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From the introduction +of slaves in 1620, down to the period of the separation of the +Colonies from the British Crown, the number had increased to five +hundred thousand; now there are nearly four million. In fifteen +of the thirty-one States, Slavery is made lawful by the +Constitution, which binds the several States into one +confederacy. + +On every foot of soil, over which Stars and Stripes wave, the +Negro is considered common property, on which any white man may +lay his hand with perfect impunity. The entire white population +of the United States, North and South, are bound by their oath to +the constitution, and their adhesion to the Fugitive Slaver Law, +to hunt down the runaway slave and return him to his claimant, +and to suppress any effort that may be made by the slaves to gain +their freedom by physical force. Twenty-five millions of whites +have banded themselves in solemn conclave to keep four millions of +blacks in their chains. In all grades of society are to be found +men who either hold, buy, or sell slaves, from the statesmen and +doctors of divinity, who can own their hundreds, down to the +person who can purchase but one. + +Were it not for persons in high places owning slaves, and thereby +giving the system a reputation, and especially professed +Christians, Slavery would long since have been abolished. The +influence of the great "honours the corruption, and chastisement +doth therefore hide his head." The great aim of the true friends +of the slave should be to lay bare the institution, so that the +gaze of the world may be upon it, and cause the wise, the prudent, +and the pious to withdraw their support from it, and leave it to +its own fate. It does the cause of emancipation but little good +to cry out in tones of execration against the traders, the +kidnappers, the hireling overseers, and brutal drivers, so long +as nothing is said to fasten the guilt on those who move in a +higher circle. + +The fact that slavery was introduced into the American colonies, +while they were under the control of the British Crown, is a +sufficient reason why Englishmen should feel a lively interest in +its abolition; and now that the genius of mechanical invention has +brought the two countries so near together, and both having one +language and one literature, the influence of British public +opinion is very great on the people of the New World. + +If the incidents set forth in the following pages should add +anything new to the information already given to the Public +through similar publications, and should thereby aid in bringing +British influence to bear upon American slavery, the main object +for which this work was written will have been accomplished. + + +W. WELLS BROWN + +22, Cecil Street, Strand, London. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR + +THE NEGRO SALE + +GOING TO THE SOUTH + +THE NEGRO CHASE + +THE QUADROON'S HOME + +THE SLAVE MASTER + +THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER + +THE POOR WHITES, SOUTH + +THE SEPARATION + +THE MAN OP HONOUR + +THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN + +THE PARSON POET + +A NIGHT IN THE PARSON'S KITCHEN + +A SLAVE HUNT + +A FREE WOMAN REDUCED TO SLAVERY + +TO-DAY A MISTRESS, TO-MORROW A SLAVE + +DEATH OF THE PARSON + +RETALIATION + +THE LIBERATOR + +ESCAPE OF CLOTEL + +A TRUE DEMOCRAT + +THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH + +A RIDE IN A STAGE COACH + +TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + +DEATH IS FREEDOM + +THE ESCAPE + +THE MYSTERY + +THE HAPPY MEETING + +CONCLUSION + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NEGRO SALE + +"Why stands she near the auction stand, + That girl so young and fair? +What brings her to this dismal place, + Why stands she weeping there?" + +WITH the growing population of slaves in the Southern States of +America, there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of +whose fathers are slaveowners and their mothers slaves. Society +does not frown upon the man who sits with his mulatto child upon +his knee, whilst its mother stands a slave behind his chair. The +late Henry Clay, some years since, predicted that the abolition +of Negro slavery would be brought about by the amalgamation of +the races. John Randolph, a distinguished slaveholder of +Virginia, and a prominent statesman, said in a speech in the +legislature of his native state, that "the blood of the first +American statesmen coursed through the veins of the slave of the +South." In all the cities and towns of the slave states, the real +Negro, or clear black, does not amount to more than one in every +four of the slave population. This fact is, of itself, the best +evidence of the degraded and immoral condition of the relation of +master and slave in the United States of America. In all the +slave states, the law says:--"Slaves shall be deemed, sold [held], +taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the +hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, +administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and +purposes whatsoever. A slave is one who is in the power of a +master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of +his person, his industry, and his labour. He can do nothing, +possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to +his master. The slave is entirely subject to the will of his +master, who may correct and chastise him, though not with unusual +rigour, or so as to maim and mutilate him, or expose him to the +danger of loss of life, or to cause his death. The slave, to +remain a slave, must be sensible that there is no appeal from his +master." Where the slave is placed by law entirely under the +control of the man who claims him, body and soul, as property, +what else could be expected than the most depraved social +condition? The marriage relation, the oldest and most sacred +institution given to man by his Creator, is unknown and +unrecognised in the slave laws of the United States. Would that +we could say, that the moral and religious teaching in the slave +states were better than the laws; but, alas! we cannot. A few +years since, some slaveholders became a little uneasy in their +minds about the rightfulness of permitting slaves to take to +themselves husbands and wives, while they still had others +living, and applied to their religious teachers for advice; and +the following will show how this grave and important subject was +treated:-- + +"Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her +master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again?" + +The query was referred to a committee, who made the following +report; which, after discussion, was adopted:-- + +"That, in view of the circumstances in which servants in this +country are placed, the committee are unanimous in the opinion, +that it is better to permit servants thus circumstanced to take +another husband or wife." + +Such was the answer from a committee of the "Shiloh Baptist +Association;" and instead of receiving light, those who asked the +question were plunged into deeper darkness! A similar question +was put to the "Savannah River Association," and the answer, as +the following will show, did not materially differ from the one +we have already given:-- + +"Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character +as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties +ought to be allowed to marry again." + +Answer:-- + +"That such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is +civilly a separation by death; and they believe that, in the +sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages +in such cases would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger +hardships and strong temptation, but to church-censure for acting +in obedience to their masters, who cannot be expected to +acquiesce in a regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, +and to the spirit of that command which regulates marriage among +Christians. The slaves are not free agents; and a dissolution by +death is not more entirely without their consent, and beyond their +control than by such separation." + +Although marriage, as the above indicates, is a matter which the +slaveholders do not think is of any importance, or of any binding +force with their slaves; yet it would be doing that degraded +class an injustice, not to acknowledge that many of them do +regard it as a sacred obligation, and show a willingness to obey +the commands of God on this subject. Marriage is, indeed, the +first and most important institution of human existence--the +foundation of all civilisation and culture--the root of church +and state. It is the most intimate covenant of heart formed +among mankind; and for many persons the only relation in which +they feel the true sentiments of humanity. It gives scope for +every human virtue, since each of these is developed from the +love and confidence which here predominate. It unites all which +ennobles and beautifies life,--sympathy, kindness of will and +deed, gratitude, devotion, and every delicate, intimate feeling. +As the only asylum for true education, it is the first and last +sanctuary of human culture. As husband and wife, through each +other become conscious of complete humanity, and every human +feeling, and every human virtue; so children, at their first +awakening in the fond covenant of love between parents, both of +whom are tenderly concerned for the same object, find an image of +complete humanity leagued in free love. The spirit of love which +prevails between them acts with creative power upon the young +mind, and awakens every germ of goodness within it. This +invisible and incalculable influence of parental life acts more +upon the child than all the efforts of education, whether by +means of instruction, precept, or exhortation. If this be a true +picture of the vast influence for good of the institution of +marriage, what must be the moral degradation of that people to +whom marriage is denied? Not content with depriving them of all +the higher and holier enjoyments of this relation, by degrading +and darkening their souls, the slaveholder denies to his victim +even that slight alleviation of his misery, which would result +from the marriage relation being protected by law and public +opinion. Such is the influence of slavery in the United States, +that the ministers of religion, even in the so-called free +states, are the mere echoes, instead of the correctors, of public +sentiment. We have thought it advisable to show that the present +system of chattel slavery in America undermines the entire social +condition of man, so as to prepare the reader for the following +narrative of slave life, in that otherwise happy and prosperous +country. + +In all the large towns in the Southern States, there is a class +of slaves who are permitted to hire their time of their owners, +and for which they pay a high price. These are mulatto women, or +quadroons, as they are familiarly known, and are distinguished +for their fascinating beauty. The handsomest usually pays the +highest price for her time. Many of these women are the +favourites of persons who furnish them with the means of paying +their owners, and not a few are dressed in the most extravagant +manner. Reader, when you take into consideration the fact, that +amongst the slave population no safeguard is thrown around +virtue, and no inducement held out to slave women to be chaste, +you will not be surprised when we tell you that immorality and +vice pervade the cities of the Southern States in a manner +unknown in the cities and towns of the Northern States. Indeed +most of the slave women have no higher aspiration than that of +becoming the finely-dressed mistress of some white man. And at +Negro balls and parties, this class of women usually cut the +greatest figure. + +At the close of the year, the following advertisement appeared in a +newspaper published in Richmond, the capital of the state of +Virginia:--"Notice: Thirty-eight Negroes will be offered for sale +on Monday, November 10th, at twelve o'clock, being the entire +stock of the late John Graves, Esq. The Negroes are in good +condition, some of them very prime; among them are several +mechanics, able-bodied field hands, ploughboys, and women with +children at the breast, and some of them very prolific in their +generating qualities, affording a rare opportunity to any one who +wishes to raise a strong and healthy lot of servants for their +own use. Also several mulatto girls of rare personal qualities: +two of them very superior. Any gentleman or lady wishing to +purchase, can take any of the above slaves on trial for a week, +for which no charge will be made." Amongst the above slaves to be +sold were Currer and her two daughters, Clotel and Althesa; the +latter were the girls spoken of in the advertisement as "very +superior." Currer was a bright mulatto, and of prepossessing +appearance, though then nearly forty years of age. She had hired +her time for more than twenty years, during which time she had +lived in Richmond. In her younger days Currer had been the +housekeeper of a young slaveholder; but of later years had been a +laundress or washerwoman, and was considered to be a woman of +great taste in getting up linen. The gentleman for whom she had +kept house was Thomas Jefferson, by whom she had two daughters. +Jefferson being called to Washington to fill a government +appointment, Currer was left behind, and thus she took herself to +the business of washing, by which means she paid her master, Mr. +Graves, and supported herself and two children. At the time of the +decease of her master, Currer's daughters, Clotel and Althesa, +were aged respectively sixteen and fourteen years, and both, like +most of their own sex in America, were well grown. Currer early +resolved to bring her daughters up as ladies, as she termed it, +and therefore imposed little or no work upon them. As her +daughters grew older, Currer had to pay a stipulated price for +them; yet her notoriety as a laundress of the first class enabled +her to put an extra price upon her charges, and thus she and her +daughters lived in comparative luxury. To bring up Clotel and +Althesa to attract attention, and especially at balls and +parties, was the great aim of Currer. Although the term "Negro +ball" is applied to most of these gatherings, yet a majority of +the attendants are often whites. Nearly all the Negro parties in +the cities and towns of the Southern States are made up of +quadroon and mulatto girls, and white men. These are democratic +gatherings, where gentlemen, shopkeepers, and their clerks, all +appear upon terms of perfect equality. And there is a degree of +gentility and decorum in these companies that is not surpassed by +similar gatherings of white people in the Slave States. It was at +one of these parties that Horatio Green, the son of a wealthy +gentleman of Richmond, was first introduced to Clotel. The young +man had just returned from college, and was in his twenty-second +year. Clotel was sixteen, and was admitted by all to be the most +beautiful girl, coloured or white, in the city. So attentive was +the young man to the quadroon during the evening that it was +noticed by all, and became a matter of general conversation; +while Currer appeared delighted beyond measure at her daughter's +conquest. From that evening, young Green became the favourite +visitor at Currer's house. He soon promised to purchase Clotel, as +speedily as it could be effected, and make her mistress of her +own dwelling; and Currer looked forward with pride to the time +when she should see her daughter emancipated and free. It was a +beautiful moonlight night in August, when all who reside in +tropical climes are eagerly gasping for a breath of fresh air, +that Horatio Green was seated in the small garden behind Currer's +cottage, with the object of his affections by his side. And it +was here that Horatio drew from his pocket the newspaper, wet from +the press, and read the advertisement for the sale of the slaves +to which we have alluded; Currer and her two daughters being of +the number. At the close of the evening's visit, and as the young +man was leaving, he said to the girl, "You shall soon be free and +your own mistress." + +As might have been expected, the day of sale brought an unusual +large number together to compete for the property to be sold. +Farmers who make a business of raising slaves for the market were +there; slave-traders and speculators were also numerously +represented; and in the midst of this throng was one who felt a +deeper interest in the result of the sale than any other of the +bystanders; this was young Green. True to his promise, he was +there with a blank bank check in his pocket, awaiting with +impatience to enter the list as a bidder for the beautiful slave. +The less valuable slaves were first placed upon the auction +block, one after another, and sold to the highest bidder. +Husbands and wives were separated with a degree of indifference +that is unknown in any other relation of life, except that of +slavery. Brothers and sisters were torn from each other; and +mothers saw their children leave them for the last time on this +earth. + +It was late in the day, when the greatest number of persons were +thought to be present, that Currer and her daughters were brought +forward to the place of sale.--Currer was first ordered to ascend +the auction stand, which she did with a trembling step. The slave +mother was sold to a trader. Althesa, the youngest, and who was +scarcely less beautiful than her sister, was sold to the same +trader for one thousand dollars. Clotel was the last, and, as was +expected, commanded a higher price than any that had been offered +for sale that day. The appearance of Clotel on the auction block +created a deep sensation amongst the crowd. There she stood, with +a complexion as white as most of those who were waiting with a +wish to become her purchasers; her features as finely defined as +any of her sex of pure Anglo-Saxon; her long black wavy hair done +up in the neatest manner; her form tall and graceful, and her +whole appearance indicating one superior to her position. The +auctioneer commenced by saying, that "Miss Clotel had been +reserved for the last, because she was the most valuable. How +much, gentlemen? Real Albino, fit for a fancy girl for any one. +She enjoys good health, and has a sweet temper. How much do you +say?" "Five hundred dollars." "Only five hundred for such a girl +as this? Gentlemen, she is worth a deal more than that sum; you +certainly don't know the value of the article you are bidding +upon. Here, gentlemen, I hold in my hand a paper certifying that +she has a good moral character." "Seven hundred." "Ah; gentlemen, +that is something like. This paper also states that she is very +intelligent." "Eight hundred." "She is a devoted Christian, and +perfectly trustworthy." "Nine hundred." "Nine fifty." "Ten." +"Eleven." "Twelve hundred." Here the sale came to a dead stand. +The auctioneer stopped, looked around, and began in a rough +manner to relate some anecdotes relative to the sale of slaves, +which, he said, had come under his own observation. At this +juncture the scene was indeed strange. Laughing, joking, +swearing, smoking, spitting, and talking kept up a continual hum +and noise amongst the crowd; while the slave-girl stood with +tears in her eyes, at one time looking towards her mother and +sister, and at another towards the young man whom she hoped would +become her purchaser. "The chastity of this girl is pure; she has +never been from under her mother's care; she is a virtuous +creature." "Thirteen." "Fourteen." "Fifteen." "Fifteen hundred +dollars," cried the auctioneer, and the maiden was struck for +that sum. This was a Southern auction, at which the bones, +muscles, sinews, blood, and nerves of a young lady of sixteen +were sold for five hundred dollars; her moral character for two +hundred; her improved intellect for one hundred; her +Christianity for three hundred; and her chastity and virtue for +four hundred dollars more. And this, too, in a city thronged with +churches, whose tall spires look like so many signals pointing to +heaven, and whose ministers preach that slavery is a God-ordained +institution! What words can tell the inhumanity, the atrocity, +and the immorality of that doctrine which, from exalted office, +commends such a crime to the favour of enlightened and Christian +people? What indignation from all the world is not due to the +government and people who put forth all their strength and power +to keep in existence such an institution? Nature abhors it; the +age repels it; and Christianity needs all her meekness to forgive +it. Clotel was sold for fifteen hundred dollars, but her purchaser +was Horatio Green. Thus closed a Negro sale, at which two +daughters of Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of +American Independence, and one of the presidents of the great +republic, were disposed of to the highest bidder! + + "O God! my every heart-string cries, + Dost thou these scenes behold + In this our boasted Christian land, + And must the truth be told? + + "Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark, + Untutored heathen see + Thy inconsistency; and, lo! + They scorn thy God, and thee!" + + + +CHAPTER II + +GOING TO THE SOUTH + + "My country, shall thy honoured name, + Be as a bye-word through the world? + Rouse! for, as if to blast thy fame, + This keen reproach is at thee hurled; + The banner that above the waves, + Is floating o'er three million slaves." + +DICK WALKER, the slave speculator, who had purchased Currer and +Althesa, put them in prison until his gang was made up, and then, +with his forty slaves, started for the New Orleans market. As +many of the slaves had been brought up in Richmond, and had +relations residing there, the slave trader determined to leave +the city early in the morning, so as not to witness any of those +scenes so common where slaves are separated from their relatives +and friends, when about departing for the Southern market. This +plan was successful; for not even Clotel, who had been every day +at the prison to see her mother and sister, knew of their +departure. A march of eight days through the interior of the +state, and they arrived on the banks of the Ohio river, where +they were all put on board a steamer, and then speedily sailed +for the place of their destination. + +Walker had already advertised in the New Orleans papers, that he +would be there at a stated time with "a prime lot of able bodied +slaves ready for field service; together with a few extra ones, +between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five." But, like most who +make a business of buying and selling slaves for gain, he often +bought some who were far advanced in years, and would always try +to sell them for five or ten years younger than they actually +were. Few persons can arrive at anything like the age of a Negro, +by mere observation, unless they are well acquainted with the +race. Therefore the slave-trader very frequently carried out this +deception with perfect impunity. After the steamer had left the +wharf, and was fairly on the bosom of the Father of Waters, +Walker called his servant Pompey to him, and instructed him as to +"getting the Negroes ready for market." Amongst the forty Negroes +were several whose appearance indicated that they had seen some +years, and had gone through some services. Their grey hair and +whiskers at once pronounced them to be above the ages set down in +the trader's advertisement. Pompey had long been with the trader, +and knew his business; and if he did not take delight in +discharging his duty, he did it with a degree of alacrity, so +that he might receive the approbation of his master. "Pomp," as +Walker usually called him, was of real Negro blood, and would +often say, when alluding to himself, "Dis nigger is no countefit; +he is de genewine artekil." Pompey was of low stature, round +face, and, like most of his race, had a set of teeth, which for +whiteness and beauty could not be surpassed; his eyes large, lips +thick, and hair short and woolly. Pompey had been with Walker so +long, and had seen so much of the buying and selling of slaves, +that he appeared perfectly indifferent to the heartrending scenes +which daily occurred in his presence. It was on the second day of +the steamer's voyage that Pompey selected five of the old slaves, +took them in a room by themselves, and commenced preparing them +for the market. "Well," said Pompey, addressing himself to the +company, "I is de gentman dat is to get you ready, so dat you +will bring marser a good price in de Orleans market. How old is +you?" addressing himself to a man who, from appearance, was not +less than forty. + +"If I live to see next corn-planting time I will either be +forty-five or fifty-five, I don't know which." + +"Dat may be," replied Pompey; "But now you is only thirty years +old; dat is what marser says you is to be." + +"I know I is more den dat," responded the man. + +"I knows nothing about dat," said Pompey; "but when you get in de +market, an anybody axe you how old you is, an you tell 'em +forty-five, marser will tie you up an gib you de whip like smoke. +But if you tell 'em dat you is only thirty, den he wont." + +"Well den, I guess I will only be thirty when dey axe me," +replied the chattel. + +"What your name?" inquired Pompey. + +"Geemes," answered the man. + +"Oh, Uncle Jim, is it?" + +"Yes." + +"Den you must have off dem dare whiskers of yours, an when you +get to Orleans you must grease dat face an make it look shiney." +This was all said by Pompey in a manner which clearly showed that +he knew what he was about. + +"How old is you?" asked Pompey of a tall, strong-looking man. + +"I was twenty-nine last potato-digging time," said the man. + +"What's your name?" + +"My name is Tobias, but dey call me 'Toby.'" + +"Well, Toby, or Mr. Tobias, if dat will suit you better, you is +now twenty-three years old, an no more. Dus you hear dat?" + +"Yes," responded Toby. + +Pompey gave each to understand how old he was to be when asked by +persons who wished to purchase, and then reported to his master +that the "old boys" were all right. At eight o'clock on the +evening of the third day, the lights of another steamer were seen +in the distance, and apparently coming up very fast. This was a +signal for a general commotion on the Patriot, and everything +indicated that a steamboat race was at hand. Nothing can exceed +the excitement attendant upon a steamboat race on the Mississippi +river. By the time the boats had reached Memphis, they were side +by side, and each exerting itself to keep the ascendancy in point +of speed. The night was clear, the moon shining brightly, and the +boats so near to each other that the passengers were calling out +from one boat to the other. On board the Patriot, the firemen +were using oil, lard, butter, and even bacon, with the wood, for +the purpose of raising the steam to its highest pitch. The blaze, +mingled with the black smoke, showed plainly that the other boat +was burning more than wood. The two boats soon locked, so that +the hands of the boats were passing from vessel to vessel, and +the wildest excitement prevailed throughout amongst both +passengers and crew. At this moment the engineer of the Patriot +was seen to fasten down the safety-valve, so that no steam should +escape. This was, indeed, a dangerous resort. A few of the boat +hands who saw what had taken place, left that end of the boat for +more secure quarters. + +The Patriot stopped to take in passengers, and still no steam was +permitted to escape. At the starting of the boat cold water was +forced into the boilers by the machinery, and, as might have been +expected, one of the boilers immediately exploded. One dense fog +of steam filled every part of the vessel, while shrieks, groans, +and cries were heard on every hand. The saloons and cabins soon +had the appearance of a hospital. By this time the boat had +landed, and the Columbia, the other boat, had come alongside to +render assistance to the disabled steamer. The killed and scalded +(nineteen in number) were put on shore, and the Patriot, taken in +tow by the Columbia, was soon again on its way. + +It was now twelve o'clock at night, and instead of the passengers +being asleep the majority were ambling in the saloons. Thousands +of dollars change hands during a passage from Louisville or St. +Louis to New Orleans on a Mississippi steamer, and many men, and +even ladies, are completely ruined. + +"Go call my boy, steward," said Mr. Smith, as he took his cards +one by one from the table. In a few moments a fine looking, +bright-eyed mulatto boy, apparently about fifteen years of age, +was standing by his master's side at the table. "I will see you, +and five hundred dollars better," said Smith, as his servant +Jerry approached the table. + +"What price do you set on that boy?" asked Johnson, as he took a +roll of bills from his pocket. + +"He will bring a thousand dollars, any day, in the New Orleans +market," replied Smith. + +"Then you bet the whole of the boy, do you?" + +"Yes." + +"I call you, then," said Johnson, at the same time spreading his +cards out upon the table. + +"You have beat me," said Smith, as soon as he saw the cards. +Jerry, who was standing on top of the table, with the bank notes +and silver dollars round his feet, was now ordered to descend +from the table. + +"You will not forget that you belong to me," said Johnson, as the +young slave was stepping from the table to a chair. + +"No, sir," replied the chattel. + +"Now go back to your bed, and be up in time to-morrow morning to +brush my clothes and clean my boots, do you hear?" + +"Yes, sir," responded Jerry, as he wiped the tears from his eyes. + +Smith took from his pocket the bill of sale and handed it to +Johnson; at the same time saying, "I claim the right of redeeming +that boy, Mr. Johnson. My father gave him to me when I came of +age, and I promised not to part with him." + +"Most certainly, sir, the boy shall be yours, whenever you hand me +over a cool thousand," replied Johnson. The next morning, as the +passengers were assembling in the breakfast saloons and upon the +guards of the vessel, and the servants were seen running about +waiting upon or looking for their masters, poor Jerry was +entering his new master's stateroom with his boots. + +"Who do you belong to?" said a gentleman to an old black man, who +came along leading a fine dog that he had been feeding. + +"When I went to sleep last night, I belonged to Governor Lucas; +but I understand dat he is bin gambling all night, so I don't +know who owns me dis morning." Such is the uncertainty of a +slave's position. He goes to bed at night the property of the man +with whom he has lived for years, and gets up in the morning the +slave of some one whom he has never seen before! To behold five +or six tables in a steamboat's cabin, with half-a-dozen men +playing at cards, and money, pistols, bowie-knives, all in +confusion on the tables, is what may be seen at almost any time +on the Mississippi river. + +On the fourth day, while at Natchez, taking in freight and +passengers, Walker, who had been on shore to see some of his old +customers, returned, accompanied by a tall, thin-faced man, +dressed in black, with a white neckcloth, which immediately +proclaimed him to be a clergyman. "I want a good, trusty woman +for house service," said the stranger, as they entered the cabin +where Walker's slaves were kept. + +"Here she is, and no mistake," replied the trader. + +"Stand up, Currer, my gal; here's a gentleman who wishes to see if +you will suit him." + +Althesa clung to her mother's side, as the latter rose from her +seat. + +"She is a rare cook, a good washer, and will suit you to a T, I am +sure." + +"If you buy me, I hope you will buy my daughter too," said the +woman, in rather an excited manner. + +"I only want one for my own use, and would not need another," said +the man in black, as he and the trader left the room. Walker and +the parson went into the saloon, talked over the matter, the bill +of sale was made out, the money paid over, and the clergyman left, +with the understanding that the woman should be delivered to him +at his house. It seemed as if poor Althesa would have wept +herself to death, for the first two days after her mother had +been torn from her side by the hand of the ruthless trafficker in +human flesh. On the arrival of the boat at Baton Rouge, an +additional number of passengers were taken on board; and, amongst +them, several persons who had been attending the races. Gambling +and drinking were now the order of the day. Just as the ladies and +gentlemen were assembling at the supper-table, the report of a +pistol was heard in the direction of the Social Hall, which caused +great uneasiness to the ladies, and took the gentlemen to that +part of the cabin. However, nothing serious had occurred. A man +at one of the tables where they were gambling had been seen +attempting to conceal a card in his sleeve, and one of the party +seized his pistol and fired; but fortunately the barrel of the +pistol was knocked up, just as it was about to be discharged, and +the ball passed through the upper deck, instead of the man's +head, as intended. Order was soon restored; all went on well the +remainder of the night, and the next day, at ten o'clock, the +boat arrived at New Orleans, and the passengers went to the +hotels and the slaves to the market! + + + "Our eyes are yet on Afric's shores, + Her thousand wrongs we still deplore; + We see the grim slave trader there; + We hear his fettered victim's prayer; + And hasten to the sufferer's aid, + Forgetful of our own 'slave trade.' + + "The Ocean 'Pirate's' fiend-like form + Shall sink beneath the vengeance-storm; + His heart of steel shall quake before + The battle-din and havoc roar: + The knave shall die, the Law hath said, + While it protects our own 'slave trade.' + + "What earthly eye presumes to scan + The wily Proteus-heart of man?-- + What potent hand will e'er unroll + The mantled treachery of his soul!-- + O where is he who hath surveyed + The horrors of our own 'slave trade?' + + "There is an eye that wakes in light, + There is a hand of peerless might; + Which, soon or late, shall yet assail + And rend dissimulation's veil: + Which will unfold the masquerade + Which justifies our own 'slave trade.'" + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEGRO CHASE + +WE shall now return to Natchez, where we left Currer in the hands +of the Methodist parson. For many years, Natchez has enjoyed a +notoriety for the inhumanity and barbarity of its inhabitants, +and the cruel deeds perpetrated there, which have not been +equalled in any other city in the Southern States. The following +advertisements, which we take from a newspaper published in the +vicinity, will show how they catch their Negroes who believe in +the doctrine that "all men are created free." + +"NEGRO DOGS.--The undersigned, having bought the entire pack of +Negro dogs (of the Hay and Allen stock), he now proposes to catch +runaway Negroes. His charges will be three dollars a day for +hunting, and fifteen dollars for catching a runaway. He resides +three and one half miles north of Livingston, near the lower +Jones' Bluff Road. + +"Nov. 6, 1845." + + + +"NOTICE.--The subscriber, Lying on Carroway Lake, on Hoe's Bayou, +in Carroll parish, sixteen miles on the road leading from Bayou +Mason to Lake Providence, is ready with a pack of dogs to hunt +runaway Negroes at any time. These dogs are well trained, and are +known throughout the parish. Letters addressed to me at +Providence will secure immediate attention. My terms are five +dollars per day for hunting the trails, whether the Negro is +caught or not. Where a twelve hours' trail is shown, and the +Negro not taken, no charge is made. For taking a Negro, +twenty-five dollars, and no charge made for hunting. + +"Nov. 26, 1847." + + +These dogs will attack a Negro at their master's bidding and +cling to him as the bull-dog will cling to a beast. Many are +the speculations, as to whether the Negro will be secured alive +or dead, when these dogs once get on his track. A slave hunt took +place near Natchez, a few days after Currer's arrival, which was +calculated to give her no favourable opinion of the people. Two +slaves had run off owing to severe punishment. The dogs were put +upon their trail. The slaves went into the swamps, with the hope +that the dogs when put on their scent would be unable to follow +them through the water. The dogs soon took to the swamp, which +lies between the highlands, which was now covered with water, +waist deep: here these faithful animals, swimming nearly all the +time, followed the zigzag course, the tortuous twistings and +windings of these two fugitives, who, it was afterwards +discovered, were lost; sometimes scenting the tree wherein they +had found a temporary refuge from the mud and water; at other +places where the deep mud had pulled off a shoe, and they had not +taken time to put it on again. For two hours and a half, for four +or five miles, did men and dogs wade through this bushy, dismal +swamp, surrounded with grim-visaged alligators, who seemed to look +on with jealous eye at this encroachment of their hereditary +domain; now losing the trail--then slowly and dubiously taking it +off again, until they triumphantly threaded it out, bringing them +back to the river, where it was found that the Negroes had +crossed their own trail, near the place of starting. In the +meantime a heavy shower had taken place, putting out the trail. +The Negroes were now at least four miles ahead. + +It is well known to hunters that it requires the keenest scent and +best blood to overcome such obstacles, and yet these persevering +and sagacious animals conquered every difficulty. The +slaves now made a straight course for the Baton Rouge and Bayou +Sara road, about four miles distant. + +Feeling hungry now, after their morning walk, and perhaps +thirsty, too, they went about half a mile off the road, and ate a +good, hearty, substantial breakfast. Negroes must eat, as well as +other people, but the dogs will tell on them. Here, for a moment, +the dogs are at fault, but soon unravel the mystery, and bring +them back to the road again; and now what before was wonderful, +becomes almost a miracle. Here, in this common highway--the +thoroughfare for the whole country around through mud and through +mire, meeting waggons and teams, and different solitary +wayfarers, and, what above all is most astonishing, actually +running through a gang of Negroes, their favourite game, who were +working on the road, they pursue the track of the two Negroes; +they even ran for eight miles to the very edge of the plain--the +slaves near them for the last mile. At first they would fain +believe it some hunter chasing deer. Nearer and nearer the +whimpering pack presses on; the delusion begins to dispel; all at +once the truth flashes upon them like a glare of light; their +hair stands on end; 'tis Tabor with his dogs. The scent becomes +warmer and warmer. What was an irregular cry, now deepens into +one ceaseless roar, as the relentless pack rolls on after its +human prey. It puts one in mind of Actaeon and his dogs. They +grow desperate and leave the road, in the vain hope of shaking +them off. Vain hope, indeed! The momentary cessation only adds +new zest to the chase. The cry grows louder and louder; the yelp +grows short and quick, sure indication that the game is at hand. +It is a perfect rush upon the part of the hunters, while the +Negroes call upon their weary and jaded limbs to do their best, +but they falter and stagger beneath them. The breath of the +hounds is almost upon their very heels, and yet they have a vain +hope of escaping these sagacious animals. They can run no longer; +the dogs are upon them; they hastily attempt to climb a tree, and +as the last one is nearly out of reach, the catch-dog seizes him +by the leg, and brings him to the ground; he sings out lustily +and the dogs are called off. After this man was secured, the one +in the tree was ordered to come down; this, however, he refused +to do, but a gun being pointed at him, soon caused him to change +his mind. On reaching the ground, the fugitive made one more +bound, and the chase again commenced. But it was of no use to run +and he soon yielded. While being tied, he committed an +unpardonable offence: he resisted, and for that he must be made +an example on their arrival home. A mob was collected together, +and a Lynch court was held, to determine what was best to be done +with the Negro who had had the impudence to raise his hand +against a white man. The Lynch court decided that the Negro +should be burnt at the stake. A Natchez newspaper, the Free +Trader, giving an account of it says, + +"The body was taken and chained to a tree immediately on the banks +of the Mississippi, on what is called Union Point. Faggots were +then collected and piled around him, to which he appeared quite +indifferent. When the work was completed, he was asked what he had +to say. He then warned all to take example by him, and asked the +prayers of all around; he then called for a drink of water, which +was handed to him; he drank it, and said, 'Now set fire--I am +ready to go in peace!' The torches were lighted, and placed in +the pile, which soon ignited. He watched unmoved the curling flame +that grew, until it began to entwine itself around and feed upon +his body; then he sent forth cries of agony painful to the ear, +begging some one to blow his brains out; at the same time surging +with almost superhuman strength, until the staple with which the +chain was fastened to the tree (not being well secured) drew out, +and he leaped from the burning pile. At that moment the sharp +ringing of several rifles was heard: the body of the Negro fell a +corpse on the ground. He was picked up by some two or three, and +again thrown into the fire, and consumed, not a vestige remaining +to show that such a being ever existed." + +Nearly 4,000 slaves were collected from the plantations in the +neighbourhood to witness this scene. Numerous speeches were made +by the magistrates and ministers of religion to the large +concourse of slaves, warning them, and telling them that the same +fate awaited them, if they should prove rebellious to their +owners. There are hundreds of Negroes who run away and live in +the woods. Some take refuge in the swamps, because they are less +frequented by human beings. A Natchez newspaper gave the +following account of the hiding-place of a slave who had been +captured:-- + +"A runaway's den was discovered on Sunday, near the Washington +Spring, in a little patch of woods, where it had been for several +months so artfully concealed under ground, that it was detected +only by accident, though in sight of two or three houses, and near +the road and fields where there has been constant daily passing. +The entrance was concealed by a pile of pine straw, representing +a hog-bed, which being removed, discovered a trap-door and steps +that led to a room about six feet square, comfortably ceiled with +plank, containing a small fire-place, the flue of which was +ingeniously conducted above ground and concealed by the straw. +The inmates took the alarm, and made their escape; but Mr. Adams +and his excellent dogs being put upon the trail, soon run down +and secured one of them, which proved to be a Negro-fellow who +had been out about a year. He stated that the other occupant was +a woman, who had been a runaway a still longer time. In the den +was found a quantity of meal, bacon, corn, potatoes, &c. and +various cooking utensils and wearing apparel."