After they had cut off the irons and
dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did.
dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did.
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written
We made our bed that night in a pile of dry leaves
which had fallen from off the trees. We were much rest-broken,
wearied from hunger and travelling through briers, swamps and
cane-brakes--consequently we soon fell asleep after lying down. About
the dead hour of the night I was aroused by the awful howling of a
gang of blood-thirsty wolves, which had found us out and surrounded us
as their prey, there in the dark wilderness many miles from any house
or settlement.
My dear little child was so dreadfully alarmed that she screamed
loudly with fear--my wife trembling like a leaf on a tree, at the
thought of being devoured there in the wilderness by ferocious wolves.
The wolves kept howling, and were near enough for us to see their
glaring eyes, and hear their chattering teeth. I then thought that the
hour of death for us was at hand; that we should not live to see the
light of another day; for there was no way for our escape. My little
family were looking up to me for protection, but I could afford them
none. And while I was offering up my prayers to that God who never
forsakes those in the hour of danger who trust in him, I thought of
Deacon Whitfield; I thought of his profession, and doubted his piety.
I thought of his hand-cuffs, of his whips, of his chains, of his
stocks, of his thumb-screws, of his slave driver and overseer, and of
his religion; I also thought of his opposition to prayer meetings, and
of his five hundred lashes promised me for attending a prayer meeting.
I thought of God, I thought of the devil, I thought of hell; and I
thought of heaven, and wondered whether I should ever see the Deacon
there. And I calculated that if heaven was made up of such Deacons, or
such persons, it could not be filled with love to all mankind, and
with glory and eternal happiness, as we know it is from the truth of
the Bible.
The reader may perhaps think me tedious on this topic, but indeed it
is one of so much interest to me, that I find myself entirely unable
to describe what my own feelings were at that time. I was so much
excited by the fierce howling of the savage wolves, and the frightful
screams of my little family, that I thought of the future; I thought
of the past; I thought the time of my departure had come at last.
My impression is, that all these thoughts and thousands of others,
flashed through my mind, while I was surrounded by those wolves. But
it seemed to be the will of a merciful providence, that our lives
should be spared, and that we should not be destroyed by them.
I had no weapon of defence but a long bowie knife which I had slipped
from the Deacon. It was a very splendid blade, about two feet in
length, and about two inches in width. This used to be a part of his
armor of defence while walking about the plantation among his slaves.
The plan which I took to expel the wolves was a very dangerous one,
but it proved effectual. While they were advancing to me, prancing and
accumulating in number, apparently of all sizes and grades, who had
come to the feast, I thought just at this time, that there was no
alternative left but for me to make a charge with my bowie knife. I
well knew from the action of the wolves, that if I made no farther
resistance, they would soon destroy us, and if I made a break at them,
the matter could be no worse. I thought if I must die, I would die
striving to protect my little family from destruction, die striving
to escape from slavery. My wife took a club in one hand, and her child
in the other, while I rushed forth with my bowie knife in hand, to
fight off the savage wolves. I made one desperate charge at them, and
at the same time making a loud yell at the top of my voice, that
caused them to retreat and scatter, which was equivalent to a victory
on our part. Our prayers were answered, and our lives spared through
the night. We slept no more that night, and the next morning there
were no wolves to be seen or heard, and we resolved not to stay on
that island another night.
We travelled up and down the river side trying to find a place where
we could cross. Finally we found a lot of drift wood clogged together,
extending across the stream at a narrow place in the river, upon which
we crossed over. But we had not yet surmounted our greatest
difficulty. We had to meet one which was far more formidable than the
first. Not many days after I had to face the Deacon.
We had been wandering about through the cane brakes, bushes, and
briers, for several days, when we heard the yelping of blood hounds, a
great way off, but they seemed to come nearer and nearer to us. We
thought after awhile that they must be on our track; we listened
attentively at the approach. We knew it was no use for us to undertake
to escape from them, and as they drew nigh, we heard the voice of a
man hissing on the dogs.
After awhile we saw the hounds coming in full speed on our track, and
the soul drivers close after them on horse back, yelling like tigers,
as they came in sight. The shrill yelling of the savage blood hounds
as they drew nigh made the woods echo.
