Queen: The Story of an American Family
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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 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 many adventures, she married a reasonably successful former slave by the name of Alex Haley, and had three sons by him.
Alex Haley, her grandson, was unable to finish writing Queen before he died, and it was completed by David Stevens. While Stevens benefitted from the many boxes of research notes and a 700-page outline of the story left behind by Haley, he would later say that his writing was guided mainly by their many long conversations.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1993, the miniseries Queen was shown on television, directed by John Erman, and starring Halle Berry, Tucker Stone, Jasmine Guy, Tim Daly, Martin Sheen, Paul Winfield, Raven Symone, and Ann-Margret.
The series begins with the friendly relationship between James Jackson Jr (Tim Daly); the plantation owner's only son, and his slave, Easter (Jasmine Guy)---the daughter of African house slave, Capitain Jack, and his true love, Annie, a Cherokee Native. It is revealed that Easter and James grew up together, and gradually, their feelings for each other grow to form a romantic relationship.
The night of his father's death, James retreats to the comfort of the slave cabin where Easter lives. James and Easter make love, and it is only when they are alone months later, that Easter reveals she is carrying his child. In the meantime, James is being pushed by his widowed mother, Sally Jackson (Ann-Margaret) to marry the respectible and pretty Elizabeth Perkins (Patricia Clarkson).
That April, Easter gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Excited about his new granddaughter, Capitain Jack announces to James' family during dinner that a slave child has just been born. In his announcement, he assures James that "Easter's doing just fine". This gives Lizzie, James' soon-to-be fiancée, some worry. Excusing herself from the table when she realizes the baby Jack is speaking of was ineed fathered by James, Lizzie vows to never marry him; but her mother convices her otherwise.
James proposes to Lizzie the next evening and the two are married four years later.
During his engagement to Lizzie, James continues to visit Easter's cabin, leaving books for his daughter, whom he named Queen. Since it was illegal for slaves to read, James did this in secret. He convinces Easter to let Queen go live with him at the Big House, to be trained as a Ladies' Maid. Easter and Lizzie both disagree with the idea, but James' word is final, and five-year-old Queen is taken to live with her father.
Meanwhile, Lizzie learns that she is pregnant. She and James welcome a daughter, Jane, to whom Queen is ordered to care for. The film fasts forward to 1860; Queen (Halle Barry) and Jane are two young ladies growing up in the South. There is talk of a civil war breaking out among the North and South because of the slave trade. While no one wants the war to come, James firstly tells Easter, that if the war does come, he will fight in the Confederate Army.
Later in the year, the Union Army invades, and James leaves for battle. As he rides away, Easter, Queen, Jack, Lizzie, Sally and Jane, stand watch. It is in this moment that Easter reveals to Queen who her father really is saying, "Pray for him Queen. He your Pappy."
While James is gone, Queen helps the remaining ladies of the house, Lizzie and the now elderly Sally Jackson, as does Queen's mother, Easter. During a diphtheria epedimic, both Easter and Jane come down with the disease. With all the men gone off to war, there is no one to help the women; Lizzie sends for the family's doctor, but he tells her there is nothing to be done about Jane's deadly condition. Jane dies, and soon Easter becomes ill. Just as James returns from the battlefield, Easter dies with Queen at her side.
Feeling that she is home with her family, Queen vows to stay with "her people". Although she is biologically so, Sally Jackson does not consider Queen her granddaughter. After a mishap and near run-in with Mr. Henderson (James' foreman) and his friends, Queen returns home, tired and hungry. When questioned by Lizzie as to where she's been, Queen reminds the head mistress that she treats "an old dog better" than her. Meanwhile, James returns to the battlefront as the head of his own regiment, and against Lizzie's wishes. When he finally returns to the plantation, he finds Queen is leaving.
Now on her own, Queen finds it hard to blend in with the split races of society. Because she is both African and white, Queen must do her best to 'pass' as a white woman; sometimes it works, others, she is turned away. Along the way, she befriends Alice; a young woman in the same position as herself; the daughter of a white slave owner and one of his slaves. Teaching Queen how to not give herself away with "slave talk", Alice takes her new friend under her wing. Queen eventually meets and falls for a white man, Digby (Victor Garber), and soon they become engaged.
Making a nearly deadly mistake, Queen confesses that she is the daughter of a slave woman and Colonel Jackson, when Digby tries to rape her. In the end, she is beaten and raped anyway. Eventually, Alice learns of Queen's mistake and turns her away, leaving Queen to fend for herself.
