Patient Anthony - A Brazilian Boy's Walk to Slavery - 4 (Republished to Groups)

The sale of the slaves driven from the north of Brazil was concluded and the overseers stepped up to claim their new charges.

Suddenly there was a shout and a boy next to Patient Anthony scrambled to his feet.

"You, too!" ordered one of Rabelo's guards. "All of you! Get up!"

Patient Anthony was last to rise.

"Over to the senhores. Quickly! Quickly!"

They were lined up in front of the veranda. Ulisses Tavares, Baron of Itatinga, stepped down to the boys.

Patient Anthony trembled. He felt fright and shame but a desperate hope, too, that he would go with Policarpo. Please, Mae Monica. Policarpo is good to me.

The White Beard didn't take long to make up his mind. He immediately liked the look of the dark-skinned mulatto with his big eyes and open, honest face.

"What's your name, boy?"

"An -- tonio Paciencia."

The baron smiled. "Where did you get such a name?"

"From Mae Monica . . . senhor."

"Do you want to come with me, Antonio Paciencia?"

The boy looked up, and in his relief, he smiled. "Oh, yes, senhor . . . thank you, senhor!"

Patient Anthony and thirty adult slaves bought for Itatinga were transported from Rabelo's barracks in two mule-drawn wagons that reached Tiberica northwest of Sao Paulo on January 31, 1856. Ulisses Tavares and Firmino Dantas had kept ahead of the wagons, spending two nights at fazendas of relatives along the way. When the slaves arrived at Tiberica, the baron and his grandson were waiting for them.

Late morning, the wagons were pulled up to one side of the town square in the shade of a pretentiously huge church, the building of which had started thirty-three years ago.

The slaves were warned not to wander away from the wagons, which would have been difficult with the overseers watching from the front of a store where they'd gone to quench their thirst with warm drafts of Tennant's fine English ale.

The baron's grandson came over to the wagons. "Boy!" he called to Patient Anthony. "Come with me!"

Firmino Dantas headed toward the most prosperous store in Tiberica — Silva and Sons — which belonged to Jose Inocencio da Silva, Andre Vaz's orphaned son, who'd been raised by Silvestre da Silva.

Patient Anthony hesitated at the entrance to the store.

"Don't be afraid."

Patient Anthony took a few steps forward but again stopped.

"Come, child. The senhor is waiting."

Firmino Dantas looked at him sympathetically. "This isn't a punishment. No one will hurt you."

What does the master want with me, Mae Monica? He shuffled forward nervously.

Twenty minutes later, as he stepped out of the store, Patient Anthony had a partial answer to these questions, which only increased his confusion.

Inside the store, he'd been treated with amazing kindness. The baron himself had gone across to a tall glass jar, lifted out a ball of pink candy, and popped it into Patient Anthony's mouth. Never had he tasted such a marvelous sweet!

Then Ulisses Tavares had given the boy a white blouse of soft cotton with a big collar, long gray trousers with thin red stripes down the sides, and, most impressive of all, a pair of bright red braces with which his pants were hitched up. He'd not been given shoes, for those weren't for slaves. The baron, amid the satisfaction he showed in having Patient Anthony dressed so handsomely, warned that he expected the boy to take great care with these clothes that cost many reis.

"Oh, yes, senhor! My beautiful clothes! Oh, my Master, Antonio Paciencia will look after them!"

Outside the store, Patient Anthony again hesitated at Firmino Dantas's order to walk ahead. He was afraid that out in the open, sitting on the ground with the other slaves, he might spoil the new clothes he'd been given.

There was no need for Patient Anthony to worry about ruining his clothes. Firmino Dantas took him to the baron's open carriage, where he was put beside the driver for the trip to Itatinga. The carriageman was a mulatto slave, a great burly fellow called Cincinnato. He put on a friendly display of mock obeisance to the boy, bowing to him, praising his garments and helping him up to the carriage seat.

For the first time since leaving Jurema, the boy took a delight in the journey. Six miles north of Tiberica, the carriage entered the da Silva property, the clatter of iron-shod hooves sending flocks of brilliant-feathered birds into the highest branches of the forest. The jungle was alive with sound and color and exotic plants unknown to Patient Anthony. He gazed about him in awe and a little fear.

