THE DEAL

Harriet Beecher Stowe started Uncle Tom's Cabin with a deal made between a plantation owner and a slave trader.It is a most tragic event, as every aspect of slavery was.  In this song, Mr.  Edward Brodess (the owner of the plantation in Maryland where Harriet Tubman was born)  meets with a fictitious slave trader named Mr. Len.  Although this song narrative is partially fictitious, it represents the actual events that happened all to often.  Some of the plantation owners went into debt and needed to raise money. They did so by either hiring out their enslaved people (as Harriet/Minty was hired out) or by selling them. The music represents the tragedy of the events. It is cruelly ironic that the two men were "animated," while eating a  sumptuous meal. They were quite satisfied with their "business deal".

The Song

Instrumental





 Lyrics

Today, in the big house,
There were two men.
One Mr. Brodess, the other Mr. Len.
They sat at a table,they ate a sumptuous meal.
Both men were animated, talking with zeal.

Mr. Len was a broker, came a long way.
to purchase some slaves,
For which he would pay,
As little as possible, 'cause 
What he did feel..
As a slave trader, his object,
Get a good deal.

So Brodess told Len, 
That he has this slave, Jim.
Real  strong and quite able,
not many like him.
Then Len said to Brodess, he must add to the lot..
Throw a child into the deal..
He could take it or not.

In no time they agreed,
A fair price for the pair.
No matter who suffered,
Wretched despair.
They're slaves, after all, who cares how they feel,
So long as some money, changed hands in the deal.

And that's what went on, in the gloom of that room.
An agreement was made, that sealed another's doom.

CLICK ON THE MUSIC BELOW FOR THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIPTION

Improvisation, by Bernie Katzman