From the most obnoxious
substances we often see spring forth, beautiful and fragrant, flowers of every
hue, to regale the eye, and perfume the air. Thus, frequently, are results
originated which are wholly unlike the cause that gave them birth. An
illustration of this truth is afforded by the history of American Slavery.
Naturally and
necessarily, the enemy of literature, it has become the prolific theme of much
that is profound in argument, sublime in poetry, and thrilling in narrative.
From the soil of slavery itself have sprung forth some of the most brilliant
productions, whose logical levers will ultimately upheave and overthrow the
system. Gushing fountains of poetic thought, have started from beneath the rod
of violence, that will long continue to slake the feverish thirst of humanity outraged,
until swelling to a flood it shall rush with wasting violence over the
ill-gotten heritage of the oppressor. Startling incidents authenticated, far
excelling fiction in their touching pathos, from the pen of self-emancipated
slaves, do now exhibit slavery in such revolting aspects, as to secure the
execrations of all good men, and become a monument more enduring than marble,
in testimony strong as sacred writ against it.
Of the class last
named, is the narrative of the life of Henry Bibb, which is equally
distinguished as a revolting portrait of the hideous slave system, a thrilling
narrative of individual suffering, and a triumphant vindication of the slave's
manhood and mental dignity. And all this is associated with unmistakable traces
of originality and truthfulness.
To many, the elevated
style, purity of diction, and easy flow of language, frequently exhibited, will
appear unaccountable and contradictory, in view of his want of early mental
culture But to the thousands who have listened with delight to his speeches on
anniversary and other occasions, these same traits will be noted as unequivocal
evidence of originality. Very few men present in their written composition, so
perfect a transcript of their style as is exhibited by Mr. Bibb.
Moreover, the writer of
this introduction is well acquainted with his handwriting and style. The entire
manuscript I have examined and prepared for the press. Many of the closing
pages of it were written by Mr. Bibb in my office. And the whole is preserved
for inspection now. An examination of it will show that no alteration of
sentiment, language or style, was necessary to make it what it now is, in the
hands of the reader. The work of preparation for the press was that of
orthography and punctuation merely, an arrangement of the chapters, and a table
of contents--little more than falls to the lot of publishers generally.
The fidelity of the
narrative is sustained by the most satisfactory and ample testimony. Time has
proved its claims to truth. Thorough investigation has sifted and analysed
every essential fact alleged, and demonstrated clearly that this thrilling and
eloquent narrative, though stranger than fiction, is undoubtedly true.
It is only necessary to
present the following documents to the reader, to sustain this declaration. For
convenience of reference, and that they may be more easily understood, the
letters will be inserted consecutively, with explanations following the last.
The best preface to
these letters, is, the report of a committee appointed to investigate the truth
of Mr. Bibb's narrative as he has delivered it in public for years past.
REPORT
Of the undersigned,
Committee appointed by the Detroit Liberty Association to investigate the truth
of the narrative of Henry Bibb, a fugitive from Slavery, and report thereon:
Mr. Bibb has addressed
several assemblies in Michigan, and his narrative is generally known. Some of
his hearers, among whom were Liberty men, felt doubt as to the truth of his
statements. Respect for their scruples and the obligation of duty to the public
induced the formation of the present Committee.
The Committee entered
on the duty confided to them, resolved on a searching scrutiny, and an
unreserved publication of its result Mr. Bibb acquiesced in the inquiry with a
praiseworthy spirit. He attended before the Committee and gave willing aid to
its object. He was subjected to a rigorous examination.
Facts--dates--persons--and localities were demanded and cheerfully furnished.
Proper inquiry--either by letter, or personally, or through the medium of
friends was then made from every person, and in every quarter likely to
elucidate the truth. In fact no test for its ascertainment, known to the sense
or experience of the Committee, was omitted. The result was the collection of a
large body of testimony from very diversified quarters. Slave owners, slave
dealers, fugitives from slavery, political friends and political foes
contributed to a mass of testimony, every part of which pointed to a common
conclusion--the undoubted truth of Mr. Bibb's statements.
In the Committee's
opinion no individual can substantiate the events of his life by testimony more
conclusive and harmonious than is now before them in confirmation of Mr. Bibb.
The main facts of his narrative, and many of the minor ones are corroborated
beyond all question. No inconsistency has been disclosed nor anything revealed
to create suspicion. The Committee have no hesitation in declaring their
conviction that Mr. Bibb is amply sustained, and is entitled to public confidence
and high esteem.
The bulk of testimony
precludes its publication, but it is in the Committee's hands for the
inspection of any applicant.
A. L. PORTER, C. H.
STEWART, SILAS M. HOLMES. Committee.
Detroit, April 22,
1845.
From the bulk of
testimony obtained, a part only is here introduced. The remainder fully
corroborates and strengthens that.
[No. 1. An Extract.]
Dawn Mills, Feb. 19th,
1845.
Charles H. Stewart,
Esq.
My Dear Brother:
Your kind communication
of the 13th came to hand yesterday. I have made inquiries respecting Henry Bibb
which may be of service to you. Mr. Wm. Harrison, to whom you allude in your
letter, is here. He is a respectable and worthy man--a man of piety. I have
just had an interview with him this evening. He testifies, that he was well
acquainted with Henry Bibb in Trimble County, Ky., and that he sent a letter to
him by Thomas Henson, and got one in return from him. He says that Bibb came
out to Canada some three years ago, and went back to get his wife up, but was
betrayed at Cincinnati by a colored man--that he was taken to Louisville but
got away-- was taken again and lodged in jail, and sold off to New Orleans, or
he, (Harrison), understood that he was taken to New Orleans. He testifies that
Bibb is a Methodist man, and says that two persons who came on with him last
Summer, knew Bibb. One of these, Simpson Young, is now at Malden. * * *
Very respectfully, thy
friend,
HIRAM WILSON.
[No. 2.]
Bedford, Trimble Co.,
Kentucky. March 4, 1845.
Sir:--Your letter under
date of the 13th ult., is now before me, making some inquiry about a person
supposed to be a fugitive from the South, “who is lecturing to your religious
community on Slavery and the South.”
I am pleased to inform
you that I have it in my power to give you the information you desire. The
person spoken of by you I have no doubt is Walton, a yellow man, who once
belonged to my father, William Gatewood. He was purchased by him from John
Sibly, and by John Sibly of his brother Albert G. Sibly, and Albert G. Sibly
became possessed of him by his marriage with Judge David White's daughter, he
being born Judge White's slave.
The boy Walton at the
time he belonged to John Sibly, married a slave of my father's, a mulatto girl,
and sometime afterwards solicited him to buy him; the old man after much
importuning from Walton, consented to do so, and accordingly paid Sibly eight
hundred and fifty dollars. He did not buy him because he needed him, but from
the fact that he had a wife there, and Walton on his part promising every thing
that my father could desire.
It was not long,
however, before Walton became indolent and neglectful of his duty; and in
addition to this, he was guilty, as the old man thought, of worse offences. He
watched his conduct more strictly, and found he was guilty of disposing of
articles from the farm for his own use, and pocketing the money.
He actually caught him
one day stealing wheat--he had conveyed one sack full to a neighbor and whilst
he was delivering the other my father caught him in the very act.
He confessed his guilt
and promised to do better for the future--and on his making promises of this
kind my father was disposed to keep him still, not wishing to part him from his
wife, for whom he professed to entertain the strongest affection. When the
Christmas Holidays came on, the old man, as is usual in this country, gave his
negroes a week Holiday. Walton, instead of regaling himself by going about
visiting his colored friends, took up his line of march for her Britanie
Majesty's do minions.
He was gone about two
years I think, when I heard of him in Cincinnati; I repaired thither, with some
few friends to aid me, and succeeded in securing him.
He was taken to
Louisville, and on the next morning after our arrival there, he escaped, almost
from before our face, while we were on the street before the Tavern. He
succeeded in eluding our pursuit, and again reached Canada in safety.
Nothing daunted he
returned, after a lapse of some twelve or eighteen months, with the intention,
as I have since learned, of conducting off his wife and eight or ten more
slaves to Canada.
I got news of his
whereabouts, and succeeded in recapturing him. I took him to Louisville and
together with his wife and child, (she going along with him at her owner's
request,) sold hem. He was taken from thence to New Orleans--and from hence to
Red River, Arkansas--and the next news I had of him he was again wending his
way to Canada, aud I suppose now is at or near Detroit.
In relation to his
character, it was the general opinion here that he was a notorious liar, and a
rogue. These things I can procure any number of respectable witnesses to prove.
In proof of it, he says
his mother belonged to James Bibb, which is a lie, there not having been such a
man about here, much less brother of Secretary Bibb. He says that Bibb's
danghter married A. G. Sibly, when the fact is Sibly married Judge David
White's daughter, aud his mother belonged to White also and is now here, free.
So you will perceive he
is guilty of lying for no effect, and what might it not be supposed he would do
where he could effect anything by it.
I have been more
tedious than I should have been, but being anxious to give you his rascally
conduct in full, must be my apology. You are at liberty to publish this letter,
or make any use you see proper of it. If you do publish it, let me have a paper
containing the publication--at any rate let me hear from you again.
Respectfully yours,
&c., SILAS GATEWOOD.
To C. H. Stewart, Esq.
[No. 3. An Extract.]
Cincinnati, March 10,
1845.
My Dear Sir:--Mrs.
Path, Nickens and Woodson did not see Bibb on his first visit, in 1837, when he
staid with Job Dundy, but were subsequently fold of it by Bibb. They first saw
him in May, 1838. Mrs. Path remembers this date because it was the month in
which she removed from Broadway to Harrison street, and Bibb assisted her to
remove. Mrs. Path's garden adjoined Dundy's back yard. While engaged in digging
up flowers, she was addressed by Bibb, who was staying with Dundy and who
offered to dig them up for her. She hired him to do it. Mrs. Dundy shortly
after called ever and told Mrs. Path that he was a slave. After that Mrs. Path
took him into her house and concealed him. While concealed, he astonished his
good protectress by his ingenuity in bottoming chairs with cane. When the
furniture was removed, Bibb insisted on helping, and was, after some
remonstrances, permitted. At the house on Harrison street, he was employed for
several days in digging a cellar, and was so employed when seized on Saturday
afternoon by the constables. He held frequent conversations with Mrs. Path and
others, in which he gave them the same account which he has given you.
On Saturday afternoon,
two noted slave catching constables, E. V. Brooks and O'Neil, surprised Bibb as
he was digging in the cellar. Bibb sprang for the fence and gained the top of
it, where he was seized and dragged back. They took him immediately before
William Doty, a Justice of infamous notoriety as an accomplice of kidnappers,
proved property, paid charges and took him away.
His distressed friends
were surprised by his re-appearance in a few days after, the Wednesday
following, as they think. He reached the house of Dr. Woods, (a colored man
since deceased,) before day-break, and staid until dusk. Mrs. Path, John
Woodson and others made up about twelve dollars for him. Woodson accompanied
him out of town a mile and bid him “God speed.” He has never been here since.
Woodson and Clark saw him at Detroit two years ago.
Yours truly, WILLIAM
BIRNEY.
[No. 4.]
Louisville, March 14,
1845.
Mr. Stewart.--Yours of
the 1st came to hand on the 13th inst You wished me to inform you what became
of a boy that was in the work-house in the fall of '39. The boy you allude to
went by the name of Walton; he had ran away from Kentucky some time before, and
returned for his wife--was caught and sold to Garrison; he was taken to
Louisiana, I think--he was sold on Red River to a planter. As Garrison is
absent in the City of New Orleans at this time, I cannot inform you who he was
sold to. Garrison will be in Louisville some time this Spring; if you wish me,
I will inquire of Garrison and inform you to whom he was sold, and where his
master lives at this time.
Yours, W. PORTER.
[No. 5.]
Bedford, Trimble
County, Ky
C. H. Stewart, Esq.,
Sir.--I received your
note on the 16th inst., and in accordance with it I write you these lines. You
stated that you would wish to know something about Walton H. Bibb, and whether
he had a wife and child, and whether they were sold to New Orleans. Sir, before
I answer these inquiries, I should like to know who Charles H. Stewart is, and
why you should make these inquiries of me, and how you knew who I was, as you
are a stranger to me and I must be to you. In your next if you will tell me the
intention of your inquiries, I will give you a full history of the whole case.
I have a boy in your
county by the name of King, a large man and very black; if you are acquainted
with him, give him my compliments, and tell him I am well, and all of his
friends. W. H. Bibb is acquainted with him.
I wait your answer.
Your most obedient, W.
H. GATEWOOD
March 17, 1845.
[No. 6.]
Bedford, Kentucky,
April 6th, 1845.
Mr. Charles H. Stewart.
Sir:--Yours of the 1st
March is before me, inquiring if one Walton Bibb, a colored man, escaped from
me at Louisville, Ky., in the Spring of 1839. To that inquiry I answer, he did.
The particulars are these: He ran off from William Gatewood some time in 1838 I
think, and was heard of in Cincinnati. Myself and some others went there and
took him, and took him to Louisville for sale, by the directions of his master.
While there he made his escape and was gone some time, I think about one year
or longer. He came back it was said, to get his wife and child, so report says.
He was again taken by his owner; he together with his wife and child was taken
to Louisville and sold to a man who traded in negroes, and was taken by him to
New Orleans and sold with his wife and child to some man up Red River, so I was
informed by the man who sold him. He then ran off and left his wife and child
and got back, it seems, to your country. I can say for Gatewood he was a good
master, and treated him well. Gatewood bought him from a Mr. Sibly, who was
going to send him down the river. Walton, to my knowledge, influenced Gatewood
to buy him, and promised if he would, never to disobey him or run off. Who he
belongs to now, I do not know. I know Gatewood sold his wife and child at a
great sacrifice, to satisfy him. If any other information is necessary I will
give it, if required. You will please write me again what he is trying to do in
your country, or what he wishes the inquiry from me for.
Yours, truly, DANIEL S.
LANE.
These letters need
little comment. Their testimony combined is most harmonious and conclusive.
Look at the points established.
1. Hiram Wilson gives
the testimony of reputable men now in Canada, who knew Henry Bibb as a slave in
Kentucky.
2. Silas Gatewood, with
a peculiar relish, fills three pages of foolscap, “being anxious to give his
rascally conduct in full,” as he says. But he vaults over the saddle and lands
on the other side. His testimony is invaluable as an endorsement of Mr. Bibb's
truthfulness. He illustrates all the essential facts of this narrative. He also
labors to prove him deceitful and a liar.Deceit in a slave, is only a slight
reflex of the stupendous fraud practised by his master. And its indulgence has
far more logicin its favor, than the ablest plea ever written for slave
holding, under ever such peculiar circumstances. The attempt to prove Mr Bibb
in the lie, is a signal failure, as he never affirmed what Gatewood denies.
With this offset, the letter under notice is a triumphant vindication of one,
whom he thought there by to injure sadly. As Mr. Bibb has most happily
acknowledged the wheat, (see page 194,) I pass the charge of stealing by
referring to the logic there used, which will be deemed convincing.
3. William Birney,
Esq., attests the facts of Mr. Bibb's arrest in Cincinnati, and the subsequent
escape, as narrated by him, from the declaration of eye witnesses.
4. W. Porter, Jailor,
states that Bibb was in the work-house at Louisville, held and sold afterwards
to the persons and at the places named in this volume.
5. W. H. Gatewood, with
much Southern dignity, will answer no questions, but shows his relation to
these matters by naming “King”--saying, “W. H. Bibb is acquainted with him,”
and promising “a full history of the case.”
6. Daniel S. Lane, with
remarkable straight-forwardness and stupidity, tells all he knows, and then wants
to know what they ask him for. The writer will answer that question. He wanted
to prove by two or more witneses, the truth of his own statements; which has
most surely been accomplished.
Having thus presented
an array of testimony sustaining the facts alleged in this narrative, the
introduction will be concluded by introducing a letter signed by respectable
men of
Introduction. - - - 1
Author's Preface. - - -
11
Chap. I.--Sketch of my
Parentage, 13. Early separation from my Mother, 14. Hard Fare, 15. First
Experiments at running away, 16. Earnest longing for Freedom, 17. Abhorrent
nature of Slavery, 18.
Chap. II.--A fruitless
effort for education, 20. The Sabbath among Slaves, 21. Degrading amusements,
ib Why religion is rejected, 24. Condition of poor white people, ib.
Superstition among slaves, 25 Education forbidden, 31.
Chap. III.--My
Courtship and Marriage, 33. Change of owner, 42. My first born, ib. Its sufferings,
43. My wife abused, ib. My own anguish, 44.
Chap. IV.--My first
adventure for liberty, 46. Parting Scene, 47. Journey up the river, 48. Safe
arrival in Cincinnati, 50. Journey to Canada, 51. Suffering from cold and
hunger, 52. Denied food and shelter by some, ib. One noble exception, 54.
Subsequent success, ib. Arrival at Perrysburgh, 55. Obtain employment through
the winter, ib. My return to Kentucky to get my family, 56.
Chap. V.--My safe
arrival at Kentucky, 57. Surprise and delight to find my family, ib. Plan for
their escape, projected, 58. Return to Cincinnati, 60. My betrayal by traitors,
61. Imprisonment in Covington, Kentucky, 65. Return to slavery, 66. Infamous
proposal of the slave catchers, 67. My reply, 68.
Chap. VI.--Arrival at
Louisville, Kentucky, 72. Efforts to sell me, 73. Fortunate escape from the
man-stealers in the public street, 74. I return to Bed ford, Ky., 77. The
rescue of my family again attempted, 79. I started alone expecting them to
follow, 80. After waiting some months I resolve to go back again to Kentucky,
83.
Chap. VII.--My safe
return to Kentucky, 84. The perils I encountered there, 85. Again betrayed, and
taken by a mob, ironed and imprisoned, 86. Narrow escape from death, 90. Life
in a slave prison, 91.
Chap. VIII.--Character
of my prison companions, 94. Jail breaking contemplated, 95. Defeat of our
plan, 97. My wife and child removed, ib. Disgraceful proposal to her, and cruel
punishment, 98. Our departure in a coffie for New Orleans, 99. Events of our
journey, ib.
Chap. IX.--Our arrival
and examination at Vicksburg, 101. An account of slave sales, 103. Cruel
punishment with the paddle, ib. Attempts to sell myself by Garrison's
direction, 106. Amusing interview with a slave buyer, 107. Deacon Whitfield's
examination, 109. He purchases the family, 110. Character of the Deacon, ib.
Chap. X.--Cruel
treatment on Whitfield's farm, 112. Exposure of the children, 116. Mode of
extorting extra labor, 117. Neglect of the sick, ib. Strange medicine used,
118. Death of our second child, ib.
Chap. XI.--I attend a
prayer meeting, 119. Punishment therefor threatened, 120. I attempt to escape
alone, 121. My return to take my family, 122. Our sufferings, 123. Dreadful
attack of wolves, 124. Our're capture, 128.
Chap. XII.--My sad
condition before Whitfield, 131. My terrible punishment, 132. Incidents of a
former attempt to escape, 134. Jack at a farm house, 136. Six pigs and a
turkey, 138. Our surprise and arrest, 139.
Chap. XIII.--I am sold
to gamblers, 143. They try to purchase my family, 145. Our parting scene, 147.
My good usage, 149. I am sold to an Indian, 150. His confidence in my integrity
manifested, 151.
Chap. XIV.--Character
of my Indian Master, 152. Slavery among the Indians less cruel, 153. Indian
carousal,ib. Enfeebled health of my Indian Master, 154. His death, ib. My
escape, 155. Adventure in a wigwam, 156. Successful progress toward liberty,
157.
Chap. XV.--Adventure on
the Prairie, 159. I borrow a horse without leave, 162. Rapid traveling one
whole night, ib. Apology for using other men's horses, 163. My manner of living
on the road, 164.
Chap. XVI.--Stratagem
to get on board the steamer, 167. My Irish friends, 168. My success in reaching
the Ohio, 169. Reflections on again seeing Kentucky, ib. I get employment in a
hotel, 170. My fright at seeing the gambler who sold me, 171. I leave Ohio with
Mr. Smith, 172. His letter, 173. My education, 174.
Chap. XVII.--Letter
from W. H. Gatewood, 175. My reply, 176. My efforts as a public lecturer, 178.
Singular incident in Steubenville, 179. Meeting with a friend of Whitfield in
Michigan, 181. Outrage on a canal packet, 183. Fruitless efforts to find my
wife, 186.
Chap. XVIII.--My last
effort to recover my family, 188. Sad tidings of my wife, 189. Her degradation,
190. I am compelled to regard our relation as dissolved for ever, ib.
Chap. XIX.--Comments on
S. Gatewood's letter about slaves stealing, 193. Their conduct vindicated, 194.
Comments on W. Gatewood's letter, 196.
Chap. XX.--Review of my
narrative, 198. Licentiousness a prop of Slavery, 199. A case of mild slavery
given, ib. Its revolting features, 200. Times of my purchase and sale by
professed Christians, 203. Concluding remarks, 204.
Opinions of the Press.
250
Sketch of my
Parentage.--Early separation from my Mother.-- Hard Fare.--First Experiments at
running away.--Earnest longing for Freedom.--Abhorrent nature of Slavery.
I was born May 1815, of
a slave mother, in Shelby County, Kentucky, and was claimed as the property of
David White Esq. He came into possession of my mother long before I was born. I
was brought up in the Counties of Shelby, Henry, Oldham, and Trimble. Or, more
correctly speaking, in the above counties, I may safely say, I was flogged up;
for where I should have received moral, mental, and religious instruction, I
received stripes without number, the object of which was to degrade and keep me
in subordination. I can truly say, that I drank deeply of the bitter cup of
suffering and woe. I have been drag- ged down to the lowest depths of human
degradation and wretchedness, by Slaveholders.
My mother was known by
the name of Milldred Jackson. She is the mother of seven slaves only, all being
sons, of whom I am the eldest. She was also so fortunate or unfortunate, as to
have some of what is called the slaveholding blood flowing in her veins. I know
not how much; but not enough to prevent her children though fathered by
slaveholders, from being bought and sold in the slave markets of the South. It
is almost impossible for slaves to give a correct account of their male
parentage. All that I know about it is, that my mother informed me that my
fathers name was James Bibb. He was doubtless one of the present Bibb family of
Kentucky; but I have no personal knowledge of him at all, for he died before my
recollection.
The first time I was
separated from my mother, I was young and small. I knew nothing of my condition
then as a slave. I was living with Mr. White whose wife died and left him a
widower with one little girl, who was said to be the legitimate owner of my
mother, and all her children. This girl was also my playmate when we were
children.
I was taken away from
my mother, and hired out to labor for various persons, eight or ten years in
succession; and all my wages were expended for the education of Harriet White,
my playmate. It was then my sorrows and sufferings commenced. It was then I
first commenced seeing and feeling that I was a wretched slave, compelled to
work under the lash without wages, and often without clothes enough to hide my
nakedness. I have often worked without half enough to eat, both late and early,
by day and by night. I have often laid my wearied limbs down at night to rest
upon a dirt floor, or a bench, without any covering at all, because I had no
where else to rest my wearied body, after having worked hard all the day. I
have also been compelled in early life, to go at the bidding of a tyrant,
through all kinds of weather, hot or cold, wet or dry, and without shoes
frequently, until the month of December, with my bare feet on the cold frosty
ground, cracked open and bleeding as I walked. Reader, believe me when I say,
that no tongue, nor pen ever has or can express the horrors of American
Slavery. Consequently I despair in finding language to express adequately the
deep feeling of my soul, as I contemplate the past history of my life. But
although I have suffered much from the lash, and for want of food and raiment;
I confess that it was no disadvantage to be passed through the hands of so many
families, as the only source of information that I had to enlighten my mind,
consisted in what I could see and hear from others. Slaves were not allowed
books, pen, ink, nor paper, to improve their minds. But it seems to me now,
that I was particularly observing, and apt to retain what came under my
observation. But more especially, all that I heard about liberty and freedom to
the slaves, I never forgot. Among other good trades I learned the art of
running away to perfection. I made a regular business of it, and never gave it
up, until I had broken the bands of slavery, and landed myself safely in
Canada, where I was regarded as a man, and not as a thing.
The first time in my
life that I ran away, was for ill treatment, in 1825. I was living with a Mr.
Vires, in the village of Newcastle. His wife was a very cross woman. She was
every day flogging me, boxing, pulling my ears, and scolding, so that I dreaded
to enter the room where she was. This first started me to running away from
them. I was often gone several days before I was caught. They would abuse me
for going off, but it did no good. The next time they flogged me, I was off
again; but after awhile they got sick of their bargain, and returned me back
into the hands of my owners. By this time Mr. White had married his second
wife. She was what I call a tyrant. I lived with her several months, but she
kept me almost half of my time in the woods, running from under the bloody
lash. While I was at home she kept me all the time rubbing furniture, washing,
scrubbing the floors; and when I was not doing this, she would often seat
herself in a large rocking chair, with two pillows about her, and would make me
rock her, and keep off the flies. She was too lazy to scratch her own head, and
would often make me scratch and comb it for her. She would at other times lie
on her bed, in warm weather, and make me fan her while she slept, scratch and
rub her feet; but after awhile she got sick of me, and preferred a maiden
servant to do such business. I was then hired out again; but by this time I had
become much better skilled in running away, and would make calculation to avoid
detection, by taking with me a bridle. If any body should see me in the woods,
as they have, and asked “what are you doing here sir? you are a runaway?”--I
said, “no, sir, I am looking for our old mare;” at other times, “looking for
our cows.” For such excuses I was let pass. In fact, the only weapon of self
defence that I could use successfully, was that of deception. It is useless for
a poor helpless slave, to resist a white man in a slaveholding State. Public
opinion and the law is against him; and resistance in many cases is death to
the slave, while the law declares, that he shall submit or die.
The circumstances in
which I was then placed, gave me a longing desire to be free. It kindled a fire
of liberty within my breast which has never yet been quenched. This seemed to
be a part of my nature; it was first revealed to me by the inevitable laws of
nature's God. I could see that the All-wise Creator, had made man a free,
moral, intelligent and accountable being; capable of knowing good and evil. And
I believed then, as I believe now, that every man has a right to wages for his
labor; a right to his own wife and children; a right to liberty and the pursuit
of happiness; and a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own
conscience. But here, in the light of these truths, I was a slave, a prisoner
for life; I could possess nothing, nor acquire anything but what must belong to
my keeper. No one can imagine my feelings in my reflecting moments, but he who
has himself been a slave. Oh! I have often wept over my con- dition, while
sauntering through the forest, to escape cruel punishment.
“No arm to protect me
from tyrants aggression;
No parents to cheer me
when laden with grief.
Man may picture the
bounds of the rocks and the rivers,
The hills and the
valleys, the lakes and the ocean,
But the horrors of
slavery, he never can trace.”
The term slave to this
day sounds with terror to my soul,--a word too obnoxious to speak--a system too
intolerable to be endured. I know this from long and sad experience. I now feel
as if I had just been aroused from sleep, and looking back with quickened
perception at the state of torment from whence I fled. I was there held and
claimed as a slave; as such I was subjected to the will and power of my keeper,
in all respects whatsoever. That the slave is a human being, no one can deny.
It is his lot to be exposed in common with other men, to the calamities of
sickness, death, and the misfortunes incident to life. But unlike other men, he
is denied the consolation of struggling against external difficulties, such as
destroy the life, liberty, and happiness of himself and family. A slave may be
bought and sold in the market like an ox. He is liable to be sold off to a
distant land from his family. He is bound in chains hand and foot; and his
sufferings are aggravated a hundred fold, by the terrible thought, that he is
not allowed to struggle against misfortune, corporeal punishment, insults and
outrages committed upon himself and family; and he is not allowed to help
himself, to resist or escape the blow, which he sees impending over him.
This idea of utter
helplessness, in perpetual bondage, is the more distressing, as there is no
period even with the remotest generation when it shall terminate.
