Solly Two Kings Character Analysis

ELI: Freedom is what you make it.

SOLLY: That’s what I’m saying. You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it? I seen many a man die for freedom but he didn’t know what he was getting. If he had known he might have thought twice about it.

I was in Canada in 1857. I stood right there in Freedomland. That’s what they called it. Freedomland. I asked myself, “What I’m gonna do?” I looked around. I didn’t see nothing for me, I tried to feel different but I couldn’t. I started crying. I hadn’t cried since my daddy knocked me down for crying when I was ten years old. I breathed in real deep to taste the air. It didn’t taste no different. The man what brought us over the border tried to talk with me. I just sat right down on the ground and started crying. I told him say, “I don’t feel right.” It didn’t feel right being in freedom and my mama and all the other people still in bondage. Told him, “I’m going back with you.” I stopped crying soon as I said that. I joined the Underground Railroad.

If you gonna do it…do it right! They wave the law on one end and hit you with a billy club with the other. I told myself I can’t just sit around and collect dog shit while the people drowning. The people drowning in sorrow and grief. That’s a mighty big ocean. They got the law tied to their toe. Every time they try and swim the law pull them under.

SOLLY: […] It’s dangerous out here. People walking around hunting each other. If you ain’t careful you could lose your eye or your arm. I seen that. I seen a man grab hold to a fellow and cut off his arm. Cut it off at the shoulder. He had to work at it a while…but he cut it clean off. The man looked down saw his arm gone and started crying. After that he more dangerous with that one arm than the other man is with two. He got less to lose. There’s a lot of one-arm men walking around.

ELI: That’s what Caesar can’t understand. He can’t see the people ain’t got nothing to lose.

SOLLY: […] I knew all them guns wasn’t on account of me. I figured they was fighting for themselves. And if that would help them that would help us.

ELI: They never said they was gonna help us. They said the war was gonna help us. After that it be every man for himself.

SOLLY: I told them you get what’s in it for you and I’ll get what’s in it for me. You get yours and I’ll get mine and we’ll settle the difference later. We still settling it.

Yeah, I burned it down! The people might get mad but freedom got a high price. You got to pay. No matter what it cost. You got to pay. I didn’t mind settling up the difference after the war. But I didn’t know they was gonna settle like this. I got older I see where I’m gonna die and everything gonna be the same. I say well at least goddamn it they gonna know I was here! The people gonna know about Solly Two Kings!

They laid him low. Put him in the cold ground. David and Solomon. Two kings in the cold ground. Solly never did find his freedom. He always believed he was gonna find it. The battlefield is always bloody. Blood here. Blood there. Blood over yonder. Everybody bleeding. Everybody been cut and most of them don’t even know it. But they bleeding just the same. It’s all you can do sometime just to stand up. Solly stood up and walked.

He lived in truth and he died in truth. He died on the battlefield. You live right you die right.

ELI: Freedom is what you make it.

SOLLY: That’s what I’m saying. You got to fight to make it mean something. All it mean is you got a long row to hoe and ain’t got no plow. Ain’t got no seed. Ain’t got no mule. What good is freedom if you can’t do nothing with it? I seen many a man die for freedom but he didn’t know what he was getting. If he had known he might have thought twice about it.

I was in Canada in 1857. I stood right there in Freedomland. That’s what they called it. Freedomland. I asked myself, “What I’m gonna do?” I looked around. I didn’t see nothing for me, I tried to feel different but I couldn’t. I started crying. I hadn’t cried since my daddy knocked me down for crying when I was ten years old. I breathed in real deep to taste the air. It didn’t taste no different. The man what brought us over the border tried to talk with me. I just sat right down on the ground and started crying. I told him say, “I don’t feel right.” It didn’t feel right being in freedom and my mama and all the other people still in bondage. Told him, “I’m going back with you.” I stopped crying soon as I said that. I joined the Underground Railroad.

If you gonna do it…do it right! They wave the law on one end and hit you with a billy club with the other. I told myself I can’t just sit around and collect dog shit while the people drowning. The people drowning in sorrow and grief. That’s a mighty big ocean. They got the law tied to their toe. Every time they try and swim the law pull them under.

SOLLY: […] It’s dangerous out here. People walking around hunting each other. If you ain’t careful you could lose your eye or your arm. I seen that. I seen a man grab hold to a fellow and cut off his arm. Cut it off at the shoulder. He had to work at it a while…but he cut it clean off. The man looked down saw his arm gone and started crying. After that he more dangerous with that one arm than the other man is with two. He got less to lose. There’s a lot of one-arm men walking around.

ELI: That’s what Caesar can’t understand. He can’t see the people ain’t got nothing to lose.

SOLLY: […] I knew all them guns wasn’t on account of me. I figured they was fighting for themselves. And if that would help them that would help us.

ELI: They never said they was gonna help us. They said the war was gonna help us. After that it be every man for himself.

SOLLY: I told them you get what’s in it for you and I’ll get what’s in it for me. You get yours and I’ll get mine and we’ll settle the difference later. We still settling it.

Yeah, I burned it down! The people might get mad but freedom got a high price. You got to pay. No matter what it cost. You got to pay. I didn’t mind settling up the difference after the war. But I didn’t know they was gonna settle like this. I got older I see where I’m gonna die and everything gonna be the same. I say well at least goddamn it they gonna know I was here! The people gonna know about Solly Two Kings!

They laid him low. Put him in the cold ground. David and Solomon. Two kings in the cold ground. Solly never did find his freedom. He always believed he was gonna find it. The battlefield is always bloody. Blood here. Blood there. Blood over yonder. Everybody bleeding. Everybody been cut and most of them don’t even know it. But they bleeding just the same. It’s all you can do sometime just to stand up. Solly stood up and walked.

He lived in truth and he died in truth. He died on the battlefield. You live right you die right.