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It was in the year of 1933

and Grace and her father were heading southward with their army of gangsters

After leaving Dogville they had returned to Denver

only to find that the mice had been well and truly playing while the cat was away

and new forces had taken over their former possessions

The result was a particularly unappealing retreat

that had brought them through the state of Alabama this spring

in search of new hunting grounds

No, they will not admit it! But it's a fact!

Deep down inside there isn't a woman alive who doesn't nurture these fantasies

whether they involve harems

or being hunted through the jungle by torch-bearing natives

however much they go on and on about civilization and democracy sexy it ain't!

Grace and her father had resumed their legendary discord

even as they pulled out of Dogville

and although Grace had been employing the technique

of letting things go in one ear and out the other for a pretty long time now

she was, to be frank, somewhat weary of her unbearably overweening daddy

who still believed any nagging woman could be pacified with the good old bouquet of carnations

I bet you wouldn't have had the guts to talk like that if mother had been alive

No, you are right, my girl, I would not!

we're going, boss

Miss, Lady, can I talk to you? Can I talk to you?

Yes?

They going whip him! I knew they would! It just ain't true! He ain't stole nothing!

They put that Rhenish wine from Mam's bedside table in his cabin

just to give 'em somethin' to whip him for! That's the law

One bottle and it's a whippin', that's "Mam's Law!"

what are you talking about? who... who are they going to whip?

- Timothy! - why?

That's how they do us slaves...

- Slaves? - Yes, Ma'am

Surely you've heard of slaves?

That's what we is at Manderlay

this godforsaken place!

That's how I got out, when a whippin's in the offin' they take out a section of the fence

Listen, Grace! It's a local matter and it's not for us to poke our noses in

why should we not "poke our noses in", just because it's a local matter?

It's certainly not our responsibility

You think the Negroes wanted to leave their homes in Africa?!

wasn't it us who brought them to America?

we have done them a great wrong, it's our abuse that has made them what they are

Untie him!

Stop!

'Fraid not, lady! Slavery was abolished seventy years ago

If you won't obey that law of your own accord, we will compel you to do so!

Mam! Help me get her inside!

water for Mam! Quickly

Spare me your hypocrisy, you dumb old slave!

Get out, leave us alone!

If you're looking for sympathy, don't expect any from me

Listen, I'm very old

and unfortunately, dying

I should like to ask you for a favor

If it involves allowing you to go on exploiting these people like slaves

I'm sorry, I'll just have to say no

- No matter how "dying" you are - Slavery is over now, I can see that

It had to come one day

All right, I'll probably refuse you, but you might as well ask

There's a book, it's under my mattress

I should like you to retrieve it and burn it for me

- It would be best for everyone - I'm sure you think so!

But it's my view that anything no matter what, is best served by being brought out into the open

I beg you, one woman to another

woman to woman, makes no difference to me

the sins of the past are sins I cannot and do not wish to help you erase

And now I must leave you, I believe my father's men have unlocked the gate

so now everybody can come and go as they please

Please let everyone else know on the plantation

that from now on they can all enjoy the same freedoms as any other citizen of this country

And the Constitution can be found at any courthouse

And here's a tip for when you sue the family

there's a weighty written evidence concealed in this very room

She's dead

The old devil!

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, Missy!

No, no, if any of us deserves an apology it's not me!

I'm afraid

There's nothing to be afraid of! we've taken all the family's weapons!

No

I'm afraid of what will happen now

I fear we ain't ready for a completely new way of life

At Manderlay, we slaves took supper at 7

when do people take supper when they are free?

we don't know these things

Free men eat when they're hungry

free women, as welI

Considering the times and the situation

Grace's words in the dead woman's room on meal times for free citizens

might have seemed a trifle over-spirited

we should not believe that there lay any contempt in these words

for the wretched and starving people of America

Grace rejoined the gangsters

who had indeed concluded their disarmament of the plantation's powers-that-had-been

though their findings were meager: the shot gun, and an old toy pistol

All right, we can go

No, let's just wait a moment!

what are you waiting for?

For them to come and thank you?

Or for them to burn the whole place down

and dance some tribal dance on the ruins by the glow of the torchlight?

You are a bigot, daddy and you always have been

we owe these people we brought them here, we abused them

- we made them what they are! - I admit, I don't do deals with the Japs

You can't trust them when there's big money at stake, but a bigot?

- why don't they come out? - That's exactly what you said last time!

- Last time? - Remember when you were six

you thought it was so sad that your beloved Tweety was all shut up in a cage

and nobody could persuade you not to let him out

Tweety was a proud little bird

well, his dignified exit didn't do Tweety a hell of a lot of good

we found him the next morning underneath your window

- Frozen to death - I know

he'd been bred as an indoor bird, he really didn't have a chance

And what do you think those Negroes in there are?

How many generations do you think those families made their homes behind that fence?

I bet you most of them have taken up employment in their former jobs with the family

contracts and all

Of course now they'll get a few dollars for their efforts, but they'll soon drink that up

and maybe they'll borrow a bit more from their employers

who have, no doubt, opened a little store full of colorful wares just for them

And of course they'll never be able to pay back the money and they'll be trapped yet again

what you did was all very noble, my girl, but...

when push comes to shove you've just made everything far worse, just as you did with Tweety

So all we can do is hope there's no frost

what you said about contracts and loans

- That's fraud! - Fraud?

- See, I've read that freed slaves - Yes

- Are given a mule and a plot of land - Yes

- So that they can establish themselves - Yes

Yep, that's true, but when it came down to it

the fellow who owned the mule and the land had rather keep it all for himself

so nothing really ever happened with it

Anyhow, it may take them a while to gather the evidence against the plantation

for when the family goes on trial...

Trial?

There are times when you seem even less with it than your dear mother!

No, I seem to have underestimated 'em

we've at least one man with a genuine thirst for freedom

And he's gettin' out, and he's in a hurry

Yeah, he's high tailin' it, all right

Yeah, it's Gramps!

Pardon me

Not a lot of dignity there... he's scared out of his wits!

would it be possible to have a word with the young lady?

Yes, yes

Don't mean to inconvenience you

That's exactly what you're doing

You're not inconveniencing anyone, this is a grave day for everyone, I know that!

I just thought we must have seemed a might bit ungrateful

we should like to thank you properly for what you've done

- It'll only take a moment - Yes of course

Ten minutes and then I'm going, not a second longer!

Grace was conducted through the wretched living quarters bestowed upon the slaves

with their pitiful, leaky cabins

Her actions would comprise an unconditional enrichment of these people's lives

There was no doubt about that...

or was there?

Actually, Grace did not see so much of the glow she had hoped for

The glow that could have convinced her that no one would end up like the little pale yellow canary

These were human beings but of the kind on whom pain had been inflicted, Grace thought

as she was suddenly interrupted by a strangely exotic accent

when we were slaves we were not required to offer thanks for our supper

and for the water we drank and the air we breathed

Nobody needs to say thank you, but...

But what?

You mean there's somethin' we ought to be thankful for?

I didn't mean "but" I meant "and"!

And, there's no reason to be grateful for anything as natural as your freedom

I'm the first to apologize for everything you and your people have been subjected to...