A fruitless effort for
education.--The Sabbath among Slaves.-- Degrading amusements.--Why religion is
rejected.--Condition of poor white people.--Superstition among
slaves.--Education forbidden.
In 1833, I had some
very serious religious impressions, and there was quite a number of slaves in
that neighborhood, who felt very desirous to be taught to read the Bible. There
was a Miss Davis, a poor white girl, who offered to teach a Sabbath School for
the slaves, notwithstanding public opinion and the law was opposed to it. Books
were furnished and she commenced the school; but the news soon got to our
owners that she was teaching us to read. This caused quite an excitement in the
neighborhood. Patrols* were appointed to go and break it up the next Sabbath.
They were determined that we should not have a Sabbath School in operation. For
slaves this was called an incendiary movement.
The Sabbath is not
regarded by a large number of the slaves as a day of rest. They have no schools
to go to; no moral nor religious instruction at all in many localities where
there are hundreds of slaves. Hence they resort to some kind of amusement.
Those who make no profession of religion, resort to the woods in large numbers
on that day to gamble, fight, get drunk, and break the Sabbath. This is often
encouraged by slaveholders. When they wish to have a little sport of that kind,
they go among the slaves and give them whiskey, to see them dance, “pat juber,”
sing and play on the banjo. Then get them to wrestling, fighting, jumping,
running foot races, and butting each other like sheep. This is urged on by
giving them whiskey; making bets on them; laying chips on one slave's head, and
daring another to tip it off with his hand; and if he tipped it off, it would
be called an insult, and cause a fight. Before fighting, the parties choose
their seconds to stand by them while fighting; a ring or a circle is formed to
fight in, and no one is allowed to enter the ring while they are fighting, but
their seconds, and the white gentlemen. They are not allowed to fight a duel,
nor to use weapons of any kind. The blows are made by kicking, knocking, and
butting with their heads; they grab each other by their ears, and jam their
heads together like sheep. If they are likely to hurt each other very bad,
their masters would rap them with their walking canes, and make them stop.
After fighting, they make friends, shake hands, and take a dram together, and
there is no more of it.
But this is all
principally for want of moral instruction. This is where they have no Sabbath
Schools; no one to read the Bible to them; no one to preach the gospel who is
competent to expound the Scriptures, except slaveholders. And the slaves, with
but few exceptions, have no confidence at all in their preaching, because they
preach a pro-slavery doctrine. They say, “Servants be obedient to your
masters;--and he that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not, shall be
beaten with many stripes;-- means that God will send them to hell, if they
disobey their masters. This kind of preaching has driven thousands into
infidelity. They view themselves as suffering unjustly under the lash, without
friends, without protection of law or gospel, and the green eyed monster
tyranny staring them in the face. They know that they are destined to die in
that wretched condition, unless they are delivered by the arm of Omnipotence.
And they cannot believe or trust in such a religion, as above named.
The poor and loafering
class of whites, are about on a par in point of morals with the slaves at the
South. They are generally ignorant, intemperate, licentious, and profane. They
associate much with the slaves; are often found gambling together on the
Sabbath; encouraging slaves to steal from their owners, and sell to them, corn,
wheat, sheep, chickens, or any thing of the kind which they can well conceal.
For such offences there is no law to reach a slave but lynch law. But if both
parties are caught in the act by a white person, the slave is punished with the
lash, while the white man is often punished with both lynch and common law. But
there is another class of poor white people in the South, who, I think would be
glad to see slavery abolished in self defence; they despise the institu- tion
because it is impoverishing and degrading to them and their children.
The slave holders are
generally rich, aristocratic, overbearing; and they look with utter contempt
upon a poor laboring man, who earns his bread by the “sweat of his brow,”
whether he be moral or immoral, honest or dishonest. No matter whether he is
white or black; if he performs manual labor for a livelihood, he is looked upon
as being inferior to a slaveholder, and but little better off than the slave,
who toils without wages under the lash. It is true, that the slaveholder, and
non-slaveholder, are living under the same laws in the same State. But the one
is rich, the other is poor; one is educated, the other is uneducated; one has
houses, land and influence, the other has none. This being the case, that class
of the non-slaveholders would be glad to see slavery abolished, but they dare
not speak it aloud.
There is much
superstition among the slaves Many of them believe in what they call “conjuration,”
tricking, and witchcraft; and some of them pretend to understand the art, and
say that by it they can prevent their masters from exercising their will over
their slaves. Such are often applied to by others, to give them power to
prevent their masters from flogging them. The remedy is most generally some
kind of bitter root; they are directed to chew it and spit towards their
masters when they are angry with their slaves. At other times they prepare
certain kinds of powders, to sprinkle about their masters dwellings. This is
all done for the purpose of defending themselves in some peaceable manner,
although I am satisfied that there is no virtue at all in it. I have tried it
to perfection when I was a slave at the South. I was then a young man, full of
life and vigor, and was very fond of visiting our neighbors slaves, but had no
time to visit only Sundays, when I could get a permit to go, or after night,
when I could slip off without being seen. If it was found out, the next morning
I was called up to give an account of myself for going off without permission;
and would very often get a flogging for it.
I got myself into a
scrape at a certain time, by going off in this way, and I expected to be
severely punished for it. I had a strong notion of running off, to escape being
flogged, but was advised by a friend to go to one of those conjurers, who could
prevent me from being flogged. I went and informed him of the difficulty. He
said if I would pay him a small sum, he would prevent my being flogged. After I
had paid him, he mixed up some alum, salt and other stuff into a powder, and
said I must sprinkle it about my master, if he should offer to strike me; this
would prevent him. He also gave me some kind of bitter root to chew, and spit
towards him, which would certainly prevent my being flogged. According to order
I used his remedy, and for some cause I was let pass without being flogged that
time.
I had then great faith
in conjuration and witchcraft I was led to believe that I could do almost as I
pleased, without being flogged. So on the next Sabbath my conjuration was fully
tested by my going off, and staying away until Monday morning, without
permission. When I returned home, my master declared that he would punish me
for going off; but I did not believe that he could do it while I had this root
and dust; and as he approached me, I commenced talking saucy to him. But he
soon convinced me that there was no virtue in them. He became so enraged at me
for saucing him, that he grasped a handful of switches and punished me
severely, in spite of all my roots and powders.
But there was another
old slave in that neighborhood, who professed to understand all about
conjuration, and I thought I would try his skill. He told me that the first one
was only a quack, and if I would only pay him a certain amount in cash, that he
would tell me how to prevent any person from striking me. After I had paid him
his charge, he told me to go to the cow-pen after night, and get some fresh cow
manure, and mix it with red pepper and white people's hair, all to be put into
a pot over the fire, and scorched until it could be ground into snuff. I was
then to sprinkle it about my master's bedroom, in his hat and boots, and it
would prevent him from ever abusing me in any way. After I got it all ready
prepared, the smallest pinch of it scattered over a room, was enough to make a
horse sneeze from the strength of it; but it did no good. I tried it to my
satisfaction. It was my business to make fires in my master's chamber, night
and morning. Whenever I could get a chance, I sprinkled a little of this dust
about the linen of the bed, where they would breathe it on retiring. This was
to act upon them as what is called a kind of love powder, to change their
sentiments of anger, to those of love, towards me, but this all proved to be
vain imagination. The old man had my money, and I was treated no better for it.
One night when I went
in to make a fire, I availed myself of the opportunity of sprinkling a very
heavy charge of this powder about my master's bed. Soon after their going to
bed, they began to cough and sneeze. Being close around the house, watching and
listening, to know what the effect would be, I heard them ask each other what
in the world it could be, that made them cough and sneeze so. All the while, I
was trembling with fear, expecting every moment I should be called and asked if
I knew any thing about it. After this, for fear they might find me out in my
dangerous experiments upon them, I had to give them up, for the time being. I
was then convinced that running away was the most effectual way by which a
slave could escape cruel punishment.
As all the
instrumentalities which I as a slave, could bring to bear upon the system, had
utterly failed to palliate my sufferings, all hope and consolation fled. I must
be a slave for life, and suffer under the lash or die. The influence which this
had only tended to make me more unhappy. I resolved that I would be free if
running away could make me so. I had heard that Canada was a land of liberty,
somewhere in the North; and every wave of trouble that rolled across my breast,
caused me to think more and more about Canada, and liberty. But more especially
after having been flogged, I have fled to the highest hills of the forest,
pressing my way to the North for refuge; but the river Ohio was my limit. To me
it was an impassable gulf. I had no rod wherewith to smite the stream, and
thereby divide the waters. I had no Moses to go before me and lead the way from
bondage to a promised land. Yet I was in a far worse state than Egyptian
bondage; for they had houses and land; I had none; they had oxen and sheep; I
had none; they had a wise counsel, to tell them what to do, and where to go,
and even to go with them; I had none. I was surrounded by opposition on every
hand. My friends were few and far between. I have often felt when running away
as if I had scarcely a friend on earth.
Sometimes standing on
the Ohio River bluff, looking over on a free State, and as far north as my eyes
could see, I have eagerly gazed upon the blue sky of the free North, which at
times constrained me to cry out from the depths of my soul, Oh! Canada, sweet
land of rest--Oh! when shall I get there? Oh, that I had the wings of a dove,
that I might soar away to where there is no slavery; no clanking of chains, no
captives, no lacerating of backs, no parting of husbands and wives; and where
man ceases to be the property of his fellow man. These thoughts have revolved
in my mind a thousand times. I have stood upon the lofty banks of the river
Ohio, gazing upon the splendid steamboats, wafted with all their magnificence
up and down the river, and I thought of the fishes of the water, the fowls of
the air, the wild beasts of the forest, all appeared to be free, to go just
where they pleased, and I was an unhappy slave!
But my attention was
gradually turned in a measure from this subject, by being introduced into the
society of young women. This for the time being took my attention from running
away, as waiting on the girls appeared to be perfectly congenial to my nature.
I wanted to be well thought of by them, and would go to great lengths to gain
their affection. I had been taught by the old superstitious slaves, to believe
in conjuration, and it was hard for me to give up the notion, for all I had
been deceived by them. One of these conjurers, for a small sum agreed to teach
me to make any girl love me that I wished. After I had paid him, he told me to
get a bull frog, and take a certain bone out of the frog, dry it, and when I
got a chance I must step up to any girl whom I wished to make love me, and
scratch her somewhere on her naked skin with this bone, and she would be
certain to love me, and would follow me in spite of herself; no matter who she
might be engaged to, nor who she might be walking with.
So I got me a bone for
a certain girl, whom I knew to be under the influence of another young man. I
happened to meet her in the company of her lover, one Sunday evening, walking
out; so when I got a chance, I fetched her a tremendous rasp across her neck
with this bone, which made her jump. But place of making her love me, it only
made her angry with me. She felt more like running after me to retaliate on me
for thus abusing her, than she felt like loving me. After I found there was no
virtue in the bone of a frog, I thought I would try some other way to carry out
my object. I then sought another counsellor among the old superstitious
influential slaves; one who professed to be a great friend of mine, told me to
get a lock of hair from the head of any girl, and wear it in my shoes: this
would cause her to love me above all other persons. As there was another girl
whose affections I was anxious to gain, but could not succeed, I thought,
without trying the experiment of this hair. I slipped off one night to see the
girl, and asked her for a lock of her hair; but she refused to give it.
Believing that my success depended greatly upon this bunch of hair, I was bent
on having a lock before I left that night let it cost what it might. As it was
time for me to start home in order to get any sleep that night, I grasped hold
of a lock of her hair, which caused her to screech, but I never let go until I
had pulled it out. This of course made the girl mad with me, and I accomplished
nothing but gained her displeasure.
Such are the
superstitious notions of the great masses of southern slaves. It is given to
them by tradition, and can never be erased, while the doors of education are
bolted and barred against them. But there is a prohibition by law, of mental
and religious instruction. The state of Georgia, by an act of 1770, declared “that
it shall not be lawful for any number of free negroes, molattoes or mestinos,
or even slaves in company with white persons, to meet together for the purpose
of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun or after the going
down of the same.” 2d Brevard's Digest, 254-5. Similar laws exist in most of
the slave States, and patrols are sent out after night and on the Sabbath day
to enforce them. They go through their respective towns to prevent slaves from
meeting for religious worship or mental instruction.
This is the regulation
and law of American Slavery, as sanctioned by the Government of the United
States, and without which it could not exist. And almost the whole moral,
political, and religious power of the nation are in favor of slavery and
aggression, and against liberty and justice. I only judge by their actions,
which speak louder than words. Slaveholders are put into the highest offices in
the gift of the people in both Church and State, thereby making slaveholding
popular and reputable.
* Police peculiar to
the South.
My Courtship and
Marriage.--Change of owner.--My first born. --Its sufferings.--My wife
abused.--My own anguish.
The circumstances of my
courtship and marriage, I consider to be among the most remarkable events of my
life while a slave. To think that after I had determined to carry out the great
idea which is so universally and practically acknowledged among all the
civilized nations of the earth, that I would be free or die, I suffered myself
to be turned aside by the fascinating charms of a female, who gradually won my
attention from an object so high as that of liberty; and an object which I held
paramount to all others.
But when I had arrived
at the age of eighteen, which was in the year of 1833, it was my lot to be
introduced to the favor of a mulatto slave girl named Malinda, who lived in
Oldham County, Kentucky, about four miles from the residence of my owner.
Malinda was a medium sized girl, graceful in her walk, of an extraordinary
make, and active in business. Her skin was of a smooth texture, red cheeks,
with dark and penetrating eyes. She moved in the highest circle* of slaves, and
free people of color. She was also one of the best singers I ever heard, and
was much esteemed by all who knew her, for her benevolence, talent and
industry. In fact, I considered Malinda to be equalled by few, and surpassed by
none, for the above qualities, all things considered.
It is truly marvellous
to see how sudden a man's mind can be changed by the charms and influence of a
female. The first two or three visits that I paid this dear girl, I had no
intention of courting or marrying her, for I was aware that such a step would
greatly obstruct my way to the land of liberty. I only visited Malinda because
I liked her company, as a highly interesting girl. But in spite of myself,
before I was aware of it, I was deeply in love; and what made this passion so
effectual and almost irresistable, I became satisfied that it was reciprocal.
There was a union of feeling, and every visit made the impression stronger and
stronger. One or two other young men were paying attention to Malinda, at the
same time; one of whom her mother was anxious to have her marry. This of course
gave me a fair opportunity of testing Malinda's sincerity. I had just about
opposition enough to make the subject interesting. That Malinda loved me above
all others on earth, no one could deny. I could read it by the warm reception
with which the dear girl always met me, and treated me in her mother's house. I
could read it by the warm and affectionate shake of the hand, and gentle smile
upon her lovely cheek. I could read it by her always giving me the preference
of her company; by her pressing invitations to visit even in opposition to her
mother's will. I could read it in the language of her bright and sparkling eye,
penciled by the unchangable finger of nature, that spake but could not lie.
These strong temptations gradually diverted my attention from my actual
condition and from liberty, though not entirely.
But oh! that I had only
then been enabled to have seen as I do now, or to have read the following slave
code, which is but a stereotyped law of American slavery. It would have saved
me I think from having to lament that I was a husband and am the father of
slaves who are still left to linger out their days in hopeless bondage. The
laws of Kentucky, my native State, with Maryland and Virginia, which are said
to be the mildest slave States in the Union, noted for their humanity,
Christianity and democracy, declare that “Any slave, for rambling in the night,
or riding horseback without leave, or running away, may be punished by
whipping, cropping and branding in the cheek, or otherwise, not rendering him
unfit for labor.” “Any slave convicted of petty larceny, murder, or wilfully
burning of dwelling houses, may be sentenced to have his right hand cut off; to
be hanged in the usual manner, or the head severed from the body, the body
divided into four quarters, and bead and quarters stuck up in the most public
place in the county, where such act was committed.”
At the time I joined my
wife in holy wedlock, I was ignorant of these ungodly laws; I knew not that I
was propogating victims for this kind of tor ture and cruelty. Malinda's mother
was free, and lived in Bedford, about a quarter of a mile from her daughter;
and we often met and passed off the time pleasantly. Agreeable to promise, on
one Saturday evening, I called to see Malinda, at her mother's residence, with
an intention of letting her know my mind upon the subject of marriage. It was a
very bright moonlight night; the dear girl was standing in the door, anxiously
waiting my arrival. As I approached the door she caught my hand with an
affectionate smile, and bid me welcome to her mother's fireside. After having
broached the subject of marriage, I informed her of the difficulties which I
conceived to be in the way of our marriage; and that I could never engage
myself to marry any girl only on certain conditions; near as I can recollect
the substance of our conversation upon the subject, it was, that I was
religiously inclined; that I intended to try to comply with the requisitions of
the gospel, both theoretically and practically through life. Also that I was
decided on becoming a free man before I died; and that I expected to get free
by running away, and going to Canada, under the British Government. Agreement
on those two cardinal questions I made my test for marriage.
I said, “I never will
give my heart nor hand to any girl in marriage, until I first know her
sentiments upon the all-important subjects of Religion and Liberty. No matter
how well I might love her, nor how great the sacrifice in carrying out these
God-given principles. And I here pledge myself from this course never to be
shaken while a single pulsation of my heart shall continue to throb for
Liberty.” With this idea Malinda appeared to be well pleased, and with a smile
she looked me in the face and said, “I have long entertained the same views,
and this has been one of the greatest reasons why I have not felt inclined to
enter the married state while a slave; I have always felt a desire to be free;
I have long cherished a hope that I should yet be free, either by purchase or
running away. In regard to the subject of Religion, I have always felt that it
was a good thing, and something that I would seek for at some future period.”
After I found that Malinda was right upon these all important questions, and
that she truly loved me well enough to make me an affectionate wife, I made
proposals for marriage. She very modestly declined answering the question then,
considering it to be one of a grave character, and upon which our future
destiny greatly depended. And notwithstanding she confessed that I had her
entire affections, she must have some time to consider the matter. To this I of
course consented, and was to meet her on the next Saturday night to decide the
question. But for some cause I failed to come, and the next week she sent for
me, and on the Sunday evening following I called on her again; she welcomed me
with all the kindness of an affectionate lover, and seated me by her side. We
soon broached the old subject of marriage, and entered upon a conditional
contract of matrimony, viz: that we would marry if our minds should not change
within one year; that after marriage we would change our former course and live
a pious life; and that we would embrace the earliest opportunity of running
away to Canada for our liberty. Clasping each other by the hand, pledging our
sacred honor that we would be true, we called on high heaven to witness the
rectitude of our purpose. There was nothing that could be more binding upon us
as slaves than this; for marriage among American slaves, is disregarded by the
laws of this country. It is counted a mere temporary matter; it is a union which
may be continued or broken off, with or without the consent of a slaveholder,
whether he is a priest or a libertine.
There is no legal
marriage among the slaves of the South; I never saw nor heard of such a thing
in my life, and I have been through seven of the slave states. A slave marrying
according to law, is a thing unknown in the history of American Slavery. And be
it known to the disgrace of our country that every slaveholder, who is the
keeper of a number of slaves of both sexes, is also the keeper of a house or
houses of ill-fame. Licentious white men, can and do, enter at night or day the
lodging places of slaves; break up the bonds of affection in families; destroy
all their domestic and social union for life; and the laws of the country afford
them no protection. Will any man count, if they can be counted, the churches of
Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia, which have slaves connected with them, living
in an open state of adultery, never having been married according to the laws
of the State, and yet regular members of these various denominations, but more
especially the Baptist and Methodist churches? And I hazard nothing in saying,
that this state of things exists to a very wide extent in the above states.
I am happy to state
that many fugitive slaves, who have been enabled by the aid of an over-ruling
providence to escape to the free North with those whom they claim as their
wives, not withstanding all their ignorance and superstition, are not at all
disposed to live together like brutes, as they have been compelled to do in
slaveholding Churches. But as soon as they get free from slavery they go before
some anti-slavery clergyman, and have the solemn ceremony of marriage performed
according to the laws of the country. And if they profess religion, and have
been baptized by a slaveholding minister, they repudiate it after becoming
free, and are rebaptized by a man who is worthy of doing it according to the
gospel rule.
The time and place of
my marriage, I consider one of the most trying of my life. I was opposed by
friends and foes; my mother opposed me because she thought I was too young, and
marrying she thought would involve me in trouble and difficulty. My
mother-in-law opposed me, because she wanted her daughter to marry a slave who
belonged to a very rich man living near by, and who was well known to be the
son of his master. She thought no doubt that his master or father might chance
to set him free before he died, which would enable him to do a better part by
her daughter than I could! And there was no prospect then of my ever being
free. But his master has neither died nor yet set his son free, who is now
about forty years of age, toiling under the lash, waiting and hoping that his
master may die and will him to be free.
The young men were
opposed to our marriage for the same reason that Paddy opposed a match when the
clergyman was about to pronounce the marriage ceremony of a young couple. He
said “if there be any present who have any objections to this couple being
joined together in holy wedlock, let them speak now, or hold their peace
henceforth.” At this time Paddy sprang to his feet and said, “Sir, I object to
this.” Every eye was fixed upon him. “What is your objection?” said the
clergyman. “Faith,” replied Paddy, “Sir I want her myself.”
The man to whom I
belonged was opposed, because he feared my taking off from his farm some of the
fruits of my own labor for Malinda to eat, in the shape of pigs, chickens, or
turkeys, and would count it not robbery. So we formed a resolution, that if we
were prevented from joining in wedlock, that we would run away, and strike for
Canada, let the consequences be what they might. But we had one consolation;
Malinda's master was very much in favor of the match, but entirely upon selfish
principles. When I went to ask his permission to marry Malinda, his answer was
in the affirmative with but one condition, which I consider to be too vulgar to
be written in this book. Our marriage took place one night during the Christmas
holydays; at which time we had quite a festival given us. All appeared to be
wide awake, and we had quite a jolly time at my wedding party. And
notwithstanding our marriage was without license or sanction of law, we
believed it to be honorable before God, and the bed undefiled. Our christmas
holydays were spent in matrimonial visiting among our friends, while it should
have been spent in running away to Canada, for our liberty. But freedom was
little thought of by us, for several months after marriage. I often look back
to that period even now as one of the most happy seasons of my life;
notwithstanding all the contaminating and heartrending features with which the
horrid system of slavery is marked, and must carry with it to its final grave,
yet I still look back to that season with sweet remembrance and pleasure, that
yet hath power to charm and drive back dull cares which have been accumulated
by a thousand painful recollections of slavery. Malinda was to me an
affectionate wife. She was with me in the darkest hours of adversity. She was
with me in sorrow, and joy, in fasting and feasting, in trial and persecution,
in sickness and health, in sunshine and in shade.
Some months after our
marriage, the unfeeling master to whom I belonged, sold his farm with the view
of moving his slaves to the State of Missouri, regardless of the separation of
husbands and wives forever; but for fear of my resuming my old practice of
running away, if he should have forced me to leave my wife, by my repeated
requests, he was constrained to sell me to his brother, who lived within seven
miles of Wm. Gatewood, who then held Malinda as his property. I was permitted
to visit her only on Saturday nights, after my work was done, and I had to be
at home before sunrise on Monday mornings or take a flogging. He proved to be
so oppressive, and so unreasonable in punishing his victims, that I soon found
that I should have to run away in self-defence. But he soon began to take the
hint, and sold me to Wm. Gatewood the owner of Malinda. With my new residence I
confess that I was much dissatisfied. Not that Gatewood was a more cruel master
than my former owner--not that I was opposed to living with Malinda, who was
then the centre and object of my affections--but to live where I must be eye
witness to her insults, scourgings and abuses, such as are common to be
inflicted upon slaves, was more than I could bear. If my wife must be exposed
to the insults and licentious passions of wicked slave-drivers and overseers;
if she must bear the stripes of the lash laid on by an unmerciful tyrant; if
this is to be done with impunity, which is frequently done by slaveholders and
their abettors, Heaven forbid that I should be compelled to witness the sight.
Not many months after I
took up my residence on Wm. Gatewood's plantation, Malinda made me a father.
The dear little daughter was called Mary Frances. She was nurtured and caressed
by her mother and father, until she was large enough to creep over the floor
after her parents, and climb up by a chair before I felt it to be my duty to leave
my family and go into a foreign country for a season. Malinda's business was to
labor out in the field the greater part of her time, and there was no one to
take care of poor little Frances, while her mother was toiling in the field.
She was left at the house to creep under the feet of an unmerciful old
mistress, whom. I have known to slap with her hand the face of little Frances,
for crying after her mother, until her little face was left black and blue. I
recollect that Malinda and myself came from the field one summer's day at noon,
and poor little Frances came creeping to her mother smiling, but with large
tear drops standing in her dear little eyes, sobbing and trying to tell her
mother that she had been abused, but was not able to utter a word. Her little
face was bruised black with the whole print of Mrs. Gatewood's hand. This print
was plainly to be seen for eight days after it was done. But oh! this darling
child was a slave; born of a slave mother. Who can imagine what could be the
feelings of a father and mother, when looking upon their infant child whipped
and tortured with impunity, and they placed in a situation where they could
afford it no protection. But we were all claimed and held as property; the
father and mother were slaves!
On this same plantation
I was compelled to stand and see my wife shamefully scourged and abused by her
master; and the manner in which this was done, was so violently and inhumanly
committed upon the person of a female, that I despair in finding decent language
to describe the bloody act of cruelty. My happiness or pleasure was then all
blasted; for it was sometimes a pleasure to be with my little family even in
slavery. I loved them as my wife and child. Little Frances was a pretty child;
she was quiet, playful, bright, and interesting. She had a keen black eye, and
the very image of her mother was stamped upon her cheek; but I could never look
upon the dear child without being filled with sorrow and fearful apprehensions,
of being separated by slaveholders, because she was a slave, regarded as
property. And unfortunately for me, I am the father of a slave, a word too
obnoxious to be spoken by a fugitive slave. It calls fresh to my mind the
separation of husband and wife; of stripping, tying up and flogging; of tearing
children from their parents, and selling them on the auction block. It calls to
mind female virtue trampled under foot with impunity. But oh! when I remember
that my daughter, my only child, is still there, destined to share the fate of
all these calamities, it is too much to bear. If ever there was any one act of
my life while a slave, that I have to lament over it is that of being a father
and a husband of slaves. I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am only the
father of one slave. She is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; poor
unfortunate child. She was the first and shall be the last slave that ever I
will father, for chains and slavery on this earth.
* The distinction among
slaves is as marked, as the classes of society are in any aristocratic
community. Some refusing to associate with others whom they deem beneath them
in point of character, color, condition, or the superior importance of their
respective masters.
My first adventure for
liberty.--Parting Scene.--Journey up the river.--Safe arrival in
Cincinnati.--Journey to Canada.--Suffering from cold and hunger.--Denied food
and shelter by some.--One noble exception.--Subsequent success.--Arrival at
Perrysburgh.--I obtained employment through the winter. --My return to Kentucky
to get my family.
In the fall or winter
of 1837 I formed a resolution that I would escape, if possible, to Canada, for
my Liberty. I commenced from that hour making preparations for the dangerous
experiment of breaking the chains that bound me as a slave. My preparation for
this voyage consisted in the accumulation of a little money, perhaps not
exceeding two dollars and fifty cents, and a suit which I had never been seen
or known to wear before; this last was to avoid detection.
On the twenty-fifth of
December, 1837, my long anticipated time had arrived when I was to put into
operation my former resolution, which was to bolt for Liberty or consent to die
a Slave. I acted upon the former, although I confess it to be one of the most
self-denying acts of my whole life, to take leave of an affectionate wife, who
stood before me on my departure, with dear little Frances in her arms, and with
tears of sorrow in her eyes as she bid me a long farewell. It required all the
moral courage that I was master of to suppress my feelings while taking leave
of my little family.
