Natural Born Eastman

Buck and the Preacher (1972) was supposed to be a comedy adventure western, but it was something more serious - including a history lesson on race in the West.

Director Sidney Poitier is Buck, a wagonmaster leading freed slaves from Louisiana to a fertile valley in Colorado, prophesied by an old man who reads the bones. They are dogged by nightriders, led by Cameron Mitchell. These are unreconstructed confederates, being paid by Louisiana plantation owners to bring the ex-slaves back to work the fields - or kill them to discourage others. Buck leads them away from the wagon train and meets up with his wife Ruby Dee, then rides off again.Needing a fresh horse, he negotiates for and then outright steals Harry Belafonte’s horse. Belafonte is the Preacher, a shady, threadbare drifter who claims to be doing the Lord’s work.

But while he is away, the wagon train is hit by the nightriders, who trash the camp, destroy their supplies and steal their money (probably while raping the woman who was wearing it in a money belt - as soon as I saw them put it on her, I knew that was a bad hiding place). When the Preacher comes along, he is most concerned about getting his horse back. But soon he is throwing his lot in with the wagon train.

Poitier doesn’t trust him and calls him an “Eastman”, which is an old term that I’ve been researching for a while. It shows up in songs, like “On the Road Again” (“Natural born Eastman, on the road again”) and Furry Lewis’s “Kassy Jones” (“See it written on the back of my shirt, I’m a natural born Eastman and I don’t have to work”). Nobody seems to know where it comes from, but it seems to mean “someone who lives off the labor of others, especially women.” Belafonte certainly looks shifty here, with a scruffy beard and mustache. Poitier, on the other hand, looks as noble and strong as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Randolph Scott put together.

There is a little bit of comedy-action when Buck and the Preacher go to steal the money back. But Buck meeting with the Indians to negotiate for free passage for the train is more typical. The movie is mostly about the actual historical experience of African Americans in the western frontier. Exciting and interesting.