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turning to page one
Epps sits on the piazza looking quite forlorn. He looks up only to see Patsey returning to the plantation. Epps steps up to greet her, with anger rather than relief.
As they hear his angry voice, the slaves step around from where they are hanging their laundry to dry.
EPPS
Run off. Run off, did you?
PATSEY
Massa Epps--
EPPS
You miserable wench! Where you
been?
PATSEY
I been nowhere.
EPPS
Lies to your misdeeds!
PATSEY
The Sabbath day, Massa. I took me
a walk to commune wit da Lord.
EPPS
Bring the Lord into yer
deceptions? Yah Godless...
Shaw's. Comin' from Shaw's
plantation weren't yah?
PATSEY
...No...
EPPS
Yah didn't run, did yah? Yah took
yerself ta pleasure Shaw. Yah
gave baser passion to that
unblushin' libertine!
Solomon tries to intervene:
SOLOMON
Master Epps--
EPPS
Now yah speak? Now that yah want
to add to 'er lies yah find yer
tongue.
Epps goes to strike Solomon, but Patsey pulls his arm back.
PATSEY
Do not strike him. I went to
Massa Shaw's plantation!
EPPS
Yah admit it.
PATSEY
Freely. And you know why.
Patsey takes soap from the pocket of her dress.
PATSEY (CONT'D)
I got this from Mistress Shaw.
Misstress Epps won't even grant me
no soap ta clean with. Stink so
much I make myself gag. Five
hundred pounds 'a cotton day in,
day out. More than any man here.
And 'fo that I will be clean; that
all I ax. Dis here what I went to
Shaw's 'fo.
EPPS
You lie...
PATSEY
The Lord knows that's all.
EPPS
You lie!
PATSEY
And you blind wit yer own
covetousness. I don't lie, Massa.
If you kill me, I'll stick ta
that.
EPPS
Oh, I'll fetch you down. I'll
learn you to go to Shaw's. Platt,
run get four stakes and straps a
leather.
At first Solomon does not move. Epps level all his rage at him:
EPPS (CONT'D)
Get them stakes!
Solomon runs quickly to the tool shed. In short order he returns with the stakes and a hammer.
EPPS (CONT'D)
Drive 'em into the ground.
As Solomon does so, Epps gives an order to Wiley and Edward.
EPPS (CONT'D)
Strip her. Strike her bare 'n
lash her to the stakes.
Mistress Epps has now come from the Great House. She gazes on the scene with an air of heartless satisfaction.
Now tied face down to the stakes, Epps stands over Patsey with his whip.
EPPS (CONT'D)
Yah done this to yerself, Pats!
Epps hoists the whip to strike, holds it high...but no matter his rage, Epps cannot bring himself to deliver the blow. He looks to Mistress Epps who now stands gloating and spurring him on.
MISTRESS EPPS
Do it! Strike the life from her.
Epps again hoists the whip. It trembles in his hand ahead of the act... But he does not have it in him to deliver such a beating. Turning to Solomon, thrusting the whip at him:
EPPS
Beat her.
Solomon doesn't move. Epps shoves the whip into his hand.
EPPS (CONT'D)
Give her the whip. Give it all to
her!
Patsey, begging to Solomon:
PATSEY
I'd rather it you, Platt.
EPPS
Strike her, or yah'll get the
same!
Solomon takes a step back. He unfurls the whip... He begins to whip Patsey. Lash after lash, Patsey squirms before it. Epps eyes fill with tears, he is nearly too distraught to watch.
But the Mistress... She is not satisfied with Solomon's half-hearted effort.
MISTRESS EPPS
He pantomimes. There ain't barely
a welt on her. That's what your
niggers make of yah; a fool fer
the takin'.
Epps's grief is replaced by fury. Directly to Solomon:
EPPS
Yah will strike her. Yah will
strike her until her flesh is rent
and meat and blood flow equal, or
every nigger in my sight will die!
Solomon can't do it, even if it means his life. But from the ground, from Patsey:
PATSEY
Do it, Platt. Don't stop until I
am dead.
What else can he do? Solomon begins to whip, to truly whip Patsey. Her back welts, then tears... Patsey screams in agony. Solomon strikes again and again... After a full thirty lashes Solomon looks to Epps, who is not satisfied.
EPPS
Until I say no more! I ain't said
nothing!
Solomon strikes another ten to fifteen times. By now, as promised, Patsey's back has been reduced to LITTLE MORE THAN TORN MEAT AND BLOOD.
Finally, Solomon tosses down the whip he can and will do no more.
EPPS (CONT'D)
Strike her! Strike her!
Solomon will not. Epps takes up the whip and whips Patsey with "ten fold" greater force than he had. The painfully loud and angry curses of Epps load the air. Patsey by now is terribly lacerated - Solomon describes without exaggeration literally flayed. The lash wet with blood which flowed down her sides and dropped upon the ground. At length Patsey ceases struggling. Her head sinks listlessly on the ground. Her screams and supplications gradually decrease and die away into a low moan. It would seem that she was dying.
Solomon, screaming at Epps:
SOLOMON
Thou devil! Sooner or later,
somewhere in the course of eternal
justice thou shalt answer for this
sin.
EPPS
No sin. No more 'n if it'd kicked
a chair that wouldn't stand right,
or a stove that was no good for
holdin' fire. Things that give me
consternation. A man does how he
pleases with his property. At the
moment, Platt, I am of great
pleasure. You be goddamn careful
I don't come to wantin' to
lightenin' my mood no further.
By contrast to this horror, the field of cotton smiles in the warm sunlight. The birds chirp merrily amidst the foliage of the tress. Peace and happiness seems to reign everywhere.
Everywhere else.
Epps leaves Patsey to herself. He says not a word to the Mistress as he passes. The Mistress herself heads back into the house.
Solomon unties Patsey, lifts her and takes her to the cabin.