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Green, a runaway slave, from Kentucky, by Green, J.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + span.nobr {white-space: nowrap;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a +Runaway Slave, from Kentucky, by Jacob D. Green + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a Runaway Slave, from Kentucky + Containing an Account of His Three Escapes, in 1839, 1846, and 1848 + +Author: Jacob D. Green + +Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15128] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF J.D. GREEN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<h1>NARRATIVE</h1> +<h2>OF</h2> +<h1>THE LIFE</h1> +<h2>OF</h2> +<h1>J.D. GREEN,</h1> +<h1>A RUNAWAY SLAVE,</h1> +<h1>FROM KENTUCKY,</h1> + +<h2>CONTAINING AN</h2> +<h2>ACCOUNT OF HIS THREE ESCAPES,</h2> +<h2>In 1839, 1846, and 1848.</h2> + +<p class="center"><b>EIGHTH THOUSAND.</b></p> + +<p class="center">HUDDERSFIELD:<br /> +PRINTED BY HENRY FIELDING, PACK HORSE YARD.<br /> +1864 +</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<div style="margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%;"> +<p>[<i>Transcriber's Note: This project was transcribed from a contemporary +printing of the work, not from the 1864 edition. Certain spellings may +have been modernized and typographic and printer's errors changed from the +original.</i>]</p> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2>TESTIMONIALS.</h2> + + +<p>Jacob Green, a coloured man and an escaped slave, has lectured in my +hearing, on American Slavery, in Springfield School-room, and I was much +pleased with the propriety with which he was able to express himself, and +with the capabilities which he seemed to possess to interest an audience.</p> + +<p> +GILBERT Mc.CALLUM.<br /> +Minister of Springfield<br /> +Independent Chapel, Dewsbury.<br /> +Sept 2, 1863.<br /> +</p> +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> + +<p>Hopton House, Sept. 10, 1863.</p> + +<p>I have much pleasure in bearing my testimony in favour of Mr. Jacob Green, +as a lecturer on the subject of American Slavery, having been present when +he gave an able and efficient lecture here about a month ago. Having +himself witnessed and experienced the fearful effects of that accursed +"institution," he is well fitted to describe its horrors, and I have no +doubt that amongst certain classes, his labours in the anti-slavery cause +may be more telling and efficient than those of more highly educated +lecturers who do not profess his peculiar advantages. I shall be well +pleased to hear of him being employed by any anti-slavery society.</p> + +<p> +JAMES CAMERON,<br /> +Minister of Hopton Chapel.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> + +<p>Eccleshill, Sept. 11, 1863.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jacob Green gave a lecture on Slavery, in our School-room here, about +two months ago, which I considered a very able one; and it was so +considered by my people.</p> + +<p>JOHN ASTON.</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> + +<p>I certify that Mr. Jacob Green has delivered two lectures in the +Foresters' Hall, Denholm, to a very numerous audience; and on each +occasion has given great satisfaction. The subjects were, +first—Slavery,—second, the American War. He lectures remarkably well, +and has a powerful voice; and I have not the least doubt would give +satisfaction in lecturing elsewhere. The chair on each occasion was +taken—first, by myself as incumbent—second, by the Rev. T. Roberts, +Independent Minister.</p> + +<p> +J.F.N. EYRE.<br /> +Incumbent of Denholm.<br /> +Oct. 18th, 1863.<br /> +</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> + +<p>I can thoroughly endorse the sentiments of the Rev. J.F.N. Eyre, herein +recorded.</p> + +<p>T. ROBERTS.</p> + +<div><br /></div> +<div><br /></div> + +<p>Mr. J.D. Green has lectured four times in our Schoolrooms, and each time +he has given very great satisfaction to a large assembly. From what I have +seen of him, I believe him to be worthy of public sympathy and support.</p> + +<p> +WILLIAM INMAN, Minister.<br /> +Ovenden, Nov. 14, 1863.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NARRATIVE, &c.</h2> + + +<p>My father and mother were owned by Judge Charles Earle, of Queen Anne's +County, Maryland, and I was born on the 24th of August, 1813.</p> + +<p>From eight to eleven years of age I was employed as an errand boy, +carrying water principally for domestic purposes, for 113 slaves and the +family. As I grew older, in the mornings I was employed looking after the +cows, and waiting in the house, and at twelve years I remember being in +great danger of losing my life in a singular way. I had seen the relish +with which master and friends took drink from a bottle, and seeing a +similar bottle in the closet, I thought what was good for them would be +good for me, and I laid hold of the bottle and took a good draught of (Oh, +horror of horrors) oxalic acid, and the doctor said my safety was +occasioned by a habit I had of putting my head in the milk pail and +drinking milk, as by doing so the milk caused me to vomit and saved my +life. About this time my mother was sold to a trader named Woodfork, and +where she was conveyed I have not heard up to the present time. This +circumstance caused serious reflections in my mind, as to the situation of +slaves, and caused me to contrast the condition of a white boy with mine, +which the following occurrence will more vividly pourtray. One morning +after my mother was sold, a white boy was stealing corn out of my master's +barn, and I said for this act we black boys will be whipped until one of +us confesses to have done that we are all innocent of, as such is the case +in every instance; and I thought, Oh, that master was here, or the +overseer, I would then let them see what becomes of the corn. But, I saw +he was off with the corn to the extent of half a bushel, and I will say +nothing about it until they miss it, and if I tell them they wont believe +me if he denies it, because he is white and I am black. Oh! how dreadful +it is to be black! Why was I born black? It would have been better had I +not been born at all. Only yesterday, my mother was sold to go to, not one +of us knows were, and I am left alone, and I have no hope of seeing her +again. At this moment a raven alighted on a tree over my head, and I +cried, "Oh, Raven! if I had wings like you, I would soon find my mother +and be happy again." Before parting she advised me to be a good boy, and +she would pray for me, and I must pray for her, and hoped we might meet +again in heaven, and I at once commenced to pray, to the best of my +knowledge, "Our Father art in Heaven, be Thy name, kingdom come.—Amen." +But, at this time, words of my master obtruded into my mind that God did +not care for black folks, as he did not make them, but the <span class='nobr'>d---l</span> did. Then +I thought of the old saying amongst us, as stated by our master, that, +when God was making man, He made white man out of the best clay, as +potters make china, and the <span class='nobr'>d---l</span> was watching, and he immediately took up +some black mud and made a black man, and called him a nigger. My master +was continually impressing upon me the necessity of being a good boy, and +used to say, that if I was good, and behaved as well to him as my mother +had done, I should go to Heaven without a question being asked. My mother +having often said the same, I determined from that day to be a good boy, +and constantly frequented the Meeting-house attended by the blacks where I +learned from the minister, Mr. Cobb, how much the Lord had done for the +blacks and for their salvation; and he was in the habit of reminding us +what advantages he had given us for our benefit, for when we were in our +native country, Africa, we were destitute of Bible light, worshipping +idols of sticks and stones, and barbarously murdering one another, God put +it into the hearts of these good slaveholders to venture across the bosom +of the hazardous Atlantic to Africa, and snatch us poor negroes as brands +from the eternal burning, and bring us where we might sit under the +droppings of his sanctuary, and learn the ways of industry and the way to +God. "Oh, niggers! how happy are your eyes which see this heavenly light; +many millions of niggers desired it long, but died without the sight. I +frequently envy your situations, because God's special blessing seems to +be ever over you, as though you were a select people, for how much happier +is your position than that of a free man, who, if sick, must pay his +doctor's bill; if hungry, must supply his wants by his own exertions; if +thirsty, must refresh himself by his own aid. And yet you, oh, niggers! +your master has all this care for you. He supplies your daily wants; your +meat and your drink he provides; and when you are sick he finds the best +skill to bring you to health as soon as possible, for your sickness is his +loss, and your health his gain; and, above all when you die (if you are +obedient to your masters, and good niggers), your black faces will shine +like black jugs around the throne of God." Such was the religious +instruction I was in the habit of receiving until I was about seventeen +years old; and told that when at any time I happened to be offended, or +struck by a white boy I was not to offend or strike in return, unless it +was another black, then I might fight as hard as I chose in my own +defence. It happened about this time there was a white boy who was +continually stealing my tops and marbles, and one morning when doing so I +caught him, and we had a battle, and I had him down on the ground when Mr. +Burmey came up. He kicked me away from the white boy, saying if I belonged +to him he would cut off my hands for <i>daring</i> to strike a white boy; this +without asking the cause of the quarrel, or of ascertaining who was to +blame. The kick was so severe that I was sometime before I forgot it, and +created such a feeling of revenge in my bosom that I was determined when I +became a man I would pay him back in his own coin. I went out one day, and +measured myself by a tree in the wood, and cut a notch in the tree to +ascertain how fast I grew. I went at different times for the space of two +months and found I was no taller, and I began to fear he would die before +I should have grown to man's estate, and I resolved if he did I would make +his children suffer by punishing them instead of their father. At this +time my master's wife had two lovers, this same Burmey and one Rogers, and +they despised each other from feelings of jealousy. Master's wife seemed +to favour Burmey most, who was a great smoker, and she provided him with a +large pipe with a German silver bowl, which screwed on the top; this pipe +she usually kept on the mantel piece, ready filled with tobacco. One +morning I was dusting and sweeping out the dining-room, and saw the pipe +on the mantel-piece. I took it down, and went to my young master William's +powder closet and took out his powder horn, and after taking half of the +tobacco out of the pipe filled it nearly full with powder, and covered it +over with tobacco to make it appear as usual when filled with tobacco, +replaced it, and left. Rogers, came in about eight o'clock in the morning, +and remained until eleven, when Mr. Burmey came, and in about an hour I +saw a great number running about from all parts of the plantation. I left +the barn where I was thrashing buck-wheat, and followed the rest to the +house, where I saw Mr. Burmey lying back in the arm chair in a state of +insensibility, his mouth bleeding profusely and from particulars given it +appeared he took the pipe as usual and lighted it, and had just got it to +his mouth when the powder exploded, and the party suspected was Rogers, +who had been there immediately preceding; and Burmey's son went to Rogers +and they fought about the matter. Law ensued, which cost Rogers 800 +dollars, Burmey 600 dollars and his face disfigured; and my master's wife +came in for a deal of scandal, which caused further proceedings at law, +costing the master 1400 hundred dollars, and I was never once suspected or +charged with the deed.</p> + +<p>At this time two or three negroes had escaped, and I heard so much about +the free States of the north that I was determined to be free. So I began +to study what we call the north star, or astronomy, to guide me to the +free States. I was in the habit of driving the master; and on one occasion +I had to drive him to Baltimore where two of his sons were studying law; +and while there, I stole some sweet potatoes to roast when I got home; and +how master got to know I had them I never knew; but when I got home he +gave me a note to Mr. Cobb, the overseer, and told me to tell Dick, +(another slave on the plantation) to come to Baltimore to him on the +following evening, and as soon as I took the note in my hand I was certain +there was a flogging in it for me, though he said nothing to me. I held +the note that night and following day, afraid to give it to Mr. Cobb, so +confident was I of what would be the result. Towards evening I began to +reason thus—If I give Cobb the note I shall be whipped; if I withhold the +note from him I shall be whipped, so a whipping appears plain in either +case. Now Dick having arranged to meet his sweetheart this night assumed +sickness, so that he could have an excuse for not meeting master at +Baltimore, and he wanted me to go instead of him. I agreed to go, +providing he would take the note I had to Mr. Cobb, as I had forgot to +give it him, to which he consented, and off I went; and I heard that when +he delivered the note to Mr. Cobb, he ordered him to go to the +whipping-post, and when he asked what he had done he was knocked down, and +afterwards put to the post and thirty-nine lashes were administered, and +failed seeing his sweetheart as well. When I arrived at Baltimore my +master and young master took their seats and I drove away without any +question until we had gone three miles, when he asked what I was doing +there that night. I very politely said Dick was not well, and I had come +in his place. He then asked me if Mr. Cobb got his note, I answered, yes, +sir. He then asked me how I felt, and I said first rate, sir. "The <span class='nobr'>d---l</span> +you do," said he. I said, yes sir. He said "nigger, did Mr. Cobb flog +you?" No sir. I have done nothing wrong. "You never do," he answered; and +said no more until he got home. Being a man who could not bear to have any +order of his disobeyed or unfulfilled, he immediately called for Mr. Cobb, +and was told he was in bed; and when he appeared, the master asked if he +got the note sent by the nigger. Mr. Cobb said "Yes." "Then why," said +master, "did you not perform my orders in the note?" "I did, sir," replied +Cobb; when the master said, "I told you to give that nigger thirty-nine +lashes," Mr. Cobb says, "So I did, sir;" when master replied, "He says you +never licked him at all." Upon which Cobb said, "He is a liar;" when my +master called for me (who had been hearing the whole dialogue at the +door), I turned on my toes and went a short distance, and I shouted with a +loud voice that I was coming, (to prevent them knowing that I had been +listening) and appeared before them and said "here I am master, do you +want me?" He said "Yes. Did you not tell me that Mr. Cobb had not flogged +you," and I said "yes I did; he has not flogged me to-day, sir." Mr. Cobb +answered, "I did not flog him. You did not tell me to flog him. You told +me to flog that other nigger." "What other nigger," enquired Master. Cobb +said, "Dick." Master then said, "I did not. I told you to flog this nigger +here." Cobb then produced the letter, and read it as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Mr. Cobb will give the bearer 39 lashes on delivery." R.T. EARLE.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I then left the room and explanations took place. When I was again called +in. "How came Dick to have had the letter," and I then said I had forgot +to deliver it until Dick wanted me to go to Baltimore in his place, and I +agreed providing he would take the letter. Master then said "you lie, you +infernal villain," and laid hold of a pair of tongs and said he would dash +my brains out if I did not tell him the truth. I then said I thought there +was something in the note that boded no good to me, and I did not intend +to give it to him. He said, "you black vagabond, stay on this plantation +three months longer, and you will be master and I the slave; no wonder you +said you felt first rate when I asked you, but I will sell you to go to +Georgia the first chance I get." Then laying the tongs down he opened the +door and ordered me out. I knew he had on heavy cow-hide boots, and I knew +he would try to assist me in my outward progress, and though expecting it +and went as quick as I could, I was materially assisted by a heavy kick +from my master's foot. This did not end the matter, for when Dick found +out I had caused his being flogged, we had continual fightings for several +months.</p> + +<p>When I was fourteen years old my master gave me a flogging, the marks of +which will go with me to my grave, and this was for a crime of which I was +completely innocent. My master's son had taken one of his pistols out, and +by some accident it burst. When enquiry was made about the damaged pistol +William told his father that he had seen me have it; this, of course, I +denied, when master tied me up by my thumbs and gave me 60 lashes, and +also made me confess the crime before he would release me. From this +flogging my back was raw and sore for three months; the shirt that I wore +was made of rough tow linen, and when at work in the fields it would so +chafe the sores that they would break and run, and the hot sun over me +would bake the shirt fast to my back, and for four weeks I wore that +shirt, unable to pull it off, and when I did pull it off it brought with +it much of my flesh, leaving my back perfectly raw. Some time after this +my master found out the truth about the pistol, and when I saw that he did +not offer me any apology for the beating he had given me, and the lie he +had made me confess, I went to him and said—now, master, you see that you +beat me unjustly about that pistol, and made me confess to a lie—but all +the consolation I got was—clear out, you black rascal; I never struck a +blow amiss in my life, except when I struck at you and happened to miss +you; there are plenty of other crimes you have committed and did not let +me catch you at them, so that flogging will do for the lot.</p> + +<p>Master had an old negro in the family called Uncle Reuben. This good old +man and his wife were very good friends of my mother's, and before she was +sold they often met and sung and prayed, and talked about religion +together. Uncle Reuben fell sick in the middle of the harvest, and his +sickness was very severe; but master having a grudge against uncle Reuben, +and his old wife aunt Dinah, respecting a complaint that aunt Dinah had +made to mistress about his having outraged and violated her youngest +daughter, his spite was carried out by Mr. Cobb, the overseer, who forced +Uncle Reuben into the field amongst the rest of us, and I was ordered to +cradle behind him to make him keep up with the rest of the gang. The poor +old man worked until he fell, just ahead of me, upon the cradle. Mr. Cobb +came over and told him to get up, and that he was only playing the old +soldier, and when the old man did not move to get up Mr. Cobb gave him a +few kicks with his heavy boots and told Reuben, sick as he was, that he +would cure him. He ordered us to take off his shirt, and the poor old man +was stripped, when Mr. Cobb, with his hickory cane, laid on him till his +back bled freely; but still the old man seemed to take no notice of what +Mr. Cobb was doing. Mr. Cobb then told us to put on his shirt and carry +him in, for he appeared convinced that Reuben could not walk. The next +morning I went to see him but he did not seem to know anybody. Master came +in along with the Doctor, and master swore at Reuben, telling him that as +soon as he was well enough he should have a good flogging for having, by +his own folly, caught his sickness. The doctor here checked his master's +rage by telling him, as he felt at Reuben by the wrist, he could not live +many minutes longer; at this master was silent, and a few minutes Reuben +was dead. Poor Aunt Dinah came in out of the kitchen and wept fit to break +her poor heart. She had four sons and three daughters, and they all joined +in mournful lamentation.</p> + +<p>When I was sixteen I was very fond of dancing, and was invited privately +to a negro shindy or dance, about twelve miles from home, and for this +purpose I got Aunt Dinah to starch the collars for my two linen shirts, +which were the first standing collars I had ever worn in my life; I had a +good pair of trousers, and a jacket, but no necktie, nor no pocket +handkerchief, so I stole aunt Dinah's checked apron, and tore it in +two—one part for a necktie, the other for a pocket handkerchief. I had +twenty-four cents, or pennies which I divided equally with fifty large +brass buttons in my right and left pockets. Now, thought I to myself, when +I get on the floor and begin to dance—oh! how the niggers will stare to +hear the money jingle. I was combing my hair to get the knots out of it: I +then went and looked in an old piece of broken looking-glass, and I +thought, without joking, that I was the best looking negro that I had ever +seen in my life. About ten o'clock I stole out to the stable when all was +still; and while I was getting on one of my master's horses I said to +myself—Master was in here at six o'clock and saw all these horses clean, +so I must look out and be back time enough to have you clean when he gets +up in the morning. I thought what a dash I should cut among the pretty +yellow and Sambo gals, and I felt quite confident, of course, that I +should have my pick among the best looking ones, for my good clothes, and +my abundance of money, and my own good looks—in fact, I thought no mean +things of my self.</p> + +<p>When I arrived at the place where the dance was, it was at an old house in +the woods, which had many years before been a negro meeting-house; there +was a large crowd there, and about one hundred horses tied round the +fence—for some of them were far from home, and, like myself, they were +all runaways, and their horses, like mine, had to be home and cleaned +before their masters were up in the morning. In getting my horse close up +to the fence a nail caught my trousers at the thigh, and split them clean +up to the seat; of course my shirt tail fell out behind, like a woman's +apron before. This dreadful misfortune almost unmanned me, and curtailed +both my pride and pleasure for the night. I cried until I could cry no +more. However, I was determined I would not be done out of my sport after +being at the expense of coming, so I went round and borrowed some pins, +and pinned up my shirt tail as well as I could. I then went into the +dance, and told the fiddler to play me a jig. Che, che, che, went the +fiddle, when the banjo responded with a thrum, thrum, thrum, with the loud +cracking of the bone player. I seized a little Sambo gal, and round and +round the room we went, my money and my buttons going jingle, jingle, +jingle, seemed to take a lively part with the music, and to my great +satisfaction every eye seemed to be upon me, and I could not help thinking +about what an impression I should leave behind upon those pretty yellow +and Sambo gals, who were gazing at me, thinking I was the richest and +handsomest nigger they had ever seen: but unfortunately the pins in my +breeches gave way, and to my great confusion my shirt tail fell out; and +what made my situation still more disgraceful was the mischievous conduct +of my partner, the gal that I was dancing with, who instead of trying to +conceal my shame caught my shirt tail behind and held it up. The roar of +laughter that came from both men and gals almost deafened me, and I would +at this moment have sunk through the floor, so I endeavoured to creep out +as slily as I could; but even this I was not permitted to do until I had +undergone a hauling around the room by my unfortunate shirt tail: and this +part of the programme was performed by the gals, set on by the boys—every +nigger who could not stand up and laugh, because laughing made them weak, +fell down on the floor and rolled round and round. When the gals saw their +own turn they let me go and I hurried outside and stood behind the house, +beneath a beautiful bright moon, which saw me that night the most wretched +of all negroes in the land of Dixie; and what made me feel, in my own +opinion, that my humiliation was just as complete as the triumph of the +negroes inside was glorious, was that the gals had turned my pockets out, +and found that the hundreds of dollars they had thought my pockets +contained, consisted of 24 cents or pennies, and 50 brass buttons. +Everything was alive and happy inside the room, but no one knew or cared +how miserable I was—the joy and life of the dance that night seemed +entirely at my expense, all through my unfortunate shirt tail. The first +thing I thought of now was revenge. Take your comfort, niggers now, said I +to myself, for sorrow shall be yours in the morning, so I took out my +knife and went round the fence and cut every horse loose, and they all ran +away. I then got on my horse and set off home. As I rode on I thought to +myself—I only wish I could be somewhere close enough to see how those +negroes will act when they come out and find all their horses gone. And +then I laughed right out when I thought of the sport they had had out of +my misfortune, and that some were ten to twelve, and some fifteen miles +away from home. Well, thought I, your masters will have to reckon with you +to-morrow; you have had glad hearts to-night at my expense, but you will +have sore backs to-morrow at your own. Now, when I got home, the stable +was in a very bad situation, and I was afraid to bring my horse in until I +could strike a light. When this was done, I took the saddle and bridle off +outside. No sooner had I done this than my horse reared over the bars and +ran away into the meadow. I chased him till daylight, and for my life I +could not catch him. My feelings now may be better imagined than +described. When the reader remembers that this horse, with all the rest, +master had seen clean at six o'clock the night before, and all safe in the +stable, and now to see him in the meadow, with all the marks of having +been driven somewhere and by somebody, what excuse could I make, or what +story could I invent in order to save my poor back from that awful +flogging which I knew must be the result of the revelation of the truth. I +studied and tried, but could think of no lie that would stand muster. At +last I went into the stable and turned all the rest out, and left the +stable door open, and creeping into the house, took off my fine clothes +and put on those which I had been wearing all the week, and laid myself +down on my straw. I had not lain long before I heard master shouting for +me, for all those horses, eight in number, were under my care; and +although he shouted for me at the top of his voice, I lay still and +pretended not to hear him; but soon after I heard a light step coming up +stairs, and a rap at my door—then I commenced to snore as loud as +possible, still the knocking continued. At last I pretended to awake, and +called out, who's there—that you, Lizzy? oh my! what's up, what time is +it, and so on. Lizzy said master wanted me immediately; yes, Lizzy, said +I, tell master I'm coming. I bothered about the room long enough to give +colour to the impression that I had just finished dressing myself; I then +came and said, here I am, master, when he demanded of me, what were my +horses doing in the meadow? Here I put on an expression of such wonder and +surprise—looking first into the meadow and then at