On With The March!

Posted by: Zahiruddin Alim
Date: Fri 01/25/2008 03:58 PM
New Topic: Starting The March

We can anticipate a cast of thousands, quite literally in terms of
numbers, with a war going on and armies trampling cities and the
whole countryside. Within the space of the first sentence, the focus
changes from the view of Mattie and her familyto that of her Aunt Letitia
taking center stage in the image that is created. The chapter
progresses with Aunt Letitia screaming at Mattie to pack up and flee
right away, and she goes on with a diatribe against General Sherman,
who must surely be a central figure in the events to come.
For the time being, the hasty departure of the plantation owners is
characterized by their frantic decisions about what to take and what
to leave behind. The leitmotif of the “scorched earth” is
prefigured, but in a botched way, as John Jameson, the plantation
owner, makes haste. Three mules are shot in the head, the first of
many gory scenes to come. The fodder is burned, but they leave behind
much of their stores of food. They try to drown the cows but only one
calf actually does drown. In anticipation of events John has sold all
his mature, male, able-bodied slaves, to keep them from being drafted
in to service by the Union army. About a half dozen women, children
and old men are left behind.
The family, which includes two sons, drives away in two coaches
loaded with whatever they can take. Among the slaves, only Roscoe,
driving the second coach, goes with them, and we are left with the
remnants of the plantation population. One of them is Pearl, who is
twelve or thirteen, beautiful, the light complexioned daughter of a
slave, fathered by the plantation owner, and Roscoe throws her two
gold coins, his life’s savings, as he drives off. The first few
chapters tracks Pearl as a central figure in the events.
For a few paragraphs towards the end of the first chapter we get a
lull of uncertain ambiguity. The owners are gone, so those who remain
are not quite slaves but the advancing liberators have not yet
arrived, so they are not quite freed. They occupy themselves by
dressing up in their best clothes, making bundles of there private
possessions and lining up outside the mansion in an orderly fashion.
They seem entranced in their anticipated emancipation, gazing in the
direction of the approaching army, and they don’t fall to looting
the valuables left behind, or occupying the mansion that was built on
their drudgery. Only Pearl goes into the house, and for that brief
and elusive moment projects the image of a rightful successor to the
estate.
The troop that finally does arrive is a foraging unit, and they
quickly go about the business of scavenging whatever will sustain the
army. Sherman’s army lives off the land, which is a strange
bedfellow of the “scorched earth” leitmotif. At Fieldstone, the
takings are a good days work, thanks to John Jameson being in a rush.
We are given a detailed look at the commanding officer, Clarke, a
Northerner from Boston amazed at the wealth of the Southern mansions.
The enlisted men only getting brief mentions, as they take a rest in
the mansion, finding the liquor and playing the piano left behind,
before torching the place. Clarke finds Pearl in the attic, posing in
a gold embroidered red shawl in front of a mirror, and is struck by
her looks and bearing.
When the troop finally leaves, the freed slaves straggle behind them,
but Pearl hangs back. Clark has to go back and ask her to come along.
Again, she projects a special status that reaches Clarke and he
takes her under his protection, raising himself above what he admits
is a brief feeling of an improper sort.