--Vicksburg +Sentinel, Dec. 6th, 1838. + +Currer was one of those who witnessed the execution of the slave +at the stake, and it gave her no very exalted opinion of the +people of the cotton growing district. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUADROON'S HOME + + "How sweetly on the hill-side sleeps + The sunlight with its quickening rays! + The verdant trees that crown the steeps, + Grow greener in its quivering blaze." + +ABOUT three miles from Richmond is a pleasant plain, with here and +there a beautiful cottage surrounded by trees so as scarcely to +be seen. Among them was one far retired from the public roads, +and almost hidden among the trees. It was a perfect model of rural +beauty. The piazzas that surrounded it were covered with clematis +and passion flower. The pride of China mixed its oriental looking +foliage with the majestic magnolia, and the air was redolent with +the fragrance of flowers, peeping out of every nook and nodding +upon you with a most unexpected welcome. The tasteful hand of art +had not learned to imitate the lavish beauty and harmonious +disorder of nature, but they lived together in loving amity, and +spoke in accordant tones. The gateway rose in a gothic arch, with +graceful tracery in iron work, surmounted by a cross, round which +fluttered and played the mountain fringe, that lightest and most +fragile of vines. This cottage was hired by Horatio Green for +Clotel, and the quadroon girl soon found herself in her new home. + +The tenderness of Clotel's conscience, together with the care her +mother had with her and the high value she placed upon virtue, +required an outward marriage; though she well knew that a union +with her proscribed race was unrecognised by law, and +therefore the ceremony would give her no legal hold on Horatio's +constancy. But her high poetic nature regarded reality rather +than the semblance of things; and when he playfully asked how she +could keep him if he wished to run away, she replied, "If the +mutual love we have for each other, and the dictates of your own +conscience do not cause you to remain my husband, and your +affections fall from me, I would not, if I could, hold you by a +single fetter." It was indeed a marriage sanctioned by heaven, +although unrecognised on earth. There the young couple lived +secluded from the world, and passed their time as happily as +circumstances would permit. It was Clotel's wish that Horatio +should purchase her mother and sister, but the young man pleaded +that he was unable, owing to the fact that he had not come into +possession of his share of property, yet he promised that when he +did, he would seek them out and purchase them. Their first-born +was named Mary, and her complexion was still lighter than her +mother. Indeed she was not darker than other white children. +As the child grew older, it more and more resembled its mother. +The iris of her large dark eye had the melting mezzotints, which +remains the last vestige of African ancestry, and gives that +plaintive expression, so often observed, and so appropriate to +that docile and injured race. Clotel was still happier after the +birth of her dear child; for Horatio, as might have been +expected, was often absent day and night with his friends in the +city, and the edicts of society had built up a wall of separation +between the quadroon and them. Happy as Clotel was in Horatio's +love, and surrounded by an outward environment of beauty, so well +adapted to her poetic spirit, she felt these incidents with +inexpressible pain. For herself she cared but little; for +she had found a sheltered home in Horatio's heart, which the world +might ridicule, but had no power to profane. But when she looked +at her beloved Mary, and reflected upon the unavoidable and +dangerous position which the tyranny of society had awarded her, +her soul was filled with anguish. The rare loveliness of the +child increased daily, and was evidently ripening into most +marvellous beauty. The father seemed to rejoice in it with +unmingled pride; but in the deep tenderness of the mother's eye, +there was an indwelling sadness that spoke of anxious thoughts and +fearful foreboding. Clotel now urged Horatio to remove to France +or England, where both her [sic] and her child would be free, and +where colour was not a crime. This request excited but little +opposition, and was so attractive to his imagination, that he +might have overcome all intervening obstacles, had not "a change +come over the spirit of his dreams." He still loved Clotel; but +he was now becoming engaged in political and other affairs which +kept him oftener and longer from the young mother; and ambition +to become a statesman was slowly gaining the ascendancy over him. + +Among those on whom Horatio's political success most depended was +a very popular and wealthy man, who had an only daughter. His +visits to the house were at first purely of a political nature; +but the young lady was pleasing, and he fancied he discovered in +her a sort of timid preference for himself. This excited his +vanity, and awakened thoughts of the great worldly advantages +connected with a union. Reminiscences of his first love kept +these vague ideas in check for several months; for with it was +associated the idea of restraint. Moreover, Gertrude, though +inferior in beauty, was yet a pretty contrast to her rival. Her +light hair fell in silken ringlets down her shoulders, her blue +eyes were gentle though inexpressive, and her healthy cheeks were +like opening rosebuds. He had already become accustomed to the +dangerous experiment of resisting his own inward convictions; and +this new impulse to ambition, combined with the strong temptation +of variety in love, met the ardent young man weakened in moral +principle, and unfettered by laws of the land. The change wrought +upon him was soon noticed by Clotel. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SLAVE MARKET + + "What! mothers from their children riven! + What! God's own image bought and sold! + Americans to market driven, +And barter'd as the brute for gold."--Whittier. + +NOT far from Canal-street, in the city of New Orleans, stands a +large two story flat building surrounded by a stone wall twelve +feet high, the top of which is covered with bits of glass, and so +constructed as to prevent even the possibility of any one's +passing over it without sustaining great injury. Many of the +rooms resemble cells in a prison. In a small room near the +"office" are to be seen any number of iron collars, hobbles, +handcuffs, thumbscrews, cowhides, whips, chains, gags, and yokes. +A back yard inclosed by a high wall looks something like the +playground attached to one of our large New England schools, and +in which are rows of benches and swings. Attached to the back +premises is a good-sized kitchen, where two old Negresses are at +work, stewing, boiling, and baking, and occasionally wiping the +sweat from their furrowed and swarthy brows. + +The slave-trader Walker, on his arrival in New Orleans, took up +his quarters at this slave pen with his gang of human cattle: and +the morning after, at ten o'clock, they were exhibited for sale. +There, first of all, was the beautiful Althesa, whose pale +countenance and dejected look told how many sad hours she had +passed since parting with her mother at Natchez. There was a poor +woman who had been separated from her husband and five children. +Another woman, whose looks and manner were expressive of deep +anguish, sat by her side. There, too, was "Uncle Geemes," with his +whiskers off, his face shaved clean, and the grey hair plucked +out, and ready to be sold for ten years younger than he was. Toby +was also there, with his face shaved and greased, ready for +inspection. The examination commenced, and was carried on in a +manner calculated to shock the feelings of any one not devoid of +the milk of human kindness. "What are you wiping your eyes for?" +inquired a fat, red-faced man, with a white hat set on one side +of his head, and a cigar in his mouth, of a woman who sat on one +of the stools. "I s'pose I have been crying." "Why do you cry?" +"Because I have left my man behind." "Oh, if I buy you I will +furnish you with a better man than you left. I have lots of young +bucks on my farm." "I don't want, and will never have, any other +man," replied the woman. "What's your name?" asked a man in a +straw hat of a tall Negro man, who stood with his arms folded +across his breast, and leaning against the wall. "My name is +Aaron, sir." "How old are you?" "Twenty-five." "Where were you +raised?" "In old Virginny, sir." "How many men have owned you?" +"Four." "Do you enjoy good health?" "Yes, sir." "How long did you +live with your first owner?" "Twenty years." "Did you ever run +away?" "No, sir." "Did you ever strike your master?" "No, sir." +"Were you ever whipped much?" "No, sir, I s'pose I did not +deserve it." "How long did you live with your second master?" +"Ten years, sir." "Have you a good appetite?" "Yes, sir." "Can +you eat your allowance?" "Yes, sir, when I can get it." "What were +you employed at in Virginia?" "I worked in de terbacar feel." "In +the tobacco field?" "Yes, sir." "How old did you say you were?" +"I will be twenty-five if I live to see next sweet potater digging +time." "I am a cotton planter, and if I buy you, you will have to +work in the cotton field. My men pick one hundred and fifty +pounds a day, and the women one hundred and forty, and those who +fail to pick their task receive five stripes from the cat for +each pound that is wanting. Now, do you think you could keep up +with the rest of the bands?" "I don't know, sir, I 'spec I'd have +to." "How long did you live with your third master?" "Three +years, sir." "Why, this makes you thirty-three, I thought you told +me you was only twenty five?" Aaron now looked first at the +planter, then at the trader, and seemed perfectly bewildered. He +had forgotten the lesson given him by Pompey as to his age, and +the planter's circuitous talk (doubtless to find out the slave's +real age) had the Negro off his guard. "I must see your back, so +as to know how much you have been whipped, before I think of +buying," said the planter. Pompey, who had been standing by +during the examination, thought that his services were now +required, and stepping forward with a degree of officiousness, +said to Aaron, "Don't you hear de gentman tell you he want to +zamon your limbs. Come, unharness yeself, old boy, an don't be +standing dar." Aaron was soon examined and pronounced "sound"; +yet the conflicting statement about the age was not satisfactory. + +Fortunate for Althesa she was spared the pain of undergoing such +an examination. Mr. Crawford, a teller in one of the banks, had +just been married, and wanted a maid-servant for his wife; and +passing through the market in the early part of the day, was +pleased with the young slave's appearance and purchased her, and +in his dwelling the quadroon found a much better home than often +falls to the lot of a slave sold in the New Orleans market. The +heartrending and cruel traffic in slaves which has been so often +described, is not confined to any particular class of persons. No +one forfeits his or her character or standing in society, by +buying or selling slaves; or even raising slaves for the market. +The precise number of slaves carried from the slave-raising to the +slave-consuming states, we have no means of knowing. But it must +be very great, as more than forty thousand were sold and taken +out of the state of Virginia in one year. Known to God only is +the amount of human agony and suffering which sends its cry from +the slave markets and Negro pens, unheard and unheeded by man, up +to his ear; mothers weeping for their children, breaking the +night-silence with the shrieks of their breaking hearts. From +some you will hear the burst of bitter lamentation, while from +others the loud hysteric laugh, denoting still deeper agony. +Most of them leave the market for cotton or rice plantations, + + "Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, + Where the noisome insect stings, + Where the fever demon-strews + Poison with the falling dews, + Where the sickly sunbeams glare + Through the hot and misty air." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER + + "What! preach and enslave men? + Give thanks--and rob thy own afflicted poor? + Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then + Bolt hard the captive's door."--Whittier. + +THE Rev. John Peck was a native of the state of Connecticut, where +he was educated for the ministry, in the Methodist persuasion. +His father was a strict follower of John Wesley, and spared no +pains in his son's education, with the hope that he would one day +be as renowned as the great leader of his sect. John had scarcely +finished his education at New Haven, when he was invited by an +uncle, then on a visit to his father, to spend a few months at +Natchez in the state of Mississippi. Young Peck accepted his +uncle's invitation, and accompanied him to the South. Few young +men, and especially clergymen, going fresh from a college to the +South, but are looked upon as geniuses in a small way, and who +are not invited to all the parties in the neighbourhood. Mr. Peck +was not an exception to this rule. The society into which he was +thrown on his arrival at Natchez was too brilliant for him not to +be captivated by it; and, as might have been expected, he +succeeded in captivating a plantation with seventy slaves, if not +the heart of the lady to whom it belonged. Added to this, he +became a popular preacher, had a large congregation with a snug +salary. Like other planters, Mr. Peck confided the care of his +farm to Ned Huckelby, an overseer of high reputation in his +way. The Poplar Farm, as it was called, was situated in a +beautiful valley nine miles from Natchez, and near the river +Mississippi. The once unshorn face of nature had given way, and +now the farm blossomed with a splendid harvest, the neat cottage +stood in a grove where Lombardy poplars lift their tufted tops +almost to prop the skies; the willow, locust, and horse-chestnut +spread their branches, and flowers never cease to blossom. This +was the parson's country house, where the family spent only two +months during the year. + +The town residence was a fine villa, seated upon the brow of a +hill at the edge of the city. It was in the kitchen of this house +that Currer found her new home. Mr. Peck was, every inch of him, +a democrat, and early resolved that his "people," as he called his +slaves, should be well fed and not overworked, and therefore laid +down the law and gospel to the overseer as well as the slaves. + +"It is my wish," said he to Mr. Carlton, an old school-fellow, who +was spending a few days with him, "it is my wish that a new +system be adopted on the plantations in this estate. I believe +that the sons of Ham should have the gospel, and I intend that my +Negroes shall. The gospel is calculated to make mankind better, +and none should be without it." "What say you," replied Carlton, +"about the right of man to his liberty?" "Now, Carlton, you have +begun again to harp about man's rights; I really wish you could +see this matter as I do. I have searched in vain for any authority +for man's natural rights; if he had any, they existed before the +fall. That is, Adam and Eve may have had some rights which God +gave them, and which modern philosophy, in its pretended reverence +for the name of God, prefers to call natural rights. I can +imagine they had the right to eat of the fruit of the trees of +the garden; they were restricted even in this by the +prohibition of one. As far as I know without positive assertion, +their liberty of action was confined to the garden. These were +not 'inalienable rights,' however, for they forfeited both them +and life with the first act of disobedience. Had they, after +this, any rights? We cannot imagine them; they were condemned +beings; they could have no rights, but by Christ's gift as king. +These are the only rights man can have as an independent isolated +being, if we choose to consider him in this impossible position, +in which so many theorists have placed him. If he had no rights, +he could suffer no wrongs. Rights and wrongs are therefore +necessarily the creatures of society, such as man would establish +himself in his gregarious state. They are, in this state, both +artificial and voluntary. Though man has no rights, as thus +considered, undoubtedly he has the power, by such arbitrary rules +of right and wrong as his necessity enforces." "I regret I cannot +see eye to eye with you," said Carlton. "I am a disciple of +Rousseau, and have for years made the rights of man my study; and +I must confess to you that I can see no difference between white +men and black men as it regards liberty." "Now, my dear Carlton, +would you really have the Negroes enjoy the same rights with +ourselves?" "I would, most certainly. Look at our great +Declaration of Independence; look even at the constitution of our +own Connecticut, and see what is said in these about liberty." "I +regard all this talk about rights as mere humbug. The Bible is +older than the Declaration of Independence, and there I take my +stand. The Bible furnishes to us the armour of proof, weapons of +heavenly temper and mould, whereby we can maintain our ground +against all attacks. But this is true only when we obey its +directions, as well as employ its sanctions. Our rights +are there established, but it is always in connection with our +duties. If we neglect the one we cannot make good the other. Our +domestic institutions can be maintained against the world, if we +but allow Christianity to throw its broad shield over them. But +if we so act as to array the Bible against our social economy, +they must fall. Nothing ever yet stood long against Christianity. +Those who say that religious instruction is inconsistent with our +peculiar civil polity, are the worst enemies of that polity. They +would drive religious men from its defence. Sooner or later, if +these views prevail, they will separate the religious portion of +our community from the rest, and thus divided we shall become an +easy prey. Why, is it not better that Christian men should hold +slaves than unbelievers? We know how to value the bread of life, +and will not keep it from our slaves." + +"Well, every one to his own way of thinking," said Carlton, as he +changed his position. "I confess," added he, "that I am no great +admirer of either the Bible or slavery. My heart is my guide: my +conscience is my Bible. I wish for nothing further to satisfy me +of my duty to man. If I act rightly to mankind, I shall fear +nothing." Carlton had drunk too deeply of the bitter waters of +infidelity, and had spent too many hours over the writings of +Rousseau, Voltaire, and Thomas Paine, to place that appreciation +upon the Bible and its teachings that it demands. During this +conversation there was another person in the room, seated by the +window, who, although at work upon a fine piece of lace, paid +every attention to what was said. This was Georgiana, the only +daughter of the parson. She had just returned from Connecticut, +where she had finished her education. She had had the opportunity +of contrasting the spirit of Christianity and liberty in New +England with that of slavery in her native state, and had +learned to feel deeply for the injured Negro. Georgiana was in +her nineteenth year, and had been much benefited by a residence +of five years at the North. Her form was tall and graceful; her +features regular and well defined; and her complexion was +illuminated by the freshness of youth, beauty, and health. The +daughter differed from both the father and his visitor upon the +subject which they had been discussing, and as soon as an +opportunity offered, she gave it as her opinion, that the Bible +was both the bulwark of Christianity and of liberty. With a smile +she said, "Of course, papa will overlook my differing from him, +for although I am a native of the South, I am by education and +sympathy, a Northerner." Mr. Peck laughed and appeared pleased, +rather than otherwise, at the manner in which his daughter had +expressed herself. + +From this Georgiana took courage and said, "We must try the +character of slavery, and our duty in regard to it, as we should +try any other question of character and duty. To judge justly of +the character of anything, we must know what it does. That which +is good does good, and that which is evil does evil. And as to +duty, God's designs indicate his claims. That which accomplishes +the manifest design of God is right; that which counteracts it, +wrong. Whatever, in its proper tendency and general effect, +produces, secures, or extends human welfare, is according to the +will of God, and is good; and our duty is to favour and promote, +according to our power, that which God favours and promotes by +the general law of his providence. On the other hand, whatever in +its proper tendency and general effect destroys, abridges, or +renders insecure, human welfare, is opposed to God's will, and is +evil. And as whatever accords with the will of God, in any +manifestation of it should be done and persisted in, so +whatever opposes that will should not be done, and if done, should +be abandoned. Can that then be right, be well doing--can that obey +God's behest, which makes a man a slave? which dooms him and all +his posterity, in limitless Generations, to bondage, to unrequited +toil through life? 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' +This single passage of Scripture should cause us to have respect +to the rights of the slave. True Christian love is of an +enlarged, disinterested nature. It loves all who love the Lord +Jesus Christ in sincerity, without regard to colour or condition." +"Georgiana, my dear, you are an abolitionist; your talk is +fanaticism," said Mr. Peck in rather a sharp tone; but the +subdued look of the girl, and the presence of Carlton, caused the +father to soften his language. Mr. Peck having lost his wife by +consumption, and Georgiana being his only child, he loved her too +dearly to say more, even if he felt displeased. A silence followed +this exhortation from the young Christian. But her remarks had +done a noble work. The father's heart was touched; and the +sceptic, for the first time, was viewing Christianity in its true +light. + +"I think I must go out to your farm," said Carlton, as if to break +the silence. "I shall be pleased to have you go," returned Mr. +Peck. "I am sorry I can't go myself, but Huckelby will show you +every attention; and I feel confident that when you return to +Connecticut, you will do me the justice to say, that I am one who +looks after my people, in a moral, social, and religious point of +view." "Well, what do you say to my spending next Sunday there?" +"Why, I think that a good move; you will then meet with Snyder, +our missionary." "Oh, you have missionaries in these parts, have +you?" "Yes," replied Mr. Peck; "Snyder is from New York, and is +our missionary to the poor, and preaches to our 'people' on +Sunday; you will no doubt like him; he is a capital +fellow." "Then I shall go," said Carlton, "but only wish I had +company." This last remark was intended for Miss Peck, for whom +he had the highest admiration. + +It was on a warm Sunday morning, in the month of May, that Miles +Carlton found himself seated beneath a fine old apple tree, whose +thick leaves entirely shaded the ground for some distance round. +Under similar trees and near by, were gathered together all the +"people" belonging to the plantation. Hontz Snyder was a man of +about forty years of age, exceedingly low in stature, but of a +large frame. He had been brought up in the Mohawk Valley, in the +state of New York, and claimed relationship with the oldest Dutch +families in that vicinity. He had once been a sailor, and had all +the roughness of character that a sea-faring man might expect to +possess; together with the half-Yankee, half-German peculiarities +of the people of the Mohawk Valley. It was nearly eleven o'clock +when a one-horse waggon drove up in haste, and the low squatty +preacher got out and took his place at the foot of one of the +trees, where a sort of rough board table was placed, and took his +books from his pocket and commenced. + +"As it is rather late," said he, "we will leave the singing and +praying for the last, and take our text, and commence +immediately. I shall base my remarks on the following passage of +Scripture, and hope to have that attention which is due to the +cause of God:--'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do +unto you, do ye even so unto them'; that is, do by all mankind +just as you would desire they should do by you, if you were in +their place and they in yours. + +"Now, to suit this rule to your particular circumstances, suppose +you were masters and mistresses, and had servants under you, would +you not desire that your servants should do their business +faithfully and honestly, as well when your back was turned as while +you were looking over them? Would you not expect that they should +take notice of what you said to them? that they should behave +themselves with respect towards you and yours, and be as careful of +everything belonging to you as you would be yourselves? You are +servants: do, therefore, as you would wish to be done by, and you +will be both good servants to your masters and good servants to God, +who requires this of you, and will reward you well for it, if you do +it for the sake of conscience, in obedience to his commands. + +"You are not to be eye-servants. Now, eye-servants are such as +will work hard, and seem mighty diligent, while they think +anybody is taking notice of them; but, when their masters' and +mistresses' backs are turned they are idle, and neglect their +business. I am afraid there are a great many such eye-servants +among you, and that you do not consider how great a sin it is to +be so, and how severely God will punish you for it. You may easily +deceive your owners, and make them have an opinion of you that +you do not deserve, and get the praise of men by it; but remember +that you cannot deceive Almighty God, who sees your wickedness +and deceit, and will punish you accordingly. For the rule is, +that you must obey your masters in all things, and do the work +they set you about with fear and trembling, in singleness of +heart as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but +as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; +with good-will doing service as to the Lord, and not as to men. + +"Take care that you do not fret or murmur, grumble or repine at +your condition; for this will not only make your life +uneasy, but will greatly offend Almighty God. Consider that it +is not yourselves, it is not the people that you belong to, it is +not the men who have brought you to it, but it is the will of God +who hath by his providence made you servants, because, no doubt, +he knew that condition would be best for you in this world, and +help you the better towards heaven, if you would but do your duty +in it. So that any discontent at your not being free, or rich, or +great, as you see some others, is quarrelling with your heavenly +Master, and finding fault with God himself, who hath made you +what you are, and hath promised you as large a share in the +kingdom of heaven as the greatest man alive, if you will but +behave yourself aright, and do the business he hath set you about +in this world honestly and cheerfully. Riches and power have +proved the ruin of many an unhappy soul, by drawing away the +heart and affections from God, and fixing them on mean and sinful +enjoyments; so that, when God, who knows our hearts better than +we know them ourselves, sees that they would be hurtful to us, +and therefore keeps them from us, it is the greatest mercy and +kindness he could show us. + +"You may perhaps fancy that, if you had riches and freedom, you +could do your duty to God and man with greater pleasure than you +can now. But pray consider that, if you can but save your souls +through the mercy of God, you will have spent your time to the +best of purposes in this world; and he that at last can get to +heaven has performed a noble journey, let the road be ever so +rugged and difficult. Besides, you really have a great advantage +over most white people, who have not only the care of their daily +labour upon their hands, but the care of looking forward and +providing necessaries for to-morrow and next day, and of clothing +and bringing up their children, and of getting food and raiment +for as many of you as belong to their families, which +often puts them to great difficulties, and distracts their minds +so as to break their rest, and take off their thoughts from the +affairs of another world. Whereas you are quite eased from all +these cares, and have nothing but your daily labour to look +after, and, when that is done, take your needful rest. Neither is +it necessary for you to think of laying up anything against old +age, as white people are obliged to do; for the laws of the +country have provided that you shall not be turned off when you +are past labour, but shall be maintained, while you live, by +those you belong to, whether you are able to work or not. + +"There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I +shall now take notice of, and that is correction. + +"Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you +do not deserve it. But whether you really deserve it or not, it +is your duty, and Almighty God requires that you bear it +patiently. You may perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but, +if you consider it right, you must needs think otherwise of it. +Suppose, then, that you deserve correction, you cannot but say +that it is just and right you should meet with it. Suppose you do +not, or at least you do not deserve so much, or so severe a +correction, for the fault you have committed, you perhaps have +escaped a great many more, and are at last paid for all. Or +suppose you are quite innocent of what is laid to your charge, +and suffer wrongfully in that particular thing, is it not possible +you may have done some other bad thing which was never +discovered, and that Almighty God who saw you doing it would not +let you escape without punishment one time or another? And ought +you not, in such a case, to give glory to him, and be thankful +that he would rather punish you in this life for your +wickedness than destroy your souls for it in the next +life? But suppose even this was not the case (a case hardly to be +imagined), and that you have by no means, known or unknown, +deserved the correction you suffered, there is this great comfort +in it, that, if you bear it patiently, and leave your cause in +the hands of God, he will reward you for it in heaven, and the +punishment you suffer unjustly here shall turn to your exceeding +great glory hereafter. + +"Lastly, you should serve your masters faithfully, because of +their goodness to you. See to what trouble they have been on your +account. Your fathers were poor ignorant and barbarous creatures +in Africa, and the whites fitted out ships at great trouble and +expense and brought you from that benighted land to Christian +America, where you can sit under your own vine and fig tree and +no one molest or make you afraid. Oh, my dear black brothers and +sisters, you are indeed a fortunate and a blessed people. Your +masters have many troubles that you know nothing about. If the +banks break, your masters are sure to lose something. If the +crops turn out poor, they lose by it. If one of you die, your +master loses what he paid for you, while you lose nothing. Now let +me exhort you once more to be faithful." + +Often during the delivery of the sermon did Snyder cast an anxious +look in the direction where Carlton was seated; no doubt to see +if he had found favour with the stranger. Huckelby, the +overseer, was also there, seated near Carlton. With all Snyder's +gesticulations, sonorous voice, and occasionally bringing his +fist down upon the table with the force of a sledge hammer, he +could not succeed in keeping the Negroes all interested: four or +five were fast asleep, leaning against the trees; as many more +were nodding, while not a few were stealthily cracking, and +eating hazelnuts. "Uncle Simon, you may strike up a +hymn," said the preacher as he closed his Bible. A moment more, +and the whole company (Carlton excepted) had joined in the well +known hymn, commencing with + + "When I can read my title clear + To mansions in the sky." + +After the singing, Sandy closed with prayer, and the following +questions and answers read, and the meeting was brought to a +close. + +"Q. What command has God given to servants concerning obedience to +their masters?--A. 'Servants, obey in all things your masters +according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, +but in singleness of heart, fearing God.' + +"Q. What does God mean by masters according to the flesh?--A. +'Masters in this world.' + +"Q. What are servants to count their masters worthy of?-- A. 'All +honour.' + +"Q. How are they to do the service of their masters?--A. 'With good +will, doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men.' + +"Q. How are they to try to please their masters?--A. 'Please him +well in all things, not answering again.' + +"Q. Is a servant who is an eye-servant to his earthly master an +eye-servant to his heavenly master?--A. 'Yes.' + +"Q. Is it right in a servant, when commanded to do any thing, to +be sullen and slow, and answer his master again?--A. 'No.' + +"Q. If the servant professes to be a Christian, ought he not to be +as a Christian servant, an example to all other servants of love +and obedience to his master?--A. 'Yes.' + +"Q. And, should his master be a Christian also, ought he not on +that account specially to love and obey him?--A. 'Yes.' + +"Q. But suppose the master is hard to please, and threatens and +punishes more than he ought, what is the servant to do?--A. 'Do +his best to please him.' + +"Q. When the servant suffers wrongfully at the hands of his +master, and, to please God, takes it patiently, will God reward +him for it?--A. 'Yes.' + +"Q. Is it right for the servant to run away, or is it right to +harbour a runaway?--A. 'No.' + +"Q. If a servant runs away, what should be done with him?--A. 'He +should be caught and brought back.' + +"Q. When he is brought back, what should be done with him?-- +A. 'Whip him well.' + +"Q. Why may not the whites be slaves as well as the blacks?-- +A. 'Because the Lord intended the Negroes for slaves.' + +"Q. Are they better calculated for servants than the whites?-- +A. 'Yes, their hands are large, the skin thick and tough, and they +can stand the sun better than the whites.' + +"Q. Why should servants not complain when they are whipped?-- +A. 'Because the Lord has commanded that they should be whipped.' + +"Q. Where has He commanded it?--A. 'He says, He that knoweth his +master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many +stripes.' + +"Q. Then is the master to blame for whipping his servant?--A. 'Oh, +no! he is only doing his duty as a Christian.'" + +Snyder left the ground in company with Carlton and Huckelby, and +the three dined together in the overseer's dwelling. "Well," said +Joe, after the three white men were out of hearing, "Marser +Snyder bin try hesef to-day." "Yes," replied Ned; "he want to show +de strange gentman how good he can preach." "Dat's a new sermon +he gib us to-day," said Sandy. "Dees white fokes is de very +dibble," said Dick; "and all dey whole study is to try to fool de +black people." "Didn't you like de sermon?" asked Uncle Simon. +"No," answered four or five voices. "He rared and pitched enough," +continued Uncle Simon. + +Now Uncle Simon was himself a preacher, or at least he thought so, +and was rather pleased than otherwise, when he heard others +spoken of in a disparaging manner. "Uncle Simon can beat dat +sermon all to pieces," said Ned, as he was filling his +mouth with hazelnuts. "I got no notion of dees white fokes, no +how," returned Aunt Dafney. "Dey all de time tellin' dat de Lord +made us for to work for dem, and I don't believe a word of it." +"Marser Peck give dat sermon to Snyder, I know," said Uncle +Simon. "He jest de one for dat," replied Sandy. "I think de people +dat made de Bible was great fools," said Ned. "Why?" Uncle Simon. +"'Cause dey made such a great big book and put nuttin' in it, but +servants obey yer masters." "Oh," replied Uncle Simon, "thars more +in de Bible den dat, only Snyder never reads any other part to +us; I use to hear it read in Maryland, and thar was more den what +Snyder lets us hear." In the overseer's house there was another +scene going on, and far different from what we have here described. