Song Yet Sung

Liz Spocott, a runaway slave, dreams of the future. She sees confusing scenes of black people riding in horseless carriages, children smoking strange cigars and carrying pistols, women in lighted boxes, men playing odd games in garish costumes, “every bit of pride, decency, and morality squeezed out of them” (1).

Liz is being held captive in an attic and has been severely wounded. During her escape, through the marshland and swamps of Dorchester County on the eastern shore of Maryland, a slave catcher shot her in the head. She managed to evade the slave catchers. However, Little George, a teenage slave working for Patty Cannon, captured Liz instead. Liz has spent three weeks chained in Patty’s attic healing from her wound and dreaming strange dreams of the future.

When she wakes, Liz feels improved enough to take in her surroundings, finding a dozen people chained alongside her. Liz is shackled to an old woman who sings a soothing song. The old woman tells Liz that they are in Joe’s Tavern, held by Patty Cannon, a “trader of souls” (7).

The old woman asks Liz if she knows “the code,” but Liz does not understand what she means. Liz has been dreaming, but she is reluctant to share the details of her dreams. The old woman draws a line in the dirt between them, but again, Liz does not understand. The old woman explains that this sign is how slaves know they can trust other slaves.

The old woman offers to teach Liz the code if Liz reveals her dreams. Liz does not think she needs to know the code, but the old woman insists she needs to learn it to survive. Little George has nursed Liz to keep her alive, because he rapes all the women held in the attic and since Liz is pretty and young, she is an especially desirable target. The old woman again insists that Liz share what she dreamed; if she does, the old woman will explain how to escape.

Liz carefully chooses her words as she describes her dreams. After she finishes, the old woman says to the others in the room, “I knowed it was true…She’s two-headed. She can tell tomorrow” (9).

The old woman announces to the room that Liz is going to free them, so everyone, especially a giant man named Linus, should be ready. Over the next few days, the old woman continues to disclose parts of the code to Liz, who still does not understand any of its cryptic fragments, which are:

You got to speak low. And don’t mind the song, mind the singer of it. Especially the singer of the second part. Don’t nobody know that part yet.

If you see wickedness and snares, you got to be a watchman to the good. You got to own to your part of wrongness.

Chance is an instrument of God.

The coach wrench turns the wagon wheel.

Scratch a line in the dirt to make a friend. Always a crooked line, ’cause evil travels in straight lines. Use double wedding rings when you marry. Tie the wedding knot five times. […] And find the blacksmith if you’re gonna marry.

North, south, east, west, and free. That’s the fifth point…Gotta go through the first four—to get to the five. Five knots. Five directions. If a knot’s missing, check the collar. It’ll tell you the direction the soul is missing from. (8-11)

Little George comes up to the attic and everyone falls silent. Liz turns her face to the wall and sees an exposed pike between slats in the floor. She falls asleep and dreams of a fairytale told to her as a child. When she wakes up, she realizes that she has chewed the wood around the pike, which she grabs with her front teeth and hides in her mouth.

Little George bends down to wash Liz’s face, then runs his hands over her body. Liz pulls her chains around his neck and drives the pike into his throat. All the prisoners pummel Little George to death. Using his keys, they free themselves.

The prisoners depart, leaving Liz dazed on the floor. She forces herself up and emerges outside the tavern where she sees Linus carrying the old woman who is in great pain. Linus puts the woman down and runs after the other escapees. Liz says goodbye to the old woman who says she has no name.