Beneath Suspicion Jesse Ayers (b. 1951)
Beneath Suspicion is an opera based upon the true story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a passionate abolitionist known as “Bet,” the middle-aged daughter of a recently deceased, wealthy Richmond slave owner. Upon her father’s death, she frees her slaves, including a young woman household servant named Mary. Bet, recognizing Mary’s extreme intelligence, sends her to Philadelphia to a Quaker School to be educated, after which Mary returns to Richmond to work in the Van Lew home as a freewoman. Mary is Bet’s confidant, and has a photographic memory.
Though Richmond is the capital of the Confederacy, about half of its inhabitants are Union sympathizers. Bet, a firebrand, uses her contacts to set up a spy ring to report Confederate movements to the Union military. Her information is so reliable, her coded messages go directly to General Ulysses S. Grant. In this excerpt from this magnificent work, Mary has just informed Bet that she intends to pose as an illiterate slave to work in the home of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, where she has free reign to go about the house and President Davis’ office without notice.
After the war, Ulysses Grant acknowledges Elizabeth Van Lew as his best source of intelligence. Elizabeth, in turn, credits Mary Bowser as her most valuable agent. Both women were inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in the 1990’s.
LIBRETTO
Solo violin playing a melancholy fiddle-like tune.
BET
[Spoken narration over the opening fiddle tune]
This is a true story of two women from Richmond, Virginia, one a wealthy, white, middle-aged abolitionist, the other a daring freed slave barely in her twenties. Friends, who risked their lives, working together during the American Civil War.
Mary enters and begins humming “Go Down Moses,”
MARY
[Humming the first phrase, then singing] …
LET MY PEOPLE GO
OPPRESSED SO HARD THEY COULD NOT STAND
LET MY PEOPLE GO
Bet enters while Mary is singing, observing that Mary seems deeply troubled.
Mary’s singing is interrupted by the piano fading in, imitating a brass band approaching,
playing “Dixie” in different key.
BET
exasperated
I swan, not again!
MARY
continuing her song
TELL OL’ PHAROAH
BET
How many more times will that band play that song today?
MARY
It shor’ is a right catchy little tune. They was singin’ it up in Philadelphia when I was at that Quaker School for the Colored.
BET
Yes, I’ve even heard it’s even President Lincoln’s favorite air.
Bet begins humming the tune “Aura Lee.”
MARY
Did that Tennessee bourbon loosen any tongues last night. Miz Bet?
BET
Land sake’s it did indeed. Old Captain Peters from the war department was tryin’ to impress me with his importance. Told me near ‘bout everything on the position and strength of Longstreet, [coyly] while I let on that all of those numbers were too confusing for a woman.
[they laugh]
MARY
Like the Bible say, “But the tongue no man can tame.” [spoken] James 3: 8
BET
Well, all that loose talk from Captain Peters’ tongue are on its way right now to General Grant.
MARY
“An’ Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men to spy secretly.”
BET
[spoken] Joshua …
MARY
[spoken] … 2: 8
[Dixie starts up again]
BET
[becoming exasperated at yet another repetition of Dixie from the band outside]
Not again!
MARY
I am a-fixin’ to put cotton in my ears.
BET
Me, too.
MARY
Catchy or not, that tune’s beginnin’ to wear on my ears, sure ‘nuff.”
BET
Worn ears will recover. What worries me is knowing what it is wearin’ down your spirit. What’s weighin’ on your heart so heavy?
MARY
[with feigned cheerfulness, trying to hide her worry from Bet]
Now what on God’s green earth make you say a thing like that, Miz Bet?
BET
No use tryin’ to hide that heavy heart from me.
[with affection, maybe holding her hand]
You were born in this house. I’ve watch you grow from a baby these past twenty years.
realizing why Mary is trying to hide her worry
I don’t need protectin’ from what’s worrying you. The burden is half when two share the load.
MARY
You discern rightly, Miz Bet, my heart is heavy. I got somethin’ I needs to say.
They sit together to talk
MARY
Freedom was right strange at first.
I was born a slave,
My mama was born a slave
Her mama was a slave.
Then your daddy took sick, an’ he die.
BET
May God forgive him for ownin’ slaves
MARY
Then you, Miz Bet, set me free.
BET
It was a joy for me, and to send you up north to school – I knew you would do well.
MARY
I loved all that schoolin’. I studied hard.
BET
I knew you would, Mary.
| MARY | BET |
| But I also studied those Quaker folks, too,
An’ I pondered on why they do all this For a colored girl they even don’t know, Why they do this? Why they do all this? |
Good folks to pattern after.
Good folks, kind people, good folks, They are good folks, such kind people Good folks. |
MARY
They free so why they do all this?
