How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

A Haitian woman, Jessaline, walks along the sewage-scented streets of New Orleans, ready to “give up” when she runs into an extremely polite white New Yorker named Raymond (75). He compliments her beauty, though he is a bit taken aback by her lack of hair. Jessaline finds the exchange flattering but absurd, as most white men don’t flirt with black women in public.

The two part ways and Jessaline hurries to her much-anticipated meeting with Creole engineer Monsieur Norbert Rillieux. Jessaline only recently arrived in America from Haiti on a trip that had taken both courage and cunning. Since arriving, the strenuousness of her journey had not stopped as she spent all of it searching for Rillieux—the man her “superiors” were hoping might help their business (81). Unfortunately, within minutes of meeting him, she discovers that he’s “an idiot” (79). They exchange pleasantries, and she pulls a vial of effluvium from her purse and makes him smell it. She tries to coax him into inventing a process in which the effluvium might be converted into a “fuel source” (81). Rillieux takes offense at this suggestion, however, and tells her it seems like his superiors are trying to dupe him by sending a “comely face” to do their bidding (81). He asks her to admit that he is not the one who will truly “profit” from this plan (81).

Just as Jessaline is about to pull her gun on the uncooperative Rillieux, his sister, Eugenie, enters with a tray of “refreshment” (82). Jessaline immediately likes Eugenie and can tell she is smarter than Norbert. Eugenie apologizes for her brother’s “temper” and excitedly asks if she can join them when Jessaline reveals they are talking “chemistry” (84). Jessaline, thinking that engaging Eugenie could win Rillieux’s favor, again goes through the spiel about converting runoff from “rum distillation” into fuel, and explains why Rillieux could be helpful in establishing this process (85). Eugenie responds by saying the process necessary to turn effluvium into fuel would be a lot more complicated than Jessaline is making it out to be, but she turns to Rillieux and encourages him to help anyway. Rillieux agrees to “consider it” but just as quickly reminds Jessaline she was about to leave (88).

Jessaline leaves, convinced that Eugenie will be invaluable in getting Rillieux to work with her, and decides to celebrate by going to a vaudeville. When she returns to her lodgings, however, she is confronted by a burglar in her room. She attacks him but he gets away. Once he is gone, she assesses the damage, but nothing has been taken. She realizes that the thief was there trying to steal the “chemical formula” her superiors sent for Rillieux—not her personal belongings (88). She changes lodgings and proceeds with more caution than ever.

Soon after, she hires one of the “innkeeper’s slaves” to deliver a “secret” message to Eugenie, asking her to meet in private (89). Eugenie agrees and they meet at the “convent of Ursulines” (90). Eugenie reveals she has been researching Jessaline and knows that she is both not free and from Haiti. Jessaline reveals her true name to Eugenie and explains she is the daughter of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the Haitian revolution. She goes on to explain how desperate Haitians are to sustain their freedom, and that their only chance of survival most likely rests in the invention she is currently trying to get Rillieux to make. Eugenie bristles when she finds out Norbert’s inventions might help fuel Haiti’s military. Jessaline counters this worry by listing the violent tactics white men use against Haitians and by explaining that all weapons would be used to defend Haitian lives, not wantonly kill others.

Seeing that this is all new to Eugenie, Jessaline goes on to explain that Eugenie might easily be a victim of racism if not for her class and location, and that Eugenie might actually be better off in Haiti, where women are given many more opportunities than in America. When this excites Eugenie, Jessaline also tells her lesbians are accepted in Haiti. Eugenie responds positively to this and Jessaline leans in to kiss her, but they are interrupted by shouting nuns. Shrouded in “awkward silence” Eugenie tells Jessaline she must go home. Before they part, Jessaline gives Eugenie the formula from her superiors and asks her for “any assistance” she might be willing to offer (97). Eugenie says she will work on it, so Jessaline tells her she will contact her again in “one week” (97).

After Eugenie leaves, Jessaline is approached by a nun who was sent by her superiors to warn her that the “Order of the White Camellia,” a white supremacist organization, is now active in New Orleans and that she is in danger (98). She tells Jessaline to stop messing with Eugenie or Eugenie could be killed. Back at the inn, Jessaline is consumed by love for Eugenie and by fear.

Over the next week, Jessaline “lay[s] low,” changing location and appearance (99). On the appointed day, she dresses up as a beggar, delivers a letter to her superiors, and then heads off to meet Eugenie. She tricks Rillieux’s servant into thinking she is just a messenger and is brought to a sleeping Eugenie by the garden. Jessaline feels overwhelmed by love. Eugenie awakens and Jessaline asks if she has devised a process for converting the effluvium. Eugenie says she has; Jessaline asks her for a copy so she can bring it back to Haiti. Eugenie gets upset when she realizes Jessaline plans on abandoning her, so she slaps her and storms out. Before Jessaline can process the incident, however, she finds herself face to face with a gun and the thief who had previously been in her room. 

The man pokes fun at her appearance and hints she will soon be raped and “lynch[ed]” (104). Suddenly, they hear Eugenie scream from inside the house. Seeing that the man is caught off guard, Jessaline snatches her gun, shoots him, and steals the weapon from his fallen body. For a second, she considers lingering long enough to get back Eugenie’s plans, plans that “could be the salvation of her nation,” but decides to try to save Eugenie instead (105).

Inside the Rillieuxs’, Jessamine finds Eugenie held at gunpoint by Raymond, the white man she previously met on the street. She realizes he had been a spy all along. Raymond keeps demanding Norbert give him the plans, not realizing it is Eugenie who made them. Jessamine explains Eugenie is the one who made the plans, not Norbert, and she tells Raymond their exact location, hoping to save Eugenie’s life. Raymond does not believe her until she offers to go to the garden and show him the plans herself. As she is about to do so, Eugenie breaks a bottle of rum over Raymond’s head, giving Jessamine just enough time to shoot him.

Over Raymond’s dead body, Jessaline proposes that Eugenie come back to Haiti with her. Eugenie agrees to go if she can bring Norbert, who she knows will be charged with Raymond’s murder if he stays in the States. Jessaline says they are both welcome and they all head out back to get the plans Eugenie devised. To their horror, both the thief and plans are now gone. Before Jessaline can fall apart, however, Eugenie confidently says she will make even better plans once they are in Haiti, assuring Jessaline that she plans on making them rich and happy. They kiss and Jessaline can’t believe her “mad fortune” at finding a woman like Eugenie to call her lover (112).