Place where Slaves Drum on Indian Plantation (Location Key)

The enslaved Negroes on the Choctaw plantation in "Red Leaves" hide their drums "in the creek bottom," "on the bank of a slough" (328). The drums are used in what seems to be part of a regularly enacted tribal ritual, although story does not explain why they feel it is necessary to hide the drums from the Indians who have enslaved them, or the meaning of the ritual. While the protagonist of the story, also a slave, hides in the barn while waiting for his master to die, he listens to the drumming. He imagines that the scene is dark, with the "black limbs" of the men "turning" in a dance while the women nurse their young (329). After he runs away, "the sound of the drums" brings him back, briefly, to this spot - but while the story describes the drums as they continue to play during his conversation with the "headman," it does not provide any more details about the ritual that the drumming is part of (332). The story merely uses the drumming to provide a soundtrack for the encounter.