See, those gates should have been unlocked seventy years ago

Only seventy years ago

but before that, of course, they were completely justified?

No

no, no, you misunderstand me

what can I say?

You need to say nothing at all

we've heard of your kind

A society lady, who spends her time rescuin' wretched nigras

I should like to say thank you! Missy done give her time and effort to helpin' us

time I bet she could've spent on all kinds of different things

'Cause, t'was perfect justice when God made some of us slaves and not others

A nigra is vile by nature

Oh, I know it ain't popular to say so!

And it ain't 'cause of Burt that I say so

No, Victoria did not base her perception exclusively on her experience of her husband

though God knows it weighed heavily

Burt was a useless eejit whose character Victoria, regrettably so far in vain

had done her best to improve by hitting him with any implement to hand on any given occasion

no matter how much he had threatened to take his own life

by throwing himself into Manderlay's deep welI

Grace looked at Wilhelm the old house slave and understood:

He had not brought her here for anybody to thank her

he just wanted her to see them all!

The unfortunate flock that he very rightly feared would have few chances

beyond the perimeter fence

living proof of the devastating power of oppression

Listen up, it's all been put on paper

we just needed to check the wordin' first, bein' as these things are legal and bindin'!

Bingo!

what are these?

They're the contracts, Ma'am!

The family has been so considerate to offer us all employment

Grace was not a lawyer and unqualified to assess the validity of the contract she held in her hand

But she feared that unfortunately any judge in the county would deem it fair and proper

it appeared to Grace that instead of "employee"

they might just as well have retained the old term of "slave"

A body would only sign it if he or she was utterly ignorant of life in a liberal society

or if he or she really had no choice!

Folks, I suppose that you're in urgent need of cash, Mark?

Cash?

I once knew this fella' from a little township nobody'd know the name of

so there ain't no grounds to mention what t'was called

he had cash, not piles of it

we are prepared to lend you some money as covered by this other piece of paper

and we also can set up a little store here, if you like

after all, it's a long way to town

And if you buy enough for all of us, I betcha liable to get a real nice bulk discount

and the goods'll be cheaper than in town!

Ain't that right, Miss Grace?

I have no idea

Please sign, everybody!

Sign here

All right, let's go!

- No, turn it off - Damn it!

Daddy! You said that I didn't have the power to help Tweety and you were right

I was a child then...

So, what is it this time?!

This time I have the power to act!

You said so back in Dogville

That your power would be mine, too!

And that I could use it in my own way!

That power was to carry on the family firm

that I was open to new ideas

The power you ask for now will undoubtedly be applied to something that's foolish at best and...

Daddy! You promised!

You were a bastard to mother, but when you promised her something, she got it!

Ok, you've been given what I promised you

Maybe things haven't been split right down the middle

but this is as far as I am prepared to go!

I want nothing to do with your plans

And you won't be able to get in touch with me if anything goes wrong and you need me

as usual, to get you out of trouble, because fortunately, my dear

you'll have no idea where I am

- Daddy, I'd like to take Joseph, as well - No

I need a lawyer to sort out some paperwork!

No, no, never, never

I'd never let Joseph go

He's the only man I know who can draw up a contract so there's only one possible interpretation

and though I haven't needed that talent as of yet

I still might need it one day!

I'll give you Viggo and Bruno for him!

Never!

I've given you my best associates and you know it!

Daddy! I was meant to have been given half!

- If mother had been alive - Oh, damn it, Grace!

So, that very day and into the early hours Joseph employed

the celebrated unambiguous phrases his previous employer and given him

so wretchedly little opportunity to practice

New contracts needed drawing up and old ones needed nullifying

all with the astonishing goodwill that parties always evince in the company

of rapid-firing machine pistols

These are the deeds of gift, you transfer the property to the former slaves in joint ownership

The last document is your contract of employment by this community

Employment? I don't quite get what you mean by that...

It'll be without pay and the right of termination is rather one-sidedly

in the hands of the employer, but nevertheless

Manual labor... for you and your family and Mr. Mays!

Hard labor

Say something, Bingo!

My father's back ain't so strong, he climbed up to reach the chandelier, one Christmas day

And he fell off the banister and struck a table

well, that's what happens when you've got chandeliers

when I consider that your understanding of the worth of other human beings

has reached the desirable stage

you and Mr. Mays and your family will be allowed to go

Go? And leave our home?

Yes

and I assure you that even starting from scratch your prospects will be a lot better

than your former labor's would have been!

with regards to the presence of me and my men

we'll only act as your counselors

The guns are merely a precaution in case of any threats to the new community

we intend to stay here, but only until the first harvest is home

after which any of the new shareholders who wishes to do so

may cash in his or her deed of gift and receive a dividend

All right, will you collect your deeds, Mark...?

Nobody was particularly enthusiastic or confident about these late night legal formalities

But Grace could see beyond this

And if she saw little else than fear and disquiet in all these eyes

at least she saw gratitude in one single pair

namely in Wilhelm's mild, old gaze

Burt! I got a deed of gift here that ain't been accepted

will Mr. Burt approach forthwith and take delivery of his deed of gift?

Mr. Burt? Mr. Burt?

Burt had actually prepared his escape from his ferocious wife

Despite her lack of faith in his abilities

Burt had succeeded in meeting a woman through the fence

and she had agreed to help him to abscond

and there he was waiting at the agreed place at the agreed time

"A helping hand", the woman had said

what a peculiar coincidence that two women should come to the aid

of the Manderlay slaves at the same time:

Grace; and Burt's "helping hand"

and the similarities between them were also peculiar:

young; beautiful; white in male company

actually male company in alarming numbers

where's the nigger?

Grace had moved into the freed plantation: among its new shareholders

She was there as a guard, no more

But no one could stop her from using this beautiful spring

to make her own little observations on the people of Manderlay

In the hope of spotting the burgeoning change in character that freedom ought to bring

But unfortunately she saw little of just that:

She saw Victoria for the third time, looking down the well in hope of a glimpse of the body of Burt

She saw Flora and Elisabeth swooning for Timothy as ever

She saw the men spending their time on card games

playing for tufts of blue cotton under their leaking roof

And she saw how everybody would ignore the eager Mark whenever he opened his mouth

not knowing that he was notorious for never being able to give an intelligible answer to anything

we called him Putting head, but his real name wasn't Putting head

Grace saw Victoria beating her eldest son, for stealing a moldy cookie

And she saw the unstoppable, irrevocable hierarchy of the beatings

Victoria beating Ed, Ed beating Milton, and Milton, willie

who finally vented his frustration further down the food chain on Claire

who far too rarely managed to make use of the window with the outside handle

that her loving father Jack had installed as an emergency entrance

which also allowed her to fall asleep every night to her favorite view of the twinkling stars

Every noontide Grace witnessed with pity how the former slaves

were arrayed on the parade ground with its mysterious numbers

and marks beneath Mam's balcony

as if nothing at Manderlay had changed

However, one of them did not submit to this all-too-soothing power of habit

Timothy of course

In a flash his exotic pride almost took Grace's breath away

This day Grace walked on past the old "Peach House" where the whites were now detained

put to work on sundry more or less needless little repairs

on her way to the barn housing her gangsters

So, how's everyone doing?

