Moses—A Man of Emotions

Anjuelle D. Floyd

“The evening his master died he worked again well after he ended the day for the

other adults, his own wife among them, and sent them back with hunger and tiredness to

their cabins… When he, Moses, finally freed himself of the ancient and brittle harness

that connected him to the oldest mule his master owned, all that was left of the sun was a

five-inch-long memory of red orange laid out in still waves across the horizon between

two mountains on the left and one on the right. He had been in the fields for all of fifteen

hours.” (p. 1)

“His wife knew enough now not to wait for him to come and eat with them…He

went straight ahead, to the farthest edge of the cornfields…Well into the forest the rain

came in torrents through the trees and their mighty summer leaves…after a bit Moses

stopped and held out his hands and collected water that he hashed over his face. Then

he undressed down to his nakedness and lay down. To keep the rain out of his nose, he

rolled up his shirt and placed under his head so that it tilted just enough for the rain to

flow down about his face. When he was an old man and rheumatism chained up his

body, he would look back and blame the chains on evenings such as these, and on nights

when he lost himself completely and fell asleep and didn’t come t until morning, covered

with dew…The ground was almost soaked. The leaves seemed to soften the hard rain as it

fell and it hit his body and face with no more power than the gentle tapping of fingers.

He opened his mouth; it was rare for him and the rain to meet up like this. His eyes had

remained open, and after taking in all the he could without turning his head he took up

his thing and did it. When he was done, after a few strokes, he closed his eyes, turned on

his side and dozed. After a half hour or so the rain stopped abruptly and plunged
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(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’ The Known World of 4
ISBN-0007195303))
 Moses—A Man of Emotions
Anjuelle D. Floyd

everything into silence, and that silence woke him. He came to his feet with the usual

reluctance. All about his body were mud and leaves and debris for the rain had sent a

wind through the woods. He wiped himself with his pants and remembered that the last

time he had been there in the rain, the rain had lasted long enough to wash him clean. He

had been seized then by an even greater happiness and had laughed and twirled himself

around and around in what someone watching him might have called a dance. He did

not know it, but Alice a woman people said had lost her mind, was watching him now,

only the first time in her six months of wandering about in the night that she had come

upon him. Had he known she was there, he would not have thought she had sense enough

to know to know what was going on…Moses walked out of the forest and into the

darkness toward the quarters, needing no moon to light his way. He was thirty-five years

old and for every moment of those years he had been someone’s slave, a white man’s

slave and then another white man’s slave and now, for nearly ten years, the overseer

slave for a black master…” (p. 2-4)

“…Moses had been [Henry Townsend’s] slave for six months …” when Henry’s

former owner, William Robbins, found Henry interacting with Moses in a congenial

manner. Robbins rode approached them on his horse and demanded to speak with Henry.

When the two had moved some distance away, Henry having to run “…to keep up…”

Robbins exhorted, “…the law expects you to know what is master and what is slave…if

you roll around and be a playmate to your property, the law will come to you, but it will

not come with the full heart and all the deliberate speed that you will need. You will have
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(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’ The Known World of 4
ISBN-0007195303))
 Moses—A Man of Emotions
Anjuelle D. Floyd

failed your part of the bargain…Robbins spurred his horse and said nothing more.

Henry watched him, the man and the horse, and then looked over at Moses, who waved,

ready to return to work. Henry went to him…We ain’t workin no more today… ‘But why

not? …We got good light here.’ [Moses. He and Henry had been building Henry’s first

house.] Henry stepped to him, took the saw and slapped him once, and when the pain

begin to set into Moses’s face, he slapped him again. ‘Why don’t you never do what I tell

you…Why is that, Moses?

‘I do. I always do…Massa.’

‘Nigger you don’t…never do.’

Moses felt himself beginning to sink in the dirt. He lifted on foot and placed it

elsewhere, hoping that would be better, but it wasn’t. He wanted to move the other foot,

but that would have been too much—as it was, moving the first foot was done without

permission…” (pp. 122-124)

“That evening he changed and washed at the well and put on his new shirt and

britches to report to Caldonia. The work of another day had gone well, he told her. He

sat back in the chair and she asked him for the first time if he too, wanted coffee. He said,

yes and Lorretta [Caldonia’s maid] brought him coffee in a cup that was identical to the

one Caldonia had.

“…near the end of the meeting …” Moses explained “...‘I worry about this Alice

traipsing off every night. She need lockin’ up so them patrollers don’t do something to

her.…’

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(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’ The Known World of 4
ISBN-0007195303))
 Moses—A Man of Emotions
Anjuelle D. Floyd

‘How long has she been doin’ this?” [Caldonia]

‘Since Marse Henry bought her…”

‘Then maybe she’s as insane as she will ever get…” [Caldonia] “…She set her

cup on the little table beside her and leaned her head back and closed her eyes and was

silent. He thought she was asleep but she unfolded her arms after several moments and

rested her open hands on either side of her body. He followed her neck as it went down

from her chin and disappeared into her b louse. She was still but her bosom rose and fell

and he watched her for so long that he fell into the pattern of her bosom rising and

falling. She had put on weight over the years. Head stood at his cabin door that first

night she and Henry were married, had looked up at the house with only mild curiosity.

Now he was only the distance of one jackrabbit hop from her, from al that Henry had

been able to have any night of their life together…” (p. 269-270)

10/1/2007 4
(all excerpts taken from Edward P. Jones’ The Known World of 4
ISBN-0007195303))