the stable door, and +to master's satisfaction, I seemed so completely confounded that my +deception took upon him the desired effect. Then I affected to roar right +out, crying, now master, you saw my horses all clean last night before I +went to bed, and now some of those negroes have turned them out so that I +should have them to clean over again: well, I declare! it's too bad, and I +roared and cried as I went towards the meadow to drive them up; but master +believing what I said, called me back and told me to call Mr. Cobb, and +when Mr. Cobb came master told him to blow the horn; when the horn was +blown, the negroes were to be seen coming from all parts of the +plantation, and forming around in front of the balcony. Master then came +out and said, now I saw this boy's horses clean last night and in the +stable, so now tell me which of you turned them out? Of course they all +denied it, then master ordered them all to go down into the meadow and +drive up the horses and clean them, me excepted; so they went and drove +them up and set to work and cleaned them. On Monday morning we all turned +out to work until breakfast, when the horn was blown, and we all repaired +to the house. Here master again demanded to know who turned the horses +loose, and when they all denied it, he tied them all up and gave them each +39 lashes. Not yet satisfied, but determined to have a confession, as was +always his custom on such occasions, he came to me and asked me which one +I had reason to suspect. My poor guilty heart already bleeding for the +suffering I had caused my fellow slaves, was now almost driven to +confession. What must I do, select another victim for further punishment, +or confess the truth and bear the consequence? My conscience now rebuked +me, like an armed man; but I happened to be one of those boys who, among +all even of my mother's children loved myself best, and therefore had no +disposition to satisfy my conscience at the expense of a very sore back, +so I very soon thought of Dick, a negro who, like Ishmael, had his hand +out against every man, and all our hands were out against him; this negro +was a lickspittle or tell-tale, as little boys call them—we could not +steal a bit of tea or sugar, or any other kind of nourishment for our +sick, or do anything else we did not want to be known, but if he got to +know it he would run and tell master or mistress, or the overseer, so we +all wanted him dead; and now I thought of him—he was just the proper +sacrifice for me to lay upon the altar of confession, so I told master I +believed that it was Dick: moreover, I told him that I had seen him in and +out of the stable on Saturday night, so master tied Dick up and gave him +39 lashes more, and washed his back down with salt and water, and told him +that at night if he did not confess, he would give him as much more; so at +night, when master went out to Dick again, he asked if he had made up his +mind to tell him the truth, Dick said, yes, master;—well, said master, +let me hear it. Well master, said Dick, I did turn the horses out; but +will never do so again. So master, satisfied with this confession, struck +Dick no more, and ordered him to be untied; but Dick had a sore back for +many weeks. And now to return to the negroes I had left at the dance, when +they discovered that their horses were gone there was the greatest +consternation amongst them, the forebodings of the awful consequences if +they dared to go home induced many that night to seek salvation in the +direction and guidance of the north star. Several who started off on that +memorable night I have since shook hands with in Canada. They told me +there were sixteen of them went off together, four of them were shot or +killed by the bloodhounds, and one was captured while asleep in a barn; +the rest of those who were at the dance either went home and took their +floggings, or strayed into the woods until starved out, and then +surrendered. One of those I saw in Toronto, is Dan Patterson; he has a +house of his own, with a fine horse and cart, and he has a beautiful Sambo +woman for his wife, and four fine healthy-looking children. But, like +myself, he had left a wife and six children in slavery. When I was about +seventeen, I was deeply smitten in love with a yellow girl belonging to +Doctor Tillotson. This girl's name was Mary, of whose lovliness I dreamt +every night. I certainly thought she was the prettiest girl I had ever +seen in my life. Her colour was very fair, approaching almost to white; +her countenance was frank and open, and very inviting; her voice was as +sweet as the dulcimer, her smiles to me were like the May morning sunbeams +in the spring, one glance of her large dark eyes broke my heart in pieces, +with a stroke like that of an earthquake. O, I thought, this girl would +make me a paradise, and to enjoy her love I thought would be heaven. In +spite of either patrols or dogs, who stood in my way, every night nearly I +was in Mary's company. I learned from her that she had already had a child +to her master in Mobile, and that her mistress had sold her down here for +revenge; and she told me also of the sufferings that she had undergone +from her mistress on account of jealousy—her baby she said her mistress +sold out of her arms, only eleven months old, to a lady in Marysville, +Kentucky. Having never before felt a passion like this, or of the gentle +power, so peculiar to women, that, hard as I worked all day, I could not +sleep at night for thinking of this almost angel in human shape. We kept +company about six weeks, during which time I was at sometimes as wretched +as I was happy at others. Much to my annoyance Mary was adored by every +negro in the neighbourhood, and this excited my jealousy and made me +miserable. I was almost crazy when I saw another negro talking to her. +Again and again I tried my best to get her to give up speaking to them, +but she refused to comply. There was one negro who was in the habit of +calling on Mary whom I dreaded more than all the rest of them put +together, this negro was Dan, he belonged to Rogers; and notwithstanding I +believed myself to be the best looking negro to be found anywhere in the +neighbourhood, still I was aware that I was not the best of talkers. Dan +was a sweet and easy talker, and a good bone and banjo player. I was led +to fear that he would displace me in Mary's affections, and in this I was +not mistaken. One night I went over to see Mary, and in looking through +the window, saw Mary—my sweet and beloved Mary—sitting upon Dan's knee; +and here it is impossible to describe the feeling that came over me at +this unwelcome sight. My teeth clenched and bit my tongue—my head grew +dizzy, and began to swim round and round, and at last I found myself +getting up from the ground, having stumbled from the effects of what I had +seen. I wandered towards home, and arriving there threw myself on the +straw and cried all night. My first determination was to kill Dan; but +then I thought they would hang me and the devil would have us both, and +some other negro will get Mary, then the thought of killing Dan passed +away. Next morning, when the horn blew for breakfast, I continued my work, +my appetite having left me; at dinner time it was the same. At sun-down I +went to the barn and got a rope and put it under my jacket, and started +off to see Mary, whom I found sitting in the kitchen, smoking her pipe, +for smoking was as common among the girls as among the men. Mary, said I, +I was over here last night and saw you through the window sitting on Dan's +knee. Now, Mary, I want you to tell me at once whose you mean to be—mine +or Dan's? Dan's, she replied, with an important toss of her head, which +went through my very soul, like the shock from a galvanic battery. I +rested for a minute or so on an old oak table that stood by. Mary's answer +had unstrung every nerve in me, and left me so weak that I could scarcely +keep from falling. Now I was not at that time, and don't think I ever +shall be one of those fools who would cut off his nose to spite his face, +much less kill myself because a girl refused to love me. Life to me was +always preferable, under any circumstances; but in this case I played the +most dexterous card I had. Mary, said I sternly, if you don't give Dan up +and sware to be mine, I will hang myself this night. To this she replied, +hang on if you are fool enough, and continued smoking her pipe as though +not the least alarmed. I took out the rope from under my jacket, and got +upon a three-legged stool, and putting the rope first over the beam in the +ceiling, then made a slip-knot, and brought it down round my neck, taking +good care to have it short enough that it would not choke me, and in this +way I stood upon the stool for some considerable time, groaning and +struggling, and making every kind of noise that might make her believe +that I was choking or strangling; but still Mary sat deliberately smoking +her pipe with the utmost coolness, and seemed to take no notice of me or +what I was doing. I thought my situation worse now than if I had not +commenced this job at all. My object in pretending to hang myself was to +frighten Mary into compliance with my demand, and her conduct turned out +to be everything but what I had expected. I had thought that the moment I +ascended the stool she would have clung to me and tried to dissuade me +from committing suicide, and in this case my plan was to persist in +carrying it out, unless she would consent to give Dan up; but instead of +this she sat smoking her pipe apparently at ease and unmoved. Now I found +I had been mistaken—what was I to do, to hang or kill myself was the last +thing I meant to do—in fact I had not the courage to do it for five +hundred Marys. But now, after mounting the stool and adjusting the rope +round my neck, I was positively ashamed to come down without hanging +myself, and then I stood like a fool. At this moment in came the dog +carlow, racing after the cat, right across the kitchen floor, and the dog +coming in contact with the stool, knocked it right away from under my +feet, and brought my neck suddenly to the full length of the rope, which +barely allowed my toes to touch the floor. Here I seized the rope with +both hands to keep the weight of my whole body off my neck, and in this +situation I soon found I must hang, and that dead enough, unless I had +some assistance, for the stool had rolled entirely out of the reach of my +feet, and the knot I had tied behind the beam I could not reach for my +life. My arms began to tremble with holding on to the rope, and still my +mortification and pride for some time refused to let me call on Mary for +assistance. Such a moment of terror and suspense! heaven forbid that I +should ever see or experience again. Thoughts rushed into my mind of every +bad deed that I had done in my life; and I thought that old cloven foot, +as we called the devil, was waiting to nab me. The stretch upon my arms +exhausted me, with holding on by the rope, nothing was left me but +despair; my pride and courage gave up the ghost, and I roared out, Mary! +for God's sake cut the rope! No, answered Mary, you went up there to hang +yourself, so now hang on. Oh! Mary, Mary! I did not mean to hang! I was +only doing so to see what you would say. Well, then, said Mary; you hear +what I have to say—hang on. Oh, Mary! for heaven's sake cut this rope, or +I shall strangle to death!—oh, dear, good Mary, save me this time: and I +roared out like a jackass, and must too have fainted, for when I came +round Doctor Tillotson and his wife and Mary stood over me as I lay on the +floor. How I got upon the floor, or who cut the rope I never knew. Doctor +Tillotson had hold of my wrist, feeling my pulse; while mistress held a +camphor bottle in one hand and a bottle of hartshorn in the other. The +doctor helped me up from the floor and set me in a chair, when I +discovered that I was bleeding very freely from the nose and mouth. He +called for a basin and bled me in my left arm, and then sent me over home +by two of his men. Next day my neck was dreadfully swollen, and my throat +was so sore that it was with difficulty that I could swallow meat for more +than a week. At the end of a fortnight, master having learnt all the +particulars respecting my sickness, called me to account, and gave me +seventy-eight lashes, and this was the end of my crazy love and courtship +with Mary.</p> + +<p>Shortly after this, Mary was one Sunday down in her master's barn, where +she had been sent by her mistress to look for new nests where a number of +the hens were supposed to have been laying, as the eggs had not been found +elsewhere. While in the barn, Mary was surprised by William Tillotson, her +master's son, who ordered her to take her bed among the hay and submit to +his lustful passion. This she strenuously refused to do, telling him of +the punishment she had already suffered from her former mistress for a +similar act of conduct, and reminding him at the same time of his wife, +whose vengeance she would have to dread; but William was not to be put +off, nor his base passion to go unsatisfied, by any excuse that Mary could +make, so he at once resorted to force. Mary screamed at the top of her +voice. Now the negro Dan was just in the act of passing the barn at the +time, when he heard Mary's voice he rushed into the barn, and demanded in +a loud voice what was the matter? when, to his horror, he beheld William +upon the barn floor, and Mary struggling but in vain to rise. William, +instead of desisting from his brutal purpose, with a dreadful oath ordered +Dan to clear out; but the sight of the outrage on her whom, I now firmly +believe he loved better than his own soul, made poor Dan completely forget +himself—and made him forget too, in that fatal moment what he afterwards +wished he had remembered. Dan seized a pitchfork and plunged it into young +Tillotson's back; the prongs went in between his shoulders, and one of +them had penetrated the left lung. Young Tillotson expired almost +immediately, and Dan seeing what he had done, ran off at once to the woods +and swamps, and was seen no more for about two months. Mrs. Tillotson, who +had heard Mary scream, was on the balcony, and called out to Dan to know +the cause, Dan made no reply but took to his heels. Mrs. Tillotson alarmed +at this, and suspecting at once that something was wrong, hastened to the +barn, followed by William's wife who happened to be there, and when they +saw poor William's corpse, and Mary standing by, they both fainted. Poor +Mary, frightened to death, turned into the house and informed her young +mistress, Susannah, of what had happened. Miss Susannah spread the alarm, +and called some of the slaves to her assistance. She went to the barn and +found her mother and sister-in-law lying in a state of insensibility, and +her brother William dead. With the assistance of old Aunt Hannah and +several of the female servants, the two ladies were somewhat restored to +consciousness; and William was carried into the house by the servants. The +Doctor himself was away from home attending one of his patients, who was +very sick. When Mrs. Tillotson had somewhat recovered, she sent for Mary +and enquired as to how William came by his death in the barn. Mary told +the whole story as previously related in the presence of about sixty or +seventy of the neighbours, who had collected together on hearing of the +murder. Of course Mary's story met with no credit from her mistress, and +poor Mary stood in the eyes of all as an accomplice in the conspiracy to +murder young Tillotson. When the doctor arrived it was dark, and after +seeing the corpse and hearing from his wife the story that she had made up +for him, he called for Mary, but she was nowhere to be found. The house +and plantation were searched in all directions, but no Mary was +discovered. At last, when they had all given over looking for her, towards +midnight, a cart drove up to the door. Doctor, said the driver, I have a +dead negro here, and I'm told she belongs to you. The Doctor came out with +a lantern, and as I stood by my master's carriage, waiting for him to come +out and go home, the Doctor ordered me to mount the cart and look at the +corpse; I did so, and looked full in that face by the light of the +lantern, and saw and knew, notwithstanding the horrible change that had +been effected by the work of death, upon those once beautiful features, it +was Mary. Poor Mary, driven to distraction by what had happened, she had +sought salvation in the depths of the Chesapeake Bay that night. Next day +the neighbourhood was searched throughout, and the country was placarded +for Dan; and Doctor Tillotson and Mr. Burmey, young William's +father-in-law, offered one thousand dollars for him alive, and five +hundred for him dead; and although every blackleg in the neighbourhood was +on the alert, it was full two months before he was captured. At length +poor Dan was caught and brought by the captors to Mr. Burmey's, where he +was tried principally by Burmey's two sons, Peter and John, and that night +was kept in irons in Burmey's cellar. The next day Dan was led into the +field in the presence of about three thousand of us. A staple was driven +into the stump of a tree, with a chain attached to it, and one of his +handcuffs was taken off and brought through the chain, and then fastened +on his hand again. A pile of pine wood was built around him. At eight +o'clock the wood was set on fire, and when the flames blazed round upon +the wretched man, he began to scream and struggle in a most awful manner. +Many of our women fainted, but not one of us was allowed to leave until +the body of poor Dan was consumed. The unearthly sounds that came from the +blazing pile, as poor Dan writhed in the agonies of death, it is beyond +the power of my pen to describe. After a while all was silent, except the +cracking of the pine wood as the fire gradually devoured it with the prize +that it contained. Poor Dan had ceased to struggle—he was at rest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burmey's two sons, Peter and John, were the ringleaders in this +execution, and the pair of them hardly ever saw a sober day from one month +to another; and at the execution of Dan, Peter was so drunk that he came +nigh sharing the same fate. It was not a year after the roasting of Dan +that the two brothers were thrashing wheat in the barn, which stood about +a quarter of a mile from the house, and being in March, and an uncommon +windy day, they had taken their demijohn full of brandy in order to keep +the cold out of their bones, as it was their belief that a dram or two had +that effect; so they were drinking and thrashing and drinking again until +they reeled over dead drunk upon the floor. That same night the barn took +fire over them. The first thing that excited the alarm of my master's +negroes on Tillotson's plantation was a black smoke issuing from the barn. +Suddenly there was a rush from all parts of the plantation, but it was all +to no purpose, for scarcely had we got half way before we saw the flames +bursting out on every side of the barn, still we continued to run as fast +as we could. When we arrived we found the barn door shut and fastened +inside. This Mr. Peter and Mr. John had done to keep out the wind which +was very high. When old Mr. Burmey arrived with his daughter-in-law, +Peter's wife, the first thing demanded was, where is your masters?—oh, my +children! my children! while Mrs. Peter screamed, my husband! my husband! +oh, pa! oh, pa! The strength of the flames inside at length burst open the +barn door, when we beheld through the red flames the figures of the two +wretched brothers lying side by side dead drunk and helpless upon the +floor. The fire rapidly seized upon everything around. At this moment Mrs. +Peter Burmey rushed into the flames to save her husband, but just as she +attempted to enter, the beam over the door fell in upon her head, and +struck her back senseless and suffocated to the ground; but, +notwithstanding the most intense hatred to Burmey and his family, we +negroes rushed forward to rescue them—but all in vain. After getting +miserably scorched we were compelled to retreat and give them over, and +with bleeding hearts to behold the fire consume their bodies. The barn was +rapidly consigned to ashes, which being speedily swept away by the +violence of the wind, left the victims side by side crisped skeletons on +the ground. This was the dreadful end of the two chief actors in the +roasting of poor Dan.</p> + +<p>When I arrived at the age of 20, my master told me I must marry Jane, one +of the slaves. We had been about five months married when she gave birth +to a child, I then asked who was the father of the child, and she said the +master, and I had every reason to believe her, as the child was nearly +white, had blue eyes and veins, yet notwithstanding this we lived happily +together, and I felt happy and comfortable, and I should never have +thought of running away if she had not been sold. We lived together six +years and had two children. Shortly after my marriage my master's wife +died, and when he fixed upon Tillotson's daughter as his future wife, she +made a condition that all female slaves whom he had at any time been +intimate with must be sold, and my wife being one was sold with the +children as well as any other female slaves. My wife was sold while I was +away on an errand at Centreville, and any one situated as I was may +imagine my feelings when I say that I left them in the morning all well +and happy, in entire ignorance of any evil, and returned to find them all +sold and gone away, and from then until now I have never seen any of them. +I went to my master and complained to him, when he told me he knew nothing +about it, as it was all done by his wife. I then went to her and she said +she knew nothing about, as it was all done by my master, and I could +obtain no other satisfaction; I then went to my master to beg him to sell +me to the same master as he had sold my wife, but he said he could not do +that, as she was sold to a trader.</p> + +<p>From 18 to 27 I was considered one of the most devout Christians among the +whole Black population, and under this impression I firmly believed to run +away from my master would be to sin against the Holy Ghost—for such we +are taught to believe—but from the time of my wife's being sent away, I +firmly made up my mind to take the first opportunity to run away. I had +learned that if a Black man wished to escape he will have no chance to do +so unless he be well supplied with money; to attain this I arranged with a +Dutchman to steal small pigs, chickens, and any poultry that was possible +to lay my hands on, and thus I proceeded for nine or ten months, when I +found my accumulation to be 124 dollars. Among the plantations I visited +was Mr. Rogers', and he had three large bloodhounds let loose about nine +at night, but I had made them acquainted with me by feeding them at +intervals quietly, unknown to him or his people, and this enabled me to +carry on my depredations on his plantation quietly and unmolested. Rogers +having suspected these depredations, and not being able to find the thief, +set a patrol to watch, who, armed with a double-barreled gun, fixed +himself under a fence about seven feet high, surrounded with bushes; but +this happened to be my usual way of going to his plantation, and as I made +my usual spring to go over, I fell right on the top of his head, and he +shouted lustily, and I shouted also, neither of us knowing what really had +occurred, and our fears imagining the worst and causing him to run one way +and me another. After travelling about a quarter of a mile I thought of my +bag, which had been dropped during my fright, and knowing that my master's +initials were on the bag, and the consequences of the bag being found +would be fearful, I determined to return for the bag and recover it, or +die in the attempt. I searched for and found a club, then I returned to +the spot and found the bag there, and by the side of it lay the gun of the +patrol, and I picked the bag up and went home, and this narrow escape +caused me to determine to give up my thieving expeditions for the +obtaining of money from that time. About one week after the occurrence +with the patrol, I took one of my master's horses to go to a negro dance, +and on my return the patrols were so numerous on the road that I was +unable to return home without observation, and it being past the usual +hour for being at home, I was so afraid that when two of them observed me +I left the horse and took to my feet, and made my way to the woods, where +I remained all day, afraid to go home for fear of the consequences. But at +night I returned to the barn, where my money was hid in the hay, and +having recovered it, I started for Dr. Tillotson's (my master's +father-in-law), and told him my master had sent for a horse which he had +lent him a few weeks before. After enquiring of the overseer if the horse +had not gone home, and finding it had not, he ordered it to be given up to +me. I mounted the horse and rode off for Baltimore, a distance of 37 +miles, where I arrived early in the morning, when I abandoned the horse +and took to the woods, and remained there all day. At night I ventured to +a farm-house, and having a club with me, I knocked over two barn fowl, and +took them to my place in the woods; I struck a light with the tinder, made +a fire of brushwood, roasted them before the fire, and enjoyed a hearty +meal without seasoning or bread.