Queen: The Story of an American Family

Queen: The Story of an American family by Alex Haley and David Stevens is a partly factual historical novel which has served to bring back to the consciousness of many White Americans the plight of the children of the plantation - the offspring of black slave women and their white masters, who rarely acknowledged the children, who were legally their slaves. The noted author Alex Haley (1921-1992) was the grandson of Queen, the illegitimate and unacknowledged daughter of James Jackson (a friend but not a relative of Andrew Jackson) and his slave, Easter. Although the novel alters many historical details to the extent that it cannot be treated as history, the basic outline - including the premise of James Jackson's paternity to Queen - has been accepted as fact by Jackson's white descendants. The Novel begins in Ireland and tells a story of James Jackson who joins the Irish resistance group, although not entirely believing in its causes. He fights two local battles and is taken prisoner later. After he is released from a British prison he is returns home and tells his father of his plans to go to America. James is given little money and some lines of credits in America and is told by his father to never expect anything oh him again. When James arrives in America he stops briefly in Boston where he encounters Slavery. He is told by an acquaintance that the Bible states that Whites need to control the Blacks and that slavery is obviously supported by their god. James, lacking adventure moves out West with his friend Andrew and establishes a local store which prospers and eventually buys a slave named Eugine. This is James first slave he owns. James eventually starts a plantation and marries Sally and produces several children. His eldest dies and the next in line to inherit his estate is young Jass. Jass is raised by his fathers closest slave Cap'n Jack, his wife and their daughter Easter. As they are raised together, Jass grows to love his slave and when his father dies, spends one night with her and impregnates her. The novel then recounts Queen's anguished early years as a slave girl, longing to know who her father was, and how it gradually dawned on her that he was none other than her master. After the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 and the subsequent abolition of slavery, Queen was cast out. James Jackson would not acknowledge her as his daughter, afraid of compromising the inheritance of his legitimate children and goaded by his wife, who despised Queen. After leaving The Forks of Cyprus, Queen moved to Decatur where she met two other Mulattas whom passed for Whites and were absorbed into the White Society. Queen befriended a fellow Mullata named Alice who was raised by prostitutes and on one occasion met with Gentleman in the night. Queen met a man named Diby who proposed to her and from the moment he saw her knew she was a Black. Digby proposed to Queen, after he drugged and raped her. Queen was then kicked out of Alice's home after a rock and stone were thrown into Alice's room stating "All Nigra bitches will die.". After many adventures, she married a reasonably successful former slave by the name of Haley, and had three sons by him. Alex Haley was unable to finish writing Queen before he died, and it was completed by David Stevens. While Stevens benefit ted by the fact that Haley left behind many boxes of research notes and a 700-page outline of the story, David would later say that his writing was mainly guided by the many, long conversations he had with Alex.

Adaptations

In 1993 the miniseries Queen was shown on television, directed by John Erman, and starring Halle Berry , Tucker Stone and Ann-Margret.

External links

• IMDB