MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[jbor]

Otto wrote:

> Where, do you think, refers that "Now be a man, face me, and make it easier,
> or must I rather work upon you from the Back, like a Beast" (699.2-3) to?

I think it refers to the whip-lashing that Dixon has already begun to give
the man. When Dixon says "Turn around, I'll guess *you've* never felt this"
(698.35), he lashes the whip (on "*you've*", italicised by Pynchon in his
text for a purpose, and matching the way the text indicates the slave-driver
lashing the whip at his slaves at 698.20-22) at the man, who has turned away
from Dixon after being punched. I read the "this" as not just the whip
(which the man cannot see, and which Dixon sees that he cannot see, because
the man is facing away), but the feel of the whip. I'd note that the use of
the relative pronoun ("this") implies that both participants understand the
nominal context (the whipstroke). I read the "You broke my tooth"
exclamation as indicating the slave-driver's shock that a "*Friend*"
(696.34) has resorted to actual physical assault (the tooth broken by the
punch, the sting of the whiplash), something which he hadn't quite counted
on at the inn the day before either when he was trying to encourage Dixon to
come to the slave-auction and buy a "young Mulatto gal" (696.29). (I think
this goes to Terrance's point about the Quakers' reputation as
slave-holders.)

The slave-driver ends up on the ground feebly pleading for his life because
he is being assaulted with the whip (and I agree with you that whether or
not it actually connects eight times is a moot point, but irrespective of
this, Dixon does lash it at the man eight times imo). The man calls out his
kids' names (the "Soames" -> "Scott" emendation is interesting, I agree: I
wonder if it was Pynchon's idea?) to try to prick Dixon's conscience, as a
plea for mercy. But the man is not frightened of Dixon's words alone, and he
"scuttl[es] away" (699.24) when he realises that they are now just words
again, which is what he took for granted the previous evening (697.4-9).

It's only my reading, which I offered in good conscience, and backed up with
textual evidence when Doug challenged it. I think it's perhaps the most
climactic scene in the novel, and provides much interpretive grist to the
mill, and so it shouldn't come as any surprise to see it generate voluminous
and lively discussion.

best


ps. I'll quote the HyperArts excerpt from the source in full, just to have
it on the table. I agree that it is consistent with the way the scene and
chapter play out in the novel, and that reservations about the source's
"truth" quotient or status as proof are flagged in the continuation of the
framing historiographical disagreement between Ives and Wicks (695-6). I'd
add that when I first read the scene, without any access to or knowledge of
(the existence of) this source, I read it as a violent, physical
intervention on Dixon's part, and saw part of its strength as a literary
climax in psychological dilemma Dixon faces, the way he acts against his
Quaker inclinations, has to in fact to effect the release of the slaves from
their unjust and brutal captivity, but then feels remorse and doubt about
this resort to violence. Like s~Z, I think it's the "Equine curiosity" of
Rebel which reminds Dixon that he has been reduced to the same sort of
brutality as the slave-driver, but I think there is also a bitter-sweet
reminder, or the first planting of a seed of self-doubt in his mind, when
"the Africans advise him", matter-of-factly, that "some will stay, some'll
get away" (699.16). Anyway:

The following is from H W Robinson "Jeramiah Dixon (1733-1779): A
Biographical Note" _Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society_, vol.
94, no. 3, June 1950, pp 272-4:

A story is told that one day, whilst in America, Dixon came across a slave
driver mercilessly beating a poor black woman. Going up to him he said:
"Thou must not do that!" He received the curt answer: "You be d....d! Mind
your own business." Dixon's reply was: "If thou doesn't desist I'll thrash
thee!" Then righteous wrath overcame his Quaker principles. He was a tall
and power-ful man, and an imposing figure, so without more ado he seized the
slave-driver's whip and with it gave him the sound thrashing that he richly
deserved. Dixon kept the whip a trophy and took it back with him to
Cockfield, where it was long regarded as a family treasure.

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/extra/dixon.html#slave

best