</p> + +<p>The following night I went to the city, and meeting with some blacks I +entered into conversation with them, and I asked if they had heard of any +runaways at Baltimore, they said they had heard of one Jake having run +from Eastern shore, and showed me the bill at the corner which had been +put up that evening. I knew it was no other than me, so I bid them good +evening, and left them saying I was going to church. I took a back road +for Milford, in Delaware, and travelled all night; towards morning I met +four men, who demanded to know to whom I belonged, my answer was taking to +my heels, and the chase was hot on my part for about half-an-hour, when I +got into a swamp surrounded by young saplings, where I remained about two +hours, and as soon as it was sufficiently dark to venture out, I made my +way to a barn where I secreted myself all day, and in the morning I +watched the house to prevent a surprise. At night I again commenced +travelling, and at one o'clock in the morning arrived at Milford, where +finding no means of crossing the bridge into the town, without being seen +by the patrol, I was forced to swim across the river. I passed through +Milford, and was ten miles on my road to Wilmington before daybreak, where +I again made for the woods, and got into a marshy part and was swamped. I +was struggling the whole night to liberate myself, but in vain, until the +light appeared, when I saw some willows, and by laying hold of them I +succeeded in extricating myself about seven o'clock in the morning. I then +made my way to a pond of water, and pulled my clothes off, and washed the +mud from them, and hung them up to dry; and as soon as they were dry and +night arrived, I put them on, and continued my journey that night in the +woods, as the moon was so bright; though I did not progress much on my +way, it was more safe. Towards morning I saw a farm-house, and being +hungry I resolved to venture to ask for something to eat. Waiting my +opportunity, I saw three men leave the house, and judging there then only +remained women, I went up and asked if they would please to give me +something to eat. They invited me in, and gave me some bread and milk, +pitying my condition greatly, one of them telling me that her husband was +an Abolitionist, and if I would wait until his return he would place me +out of the reach of my pursuers. I did not then understand what was an +Abolitionist, and said I would rather not stay. She then saw my feet, +which were awful from what I had undergone, and asked me if I should not +like to have a pair of shoes, and I said I should. They went in search of +a pair up the stairs, and I heard one say to the other, "He answers the +description of a slave for which 200 dollars are offered." When they +returned I was sitting still in the position I was in before they went up +stairs. She said to the other, "I will go and see after the cows;" and the +other answered, "Dont be long." But my suspicion was confirmed that going +after the cows was only a pretence; and when I thought the other had got +far enough away, I laid hold of the remaining one and tied her to the +bedstead; went into the closet and took a leg of mutton, and other +articles, such as bread and butter, and made my way out as quick as +possible; and when I got outside I rubbed my feet in some cow dung to +prevent the scent of the bloodhounds, and took to the woods, where I found +a sand hole, in which I remained all day. The night was dark, with a +drizzling rain; being very fit for travelling, I started again on my +journey, but being very cautious, I only managed about 24 miles that +night. Towards morning I met with a black, who told me that to Chester, in +Pennsylvania, was only twenty-six miles. During the day I again remained +in the woods, where I met a black man of the name of Geordie, whom I knew, +belonging to Rogers, and who had left two months before me, and he said he +had been in those woods five weeks. His appearance was shocking, and from +his long suffering and hardships he was difficult to know; and, as he was +hungry, I divided with him my leg of mutton and bread and butter, and I +was telling him how unwise it was to remain so long in one place, when we +were suddenly aroused by the well-known sounds of the hounds. In my fear +and surprise I was attempting for a tree, but was unable to mount before +they were upon me. In this emergency I called out the name of one of the +dogs, who was more familiar with me than the others, called Fly, and hit +my knee to attract her attention and it had the desired effect. She came +fondling towards me, accompanied by another called Jovial. I pulled out my +knife and cut the throat of Fly, upon which Jovial made an attempt to lay +hold of me and I caught him by the throat, which caused me to lose my +knife, but I held him fast by the windpipe, forcing my thumbs with as much +force as possible, and anxiously wishing for my knife to be in hands. I +made a powerful effort to fling him as far away as possible, and regained +my knife; but when I had thrown him there he lay, throttled to death. Not +so, Fly, who weltered in blood, and rolled about howling terribly, but not +killed. The other two hounds caught Geordie, and killed him. After this +terrible escape I went to a barn, and was looking through a hole and saw +two men come to where Geordie's body lay, when a knot of people gathered +round, and about ten or eleven o'clock he was buried. I shortly went to +sleep among the hay, and slept so soundly that it was the morning after +before I was awoke by a boy coming to get hay for the horses, and the +prong of the fork caught me by the thigh, which caused me to jump up and +stare at the boy, and he at me, when he dropped the fork and ran away. As +soon as I recovered, I slipped down the hay-rack, and met six men and the +boy, who demanded who I was and what I was doing there. Not knowing what +to say, I stood speechless for a long time, and thought my hopes of +freedom were now at an end. They again repeated their question, but I made +no reply. I was then taken before a magistrate, when I was accused of +being in the barn for some unlawful purpose; and as I made no answer to +any questions put to me, they concluded I was dumb. When I remembered I +had not given evidence of speech, I determined to act as if I was dumb; +and when the magistrate called to me, I also thought deafness was often +united with dumbness, and I made my mind up to act both deaf and dumb, and +when he called "Boy, come here," I took no notice, and did not appear to +hear, until one of the officers led me from the box nearer to the +magistrate, who demanded my name, where from, and to whom I belonged, and +what I was doing in the barn, which I still appeared not to hear, and +merely looked at him, and at last acted as if I was deaf and dumb, and so +effectually that he discharged me, convinced I was a valueless deaf and +dumb nigger; and when told by the officer to go, I dared not move for fear +of being found out in my acting, and would not move until I was forced out +of the door, and for some time (for fear of detection) I acted deaf and +dumb in the streets, to the fear of women and children, until it was dark, +when I made for the woods, where I remained until eleven o'clock at night, +when I again resumed my journey to Chester (Pennsylvania), which I had +been told was only twenty-six miles. Shortly after resuming my journey, I +saw four horses in the field, and I determined, if possible to possess one +of them, and I chased them two hours, but did not succeed in catching one; +so I was obliged to go on walking again, but shortly met with a +gentleman's horse on the road which I mounted, and rode into Chester, and +let the horse go where he liked. In Chester I met with a quaker, named +Sharpies, who took me to his house, gave me the best accommodation, and +called his friends to see me, never seemed weary of asking questions of +negro life in the different plantations. I let them see the money I had, +which was in notes, and much damaged by my swimming across the river, but +they kindly passed it for me, and I got other money for it; and I was +presented with two suits of clothes. He sent in a waggon to Philadelphia +and recommended me to a gentleman (who being alive, I wish not to reveal), +where I remained in his employ about five weeks. This kind friend +persuaded me to make for Canada; and it was with much reluctance I at last +complied. My reluctance was in consequence of understanding that Canada +was a very cold place, and I did not relish the idea of going on that +account; and as a gentleman said he could find employment for me at Derby, +near Philadelphia, I went and worked there three years, during which time +I was a regular attendant at the Methodist Free Church, consisting +entirely of colored people; at which place I heard the scriptures +expounded in a different way by colored ministers—as I found that God had +made colored as well as white people: as He had made of one blood all the +families of the earth, and that all men were free and equal in his sight; +and that he was no respecter of persons whatever the color: but whoever +worked righteousness was accepted of Him. Being satisfied that I had not +sinned against the Holy Ghost by obtaining my freedom, I enlisted in the +church, and became one of the members thereof.</p> + +<p>About this time, Mr. Roberts, for whom I worked, failed in business, and +his property was seized for debt and sold, thereby throwing me out of +employment. I was arrested and taken back to Maryland, where I was placed +in prison, with a collar round my neck for eleven days.</p> + +<p>On the twelfth day my master came to see me, and of course I begged of him +to take me home and let me go to work. No, nigger, said master—I have no +employment for a vagabond of your stamp; but I'm going to order that +collar off your neck, not because I think that you are sufficiently +punished, but because there are some gentlemen coming through the jail +to-morrow, and they want to purchase some negroes, so you had better do +your best to get a master amongst them—and mind you don't tell them that +ever you ran away, for if you do none of them will buy you. Now I will +give you a good character, notwithstanding you have done your best to +injure me, a good master, and you have even tried to rob me by running +away—still I'll do my best to get you a good master, for my bible teaches +me to do good for evil. The next day I was called out with forty other +slaves, belonging to different owners in the County, and we were marched +into the doctor's vestry for examination; here the doctor made us all +strip—men and women together naked, in the presence of each other while +the examination went on. When it was concluded, thirty-eight of us were +pronounced sound, and three unsound; certificates were made out and given +to the auctioneer to that effect. After dressing ourselves we were all +driven into the slave sty directly under the auction block, when the jail +warder came and gave to every slave a number, my number was twenty. Here, +let me explain, for the better information of the reader, that in the +inventory of the slaves to be sold all go by number—one, two, three, and +so on; and if a man and his family are to be sold in one lot, then one +number covers them all; but if separate, then they have all different +numbers. An old friend of mine, belonging to William Steel, was also with +his wife and six children in the same sty, all to be sold. The youngest +was a babe in arms, the other five were large enough to walk; his number +was twenty-one, but his wife's number was thirty-three, and +notwithstanding the mournful idea of parting with relations and friends on +the plantation, up to this moment they had indulged a hope of being sold +as a family, together; but the numbers revealed the awful disappointment. +Even in this hoped for consolation, the painful distress into which this +poor woman was thrown, it is beyond my ability to describe. The anguish of +her soul, evinced by the mournful gaze first at her children and then at +her husband, made me forget for the time being, my own sufferings and +sorrows. Her looks seemed to say to her husband—these are your children, +I am their mother—there is no other being in this world that I have to +look to for love and protection; cant you help me? I am very much mistaken +if these were not the thoughts running through that poor broken-hearted +mother's mind. Reuben, for that was his name, called his wife and children +into one corner of the sty, and repeated a verse of a hymn which may be +found in Watts' hymn book:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Ah, whither shall I go,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Burthened, or sick, or faint;<br /></span> +<span>To whom shall I my troubles show,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And pour out my complaint."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Not daring to sing it for fear of disturbing the sale, they both knelt +down with the children, and Reuben offered up a long and fervent prayer. +In the interval of his prayer nineteen of the slaves were sold, and he had +not concluded when my number being twenty was called, and my master handed +me out under the hammer; when, after a few preliminary remarks on the part +of the auctioneer, my master mounted the auction block and recommended me +as a good field hand, a good cook, waiter, hostler, a coachman, gentle and +willing, and above all, free from the disease of running away. So after a +short and spirited bidding I went at 1,025 dollars. Here the sale +policeman, whose business it was to take charge of the negroes sold until +bills were settled and papers made out, led me from the block outside the +crowd, and placing me by a cart, put on a pair of iron handcuffs; but +being well acquainted with me as a troublesome tricky negro, he put the +handcuff on my right wrist—took the other cuff through the cart wheel and +round the spoke, and then locked it on my left hand, so that if I did +start to run, I should carry the cart and all with me. Number twenty-one +was now called, and out came poor Reuben, and was placed under the hammer; +his weight was said to be two hundred pounds, his age thirty two. Poor +Sally, his wife, unable any longer to control her feelings, made her way +out of the slave pen, with her babe in her arms, followed by her five +small children, and she threw one of her arms around Reuben's neck; and +now commenced a scene that beggars all description. Her countenance, +though mild and beautiful, was by the keenest pain and sorrow distorted +and disfigured: her voice soft and gentle, accompanied with heart rending +gestures, appealed to the slave buyer in tones so very mournful, that I +thought it might have even melted cruelty itself to some pity—coming as +it did from a woman:—Oh! master, master! buy me and my children with my +husband—do, pray; and this was the only crime the poor woman committed +for which she suffered death on the spot. Her master stepped up from +behind her, and with the butt end of his carriage whip loaded with lead, +struck her a blow on the side of the head or temples, and she fell her +full length to the ground. Poor Reuben stooped to raise her up, but was +prevented by the jail policeman, who seized him by the neck and led him +over close to where I stood: and whilst he was in the act of selecting a +pair of handcuffs for Reuben, voice after voice was heard in the +crowd—she is dead! she is dead! But what was the effect of these words +upon Reuben—one of the most easy, good-tempered, innocent, inoffensive, +and, in his way, religious slaves that I ever knew—satisfied apparently +that Sally's death was a fact—he tore himself loose from the policeman +and made his way through the crowd to where poor Sally lay, and exclaimed, +Oh! Sally! O Lord! By this time the policeman, who had followed him, +undertook to drag him back out of the crowd, but Reuben, with one blow of +his fist, stretched the policeman on the ground. Reuben's pain and sorrow, +mingled with his religious hope, seemed now to terminate in despair, and +transformed the inoffensive man into a raging demon. He rushed to a cart +which supported a great number of spectators, just opposite the auction +block, and tore out a heavy cart stave, made of red oak, and before the +panic-stricken crowd could arrest his arm, he struck his master to the +ground, and beat his brains literally out. The crowd then tried to close +upon him, but Reuben, mounted with both feet upon the dead body of his +master, and with his back against the cart wheel—with the cart stave kept +the whole crowd at bay for the space of two or three minutes, when a +gentleman behind the cart climbed upon the outside wheel and fired the +pistol at him, and shot poor Reuben through the head. He fell dead about +six yards from where the dead body of his beloved Sally lay, and where his +children were screaming terribly. An indescribable thrill of horror crept +through my whole soul, as I gazed from the cart wheel to which I was +ironed, upon the dead bodies first of Reuben and then his wife, who but a +few moments before I had seen kneeling in solemn prayer, before what they +considered the Throne of Grace—and their master, whom I heard that very +morning calling on God not only to damn his negroes, but to damn himself, +now, in less than thirty minutes, all three standing before the awful +Judgment Seat. After witnessing this dreadful scene I was led into +Hagerstown jail, where I remained until my new master was ready, when I +went with him to Memphis, Tennessee; but the remembrance of this awful +tragedy haunted my mind, and even my dreams, for many months.</p> + +<p>Reuben was the son of old Uncle Reuben and Aunt Dinah, and had been +swopped away when about twelve years old to William Steele, for a pair of +horses and a splendid carriage. Like his father and mother he was very +religious, and I had often been to his prayer meetings, where poor Reuben +would exhort and preach. Mr. Cobb had made him a class-leader long before +he died; and, in fact, we all reverenced Reuben after the death of his +father as the most moderate and gifted man amongst us. I had always loved +Reuben, but never knew how much until that fatal day. After I went to +Memphis I composed some verses on the life and death of Reuben, which run +as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Poor Reuben he fell at his post,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>Like Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +<span>He's gone where pleasure never dies,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone,<br /></span> +<span>In the golden chariot to the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>For many years he faced the storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>And the cruel lash he suffered long;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +<span>But now he's left the land of death,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>And entered heaven's happiness;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>His friends he bid a long adieu,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>When heaven opened to his view,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away;<br /></span> +<span>His pain and sorrow of heart are passed,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>He arrived in heaven just safe at last;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Poor Sally, his wife, lays by his side,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>For whom poor Reuben so nobly died;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away;<br /></span> +<span>A mournful look on her he cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone,<br /></span> +<span>Five minutes before he breathed his last,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>In Jordan the angel heard him cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone;<br /></span> +<span>Elijah's chariot was passing by,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away;<br /></span> +<span>His body lays in the earth quite cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He's gone,<br /></span> +<span>But now he walks in the streets of gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Poor Reuben's gone away.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After working in Tennessee three years and seven months, my master hired +me to Mr. Steele. This gentleman was going to New Orleans, and I was to +act as his servant, but I contrived to get away from him, and went to the +house of a free black, named Gibson, and after working four days on the +levy (or wharf) I succeeded in secreting myself in a ship, well supplied +by Mr. Gibson and friends with provisions, and in the middle hold under +the cotton I remained until the ship arrived at New York; my being there +was only known to two persons on board, the steward and the cook, both +colored persons. When the vessel was docked in the pier thirty-eight, +North river, I managed to make my way through the booby hatch on to the +deck, and was not seen by the watchman on board who supposed I was a +stranger, or what they call a "River Thief." I made a jump to escape over +the bow and fell into the river; but before he could raise an alarm, I had +reached the next dock, got out and made my way off as fast as possible. I +wandered about the streets until morning, not knowing where to go, during +which time my clothes had dried on my body. About ten o'clock in the +forenoon I met with a colored man named Grundy, who took me to his house, +and gave me something to eat, and enquired where I came from and where I +belonged; I hesitated about telling my true situation, but after +considerable conversation with him, I ventured to confide in him, and when +I had given him, all the particulars, he took me to the underground +Railway office and introduced me to the officials, who having heard my +story determined to send me to Canada, forty dollars being raised to find +me clothes, and pay my fare to Toronto, but I was only taken to Utica, in +the State of New York, where I agreed to stop with Mr. Cleveland and +coachman.</p> + +<p>In November I was sent to Post-street on an errand, where I saw my master, +who laid hold of me, and called to his aid a dozen more, when I was taken +before a magistrate, and that night I was placed in prison, and next day +brought before a court, and ordered to be given up to my master. I was +taken back to prison that afternoon, and irons placed on my ancles, and +hand-cuffed; but, previous to leaving, Mr. Cleveland and family came to +take a kind leave of me, and gave me religious advice and encouragement, +telling me to put my trust in the Lord, and I was much affected at his +little girl, who, when I was placed in the waggon screamed and cried as if +she would fall into fits, telling her father to have me brought back, for +these men intended to murder me. The waggon drove to the railway depot, +and I was placed in the cars, and at three o'clock we started for Buffalo, +where I was placed on the steam boat "Milwaukie," for Chicago, Illinois, +on Lake Erie. The next night I arrived in Cleveland, and was taken from +the boat, and placed in prison, until my master was ready to proceed. +While in prison a complaint was made that a fugitive slave was placed in +irons, contrary to the law of the state of Ohio, and after investigation, +my irons were ordered to be taken off. On the Monday following I was taken +on board the steam boat "Sultana" bound for Sandusky, Ohio, and on my way +there, the Black people, in large numbers, made an attempt to rescue me, +and so desperate was the attack, that several officers were wounded, and +the attempt failed. I was placed in the cabin, and at dinner time the +steam boat started, and had about half a mile to go before she got into +the lake, and, on the way, the captain came down to me, and cautiously +asked me if I could swim—I answered I could, when he told me to stand +close by a window, which he pointed out, and when the paddle wheels ceased +I must jump out. I stood ready, and as soon as the wheels ceased I made a +spring and jumped into the water, and after going a short distance, I +looked up and saw the captain standing on the promenade deck, who, when he +saw I was clear of the wheels, waved a signal for the engineer to start +the vessel. I had much difficulty in preventing myself from being drawn +back by the suction of the wheels, and before I had gone far I saw my +master and heard him shout, "Here, here, stop captain; yonder goes my +nigger," which was echoed by shouts from the passengers; but the boat +continued her course, while I made my way as fast as possible to Cleveland +lighthouse, where I arrived in safety, and received by an innumerable +company of both blacks and whites. I was then sent to a place called +Oberlin, where I remained a week, and from there I went to Zanesville, +Ohio, where I stopped for four months, when I was taken up on suspicion of +breaking the windows of a store, and while in prison I was seen by a Mr. +Donelson, who declared to the keeper that I belonged to him. I knew him +well as the father-in-law of Mr. Steel, with whom I travelled to New +Orleans. He was also a methodist minister. He had me discharged by paying +the damage, and making affidavit that I was his slave, I was placed in +prison, and kept in two weeks, when I was brought before the court for +trial; and Mr. Donelson procured papers showing that he had purchased me +as a runaway. I therefore saw it was of no use prolonging the matter, and +I acknowledged myself. I was then taken and put into the stage and taken +to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I was placed upon the steam boat, <i>Pike</i>, No. +3, to be taken to Louisville, Kentucky, and there placed in prison a week, +and on Thursday brought out to auction and sold to Mr. Silas Wheelbanks +for 1,050 dollars, with whom I remained about twelve months, and acted as +coachman and waiting in the house. Upon a Saturday evening, my master came +and told me to make my carriage and horses so that he could see his face +in them, and be ready to take my young mistress, Mary, down to +Centreville, to see her grandmother. So I prepared my horses and carriage, +and on Monday was ready. The lady got in, and when about seven miles I +drove into a blind road, distant about two miles from any house, where I +made the horses stand still, and I ordered Miss Mary to get out: and when +she asked me why, I thundered out at the top of my voice, "Get out, and +ask no questions." She commenced crying, and asked if I was going to kill +her. I said "No, if she made no noise," I helped her out, and having no +rope, I took her shawl and fastened her to a tree by the roadside; and for +fear she should untie the knot and spread the alarm, I took off her veil, +and with it tied her hands behind her. I then mounted the box, and drove +off in the direction of Lexington, and at a place called Elton I stripped +the horses of their harness and let them go. I made my way to Louisville +and arrived about 7 o'clock in the evening. I walked about the dock until +<i>Pike</i> No. 3, the same vessel before spoken of, was nearly ready for +starting and I got a gentleman's trunk on my shoulder and went on board, +and when I had been paid six cents for carrying the trunk I watched a +chance, and jumped down the cotton hold and stowed myself away among the +cotton bags and the next day was in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I arrived +about daylight in the morning. I waited until the passangers had left the +boat and saw neither officer nor engineer about when I ventured to go on +shore. On starting up the hill I met my master's nephew, who at once +seized hold of me, and a sharp struggle ensued. He called for help but I +threw him and caught a stone and struck him on the head, which caused him +to let go, when I ran away as fast my legs could carry me, pursued by a +numerous crowd, crying "stop thief." I mounted a fence in the street, and +ran though an alley into an Irishman's yard, and through his house, +knocking over the Irishman's wife and child, and the chair on which she +sat, the husband at the time sat eating at the table, jumped into a cellar +on the opposite side of the street without being seen by any one, I made +my way into the back cellar and went up the chimney, where I sat till +dark, and at night came down and slept in the cellar. In the morning the +servant girl came down into the cellar, and when I saw she was black I +thought it would be best to make myself known to her, which I did, and she +told me I had better remain where I was and keep quiet, and she would go +and tell Mr. Nickins, one of the agents of the underground Railway. She +brought me down a bowl of coffee and some bread and meat, which I relished +very much, and that night she opened the cellar door gently, and called to +me to come out, and introduced me to Mr. Nickins and two others, who took +me to a house in Sixth street, where I remained until the next night, when +they dressed me in female's clothes, and I was taken to the railway depot +in a carriage—was put in the car, and sent to Cleveland, Ohio where I was +placed on board a steam boat called the <i>Indiana</i>, and carried down Lake +Erie to the city of Buffalo, New York, and the next day placed on the car +for the Niagara Falls, and received by a gentleman named Jones, who took +me in his carriage to a place called Lewiston, where I was placed on board +a steamboat called <i>Chief Justice Robinson</i>. I was furnished with a ticket +and twelve dollars. Three hours after starting I was in Toronto, Upper +Canada, where I lived for three years and sang my song of +deliverance,—</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>WHAT THE "TIMES" SAID OF THE SECESSION IN 1861</h2> + +<h3>(From the <i>Liverpool Daily Post</i>, Feb. 3, 1863.)