I'm afraid the men got nothing to do

And it's not so good for the morale

In situations like that your father always came up with something!

I bet he did! But it's patience that's required

But not this much patience, Niels says, Niels's grandpa was a cotton grower

And he says the cotton should've been sown ages ago!

The soil doesn't look ready

Might be because nobody's ploughed it!

Maybe things are different here from where your grandpa lives?

No ma'am, don't reckon so

well, if it should've been sown, surely the people here would be the first to know

As she did not want to impose

Grace's intercourse with the former slaves had been limited to brief greetings and the like

But now it was time for a talk with some meat to it

Excuse me, sir? Mark? May I ask you something?

It's about planting the cotton

I've been around for sowin' and harvestin' and birth and death

Right, so when should the cotton be planted?

There're strict rules for that...

you can't mess around with that sort of thing

Manderlay's always been renowned for the precision of its harvest

the swallows always migrate right afterwards

they settle here for the night on their way across the marshes

But the planting?

It's a science, my dear lady

And the weather, what you might've expected, plays a fear-some role

Yes, yes, and when will it be time this year?

Not too soon and not too late

Yes, but when? Should the cotton have already been planted?

I'm not the sorta fella' to pass on information unless I'm damn sure of it

less the facts of the matter are one hundred percent, in other words...

the facts need be beyond dispute

Do you know when to plant?

No

I'd better ask Wilhelm, is he in his cabin?

This morning he went down to the bath house

he'd gotten a little frayed around the edges, as they say, it's a funny thing

I'm sorry... I'll go find him myself

Excuse me Wilhelm, I've come about the fields

The fields should've been ploughed and harrowed three weeks ago

and the cotton planted two weeks ago

But does everybody know that?

Oh yes, but I reckon they thinkin' somebody else oughta go out into the fields first

In the old days Overseer Mays would've driven us out there

Maybe it's because nobody really trust you, Missy

Yeah, but Wilhelm, they could be doing something else instead

repairs to their homes

they badly need it

The cabins have always been a sore spot

But Mam said we ain't got no material to fix 'em up

But we're going to need what we make on the cotton, how else will people survive on their own?

Yeah

if folks felt they was given something

Something brought out by this, these new times

That made their lives better in a convincing way, right here and now

I don't know what that might be, but...

But we don't have time for that

we've been forced to sow late before

The harvest might be improved if we planted it a bit late, even says that in Mam's Law

Mam's Law?

Oh, yes, Mam's law

It's all the rules for running the plantation

But we weren't allowed to read it, it was just for Mam and the family

Only for Mam and the family, Grace thought...

Certainly no more...

And there on Mam's bed skimming through the old book well filled with bizarre and vicious regulations

she came upon a page that looked strangely familiar!

A table with numbers from one to seven

Somewhere Grace had seen something similar, for sure

Mam's law revealed it all

The Manderlay plantation with its glamorous front mansion

and pitiful rear where the slaves had their quarters had been kept in an iron grip

by these very numbers!

They represented the psychological division of the Manderlay slaves

Sammy was a Group 5: a Clownin' nigger

The formidable Victoria was of course a Number Four: a Hittin' nigger

No wonder her husband Burt had found it necessary to accept "a helping hand"

even if it was another color from his own

Wilma and Mark were losin' niggers

Wilhelm was a Two: a talkin' nigger

Flora was a weepin' nigger, et cetera et cetera

there were pleasin' niggers and crazy niggers by the dozen

The final category, Number One proudy niggers consisted nowadays of Timothy as expected

who was of course not there, and Elisabeth?

No, it said seven, not one

she was a pleasin' nigger, also known as a chameleon

A person of the kind who could transform herself into exactly the type the beholder wanted to see

This was how the slave system had been kept alive for so long at Manderlay

Bondage even through psychology!

As Grace in deep thoughts gazed across the fields of Manderlay

she recalled another page in Mam's law

dealing exclusively with the weeding of the paths in the romantic "Old Lady's Garden"

The name of the narrow band of woodland that skirted the plantation

"Trees and tree trunks!" Grace thought

So there were materials at Manderlay after all!

Excuse me, may I ask you all something?

Isn't it true that somebody who's even poor and colored

can still take the trouble to maintain their home?

How dare you?

Do you think colored folks prefer holes in their roofs and wallowing in mud?

well then, all you need to do is to mend those holes!

But I told you, there ain't never been the materials for that kind of thing at Manderlay

No materials? That's not true

when I'm in the fields I see timber wherever I look

just waiting to be turned into boards for a roof

or an extension or maybe even a whole new cabin!

That be Mam's Garden, you can't cut that down

And why can't we cut down the Old Lady's Garden?

Have you really spent that many happy hours up there on your knees weeding her romantic paths?

That's true, there's loads of timber

we ain't seen it as anything but the Old Lady's Garden

I don't know what you think, but to me it sounds like a splendid idea

And at a stroke these seated, reclining, resting people had turned into people going full tilt

walking, running, working people

without anyone having to threaten them in the slightest with "The Lady's hand"

as Grace had been told the great whip was called

And Grace had won a kind of victory

a small beginning of something that would one day erase

all the negative inherited behavior patterns at Manderlay

But, as Grace had suspected, the appetite for improving the living quarters

unfortunately exceeded that for preparing the fields

But a few of the former slaves had volunteered

And with the white family and Grace herself

they made up a sort of gang to prepare the soil for the seeds

Under the gaze of a demonstratively hostile Timothy with his mysterious white handkerchief

He wasn't born here?

He's a Munsi

It's a line of African royalty, it's a very proud line

He don't drink, either, or gamble like the others be doing

with their little blue tufts of cotton money?

T'was Mam's Law

we weren't allowed no real money

Grace knew about the clever system of currency in Mam's Law

Not real money you could use in the outside world

The Munsi don't gamble 'cause don't believe in winnings

They believe you have to be humble to your crops and only take what's absolutely necessary

I've never heard of these Munsi before, but I do believe I once heard of the Mansi?

They different, they was slaves of African kings, they gamble

they is true mischief, Timothy say

- So Timothy has prejudices as well? - what?

Oh, nothing, I was just thinking aloud

Oh, so you've find company, Flora?

No, no, I was on my way out anyway

Timothy, let me tell you one thing

I know you don't like me and don't trust me, and I can see why

Although our ideals differ, you have a pride within you

that I believe will one day be the salvation of everybody at Manderlay

Let me tell you one thing, too!

You got fine words, a posse of gangsters and your white skin, somethin' folks here seem fall for

But I ain't fooled

You're not interested in us

Not as human beings

After all, it's tough telling people apart when they're from another race

we whites have committed an irreparable crime against an entire people

Manderlay is a moral obligation because we made you!

Luckily, I'm just a nigger who don't understand such words

and now, if you'll excuse me, I've come here for the company of my girl

and that ain't nothing for you to see

black hides meetin'

and if I were you I'd leave now before things get too nasty

Grace regarded Timothy's hostility as a challenge

And the very next day she took a step to dispel his claim

that as a white she was incapable of caring for blacks as individuals

She had had a chat to Venus, about her somewhat maladjusted son Jim

And Venus had revealed that Jim's behaviour was merely that of a budding but frustrated artist

Tell me, have you seen Venus?

