Stephen Warren (1783-6 May 1859) was an African-American slave who served as the head house slave at Calvin J. Candie's Candyland plantation in Chickasaw County, Mississippi.
Biography[]
Stephen Warren was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1783, and he spent all 76 years of his life on the Candyland plantation in Chickasaw County. Over the years, Warren rose to be head slave due to his devout loyalty to the Candie family, and he came to look down on his fellow slaves and the Black race as a whole. Warren became a father figure to Calvin J. Candie, whom he helped to raise; under Warren's tutelage, Candie became a sadist. In May 1859, Warren first met the bounty hunters King Schultz and Django Freeman when they came to Candyland, and Warren was aghast at the sight of a Black man riding a horse.
At dinner, Warren took notice of the stares between Django and the house slave Broomhilda von Shaft and quickly deduced that they knew each other. He then pulled Candie aside and told him that it was likely that Schultz had come to the plantation not to buy a "Mandingo fighter" for $12,000, but to buy Broomhilda for her husband Django, and then leave while falsely promising to return in five days with a lawyer and the money to seal the purchase of "Eskimo Joe". This revelation led to Candie forcing Schultz to pay him $12,000 for Broomhilda's freedom, only for Schultz to shoot Candie when his morals would not let him shake Candie's hand to seal the deal.
A devastated Warren cradled Candie in his arms as Butch Pooch shot Schultz dead; Django then went on a shooting spree and killed Leonide Moguy and several of the plantation's guards before Warren held Broomhilda at gunpoint and forced Django to surrender. Warren attempted to have Django sold off to a mining company, but Django tricked and killed his escorts and returned to Candyland while Warren, Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly, and the remaining employees of Candyland were at Candie's funeral. When the mourners returned, Django ambushed and killed the whites, let the two female house slaves flee, and kneecapped Warren with his pistol before lighting a fuse connected to the miners' dynamite. A wailing Warren warned Django that he would be hunted down by bounty hunters, and that no one could destroy Candyland, but Django simply left as Warren and the plantation were blown up.
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