</h3> + +<h4>The following article appeared as a "Leader" in the <i>Times</i> on the 7th of +January, 1861:—</h4> + +<p>"The State of South Carolina has seceded from the Union by a unanimous +vote of her legislature, and it now remains to be seen whether any of the +other Southern States will follow her example, and what course the Federal +authorities will pursue under the circumstances. While we wait for further +information on these points, it may be well to consider once again the +cause of quarrel which has thus begun to rend asunder the mightiest +confederation which the world has yet beheld. One of the prevalent +delusions of the age in which we live is to regard democracy as equivalent +to liberty, and the attribution of power to the poorest and worst educated +citizens of the State as a certain way to promote the purest liberality of +thought and the most beneficial course of action. Let those who hold this +opinion examine the quarrel at present raging in the United States, and +they will be aware that democracy, like other forms of government, may +co-exist with any course of action or any set of principles. Between North +and South there is at this moment raging a controversy which goes as deep +as any controversy can into the elementary principles of human nature and +the sympathies and antipathies which in so many men supply the place of +reason and reflection. The North is for freedom, the South is for slavery. +The North is for freedom of discussion, the South represses freedom of +discussion with the tar-brush and the pine fagot. Yet the North and South +are both democracies—nay, possess almost exactly similar institutions, +with this enormous divergence in theory and practice. It is not democracy +that has made the North the advocate of freedom, or the South the advocate +of slavery. Democracy is a quality which appears on both sides, and may +therefore be rejected, as having no influence over the result. From the +sketch of the history of slavery which was furnished us by our +correspondent in New York last week, we learn that at the time of the +American Revolution slavery existed in every State in the Union except +Massachusetts; but we also learn that the great men who directed that +revolution—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, and +Hamilton—were unanimous in execrating the practice of slavery, and looked +forward to the time when it would cease to contaminate the soil of free +America. The abolition of the slave trade, which subsequently followed, +was regarded by its warmest advocates as not only beneficial in itself, +but as a long step towards the extinction of slavery altogether, it was +not foreseen that certain free and democratic communities would arise +which would apply themselves to the honourable office of breeding slaves, +to be consumed on the free and democratic plantations of the South, and of +thus replacing the African slave trade by an internal traffic in human +flesh, carried on under circumstances of almost equal atrocity through the +heart of a free and democratic nation. Democracy has verily a strong +digestion, and one not to be interfered with by trifles.</p> + +<p>"But the most melancholy part of the matter is, that during the seventy +years for which the American confederacy has existed, the whole tone of +sentiment with regard to slavery has, in the Southern States at least, +undergone a remarkable change. Slavery used to be treated as a thoroughly +exceptional institution—as an evil legacy of evil times—as a disgrace to +a constitution founded on the natural freedom and independence of mankind. +There was hardly a political leader of any note who had not some plan for +its abolition. Jefferson himself, the greatest chief of the democracy, had +in the early part of this century speculated deeply on the subject; but +the United States became possessed of Louisiana and Florida, they have +conquered Texas, they have made Arkansas and Missouri into States; and +these successive acquisitions have altered entirely the view with which +slavery is regarded. Perhaps as much as anything, from the long license +enjoyed by the editors of the South of writing what they pleased in favour +of slavery, with the absolute certainty that no one would be found bold +enough to write anything on the other side, and thus make himself a mark +for popular vengeance, the subject has come to be written on in a tone of +ferocious and cynical extravagance, which is to an European eye absolutely +appalling. The South has become enamoured of her shame. Free labour is +denounced as degrading and disgraceful; the honest triumphs of the poor +man who works his way to independence are treated with scorn and contempt. +It is asserted that what we are in the habit of regarding as the honorable +pursuits of industry incapacitate a nation for civilisation and +refinement, and that no institutions can be really free and democratic +which do not rest, like those of Athens and of Rome, on a broad substratum +of slavery. So far from treating slavery as an exceptional institution, it +is regarded by these Democratic philosophers as the natural state of a +great portion of the human race; and, so far from admitting that America +ought to look forward to its extinction, it is contended that the property +in human creatures ought to be as universal as the property in land or in +tame animals.</p> + +<p>"Nor have these principles been merely inert or speculative. For the last +ten or twelve years slavery has altered her tactics, and from a defensive +she has become an aggressive power. Every compromise which the moderation +of former times had erected to stem the course of this monster evil has +been swept away, and that not by the encroachments of the North, but by +the aggressive ambition of the South. With a majority in Congress and in +the Supreme Court of the United States, the advocates of slavery have +entered on a career the object of which would seem to be to make their +favourite institution conterminous with the limits of the Republic. They +have swept away the Missouri compromise, which limited slavery to the +tract south of 36 degrees of north latitude. They have forced upon the +North, in the Fugitive Slave Bill, a measure which compels them to lend +their assistance to the South in the recovery of their bondmen. In the +case of Kansas they have sought by force of arms to assert the right of +bringing slaves into a free territory, and in the Dred Scott case they +obtained an extrajudicial opinion from the Supreme Court, which would have +placed all the territories at their disposal. All this while the North has +been resisting, feebly and ineffectually, this succession of Southern +aggressions. All that was desired was peace, and that peace could not be +obtained.</p> + +<p>"While these things were done the South continued violently to upbraid the +Abolitionists of the North as the cause of all their troubles, and the +ladies of South Carolina showered presents and caresses on the brutal +assailant of Mr. Sumner. In 1856 the North endeavoured to elect a +President who though fully recognising the right of the South to its slave +property, was opposed to its extension in the territories. The North were +defeated, and submitted almost without a murmur to the result. On the +present occasion the South has submitted to the same ordeal, but not with +the same success. They have taken their chance of electing a President of +their own views, but they have failed. Mr. Lincoln, like Colonel Freemont, +fully recognises the right of the South to the institution of slavery, +but, like him, he is opposed to its extension. This cannot be endured. +With a majority in both houses of Congress and in the Supreme Court of the +United States, the South cannot submit to a President who is not their +devoted servant. Unless every power in the constitution is to be strained +in order to promote the progress of slavery, they will not remain in the +Union; they will not wait to see whether they are injured, but resent the +first check to their onward progress as an intolerable injury. This, then, +is the result of the history of slavery. It began as a tolerated, it has +ended as an aggressive institution, and if it now threatens to dissolve +the Union, it is not because it has anything to fear for that which it +possesses already, but because it has received a check to its hopes of +future acquisition."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>SECESSION CONDEMNED IN A SOUTHERN CONVENTION.</h2> + +<h3>SPEECH</h3> + +<p>Of the Hon. A.H. STEPHENS, made at the Georgia State Convention, held +January, 1861, for the purpose of determining whether the State of Georgia +was to secede. Notwithstanding this remarkable speech of an extraordinary +man, the Convention decided on secession. Mr. Stephens was afterwards +elected Vice President of the so-called Confederacy. This distinction +shows the estimate of his powers, and adds force to the deliverance, the +prophetic declarations of which are now being fulfilled to the letter.</p> + +<p>This step (of secession) once taken, can never be recalled; and all the +baleful and withering consequences that must follow, will rest on the +convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our +lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will +inevitably invite and call forth; when our green fields of waving harvests +shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war +sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the +horrors and desolations of war upon us; who, but this Convention will be +held responsible for it? and but him who shall have given his vote for +this unwise and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall +be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, +and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for +the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now +propose to perpetrate? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment +what reason you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer +moments—what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in this +calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the +nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate +judges in the case? and what cause or one overt act can you name or point, +on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North +assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has +been denied? and what claim founded in justice and right has been +withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong +deliberately and purposely done by the government of Washington, of which +the South has a right to complain? I challenge the answer. While, on the +other hand, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not +here the advocate of the North; but I am here the friend, the firm friend +and lover of the South and her institutions; and for this reason I speak +thus plainly and faithfully—for yours, mine, and every other man's +interest—the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge; +and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now +stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the +South demanded the slave trade or importation of Africans for the +cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? +When we asked a three-fifths representation in congress for our slaves was +it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from +justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor and allegiance, was +it not incorporated in the constitution, and again ratified and +strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. But do you reply that in +many instances they have violated this compact and have not been faithful +to their engagements? As individual and local communities they may have +done so; but not by the sanction of government for that has always been +true to Southern interest. Again, gentleman, look at another fact, when we +have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the +institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us +Louisiana, Florida, and Texas out of which four States have been carved +and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you by this +unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope and perhaps, by it lose +all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as +South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal +emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow. But, again, +gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to +the general government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, +if we remain in it and are as united as we have been. We have had a +majority of the presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control +and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty +years of Southern presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the +executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had +eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly +four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a +majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have +required so as to guard against any interpretation of the constitution +unfavourable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard +our interests in the legislative branch of government. In choosing the +presiding president (<i>pro. tem.</i>) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four +to their eleven. Speakers of the house we have had twenty-three, and they +twelve. While the majority of the representatives, from their greater +population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally +secured the speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and controls +the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every +other department of the general government. Attorney-Generals we have had +fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had +eighty-six and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business +which demands diplomatic agents abroard is clearly from the Free States, +from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal +embassies, so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, +and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the +higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the +soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, +auditors, and comptrollers filling the executive department, the records +show for the last fifty years that of the three thousand thus employed, we +have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of +the white population of the republic. Again, look at another item, and +one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that +of revenue, or means of supporting government. From official documents we +learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the +support of government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now +while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these +important items. Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless +millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North; with tens of +thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as +sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition—and for what? we ask again. Is +it for the overthrow of the American government, established by our common +ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on +the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity? And, as such, I must +declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by +the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, +that it is the best and freest government—the most equal in its rights, +the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the +most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun +of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a +government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters +of a century—in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a +nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, +with peace and tranquility accompanied with unbounded prosperity and +rights unassailed—is the height of <i>madness</i>, <i>folly</i>, and <i>wickedness</i>, +to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h2>THE CONFEDERATE AND THE SCOTTISH CLERGY ON SLAVERY.</h2> + + +<p>Some three months ago, we published an "Address to Christians throughout +the world," by "the clergy of the Confederate States of America;" and +yesterday we published a reply to that address, signed by nearly a +thousand ministers of the various Churches in Scotland. The Confederate +address begins with a solemn declaration that its scope is not political +but purely religious—that it is sent forth "in the name of our Holy +Christianity," and in the interests of "the cause of our most Blessed +Master." Immediately after making this declaration, however, the +Confederate divines commence a long series of arguments designed to prove +that the war cannot restore the Union; that the Southern States had a +right to secede; that having seceded, their separation from the North is +final; that the proclamation of PRESIDENT LINCOLN, seeking to free the +slaves is a most horrible and wicked measure, calling for "solemn protest +on the part of the people of GOD throughout the world;" that the war +against the Confederacy has made no progress; and there seems no +likelihood of the United States accomplishing any good by its continuance. +This may be esteemed good gospel teaching in the Confederate States, but +in this country it would be thought to have very little connection with +"the cause of our most Blessed Master." But the Southern clergymen reserve +for the close of their address the defence of the grand dogma of their +religion—the doctrine that negro slavery as carried out in the Southern +States of America "is not incompatible with our holy Christianity." +Stupendous as this proposition may appear to the British mind, it offers +no difficulty to these learned and pious men. Nay, they are not only +convinced that slavery is "not incompatible" with Christianity, but they +boldly affirm that it is a divinely established institution, designed to +promote the temporal happiness and eternal salvation of the negro race, +and that all efforts to bring about the abolition of slavery are +sacrilegious attempts to interfere with the "plans of Divine Providence." +"We testify in the sight of GOD," say the clergy of the Confederate +States, "that the relation of master and slave among us, however we may +deplore abuses in this, as in any other relations of mankind, is not +incompatible with our holy Christianity, and that the presence of the +Africans in our land is an occasion of gratitude on their behalf before +<i>God</i>; seeing that thereby Divine Providence has brought them where +missionaries of the cross may freely proclaim to them the word of +salvation, and the work is not interrupted by agitating fanaticism. * * * +We regard Abolitionism as an interference with the plans of Divine +Providence. It has not the signs of the Lord's blessing. It is a +fanaticism which puts forth no good fruit; instead of blessing, it has +brought forth cursing; instead of love, hatred, instead of life, +death—bitterness and sorrow, and pain; and infidelity and moral +degeneracy follow its labours." There is no shirking of the question here. +Slavery is proclaimed to be the GOD-appointed means for the regeneration +of the African race, and those who seek to bring about the emancipation of +the slaves are branded as apostles of infidelity. Upon these grounds, the +confederate clergy appeal to Christians throughout the world to aid them +in creating a sentiment against this war—"against persecution for +conscience' sake, against the ravaging of the church of GOD by fanatical +invasion."</p> + +<p>In their reply to this appeal, the Scottish ministers do what the +Confederate ministers professed their intention of doing—they avoid every +thing in the shape of political discussion. Among those gentlemen there is +no doubt considerable difference of opinion respecting the two parties in +the civil war; but they say nothing of that, and address themselves +exclusively to the question of slavery. Happily, there is no difference of +opinion upon that point among men who take upon themselves the high office +of preaching God's word in this country. The Scottish Ministers, in +powerful and manly language, express the "deep grief, alarm, and +indignation" with which they have seen men who profess to be servants of +the Lord Jesus Christ defend slavery as a Christian institution, worthy of +being perpetuated and extended, not only without regret, but with entire +satisfaction and approval. "Against all this," say they, "in the name of +that holy faith and that thrice holy name which they venture to invoke on +the side of a system which treats immortal and redeemed men as goods and +chattels, denies them the rights of marriage and of home, consigns them to +ignorance of the first rudiments of education, and exposes them to the +outrages of lust and passion—we must earnestly and emphatically protest." +We believe that this is the answer of the whole British community to the +appeal of the Confederate clergy. However much the public sentiment may +have been misled respecting the rights and the wrongs of the two parties +in the war, it cannot but be sound at the core on the subject of slavery. +There are many thousands of people who have not the slightest sympathy +with slavery, and who yet sympathise with the slave-owners because they +have a vague impression that the Southerners are brave gentlemen and the +Northerners base mechanics. They have managed by some strange process to +separate the cause of slavery from the cause of the slaveowner, and while +they rejoice at every success which tends towards the establishment of a +confederacy which is to have slavery as the "head stone of the corner," +they continue to pray as fervently as ever that the fetters of the slaves +may be broken. All such people—and they constitute the mass of the +Southern sympathisers in this country—must be ready to repudiate with the +sternest indignation this attempt to connect the holy religion of Christ +with the most horrible oppression which the cruelty and cupidity of man +ever created.</p> + +<p>But it is not enough that the Confederate defence of slavery should be +rejected. It was proper that the Scottish ministers of religion should +deal only with the religious aspect of the question, but it is the duty of +every man who feels that he has any influence in the world—and there is +no man who has not some—to study the political lessons which the address +affords. There can be no doubt that the appeal expresses the genuine +sentiment of the Southern States, softened down by whatever softening +influence there may be in their peculiar kind of Christianity, and shaped +to offend as little as possible the prejudices of British readers. And +what does it show us? Does it show us that emancipation is more likely to +follow from the success of the Southern society which assumes to be at the +helm of all schemes of religion and philanthropy, not only has no desire +to put an end to slavery, but regards it in such a light that it will be +its duty <i>to extend it as much as possible</i>. The Southern clergy say that +the relation of master and slave is "not incompatible with our holy +Christianity;" why, therefore, should they seek to get rid of it? From a +thousand pulpits this language will be sent forth week after week, and it +is clear that the religion of the Confederate States will be employed only +to convince the slaveowner that he is doing perfectly right in +perpetuating a system which enables him to buy men and women as chattels, +and to obtain command of human bodies and minds at the prices current of +the market. Then, the Southern clergy think it a cause for gratitude to +God on behalf of the negroes "that He has brought them where missionaries +of the Cross might freely proclaim to them the word of salvation." Will it +not, therefore, be the duty of the Southern clergy to extend those +blessings to new millions of Africans, and thus carry out the "plans of +Divine Providence?" Is the whole tendency of this argument not to elevate +the horrible trade of the slave-catcher to the same high level with the +noble office of the missionary? Proclaiming as they do that the capture of +Africans and their removal into slavery in the Southern States is God's +own missionary plan, the Confederate clergy and people will consider it as +much their duty to equip slave-ships with cargoes of manacles and send +them forth accompanied by the prayers of the churches, as it is now our +duty to send forth missionary-ships laden with Bibles and preachers of the +gospel. Then the heathen world will know what missionary Christianity +really is. Thousand of Africans, caught on the west coast, will be torn +from their families and taken chained on board ship; should they survive +the horrors of the passage, they will be set to hard work under laws which +permit of almost any degree of corporeal punishment and which deprive them +of all the rights of men; and they will be told to thank GOD who has +brought them into the blessed light of the Gospel! Let not the man who +cannot reconcile his sympathies in the American struggle with his +convictions on the question of slavery pooh-pooh this as an extravagant +fancy picture of something that never can occur. It is exactly the +missionary scheme which the Confederate clergy call "the plan of Divine +Providence;" and supposing a powerful Southern Confederacy to be +established, what is to prevent its being accomplished? Not the religious +and philanthropic feelings of the Confederates; for the religious and +philanthropic feelings of the confederates are all for a revival of the +slave trade. Not treaties concluded with foreign nations; for a people +holding such sentiments could never make a treaty shutting themselves out +from the most promising field of missionary labour; or if forced by +circumstances to conclude it, their religious convictions would urge them +to break it at any moment. In fact, were a powerful nationality once +established, with interests and religious convictions all pointing in the +way of reviving the slave trade, it would be utterly impossible to prevent +a resumption of that abominable traffic.</p> + +<p>We have dealt with the professed convictions of the Southern ministers as +sincere convictions. We should be sorry to accuse any body of men +professing to be teachers of the Christian religion of intentional +insincerity, and although we can hardly conceive the possibility of men +who base their religion upon the same Bible upon which we rest ours, +attempting sincerely to justify slavery upon religious grounds, we would +rather attribute the extraordinary moral obliquity which the attempt +exhibits to the demoralising influence of the slave system than to actual +hypocrisy. The spectacle of a crowd of learned and no doubt pious men +standing forth as the avowed apologists of a system which deprives their +fellow-men of all the rights of humanity is, perhaps, the most distressing +evidence of its blighting and blinding influence which has yet been +exhibited to the world. It ought to have its effect. As we have said, it +is the duty of every man to study the lessons which this address of the +Confederate clergy has for him. If his sympathy and influence be given to +the Confederates, let him understand the nature of the cause he is aiding. +Let him learn from the statement of the Confederates themselves that their +cause is the cause of slavery, and that they look forward to the +perpetuation and extension of slavery as the prize of success.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h2>SLAVERY AND LIBERTY.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>I'm on my way to Canada,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That dark and dreary land;<br /></span> +<span>Oh! the dread effects of slavery<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I can no longer stand.<br /></span> +<span>My soul is vexed within me so<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To think I am a slave,<br /></span> +<span>Resolved I am to strike the blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For freedom or the grave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">CHORUS<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Oh, Righteous Father!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Wilt thou not pity me,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And help me on to Canada,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Where coloured men are free.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I've served my master all my days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Without one dimes' reward,<br /></span> +<span>And now I'm forced to run away,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To flee the lash and rod.