Nobody here wants your charity!

I have something for Jim!

I've had a really good look at his face, since our little chat

And you're right, it does possess an artist's sensitivity

This is far too much

No, no, no, go on, call him! This is for him

Jim, come on out here with me and Miss Grace, baby

These are for you, because we believe in you

Now run along, and paint your fantastic pictures

and never mind those closed minded folks who think they know what art is meant to look like

give them hell from me Jim!

Excuse me, but I ain't Jim, I'm Jack, that's Jim!

It is tricky, as a matter of fact I've never been able to tell them apart either

They're both colored and they both got curly hair

why look any deeper than that?

To be honest Grace had never been quite sure which was Jim and which was Jack

A blunder that would, in her former life among her fellow whites

merely have occasioned a little laughter

in her life at Manderlay it was disastrous

But like her father, she did not take long to transform a defeat into anger

energy and a counterattack

This is what has created all this resistance

Even you regard it as almost sacred, don't you?

I must admit it's played a right important part of my life

And that will be my next move! They should be allowed to see it

and to understand that it can't do them any more harm

I wouldn't advise it, Missy

Presenting it to them would be like showing a child the rod with which it's been beaten

I agree, it must be made public, but we ain't all ripe for it

All right, then we shall have to see about ripening you, and quickly!

And I'm not talking about the couple of cozy meetings I've organized

to which hardly anybody turned up

I mean teaching with a timetable, old fashioned hands on schooling

All right, I've got something for you to do at last, and it even involves bossing people about...

At noon tomorrow I'm going to give my first lesson to all of the former slaves of Manderlay

And it'll be your job to make sure that they're there

No excuse for not showing up!

And the family?

No, they're pretty well teaching themselves

Are you listening to me?

It's 'cause Niels just got a great hand!

what?

who are you?

My name is Doctor Hector

Do excuse me a moment, I'll have to pay my way out of this round

God knows, I don't believe you possess any cards of real significance

You have a poker player's face

You see here my entire enterprise

I'd never gained access to Manderlay before

so when I drove by today, I saw the gates were open

I took it as a sign of new times

what exactly do you do?

I entertain, party games, card games and the like

well, nowadays mainly the latter

You play for money?

Oh, but I do more than play

I cheat!

And you have no objections to revealing this business secret of yours?

Oh, to some people, but not to you

No, you see, if you and I establish the business relationship I am anticipating

you'll be happen to know exactly what to expect

And what can I expect?

Eighty per cent

Now, you certainly know all the problems that arose

when our beloved new deal was imposed in '65

the plantation owners had plenty of land but nobody to work it

So they contracted with their former slaves

But they just didn't have the same hold on the rascals as they had in the old days

Of course, they lend them money

Then quite a few of the nigras actually saved up and paid off their debts

so the plantation owners got worried

- I bet they did! - Oh, yes

See, that is where my idea came in

I went from plantation to plantation with the full backing of the plantation owners

to entertain their employees, and they were sorely in need of diversion, let me tell you

we just had a little game of cards

And if anyone was close to repaying his debt

I would take their shirt off their back!

And I'm prepared to offer you that very same service today, Mam!

You are not convinced

Let me give you another token of my profound loyalty

I have here a letter from a man by the name of Stanley

He asked me to smuggle it out

I thought perhaps you would like to see it before it is mailed

Listen, Mr. Hector, let me just say that I've never met a man

whom I have instantly despised so wholeheartedly both for his personality and his occupation

Does that mean you are turning down my offer?

I never want to see you here again!

All right, well, I am disappointed

I shall nevertheless bestow upon you my thought for the day

I indulge in word games

I like to give my clients something to laugh or think about when I leave

The best technique for a card sharp is "dealing from the bottom"

Look as if you're dealing from the top of the deck

but instead you just take the bottom card, one that you know

"Take from the bottom" means something else entirely in social terms

but it is what I do, I "take from the bottom"

won't be hard to find me if you change your mind

The letter was aimed at a Mr. Miller, one of the truckers who picked up cotton from Manderlay

and the plantation's only real contact with the outside world, it was short and to the point

"we are being held prisoner by gangsters and coloreds at Manderlay"

"inform the police and please come to our aid with all due dispatch"

Indignation is a rare emotion for a gangster

but a state of just that was what Grace's men experienced while they herded

the colored people in for their lesson that day

as Grace had reported on Doctor Hector's cheap trick of "taking from the bottom"

And it was hardly the sophisticated ambiguity of the term that had affected them so dramatically

welcome to our lesson

yes, I call it a lesson as the term "meeting" seems to have scared some people out of attending

I was coming, but I was late!

Very late, you hadn't made it by the time we finished

In the old days we could hear the bell from the old clock in the hall

T'was easier to keep up with time, but we never hear it no more

Probably because nobody winds it up

But, now for the topic of this lesson: working together

Only four people from your wing helped to prepare the fields

and only five helped to plant

I'm not a shareholder in this enterprise but if I had been and if I had also been one of the five

I would've felt cheated

Democracy means government by the people

But as it's not practical for everyone to sit in congress

a method by which people may express their views is required

this method is called a ballot

All right, so let's try it out

we should choose a problem, anything anyone can't decide on?

If I may suggest a small matter?

please do

I reckon the little broken rake is mine, but Flora reckons it's hers

That's an excellent suggestion, it's a great example

I assume you all know of this dispute and all feel able to have an opinion on it, right?

who does the community think owns the rake?

It could turn out to belong to both parties equally

now that would correspond nicely with the subject of this lesson!

working together, sharing together, all right?

So, who thinks it's Elisabeth's rake?

Sammy?

I think it's Elisabeth's rake

All right!

Slowly the point of Grace's edifying discourse dawned on the majority

Most of them thought the rake was definitely Elisabeth's a few that it was Flora's

and nobody that it could be shared

I still remain undecided whether the rake is Elisabeth's or Flora's

Right, so, not too surprisingly, neither party receives Mark's vote!

From now on a little broken rake belongs to Elisabeth

That's what ballots are like, there are winners and there are losers

But the community has spoken

And now Grace embarked on a protracted explanation of Flora's difficulties

raking without a rake

and that owning things together could have its advantages

To make sure that everyone understood the democratic principle

the meeting carried out another ballot at Jim's suggestion

I wanna talk about the fact that Sammy being laughing so loud of his own jokes

and they ain't funny

and I been tryin' to get some sleep, and I can't get no sleep, cause he laughs so loud

Maybe perhaps there can a be a time when he can stop his joke

and stop laughing, so we can get some sleep

You can't vote on a man's laughter, you can't vote on a man's laughter surely

I'm hearing that it's at sundown at sundown

That's what I'm hearing, so let's do a vote

All right, so that's settled

That's democracy?

Finally Wilhelm proposed that it would be practical if somebody was responsible

for winding up the clock with its small but penetrating chimes

And for mysterious reasons the probing though fairly passive artist, Jim, was appointed

despite the song and dance his mother kicked up

Grace wound up the lesson by announcing that the topic for the next day would be

"our anger and how to communicate it"

Maybe somebody would at least tell me what the time is?

