BEEF LIQUOR

“And yet it must be confessed that among the poor, degraded and ignorant slaves there exists a foolish pride, which loves to boast of their master’s wealth and influence. A white person too poor to own slaves, is often looked upon with as much distain by the miserable slave as by his wealthy owner.”- Austin Steward, “Twenty-two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman” 1857 

   Hubris is a fucked up thing. This passage from Austin Steward’s memoir, reveals a universal perversion of the human spirit. We convince each other to take pride in the most shameful collective experiences. For a slave to take delight in a poor white man’s inability to own slaves cranks the schadenfreude up a notch. It’s beautifully twisted in it’s dark, crystalized logic. It is the prideful; the rich, the military, the celebrity, or the shameful; the incarcerated, or condemned (of all races), who leave the clearest tracks. Pride and shame skip hand-in-hand down the centurion’s trail. Nothing but steak and whiskey from now on! 

    The son of a rich Wyoming Valley lumberman, Isaac S. Osterhout did so well as a real estate magnate that he bought the grand First Presbyterian Church, and generously endowed the building to house The Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. There, they spell our name the same, but insist on pronouncing the ghostly second “O” like an amputated Dutch limb. Availing themselves to modern 19th century advances in library science, the library board hired Melvil Dewey to organize the collection of books, with his radical, new decimal system. When I introduced myself over the phone, The Osterhout Free Library head librarian informed me that the family insists the name be pronounced with the oo. “It’s a mantra down here.” she lectured me, “We take pride in pronouncing it “Oosterhout,” like “rooster.” I told her she was pronouncing my name wrong, and she just sighed and stated flatly, “You’re not very Dutch.” 

Jack Hodges sworn

By Jonas Storey: 

     

Q. Did you never tell Dunning you had formed an attachment to a mulatto woman in NY, who was kept by a white man and you killed the man?

1. No, I never did.

Q. Did Dunning give you any reason for wanting the old man dead, or was the offered reward that tempted him?

1. Dunning said it was not the money he would do it for, but that he was afraid he would lose his summer’s work if Jennings should come into the possession of the property….        

James Teed sworn

By Jonas Storey:

Q. How long have you known the prisoner [David Dunning] at the bar?

 A. I have known him since last April or May when he came to live in my house.

Q. Do you know that he had any concern in the murder of Mr. Jennings? 

A. I do not know whether he had or not.

Q. Have you ever heard Mr. Conklin say anything about the prisoner at the bar being employed in that murder?

A. I never have. I never understood that Conklin was concerned in it at all.

John Weaden sworn

By Wm. Price

Q. Have you known any differences between Dunning and Teed?

A. I worked at Teed’s still house for a month last fall, and knew that they did not speak well of each other. I heard Dunning say that he would either fight or sue Teed unless he gave him satisfaction for taking rails from his fence.

    The perceived injustice that befell James and Hannah Teed at the hands and quill of Phoebe and uncle Dick was what propelled the murder plot forward. Conklin, the architect of the attack/counter-attack, urged them all on. Privately, Dunning threatened to kill both his so-called new friends; James Teed, for stealing his fence rails, and David Conklin for withholding wage. Conklin told him to relax. Before long he’d have plenty of money to buy rails and a whole string of quarter horses if he wanted. Jack was bored listening to it all. He was busy drinking too much and visiting Mrs. Teed every chance he got. 

    Conklin and Teed huddled at each other’s houses, or staked out the bar, complaining and scheming. Hodges and Dunning were the paid listeners, more than willing to “ape” it up for a drink, mesmerized by the acceptance of Conklin and Teed; who never failed to pick up the tab. Hannah was left at home with the kids, the still house and random visits by Jack. Hannah’s job was clear—make sure Jack Hodges followed through on his promise to kill Dick. Like booze and church, Jack had a weakness for the opposite sex, and James Teed was willing to pimp out his wife to exploit that weakness. Jack worshipped the piously sexy Hannah Teed, and when things took a turn towards something a little spicier, a bit more intimate—he was all in.

    The mention of Jack’s pregnant “$50 wench” and the “mulatto woman” he supposedly killed a white man over, portrays Jack Hodges as something other than the benign “poor, ignorant drunkard,” manipulated by the white woman. And it may hold some truth. But, the expected racial stereotype of a black “lady’s man,” a rapist on the prowl, doesn’t take hold. In fact, the trope is turned on its head, as Hannah Teed (the only woman amongst all these male conspirators) is the one demonized by the prosecution as the instigator, the “deplorable woman,” luring poor Jack Hodges into her devious designs. From my reading of the report, Hannah and Jack were on the same cozy page of mutual exploitation.       

     David Dunning’s lawyer, Jonas Storey, esq., doesn’t get much credit, lost amidst the higher profile defense teams. This question of “sexual guilt” is a brilliant one, laid at Jack’s feet. The only chance Jonas Storey had of getting his client Dunning off, was by casting doubt on Jack’s entire story and character. Portraying Hodges as a sexual predator, or jealous lover, thereby questioning the truthfulness of Jack’s version of events, was Storey’s strategy. Maybe Dunning just happened along, while Jack was beating Dick to death. Maybe Dunning was completely innocent. Was Jack the honest broker; manipulated, trusting soul, led astray by the duplicitous white men and women? Or was he an over-sexed, greedy, cold-hearted killer, making it all up in the hope that he would somehow save his own skin? “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Jonas Story implored, “are we to believe that this negro sailor only shot a gun once…..at a dog on Sunday?”