<br /></span> +<span>The hounds are baying on my track,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And master just behind,<br /></span> +<span>Resolved that he will bring me back<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before I cross the line.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Old master went to preach one day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Next day he looked for me;<br /></span> +<span>I greased my heels and ran away,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the land of liberty.<br /></span> +<span>I dreamt I saw the British Queen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Majestic on the shore;<br /></span> +<span>If e'er I reach old Canada,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I will come back no more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I heard that Queen Victoria said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If we would all forsake<br /></span> +<span>Our native land of Slavery,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And come across the lake:<br /></span> +<span>That she was standing on the shore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With arms extended wide,<br /></span> +<span>To give us all a peaceful home<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beyond the swelling tide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>I heard old master pray one night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That night he prayed for me,<br /></span> +<span>That God would come with all his might,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Satan set me free.<br /></span> +<span>So I from Satan would escape<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And flee the wrath to come,<br /></span> +<span>If there's a fiend in human shape,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Old master must be one.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of the Life of J.D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a Runaway Slave, from Kentucky + Containing an Account of His Three Escapes, in 1839, 1846, and 1848 + +Author: Jacob D. Green + +Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15128] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF J.D. GREEN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +NARRATIVE +OF +THE LIFE +OF +J.D. GREEN, +A RUNAWAY SLAVE, +FROM KENTUCKY, + +CONTAINING AN +ACCOUNT OF HIS THREE ESCAPES, +In 1839, 1846, and 1848. + +EIGHTH THOUSAND. + +HUDDERSFIELD: +PRINTED BY HENRY FIELDING, PACK HORSE YARD. +1864 + + +[_Transcriber's Note: This project was transcribed from a contemporary +printing of the work, not from the 1864 edition. Certain spellings may +have been modernized and typographic and printer's errors changed from the +original._] + + +TESTIMONIALS. + + +Jacob Green, a coloured man and an escaped slave, has lectured in my +hearing, on American Slavery, in Springfield School-room, and I was much +pleased with the propriety with which he was able to express himself, and +with the capabilities which he seemed to possess to interest an audience. + +GILBERT Mc.CALLUM. +Minister of Springfield +Independent Chapel, Dewsbury. +Sept 2, 1863. + + * * * * * + +Hopton House, Sept. 10, 1863. + +I have much pleasure in bearing my testimony in favour of Mr. Jacob Green, +as a lecturer on the subject of American Slavery, having been present when +he gave an able and efficient lecture here about a month ago. Having +himself witnessed and experienced the fearful effects of that accursed +"institution," he is well fitted to describe its horrors, and I have no +doubt that amongst certain classes, his labours in the anti-slavery cause +may be more telling and efficient than those of more highly educated +lecturers who do not profess his peculiar advantages. I shall be well +pleased to hear of him being employed by any anti-slavery society. + +JAMES CAMERON, +Minister of Hopton Chapel. + + * * * * * + +Eccleshill, Sept. 11, 1863. + +Mr. Jacob Green gave a lecture on Slavery, in our School-room here, about +two months ago, which I considered a very able one; and it was so +considered by my people. + +JOHN ASTON. + + * * * * * + +I certify that Mr. Jacob Green has delivered two lectures in the +Foresters' Hall, Denholm, to a very numerous audience; and on each +occasion has given great satisfaction. The subjects were, +first--Slavery,--second, the American War. He lectures remarkably well, +and has a powerful voice; and I have not the least doubt would give +satisfaction in lecturing elsewhere. The chair on each occasion was +taken--first, by myself as incumbent--second, by the Rev. T. Roberts, +Independent Minister. + +J.F.N. EYRE. +Incumbent of Denholm. +Oct. 18th, 1863. + + * * * * * + +I can thoroughly endorse the sentiments of the Rev. J.F.N. Eyre, herein +recorded. + +T. ROBERTS. + + * * * * * + +Mr. J.D. Green has lectured four times in our Schoolrooms, and each time +he has given very great satisfaction to a large assembly. From what I have +seen of him, I believe him to be worthy of public sympathy and support. + +WILLIAM INMAN, Minister. +Ovenden, Nov. 14, 1863. + + + + +NARRATIVE, &c. + + +My father and mother were owned by Judge Charles Earle, of Queen Anne's +County, Maryland, and I was born on the 24th of August, 1813. + +From eight to eleven years of age I was employed as an errand boy, +carrying water principally for domestic purposes, for 113 slaves and the +family. As I grew older, in the mornings I was employed looking after the +cows, and waiting in the house, and at twelve years I remember being in +great danger of losing my life in a singular way. I had seen the relish +with which master and friends took drink from a bottle, and seeing a +similar bottle in the closet, I thought what was good for them would be +good for me, and I laid hold of the bottle and took a good draught of (Oh, +horror of horrors) oxalic acid, and the doctor said my safety was +occasioned by a habit I had of putting my head in the milk pail and +drinking milk, as by doing so the milk caused me to vomit and saved my +life. About this time my mother was sold to a trader named Woodfork, and +where she was conveyed I have not heard up to the present time. This +circumstance caused serious reflections in my mind, as to the situation of +slaves, and caused me to contrast the condition of a white boy with mine, +which the following occurrence will more vividly pourtray. One morning +after my mother was sold, a white boy was stealing corn out of my master's +barn, and I said for this act we black boys will be whipped until one of +us confesses to have done that we are all innocent of, as such is the case +in every instance; and I thought, Oh, that master was here, or the +overseer, I would then let them see what becomes of the corn. But, I saw +he was off with the corn to the extent of half a bushel, and I will say +nothing about it until they miss it, and if I tell them they wont believe +me if he denies it, because he is white and I am black. Oh! how dreadful +it is to be black! Why was I born black? It would have been better had I +not been born at all. Only yesterday, my mother was sold to go to, not one +of us knows were, and I am left alone, and I have no hope of seeing her +again. At this moment a raven alighted on a tree over my head, and I +cried, "Oh, Raven! if I had wings like you, I would soon find my mother +and be happy again." Before parting she advised me to be a good boy, and +she would pray for me, and I must pray for her, and hoped we might meet +again in heaven, and I at once commenced to pray, to the best of my +knowledge, "Our Father art in Heaven, be Thy name, kingdom come.--Amen." +But, at this time, words of my master obtruded into my mind that God did +not care for black folks, as he did not make them, but the d---l did. Then +I thought of the old saying amongst us, as stated by our master, that, +when God was making man, He made white man out of the best clay, as +potters make china, and the d---l was watching, and he immediately took up +some black mud and made a black man, and called him a nigger. My master +was continually impressing upon me the necessity of being a good boy, and +used to say, that if I was good, and behaved as well to him as my mother +had done, I should go to Heaven without a question being asked. My mother +having often said the same, I determined from that day to be a good boy, +and constantly frequented the Meeting-house attended by the blacks where I +learned from the minister, Mr. Cobb, how much the Lord had done for the +blacks and for their salvation; and he was in the habit of reminding us +what advantages he had given us for our benefit, for when we were in our +native country, Africa, we were destitute of Bible light, worshipping +idols of sticks and stones, and barbarously murdering one another, God put +it into the hearts of these good slaveholders to venture across the bosom +of the hazardous Atlantic to Africa, and snatch us poor negroes as brands +from the eternal burning, and bring us where we might sit under the +droppings of his sanctuary, and learn the ways of industry and the way to +God. "Oh, niggers! how happy are your eyes which see this heavenly light; +many millions of niggers desired it long, but died without the sight. I +frequently envy your situations, because God's special blessing seems to +be ever over you, as though you were a select people, for how much happier +is your position than that of a free man, who, if sick, must pay his +doctor's bill; if hungry, must supply his wants by his own exertions; if +thirsty, must refresh himself by his own aid. And yet you, oh, niggers! +your master has all this care for you. He supplies your daily wants; your +meat and your drink he provides; and when you are sick he finds the best +skill to bring you to health as soon as possible, for your sickness is his +loss, and your health his gain; and, above all when you die (if you are +obedient to your masters, and good niggers), your black faces will shine +like black jugs around the throne of God." Such was the religious +instruction I was in the habit of receiving until I was about seventeen +years old; and told that when at any time I happened to be offended, or +struck by a white boy I was not to offend or strike in return, unless it +was another black, then I might fight as hard as I chose in my own +defence. It happened about this time there was a white boy who was +continually stealing my tops and marbles, and one morning when doing so I +caught him, and we had a battle, and I had him down on the ground when Mr. +Burmey came up. He kicked me away from the white boy, saying if I belonged +to him he would cut off my hands for _daring_ to strike a white boy; this +without asking the cause of the quarrel, or of ascertaining who was to +blame. The kick was so severe that I was sometime before I forgot it, and +created such a feeling of revenge in my bosom that I was determined when I +became a man I would pay him back in his own coin. I went out one day, and +measured myself by a tree in the wood, and cut a notch in the tree to +ascertain how fast I grew. I went at different times for the space of two +months and found I was no taller, and I began to fear he would die before +I should have grown to man's estate, and I resolved if he did I would make +his children suffer by punishing them instead of their father. At this +time my master's wife had two lovers, this same Burmey and one Rogers, and +they despised each other from feelings of jealousy. Master's wife seemed +to favour Burmey most, who was a great smoker, and she provided him with a +large pipe with a German silver bowl, which screwed on the top; this pipe +she usually kept on the mantel piece, ready filled with tobacco. One +morning I was dusting and sweeping out the dining-room, and saw the pipe +on the mantel-piece. I took it down, and went to my young master William's +powder closet and took out his powder horn, and after taking half of the +tobacco out of the pipe filled it nearly full with powder, and covered it +over with tobacco to make it appear as usual when filled with tobacco, +replaced it, and left. Rogers, came in about eight o'clock in the morning, +and remained until eleven, when Mr. Burmey came, and in about an hour I +saw a great number running about from all parts of the plantation. I left +the barn where I was thrashing buck-wheat, and followed the rest to the +house, where I saw Mr. Burmey lying back in the arm chair in a state of +insensibility, his mouth bleeding profusely and from particulars given it +appeared he took the pipe as usual and lighted it, and had just got it to +his mouth when the powder exploded, and the party suspected was Rogers, +who had been there immediately preceding; and Burmey's son went to Rogers +and they fought about the matter. Law ensued, which cost Rogers 800 +dollars, Burmey 600 dollars and his face disfigured; and my master's wife +came in for a deal of scandal, which caused further proceedings at law, +costing the master 1400 hundred dollars, and I was never once suspected or +charged with the deed. + +At this time two or three negroes had escaped, and I heard so much about +the free States of the north that I was determined to be free. So I began +to study what we call the north star, or astronomy, to guide me to the +free States. I was in the habit of driving the master; and on one occasion +I had to drive him to Baltimore where two of his sons were studying law; +and while there, I stole some sweet potatoes to roast when I got home; and +how master got to know I had them I never knew; but when I got home he +gave me a note to Mr. Cobb, the overseer, and told me to tell Dick, +(another slave on the plantation) to come to Baltimore to him on the +following evening, and as soon as I took the note in my hand I was certain +there was a flogging in it for me, though he said nothing to me. I held +the note that night and following day, afraid to give it to Mr. Cobb, so +confident was I of what would be the result. Towards evening I began to +reason thus--If I give Cobb the note I shall be whipped; if I withhold the +note from him I shall be whipped, so a whipping appears plain in either +case. Now Dick having arranged to meet his sweetheart this night assumed +sickness, so that he could have an excuse for not meeting master at +Baltimore, and he wanted me to go instead of him. I agreed to go, +providing he would take the note I had to Mr. Cobb, as I had forgot to +give it him, to which he consented, and off I went; and I heard that when +he delivered the note to Mr. Cobb, he ordered him to go to the +whipping-post, and when he asked what he had done he was knocked down, and +afterwards put to the post and thirty-nine lashes were administered, and +failed seeing his sweetheart as well. When I arrived at Baltimore my +master and young master took their seats and I drove away without any +question until we had gone three miles, when he asked what I was doing +there that night. I very politely said Dick was not well, and I had come +in his place. He then asked me if Mr. Cobb got his note, I answered, yes, +sir. He then asked me how I felt, and I said first rate, sir. "The d---l +you do," said he. I said, yes sir. He said "nigger, did Mr. Cobb flog +you?" No sir. I have done nothing wrong. "You never do," he answered; and +said no more until he got home. Being a man who could not bear to have any +order of his disobeyed or unfulfilled, he immediately called for Mr. Cobb, +and was told he was in bed; and when he appeared, the master asked if he +got the note sent by the nigger. Mr. Cobb said "Yes." "Then why," said +master, "did you not perform my orders in the note?" "I did, sir," replied +Cobb; when the master said, "I told you to give that nigger thirty-nine +lashes," Mr. Cobb says, "So I did, sir;" when master replied, "He says you +never licked him at all." Upon which Cobb said, "He is a liar;" when my +master called for me (who had been hearing the whole dialogue at the +door), I turned on my toes and went a short distance, and I shouted with a +loud voice that I was coming, (to prevent them knowing that I had been +listening) and appeared before them and said "here I am master, do you +want me?" He said "Yes. Did you not tell me that Mr. Cobb had not flogged +you," and I said "yes I did; he has not flogged me to-day, sir." Mr. Cobb +answered, "I did not flog him. You did not tell me to flog him. You told +me to flog that other nigger." "What other nigger," enquired Master. Cobb +said, "Dick." Master then said, "I did not. I told you to flog this nigger +here." Cobb then produced the letter, and read it as follows: + + "Mr. Cobb will give the bearer 39 lashes on delivery." R.T. EARLE. + +I then left the room and explanations took place. When I was again called +in. "How came Dick to have had the letter," and I then said I had forgot +to deliver it until Dick wanted me to go to Baltimore in his place, and I +agreed providing he would take the letter. Master then said "you lie, you +infernal villain," and laid hold of a pair of tongs and said he would dash +my brains out if I did not tell him the truth. I then said I thought there +was something in the note that boded no good to me, and I did not intend +to give it to him. He said, "you black vagabond, stay on this plantation +three months longer, and you will be master and I the slave; no wonder you +said you felt first rate when I asked you, but I will sell you to go to +Georgia the first chance I get." Then laying the tongs down he opened the +door and ordered me out. I knew he had on heavy cow-hide boots, and I knew +he would try to assist me in my outward progress, and though expecting it +and went as quick as I could, I was materially assisted by a heavy kick +from my master's foot. This did not end the matter, for when Dick found +out I had caused his being flogged, we had continual fightings for several +months. + +When I was fourteen years old my master gave me a flogging, the marks of +which will go with me to my grave, and this was for a crime of which I was +completely innocent. My master's son had taken one of his pistols out, and +by some accident it burst. When enquiry was made about the damaged pistol +William told his father that he had seen me have it; this, of course, I +denied, when master tied me up by my thumbs and gave me 60 lashes, and +also made me confess the crime before he would release me. From this +flogging my back was raw and sore for three months; the shirt that I wore +was made of rough tow linen, and when at work in the fields it would so +chafe the sores that they would break and run, and the hot sun over me +would bake the shirt fast to my back, and for four weeks I wore that +shirt, unable to pull it off, and when I did pull it off it brought with +it much of my flesh, leaving my back perfectly raw. Some time after this +my master found out the truth about the pistol, and when I saw that he did +not offer me any apology for the beating he had given me, and the lie he +had made me confess, I went to him and said--now, master, you see that you +beat me unjustly about that pistol, and made me confess to a lie--but all +the consolation I got was--clear out, you black rascal; I never struck a +blow amiss in my life, except when I struck at you and happened to miss +you; there are plenty of other crimes you have committed and did not let +me catch you at them, so that flogging will do for the lot. + +Master had an old negro in the family called Uncle Reuben. This good old +man and his wife were very good friends of my mother's, and before she was +sold they often met and sung and prayed, and talked about religion +together. Uncle Reuben fell sick in the middle of the harvest, and his +sickness was very severe; but master having a grudge against uncle Reuben, +and his old wife aunt Dinah, respecting a complaint that aunt Dinah had +made to mistress about his having outraged and violated her youngest +daughter, his spite was carried out by Mr. Cobb, the overseer, who forced +Uncle Reuben into the field amongst the rest of us, and I was ordered to +cradle behind him to make him keep up with the rest of the gang. The poor +old man worked until he fell, just ahead of me, upon the cradle. Mr. Cobb +came over and told him to get up, and that he was only playing the old +soldier, and when the old man did not move to get up Mr. Cobb gave him a +few kicks with his heavy boots and told Reuben, sick as he was, that he +would cure him. He ordered us to take off his shirt, and the poor old man +was stripped, when Mr. Cobb, with his hickory cane, laid on him till his +back bled freely; but still the old man seemed to take no notice of what +Mr. Cobb was doing. Mr. Cobb then told us to put on his shirt and carry +him in, for he appeared convinced that Reuben could not walk. The next +morning I went to see him but he did not seem to know anybody. Master came +in along with the Doctor, and master swore at Reuben, telling him that as +soon as he was well enough he should have a good flogging for having, by +his own folly, caught his sickness. The doctor here checked his master's +rage by telling him, as he felt at Reuben by the wrist, he could not live +many minutes longer; at this master was silent, and a few minutes Reuben +was dead. Poor Aunt Dinah came in out of the kitchen and wept fit to break +her poor heart. She had four sons and three daughters, and they all joined +in mournful lamentation. + +When I was sixteen I was very fond of dancing, and was invited privately +to a negro shindy or dance, about twelve miles from home, and for this +purpose I got Aunt Dinah to starch the collars for my two linen shirts, +which were the first standing collars I had ever worn in my life; I had a +good pair of trousers, and a jacket, but no necktie, nor no pocket +handkerchief, so I stole aunt Dinah's checked apron, and tore it in +two--one part for a necktie, the other for a pocket handkerchief. I had +twenty-four cents, or pennies which I divided equally with fifty large +brass buttons in my right and left pockets. Now, thought I to myself, when +I get on the floor and begin to dance--oh! how the niggers will stare to +hear the money jingle. I was combing my hair to get the knots out of it: I +then went and looked in an old piece of broken looking-glass, and I +thought, without joking, that I was the best looking negro that I had ever +seen in my life. About ten o'clock I stole out to the stable when all was +still; and while I was getting on one of my master's horses I said to +myself--Master was in here at six o'clock and saw all these horses clean, +so I must look out and be back time enough to have you clean when he gets +up in the morning. I thought what a dash I should cut among the pretty +yellow and Sambo gals, and I felt quite confident, of course, that I +should have my pick among the best looking ones, for my good clothes, and +my abundance of money, and my own good looks--in fact, I thought no mean +things of my self. + +When I arrived at the place where the dance was, it was at an old house in +the woods, which had many years before been a negro meeting-house; there +was a large crowd there, and about one hundred horses tied round the +fence--for some of them were far from home, and, like myself, they were +all runaways, and their horses, like mine, had to be home and cleaned +before their masters were up in the morning. In getting my horse close up +to the fence a nail caught my trousers at the thigh, and split them clean +up to the seat; of course my shirt tail fell out behind, like a woman's +apron before. This dreadful misfortune almost unmanned me, and curtailed +both my pride and pleasure for the night. I cried until I could cry no +more. However, I was determined I would not be done out of my sport after +being at the expense of coming, so I went round and borrowed some pins, +and pinned up my shirt tail as well as I could. I then went into the +dance, and told the fiddler to play me a jig. Che, che, che, went the +fiddle, when the banjo responded with a thrum, thrum, thrum, with the loud +cracking of the bone player. I seized a little Sambo gal, and round and +round the room we went, my money and my buttons going jingle, jingle, +jingle, seemed to take a lively part with the music, and to my great +satisfaction every eye seemed to be upon me, and I could not help thinking +about what an impression I should leave behind upon those pretty yellow +and Sambo gals, who were gazing at me, thinking I was the richest and +handsomest nigger they had ever seen: but unfortunately the pins in my +breeches gave way, and to my great confusion my shirt tail fell out; and +what made my situation still more disgraceful was the mischievous conduct +of my partner, the gal that I was dancing with, who instead of trying to +conceal my shame caught my shirt tail behind and held it up. The roar of +laughter that came from both men and gals almost deafened me, and I would +at this moment have sunk through the floor, so I endeavoured to creep out +as slily as I could; but even this I was not permitted to do until I had +undergone a hauling around the room by my unfortunate shirt tail: and this +part of the programme was performed by the gals, set on by the boys--every +nigger who could not stand up and laugh, because laughing made them weak, +fell down on the floor and rolled round and round. When the gals saw their +own turn they let me go and I hurried outside and stood behind the house, +beneath a beautiful bright moon, which saw me that night the most wretched +of all negroes in the land of Dixie; and what made me feel, in my own +opinion, that my humiliation was just as complete as the triumph of the +negroes inside was glorious, was that the gals had turned my pockets out, +and found that the hundreds of dollars they had thought my pockets +contained, consisted of 24 cents or pennies, and 50 brass buttons. +Everything was alive and happy inside the room, but no one knew or cared +how miserable I was--the joy and life of the dance that night seemed +entirely at my expense, all through my unfortunate shirt tail. The first +thing I thought of now was revenge. Take your comfort, niggers now, said I +to myself, for sorrow shall be yours in the morning, so I took out my +knife and went round the fence and cut every horse loose, and they all ran +away. I then got on my horse and set off home. As I rode on I thought to +myself--I only wish I could be somewhere close enough to see how those +negroes will act when they come out and find all their horses gone. And +then I laughed right out when I thought of the sport they had had out of +my misfortune, and that some were ten to twelve, and some fifteen miles +away from home. Well, thought I, your masters will have to reckon with you +to-morrow; you have had glad hearts to-night at my expense, but you will +have sore backs to-morrow at your own. Now, when I got home, the stable +was in a very bad situation, and I was afraid to bring my horse in until I +could strike a light. When this was done, I took the saddle and bridle off +outside. No sooner had I done this than my horse reared over the bars and +ran away into the meadow. I chased him till daylight, and for my life I +could not catch him. My feelings now may be better imagined than +described. When the reader remembers that this horse, with all the rest, +master had seen clean at six o'clock the night before, and all safe in the +stable, and now to see him in the meadow, with all the marks of having +been driven somewhere and by somebody, what excuse could I make, or what +story could I invent in order to save my poor back from that awful +flogging which I knew must be the result of the revelation of the truth. I +studied and tried, but could think of no lie that would stand muster. At +last I went into the stable and turned all the rest out, and left the +stable door open, and creeping into the house, took off my fine clothes +and put on those which I had been wearing all the week, and laid myself +down on my straw. I had not lain long before I heard