Had Malinda known my
intention at that time, it would not have been possible for me to have got
away, and I might have this day been a slave. Notwithstanding every inducement
was held out to me to run away if I would be free, and the voice of liberty was
thundering in my very soul, “Be free oh, man! be free,” I was struggling
against a thousand obstacles which had clustered around my mind to bind my
wounded spirit still in the dark prison of mental degradation. My strong
attachments to friends and relatives, with all the love of home and birth-place
which is so natural among the human family, twined about my heart and were hard
to break away from. And withal, the fear of being pursued with guns and
blood-hounds, and of being killed, or captured and taken to the extreme South,
to linger out my days in hopeless bondage on some cotton or sugar plantation,
all combined to deter me. But I had counted the cost, and was fully prepared to
make the sacrifice. The time for fulfilling my pledge was then at hand. I must
forsake friends and neighbors, wife and child, or consent to live and die a
slave.
By the permission of my
keeper, I started out to work for myself on Christmas. I went to the Ohio
River, which was but a short distance from Bedford. My excuse for wanting to go
there was to get work. High wages were offered for hands to work in a slaughter
house. But in place of my going to work there, according to promise, when I
arrived at the river I managed to find a conveyance to cross over into a free
state. I was landed in the village of Madison, Indiana, where steamboats were
landing every day and night, passing up and down the river, which afforded me a
good opportunity of getting a boat passage to Cincinnati. My anticipation being
worked up to the highest pitch, no sooner was the curtain of night dropped over
the village, than I secreted myself where no one could see me, and changed my
suit ready for the passage. Soon I heard the welcome sound of a Steamboat
coming up the river Ohio, which was soon to waft me beyond the limits of the
human slave markets of Kentucky. When the boat had landed at Madison,
notwithstanding my strong desire to get off, my heart trembled within me in
view of the great danger to which I was exposed in taking passage on board of a
Southern Steamboat; hence before I took passage, I kneeled down before the
Great I Am, and prayed for his aid and protection, which He bountifully
bestowed even beyond my expectation; for I felt myself to be unworthy. I then
stept boldly on the deck of this splendid swift-running Steamer, bound for the
city of Cincinnati. This being the first voyage that I had ever taken on board
of a Steamboat, I was filled with fear and excitement, knowing that I was
surrounded by the vilest enemies of God and man, liable to be seized and bound
hand and foot, by any white man, and taken back into captivity. But I crowded
myself back from the light among the deck passengers, where it would be
difficult to distinguish me from a white man. Every time during the night that
the mate came rouud with a light after the hands, I was afraid he would see I
was a colored man, and take me up; hence I kept from the light as much as
possible. Some men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are
evil; but this was not the case with myself; it was to avoid detection in doing
right. This was one of the instances of my adventures that my affinity with the
Anglo-Saxon race, and even slaveholders, worked well for my escape. But no
thanks to them for it. While in their midst they have not only robbed me of my
labor and liberty, but they have almost entirely robbed me of my dark
complexion. Being so near the color of a slaveholder, they could not, or did
not find me out that night among the white passengers. There was one of the
deck hands on board called out on his watch, whose hammock was swinging up near
by me. I asked him if he would let me lie in it. He said if I would pay him
twenty-five cents that I might lie in it until day. I readily paid him the
price and got into the hammock. No one could see my face to know whether I was
white or colored, while I was in the hammock; but I never closed my eyes for
sleep that night. I had often heard of explosions on board of Steamboats; and
every time the boat landed, and blowed off steam, I was afraid the boilers had
bursted and we should all be killed; but I lived through the night amid the
many dangers to which I was exposed. I still maintained my position in the
hammock, until the next morning about 8 o'clock, when I heard the passengers
saying the boat was near Cincinnati; and by this time I supposed that the
attention of the people would be turned to the city, and I might pass off
unnoticed.
There were no questions
asked me while on board the boat. The boat landed about 9 o'clock in the
morning in Cincinnati, and I waited until after most of the passengers had gone
off of the boat; I then walked as gracefully up street as if I was not running
away, until I had got pretty well up Broadway. My object was to go to Canada,
but having no knowledge of the road, it was necessary for me to make some
inquiry before I left the city. I was afraid to ask a white person, and I could
see no colored person to ask. But fortunately for me I found a company of
little boys at play in the street, and through these little boys, by asking
them indirect questions, I found the residence of a colored man.
“Boys, can you tell me
where that old colored man lives who saws wood, and works at jobs around the
streets?”
“What is his name?”
said one of the boys,
“I forget.”
“Is it old Job Dundy?”
“Is Dundy a colored
man?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That is the very man I
am looking for; will you show me where he lives?”
“Yes,” said the little
boy, and pointed me out the house.
Mr. D. invited me in,
and I found him to be a true friend. He asked me if I was a slave from
Kentucky, and if I ever intended to go back into slavery? Not knowing yet
whether he was truly in favor of slaves running away, I told him that I had
just come over to spend my christmas holydays, and that I was going back. His
reply was, “my son, I would never go back if I was in your place; you have a
right to your liberty.” I then asked him how I should get my freedom? He
referred me to Canada, over which waved freedom's flag, defended by the British
Government, upon whose soil there cannot be the foot print of a slave.
He then commenced
telling me of the facilities for my escape to Canada; of the Abolitionists; of
the Abolition Societies, and of their fidelity to the cause of suffering
humanity. This was the first time in my life that ever I had heard of such
people being in existence as the Abolitionists. I supposed that they were a
different race of people. He conducted me to the house of one of these
warm-hearted friends of God and the slave. I found him willing to aid a poor
fugitive on his way to Canada, even to the dividing of the last cent, or morsel
of bread if necessary.
These kind friends gave
me something to eat, and started me on my way to Canada, with a recommendation
to a friend on my way. This was the commencement of what was called the under
ground rail road to Canada. I walked with bold courage, trusting in the arm of
Omnipotence; guided by the unchangable North Star by night, and inspired by an
elevated thought that I was fleeing from a land of slavery and oppression,
bidding farewell to hand-cuffs, whips, thumb-screws and chains.
I travelled on until I
had arrived at the place where I was directed to call on an Abolitionist, but I
made no stop: so great were my fears of being pursued by the pro-slavery
hunting dogs of the South. I prosecuted my journey vigorously for nearly
forty-eight hours without food or rest, struggling against external
difficulties such as no one can imagine who has never experienced the same: not
knowing what moment I might be captured while travelling among strangers,
through cold and fear, breasting the north winds, being thinly clad, pelted by
the snow storms through the dark hours of the night, and not a house in which I
could enter to shelter me from the storm.
The second night from
Cincinnati, about midnight, I thought that I should freeze; my shoes were worn
through, and my feet were exposed to the bare ground. I approached a house on
the road-side, knocked at the door, and asked admission to their fire, but was
refused. I went to the next house, and was refused the privilege of their
fire-side, to prevent my freezing. This I thought was hard treatment among the
human family. But--
“Behind a frowning Providence there was a smiling face,” which soon shed beams of light upon unworthy
me.
The next morning I was
still found struggling on my way, faint, hungry, lame, and rest-broken. I could
see people taking breakfast from the road-side, but I did not dare to enter
their houses to get my breakfast, for neither love nor money. In passing a low
cottage, I saw the breakfast table spread with all its bounties, and I could
see no male person about the house; the temptation for food was greater than I
could resist.
I saw a lady about the
table, and I thought that if she was ever so much disposed to take me up, that
she would have to catch and hold me, and that would have been impossible. I
stepped up to the door with my hat off, and asked her if she would be good
enough to sell me a sixpence worth of bread and meat. She cut off a piece and
brought it to me; I thanked her for it, and handed her the pay, but instead of
receiving it, she burst into tears, and said “never mind the money,” but gently
turned away bidding me go on my journey. This was altogether unexpected to me:
I had found a friend in the time of need among strangers, and nothing could be
more cheering in the day of trouble than this. When I left that place I started
with bolder courage. The next night I put up at a tavern, and continued
stopping at public houses until my means were about gone. When I got to the
Black Swamp in the county of Wood, Ohio, I stopped one night at a hotel, after
travelling all day through mud and snow; but I soon found that I should not be
able to pay my bill. This was about the time that the “wild-cat banks” were in
a flourishing state, and “shin plasters”* in abundance; they would charge a
dollar for one night's lodging.
After I had found out
this, I slipped out of the bar room into the kitchen where the landlady was
getting supper; as she had quite a number of trav- ellers to cook for that
night, I told her if she would accept my services, I would assist her in
getting supper; that I was a cook. She very readily accepted the offer, and I
went to work.
She was very much
pleased with my work, and the next morning I helped her to get breakfast. She
then wanted to hire me for all winter, but I refused for fear I might be
pursued. My excuse to her was that I had a brother living in Detroit, whom I
was going to see on some important business, and after I got that business
attended to, I would come back and work for them all winter.
When I started the
second morning they paid me fifty cents beside my board, with the understanding
that I was to return; but I have not gone back yet.
I arrived the next
morning in the village of Perrysburgh, where I found quite a settlement of
colored people, many of whom were fugitive slaves. I made my case known to them
and they sympathized with me. I was a stranger, and they took me in and
persuaded me to spend the winter in Perrysburgh, where I could get employment
and go to Canada the next spring, in a steamboat which run from Perrysburgh, if
I thought it proper so to do.
I got a job of chopping
wood during that winter which enabled me to purchase myself a suit, and after
paying my board the next spring, I had saved fifteen dollars in cash. My
intention was to go back to Kentucky after my wife.
When I got ready to
start, which was about the first of May, my friends all persuaded me not to go,
but to get some other person to go, for fear I might be caught and sold off
from my family into slavery forever. But I could not refrain from going back
myself, believing that I could accomplish it better than a stranger.
The money that I had
would not pass in the South, and for the purpose of getting it off to a good
advantage, I took a steamboat passage to Detroit, Michigan, and there I spent
all my money for dry goods, to peddle out on my way back through the State of
Ohio. I also purchased myself a pair of false whiskers to put on when I got
back to Kentucky, to prevent any one from knowing me after night, should they
see me. I then started back after my little family.
* Nickname for temporary
paper money.
My safe arrival at
Kentucky.--Surprise and delight to find my family.--Plan for their escape
projected.--Return to Cincinnati.--My betrayal by traitors.--Imprisonment in
Covington, Kentucky.--Return to slavery.--Infamous proposal of the slave
catchers.--My reply.
I succeeded very well
in selling out my goods, and when I arrived in Cincinnati, I called on some of
my friends who had aided me on my first escape. They also opposed me in going
back only for my own good. But it has ever been characteristic of me to
persevere in what I undertake.
I took a Steamboat
passage which would bring me to where I should want to land about dark, so as
to give me a chance to find my family during the night if possible. The boat
landed me at the proper place, and at the proper time accordingly. This landing
was about six miles from Bedford, where my mother and wife lived, but with
different families. My mother was the cook at a tavern, in Bedford. When I
approached the house where mother was living, I remembered where she slept in
the kitchen, her bed was near the window.
It was a bright
moonlight night, and in looking through the kitchen window, I saw a person
lying in bed about where my mother had formerly slept. I rapped on the glass
which awakened the person, in whom I recognised my dear mother, but she knew me
not, as I was dressed in disguise with my false whiskers on; but she came to
the window and asked who I was and what I wanted. But when I took off my false
whiskers, and spoke to her, she knew my voice, and quickly sprang to the door,
clasping my hand, exclaiming, “Oh! is this my son,” drawing me into the room,
where I was so fortunate as to find Malinda, and little Frances, my wife and
child, whom I had left to find the fair climes of liberty, and whom I was then
seeking to rescue from perpetual slavery.
They never expected to
see me again in this life. I am entirely unable to describe what my feelings
were at that time. It was almost like the return of the prodigal son. There was
weeping and rejoicing. They were filled with surprise and fear; with sadness
and joy. The sensation of joy at that moment flashed like lightning over my
afflicted mind, mingled with a thousand dreadful apprehensions, that none but a
heart wounded slave father and husband like myself can possibly imagine. After
talking the matter over, we decided it was not best to start with my family
that night, as it was very uncertain whether we should get a boat passage
immediately. And in case of failure, if Malinda should get back even before
daylight the next morning, it would have excited suspicion against her, as it
was not customary for slaves to leave home at that stage of the week without
permission. Hence we thought it would be the most effectual way for her to
escape, to start on Saturday night; this being a night on which the slaves of
Kentucky are permitted to visit around among their friends, and are often
allowed to stay until the afternoon on Sabbath day.
I gave Malinda money to
pay her passage on board of a Steamboat to Cincinnati, as it was not safe for
me to wait for her until Saturday night; but she was to meet me in Cincinnati,
if possible, the next Sunday. Her father was to go with her to the Ohio River
on Saturday night, and if a boat passed up during the night she was to get on
board at Madison, and come to Cincinnati. If she should fail in getting off
that night, she was to try it the next Saturday night. This was the
understanding when we separated. This we thought was the best plan for her
escape, as there had been so much excitement caused by my running away.
The owners of my wife
were very much afraid that she would follow me; and to prevent her they had
told her and other slaves that I had been persuaded off by the Abolitionists,
who had promised to set me free, but had sold me off to New Orleans. They told
the slaves to beware of the abolitionists, that their object was to decoy off
slaves and then sell them off in New Orleans. Some of them believed this, and
others believed it not; and the owners of my wife were more watchful over her
than they had ever been before as she was unbelieving.
This was in the month
of June, 1838. I left Malinda on a bright but lonesome Wednesday night. When I
arrived at the river Ohio, I found a small craft chained to a tree, in which I
ferried myself across the stream.
I succeeded in getting
a Steamboat passage back to Cincinnati, where I put up with one of my abolition
friends who knew that I had gone after my family, and who appeared to be much
surprised to see me again. I was soon visited by several friends who knew of my
having gone back after my family. They wished to know why I had not brought my
family with me; but after they understood the plan, and that my family was
expected to be in Cincinnati within a few days, they thought it the best and
safest plan for us to take a stage passage out to Lake Erie. But being short of
money, I was not able to pay my passage in the stage, even if it would have
prevented me from being caught by the slave hunters of Cincinnati, or save me
from being taken back into bondage for life.
These friends proposed
helping me by subscription; I accepted their kind offer, but in going among
friends to solicit aid for me, they happened to get among traitors, and
kidnappers, both white and colored men, who made their living by that kind of
business. Several persons called on me and made me small donations, and among
them two white men came in professing to be my friends. They told me not to be
afraid of them, they were abolitionists. They asked me a great many questions. They
wanted to know if I needed any help? and they wanted to know if it could be
possible that a man so near white as myself could be a slave? Could it be
possible that men would make slaves of their own children? They expressed great
sympathy for me, and gave me fifty cents each; by this they gained my
confidence. They asked my master's name; where he lived, &c. After which
they left the room, bidding me God speed. These traitors, or land pirates, took
passage on board of the first Steamboat down the river, in search of my owners.
When they found them, they got a reward of three hundred dollars offered for
the re-capture of this “stray” which they had so long and faithfully been
hunting, by day and by night, by land and by water with dogs and with guns, but
all without success. This being the last and only chance for dragging me back
into hopeless bondage, time and money was no object when they saw a prospect of
my being retaken.
Mr. Gatewood got two of
his slaveholding neighbors to go with him to Cincinnati, for the purpose of
swearing to anything which might be necessary to change me back into property.
They came on to Cincinnati, and with but little effort they soon rallied a mob
of ruffians who were willing to become the watch-dogs of slaveholders, for a
dram, in connection with a few slavehunting petty constables.
While I was waiting the
arrival of my family, I got a job of digging a cellar for the good lady where I
was stopping, and while I was digging under the house, all at once I heard a
man enter the house; another stept up to the cellar door to where I was at work;
he looked in and saw me with my coat off at work. He then rapped over the
cellar door on the house side, to notify the one who had entered the house to
look for me that I was in the cellar. This strange conduct soon excited
suspicion so strong in me, that I could not stay in the cellar and started to
come out, but the man who stood by the door, rapped again on the house side,
for the other to come to his aid, and told me to stop. I attempted to pass out
by him, and he caught hold of me, and drew a pistol, swearing if I did not stop
he would shoot me down. By this time I knew that I was betrayed.
I asked him what crime
I had committed that I should be murdered.
“I will let you know,
very soon,” said he.
By this time there were
others coming to his aid, and I could see no way by which I could possibly
escape the jaws of that hell upon earth.
All my flattering
prospects of enjoying my own fire-side, with my little family, were then
blasted and gone; and I must bid farewell to friends and freedom forever.
In vain did I look to
the infamous laws of the Commonwealth of Ohio, for that protection against
violence and outrage, that even the vilest criminal with a white skin might
enjoy. But oh! the dreadful thought, that after all my sacrifice and struggling
to rescue my family from the hands of the oppressor; that I should be dragged
back into cruel bondage to suffer the penalty of a tyrant's law, to endure
stripes and imprisonment, and to be shut out from all moral as well as
intellectual improvement, and linger out almost a living death.
When I saw a crowd of
blood-thirsty, unprincipled slave hunters rushing upon me armed with weapons of
death, it was no use for me to undertake to fight my way through against such
fearful odds.
But I broke away from
the man who stood by with his pistol drawn to shoot me if I should resist, and
reached the fence and attempted to jump over it before I was overtaken; but the
fence being very high I was caught by my legs before I got over.
I kicked and struggled
with all my might to get away, but without success. I kicked a new cloth coat
off of his back, while he was holding on to my leg. I kicked another in his
eye; but they never let me go until they got more help. By this time, there was
a crowd on the out side of the fence with clubs to beat me back. Finally, they
succeeded in dragging me from the fence and overpowered me by numbers and
choked me almost to death.
These ruffians dragged
me through the streets of Cincinnati, to what was called a justice office. But
it was more like an office of injustice.
When I entered the room
I was introduced to three slaveholders, one of whom was a son of Wm. Gatewood,
who claimed me as his property. They pretended to be very glad to see me.
They asked me if I did
not want to see my wife and child; but I made no reply to any thing that was
said until I was delivered up as a slave. After they were asked a few questions
by the court, the old pro-slavery squire very gravely pronounced me to be the
property of Mr. Gatewood.
The office being
crowded with spectators, many of whom were colored persons, Mr. G. was afraid
to keep me in Cincinnati, two or three hours even, until a steamboat got ready
to leave for the South. So they took me across the river, and locked me up in
Covington jail, for safe keeping. This was the first time in my life that I had
been put into a jail. It was truly distressing to my feelings to be locked up
in a cold dungeon for no crime. The jailor not being at home, his wife had to
act in his place. After my owners had gone back to Cincinnati, the jailor's
wife, in company with another female, came into the jail and talked with me
very friendly.
I told them all about
my situation, and these ladies said they hoped that I might get away again, and
went so far as to tell me if I should be kept in the jail that night, there was
a hole under the wall of the jail where a prisoner had got out. It was only
filled up with loose dirt, they said, and I might scratch it out and clear
myself.
This I thought was a
kind word from an unexpected friend: I had power to have taken the key from
those ladies, in spite of them, and have cleared myself; but knowing that they
would have to suffer perhaps for letting me get away, I thought I would wait
until after dark, at which time I should try to make my escape, if they should
not take me out before that time. But within two or three hours, they came
after me, and conducted me on board of a boat on which we all took passage down
to Louisville. I was not confined in any way, but was well guarded by five men,
three of whom were slaveholders, and the two young men from Cincinnati, who had
betrayed me.
After the boat had got
fairly under way, with these vile men standing around me on the upper deck of
the boat, and she under full speed carrying me back into a land of torment, I
could see no possible way of escape. Yet, while I was permitted to gaze on the
beauties of nature, on free soil, as I passed down the river, things looked to
me uncommonly pleasant: The green trees and wild flowers of the forest; the
ripening harvest fields waving with the gentle breezes of Heaven; and the
honest farmers tilling their soil and living by their own toil. These things
seem to light upon my vision with a peculiar charm. I was conscious of what
must be my fate; a wretched victim for Slavery without limit; to be sold like
an ox, into hopeless bondage, and to be worked under the flesh devouring lash
during life, without wages.
This was to me an awful
thought; every time the boat run near the shore, I was tempted to leap from the
deck down into the water, with a hope of making my escape. Such was then my
feeling.
But on a moment's
reflection, reason with her warning voice overcame this passion by pointing out
the dreadful consequences of one's committing suicide. And this I thought would
have a very striking resemblance to the act, and I declined putting into
practice this dangerous experiment, though the temptation was great.
These kidnapping
gentlemen, seeing that I was much dissatisfied, commenced talking to me, by
say- ing that I must not be cast down; they were going to take me back home to
live with my family, if I would promise not to run away again.
To this I agreed, and
told them that this was all that I could ask, and more than I had expected.
But they were not
satisfied with having recaptured me, because they had lost other slaves and
supposed that I knew their whereabouts; and truly I did. They wanted me to tell
them; but before telling I wanted them to tell who it was that had betrayed me
into their hands. They said that I was betrayed by two colored men in
Cincinnati, whose names they were backward in telling, because their business
in connection with themselves was to betray and catch fugitive slaves for the
reward offered. They undertook to justify the act by saying if they had not
betrayed me, that somebody else would, and if I would tell them where they
could catch a number of other runaway slaves, they would pay for me and set me
free, and would then take me in as one of the Club. They said I would soon make
money enough to buy my wife and child out of slavery.
But I replied, “No,
gentlemen, I cannot commit or do an act of that kind, even if it were in my
power so to do. I know that I am now in the power of a master who can sell me
from my family for life, or punish me for the crime of running away, just as he
pleases: I know that I am a prisoner for life, and have no way of extricating
myself; and I also know that I have been deceived and betrayed by men who
professed to be my best friends; but can all this justify me in becoming a
traitor to others? Can I do that which I complain of others for doing unto me?
Never, I trust, while a single pulsation of my heart continues to beat, can I
consent to betray a fellow man like myself back into bondage, who has escaped.
Dear as I love my wife and little child, and as much as I should like to enjoy
freedom and happiness with them, I am unwilling to bring this about by
betraying and destroying the liberty and happiness of others who have never
offended me!”
I then asked them again
if they would do me the kindness to tell me who it was betrayed me into their
hands at Cincinnati? They agreed to tell me with the understanding that I was
to tell where there was living, a family of slaves at the North, who had run away
from Mr. King of Kentucky. I should not have agreed to this, but I knew the
slaves were in Canada, where it was not possible for them to be captured. After
they had told me the names of the persons who betrayed me, and how it was done,
then I told them their slaves were in Canada, doing well. The two white men
were Constables, who claimed the right of taking up any strange colored person
as a slave; while the two colored kidnappers, under the pretext of being
abolitionists, would find out all the fugitives they could, and inform these
Constables for which they got a part of the reward, after they had found out
where the slaves were from, the name of his master, &c. By the agency of
these colored men, they were seized by a band of white ruffians, locked up in
jail, and their master sent for. These colored kidnappers, with the Constables,
were getting rich by betraying fugitive slaves. This was told to me by one of
the Constables, while they were all standing around trying to induce me to
engage in the same business for the sake of regaining my own liberty, and that
of my wife and child. But my answer even there, under the most trying
circumstances, surrounded by the strongest enemies of God and man, was most
emphatically in the negative. “Let my punishment be what it may, either with
the lash or by selling me away from my friends and home; let my destiny be what
you please, I can never engage in this business for the sake of getting free.”
They said I should not
be sold nor punished with the lash for what I had done, but I should be carried
back to Bedford, to live with my wife. Yet when the boat got to where we should
have landed, she wafted by without making any stop. I felt awful in view of
never seeing my family again; they asked what was the matter? what made me look
so cast down? I informed them that I knew I was to be sold in the Louisville
slave market, or in New Orleans, and I never expected to see my family again.
But they tried to pacify me by promising not to sell me to a slave trader who
would take me off to New Orleans; cautioning me at the same time not to let it
be known that I had been a runaway. This would very much lessen the value of me
in market They would not punish me by putting irons on my limbs, but would give
me a good name, and sell me to some gentleman in Louisville for a house
servant. They thought I would soon make money enough to buy myself, and would
not part with me if they could get along without. But I had cost them so much
in advertising and looking for me, that they were involved by it. In the first
place they paid eight hundred and fifty dollars for me; and when I first run
away, they paid one hundred for advertising and looking after me; and now they
had to pay about forty dollars, expenses travelling to and from Cincinnati, in
addition to the three hundred dollars reward; and they were not able to pay the
reward without selling me.
I knew then the only
alternative left for me to extricate myself was to use deception, which is the
most effectual defence a slave can use. I pretended to be satisfied for the
purpose of getting an opportunity of giving them the slip.
But oh, the distress of
mind, the lamentable thought that I should never again see the face nor hear
the gentle voice of my nearest and dearest friends in this life. I could
imagine what must be my fate from my peculiar situation. To be sold to the
highest bidder, and then wear the chains of slavery down to the grave. The day
star of liberty which had once cheered and gladdened my heart in freedom's
land, had then hidden itself from my vision, and the dark and dismal frown of
slavery had obscured the sunshine of freedom from me, as they supposed for all
time to come.
But the understanding
between us was, I was not to be tied, chained, nor flogged; for if they should
take me into the city handcuffed and guarded by five men the question might be
asked what crime I had committed? And if it should be known that I had been a
runaway to Canada, it would lessen the value of me at least one hundred
dollars.
Arrival at Louisville,
Ky.--Efforts to sell me.--Fortunate escape from the man-stealers in the public
street.--I return to Bed ford. Ky.--The rescue of my family again attempted.--I
started alone expecting them to follow.--After waiting some months I resolve to
go back again to Kentucky.
When the boat arrived
at Louisville, the day being too far spent for them to dispose of me, they had
to put up at a Hotel. When we left the boat, they were afraid of my bolting
from them in the street, and to prevent this they took hold of my arms, one on
each side of me, gallanting me up to the hotel with as much propriety as if I
had been a white lady. This was to deceive the people, and prevent my getting
away from them.
They called for a
bed-room to which I was conducted and locked within. That night three of them
lodged in the same room to guard me. They locked the door and put the key under
the head of their bed. I could see no possible way for my escape without
jumping out of a high three story house window.
It was almost
impossible for me to sleep that night in my peculiar situation. I passed the
night in prayer to our Heavenly Father, asking that He would open to me even
the smallest chance for escape.
The morning after they
had taken breakfast, fear of them left me in the care of Dan Lane. He was what
might be called one of the watch dogs of Kentucky. There was nothing too mean
for him to do. He never blushed to rob a slave mother of her children, no
matter how young or small. He was also celebrated for slave selling,
kidnapping, and negro hunting. He was well known in that region by the slaves
as well as the slaveholders, to have all the qualifications necessary for his
business. He was a drunkard, a gambler, a profligate, and a slaveholder.
While the other four
were looking around through the city for a purchaser, Dan was guarding me with
his bowie knife and pistols. After a while the others came in with two persons
to buy me, but on seeing me they remarked that they thought I would run away,
and asked me if I had ever run away. Dan sprang to his feet and answered the
question for me, by telling one of the most palpable falsehoods that ever came
from the lips of a slaveholder. He declared that I had never run away in my
life!
Fortunately for me,
Dan, while the others were away, became unwell; and from taking salts, or from
some other cause, was compelled to leave his room. Off he started to the horse
stable which was located on one of the most public streets of Louisville, and
of course I had to accompany him. He gallanted me into the stable by the arm,
and placed himself back in one of the horses stalls and ordered me to stand by
until he was ready to come out.
At this time a thousand
thoughts were flashing through my mind with regard to the propriety of trying
the springs of my heels, which nature had so well adapted for taking the body
out of danger, even in the most extraordinary emergencies. I thought in the
attempt to get away by running, if I should not succeed, it could make my
condition no worse, for they could but sell me and this they were then trying
to do. These thoughts impelled me to keep edging towards the door, though very
cautiously. Dan kept looking around after me as if he was not satisfied at my
getting so near to the door. But the last I saw of him in the stable was just
as he turned his eyes from me; I nerved myself with all the moral courage I
could command and bolted for the door, perhaps with the fleetness of a much
frightened deer, who never looks behind in time of peril. Dan was left in the
stable to make ready for the race, or jump out into the street half dressed,
and thereby disgrace himself before the public eye.