Just ask Timothy, he always know what time it is

he can tell by the sun, he always do that

Or you can always ask Wilhelm, he's so old

He's from before the clock ever got here

So Wilhelm and Timothy, each made his own suggestion as to what the time was

And they were astonishingly close

Wilhelm thought it was eight minutes to, Timothy thought it was five minutes to

and Grace rejoiced quietly at this natural ability that they found so straightforward

But rapidly two factions emerged

one which insisted it was eight minutes to

and the other would not hear of anything but five minutes to

And they were thus able to draw on the day's learning and put it to the vote

The result was five minutes to by a small majority

and so it was decided:

the official time at Manderlay was five minutes to two

Grace's first lesson of the day took place in relative good humor

but the second one, the one that had unfortunately proved unavoidable

was severer in character

Read!

Daily ration of food for slaves from category 7

oh, no, 1 ... is, er...

Six ounces of solid food, and they've always been given just that

no matter how little there was in the stores

That's a lot less than category seven, for example

why should a proudy "nigger" have less to eat than an eye-pleasin' one?

How can the way your head seems to be arranged have anything to do whatsoever

with the amount people are given to eat?

I really don't know either, not precisely, do you, Mr. Mays?

It could be just to punish them for their pride!

No, I just did what it said

It mattered a lot to my mother that we follow these rules

I know of many places where everybody got quite a bit less than 6 ounces

and where they began to eat dirt

It's a kind of custom coloreds have when food is scarce 'round here

but it was forbidden under Mam's Law

That's not what we're discussing here

don't you see what an affront it is to divide people up like that?

Folks is different

oxen and rabbits don't need equal shares of fodder neither

both parties would come down with a belly ache!

Stop! All right, I'm not at all satisfied with what I've heard here today

You're all speaking up for this foolishness

I'm going to have to penalize you, because so little effort has been made in these lessons

That evening Grace thought that her idea of making the whites make up their faces

which had seemed so just and edifying in her flash of anger that afternoon

was perhaps a tad too much in the wrong direction

Even though Philomena herself in her own childhood would not have dreamt

of going to the toilet without the entertainment of her black nanny

Look at your Uncle Jim, he's in the bathtub learning how to swim

Can we clean our faces now?

Yes, yes, of course!

Ah well, here comes the dust

so none of this will matter any more

what do you mean?

There's gonna be a dust storm

and the plants have only just begun to grow

it couldn't be worse!

But Manderlay's fields have never been harmed by a dust storm

'Cause the windbreak was still in place

Grace was not inclined to go into what the former overseer meant by these mysterious words

And soon she had convinced herself that they had no meaning at all

apart from spreading disquiet and despondency

The next day's lesson on the importance of unleashing one's anger

met little understanding from the assembly

It was when they wound up with a series of ballots

and the community had rapidly decided to use Wilma's potatoes for seed

as she was so old and did not have to eat that much

that they heard the wind

The dust had come at this time for as long as anybody could remember

But every year from time immemorial it had spared the newly planted cotton

as the plantation had been cleverly shielded by a narrow band of trees

known in common parlance as "The Old Lady's Garden"

In the midst of the almost Biblical darkness that descended on Manderlay

Grace knew all to well that even hand in hand with all the races of the world

no army of gangsters could counter this

Nature's extravagant demonstration of power

All she could do was watch as row upon row of the seedlings

she had so welcomed disappeared beneath the devastating dust

Nobody could do a thing

but apparently it did not mean that no one would try

for now Grace discerned a rider out there

He was riding like crazy

As he progressed across the fields, wherever he spotted a pile of dust beginning to grow

he would break it up with his horse's hooves

whether it would make the slightest dent in the grand scale of things was hard to telI

but it was a battle

no matter how senseless it might be: heroic and dangerous!

Timothy

Come back! Come back! Timothy, Timothy!

He's gonna be all right, he knows these storms

Miss Grace, you's head over heels for him, you's a fool, Miss Grace

- where did you find him? - He was behind the house

Is he alive?

I do believe I know what you mean by that question

But what does it mean to be alive?

I mean is he breathing?

Forget it

Is he dead?

we colored folks can be awfully hard to kill if we want it that way

That very afternoon strong Timothy was back on his feet

surveying the buildings for damage caused by the storm

The dust had struck a devastating blow:

Unfortunately, hardest hit were the food stores in the dilapidated "Peach House"

which had lost its roof

Almost all of their provisions were now inedible

On top of that the pneumonia brought by the dust was inevitable

The dust had got in everywhere

particularly where no new boards could have provided weatherproofing

namely through the cracked glass in the window on the stars above Claire's bed

"Valuables", not to mention cash, were non-existent at Manderlay

since the elegant clock miraculously still ticking merrily away on the mantelpiece

turned out to be, not Swiss

as Mam believed

but a copy made quite locally and worth practically nothing

"The freed Enterprise of Manderlay" was bust

Wilhelm and Grace were therefore under no illusions that anybody would attend class this day

But then, one by one the Manderlay flock began to appear

I'm happy you're all here

But I don't really have a lecture for you today

I'd just like to say

how badly I feel about this hopeless situation

But of course words aren't much use to you

No, Missy has learnt that much at least

But as regards hopelessness, it is something we do know a bit about

There are a million plants out there beneath the dust, if we can save but fifty of 'em

perhaps we can grow a small quantity of great quality and get a better price for it

I reckon we should make a move

And that is how the greatest disaster turned into a stroke of luck for Grace

and how the people, with a common foe, the dust, as their excuse

suddenly found themselves working shoulder to shoulder with their deadliest enemy

to achieve the common goal as free, grown-up Americans

Stanley and Bertie had sown the fields with little sticks

so that people could tell where to uncover the tender seedlings

while Flora ever so childishly kept teasing Grace

with her digs at Grace's supposed romantic feelings towards Timothy

Good night, old Wilma

Good night, child

we can lie down and talk for a while 'fore we go to sleep

No, thank you, Wilma

I'm not weary enough to go to bed yet

A little walk helps

A walk when a body ain't sleepy is a very good thing

I do the same myself

Good night!

Good night!

That everything seemed as moving along on its own could be nothing but welcomed by Grace

But her lack of an active part to play had suddenly left her in a kind of a vacuum

and allowed other things inside her to claim attention

human things like instincts and emotions

An ominous sense of homelessness and loneliness struck Grace this evening

As she wondered about, Grace suddenly found herself outside the wooden rear of the bathhouse

without warning the homelessness transferred into a strange desire to move up that rusty pipe

against the flow of dirty water into where naked bodies were being washed in cheap soap

Black skin

male and black manhood

what Grace had felt at the bath house was undignified, shameful

Her mind was meant to be devoted to policy at Manderlay

a matter in which these thoughts had no business whatsoever

Grace had forced herself to sleep to rid her thoughts of those black bodies

an achievement that was actually possible thanks to the stubbornness

that flourished in Grace's family

But the cotton seedling in her love-starved body did not give up

It manifested itself as a dream

Grace was in southern climes

There were women in exotic costumes and men in turbans

Even in her sleep she hated with a passion any idea of allowing that her father might be right

But it was a harem!

A group of black slaves appeared, bearing a huge charger piled with dates

And in a twinkling Grace lay among the dates, trembling with pleasure

as a flock of Bedouin satisfied her one by one with their noses!