master shouting for +me, for all those horses, eight in number, were under my care; and +although he shouted for me at the top of his voice, I lay still and +pretended not to hear him; but soon after I heard a light step coming up +stairs, and a rap at my door--then I commenced to snore as loud as +possible, still the knocking continued. At last I pretended to awake, and +called out, who's there--that you, Lizzy? oh my! what's up, what time is +it, and so on. Lizzy said master wanted me immediately; yes, Lizzy, said +I, tell master I'm coming. I bothered about the room long enough to give +colour to the impression that I had just finished dressing myself; I then +came and said, here I am, master, when he demanded of me, what were my +horses doing in the meadow? Here I put on an expression of such wonder and +surprise--looking first into the meadow and then at the stable door, and +to master's satisfaction, I seemed so completely confounded that my +deception took upon him the desired effect. Then I affected to roar right +out, crying, now master, you saw my horses all clean last night before I +went to bed, and now some of those negroes have turned them out so that I +should have them to clean over again: well, I declare! it's too bad, and I +roared and cried as I went towards the meadow to drive them up; but master +believing what I said, called me back and told me to call Mr. Cobb, and +when Mr. Cobb came master told him to blow the horn; when the horn was +blown, the negroes were to be seen coming from all parts of the +plantation, and forming around in front of the balcony. Master then came +out and said, now I saw this boy's horses clean last night and in the +stable, so now tell me which of you turned them out? Of course they all +denied it, then master ordered them all to go down into the meadow and +drive up the horses and clean them, me excepted; so they went and drove +them up and set to work and cleaned them. On Monday morning we all turned +out to work until breakfast, when the horn was blown, and we all repaired +to the house. Here master again demanded to know who turned the horses +loose, and when they all denied it, he tied them all up and gave them each +39 lashes. Not yet satisfied, but determined to have a confession, as was +always his custom on such occasions, he came to me and asked me which one +I had reason to suspect. My poor guilty heart already bleeding for the +suffering I had caused my fellow slaves, was now almost driven to +confession. What must I do, select another victim for further punishment, +or confess the truth and bear the consequence? My conscience now rebuked +me, like an armed man; but I happened to be one of those boys who, among +all even of my mother's children loved myself best, and therefore had no +disposition to satisfy my conscience at the expense of a very sore back, +so I very soon thought of Dick, a negro who, like Ishmael, had his hand +out against every man, and all our hands were out against him; this negro +was a lickspittle or tell-tale, as little boys call them--we could not +steal a bit of tea or sugar, or any other kind of nourishment for our +sick, or do anything else we did not want to be known, but if he got to +know it he would run and tell master or mistress, or the overseer, so we +all wanted him dead; and now I thought of him--he was just the proper +sacrifice for me to lay upon the altar of confession, so I told master I +believed that it was Dick: moreover, I told him that I had seen him in and +out of the stable on Saturday night, so master tied Dick up and gave him +39 lashes more, and washed his back down with salt and water, and told him +that at night if he did not confess, he would give him as much more; so at +night, when master went out to Dick again, he asked if he had made up his +mind to tell him the truth, Dick said, yes, master;--well, said master, +let me hear it. Well master, said Dick, I did turn the horses out; but +will never do so again. So master, satisfied with this confession, struck +Dick no more, and ordered him to be untied; but Dick had a sore back for +many weeks. And now to return to the negroes I had left at the dance, when +they discovered that their horses were gone there was the greatest +consternation amongst them, the forebodings of the awful consequences if +they dared to go home induced many that night to seek salvation in the +direction and guidance of the north star. Several who started off on that +memorable night I have since shook hands with in Canada. They told me +there were sixteen of them went off together, four of them were shot or +killed by the bloodhounds, and one was captured while asleep in a barn; +the rest of those who were at the dance either went home and took their +floggings, or strayed into the woods until starved out, and then +surrendered. One of those I saw in Toronto, is Dan Patterson; he has a +house of his own, with a fine horse and cart, and he has a beautiful Sambo +woman for his wife, and four fine healthy-looking children. But, like +myself, he had left a wife and six children in slavery. When I was about +seventeen, I was deeply smitten in love with a yellow girl belonging to +Doctor Tillotson. This girl's name was Mary, of whose lovliness I dreamt +every night. I certainly thought she was the prettiest girl I had ever +seen in my life. Her colour was very fair, approaching almost to white; +her countenance was frank and open, and very inviting; her voice was as +sweet as the dulcimer, her smiles to me were like the May morning sunbeams +in the spring, one glance of her large dark eyes broke my heart in pieces, +with a stroke like that of an earthquake. O, I thought, this girl would +make me a paradise, and to enjoy her love I thought would be heaven. In +spite of either patrols or dogs, who stood in my way, every night nearly I +was in Mary's company. I learned from her that she had already had a child +to her master in Mobile, and that her mistress had sold her down here for +revenge; and she told me also of the sufferings that she had undergone +from her mistress on account of jealousy--her baby she said her mistress +sold out of her arms, only eleven months old, to a lady in Marysville, +Kentucky. Having never before felt a passion like this, or of the gentle +power, so peculiar to women, that, hard as I worked all day, I could not +sleep at night for thinking of this almost angel in human shape. We kept +company about six weeks, during which time I was at sometimes as wretched +as I was happy at others. Much to my annoyance Mary was adored by every +negro in the neighbourhood, and this excited my jealousy and made me +miserable. I was almost crazy when I saw another negro talking to her. +Again and again I tried my best to get her to give up speaking to them, +but she refused to comply. There was one negro who was in the habit of +calling on Mary whom I dreaded more than all the rest of them put +together, this negro was Dan, he belonged to Rogers; and notwithstanding I +believed myself to be the best looking negro to be found anywhere in the +neighbourhood, still I was aware that I was not the best of talkers. Dan +was a sweet and easy talker, and a good bone and banjo player. I was led +to fear that he would displace me in Mary's affections, and in this I was +not mistaken. One night I went over to see Mary, and in looking through +the window, saw Mary--my sweet and beloved Mary--sitting upon Dan's knee; +and here it is impossible to describe the feeling that came over me at +this unwelcome sight. My teeth clenched and bit my tongue--my head grew +dizzy, and began to swim round and round, and at last I found myself +getting up from the ground, having stumbled from the effects of what I had +seen. I wandered towards home, and arriving there threw myself on the +straw and cried all night. My first determination was to kill Dan; but +then I thought they would hang me and the devil would have us both, and +some other negro will get Mary, then the thought of killing Dan passed +away. Next morning, when the horn blew for breakfast, I continued my work, +my appetite having left me; at dinner time it was the same. At sun-down I +went to the barn and got a rope and put it under my jacket, and started +off to see Mary, whom I found sitting in the kitchen, smoking her pipe, +for smoking was as common among the girls as among the men. Mary, said I, +I was over here last night and saw you through the window sitting on Dan's +knee. Now, Mary, I want you to tell me at once whose you mean to be--mine +or Dan's? Dan's, she replied, with an important toss of her head, which +went through my very soul, like the shock from a galvanic battery. I +rested for a minute or so on an old oak table that stood by. Mary's answer +had unstrung every nerve in me, and left me so weak that I could scarcely +keep from falling. Now I was not at that time, and don't think I ever +shall be one of those fools who would cut off his nose to spite his face, +much less kill myself because a girl refused to love me. Life to me was +always preferable, under any circumstances; but in this case I played the +most dexterous card I had. Mary, said I sternly, if you don't give Dan up +and sware to be mine, I will hang myself this night. To this she replied, +hang on if you are fool enough, and continued smoking her pipe as though +not the least alarmed. I took out the rope from under my jacket, and got +upon a three-legged stool, and putting the rope first over the beam in the +ceiling, then made a slip-knot, and brought it down round my neck, taking +good care to have it short enough that it would not choke me, and in this +way I stood upon the stool for some considerable time, groaning and +struggling, and making every kind of noise that might make her believe +that I was choking or strangling; but still Mary sat deliberately smoking +her pipe with the utmost coolness, and seemed to take no notice of me or +what I was doing. I thought my situation worse now than if I had not +commenced this job at all. My object in pretending to hang myself was to +frighten Mary into compliance with my demand, and her conduct turned out +to be everything but what I had expected. I had thought that the moment I +ascended the stool she would have clung to me and tried to dissuade me +from committing suicide, and in this case my plan was to persist in +carrying it out, unless she would consent to give Dan up; but instead of +this she sat smoking her pipe apparently at ease and unmoved. Now I found +I had been mistaken--what was I to do, to hang or kill myself was the last +thing I meant to do--in fact I had not the courage to do it for five +hundred Marys. But now, after mounting the stool and adjusting the rope +round my neck, I was positively ashamed to come down without hanging +myself, and then I stood like a fool. At this moment in came the dog +carlow, racing after the cat, right across the kitchen floor, and the dog +coming in contact with the stool, knocked it right away from under my +feet, and brought my neck suddenly to the full length of the rope, which +barely allowed my toes to touch the floor. Here I seized the rope with +both hands to keep the weight of my whole body off my neck, and in this +situation I soon found I must hang, and that dead enough, unless I had +some assistance, for the stool had rolled entirely out of the reach of my +feet, and the knot I had tied behind the beam I could not reach for my +life. My arms began to tremble with holding on to the rope, and still my +mortification and pride for some time refused to let me call on Mary for +assistance. Such a moment of terror and suspense! heaven forbid that I +should ever see or experience again. Thoughts rushed into my mind of every +bad deed that I had done in my life; and I thought that old cloven foot, +as we called the devil, was waiting to nab me. The stretch upon my arms +exhausted me, with holding on by the rope, nothing was left me but +despair; my pride and courage gave up the ghost, and I roared out, Mary! +for God's sake cut the rope! No, answered Mary, you went up there to hang +yourself, so now hang on. Oh! Mary, Mary! I did not mean to hang! I was +only doing so to see what you would say. Well, then, said Mary; you hear +what I have to say--hang on. Oh, Mary! for heaven's sake cut this rope, or +I shall strangle to death!--oh, dear, good Mary, save me this time: and I +roared out like a jackass, and must too have fainted, for when I came +round Doctor Tillotson and his wife and Mary stood over me as I lay on the +floor. How I got upon the floor, or who cut the rope I never knew. Doctor +Tillotson had hold of my wrist, feeling my pulse; while mistress held a +camphor bottle in one hand and a bottle of hartshorn in the other. The +doctor helped me up from the floor and set me in a chair, when I +discovered that I was bleeding very freely from the nose and mouth. He +called for a basin and bled me in my left arm, and then sent me over home +by two of his men. Next day my neck was dreadfully swollen, and my throat +was so sore that it was with difficulty that I could swallow meat for more +than a week. At the end of a fortnight, master having learnt all the +particulars respecting my sickness, called me to account, and gave me +seventy-eight lashes, and this was the end of my crazy love and courtship +with Mary. + +Shortly after this, Mary was one Sunday down in her master's barn, where +she had been sent by her mistress to look for new nests where a number of +the hens were supposed to have been laying, as the eggs had not been found +elsewhere. While in the barn, Mary was surprised by William Tillotson, her +master's son, who ordered her to take her bed among the hay and submit to +his lustful passion. This she strenuously refused to do, telling him of +the punishment she had already suffered from her former mistress for a +similar act of conduct, and reminding him at the same time of his wife, +whose vengeance she would have to dread; but William was not to be put +off, nor his base passion to go unsatisfied, by any excuse that Mary could +make, so he at once resorted to force. Mary screamed at the top of her +voice. Now the negro Dan was just in the act of passing the barn at the +time, when he heard Mary's voice he rushed into the barn, and demanded in +a loud voice what was the matter? when, to his horror, he beheld William +upon the barn floor, and Mary struggling but in vain to rise. William, +instead of desisting from his brutal purpose, with a dreadful oath ordered +Dan to clear out; but the sight of the outrage on her whom, I now firmly +believe he loved better than his own soul, made poor Dan completely forget +himself--and made him forget too, in that fatal moment what he afterwards +wished he had remembered. Dan seized a pitchfork and plunged it into young +Tillotson's back; the prongs went in between his shoulders, and one of +them had penetrated the left lung. Young Tillotson expired almost +immediately, and Dan seeing what he had done, ran off at once to the woods +and swamps, and was seen no more for about two months. Mrs. Tillotson, who +had heard Mary scream, was on the balcony, and called out to Dan to know +the cause, Dan made no reply but took to his heels. Mrs. Tillotson alarmed +at this, and suspecting at once that something was wrong, hastened to the +barn, followed by William's wife who happened to be there, and when they +saw poor William's corpse, and Mary standing by, they both fainted. Poor +Mary, frightened to death, turned into the house and informed her young +mistress, Susannah, of what had happened. Miss Susannah spread the alarm, +and called some of the slaves to her assistance. She went to the barn and +found her mother and sister-in-law lying in a state of insensibility, and +her brother William dead. With the assistance of old Aunt Hannah and +several of the female servants, the two ladies were somewhat restored to +consciousness; and William was carried into the house by the servants. The +Doctor himself was away from home attending one of his patients, who was +very sick. When Mrs. Tillotson had somewhat recovered, she sent for Mary +and enquired as to how William came by his death in the barn. Mary told +the whole story as previously related in the presence of about sixty or +seventy of the neighbours, who had collected together on hearing of the +murder. Of course Mary's story met with no credit from her mistress, and +poor Mary stood in the eyes of all as an accomplice in the conspiracy to +murder young Tillotson. When the doctor arrived it was dark, and after +seeing the corpse and hearing from his wife the story that she had made up +for him, he called for Mary, but she was nowhere to be found. The house +and plantation were searched in all directions, but no Mary was +discovered. At last, when they had all given over looking for her, towards +midnight, a cart drove up to the door. Doctor, said the driver, I have a +dead negro here, and I'm told she belongs to you. The Doctor came out with +a lantern, and as I stood by my master's carriage, waiting for him to come +out and go home, the Doctor ordered me to mount the cart and look at the +corpse; I did so, and looked full in that face by the light of the +lantern, and saw and knew, notwithstanding the horrible change that had +been effected by the work of death, upon those once beautiful features, it +was Mary. Poor Mary, driven to distraction by what had happened, she had +sought salvation in the depths of the Chesapeake Bay that night. Next day +the neighbourhood was searched throughout, and the country was placarded +for Dan; and Doctor Tillotson and Mr. Burmey, young William's +father-in-law, offered one thousand dollars for him alive, and five +hundred for him dead; and although every blackleg in the neighbourhood was +on the alert, it was full two months before he was captured. At length +poor Dan was caught and brought by the captors to Mr. Burmey's, where he +was tried principally by Burmey's two sons, Peter and John, and that night +was kept in irons in Burmey's cellar. The next day Dan was led into the +field in the presence of about three thousand of us. A staple was driven +into the stump of a tree, with a chain attached to it, and one of his +handcuffs was taken off and brought through the chain, and then fastened +on his hand again. A pile of pine wood was built around him. At eight +o'clock the wood was set on fire, and when the flames blazed round upon +the wretched man, he began to scream and struggle in a most awful manner. +Many of our women fainted, but not one of us was allowed to leave until +the body of poor Dan was consumed. The unearthly sounds that came from the +blazing pile, as poor Dan writhed in the agonies of death, it is beyond +the power of my pen to describe. After a while all was silent, except the +cracking of the pine wood as the fire gradually devoured it with the prize +that it contained. Poor Dan had ceased to struggle--he was at rest. + +Mr. Burmey's two sons, Peter and John, were the ringleaders in this +execution, and the pair of them hardly ever saw a sober day from one month +to another; and at the execution of Dan, Peter was so drunk that he came +nigh sharing the same fate. It was not a year after the roasting of Dan +that the two brothers were thrashing wheat in the barn, which stood about +a quarter of a mile from the house, and being in March, and an uncommon +windy day, they had taken their demijohn full of brandy in order to keep +the cold out of their bones, as it was their belief that a dram or two had +that effect; so they were drinking and thrashing and drinking again until +they reeled over dead drunk upon the floor. That same night the barn took +fire over them. The first thing that excited the alarm of my master's +negroes on Tillotson's plantation was a black smoke issuing from the barn. +Suddenly there was a rush from all parts of the plantation, but it was all +to no purpose, for scarcely had we got half way before we saw the flames +bursting out on every side of the barn, still we continued to run as fast +as we could. When we arrived we found the barn door shut and fastened +inside. This Mr. Peter and Mr. John had done to keep out the wind which +was very high. When old Mr. Burmey arrived with his daughter-in-law, +Peter's wife, the first thing demanded was, where is your masters?--oh, my +children! my children! while Mrs. Peter screamed, my husband! my husband! +oh, pa! oh, pa! The strength of the flames inside at length burst open the +barn door, when we beheld through the red flames the figures of the two +wretched brothers lying side by side dead drunk and helpless upon the +floor. The fire rapidly seized upon everything around. At this moment Mrs. +Peter Burmey rushed into the flames to save her husband, but just as she +attempted to enter, the beam over the door fell in upon her head, and +struck her back senseless and suffocated to the ground; but, +notwithstanding the most intense hatred to Burmey and his family, we +negroes rushed forward to rescue them--but all in vain. After getting +miserably scorched we were compelled to retreat and give them over, and +with bleeding hearts to behold the fire consume their bodies. The barn was +rapidly consigned to ashes, which being speedily swept away by the +violence of the wind, left the victims side by side crisped skeletons on +the ground. This was the dreadful end of the two chief actors in the +roasting of poor Dan. + +When I arrived at the age of 20, my master told me I must marry Jane, one +of the slaves. We had been about five months married when she gave birth +to a child, I then asked who was the father of the child, and she said the +master, and I had every reason to believe her, as the child was nearly +white, had blue eyes and veins, yet notwithstanding this we lived happily +together, and I felt happy and comfortable, and I should never have +thought of running away if she had not been sold. We lived together six +years and had two children. Shortly after my marriage my master's wife +died, and when he fixed upon Tillotson's daughter as his future wife, she +made a condition that all female slaves whom he had at any time been +intimate with must be sold, and my wife being one was sold with the +children as well as any other female slaves. My wife was sold while I was +away on an errand at Centreville, and any one situated as I was may +imagine my feelings when I say that I left them in the morning all well +and happy, in entire ignorance of any evil, and returned to find them all +sold and gone away, and from then until now I have never seen any of them. +I went to my master and complained to him, when he told me he knew nothing +about it, as it was all done by his wife. I then went to her and she said +she knew nothing about, as it was all done by my master, and I could +obtain no other satisfaction; I then went to my master to beg him to sell +me to the same master as he had sold my wife, but he said he could not do +that, as she was sold to a trader. + +From 18 to 27 I was considered one of the most devout Christians among the +whole Black population, and under this impression I firmly believed to run +away from my master would be to sin against the Holy Ghost--for such we +are taught to believe--but from the time of my wife's being sent away, I +firmly made up my mind to take the first opportunity to run away. I had +learned that if a Black man wished to escape he will have no chance to do +so unless he be well supplied with money; to attain this I arranged with a +Dutchman to steal small pigs, chickens, and any poultry that was possible +to lay my hands on, and thus I proceeded for nine or ten months, when I +found my accumulation to be 124 dollars. Among the plantations I visited +was Mr. Rogers', and he had three large bloodhounds let loose about nine +at night, but I had made them acquainted with me by feeding them at +intervals quietly, unknown to him or his people, and this enabled me to +carry on my depredations on his plantation quietly and unmolested. Rogers +having suspected these depredations, and not being able to find the thief, +set a patrol to watch, who, armed with a double-barreled gun, fixed +himself under a fence about seven feet high, surrounded with bushes; but +this happened to be my usual way of going to his plantation, and as I made +my usual spring to go over, I fell right on the top of his head, and he +shouted lustily, and I shouted also, neither of us knowing what really had +occurred, and our fears imagining the worst and causing him to run one way +and me another. After travelling about a quarter of a mile I thought of my +bag, which had been dropped during my fright, and knowing that my master's +initials were on the bag, and the consequences of the bag being found +would be fearful, I determined to return for the bag and recover it, or +die in the attempt. I searched for and found a club, then I returned to +the spot and found the bag there, and by the side of it lay the gun of the +patrol, and I picked the bag up and went home, and this narrow escape +caused me to determine to give up my thieving expeditions for the +obtaining of money from that time. About one week after the occurrence +with the patrol, I took one of my master's horses to go to a negro dance, +and on my return the patrols were so numerous on the road that I was +unable to return home without observation, and it being past the usual +hour for being at home, I was so afraid that when two of them observed me +I left the horse and took to my feet, and made my way to the woods, where +I remained all day, afraid to go home for fear of the consequences. But at +night I returned to the barn, where my money was hid in the hay, and +having recovered it, I started for Dr. Tillotson's (my master's +father-in-law), and told him my master had sent for a horse which he had +lent him a few weeks before. After enquiring of the overseer if the horse +had not gone home, and finding it had not, he ordered it to be given up to +me. I mounted the horse and rode off for Baltimore, a distance of 37 +miles, where I arrived early in the morning, when I abandoned the horse +and took to the woods, and remained there all day. At night I ventured to +a farm-house, and having a club with me, I knocked over two barn fowl, and +took them to my place in the woods; I struck a light with the tinder, made +a fire of brushwood, roasted them before the fire, and enjoyed a hearty +meal without seasoning or bread. + +The following night I went to the city, and meeting with some blacks I +entered into conversation with them, and I asked if they had heard of any +runaways at Baltimore, they said they had heard of one Jake having run +from Eastern shore, and showed me the bill at the corner which had been +put up that evening. I knew it was no other than me, so I bid them good +evening, and left them saying I was going to church. I took a back road +for Milford, in Delaware, and travelled all night; towards morning I met +four men, who demanded to know to whom I belonged, my answer was taking to +my heels, and the chase was hot on my part for about half-an-hour, when I +got into a swamp surrounded by young saplings, where I remained about two +hours, and as soon as it was sufficiently dark to venture out, I made my +way to a barn where I secreted myself all day, and in the morning I +watched the house to prevent a surprise. At night I again commenced +travelling, and at one o'clock in the morning arrived at Milford, where +finding no means of crossing the bridge into the town, without being seen +by the patrol, I was forced to swim across the river. I passed through +Milford, and was ten miles on my road to Wilmington before daybreak, where +I again made for the woods, and got into a marshy part and was swamped. I +was struggling the whole night to liberate myself, but in vain, until the +light appeared, when I saw some willows, and by laying hold of them I +succeeded in extricating myself about seven o'clock in the morning. I then +made my way to a pond of water, and pulled my clothes off, and washed the +mud from them, and hung them up to dry; and as soon as they were dry and +night arrived, I put them on, and continued my journey that night in the +woods, as the moon