It would be impossible
for me to set forth the speed with which I run to avoid my adversary; I
succeeded in turning a corner before Dan got sight of me, and by fast running,
turning corners, and jumping high fences, I was enabled to effect my escape.
In running so swiftly
through the public streets, I thought it would be a safer course to leave the
public way, and as quick as thought I spied a high board fence by the way and
attempted to leap over it. The top board broke and down I came into a hen-coop
which stood by the fence. The dogs barked, and the hens flew and cackled so,
that I feared it would lead to my detection before I could get out of the yard.
The reader can only
imagine how great must have been the excited state of my mind while exposed to
such extraordinary peril and danger on every side. In danger of being seized by
a savage dog, which sprang at me when I fell into the hen-coop; in danger of
being apprehended by the tenants of the lot; in danger of being shot or wounded
by any one who might have attempted to stop me, a runaway slave; and in danger
on the other hand of being overtaken and getting in conflict with my adversary.
With these fearful apprehensions, caution dictated me not to proceed far by
day-light in this slaveholding city.
At this moment every
nerve and muscle of my whole system was in full stretch; and every facility of
the mind brought into action striving to save myself from being re-captured. I
dared not go to the forest, knowing that I might be tracked by blood-hounds,
and overtaken. I was so fortunate as to find a hiding place in the city which
seemed to be pointed out by the finger of Providence. After running across
lots, turning corners, and shunning my fellow men, as if they were wild
ferocious beasts, I found a hiding place in a pile of boards or scantling,
where I kept concealed during that day.
No tongue nor pen can
describe the dreadful apprehensions under which I labored for the space of ten
or twelve hours. My hiding place happened to be between two workshops, where
there were men at work within six or eight feet of me. I could imagine that I
heard them talking about me, and at other times thought I heard the footsteps
of Daniel Lane in close pursuit. But I retained my position there until 9 or 10
o'clock at night, without being discovered; after which I attempted to find my
way out, which was exceedingly difficult. The night being very dark, in a
strange city, among slaveholders and slave hunters, to me it was like a person
entering a wilderness among wolves and vipers, blindfolded. I was compelled
from necessity to enter this place for refuge under the most extraordinary
state of excitement, without regard to its geographical position. I found
myself surrounded with a large block of buildings, which comprised a whole
square, built up mostly on three sides, so that I could see no way to pass out
without exposing myself perhaps to the gaze of patrols, or slave catchers.
In wandering around
through the dark, I happened to find a calf in a back yard, which was bawling
after the cow; the cow was also lowing in another direction, as if they were
trying to find each other. A thought struck me that there must be an outlet
somewhere about, where the cow and calf were trying to meet. I started in the
direction where I heard the lowing of the cow, and I found an arch or tunnel
extending between two large brick buildings, where I could see nothing of the
cow but her eyes, shining like balls of fire through the dark tunnel, between
the walls, through which I passed to where she stood. When I entered the
streets I found them well lighted up. My heart was gladdened to know there was
another chance for my escape. No bird ever let out of a cage felt more like
flying, than I felt like running.
Before I left the city,
I chanced to find by the way, an old man of color. Supposing him to be a
friend, I ventured to make known my situation, and asked him if he would get me
a bite to eat. The old man most cheerfully complied with my request. I was then
about forty miles from the residence of Wm. Gatewood, where my wife, whom I
sought to rescue from slavery, was living. This was also in the direction it
was necessary for me to travel in order to get back to the free North. Knowing
that the slave catchers would most likely be watching the public highway for
me, to avoid them I made my way over the rocky hills, woods and plantations,
back to Bedford.
I travelled all that
night, guided on my way by the shining stars of heaven alone. The next morning
just before the break of day, I came right to a large plantation, about which I
secreted myself, until the darkness of the next night began to disappear. The
morning larks commenced to chirp and sing merrily--pretty soon I heard the whip
crack, and the voice of the ploughman driving in the corn field. About
breakfast time, I heard the sound of a horn; saw a number of slaves in the
field with a white man, who I supposed to be their overseer. He started to the
house before the slaves, which gave me an opportunity to get the attention of
one of the slaves, whom I met at the fence, before he started to his breakfast,
and made known to him my wants and distresses. I also requested him to bring me
a piece of bread if he could when he came back to the field.
The hospitable slave
complied with my request. He came back to the field before his fellow laborers,
and brought me something to eat, and as an equivolent for his kindness, I
instructed him with regard to liberty, Canada, the way of escape, and the
facilities by the way. He pledged his word that himself and others would be in
Canada, in less than six months from that day. This closed our interview, and
we separated. I concealed myself in the forest until about sunset, before I
pursued my journey; and the second night from Louisville, I arrived again in
the neighborhood of Bedford, where my little family were held in bondage, whom
I so earnestly strove to rescue.
I concealed myself by
the aid of a friend in that neighborhood, intending again to make my escape
with my family. This confidential friend then carried a message to Malinda,
requesting her to meet me on one side of the village.
We met under the most
fearful apprehensions, for my pursuers had returned from Louisville, with the
lamentable story that I was gone, and yet they were compelled to pay three
hundred dollars to the Cincinnati slave catchers for re-capturing me there.
Daniel Lane's account
of my escape from him, looked so unreasonable to slaveholders, that many of
them charged him with selling me and keeping the money; while others believed
that I had got away from him, and was then in the neighborhood, trying to take
off my wife and child, which was true. Lane declared that in less than five
minutes after I run out of the stable in Louisville, he had over twenty men
running and looking in every direction after me; but all without success. They
could hear nothing of me. They had turned over several tons of hay in a large
loft, in search, and I was not to be found there. Dan imputed my escape to my
godliness! He said that I must have gone up in a chariot of fire, for I went
off by flying; and that he should never again have any thing to do with a
praying negro.
Great excitement
prevailed in Bedford, and many were out watching for me at the time Malinda was
relating to me these facts. The excitement was then so great among the
slaveholders--who were anxious to have me re-captured as a means of
discouraging other slaves from running away--that time and money were no object
while there was the least prospect of their success. I therefore declined
making an effort just at that time to escape with my little family. Malinda
managed to get me into the house of a friend that night, in the village, where
I kept concealed several days seeking an opportunity to escape with Malinda and
Frances to Canada.
But for some time
Malinda was watched so very closely by white and by colored persons, both day
and night, that it was not possible for us to escape together. They well knew
that my little family was the only object of attraction that ever had or ever
would induce me to come back and risk my liberty over the threshold of
slavery--therefore this point was well guarded by the watch dogs of slavery,
and I was compelled again to forsake my wife for a season, or surrender, which
was suicidal to the cause of freedom, in my judgment.
The next day after my
arrival in Bedford, Daniel Lane came to the very house wherein I was concealed
and talked in my hearing to the family about my escape from him out of the
stable in Louisville. He was near enough for me to have laid my hands on his
head while in that house--and the intimidation which this produced on me was
more than I could bear. I was also aware of the great temptation of the reward
offered to white or colored persons for my apprehension; I was exposed to other
calamities which rendered it altogether unsafe for me to stay longer under that
roof.
One morning about 2
o'clock, I took leave of my little family and started for Canada. This was
almost like tearing off the limbs from my body. When we were about to separate,
Malinda clasped my hand exclaiming, “oh my soul! my heart is almost broken at
the thought of this dangerous separation. This may be the last time we shall
ever see each other's faces in this life, which will destroy all my future
prospects of life and happiness forever.” At this time the poor unhappy woman
burst into tears and wept loudly; and my eyes were not dry. We separated with
the understanding that she was to wait until the excitement was all over; after
which she was to meet me at a certain place in the State of Ohio; which would
not be longer than two months from that time.
I succeeded that night
in getting a steamboat con- veyance back to Cincinnati, or within ten miles of
the city. I was apprehensive that there were slave-hunters in Cincinnati,
watching the arrival of every boat up the river, expecting to catch me; and the
boat landing to take in wood ten miles below the city, I got off and walked
into Cincinnati, to avoid detection.
No my arrival at the
house of a friend, I heard that the two young men who betrayed me for the three
hundred dollars had returned and were watching for me. One of my friends in
whom they had great confidence, called on the traitors, after he had talked
with me, and asked them what they had done with me. Their reply was that I had
given them the slip, and that they were glad of it, because they believed that
I was a good man, and if they could see me on my way to Canada, they would give
me money to aid me on my escape. My friend assured them that if they would give
any thing to aid me on my way, much or little, if they would put the same into
his hands, he would give it to me that night, or return it to them the next
morning.
They then wanted to
know where I was and whether I was in the city; but he would not tell them, but
one of them gave him one dollar for me, promising that if I was in the city,
and he would let him know the next morning, he would give me ten dollars.
But I never waited for
the ten dollars. I received one dollar of the amount which they got for
betraying me, and started that night for the north. Their excuse for betraying
me, was, that catching runaways was their business, and if they had not done it
somebody else would, but since they had got the reward they were glad that I
had made my escape.
Having travelled the
road several times from Cincinnati to Lake Erie, I travelled through without
much fear or difficulty. My friends in Perrysburgh, who knew that I had gone
back into the very jaws of slavery after my family, were much surprised at my
return, for they had heard that I was re-captured.
After I had waited
three months for the arrival of Malinda, and she came not, it caused me to be
one of the most unhappy fugitives that ever left the South. I had waited eight
or nine months without hearing from my family. I felt it to be my duty, as a
husband and father, to make one more effort. I felt as if I could not give them
up to be sacrificed on the “bloody altar of slavery.” I felt as if love, duty,
humanity and justice, required that I should go back, putting my trust in the
God of Liberty for success.
My safe return to
Kentucky.--The perils I encountered there-- Again betrayed, and taken by a mob;
ironed and imprisoned. --Narrow escape from death.--Life in a slave prison.
I prepared myself for
the journey before named, and started back in the month of July, 1839.
My intention was, to
let no person know my business until I returned back to the North. I went to
Cincinnati, and got a passage down on board of a boat just as I did the first
time, without any misfortune or delay. I called on my mother, and the raising
of a dead body from the grave could not have been more surprising to any one
than my arrival was to her, on that sad summer's night. She was not able to
suppress her feelings. When I entered the room, there was but one other person
in the house with my mother, and this was a little slave girl who was asleep
when I entered. The impulsive feeling which is ever ready to act itself out at
the return of a long absent friend, was more than my bereaved mother could
suppress. And unfortunately for me, the loud shouts of joy at that late hour of
the night, awakened the little slave girl, who afterwards betrayed me. She kept
perfectly still, and never let either of us know that she was awake, in order
that she might hear our conversation and report it. Mother informed me where my
family was living, and that she would see them the next day, and would make
arrangements for us to meet the next night at that house after the people in
the village had gone to bed. I then went off and concealed myself during the
next day, and according to promise came back the next night about eleven
o'clock.
When I got near the
house, moving very cautiously, filled with fearful apprehensions, I saw several
men walking around the house as if they were looking for some person. I went
back and waited about one hour, before I returned, and the number of men had
increased. They were still to be seen lurking about this house, with dogs
following them. This strange movement frightened me off again, and I never
returned until after midnight, at which time I slipped up to the window, and
rapped for my mother, who sprang to it and informed me that I was betrayed by
the girl who overheard our conversation the night before. She thought that if I
could keep out of the way for a few days, the white people would think that
this girl was mistaken, or had lied. She had told her old mistress that I was
there that night, and had made a plot with my mother to get my wife and child
there the next night, and that I was going to take them off to Canada.
I went off to a friend
of mine, who rendered me all the aid that one slave could render another, under
the circumstances. Thank God he is now free from slavery, and is doing well. He
was a messenger for me to my wife and mother, until at the suggestion of my
mother, I changed an old friend for a new one, who betrayed me for the sum of
five dollars.
We had set the time
when we were to start for Canada, which was to be on the next Saturday night.
My mother had an old friend whom she thought was true, and she got him to
conceal me in a barn, not over two miles from the village. This man brought
provisions to me, sent by my mother, and would tell me the news which was in
circulation about me, among the citizens. But the poor fellow was not able to
withstand the temptation of money.
My owners had about
given me up, and thought the report of the slave girl was false; but they had
offered a little reward among the slaves for my apprehension. The night before
I was betrayed, I met with my mother and wife, and we had set up nearly all
night plotting to start on the next Saturday night. I hid myself away in the
flax in the barn, and being much rest broken I slept until the next morning
about 9 o'clock. Then I was awakened by a mob of blood thirsty slaveholders,
who had come armed with all the implements of death, with a determination to
reduce me again to a life of slavery, or murder me on the spot.
When I looked up and
saw that I was surrounded, they were exclaiming at the top of their voices, “shoot
him down! shoot him down!” “If he offers to run, or to resist, kill him!”
I saw it was no use
then for me to make any resistance, as I should be murdered. I felt confident
that I had been betrayed by a slave, and all my flattering prospects of
rescuing my family were gone for ever, and the grim monster slavery with all
its horrors was staring me in the face.
I surrendered myself to
this hostile mob at once. The first thing done, after they had laid violent
hands on me, was to bind my hands behind me with a cord, and rob me of all I
possessed.
In searching my
pockets, they found my certificate from the Methodist E. Church, which had been
given me by my classleader, testifying to my worthiness as a member of that
church. And what made the matter look more disgraceful to me, many of this mob
were members of the M. E. Church, and they were the persons who took away my
church ticket, and then robbed me also of fourteen dollars in cash, a silver
watch for which I paid ten dollars, a pocket knife for which I paid
seventy-five cents, and a Bible for which I paid sixty-two and one half cents.
All this they tyrannically robbed me of, and yet my owner, Wm. Gatewood, was a
regular member of the same church to which I belonged.
He then had me taken to
a blacksmith's shop, and most wickedly had my limbs bound with heavy irons, and
then had my body locked within the cold dungeon walls of the Bedford jail, to
be sold to a Southern slave trader.
My heart was filled
with grief--my eyes were filled with tears. I could see no way of escape. I
could hear no voice of consolation. Slaveholders were coming to the dungeon
window in great numbers to ask me questions. Some were rejoicing-- some
swearing, and others saying that I ought to be hung; while others were in favor
of sending both me and my wife to New Orleans. They supposed that I had
informed her all about the facilities for slaves to escape to Canada, and that
she would tell other slaves after I was gone; hence we must all be sent off to
where we could neither escape ourselves, nor instruct others the way.
In the afternoon of the
same day Malinda was permitted to visit the prison wherein I was locked, but
was not permitted to enter the door. When she looked through the dungeon grates
and saw my sad situation, which was caused by my repeated adventures to rescue
her and my little daughter from the grasp of slavery, it was more than she
could bear without bursting in tears. She plead for admission into the cold
dungeon where I was confined, but without success. With manacled limbs; with
wounded spirit; with sympathising tears and with bleeding heart, I intreated
Malinda to weep not for me, for it only added to my grief, which was greater
than I could bear.
I have often suffered
from the sting of the cruel slave driver's lash on my quivering flesh--I have
suffered from corporeal punishment in its various forms--I have mingled my
sorrows with those that were bereaved by the ungodly soul drivers--and I also
know what it is to shed the sympathetic tear at the grave of a departed friend;
but all this is but a mere trifle compared with my sufferings from then to the
end of six months subsequent.
The second night while
I was in jail, two slaves came to the dungeon grates about the dead hour or
night, and called me to the grates to have some conversation about Canada, and
the facilities for getting there. They knew that I had travelled over the road,
and they were determined to run away and go where they could be free. I of
course took great pleasure in giving them directions how and where to go, and
they started in less than a week from that time and got clear to Canada. I have
seen them both since I came back to the north myself. They were known by the
names of King and Jack.
The third day I was
brought out of the prison to be carried off with my little family to the
Louisville slave market. My hands were fastened together with heavy irons, and
two men to guard me with loaded rifles, one of whom led the horse upon which I
rode. My wife and child were set upon another nag. After we were all ready to
start my old master thought I was not quite safe enough, and ordered one of the
boys to bring him a bed cord from the store. He then tied my feet together
under the horse, declaring that if I flew off this time, I should fly off with
the horse.
Many tears were shed on
that occasion by our friends and relatives, who saw us dragged off in irons to
be sold in the human flesh market. No tongue could express the deep anguish of
my soul when I saw the silent tear drops streaming down the sable cheeks of an
aged slave mother, at my departure; and that too, caused by a black hearted
traitor who was himself a slave:
“I love the man with a
feeling soul,
Whose passions are deep
and strong;
Whose cords, when
touched with a kindred power,
Will vibrate loud and
long:
“The man whose word is
bond and law--
Who ne'er for gold or
power,
Would kiss the hand
that would stab the heart
In adversity's trying
hour.”
“I love the man who
delights to help
The panting, struggling
poor:
The man that will open
his heart,
Nor close against the
fugitive at his door.
“Oh give me a heart
that will firmly stand,
When the storm of
affliction shall lower--
A hand that will never
shrink, if grasped,
In misfortune's darkest
hour.”
As we approached the
city of Louisville, we attracted much attention, my being tied and handcuffed,
and a person leading the horse upon which I rode. The horse appeared to be much
frightened at the appearance of things in the city, being young and skittish. A
carriage passing by jammed against the nag, which caused him to break from the
man who was leading him, and in his fright throw me off backwards. My hands
being confined with irons, and my feet tied under the horse with a rope, I had
no power to help myself. I fell back off of the horse and could not extricate
myself from this dreadful condition; the horse kicked with all his might while
I was tied so close to his rump that he could only strike me with his legs by
kicking.
The breath was kicked
out of my body, but my bones were not broken. No one who saw my situation would
have given five dollars for me. It was thought by all that I was dead and would
never come to life again. When the horse was caught the cords were cut from my
limbs, and I was rubbed with whiskey, camphor, &c., which brought me to
life again.
Many bystanders
expressed sympathy for me in my deplorable condition, and contempt for the
tyrant who tied me to the young horse.
I was then driven
through the streets of the city with my little family on foot, to jail, wherein
I was locked with handcuffs yet on. A physician was then sent for, who doctored
me several days before I was well enough to be sold in market.
The jail was one of the
most disagreeable places I ever was confined in. It was not only disagreeable
on account of the filth and dirt of the most disagreeable kind; but there were
bed-bugs, fleas, lice and musquitoes in abundance, to contend with. At night we
had to lie down on the floor in this filth. Our food was very scanty, and of
the most inferior quality. No gentleman's dog would eat what we were compelled
to eat or starve.
I had not been in this
prison many days before Madison Garrison, the soul driver, bought me and my
family to sell again in the New Orleans slave market. He was buying up slaves
to take to New Orleans. So he took me and my little family to the work-house,
to be kept under lock and key at work until he had bought up as many as he
wished to take off to the South.
The work-house of
Louisville was a very large brick building, built on the plan of a jail or
State's prison, with many apartments to it, divided off into cells wherein
prisoners were locked up after night. The upper apartments were occupied by
females, principally. This prison was enclosed by a high stone wall, upon which
stood watchmen with loaded guns to guard the prisoners from breaking out, and
on either side there were large iron gates.
When Garrison conducted
me with my family to the prison in which we were to be confined until he was
ready to take us to New Orleans, I was shocked at the horrid sight of the
prisoners on entering the yard. When the large iron gate or door was thrown
open to receive us, it was astonishing to see so many whites as well as colored
men loaded down with irons, at hard labor, under the supervision of overseers.
Some were sawing stone,
some cutting stone, and others breaking stone. The first impression which was
made on my mind when I entered this place of punishment, made me think of hell,
with all its terrors of torment; such as “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of
teeth,” which was then the idea that I had of the infernal regions from oral
instruction. And I doubt whether there can be a better picture of it drawn,
than may be sketched from an American slave prison.
In this prison almost
every prisoner had a heavy log chain riveted about his leg. It would indeed be
astonishing to a christian man to stand in that prison one half hour and hear
and see the contaminating influence of Southern slavery on the body and mind of
man--you may there find almost every variety of character to look on. Some
singing, some crying, some praying, and others swearing. The people of color
who were in there were slaves there without crime, but for safe keeping, while
the whites were some of the most abandoned characters living. The keeper took me
up to the anvil block and fastened a chain about my leg, which I had to drag
after me both day and night during three months. My labor was sawing stone; my
food was coarse corn bread and beef shanks and cows heads with pot liquor, and
a very scanty allowance of that.
I have often seen the
meat spoiled when brought to us, covered with flies and fly blows, and even
worms crawling over it, when we were compelled to eat it, or go without any at
all. It was all spread out on a long table in separate plates; and at the sound
of a bell, every one would take his plate, asking no questions. After hastily
eating, we were hurried back to our work, each man dragging a heavy log chain
after him to his work.
About a half hour
before night they were commanded to stop work, take a bite to eat, and then be
locked up in a small cell until the next morning after sunrise. The prisoners
were locked in, two together. My bed was a cold stone floor with but little
bedding! My visitors were bed-bugs and musquitoes.
Character of my prison
companions.--Jail breaking contemplated.--Defeat of our plan.--My wife and
child removed.--Disgraceful proposal to her, and cruel punishment.--Our
departure in a coffle for New Orleans.--Events of our journey.
Most of the inmates of
this prison I have described, were white men who had been sentenced there by
the law, for depredations committed by them. There was in that prison,
gamblers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, adulterers, and even murderers. There
were also in the female department, harlots, pickpockets, and adulteresses. In
such company, and under such influences, where there was constant swearing,
lying, cheating, and stealing, it was almost impossible for a virtuous person
to avoid pollution, or to maintain their virtue. No place or places in this
country can be better calculated to inculcate vice of every kind than a
Southern work house or house of correction.
After a profligate,
thief, or a robber, has learned all that they can out of the prison, they might
go in one of those prisons and learn something more-- they might properly be
called robber colleges; and if slaveholders understood this they would never
let their slaves enter them. No man would give much for a slave who had been
kept long in one of these prisons.
I have often heard them
telling each other how they robbed houses, and persons on the high way, by
knocking them down, and would rob them, pick their pockets, and leave them half
dead. Others would tell of stealing horses, cattle, sheep, and slaves; and when
they would be sometimes apprehended, by the aid of their friends, they would
break jail. But they could most generally find enough to swear them clear of
any kind of villany. They seemed to take great delight in telling of their
exploits in robbery. There was a regular combination of them who had determined
to resist law, wherever they went, to carry out their purposes.
In conversing with
myself, they learned that I was notorious for running away, and professed
sympathy for me. They thought that I might yet get to Canada, and be free, and
suggested a plan by which I might accomplish it; and one way was, to learn to
read and write, so that I might write myself a pass ticket, to go just where I
pleased, when I was taken out of the prison; and they taught me secretly all
they could while in the prison.
But there was another
plan which they suggested to me to get away from slavery; that was to break out
of the prison and leave my family. I consented to engage in this plot, but not
to leave my family.
By my conduct in the
prison, after having been there several weeks, I had gained the confidence of
the keeper, and the turnkey. So much so, that when I wanted water or anything
of the kind, they would open my door and hand it in to me. One of the turnkeys
was an old colored man, who swept and cleaned up the cells, supplied the
prisoners with water, &c.
On Sundays in the
afternoon, the watchmen of the prison were most generally off, and this old
slave, whose name was Stephen, had the prisoners to attend to. The white
prisoners formed a plot to break out on Sunday in the afternoon, by making me
the agent to get the prison keys from old Stephen.
I was to prepare a
stone that would weigh about one pound, tie it up in a rag, and keep it in my
pocket to strike poor old Stephen with, when he should open my cell door. But
this I would not consent to do, without he should undertake to betray me.
I gave old Stephen one
shilling to buy me a water melon, which he was to bring to me in the afternoon.
All the prisoners were to be ready to strike, just as soon as I opened their
doors. When Stephen opened my door to hand me the melon, I was to grasp him by
the collar, raise the stone over his head, and say to him, that if he made any
alarm that I should knock him down with the stone. But if he would be quiet he
should not be hurt. I was then to take all the keys from him, and lock him up
in the cell--take a chisel and cut the chain from my own leg, then unlock all
the cells below, and let out the other prisoners, who were all to cut off their
chains. We were then to go and let out old Stephen, and make him go off with
us. We were to form a line and march to the front gate of the prison with a
sledge hammer, and break it open, and if we should be discovered, and there should
be any out-cry, we were all to run and raise the alarm of fire, so as to avoid
detection. But while we were all listening for Stephen to open the door with
the melon, he came and reported that he could not get one, and handed me back
the money through the window. All were disappointed, and nothing done. I looked
upon it as being a fortunate thing for me, for it was certainly a very
dangerous experiment for a slave, and they could never get me to consent to be
the leader in that matter again.
A few days after,
another plot was concocted to to break prison, but it was betrayed by one of
the party, which resulted in the most cruel punishment to the prisoners
concerned in it; and I felt thankful that my name was not connected with it.
They were not only flogged, but they were kept on bread and water alone, for
many days. A few days after we were put in this prison, Garrison came and took
my wife and child out, I knew not for what purpose, nor to what place, but
after the absence of several days I supposed that he had sold them. But one
morning, the outside door was thrown open, and Malinda thrust in by the
ruthless hand of Garrison, whose voice was pouring forth the most bitter oaths
and abusive language that could be dealt out to a female; while her heart-rending
shrieks and sobbing, was truly melting to the soul of a father and husband.
The language of Malinda
was, “Oh! my dear little child is gone? What shall I do? my child is gone.”
This most distressing sound struck a sympathetic chord through all the prison
among the prisoners. I was not permitted to go to my wife and inquire what had
become of little Frances. I never expected to see her again, for I supposed
that she was sold.
That night, however, I
had a short interview with my much abused wife, who told me the secret. She
said that Garrison had taken her to a private house where he kept female slaves
for the baset purposes. It was a resort for slave trading profligates and soul
drivers, who were interested in the same business.
Soon after she arrived
at this place, Garrison gave her to understand what he brought her there for,
and made a most disgraceful assault on her virtue, which she promptly repeled;
and for which Garrison punished her with the lash, threatening her that if she
did not submit that he would sell her child. The next day he made the same
attempt, which she resisted, declaring that she would not submit to it; and
again he tied her up and flogged her until her garments were stained with
blood.
He then sent our child
off to another part of the city, and said he meant to sell it, and that she
should never see it again. He then drove Malinda before him to the work-house,
swearing by his Maker that she should submit to him or die. I have already
described her entrance in the prison.
Two days after this he
came again and took Malinda out of the prison. It was several weeks before I
saw her again, and learned that he had not sold her or the child. At the same
time he was buying up other slaves to take to New Orleans. At the oxpiration of
three months he was ready to start with us for the New Orleans slave market,
but we never knew when we were to go, until the hour had arrived for our
departure.
One Sabbath morning
Garrison entered the prison and commanded that our limbs should be made ready
for the coffles. They called us up to an anvill block, and the heavy log chains
which we had been wearing on our legs during three months, were cut off. I had
been in the prison over three months; but he had other slaves who had not been
there so long. The hand-cuffs were then put on to our wrists. We were coupled
together two and two--the right hand of one to the left hand of another, and a
long chain to connect us together.
The other prisoners
appeared to be sorry to see us start off in this way. We marched off to the
river Ohio, to take passage on board of the steamboat Water Witch. But this was
at a very low time of water, in the fall of 1839. The boat got aground, and did
not get off that night; and Garrison had to watch us all night to keep any from
getting away. He also had a very large savage dog, which was trained up to
catch runaway slaves.
We were more than six
weeks getting to the city of New Orleans, in consequence of low water. We were
shifted on to several boats before we arrived at the mouth of the river Ohio.