And it was even more confusing when Timothy appeared

and was both the slave bearing wine, hands shaking, and the Sheik himself

whose authoritative hands tested the size of Grace's most intimate orifices

I must have overslept

I'm sorry, Claire has had another turn!

Yeah, she's running a bad fever again, she had anything to eat?

Oh, sure, pork chops and baked chicken

She's taken a little oatmeal but it's hard to get it into her

she had this trouble with her lungs last year when the dust come, too

but there was far more dust this year

Honestly Missy, you oughta go back home to the clean air and larders full of food

we're all in this together, no matter how hard it gets

And hard it will get

I've seen what's left around here though some folks are still fillin' their bellies

You're right, we've got to talk about that

Come on, it'll be all right, Rose!

I propose that we ration what we have left

and spread our provisions over a month until we can harvest more from the vegetable gardens

And as I hear there are so very few beans and potatoes left

I think we should give them to Rose who needs them for Claire

what's left will be shared out equally among the rest of us!

Excuse me, the rest of us?

- That goes for us too? - Yes, of course it does

we've already eaten things your father would ever have put up with

Joseph swears they couldn't been described as food at all

legally speakin'!

Your father used to let us obtain stuff when the coffers were empty

Surely we could steal something from somewhere

but I suppose that's no good either, Miss Grace?

I'm afraid you're one tough cookie

Maybe I am

Sadly the most nourishing fare the estate could still provide

had not improved Claire's condition much

but she needed meat, and Timothy knew it

and so henceforth they would have to do without the loyal old donkey on the treadmill

It was not a good portent of the level of morale that the gangsters were now

trying hard to fix the car from the ravages of the dust

But luckily Joseph, a legal expert with the ability to interpret the most incomprehensible of texts

had met his match in the 1923 Ford owner's manual

As time went by the scattered cotton plants at Manderlay grew side by side

with its denizens' hunger now that the little that was left of the donkey meat

was reserved for Claire

And Grace found herself in the peculiar situation of joining Wilma

and the other women in what had been completely forbidden under Mam's law

namely the southern tradition of eating dirt

Having given up on the automobile manuals Joseph had found a quaint turn of phrase

in the agreement into which he had originally entered

with Grace's father regarding his employment

The wording could with a little good will be interpreted to mean that certain circumstances

obliged an employee to obey a higher authority than his boss

the authority in this case being his stomach

The good news was that although the drought had been hard on the fields

Stanley and Timothy had invented a weapon to deploy against it

wait, wait, it's coming, it's coming

But the best news of all was Claire

who had miraculously gained so much strength that she could empty her plate of good food

always in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep and nobody was looking, but even so

If Grace had thought hunger would put paid to her forbidden sensual fantasies

actually the opposite was more the case!

Flora, what's goin' on with the chickens?

Are they fighting?

You mean the four whites after the black?

You want I should open the door and have a peek?

No

Mind you, that little black hen real proud

wouldn't surprise me if them others took the chance to give her the odd peck

Now don't you tease me, Flora

Goodnight then

Goodnight

Flora had teased Grace before with the little black hen

But they were hurting it in there! No doubt about it!

And to make everything far worse, that heat in her loins

seemed to come back in spite of that poor chicken's cry for help

Or even intensified by it?

Devastated, humiliated and overcome by fear for her sanity, she fled

And in a fit of madness

or what others would simply call "horniness" she threw herself onto her bed on her tummy

and for a moment forgot all about shame and political correctness

and did what she had not done since her childhood

when she had not yet known it was so infinitely wrong:

she pressed herself onto the knot she had rapidly and instinctively formed by bunching her quilt

whether it was pleasurable or painful is hard to telI

but she kept at it, it was beyond her control

with no regard for the sleep of the women around her or common decency in general

the pulsating explosions in her nether regions took over her world

And who knows how it would have concluded had there not appeared at that very moment

fortunately for Grace

a person shaking her back to a reasonable state of self defense

Miss Grace! You gotta come quick, Miss Grace

what?

She's dead

I took such care of her

I fed her the good meat

But she'd been eatin'

she's dead! Dead

But she'd been eatin'

No! She hadn't been eatin', this 'un had!

Are ya gonna tell 'em, Wilma?

I was so hungry, I get so dizzy

and my legs hurt when I'm hungry

Our good friend and Claire's beloved Old Wilma been visiting in the window so while we slept

She emptied Claire's plate every single night

T'was as easy as pie, considerin' that there window could be opened from the outside

I've eaten so much dirt in my time, my teeth can't take it no more

She killed our little girl

Jack, she was sick

- Miss Grace - She was sick, Jack

Rose didn't worry to much about feeding her during the day, 'cause she ate so much at night

I want Wilma punished for killin' my little girl

I want this matter put to the vote

I want Wilma punished for killin' my little girl, I want justice or I'll kill her myself, right now

Let me go

Stop it, Jack!

- Stop we'll talk about it tomorrow...! - She killed my little girl!

Stop it

And so, the very next evening a gathering took place under the magnificent

clear, twinkling, starry sky of Manderlay

Now we've heard 'em all, Wilhelm

Wilma showed no mercy to our Claire so no mercy oughta be shown to her, she must die!

Jack, killing Old Wilma won't bring Claire back

All we want is justice, you've said so many times, that we're entitled to it!

I propose that she be banished from Manderlay

for stealing food in an emergency

she probably won't survive that anyway, as old as she is

after all, we don't know if the matter of the food made any difference at all in Claire's fate

Wilma can't have known whether it would kill her

but she didn't care a bit when it came to riskin' somebody else's life that of our little girl!

All Wilma saw was a plate nobody was touching, she was hungry

And what do you think the rest of us was?

All of us here ate what we had agreed?

And whatcha think little Claire was?

we're all hungry, and that just makes it far, far worse!

All right, I'd like to ask y'all to vote on Jack and Rose's motion

All those who believe that Wilma deserves to die, raise your hands!

Thank you, thank y'all

Stop!

Grace, I thought we were the ones who made the decisions here

that's what you've always told us? Or maybe it's only sometimes?

No, of course not, it's always

And they's the decisions you're here to defend, ain't they?

So let me go across and do it!

No

if anybody is going to do it, it's going to be me

it must not be an act of vengeance

That's all right by me

as long as she suffers as much as Claire

That will be up to me

I'll let you know when it's over

Grace

be so kind as to tell me

what did they decide?

Am I gonna die?

No, Wilma, you're not going to die

whatcha mean?

I mean the ballot did not go Jack's way, you're not gonna die!

See, they didn't think that Claire would've eaten the food on her plate anyway

and anyhow she'd certainly have died from pneumonia from the dust

Did they really say that?

Yes, they really said that

If you knew how terrible the waitin' was...

I'm just so weary

I know, I know you are, but now you can sleep easy

Yes, I can

Lie down and get some sleep

You are the daughter I might had

Lie down

will you stay 'till I sleep?

I'll do that, Wilma

Here

Lie down

Wilma?

