Les blancs: the collected last plays of Lorraine Hansberry.
The drinking gourd of the title is the Big Dipper. For a slave in the South it pointed the way North, the way to freedom. Hannibal, the main character, is a slave about 19 years old who is thinking about running away. Hannibal says the only good slave is a bad slave. To keep his human dignity he breaks tools, works slowly, plays sick and often disappears for hours at a time. Because his mother is the master's most trusted slave -- she cooks for him -- the master never comes down hard on Hannibal. But then, the master gets old and sick and his 30-year-old son Everett takes over and works the slaves harder and longer because the soil is giving out. He hires an overseer who makes an example of Hannibal with devastating consequences.