was so bright; though I did not progress much on my +way, it was more safe. Towards morning I saw a farm-house, and being +hungry I resolved to venture to ask for something to eat. Waiting my +opportunity, I saw three men leave the house, and judging there then only +remained women, I went up and asked if they would please to give me +something to eat. They invited me in, and gave me some bread and milk, +pitying my condition greatly, one of them telling me that her husband was +an Abolitionist, and if I would wait until his return he would place me +out of the reach of my pursuers. I did not then understand what was an +Abolitionist, and said I would rather not stay. She then saw my feet, +which were awful from what I had undergone, and asked me if I should not +like to have a pair of shoes, and I said I should. They went in search of +a pair up the stairs, and I heard one say to the other, "He answers the +description of a slave for which 200 dollars are offered." When they +returned I was sitting still in the position I was in before they went up +stairs. She said to the other, "I will go and see after the cows;" and the +other answered, "Dont be long." But my suspicion was confirmed that going +after the cows was only a pretence; and when I thought the other had got +far enough away, I laid hold of the remaining one and tied her to the +bedstead; went into the closet and took a leg of mutton, and other +articles, such as bread and butter, and made my way out as quick as +possible; and when I got outside I rubbed my feet in some cow dung to +prevent the scent of the bloodhounds, and took to the woods, where I found +a sand hole, in which I remained all day. The night was dark, with a +drizzling rain; being very fit for travelling, I started again on my +journey, but being very cautious, I only managed about 24 miles that +night. Towards morning I met with a black, who told me that to Chester, in +Pennsylvania, was only twenty-six miles. During the day I again remained +in the woods, where I met a black man of the name of Geordie, whom I knew, +belonging to Rogers, and who had left two months before me, and he said he +had been in those woods five weeks. His appearance was shocking, and from +his long suffering and hardships he was difficult to know; and, as he was +hungry, I divided with him my leg of mutton and bread and butter, and I +was telling him how unwise it was to remain so long in one place, when we +were suddenly aroused by the well-known sounds of the hounds. In my fear +and surprise I was attempting for a tree, but was unable to mount before +they were upon me. In this emergency I called out the name of one of the +dogs, who was more familiar with me than the others, called Fly, and hit +my knee to attract her attention and it had the desired effect. She came +fondling towards me, accompanied by another called Jovial. I pulled out my +knife and cut the throat of Fly, upon which Jovial made an attempt to lay +hold of me and I caught him by the throat, which caused me to lose my +knife, but I held him fast by the windpipe, forcing my thumbs with as much +force as possible, and anxiously wishing for my knife to be in hands. I +made a powerful effort to fling him as far away as possible, and regained +my knife; but when I had thrown him there he lay, throttled to death. Not +so, Fly, who weltered in blood, and rolled about howling terribly, but not +killed. The other two hounds caught Geordie, and killed him. After this +terrible escape I went to a barn, and was looking through a hole and saw +two men come to where Geordie's body lay, when a knot of people gathered +round, and about ten or eleven o'clock he was buried. I shortly went to +sleep among the hay, and slept so soundly that it was the morning after +before I was awoke by a boy coming to get hay for the horses, and the +prong of the fork caught me by the thigh, which caused me to jump up and +stare at the boy, and he at me, when he dropped the fork and ran away. As +soon as I recovered, I slipped down the hay-rack, and met six men and the +boy, who demanded who I was and what I was doing there. Not knowing what +to say, I stood speechless for a long time, and thought my hopes of +freedom were now at an end. They again repeated their question, but I made +no reply. I was then taken before a magistrate, when I was accused of +being in the barn for some unlawful purpose; and as I made no answer to +any questions put to me, they concluded I was dumb. When I remembered I +had not given evidence of speech, I determined to act as if I was dumb; +and when the magistrate called to me, I also thought deafness was often +united with dumbness, and I made my mind up to act both deaf and dumb, and +when he called "Boy, come here," I took no notice, and did not appear to +hear, until one of the officers led me from the box nearer to the +magistrate, who demanded my name, where from, and to whom I belonged, and +what I was doing in the barn, which I still appeared not to hear, and +merely looked at him, and at last acted as if I was deaf and dumb, and so +effectually that he discharged me, convinced I was a valueless deaf and +dumb nigger; and when told by the officer to go, I dared not move for fear +of being found out in my acting, and would not move until I was forced out +of the door, and for some time (for fear of detection) I acted deaf and +dumb in the streets, to the fear of women and children, until it was dark, +when I made for the woods, where I remained until eleven o'clock at night, +when I again resumed my journey to Chester (Pennsylvania), which I had +been told was only twenty-six miles. Shortly after resuming my journey, I +saw four horses in the field, and I determined, if possible to possess one +of them, and I chased them two hours, but did not succeed in catching one; +so I was obliged to go on walking again, but shortly met with a +gentleman's horse on the road which I mounted, and rode into Chester, and +let the horse go where he liked. In Chester I met with a quaker, named +Sharpies, who took me to his house, gave me the best accommodation, and +called his friends to see me, never seemed weary of asking questions of +negro life in the different plantations. I let them see the money I had, +which was in notes, and much damaged by my swimming across the river, but +they kindly passed it for me, and I got other money for it; and I was +presented with two suits of clothes. He sent in a waggon to Philadelphia +and recommended me to a gentleman (who being alive, I wish not to reveal), +where I remained in his employ about five weeks. This kind friend +persuaded me to make for Canada; and it was with much reluctance I at last +complied. My reluctance was in consequence of understanding that Canada +was a very cold place, and I did not relish the idea of going on that +account; and as a gentleman said he could find employment for me at Derby, +near Philadelphia, I went and worked there three years, during which time +I was a regular attendant at the Methodist Free Church, consisting +entirely of colored people; at which place I heard the scriptures +expounded in a different way by colored ministers--as I found that God had +made colored as well as white people: as He had made of one blood all the +families of the earth, and that all men were free and equal in his sight; +and that he was no respecter of persons whatever the color: but whoever +worked righteousness was accepted of Him. Being satisfied that I had not +sinned against the Holy Ghost by obtaining my freedom, I enlisted in the +church, and became one of the members thereof. + +About this time, Mr. Roberts, for whom I worked, failed in business, and +his property was seized for debt and sold, thereby throwing me out of +employment. I was arrested and taken back to Maryland, where I was placed +in prison, with a collar round my neck for eleven days. + +On the twelfth day my master came to see me, and of course I begged of him +to take me home and let me go to work. No, nigger, said master--I have no +employment for a vagabond of your stamp; but I'm going to order that +collar off your neck, not because I think that you are sufficiently +punished, but because there are some gentlemen coming through the jail +to-morrow, and they want to purchase some negroes, so you had better do +your best to get a master amongst them--and mind you don't tell them that +ever you ran away, for if you do none of them will buy you. Now I will +give you a good character, notwithstanding you have done your best to +injure me, a good master, and you have even tried to rob me by running +away--still I'll do my best to get you a good master, for my bible teaches +me to do good for evil. The next day I was called out with forty other +slaves, belonging to different owners in the County, and we were marched +into the doctor's vestry for examination; here the doctor made us all +strip--men and women together naked, in the presence of each other while +the examination went on. When it was concluded, thirty-eight of us were +pronounced sound, and three unsound; certificates were made out and given +to the auctioneer to that effect. After dressing ourselves we were all +driven into the slave sty directly under the auction block, when the jail +warder came and gave to every slave a number, my number was twenty. Here, +let me explain, for the better information of the reader, that in the +inventory of the slaves to be sold all go by number--one, two, three, and +so on; and if a man and his family are to be sold in one lot, then one +number covers them all; but if separate, then they have all different +numbers. An old friend of mine, belonging to William Steel, was also with +his wife and six children in the same sty, all to be sold. The youngest +was a babe in arms, the other five were large enough to walk; his number +was twenty-one, but his wife's number was thirty-three, and +notwithstanding the mournful idea of parting with relations and friends on +the plantation, up to this moment they had indulged a hope of being sold +as a family, together; but the numbers revealed the awful disappointment. +Even in this hoped for consolation, the painful distress into which this +poor woman was thrown, it is beyond my ability to describe. The anguish of +her soul, evinced by the mournful gaze first at her children and then at +her husband, made me forget for the time being, my own sufferings and +sorrows. Her looks seemed to say to her husband--these are your children, +I am their mother--there is no other being in this world that I have to +look to for love and protection; cant you help me? I am very much mistaken +if these were not the thoughts running through that poor broken-hearted +mother's mind. Reuben, for that was his name, called his wife and children +into one corner of the sty, and repeated a verse of a hymn which may be +found in Watts' hymn book:-- + + "Ah, whither shall I go, + Burthened, or sick, or faint; + To whom shall I my troubles show, + And pour out my complaint." + +Not daring to sing it for fear of disturbing the sale, they both knelt +down with the children, and Reuben offered up a long and fervent prayer. +In the interval of his prayer nineteen of the slaves were sold, and he had +not concluded when my number being twenty was called, and my master handed +me out under the hammer; when, after a few preliminary remarks on the part +of the auctioneer, my master mounted the auction block and recommended me +as a good field hand, a good cook, waiter, hostler, a coachman, gentle and +willing, and above all, free from the disease of running away. So after a +short and spirited bidding I went at 1,025 dollars. Here the sale +policeman, whose business it was to take charge of the negroes sold until +bills were settled and papers made out, led me from the block outside the +crowd, and placing me by a cart, put on a pair of iron handcuffs; but +being well acquainted with me as a troublesome tricky negro, he put the +handcuff on my right wrist--took the other cuff through the cart wheel and +round the spoke, and then locked it on my left hand, so that if I did +start to run, I should carry the cart and all with me. Number twenty-one +was now called, and out came poor Reuben, and was placed under the hammer; +his weight was said to be two hundred pounds, his age thirty two. Poor +Sally, his wife, unable any longer to control her feelings, made her way +out of the slave pen, with her babe in her arms, followed by her five +small children, and she threw one of her arms around Reuben's neck; and +now commenced a scene that beggars all description. Her countenance, +though mild and beautiful, was by the keenest pain and sorrow distorted +and disfigured: her voice soft and gentle, accompanied with heart rending +gestures, appealed to the slave buyer in tones so very mournful, that I +thought it might have even melted cruelty itself to some pity--coming as +it did from a woman:--Oh! master, master! buy me and my children with my +husband--do, pray; and this was the only crime the poor woman committed +for which she suffered death on the spot. Her master stepped up from +behind her, and with the butt end of his carriage whip loaded with lead, +struck her a blow on the side of the head or temples, and she fell her +full length to the ground. Poor Reuben stooped to raise her up, but was +prevented by the jail policeman, who seized him by the neck and led him +over close to where I stood: and whilst he was in the act of selecting a +pair of handcuffs for Reuben, voice after voice was heard in the +crowd--she is dead! she is dead! But what was the effect of these words +upon Reuben--one of the most easy, good-tempered, innocent, inoffensive, +and, in his way, religious slaves that I ever knew--satisfied apparently +that Sally's death was a fact--he tore himself loose from the policeman +and made his way through the crowd to where poor Sally lay, and exclaimed, +Oh! Sally! O Lord! By this time the policeman, who had followed him, +undertook to drag him back out of the crowd, but Reuben, with one blow of +his fist, stretched the policeman on the ground. Reuben's pain and sorrow, +mingled with his religious hope, seemed now to terminate in despair, and +transformed the inoffensive man into a raging demon. He rushed to a cart +which supported a great number of spectators, just opposite the auction +block, and tore out a heavy cart stave, made of red oak, and before the +panic-stricken crowd could arrest his arm, he struck his master to the +ground, and beat his brains literally out. The crowd then tried to close +upon him, but Reuben, mounted with both feet upon the dead body of his +master, and with his back against the cart wheel--with the cart stave kept +the whole crowd at bay for the space of two or three minutes, when a +gentleman behind the cart climbed upon the outside wheel and fired the +pistol at him, and shot poor Reuben through the head. He fell dead about +six yards from where the dead body of his beloved Sally lay, and where his +children were screaming terribly. An indescribable thrill of horror crept +through my whole soul, as I gazed from the cart wheel to which I was +ironed, upon the dead bodies first of Reuben and then his wife, who but a +few moments before I had seen kneeling in solemn prayer, before what they +considered the Throne of Grace--and their master, whom I heard that very +morning calling on God not only to damn his negroes, but to damn himself, +now, in less than thirty minutes, all three standing before the awful +Judgment Seat. After witnessing this dreadful scene I was led into +Hagerstown jail, where I remained until my new master was ready, when I +went with him to Memphis, Tennessee; but the remembrance of this awful +tragedy haunted my mind, and even my dreams, for many months. + +Reuben was the son of old Uncle Reuben and Aunt Dinah, and had been +swopped away when about twelve years old to William Steele, for a pair of +horses and a splendid carriage. Like his father and mother he was very +religious, and I had often been to his prayer meetings, where poor Reuben +would exhort and preach. Mr. Cobb had made him a class-leader long before +he died; and, in fact, we all reverenced Reuben after the death of his +father as the most moderate and gifted man amongst us. I had always loved +Reuben, but never knew how much until that fatal day. After I went to +Memphis I composed some verses on the life and death of Reuben, which run +as follows:-- + + Poor Reuben he fell at his post, + He's gone; + Like Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, + Poor Reuben's gone away. + He's gone where pleasure never dies, + He's gone, + In the golden chariot to the skies, + Poor Reuben's gone away. + + For many years he faced the storm, + He's gone; + And the cruel lash he suffered long; + Poor Reuben's gone away. + But now he's left the land of death, + He's gone; + And entered heaven's happiness; + Poor Reuben's gone away. + + His friends he bid a long adieu, + He's gone; + When heaven opened to his view, + Poor Reuben's gone away; + His pain and sorrow of heart are passed, + He's gone; + He arrived in heaven just safe at last; + Poor Reuben's gone away. + + Poor Sally, his wife, lays by his side, + He's gone; + For whom poor Reuben so nobly died; + Poor Reuben's gone away; + A mournful look on her he cast, + He's gone, + Five minutes before he breathed his last, + Poor Reuben's gone away. + + In Jordan the angel heard him cry, + He's gone; + Elijah's chariot was passing by, + Poor Reuben's gone away; + His body lays in the earth quite cold, + He's gone, + But now he walks in the streets of gold, + Poor Reuben's gone away. + +After working in Tennessee three years and seven months, my master hired +me to Mr. Steele. This gentleman was going to New Orleans, and I was to +act as his servant, but I contrived to get away from him, and went to the +house of a free black, named Gibson, and after working four days on the +levy (or wharf) I succeeded in secreting myself in a ship, well supplied +by Mr. Gibson and friends with provisions, and in the middle hold under +the cotton I remained until the ship arrived at New York; my being there +was only known to two persons on board, the steward and the cook, both +colored persons. When the vessel was docked in the pier thirty-eight, +North river, I managed to make my way through the booby hatch on to the +deck, and was not seen by the watchman on board who supposed I was a +stranger, or what they call a "River Thief." I made a jump to escape over +the bow and fell into the river; but before he could raise an alarm, I had +reached the next dock, got out and made my way off as fast as possible. I +wandered about the streets until morning, not knowing where to go, during +which time my clothes had dried on my body. About ten o'clock in the +forenoon I met with a colored man named Grundy, who took me to his house, +and gave me something to eat, and enquired where I came from and where I +belonged; I hesitated about telling my true situation, but after +considerable conversation with him, I ventured to confide in him, and when +I had given him, all the particulars, he took me to the underground +Railway office and introduced me to the officials, who having heard my +story determined to send me to Canada, forty dollars being raised to find +me clothes, and pay my fare to Toronto, but I was only taken to Utica, in +the State of New York, where I agreed to stop with Mr. Cleveland and +coachman. + +In November I was sent to Post-street on an errand, where I saw my master, +who laid hold of me, and called to his aid a dozen more, when I was taken +before a magistrate, and that night I was placed in prison, and next day +brought before a court, and ordered to be given up to my master. I was +taken back to prison that afternoon, and irons placed on my ancles, and +hand-cuffed; but, previous to leaving, Mr. Cleveland and family came to +take a kind leave of me, and gave me religious advice and encouragement, +telling me to put my trust in the Lord, and I was much affected at his +little girl, who, when I was placed in the waggon screamed and cried as if +she would fall into fits, telling her father to have me brought back, for +these men intended to murder me. The waggon drove to the railway depot, +and I was placed in the cars, and at three o'clock we started for Buffalo, +where I was placed on the steam boat "Milwaukie," for Chicago, Illinois, +on Lake Erie. The next night I arrived in Cleveland, and was taken from +the boat, and placed in prison, until my master was ready to proceed. +While in prison a complaint was made that a fugitive slave was placed in +irons, contrary to the law of the state of Ohio, and after investigation, +my irons were ordered to be taken off. On the Monday following I was taken +on board the steam boat "Sultana" bound for Sandusky, Ohio, and on my way +there, the Black people, in large numbers, made an attempt to rescue me, +and so desperate was the attack, that several officers were wounded, and +the attempt failed. I was placed in the cabin, and at dinner time the +steam boat started, and had about half a mile to go before she got into +the lake, and, on the way, the captain came down to me, and cautiously +asked me if I could swim--I answered I could, when he told me to stand +close by a window, which he pointed out, and when the paddle wheels ceased +I must jump out. I stood ready, and as soon as the wheels ceased I made a +spring and jumped into the water, and after going a short distance, I +looked up and saw the captain standing on the promenade deck, who, when he +saw I was clear of the wheels, waved a signal for the engineer to start +the vessel. I had much difficulty in preventing myself from being drawn +back by the suction of the wheels, and before I had gone far I saw my +master and heard him shout, "Here, here, stop captain; yonder goes my +nigger," which was echoed by shouts from the passengers; but the boat +continued her course, while I made my way as fast as possible to Cleveland +lighthouse, where I arrived in safety, and received by an innumerable +company of both blacks and whites. I was then sent to a place called +Oberlin, where I remained a week, and from there I went to Zanesville, +Ohio, where I stopped for four months, when I was taken up on suspicion of +breaking the windows of a store, and while in prison I was seen by a Mr. +Donelson, who declared to the keeper that I belonged to him. I knew him +well as the father-in-law of Mr. Steel, with whom I travelled to New +Orleans. He was also a methodist minister. He had me discharged by paying +the damage, and making affidavit that I was his slave, I was placed in +prison, and kept in two weeks, when I was brought before the court for +trial; and Mr. Donelson procured papers showing that he had purchased me +as a runaway. I therefore saw it was of no use prolonging the matter, and +I acknowledged myself. I was then taken and put into the stage and taken +to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I was placed upon the steam boat, _Pike_, No. +3, to be taken to Louisville, Kentucky, and there placed in prison a week, +and on Thursday brought out to auction and sold to Mr. Silas Wheelbanks +for 1,050 dollars, with whom I remained about twelve months, and acted as +coachman and waiting in the house. Upon a Saturday evening, my master came +and told me to make my carriage and horses so that he could see his face +in them, and be ready to take my young mistress, Mary, down to +Centreville, to see her grandmother. So I prepared my horses and carriage, +and on Monday was ready. The lady got in, and when about seven miles I +drove into a blind road, distant about two miles from any house, where I +made the horses stand still, and I ordered Miss Mary to get out: and when +she asked me why, I thundered out at the top of my voice, "Get out, and +ask no questions." She commenced crying, and asked if I was going to kill +her. I said "No, if she made no noise," I helped her out, and having no +rope, I took her shawl and fastened her to a tree by the roadside; and for +fear she should untie the knot and spread the alarm, I took off her veil, +and with it tied her hands behind her. I then mounted the box, and drove +off in the direction of Lexington, and at a place called Elton I stripped +the horses of their harness and let them go. I made my way to Louisville +and arrived about 7 o'clock in the evening. I walked about the dock until +_Pike_ No. 3, the same vessel before spoken of, was nearly ready for +starting and I got a gentleman's trunk on my shoulder and went on board, +and when I had been paid six cents for carrying the trunk I watched a +chance, and jumped down the cotton hold and stowed myself away among the +cotton bags and the next day was in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I arrived +about daylight in the morning. I waited until the passangers had left the +boat and saw neither officer nor engineer about when I ventured to go on +shore. On starting up the hill I met my master's nephew, who at once +seized hold of me, and a sharp struggle ensued. He called for help but I +threw him and caught a stone and struck him on the head, which caused him +to let go, when I ran away as fast my legs could carry me, pursued by a +numerous crowd, crying "stop thief." I mounted a fence in the street, and +ran though an alley into an Irishman's yard, and through his house, +knocking over the Irishman's wife and child, and the chair on which she +sat, the husband at the time sat eating at the table, jumped into a cellar +on the opposite side of the street without being seen by any one, I made +my way into the back cellar and went up the chimney, where I sat till +dark, and at night came down and slept in the cellar. In the morning the +servant girl came down into the cellar, and when I saw she was black I +thought it would be best to make myself known to her, which I did, and she +told me I had better remain where I was and keep quiet, and she would go +and tell Mr. Nickins, one of the agents of the underground Railway. She +brought me down a bowl of coffee and some bread and meat, which I relished +very much, and that night she opened the cellar door gently, and called to +me to come out, and introduced me to Mr. Nickins and two others, who took +me to a house in Sixth street, where I remained until the next night, when +they dressed me in female's clothes, and I was taken to the railway depot +in a carriage--was put in the car, and sent to Cleveland, Ohio where I was +placed on board a steam boat called the _Indiana_, and carried down Lake +Erie to the city of Buffalo, New York, and the next day placed on the car +for the Niagara Falls, and received by a gentleman named Jones, who took +me in his carriage to a place called Lewiston, where I was placed on board +a steamboat called _Chief Justice Robinson_. I was furnished with a ticket +and twelve dollars. Three hours after starting I was in Toronto, Upper +Canada, where I lived for three years and sang my song of +deliverance,-- + + * * * * * + +WHAT THE "TIMES" SAID OF THE SECESSION IN 1861 + +(From the _Liverpool Daily Post_, Feb. 3, 1863.) + +The following article appeared as a "Leader" in the _Times_ on the 7th of +January, 1861:-- + +"The State of South Carolina has seceded from the Union by a unanimous +vote of her legislature, and it now remains to be seen whether any of the +other Southern States will follow her example, and what course the Federal +authorities will pursue under the circumstances. While we wait for further +information on these points, it may be well to consider once again the +cause of quarrel which has thus begun to rend asunder the mightiest +confederation which the world has yet beheld. One of the prevalent +delusions of the age in which we live is to regard democracy as equivalent +to liberty, and the attribution of power to the poorest and worst educated +citizens of the State as a certain way to promote the purest liberality of +thought and the most beneficial course of action. Let those who hold this +opinion examine the quarrel at present raging in the United States, and +they will be aware that democracy, like other forms of government, may +co-exist with any course of