by Andrea Levy
Reader, you must remember Miss Clara? I have written of her before. Miss Clara, who was once the house slave at Prosperity? Who did feign to faint away at any rough word? ‘Is it me dress you like or me pretty fair face that make you stare so,’ Miss Clara. The quadroon whose papa was a naval man from Scotch land. Yes, that one! The dreadful Miss Clara. Come, let me tell you of her.
Miss Clara did grab her freedom before many others. Not because she continued to brandish those aging manumit papers that her papa did bequeath her within her missus’s face. No. Miss Clara’s missus was pleased to watch her haughty backside sashay out of her employ for, ‘But me be a quadroon, missus,’ was all she would say to each and every task required of her. Soon the choosing of her missus’s attire for the day—or for the evening—was all Miss Clara would deign to do. The thirty-one pounds compensation money for the loss of Miss Clara as her slave was of much more value to her missus.
Then, once free, Miss Clara proceeded to flounce into town to begin a little business. Like so many other women with tinted complexions varying from honey to milk and oft-talked of papas—from England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, fine, upstanding, white gentleman all—the cooking and selling of jams and pickles became her employ.
Her ginger preserve and lime pickle were popular, but her guava jelly . . . ‘Miss Clara’s guava jelly—oh, have you tried it?’ soon became the call of so many white people within the parish. Caroline Mortimer sent July often to Miss Clara’s little shack upon Trelawny Street. (Oh, I must call it a shop, for Miss Clara may read this volume.) And every time July entered that shop, Miss Clara’s green eyes and delicate mouth would conspire to sneer pitifully upon her. ‘Oh, Miss July,’ she would say, ‘your missus send you all this way on this hot-hot day for me guava jelly? But you must be tired out,’ before inflicting one big-big jar upon July that could hardly be lifted as she said, ‘Me know your missus love it so. Me make this just for her.’
Her make it? Cha! You think you would ever see Miss Clara’s pretty fair face leaning over a steaming pot? ‘No, me is a quadroon. But me supervise the cook-up in every way,’ was her answer. And hear this, Miss Clara’s recipe for guava jelly was her secret, she proclaimed—she would allow no one to have it. It was to be her companion within her grave.
But why should my readers have to tarry so long? Here is that unsaid recipe for you to cook-up if you so wish: Take the basket of guava and cut and boil them in the usual way until they are soft; put the mush-mush in muslin to hang till morning so the liquor will drain; add as much sugar and the juice of a lime to the liquor; then (and here is Miss Clara’s big-big secret) fish out the flies and spice up with cinnamon and rum; and boil it, boil it, boil it, until the jelly forms.
There—Miss Clara’s grave need now only carry her pretty fair bones.
With the plenty profits Miss Clara made from her preserving, and a little money she did receive from the selling of simples for the relieving of indigestion and bilious complaints, she took upon herself the arranging of a series of social dances and gatherings at the assembly rooms within the town. This society was sorely needed. For an unfortunate acquaintance of Miss Clara’s (let me not use her name, but just say that she was a mulatto woman whose papa was a lawyer-man from County Wexford in Ireland), had been pressed by a coloured man into keeping house for him. This coloured man said that his mama was a mulatto housekeeper from Westmoreland. He then swore that his papa was a book-keeper from London Town. This would make him a quadroon, and a quadroon was what this honey-coloured man avowed himself to be.
But the subsequent child that was born to this mulatto and supposed quadroon came forth dark as cocoa nut! How could this be, Miss Clara’s friend wailed? Far from raising that mulatto woman’s colour nearer to white, her offspring had taken her backwards. Yet, despite the shame of this rogue pickney, the woman refused to give up either the deceiving man or the sable child. Miss Clara could no longer be a friend to her.
But Miss Clara determined that she would lose no more from within her circle after her mulatto seamstress, believing her union to be with a mulatto man (which Miss Clara had cautioned her against, for only another worthless mulatto could result), found the smooth-tongued man to be nothing more than red negro. A sambo was brought forth into this world, and a broad-nosed one at that. Come, Miss Clara was left with no one to stitch her fine needlework.