But we got but very little rest at night. As all were chained together night
and day, it was impossible to sleep, being annoyed by the bustle and crowd of
the passengers on board; by the terrible thought that we were destined to be sold
in market as sheep or oxen; and annoyed by the galling chains that cramped our
wearied limbs, on the tedious voyage. But I had several opportunities to have
run away from Garrison before we got to the mouth of the Ohio river. While they
were shifting us from one boat to another my hands were some times loosed,
until they got us all on board--and I know that I should have broke away had it
not been for the sake of my wife and child who was with me. I could see no
chance to get them off, and I could not leave them in that condition--and
Garrison was not so much afraid of my running away from him while he held on to
my family, for he knew from the great sacrifices which I had made to rescue
them from slavery, that my attachment was too strong to run off and leave them
in his hands, while there was the least hope of ever getting them away with me.
Our arrival and
examination at Vicksburg.--An account of slave sales.--Cruel punishment with
the paddle.--Attempts to sell myself by Garrison's direction.--Amusing
interview with a slave buyer.--Deacon Whitfield's examination.--He purchases
the family.--Character of the Deacon.
When we arrived at the
city of Vicksburg, he intended to sell a portion of his slaves there, and
stopped for three weeks trying to sell. But he met with very poor success.
We had there to pass
through an examination or inspection by a city officer, whose business it was
to inspect slave property that was brought to that market for sale. He examined
our backs to see if we had been much scarred by the lash. He examined our
limbs, to see whether we were inferior.
As it is hard to tell
the ages of slaves, they look in their mouths at their teeth, and prick up the
skin on the back of their hands, and if the person is very far advanced in
life, when the skin is pricked up, the pucker will stand so many seconds on the
back of the hand.
But the most rigorous
examinations of slaves by those slave inspectors, is on the mental capacity.
they are found to be very intelligent, this is pronounced the most
objectionable of all other qualities connected with the life of a slave In act,
it undermines the whole fabric of his chattelhood; it prepares for what
slaveholders are pleased to pronounce the unpardonable sin when committed by a
slave. It lays the foundation for running away, and going to Canada. They also
see in it a love for freedom, patriotism, insurrection, bloodshed, and
exterminating war against American slavery.
Hence they are very
careful to inquire whether a slave who is for sale can read or write. This
question has been asked me often by slave traders, and cotton planters, while I
was there for market. After conversing with me, they have sworn by their Maker,
that they would not have me among their negroes; and that they saw the devil in
my eye; I would run away, &c.
I have frequently been
asked also, if I had ever run away; but Garrison would generally answer this
question for me in the negative. He could have sold my little family without
any trouble, for the sum of one thousand dollars. But for fear he might not get
me off at so great an advantage, as the people did not like my appearance, he
could do better by selling us all together. They all wanted my wife, while but
very few wanted me. He asked for me and my family twenty-five hundred dollars,
but was not able to get us off at that price.
He tried to speculate
on my Christian character. He tried to make it appear that I was so pious and
honest that I would not runaway for ill treatment; which was a gross mistake,
for I never had religion enough to keep me from running away from slavery in my
life.
But we were taken from
Vicksburgh, to the city of New Orleans, were we were to be sold at any rate. We
were taken to a trader's yard or a slave prison on the corner of St. Joseph
street. This was a common resort for slave traders, and planters who wanted to
buy slaves; and all classes of slaves were kept there for sale, to be sold in
private or public--young or old, males or females, children or parents,
husbands or wives.
Every day at 10 o'clock
they were exposed for sale. They had to be in trim for showing themselves to
the public for sale. Every one's head had to be combed, and their faces washed,
and those who were inclined to look dark and rough, were compelled to wash in
greasy dish water, in order to make them look slick and lively.
When spectators would
come in the yard, the slaves were ordered out to form a line. They were made to
stand up straight, and look as sprightly as they could; and when they were
asked a question, they had to answer it as promptly as they could, and try to
induce the spectators to buy them. If they failed to do this, they were
severely paddled after the spectators were gone. The object for using the
paddle in the place of a lash was, to conceal the marks which would be made by
the flogging. And the object for flogging under such circumstances, is to make
the slaves anxious to be sold.
The paddle is made of a
piece of hickory timber, about one inch thick, three inches in width, and about
eighteen inches in length. The part which is applied to the flesh is bored full
of quarter inch auger holes, and every time this is applied to the flesh of the
victim, the blood gushes through the holes of the paddle, or a blister makes
its appearance. The persons who are thus flogged, are always stripped naked,
and their hands tied together. They are then bent over double, their knees are
forced between their elbows, and a stick is put through between the elbows and
the bend of the legs, in order to hold the victim in that position, while the
paddle is applied to those parts of the body which would not be so likely to be
seen by those who wanted to buy slaves. (See on page 133.)
I was kept in this
prison for several months, and no one would buy me for fear I would run away.
One day while I was in this prison, Garrison got mad with my wife, and took her
off in one of the rooms, with his paddle in hand, swearing that he would paddle
her; and I could afford her no protection at all, while the strong arm of the
law, public opinion and custom, were all against me. I have often heard
Garrison say, that he had rather paddle a female, than eat when he was
hungry--that it was music for him to hear them scream, and too see their blood
run.
After the lapse of
several months, he found that he could not dispose of my person to a good
advantage, while he kept me in that prison confined among the other slaves. I
do not speak with vanity when I say the contrast was so great between myself
and ordinary slaves, from the fact that I had enjoyed superior advantages, to
which I have already re- ferred. They have their slaves classed off and
numbered.
Garrison came to me one
day and informed me that I might go out through the city and find myself a
master. I was to go to the Hotels, boarding houses, &c.--tell them that my
wife was a good cook, wash-woman, &c.,--and that I was a good dining room
servant, carriage driver, or porter--and in this way I might find some
gentleman who would buy us both; and that this was the only hope of our being
sold together.
But before starting me
out, he dressed me up in a suit of his old clothes, so as to make me look
respectable, and I was so much better dressed than usual that I felt quite gay.
He would not allow my wife to go out with me however, for fear we might get
away. I was out every day for several weeks, three or four hours in each day,
trying to find a new master, but without success.
Many of the old French
inhabitants have taken slaves for their wives, in this city, and their own
children for their servants. Such commonly are called Creoles. They are better
treated than other slaves, and I resembled this class in appearance so much
that the French did not want me. Many of them set their mulatto children free,
and make slaveholders of them.
At length one day I
heard that there was a gentleman in the city from the State of Tennessee, to
buy slaves. He had brought down two rafts of lumber for market, and I thought
if I could get him to buy me with my family, and take us to Tennessee, from
there, I would stand a better opportunity to run away again and get to Canada,
than I would from the extreme South.
So I brushed up myself
and walked down to the river's bank, where the man was pointed out to me
standing on board of his raft, I approached him, and after passing the usual
compliments I said:
“Sir, I understand that
you wish to purchase a lot of servants and I have called to know if it is o.”
He smiled and appeared
to be much pleased at my visit on such laudable business, supposing me to be a
slave trader. He commenced rubbing his hands together, and replied by saying: “Yes
sir, I am glad to see you. It is a part of my business here to buy slaves, and
if I could get you to take my lumber in part pay I should like to buy four or
five of your slaves at any rate. What kind of slaves have you, sir?”
After I found that he
took me to be a slave trader I knew that it would be of no use for me to tell
him that I was myself a slave looking for a master, for he would have doubtless
brought up the same objection that others had brought up,--that I was too
white; and that they were afraid that I could read and write; and would never
serve as a slave, but run away. My reply to the question respecting the quality
of my slaves was, that I did not think his lumber would suit me--that I must
have the cash for my negroes, and turned on my heel and left him!
I returned to the
prison and informed my wife of the fact that I had been taken to be a
slaveholder. She thought that in addition to my light complexion my being
dressed up in Garrison's old slave trading clothes might have caused the man to
think that I was a slave trader, and she was afraid that we should yet be
separated if I should not succeed in finding some body to buy us.
Every day to us was a
day of trouble, and every night brought new and fearful apprehensions that the
golden link which binds together husband and wife might be broken by the
heartless tyrant before the light of another day.
Deep has been the
anguish of my soul when looking over my little family during the silent hours
of the night, knowing the great danger of our being sold off at auction the
next day and parted forever. That this might not come to pass, many have been
the tears and prayers which I have offered up to the God of Israel that we
might be preserved.
While waiting here to
be disposed of, I heard of one Francis Whitfield, a cotton planter, who wanted
to buy slaves. He was represented to be a very pious soul, being a deacon of a
Baptist church. As the regulations, as well as public opinion generally, were
against slaves meeting for religious worship, I thought it would give me a
better opportunity to attend to my religious duties should I fall into the
hands of this deacon.
So I called on him and
tried to show to the best advantage, for the purpose of inducing him to buy me
and my family. When I approached him, I felt much pleased at his external
appearance--I address- ed him in the following words as well as I can remember:
“Sir, I understand you
are desirous of purchasing slaves?”
With a very pleasant
smile, he replied, “Yes, I do want to buy some, are you for sale?”
“Yes sir, with my wife
and one child.”
Garrison had given me a
note to show wherever I went, that I was for sale, speaking of my wife and
child, giving us a very good character of course --and I handed him the note.
After reading it over
he remarked, “I have a few questions to ask you, and if you will tell me the
truth like a good boy, perhaps I may buy you with your family. In the first
place, my boy, you are a little too near white. I want you to tell me now
whether you can read or write?”
My reply was in the
negative.
“Now I want you to tell
me whether you have run away? Don't tell me no stories now, like a good fellow,
and perhaps I may buy you.”
But as I was not under
oath to tell him the whole truth, I only gave him a part of it, by telling him
that I had run away once.
He appeared to be
pleased at that, but cautioned me to tell him the truth, and asked me how long
I stayed away, when I run off?
I told him that I was
gone a month.
He assented to this by
a bow of his head, and making a long grunt saying, “That's right, tell me the
truth like a good boy.”
The whole truth was
that I had been off in the state of Ohio, and other free states, and even to
Canada; besides this I was notorious for running away, from my boyhood.
I never told him that I
had been a runaway longer than one month--neither did I tell him that I had not
run away more than once in my life; for these questions he never asked me.
I afterwards found him
to be one of the basest hypocrites that I ever saw. He looked like a saint
--talked like the best of slave holding Christians, and acted at home like the
devil.
When he saw my wife and
child, he concluded to buy us. He paid for me twelve hundred dollars, and one
thousand for my wife and child. He also bought several other slaves at the same
time, and took home with him. His residence was in the parish of Claiborn,
fifty miles up from the mouth of Red River.
When we arrived there,
we found his slaves poor, ragged, stupid, and half-starved. The food he allowed
them per week, was one peck of corn for each grown person, one pound of pork,
and sometimes a quart of molasses. This was all that they were allowed, and if
they got more they stole it.
He had one of the most
cruel overseers to be found in that section of country. He weighed and measured
out to them, their week's allowance of food every Sabbath morning. The
overseer's horn was sounded two hours before daylight for them in the morning,
in order that they should be ready for work before daylight. They were worked
from daylight until after dark, without stopping but one half hour to eat or
rest, which was at noon. And at the busy season of the year, they were
compelled to work just as hard on the Sabbath, as on any other day.
Cruel treatment on
Whitfield's farm--Exposure of the children --Mode of extorting extra
labor--Neglect of the sick-- Strange medicine used--Death of our second child.
My first impressions
when I arrived on the Deacon's farm, were that he was far more like what the
people call the devil, than he was like a deacon. Not many days after my
arrival there, I heard the Deacon tell one of the slave girls, that he had
bought her for a wife or his boy Stephen, which office he compelled her fully
to perform against her will. This he enforced by a threat. At first the poor
girl neglected to do this, having no sort of affection for the man--but she was
finally forced to it by an application of the driver's lash, as threatened by
the Deacon.
The next thing I
observed was that he made the slave driver strip his own wife, and flog her for
not doing just as her master had ordered. He had a white overseer, and a
colored man for a driver, whose business it was to watch and drive the slaves
in the field, and do the flogging according to the orders of the overseer.
Next a mulatto girl who
waited about the house, on her mistress, displeased her, for which the Deacon
stripped and tied her up. He then handed me the lash and ordered me to put it
on--but I told him I never had done the like, and hoped he would not compel me
to do it. He then informed me that I was to be his overseer, and that he had
bought me for that purpose. He was paying a man eight hundred dollars a year to
oversee, and he believed I was competent to do the same business, and if I
would do it up right he would put nothing harder on me to do; and if I knew not
how to flog a slave, he would set me an example by which I might be governed.
He then commenced on this poor girl, and gave her two hundred lashes before he
had her untied.
After giving her fifty
lashes, he stopped and lectured her a while, asking her if she thought that she
could obey her mistress, &c. She promised to do all in her power to please
him and her mistress, if he would have mercy on her. But this plea was all
vain. He commenced on her again; and this flogging was carried on in the most
inhuman manner until she had received two hundred stripes on her naked
quivering flesh, tied up and exposed to the public gaze of all. And this was
the example that I was to copy after.
He then compelled me to
wash her back off with strong salt brine, before she was untied, which was so
revolting to my feelings, that I could not refrain from shedding tears.
For some cause he never
called on me again to flog a slave. I presume he saw that I was not savage
enough. The above were about the first items of the Deacon's conduct which
struck me with peculiar disgust.
After having enjoyed
the blessings of civil and religious liberty for a season, to be dragged into
that horrible place with my family, to linger out my existence without the aid
of religious societies, or the light of revelation, was more than I could
endure. I really felt as if I had got into one of the darkest corners of the
earth. I thought I was almost out of humanity's reach, and should never again
have the pleasure of hearing the gospel sound, as I could see no way by which I
could extricate myself; yet I never omitted to pray for deliverance. I had
faith to believe that the Lord could see our wrongs and hear our cries.
I was not used quite as
bad as the regular field hands, as the greater part of my time was spent
working about the house; and my wife was the cook.
This country was full
of pine timber, and every slave had to prepare a light wood torch, over night,
made of pine knots, to meet the overseer with, before daylight in the morning.
Each person had to have his torch lit, and come with it in his hand to the gin
house, before the overseer and driver, so as to be ready to go to the cotton
field by the time they could see to pick out cotton. These lights looked
beautiful at a distance.
The object of blowing
the horn for them two hours before day, was, that they should get their bite to
eat, before they went to the field, that they need not stop to eat but once
during the day. Another object was, to do up their flogging which had been
omitted over night. I have often heard the sound of the slave driver's lash on
the backs, of the slaves, and their heart-rending shrieks, which were enough to
melt the heart of humanity, even among the most barbarous nations of the earth.
But the Deacon would
keep no overseer on his plantation, who neglected to perform this every
morning. I have heard him say that he was no better pleased than when he could
hear the overseer's loud complaining voice, long before daylight in the
morning, and the sound of the driver's lash among the toiling slaves.
This was a very warm
climate, abounding with musquitoes, galinippers and other insects which were
exceedingly annoying to the poor slaves by night and day, at their quarters and
in the field. But more especially to their helpless little children, which they
had to carry with them to the cotton fields, where they had to set on the damp
ground alone from morning till night, exposed to the scorching rays of the sun,
liable to be bitten by poisonous rattle snakes which are plenty in that section
of the country, or to be devoured by large alligators, which are often seen
creeping through the cotton fields going from swamp to swamp seeking their
prey.
The cotton planters
generally, never allow a slave mother time to go to the house, or quarter
during the day to nurse her child; hence they have to carry them to the cotton
fields and tie them in the shade of a tree, or in clusters of high weeds about
in the fields, where they can go to them at noon, when they are allowed to stop
work for one half hour. This is the reason why so very few slave children are
raised on these cotton plantations, the mothers have no time to take care of
them--and they are often found dead in the field and in the quarter for want of
the care of their mothers. But I never was eye witness to a case of this kind,
but have heard many narrated by my slave brothers and sisters, some of which
occurred on the deacon's plantation.
Their plan of getting
large quantities of cotton picked is not only to extort it from them by the
lash, but hold out an inducement and deceive them by giving small prizes. For
example; the overseer will offer something worth one or two dollars to any
slave who will pick out the most cotton in one day; dividing the hands off in
three classes and offering a prize to the one who will pick out the most cotton
in each of the classes. By this means they are all interested in trying to get
the prize.
After making them try
it over several times and weighing what cotton they pick every night, the
overseer can tell just how much every hand can pick. He then gives the present
to those that pick the most cotton, and then if they do not pick just as much
afterward they are flogged.
I have known the slaves
to be so much fatigued from labor that they could scarcely get to their lodging
places from the field at night. And then they would have to prepare something
to eat before they could lie down to rest. Their corn they had to grind on a
hand mill for bread stuff, or pound it in a mortar; and by the time they would
get their suppers it would be midnight; then they would herd down all together
and take but two or three hours rest, before the overseer's horn called them up
again to prepare for the field.
At the time of sickness
among slaves they had but very little attention. The master was to be the judge
of their sickness, but never had studied the medical profession. He always
pronounced a slave who said he was sick, a liar and a hypocrite; said there was
nothing the matter, and he only wanted to keep from work.
His remedy was most
generally strong red pepper tea, boiled till it was red. He would make them
drink a pint cup full of it at one dose. If he should not get better very soon
after it, the dose was repeated. If that should not accomplish the object for
which it was given, or have the desired effect, a pot or kettle was then put
over the fire with a large quantity of chimney soot, which was boiled down
until it was as strong as the juice of tobacco, and the poor sick slave was
compelled to drink a quart of it.
This would operate on
the system like salts, or castor oil. But if the slave should not be very ill,
he would rather work as long as he could stand up, than to take this dreadful
medicine.
If it should be a very
valuable slave, sometimes a physician was sent for and something done to save
him. But no special aid is afforded the suffering slave even in the last trying
hour, when he is called to grapple with the grim monster death. He has no
Bible, no family altar, no minister to address to him the consolations of the
gospel, before he launches into the spirit world. As to the burial of slaves,
but very littlemore care is taken of their dead bodies than if they were dumb
beasts.
My wife was very sick
while we were both living with the Deacon. We expected every day would be her last.
While she was sick, we lost our second child, and I was compelled to dig my own
child's grave and bury it myself without even a box to put it in.
I attend a prayer
meeting.--Punishment therefor threatened. --I attempt to escape alone.--My
return to take my family. --Our sufferings.--Dreadful attack of wolves.--Our
recapture.
Some months after
Malinda had recovered from her sickness, I got permission from the Deacon, on
one Sabbath day, to attend a prayer meeting, on a neighboring plantation, with
a few old superanuated slaves, although this was contrary to the custom of the
country--for slaves were not allowed to assemble for religious worship. Being
more numerous than the whites there was fear of rebellion, and the overpowering
of their oppressors in order to obtain freedom.
But this gentleman on
whose plantation I attended the meeting was not a Deacon nor a professor of
religion. He was not afraid of a few old Christian slaves rising up to kill
their master because he allowed them to worship God on the Sabbath day.
We had a very good
meeting, although our exercises were not conducted in accordance with an
enlightened Christianity; for we had no Bible--no intelligent leader--but a
conscience, prompted by our own reason, constrained us to worship God the
Creator of all things.
When I returned home
from meeting I told the other slaves what a good time we had at our meeting,
and requested them to go with me to meeting there on the next Sabbath. As no
slave was allowed to go from the plantation on a visit without a written pass
from his master, on the next Sabbath several of us went to the Deacon, to get
permission to attend that prayer meeting; but he refused to let any go. I
thought I would slip off and attend the meeting and get back before he would
miss me, and would not know that I had been to the meeting.
When I returned home
from the meeting as I approached the house I saw Malinda, standing out at the
fence looking in the direction in which I was expected to return. She hailed my
approach, not with joy, but with grief. She was weeping under great distress of
mind, but it was hard for me to extort from her the reason why she wept. She
finally informed me that her master had found out that I had violated his law,
and I should suffer the penalty. which was five hundred lashes, on my naked
back.
I asked her how he knew
that I had gone?
She said I had not long
been gone before he called for me and I was not to be found. He then sent the
overseer on horseback to the place where we were to meet to see if I was there.
But when the overseer got to the place, the meeting was over and I had gone
back home, but had gone a nearer route through the woods and the overseer
happened not to meet me. He heard that I had been there and hurried back home
before me and told the Deacon, who ordered him to take me on the next morning,
strip off my clothes, drive down four stakes in the ground and fasten my limbs
to them; then strike me five hundred lashes for going to the prayer meeting.
This was what distressed my poor companion. She thought it was more than I
could bear, and that it would be the death of me. I concluded then to run
away--but she thought they would catch me with the blood hounds by their taking
my track. But to avoid them I thought I would ride off on one of the Deacon's
mules. She thought if I did, they would sell me.
“No matter, I will try
it,” said I, “let the consequences be what they may. The matter can be no worse
than it now is.” So I tackled up the Deacon's best mule with his saddle,
&c., and started that night and went off eight or ten miles from home. But
I found the mule to be rather troublesome, and was like to betray me by
braying, especially when he would see cattle, horses, or any thing of the kind
in the woods.
The second night from
home I camped in a cane break down in the Red river swamp not a great way off
from the road, perhaps not twenty rods, exposed to wild ferocious beasts which
were numerous in that section of country. On that night about the middle of the
night the mule heard the sound of horses feet on the road, and he commenced
stamping and trying to break away. As the horses seemed to come nearer, the
mule commenced trying to bray, and it was all that I could do to prevent him
from making a loud bray there in the woods, which would have betrayed me.
I supposed that it was
the overseer out with the dogs looking for me, and I found afterwards that I
was not mistaken. As soon as the people had passed by, I mounted the mule and
took him home to prevent his betraying me. When I got near by home I stripped
off the tackling and turned the mule loose. I then slipt up to the cabin
wherein my wife laid and found her awake, much distressed about me. She
informed me that they were then out looking for me, and that the Deacon was
bent on flogging me nearly to death, and then selling me off from my family.
This was truly heart-rending to my poor wife; the thought of our being torn
apart in a strange land after having been sold away from all her friends and
relations, was more than she could bear.
The Deacon had declared
that I should not only suffer for the crime of attending a prayer meeting
without his permission, and for running away, but for the awful crime of
stealing a jackass, which was death by the law when committed by a negro.
But I well knew that I
was regarded as property, and so was the ass; and I thought if one piece of
property took off another, there could be no law violated in the act; no more
sin committed in this than if one jackass had rode off another.
But after consultation
with my wife I concluded to take her and my little daughter with me and they
would be guilty of the same crime that I was, so far as running away was
concerned; and if the Deacon sold one he might sell us all, and perhaps to the
same person.
So we started off with
our child that night, and made our way down to the Red river swamps among the
buzzing insects and wild beasts of the forest. We wandered about in the
wilderness for eight or ten days before we were apprehended, striving to make
our way from slavery; but it was all in vain. Our food was parched corn, with
wild fruit such as pawpaws, percimmons, grapes, &c. We did at one time
chance to find a sweet potato patch where we got a few potatoes; but most of
the time, while we were out, we were lost. We wanted to cross the Red river but
could find no conveyance to cross in.
I recollect one day of
finding a crooked tree which bent over the river or over one fork of the river,
where it was divided by an island. I should think that the tree was at least
twenty feet from the surface of the water. I picked up my little child, and my
wife followed me, saying, “if we perish let us all perish together in the
stream.” We succeeded in crossing over. I often look back to that dangerous
event even now with astonishment, and wonder how I could have run such a risk.
What would induce me to run the same risk now? What could induce me now to
leave home and friends and go to the wild forest and lay out on the cold ground
night after night without covering, and live on parched corn?
What would induce me to
take my family and go into the Red river swamps of Louisiana among the snakes
and alligators, with all the liabilities of being destroyed by them, hunted
down with blood hounds, or lay myself liable to be shot down like the wild
beasts of the forest? Nothing I say, nothing but the strongest love of liberty,
humanity, and justice to myself and family, would induce me to run such a risk
again.
When we crossed over on
the tree we supposed that we had crossed over the main body of the river, but
we had not proceeded far on our journey before we found that we were on an
Island surrounded by water on either side. We made our bed that night in a pile
of dry leaves which had fallen from off the trees. We were much rest-broken,
wearied from hunger and travelling through briers, swamps and
cane-brakes--consequently we soon fell asleep after lying down. About the dead
hour of the night I was aroused by the awful howling of a gang of blood-thirsty
wolves, which had found us out and surrounded us as their prey, there in the
dark wilderness many miles from any house or settlement.
My dear little child
was so dreadfully alarmed that she screamed loudly with fear--my wife trembling
like a leaf on a tree, at the thought of being devoured there in the wilderness
by ferocious wolves.
The wolves kept
howling, and were near enough for us to see their glaring eyes, and hear their
chattering teeth. I then thought that the hour of death for us was at hand;
that we should not live to see the light of another day; for there was no way
for our escape. My little family were looking up to me for protection, but I
could afford them none. And while I was offering up my prayers to that God who
never forsakes those in the hour of danger who trust in him, I thought of
Deacon Whitfield; I thought of his profession, and doubted his piety. I thought
of his hand-cuffs, of his whips, of his chains, of his stocks, of his
thumb-screws, of his slave driver and overseer, and of his religion; I also
thought of his opposition to prayer meetings, and of his five hundred lashes
promised me for attending a prayer meeting. I thought of God, I thought of the
devil, I thought of hell; and I thought of heaven, and wondered whether I
should ever see the Deacon there. And I calculated that if heaven was made up
of such Deacons, or such persons, it could not be filled with love to all
mankind, and with glory and eternal happiness, as we know it is from the truth
of the Bible.
The reader may perhaps
think me tedious on this topic, but indeed it is one of so much interest to me,
that I find myself entirely unable to describe what my own feelings were at
that time. I was so much excited by the fierce howling of the savage wolves,
and the frightful screams of my little family, that I thought of the future; I
thought of the past; I thought the time of my departure had come at last.
My impression is, that
all these thoughts and thousands of others, flashed through my mind, while I
was surrounded by those wolves. But it seemed to be the will of a merciful
providence, that our lives should be spared, and that we should not be
destroyed by them.
I had no weapon of
defence but a long bowie knife which I had slipped from the Deacon. It was a
very splendid blade, about two feet in length, and about two inches in width.
This used to be a part of his armor of defence while walking about the
plantation among his slaves.
The plan which I took
to expel the wolves was a very dangerous one, but it proved effectual. While
they were advancing to me, prancing and accumulating in number, apparently of
all sizes and grades, who had come to the feast, I thought just at this time,
that there was no alternative left but for me to make a charge with my bowie
knife. I well knew from the action of the wolves, that if I made no farther
resistance, they would soon destroy us, and if I made a break at them, the
matter could be no worse. I thought if I must die, I would die striving to
protect my little family from destruction, die striving to escape from slavery.
My wife took a club in one hand, and her child in the other, while I rushed
forth with my bowie knife in hand, to fight off the savage wolves. I made one
desperate charge at them, and at the same time making a loud yell at the top of
my voice, that caused them to retreat and scatter, which was equivalent to a
victory on our part. Our prayers were answered, and our lives spared through
the night. We slept no more that night, and the next morning there were no
wolves to be seen or heard, and we resolved not to stay on that island another
night.
We travelled up and
down the river side trying to find a place where we could cross. Finally we
found a lot of drift wood clogged together, extending across the stream at a
narrow place in the river, upon which we crossed over. But we had not yet
surmounted our greatest difficulty. We had to meet one which was far more
formidable than the first. Not many days after I had to face the Deacon.
We had been wandering
about through the cane brakes, bushes, and briers, for several days, when we
heard the yelping of blood hounds, a great way off, but they seemed to come
nearer and nearer to us. We thought after awhile that they must be on our
track; we listened attentively at the approach. We knew it was no use for us to
undertake to escape from them, and as they drew nigh, we heard the voice of a
man hissing on the dogs.
After awhile we saw the
hounds coming in full speed on our track, and the soul drivers close after them
on horse back, yelling like tigers, as they came in sight. The shrill yelling
of the savage blood hounds as they drew nigh made the woods echo.