Three miles from the main settlement at Itatinga, the forest ended abruptly at the line of advance of the newest clearings. Majestic tree trunks still dotted the hillsides, their columns tall, black, and blasted by the inferno that had raged around them. Half a mile onward and the scene again changed, with the first rows of dark green young coffee plants waving amid a protective growth of other crops. Nearer the settlement, endless rows of older trees up to twelve feet high grew on the hillsides. Some workers had built their homes beside the road. Those outside when the baron's carriage approached greeted it respectfully, men removing their hats and pressing them to their chests, women bending their bodies with a motion suggestive of a royal curtsy.

Two hours after leaving Tiberica, the carriage crested a hill beyond which the ground sloped gently to the headland at the great bend of the Rio Tiete, with the Place of White Stones — Itatinga. The old house of Benedito Bueno was still there, an ugly rammed-earth building now used as a coffee store and slave infirmary. Off to the right, amid tufted royal palms and luxuriant bushes and flowers, stood the mansion occupied by the baron and his family. It was a sprawling whitewashed building with two ells extending backward. There were twenty outbuildings, all neat and whitewashed, the largest group of which housed the slaves. One hundred yards in front of the main house was an immense open area of stamped earth, the terreiro, where coffee beans were dried.

Cincinnato halted the horses at the front entrance of the mansion, where a flight of stone steps led up to a small open veranda with wrought iron railings. The baron and his grandson got out of the carriage. "You, too, Antonio Paciencia," Cincinnato said. "Climb down and wait there, at the bottom of the steps." Patient Anthony did as he was told. "When he wants you, the barao will send for you."

"For what?"

"Be patient, Antonio. You'll find out soon enough."

Patient Anthony waited for ten minutes. Cincinnato took the carriage to a shed near the house. The boy stood watching as he unhitched the horses.

Then the baron appeared in the doorway. "Come up here, Antonio Paciencia."

He climbed the steps quickly, but paused opposite the entrance to the house.

The baron stepped across the veranda to him. "Antonio, you must learn to keep your clothes neat." The baron tugged at the tail of the boy's shirt. "Tuck it in!"

When Patient Anthony tried unsuccessfully to comply, Ulisses Tavares helped him.

"There!" he said. He straightened the collar of the boy's blouse. "Good," he said, stepping back. "Good!"

At that moment, Patient Anthony saw the young Senhor Firmino Dantas in the doorway, and with him, a little mistress in a blue dress whom the boy took to be the sister of Senhor Firmino. The sinhazinha was much younger, short and with dimpled cheeks. She moved her pink hands excitedly and kept her fiery black eyes on Patient Anthony.

"Well?" the baron asked. "What do you think?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, Senhor Barao!" the girl exclaimed.

"He's called Antonio Paciencia."

The girl giggled with delight.

Her name was Teodora Rita Mendes da Silva and in a week's time she would celebrate her thirteenth birthday. She was tempestuous with the fire seldom absent from her small black eyes and with a sharp tongue, but she was a lively, enchanting creature, especially when others gave her their undivided attention. This she'd no difficulty at all commanding, for Teodora Rita Mendes da Silva was the wife of Ulisses Tavares, baron of Itatinga.

Two years ago, the baron, a widower for eleven years, had met the child at the house of her father, Emilio Mendes, a wealthy fazendeiro of Tiberica county and dear friend of Ulisses Tavares. The fresh bloom in Teodora Rita's rosy cheeks and her blazing eyes had warmed the heart of the then sixty-five-year-old baron. Eight months ago, an emboldened hero of Bussaco and the Banda Oriental had strapped himself into his corset and donned his black suit for a long interview with Senhor Emilio and a request for this little flower to brighten the days of an aging baron.

Senhor Emilio, an observant man, had shown no surprise, for Ulisses Tavares's visits to his house had been frequent and his doting upon the girl quite open. Senhor Emilio had no objection to the betrothal of Teodora Rita, though he wondered how long the senhor barao's ardor would last. So had many others, but not Ulisses Tavares. After seven months with his child bride, he remained as happy and charmed as when he'd first set eyes upon his little baronesa.

"Oh, yes, Senhor Barao!" Teodora Rita repeated. "What a lovely little boy!"

Patient Anthony saw the somber-faced Senhor Firmino Dantas smile for the first time.

The baron of Itatinga's features broke into a broad grin, so pleased was he with his wife's reaction.

"Antonio Paciencia is yours, my sweet angel," he said. "A gift for your birthday."