An’ I finally puzzled it out.
Them Quakers,
An’ Fred’rick Douglass,
An’ Mister Lincoln
An’ you, Miz Bet
All you all,
Use your freedom
For somethin’ more than just to please yourselves.
You free, but you serve a massa.
You be free, but you choose to serve a massa,
Massa Jesus, Massa Jesus,
You free but you choose to serve Jesus.
An’ you live your lives servin’ out a great cause
An’ that cause is what make you really free
I learnt that freedom’s got no sweetness
‘Less it be used for somethin’ bigger than me
| MARY | BET |
| An’ I know my cause, Miz Bet, I know my cause. |
The cause! The cause! |
| I got to help my people to freedom |
We have to help your people to freedom |
| I got to help my people to freedom | We have to help your people to freedom |
MARY
I’s got a plan, an’ I fret you may not like it none.
I don’t like it much myself.
But no one ‘cept me can do this thing God showed me.
I got to choose, will I help my people?
God showed me a way that I can help the Union,
Somethin’ hard I don’t wants to face,
The fruit hangs low for the pluckin’,
But this fruit got a mighty bitter taste.
I got to face the fiery furnace. I’s got to go back … back …
| MARY | BET |
| To slavery. | No! Mary, no! |
| I got to go back!
to help my people |
Please, no!
Don’t go back |
BET
Mary, Mary, why?
MARY
It’s the onlyest way.
BET
But I don’t understand. How can givin’ up your freedom help your people?
MARY
It’s ‘cause where I be workin’.
In a big, gray house, up on Shockoe Hill, on East Clay Street …
BET
Dear God in Heaven! The Jefferson Davis home?!
You have in mind to spy, don’t you? Right in the Confederate White House.
MARY
My friends tells me President Davis leave his papers all over his desk.
Won’t nobody ‘spect a colored girl can read,
much less mem’rize word for word like I can.
BET
Your memory is remarkable
MARY
I’s about the onlyest one that can do this.
BET
And they won’t even notice you.
MARY
I can listen to their war plans
BET
They will talk like you’re not even there.
MARY
They won’t notice me, they don’t know I’s smart.
BET
But if they catch you …
MARY
I knows how to act, I can play the part.
BET
…They will have no mercy.
MARY
They won’t notice me, they don’t know I’s smart.
BET
It might just work. You would be above suspicion.
MARY
Mo’ like, I be beneath suspicion.
BET
But I’m worried. This is terribly dangerous. If they find you out …
MARY
I got to do this.
BET
There will be no mercy. They will have to make an example of you.
MARY
It’s a war, Miz Bet! [more gently] Good people on both sides die every day.
My people been dying for years,
Life sucked out them day after day, month after month, year after year.
An’ now when a chance to do somethin’ ‘bout it is laid right at my feet,
Will I turn tail and flee to Tarshish like Ol’ Jonah? No, m’am!
It’s “for such a time as this” that this here Ester
Will rise up an’ place her fate in the hands of Almighty God.
BET
“Though you walk through the valley of the shadow,
You will fear no evil.”
BET
Begins to sing “Am I A Soldier Of The Cross”
MUST WE BE CARRIED TO THE SKIES
ON FLOWERY BEDS OF EASE
WHILE OTHERS FOUGHT TO WIN THE PRIZE
AND SAILED THROUGH BLOODY SEAS
MARY and BET
SURE WE MUST FIGHT IF I WOULD REIGN;
INCREASE MY COURAGE, LORD.
WE’LL BEAR THE TOIL, ENDURE THE PAIN,
SUPPORTED BY THY WORD.
| BET | MARY |
| THY SAINTS IN ALL THIS TRAGIC WAR
SHALL CONQUER THOUGH THEY DIE THEY SEE THE TRIUMPH FROM AFAR BY FAITH’S DISCERNING EYE |
WHEN ISRAEL WAS IN EGYPT LAND
LET MY PEOPLE GO OPPRESSED SO HARD THEY COULD NOT STAND LET ME PEOPLE GO |
MARY AND BET
THY SAINTS IN ALL THIS TRAGIC WAR
SHALL CONQUER THOUGH THEY DIE
THEY SEE THE TRIUMPH FROM AFAR
BY FAITH’S DISCERNING EYE
THEY SEE THE TRIUMPH FROM AFAR
BY FAITH’S DISCERNING EYE
[Bet and Mary stand together, motionless, heads uplifted, with a look of inspired determination.]
[Spoken narration over reprise of opening fiddle music]
| MARY | BET |
| Two women…
One black.
Working together, to change their world. |
One white,
Friends, who risked their lives, |