The first impulse was
to run to escape the approaching danger of ferocious dogs, and blood thirsty
slave hunters, who were so rapidly approaching me with loaded muskets and bowie
knives, with a determination to kill or capture me and my family. I started to
run with my little daughter in my arms, but stumbled and fell down and
scratched the arm of little Frances with a brier, so that it bled very much;
but the dear child never cried, for she seemed to know the danger to which we
were exposed.
But we soon found that
it was no use for us to run. The dogs were soon at our heels, and we were
compelled to stop, or be torn to pieces by them. By this time, the soul drivers
came charging up on their horses, commanding us to stand still or they would
shoot us down.
Of course I surrendered
up for the sake of my family. The most abusive terms to be found in the English
language were poured forth on us with bitter oaths. They tied my hands behind
me, and drove us home before them, to suffer the penalty of a slaveholder's
broken law.
As we drew nigh the
plantation my heart grew faint. I was aware that we should have to suffer
almost death for running off. I was filled with dreadful apprehensions at the
thought of meeting a professed follower of Christ, whom I knew to be a
hypocrite! No tongue, no pen can ever describe what my feelings were at that
time.
My sad condition before
Whitfield.--My terrible punishment.-- Incidents of a former attempt to
escape.--Jack at a farm house. --Six pigs and a turkey.--Our surprise and
arrest.
The reader may perhaps
imagine what must have been my feelings when I found myself surrounded on the
island with my little family, at midnight, by a gang of savage wolves. This was
one of those trying emergencies in my life when there was apparently but one
step between us and the grave. But I had no cords wrapped about my limbs to
prevent my struggling against the impending danger to which I was then exposed.
I was not denied the consolation of resisting in self defence, as was now the
case. There was no Deacon standing before me, with a loaded rifle, swearing
that I should submit to the torturing lash, or be shot down like a dumb beast.
I felt that my chance
was by far better among the howling wolves in the Red river swamp, than before
Deacon Whitfield, on the cotton plantation. I was brought before him as a
criminal before a bar, without counsel, to be tried and condemned by a tyrant's
law. My arms were bound with a cord, my spirit broken, and my little family
standing by weeping. I was not allowed to plead my own cause, and there was no
one to utter a word in my behalf.
He ordered that the
field hands should be called together to witness my punishment, that it might
serve as a caution to them never to attend a prayer meeting, or runaway as I
had, lest they should receive the same punishment.
At the sound of the
overseer's horn, all the slaves came forward and witnessed my punishment. My
clothing was stripped off and I was compelled to lie down on the ground with my
face to the earth Four stakes were driven in the ground, to which my hands and
feet were tied. Then the overseer stood over me with the lash and laid it on according
to the Deacon's order. Fifty lashes were laid on before stopping. I was then
lectured with reference to my going to prayer meeting without his orders, and
running away to escape flogging.
While I suffered under
this dreadful torture, I prayed, and wept, and implored mercy at the hand of
slavery, but found none. After I was marked from my neck to my heels, the
Deacon took the gory lash, and said he thought there was a spot on my back yet
where he could put in afew more. He wanted to give me something to remember him
by, he said.
After I was flogged
almost to death in this way, a paddle was brought forward and eight or ten
blows given me with it, which was by far worse than the lash. My wounds were
then washed with salt brine, after which I was let up. A description of such
paddles I have already given in another page. I was so badly punished that I
was not able to work for several days. After being flogged as described, they
took me off several miles to a shop and had a heavy iron collar riveted on my neck
with prongs extending above my head, on the end of which there was a small
bell. I was not able to reach the bell with my hand. This heavy load of iron I
was compelled to wear for six weeks. I never was allowed to lie in the same
house with my family again while I was the slave of Whitfield. I either had to
sleep with my feet in the stocks, or be chained with a large log chain to a log
over night, with no bed or bedding to rest my wearied limbs on, after toiling
all day in the cotton field. I suffered almost death while kept in this
confinement; and he had ordered the overseer never to let me loose again;
saying that I thought of getting free by running off, but no negro should ever
get away from him alive.
I have omitted to state
that this was the second time I had run away from him; while I was gone the
first time, he extorted from my wife the fact that I had been in the habit of
running away, before we left Kentucky; that I had been to Canada, and that I was
trying to learn the art of reading and writing. All this was against me.
It is true that I was
striving to learn myself to write. I was a kind of a house servant and was
frequently sent off on errands, but never without a written pass; and on
Sundays I have sometimes got permission to visit our neighbor's slaves, and I
have often tried to write myself a pass.
Whenever I got hold of
an old letter that had been thrown away, or a piece of white paper, I would
save it to write on. I have often gone off in the woods and spent the greater
part of the day alone, trying to learn to write myself a pass, by writing on
the backs of old letters; copying after the pass that had been written by
Whitfield; by so doing I got the use of the pen and could form letters as well
as I can now, but knew not what they were.
The Deacon had an old
slave by the name of Jack whom he bought about the time that he bought me. Jack
was born in the State of Virginia. He had some idea of freedom; had often run
away, but was very ignorant; knew not where to go for refuge; but understood
all about providing something to eat when unjustly deprived of it.
So for ill treatment,
we concluded to take a tramp together. I was to be the pilot, while Jack was to
carry the baggage and keep us in provisions. Before we started, I managed to
get hold of a suit of clothes the Deacon possessed, with his gun, ammunition
and bowie knife. We also procured a blanket, a joint of meat, and some bread.
We started in a
northern direction, being bound for the city of Little Rock, State of Arkansas.
We travelled by night and laid by-in the day, being guided by the unchangeable
North Star; but at length, our provisions gave out, and it was Jack's place to
get more. We came in sight of a large plantation one morning, where we saw
people of color, and Jack said he could get something there, among the slaves,
that night, for us to eat. So we concealed ourselves, in sight of this
plantation until about bed time, when we saw the lights extinguished.
During the day we saw a
female slave passing from the dwelling house to the kitchen as if she was the
cook; the house being about three rods from the landlord's dwelling. After we
supposed the whites were all asleep, Jack slipped up softly to the kitchen to
try his luck with the cook, to see if he could get any thing from her to eat.
I would remark that the
domestic slaves are often found to be traitors to their own people, for the
purpose of gaining favor with their masters; and they are encouraged and
trained up by them to report every plot they know of being formed about
stealing any thing, or running away, or any thing of the kind; and for which
they are paid. This is one of the principal causes of the slaves being divided
among themselves, and without which they could not be held in bondage one year,
and perhaps not half that time.
I now proceed to
describe the unsuccessful attempt of poor Jack to obtain something from the
female slave to satisfy hunger. The planter's house was situated on an elevated
spot on the side of a hill. The fencing about the house and garden was very
crookedly laid up with rails. The night was rather dark and rainy, and Jack
left me with the understanding that I was to stay at a certain place until he
returned. I cautioned him before he left me to be very careful--and after he
started, I left the place where he was to find me when he returned, for fear
something might happen which might lead to my detection, should I remain at
that spot. So I left it and went off where I could see the house, and that
place too.
Jack had not long been
gone, before I heard a great noise; a man, crying out with a loud voice, “Catch
him! Catch him!” and hissing the dogs on, and they were close after Jack. The
next thing I saw, was Jack running for life, and an old white man after him,
with a gun, and his dogs. The fence being on sidling ground, and wet with the
rain, when Jack run against it he knocked down several pannels of it and fell,
tumbling over and over to the foot of the hill; but soon recovered and ran to
where he had left me; but I was gone. The dogs were still after him.
There happened to be
quite a thicket of small oak shrubs and bushes in the direction he ran. I think
he might have been heard running and straddling bushes a quarter of a mile! The
poor fellow hurt himself considerably in straddling over bushes in that way, in
making his escape.
Finally the dogs
relaxed their chase and poor Jack and myself again met in the thick forest. He
said when he rapped on the cook-house door, the colored woman came to the door.
He asked her if she would let him have a bite of bread if she had it, that he
was a poor hungry absconding slave. But she made no reply to what he said but
immediately sounded the alarm by calling loudly after her master, saying, “here
is a runaway negro!” Jack said that he was going to knock her down but her mas-
ter was out within one moment, and he had to run for his life.
As soon as we got our
eyes fixed on the North Star again, we started on our way. We travelled on a
few miles and came to another large plantation, where Jack was determined to
get something to eat. He left me at a certain place while he went up to the
house to find something if possible.
He was gone some time
before he returned, but when I saw him coming, he appeared to be very heavy
loaded with a bag of something. We walked off pretty fast until we got some
distance in the woods. Jack then stopped and opened his bag in which he had six
small pigs. I asked him how he got them without making any noise; and he said
that he found a bed of hogs, in which there were the pigs with their mother.
While the pigs were sucking he crawled up to them without being discovered by
the sow, and took them by their necks one after another, and choked them to
death, and slipped them into his bag!
We intended to travel
on all that night and lay by the next day in the forest and cook up our pigs.
We fell into a large road leading on the direction which we were travelling,
and had not proceeded over three miles before I found a white hat lying in the
road before me. Jack being a little behind me I stopped until he came up, and
showed it to him. He picked it up. We looked a few steps farther and saw a man
lying by the way, either asleep or intoxicated, as we supposed.
I told Jack not to take
the hat, but he would not obey me. He had only a piece of a hat himself, which
he left in exchange for the other. We travelled on about five miles farther,
and in passing a house discovered a large turkey sitting on the fence, which
temptation was greater than Jack could resist. Notwithstanding he had six very
nice fat little pigs on his back, he stepped up and took the turkey off the
fence.
By this time it was
getting near day-light and we left the road and went off a mile or so among the
hills of the forest, where we struck camp for the day. We then picked our
turkey, dressed our pigs, and cooked two of them. We got the hair off by
singeing them over the fire, and after we had eaten all we wanted, one of us
slept while the other watched. We had flint, punk, and powder to strike fire
with. A little after dark the next night, we started on our way.
But about ten o'clock
that night just as we were passing through a thick skirt of woods, five men
sprang out before us with fire-arms, swearing if we moved another step, they
would shoot us down; and each man having his gun drawn up for shooting we had
no chance to make any defence, and surren dered sooner than run the risk of
being killed.
They had been lying in
wait for us there, for several hours. They had seen a reward out, for notices
were put up in the most public places, that fifty dollars would be paid for me,
dead or alive, I should not return home within so many days. And the reader
will remember that neither Jack nor myself was able to read the advertisement. It
was of very little consequence with the slave catchers, whether they killed us
or took us alive, for the reward was the same to them.
After we were taken and
tied, one of the men declared to me that he would have shot me dead just as
sure as he lived, if I had moved one step after they commanded us to stop. He
had his gun levelled at my breast, already cocked, and his finger on the
trigger. The way they came to find us out was from the circumstance of Jack's
taking the man's hat in connection with the advertisement. The man whose hat
was taken was drunk; and the next morning when he came to look for his hat it
was gone and Jack's old hat lying in the place of it; and in looking round he
saw the tracks of two persons in the dust, who had passed during the night, and
one of them having but three toes on one foot. He followed these tracks until
they came to a large mud pond, in a lane on one side of which a person might
pass dry shod; but the man with three toes on one foot had plunged through the
mud. This led the man to think there must be runaway slaves, and from out of
that neighborhood; for all persons in that settlement knew which side of that
mud hole to go. He then got others to go with him, and they followed us until
our track left the road. They supposed that we had gone off in the woods to lay
by until night, after which we should pursue our course.
After we were captured
they took us off several miles to where one of them lived, and kept us over
night. One of our pigs was cooked for us to eat that night; and the turkey the
next morning. But we were both tied that night with our hands behind us, and
our feet were also tied. The doors were locked, and a bedstead was set against
the front door, and two men slept in it to prevent our getting out in the
night. They said that they knew how to catch runaway negroes, and how to keep
them after they were caught.
They remarked that
after they found we had stopped to lay by until night, and they saw from our
tracks what direction we were travelling, they went about ten miles on that
direction, and hid by the road side until we came up that night. That night
after all had got fast to sleep, I thought I would try to get out, and I should
have succeeded, if I could have moved the bed from the door. I managed to untie
myself and crawled under the bed which was placed at the door, and strove to
remove it, but in so doing I awakened the men and they got up and confined me
again, and watched me until day light, each with a gun in hand.
The next morning they
started with us back to Deacon Whitfield's plantation; but when they got within
ten miles of where he lived they stopped at a public house to stay over night;
and who should we meet there but the Deacon, who was then out looking for me.
The reader may well
imagine how I felt to meet him. I had almost as soon come in contact with Satan
himself. He had two long poles or sticks of wood brought in to confine us to. I
was compelled to lie on my back across one of those sticks with my arms out,
and have them lashed fast to the log with a cord. My feet were also tied to the
other, and there I had to lie all that night with my back across this stick of
wood, and my feet and hands tied. I suffered that night under the most
excruciating pain. From the tight binding of the cord the circulation of the
blood in my arms and feet was almost entirely stopped. If the night had been
much longer I must have died in that confinement.
The next morning we
were taken back to the Deacon's farm, and both flogged for going off, and set
to work. But there was some allowance made for me on account of my being young.
They said that they knew old Jack had pursuaded me off, or I never would have
gone. And the Deacon's wife begged that I might be favored some, for that time,
as Jack had influenced me, so as to bring up my old habits of running away that
I had entirely given up.
I am sold to
gamblers.--They try to purchase my family.-- Our parting scene.--My good
usage.--I am sold to an Indian. --His confidence in my integrity manifested.
The reader will
remember that this brings me back to the time the Deacon had ordered me to be
kept in confinement until he got a chance to sell me, and that no negro should
ever get away from him and live. Some days after this we were all out at the
gin house ginning cotton, which was situated on the road side, and there came
along a company of men, fifteen or twenty in number, who were Southern
sportsmen. Their attention was attracted by the load of iron which was fastened
about my neck with a bell attached. They stopped and asked the Deacon what that
bell was put on my neck for? and he said it was to keep me from running away,
&c.
They remarked that I
looked as if I might be a smart negro, and asked if he wanted to sell me. The
reply was, yes. They then got off their horses and struck a bargain with him
for me. They bought me at a reduced price for speculation.
After they had
purchased me, I asked the privilege of going to the house to take leave of my
family before I left, which was granted by the sportsmen. But the Deacon said I
should never again step my foot inside of his yard; and advised the sportsmen
not to take the irons from my neck until they had sold me; that if they gave me
the least chance I would run away from them, as I did from him. So I was
compelled to mount a horse and go off with them as I supposed, never again to
meet my family in this life.
We had not proceeded
far before they informed me that they had bought me to sell again, and if they
kept the irons on me it would be detrimental to the sale, and that they would
therefore take off the irons and dress me up like a man, and throw away the old
rubbish which I then had on; and they would sell me to some one who would treat
me better than Deacon Whitfield. After they had cut off the irons and dressed
me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they spent some time horse
racing and gambling; and although they were wicked black legs of the basest
character, it is but due to them to say, that they used me far better than ever
the Deacon did. They gave me plenty to eat and put nothing hard on me to do.
They expressed much sympathy for me in my bereavement; and almost every day
they gave me money more or less, and by my activity in waiting on them, and
upright conduct, I got into the good graces of them all, but they could not get
any person to buy me on account of the amount of intelligence which they
supposed me to have; for many of them thought that I could read and write. When
they left Texas, they intended to go to the Indian Territory west of the
Mississippi, to attend a great horse race which was to take place. Not being
much out of their way to go past Deacon Whitfield's again, I prevailed on them
to call on him for the purpose of trying to purchase my wife and child; and I
promised them that if they would buy my wife and child, I would get some person
to purchase us from them. So they tried to grant my request by calling on the
Deacon, and trying to make the purchase. As we approached the Deacon's
plantation, my heart was filled with a thousand painful and fearful
apprehensions. I had the fullest confidence in the blacklegs with whom I
travelled, believing that they would do according to promise, and go to the
fullest extent of their ability to restore peace and consolation to a bereaved
family--to re-unite husband and wife, parent and child, who had long been
severed by slavery through the agency of Deacon Whitfield. But I knew his
determination in relation to myself, and I feared his wicked opposition to a
restoration of myself and little family, which he had divided, and soon found
that my fears were not without foundation.
When we rode up and
walked into his yard, the Deacon came out and spoke to all but myself; and not
finding me in tattered rags as a substitute for clothes, nor having an iron
collar or bell about my neck, as was the case when he sold me, he appeared to
be much displeased.
“What did you bring
that negro back here for?” said he.
“We have come to try to
buy his wife and child; for we can find no one who is willing to buy him alone;
and we will either buy or sell so that the family may be together,” said they.
While this conversation
was going on, my poor bereaved wife, who never expected to see me again in this
life, spied me and came rushing to me through the crowd, throwing her arms
about my neck exclaiming in the most sympathetic tones, “Oh! my dear husband! I
never expected to see you again!” The poor woman was bathed with tears of
sorrow and grief. But no sooner had she reached me, than the Deacon
peremptorily commanded her to go to her work. This she did not obey, but prayed
that her master would not separate us again, as she was there alone, far from
friends and relations whom she should never meet again. And now to take away
her husband, her last and only true friend, would be like taking her life!
But such appeals made
no impression on the unfeeling Deacon's heart. While he was storming with
abusive language, and even using the gory lash with hellish vengeance to
separate husband and wife, I could see the sympathetic tear-drop, stealing its
way down the cheek of the profligate and black-leg, whose object it now was to
bind up the broken heart of a wife, and restore to the arms of a bereaved
husband, his companion.
They were disgusted at
the conduct of Whitfield and cried out shame, even in his presence. They told
him that they would give a thousand dollars for my wife and child, or any thing
in reason. But no! he would sooner see me to the devil than indulge or gratify
me after my having run away from him; and if they did not remove me from his
presence very soon, he said he should make them suffer for it.
But all this, and even
the gory lash had yet failed to break the grasp of poor Malinda, whose prospect
of connubial, social, and future happiness was all at stake. When the dear
woman saw there was no help for us, and that we should soon be separated
forever, in the name of Deacon Whitfield, and American slavery to meet no more
as husband and wife, parent and child--the last and loudest appeal was made on
our knees. We appealed to the God of justice and to the sacred ties of
humanity; but this was all in vain. The louder we prayed the harder he whipped,
amid the most heart-rending shrieks from the poor slave mother and child, as
little Frances stood by, sobbing at the abuse inflicted on her mother.
“Oh! how shall I give
my husband the parting hand never to meet again? This will surely break my
heart,” were her parting words.
I can never describe to
the reader the awful reality of that separation--for it was enough to chill the
blood and stir up the deepest feeling of revenge in the hearts of slaveholding
black-legs, who as they stood by, were threatening, some weeping, some swearing
and others declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted on a
human being. As we left the plantation, as far as we could see and hear, the
Deacon was still laying on the gory lash, trying to prevent poor Malinda from
weeping over the loss of her departed husband, who was then, by the hellish
laws of slavery, to her, theoretically and practically dead. One of the
black-legs exclaimed that hell was full of just such Deacon's as Whitfield.
This occurred in December, 1840. I have never seen Malinda, since that period.
I never expect to see her again.
The sportsmen to whom I
was sold, showed their sympathy for me not only by word but by deeds. They said
that they had made the most liberal offer to Whitfield, to buy or sell for the
sole purpose of reuniting husband and wife. But he stood out against it--they
felt sorry for me. They said they had bought me to speculate on, and were not
able to lose what they had paid for me. But they would make a bargain with me,
if I was willing, and would lay a plan, by which I might yet get free. If I
would use my influence so as to get some person to buy me while traveling about
with them, they would give me a portion of the money for which they sold me,
and they would also give me directions by which I might yet run away and go to
Canada.
This offer I accepted,
and the plot was made. They advised me to act very stupid in language and
thought, but in business I must be spry; and that I must persuade men to buy
me, and promise them that I would be smart.
We passed through the
State of Arkansas and stopped at many places, horse-racing and gambling. My
business was to drive a wagon in which they carried their gambling apparatus, clothing,
&c. I had also to black boots and attend to horses. We stopped at
Fayettville, where they almost lost me, betting on a horse race.
They went from thence
to the Indian Territory among the Cherokee Indians, to attend the great races
which were to take place there. During the races there was a very wealthy half
Indian of that tribe, who became much attached to me, and had some notion of
buying me, after hearing that I was for sale, being a slaveholder. The idea
struck me rather favorable, for several reasons. First, I thought I should
stand a better chance to get away from an Indian than from a white man. Second,
he wanted me only for a kind of a body servant to wait on him--and in this case
I knew that I should fare better than I should in the field. And my owners also
told me that it would be an easy place to get away from. I took their advice
for fear I might not get another chance so good as that, and prevailed on the
man to buy me. He paid them nine hundred dollars, in gold and silver, for me. I
saw the money counted out.
After the purchase was
made, the sportsmen got me off to one side, and according to promise they gave
me a part of the money, and directions how to get from there to Canada. They
also advised me how to act until I got a good chance to run away. I was to
embrace the earliest opportunity of getting away, before they should become
acquainted with me. I was never to let it be known where I was from, nor where
I was born. I was to act quite stupid and ignorant. And when I started I was to
go up the boundary line, between the Indian Territory and the States of
Arkansas and Missouri, and this would fetch me out on the Missouri river, near
Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. I was to travel at first by night, aud
to lay by in day light, until I got out of danger.
The same afternoon that
the Indian bought me, he started with me to his residence, which was fifty or
sixty miles distant. And so great was his confidence in me, that he intrusted
me to carry his money. The amount must have been at least five hundred dollars,
which was all in gold and silver; and when we stopped over night the money and
horses were all left in my charge.
It would have been a
very easy matter for me to have taken one of the best horses, with the money,
and run off. And the temptation was truly great to a man like myself, who was
watching for the earliest opportunity to escape; and I felt confident that I
should never have a better opportunity to escape full handed than then.
Character of my Indian
Master.--Slavery among the Indians less cruel.--Indian carousal.--Enfeebled
health of my Indian Master.--His death.--My escape.--Adventure in a wigwam.--
Successful progress toward liberty.
The next morning I went
home with my new master; and by the way it is only doing justice to the dead to
say, that he was the most reasonable, and humane slaveholder that I have ever
belonged to. He was the last man that pretended to claim property in my person;
and although I have freely given the names and residences of all others who
have held me as a slave, for prudential reasons I shall omit giving the name of
this individual.
He was the owner of a
large plantation and quite a number of slaves. He raised corn and wheat for his
own consumption only. There was no cotton, tobacco, or anything of the kind
produced among them for market. And I found this difference between negro
slavery among the Indians, and the same thing among the white slaveholders of
the South. The Indians allow their slaves enough to eat and wear. They have no
overseers to whip nor drive them. If a slave offends his master, he sometimes,
in a heat of passion, undertakes to chastise him; but it is as often the case
as otherwise, that the slave gets the better of the fight, and even flogs his master;*
for which there is no law to punish him; but when the fight is over that is the
last of it. So far as religious instruction is concerned, they have it on terms
of equality, the bond and the free; they have no respect of persons, they have
neither slave laws nor negro pews. Neither do they separate husbands and wives,
nor parents and children. All things considered, if I must be a slave, I had by
far, rather be a slave to an Indian, than to a white man, from the experience I
have had with both.
A majority of the
Indians were uneducated, and still followed up their old heathen traditional
notions. They made it a rule to have an Indian dance or frolic, about once a
fortnight; and they would come together far and near to attend these dances.
They would most generally commence about the middle of the afternoon; and would
give notice by the blowing of horns. One would commence blowing and another
would answer, and so it would go all round the neighborhood. When a number had
got together, they would strike a circle about twenty rods in circumference,
and kindle up fires about twenty feet apart, all around, in this circle. In the
centre they would have a large fire to dance around, and at each one of the
small fires there would be a squaw to keep up the fire, which looked delightful
off at a distance.
But the most degrading
practice of all, was the use of intoxicating drinks, which were used to a great
excess by all that attended these stump dances. At almost all of these fires
there was some one with rum to sell. There would be some dancing, some singing,
some gambling, some fighting, and some yelling; and this was kept up often for
two days and nights together.
Their dress for the
dance was most generally a great bunch of bird feathers, coon tails, or something
of the kind stuck in their heads, and a great many shells tied about their legs
to rattle while dancing. Their manner of dancing is taking hold of each others
hands and forming a ring around the large fire in the centre, and go stomping
around it until they would get drunk or their heads would get to swimming, and
then they would go off and drink, and another set come on. Such were some of
the practises indulged in by these Indian slaveholders.
My last owner was in a
declining state of health when he bought me; and not long after he bought me he
went off forty or fifty miles from home to be doctored by an Indian doctor,
accompanied by his wife. I was taken along also to drive the carriage and to
wait upon him during his sickness. But he was then so feeble, that his life was
of but short duration after the doctor commenced on him.
While he lived, I
waited on him according to the best of my ability. I watched over him night and
day until he died, and even prepared his body for the tomb, before I left him.
He died about midnight and I understood from his friends that he was not to be
buried until the second day after his death. I pretended to be taking on at a
great rate about his death, but I was more excited about running away, than I
was about that, and before daylight the next morning I proved it, for I was on
my way to Canada.
I never expected a
better opportunity would present itself for my escape. I slipped out of the
room as if I had gone off to weep for the deceased, knowing that they would not
feel alarmed about me until after my master was buried and they had returned
back to his residence. And even then, they would think that I was somewhere on
my way home; and it would be at least four or five days before they would make
any stir in looking after me. By that time, if I had no bad luck, I should be
out of much danger.
After the first day, I
laid by in the day and traveled by night for several days and nights, passing
in this way through several tribes of Indians. I kept pretty near the boundary
line. I recollect getting lost one dark rainy night. Not being able to find the
road I came into an Indian settlement at the dead hour of the night. I was wet,
wearied, cold and hungry; and yet I felt afraid to enter any of their houses or
wigwams, not knowing whether they would be friendly or not. But I knew the
Indians were generally drunkards, and that occasionally a drunken white man was
found straggling among them, and that such an one would be more likely to find
friends from sympathy than an upright man.
So I passed myself off
that night as a drunkard among them. I walked up to the door of one of their
houses, and fell up against it, making a great noise like a drunken man; but no
one came to the door. I opened it and staggered in, falling about, and making a
great noise. But finally an old woman got up and gave me a blanket to lie down
on.
There was quite a
number of them lying about on the dirt floor, but not one could talk or
understand a word of the English language. I made signs so as to let them know
that I wanted something to eat, but they had nothing, so I had to go without
that night. I laid down and pretended to be asleep, but I slept none that
night, for I was afraid that they would kill me if I went to sleep. About one
hour before day, the next morning, three of the females got up and put into a
tin kettle a lot of ashes with water, to boil, and then poured into it about
one quart of corn. After letting it stand a few moments, they poured it into a
trough, and pounded it into thin hominy. They washed it out, and boiled it
down, and called me up to eat my breakfast of it.
After eating, I offered
them six cents, but they refused to accept it. I then found my way to the main
road, and traveled all that day on my journey, and just at night arrived at a
public house kept by an Indian, who also kept a store. I walked in and asked if
I could get lodging, which was granted; but I had not been there long before
three men came riding up about dusk, or between sunset and dark. They were
white men, and I supposed slaveholders. At any rate when they asked if they
could have lodging, I trembled for fear they might be in pursuit of me. But the
landlord told them that he could not lodge them, but they could get lodging
about two miles off, with a white man, and they turned their horses and
started.
The landlord asked me
where I was traveling to, and where I was from. I told him that I had been out
looking at the country; that I had thought of buying land, and that I lived in
the State of Ohio, in the village of Perrysburgh. He then said that he had
lived there himself, and that he had acted as an interpreter there among the
Maumee tribe of Indians for several years. He then asked who I was acquainted
with there? I informed him that I knew Judge Hollister, Francis Hollister, J.
W. Smith, and others. At this he was so much pleased that he came up and took
me by the hand, and received me joyfully, after seeing that I was acquainted
with those of his old friends.