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE POOR WHITES, SOUTH + +"No seeming of logic can ever convince the American people, that +thousands of our slave-holding brethren are not excellent, +humane, and even Christian men, fearing God, and keeping His +commandments."--Rev. Dr. Joel Parker. + +"You like these parts better than New York," said Carlton to +Snyder, as they were sitting down to dinner in the overseer's +dwelling. "I can't say that I do," was the reply; "I came here +ten years ago as missionary, and Mr. Peck wanted me to stay, and I +have remained. I travel among the poor whites during the week and +preach for the niggers on Sunday." "Are there many poor whites in +this district?" "Not here, but about thirty miles from here, in +the Sand Hill district; they are as ignorant as horses. Why it +was no longer than last week I was up there, and really you would +not believe it, that people were so poor off. In New England, +and, I may say, in all the free states, they have free schools, +and everybody gets educated. Not so here. In Connecticut there is +only one out of every five hundred above twenty-one years that +can neither read nor write. Here there is one out of every eight +that can neither read nor write. There is not a single newspaper +taken in five of the counties in this state. Last week I was at +Sand Hill for the first time, and I called at a farmhouse. The +man was out. It was a low log-hut, and yet it was the best house +in that locality. The woman and nine children were there, and the +geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, and children were all +running about the floor. The woman seemed scared at me when I +entered the house. I inquired if I could get a little dinner, and +my horse fed. She said, yes, if I would only be good enough to +feed him myself, as her 'gal,' as she called her daughter, would +be afraid of the horse. When I returned into the house again from +the stable, she kept her eyes upon me all the time. At last she +said, 'I s'pose you ain't never bin in these parts afore?' 'No,' +said I. 'Is you gwine to stay here long?' 'Not very long,' I +replied. 'On business, I s'pose.' 'Yes,' said I, 'I am hunting up +the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 'Oh,' exclaimed she, +'hunting for lost sheep is you? Well, you have a hard time to find +'em here. My husband lost an old ram last week, and he ain't found +him yet, and he's hunted every day.' 'I am not looking for +four-legged sheep,' said I, 'I am hunting for sinners.' 'Ah'; she +said, 'then you are a preacher.' 'Yes,' said I. 'You are the +first of that sort that's bin in these diggins for many a day.' +Turning to her eldest daughter, she said in an excited tone, 'Clar +out the pigs and ducks, and sweep up the floor; this is a +preacher.' And it was some time before any of the children would +come near me; one remained under the bed (which, by the by, was +in the same room), all the while I was there. 'Well,' continued +the woman, 'I was a tellin' my man only yesterday that I would +like once more to go to meetin' before I died, and he said as he +should like to do the same. But as you have come, it will save us +the trouble of going out of the district.'" "Then you found some +of the lost sheep," said Carlton. "Yes," replied Snyder, "I did +not find anything else up there. The state makes no provision for +educating the poor: they are unable to do it themselves, and they +grow up in a state of ignorance and degradation. The men hunt and +the women have to go in the fields and labour." "What is +the cause of it?" inquired Carlton. "Slavery," answered Snyder, +slavery,--and nothing else. Look at the city of Boston; it pays +more taxes for the support of the government than this entire +state. The people of Boston do more business than the whole +population of Mississippi put together. I was told some very +amusing things while at Sand Hill. A farmer there told me a story +about an old woman, who was very pious herself. She had a husband +and three sons, who were sad characters, and she had often prayed +for their conversion but to no effect. At last, one day while +working in the corn-field, one of her sons was bitten by a +rattlesnake. He had scarce reached home before he felt the poison, +and in his agony called loudly on his Maker. + +"The pious old woman, when she heard this, forgetful of her son's +misery, and everything else but the glorious hope of his +repentance, fell on her knees, and prayed as follows--'Oh! Lord, +I thank thee, that thou hast at last opened Jimmy's eyes to the +error of his ways; and I pray that, in thy Divine mercy, thou +wilt send a rattlesnake to bite the old man, and another to bite +Tom, and another to bite Harry, for I am certain that nothing but +a rattlesnake, or something of the kind, will ever turn them from +their sinful ways, they are so hard-headed.' When returning home, +and before I got out of the Sand Hill district, I saw a funeral, +and thought I would fasten my horse to a post and attend. The +coffin was carried in a common horse cart, and followed by fifteen +or twenty persons very shabbily dressed, and attended by a man +whom I took to be the religious man of the place. After the +coffin had been placed near the grave, he spoke as follows,-- + +"'Friends and neighbours! you have congregated to see this lump +of mortality put into a hole in the ground. You all +know the deceased--a worthless, drunken, good-for-nothing +vagabond. He lived in disgrace and infamy, and died in +wretchedness. You all despised him--you all know his brother Joe, +who lives on the hill? He's not a bit better though he has +scrap'd together a little property by cheating his neighbours. His +end will be like that of this loathsome creature, whom you will +please put into the hole as soon as possible. I won't ask you to +drop a tear, but brother Bohow will please raise a hymn while we +fill up the grave.'" + +"I am rather surprised to hear that any portion of the whites in +this state are in so low a condition." "Yet it is true," returned +Snyder. + +"These are very onpleasant facts to be related to ye, Mr. +Carlton," said Huckelby; "but I can bear witness to what Mr. +Snyder has told ye." Huckelby was from Maryland, where many of +the poor whites are in as sad a condition as the Sand Hillers of +Mississippi. He was a tall man, of iron constitution, and could +neither read nor write, but was considered one of the best +overseers in the country. When about to break a slave in, to do a +heavy task, he would make him work by his side all day; and if +the new hand kept up with him, he was set down as an able bodied +man. Huckelby had neither moral, religious, or political +principles, and often boasted that conscience was a matter that +never "cost" him a thought. "Mr. Snyder ain't told ye half about +the folks in these parts," continued he; "we who comes from more +enlightened parts don't know how to put up with 'em down here. +I find the people here knows mighty little indeed; in fact, I may +say they are univarsaly onedicated. I goes out among none on 'em, +'cause they ain't such as I have been used to 'sociate with. When +I gits a little richer, so that I can stop work, I tend to go +back to Maryland, and spend the rest of my days." "I wonder the +Negroes don't attempt to get their freedom by physical force." "It +ain't no use for 'em to try that, for if they do, we puts 'em +through by daylight," replied Huckelby. "There are some desperate +fellows among the slaves," said Snyder. "Indeed," remarked +Carlton. "Oh, yes," replied the preacher. "A case has just taken +place near here, where a neighbour of ours, Mr. J. Higgerson, +attempted to correct a Negro man in his employ, who resisted, drew +a knife, and stabbed him (Mr. H.) in several places. Mr. J. C. +Hobbs (a Tennessean) ran to his assistance. Mr. Hobbs stooped to +pick up a stick to strike the Negro, and, while in that position, +the Negro rushed upon him, and caused his immediate death. The +Negro then fled to the woods, but was pursued with dogs, and soon +overtaken. He had stopped in a swamp to fight the dogs, when the +party who were pursuing him came upon him, and commanded him to +give up, which he refused to do. He then made several efforts to +stab them. Mr. Roberson, one of the party, gave him several blows +on the head with a rifle gun; but this, instead of subduing, only +increased his desperate revenge. Mr. R. then discharged his gun +at the Negro, and missing him, the ball struck Mr. Boon in the +face, and felled him to the ground. The Negro, seeing Mr. Boon +prostrated, attempted to rush up and stab him, but was prevented +by the timely interference of some one of the party. He was then +shot three times with a revolving pistol, and once with a rifle, +and after having his throat cut, he still kept the knife firmly +grasped in his hand, and tried to cut their legs when they +approached to put an end to his life. This chastisement was given +because the Negro grumbled, and found fault with his master for +flogging his wife." "Well, this is a bad state of affairs indeed, +and especially the condition of the poor whites," said Carlton. +"You see," replied Snyder, "no white man is respectable in +these slave states who works for a living. No community +can be prosperous, where honest labour is not honoured. No +society can be rightly constituted, where the intellect is not +fed. Whatever institution reflects discredit on industry, +whatever institution forbids the general culture of the +understanding, is palpably hostile to individual rights, and to +social well-being. Slavery is the incubus that hangs over the +Southern States." "Yes," interrupted Huckelby; "them's just my +sentiments now, and no mistake. I think that, for the honour of +our country, this slavery business should stop. I don't own any, +no how, and I would not be an overseer if I wern't paid for it." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SEPARATION + + "In many ways does the full heart reveal + The presence of the love it would conceal; + But in far more the estranged heart lets know + The absence of the love, which yet it fain would show." + +AT length the news of the approaching marriage of Horatio met the +ear of Clotel. Her head grew dizzy, and her heart fainted within +her; but, with a strong effort at composure, she inquired all the +particulars, and her pure mind at once took its resolution. +Horatio came that evening, and though she would fain have met him +as usual, her heart was too full not to throw a deep sadness over +her looks and tones. She had never complained of his decreasing +tenderness, or of her own lonely hours; but he felt that the mute +appeal of her heart-broken looks was more terrible than words. He +kissed the hand she offered, and with a countenance almost as sad +as her own, led her to a window in the recess shadowed by a +luxuriant passion flower. It was the same seat where they had +spent the first evening in this beautiful cottage, consecrated to +their first loves. The same calm, clear moonlight looked in +through the trellis. The vine then planted had now a luxuriant +growth; and many a time had Horatio fondly twined its sacred +blossoms with the glossy ringlets of her raven hair. The rush of +memory almost overpowered poor Clotel; and Horatio felt too much +oppressed and ashamed to break the long deep silence. At length, +in words scarcely audible, Clotel said: "Tell me, dear +Horatio, are you to be married next week?" He dropped her hand as +if a rifle ball had struck him; and it was not until after long +hesitation, that he began to make some reply about the necessity +of circumstances. Mildly but earnestly the poor girl begged him +to spare apologies. It was enough that he no longer loved her, and +that they must bid farewell. Trusting to the yielding tenderness +of her character, he ventured, in the most soothing accents, to +suggest that as he still loved her better than all the world, she +would ever be his real wife, and they might see each other +frequently. He was not prepared for the storm of indignant +emotion his words excited. True, she was his slave; her bones, +and sinews had been purchased by his gold, yet she had the heart +of a true woman, and hers was a passion too deep and absorbing to +admit of partnership, and her spirit was too pure to form a +selfish league with crime. + +At length this painful interview came to an end. They stood +together by the Gothic gate, where they had so often met and +parted in the moonlight. Old remembrances melted their souls. +"Farewell, dearest Horatio," said Clotel. "Give me a parting +kiss." Her voice was choked for utterance, and the tears flowed +freely, as she bent her lips toward him. He folded her +convulsively in his arms, and imprinted a long impassioned kiss on +that mouth, which had never spoken to him but in love and +blessing. With efforts like a death-pang she at length raised her +head from his heaving bosom, and turning from him with bitter +sobs, "It is our last. To meet thus is henceforth crime. God +bless you. I would not have you so miserable as I am. Farewell. +A last farewell." "The last?" exclaimed he, with a wild shriek. +"Oh God, Clotel, do not say that"; and covering his face with his +hands, he wept like a child. Recovering from his +emotion, he found himself alone. The moon looked down upon him +mild, but very sorrowfully; as the Madonna seems to gaze upon her +worshipping children, bowed down with consciousness of sin. At +that moment he would have given worlds to have disengaged himself +from Gertrude, but he had gone so far, that blame, disgrace, and +duels with angry relatives would now attend any effort to obtain +his freedom. Oh, how the moonlight oppressed him with its +friendly sadness! It was like the plaintive eye of his forsaken +one, like the music of sorrow echoed from an unseen world. Long +and earnestly he gazed at that cottage, where he had so long +known earth's purest foretaste of heavenly bliss. Slowly he +walked away; then turned again to look on that charmed spot, the +nestling-place of his early affections. He caught a glimpse of +Clotel, weeping beside a magnolia, which commanded a long view of +the path leading to the public road. He would have sprung toward +her but she darted from him, and entered the cottage. That +graceful figure, weeping in the moonlight, haunted him for years. +It stood before his closing eyes, and greeted him with the +morning dawn. Poor Gertrude, had she known all, what a dreary lot +would hers have been; but fortunately she could not miss the +impassioned tenderness she never experienced; and Horatio was the +more careful in his kindness, because he was deficient in love. +After Clotel had been separated from her mother and sister, she +turned her attention to the subject of Christianity, and received +that consolation from her Bible that is never denied to the +children of God. Although it was against the laws of Virginia, +for a slave to be taught to read, Currer had employed an old free +Negro, who lived near her, to teach her two daughters to read and +write. She felt that the step she had taken in resolving +never to meet Horatio again would no doubt expose her to his +wrath, and probably cause her to be sold, yet her heart was too +guileless for her to commit a crime, and therefore she had ten +times rather have been sold as a slave than do wrong. Some months +after the marriage of Horatio and Gertrude their barouche rolled +along a winding road that skirted the forest near Clotel's +cottage, when the attention of Gertrude was suddenly attracted by +two figures among the trees by the wayside; and touching Horatio's +arm, she exclaimed, "Do look at that beautiful child." He turned +and saw Clotel and Mary. His lips quivered, and his face became +deadly pale. His young wife looked at him intently, but said +nothing. In returning home, he took another road; but his wife +seeing this, expressed a wish to go back the way they had come. +He objected, and suspicion was awakened in her heart, and she +soon after learned that the mother of that lovely child bore the +name of Clotel, a name which she had often heard Horatio murmur in +uneasy slumbers. From gossiping tongues she soon learned more +than she wished to know. She wept, but not as poor Clotel had +done; for she never had loved, and been beloved like her, and her +nature was more proud: henceforth a change came over her feelings +and her manners, and Horatio had no further occasion to assume a +tenderness in return for hers. Changed as he was by ambition, he +felt the wintry chill of her polite propriety, and sometimes, in +agony of heart, compared it with the gushing love of her who was +indeed his wife. But these and all his emotions were a sealed +book to Clotel, of which she could only guess the contents. With +remittances for her and her child's support, there sometimes came +earnest pleadings that she would consent to see him again; but +these she never answered, though her heart yearned to do so. +She pitied his young bride, and would not be tempted to +bring sorrow into her household by any fault of hers. Her earnest +prayer was, that she might not know of her existence. She had not +looked on Horatio since she watched him under the shadow of the +magnolia, until his barouche passed her in her rambles some months +after. She saw the deadly paleness of his countenance, and had he +dared to look back, he would have seen her tottering with +faintness. Mary brought water from a rivulet, and sprinkled her +face. When she revived, she clasped the beloved child to her +heart with a vehemence that made her scream. Soothingly she +kissed away her fears, and gazed into her beautiful eyes with a +deep, deep sadness of expression, which poor Mary never forgot. +Wild were the thoughts that passed round her aching heart, and +almost maddened her poor brain; thoughts which had almost driven +her to suicide the night of that last farewell. For her child's +sake she had conquered the fierce temptation then; and for her +sake, she struggled with it now. But the gloomy atmosphere of +their once happy home overclouded the morning of Mary's life. +Clotel perceived this, and it gave her unutterable pain. + + "Tis ever thus with woman's love, + True till life's storms have passed; + And, like the vine around the tree, + It braves them to the last." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MAN OF HONOUR + +"My tongue could never learn sweet soothing words, +But now thy beauty is propos'd, my fee, +My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak." + +Shakespeare. + + +JAMES CRAWFORD, the purchaser of Althesa, was from the green +mountains of Vermont, and his feelings were opposed to the +holding of slaves. But his young wife persuaded him into the idea +that it was no worse to own a slave than to hire one and pay the +money to another. Hence it was that he had been induced to +purchase Althesa. Henry Morton, a young physician from the same +state, and who had just commenced the practice of his profession +in New Orleans, was boarding with Crawford when Althesa was +brought home. The young physician had been in New Orleans but a +few weeks, and had seen very little of slavery. In his own +mountain home he had been taught that the slaves of the Southern +states were Negroes, if not from the coast of Africa, the +descendants of those who had been imported. He was unprepared to +behold with composure a beautiful young white girl of fifteen in +the degraded position of a chattel slave. The blood chilled in +his young heart as he heard Crawford tell how, by bartering with +the trader, he had bought her for two hundred dollars less than +he first asked. His very looks showed that the slave girl had the +deepest sympathy of his heart. Althesa had been brought up by her +mother to look after the domestic concerns of her cottage in +Virginia, and knew well the duties imposed upon her. Mrs. +Crawford was much pleased with her new servant, and often made +mention of her in the presence of Morton. The young man's +sympathy ripened into love, which was reciprocated by the +friendless and injured child of sorrow. There was but one course +left; that was, to purchase the young girl and make her his wife, +which he did six months after her arrival in Crawford's family. +The young physician and his wife immediately took lodgings in +another part of the city; a private teacher was called in, and +the young wife taught some of those accomplishments which are +necessary for one's taking a position in society. Dr. Morton soon +obtained a large practice in his profession, and with it +increased in wealth--but with all his wealth he never would own a +slave. Mrs. Morton was now in a position to seek out and redeem +her mother, whom she had not heard of since they parted at +Natchez. An agent was immediately despatched to hunt out the +mother and to see if she could be purchased. The agent had no +trouble in finding out Mr. Peck: but all overtures were +unavailable; he would not sell Currer. His excuse was, that she +was such a good housekeeper that he could not spare her. Poor +Althesa felt sad when she found that her mother could not be +bought. However, she felt a consciousness of having done her duty +in the matter, yet waited with the hope that the day might come +when she should have her mother by her side. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN + +"Here we see God dealing in slaves; giving them to his own +favourite child [Abraham], a man of superlative worth, and as a +reward for his eminent goodness."--Rev. Theodore Clapp, of New +Orleans. + +ON Carlton's return the next day from the farm, he was overwhelmed +with questions from Mr. Peck, as to what he thought of the +plantation, the condition of the Negroes, Huckelby and Snyder; +and especially how he liked the sermon of the latter. Mr. Peck was +a kind of a patriarch in his own way. To begin with, he was a man +of some talent. He not only had a good education, but was a man +of great eloquence, and had a wonderful command of language. He +too either had, or thought he had, poetical genius; and was often +sending contributions to the Natchez Free Trader, and other +periodicals. In the way of raising contributions for foreign +missions, he took the lead of all others in his neighbourhood. +Everything he did, he did for the "glory of God," as he said: he +quoted Scripture for almost everything he did. Being in good +circumstances, he was able to give to almost all benevolent +causes to which he took a fancy. He was a most loving father, and +his daughter exercised considerable influence over him, and owing +to her piety and judgment, that influence had a beneficial effect. +Carlton, though a schoolfellow of the parson's, was nevertheless +nearly ten years his junior; and though not an avowed infidel, +was, however, a freethinker, and one who took no note of +to-morrow. And for this reason Georgiana took peculiar interest +in the young man, for Carlton was but little above thirty and +unmarried. The young Christian felt that she would not be living +up to that faith that she professed and believed in, if she did +not exert herself to the utmost to save the thoughtless man from +his downward career; and in this she succeeded to her most +sanguine expectations. She not only converted him, but in placing +the Scriptures before him in their true light, she redeemed those +sacred writings from the charge of supporting the system of +slavery, which her father had cast upon them in the discussion +some days before. + +Georgiana's first object, however, was to awaken in Carlton's +breast a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. The young man had often +sat under the sound of the gospel with perfect indifference. He +had heard men talk who had grown grey bending over the Scriptures, +and their conversation had passed by him unheeded; but when a +young girl, much younger than himself, reasoned with him in that +innocent and persuasive manner that woman is wont to use when she +has entered with her whole soul upon an object, it was too much +for his stout heart, and he yielded. Her next aim was to vindicate +the Bible from sustaining the monstrous institution of slavery. +She said, "God has created of one blood all the nations of men, +to dwell on all the face of the earth. To claim, hold, and treat a +human being as property is felony against God and man. The +Christian religion is opposed to slaveholding in its spirit and +its principles; it classes menstealers among murderers; and it is +the duty of all who wish to meet God in peace, to discharge that +duty in spreading these principles. Let us not deceive ourselves +into the idea that slavery is right, because it is profitable to +us. Slaveholding is the highest possible violation of +the eighth commandment. To take from a man his earnings, is theft; +but to take the earner is a compound, life-long theft; and we who +profess to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer, should do our +utmost to extirpate slavery from the land. For my own part, I +shall do all I can. When the Redeemer was about to ascend to the +bosom of the Father, and resume the glory which he had with him +before the world was, he promised his disciples that the power of +the Holy Ghost should come upon them, and that they should be +witnesses for him to the uttermost parts of the earth. What was +the effect upon their minds? 'They all continued with one accord +in prayer and supplication with the women.' Stimulated by the +confident expectation that Jesus would fulfil his gracious +promise, they poured out their hearts in fervent supplications, +probably for strength to do the work which he had appointed them +unto, for they felt that without him they could do nothing, and +they consecrated themselves on the altar of God, to the great and +glorious enterprise of preaching the unsearchable riches of +Christ to a lost and perishing world. Have we less precious +promises in the Scriptures of truth? May we not claim of our God +the blessing promised unto those who consider the poor: the Lord +will preserve them and keep them alive, and they shall be blessed +upon the earth? Does not the language, 'Inasmuch as ye did it unto +one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me,' +belong to all who are rightly engaged in endeavouring to +unloose the bondman's fetters? Shall we not then do as the +apostles did? Shall we not, in view of the two millions of +heathen in our very midst, in view of the souls that are going +down in an almost unbroken phalanx to utter perdition, continue +in prayer and supplication, that God will grant us the +supplies of his Spirit to prepare us for that work which he has +given us to do? Shall not the wail of the mother as she +surrenders her only child to the grasp of the ruthless kidnapper, +or the trader in human blood, animate our devotions? Shall not the +manifold crimes and horrors of slavery excite more ardent +outpourings at the throne of grace to grant repentance to our +guilty country, and permit us to aid in preparing the way for the +glorious second advent of the Messiah, by preaching deliverance +to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to those who +are bound?" + +Georgiana had succeeded in riveting the attention of Carlton +during her conversation, and as she was finishing her last +sentence, she observed the silent tear stealing down the cheek of +the newly born child of God. At this juncture her father entered, +and Carlton left the room. "Dear papa," said Georgiana, "will you +grant me one favour; or, rather, make me a promise?" "I can't +tell, my dear, till I know what it is," replied Mr. Peck. "If it +is a reasonable request, I will comply with your wish," continued +he. "I hope, my dear," answered she, "that papa would not think +me capable of making an unreasonable request." "Well, well," +returned he; "tell me what it is." "I hope," said she, "that in +your future conversation with Mr. Carlton, on the subject of +slavery, you will not speak of the Bible as sustaining it." "Why, +Georgiana, my dear, you are mad, ain't you?" exclaimed he, in an +excited tone. The poor girl remained silent; the father saw in a +moment that he had spoken too sharply; and taking her hand in his +he said, "Now, my child, why do you make that request?" +"Because," returned she, "I think he is on the stool of +repentance, if he has not already been received among the elect. +He, you know, was bordering upon infidelity, and if the +Bible sanctions slavery, then he will naturally enough say that +it is not from God; for the argument from internal evidence is +not only refuted, but actually turned against the Bible. If the +Bible sanctions slavery, then it misrepresents the character of +God. Nothing would be more dangerous to the soul of a young +convert than to satisfy him that the Scriptures favoured such a +system of sin." "Don't you suppose that I understand the +Scriptures better than you? I have been in the world longer." +"Yes," said she, "you have been in the world longer, and amongst +slaveholders so long that you do not regard it in the same light +that those do who have not become so familiar with its every-day +scenes as you. I once heard you say, that you were opposed to the +institution, when you first came to the South." "Yes," answered +he, "I did not know so much about it then." "With great deference +to you, papa," replied Georgiana, "I don't think that the Bible +sanctions slavery. The Old Testament contains this explicit +condemnation of it, 'He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or +if he be found in his band, he shall surely be put to death'; and +'Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his +chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without +wages, and giveth him not for his work'; when also the New +Testament exhibits such words of rebuke as these, 'Behold the hire +of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of +you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them who have +reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' 'The +law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and +disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and +profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for +manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves +with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured +persons.' A more scathing denunciation of the sin in question is +surely to be found on record in no other book. I am afraid," +continued the daughter, "that the acts of the professed friends of +Christianity in the South do more to spread infidelity than the +writings of all the atheists which have ever been published. The +infidel watches the religious world. He surveys the church, and, +lo! thousands and tens of thousands of her accredited members +actually hold slaves. Members 'in good and regular standing,' +fellowshipped throughout Christendom except by a few anti-slavery +churches generally despised as ultra and radical, reduce their +fellow men to the condition of chattels, and by force keep them in +that state of degradation. Bishops, ministers, elders, and +deacons are engaged in this awful business, and do not consider +their conduct as at all inconsistent with the precepts of either +the Old or New Testaments. Moreover, those ministers and churches +who do not themselves hold slaves, very generally defend the +conduct of those who do, and accord to them a fair Christian +character, and in the way of business frequently take mortgages +and levy executions on the bodies of their fellow men, and in +some cases of their fellow Christians. "Now is it a wonder that +infidels, beholding the practice and listening to the theory of +professing Christians, should conclude that the Bible inculcates +a morality not inconsistent with chattelising human beings? And +must not this conclusion be strengthened, when they hear ministers +of talent and learning declare that the Bible does sanction +slaveholding, and that it ought not to be made a disciplinable +offence in churches? And must not all doubt be dissipated, when +one of the most learned professors in our theological seminaries +asserts that the Bible recognises that the relation may still +exist, salva fide et salva ecclesia' (without injury to +the Christian faith or church) and that only 'the abuse of it is +the essential and fundamental wrong?' Are not infidels bound to +believe that these professors, ministers, and churches understand +their own Bible, and that, consequently, notwithstanding solitary +passages which appear to condemn slaveholding, the Bible +sanctions it? When nothing can be further from the truth. And as +for Christ, his whole life was a living testimony against slavery +and all that it inculcates. When he designed to do us good, he +took upon himself the form of a servant. He took his station at +the bottom of society. He voluntarily identified himself with the +poor and the despised. The warning voices of Jeremiah and Ezekiel +were raised in olden time, against sin. Let us not forget what +followed. 'Therefore, thus saith the Lord--ye have not harkened +unto me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and +every one to his neighbour--behold I proclaim a liberty for you, +saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the +famine.' Are we not virtually as a nation adopting the same +impious language, and are we not exposed to the same tremendous +judgments? Shall we not, in view of those things, use every +laudable means to awaken our beloved country from the slumbers of +death, and baptize all our efforts with tears and with prayers, +that God may bless them? Then, should our labour fail to +accomplish the end for which we pray, we shall stand acquitted at +the bar of Jehovah, and although we may share in the national +calamities which await unrepented sins, yet that blessed approval +will be ours--'Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into +the joy of your Lord.'" + +"My dear Georgiana," said Mr. Peck, "I must be permitted to +entertain my own views on this subject, and to exercise my own +judgment." + +"Believe me, dear papa," she replied, "I would not be understood +as wishing to teach you, or to dictate to you in the least; but +only grant my request, not to allude to the Bible as sanctioning +slavery, when speaking with Mr. Carlton." + +"Well," returned he, "I will comply with your wish." + +The young Christian had indeed accomplished a noble work; and +whether it was admitted by the father, or not, she was his +superior and his teacher. Georgiana had viewed the right to enjoy +perfect liberty as one of those inherent and inalienable rights +which pertain to the whole human race, and of which they can +never be divested, except by an act of gross injustice. And no +one was more able than herself to impress those views upon the +hearts of all with whom she came in contact. Modest and +self-possessed, with a voice of great sweetness, and a most +winning manner, she could, with the greatest ease to herself, +engage their attention. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE PARSON POET + +"Unbind, unbind my galling chain, + And set, oh! set me free: + No longer say that I'll disdain + The gift of liberty." + +THROUGH the persuasion of Mr. Peck, and fascinated with the +charms of Georgiana, Carlton had prolonged his stay two months +with his old school-fellow. During the latter part of the time he +had been almost as one of the family. If Miss Peck was invited +out, Mr. Carlton was, as a matter of course. She seldom rode +out, unless with him. If Mr. Peck was absent, he took the head of +the table; and, to the delight of the young lady, he had on +several occasions taken part in the family worship. "I am glad," +said Mr. Peck, one evening while at the tea table, "I am glad, +Mr. Carlton, that my neighbour Jones has invited you to visit him +at his farm. He is a good neighbour, but a very ungodly man; I +want that you should see his people, and then, when you return to +the North, you can tell how much better a Christian's slaves are +situated than one who does nothing for the cause of Christ." "I +hope, Mr. Carlton," said Georgiana, "that you will spend the +Sabbath with him, and have a religious interview with the +Negroes." "Yes," replied the parson, "that's well thought of, +Georgy." "Well, I think I will go up on Thursday next, and stay +till Monday," said Carlton; "and I shall act upon your +suggestion, Miss Peck," continued he; "and try to get a +religious interview with the blacks. By-the-by," remarked +Carlton, "I saw an advertisement in the Free Trader to-day that +rather puzzled me. Ah, here it is now; and, drawing the paper +from his pocket, "I will read it, and then you can tell me what +it means: + +'To PLANTERS AND OTHERS.--Wanted fifty Negroes. Any person having +sick Negroes, considered incurable by their respective +physicians, (their owners of course,) and wishing to dispose of +them, Dr. Stillman will pay cash for Negroes affected with +scrofula or king's evil, confirmed hypochondriacism, apoplexy, or +diseases of the brain, kidneys, spleen, stomach and intestines, +bladder and its appendages, diarrhoea, dysentery, &c. The highest +cash price will be paid as above.' + +When I read this to-day I thought that the advertiser must be a +man of eminent skill as a physician, and that he intended to cure +the sick Negroes; but on second thought I find that some of the +diseases enumerated are certainly incurable. What can he do with +these sick Negroes?" "You see," replied Mr. Peck, laughing, "that +he is a doctor, and has use for them in his lectures. The doctor +is connected with a small college. Look at his prospectus, where +he invites students to attend, and that will explain the matter +to you." Carlton turned to another column, and read the +following: + +"Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected with this +institution, which it may be proper to point out. No place in the +United States offers as great opportunities for the acquisition +of anatomical knowledge. Subjects being obtained from among the +coloured population in sufficient numbers for every purpose, and +proper dissections carried on without offending any individuals in +the community!" + +"These are for dissection, then?" inquired Carlton with a +trembling voice. "Yes," answered the parson. "Of course they wait +till they die before they can use them." "They keep them on +hand, and when they need one they bleed him to death," returned +Mr. Peck. "Yes, but that's murder." "Oh, the doctors are licensed +to commit murder, you know; and what's the difference, whether +one dies owing to the loss of blood, or taking too many pills? +For my own part, if I had to choose, I would rather submit to the +former." "I have often heard what I considered hard stories in +abolition meetings in New York about slavery; but now I shall +begin to think that many of them are true." "The longer you +remain here the more you will be convinced of the iniquity of the +institution," remarked Georgiana. "Now, Georgy, my dear, don't +give us another abolition lecture, if you please," said Mr. Peck. +"Here, Carlton," continued the parson, "I have written a short +poem for your sister's album, as you requested me; it is a +domestic piece, as you will see." "She will prize it the more for +that," remarked Carlton; and taking the sheet of paper, he +laughed as his eyes glanced over it. "Read it out, Mr. Carlton," +said Georgiana, "and let me hear what it is; I know papa gets off +some very droll things at times." Carlton complied with the young +lady's request, and read aloud the following rare specimen of +poetical genius: + + "MY LITTLE NIG. + + "I have a little nigger, the blackest thing alive, + He'll be just four years old if he lives till forty-five; + His smooth cheek hath a glossy hue, like a new polished boot, + And his hair curls o'er his little head as black as any soot. + His lips bulge from his countenance--his little ivories shine-- + His nose is what we call a little pug, but fashioned very fine: + Although not quite a fairy, he is comely to behold, +And I wouldn't sell him, 'pon my word, for a hundred all in gold. + + "He gets up early in the morn, like all the other nigs, + And runs off to the hog-lot, where he squabbles with the pigs-- + And when the sun gets out of bed, and mounts up in the sky, + The warmest corner of the yard is where my nig doth lie. + And there extended lazily, he contemplates and dreams, + (I cannot qualify to this, but plain enough it seems;) + Until 'tis time to take in grub, when you can't find him there, + For, like a politician, he has gone to hunt his share. + + "I haven't said a single word concerning my plantation, + Though a prettier, I guess, cannot be found within the nation; + When he gets a little bigger, I'll take and to him show it, + And then I'll say, 'My little nig, now just prepare to go it!' + I'll put a hoe into his hand--he'll soon know what it means, + And every day for dinner, he shall have bacon and greens." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A NIGHT IN THE PARSON'S KITCHEN + + "And see the servants met, + Their daily labour's o'er; + And with the jest and song they set + The kitchen in a roar." + +MR. PECK kept around him four servants besides Currer, of whom we +have made mention: of these, Sam was considered the first. If a +dinner-party was in contemplation, or any company to be invited +to the parson's, after all the arrangements had been talked over +by the minister and his daughter, Sam was sure to be consulted +upon the subject by "Miss Georgy," as Miss Peck was called by the +servants. If furniture, crockery, or anything else was to be +purchased, Sam felt that he had been slighted if his opinion had +not been asked. As to the marketing, he did it all. At the +servants' table in the kitchen, he sat at the head, and was +master of ceremonies. A single look from him was enough to +silence any conversation or noise in the kitchen, or any other +part of the premises. There is, in the Southern States, a great +amount of prejudice against colour amongst the Negroes +themselves. The nearer the Negro or mulatto approaches to the +white, the more he seems to feel his superiority over those of a +darker hue. This is, no doubt, the result of the prejudice that +exists on the part of the whites towards both mulattoes and +blacks. Sam was originally from Kentucky, and through the +instrumentality of one of his young masters whom he had to take +to school, he had learned to read so as to be well understood; +and, owing to that fact, was considered a prodigy among the +slaves, not only of his own master's, but those of the town who +knew him. Sam had a great wish to follow in the footsteps of his +master, and be a poet; and was, therefore, often heard singing +doggerels of his own composition. But there was one great drawback +to Sam, and that was his colour. He was one of the blackest of +his race. This he evidently regarded as a great misfortune. +However, he made up for this in his dress. Mr. Peck kept his +house servants well dressed; and as for Sam, he was seldom seen +except in a ruffled shirt. Indeed, the washerwoman feared him +more than all others about the house. + +Currer, as we have already stated, was chief of the kitchen +department, and had a general supervision of the household +affairs. Alfred the coachman, Peter, and Hetty made up the +remainder of the house servants. Besides these, Mr. Peck owned +eight slaves who were masons. These worked in the city. Being +mechanics, they were let out to greater advantage than to keep +them on the farm. However, every Sunday night, Peck's servants, +including the bricklayers, usually assembled in the kitchen, when +the events of the week were freely discussed and commented on. +It was on a Sunday evening, in the month of June, that there was +a party at Mr. Peck's, and, according to custom in the Southern +States, the ladies had their maid-servants with them. Tea had +been served in "the house," and the servants, including the +strangers, had taken their seats at the tea table in the kitchen. +Sam, being a "single gentleman," was usually attentive to the +"ladies" on this occasion. He seldom or ever let the day pass +without spending at least an hour in combing and brushing up his +"hair." Sam had an idea that fresh butter was better for his hair +than any other kind of grease; and therefore, on churning days, +half a pound of butter had always to be taken out before it was +salted. When he wished to appear to great advantage, he would +grease his face, to make it "shiny." On the evening of the party +therefore, when all the servants were at the table, Sam cut a +big figure. There he sat with his wool well combed and buttered, +face nicely greased, and his ruffles extending five or six inches +from his breast. The parson in his own drawing-room did not make +a more imposing appearance than did his servant on this occasion. +"I jist bin had my fortune told last Sunday night," said Sam, as +he helped one of the girls to some sweet hash. "Indeed," cried +half-a-dozen voices. "Yes," continued he; "Aunt Winny teld me I +is to hab de prettiest yaller gal in town, and dat I is to be +free." All eyes were immediately turned toward Sally Johnson, who +was seated near Sarn. "I speck I see somebody blush at dat +remark," said Alfred. "Pass dem pancakes and molasses up dis way, +Mr. Alf, and none of your insinawaysion here," rejoined Sam. "Dat +reminds me," said Currer, "dat Doreas Simpson is gwine to git +married." "Who to, I want to know?" inquired Peter. "To one of +Mr. Darby's field-hands," answered Currer. "I should tink dat dat +gal would not trow hersef away in dat manner," said Sally. "She +good enough looking to get a house servant, and not to put up wid +a fiel' nigger," continued she. "Yes," said Sam, "dat's a wery +insensible remark of yours, Miss Sally. I admire your judgment +wery much, I assure you. Dah's plenty of suspectible and +well-dressed house servants dat a gal of her looks can get, wid +out taken up wid dem common darkies." "Is de man black or a +mulatto?" inquired one of the company. "He's nearly white," +replied Currer. "Well den, dat's some exchuse for her," +remarked Sam; "for I don't like to see dis malgemation of blacks +and mulattoes." "No mulatto?" inquired one of the corn-how. +Continued Sam, "If I had my rights I would be a mulatto too, for +my mother was almost as light-coloured as Miss Sally," said he. +Although Sam was one of the blackest men living, he nevertheless +contended that his mother was a mulatto, and no one was more +prejudiced against the blacks than he. A good deal of work, and +the free use of fresh butter, had no doubt done wonders for his +"hare" in causing it to grow long, and to this he would always +appeal when he wished to convince others that he was part of an +Anglo-Saxon. "I always thought you was not clear black, Mr. Sam," +said Agnes. "You are right dahr, Miss Agnes. My hare tells what +company I belong to," answered Sam. Here the whole company joined +in the conversation about colour, which lasted for some time, +giving unmistakeable evidence that caste is owing to ignorance. +The evening's entertainment concluded by Sam's relating a little +of his own experience while with his first master in old +Kentucky. + +Sam's former master was a doctor, and had a large practice among +his neighbours, doctoring both masters and slaves. When Sam was +about fifteen years of age, his old master set him to grinding up +the ointment, then to making pills. As the young student grew +older and became more practised in his profession, his services +were of more importance to the doctor. The physician having a +good business, and a large number of his patients being slaves, +the most of whom had to call on the doctor when ill, he put Sam +to bleeding, pulling teeth, and administering medicine to the +slaves. Sam soon acquired the name amongst the slaves of the +"Black Doctor." With this appellation he was delighted, and no +regular physician could possibly have put on more airs than did +the black doctor when his services were required. In bleeding, he +must have more bandages, and rub and smack the arm more than the +doctor would have thought of. We once saw Sam taking out a tooth +for one of his patients, and nothing appeared more amusing. He +got the poor fellow down on his back, and he got astraddle of the +man's chest, and getting the turnkeys on the wrong tooth, he shut +both eyes and pulled for his life. The poor man screamed as loud +as he could, but to no purpose. Sam had him fast. After a great +effort, out came the sound grinder, and the young doctor saw his +mistake; but consoled himself with the idea that as the wrong +tooth was out of the way, there was more room to get at the right +one. Bleeding and a dose of calomel was always considered +indispensable by the "Old Boss"; and, as a matter of course, Sam +followed in his footsteps. + +On one occasion the old doctor was ill himself, so as to be unable +to attend to his patients. A slave, with pass in hand, called to +receive medical advice, and the master told Sam to examine him +and see what he wanted. This delighted him beyond measure, for +although he had been acting his part in the way of giving out +medicine as the master ordered it, he had never been called upon +by the latter to examine a patient, and this seemed to convince +him that, after all, he was no sham doctor. As might have been +expected, he cut a rare figure in his first examination, placing +himself directly opposite his patient, and folding his arms +across his breast, and looking very knowingly, he began, "What's +de matter wid you?" "I is sick." "Where is you sick?" "Here," +replied the man, putting his hand upon his stomach. "Put out your +tongue," continued the doctor. The man ran out his tongue at full +length. "Let me feel your pulse," at the same time taking his +patient's hand in his, placing his fingers on his pulse, he said, +"Ah, your case is a bad one; if I don't do something for you, and +dat pretty quick, you'll be a gone coon, and dat's sartin." At +this the man appeared frightened, and inquired what was the matter +with him: in answer, Sam said, "I done told you dat your case is +a bad one, and dat's enough." On Sam's returning to his master's +bedside, the latter said, "Well, Sam, what do you think is the +matter with him?" "His stomach is out of order, sir," he replied. +"What do you think had best be done for him?" "I think I better +bleed him and give him a dose of calomel," returned Sam. So to +the latter's gratification the master let him have his own way. +We need not further say, that the recital of Sam's experience as a +physician gave him a high position amongst the servants that +evening, and made him a decided favourite with the ladies, one of +whom feigned illness, when the black doctor, to the delight of +all, and certainly to himself, gave medical advice. Thus ended +the evening amongst the servants in the parson's kitchen. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A SLAVE HUNTING PARSON + + "'Tis too much prov'd--that with devotion's visage, + And pious action, we do sugar o'er the devil himself." + +--Shakespeare. + + +"You will, no doubt, be well pleased with neighbour Jones," said +Mr. Peck, as Carlton stepped into the chaise to pay his promised +visit to the "ungodly man." "Don't forget to have a religious +interview with the Negroes, remarked Georgiana, as she gave the +last nod to her young convert. "I will do my best," returned +Carlton, as the vehicle left the door. As might have been +expected, Carlton met with a cordial reception at the hands of +the proprietor of the Grove Farm. The servants in the "Great +House" were well dressed, and appeared as if they did not want +for food. Jones knew that Carlton was from the North, and a +non-slaveholder, and therefore did everything in his power to +make a favourable impression on his mind. "My Negroes are well +clothed, well fed, and not over worked," said the slaveholder to +his visitor, after the latter had been with him nearly a week. +"As far as I can see your slaves appear to good advantage," +replied Carlton. "But," continued he, "if it is a fair question, +do you have preaching among your slaves on Sunday, Mr. Jones?" +"No, no," returned he, "I think that's all nonsense; my Negroes +do their own preaching." "So you do permit them to have +meetings." "Yes, when they wish. There's some very intelligent +and clever chaps among them." "As to-morrow is the Sabbath," +said Carlton, "if you have no objection, I will attend meeting +with them." "Most certainly you shall, if you will do the +preaching," returned the planter. Here the young man was about +to decline, but he remembered the parting words of Georgiana, and +he took courage and said, "Oh, I have no objection to give the +Negroes a short talk." It was then understood that Carlton was to +have a religious interview with the blacks the next day, and the +young man waited with a degree of impatience for the time. + +In no part of the South are slaves in a more ignorant and degraded +state than in the cotton, sugar, and rice districts. + +If they are permitted to cease labour on the Sabbath, the time is +spent in hunting, fishing, or lying beneath the shade of a tree, +resting for the morrow. Religious instruction is unknown in the +far South, except among such men as the Rev. C. C. Jones, John +Peck, and some others who regard religious instruction, such as +they impart to their slaves, as calculated to make them more +trustworthy and valuable as property. Jones, aware that his +slaves would make rather a bad show of intelligence if questioned +by Carlton, resolved to have them ready for him, and therefore +gave his driver orders with regard to their preparation. +Consequently, after the day's labour was over, Dogget, the +driver, assembled the Negroes together and said, "Now, boys and +gals, your master is coming down to the quarters to-morrow with +his visitor, who is going to give you a preach, and I want you +should understand what he says to you. Now many of you who came +of Old Virginia and Kentuck, know what preaching is, and others +who have been raised in these parts do not. Preaching is to tell +you that you are mighty wicked and bad at heart. This, I suppose, +you all know. But if the gentleman should ask you who +made you, tell him the Lord; if he ask if you wish to go to +heaven, tell him yes. Remember that you are all Christians, all +love the Lord, all want to go to heaven, all love your masters, +and all love me. Now, boys and gals, I want you to show +yourselves smart to-morrow: be on your p's and q's, and, Monday +morning, I will give you all a glass of whiskey bright and +early." Agreeable to arrangement the slaves were assembled +together on Sunday morning under the large trees near the great +house, and after going through another drilling from the driver, +Jones and Carlton made their appearance. "You see," said Jones to +the Negroes, as he approached them, you see here's a gentleman +that's come to talk to you about your souls, and I hope you 'ill +all pay that attention that you ought." Jones then seated himself +in one of the two chairs placed there for him and the stranger. + +Carlton had already selected a chapter in the Bible to read to +them, which he did, after first prefacing it with some remarks of +his own. Not being accustomed to speak in public, he determined, +after reading the Bible, to make it more of a conversational +meeting than otherwise. He therefore began asking them questions. +"Do you feel that you are a Christian?" asked he of a +full-blooded Negro that sat near him. "Yes, sir," was the +response. "You feel, then, that you shall go to heaven." "Yes, +sir." "Of course you know who made you?" The man put his hand to +his head and began to scratch his wool; and, after a little +hesitation, answered, "De overseer told us last night who made +us, but indeed I forgot the gentmun's name." This reply was +almost too much for Carlton, and his gravity was not a little +moved. However, he bit his tongue, and turned to another man, +who appeared, from his looks, to be more intelligent. "Do you +serve the Lord?" asked he. "No, sir, I don't serve anybody but +Mr. Jones. I neber belong to anybody else." To hide his feelings +at this juncture, Carlton turned and walked to another part of +the grounds, to where the women were seated, and said to a +mulatto woman who had rather an anxious countenance, "Did you +ever hear of John the Baptist?" "Oh yes, marser, John de Baptist; +I know dat nigger bery well indeed; he libs in Old Kentuck, where +I come from." Carlton's gravity here gave way, and he looked at +the planter and laughed right out. The old woman knew a slave +near her old master's farm in Kentucky, and was ignorant enough +to suppose that he was the John the Baptist inquired about. +Carlton occupied the remainder of the time in reading Scripture +and talking to them. "My niggers ain't shown off very well +to-day," said Jones, as he and his visitor left the grounds. +"No," replied Carlton. "You did not get hold of the bright ones," +continued the planter. "So it seems," remarked Carlton. The +planter evidently felt that his neighbour, Parson Peck, would +have a nut to crack over the account that Carlton would give of +the ignorance of the slaves, and said and did all in his power to +remove the bad impression already made; but to no purpose. The +report made by Carlton, on his return, amused the parson very +much. It appeared to him the best reason why professed Christians +like himself should be slave-holders. Not so with Georgiana. She +did not even smile when Carlton was telling his story, but seemed +sore at heart that such ignorance should prevail in their midst. +The question turned upon the heathen of other lands, and the +parson began to expatiate upon his own efforts in foreign +missions, when his daughter, with a child-like simplicity, said, + + + "Send Bibles to the heathen; + On every distant shore, +From light that's beaming o'er us, + Let streams increasing pour + But keep it from the millions + Down-trodden at our door. + + "Send Bibles to the heathen, + Their famished spirits feed; +Oh! haste, and join your efforts, + The priceless gift to speed; + Then flog the trembling Negro + If he should learn to read." + +"I saw a curiosity while at Mr. Jones's that I shall not forget +soon," said Carlton. "What was it?" inquired the parson. "A +kennel of bloodhounds; and such dogs I never saw before. They +were of a species between the bloodhound and the foxhound, and +were ferocious, gaunt, and savage-looking animals. They were part +of a stock imported from Cuba, he informed me. They were kept in +an iron cage, and fed on Indian corn bread. This kind of food, he +said, made them eager for their business. Sometimes they would +give the dogs meat, but it was always after they had been chasing +a Negro." "Were those the dogs you had, papa, to hunt Harry?" +asked Georgiana. "No, my dear," was the short reply: and the +parson seemed anxious to change the conversation to something +else. When Mr. Peck had left the room, Carlton spoke more freely +of what he had seen, and spoke more pointedly against slavery; +for he well knew that Miss Peck sympathised with him in all he +felt and said. + +"You mentioned about your father hunting a slave," said Carlton, +in an undertone. "Yes," replied she: "papa went with some +slave-catchers and a parcel of those nasty Negro-dogs, to hunt +poor Harry. He belonged to papa and lived on the farm. His wife +lives in town, and Harry had been to see her, and did not return +quite as early as he should; and Huckelby was flogging him, and +he got away and came here. I wanted papa to keep him in town, so +that he could see his wife more frequently; but he said they +could not spare him from the farm, and flogged him again, and +sent him back. The poor fellow knew that the overseer would +punish him over again, and instead of going back he went into the +woods." "Did they catch him?" asked Carlton. "Yes," replied she. +"In chasing him through the woods, he attempted to escape by +swimming across a river, and the dogs were sent in after him, and +soon caught him. But Harry had great courage and fought the dogs +with a big club; and papa seeing the Negro would escape from the +dogs, shot at him, as he says, only to wound him, that he might +be caught; but the poor fellow was killed." Overcome by relating +this incident, Georgiana burst into tears. + +Although Mr. Peck fed and clothed his house servants well, and +treated them with a degree of kindness, he was, nevertheless, a +most cruel master. He encouraged his driver to work the +field-hands from early dawn till late at night; and the good +appearance of the house-servants, and the preaching of Snyder to +the field Negroes, was to cause himself to be regarded as a +Christian master. Being on a visit one day at the farm, and +having with him several persons from the Free States, and wishing +to make them believe that his slaves were happy, satisfied, and +contented, the parson got out the whiskey and gave each one a +dram, who in return had to drink the master's health, or give a +toast of some kind. The company were not a little amused at some +of the sentiments given, and Peck was delighted at every +indication of contentment on the part of the blacks. At last it +came to Jack's turn to drink, and the master expected something +good from him, because he was considered the cleverest and most +witty slave on the farm. + +"Now," said the master, as he handed Jack the cup of whiskey; +"now, Jack, give us something rich. You know," continued he, "we +have raised the finest crop of cotton that's been seen in these +parts for many a day. Now give us a toast on cotton; come, Jack, +give us something to laugh at." The Negro felt not a little +elated at being made the hero of the occasion, and taking the +whiskey in his right hand, put his left to his head and began to +scratch his wool, and said, + + "The big bee flies high, + The little bee make the honey; + The black folks makes the cotton, + And the white folks gets the money." + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A FREE WOMAN REDUCED TO SLAVERY + +ALTHESA found in Henry Morton a kind and affectionate husband; +and his efforts to purchase her mother, although unsuccessful, +had doubly endeared him to her. Having from the commencement +resolved not to hold slaves, or rather not to own any, they were +compelled to hire servants for their own use. Five years had +passed away, and their happiness was increased by two lovely +daughters. Mrs. Morton was seated, one bright afternoon, busily +engaged with her needle, and near her sat Salome, a servant that +she had just taken into her employ. The woman was perfectly +white; so much so, that Mrs. Morton had expressed her +apprehensions to her husband, when the woman first came, that she +was not born a slave. The mistress watched the servant, as the +latter sat sewing upon some coarse work, and saw the large silent +tear in her eye. This caused an uneasiness to the mistress, and +she said, "Salome, don't you like your situation here?" "Oh yes, +madam," answered the woman in a quick tone, and then tried to +force a smile. "Why is it that you often look sad, and with tears +in your eyes?" The mistress saw that she had touched a tender +chord, and continued, "I am your friend; tell me your sorrow, +and, if I can, I will help you." As the last sentence was +escaping the lips of the mistress, the slave woman put her check +apron to her face and wept. Mrs. Morton saw plainly that there +was cause for this expression of grief, and pressed the woman +more closely. "Hear me, then," said the woman calming herself: +"I will tell you why I sometimes weep. I was born in Germany, on +the banks of the Rhine. Ten years ago my father came to this +country, bringing with him my mother and myself. He was poor, and +I, wishing to assist all I could, obtained a situation as nurse +to a lady in this city. My father got employment as a labourer on +the wharf, among the steamboats; but he was soon taken ill with +the yellow fever, and died. My mother then got a situation for +herself, while I remained with my first employer. When the hot +season came on, my master, with his wife, left New Orleans until +the hot season was over, and took me with them. They stopped at a +town on the banks of the Mississippi river, and said they should +remain there some weeks. One day they went out for a ride, and +they had not been one more than half an hour, when two men came +into the room and told me that they had bought me, and that I was +their slave. I was bound and taken to prison, and that night put +on a steamboat and taken up the Yazoo river, and set to work on a +farm. I was forced to take up with a Negro, and by him had three +children. A year since my master's daughter was married, and I +was given to her. She came with her husband to this city, and I +have ever since been hired out." + +"Unhappy woman," whispered Althesa, "why did you not tell me this +before?" "I was afraid," replied Salome, "for I was once severely +flogged for telling a stranger that I was not born a slave." On +Mr. Morton's return home, his wife communicated to him the story +which the slave woman had told her an hour before, and begged +that something might be done to rescue her from the situation she +was then in. In Louisiana as well as many others of the slave +states, great obstacles are thrown in the way of persons who have +been wrongfully reduced to slavery regaining their freedom. A +person claiming to be free must prove his right to his liberty. +This, it will be seen, throws the burden of proof upon the slave, +who, in all probability, finds it out of his power to procure +such evidence. And if any free person shall attempt to aid a +freeman in re-gaining his freedom, he is compelled to enter into +security in the sum of one thousand dollars, and if the person +claiming to be free shall fail to establish such fact, the +thousand dollars are forfeited to the state. This cruel and +oppressive law has kept many a freeman from espousing the cause +of persons unjustly held as slaves. Mr. Morton inquired and found +that the woman's story was true, as regarded the time she had +lived with her present owner; but the latter not only denied that +she was free, but immediately removed her from Morton's. Three +months after Salome had been removed from Morton's and let out to +another family, she was one morning cleaning the door steps, when +a lady passing by, looked at the slave and thought she recognised +some one that she had seen before. The lady stopped and asked the +woman if she was a slave. "I am," said she. "Were you born a +slave?" "No, I was born in Germany." "What's the name of the ship +in which you came to this country?" inquired the lady. "I don't +know," was the answer. "Was it the Amazon?" At the sound of +this name, the slave woman was silent for a moment, and then the +tears began to flow freely down her careworn cheeks. "Would you +know Mrs. Marshall, who was a passenger in the Amazon, if you +should see her?" inquired the lady. At this the woman gazed at +the lady with a degree of intensity that can be imagined better +than described, and then fell at the lady's feet. The lady was +Mrs. Marshall. She had crossed the Atlantic in the same ship with +this poor woman. Salome, like many of her countrymen, was a +beautiful singer, and had often entertained Mrs. Marshall and the +other lady passengers on board the Amazon. The poor woman was +raised from the ground by Mrs. Marshall, and placed upon the door +step that she had a moment before been cleaning. "I will do my +utmost to rescue you from the horrid life of a slave," exclaimed +the lady, as she took from her pocket her pencil, and wrote down +the number of the house, and the street in which the German woman +was working as a slave. + +After a long and tedious trial of many days, it was decided that +Salome Miller was by birth a free woman, and she was set at +liberty. The good and generous Althesa had contributed some of +the money toward bringing about the trial, and had done much to +cheer on Mrs. Marshall in her benevolent object. Salome Miller +is free, but where are her three children? They are still slaves, +and in all human probability will die as such. + +This, reader, is no fiction; if you think so, look over the files +of the New Orleans newspapers of the years 1845-6, and you will +there see reports of the trial. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TO-DAY A MISTRESS, TO-MORROW A SLAVE + + "I promised thee a sister tale + Of man's perfidious cruelty; +Come, then, and hear what cruel wrong + Befell the dark ladie."--Coleridge. + +LET us return for a moment to the home of Clotel. While she was +passing lonely and dreary hours with none but her darling child, +Horatio Green was trying to find relief in that insidious enemy +of man, the intoxicating cup. Defeated in politics, forsaken in +love by his wife, he seemed to have lost all principle of honour, +and was ready to nerve himself up to any deed, no matter how +unprincipled. Clotel's existence was now well known to Horatio's +wife, and both her [sic] and her father demanded that the +beautiful quadroon and her child should be sold and sent out of +the state. To this proposition he at first turned a deaf ear; but +when he saw that his wife was about to return to her father's +roof, he consented to leave the matter in the hands of his +father-in-law. The result was, that Clotel was immediately sold +to the slave-trader, Walker, who, a few years previous, had taken +her mother and sister to the far South. But, as if to make her +husband drink of the cup of humiliation to its very dregs, Mrs. +Green resolved to take his child under her own roof for a +servant. Mary was, therefore, put to the meanest work that could +be found, and although only ten years of age, she was often +compelled to perform labour, which, under ordinary circumstances, +would have been thought too hard for one much older. One +condition of the sale of Clotel to Walker was, that she should be +taken out of the state, which was accordingly done. Most +quadroon women who are taken to the lower countries to be sold +are either purchased by gentlemen for their own use, or sold for +waiting-maids; and Clotel, like her sister, was fortunate enough +to be bought for the latter purpose. The town of Vicksburgh +stands on the left bank of the Mississippi, and is noted for the +severity with which slaves are treated. It was here that Clotel +was sold to Mr. James French, a merchant. + +Mrs. French was severe in the extreme to her servants. Well +dressed, but scantily fed, and overworked were all who found a +home with her. The quadroon had been in her new home but a short +time ere she found that her situation was far different from what +it was in Virginia. What social virtues are possible in a +society of which injustice is the primary characteristic? in a +society which is divided into two classes, masters and slaves? +Every married woman in the far South looks upon her husband as +unfaithful, and regards every quadroon servant as a rival. Clotel +had been with her new mistress but a few days, when she was +ordered to cut off her long hair. The Negro, constitutionally, is +fond of dress and outward appearance. He that has short, woolly +hair, combs it and oils it to death. He that has long hair, would +sooner have his teeth drawn than lose it. However painful it was +to the quadroon, she was soon seen with her hair cut as short as +any of the full-blooded Negroes in the dwelling. + +Even with her short hair, Clotel was handsome. Her life had been +a secluded one, and though now nearly thirty years of age, she +was still beautiful. At her short hair, the other servants +laughed, "Miss Clo needn't strut round so big, she got short +nappy har well as I," said Nell, with a broad grin that showed +her teeth. "She tinks she white, when she come here wid dat long +har of hers," replied Mill. "Yes," continued Nell; "missus make +her take down her wool so she no put it up to-day." + +The fairness of Clotel's complexion was regarded with envy as well +by the other servants as by the mistress herself. This is one of +the hard features of slavery. To-day the woman is mistress of her +own cottage; to-morrow she is sold to one who aims to make her +life as intolerable as possible. And be it remembered, that the +house servant has the best situation which a slave can occupy. +Some American writers have tried to make the world believe that +the condition of the labouring classes of England is as bad as +the slaves of the United States. + +The English labourer may be oppressed, he may be cheated, +defrauded, swindled, and even starved; but it is not slavery +under which he groans. He cannot be sold; in point of law he is +equal to the prime minister. "It is easy to captivate the +unthinking and the prejudiced, by eloquent declamation about the +oppression of English operatives being worse than that of +American slaves, and by exaggerating the wrongs on one side and +hiding them on the other. But all informed and reflecting minds, +knowing that bad as are the social evils of England, those of +Slavery are immeasurably worse." But the degradation and harsh +treatment that Clotel experienced in her new home was nothing +compared with the grief she underwent at being separated from her +dear child. Taken from her without scarcely a moment's warning, +she knew not what had become of her. The deep and heartfelt +grief of Clotel was soon perceived by her owners, and fearing +that her refusal to take food would cause her death, they +resolved to sell her. Mr. French found no difficulty in getting a +purchaser for the quadroon woman, for such are usually the most +marketable kind of property. Clotel was sold at private sale to a +young man for a housekeeper; but even he had missed his aim. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +DEATH OF THE PARSON + +CARLTON was above thirty years of age, standing on the last legs +of a young man, and entering on the first of a bachelor. He had +never dabbled in matters of love, and looked upon all women +alike. Although he respected woman for her virtues, and often +spoke of the goodness of heart of the sex, he had never dreamed +of marriage. At first he looked upon Miss Peck as a pretty young +woman, but after she became his religious teacher, he regarded +her in that light, that every one will those whom they know to be +their superiors. It was soon seen, however, that the young man not +only respected and reverenced Georgiana for the incalculable +service she had done him, in awakening him to a sense of duty to +his soul, but he had learned to bow to the shrine of Cupid. He +found, weeks after he had been in her company, that when he met +her at table, or alone in the drawing room, or on the piazza, he +felt a shortness of breath, a palpitating of the heart, a kind of +dizziness of the head; but he knew not its cause. + +This was love in its first stage. Mr. Peck saw, or thought he +saw, what would be the result of Carlton's visit, and held out +every inducement in his power to prolong his stay. The hot season +was just commencing, and the young Northerner was talking of his +return home, when the parson was very suddenly taken ill. The +disease was the cholera, and the physicians pronounced the case +incurable. In less than five hours John Peck was a corpse. His +love for Georgiana, and respect for her father, had induced +Carlton to remain by the bedside of the dying man, although +against the express orders of the physician. This act of kindness +caused the young orphan henceforth to regard Carlton as her best +friend. He now felt it his duty to remain with the young woman +until some of her relations should be summoned from Connecticut. +After the funeral, the family physician advised that Miss Peck +should go to the farm, and spend the time at the country seat; +and also advised Carlton to remain with her, which he did. + +At the parson's death his Negroes showed little or no signs of +grief. This was noticed by both Carlton and Miss Peck, and caused +no little pain to the latter. "They are ungrateful," said +Carlton, as he and Georgiana were seated on the piazza. "What," +asked she, "have they to be grateful for?" "Your father was kind, +was he not?" "Yes, as kind as most men who own slaves; but the +kindness meted out to blacks would be unkindness if given to +whites. We would think so, should we not?" "Yes," replied he. +"If we would not consider the best treatment which a slave receives +good enough for us, we should not think he ought to be grateful +for it. Everybody knows that slavery in its best and mildest form +is wrong. Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart. Try him! +Clank the chains in his ears, and tell him they are for him; give +him an hour to prepare his wife and children for a life of +slavery; bid him make haste, and get ready their necks for the +yoke, and their wrists for the coffle chains; then look at his +pale lips and trembling knees, and you have nature's testimony +against slavery." + +"Let's take a walk," said Carlton, as if to turn the +conversation. The moon was just appearing through the tops of +the trees, and the animals and insects in an adjoining wood kept +up a continued din of music. The croaking of bull-frogs, buzzing +of insects, cooing of turtle-doves, and the sound from a thousand +musical instruments, pitched on as many different keys, made the +welkin ring. But even all this noise did not drown the singing of +a party of the slaves, who were seated near a spring that was +sending up its cooling waters. "How prettily the Negroes sing," +remarked Carlton, as they were wending their way towards the +place from whence the sound of the voices came. "Yes," replied +Georgiana; "master Sam is there, I'll warrant you: he's always on +hand when there's any singing or dancing. We must not let them +see us, or they will stop singing." "Who makes their songs for +them?" inquired the young man. "Oh, they make them up as they +sing them; they are all impromptu songs." By this time they were +near enough to hear distinctly every word; and, true enough, +Sam's voice was heard above all others. At the conclusion of each +song they all joined in a hearty laugh, with an expression of +"Dats de song for me;" "Dems dems." + +"Stop," said Carlton, as Georgiana was rising from the log upon +which she was seated; "stop, and let's hear this one." The piece +was sung by Sam, the others joining in the chorus, and was as +follows: + + Sam. + + "Come, all my brethren, let us take a rest, + While the moon shines so brightly and clear; + Old master is dead, and left us at last, + And has gone at the Bar to appear. + Old master has died, and lying in his grave, + And our blood will awhile cease to flow; +He will no more trample on the neck of the slave; + For he's gone where the slaveholders go. + + Chorus. + + "Hang up the shovel and the hoe + Take down the fiddle and the bow-- + Old master has gone to the slaveholder's rest; + He has gone where they all ought to go. + + Sam. + + "I heard the old doctor say the other night, + As he passed by the dining-room door + 'Perhaps the old man may live through the night, + But I think he will die about four.' + Young mistress sent me, at the peril of my life, + For the parson to come down and pray, +For says she, 'Your old master is now about to die,' + And says I, 'God speed him on his way.' + + "Hang up the shovel, &c. + + "At four o'clock at morn the family was called + Around the old man's dying bed; + And oh! but I laughed to myself when I heard + That the old man's spirit had fled. + Mr. Carlton cried, and so did I pretend; + Young mistress very nearly went mad; +And the old parson's groans did the heavens fairly rend; + But I tell you I felt mighty glad. + + "Hang up the shovel, &c. + + "We'll no more be roused by the blowing of his horn, + Our backs no longer he will score; +He no more will feed us on cotton-seeds and corn; + For his reign of oppression now is o'er. + He no more will hang our children on the tree, + To be ate by the carrion crow; + He no more will send our wives to Tennessee; + For he's gone where the slaveholders go. + + "Hang up the shovel and the hoe, + + Take down the fiddle and the bow, + We'll dance and sing, + And make the forest ring, + With the fiddle and the old banjo." + +The song was not half finished before Carlton regretted that he +had caused the young lady to remain and hear what to her must be +anything but pleasant reflections upon her deceased parent. "I +think we will walk," said he, at the same time extending his arm +to Georgiana. "No," said she; "let's hear them out. It is from +these unguarded expressions of the feelings of the Negroes, that +we should learn a lesson." At its conclusion they walked towards +the house in silence: as they were ascending the steps, the young +man said, "They are happy, after all. The Negro, situated as yours +are, is not aware that he is deprived of any just rights." "Yes, +yes," answered Georgiana: "you may place the slave where you +please; you may dry up to your utmost the fountains of his +feelings, the springs of his thought; you may yoke him to your +labour, as an ox which liveth only to work, and worketh only to +live; you may put him under any process which, without destroying +his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational +being; you may do this, and the idea that he was born to be free +will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality; it +is the ethereal part of his nature, which oppression cannot +reach; it is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand of Deity, and +never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man." + +On reaching the drawing-room, they found Sam snuffing the +candles, and looking as solemn and as dignified as if he had +never sung a song or laughed in his life. "Will Miss Georgy have +de supper got up now?" asked the Negro. "Yes," she replied. +"Well," remarked Carlton, "that beats anything I ever met with. +Do you think that was Sam we heard singing?" "I am sure of it," +was the answer. "I could not have believed that that fellow was +capable of so much deception," continued he. "Our system of +slavery is one of deception; and Sam, you see, has only been a +good scholar. However, he is as honest a fellow as you will find +among the slave population here. If we would have them more +honest, we should give them their liberty, and then the +inducement to be dishonest would be gone. I have resolved that +these creatures shall all be free." "Indeed!" exclaimed Carlton. +"Yes, I shall let them all go free, and set an example to those +about me." "I honour your judgment," said he. "But will the state +permit them to remain?" "If not, they can go where they can live +in freedom. I will not be unjust because the state is." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RETALIATION + + "I had a dream, a happy dream; + I thought that I was free: + That in my own bright land again + A home there was for me." + +WITH the deepest humiliation Horatio Green saw the daughter of +Clotel, his own child, brought into his dwelling as a servant. +His wife felt that she had been deceived, and determined to +punish her deceiver. At first Mary was put to work in the kitchen, +where she met with little or no sympathy from the other slaves, +owing to the fairness of her complexion. The child was white, +what should be done to make her look like other Negroes, was the +question Mrs. Green asked herself. At last she hit upon a plan: +there was a garden at the back of the house over which Mrs. Green +could look from her parlour window. Here the white slave-girl was +put to work, without either bonnet or handkerchief upon her head. +A hot sun poured its broiling rays on the naked face and neck of +the girl, until she sank down in the corner of the garden, and +was actually broiled to sleep. "Dat little nigger ain't working a +bit, missus," said Dinah to Mrs. Green, as she entered the +kitchen. + +"She's lying in the sun, seasoning; she will work better by and +by," replied the mistress. "Dees white niggers always tink dey +sef good as white folks," continued the cook. "Yes, but we will +teach them better; won't we, Dinah?" "Yes, missus, I don't like +dees mularter niggers, no how: dey always want to set dey sef up +for something big." The cook was black, and was not without that +prejudice which is to be found among the Negroes, as well as +among the whites of the Southern States. The sun had the desired +effect, for in less than a fortnight Mary's fair complexion had +disappeared, and she was but little whiter than any other mulatto +children running about the yard. But the close resemblance +between the father and child annoyed the mistress more than the +mere whiteness of the child's complexion. Horatio made +proposition after proposition to have the girl sent away, for +every time he beheld her countenance it reminded him of the happy +days he had spent with Clotel. But his wife had commenced, and +determined to carry out her unfeeling and fiendish designs. This +child was not only white, but she was the granddaughter of Thomas +Jefferson, the man who, when speaking against slavery in the +legislature of Virginia, said, + +"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual +exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting +despotism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. +With what execration should the statesman be loaded who, +permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of +the other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies, +destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the +other! For if the slave can have a country in this world, it must +be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live +and labour for another; in which he must lock up the faculties of +his nature, contribute as far as depends on his individual +endeavours to the evanishment of the human race, or entail his +own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding +from him. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure +when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the +minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? +that they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I +tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his +justice cannot sleep for ever; that, considering numbers, nature, +and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an +exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it may +become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no +attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. + +"What an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, +famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication +of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those +motives, whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict +on his fellow-men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with +more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to +oppose! But we must wait with patience the workings of an +overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the +deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of +their tears shall be full--when their tears shall have involved +heaven itself in darkness--doubtless a God of justice will awaken +to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among +their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder, +manifest his attention to things of this world, and that they are +not left to the guidance of blind fatality." + +The same man, speaking of the probability that the slaves might +some day attempt to gain their liberties by a revolution, said, + +"I tremble for my country, when I recollect that God is just, and +that His justice cannot sleep for ever. The Almighty has no +attribute that can take sides with us in such a struggle." + +But, sad to say, Jefferson is not the only American statesman who +has spoken high-sounding words in favour of freedom, and then +left his own children to die slaves. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LIBERATOR + +"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created +free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with +certain inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and +the pursuit of happiness."--Declaration of American Independence. + +THE death of the parson was the commencement of a new era in the +history of his slaves. Only a little more than eighteen years of +age, Georgiana could not expect to carry out her own wishes in +regard to the slaves, although she was sole heir to her father's +estate. There were distant relations whose opinions she had at +least to respect. And both law and public opinion in the state +were against any measure of emancipation that she might think of +adopting; unless, perhaps, she might be permitted to send them to +Liberia. Her uncle in Connecticut had already been written to, to +come down and aid in settling up the estate. He was a Northern +man, but she knew him to be a tight-fisted yankee, whose whole +counsel would go against liberating the Negroes. Yet there was +one way in which the thing could be done. She loved Carlton, and +she well knew that he loved her; she read it in his countenance +every time they met, yet the young man did not mention his wishes +to her. There were many reasons why he should not. In the first +place, her father was just deceased, and it seemed only right +that he should wait a reasonable time. Again, Carlton was poor, +and Georgiana was possessed of a large fortune; and his high +spirit would not, for a moment, allow him to place himself in a +position to be regarded as a fortune-hunter. The young girl +hinted, as best she could, at the probable future; but all to no +purpose. He took nothing to himself. True, she had read much of +"woman's rights;" and had even attended a meeting, while at the +North, which had been called to discuss the wrongs of woman; but +she could not nerve herself up to the point of putting the +question to Carlton, although she felt sure that she should not +be rejected. She waited, but in vain. At last, one evening, she +came out of her room rather late, and was walking on the piazza +for fresh air. She passed near Carlton's room, and heard the +voice of Sam. The negro had just come in to get the young man's +boots, and had stopped, as he usually did, to have some talk. "I +wish," said Sam, "dat Marser Carlton an Miss Georgy would get +married; den, speck, we'd have good times." "I don't think your +mistress would have me," replied the young man. "What make tink +dat, Marser Carlton?" "Your mistress would marry no one, Sam, +unless she loved them." "Den I wish she would lub you, cause I tink +we have good times den. All our folks is de same 'pinion like +me," returned the Negro, and then left the room with the boots in +his hands. During the conversation between the Anglo-Saxon and +the African, one word had been dropped by the former that haunted +the young lady the remainder of the night--"Your mistress would +marry no one unless she loved them." That word awoke her in the +morning, and caused her to decide upon this import subject. Love +and duty triumphed over the woman's timid nature, and that day +Georgiana informed Carlton that she was ready to become his wife. +The young man, with grateful tears, accepted and +kissed the hand that was offered to him. The marriage of Carlton +and Miss Peck was hailed with delight by both the servants in the +house and the Negroes on the farm. New rules were immediately +announced for the working and general treatment of the slaves on +the plantation. With this, Huckelby, the overseer, saw his reign +coming to an end; and Snyder, the Dutch preacher, felt that his +services would soon be dispensed with, for nothing was more +repugnant to the feelings of Mrs. Carlton than the sermons +preached by Snyder to the slaves. She regarded them as something +intended to make them better satisfied with their condition, and +more valuable as pieces of property, without preparing them for +the world to come. Mrs. Carlton found in her husband a congenial +spirit, who entered into all her wishes and plans for bettering +the condition of their slaves. Mrs. Carlton's views and +sympathies were all in favour of immediate emancipation; but then +she saw, or thought she saw, a difficulty in that. If the slaves +were liberated, they must be sent out of the state. This, of +course, would incur additional expense; and if they left the +state, where had they better go? "Let's send them to Liberia," +said Carlton. "Why should they go to Africa, any more than to the +Free States or to Canada?" asked the wife. "They would be in +their native land," he answered. "Is not this their native land? +What right have we, more than the Negro, to the soil here, or to +style ourselves native Americans? Indeed it is as much their home +as ours, and I have sometimes thought it was more theirs. The +Negro has cleared up the lands, built towns, and enriched the +soil with his blood and tears; and in return, he is to be sent to +a country of which he knows nothing. Who fought more bravely for +American independence than the blacks? A negro, by the +name of Attucks, was the first that fell in Boston at the +commencement of the revolutionary war; and throughout the whole +of the struggles for liberty in this country, the Negroes have +contributed their share. In the last war with Great Britain, the +country was mainly indebted to the blacks in New Orleans for the +achievement of the victory at that place; and even General +Jackson, the commander in chief, called the Negroes together at +the close of the war, and addressed them in the following +terms:-- + +'Soldiers!--When on the banks of the Mobile I called you to take up +arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of your white +fellow citizens, I expected much from you; for I was not ignorant +that you possess qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. I +knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and +all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your +native country, and that you, as well as ourselves, had to defend +what man holds most dear--his parents, wife, children, and +property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the +previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found among +you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great +things. + +'Soldiers! The President of the United States shall hear how +praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the +representatives of the American people will give you the praise +your exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in +appauding your noble ardour.' + +"And what did these noble men receive in return for their +courage, their heroism? Chains and slavery. Their good deeds have +been consecrated only in their own memories. Who rallied with +more alacrity in response to the summons of danger? If in that +hazardous hour, when our homes were menaced with the horrors of +war, we did not disdain to call upon the Negro to assist in +repelling invasion, why should we, now that the danger is past, +deny him a home in his native land?" "I see," said Carlton, "you +are right, but I fear you will have difficulty in persuading +others to adopt your views." "We will set the example," replied +she, "and then hope for the best; for I feel that the people of +the Southern States will one day see their error. Liberty has +always been our watchword, as far as profession is concerned. +Nothing has been held so cheap as our common humanity, on a +national average. If every man had his aliquot proportion of the +injustice done in this land, by law and violence, the present +freemen of the northern section would many of them commit suicide +in self-defence, and would court the liberties awarded by Ali +Pasha of Egypt to his subjects. Long ere this we should have +tested, in behalf of our bleeding and crushed American brothers +of every hue and complexion, every new constitution, custom, or +practice, by which inhumanity was supposed to be upheld, the +injustice and cruelty they contained, emblazoned before the great +tribunal of mankind for condemnation; and the good and available +power they possessed, for the relief, deliverance and elevation +of oppressed men, permitted to shine forth from under the cloud, +for the refreshment of the human race." + +Although Mr. and Mrs. Carlton felt that immediate emancipation +was the right of the slave and the duty of the master, they +resolved on a system of gradual emancipation, so as to give them +time to accomplish their wish, and to prepare the Negro for +freedom. Huckelby was one morning told that his services would +no longer be required. The Negroes, ninety-eight in number, were +called together and told that the whip would no longer be used, +and that they would be allowed a certain sum for every bale of +cotton produced. Sam, whose long experience in the cotton-field +before he had been taken into the house, and whose general +intelligence justly gave him the first place amongst the Negroes +on the Poplar Farm, was placed at their head. They were also +given to understand that the money earned by them would be placed +to their credit; and when it amounted to a certain sum, they +should all be free. + +The joy with which this news was received by the slaves, showed +their grateful appreciation of the boon their benefactors were +bestowing upon them. The house servants were called and told that +wages would be allowed them, and what they earned set to their +credit, and they too should be free. The next were the +bricklayers. There were eight of these, who had paid their master +two dollars per day, and boarded and clothed themselves. An +arrangement was entered into with them, by which the money they +earned should be placed to their credit; and they too should be +free, when a certain amount should be accumulated; and great was +the change amongst all these people. The bricklayers had been to +work but a short time, before their increased industry was +noticed by many. They were no longer apparently the same people. +A sedateness, a care, an economy, an industry, took possession of +them, to which there seemed to be no bounds but in their physical +strength. They were never tired of labouring, and seemed as +though they could never effect enough. They became temperate, +moral, religious, setting an example of innocent, unoffending +lives to the world around them, which was seen and admired by +all. Mr. Parker, a man who worked nearly forty slaves at the same +business, was attracted by the manner in which these Negroes +laboured. He called on Mr. Carlton, some weeks after they had +been acting on the new system, and offered 2,000 dollars for the +head workman, Jim. The offer was, of course, refused. A few days +after the same gentleman called again, and made an offer of +double the sum that he had on the former occasion. Mr. Parker, +finding that no money would purchase either of the Negroes, said, +"Now, Mr. Carlton, pray tell me what it is that makes your +Negroes work so? What kind of people are they?" "I suppose," +observed Carlton, "that they are like other people, flesh and +blood." "Why, sir," continued Parker, "I have never seen such +people; building as they are next door to my residence, I see and +have my eye on them from morning till night. You are never there, +for I have never met you, or seen you once at the building. Why, +sir, I am an early riser, getting up before day; and do you think +that I am not awoke every morning in my life by the noise of +their trowels at work, and their singing and noise before day; +and do you suppose, sir, that they stop or leave off work at +sundown? No, sir, but they work as long as they can see to lay a +brick, and then they carry tip brick and mortar for an hour or +two afterward, to be ahead of their work the next morning. And +again, sir, do you think that they walk at their work? No, sir, +they run all day. You see, sir, those immensely long, ladders, +five stories in height; do you suppose they walk up them? No, +sir, they run up and down them like so many monkeys all day long. +I never saw such people as these in my life. I don't know what to +make of them. Were a white man with them and over them with a +whip, then I should see and understand the cause of the running +and incessant labour; but I cannot comprehend it; there is +something in it, sir. Great man, sir, that Jim; great man; I +should like to own him." Carlton here informed Parker that their +liberties depended upon their work; when the latter replied, "If +niggers can work so for the promise of freedom, they ought to be +made to work without it." This last remark was in the true spirit +of the slaveholder, and reminds us of the fact that, some years +since, the overseer of General Wade Hampton offered the +niggers under him a suit of clothes to the one that picked the +most cotton in one day; and after that time that day's work was +given as a task to the slaves on that plantation; and, after a +while, was adopted by other planters. + +The Negroes on the farm, under "Marser Sam," were also working in +a manner that attracted the attention of the planters round +about. They no longer feared Huckelby's whip, and no longer slept +under the preaching of Snyder. On the Sabbath, Mr. and Mrs. +Carlton read and explained the Scriptures to them; and the very +great attention paid by the slaves showed plainly that they +appreciated the gospel when given to them in its purity. The death +of Currer, from yellow fever, was a great trial to Mrs. Carlton; +for she had not only become much attached to her, but had heard +with painful interest the story of her wrongs, and would, in all +probability, have restored her to her daughter in New Orleans. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ESCAPE OF CLOTEL + + "The fetters galled my weary soul-- + A soul that seemed but thrown away; + I spurned the tyrant's base control, + Resolved at least the man to play." + +No country has produced so much heroism in so short a time, +connected with escapes from peril and oppression, as has occurred +in the United States among fugitive slaves, many of whom show +great shrewdness in their endeavours to escape from this land of +bondage. A slave was one day seen passing on the high road from a +border town in the interior of the state of Virginia to the Ohio +river. The man had neither hat upon his head or coat upon his +back. He was driving before him a very nice fat pig, and appeared +to all who saw him to be a labourer employed on an adjoining +farm. "No Negro is permitted to go at large in the Slave States +without a written pass from his or her master, except on business +in the neighbourhood." "Where do you live, my boy?" asked a white +man of the slave, as he passed a white house with green blinds. +"Jist up de road, sir," was the answer. "That's a fine pig." +"Yes, sir, marser like dis choat berry much." And the Negro drove +on as if he was in great haste. In this way he and the pig +travelled more than fifty miles before they reached the Ohio +river. Once at the river they crossed over; the pig was sold; and +nine days after the runaway slave passed over the Niagara river, +and, for the first time in his life, breathed the air of freedom. +A few weeks later, and, on the same road, two slaves were seen +passing; one was on horseback, the other was walking before him +with his arms tightly bound, and a long rope leading from the man +on foot to the one on horseback. "Oh, ho, that's a runaway +rascal, I suppose," said a farmer, who met them on the road. +"Yes, sir, he bin runaway, and I got him fast. Marser will tan +his jacket for him nicely when he gets him." "You are a +trustworthy fellow, I imagine," continued the farmer. "Oh yes, +sir; marser puts a heap of confidence in dis nigger." And the +slaves travelled on. When the one on foot was fatigued they would +change positions, the other being tied and driven on foot. This +they called "ride and tie." After a journey of more than two +hundred miles they reached the Ohio river, turned the horse +loose, told him to go home, and proceeded on their way to Canada. +However they were not to have it all their own way. There are men +in the Free States, and especially in the states adjacent to the +Slave States, who make their living by catching the runaway +slave, and returning him for the reward that may be offered. As +the two slaves above mentioned were travelling on towards the +land of freedom, led by the North Star, they were set upon by +four of these slave-catchers, and one of them unfortunately +captured. The other escaped. The captured fugitive was put under +the torture, and compelled to reveal the name of his owner and +his place of residence. Filled with delight, the kidnappers +started back with their victim. Overjoyed with the prospect of +receiving a large reward, they gave themselves up on the third +night to pleasure. They put up at an inn. The Negro was chained +to the bed-post, in the same room with his captors. At dead of +night, when all was still, the slave arose from the floor upon +which he had been lying, looked around, and saw that +the white men were fast asleep. The brandy punch had done its +work. With palpitating heart and trembling limbs he viewed his +position. The door was fast, but the warm weather had compelled +them to leave the window open. If he could but get his chains +off, he might escape through the window to the piazza, and reach +the ground by one of the posts that supported the piazza. The +sleeper's clothes hung upon chairs by the bedside; the slave +thought of the padlock key, examined the pockets and found it. +The chains were soon off, and the Negro stealthily making his way +to the window: he stopped and said to himself, "These men are +villains, they are enemies to all who like me are trying to be +free. Then why not I teach them a lesson?" He then undressed +himself, took the clothes of one of the men, dressed himself in +them, and escaped through the window, and, a moment more, he was +on the high road to Canada. Fifteen days later, and the writer of +this gave him a passage across Lake Erie, and saw him safe in her +Britannic Majesty's dominions. + +We have seen Clotel sold to Mr. French in Vicksburgh, her hair +cut short, and everything done to make her realise her position +as a servant. Then we have seen her re-sold, because her owners +feared she would die through grief. As yet her new purchaser +treated her with respectful gentleness, and sought to win her +favour by flattery and presents, knowing that whatever he gave +her he could take back again. But she dreaded every moment lest +the scene should change, and trembled at the sound of every +footfall. At every interview with her new master Clotel stoutly +maintained that she had left a husband in Virginia, and would +never think of taking another. The gold watch and chain, and +other glittering presents which he purchased for her, were all +laid aside by the quadroon, as if they were of no value to her. +In the same house with her was another servant, a man, who had +from time to time hired himself from his master. William was his +name. He could feel for Clotel, for he, like her, had been +separated from near and dear relatives, and often tried to +console the poor woman. One day the quadroon observed to him that +her hair was growing out again. "Yes," replied William, "you look +a good deal like a man with your short hair." "Oh," rejoined she, +"I have often been told that I would make a better looking man +than a woman. If I had the money," continued she, "I would bid +farewell to this place." In a moment more she feared that she had +said too much, and smilingly remarked, "I am always talking +nonsense." William was a tall, full-bodied Negro, whose very +countenance beamed with intelligence. Being a mechanic, he had, +by his own industry, made more than what he paid his owner; this +he laid aside, with the hope that some day he might get enough to +purchase his freedom. He had in his chest one hundred and fifty +dollars. His was a heart that felt for others, and he had again +and again wiped the tears from his eyes as he heard the story of +Clotel as related by herself. "If she can get free with a little +money, why not give her what I have?" thought he, and then he +resolved to do it. An hour after, he came into the quadroon's +room, and laid the money in her lap, and said, "There, Miss +Clotel, you said if you had the means you would leave this place; +there is money enough to take you to England, where you will be +free. You are much fairer than many of the white women of the +South, and can easily pass for a free white lady." At first +Clotel feared that it was a plan by which the Negro wished to try +her fidelity to her owner; but she was soon convinced by his +earnest manner, and the deep feeling with which he spoke, that he +was honest. "I will take the money only on one condition," said +she; "and that is, that I effect your escape as well as my own." +"How can that be done?" he inquired. "I will assume the disguise +of a gentleman and you that of a servant, and we will take +passage on a steamboat and go to Cincinnati, and thence to +Canada." Here William put in several objections to the plan. He +feared detection, and he well knew that, when a slave is once +caught when attempting to escape, if returned is sure to be worse +treated than before. However, Clotel satisfied him that the plan +could be carried out if he would only play his part. + +The resolution was taken, the clothes for her disguise procured, +and before night everything was in readiness for their departure. +That night Mr. Cooper, their master, was to attend a party, and +this was their opportunity. William went to the wharf to look out +for a boat, and had scarcely reached the landing ere he heard the +puffing of a steamer. He returned and reported the fact. Clotel +had already packed her trunk, and had only to dress and all was +ready. In less than an hour they were on board the boat. Under +the assumed name of "Mr. Johnson," Clotel went to the clerk's +office and took a private state room for herself, and paid her +own and servant's fare. Besides being attired in a neat suit of +black, she had a white silk handkerchief tied round her chin, as +if she was an invalid. A pair of green glasses covered her eyes; +and fearing that she would be talked to too much and thus render +her liable to be detected, she assumed to be very ill. On the +other hand, William was playing his part well in the servants' +hall; he was talking loudly of his master's wealth. Nothing +appeared as good on the boat as in his master's fine mansion. +"I don't like dees steam-boats no how," said William; "I hope when +marser goes on a journey agin he will take de carriage and de +hosses." Mr. Johnson (for such was the name by which Clotel now +went) remained in his room, to avoid, as far as possible, +conversation with others. After a passage of seven days they +arrived at Louisville, and put up at Gough's Hotel. Here they had +to await the departure of another boat for the North. They were +now in their most critical position. They were still in a slave +state, and John C. Calhoun, a distinguished slave-owner, was a +guest at this hotel. They feared, also, that trouble would attend +their attempt to leave this place for the North, as all persons +taking Negroes with them have to give bail that such Negroes are +not runaway slaves. The law upon this point is very stringent: +all steamboats and other public conveyances are liable to a fine +for every slave that escapes by them, besides paying the full +value for the slave. After a delay of four hours, Mr. Johnson +and servant took passage on the steamer Rodolph, for Pittsburgh. +It is usual, before the departure of the boats, for an officer to +examine every part of the vessel to see that no slave secretes +himself on board. "Where are you going?" asked the officer of +William, as he was doing his duty on this occasion. "I am going +with marser," was the quick reply. "Who is your master?" "Mr. +Johnson, sir, a gentleman in the cabin." "You must take him to +the office and satisfy the captain that all is right, or you +can't go on this boat." William informed his master what the +officer had said. The boat was on the eve of going, and no time +could be lost, yet they knew not what to do. At last they went to +the office, and Mr. Johnson, addressing the captain, said, "I am +informed that my boy can't go with me unless I give security that +he belongs to me. "Yes," replied the captain, "that is the law." +"A very strange law indeed," rejoined Mr. Johnson, "that one +can't take his property with him." After a conversation of some +minutes, and a plea on the part of Johnson that he did not wish +to be delayed owing to his illness, they were permitted to take +their passage without farther trouble, and the boat was soon on +its way up the river. The fugitives had now passed the Rubicon, +and the next place at which they would land would be in a Free +State. Clotel called William to her room, and said to him, "We +are now free, you can go on your way to Canada, and I shall go to +Virginia in search of my daughter." The announcement that she was +going to risk her liberty in a Slave State was unwelcome news to +William. With all the eloquence he could command, he tried to +persuade Clotel that she could not escape detection, and was only +throwing her freedom away. But she had counted the cost, and made +up her mind for the worst. In return for the money he had +furnished, she had secured for him his liberty, and their +engagement was at an end. + +After a quick passage the fugitives arrived at Cincinnati, and +there separated. William proceeded on his way to Canada, and +Clotel again resumed her own apparel, and prepared to start in +search of her child. As might have been expected, the escape of +those two valuable slaves created no little sensation in +Vicksburgh. Advertisements and messages were sent in every +direction in which the fugitives were thought to have gone. It was +soon, however, known that they had left the town as master and +servant; and many were the communications which +appeared in the newspapers, in which the writers thought, or +pretended, that they had seen the slaves in their disguise. One +was to the effect that they had gone off in a chaise; one as +master, and the other as servant. But the most probable was an +account given by a correspondent of one of the Southern +newspapers, who happened to be a passenger in the same steamer in +which the slaves escaped, and which we here give:-- + +"One bright starlight night, in the month of December last, I +found myself in the cabin of the steamer Rodolph, then lying in +the port of Vicksburgh, and bound to Louisville. I had gone early +on board, in order to select a good berth, and having got tired of +reading the papers, amused myself with watching the appearance of +the passengers as they dropped in, one after another, and I being +a believer in physiognomy, formed my own opinion of their +characters. + +"The second bell rang, and as I yawningly returned my watch to my +pocket, my attention was attracted by the appearance of a young +man who entered the cabin supported by his servant, a strapping +Negro. + +"The man was bundled up in a capacious overcoat; his face was +bandaged with a white handkerchief, and its expression entirely +hid by a pair of enormous spectacles. + +"There was something so mysterious and unusual about the young man +as he sat restless in the corner, that curiosity led me to +observe him more closely. + +"He appeared anxious to avoid notice, and before the steamer had +fairly left the wharf, requested, in a low, womanly voice, to be +shown his berth, as he was an invalid, and must retire early: his +name he gave as Mr. Johnson. His servant was called, and he was +put quietly to bed. I paced the deck until Tyhee light grew dim +in the distance, and then went to my berth. + +"I awoke in the morning with the sun shining in my face; we were +then just passing St. Helena. It was a mild beautiful morning, +and most of the passengers were on deck, enjoying the freshness +of the air, and stimulating their appetites for breakfast. Mr. +Johnson soon made his appearance, arrayed as on the night before, +and took his seat quietly upon the guard of the boat. + +"From the better opportunity afforded by daylight, I found that +he was a slight build, apparently handsome young man, with black +hair and eyes, and of a darkness of complexion that betokened +Spanish extraction. Any notice from others seemed painful to him; +so to satisfy my curiosity, I questioned his servant, who was +standing near, and gained the following information. + +"His master was an invalid--he had suffered for a long time under a +complication of diseases, that had baffled the skill of the best +physicians in Mississippi; he was now suffering principally with +the 'rheumatism,' and he was scarcely able to walk or help himself +in any way. He came from Vicksburgh, and was now on his way to +Philadelphia, at which place resided his uncle, a celebrated +physician, and through whose means he hoped to be restored to +perfect health. + +"This information, communicated in a bold, off-hand manner, +enlisted my sympathies for the sufferer, although it occurred to +me that he walked rather too gingerly for a person afflicted with +so many ailments." + +After thanking Clotel for the great service she had done him in +bringing him out of slavery, William bade her farewell. The +prejudice that exists in the Free States against coloured +persons, on account of their colour, is attributable solely to +the influence of slavery, and is but another form of slavery +itself. And even the slave who escapes from the Southern +plantations, is surprised when he reaches the North, at the +amount and withering influence of this prejudice. William applied +at the railway station for a ticket for the train going to +Sandusky, and was told that if he went by that train he would +have to ride in the luggage-van. "Why?" asked the astonished +Negro. "We don't send a Jim Crow carriage but once a day, and +that went this morning." The "Jim Crow" carriage is the one in +which the blacks have to ride. Slavery is a school in which its +victims learn much shrewdness, and William had been an apt +scholar. Without asking any more questions, the Negro took his +seat in one of the first-class carriages. He was soon seen and +ordered out. Afraid to remain in the town longer, he resolved to +go by that train; and consequently seated himself on a goods' box +in the luggage van. The train started at its proper time, and all +went on well. Just before arriving at the end of the journey, the +conductor called on William for his ticket. "I have none," was +the reply. "Well, then, you can pay your fare to me," said the +officer. "How much is it?" asked the black man. "Two dollars." +"What do you charge those in the passenger-carriage?" "Two +dollars." "And do you charge me the same as you do those who ride +in the best carriages?" asked the Negro. "Yes," was the answer. +"I shan't pay it," returned the man. "You black scamp, do you +think you can ride on this road without paying your fare?" "No, I +don't want to ride for nothing; I only want to pay what's right." +"Well, launch out two dollars, and that's right." "No, I shan't; +I will pay what I ought, and won't pay any more." "Come, come, +nigger, your fare and be done with it," said the conductor, in a +manner that is never used except by Americans to blacks. "I won't +pay you two dollars, and that enough," said William. "Well, as +you have come all the way in the luggage-van, pay me a dollar and +a half and you may go." "I shan't do any such thing." "Don't you +mean to pay for riding?" "Yes, but I won't pay a dollar and a +half for riding up here in the freight-van. If you had let me +come in the carriage where others ride, I would have paid you two +dollars." "Where were you raised? You seem to think yourself as +good as white folks." "I want nothing more than my rights." +"Well, give me a dollar, and I will let you off." "No, sir, I +shan't do it." "What do you mean to do then, don't you wish to pay +anything?" "Yes, sir, I want to pay you the full price." "What do +you mean by full price?" "What do you charge per hundred-weight +for goods?" inquired the Negro with a degree of gravity that +would have astonished Diogenes himself. "A quarter of a dollar +per hundred," answered the conductor. "I weigh just one hundred +and fifty pounds," returned William, "and will pay you three +eighths of a dollar." "Do you expect that you will pay only +thirty-seven cents for your ride?" "This, sir, is your own price. +I came in a luggage-van, and I'll pay for luggage." After a vain +effort to get the Negro to pay more, the conductor took the +thirty-seven cents, and noted in his cash-book, "Received for one +hundred and fifty pounds of luggage, thirty seven cents." This, +reader, is no fiction; it actually occurred in the railway above +described. + +Thomas Corwin, a member of the American Congress, is one of the +blackest white men in the United States. He was once on his way +to Congress, and took passage in one of the Ohio river steamers. +As he came just at the dinner hour, he immediately went into the +dining saloon, and took his seat at the table. A gentleman with +his whole party of five ladies at once left the table. "Where is +the captain?" cried the man in an angry tone. The captain soon +appeared, and it was sometime before he could satisfy the old +gent, that Governor Corwin was not a nigger. The newspapers often +have notices of mistakes made by innkeepers and others who +undertake to accommodate the public, one of which we give below. + +On the 6th inst., the Hon. Daniel Webster and family entered +Edgartown, on a visit for health and recreation. Arriving at the +hotel, without alighting from the coach, the landlord was sent +for to see if suitable accommodation could be had. That dignitary +appearing, and surveying Mr. Webster, while the hon. senator +addressed him, seemed woefully to mistake the dark features of +the traveller as he sat back in the corner of the carriage, and +to suppose him a coloured man, particularly as there were two +coloured servants of Mr. W. outside. So he promptly declared that +there was no room for him and his family, and he could not be +accommodated there at the same time suggesting that he might +perhaps find accommodation at some of the huts up back, to which +he pointed. So deeply did the prejudice of looks possess him, +that he appeared not to notice that the stranger introduced +himself to him as Daniel Webster, or to be so ignorant as not to +have heard of such a personage; and turning away, he expressed to +the driver his astonishment that he should bring black people +there for him to take in. It was not till he had been repeatedly +assured and made to understand that the said Daniel Webster was a +real live senator of the United States, that he perceived his +awkward mistake and the distinguished honour which he and his +house were so near missing. + +In most of the Free States, the coloured people are disfranchised +on account of their colour. The following scene, which we take +from a newspaper in the state of Ohio, will give some idea of the +extent to which this prejudice is carried. + +"The whole of Thursday last was occupied by the Court of Common +Pleas for this county in trying to find out whether one Thomas +West was of the VOTING COLOUR, as some had very constitutional +doubts as to whether his colour was orthodox, and whether his +hair was of the official crisp! Was it not a dignified business? +Four profound judges, four acute lawyers, twelve grave jurors, +and I don't know how many venerable witnesses, making in all +about thirty men, perhaps, all engaged in the profound, +laborious, and illustrious business, of finding out whether a man +who pays tax, works on the road, and is an industrious farmer, +has been born according to the republican, Christian constitution +of Ohio--so that he can vote! And they wisely, gravely, and +'JUDGMATICALLY' decided that he should not vote! What wisdom--what +research it must have required to evolve this truth! It was left +for the Court of Common Pleas for Columbian county, Ohio, in the +United States of North America, to find out what Solomon never +dreamed of--the courts of all civilised, heathen, or Jewish +countries, never contemplated. Lest the wisdom of our courts +should be circumvented by some such men as might be named, who +are so near being born constitutionally that they might be taken +for white by sight, I would suggest that our court be invested +with SMELLING powers, and that if a man don't exhale the +constitutional smell, he shall not vote! This would be an +additional security to our liberties." + +William found, after all, that liberty in the so-called Free +States was more a name than a reality; that prejudice followed +the coloured man into every place that he might enter. The +temples erected for the worship of the living God are no +exception. The finest Baptist church in the city of Boston has +the following paragraph in the deed that conveys its seats to +pewholders: + +"And it is a further condition of these presents, that if the +owner or owners of said pew shall determine hereafter to sell the +same, it shall first be offered, in writing, to the standing +committee of said society for the time being, at such price as +might otherwise be obtained for it; and the said committee shall +have the right, for ten days after such offer, to purchase said +pew for said society, at that price, first deducting therefrom +all taxes and assessments on said pew then remaining unpaid. And +if the said committee shall not so complete such purchase within +said ten days, then the pew may be sold by the owner or owners +thereof (after payment of all such arrears) to any one +respectable white person, but upon the same conditions as are +contained in this instrument; and immediate notice of such sale +shall be given in writing, by the vendor, to the treasurer of +said society." + +Such are the conditions upon which the Rowe Street Baptist +Church, Boston, disposes of its seats. The writer of this is able +to put that whole congregation, minister and all, to flight, by +merely putting his coloured face in that church. We once visited +a church in New York that had a place set apart for the sons of +Ham. It was a dark, dismal looking place in one corner of the +gallery, grated in front like a hen-coop, with a black border +around it. It had two doors; over one was B. M.