The tar brush, reader, is quick to lick. For a mulatto with a negro, or a quadroon with a sambo, will produce the misfortune of a retrograde child. And that dusky offspring will be sent nowhere but spinning back down to sup with the niggers in the fields. A mulatto with a mulatto, or a quadroon with a quadroon, will find you suckling a ‘Tente-en-el-aire’ —a suspended child. They will neither lift forward to white, nor drop back to negro.
Only with a white man, can there be guarantee that the colour of your pickney will be raised. For a mulatto who breeds with a white man will bring forth a quadroon; and the quadroon that enjoys white relations will give to this world a mustee; the mustee will beget a mustiphino; and the mustiphino . . . oh, the mustiphino’s child with a white man for a papa, will find each day greets them no longer with a frown, but welcomes them with a smile, as they at last stride within this world as a cherished white person.
Forward only to white skin became Miss Clara’s mission.
So only white men were allowed introduction to the coloured women at Miss Clara’s Friday dances. Be he a red-haired attorney from Galashiels who talked of nothing but home; a drunken Bristol naval man with a fearsome crimson face; a handsome Irish overseer who never learned to dance; a lecherous planter from Liverpool who had many more than two hands, or a foppish merchant from Surrey with plenty missing teeth, as long as their money tinkled with the correct sound, any of these white men would be welcome to partner her coloured women for a quadrille or a scottish reel. Or fetch them some Madeira and punch. Or perhaps take their arms for a stroll in the evening air. But only white men.
It was a great relief to all. Soon, ‘Have you been to Miss Clara’s dances? Oh, you must come to Miss Clara’s’, became the call of all coloured women within the parish. And Miss Clara did puff up and puff up higher than any guava jelly did ever take her.
But do you believe Miss Clara would let someone like our July walk happily into that exalted company? For the coloured women who desired association with these white men, Miss Clara prepared a list of features that they simply must possess to be approved admittance. July advanced no more than to the door of one of these gatherings before Miss Clara descended upon her.
‘Now, Miss July,’ she said, ‘you know me dances be just for coloured women.’
‘But me is a mulatto, Miss Clara,’ July informed her. For a mulatto July had to be, at the very least. Her papa was a white man.
‘You is just hoping to lift your colour, Miss July. You is not a mulatto. Be on your way,’ Miss Clara told her.
‘Me is a mulatto!’ cried our July.
‘Your papa be a white man?’ Miss Clara scoffed. ‘You is too dark for your papa to be white.’ For July’s skin had to be light. Honey to milk hues only, could Miss Clara approve. No bitter chocolate nor ebony skin ever stepped a country dance in her presence.
‘Me tell you true, Miss Clara. Me papa be a white man.’
‘No him was not.’
‘Him was.’
‘Him was not—him was some nigger.’
‘Him was the overseer ’pon Amity.’
‘Him was not.’
‘Him was a Scotch man.’
‘A Scotch man! You no speak true.’
This argument between the two continued for so long awhile—too long for me to give detail of it here—that Tam Dewar did enter in upon this squabbling. Yes, reader, Tam Dewar! For you and I know that he was indeed July’s papa. And within July’s telling he rose again. In the face of Miss Clara’s scorning he dallied within July’s story; no longer the pitiless and brutal overseer she knew him to be, who did imperil her reason, pursuin
g her once in life and now through every cursed dream. No. As he was a white man, he now became July’s much cherished papa who had made promise to one day take her to Scotch Land before he was struck down by a fearsome nigger.
‘Me is a mulatto, a mulatto, a mulatto, you hear, Miss Clara!’ July did state until Miss Clara wearily and reluctantly offered to inspect her.
Within a little room, before the dimming light in the window, Miss Clara proceeded. First she measured the width of July’s nose with her finger, before turning July to see how far that nose lifted from her face. For no broad, flat nose was tolerated. Miss Clara then stared into July’s eyes. Were they much admired green, vastly coveted grey, prayed for blue or simply dull brown? Removing July’s head kerchief, Miss Clara felt her hair. She lifted it to see if it fell back or stayed up like fright. Hair must be good. Straight with a little curl is best, be it fair, brown, red, or black. For no picky-picky head would ever tangle and frizz around her white men. She required July to open her mouth while pouting her lips forward. Miss Clara then pinched them to feel their bulk before demanding July close her mouth and turn to profile. No fat lips ever sipped porter or punch at her gatherings. And then, with a slow, searching, measured glare that travelled up and down July two, three, four times, Miss Clara perused the whole of her. For without the whiff of English white somewhere about her, July would just never do.