I could converse with
him understandingly from personal acquaintance, for I had lived there when I
first ran away from Kentucky. But I felt it to be my duty to start off the next
morning before breakfast, or sunrise. I bought a dozen of eggs, and had them
boiled to carry with me to eat on the way. I did not like the looks of those
three men, and thought I would get on as fast as possible for fear I might be
pursued by them.
I was then about to
enter the territory of another slave State, Missouri. I had passed through the
fiery ordeal of Sibley, Gatewood, and Garrison, and had even slipped through
the fingers of Deacon Whitfield. I had doubtless gone through great peril in
crossing the Indian territory, in passing through the various half civilized
tribes, who seemed to look upon me with astonishment as I passed along. Their
hands were almost invariably filled with bows and arrows, tomahawks, guns,
butcher knives, and all the various implements of death which are used by them.
And what made them look still more frightful, their faces were often painted
red, and their heads muffled with birds feathers, bushes, coons tails and owls
heads. But all this I had passed through, and my long enslaved limbs and spirit
were then in full stretch for emancipation. I felt as if one more short
struggle would set me free.
* This singular fact is
corroborated in a letter read by the publisher, from an acquaintance while
passing through this country in 1849.
Adventure on the
Prairie.--I borrow a horse without leave.-- Rapid traveling one whole
night.--Apology for using other men's horses.--My manner of living on the road.
Early in the morning I
left the Indian territory as I have already said, for fear I might be pursued
by the three white men whom I had seen there over night; but I had not
proceeded far before my fears were magnified a hundred fold.
I always dreaded to
pass through a prairie, and on coming to one which was about six miles in
width, I was careful to look in every direction to see whether there was any
person in sight before I entered it; but I could see no one. So I started
across with a hope of crossing without coming in contact with any one on the
prairie. I walked as fast as I could, but when I got about midway of the
prairie, I came to a high spot where the road forked, and three men came up
from a low spot as if they had been there concealed. They were all on horse
back, and I supposed them to be the same men that had tried to get lodging
where I stopped over night. Had this been in timbered land, I might have stood
some chance to have dodged them, but there I was, out in the open prairie,
where I could see no possible way by which I could escape.
They came along slowly
up behind me, and finally passed, and spoke or bowed their heads on passing,
but they traveled in a slow walk and kept but a very few steps before me, until
we got nearly across the prairie. When we were coming near a plantation a piece
off from the road on the skirt of the timbered land, they whipped up their
horses and left the road as if they were going across to this plantation. They
soon got out of my sight by going down into a valley which lay between us and
the plantation. Not seeing them rise the hill to go up to the farm, excited
greater suspicion in my mind, so I stepped over on the brow of the hill, where I
could see what they were doing, and to my surprise I saw them going right back
in the direction they had just came, and they were going very fast. I was then
satisfied that they were after me and that they were only going back to get
more help to assist them in taking me, for fear that I might kill some of them
if they undertook it. The first impression was that I had better leave the road
immediately; so I bolted from the road and ran as fast as I could for some
distance in the thick forest, and concealed myself for about fifteen or twenty
minutes, which were spent in prayer to God for his protecting care and
guidance.
My impression was that
when they should start in pursuit of me again, they would follow on in the
direction which I was going when they left me; and not finding or hearing of me
on the road, they would come back and hunt through the woods and if they could
find no track they might go and get dogs to trace me out.
I thought my chance of
escape would be better, if I went back to the same side of the road that they
first went, for the purpose of deceiving them; as I supposed that they would
not suspect my going in the same direction that they went, for the purpose of
escaping from them.
So I traveled all that
day square off from the road through the wild forest without any knowledge of
the country whatever; for I had nothing to travel by but the sun by day, and
the moon and stars by night. Just before night I came in sight of a large plantation,
where I saw quite a number of horses running at large in a field, and knowing
that my success in escaping depended upon my getting out of that settlement
within twenty-four hours, to save myself from everlasting slavery, I thought I
should be justified in riding one of those horses, that night, if I could catch
one. I cut a grape vine with my knife, and made it into a bridle; and shortly
after dark I went into the field and tried to catch one of the horses. I got a
bunch of dry blades of fodder and walked up softly towards the horses, calling
to them “cope,” “cope,” “cope;” but there was only one out of the number that I
was able to get my hand on, and that was an old mare, which I supposed to be
the mother of all the rest; and I knew that I could walk faster than she could
travel. She had a bell on and was very thin in flesh; she looked gentle and
walked on three legs only. The young horses pranced and galloped off. I was not
able to get near them, and the old mare being of no use to me, I left them all.
After fixing my eyes on the north star I pursued my journey, holding on to my
bridle with a hope of finding a horse upon which I might ride that night.
I found a road leading
pretty nearly in the direction which I wanted to travel, and I kept it. After
traveling several miles I found another large plantation where there was a
prospect of finding a horse. I stepped up to the barn-yard, wherein I found
several horses. There was a little barn standing with the door open, and I
found it quite an easy task to get the horses into the barn, and select out the
best looking one of them. I pulled down the fence, led the noble beast out and
mounted him, taking a northern direction, being able to find a road which led
that way. But I had not gone over three or four miles before I came to a large
stream of water which was past fording; yet I could see that it had been forded
by the road track, but from high water it was then impassible. As the horse
seemed willing to go in I put him through; but before he got in far, he was in
water up to his sides and finally the water came over his back and he swam
over. I got as wet as could be, but the horse carried me safely across at the
proper place. After I got out a mile or so from the river, I came into a large
prairie, which I think must have been twenty or thirty miles in width, and the
road run across it about in the direction that I wanted to go. I laid whip to
the horse, and I think he must have carried me not less than forty miles that
night, or before sun rise the next morning. I then stopped him in a spot of
high grass in an old field, and took off the bridle. I thanked God, and thanked
the horse for what he had done for me, and wished him a safe journey back home.
I know the poor horse
must have felt stiff, and tired from his speedy jaunt, and I felt very bad
myself, riding at that rate all night without a saddle; but I felt as if I had
too much at stake to favor either horse flesh or man flesh. I could indeed
afford to crucify my own flesh for the sake of redeeming myself from perpetual
slavery.
Some may be disposed to
find fault with my taking the horse as I did; but I did nothing more than nine
out of ten would do if they were placed in the same circumstances. I had no
disposition to steal a horse from any man. But I ask, if a white man had been
captured by the Cherokee Indians and carried away from his family for life into
slavery, and could see a chance to escape and get back to his family; should
the Indians pursue him with a determination to take him back or take his life,
would it be a crime for the poor fugitive, whose life, liberty and future
happiness were all at stake, to mount any man's horse by the way side, and ride
him without asking any questions, to effect his escape? Or who would not do the
same thing to rescue a wife, child, father, or mother? Such an act committed by
a white man under the same circumstances would not only be pronounced proper,
but praiseworthy; and if he neglected to avail himself of such a means of
escape he would be pronounced a fool. Therefore from this act I have nothing to
regret, for I have done nothing more than any other reasonable person would
have done under the same circumstances. But I had good luck from the morning I
left the horse until I got back into the State of Ohio. About two miles from
where I left the horse, I found a public house on the road, where I stopped and
took breakfast. Being asked where I was traveling, I replied that I was going
home to Perrysburgh, Ohio, and that I had been out to look at the land in Missouri,
with a view of buying. They supposed me to be a native of Ohio, from the fact
of my being so well acquainted with its location, its principal cities,
inhabitants, &c.
The next night I put up
at one of the best hotels in the village where I stopped, and acted with as
much independence as if I was worth a million of dollars; talked about buying
land, stock and village property, and contrasting it with the same kind of
property in the State of Ohio. In this kind of talk they were most generally
interested, and I was treated just like other travelers. I made it a point to
travel about thirty miles each day on my way to Jefferson city. On several
occasions I have asked the landlords where I have stopped over night, if they
could tell me who kept the best house where I would stop the next night, which
was most generally in a small village. But for fear I might forget, I would get
them to give me the name on a piece of paper as a kind of recommend. This would
serve as an introduction through which I have always been well received from
one landlord to another, and I have always stopped at the best houses, eaten at
the first tables, and slept in the best beds. No man ever asked me whether I
was bond or free, black or white, rich or poor; but I always presented a bold
front and showed the best side out, which was all the pass I had. But when I
got within about one hundred miles of Jefferson city, where I expected to take
a Steamboat passage to St. Louis, I stopped over night at a hotel, where I met
with a young white man who was traveling on to Jefferson City on horse back,
and was also leading a horse with a saddle and bridle on.
I asked him if he would
let me ride the horse which he was leading, as I was going to the same city? He
said that it was a hired horse, that he was paying at the rate of fifty cents
per day for it, but if I would pay the same I could ride him. I accepted the
offer and we rode together to the city. We were on the road together two or
three days stopped and ate and slept together at the same hotels.
Stratagem to get on
board the steamer.--My Irish friends.--My success in reaching
Cincinnati.--Reflections on again seeing Kentucky.--I get employment in a
hotel.--My fright at seeing the gambler who sold me.--I leave Ohio with Mr.
Smith.--His letter.--My education.
The greatest of my
adventures came off when I arrived at Jefferson City. There I expected to meet
an advertisement for my person; it was there I must cross the river or take a
steamboat down; it was there I expected to be interrogated and required to
prove whether I was actually a free man or a slave. If I was free, I should
have to show my free papers; and if I was a slave I should be required to tell
who my master was.
I stopped at a hotel,
however, and ascertained that there was a steamboat expected down the river
that day for St. Louis. I also found out that there were several passengers at
that house who were going down on board of the first boat. I knew that the
captain of a steamboat could not take a colored passenger on board of his boat
from a slave state without first ascertaining whether such person was bond or
free; I knew that this was more than he would dare to do by the laws of the
slave states --and now to surmount this difficulty it brought into exercise all
the powers of my mind. I would have got myself boxed up as freight, and have
been forwarded to St. Louis, but I had no friend that I could trust to do it
for me. This plan has since been adopted by some with success. But finally I
thought I might possibly pass myself off as a body servant to the passengers
going from the hotel down.
So I went to a store
and bought myself a large trunk, and took it to the hotel. Soon, a boat came in
which was bound to St. Louis, and the passengers started down to get on board.
I took up my large trunk, and started along after them as if I was their
servant. My heart trembled in view of the dangerous experiment which I was then
about to try. It required all the moral courage that I was master of to bear me
up in view of my critical condition. The white people that I was following
walked on board and I after them. I acted as if the trunk was full of clothes,
but I had not a stitch of clothes in it. The passengers went up into the cabin
and I followed them with the trunk. I suppose this made the captain think that
I was their slave.
I not only took the
trunk in the cabin but stood by it until after the boat had started as if it
belonged to my owners, and I was taking care of it for them; but as soon as the
boat got fairly under way, I knew that some account would have to be given of
me; so I then took my trunk down on the deck among the deck passengers to
prepare myself to meet the clerk of the boat, when he should come to collect
fare from the deck passengers.
Fortunately for me
there was quite a number of deck passengers on board, among whom there were
many Irish. I insinuated myself among them so as to get into their good graces,
believing that if I should get into a difficulty they would stand by me. I saw
several of these persons going up to the saloon buying whiskey, and I thought
this might be the most effectual way by which I could gain speedily their
respect and sympathy. So I participated with them pretty freely for awhile, or
at least until after I got my fare settled. I placed myself in a little crowd
of them, and invited them all up to the bar with me, stating that it was my
treat. This was responded to, and they walked up and drank and I footed the
bill. This, of course, brought us into a kind of a union. We sat together and
laughed and talked freely. Within ten or fifteen minutes I remarked that I was
getting dry again, and invited them up and treated again. By this time I was
thought to be one of the most liberal and gentlemanly men on board, by these deck
passengers; they were ready to do any thing for me--they got to singing songs,
and telling long yarns in which I took quite an active part; but it was all for
effect.
By this time the porter
came around ringing his bell for all passengers who had not paid their fare, to
walk up to the captain's office and settle it. Some of my Irish friends had not
yet settled, and I asked one of them if he would be good enough to take my
money and get me a ticket when he was getting one for himself, and he quickly
replied “yes sir, I will get you a tacket,” So he relieved me of my greatest
trouble. When they came round to gather the tickets before we got to St. Louis,
my ticket was taken with the rest, and no questions were asked me.
The next day the boat
arrived at St. Louis; my object was to take passage on board of the first boat
which was destined for Cincinnati, Ohio; and as there was a boat going out that
day for Pittsburgh, I went on board to make some inquiry about the fare
&c., and found the steward to be a colored man with whom I was acquainted.
He lived in Cincinnati, and had rendered me some assistance in making my escape
to Canada, in the summer of 1838, and he also very kindly aided me then in
getting back into a land of freedom. The swift running steamer started that
afternoon on her voyage, which soon wafted my body beyond the tyrannical limits
of chattel slavery. When the boat struck the mouth of the river Ohio, and I had
once more the pleasure of looking on that lovely stream, my heart leaped up for
joy at the glorious prospect that I should again be free. Every revolution of
the mighty steam-engine seemed to bring me nearer and nearer the “promised
land.” Only a few days had elapsed, before I was permitted by the smiles of a
good providence, once more to gaze on the green hill-tops and valleys of old
Kentucky, the State of my nativity. And notwithstanding I was deeply interested
while standing on the deck of the steamer looking at the beauties of nature on
either side of the river, as she pressed her way up the stream, my very soul
was pained to look upon the slaves in the fields of Kentucky, still toiling
under their task-masters without pay. It was on this soil I first breathed the
free air of Heaven, and felt the bitter pangs of slavery--it was here that I
first learned to abhor it. It was here I received the first impulse of human
rights--it was here that I first entered my protest against the bloody
institution of slavery, by running away from it, and declared that I would no
longer work for any man as I had done, without wages.
When the steamboat
arrived at Portsmouth, Ohio, I took off my trunk with the intention of going to
Canada. But my funds were almost exhausted, so I had to stop and go to work to
get money to travel on. I hired myself at the American Hotel to a Mr. McCoy to
do the work of a porter, to black boots, &c., for which he was to pay me
$12 per month. I soon found the landlord to be bad pay, and not only that, but
he would not allow me to charge for blacking boots, although I had to black them
after everybody had gone to bed at night, and set them in the bar-room, where
the gentlemen could come and get them in the morning while I was at other work.
I had nothing extra for this, neither would he pay me my regular wages; so I
thought this was a little too much like slavery, and devised a plan by which I
got some pay for my work.
I made it a point never
to blacken all the boots and shoes over night, neither would I put any of them
in the bar-room, but lock them up in a room where no one could get them without
calling for me. I got a piece of broken vessel, placed it in the room just
before the boots, and put into it several pieces of small change, as if it had
been given me for boot blacking; and almost every one that came in after their
boots, would throw some small trifle into my contribution box, while I was
there blacking away. In this way, I made more than my landlord paid me, and I
soon got a good stock of cash again. One morning I blacked a gentleman's boots
who came in during the night by a steamboat. After he had put on his boots, I
was called into the bar-room to button his straps; and while I was performing
this service, not thinking to see anybody that knew me, I happened to look up
at the man's face and who should it be but one of the very gamblers who had
recently sold me. I dropped his foot and bolted from the room as if I had been
struck by an electric shock. The man happened not to recognize me, but this
strange conduct on my part excited the landlord, who followed me out to see what
was the matter. He found me with my hand to my breast, groaning at a great
rate. He asked me what was the matter; but I was not able to inform him
correctly, but said that I felt very bad indeed. He of course thought I was
sick with the colic and ran in the house and got some hot stuff for me, with
spice, ginger, &c. But I never got able to go into the bar-room until long
after breakfast time, when I knew this man was gone; then I got well.
And yet I have no idea
that the man would have hurt a hair of my head; but my first thought was that
he was after me. I then made up my mind to leave Portsmouth; its location being
right on the border of a slave State.
A short time after this
a gentleman put up there over night named Smith, from Perrysburgh, with whom I
was acquainted in the North. He was on his way to Kentucky to buy up a drove of
fine horses, and he wanted me to go and help him to drive his horses out to
Perrysburgh, and said he would pay all my expenses if I would go. So I made a
contract to go and agreed to meet him the next week, on a set day, in
Washington, Ky., to start with his drove to the north. Accordingly at the time
I took a steamboat passage down to Maysville, near where I was to meet Mr.
Smith with my trunk. When I arrived at Maysville, I found that Washington was
still six miles back from the river. I stopped at a hotel and took my
breakfast, and who should I see there but a captain of a boat, who saw me but
two years previous going down the river Ohio with handcuffs on, in a chain gang;
but he happened not to know me. I left my trunk at the hotel and went out to
Washington, where I found Mr. Smith, and learned that he was not going to start
off with his drove until the next day.
The followig letter
which was addressed to the committee to investigate the truth of my narrative,
will explain this part of it to the reader and corroborate my statements:
Maumee City, April 5, 1845. Chas. H. Stewart, Esq. Dear Sir:-- Your favor of 13th February, addressed to
me at Perrysburgh, was not received until yesterday; having removed to this
place the letter was not forwarded as it should have been, In reply to your
inquiry respecting Henry Bibb, I can only say that about the year 1838 I became
acquainted with him at Perrysbugh--employed him to do some work by the job
which he performed well, and from his apparent honesty and candor, I became
much interested in him. About that time he went South for the purpose, as was
said, of getting his wife, who was there in slavery. In the spring of 1841, I
found him at Portsmouth on the Ohio river, and after much persuasion, employed
him to assist my man to drive home some horses and cattle which I was about
purchasing near Maysville, Ky. My confidence in him was such that when about
half way home I separated the horses from the cattle, and left him with the
latter, with money and instructions to hire what help he wanted to get to
Perrysburgh. This he accomplished to my entire satisfaction. He worked for me
during the summer, and I was unwilling to part with him, but his desire to go
to school and mature plans for the liberation of his wife, were so strong that
he left for Detroit, where he could enjoy the society of his colored brethren.
I have heard his story and must say that I have not the least reason to suspect
it being otherwise than true, and furthermore, I firmly believe, and have for a
long time, that he has the foundation to make himself useful. I shall always
afford him all the facilities in my power to assist him, until I hear of
something in relation to him to alter my mind.
When I arrived at
Perrysburgh, I went to work for Mr. Smith for several months. This family I
found to be one of the most kind-hearted, and unprejudiced that I ever lived
with. Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived up to their profession.
I resolved to go to
Detroit, that winter, and go to school, in January 1842. But when I arrived at
Detroit I soon found that I was not able to give myself a very thorough
education. I was among strangers, who were not disposed to show me any great
favors. I had every thing to pay for, and clothing to buy, so I graduated
within three weeks! And this was all the schooling that I have ever had in my
life.
W. C. Monroe was my
teacher; to him I went about two weeks only. My occupation varied according to
circumstances, as I was not settled in mind about the condition of my bereaved
family for several years, and could not settle myself down at any permanent
business. I saw occasionally, fugitives from Kentucky, some of whom I knew, but
none of them were my relatives; none could give me the information which I
desired most.
Letter from W. H.
Gatewood.--My reply.--My efforts as a public lecturer.--Singular incident in
Steubenville--Meeting with a friend of Whitfield in Michigan.--Outrage on a
canal packet.--Fruitless efforts to find my wife.
The first direct
information that I received concerning any of my relations, after my last
escape from slavery, was communicated in a letter from Wm. H. Gatewood, my
former owner, which I here insert word for word, without any correction:
Bedford, Trimble County, Ky. Mr. H. Bibb, Dear Sir:-- After my respects to you and yours
&c., I received a small book which you sent to me that I peroseed and found
it was sent by H. Bibb I am a stranger in Detroit and know no man there without
it is Walton H. Bibb if this be the man please to write to me and tell me all
about that place and the people I will tell you the news here as well as I can
your mother is still living here and she is well the people are generally well
in this cuntry times are dull and produce low give my compliments to King,
Jack, and all my friends in that cuntry I read that book you sent me and think
it will do very well--George is sold, I do not know any thing about him I have
nothing more at present, but remain yours &c
Never was I more
surprised than at the reception of this letter, it came so unexpected to me.
There had just been a State Convention held in Detroit, by the free people of
color, the proceedings of which were published in pamphlet form. I forwarded
several of them to distinguished slaveholders in Kentucky--one among others was
Mr. Gatewood, and gave him to understand who sent it. After showing this letter
to several of my anti-slavery friends, and asking their opinions about the
propriety of my answering it, I was advised to do it, as Mr. Gatewood had no on
me as a slave, for he had sold and got the money for me and my family. So I
wrote him an answer, as near as I can recollect, in the following language:
“ Dear Sir:-- I am happy to
inform you that you are not mistaken in the man whom you sold as pro perty, and
received pay for as such. But I thank God that I am not property now, but am
regarder as a man like yourself, and although I live far north, I am enjoying a
comfortable living by my own industry. If you should ever chance to be
traveling this way, and will call on me, I will use you better than you did me
while you held me as a slave. Think not that I have any malice against you, for
the crued treatment which you inflicted on me while I was in your power. As it
was the custom of your country, to treat your fellow men as you did me and my
little family, I can freely forgive you.
I wish to be remembered
in love to my aged mother, and friends; please tell her that if we should never
meet again in this life, my prayer shall be to God that we may meet in Heaven,
where parting shall be no more.
“You wish to be
remembered to King and Jack. I am pleased, sir, to inform you that they are
both here, well, and doing well. They are both living in Canada West. They are
now the owners of better farms than the men are who once owned them.
You may perhaps think
hard of us for running away from slavery, but as to myself, I have but one
apology to make for it, which is this: I have only to regret that I did not
start at an earlier period. I might have been free long before I was. But you
had it in your power to have kept me there much longer than you did. I think it
is very probable that I should have been a toiling slave on your plantation
to-day, if you had treated me differently.
To be compelled to
stand by and see you whip and slash my wife without mercy, when I could afford
her no protection, not even by offering myself to suffer the lash in her place,
was more than I felt it to be the duty of a slave husband to endure, while the
way was open to Canada. My infant child was also frequently flogged by Mrs.
Gatewood, for crying, until its skin was bruised literally purple. This kind of
treatment was what drove me from home and family, to seek a better home for them.
But I am willing to forget the past. I should be pleased to hear from you
again, on the reception of this, and should also be very happy to correspond
with you often, if it should be agreeable to yourself. I subscribe myself a
friend to the oppressed, and Liberty forever.
The first time that I
ever spoke before a public audience, was to give a narration of my own
sufferings and adventures, connected with slavery. I commenced in the village
of Adrian, State of Michigan, May, 1844. From that up to the present period,
the principle part of my time has been faithfully devoted to the cause of
freedom--nerved up and encouraged by the sympathy of anti-slavery friends on
the one hand, and prompted by a sense of duty to my enslaved countrymen on the
other, especially, when I remembered that slavery had robbed me of my
freedom--deprived me of education--banished me from my native State, and robbed
me of my family.
I went from Michigan to
the State of Ohio, where I traveled over some of the Southern counties of that
State, in company with Samuel Brooks, and Amos Dresser, lecturing upon the
subject of American Slavery. The prejudice of the people at that time was very
strong against the abolitionists; so much so that they were frequently mobbed
for discussing the subject.
We appointed a series
of meetings along on the Ohio River, in sight of the State of Virginia; and in
several places we had Virginians over to hear us upon the subject. I recollect
our having appointed a meeting in the city of Steubenville, which is situated
on the bank of the river Ohio. There was but one known abolitionist living in
that city, named George Ore. On the day of our meeting, when we arrived in this
splendid city there was not a church, school house, nor hall, that we could get
for love or money, to hold our meeting in. Finally, I believe that the whigs
consented to let us have the use of their club room, to hold the meeting in;
but before the hour had arrived for us to commence, they re-considered the
matter, and informed us that we could not have the use of their house for an
abolition meeting.
We then got permission
to hold forth in the public market house, and even then so great was the
hostility of the rabble, that they tried to bluff us off, by threats and
epithets. Our meeting was advertised to take place at nine o'clock, A. M. The
pro-slavery parties hired a colored man to take a large auction bell, and go
all over the city ringing it, and crying, “ho ye! ho ye! Negro auction to take
place in the market house, at nine o'clock, by George Ore!” This cry was
sounded all over the city, which called out many who would not otherwise have
been present. They came to see if it was really the case. The object of the
rabble in having the bell rung was, to prevent us from attempting to speak. But
at the appointed hour, Bro. Dresser opened the meeting with prayer and Samuel
Brooks mounted the block and spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, after which
Mr. Dresser took the block and talked about one hour upon the wickedness of
slaveholding. There were not yet many persons present. They were standing off I
suppose to see if I was to be offered for sale. Many windows were hoisted and
store doors open, and they were looking and listening to what was said. After
Mr. Dresser was through, I was called to take the stand. Just at this moment
there was no small stir in rushing forward; so much indeed, that I thought they
were coming up to mob me. I should think that in less than fifteen minutes
there were about one thousand persons standing around, listening. I saw many of
them shedding tears while I related the sad story of my wrongs. At twelve
o'clock we adjourned the meeting, to meet again at the same place at two P. M.
Our afternoon meeting was well attended until nearly sunset, at which time, we
saw some signs of a mob and adjourned. The mob followed us that night to the
house of Mr. Ore, and they were yelling like tigers, until late that night,
around the house, as if they wanted to tear it down.
In the fall of 1844, S.
B. Treadwell, of Jackson, and myself, spent two or three months in lecturing
through the State of Michigan, upon the abolition of slavery, in a section of
country where abolitionists were few and far between. Our meetings were
generally appointed in small log cabins, school houses, among the farmers,
which were some times crowded full; and where they had no horse teams, it was
often the case that there would be four or five ox teams come, loaded down with
men, women and children, to attend our meetings.
But the people were
generally poor, and in many places not able to give us a decent night's
lodging. We most generally carried with us a few pounds of candles to light up
the houses wherein we held our meetings after night; for in many places, they
had neither candles nor candlesticks. After meeting was out, we have frequently
gone from three to eight miles to get lodging, through the dark forest, where
there was scarcely any road for a wagon to run on.
I have traveled for
miles over swamps, where the roads were covered with logs, without any dirt over
them, which has sometimes shook and jostled the wagon to pieces, where we could
find no shop or any place to mend it. We would have to tie it up with bark, or
take the lines to tie it with, and lead the horse by the bridle. At other times
we were in mud up to the hubs of the wheels. I recollect one evening, we
lectured in a little village where there happened to be a Southerner present,
who was a personal friend of Deacon Whitfield, who became much offended at what
I said about his “Bro. Whitfield,” and complained about it after the meeting
was out.
He told the people not
to believe a word that I said, that it was all a humbug. They asked him how he
knew? “Ah!” said he, “he has slandered Bro. Whitfield. I am well acquainted
with him, we both belonged to one church; and Whitfield is one of the most
respectable men in all that region of country.” They asked if he (Whitfield)
was a slaveholder?
The reply was “yes, but
he treated his slaves well.”
“Well,” said one, “that
only proves that he has told us the truth; for all we wish to know, is that
there is such a man as Whitfield, as represented by Bibb, and that he is a
slave holder.”
On the 2d Sept., 1847,
I started from Toledo on board the canal packet Erie, for Cincinnati, Ohio. But
before going on board, I was waited on by one of the boat's crew, who gave me a
card of the boat, upon which was printed, that no pains would be spared to
render all passengers comfortable who might favor them with their patronage to
Cincinnati. This card I slipped into my pocket, supposing it might be of some
use to me. There were several drunken loafers on board going through as
passengers, one of whom used the most vulgar language in the cabin, where there
were ladies, and even vomited! But he was called a white man, and a southerner,
which made it all right. I of course took my place in the cabin with the rest,
and there was nothing said against it that night. When the passengers went
forward to settle their fare I paid as much as any other man, which entitled me
to the same privileges. The next morning at the ringing of the breakfast bell,
the proprietor of the packet line, Mr. Samuel Doyle, being on board, invited
the passengers to sit up to breakfast. He also invited me personally to sit up
to the table. But after we were all seated, and some had began to eat, he came
and ordered me up from the table, and said I must wait until the rest were
done.
