In Dessa Rose, Dessa is interviewed by Adam Nehemiah in the first section of the book. As the story unfolds, we discover that Dessa is in prison for her part in a slave revolt that resulted in the deaths of five white men and the maiming of a slave trader, Wilson. In addition, thirty one slaves had been killed or executed in the process, nineteen had been flogged for their part in the revolt, and almost thirty eight thousand dollars of damage had been incurred as a result of the rebellion.
In order to keep Dessa speaking to him, Nehemiah has to keep his disdain and contempt for her under wraps. Ultimately, however, he introduces two instances of revisionist bias into his interactions with Dessa. The first is when he questions Dessa about a supposed file that had been used to free the rebel participants from their chains.
There had been, of course, no indication that a file had been procured by any of the slaves to free their fellow rebel participants from their chains. Dessa's response to this question is to pretend that she has fallen asleep. When Nehemiah nudges her with his foot, Dessa flicks her eyes up at him; it is an impudent response to a man accustomed to civility and respect from a slave. Incensed, Nehemiah just manages to catch himself in an expletive of sorts.
The other instance Nehemiah displays his revisionist bias is when he questions Dessa about the number of slaves who managed to get away during the revolt. Of course, there is no basis for Nehemiah's claim: "there was no proof that any of the renegades had escaped the posse." Nehemiah asks these questions because of his preconceived notions and possibly his desire to sensationalize his account of the revolt, not because of any inclination on his part to get to the root of the matter.
Dessa's response is to sing a stanza from a slave spiritual:
"Lawd, give me wings like Noah's dove,
Lawd, give me wings like Noah's dove,
I'd fly cross these fields to the one I love,
Say hello, darling; say how you be."
Before Nehemiah can react, Dessa plunges straight into talking about Kaine, her former lover. She tells Nehemiah that Kaine had always sung to her at night, after her hard work in the fields. Apparently, Kaine had asked their master, Boss Smith, to let Dessa work up at the house, rather than the fields, so that she wouldn't be so exhausted every day. She praises Kaine highly and notes that his banjo-playing was so good that even their mistress had him up to the house to play. Of course, Dessa veering off on a tangent about Kaine frustrates Nehemiah, but he can do nothing about it. In reality, Dessa is able to decide the pace and tone of the interviews because Nehemiah desperately needs her cooperation in order to finish his book about the origins of slave uprisings.
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