‘Your lips not too bad,’ Miss Clara finally pronounced, ‘Nor be your nose too broad. But your hair not be good. And your skin—your skin be just too dark. Oh no, no, no, you will not do. You is too full of negro. Me men only like a fair skin and pretty face. And your dress, Miss July, why you no wear one of your missus’s dress? Oh, me remember now, she be too broad. But your dress be a house-nigger’s dress. You is not fine, Miss July. No, no, no.’
Miss Clara did not kick July to see her gone, for she would never countenance such an indelicate gesture. And even though July folded her arms under this scorning and raised her not-too-broad nose into the air and told Miss Clara that she did not want to wiggle at this fool-fool dance, and would one day come to jig upon Miss Clara’s grave, and that she knew her mystery guava jelly had in rum and cinnamon, and that she did cook it up whenever she pleased—yet still our July came to feel the forceful impress of Miss Clara’s pretty, pale, slippered foot upon her backside as she was spurned for being too ugly to market.
July had not seen Miss Clara since that day. But no, let me make an amend; Miss Clara had never chanced upon July since that time.
But now upon that hot-hot day within the shabby dusty street, Miss Clara was once more peering down her slender up-turned nose and pinning her disdain upon the top of July’s head. July felt it land heavy as a firm hand. Soon those green eyes and that delicate mouth would conspire to sneer pitifully upon her, until July would feel the ugliest thing that coloured woman would encounter that parched morning.
‘Good day to you, Miss Clara,’ July said with the hope of moving quickly on.
But Miss Clara caught July’s arm to bind her in conversation. July did not notice the four gold rings upon Miss Clara’s fingers. Four! Two with green stones that clicked together—big as swollen knuckles, yet July did not see them. Nor did she regard the delicate ruby beads mounted like pin pricks of blood within a striking gold chain which laced about her throat.
‘You have no parasol this day, Miss July? You be get very dark,’ Miss Clara said.
July did have a parasol—a hand-down from her missus—but Molly did recently sit upon it and bust two spokes, so it hung like a broken bird wing. When she returned to Amity she must remember to once more punch Molly for the nuisance of that misdeed.
‘So, Miss July, you still working ’pon Amity for that broad missus?’ Miss Clara asked from upon high.
‘It be so, Miss Clara, although me missus be no longer so broad,’ July responded.
‘Not what I have heard,’ Miss Clara said before carrying on, ‘I could not abide to still be upon a plantation. Me upon a plantation!’ And how Miss Clara did laugh. She raised her hand to cover her mouth as little puffs of mirth were discharged within it. Then, composing herself, she gravely shook her head to say, ‘The wife of a white man upon a plantation,’ before a sweet titter again escaped her at such a ludicrous affront. ‘Me husband would never allow it.’
Husband! Oh yes, July had heard the chat-chat of Miss Clara’s husband. Come, the whole parish knew how Mr William Walker the attorney at Friendship plantation had paid for her dance and bought her hand. Her husband! That fat-bellied, peel-headed, ugly old white man had a wife and five children in England. There was never any marriage ceremony—at least none that a crowd could stand within a church to witness. Miss Clara just clasped this rich Englishman’s shrivelled private parts and now led him around by them.
‘He buy me a lodging house, me husband,’ Miss Clara carried on. ‘You know it? It be the big white house ’pon the corner of Trelawny Street, near to me shop.’ She airily waved her hand around in the general direction of that nearby corner before turning her devilish green eyes full upon July to glory delightedly within her envy.
But July would let not a muscle, nor a hair, stir to admit jealousy of Miss Clara. Come, a gutted fish upon a slab did speak its thoughts more tellingly.