--black men; over +the other B. W.--black women. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A TRUE DEMOCRAT + + "Who can, with patience, for a moment see + The medley mass of pride and misery, + Of whips and charters, manacles and rights, + Of slaving blacks and democratic whites, + And all the piebald policy that reigns + In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains? + To think that man, thou just and gentle God! + Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod, + O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee, + Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty!"--Thomas Moore. + +EDUCATED in a free state, and marrying a wife who had been a +victim to the institution of slavery, Henry Morton became +strongly opposed to the system. His two daughters, at the age of +twelve years, were sent to the North to finish their education, +and to receive that refinement that young ladies cannot obtain in +the Slave States. Although he did not publicly advocate the +abolition of slavery, he often made himself obnoxious to private +circles, owing to the denunciatory manner in which he condemned +the "peculiar institution." Being one evening at a party, and +hearing one of the company talking loudly of the glory and +freedom of American institutions, he gave it as his opinion that, +unless slavery was speedily abolished, it would be the ruin of +the Union. "It is not our boast of freedom," said he, "that will +cause us to be respected abroad. It is not our loud talk in +favour of liberty that will cause us to be regarded as friends of +human freedom; but our acts will be scrutinised by the people of +other countries. We say much against European despotism; let us +look to ourselves. That government is despotic where the rulers +govern subjects by their own mere will--by decrees and laws +emanating from their uncontrolled will, in the enactment and +execution of which the ruled have no voice, and under which they +have no right except at the will of the rulers. Despotism does +not depend upon the number of the rulers, or the number of the +subjects. It may have one ruler or many. Rome was a despotism +under Nero; so she was under the triumvirate. Athens was a +despotism under Thirty Tyrants; under her Four Hundred Tyrants; +under her Three Thousand Tyrants. It has been generally observed +that despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; +the responsibility is more divided, and the claims more numerous. +The triumvirs each demanded his victims. The smaller the number +of subjects in proportion to the tyrants, the more cruel the +oppression, because the less danger from rebellion. In this +government, the free white citizens are the rulers--the +sovereigns, as we delight to be called. All others are subjects. +There are, perhaps, some sixteen or seventeen millions of +sovereigns, and four millions of subjects. + +"The rulers and the ruled are of all colours, from the clear +white of the Caucasian tribes to the swarthy Ethiopian. The +former, by courtesy, are all called white, the latter black. In +this government the subject has no rights, social, political, or +personal. He has no voice in the laws which govern him. He can +hold no property. His very wife and children are not his. His +labour is another's. He, and all that appertain to him, are the +absolute property of his rulers. He is governed, bought, sold, +punished, executed, by laws to which he never gave his assent, +and by rulers whom he never chose. He is not a serf merely, with +half the rights of men like the subjects of despotic Russia; but +a native slave, stripped of every right which God and nature gave +him, and which the high spirit of our revolution declared +inalienable which he himself could not surrender, and which man +could not take from him. Is he not then the subject of despotic +sway? + +"The slaves of Athens and Rome were free in comparison. They had +some rights--could acquire some property; could choose their own +masters, and purchase their own freedom; and, when free, could +rise in social and political life. The slaves of America, then, +lie under the most absolute and grinding despotism that the world +ever saw. But who are the despots? The rulers of the country--the +sovereign people! Not merely the slaveholder who cracks the lash. +He is but the instrument in the hands of despotism. That +despotism is the government of the Slave States, and the United +States, consisting of all its rulers all the free citizens. Do +not look upon this as a paradox, because you and I and the +sixteen millions of rulers are free. The rulers of every despotism +are free. Nicholas of Russia is free. The grand Sultan of Turkey +is free. The butcher of Austria is free. Augustus, Anthony, and +Lepidus were free, while they drenched Rome in blood. The Thirty +Tyrants--the Four Hundred--the Three Thousand, were free while they +bound their countrymen in chains. You, and I, and the sixteen +millions are free, while we fasten iron chains, and rivet +manacles on four millions of our fellowmen--take their wives and +children from them--separate them--sell them, and doom them to +perpetual, eternal bondage. Are we not then despots--despots such +as history will brand and God abhor? + +"We, as individuals, are fast losing our reputation for honest +dealing. Our nation is losing its character. The loss of a firm +national character, or the degradation of a nation's honour, is +the inevitable prelude to her destruction. Behold the once proud +fabric of a Roman empire--an empire carrying its arts and arms +into every part of the Eastern continent; the monarchs of mighty +kingdoms dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots; her +eagle waving over the ruins of desolated countries; where is her +splendour, her wealth, her power, her glory? Extinguished for +ever. Her mouldering temples, the mournful vestiges of her former +grandeur, afford a shelter to her muttering monks. Where are her +statesmen, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, generals? +Go to their solitary tombs and inquire. She lost her national +character, and her destruction followed. The ramparts of her +national pride were broken down, and Vandalism desolated her +classic fields. Then let the people of our country take warning +ere it is too late. But most of us say to ourselves, + + "'Who questions the right of mankind to be free? + Yet, what are the rights of the Negro to me? + I'm well fed and clothed, I have plenty of pelf-- + I'll care for the blacks when I turn black myself.' + +"New Orleans is doubtless the most immoral place in the United +States. The theatres are open on the Sabbath. Bull-fights, +horse-racing, and other cruel amusements are carried on in this +city to an extent unknown in any other part of the Union. The most +stringent laws have been passed in that city against Negroes, yet +a few years since the State Legislature passed a special act to +enable a white man to marry a coloured woman, on account of her +being possessed of a large fortune. And, very recently, the +following paragraph appeared in the city papers:-- + +"'There has been quite a stir recently in this city, in +consequence of a marriage of a white man, named Buddington, a +teller in the Canal Bank, to the Negro daughter of one of the +wealthiest merchants. Buddington, before he could be married +was obliged to swear that he had Negro blood in his veins, and +to do this he made an incision in his arm, and put some of her +blood in the cut. The ceremony was performed by a Catholic +clergyman, and the bridegroom has received with his wife a fortune +of fifty or sixty thousand dollars.' + +"It seems that the fifty or sixty thousand dollars entirely +covered the Negro woman's black skin, and the law prohibiting +marriage between blacks and whites was laid aside for the +occasion." + +Althesa felt proud, as well she might, at her husband's taking +such high ground in a slaveholding city like New Orleans. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH + + "O weep, ye friends of freedom weep! + Your harps to mournful measures sweep." + +ON the last day of November, 1620, on the confines of the Grand +Bank of Newfoundland, lo! we behold one little solitary +tempest-tost and weather-beaten ship; it is all that can be seen +on the length and breadth of the vast intervening solitudes, from +the melancholy wilds of Labrador and New England's ironbound +shores, to the western coasts of Ireland and the rock defended +Hebrides, but one lonely ship greets the eye of angels or of men, +on this great throughfare of nations in our age. Next in moral +grandeur, was this ship, to the great discoverer's: Columbus +found a continent; the May-flower brought the seedwheat of states +and empire. That is the May-flower, with its servants of the +living God, their wives and little ones, hastening to lay the +foundations of nations in the accidental lands of the +setting-sun. Hear the voice of prayer to God for his protection, +and the glorious music of praise, as it breaks into the wild +tempest of the mighty deep, upon the ear of God. Here in this +ship are great and good men. Justice, mercy, humanity, respect +for the rights of all; each man honoured, as he was useful to +himself and others; labour respected, law-abiding men, +constitution-making and respecting men; men, whom no tyrant could +conquer, or hardship overcome, with the high commission sealed by +a Spirit divine, to establish religious and political liberty for +all. This ship had the embryo elements of all that is useful, +great, and grand in Northern institutions; it was the great type +of goodness and wisdom, illustrated in two and a quarter +centuries gone by; it was the good genius of America. + +But look far in the South-east, and you behold on the same day, in +1620, a low rakish ship hastening from the tropics, solitary and +alone, to the New World. What is she? She is freighted with the +elements of unmixed evil. Hark! hear those rattling chains, hear +that cry of despair and wail of anguish, as they die away in the +unpitying distance. Listen to those shocking oaths, the crack of +that flesh-cutting whip. Ah! it is the first cargo of slaves on +their way to Jamestown, Virginia. Behold the May-flower anchored +at Plymouth Rock, the slave-ship in James River. Each a parent, +one of the prosperous, labour-honouring, law-sustaining +institutions of the North; the other the mother of slavery, +idleness, lynch-law, ignorance, unpaid labour, poverty, and +duelling, despotism, the ceaseless swing of the whip, and the +peculiar institutions of the South. These ships are the +representation of good and evil in the New World, even to our day. +When shall one of those parallel lines come to an end? + +The origin of American slavery is not lost in the obscurity of +by-gone ages. It is a plain historical fact, that it owes its +birth to the African slave trade, now pronounced by every +civilised community the greatest crime ever perpetrated against +humanity. Of all causes intended to benefit mankind, the +abolition of chattel slavery must necessarily be placed amongst +the first, and the Negro hails with joy every new advocate that +appears in his cause. Commiseration for human suffering and human +sacrifices awakened the capacious mind, and brought into action +the enlarged benevolence, of Georgiana Carlton. With respect to +her philosophy--it was of a noble cast. It was, that all men are +by nature equal; that they are wisely and justly endowed by the +Creator with certain rights, which are irrefragable; and that, +however human pride and human avarice may depress and debase, +still God is the author of good to man--and of evil, man is the +artificer to himself and to his species. Unlike Plato and +Socrates, her mind was free from the gloom that surrounded +theirs; her philosophy was founded in the school of Christianity; +though a devoted member of her father's church, she was not a +sectarian. + +We learn from Scripture, and it is a little remarkable that it is +the only exact definition of religion found in the sacred volume, +that "pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is +this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and +to keep oneself unspotted from the world." "Look not every man on +his own things, but every man also on the things of others." +"Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them." "Whatsoever +ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them." + +This was her view of Christianity, and to this end she laboured +with all her energies to convince her slaveholding neighbours +that the Negro could not only take care of himself, but that he +also appreciated liberty, and was willing to work and redeem +himself. Her most sanguine wishes were being realized when she +suddenly fell into a decline. Her mother had died of consumption, +and her physician pronounced this to be her disease. She was +prepared for this sad intelligence, and received it with the +utmost composure. Although she had confidence in her husband that +he would carry out her wishes in freeing the Negroes after her +death, Mrs. Carlton resolved upon their immediate liberation. +Consequently the slaves were all summoned before the noble woman, +and informed that they were no longer bondsmen. "From this +hour," said she, "you are free, and all eyes will be fixed upon +you. I dare not predict how far your example may affect the +welfare of your brethren yet in bondage. If you are temperate, +industrious, peaceable, and pious, you will show to the world +that slaves can be emancipated without danger. Remember what a +singular relation you sustain to society. The necessities of the +case require not only that you should behave as well as the +whites, but better than the whites; and for this reason: if you +behave no better than they, your example will lose a great +portion of its influence. Make the Lord Jesus Christ your refuge +and exemplar. His is the only standard around which you can +successfully rally. If ever there was a people who needed the +consolations of religion to sustain them in their grievous +afflictions, you are that people. You had better trust in the +Lord than to put confidence in man. Happy is that people whose +God is the Lord. Get as much education as possible for +yourselves and your children. An ignorant people can never occupy +any other than a degraded station in society; they can never be +truly free until they are intelligent. In a few days you will +start for the state of Ohio, where land will be purchased for +some of you who have families, and where I hope you will all +prosper. We have been urged to send you to Liberia, but we think +it wrong to send you from your native land. We did not wish to +encourage the Colonization Society, for it originated in hatred +of the free coloured people. Its pretences are false, its +doctrines odious, its means contemptible. Now, whatever may be +your situation in life, 'Remember those in bonds as bound with +them.' You must get ready as soon as you can for your journey to +the North." + +Seldom was there ever witnessed a more touching scene than this. +There sat the liberator, pale, feeble, emaciated, with death +stamped upon her countenance, surrounded by the sons and +daughters of Africa; some of whom had in former years been +separated from all that they had held near and dear, and the most +of whose backs had been torn and gashed by the Negro whip. Some +were upon their knees at the feet of their benefactress; others +were standing round her weeping. Many begged that they might be +permitted to remain on the farm and work for wages, for some had +wives and some husbands on other plantations in the neighbourhood, +and would rather remain with them. + +But the laws of the state forbade any emancipated Negroes +remaining, under penalty of again being sold into slavery. Hence +the necessity of sending them out of the state. Mrs. Carlton was +urged by her friends to send the emancipated Negroes to Africa. +Extracts from the speeches of Henry Clay, and other distinguished +Colonization Society men, were read to her to induce her to adopt +this course. Some thought they should he sent away because the +blacks are vicious; others because they would be missionaries to +their brethren in Africa. "But," said she, "if we send away the +Negroes because they are profligate and vicious, what sort of +missionaries will they make? Why not send away the vicious among +the whites for the same reason, and the same purpose?" + +Death is a leveller, and neither age, sex, wealth, nor usefulness +can avert when he is permitted to strike. The most beautiful +flowers soon fade, and droop, and die; this is also the case with +man; his days are uncertain as the passing breeze. This hour he +glows in the blush of health and vigour, but the next he may be +counted with the number no more known on earth. + +Although in a low state of health, Mrs. Carlton had the pleasure +of seeing all her slaves, except Sam and three others, start for +a land of freedom. The morning they were to go on board the +steamer, bound for Louisville, they all assembled on the large +grass plot, in front of the drawing-room window, and wept while +they bid their mistress farewell. When they were on the boat, +about leaving the wharf, they were heard giving the charge to +those on shore--"Sam, take care of Misus, take care of Marser, as +you love us, and hope to meet us in de Hio (Ohio), and in heben; +be sure and take good care of Misus and Marser." + +In less than a week after her emancipated people had started for +Ohio, Mrs. Carlton was cold in death. Mr. Carlton felt deeply, as +all husbands must who love their wives, the loss of her who had +been a lamp to his feet, and a light to his path. She had +converted him from infidelity to Christianity; from the mere +theory of liberty to practical freedom. He had looked upon the +Negro as an ill-treated distant link of the human family; he now +regarded them as a part of God's children. Oh, what a silence +pervaded the house when the Christian had been removed. His +indeed was a lonesome position. + + "'Twas midnight, and he sat alone + The husband of the dead, +That day the dark dust had been thrown + Upon the buried head." + +In the midst of the buoyancy of youth, this cherished one had +drooped and died. Deep were the sounds of grief and mourning +heard in that stately dwelling, when the stricken friends, whose +office it had been to nurse and soothe the weary sufferer, beheld +her pale and motionless in the sleep of death. + +Oh what a chill creeps through the breaking heart when we look +upon the insensible form, and feel that it no longer contains the +spirit we so dearly loved! How difficult to realise that the eye +which always glowed with affection and intelligence; that the ear +which had so often listened to the sounds of sorrow and gladness; +that the voice whose accents had been to us like sweet music, and +the heart, the habitation of benevolence and truth, are now +powerless and insensate as the bier upon which the form rests. +Though faith be strong enough to penetrate the cloud of gloom +which hovers near, and to behold the freed spirit safe, for ever, +safe in its home in heaven, yet the thoughts will linger sadly +and cheerlessly upon the grave. + +Peace to her ashes! she fought the fight, obtained the Christian's +victory, and wears the crown. But if it were that departed +spirits are permitted to note the occurrences of this world, with +what a frown of disapprobation would hers view the effort being +made in the United States to retard the work of emancipation for +which she laboured and so wished to see brought about. + +In what light would she consider that hypocritical priesthood who +gave their aid and sanction to the infamous "Fugitive Slave Law." +If true greatness consists in doing good to mankind, then was +Georgiana Carlton an ornament to human nature. Who can think of +the broken hearts made whole, of sad and dejected countenances +now beaming with contentment and joy, of the mother offering her +free-born babe to heaven, and of the father whose cup of joy +seems overflowing in the presence of his family, where none can +molest or make him afraid. Oh, that God may give more such persons +to take the whip-scarred Negro by the hand, and raise +him to a level with our common humanity! May the professed lovers +of freedom in the new world see that true liberty is freedom for +all! and may every American continually hear it sounding in his +ear:-- + + + + "Shall every flap of England's flag + Proclaim that all around are free, +From 'farthest Ind' to each blue crag + That beetles o'er the Western Sea? +And shall we scoff at Europe's kings, + When Freedom's fire is dim with us, + And round our country's altar clings +The damning shade of Slavery's curse?" + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A RIDE IN A STAGE-COACH + +WE shall now return to Cincinnati, where we left Clotel preparing +to go to Richmond in search of her daughter. Tired of the +disguise in which she had escaped, she threw it off on her +arrival at Cincinnati. But being assured that not a shadow of +safety would attend her visit to a city in which she was well +known, unless in some disguise, she again resumed men's apparel +on leaving Cincinnati. This time she had more the appearance of an +Italian or Spanish gentleman. In addition to the fine suit of +black cloth, a splendid pair of dark false whiskers covered the +sides of her face, while the curling moustache found its place +upon the upper lip. From practice she had become accustomed to +high-heeled boots, and could walk without creating any suspicion +as regarded her sex. It was a cold evening that Clotel arrived at +Wheeling, and took a seat in the coach going to Richmond. She was +already in the state of Virginia, yet a long distance from the +place of her destination. + +A ride in a stage-coach, over an American road, is unpleasant +under the most favourable circumstances. But now that it was +winter, and the roads unusually bad, the journey was still more +dreary. However, there were eight passengers in the coach, and I +need scarcely say that such a number of genuine Americans could +not be together without whiling away the time somewhat +pleasantly. Besides Clotel, there was an elderly gentleman with +his two daughters--one apparently under twenty years, the other a +shade above. The pale, spectacled face of another slim, tall man, +with a white neckerchief, pointed him out as a minister. The +rough featured, dark countenance of a stout looking man, with a +white hat on one side of his head, told that he was from the +sunny South. There was nothing remarkable about the other two, +who might pass for ordinary American gentlemen. It was on the eve +of a presidential election, when every man is thought to be a +politician. Clay, Van Buren, and Harrison were the men who +expected the indorsement of the Baltimore Convention. "Who does +this town go for?" asked the old gent with the ladies, as the +coach drove up to an inn, where groups of persons were waiting +for the latest papers. "We are divided," cried the rough voice of +one of the outsiders. "Well, who do you think will get the +majority here?" continued the old gent. "Can't tell very well; I +go for 'Old Tip,'" was the answer from without. This brought up +the subject fairly before the passengers, and when the coach +again started a general discussion commenced, in which all took a +part except Clotel and the young ladies. Some were for Clay, some +for Van Buren, and others for "Old Tip." The coach stopped to +take in a real farmer-looking man, who no sooner entered than he +was saluted with "Do you go for Clay?" "No," was the answer. "Do +you go for Van Buren?" "No." "Well, then, of course you will go +for Harrison." "No." "Why, don't you mean to work for any of them +at the election?" "No." "Well, who will you work for?" asked +one of the company. "I work for Betsy and the children, and I +have a hard job of it at that," replied the farmer, without a +smile. This answer, as a matter of course, set the new +corner down as one upon whom the rest of the passengers could +crack their jokes with the utmost impunity. "Are you an Odd +Fellow?" asked one. "No, sir, I've been married more than a +month." "I mean, do you belong to the order of Odd Fellows?" +"No, no; I belong to the order of married men." "Are you a mason?" +"No, I am a carpenter by trade." "Are you a Son of Temperance?" +"Bother you, no; I am a son of Mr. John Gosling." After a hearty +laugh in which all joined, the subject of Temperance became the +theme for discussion. In this the spectacled gent was at home. +He soon showed that he was a New Englander, and went the whole +length of the "Maine Law." The minister was about having it all +his own way, when the Southerner, in the white hat, took the +opposite side of the question. "I don't bet a red cent on these +teetotlars," said he, and at the same time looking round to see +if he had the approbation of the rest of the company. "Why?" +asked the minister. "Because they are a set who are afraid to +spend a cent. They are a bad lot, the whole on 'em." It was +evident that the white hat gent was an uneducated man. The +minister commenced in full earnest, and gave an interesting +account of the progress of temperance in Connecticut, the state +from which he came, proving, that a great portion of the +prosperity of the state was attributable to the disuse of +intoxicating drinks. Every one thought the white hat had got the +worst of the argument, and that he was settled for the remainder +of the night. But not he; he took fresh courage and began again. +"Now," said he, "I have just been on a visit to my uncle's in +Vermont, and I guess I knows a little about these here +teetotlars. You see, I went up there to make a little stay of a +fortnight. I got there at night, and they seemed glad to see +me, but they didn't give me a bit of anything to drink. +Well, thinks I to myself, the jig's up: I sha'n't get any more +liquor till I get out of the state." We all sat up till twelve +o'clock that night, and I heard nothing but talk about the +'Juvinal Temperence Army,' the 'Band of Hope,' the 'Rising +Generation,' the 'Female Dorcas Temperance Society,' 'The None +Such,' and I don't know how many other names they didn't have. +As I had taken several pretty large 'Cock Tails' before I entered +the state, I thought upon the whole that I would not spite for +the want of liquor. The next morning, I commenced writing back to +my friends, and telling them what's what. Aunt Polly said, 'Well, +Johnny, I s'pose you are given 'em a pretty account of us all +here.' 'Yes,' said I; I am tellin' 'em if they want anything to +drink when they come up here, they had better bring it with 'em.' +'Oh,' said aunty, 'they would search their boxes; can't bring any +spirits in the state.' Well, as I was saying, jist as I got my +letters finished, and was going to the post office (for uncle's +house was two miles from the town), aunty says, 'Johnny, I s'pose +you'll try to get a little somethin' to drink in town won't you?' +Says I, 'I s'pose it's no use. 'No,' said she, 'you can't; it +ain't to be had no how, for love nor money.' So jist as I was +puttin' on my hat, 'Johnny,' cries out aunty, 'What,' says I. +'Now I'll tell you, I don't want you to say nothin' about it, but +I keeps a little rum to rub my head with, for I am troubled with +the headache; now I don't want you to mention it for the world, +but I'll give you a little taste, the old man is such a +teetotaller, that I should never hear the last of it, and I would +not like for the boys to know it, they are members of the "Cold +Water Army."' + +"Aunty now brought out a black bottle and gave me a cup, and told +me to help myself, which I assure you I did. I now felt ready to +face the cold. As I was passing the barn I heard uncle thrashing +oats, so I went to the door and spoke to him. 'Come in, John,' +says he. 'No,' said I; 'I am goin' to post some letters,' for I +was afraid that he would smell my breath if I went too near to +him. 'Yes, yes, come in.' So I went in, and says he, 'It's now +eleven o'clock; that's about the time you take your grog, I +s'pose, when you are at home.' 'Yes,' said I. 'I am sorry for +you, my lad; you can't get anything up here; you can't even get +it at the chemist's, except as medicine, and then you must let +them mix it and you take it in their presence.' 'This is indeed +hard,' replied I; 'Well, it can't be helped,' continued he: 'and +it ought not to be if it could. It's best for society; people's +better off without drink. I recollect when your father and I, +thirty years ago, used to go out on a spree and spend more than +half a dollar in a night. Then here's the rising generation; +there's nothing like settin' a good example. Look how healthy +your cousins are there's Benjamin, he never tasted spirits in his +life. Oh, John, I would you were a teetotaller.' 'I suppose,' +said I, 'I'll have to be one till I leave the state.' 'Now,' said +he, 'John, I don't want you to mention it, for your aunt would go +into hysterics if she thought there was a drop of intoxicating +liquor about the place, and I would not have the boys to know it +for anything, but I keep a little brandy to rub my joints for the +rheumatics, and being it's you, I'll give you a little dust.' So +the old man went to one corner of the barn, took out a brown jug +and handed it to me, and I must say it was a little the best +cognac that I had tasted for many a day. Says I, 'Uncle, you are +a good judge of brandy.' 'Yes,' said he, 'I learned when I was +young.' So off I started for the post office. In returnin' I +thought I'd jist go through the woods where the boys were chopping +wood, and wait and go to the house with them when they went to +dinner. I found them hard at work, but as merry as crickets. +'Well, cousin John, are you done writing?' 'Yes,' answered I. +'Have you posted them?' 'Yes.' 'Hope you didn't go to any place +inquiring for grog.' 'No, I knowed it was no good to do that.' +'I suppose a cock-tail would taste good now.' 'Well, I +guess it would,' says I. The three boys then joined in a hearty +laugh. 'I suppose you have told 'em that we are a dry set up +here?' 'Well, I ain't told em anything else.' 