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HappyKing
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Happy
Kingdom by Steve Batson
Cold and wet, came the spring of 1865 and it was a hungry and hard time in the
mountains of South Carolina. What little that was left had been hard ridden into the
ground by the riders of Stoneman's column. They would cut toward Greenville and a last
skirmish with the few boys left from The Citadel. The children would meet them on the open
road between Greenville and Anderson. Bobby Lee was down and broken and Bentonville was
coming hard. Tol was making his way back to the Outliars Cove, a cleft in the mountains known to
those who were hiding and there was much to be hidden from in May of 1865. He heard it in
the distance... a song... but what kind of song... ? Quickly he took out of the road... to
the laurel... careful not to leave sign. He had been wounded with Bobby Lee, left to come
home and plant. Arrested... escaped... gone over the mountain. Joined Billy Yank. Stole as
much bacon and fatback as he could carry, sold some whiskey and left again. He did not
live to be this well traveled by showing a lack of caution. He squatted on the rock and waited by the road. It was rhythmic and beautiful not of
the mountains. Hot and flat, immersed in heat. He listened, It was deep and guttural.
Suddenly he knew and just as suddenly came a sight that he could not believe. Around the
curve in the high mountain road came a huge black man followed by women and children and
other black men. They were singing, "follow Uncle Abraham Moses, go down the way of
Abraham an Moses, follow Uncle Abraham Moses . . . " It was like a pageant of color and light, beautiful. Must be fifty or sixty of them,
maybe more. All on foot climbing the narrow mountain road coming to him singing. He
surveyed them closely. Not a gun among them, that he could see, and them headed right into
the dark corner. As they drew up beside him, he stepped out. This was against his better judgment. Why? More to save them from their own foolishness
he reckoned. If the outliars didn't get them the confeds would and Stoneman's himself had
just passed this way. There were no friends for these people in these mountains in the
Spring of 1865. "Ho Pilgrim," Tol called out. "Ho!" The singing ceased as if cut off in mid-note by the cleaver that was the unwilling
voice of Tol. "What you wants from us?" the huge scarred black man said more than asked. "Reckon I wonder where you think you headed and if you expect to live to get
there." "Us, we following the Lord God almighty on faith alone, by the hand of Pap Abraham
Moses. We is gone to find the way of Uncle Abraham Moses and freedom." "Well you continue up this mountain and you will surely meet the Lord God, Where
you think you at ?" Tol asked. "We following the book," the man said and he pulled a worn and ancient Bible
out from under his coat. "You know the Book white folks, or are you gust another
demon put in our way on the road to freedom." "I know the book," Tol said. "Well I is King Joshua of Oxford, white folks and I is a leading my folks to
freedom by the hand of Pap Abraham Moses an ain't no man living, gun or not, gonna keep us
from our road." "Friend, I mean you no harm, but it is a dangerous course you choose and I want to
know how you come to be here." King Joshua looked back over his shoulder to an ancient woman and man, who had remained
unnoticed by Tol. "What you think Pap? He da one?" said Joshua. "Tell him how we come to be here," Pap said. "Pap say tell, so I gwine tell, white folks, but I don't like it a tall. Back some
time ago Yankee riders come in on Marse Thomas plantation and told us we free. Some free!
They puts us to work worse'en Marse Thomas ever thought about. They marches us everywhere,
all over Tennessee and Georgia. They takes our young'uns and wife, tells us we work for
freedom. Our chil'en and wives follow best they could. We dug holes all over Georgia for
them boys. Now Pap he got the sight and he say Uncle Abraham don't know about all this
doings. Way down in south Georgia Pap say to leave Billy Yank cause he gwine drown all da
black folks. So we left. You know what done happened ? Dat yank, Jefferson Davis, did just
that. he drown all da black folk right after that. Pap say head north and find Pisgah so
he can lay his bones down. So head north we does. I tell Pap we needs to go back to Marse
Thomas, at least he feeds us. Pap he says no. Marse Thomas can't feeds his onself now, and
Pap Abraham Moses say dis is da time he bees seeing all his life. So we heads north. Then
yesterday, Pap he say stop and we stop and Pap he prays all night long and jus' dis
morning he says we ain't gonna find Uncle Abraham no more. He say Joshua, it be the time,
I anoint you King Joshua. Ain't no man ever gwine call you nothing else but King Joshua
from now on. You and da peoples gonna go up to Mountain Sinai and da Lord gonna send down
a miracle. You gonna go up Mountain Sinai and we gonna build a happy kingdom and you gonna
be King, and I gonna almost get to see Pisgh and lay my bones down. We gonna climb dat
mountain and we gonna come to a brook and dat brook is gonna lead us to freedom. He points
down this road and says walk and sing and we been walking and singing since daybreak. So
dats how we come to . . . " "Hush boy," Tol said. "Riders coming hard, listen! Tell your folk to
hide in the laurel. Tell em to be quite and stay low." The black folks quickly disappeared into the thickets in a way known only to those who