‘You did not know of me lodging house?’ Miss Clara went on, ‘I believed everyone did hear of it. But wait.’ She felt within a small, white satin pouch that dangled from her wrist and produced a calling card. She held out the card to July. But just as July inclined to take it, Miss Clara withdrew it saying, ‘Oh, but me forget plantation slaves cannot read.’
July soon snatched it from her saying, ‘We be slaves no more, Miss Clara. Me nor you.’ And holding up the card to her eye, July began loud and clear to read, ‘Miss Clara’s boarding house, for the con . . . the con . . .’ July stumbled over the word convenience for she had never before seen it. So many letters, but none made the sound of sense within her head.
‘Oh, your missus let you read a little now,’ Miss Clara said.
There was something upon this card written about military men and families, gentlemen and ladies’ finest, clean lodging house etc., which July could read at a glance—but, to her vexation, she was still struggling with that word convenience, when a cart rode into the street. Both women stepped away to let pony and cart pass at a distance, for they required no more dust to churn up and choke them. But then a man’s voice, shouting, ‘Hello there, hello there,’ made them both turn their heads to find the caller.
And there, sitting alone atop the cart, dressed in a brown cutaway jacket with a panama hat upon his head was Robert Goodwin. The spirited smile that excited the overseer’s eyes as he said, ‘Good day to you,’ had the gladness of someone addressing a dear old friend. July turned to observe Miss Clara’s response, for she felt sure this white man must be greeting her. But then he said, ‘Are you on an errand for your mistress today, Miss July?’ And even though Miss Clara twirled upon her parasol so its brightness could entice even a blind creature to her, Robert Goodwin kept his eyes firmly upon July.
‘Surely be, massa,’ July said.
‘Then may I drive with you back to Amity? I’ve finished my business here and I am returning,’ he asked her.
Now July was, as matter-of-fact, walking in upon the town and had not yet searched for those yellow kid gloves that her missus so required. But only she knew this. And what did her missus need with another pair of gloves? Bolton thumbs, cha—how was she to find Bolton thumbs? There were no yellow kid gloves with Bolton thumbs within this town—July became sure of it. For travelling off alone within a pony cart with a white man, while Miss Clara stood looking on, had now become July’s only purpose that day.
‘Yes. Thanking you,’ July said to Mr Goodwin. Then, handing Miss Clara back her calling card, July said, ‘Good day to you, Miss Clara.’
Miss Clara told her that she may keep it to give it to this white man. And July replied that he had no need of it and that
she should take it back. All this was spoken without a word sounding between them. That mute message was conveyed with the slight motions and tiny tics of a silent language learned from dread of white people’s intrusion—and even the fair Miss Clara still knew how to speak it.
As Robert Goodwin jumped down from the cart to help July board it—like she was some dainty white miss—Miss Clara stepped forward to hand the card to Mr Goodwin herself. But he, with a curt rudeness that no white woman would ever witness from a gentleman, waved it away without even a glance to her.
Then, as the cart proceeded along the street, July, sitting atop it thought, what a shame Miss Clara did not consider that gutted fish upon a slab; for July was able to read every one of Miss Clara’s feelings within the gaping expression upon her face.
CHAPTER 23
THE CART WAS STILL within that parched street, not yet out of Miss Clara’s gaze. Come, it had not even reached to pass by Ebo Cornwall, yet July—while telling this young overseer for the third time that, ‘Yes, yes, she be quite comfortable,’—began to wonder what style of dress she would desire to wear if she, like Miss Clara, could catch a white man for a ‘husband’.
So when Robert Goodwin, with a slight frown of hesitation, flicked his head toward where Miss Clara stood and asked, ‘Miss July, is that woman a friend of yours?’ our July, quite tingling with the notion that this tender young man might be caught, was keen to impress him.
‘Oh, yes. Miss Clara be me good-good friend, good-good friend, since long time. We always do chat upon the road when we does meet, for we be so friendly. Oh yes, Miss Clara be me good friend,’ July answered. For she was sure that this white man would be beguiled to see that such a lowly, dark-skinned mulatto house servant as she, did enjoy the close society of a quadroon as fine, beautiful and fair-skinned as Miss Clara.
