- Amantha Starr: You say you won't touch me. You give me your *word* as a gentleman. Well, what's to stop you from breakin' your word late one night and forcin' yourself on me while I sleep?
- Hamish Bond: [grins] Only the word of a gentleman.
- Amantha Starr: [late that night, unable to sleep] He said he wouldn't. But those are his footsteps, coming down the hall. Coming closer!
- [listens tensely]
- Amantha Starr: He didn't! Not tonight, anyway. Why not?
- [Frowning at first, she thinks it over, then gradually falls asleep]
- Amantha Starr: [Wakes up in bed, stretches] Mr. Hamish Bond can't keep me here! I'm leaving the moment his back is turned.
- Michele: [Offers a tray of food] The Master said those low-down men didn't bother to feed you. You must be very hungry.
- Amantha Starr: [Frowns] I'll leave... as soon as I've had the chance to rest and recover my strength.
- [Picks up a knife and fork and begins to eat]
- Rau-Ru: I hate him - for his kindness. That's worse than the rawhide. When a man uses a whip, you know what there is to fight against. But this kindness, it's a trap that can hold you in bondage forever!
- Miss Idell: Big, aren't you. Strong as a bull, I imagine.
- Capt. Seth Parton: My strength is of the spirit, Miss Idell.
- Miss Idell: Maybe so, Seth, but if your muscles ever get to wrestling with your spirit, I'll buy a ticket to the contest.
- Capt. Seth Parton: Good day.
- Capt. Seth Parton: I declare to you, sir, my burning belief in the natural equality of all humans.
- Aaron Starr: I'm not prepared for debate, sir. But, I believe you would agree that my slaves are treated kindly.
- Capt. Seth Parton: That's it, sir. That's just it! Kindness can be the mask for evil. The kindness of deluded persons ensnared in the works of wickedness, where indulgence rivets the shackle.
- Hamish Bond: Sounds like the gales we used to get off Rio Pongo. I've seen them all: Cape Verde, Cape Saint Maria, Sierra Leone, and the Bight of Benin.
- Amantha Starr: You sailed to all those places?
- Hamish Bond: Yes, and a thousand more. Or maybe it wasn't me at all. Maybe it was that other fellow, the fellow I used to be. He wasn't a bad sort.
- Rau-Ru: French poetry. A gift, no doubt, from Monsieur Charles. That perfumed peacock. You deluded little coquette. Don't you know his reputation? Every slave he owns is scarred by the whip. People of our blood, of *your* blood.
- Amantha Starr: I don't want to hear about it.
- Rau-Ru: Gives you a sense of power, doesn't it? White men dancing attendance. But it still isn't freedom. Freedom's a white word. And the fact is, you and I, aside from being male and female, are exactly alike.
- Corporal: Well, you're no better than a hooker. You're no better than those slat-busters following General Hooker's army.
- Rau-Ru: I hear you've been doing very well on the white side of the line. Now you come crawling back here.
- Amantha Starr: You detest me, don't you? Because I was the cause of their putting the hounds on you at Pointe du Loup.
- Rau-Ru: I don't hold that against you. It's the lie you've been living that I despise.
- Hamish Bond: I was in the nigger business. I was in it in a large way, if I may say so without pompous boasting.
- Amantha Starr: You mean the slave trade?
- Hamish Bond: Yeah. They called me Captain Strike Down. There was a time when I was right proud of that name. Well, a man has to be proud of something. But don't get the idea that it was all white man's wickedness. My chief partner was Old Gezo, a black king who drank rum out of gold-mounted skulls while the buzzards sat around waiting for him to start to slaughter.
- Hamish Bond: Wherever you go, l don't want to know where it is - I don't ever want to know where you are.
- Capt. Seth Parton: Truth gives pain sometimes. That doesn't mean I lack regard for the one who might be hurt.
- Sheriff: I can't say I like what I gotta do; but, I call you all to witness. Do you state and affirm that you go by the name of Amantha Starr?
- Amantha Starr: Certainly, that's my name.
- Sheriff: Amantha, it is sworn and affirmed that you are the issue of the body of a slave called Louisa, the chattel of Aaron Pendleton Starr, deceased. And as her issue, you are declared by the law of this Commonwealth, to be a chattel of Starrwood, subject to any claims against the estate.
- Amantha Starr: My mother?
- Mr. Calloway: She was a Negress. And that means you the same strap as the rest of them slaves out yonder.
- Minister: Please, Mr. Calloway. She ain't no Negro.
- Mr. Calloway: Now, a nigger's what you can sell and I aim to sell her quicker than she can swallow her own spit!
- Mr. Calloway: Why, you ornery little she-cat, you! You done broke my hide. But you know somethin'? I kinda like that in a wench. I used to be pretty proud of marks like that when I was a young'un.
- Amantha Starr: Might as well get used to it. Ain't nothin' gonna change nothin'.
- Amantha Starr: I'll change it.
- Budge: Yeah? Just who do you think you are, gal?
- Amantha Starr: Amantha Starr. And nobody's gonna keep me from being free.
- Budge: You think you're white, don't you? Whiter than me. Well, you ain't!