have been hunted. Tol took to the opposite side of the trail and listened. It was quite . . . amazingly quite. How so many folk of all ages could disappear like that was beyond him. Soon they came down the mountain riding hard. They were desperate men, in a combination of uniforms Yank and Confed. They galloped by. Tol noticed a couple of women lashed across the saddles and prayed it was no kin of his. No sooner were they gone from sight when a party of Confed Cavalry rode into view. Galloping hard they chased the rag tag cavalry down the mountain. Soon out of view the shooting was heard shortly in the distance. Gonna be a hanging for sure, Tol thought. Tol's thoughts came back into focus as a sob reached his ears, quite and choked off he realized it came from the opposite side of the road. He had forgotten about Joshua and his people. He listened quietly and moved cautiously to the edge of the road. Carefully checking both ways he sprinted across the road and up the hill. Up to the crest of the hill in a concealed glade at the crest, there he saw them. All standing round something. Joshua loomed large in the center and the muffled sob came from him. Tol came up behind him and touched him on a powerful back. Joshua turned on him with a fury and he saw the tears streak down the childlike face. For a split second Tol was deathly afraid, afraid in a way he had never been before in his life. Then he looked beyond Joshua and saw the old frail body, worn out by a lifetime of labor. It was Pap Abraham Moses. "He done died," Joshua said "All he did was point toward you 'cross the
road and says he done brought us to the brook and that by that brook we shall be free. And
he points to you white folks. What he mean? I swears for the God I knows and loves that I
kills you if you don't say what he means." Joshua looked empty and Tol was frightened. The old woman, frail as a matchstick looked
up and for the first time Tol really saw her. She was flat starved out and looked more
dead than Pap Abraham Moses but her eyes were full of fire. A withered hand stretched out
toward Tol. "You him!" she spat, "You da one." Tol looked around to take stock of his situation for the first time since running up
the hill. He noticed several young men he had not seen before. They had simply appeared
around him. All were armed, two with repeating rifles. The old woman looked at him again
and said, "We mean to do you no harm, but last thing Pap said was, 'You the one' so
sit and hear the tale, if it means nothing to you, go your way, but hear the tale for the
tale is in the telling." "Joshua bring Caleb." The huge black man disappeared and the old woman
squatted on the hilltop and began the tale. "White folks this ain't a story for no white ears but time bring on signs and signs must be followed. That old man who dead, he my man for nigh on to forty years could be more and he be the father of Joshua and Joshua sired Caleb. Sixty or seventy years ago by his reckoning his mother was slaved over from across the water. She give him two things that I know of, a name that means nothing to us, but what she say it meant and the sight. She come up from New Orleans to Mississippi, bought out by a half mad white man who come from the mountains to carve a place in the west. I was bought up later by the same white man 'cause I could
read and I taught them both to read and he taught me to see. All his life he get the
vision and he say that his name his mother gave him ... Kin ta nu. Dem words that meant
nothing to us, meant father and deliverer of his people. Now old Marse Thomas thought that
was mighty funny and he called him Abraham Moses for Abraham and Moses all rolled up in
one. I knowed him as well as anyone and time and again I seen his vision be true. All his
life he say he going to take his people and go out from that place and come near to the
sight of Pisgh. Forty year or so ago when Josh was born Marse Thomas called him Cassius
but Pap say his name is Joshua 'cause he gwine to take the people into the promised land
after the journey. I say Pap you a fool, ain't no promised land, and where you gwine be
when the people go over. For forty years he say that his brother Aaron watching and
waiting and he gonna show da way and Joshua and his son Caleb gwine take us over. Then Joshua had children and when the third boy child come Pap said he Caleb and he got
the sight. He gwine see after I gone and he be Joshua eyes and he gwine go to the promised
land too. Now everybody from Marse Thomas on down think Pap crazy, but he funny and he can
build and he build Marse Thomas big house or most of it, so it fine that Pap crazy. Then
come tribulation. Marse Thomas say he gwine sell me off and Pap near lose his mind. Marse
Thomas then say he done lost me a gambling with the General and I gots to go down the
road. Pap he say he gwine kill Marse Thomas but the General he come over and he and Marse
Thomas say I can go over and work at the General's place during the week and come home to
Pap on Saturday. Marse Thomas say both of us is crazy niggers and ought to be kilt but can't nobody else
build Marse Thomas house and can't nobody else run it, so me and Pap come out alright. The
General he good to me and Pap. He get Pap a Bible, the very one you seed in Joshua's hand
and he lets me teach some verses and reading to the children. Now Marse Thomas he don't
like it but he don't say nothing and long 'bout after a year the General come over and
