A Free Man of Color (10 page)

Jacques Cornet reveals his cache of maps.

MERIWETHER
We are on the brink! May I see? (
looks at the maps, then, amazed
) Would you join us? We’re still building our party.

JACQUES CORNET
Do you travel with women?

MERIWETHER
Not yet.

JACQUES CORNET
I’ll stay here. If I discovered the river to India, I’d have to share it with you and I don’t share.

MERIWETHER
There is no sharing. The United States owns all this.

JACQUES CORNET
This land is Spain’s. Or that of France.

MERIWETHER
Don’t you know what happened? President Jefferson announced the purchase last Fourth of July. France sold all of Louisiana to us. Mr. Jefferson sent us out the next day to learn what we bought.

JACQUES CORNET
What month is it now?

MERIWETHER
November 1803.

JACQUES CORNET
1803? Has it been that long? When do the United States take over my city?

MERIWETHER
This December.

JACQUES CORNET
Le code noir?
What about slavery?

MERIWETHER
Read this.

Meriwether hands Jacques Cornet a document.

JACQUES CORNET
“. . . these truths . . . self-evident . . . all men are created equal, . . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . . life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . .”

MERIWETHER
Slavery will end. After four hundred years of hoping, we’ll find the western waterway. The world is
falling into place. Go back home. Be part of the new world’s bravery.

JACQUES CORNET
Might it be safe to go back? Pincepousse? I killed him in a perfectly legitimate duel. Yes! I’ll write to my quasi-former slave, Cupidon Murmur. Do you have paper?

Meriwether gives him paper and pencil.

JACQUES CORNET
(
writes
)
“Open my house. Put out my wardrobe. Alert Mme. Mandragola. Tell no one you have heard from me, not even Dr. Toutou. I want my arrival to be a surprise! Your former master, now friend, Jacques Cornet.” Can you post it for me. (
Meriwether takes the letter
) I tell you New Orleans is paradise.

MERIWETHER
If it was paradise before, imagine what it shall be now.

JACQUES CORNET
You’ll solve the puzzle of the white spaces. We’ll meet again!

Jacques Cornet flings his bear skins onto Meriwether and goes. Meriwether Lewis waves goodbye to Jacques and recedes into the distance.

Darkness.

A trumpet plays. The Spanish flag is lowered. Morales enters.

MORALES
On this day in November 1803, Spain gives Louisiana to France. We lower the Spanish flag—

The French flag is raised.

DORILANTE
And raise the French flag. We lower the French flag.

The French flag lowers. Jacques Cornet enters.

JACQUES CORNET
I return to New Orleans.
A Free Man of Color Comes Home.
I’m back within the pages of my play.—
Nothing has changed! Out on the river, I see a score of ships anchored. It’s so quiet—

Murmur appears, carrying a picnic hamper.

JACQUES CORNET
Murmur! I told you to meet me at home.

MURMUR
You want to be here, sir. Look! American war ships waiting for the flags to be swapped.

JACQUES CORNET
The flag of the United States rises as I arrive? Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the impeccability of my timing. Murmur! Good man! Did you miss me?

MURMUR
Yes, sire.

JACQUES CORNET
I missed you.

MURMUR
Very good, sir.

JACQUES CORNET
What’s wrong?

MURMUR
Nothing. I’ve brought you food.

JACQUES CORNET
A New Orleans feast! Sherry! Chicken!
Etoufée!
Tell Doctor T I’m home! Set another place! Add one for you. Join us—

MURMUR
(
setting the places
)
It was discovered that Dr. Toubib had fled Boston as a slave. His owner reclaimed him and took him away.

JACQUES CORNET
Dr. Toubib reclaimed? But that’s not in my play.

NUNS
dressed in black pass by, eyes down, hands in prayer.

JACQUES CORNET
But I know them—

MURMUR
Doña Smeralda, slain by her husband.

Doña Polissena, dead of the plague.

Doña Athene, Lady Harcourt, Mme. Dorilante and Mrs. Sparks, abandoned by their husbands and foresworn by you, had nowhere to go.

DOÑA ATHENE
We joined into an order of penitents called
Slaves of the Unquenchable Lust of Mary Magdalene.

JACQUES CORNET
Why are you here?

DOÑA ATHENE
To witness your fate.

THE NUNS
(
sing
)
Repent!

The Nuns go.

JACQUES CORNET
Repent? No! Long live the pretty girls! The wine cup! The glory of Earth’s merry ball! Throw off your habits! We are in an Illyrian time. The golden age begins! Raise the American flag! Hurry! Let the freedom begin! Why isn’t the flag ascending? Who is in charge of raising the flag?

Murmur turns, terrified. The Ghost of Pincepousse enters.

GHOST OF PINCEPOUSSE
Jacques, didst thou invite me to thy banquet?

JACQUES CORNET
My brother, I am glad to see death has not prevented us from having a conversation on this historic day. I plead a favor. Would you testify that I killed thee in a perfectly conventional duel between honorable men? You’re dead so what difference can it make? Speak, speak! I am longing to know your purpose.

GHOST OF PINCEPOUSSE
I have come to witness your destruction.

JACQUES CORNET
I’m not destroyed. I lead a long, happy life. Look—the flag catches the wind!

The American flag fills the stage. The Ghost of Pincepousse clutches Jacques’ arm as Sparks, Harcourt and Dorilante seize Jacques Cornet and put him in shackles.

MURMUR
(
calls out
)
Take him!

JACQUES CORNET
Release me! What madness is this?

SPARKS
Good work, Murmur.

Sparks gives Murmur a bag of coins.

JACQUES CORNET
You betrayed me?

MURMUR
The price of your reward was the exact cost for me to buy my freedom.