- Auctioneer: Now, ladies and gentlemen, a flower of Kentucky in the bloom of youth. But why go into details about something fit to ornament a drawing room? You ladies and gentlemen have eyes, especially you, gentlemen. Now, I don't misrepresent. For the fact, she has colored blood. But it couldn't be more than a miser's dram if indeed, ladies and gentlemen, that much.
- Amantha Starr: He's thinking about his $5000.
- Michele: He has many thousands of dollars.
- Amantha Starr: And he thinks that's all it takes to own a woman - her name on a piece of paper, like an animal's. Well, he can buy her, all right. But he can never own her, her feelings.
- Michele: And her heart? You think monsieur wouldn't be receiving full value without that? Many ladies have worn their hearts on their sleeves for him, free women - of quality.
- Amantha Starr: Free.
- Michele: That word. One hears it so often these days.
- Hamish Bond: I know better than most men that money is no cure-all. I used to think it was. I used to think it would open the door to friendship and other essentials more important than power. I used to believe it was everything. A drug for loneliness, a painkiller for certain memories. Well, the whole apothecary shop for every problem of life.
- Amantha Starr: Why did you buy me?
- Hamish Bond: Because you were on the slave block, somebody else was bound to bid you in. I saw a fellow with laced cuffs putting his hands on you - and I hate lace cuffs.
- Amantha Starr: This slave's not gonna do you any good, masseh. Because, I'm getting out of here, come hell and brimstone. And you'll never see hide nor hair of me again! And you better tell that man to give you back your $5000.
- Hamish Bond: I got a past I'd like to forget; but, I can't run away from it - no more than you can run away from what you are.
- Dollie: All aboard! We're going to the land of honey. Cotton-pickin' bucks up there bayin' at the moon, waitin' for Dollie, gal. Wooooo!
- Capt. Seth Parton: There is the unsullied happiness of virtue and good works and the sanctified happiness of marriage. Aside from these conditions, man's only true joy is self-denial.
- Amantha Starr: I always thought a woman was.
- Capt. Seth Parton: My dear Amantha, I've just been entrusted with a great crusade. It'll take me all over two counties.
- Mr. Calloway: Mr. Aaron Starr was the fine gentleman that kept a-borrowing money from me so's he could go sportin' over in Cincinnati.
- Amantha Starr: Don't you talk about my father that way, you - white trash!
- Mr. Calloway: Here we are. Well, you don't have to be scared. I ain't no hurryin' man. Now, you just lucky it ain't some crazy young rooster gonna be sharin' this here coop with you.
- Mr. Calloway: I brung you a present. Some old Doc Calloway's soothin' syrup. Guaranteed to give you the don't-care look. If you feel like it, help yourself.
- Mr. Calloway: Say, you sure are put together real nice, ain't ya? Soft and white. Oh, you gonna bring a right pretty price from one of them dandy's in New Orleans.
- Mr. Calloway: Now, you settle down and stop skittering around. You gonna find I ain't such a bad fellow to get along with. I got us fixed up real homelike.
- Amantha Starr: They'll never own me. And you won't either.
- Mr. Calloway: Now, don't you get uppity. You ain't thinkin' you're too good for me, are you? Nah, you just never had no man fun, that's it, ain't it? Is that it? Have you? Have you ever had a fella?
- Amantha Starr: Yes! And he'll find me and he'll kill you.
- Mr. Calloway: You don't know how uppity he's gonna be killin' one of the happiest men he ever seen. Now, come here to me.
- Budge: Some fella will buy you. And what he do? And what he then do? Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe you get something you like out of it. One of those Frenchy fellows in New Orleans. Maybe he buy you. You know what he'll do?
- [whispers in Amantha's ear and bust out laughing]
- Mr. Calloway: I'm gonna bust them biggity notions of you on wide open. Git them tea-party duds off of her and dress her like the rest in my coffle. That'll learn you ain't such a fancy article!
- Auctioneer: I have five thousand. Five. Five thousand. Mr. Hamish Bond offered five thousand. He invites you to bid against him. I have five, five, five. I have five thousand. Is Mr. Bond's bid a little too steep for you? Well, it usually is. But that's no disgrace to mortal man. Sold for $5000 to Mr. Hamish Bond.
- Auctioneer: Anybody's free to look before bidding. You will see perfection. Note the make of the leg and the splendid conformation.
- Auctioneer: Seventy-five dollars, why for this boy here? He's built like a bull. Go on down there, boy, show them what you're made of. Show them what your muscles are made of. Watch him run up and down, now. Look at him go, he run like a rabbit. Now, watch that boy. Look at that boy. Look at that specimen. Look at those shoulders. Look at the build on that boy. All right, last time. Now, what are my bids on that boy?
- Hamish Bond: The world is full of fools.
- Rau-Ru: Of all colors, monsieur. The cry for freedom is in the air like a rising wind. Slaves have already gone wild on many plantations.
- Mr. Stuart: Looks like somebody needs my gri-gri lovin' potion. Pour it in coffee, pour it in rum. Make Master Hamish crawl like a hound dog. Make him moan for his new gal. What's the matter? Don't you love nobody? Then you better try my gri-gri. Then you love somebody. Make you sit up and purr like a little pussy kitten.
- Mr. Stuart: Ah, that was smart! Tease him like a catfish swimmin' around a worm. And wait till he gets itchy. And then he'll get a little bite and grab so hard he'll break his pole!