give me back. He say to Marse Thomas to be careful 'bout us cause we got the hand of God
on us. I reckon you know about what done happened to us since the war. Least wise you as
much as any white folks ought to know but that still leaves da riddle. Pap say you da key
so here it be white folk. Long about a week ago Pap says we getting close to the promised land and he say it about time for him to look toward Pisgh and that he ain't going to get to climb Pisgh but he gonna see his brothers face and his brother gwine lay him down in the grave like the Lord done Moses. He says Brother Aaron gonna lay me to sleep in the sight of Pisgah overlooking the Promised Land. Pap he get down and prays, more and more, day and night, and keeps us moving on toward the mountains. This morning when I woke up he said he done had the Lord's own vision. He said we was a
going to quit hidin' and head straight into the mountains. He said we was to sing the song
he done taught us about our journey. He say we come to somethin' that splain his vision
and he gets to see his brother, Aaron, and his brother Aaron gwine take him up to Pisgh
and lay him down and show us the way to the promised land. He say God whispered two words
in his ear and them two words don't mean nothing to him but they mean something to his
brother. The first word was brook and the other was a word he said he heard Old Marse
Thomas use years ago, it was a word that Old Marse Thomas said meant county . . . sounds
like sheers or something. What your name white folks?" said the old woman. "Tol." "Well I reckon you and your mammy know if you tell true or not. What about the
story it have any meaning to you?" Tol said nothing. He turned toward the black man who had his rifle. A small black boy
who had appeared with Joshua looked up at him. Caleb reached out a small frail hand.
"You da one, I knows it and Pap knowed it and Ma knows it and so do Joshua. Take your
brother up white folks and free his people." The man returned Tol's rifle. "Pick him up Joshua and follow me." Joshua gathered the body of Pap up and followed the white man, who would not speak again until daybreak, into the thick laurel. They walked the rest of the day and all of the night. When dawn broke they were on the top of a mountain. A beautiful valley spread below them hidden in the cleft of the blue ridge. Tol had not spoken since they left but now he did. He turned to Joshua and said, "Lay him down." Joshua laid him down He looked at the old woman and the children and the men and women gathered round him. He pointed to a high peak off in the distance. "There lies Pisgah," Tol said. "That valley down there has been seen by no man other that Indian 'cept my father and his father and our people. Go down the mountain cross the river into that valley. King Joshua I reckon if any man owns that land it be me and my people and I reckon it be part yours now and a place for Pap's Happy Kingdom. Y'all go on down
now." "Not gwine leave Pap here," Joshua said to the old woman. "He ain't
showed the sign yet." "What you plan on doing with Pap?" the old woman asked Tol. "Reckon I gonna bury him." "How you gwine mark him?" the old woman asked. "Like my Pap taught me. The pass sign of the mountains . . . hemlock or laurel cut
like a cross with the arms reaching up to heaven. Wear it in our hats to show we are known
hereabouts and use it to mark the place we lay so when judgment come the Lord knows to
raise us up by the same sign," said Tol. Joshua reached into his pocket and took out a thin piece of wood. It was clearly laurel
and very old, shaped into a cross with the arms formed by two branches that reached up
toward heaven. "It be the sign." was all he said. "Mother Sara, you an Caleb take the people to Jordan." The people disappeared in the quite laurel, Joshua turned to Tol. "Tell your tale
to no man but your sons and daughters, white man. Pap Abraham Moses said to tell Aaron,
his brother, if you be him . . . that it was jus' like in the Bible , 'cept for two
things, we was to find no enemy in Canaan for Brother Aaron went on before us and that
we,. us will forget, jus' like the people of the other Abraham and Moses. But the children
of Aaron they be remember the history and give it back when we needs it most. He said tell
his brother Aaron that it is the story of a people brought up out of bondage and is for
not any ears but family till the time come full. Pap taught me them words thirty year ago
and it be his last message to you white man." Joshua walked away following his people to Jordan, on toward Pisgah. Tol picked up the old man. He scratched out a small hollow in the ground with a sharp rock. He covered the old man with soil and rock stacked deep and high. He took his knife and cut a laurel cross and placed it at the old man's head. An old time word for county that sounds like sheer, he thought, and a brook and a brother named Aaron. What had the old man seen? How could he have known? Who was that old man and how did he come to be here? It would be years before anyone would
understand. Aaron Tolliver Brookshire turned and started back out of the mountains the way
he came in, thinking on stories his father had told, of that which was and a time passed .
. . that was a time yet to be. So are the mountains and the laurel thickets and the
secrets they bear on a cross with uplifted arms. About the Author - Steve Batson |
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