JACQUES CORNET
But I gave you your freedom.

MURMUR
They guaranteed it! You’re real good at dangling carrots of freedom in front of a donkey who’s pushing your crates and cleaning your clothes and fetching your women and then vanishing into a swamp, taking my freedom with you. I’m well-versed in all your lessons, Jacques Cornet.

“Born to myself, I like myself alone.”

I’ve learned to spray myself with your cologne.

Betray you? I merely earned my price.

I am now a free man of color. I find that
very
nice.

Exit Murmur.

SPARKS
Let the auction begin!

JACQUES CORNET
What is being auctioned?

SPARKS
You.

JACQUES CORNET
Let me be clearheaded. Let me go home. Let me get my papers. Let me understand what you’re saying—

SPARKS
It’s very simple. The United States government now controls your property.

HARCOURT
We’re here to dispose of your property.

SPARKS
To dispose of you.

JACQUES CORNET
I’m not property.

SPARKS
You are mulatto.

JACQUES CORNET
But in New Orleans that is applauded!

SPARKS
We live in a newer Orleans.

JACQUES CORNET
But you are
mamelouc
—you quadroon—

SPARKS
You’d never know it.

DORILANTE
Fate favored our skin.

JACQUES CORNET
But this is my play.

SPARKS
There is now a new playwright. Reality. Here are your new pages. (
He gives Jacques Cornet a new script.
) Let the auction begin.

The men advance on Jacques Cornet.

JACQUES CORNET
(
shaking them off
)
Look at that flag! New Orleans is now part of the United States of America, where all men are created equal!

SPARKS
Let’s start the bidding.

JACQUES CORNET
You cannot buy what is not for sale. Look at me. My arms and legs find echoes in marbled ancient Greeks. Such perfection is for the Acropolis, not for your tawdry hands. This is insanity. I return home after many months exploring and this is my welcome committee? Surely you joke. Surely. Surely. This is not the France of Louis
Quatorze
.
Le Code Noir
is one hundred years out of date. This is New Orleans. People do not behave this way. I have a document here that fueled my return. Read these words. The man who wrote this is president. I demand to see the man
who wrote
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
. I demand he appear and correct this outrageous—This is my play! I summon you!

Jefferson appears.

JEFFERSON
This is most unusual.

JACQUES CORNET
Sir, these inhuman men are under the impression they can buy me as if I were a cow.

DORILANTE
Inhuman? Hath not a slave owner eyes?

SPARKS
Hath not a slave owner hands?

DORILANTE
Organs?

HARCOURT
Dimensions?

SPARKS
Senses?

HARCOURT
Fed with the same food?

SPARKS
Hurt with the same weapons?

DORILANTE
Subject to the same diseases?

JACQUES CORNET
Sir, I am a free man who lives as a free man—

JEFFERSON
Let me settle this humanely. Go. You’ll have your turn.

DORILANTE
Remember, if you prick us, do we not bleed?

SPARKS
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

HARCOURT
If you poison us, do we not die?

DORILANTE
If you wrong us, shall we not . . .

MEN
. . . revenge?

They go.

JACQUES CORNET
I apologize—usually I am of a calmer mien. Let me identify myself. Jacques Cornet. New Orleans.

JEFFERSON
Was your father Pierre Cornet?
Le Duc de Pincepousse
? I knew him in Paris. He went to New Orleans for his fortune.

JACQUES CORNET
And I am part of the fortune he found.

JEFFERSON
For a time we each pursued the same woman. One of us was victorious. I forget which. I was sorry to learn of his death.

JACQUES CORNET
It was peaceful.

JEFFERSON
We can wish for no more.

JACQUES CORNET
No more than wishing my life to continue in peace.

JEFFERSON
Your mother? Someone I assume he met on his plantation?

JACQUES CORNET
I did not know my mother. She was sold after my birth.

JEFFERSON
And you were given your freedom.

JACQUES CORNET
Earned my freedom. In New Orleans, you’ll see iron wrought into vines, decorating each building. I instituted that factory. I have a talent for alchemy. That’s how I purchased my freedom.

JEFFERSON
You’re an impressive man.

JACQUES CORNET
All the reason more why you must resolve this situation. I’m not extolling my virtues. I’m stating my rights. You wrote All men are created equal. New Orleans is now part of the United States. Those words are law.

JEFFERSON
Unfortunately, my words are not part of the Constitution. The Constitution is where we keep the laws.

JACQUES CORNET
And where you do keep the laws on slavery?

JEFFERSON
The Constitution doesn’t really mention slavery. My words were merely part of a Declaration to a King telling him what we wanted.

JACQUES CORNET
Should I then write a letter to you declaring my desire?

JEFFERSON
I could imagine what it would be.

JACQUES CORNET
And would I be wrong?

JEFFERSON
Slavery is a terrible thing.

JACQUES CORNET
Then bring these men in and advise them—

JEFFERSON
It started so simply. People in the Carolinas growing cotton—tobacco—sugar—coffee. People around the world wanting our crops. Demand increases. We need to expand. Georgia. Tennessee. Kentucky. Not enough people living here to work the land, to tend, to harvest, who can endure the heat. We have to import workers. That’s how it starts. It grows and grows and grows—

JACQUES CORNET
You make African dealings sound like a stroll through the market.

JEFFERSON
It is a market. A crazed market. Have you ever seen a man addicted to opium? So it is with a world now addicted to our produce. We’re all addicts. We need more slaves. The world needs our goods. We need the money to build a capitol, a house for the president to live in, to buy Louisiana. We live off the labors of those possessions and can’t let go. We are the slaves to slavery.

JACQUES CORNET
You keep slaves and hate slavery. Are you a hypocrite?