

You better run like hell.

Hammond, all you have to do is say he was loyal.

There's nobody left to tell.

No. No.

He stays here, I've got to have him killed. I got no choice.

(WOMAN SCREAMING)

Run, you goddamn nigger!

I don't wanna have to kill you!

I don't wanna have to kill you!

Run!

(GUNSHOTS)

Niggers! You never know about niggers!

They act like humans sometimes,

then all of a sudden, they just go crazy, like some kind of mad critter.

HAMMOND: Once they get human blood in them,

they just can't act like proper niggers no more.

* Say you want me to moan

* You say you want me to cry

* You say you want me to tell my story

* One time 'fore I die

* One time 'fore I die