Harvest-time finally did arrive and the cotton went safe into the sacks

Despite the fewer bushes the harvest was splendid

It was as if all the trials and tribulations had made the cotton extra white

and the fibers extra strong, and even at current prices it would bring in a record sum

And although nothing was the way it had ever been

the harvest was as precise as always at Manderlay

The moment the last tuft of cotton was in the sack, the swallows arrived

dropping from the skies towards the marshes

Everyone observed the sight in awe and for a moment it was greater than all the words

and politics in the world

The old gin was as ready as ever, it had been for a week, greased and stripped down

and reassembled by Sammy, who had teamed up with Niels

They worked well in harness, Niels had never found a joke funny in his life

so Sammy, the clownin' nigger, had given up, not unrelieved, trying to entertain him

with his somewhat weak material

Miss Grace? Miss Grace?

Edward?! God, I hardly recognized you! You've certainly changed the way you dress!

Yes, your father thought it was time for a change, he's on his way into a new area of business

- Is daddy here? - No, he just sent me on ahead

to give you a message

Your father says he will be by a week Monday at eight o'clock in the evening

He told me to tell you that he will wait in the car outside the gates for a quarter of an hour

and not a second longer, the way he did in Dogville, he says

and the way he did with your mother, I think it was...

- when he asked her to marry him - Yes, something like that

But if you want to go with him, you better be there, 'cause he says he'll just push on

I know, I get the message

All right, I'm on my way, take care, Miss Grace!

You too, Edward

Edward! just tell dad that new times have come to Manderlay

But no, Grace had no intention of going with her father when he arrived

she had her own life to lead now and it suited her just fine, but she'd be at the gates anyhow

She just had to show him what she had achieved, a new and better Manderlay

It was examination day for Stanley and the family

because even though things had been going well recently

when Stanley partook of his traditional beer with Mr. Miller

nobody would be able to prevent him from revealing what had happened on the plantation

and thereby ruin it all

Wilhelm had been highly skeptical about letting the whites talk to the drivers at all

but Grace had insisted, she trusted them

Eejit nigger! Are you totally useless?

Sorry, Mr. Mays!

I'm joking

Stanley Mays and the family passed

That very evening Grace pronounced them graduate Americans

And although they were free to go they had elected to stay

as there was talk of hiring the family and Stanley Mays on a permanent basis

And before anybody knew it the days had passed and the money was in the bank

from where it had been picked up by proud Timothy on horseback

Niels and Sammy had fixed the car, wisely without reference to the manual

- Thank you, for everything - Thank you

- what are you gonna do now? - I don't know

You could always go back to gangstering

where is Mr. Robinsson?

He's been down the cabins shakin' hands

Grace was touched by Mr. Robinson's sudden social interest in the former slaves

But it felt right when the car left, it was time for Grace to say goodbye to power

Brave and strong thy men and women

Better this than corn and wine, make us worthy God in heaven

of this goodly land of Thine

Hearts as open as our doorway

Liberal hands and spirits free

Alabama, Alabama

we will aye be true to thee

He's watching you

- No, he's not! - He's watching you

No he's not!

I reckon it have somethin' to do with them gangsters leavin'

See, honey, when you was boss, he has visitin' your kingdom

Now, you're visitin' his

I reckon he wants you now

He should have some dinner, I'm gonna go get him

You gotta come and get some dinner

Quiet, woman!

In Mam's bedroom Grace recalled Flora's worrying, intimate little details

Sexual intercourse amongst the Munsi was determined by ancient traditions

It would not appeal to Grace, Flora had said

not with Grace's modern ideas of equality of people and the sexes

but Grace seemed to have left her progressive attitudes at the table

Now actually in the situation she had dreamed of... it was all more bizarre than erotic

anyway Grace decided to hang on to this opinion

Timothy, wake up!

Timothy's horse had got out of the staple when fires had been lit

around the Manderlay slave quarters while Grace was asleep

what happened?

I can't tell you, if you want a clear answer you gonna have to ask somebody else

- The gangsters took the money! - what?!

The gangsters took the money! That's the answer! And I reckon it's a pretty clear answer, too!

It certainly is very clear, but what makes you think so?

when the party ended we all left the table to go and take a look at the money

Timothy had hid it behind the red slope

Timothy was meant to be keepin' an eye on the place, but he wasn't there

And the box had been pulled up, it was empty

One of the gangsters dug up the money when he was pretendin' to say goodbye

But he couldn't have done it alone

Someone must've told 'em where the box was

And Sammy refused to admit it was him

although he'd spent a whole load of time with Niels

And then everybody started yellin' and screamin'

and folks is angry and no one's listenin'

Stanley Mays and the family got away I believe

although Philomena and Bertie got cut up real bad

Elisabeth is dead too, although that was mostly by accident

It was too soon to send the guns away, we weren't quite ready yet

For once Grace had nothing to say

She could but reproach herself in silence for her tasteless joke to the gangsters

about resorting to their former occupations if things got tight

Wilhelm, I can't rouse Timothy

No, I bet you can't

he drank three bottles of hooch before we ate

The Munsi don't drink!

Oh, well, maybe they do on special occasions

well! It certainly is lively 'round here!

Didn't I tell you I didn't want to see you here again?

Yes, but I haven't come to do a deal, I have come to conclude one

and in the hope of course that you'll see that I am an honest man

Cause, I needn't have come back to settle up at all

This is your 80 per cent, quite amounts to a tidy bit too, as you can see

It's the money from our harvest?

I expect so, it's that time of year

See, I had a little game with a young man who came to see me and I knew he come from here

so I've made my humble return

Don't you think that you've just might have been wrong about me?

who did you play for all this money?

It was a day ago now

See, I would have come sooner but I pass this black car with some gentlemen in dark coats

they began to follow me, shouting the whole time, that I was going to die

and that I was a con man who dealt from the bottom, what an accusation!

well it just took me a while to get away from them

who was it?

The Nigra fellow and he arrived on horseback, what was his name?

Timothy?

Yeah, that was it, Timothy, yeah, that was his name

He's a Munsi! They don't gamble!

well, I know, Munsi don't gamble, I'm a bit of an expert in this field

You'll have a devil time gettin' them to the gamin' table!

but he's no Munsi, in fact he's what I'd call a splendid fella at the card table

and he just stayed bein' splendid no matter how much he lost

But he told everyone he was a Munsi

Of course, see, the girls were wild about the tales that he told

All the Munsi tales, the proud African, the royal line, all that old-fashioned morality

and the accent of course, and on account of that the girls was easy to bed

There! I'm not even going to avail myself of your gratitude

That's just the kinda' fella I am, hey ho!

Bless me if I can't come up with a motto for today

they say the Mansi are better hung than the Munsi

or "The Munsi are so up-stuck but the Mansi, how they fuck!"

well then, I'll be seein' you!

we can talk business another day

Grace went straight to the last pages with the tables of personal details

on the slaves at Manderlay

where was Timothy, now? Yes, his name had a 1 beside it

A proudy slave, as she'd read earlier or did it?

She looked more closely at the handwritten number

She compared it to the seven next to Elisabeth's name

The pleasin' nigger of the chameleon type

an expert in changing character according to whatever was opportune

and what would titillate and enthrall the other person, and then Grace could see it

Timothy's number was not a one but a seven

She had only wanted to read it as a one

There was even a note beside Timothy's name: "Caution, diabolically clever"

Grace had called a final meeting for everybody at Manderlay

for that evening she had decided to leave the place forever with her father when he arrived

Oh, you're all here

I persuaded the community to assemble, extraordinarily, for two ballots

whatever they involved, they can scarcely have anything to do with me any more

Don't be too certain of that, Miss Grace

well, I am certain, I've come to say goodbye!