'Now, cousin John,' +said Edward, 'if you wont say anything, we will give you a small +taste. For mercy's sake don't let father or mother know it; they +are such rabid teetotallers, that they would not sleep a wink +to-night if they thought there was any spirits about the place.' +'I am mum,' says I. And the boys took a jug out of a hollow +stump, and gave me some first-rate peach brandy. And during the +fortnight that I was in Vermont, with my teetotal relations, I +was kept about as well corned as if I had been among my hot water +friends in Tennessee." + +This narrative, given by the white hat man, was received with +unbounded applause by all except the pale gent in spectacles, +who showed, by the way in which he was running his fingers +between his cravat and throat, that he did not intend to "give it +up so." The white hat gent was now the lion of the company. + +"Oh, you did not get hold of the right kind of teetotallers," +said the minister. "I can give you a tale worth a dozen of yours, +continued he. "Look at society in the states where temperance +views prevail, and you will there see real happiness. The people +are taxed less, the poor houses are shut up for want of +occupants, and extreme destitution is unknown. Every one who +drinks at all is liable to become an habitual drunkard. Yes, I +say boldly, that no man living who uses intoxicating drinks, is +free from the danger of at least occasional, and if of +occasional, ultimately of habitual excess. There seems to be no +character, position, or circumstances that free men from the +danger. I have known many young men of the finest promise, led by +the drinking habit into vice, ruin, and early death. I have known +many tradesmen whom it has made bankrupt. I have known Sunday +scholars whom it has led to prison-teachers, and even +superintendents, whom it has dragged down to profligacy. I have +known ministers of high academic honours, of splendid eloquence, +nay, of vast usefulness, whom it has fascinated, and hurried over +the precipice of public infamy with their eyes open, and gazing +with horror on their fate. I have known men of the strongest and +clearest intellect and of vigorous resolution, whom it has made +weaker than children and fools--gentlemen of refinement and taste +whom it has debased into brutes--poets of high genius whom it has +bound in a bondage worse than the galleys, and ultimately cut +short their days. I have known statesmen, lawyers, and judges +whom it has killed--kind husbands and fathers whom it has turned +into monsters. I have known honest men whom it has made villains; +elegant and Christian ladies whom it has converted into bloated +sots." + +"But you talk too fast," replied the white hat man. "You don't +give a feller a chance to say nothin'." + +"I heard you," continued the minister, "and now you hear me out. +It is indeed wonderful how people become lovers of strong drink. +Some years since, before I became a teetotaller I kept spirits +about the house, and I had a servant who was much addicted to +strong drink. He used to say that he could not make my boots +shine, without mixing the blacking with whiskey. So to satisfy +myself that the whiskey was put in the blacking, one morning I +made him bring the dish in which he kept the blacking, and poured +in the whiskey myself. And now, sir, what do you think?" "Why, I +s'pose your boots shined better than before," replied the white +hat. "No," continued the minister. "He took the blacking out, and +I watched him, and he drank down the whiskey, blacking, and all." + +This turned the joke upon the advocate of strong drink, and he +began to put his wits to work for arguments. "You are from +Connecticut, are you?" asked the Southerner. "Yes, and we are an +orderly, pious, peaceable people. Our holy religion is respected, +and we do more for the cause of Christ than the whole Southern +States put together." "I don't doubt it," said the white hat +gent. "You sell wooden nutmegs and other spurious articles enough +to do some good. You talk of your 'holy religion'; but your +robes' righteousness are woven at Lowell and Manchester; your +paradise is high per centum on factory stocks; your palms of +victory and crowns of rejoicing are triumphs over a rival party +in politics, on the questions of banks and tariffs. If you could, +you would turn heaven into Birmingham, make every angel a weaver, +and with the eternal din of looms and spindles drown all the +anthems of the morning stars. Ah! I know you Connecticut people +like a book. No, no, all hoss; you can't come it on me." This +last speech of the rough featured man again put him in the +ascendant, and the spectacled gent once more ran his fingers +between his cravat and throat. "You live in Tennessee, I think," +said the minister. "Yes," replied the Southerner, "I used +to live in Orleans, but now I claim to be a Tennessean." +"Your people of New Orleans are the most ungodly set in the +United States," said the minister. Taking a New Orleans newspaper +from his pocket he continued, "Just look here, there are not less +than three advertisements of bull fights to take place on the +Sabbath. You people of the Slave States have no regard for the +Sabbath, religion, morality or anything else intended to, make +mankind better." Here Clotel could have borne ample testimony, had +she dared to have taken sides with the Connecticut man. Her +residence in Vicksburgh had given her an opportunity of knowing +something of the character of the inhabitants of the far South. +"Here is an account of a grand bull fight that took place in New +Orleans a week ago last Sunday. I will read it to you." And the +minister read aloud the following: + +"Yesterday, pursuant to public notice, came off at Gretna, +opposite the Fourth District, the long heralded fight between the +famous grizzly bear, General Jackson (victor in fifty battles), +and the Attakapas bull, Santa Anna. + +"The fame of the coming conflict had gone forth to the four winds, +and women and children, old men and boys, from all parts of the +city, and from the breezy banks of Lake Pontchartrain and Borgne, +brushed up their Sunday suit, and prepared to ace the fun. Long +before the published hour, the quiet streets of the rural Gretna +were filled with crowds of anxious denizens, flocking to the +arena, and before the fight commenced, such a crowd had collected +as Gretna had not seen, nor will be likely to see again. + +"The arena for the sports was a cage, twenty feet square, built +upon the ground, and constructed of heavy timbers and iron bars. +Around it were seats, circularly placed, and intended to +accommodate many thousands. About four or five-thousand persons +assembled, covering the seats as with a Cloud, and crowding down +around the cage, were within reach of the bars. + +"The bull selected to sustain the honour and verify the pluck of +Attakapas on this trying occasion was a black animal from the +Opelousas, lithe and sinewy as a four year old courser, and with +eyes like burning coals. His horns bore the appearance of +having been filed at the tips, and wanted that keen and slashing +appearance so common with others of his kith and kin; otherwise +it would have been 'all day' with Bruin--at the first pass, and +no mistake. + +"The bear was an animal of note, and called General Jackson, from +the fact of his licking up everything that came in his way, and +taking 'the responsibility' on all occasions. He was a wicked +looking beast, very lean and unamiable in aspect, with hair all +standing the wrong way. He had fought some fifty bulls (so they +said), always coming out victorious, but that neither one of the +fifty had been an Attakapas bull, the bills of the performances +did not say. Had he tackled Attakapas first it is likely his +fifty battles would have remained unfought. + +"About half past four o'clock the performances commenced. + +"The bull was first seen, standing in the cage alone, with head +erect, and looking a very monarch in his capacity. At an +appointed signal, a cage containing the bear was placed +alongside the arena, and an opening being made, bruin stalked into +the battle ground--not, however, without sundry stirrings up with +a ten foot pole, he being experienced in such matters, and +backwards in raising a row. + +"Once on the battle-field, both animals stood, like wary +champions, eyeing each other, the bear cowering low, with head +upturned and fangs exposed, while Attakapas stood wondering, with +his eye dilated, lashing his sides with his long and bushy tail, +and pawing up the earth in very wrath. + +"The bear seemed little inclined to begin the attack, and the +bull, standing a moment, made steps first backward and then +forward, as if measuring his antagonist, and meditating where to +plant a blow. Bruin wouldn't come to the scratch no way, till one +of the keepers, with an iron rod, tickled his ribs and made him +move. Seeing this, Attakapas took it as a hostile demonstration, +and, gathering his strength, dashed savagely at the enemy, +catching him on the points of his horns, and doubling him up like +a sack of bran against the bars. Bruin 'sung out' at this, 'and +made a dash for his opponent's nose.' + +"Missing this, the bull turned to the 'about face,' and the bear +caught him by the ham, inflicting a ghastly wound. But Attakapas +with a kick shook him off, and renewing the attack, went at him +again, head on and with a rush. This time he was not so fortunate, +for the bear caught him above the eye, burying his fangs in the +tough hide, and holding him as in a vice. It was now +the bull's turn to 'sing out,' and he did it, bellowing forth with +a voice more hideous than that of all the bulls of Bashan. Some +minutes stood matters thus, and the cries of the bull, mingled +with the hoarse growls of the bear, made hideous music, fit only +for a dance of devils. Then came a pause (the bear having +relinquished his hold), and for a few minutes it was doubtful +whether the fun was not up. But the magic wand of the keeper (the +ten foot pole) again stirred up bruin, and at it they went, and +with a rush. + +"Bruin now tried to fasten on the bull's back, and drove his tusks +in him in several places, making the red blood flow like wine +from the vats of Luna. But Attakapas was pluck to the back bone, +and, catching bruin on the tips of his horns, shuffled him up +right merrily, making the fur fly like feathers in a gale of +wind. Bruin cried 'Nuff' (in bear language), but the bull +followed up his advantage, and, making one furious plunge full at +the figure head of the enemy, struck a horn into his eye, burying +it there, and dashing the tender organ into darkness and atoms. +Blood followed the blow, and poor bruin, blinded, bleeding, and +in mortal agony, turned with a howl to leave, but Attakapas +caught him in the retreat, and rolled him over like a ball. Over +and over again this rolling over was enacted, and finally, after +more than an hour, bruin curled himself up on his back, bruised, +bloody, and dead beat. The thing was up with California, and +Attakapas was declared the victor amidst the applause of the +multitude that made the heavens ring." + +"There," said he, "can you find anything against Connecticut equal +to that?" The Southerner had to admit that he was beat by the +Yankee. During all this time, it must not be supposed that the +old gent with the two daughters, and even the young ladies +themselves, had been silent. Clotel and they had not only given +their opinions as regarded the merits of the discussion, but that +sly glance of the eye, which is ever given where the young of +both sexes meet, had been freely at work. The American ladies are +rather partial to foreigners, and Clotel had the appearance of a +fine Italian. The old gentleman was now near his home, +and a whisper from the eldest daughter, who was unmarried but +marriageable, induced him to extend to "Mr. Johnson" an invitation +to stop and spend a week with the young ladies at their family +residence. Clotel excused herself upon various grounds, and at +last, to cut short the matter, promised that she would pay them a +visit on her return. The arrival of the coach at Lynchburgh +separated the young ladies from the Italian gent, and the coach +again resumed its journey. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + + "Is the poor privilege to turn the key + Upon the captive, freedom? He's as far + From the enjoyment of the earth and air + Who watches o'er the chains, as they who wear." + +DURING certain seasons of the year, all tropical climates are +subject to epidemics of a most destructive nature. The +inhabitants of New Orleans look with as much certainty for the +appearance of the yellow-fever, small-pox, or cholera, in the hot +season, as the Londoner does for fog in the month of November. In +the summer of 1831, the people of New Orleans were visited with +one of these epidemics. It appeared in a form unusually repulsive +and deadly. It seized persons who were in health, without any +premonition. Sometimes death was the immediate consequence. The +disorder began in the brain, by an oppressive pain accompanied or +followed by fever. The patient was devoured with burning thirst. +The stomach, distracted by pains, in vain sought relief in efforts +to disburden itself. Fiery veins streaked the eye; the face was +inflamed, and dyed of a dark dull red colour; the ears from time +to time rang painfully. Now mucous secretions surcharged the +tongue, and took away the power of speech; now the sick one +spoke, but in speaking had a foresight of death. When the violence +of the disease approached the heart, the gums were blackened. The +sleep, broken, troubled by convulsions, or by frightful visions, +was worse than the waking hours; and when the reason +sank under a delirium which had its seat in the brain, repose +utterly forsook the patient's couch. The progress of the heat +within was marked by yellowish spots, which spread over the +surface of the body. If, then, a happy crisis came not, all hope +was gone. Soon the breath infected the air with a fetid odour, the +lips were glazed, despair painted itself in the eyes, and sobs, +with long intervals of silence, formed the only language. From +each side of the mouth spread foam, tinged with black and burnt +blood. Blue streaks mingled with the yellow all over the frame. +All remedies were useless. This was the Yellow Fever. The +disorder spread alarm and confusion throughout the city. On an +average, more than 400 died daily. In the midst of disorder and +confusion, death heaped victims on victims. Friend followed +friend in quick succession. The sick were avoided from the fear +of contagion, and for the same reason the dead were left +unburied. Nearly 2000 dead bodies lay uncovered in the +burial-ground, with only here and there a little lime thrown +over them, to prevent the air becoming infected. + +The Negro, whose home is in a hot climate, was not proof against +the disease. Many plantations had to suspend their work for want +of slaves to take the places of those carried off by the fever. +Henry Morton and wife were among the thirteen thousand swept away +by the raging disorder that year. Like too many, Morton had been +dealing extensively in lands and stocks; and though apparently in +good circumstances was, in reality, deeply involved in debt. +Althesa, although as white as most white women in a southern +clime, was, as we already know, born a slave. By the laws of all +the Southern States the children follow the condition of the +mother. If the mother is free the children are free; if a slave, +they are slaves. Morton was unacquainted with the laws +of the land; and although he had married Althesa, it was a +marriage which the law did not recognise; and therefore she whom +he thought to be his wife was, in fact, nothing more than his +slave. What would have been his feelings had he known this, and +also known that his two daughters, Ellen and Jane, were his +slaves? Yet such was the fact. After the disappearance of the +disease with which Henry Morton had so suddenly been removed, his +brother went to New Orleans to give what aid he could in settling +up the affairs. James Morton, on his arrival in New Orleans, felt +proud of his nieces, and promised them a home with his own family +in Vermont; little dreaming that his brother had married a slave +woman, and that his nieces were slaves. The girls themselves had +never heard that their mother had been a slave, and therefore knew +nothing of the danger hanging over their heads. An inventory of +the property was made out by James Morton, and placed in the +hands of the creditors; and the young ladies, with their uncle, +were about leaving the city to reside for a few days on the banks +of Lake Pontchartrain, where they could enjoy a fresh air that +the city could not afford. But just as they were about taking the +train, an officer arrested the whole party; the young ladies as +slaves, and the uncle upon the charge of attempting to conceal the +property of his deceased brother. Morton was overwhelmed with +horror at the idea of his nieces being claimed as slaves, and +asked for time, that he might save them from such a fate. He even +offered to mortgage his little farm in Vermont for the amount +which young slave women of their ages would fetch. But the +creditors pleaded that they were "an extra article," and would +sell for more than common slaves; and must, therefore, be sold at +auction. They were given up, but neither ate nor slept, +nor separated from each other, till they were taken into the New +Orleans slave market, where they were offered to the highest +bidder. There they stood, trembling, blushing, and weeping; +compelled to listen to the grossest language, and shrinking from +the rude hands that examined the graceful proportions of their +beautiful frames. + +After a fierce contest between the bidders, the young ladies were +sold, one for 2,300 dollars, and the other for 3,000 dollars. We +need not add that had those young girls been sold for mere house +servants or field hands, they would not have brought one half the +sums they did. The fact that they were the grand-daughters of +Thomas Jefferson, no doubt, increased their value in the market. +Here were two of the softer sex, accustomed to the fondest +indulgence, surrounded by all the refinements of life, and with +all the timidity that such a life could produce, bartered away +like cattle in Smithfield market. Ellen, the eldest, was sold to +an old gentleman, who purchased her, as he said, for a +housekeeper. The girl was taken to his residence, nine miles from +the city. She soon, however, knew for what purpose she had been +bought; and an educated and cultivated mind and taste, which made +her see and understand how great was her degradation, now armed +her hand with the ready means of death. The morning after her +arrival, she was found in her chamber, a corpse. She had taken +poison. Jane was purchased by a dashing young man, who had just +come into the possession of a large fortune. The very appearance +of the young Southerner pointed him out as an unprincipled +profligate; and the young girl needed no one to tell her of her +impending doom. The young maid of fifteen was immediately removed +to his country seat, near the junction of the +Mississippi river with the sea. This was a most singular spot, +remote, in a dense forest spreading over the summit of a cliff +that rose abruptly to a great height above the sea; but so grand +in its situation, in the desolate sublimity which reigned around, +in the reverential murmur of the waves that washed its base, that, +though picturesque, it was a forest prison. Here the young lady +saw no one, except an old Negress who acted as her servant. The +smiles with which the young man met her were indignantly spurned. +But she was the property of another, and could hope for justice +and mercy only through him. + +Jane, though only in her fifteenth year, had become strongly +attached to Volney Lapuc, a young Frenchman, a student in her +father's office. The poverty of the young man, and the youthful +age of the girl, had caused their feelings to be kept from the +young lady's parents. At the death of his master, Volney had +returned to his widowed mother at Mobile, and knew nothing of the +misfortune that had befallen his mistress, until he received a +letter from her. But how could he ever obtain a sight of her, +even if he wished, locked up as she was in her master's mansion? +After several days of what her master termed "obstinacy" on her +part, the young girl was placed in an upper chamber, and told +that that would be her home, until she should yield to her +master's wishes. There she remained more than a fortnight, and +with the exception of a daily visit from her master, she saw no +one but the old Negress who waited upon her. One bright moonlight +evening as she was seated at the window, she perceived the figure +of a man beneath her window. At first, she thought it was her +master; but the tall figure of the stranger soon convinced her +that it was another. Yes, it was Volney! He had no sooner +received her letter, than he set out for New Orleans; +and finding on his arrival there, that his mistress had been +taken away, resolved to follow her. There he was; but how could +she communicate with him? She dared not trust the old Negress with +her secret, for fear that it might reach her master. Jane wrote a +hasty note and threw it out of the window, which was eagerly +picked up by the young man, and he soon disappeared in the woods. +Night passed away in dreariness to her, and the next morning she +viewed the spot beneath her window with the hope of seeing the +footsteps of him who had stood there the previous night. Evening +returned, and with it the hope of again seeing the man she loved. +In this she was not disappointed; for daylight had scarcely +disappeared, and the moon once more rising through the tops of +the tall trees, when the young man was seen in the same place as +on the previous night. He had in his hand a rope ladder. As soon +as Jane saw this, she took the sheets from her bed, tore them +into strings, tied them together, and let one end down the side of +the house. A moment more, and one end of the rope ladder was in +her hand, and she fastened it inside the room. Soon the young +maiden was seen descending, and the enthusiastic lover, with his +arms extended, waiting to receive his mistress. The planter had +been out on an hunting excursion, and returning home, saw his +victim as her lover was receiving her in his arms. At this moment +the sharp sound of a rifle was heard, and the young man fell +weltering in his blood, at the feet of his mistress. Jane fell +senseless by his side. For many days she had a confused +consciousness of some great agony, but knew not where she was, or +by whom surrounded. The slow recovery of her reason settled into +the most intense melancholy, which gained at length the +compassion even of her cruel master. The beautiful +bright eyes, always pleading in expression, were now so +heart-piercing in their sadness, that he could not endure their +gaze. In a few days the poor girl died of a broken heart, and was +buried at night at the back of the garden by the Negroes; and no +one wept at the grave of her who had been so carefully cherished, +and so tenderly beloved. + +This, reader, is an unvarnished narrative of one doomed by the +laws of the Southern States to be a slave. It tells not only its +own story of grief, but speaks of a thousand wrongs and woes +beside, which never see the light; all the more bitter and +dreadful, because no help can relieve, no sympathy can mitigate, +and no hope can cheer. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE ARREST + +"The fearful storm--it threatens lowering, + Which God in mercy long delays; +Slaves yet may see their masters cowering, +While whole plantations smoke and blaze!" + +--Carter. + + +IT was late in the evening when the coach arrived at Richmond, and +Clotel once more alighted in her native city. She had intended to +seek lodging somewhere in the outskirts of the town, but the +lateness of the hour compelled her to stop at one of the principal +hotels for the night. She had scarcely entered the inn, when she +recognised among the numerous black servants one to whom she was +well known; and her only hope was, that her disguise would keep +her from being discovered. The imperturbable calm and entire +forgetfulness of self which induced Clotel to visit a place from +which she could scarcely hope to escape, to attempt the rescue of +a beloved child, demonstrate that overwillingness of woman to +carry out the promptings of the finer feelings of her heart. True +to woman's nature, she had risked her own liberty for another. + +She remained in the hotel during the night, and the next morning, +under the plea of illness, she took her breakfast alone. That day +the fugitive slave paid a visit to the suburbs of the town, and +once more beheld the cottage in which she had spent so many happy +hours. It was winter, and the clematis and passion flower were +not there; but there were the same walks she had so +often pressed with her feet, and the same trees which had so +often shaded her as she passed through the garden at the back of +the house. Old remembrances rushed upon her memory, and caused her +to shed tears freely. Clotel was now in her native town, and near +her daughter; but how could she communicate with her? How could +she see her? To have made herself known, would have been a +suicidal act; betrayal would have followed, and she arrested. +Three days had passed away, and Clotel still remained in the hotel +at which she had first put up; and yet she had got no tidings of +her child. Unfortunately for Clotel, a disturbance had just +broken out amongst the slave population in the state of Virginia, +and all strangers were eyed with suspicion. + +The evils consequent on slavery are not lessened by the incoming +of one or two rays of light. If the slave only becomes aware of +his condition, and conscious of the injustice under which he +suffers, if he obtains but a faint idea of these things, he will +seize the first opportunity to possess himself of what he +conceives to belong to him. The infusion of Anglo-Saxon with +African blood has created an insurrectionary feeling among the +slaves of America hitherto unknown. Aware of their blood +connection with their owners, these mulattoes labour under the +sense of their personal and social injuries; and tolerate, if +they do not encourage in themselves, low and vindictive passions. +On the other hand, the slave owners are aware of their critical +position, and are ever watchful, always fearing an outbreak among +the slaves. + +True, the Free States are equally bound with the Slave States to +suppress any insurrectionary movement that may take place among +the slaves. The Northern freemen are bound by their +constitutional obligations to aid the slaveholder in keeping his +slaves in their chains. Yet there are, at the time we +write, four millions of bond slaves in the United States. The +insurrection to which we now refer was headed by a full-blooded +Negro, who had been born and brought up a slave. He had heard the +twang of the driver's whip, and saw the warm blood streaming from +the Negro's body; he had witnessed the separation of parents and +children, and was made aware, by too many proofs, that the slave +could expect no justice at the hand of the slave owner. He went by +the name of "Nat Turner." He was a preacher amongst the Negroes, +and distinguished for his eloquence, respected by the whites, and +loved and venerated by the Negroes. On the discovery of the plan +for the outbreak, Turner fled to the swamps, followed by those +who had joined in the insurrection. Here the revolted Negroes +numbered some hundreds, and for a time bade defiance to their +oppressors. The Dismal Swamps cover many thousands of acres of +wild land, and a dense forest, with wild animals and insects, such +as are unknown in any other part of Virginia. Here runaway +Negroes usually seek a hiding place, and some have been known to +reside here for years. The revolters were joined by one of these. +He was a large, tall, full-blooded Negro, with a stern and savage +countenance; the marks on his face showed that he was from one of +the barbarous tribes in Africa, and claimed that country as his +native land; his only covering was a girdle around his loins, +made of skins of wild beasts which he had killed; his only token +of authority among those that he led, was a pair of epaulettes +made from the tail of a fox, and tied to his shoulder by a cord. +Brought from the coast of Africa when only fifteen years of age +to the island of Cuba, he was smuggled from thence into Virginia. +He had been two years in the swamps, and considered it +his future home. He had met a Negro woman who was also a runaway; +and, after the fashion of his native land, had gone through the +process of oiling her as the marriage ceremony. They had built a +cave on a rising mound in the swamp; this was their home. His +name was Picquilo. His only weapon was a sword, made from the +blade of a scythe, which he had stolen from a neighbouring +plantation. His dress, his character, his manners, his mode of +fighting, were all in keeping with the early training he had +received in the land of his birth. He moved about with the +activity of a cat, and neither the thickness of the trees, nor the +depth of the water could stop him. He was a bold, turbulent +spirit; and from revenge imbrued his hands in the blood of all +the whites he could meet. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, and loss of +sleep he seemed made to endure as if by peculiarity of +constitution. His air was fierce, his step oblique, his look +sanguinary. Such was the character of one of the leaders in the +Southampton insurrection. All Negroes were arrested who were +found beyond their master's threshhold, and all strange whites +watched with a great degree of alacrity. + +Such was the position in which Clotel found affairs when she +returned to Virginia in search of her Mary. Had not the +slaveowners been watchful of strangers, owing to the outbreak, +the fugitive could not have escaped the vigilance of the police; +for advertisements, announcing her escape and offering a large +reward for her arrest, had been received in the city previous to +her arrival, and the officers were therefore on the look-out for +the runaway slave. It was on the third day, as the quadroon was +seated in her room at the inn, still in the disguise of a +gentleman, that two of the city officers entered the room, and +informed her that they were authorised to examine all +strangers, to assure the authorities that they were not in league +with the revolted Negroes. With trembling heart the fugitive +handed the key of her trunk to the officers. To their surprise, +they found nothing but woman's apparel in the box, which raised +their curiosity, and caused a further investigation that resulted +in the arrest of Clotel as a fugitive slave. She was immediately +conveyed to prison, there to await the orders of her master. For +many days, uncheered by the voice of kindness, alone, hopeless, +desolate, she waited for the time to arrive when the chains were +to be placed on her limbs, and she returned to her inhuman and +unfeeling owner. + +The arrest of the fugitive was announced in all the newspapers, +but created little or no sensation. The inhabitants were too much +engaged in putting down the revolt among the slaves; and although +all the odds were against the insurgents, the whites found it no +easy matter, with all their caution. Every day brought news of +fresh outbreaks. Without scruple and without pity, the whites +massacred all blacks found beyond their owners' plantations: the +Negroes, in return, set fire to houses, and put those to death +who attempted to escape from the flames. Thus carnage was added to +carnage, and the blood of the whites flowed to avenge the blood +of the blacks. These were the ravages of slavery. No graves were +dug for the Negroes; their dead bodies became food for dogs and +vultures, and their bones, partly calcined by the sun, remained +scattered about, as if to mark the mournful fury of servitude and +lust of power. When the slaves were subdued, except a few in the +swamps, bloodhounds were put in this dismal place to hunt out the +remaining revolters. Among the captured Negroes was one of whom we +shall hereafter make mention. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DEATH IS FREEDOM + + "I asked but freedom, and ye gave + Chains, and the freedom of the grave."--Snelling. + +THERE are, in the district of Columbia, several slave prisons, or +"Negro pens," as they are termed. These prisons are mostly +occupied by persons to keep their slaves in, when collecting +their gangs together for the New Orleans market. Some of them +belong to the government, and one, in particular, is noted for +having been the place where a number of free coloured persons +have been incarcerated from time to time. In this district is +situated the capital of the United States. Any free coloured +persons visiting Washington, if not provided with papers +asserting and proving their right to be free, may be arrested and +placed in one of these dens. If they succeed in showing that they +are free, they are set at liberty, provided they are able to pay +the expenses of their arrest and imprisonment; if they cannot pay +these expenses, they are sold out. Through this unjust and +oppressive law, many persons born in the Free States have been +consigned to a life of slavery on the cotton, sugar, or rice +plantations of the Southern States. By order of her master, +Clotel was removed from Richmond and placed in one of these +prisons, to await the sailing of a vessel for New Orleans. The +prison in which she was put stands midway between the capitol at +Washington and the President's house. Here the fugitive saw +nothing but slaves brought in and taken out, to be placed in +ships and sent away to the same part of the country to +which she herself would soon be compelled to go. She had seen or +heard nothing of her daughter while in Richmond, and all hope of +seeing her now had fled. If she was carried back to New Orleans, +she could expect no mercy from her master. + +At the dusk of the evening previous to the day when she was to be +sent off, as the old prison was being closed for the night, she +suddenly darted past her keeper, and ran for her life. It is not +a great distance from the prison to the Long Bridge, which passes +from the lower part of the city across the Potomac, to the +extensive forests and woodlands of the celebrated Arlington +Place, occupied by that distinguished relative and descendant of +the immortal Washington, Mr. George W. Custis. Thither the poor +fugitive directed her flight. So unexpected was her escape, that +she had quite a number of rods the start before the keeper had +secured the other prisoners, and rallied his assistants in +pursuit. It was at an hour when, and in a part of the city where, +horses could not be readily obtained for the chase; no +bloodhounds were at hand to run down the flying woman; and for +once it seemed as though there was to be a fair trial of speed and +endurance between the slave and the slave-catchers. The keeper +and his forces raised the hue and cry on her pathway close +behind; but so rapid was the flight along the wide avenue, that +the astonished citizens, as they poured forth from their +dwellings to learn the cause of alarm, were only able to +comprehend the nature of the case in time to fall in with the +motley mass in pursuit (as many a one did that night), to raise +an anxious prayer to heaven, as they refused to join in the +pursuit, that the panting fugitive might escape, and the +merciless soul dealer for once be disappointed of his prey. And +now with the speed of an arrow--having passed the +avenue--with the distance between her and her pursuers constantly +increasing, this poor hunted female gained the "Long Bridge," as +it is called, where interruption seemed improbable, and already +did her heart begin to beat high with the hope of success. She +had only to pass three-fourths of a mile across the bridge, and +she could bury herself in a vast forest, just at the time when +the curtain of night would close around her, and protect her from +the pursuit of her enemies. + +But God by his Providence had otherwise determined. He had +determined that an appalling tragedy should be enacted that +night, within plain sight of the President's house and the +capitol of the Union, which should be an evidence wherever it +should be known, of the unconquerable love of liberty the heart +may inherit; as well as a fresh admonition to the slave dealer, +of the cruelty and enormity of his crimes. Just as the pursuers +crossed the high draw for the passage of sloops, soon after +entering upon the bridge, they beheld three men slowly +approaching from the Virginia side. They immediately called to +them to arrest the fugitive, whom they proclaimed a runaway +slave. True to their Virginian instincts as she came near, they +formed in line across the narrow bridge, and prepared to seize +her. Seeing escape impossible in that quarter, she stopped +suddenly, and turned upon her pursuers. On came the profane and +ribald crew, faster than ever, already exulting in her capture, +and threatening punishment for her flight. For a moment she +looked wildly and anxiously around to see if there was no hope of +escape. On either hand, far down below, rolled the deep foamy +waters of the Potomac, and before and behind the rapidly +approaching step and noisy voices of pursuers, showing +how vain would be any further effort for freedom. Her resolution +was taken. She clasped her hands convulsively, and raised them, as +she at the same time raised her eyes towards heaven, and begged +for that mercy and compassion there, which had been denied her on +earth; and then, with a single bound, she vaulted over the +railings of the bridge, and sunk for ever beneath the waves of +the river! + +Thus died Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, a president of +the United States; a man distinguished as the author of the +Declaration of American Independence, and one of the first +statesmen of that country. + +Had Clotel escaped from oppression in any other land, in the +disguise in which she fled from the Mississippi to Richmond, and +reached the United States, no honour within the gift of the +American people would have been too good to have been heaped upon +the heroic woman. But she was a slave, and therefore out of the +pale of their sympathy. They have tears to shed over Greece and +Poland; they have an abundance of sympathy for "poor Ireland"; +they can furnish a ship of war to convey the Hungarian refugees +from a Turkish prison to the "land of the free and home of the +brave." They boast that America is the "cradle of liberty"; if it +is, I fear they have rocked the child to death. The body of +Clotel was picked up from the bank of the river, where it had been +washed by the strong current, a hole dug in the sand, and there +deposited, without either inquest being held over it, or +religious service being performed. Such was the life and such the +death of a woman whose virtues and goodness of heart would have +done honour to one in a higher station of life, and who, if she +had been born in any other land but that of slavery, would have +been honoured and loved. A few days after the death of Clotel, +the following poem appeared in one of the newspapers: + +"Now, rest for the wretched! the long day is past, + And night on yon prison descendeth at last. + Now lock up and bolt! Ha, jailor, look there! +Who flies like a wild bird escaped from the snare? + A woman, a slave-up, out in pursuit. + While linger some gleams of day! + Let thy call ring out!--now a rabble rout + Is at thy heels--speed away! + + + "A bold race for freedom!