action or any set of principles. Between North +and South there is at this moment raging a controversy which goes as deep +as any controversy can into the elementary principles of human nature and +the sympathies and antipathies which in so many men supply the place of +reason and reflection. The North is for freedom, the South is for slavery. +The North is for freedom of discussion, the South represses freedom of +discussion with the tar-brush and the pine fagot. Yet the North and South +are both democracies--nay, possess almost exactly similar institutions, +with this enormous divergence in theory and practice. It is not democracy +that has made the North the advocate of freedom, or the South the advocate +of slavery. Democracy is a quality which appears on both sides, and may +therefore be rejected, as having no influence over the result. From the +sketch of the history of slavery which was furnished us by our +correspondent in New York last week, we learn that at the time of the +American Revolution slavery existed in every State in the Union except +Massachusetts; but we also learn that the great men who directed that +revolution--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, and +Hamilton--were unanimous in execrating the practice of slavery, and looked +forward to the time when it would cease to contaminate the soil of free +America. The abolition of the slave trade, which subsequently followed, +was regarded by its warmest advocates as not only beneficial in itself, +but as a long step towards the extinction of slavery altogether, it was +not foreseen that certain free and democratic communities would arise +which would apply themselves to the honourable office of breeding slaves, +to be consumed on the free and democratic plantations of the South, and of +thus replacing the African slave trade by an internal traffic in human +flesh, carried on under circumstances of almost equal atrocity through the +heart of a free and democratic nation. Democracy has verily a strong +digestion, and one not to be interfered with by trifles. + +"But the most melancholy part of the matter is, that during the seventy +years for which the American confederacy has existed, the whole tone of +sentiment with regard to slavery has, in the Southern States at least, +undergone a remarkable change. Slavery used to be treated as a thoroughly +exceptional institution--as an evil legacy of evil times--as a disgrace to +a constitution founded on the natural freedom and independence of mankind. +There was hardly a political leader of any note who had not some plan for +its abolition. Jefferson himself, the greatest chief of the democracy, had +in the early part of this century speculated deeply on the subject; but +the United States became possessed of Louisiana and Florida, they have +conquered Texas, they have made Arkansas and Missouri into States; and +these successive acquisitions have altered entirely the view with which +slavery is regarded. Perhaps as much as anything, from the long license +enjoyed by the editors of the South of writing what they pleased in favour +of slavery, with the absolute certainty that no one would be found bold +enough to write anything on the other side, and thus make himself a mark +for popular vengeance, the subject has come to be written on in a tone of +ferocious and cynical extravagance, which is to an European eye absolutely +appalling. The South has become enamoured of her shame. Free labour is +denounced as degrading and disgraceful; the honest triumphs of the poor +man who works his way to independence are treated with scorn and contempt. +It is asserted that what we are in the habit of regarding as the honorable +pursuits of industry incapacitate a nation for civilisation and +refinement, and that no institutions can be really free and democratic +which do not rest, like those of Athens and of Rome, on a broad substratum +of slavery. So far from treating slavery as an exceptional institution, it +is regarded by these Democratic philosophers as the natural state of a +great portion of the human race; and, so far from admitting that America +ought to look forward to its extinction, it is contended that the property +in human creatures ought to be as universal as the property in land or in +tame animals. + +"Nor have these principles been merely inert or speculative. For the last +ten or twelve years slavery has altered her tactics, and from a defensive +she has become an aggressive power. Every compromise which the moderation +of former times had erected to stem the course of this monster evil has +been swept away, and that not by the encroachments of the North, but by +the aggressive ambition of the South. With a majority in Congress and in +the Supreme Court of the United States, the advocates of slavery have +entered on a career the object of which would seem to be to make their +favourite institution conterminous with the limits of the Republic. They +have swept away the Missouri compromise, which limited slavery to the +tract south of 36 degrees of north latitude. They have forced upon the +North, in the Fugitive Slave Bill, a measure which compels them to lend +their assistance to the South in the recovery of their bondmen. In the +case of Kansas they have sought by force of arms to assert the right of +bringing slaves into a free territory, and in the Dred Scott case they +obtained an extrajudicial opinion from the Supreme Court, which would have +placed all the territories at their disposal. All this while the North has +been resisting, feebly and ineffectually, this succession of Southern +aggressions. All that was desired was peace, and that peace could not be +obtained. + +"While these things were done the South continued violently to upbraid the +Abolitionists of the North as the cause of all their troubles, and the +ladies of South Carolina showered presents and caresses on the brutal +assailant of Mr. Sumner. In 1856 the North endeavoured to elect a +President who though fully recognising the right of the South to its slave +property, was opposed to its extension in the territories. The North were +defeated, and submitted almost without a murmur to the result. On the +present occasion the South has submitted to the same ordeal, but not with +the same success. They have taken their chance of electing a President of +their own views, but they have failed. Mr. Lincoln, like Colonel Freemont, +fully recognises the right of the South to the institution of slavery, +but, like him, he is opposed to its extension. This cannot be endured. +With a majority in both houses of Congress and in the Supreme Court of the +United States, the South cannot submit to a President who is not their +devoted servant. Unless every power in the constitution is to be strained +in order to promote the progress of slavery, they will not remain in the +Union; they will not wait to see whether they are injured, but resent the +first check to their onward progress as an intolerable injury. This, then, +is the result of the history of slavery. It began as a tolerated, it has +ended as an aggressive institution, and if it now threatens to dissolve +the Union, it is not because it has anything to fear for that which it +possesses already, but because it has received a check to its hopes of +future acquisition." + + * * * * * + +SECESSION CONDEMNED IN A SOUTHERN CONVENTION. + +SPEECH + +Of the Hon. A.H. STEPHENS, made at the Georgia State Convention, held +January, 1861, for the purpose of determining whether the State of Georgia +was to secede. Notwithstanding this remarkable speech of an extraordinary +man, the Convention decided on secession. Mr. Stephens was afterwards +elected Vice President of the so-called Confederacy. This distinction +shows the estimate of his powers, and adds force to the deliverance, the +prophetic declarations of which are now being fulfilled to the letter. + +This step (of secession) once taken, can never be recalled; and all the +baleful and withering consequences that must follow, will rest on the +convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our +lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will +inevitably invite and call forth; when our green fields of waving harvests +shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war +sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the +horrors and desolations of war upon us; who, but this Convention will be +held responsible for it? and but him who shall have given his vote for +this unwise and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall +be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, +and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for +the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now +propose to perpetrate? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment +what reason you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer +moments--what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in this +calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the +nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate +judges in the case? and what cause or one overt act can you name or point, +on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North +assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has +been denied? and what claim founded in justice and right has been +withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong +deliberately and purposely done by the government of Washington, of which +the South has a right to complain? I challenge the answer. While, on the +other hand, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not +here the advocate of the North; but I am here the friend, the firm friend +and lover of the South and her institutions; and for this reason I speak +thus plainly and faithfully--for yours, mine, and every other man's +interest--the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge; +and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now +stand as records authentic in the history of our country. When we of the +South demanded the slave trade or importation of Africans for the +cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? +When we asked a three-fifths representation in congress for our slaves was +it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from +justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor and allegiance, was +it not incorporated in the constitution, and again ratified and +strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. But do you reply that in +many instances they have violated this compact and have not been faithful +to their engagements? As individual and local communities they may have +done so; but not by the sanction of government for that has always been +true to Southern interest. Again, gentleman, look at another fact, when we +have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the +institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us +Louisiana, Florida, and Texas out of which four States have been carved +and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you by this +unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope and perhaps, by it lose +all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as +South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal +emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow. But, again, +gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to +the general government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, +if we remain in it and are as united as we have been. We have had a +majority of the presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control +and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty +years of Southern presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the +executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had +eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly +four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a +majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have +required so as to guard against any interpretation of the constitution +unfavourable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard +our interests in the legislative branch of government. In choosing the +presiding president (_pro. tem._) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four +to their eleven. Speakers of the house we have had twenty-three, and they +twelve. While the majority of the representatives, from their greater +population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally +secured the speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and controls +the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every +other department of the general government. Attorney-Generals we have had +fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had +eighty-six and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business +which demands diplomatic agents abroard is clearly from the Free States, +from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal +embassies, so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, +and sugar on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the +higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the +soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, +auditors, and comptrollers filling the executive department, the records +show for the last fifty years that of the three thousand thus employed, we +have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of +the white population of the republic. Again, look at another item, and +one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that +of revenue, or means of supporting government. From official documents we +learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the +support of government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now +while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these +important items. Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless +millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North; with tens of +thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as +sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition--and for what? we ask again. Is +it for the overthrow of the American government, established by our common +ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on +the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity? And, as such, I must +declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by +the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, +that it is the best and freest government--the most equal in its rights, +the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the +most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun +of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a +government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters +of a century--in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a +nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, +with peace and tranquility accompanied with unbounded prosperity and +rights unassailed--is the height of _madness_, _folly_, and _wickedness_, +to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote. + + * * * * * + + +THE CONFEDERATE AND THE SCOTTISH CLERGY ON SLAVERY. + + +Some three months ago, we published an "Address to Christians throughout +the world," by "the clergy of the Confederate States of America;" and +yesterday we published a reply to that address, signed by nearly a +thousand ministers of the various Churches in Scotland. The Confederate +address begins with a solemn declaration that its scope is not political +but purely religious--that it is sent forth "in the name of our Holy +Christianity," and in the interests of "the cause of our most Blessed +Master." Immediately after making this declaration, however, the +Confederate divines commence a long series of arguments designed to prove +that the war cannot restore the Union; that the Southern States had a +right to secede; that having seceded, their separation from the North is +final; that the proclamation of PRESIDENT LINCOLN, seeking to free the +slaves is a most horrible and wicked measure, calling for "solemn protest +on the part of the people of GOD throughout the world;" that the war +against the Confederacy has made no progress; and there seems no +likelihood of the United States accomplishing any good by its continuance. +This may be esteemed good gospel teaching in the Confederate States, but +in this country it would be thought to have very little connection with +"the cause of our most Blessed Master." But the Southern clergymen reserve +for the close of their address the defence of the grand dogma of their +religion--the doctrine that negro slavery as carried out in the Southern +States of America "is not incompatible with our holy Christianity." +Stupendous as this proposition may appear to the British mind, it offers +no difficulty to these learned and pious men. Nay, they are not only +convinced that slavery is "not incompatible" with Christianity, but they +boldly affirm that it is a divinely established institution, designed to +promote the temporal happiness and eternal salvation of the negro race, +and that all efforts to bring about the abolition of slavery are +sacrilegious attempts to interfere with the "plans of Divine Providence." +"We testify in the sight of GOD," say the clergy of the Confederate +States, "that the relation of master and slave among us, however we may +deplore abuses in this, as in any other relations of mankind, is not +incompatible with our holy Christianity, and that the presence of the +Africans in our land is an occasion of gratitude on their behalf before +_God_; seeing that thereby Divine Providence has brought them where +missionaries of the cross may freely proclaim to them the word of +salvation, and the work is not interrupted by agitating fanaticism. * * * +We regard Abolitionism as an interference with the plans of Divine +Providence. It has not the signs of the Lord's blessing. It is a +fanaticism which puts forth no good fruit; instead of blessing, it has +brought forth cursing; instead of love, hatred, instead of life, +death--bitterness and sorrow, and pain; and infidelity and moral +degeneracy follow its labours." There is no shirking of the question here. +Slavery is proclaimed to be the GOD-appointed means for the regeneration +of the African race, and those who seek to bring about the emancipation of +the slaves are branded as apostles of infidelity. Upon these grounds, the +confederate clergy appeal to Christians throughout the world to aid them +in creating a sentiment against this war--"against persecution for +conscience' sake, against the ravaging of the church of GOD by fanatical +invasion." + +In their reply to this appeal, the Scottish ministers do what the +Confederate ministers professed their intention of doing--they avoid every +thing in the shape of political discussion. Among those gentlemen there is +no doubt considerable difference of opinion respecting the two parties in +the civil war; but they say nothing of that, and address themselves +exclusively to the question of slavery. Happily, there is no difference of +opinion upon that point among men who take upon themselves the high office +of preaching God's word in this country. The Scottish Ministers, in +powerful and manly language, express the "deep grief, alarm, and +indignation" with which they have seen men who profess to be servants of +the Lord Jesus Christ defend slavery as a Christian institution, worthy of +being perpetuated and extended, not only without regret, but with entire +satisfaction and approval. "Against all this," say they, "in the name of +that holy faith and that thrice holy name which they venture to invoke on +the side of a system which treats immortal and redeemed men as goods and +chattels, denies them the rights of marriage and of home, consigns them to +ignorance of the first rudiments of education, and exposes them to the +outrages of lust and passion--we must earnestly and emphatically protest." +We believe that this is the answer of the whole British community to the +appeal of the Confederate clergy. However much the public sentiment may +have been misled respecting the rights and the wrongs of the two parties +in the war, it cannot but be sound at the core on the subject of slavery. +There are many thousands of people who have not the slightest sympathy +with slavery, and who yet sympathise with the slave-owners because they +have a vague impression that the Southerners are brave gentlemen and the +Northerners base mechanics. They have managed by some strange process to +separate the cause of slavery from the cause of the slaveowner, and while +they rejoice at every success which tends towards the establishment of a +confederacy which is to have slavery as the "head stone of the corner," +they continue to pray as fervently as ever that the fetters of the slaves +may be broken. All such people--and they constitute the mass of the +Southern sympathisers in this country--must be ready to repudiate with the +sternest indignation this attempt to connect the holy religion of Christ +with the most horrible oppression which the cruelty and cupidity of man +ever created. + +But it is not enough that the Confederate defence of slavery should be +rejected. It was proper that the Scottish ministers of religion should +deal only with the religious aspect of the question, but it is the duty of +every man who feels that he has any influence in the world--and there is +no man who has not some--to study the political lessons which the address +affords. There can be no doubt that the appeal expresses the genuine +sentiment of the Southern States, softened down by whatever softening +influence there may be in their peculiar kind of Christianity, and shaped +to offend as little as possible the prejudices of British readers. And +what does it show us? Does it show us that emancipation is more likely to +follow from the success of the Southern society which assumes to be at the +helm of all schemes of religion and philanthropy, not only has no desire +to put an end to slavery, but regards it in such a light that it will be +its duty _to extend it as much as possible_. The Southern clergy say that +the relation of master and slave is "not incompatible with our holy +Christianity;" why, therefore, should they seek to get rid of it? From a +thousand pulpits this language will be sent forth week after week, and it +is clear that the religion of the Confederate States will be employed only +to convince the slaveowner that he is doing perfectly right in +perpetuating a system which enables him to buy men and women as chattels, +and to obtain command of human bodies and minds at the prices current of +the market. Then, the Southern clergy think it a cause for gratitude to +God on behalf of the negroes "that He has brought them where missionaries +of the Cross might freely proclaim to them the word of salvation." Will it +not, therefore, be the duty of the Southern clergy to extend those +blessings to new millions of Africans, and thus carry out the "plans of +Divine Providence?" Is the whole tendency of this argument not to elevate +the horrible trade of the slave-catcher to the same high level with the +noble office of the missionary? Proclaiming as they do that the capture of +Africans and their removal into slavery in the Southern States is God's +own missionary plan, the Confederate clergy and people will consider it as +much their duty to equip slave-ships with cargoes of manacles and send +them forth accompanied by the prayers of the churches, as it is now our +duty to send forth missionary-ships laden with Bibles and preachers of the +gospel. Then the heathen world will know what missionary Christianity +really is. Thousand of Africans, caught on the west coast, will be torn +from their families and taken chained on board ship; should they survive +the horrors of the passage, they will be set to hard work under laws which +permit of almost any degree of corporeal punishment and which deprive them +of all the rights of men; and they will be told to thank GOD who has +brought them into the blessed light of the Gospel! Let not the man who +cannot reconcile his sympathies in the American struggle with his +convictions on the question of slavery pooh-pooh this as an extravagant +fancy picture of something that never can occur. It is exactly the +missionary scheme which the Confederate clergy call "the plan of Divine +Providence;" and supposing a powerful Southern Confederacy to be +established, what is to prevent its being accomplished? Not the religious +and philanthropic feelings of the Confederates; for the religious and +philanthropic feelings of the confederates are all for a revival of the +slave trade. Not treaties concluded with foreign nations; for a people +holding such sentiments could never make a treaty shutting themselves out +from the most promising field of missionary labour; or if forced by +circumstances to conclude it, their religious convictions would urge them +to break it at any moment. In fact, were a powerful nationality once +established, with interests and religious convictions all pointing in the +way of reviving the slave trade, it would be utterly impossible to prevent +a resumption of that abominable traffic. + +We have dealt with the professed convictions of the Southern ministers as +sincere convictions. We should be sorry to accuse any body of men +professing to be teachers of the Christian religion of intentional +insincerity, and although we can hardly conceive the possibility of men +who base their religion upon the same Bible upon which we rest ours, +attempting sincerely to justify slavery upon religious grounds, we would +rather attribute the extraordinary moral obliquity which the attempt +exhibits to the demoralising influence of the slave system than to actual +hypocrisy. The spectacle of a crowd of learned and no doubt pious men +standing forth as the avowed apologists of a system which deprives their +fellow-men of all the rights of humanity is, perhaps, the most distressing +evidence of its blighting and blinding influence which has yet been +exhibited to the world. It ought to have its effect. As we have said, it +is the duty of every man to study the lessons which this address of the +Confederate clergy has for him. If his sympathy and influence be given to +the Confederates, let him understand the nature of the cause he is aiding. +Let him learn from the statement of the Confederates themselves that their +cause is the cause of slavery, and that they look forward to the +perpetuation and extension of slavery as the prize of success. + + * * * * * + + +SLAVERY AND LIBERTY. + + I'm on my way to Canada, + That dark and dreary land; + Oh! the dread effects of slavery + I can no longer stand. + My soul is vexed within me so + To think I am a slave, + Resolved I am to strike the blow, + For freedom or the grave. + + CHORUS + Oh, Righteous Father! + Wilt thou not pity me, + And help me on to Canada, + Where coloured men are free. + + I've served my master all my days, + Without one dimes' reward, + And now I'm forced to run away, + To flee the lash and rod. + The hounds are baying on my track, + And master just behind, + Resolved that he will bring me back + Before I cross the line. + + Old master went to preach one day, + Next day he looked for me; + I greased my heels and ran away, + For the land of liberty. + I dreamt I saw the British Queen + Majestic on the shore; + If e'er I reach old Canada, + I will come back no more. + + I heard that Queen Victoria said, + If we would all forsake + Our native land of Slavery, + And come across the lake: + That she was standing on the shore + With arms extended wide, + To give us all a peaceful home + Beyond the swelling tide. + + I heard old master pray one night, + That night he prayed for me, + That God would come with all his might, + From Satan set me free. + So I from Satan would escape + And flee the wrath to come, + If there's a fiend in human shape, + Old master must be one. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of the Life of J.D. 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