And if you've had two ballots today

well, oddly enough that coincides with the two presents I have brought

farewell presents, if you like, the first is this...

It's the money from our harvest

well, actually it's 80 percent of it, a cardsharp kept the other 20 per cent as commission

He scammed the money off of somebody from Manderlay in a game of cards

So the gangsters didn't take it?

No, no they didn't and I won't prolong the tension

it was the treasurer who did it

the man charged with looking after the money

He was overcome by his eagerness to play, probably because he isn't a Munsi at all

but a Mansi, however unimportant that may sound

which brings me to my second present, this one, painful to you or not, it has to come out

In this book, which I still regard as the most abominable, contemptible document ever written

Timothy is listed as a pleasin' nigger

a person who can change his appearance to please the beholder, as he has done

let me find the page

It's on page 104!

How do you know? I thought no slave had ever seen this book

How do you know what's on page 104 of Mam's Law?

'Cause I wrote it!

It's all in my meticulous hand

Mam and I were very young when the war suddenly ended

and this new statute terrified us

Terrified you?

we tried to imagine what kind of world were these slaves let out into

were they ready for it?

Or more correctly, was it ready for them?

The legislators promised all kinds of things but we didn't believe 'em

And that was then Mam urged me to commit to paper the way I thought things

should be done here if everyone stayed on at Manderlay

But it's the prolongation of slavery

You might call it that, you might also call it the lesser of two evils

But did the others know that you wrote this book?

Groups 2, 3 and 5, always knew

A few members of the other groups were better off not knowing

But everyone knows now, I wrote Mam's Law for the good of everyone!

For the good of everyone!

For the good of everyone?

How dare you?

It's a recipe for oppression

and humiliation from start to finish

I think you've been reading it through the wrong spectacles, Miss Grace

if I may take the liberty of saying so

And then Wilhelm initiated Grace into the humane qualities, of the lesser of two evils

Mam's law! How it guaranteed food and shelter

and allowed anybody the privilege of complaining about their masters

instead of having to blame themselves for the life of no hope

that they would surely have to lead in the outside world?

How the noonday parade was a blessing since the parade ground was the only place

with shade at the warmest time of day?

How the numbered groups were determined according to the patterns of behavior

that human beings resort to in order to survive in an oppressive community?

so that life could be made easier for each of them, since a proudy' nigger

not that Manderlay had seen many, if any, of these, survives by perceiving himself as proud

and could be helped by this system to believe that he was a bit more persecuted

and punished than the others

Since a Clowning nigger would benefit greatly from the laughter

that Mam's Law strictly demanded of its master

just as any other groups benefited from similar obligations

How cash was forbidden so that gambling had to be done with cotton money

to prevent ruination and misery for the families, etc. etc.

Until Graces head felt fair ready to explode

Damn it, Wilhelm, they're not free! That's what matters!

I'd call that a philosophical argument, which neatly brings me to the two ballots I just mentioned

was Mam's Law still relevant?

And we agreed that unfortunately it was as relevant now as it ever was...

America was not ready to welcome us Negroes as equals seventy years ago

and it still ain't, and the way things are goin' it won't be in a hundred years from now!

So we agreed we'd like to take one step backwards at Manderlay and reimpose the old law!

Excuse me, but I'm going

As for your going, well, I'd better tell you about the second of our ballots

as you know sadly we lost Mam

and unfortunately we've good and well frightened off her descendants

In short: we lack a Mam!

No!

I needn't tell you that you received every single vote

Never!

with all your idealism, I think you'd enjoy being the guardian of a kind of menagerie for creatures

who have no chance in the wild

Just as you thought the notion of a community would be good for us

You were so sure that you permitted yourself to use force to convince us

I'll be sorry if we have to do likewise

what do you mean? Do you intend to keep me prisoner?

Only 'til you understand the way you wanted us to understand

The gate has been repaired and is closed

The fences are in good shape but of course they ain't particularly high

Those fences, come on

two men with a rusty shot gun and a toy pistol

How dumb do you really think we are?

Too dumb to build a ladder if we'd really wanted to get away?

Grace had spent a great deal of time on this meeting

which from her point of view didn't seem to be getting anywhere

Her father and his car would be at the gate at eight

That was in half an hour, she had no ladder

And she was on her own and guarded by many

Just how was she to get out of Manderlay?

when was a section of the fence always down?

Grace would have to change her tactics rapidly if she was to make the rendez-vous

All right, I'll do as you want

not from my heart, though surely none of you could expect that

but as my only option, and you needn't be scared, I'll obey your beloved law

So we'd better start by dealing with the present matter:

Timothy, a slave from group seven has committed a theft that almost ruined us all

As I've determined that Mam's Law does not prescribe any punishment for stealing money

I shall have to be creative

what was it you once said, Flora, something about planting a bottle of Rhenish wine?

I do believe there is a bottle of Rhenish wine under Timothy's saddle, don't you?

So that's what I seen when I went there yesterday, if it wasn't a bottle of Rhenish wine!

There was still ten minutes until her slavishly punctual father would arrive outside

to wait for his 15 minutes and not a second longer

Just enough time for a verbal farewell salute

Timothy, you can stop being proud and silent

Cry and shout and beg for mercy like the Mansi you are

the Mansi who you despise so much

And it's that hatred Timothy and the rest of you bear towards yourselves

that you'll never make me accept, you are a cheat of the lowest kind, and Wilhelm

and all of you who follow him, are nothing but a bunch of traitors to your race

I hope that your fellow Negroes one day uncover your betrayal and punish you for it

You make me sick

I'm sure you're quite right, Miss Grace, most likely it's impossible to revile us niggers enough

but what I don't get is why it makes you so angry?

what do you mean?

Aren't you forgetting something?

You made us!

Probably the only thing that could have stopped the lady with the whip

from carrying on forever was the cheerful tinkle that announced her father's presence

She needed his support now, Manderlay, too

really was a place the world would be better off without...

Grace recognized her father's hand writing, "dear girl", it said

Dear girl, so you tricked your father yet again

I waited the fifteen minutes first but I am too kind hearted

So I popped over to the fence behind the bushes and peeked inside to check that you were ok

to my great surprise it really did look as if you had a good grip on things for once

I am proud of you, my girl

I hope we meet up someday

so you can tell me what you actually meant by "new times at Manderlay"

Love, your dumb old dad

Ballots could be unrivalled, but determining the time by public debate was rarely feasible

That was quite apparent

Grace had but a few seconds to choose the direction

in which to flee away from her swarthy pursuers

who, as her father had to teasingly predicted, were carrying torches

Grace was in a hurry and did not notice Burt

the former fugitive with a liberal attitude to other races, who never did make it far

Grace was angry: Manderlay had fossilized in a picture of this country that was far, far too negative

America was a many-facetted place, no doubt about it

But "not ready" to accept black people?

You really could not say that America had proffered its hand, discreetly perhaps

but if anybody refused to see a helping hand, he really only had himself to blame!