I left the table
without making any reply, and walked out on the deck of the boat. After
breakfast the passengers came up, and the cabin boy was sent after me to come
to breakfast, but I refused. Shortly after, this man who had ordered me from
the table, came up with the ladies. I stepped up and asked him if he was the
captain of the boat. His answer was no, that he was one of the proprietors. I
then informed him that I was going to leave his boat at the first stopping
place, but before leaving I wanted to ask him a few questions: “Have I
misbehaved to any one on board of this boat? Have I disobeyed any law of this
boat?
“No,” said he.
Have I not paid you as
much as any other passenger through to Cincinnati?”
“Yes,” said he.
“Then I am sure that I
have been insulted and imposed upon, on board of this boat, without any just
cause whatever.”
“No one has misused
you, for you ought to have known better than to have come to the table where
there were white people.”
“Sir, did you not ask
me to come to the table?”
“Yes, but I did not
know that you was a colored man, when I asked you; and then it was better to
insult one man than all the passengers on board of the boat.”
Sir, I do not believe
that there is a gentleman or lady on board of this boat who would have
considered it an insult for me to have taken my breakfast, and you have imposed
upon me by taking my money and promising to use me well, and then to insult me
as you have.”
“I don't want any of
your jaw,” said he.
“Sir, with all due
respect to your elevated station, you have imposed upon me in a way which is
unbecoming a gentleman. I have paid my money, and behaved myself as well as any
other man, and I am determined that no man shall impose on me as you have, by
deceiving me, without my letting the world know it. I would rather a man should
rob me of my money at midnight, than to take it in that way.”
I left this boat at the
first stopping place, and took the next boat to Cincinnati. On the last boat I
had no cause to complain of my treatment. When I arrived at Cincinnati, I
published a statement of this affair in the Daily Herald.
The next day Mr. Doyle
called on the editor in a great passion.--“Here,” said he, “what does this
mean.”
“What, sir?” said the
editor quietly.
“Why, the stuff here,
read it and see.”
“Read it yourself,”
answered the editor.
“Well, I want to know
if you sympathize with this nigger here.”
“Who, Mr. Bibb? Why
yes, I think he is a gentleman, and should be used as such.”
“Why this is all
wrong--all of it.”
“Put your finger on the
place, and I will right it.”
“Well, he says that we
took his money, when we paid part back. And if you take his part, why I'll have
nothing to do with your paper.”
So ended his wrath.
In 1845, the
anti-slavery friends of Michigan employed me to take the field as an
anti-slavery Lecturer, in that State, during the Spring, Summer, and Fall,
pledging themselves to restore to me my wife and child, if they were living,
and could be reached by human agency, which may be seen by the following
circular from the Signal of Liberty:
TO LIBERTY FRIENDS:--In
the Signal of the 28th inst. is a report from the undersigned respecting Henry
Bibb. His narrative always excites deep sympathy for himself and favorable bias
for the cause, which seeks to abolish the evils he so powerfully portrays.
Friends and foes attest his efficiency.
Mr. Bibb has labored
much in lecturing, yet has collected but a bare pittance. He has received from
Ohio lucrative offers, but we have prevailed on him to remain in this State.
We think that a strong
obligation rests on the friends in this State to sustain Mr. Bibb, and restore
to him his wife and child. Under the expectation that Michigan will yield to
these claims: will support their laborer, and re-unite the long severed ties of
husband and wife, parent and child, Mr. Bibb will lecture through the whole
State.
Our object is to
prepare friends for the visit of Mr. Bibb, and to suggest an effective mode of
operations for the whole State.
Let friends in each
vicinity appoint a collector-- pay to him all contributions for the freedom of
Mrs. Bibb and child: then transmit them to us. We will acknowledge them in the
Signal, and be responsible for them. We will see that the proper measures for
the freedom of Mrs. Bibb and child are taken, and if it be within our means we
will accomplish it--nay we will accomplish it, if the objects be living and the
friends sustain us. But should we fail, the contributions will be held subject
to the order of the donors, less however, by a proportionate deduction of
expenses from each.
The hope of this
re-union will nerve the heart and body of Mr. Bibb to re-doubled effort in a
cause otherwise dear to him. And as he will devote his whole time
systematically to the anti-slavery cause he must also depend on friends for the
means of livelihood. We bespeak for him your hospitality, and such pecuniary
contributions as you can afford, trusting that the latter may be sufficient to
enable him to keep the field.
A. L. PORTER, C. H.
STEWART, SILAS M. HOLMES
Detroit, April 22,
1845.
I have every reason to
believe that they acted faithfully in the matter, but without success. They
wrote letters in every quarter where they would be likely to gain any
information respecting her. There were also two men sent from Michigan in the
summer of 1845, down South, to find her if possible, and report--and whether
they found out her condition, and refused to report, I am not able to say--but
suffice it to say that they never have reported. They were respectable men and
true friends of the cause, one of whom was a Methodist minister, and the other
a cabinet maker, and both white men.
The small spark of hope
which had still lingered about my heart had almost become extinct.
My last effort to
recover my family.--Sad tidings of my wife.-- Her degradation.--I am compelled
to regard our relation as dissolved forever.
In view of the failure
to hear any thing of my wife, many of my best friends advised me to get married
again, if I could find a suitable person. They regarded my former wife as dead
to me, and all had been done that could be.
But I was not yet
satisfied myself, to give up. I wanted to know certainly what had become of
her. So in the winter of 1845, I resolved to go back to Kentucky, my native
State, to see if I could hear anything from my family. And against the advice
of all my friends, I went back to Cincinnati, where I took passage on board of
a Southern steamboat to Madison, in the State of Indiana, which was only ten
miles from where Wm. Gatewood lived, who was my former owner. No sooner had I
landed in Madison, than I learned, on inquiry, and from good authority, that my
wife was living in a state of adultery with her master, and had been for the
last three years. This message she sent back to Kentucky, to her mother and
friends. She also spoke of the time and nanner of our separation by Deacon
Whitfield, my being taken off by the Southern black legs, to where she knew
not; and that she had finally given me up. The child she said was still with
her. Whitfield had sold her to this man for the above purposes at a high price,
and she was better used than ordinary slaves. This was a death blow to all my
hopes and pleasant plans. While I was in Madison I hired a white man to go over
to Bedford, in Kentucky, where my mother was then living, and bring her over
into a free State to see me. I hailed her approach with unspeakable joy. She
informed me too, on inquiring whether my family had ever been heard from, that
the report which I had just heard in relation to Malinda was substantially
true, for it was the same message that she had sent to her mother and friends.
And my mother thought it was no use for me to run any more risks, or to grieve
myself any more about her.
From that time I gave
her up into the hands of an all-wise Providence. As she was then living with
another man, I could no longer regard her as my wife. After all the sacrifices,
sufferings, and risks which I had run, striving to rescue her from the grasp of
slavery; every prospect and hope was cut off. She has ever since been regarded as
theoretically and practically dead to me as a wife, for she was living in a
state of adultery, according to the law of God and man.
Poor unfortunate woman,
I bring no charge of guilt against her, for I know not all the circumstances
connected with the case. It is consistent with slavery; however, to suppose
that she became reconciled to it, from the fact of her sending word back to her
friends and relatives that she was much better treated than she had ever been
before, and that she had also given me up. It is also reasonable to suppose
that there might have been some kind of attachment formed by living together in
this way for years; and it is quite probable that they have other children
according to the law of nature, which would have a tendency to unite them
stronger together.
In view of all the
facts and circumstances connected with this matter, I deem further comments and
explanations unnecessary on my part. Finding myself thus isolated in this
peculiarly unnatural state, I resolved, in 1846, to spend my days in traveling,
to advance the anti-slavery cause. I spent the summer in Michigan, but in the
subsequent fall I took a trip to New England, where I spent the winter. And
there I found a kind reception whereever I traveled among the friends of freedom.
While traveling about
in this way among strangers, I was sometimes sick, with no permanent home, or
bosom friend to sympathise or take that care of me which an affectionate wife
would. So I conceived the idea that it would be better for me to change my
position, provided I should find a suitable person.
In the month of May,
1847, I attended the anti-slavery anniversary in the city of New York, where I
had the good fortune to be introduced to the favor of a Miss Mary E. Miles, of
Boston; a lady whom I had frequently heard very highly spoken of, for her
activity and devotion to the anti-slavery cause, as well as her talents and
learning, and benevolence in the cause of reforms, generally. I was very much
impressed with the personal appearance of Miss Miles, and was deeply interested
in our first interview, because I found that her principles and my own were
nearly one and the same. I soon found by a few visits, as well as by letters,
that she possessed moral principle, and frankness of disposition, which is
often sought for but seldom found. These, in connection with other amiable
qualities, soon won my entire confidence and affection. But this secret I kept
to myself until I was fully satisfied that this feeling was reciprocal; that
there was indeed a congeniality of principles and feeling, which time nor
eternity could never change.
When I offered myself
for matrimony, we mutually engaged ourselves to each other, to marry in one
year, with this condition, viz: that if either party should see any reason to
change their mind within that time, the contract should not be considered
binding. We kept up a regular correspondence during the time, and in June,
1848, we had the happiness to be joined in holy wedlock. Not in slaveholding
style, which is a mere farce, without the sanction of law or gospel; but in
accordance with the laws of God and our country. My beloved wife is a bosom
friend, a help-meet, a loving companion in all the social, moral, and religious
relations of life. She is to me what a poor slave's wife can never be to her
husband while in the condition of a slave; for she can not be true to her
husband contrary to the will of her master. She can neither be pure nor
virtuous, contrary to the will of her master. She dare not refuse to be reduced
to a state of adultery at the will of her master; from the fact that the
slaveholding law, customs and teachings are all against the poor slaves.
I presume there are no
class of people in the United States who so highly appreciate the legality of
marriage as those persons who have been held and treated as property. Yes, it
is that fugitive who knows from sad experience, what it is to have his wife
tyrannically snatched from his bosom by a slaveholding professor of religion,
and finally reduced to a state of adultery, that knows how to appreciate the
law that repels such high-handed villany. Such as that to which the writer has
been exposed. But thanks be to God, I am now free from the hand of the cruel
oppressor, no more to be plundered of my dearest rights; the wife of my bosom,
and my poor unoffending offspring. Of Malinda I will only add a word in
conclusion. The relation once subsisting between us, to which I clung, hoping
against hope, for years, after we were torn assunder, not having been
sanctioned by any loyal power, cannot be cancelled by a legal process.
Voluntarily assumed without law mutually, it was by her relinquished years ago
without my knowledge, as before named; during which time I was making every
effort to secure her restoration. And it was not until after living alone in
the world for more than eight years without a companion known in law or morals,
that I changed my condition.
Comments on S.
Gatewood's letter about slaves stealing.--Their conduct vindicated.--Comments
on W. Gatewood's letter.
But it seems that I am
not now beyond the reach of the foul slander of slaveholders. They are not
satisfied with selling and banishing me from my native State. As soon as they
got news of my being in the free North, exposing their peculiar Institution, a
libelous letter was written by Silas Gatewood of Kentucky, a son of one of my
former owners, to a Northern Committee, for publication, which he thought would
destroy my influence and character. This letter will be found in the
introduction.
He has charged me with
the awful crime of taking from my keeper and oppressor, some of the fruits of
my own labor for the benefit of myself and family.
But while writing this
letter he seems to have overlooked the disgraceful fact that he was guilty
himself of what would here be regarded highway robbery, in his conduct to me as
narrated on page 87 of this narrative.
A word in reply to
Silas Gatewood's letter. I am willing to admit all that is true, but shall deny
that which is so basely false. In the first place, he puts words in my mouth
that I never used. He says that I represented that “my mother belonged to James
Bibb.” I deny ever having said so in private or public. He says that I stated
that Bibb's daughter married a Sibley. I deny it. He also says that the first
time that I left Kentucky for my liberty, I was gone about two years, before I
went back to rescue my family. I deny it. I was gone from Dec. 25th, 1837, to
May, or June, 1838. He says that I went back the second time for the purpose of
taking off my family, and eight or ten more slaves to Canada. This I will not
pretend to deny. He says I was guilty of disposing of articles from the farm for
my own use, and pocketing the money, and that his father caught me stealing a
sack full of wheat. I admit the fact. I acknowledge the wheat.
And who had a better
right to eat of the fruits of my own hard earnings than myself? Many a long
summer's day have I toiled with my wife and other slaves, cultivating his
father's fields, and gathering in his harvest, under the scorching rays of the
sun, without half enough to eat, or clothes to wear, and at the same time his
meat-house was filled with bacon and bread stuff; his dairy with butter and
cheese; his barn with grain, husbanded by the unrequited toil of the slaves.
And yet if a slave presumed to take a little from the abundance which he had
made by his own sweat and toil, to supply the demands of nature, to quiet the
craving appetite which is sometimes almost irresistible, it is called stealing
by slaveholders.
But I did not regard it
as stealing then, I do not regard it as such now. I hold that a slave has a
moral right to eat drink and wear all that he needs, and that it would be a sin
on his part to suffer and starve in a country where there is a plenty to eat
and wear within his reach. I consider that I had a just right to what I took,
because it was the labor of my own hands. Should I take from a neighbor as a
freeman, in a free country, I should consider myself guilty of doing wrong
before God and man. But was I the slave of Wm. Gatewood to-day, or any other
slaveholder, working without wages, and suffering with hunger or for clothing,
I should not stop to inquire whether my master would approve of my helping
myself to what I needed to eat or wear. For while the slave is regarded as
property, how can he steal from his master? It is contrary to the very nature
of the relation existing between master and slave, from the fact that there is
no law to punish a slave for theft, but lynch law; and the way they avoid that
is to hide well. For illustration, a slave from the State of Virginia, for
cruel treatment left the State between daylight and dark, being borne off by
one of his master's finest horses, and finally landed in Canada, where the
British laws recognise no such thing as property in a human being. He was
pursued by his owners, who expected to take advantage of the British law by
claiming him as a fugitive from justice, and as such he was arrested and
brought before the court of Queen's Bench. They swore that he was, at a certain
time, the slave of Mr. A., and that he ran away at such a time and stole and
brought off a horse. They enquired who the horse belonged to and it was
ascertained that the slave and horse both belonged to the same person. The
court therefore decided that the horse and the man were both recognised, in the
State of Virginia, alike, as articles of property, belonging to the same person--therefore,
if there was theft committed on either side, the former must have stolen off
the latter--the horse brought away the man, and not the man the horse. So the
man was discharged and pronounced free according to the laws of Canada. There
are several other letters published in this work upon the same subject, from
slaveholders, which it is hardly necessary for me to notice. However, I feel
thankful to the writers for the endorsement and confirmation which they have
given to my story. No matter what their motives were, they have done me and the
anti-slavery cause good service in writing those letters--but more especially
the Gatewood's. Silas Gatewood has done more for me than all the rest. He has
labored so hard in his long communication in trying to expose me, that he has
proved every thing that I could have asked of him; and for which I intend to
reward him by forwarding him one of my books, hoping that it may be the means
of converting him from a slaveholder to an honest man, and an advocate of
liberty for all mankind.
The reader will see in
the introduction that Wm. Gatewood writes a more cautious letter upon the
subject than his son Silas. “It is not a very easy matter to catch old birds
with chaff,” and I presume if Silas had the writing of his letter over again,
he would not be so free in telling all he knew, and even more, for the sake of
making out a strong case. The object of his writing such a letter will
doubtless be understood by the reader. It was to destroy public confidence in
the victims of slavery, that the system might not be exposed--it was to gag a
poor fugitive who had undertaken to plead his own cause and that of his
enslaved brethren. It was a feeble attempt to suppress the voice of universal
freedom which is now thundering on every gale. But thank God it is too late in
the day.
Go stop the mighty
thunder's roar,
Go hush the ocean's
sound,
Or upward like the
eagle soar
To skies' remotest
bound.
And when thou hast the
thunder stopped,
And hushed the ocean's
waves,
Then, freedom's spirit
bind in chains,
And ever hold us
slaves.
And when the eagle's
boldest feat,
Thou canst perform with
skill,
Then, think to stop
proud freedom's march
And hold the bondman
still.
Review of my
narrative.--Licentiousness a prop of slavery.--A case of mild slavery
given.--Its revolting features.--Times my purchase and sale by professed
Christians.--Concluding remarks.
I now conclude my
narrative, by reviewing briefly what I have written. This little work has been
written without any personal aid or a knowledge of the English grammer, which
must in part be my apology for many of its imperfections.
I find in several
places, where I have spoken out the deep feelings of my soul, in trying to
describe the horrid treatment which I have so often received at the hands of
slaveholding professors of religion, that I might possibly make a wrong
impression on the minds of some northern freemen, who are unacquainted
theoretically or practically with the customs and treatment of American
slaveholders to their slaves. I hope that it may not be supposed by any, that I
have exaggerated in the least, for the purpose of making out the system of
slavery worse than it really is, for, to exaggerate upon the cruelties of this
system, would be almost impossible; and to write herein the most horrid
features of it would not be in good taste for my book.
I have long thought
from what has fallen under my own observation while a slave, that the strongest
reason why southerners stick with such tenacity to their “peculiar instiution,”
is because licentious white men could not carry out their wicked purposes among
the defenceless colored population as they now do, without being exposed and
punished by law, if slavery was abolished. Female virtue could not be trampled
under foot with impunity, and marriage among the people of color kept in utter
obscurity.
On the other hand, lest
it should be said by slaveholders and their apologists, that I have not done
them the justice to give a sketch of the best side of slavery, if there can be
any best side to it, therefore in conclusion, they may have the benefit of the
following case, that fell under the observation of the writer. And I challenge
America to show a milder state of slavery than this. I once knew a Methodist in
the state of Ky., by the name of Young, who was the owner of a large number of
slaves, many of whom belonged to the same church with their master. They
worshipped together in the same church.
Mr. Young never was
known to flog one of his slaves or sell one. He fed and clothed them well, and
never over-worked them. He allowed each family a small house to themselves with
a little garden spot, whereon to raise their own vegetables; and a part of the
day on Saturdays was allowed them to cultivate it.
In process of time he
became deeply involved in debt by endorsing notes, and his property was all
advertised to be sold by the sheriff at public auction. It consisted in slaves,
many of whom were his brothers and sisters in the church.
On the day of sale
there were slave traders and speculators on the ground to buy. The slaves were
offered on the auction block one after another until they were all sold before
their old master's face. The first man offered on the block was an old
gray-headed slave by the name of Richard. His wife followed him up to the
block, and when they had bid him up to seventy or eighty dollars one of the
bidders asked Mr. Young what he could do, as he looked very old and infirm? Mr.
Young replied by saying, “he is not able to accomplish much manual labor, from
his extreme age and hard labor in early life. Yet I would rather have him than
many of those who are young and vigorous; who are able to perform twice as much
labor--because I know him to be faithful and trustworthy, a Christian in good
standing in my church. I can trust him anywhere with confidence. He has toiled
many long years on my plantation and I have always found him faithful.
This giving him a good
Christian character caused them to run him up to near two hundred dollars. His
poor old companion stood by weeping and pleading that they might not be
separated. But the marriage relation was soon dissolved by the sale, and they
were separated never to meet again.
Another man was called
up whose wife followed him with her infant in her arms, beseeching to be sold
with her husband, which proved to be all in vain. After the men were all sold
they then the women and children. They ordered the first woman to lay down her
child and mount the auction block; she refused to give up her little one and
clung to it as long as she could, while the cruel lash was applied to her back
for disobedience. She pleaded for mercy in the name of God. But the child was
torn from the arms of its mother amid the most heart rending-shrieks from the mother
and child on the one hand, and bitter oaths and cruel lashes from the tyrants
on the other. Finally the poor little child was torn from the mother while she
was sacrificed to the highest bidder. In this way the sale was carried on from
begining to end.
There was each
speculator with his hand-cuffs to bind his victims after the sale; and while
they were doing their writings, the Christian portion of the slaves asked
permission to kneel in prayer on the ground before they separated, which was
granted. And while bathing each other with tears of sorrow on the verge of
their final separation, their eloquent appeals in prayer to the Most High
seemed to cause an unpleasant sensation upon the ears of their tyrants, who
ordered them to rise and make ready their limbs for the caffles. And as they
happened not to bound at the first sound, they were soon raised from their
knees by the sound of the lash, and the rattle of the chains, in which they
were soon taken off by their respective masters,--husbands from wives, and
children from parents, never expecting to meet until the judgement of the great
day. Then Christ shall say to the slaveholding professors of religion, “Inasmuch
as ye did it unto one of the least of these little ones, my brethren, ye did it
unto me.”
Having thus tried to
show the best side of slavery that I can conceive of, the reader can exercise
his own judgment in deciding whether a man can be a Bible Christian, and yet
hold his Christian brethren as property, so that they may be sold at any time
in market, as sheep or oxen, to pay his debts.
During my life in
slavery I have been sold by professors of religion several times. In 1836 “Bro.”
Albert G. Sibley, of Bedford, Kentucky, sold me for $850 to “Bro.” John Sibley;
and in the same year he sold me to “Bro.” Wm. Gatewood of Bedford, for $850. In
1839 “Bro.” Gatewood sold me to Madison Garrison, a slave trader, of
Louisville, Kentucky, with my wife and child--at a depreciated price because I
was a runaway. In the same year he sold me with my family to “Bro.” Whitfield,
in the city of New Orleans, for $1200. In 1841 “Bro.” Whitfield sold me from my
family to Thomas Wilson and Co., blacklegs. In the same year they sold me to a “Bro.”
in the Indian Territory. I think he was a member of the Presbyterian Church. F.
E. Whitfield was a deacon in regular standing in the Baptist Church. A. Sibley
was a Methodist exhorter of the M. E. Church in good standing. J. Sibley was a
class-leader in the same church; and Wm. Gatewood was also an acceptable member
of the same church.
Is this Christianity?
Is it honest or right? Is it doing as we would be done by? Is it in accordance
with the principles of humanity or justice?
I believe slaveholding
to be a sin against God and man under all circumstances. I have no sympathy
with the person or persons who tolerate and support the system willingly and
knowingly, morally, religiously or politically.
Prayerfully and
earnestly relying on the power of truth, and the aid of the divine providence,
I trust that this little volume will bear some humble part in lighting up the
path of freedom and revolutionizing public opinion upon this great subject. And
I here pledge myself, God being my helper, ever to contend for the natural
equality of the human family, without regard to color, which is but fading
matter, while mind makes the man.
From the many favorable
notices of the Press which this volume has received the following have been
selected:
“It will be difficult
for any reader, however suspicious o narratives of this kind, to resist the
conviction which the simplicity, candor and good feeling of this work produces,
of its entire truthfulness. And if true, what a history it depicts Such
oppression fear, and suffering; such courage and energy; such meek endurance
and perseverance, could only be exemplified by one whose nature was taxed to
the uttermost. The hardest task the reader will find is to suppress his
indignation, and to keep the balance of his judgment in reference to a system
which can possibly lead to such monstrous results. We wish the book might
obtain a universal perusal. It is adapted to produce the right kind of
feeling--a feeling of deep and abiding sympathy for the oppressed. We are all
too indifferent to the wrongs the slave. We do not make his case our own. We do
not feel for those in bonds as bound with them. There is a lamentable lack of
proper Christian sympathy; and it is one of the best results of a book like this,
that it quickens the flow of feeling, and touches the heart. Mr. Bibb has
manifested by a blameless life, and by extraordinary talents, a character which
not only roborates the truth of his history, but powerfully illustrates the
terrible nature of the system whose oppressions he here record. For his sake,
as well as for the sake of humanity and freedom, we hope an extensive sale
awaits the little volume. It is small, neatly printed, and sold at a low
price--from fifty cents to seventy-five cents per copy. Let there be a little
Christian generosity exhibited in the sale of the work.”
“Henry Bibb, the well
known fugitive slave, has just published, in elegant style and with sundry
pictorial illustrations, Narrative of his Life and Adventures, written by
himself, and emarkably well-written too; with an Introduction by Lucins . Of
all the narratives that have been published, one exceeds this in thrilling
interest; and of all the subjects of them, no one appears to have seen and
suffered so much as Mr. Bibb. It is a book for the rising generation in
particular; and we could wish that as many copies of it might be sold during
the present year, as there are slaves in the United States.”
“This is a volume of
204 pages, handsomely printed on good paper and well bound. But it is not in
the execution that the interest lies; it is in the thrilling incidents so well
told. We have never been a great reader of novels, as all must know by our
style of writing, yet we have read enough to know the almost resistless power
which a well-executed tale, when once we commence reading, exerts over the
mind, until we reach the end; and did we not know the author, and know from the
best of proof that the book is a true narrative, on reading it we should
pronounce it a novel. The reader may rely upon its truth, and yet he will find
it so full of touching incidents, daring adventures, and hair-breadth escapes,
that he will find his attention held spell-bound, from the time he begins until
he has finished the little volume. We think the work cannot fail to meet with
an extensive sale.”
“This is a Narrative of
intense interest. The author is well known as a powerful speaker, keen in
debate, shrewd in argument, and dangerous in retort. He here shows an equally
ready command of the pen, and has produced a book which would do credit to a
practiced writer. No stronger proof of the absurdity of slavery can be demanded
than this little history. By appealing to the sense of justice and the feeling
of sympathy in this artless record of a noble struggle with oppression and
outrage, Mr. Bibb will make an impression on many readers, who would not be
reached by more elaborate statements. His book has the attraction of a romance,
though there was no romance in his sufferings. They were matter of fact
realities of the sternest kind.”
“After waiting several
weeks, we have received a copy of this little work. It is certainly one of the
most interesting and thrilling narratives of slavery ever laid before the
American people. The exposure which the author makes of the horrors of
slavery--the separations--the whippings, and the accumulated outrages inflicted
on the slave, must stir the blood of every reader who has the pulsations of a
man. The description of the slave's longing for freedom--of his deception, tricks
and stratagems to escape his condition, is just, though humiliating. His
narrations of the cruelty of individual slaveholders, is natural, and we doubt
not in every essential particular is true. We deem the work a most valuable
acquisition to the anti-slavery cause; and we hope that it may be widely
circulated through out the country.”
“This fugitive slave
literature is destined to be a powerful lever. We have the most profound
conviction of its potency. We see in it the easy and infallible means of
abolitionizing the free states. Argument provokes argument, reason is met by
sophistry. But narratives of slaves go right to the hearts of men. We defy any
man to think with any patience or tolerance of slavery after reading Bibb's narrative,
unless he is one of those infidels to nature who float on the race as monsters,
from it, but not of it. Put a dozen copies of this book into every school
district or neighborhood in the Free States--and we have known candidates of
the Free Soil party whose wealth would not miss the requisite to do it--and you
might sweep the whole north on a thorough going Liberty Platform for abolishing
slavery, everywhere and every how. Stir up honest men's souls with such a book
and they won't set much by disclaimers, they won't be squeamish how radically
they vote against a system which surpasses any hell which theology has ever
been able to conjure up.
“We believe this to be
an unvarnished tale, giving a true picture of slavery in all its features,
good, bad and indifferent, if it has so many. The book is written with perfect
artlessness, and the man who can read it unmoved must be fit for treasons,
stratagems and spoils.
“One conclusion forced
upon the philosophical reader of such narratives of runaway slaves is this,
that however tolerable chattel slavery may be as an institution for savage and
barbarous life, when you bring it into the purlieus of civilization and
Christianity, it becomes unspeakably iniquitous and intolerable. If Mr. Calhoun
really means to uphold slavery, he must--there is no help for it--abolish
Christianity, printing, art, science, and take his patriarchs back to the
standard of Central Africa or the days of , Ham and Japhet.”