The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda by Ishmael Reed

Author:Ishmael Reed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: powerHouse Books
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

ACT 2, SCENE 1

Harriet Tubman enters.

Miranda: Who are you?

Harriet Tubman: Harriet Tubman. You never heard of me?

Miranda: O, right. Black history month. You were a slave, or something?

Tubman: That’s all they said about me? As Ann Petry says, I was “a woman who could see in the dark like a mule, smell danger down the wind like a fox, move through thick underbrush without making a sound, like a field mouse. A woman so strong that I could pick up a grown man, sling him over my shoulder and walk with him for miles.” Yes, I was a slave. I was tortured, I was whipped, but a blow to the head woke me. I was hit in the head by a missile thrown by a so-called master, as if a man could be my master. It was meant for another slave, but it affected my brain so that I began having visions like Joan of Arc. They say I was unconscious for days. Then a spirit came to me one night. It was raining and then it started to thunder. She was dressed in amber.

She was wearing a necklace that looked like it was made of seashells. She was wearing a crown made of peacock feathers. She was wearing a perfume that lit the room. She was dripping wet as though she came out of the river and she shouted, “Harriet. You will not die. Your mission is to escape this plantation. And lead your people to the arms of Queen Victoria.” She held my hand and the warmth of hers seeped into my dying body. It rained even harder. But how could you choose me, I asked. I’m not a gifted speaker, I’m not pretty. She had an axe in one hand and mirror in the other. She held the mirror to my face. My face was lit up. It was beautiful. I cried. She said, “You will go North. And from there, you will return and bring your people to a town called St. Catherine’s.” That’s how my people found me. I had regained consciousness. There was much jubilation. The master tried to get me to return to work. I refused.

They didn’t know what to do with me. My mother, Big Rit and my father were afraid for me because they knew what happened to those who defied the master. Because of my gifts, he often had me put on a show for his friends. They’d arrive in their fine attire on coaches, the ladies spinning their umbrellas. I was the entertainment. They’d load a boat full of stones and make me drag them. The master came to the barn where they had tied me up. He untied me and said that it was time for the show. I told him, “ain’t gonna be no show.” He raised his hand to slap me. I grabbed his little hand and squeezed it until I heard a crack. He squealed and ran from the barn. I knew that he was going to get help.

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