--On, fugitive, on! +Heaven help but the right, and thy freedom is won. + How eager she drinks the free air of the plains; +Every limb, every nerve, every fibre she strains; + From Columbia's glorious capitol, + Columbia's daughter flees + To the sanctuary God has given-- + The sheltering forest trees. + + +"Now she treads the Long Bridge--joy lighteth her eye-- + Beyond her the dense wood and darkening sky-- +Wild hopes thrill her heart as she neareth the shore: + O, despair! there are men fast advancing before! + Shame, shame on their manhood! they hear, they heed + The cry, her flight to stay, + And like demon forms with their outstretched arms, + They wait to seize their prey! + + + "She pauses, she turns! Ah, will she flee back? +Like wolves, her pursuers howl loud on their track; + She lifteth to Heaven one look of despair-- + Her anguish breaks forth in one hurried prayer + Hark! her jailor's yell! like a bloodhound's bay + On the low night wind it sweeps! +Now, death or the chain! to the stream she turns, + And she leaps! O God, she leaps! + + + "The dark and the cold, yet merciful wave, + Receives to its bosom the form of the slave: + She rises--earth's scenes on her dim vision gleam, +Yet she struggleth not with the strong rushing stream: + And low are the death-cries her woman's heart gives, + As she floats adown the river, + Faint and more faint grows the drowning voice, + And her cries have ceased for ever! + + + "Now back, jailor, back to thy dungeons, again, + To swing the red lash and rivet the chain! +The form thou would'st fetter--returned to its God; + The universe holdeth no realm of night + More drear than her slavery-- +More merciless fiends than here stayed her flight-- + Joy! the hunted slave is free! + +"That bond-woman's corpse--let Potomac's proud wave + Go bear it along by our Washington's grave, + And heave it high up on that hallowed strand, + To tell of the freedom he won for our land. + A weak woman's corpse, by freemen chased down; + Hurrah for our country! hurrah! +To freedom she leaped, through drowning and death-- + Hurrah for our country! hurrah!" + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE ESCAPE + + "No refuge is found on our unhallowed ground, + For the wretched in Slavery's manacles bound; + While our star-spangled banner in vain boasts to wave + O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" + +WE left Mary, the daughter of Clotel, in the capacity of a servant +in her own father's house, where she had been taken by her +mistress for the ostensible purpose of plunging her husband into +the depths of humiliation. At first the young girl was treated +with great severity; but after finding that Horatio Green had +lost all feeling for his child, Mrs. Green's own heart became +touched for the offspring of her husband, and she became its +friend. Mary had grown still more beautiful, and, like most of +her sex in that country, was fast coming to maturity. + +The arrest of Clotel, while trying to rescue her daughter, did not +reach the ears of the latter till her mother had been removed +from Richmond to Washington. The mother had passed from time to +eternity before the daughter knew that she had been in the +neighbourhood. Horatio Green was not in Richmond at the time of +Clotel's arrest; had he been there, it is not probable but he +would have made an effort to save her. She was not his slave, and +therefore was beyond his power, even had he been there and +inclined to aid her. The revolt amongst the slaves had been +brought to an end, and most of the insurgents either put to death +or sent out of the state. One, however, remained in +prison. He was the slave of Horatio Green, and had been a servant +in his master's dwelling. He, too, could boast that his father +was an American statesman. His name was George. His mother had +been employed as a servant in one of the principal hotels in +Washington, where members of Congress usually put up. After +George's birth his mother was sold to a slave trader, and he to an +agent of Mr. Green, the father of Horatio. George was as white as +most white persons. No one would suppose that any African blood +coursed through his veins. His hair was straight, soft, fine, and +light; his eyes blue, nose prominent, lips thin, his head well +formed, forehead high and prominent; and he was often taken for a +free white person by those who did know him. This made his +condition still more intolerable; for one so white seldom ever +receives fair treatment at the hands of his fellow slaves; and the +whites usually regard such slaves as persons who, if not often +flogged, and otherwise ill treated, to remind them of their +condition, would soon "forget" that they were slaves, and "think +themselves as good as white folks." George's opportunities were +far greater than most slaves. Being in his master's house, and +waiting on educated white people, he had become very familiar +with the English language. He had heard his master and visitors +speak of the down-trodden and oppressed Poles; he heard them talk +of going to Greece to fight for Grecian liberty, and against the +oppressors of that ill-fated people. George, fired with the love +of freedom, and zeal for the cause of his enslaved countrymen, +joined the insurgents, and with them had been defeated and +captured. He was the only one remaining of these unfortunate +people, and he would have been put to death with them but for a +circumstance that occurred some weeks before the +outbreak. The court house had, by accident, taken fire, and was +fast consuming. The engines could not be made to work, and all +hope of saving the building seemed at an end. In one of the upper +chambers there was a small box containing some valuable deeds +belonging to the city; a ladder was placed against the house, +leading from the street to the window of the room in which the +box stood. The wind blew strong, and swept the flames in that +direction. Broad sheets of fire were blown again and again over +that part of the building, and then the wind would lift the pall +of smoke, which showed that the work of destruction was not yet +accomplished. While the doomed building was thus exposed, and +before the destroying element had made its final visit, as it did +soon after, George was standing by, and hearing that much +depended on the contents of the box, and seeing no one disposed +to venture through the fiery element to save the treasure, +mounted the ladder and made his way to the window, entered the +room, and was soon seen descending with the much valued box. Three +cheers rent the air as the young slave fell from the ladder when +near the ground; the white men took him up in their arms, to see +if he had sustained any injury. His hair was burnt, eyebrows +closely singed, and his clothes smelt strongly of smoke; but the +heroic young slave was unhurt. The city authorities, at their +next meeting, passed a vote of thanks to George's master for the +lasting benefit that the slave had rendered the public, and +commanded the poor boy to the special favour of his owner. When +George was on trial for participating in the revolt, this +"meritorious act," as they were pleased to term it, was brought +up in his favour. His trial was put off from session to session, +till he had been in prison more than a year. At last, however, he +was convicted of high treason, and sentenced to be +hanged within ten days of that time. The judge asked the slave if +he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed +on him. George stood for a moment in silence, and then said, "As +I cannot speak as I should wish, I will say nothing." "You may +say what you please," said the judge. "You had a good master," +continued he, "and still you were dissatisfied; you left your +master and joined the Negroes who were burning our houses and +killing our wives." "As you have given me permission to speak," +remarked George, "I will tell you why I joined the revolted +Negroes. I have heard my master read in the Declaration of +Independence 'that all men are created free and equal,' and this +caused me to inquire of myself why I was a slave. I also heard him +talking with some of his visitors about the war with England, and +he said, all wars and fightings for freedom were just and right. +If so, in what am I wrong? The grievances of which your fathers +complained, and which caused the Revolutionary War, were trifling +in comparison with the wrongs and sufferings of those who were +engaged in the late revolt. Your fathers were never slaves, ours +are; your fathers were never bought and sold like cattle, never +shut out from the light of knowledge and religion, never +subjected to the lash of brutal task-masters. For the crime of +having a dark skin, my people suffer the pangs of hunger, the +infliction of stripes, and the ignominy of brutal servitude. We +are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to make +our instruction a criminal offence. What right has one man to the +bones, sinews, blood, and nerves of another? Did not one God make +us all? You say your fathers fought for freedom; so did we. You +tell me that I am to be put to death for violating the +laws of the land. Did not the American revolutionists violate the +laws when they struck for liberty? They were revolters, but their +success made them patriots--We were revolters, and our failure +makes us rebels. Had we succeeded, we would have been patriots +too. Success makes all the difference. You make merry on the 4th +of July; the thunder of cannon and ringing of bells announce it +as the birthday of American independence. Yet while these cannons +are roaring and bells ringing, one-sixth of the people of this +land are in chains and slavery. You boast that this is the 'Land +of the Free'; but a traditionary freedom will not save you. It +will not do to praise your fathers and build their sepulchres. +Worse for you that you have such an inheritance, if you spend it +foolishly and are unable to appreciate its worth. Sad if the +genius of a true humanity, beholding you with tearful eyes from +the mount of vision, shall fold his wings in sorrowing pity, and +repeat the strain, 'O land of Washington, how often would I have +gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood +under her wings, and ye would not; behold your house is left unto +you desolate.' This is all I have to say; I have done." Nearly +every one present was melted to tears; even the judge seemed +taken by surprise at the intelligence of the young slave. But +George was a slave, and an example must be made of him, and +therefore he was sentenced. Being employed in the same house with +Mary, the daughter of Clotel, George had become attached to her, +and the young lovers fondly looked forward to the time when they +should be husband and wife. + +After George had been sentenced to death, Mary was still more +attentive to him, and begged and obtained leave of her mistress +to visit him in his cell. The poor girl paid a daily +visit to him to whom she had pledged her heart and hand. At one of +these meetings, and only four days from the time fixed for the +execution, while Mary was seated in George's cell, it occurred to +her that she might yet save him from a felon's doom. She revealed +to him the secret that was then occupying her thoughts, viz. +that George should exchange clothes with her, and thus attempt his +escape in disguise. But he would not for a single moment listen +to the proposition. Not that he feared detection; but he would +not consent to place an innocent and affectionate girl in a +position where she might have to suffer for him. Mary pleaded, +but in vain. George was inflexible. The poor girl left her lover +with a heavy heart, regretting that her scheme had proved +unsuccessful. + +Towards the close of the next day, Mary again appeared at the +prison door for admission, and was soon by the side of him whom +she so ardently loved. While there the clouds which had overhung +the city for some hours broke, and the rain fell in torrents amid +the most terrific thunder and lightning. In the most persuasive +manner possible, Mary again importuned George to avail himself of +her assistance to escape from an ignominious death. After assuring +him that she, not being the person condemned, would not receive +any injury, he at last consented, and they began to exchange +apparel. As George was of small stature, and both were white, +there was no difficulty in his passing out without detection; and +as she usually left the cell weeping, with handkerchief in hand, +and sometimes at her face, he had only to adopt this mode and his +escape was safe. They had kissed each other, and Mary had told +George where he would find a small parcel of provisions which she +had placed in a secluded spot, when the prison-keeper +opened the door and said, "Come, girl, it is time for you to go." +George again embraced Mary, and passed out of the jail. It was +already dark, and the street lamps were lighted, so that our hero +in his new dress had no dread of detection. The provisions were +sought out and found, and poor George was soon on the road +towards Canada. But neither of them had once thought of a change +of dress for George when he should have escaped, and he had +walked but a short distance before he felt that a change of his +apparel would facilitate his progress. But he dared not go amongst +even his coloured associates for fear of being betrayed. However, +he made the best of his way on towards Canada, hiding in the +woods during the day, and travelling by the guidance of the North +Star at night. + +With the poet he could truly say, + + "Star of the North! while blazing day + Pours round me its full tide of light, + And hides thy pale but faithful ray, + I, too, lie hid, and long for night." + +One morning, George arrived on the banks of the Ohio river, and +found his journey had terminated, unless he could get some one to +take him across the river in a secret manner, for he would not be +permitted to cross in any of the ferry boats, it being a penalty +for crossing a slave, besides the value of the slave. He +concealed himself in the tall grass and weeds near the river, to +see if he could embrace an opportunity to cross. He had been in +his hiding place but a short time, when he observed a man in a +small boat, floating near the shore, evidently fishing. His first +impulse was to call out to the man and ask him to take him over +to the Ohio side, but the fear that the man was a slaveholder, or +one who might possibly arrest him, deterred him from it. The +man after rowing and floating about for some time +fastened the boat to the root of a tree, and started to a +neighbouring farmhouse. + +This was George's moment, and he seized it. Running down the bank, +he unfastened the boat, jumped in, and with all the expertness of +one accustomed to a boat, rowed across the river and landed on +the Ohio side. + +Being now in a Free State, he thought he might with perfect safety +travel on towards Canada. He had, however, gone but a very few +miles when he discovered two men on horseback coming behind him. +He felt sure that they could not be in pursuit of him, yet he did +not wish to be seen by them, so he turned into another road +leading to a house near by. The men followed, and were but a +short distance from George, when he ran up to a farmhouse, before +which was standing a farmer-looking man, in a broad-brimmed hat +and straight-collared coat, whom he implored to save him from the +"slave-catchers." The farmer told him to go into the barn near +by; he entered by the front door, the farmer following, and +closing the door behind George, but remaining outside, and gave +directions to his hired man as to what should be done with +George. The slaveholders by this time had dismounted, and were +in front of the barn demanding admittance, and charging the +farmer with secreting their slave woman, for George was still in +the dress of a woman. The Friend, for the farmer proved to be a +member of the Society of Friends, told the slave-owners that if +they wished to search his barn, they must first get an officer +and a search warrant. While the parties were disputing, the farmer +began nailing up the front door, and the hired man served the +back door in the same way. The slaveholders, finding that they +could not prevail on the Friend to allow them to get the slave, +determined to go in search of an officer. One was left +to see that the slave did not escape from the barn, while the +other went off at full speed to Mount Pleasant, the nearest town. +George was not the slave of either of these men, nor were they in +pursuit of him, but they had lost a woman who had been seen in +that vicinity, and when they saw poor George in the disguise of a +female, and attempting to elude pursuit, they felt sure they were +close upon their victim. However, if they had caught him, +although he was not their slave, they would have taken him back +and placed him in jail, and there he would have remained until his +owner arrived. + +After an absence of nearly two hours, the slave-owner returned +with an officer and found the Friend still driving large nails +into the door. In a triumphant tone and with a corresponding +gesture, he handed the search-warrant to the Friend, and said, +"There, sir, now I will see if I can't get my nigger." "Well," +said the Friend, "thou hast gone to work according to law, and +thou canst now go into my barn." "Lend me your hammer that I may +get the door open," said the slaveholder. "Let me see the warrant +again." And after reading it over once more, he said, "I see +nothing in this paper which says I must supply thee with tools to +open my door; if thou wishest to go in, thou must get a hammer +elsewhere." The sheriff said, "I will go to a neighbouring farm +and borrow something which will introduce us to Miss Dinah;" and +he immediately went in search of tools. In a short time the +officer returned, and they commenced an assault and battery upon +the barn door, which soon yielded; and in went the slaveholder +and officer, and began turning up the hay and using all other +means to find the lost property; but, to their astonishment, the +slave was not there. After all hope of getting Dinah was gone, +the slave-owner in a rage said to the Friend, "My nigger +is not here." "I did not tell thee there was any one here." "Yes, +but I saw her go in, and you shut the door behind her, and if she +was not in the barn, what did you nail the door for?" "Can't I do +what I please with my own barn door? Now I will tell thee; thou +need trouble thyself no more, for the person thou art after +entered the front door and went out at the back door, and is a +long way from here by this time. Thou and thy friend must be +somewhat fatigued by this time; won't thou go in and take a little +dinner with me?" We need not say that this cool invitation of the +good Quaker was not accepted by the slaveholders. George in the +meantime had been taken to a friend's dwelling some miles away, +where, after laying aside his female attire, and being snugly +dressed up in a straight collared coat, and pantaloons to match, +was again put on the right road towards Canada. + +The fugitive now travelled by day, and laid by during night. After +a fatiguing and dreary journey of two weeks, the fugitive arrived +in Canada, and took up his abode in the little town of St. +Catherine's, and obtained work on the farm of Colonel Street. Here +he attended a night-school, and laboured for his employer during +the day. The climate was cold, and wages small, yet he was in a +land where he was free, and this the young slave prized more than +all the gold that could be given to him. Besides doing his best +to obtain education for himself, he imparted what he could to +those of his fellow-fugitives about him, of whom there were many. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MYSTERY + +GEORGE, however, did not forget his promise to use all the means +in his power to get Mary out of slavery. He, therefore, laboured +with all his might to obtain money with which to employ some one +to go back to Virginia for Mary. After nearly six months' labour +at St. Catherine's, he employed an English missionary to go and +see if the girl could be purchased, and at what price. The +missionary went accordingly, but returned with the sad +intelligence that, on account of Mary's aiding George to escape, +the court had compelled Mr. Green to sell her out of the state, +and she had been sold to a Negro trader, and taken to the New +Orleans market. As all hope of getting the girl was now gone, +George resolved to quit the American continent for ever. He +immediately took passage in a vessel laden with timber, bound for +Liverpool, and in five weeks from that time he was standing on +the quay of the great English seaport. With little or no +education, he found many difficulties in the way of getting a +respectable living. However he obtained a situation as porter in +a large house in Manchester, where he worked during the day, and +took private lessons at night. In this way he laboured for three +years, and was then raised to the situation of clerk. George was +so white as easily to pass for a white man, and being somewhat +ashamed of his African descent, he never once mentioned the fact +of his having been a slave. He soon became a partner in +the firm that employed him, and was now on the road to wealth. + +In the year 1842, just ten years after George Green (for he +adopted his master's name) arrived in England, he visited France, +and spent some days at Dunkirk. It was towards sunset, on a warm +day in the month of October, that Mr. Green, after strolling some +distance from the Hotel de Leon, entered a burial ground, and +wandered along, alone among the silent dead, gazing upon the many +green graves and marble tombstones of those who once moved on the +theatre of busy life, and whose sounds of gaiety once fell upon +the ear of man. All nature around was hushed in silence, and +seemed to partake of the general melancholy which hung over the +quiet resting-place of departed mortals. After tracing the varied +inscriptions which told the characters or conditions of the +departed, and viewing the mounds beneath which the dust of +mortality slumbered, he had now reached a secluded spot, near to +where an aged weeping willow bowed its thick foliage to the +ground, as though anxious to hide from the scrutinising gaze of +curiosity the grave beneath it. Mr. Green seated himself upon a +marble tomb, and began to read Roscoe's Leo X., a copy of which +he had under his arm. It was then about twilight, and he had +scarcely gone through half a page, when he observed a lady in +black, leading a boy, some five years old, up one of the paths; +and as the lady's black veil was over her face, he felt somewhat +at liberty to eye her more closely. While looking at her, the +lady gave a scream, and appeared to be in a fainting position, +when Mr. Green sprang from his seat in time to save her from +falling to the ground. At this moment, an elderly gentleman was +seen approaching with a rapid step, who, from his appearance, was +evidently the lady's father, or one intimately connected with +her. He came up, and, in a confused manner, asked what +was the matter. Mr. Green explained as well as he could. After +taking up the smelling bottle which had fallen from her hand, and +holding it a short time to her face, she soon began to revive. +During all this time the lady's veil had so covered her face, that +Mr. Green had not seen it. When she had so far recovered as to be +able to raise her head, she again screamed, and fell back into +the arms of the old man. It now appeared quite certain, that +either the countenance of George Green, or some other object, was +the cause of these fits of fainting; and the old gentleman, +thinking it was the former, in rather a petulant tone said, "I +will thank you, sir, if you will leave us alone." The child whom +the lady was leading, had now set up a squall; and amid the +death-like appearance of the lady, the harsh look of the old man, +and the cries of the boy, Mr. Green left the grounds, and +returned to his hotel. + +Whilst seated by the window, and looking out upon the crowded +street, with every now and then the strange scene in the +grave-yard vividly before him, Mr. Green thought of the book he +had been reading, and, remembering that he had left it on the +tomb, where he had suddenly dropped it when called to the +assistance of the lady, he immediately determined to return in +search of it. After a walk of some twenty minutes, he was again +over the spot where he had been an hour before, and from which he +had been so unceremoniously expelled by the old man. He looked in +vain for the book; it was nowhere to be found: nothing save the +bouquet which the lady had dropped, and which lay half-buried in +the grass from having been trodden upon, indicated that any one +had been there that evening. Mr. Green took up the +bunch of flowers, and again returned to the hotel. + +After passing a sleepless night, and hearing the clock strike six, +he dropped into a sweet sleep, from which he did not awaken until +roused by the rap of a servant, who, entering his room, handed +him a note which ran as follows:--"Sir,--I owe you an apology for +the inconvenience to which you were subjected last evening, and +if you will honour us with your presence to dinner to-day at four +o'clock, I shall be most happy to give you due satisfaction. My +servant will be in waiting for you at half-past three. I am, +sir, your obedient servant, J. Devenant. October 23. To George +Green, Esq." + +The servant who handed this note to Mr. Green, informed him that +the bearer was waiting for a reply. He immediately resolved to +accept the invitation, and replied accordingly. Who this person +was, and how his name and the hotel where he was stopping had been +found out, was indeed a mystery. However, he waited impatiently +for the hour when he was to see this new acquaintance, and get +the mysterious meeting in the grave-yard solved. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HAPPY MEETING + + "Man's love is of man's life, a thing apart; + 'Tis woman's whole existence."--Byron. + +THE clock on a neighbouring church had scarcely ceased striking +three, when the servant announced that a carriage had called for +Mr. Green. In less than half an hour he was seated in a most +sumptuous barouche, drawn by two beautiful iron greys, and +rolling along over a splendid gravel road completely shaded by +large trees, which appeared to have been the accumulating growth +of many centuries. The carriage soon stopped in front of a low +villa, and this too was embedded in magnificent trees covered +with moss. Mr. Green alighted and was shown into a superb drawing +room, the walls of which were hung with fine specimens from the +hands of the great Italian painters, and one by a German artist +representing a beautiful monkish legend connected with "The Holy +Catherine," an illustrious lady of Alexandria. The furniture had +an antique and dignified appearance. High backed chairs stood +around the room; a venerable mirror stood on the mantle shelf; +rich curtains of crimson damask hung in folds at either side of +the large windows; and a rich Turkey carpet covered the floor. +In the centre stood a table covered with books, in the midst of +which was an old-fashioned vase filled with fresh flowers, whose +fragrance was exceedingly pleasant. A faint light, together with +the quietness of the hour, gave beauty beyond description to the +whole scene. + +Mr. Green had scarcely seated himself upon the sofa, when the +elderly gentleman whom he had met the previous evening made his +appearance, followed by the little boy, and introduced himself as +Mr. Devenant. A moment more, and a lady--a beautiful +brunette--dressed in black, with long curls of a chestnut colour +hanging down her cheeks, entered the room. Her eyes were of a +dark hazel, and her whole appearance indicated that she was a +native of a southern clime. The door at which she entered was +opposite to where the two gentlemen were seated. They immediately +rose; and Mr. Devenant was in the act of introducing her to Mr. +Green, when he observed that the latter had sunk back upon the +sofa, and the last word that he remembered to have heard was, "It +is her." After this, all was dark and dreamy: how long he +remained in this condition it was for another to tell. When he +awoke, he found himself stretched upon the sofa, with his boots +off, his neckerchief removed, shirt collar unbuttoned, and his +head resting upon a pillow. By his side sat the old man, with the +smelling bottle in the one hand, and a glass of water in the +other, and the little boy standing at the foot of the sofa. As +soon as Mr. Green had so far recovered as to be able to speak, he +said, "Where am I, and what does this mean?" "Wait a while," +replied the old man, "and I will tell you all." After a lapse of +some ten minutes he rose from the sofa, adjusted his apparel, and +said, "I am now ready to hear anything you have to say." "You +were born in America?" said the old man. "Yes," he replied. "And +you were acquainted with a girl named Mary?" continued the old +man. "Yes, and I loved her as I can love none other." "The lady +whom you met so mysteriously last evening is Mary," +replied Mr. Devenant. George Green was silent, but the fountains +of mingled grief and joy stole out from beneath his eyelashes, +and glistened like pearls upon his pale and marble-like cheeks. At +this juncture the lady again entered the room. Mr. Green sprang +from the sofa, and they fell into each other's arms, to the +surprise of the old man and little George, and to the amusement +of the servants who had crept up one by one, and were hid behind +the doors, or loitering in the hall. When they had given vent to +their feelings, they resumed their seats, and each in turn +related the adventures through which they had passed. "How did +you find out my name and address?" asked Mr. Green. "After you had +left us in the grave-yard, our little George said, 'O, mamma, if +there aint a book!' and picked it up and brought it to us. Papa +opened it, and said, 'The gentleman's name is written in it, and +here is a card of the Hotel de Leon, where I suppose he is +stopping.' Papa wished to leave the book, and said it was all a +fancy of mine that I had ever seen you before, but I was +perfectly convinced that you were my own George Green. Are you +married?" "No, I am not." "Then, thank God!" exclaimed Mrs. +Devenant. "And are you single now?" inquired Mr. Green. "Yes," +she replied. "This is indeed the Lord's doings," said Mr. Green, +at the same time bursting into a flood of tears. Mr. Devenant was +past the age when men should think upon matrimonial subjects, yet +the scene brought vividly before his eyes the days when he was a +young man, and had a wife living. After a short interview, the +old man called their attention to the dinner, which was then +waiting. We need scarcely add, that Mr. Green and Mrs. Devenant +did very little towards diminishing the dinner that day. + +After dinner the lovers (for such we have to call them) gave their +experience from the time that George left the jail dressed in +Mary's clothes. Up to that time Mr. Green's was substantially as +we have related it. Mrs. Devenant's was as follows:--"The night +after you left the prison," said she, "I did not shut my eyes in +sleep. The next morning, about eight o'clock, Peter the gardener +came to the jail to see if I had been there the night before, and +was informed that I had, and that I had left a little after dark. +About an hour after, Mr. Green came himself, and I need not say +that he was much surprised on finding me there, dressed in your +clothes. This was the first tidings they had of your escape." +"What did Mr. Green say when he found that I had fled?" "Oh!" +continued Mrs. Devenant, "he said to me when no one was near, I +hope George will get off, but I fear you will have to suffer in +his stead. I told him that if it must be so I was willing to die +if you could live." At this moment George Green burst into tears, +threw his arms around her neck, and exclaimed, "I am glad I have +waited so long, with the hope of meeting you again." Mrs. +Devenant again resumed her story:--"I was kept in jail three days, +during which time I was visited by the magistrates, and two of the +judges. On the third day I was taken out, and master told me that +I was liberated, upon condition that I should be immediately sent +out of the state. There happened to be just at the time in the +neighbourhood a Negro-trader, and he purchased me, and I was taken +to New Orleans. On the steamboat we were kept in a close room, +where slaves are usually confined, so that I saw nothing of the +passengers on board, or the towns we passed. We arrived at New +Orleans, and were all put into the slave-market for sale. I was +examined by many persons, but none seemed willing to +purchase me, as all thought me too white, and said I would run +away and pass as a free white woman. On the second day, while in +the slave-market, and while planters and others were examining +slaves and making their purchases, I observed a tall young man, +with long black hair, eyeing me very closely, and then talking to +the trader. I felt sure that my time had now come, but the day +closed without my being sold. I did not regret this, for I had +heard that foreigners made the worst of masters, and I felt +confident that the man who eyed me so closely was not an +American. + +"The next day was the Sabbath. The bells called the people to the +different places of worship. Methodists sang, and Baptists +immersed, and Presbyterians sprinkled, and Episcopalians read +their prayers, while the ministers of the various sects preached +that Christ died for all; yet there were some twenty-five or +thirty of us poor creatures confined in the 'Negro Pen,' +awaiting the close of the holy Sabbath, and the dawn of another +day, to be again taken into the market, there to be examined like +so many beasts of burden. I need not tell you with what anxiety +we waited for the advent of another day. On Monday we were again +brought out and placed in rows to be inspected; and, fortunately +for me, I was sold before we had been on the stand an hour. I was +purchased by a gentleman residing in the city, for a waiting-maid +for his wife, who was just on the eve of starting for Mobile, to +pay a visit to a near relation. I was then dressed to suit the +situation of a maid-servant; and upon the whole, I thought that, +in my new dress, I looked as much the lady as my mistress. + +"On the passage to Mobile, who should I see among the passengers +but the tall, long-haired man that had eyed me so closely in the +slave-market a few days before. His eyes were again on +me, and he appeared anxious to speak to me, and I as reluctant to +be spoken to. The first evening after leaving New Orleans, soon +after twilight had let her curtain down, and pinned it with a +star, and while I was seated on the deck of the boat near the +ladies' cabin, looking upon the rippled waves, and the reflection +of the moon upon the sea, all at once I saw the tall young man +standing by my side. I immediately rose from my seat, and was in +the act of returning to the cabin, when he in a broken accent +said, 'Stop a moment; I wish to have a word with you. I am your +friend.' I stopped and looked him full in the face, and he said, +'I saw you some days since in the slavemarket, and I intended to +have purchased you to save you from the condition of a slave. I +called on Monday, but you had been sold and had left the market. +I inquired and learned who the purchaser was, and that you had to +go to Mobile, so I resolved to follow you. If you are willing I +will try and buy you from your present owner, and you shall be +free.' Although this was said in an honest and off-hand manner, I +could not believe the man to be sincere in what he said. 'Why +should you wish to set me free?' I asked. 'I had an only sister,' +he replied, 'who died three years ago in France, and you are so +much like her that had I not known of her death, I would most +certainly have taken you for her.' 'However much I may resemble +your sister, you are aware that I am not her, and why take so +much interest in one whom you never saw before?' 'The love,' said +he, 'which I had for my sister is transferred to you.' I had all +along suspected that the man was a knave, and this profession of +love confirmed me in my former belief, and I turned away and left +him. + +"The next day, while standing in the cabin and looking +through the window, the French gentleman (for such he was) came +to the window while walking on the guards, and again commenced as +on the previous evening. He took from his pocket a bit of paper +and put it into my hand, at the same time saying, 'Take this, it +may some day be of service to you; remember it is from a friend,' +and left me instantly. I unfolded the paper, and found it to be a +100 dollars bank note, on the United States Branch Bank, at +Philadelphia. My first impulse was to give it to my mistress, but, +upon a second thought, I resolved to seek an opportunity, and to +return the hundred dollars to the stranger. + +"Therefore I looked for him, but in vain; and had almost given up +the idea of seeing him again, when he passed me on the guards of +the boat and walked towards the stem of the vessel. It being now +dark, I approached him and offered the money to him. He declined, +saying at the same time, 'I gave it to you keep it.' 'I do not +want it,' I said. 'Now,' said he, 'you had better give your +consent for me to purchase you, and you shall go with me to +France.' 'But you cannot buy me now,' I replied, 'for my master is +in New Orleans, and he purchased me not to sell, but to retain in +his own family.' 'Would you rather remain with your present +mistress than be free?' 'No,' said I. 'Then fly with me tonight; +we shall be in Mobile in two hours from this, and when the +passengers are going on shore, you can take my arm, and you can +escape unobserved. The trader who brought you to New Orleans +exhibited to me a certificate of your good character, and one from +the minister of the church to which you were attached in +Virginia; and upon the faith of these assurances, and the love I +bear you, I promise before high heaven that I will marry you as +soon as it can be done.' This solemn promise, coupled +with what had already transpired, gave me confidence in the man; +and rash as the act may seem, I determined in an instant to go +with him. My mistress had been put under the charge of the +captain; and as it would be past ten o'clock when the steamer +would land, she accepted an invitation of the captain to remain +on board with several other ladies till morning. I dressed myself +in my best clothes, and put a veil over my face, and was ready on +the landing of the boat. Surrounded by a number of passengers, we +descended the stage leading to the wharf, and were soon lost in +the crowd that thronged the quay. As we went on shore we +encountered several persons announcing the names of hotels, the +starting of boats for the interior, and vessels bound for Europe. +Among these was the ship Utica, Captain Pell, bound for Havre. +'Now,' said Mr. Devenant, 'this is our chance.' The ship was to +sail at twelve o'clock that night, at high tide; and following +the men who were seeking passengers, we went immediately on +board. Devenant told the captain of the ship that I was his +sister, and for such we passed during the voyage. At the hour of +twelve the Utica set sail, and we were soon out at sea. + +"The morning after we left Mobile, Devenant met me as I came from +my state-room, and embraced me for the first time. I loved him, +but it was only that affection which we have for one who has done +us a lasting favour: it was the love of gratitude rather than that +of the heart. We were five weeks on the sea, and yet the passage +did not seem long, for Devenant was so kind. On our arrival at +Havre we were married and came to Dunkirk, and I have resided +here ever since." + +At the close of this narrative, the clock struck ten, when the old +man, who was accustomed to retire at an early hour, +rose to take leave, saying at the same time, "I hope you will +remain with us to-night." Mr. Green would fain have excused +himself, on the ground that they would expect him and wait at the +hotel, but a look from the lady told him to accept the +invitation. The old man was the father of Mrs. Devenant's deceased +husband, as you will no doubt long since have supposed. A +fortnight from the day on which they met in the grave-yard, Mr. +Green and Mrs. Devenant were joined in holy wedlock; so that +George and Mary, who had loved each other so ardently in their +younger days, were now husband and wife. + +A celebrated writer has justly said of woman, "A woman's whole +life is a history of the affections. The heart is her world; it +is there her ambition strives for empire; it is there her avarice +seeks for hidden treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on +adventure; she embarks her whole soul in the traffic of +affection; and, if shipwrecked, her case is hopeless, for it is a +bankruptcy of the heart." + +Mary had every reason to believe that she would never see George +again; and although she confesses that the love she bore him was +never transferred to her first husband, we can scarcely find +fault with her for marrying Mr. Devenant. But the adherence of +George Green to the resolution never to marry, unless to his +Mary, is, indeed, a rare instance of the fidelity of man in the +matter of love. We can but blush for our country's shame when we +recall to mind the fact, that while George and Mary Green, and +numbers of other fugitives from American slavery, can receive +protection from any of the governments of Europe, they cannot +return to their native land without becoming slaves. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +CONCLUSION + +MY narrative has now come to a close. I may be asked, and no doubt +shall, Are the various incidents and scenes related founded in +truth? I answer, Yes. I have personally participated in many of +those scenes. Some of the narratives I have derived from other +sources; many from the lips of those who, like myself, have run +away from the land of bondage. Having been for nearly nine years +employed on Lake Erie, I had many opportunities for helping the +escape of fugitives, who, in return for the assistance they +received, made me the depositary of their sufferings and wrongs. +Of their relations I have made free use. To Mrs. Child, of New +York, I am indebted for part of a short story. American +Abolitionist journals are another source from whence some of the +characters appearing in my narrative are taken. All these +combined have made up my story. Having thus acknowledged my +resources, I invite the attention of my readers to the following +statement, from which I leave them to draw their own +conclusions:--"It is estimated that in the United States, members +of the Methodist church own 219,363 slaves; members of the +Baptist church own 226,000 slaves; members of the Episcopalian +church own 88,000 slaves; members of the Presbyterian church own +77,000 slaves; members of all other churches own 50,000 slaves; +in all, 660,563 slaves owned by members of the Christian church +in this pious democratic republic!" + +May these facts be pondered over by British Christians, and at the +next anniversaries of the various religious denominations in +London may their influence be seen and felt! The religious +bodies of American Christians will send their delegates to these +meetings. Let British feeling be publicly manifested. Let British +sympathy express itself in tender sorrow for the condition of my +unhappy race. Let it be understood, unequivocally understood, that +no fellowship can be held with slaveholders professing the same +common Christianity as yourselves. And until this stain from +America's otherwise fair escutcheon be wiped away, let no +Christian association be maintained with those who traffic in the +blood and bones of those whom God has made of one flesh as +yourselves. Finally, let the voice of the whole British nation be +heard across the Atlantic, and throughout the length and breadth +of the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, beseeching their descendants, +as they value the common salvation, which knows no distinction +between the bond and the free, to proclaim the Year of Jubilee. +Then shall the "earth indeed yield her increase, and God, even +our own God, shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall +fear Him." + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Clotel; or, The President's +Daughter + diff --git a/2046.zip b/2046.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfe11ba --- /dev/null +++ b/2046.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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