Black Canaan
| "Black Canaan" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Author | Robert E. Howard |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror, short story, Southern Gothic |
| Published in | Weird Tales |
| Publication type | Pulp magazine |
| Publication date | June 1936 |
Black Canaan is a short story written by Robert E. Howard that was originally published in the June 1936 issue of Weird Tales. It is a regional horror story in the Southern Gothic mode, one of several such tales by Howard set in the piney woods of the ArkLaTex region of the Southern United States. The related stories include "The Shadow of the Beast", "Black Hound of Death", "Moon of Zambebwei" and "Pigeons from Hell."
In New Orleans, narrator Kirby Buckner is confronted in a crowd by a withered black crone who whispers the ominous words, "Trouble on Tularoosa Creek!" Buckner immediately realizes that his backwoods homeland is in peril and instantly departs for the Canaan region of his birth. He arrives after midnight and sets out on horseback through the bayous to the town of Grimesville. En route he encounters a mysterious "quadroon girl" who mocks him. Buckner is disturbed to find himself aroused by her provocative beauty. The woman calls forth several large black men from hiding to kill Buckner, but he shoots one and kills another with a bowie knife. As a third flees, he notices that the girl has disappeared.
Buckner joins his fellow white men but finds himself strangely reluctant to speak of the black woman. He learns that the local blacks are now being led by a strange "conjure man" named Saul Stark, who has vowed to kill all the whites in Grimesville and set up a black empire in America. All are apprehensive concerning the imminent "uprising." The scion of an important family, Buckner is looked to for leadership in the time of crisis.
The men of Grimesville had captured a frightened black man, Tope Sorely, and were about to interrogate him when Buckner arrived. One of the men offers a whip to use as coercion but Buckner, loath to beat the truth from Tope, attempts to calm him instead. Tope dreads the vengeance of Saul Stark should he betray the conjure-man. He fears Stark will use his magical powers to "put me in de swamp!" Promises of protection persuade Tope to tell them of Stark's ambitions. Buckner decides to confront Stark. Traveling to Stark's cabin, Buckner finds that Stark is gone but instinctively realizes that he has left some sort of supernatural entity within the cabin to guard it and does not enter. As he returns to his fellows, Buckner once again meets the quadroon girl. "I have made a charm you cannot resist!" she gloats, and deep down the white man knows it is true. She tells him that that very night she will summon him to her, that he will witness the Dance of the Skull, and that he will be powerless to resist.
...
Wikipedia