The first impulse was to run to escape the approaching danger of
ferocious dogs, and blood thirsty slave hunters, who were so rapidly
approaching me with loaded muskets and bowie knives, with a
determination to kill or capture me and my family. I started to run
with my little daughter in my arms, but stumbled and fell down and
scratched the arm of little Frances with a brier, so that it bled very
much; but the dear child never cried, for she seemed to know the
danger to which we were exposed.
But we soon found that it was no use for us to run. The dogs were
soon at our heels, and we were compelled to stop, or be torn to pieces
by them. By this time, the soul drivers came charging up on their
horses, commanding us to stand still or they would shoot us down.
Of course I surrendered up for the sake of my family. The most abusive
terms to be found in the English language were poured forth on us with
bitter oaths. They tied my hands behind me, and drove us home before
them, to suffer the penalty of a slaveholder's broken law.
As we drew nigh the plantation my heart grew faint. I was aware that
we should have to suffer almost death for running off. I was filled
with dreadful apprehensions at the thought of meeting a professed
follower of Christ, whom I knew to be a hypocrite! No tongue, no pen
can ever describe what my feelings were at that time.
CHAPTER XII.
_My sad condition before Whitfield. --My terrible
punishment. --Incidents of a former attempt to escape--Jack at a farm
house. --Six pigs and a turkey. --Our surprise and arrest. _
The reader may perhaps imagine what must have been my feelings when I
found myself surrounded on the island with my little family, at
midnight, by a gang of savage wolves. This was one of those trying
emergencies in my life when there was apparently but one step between
us and the grave. But I had no cords wrapped about my limbs to prevent
my struggling against the impending danger to which I was then
exposed. I was not denied the consolation of resisting in self
defence, as was now the case. There was no Deacon standing before me,
with a loaded rifle, swearing that I should submit to the torturing
lash, or be shot down like a dumb beast.
I felt that my chance was by far better among the howling wolves in
the Red river swamp, than before Deacon Whitfield, on the cotton
plantation. I was brought before him as a criminal before a bar,
without counsel, to be tried and condemned by a tyrant's law. My arms
were bound with a cord, my spirit broken, and my little family
standing by weeping. I was not allowed to plead my own cause, and
there was no one to utter a word in my behalf.
He ordered that the field hands should be called together to witness
my punishment, that it might serve as a caution to them never to
attend a prayer meeting, or runaway as I had, lest they should receive
the same punishment.
At the sound of the overseer's horn, all the slaves came forward and
witnessed my punishment. My clothing was stripped off and I was
compelled to lie down on the ground with my face to the earth. Four
stakes were driven in the ground, to which my hands and feet were
tied. Then the overseer stood over me with the lash and laid it on
according to the Deacon's order. Fifty lashes were laid on before
stopping. I was then lectured with reference to my going to prayer
meeting without his orders, and running away to escape flogging.
While I suffered under this dreadful torture, I prayed, and wept, and
implored mercy at the hand of slavery, but found none. After I was
marked from my neck to my heels, the Deacon took the gory lash, and
said he thought there was a spot on my back yet where he could put in
a few more. He wanted to give me something to remember him by, he
said.
After I was flogged almost to death in this way, a paddle was brought
forward and eight or ten blows given me with it, which was by far
worse than the lash. My wounds were then washed with salt brine, after
which I was let up. A description of such paddles I have already given
in another page. I was so badly punished that I was not able to work
for several days. After being flogged as described, they took me off
several miles to a shop and had a heavy iron collar riveted on my neck
with prongs extending above my head, on the end of which there was a
small bell. I was not able to reach the bell with my hand. This heavy
load of iron I was compelled to wear for six weeks. I never was
allowed to lie in the same house with my family again while I was the
slave of Whitfield. I either had to sleep with my feet in the stocks,
or be chained with a large log chain to a log over night, with no bed
or bedding to rest my wearied limbs on, after toiling all day in the
cotton field. I suffered almost death while kept in this confinement;
and he had ordered the overseer never to let me loose again; saying
that I thought of getting free by running off, but no negro should
ever get away from him alive.
I have omitted to state that this was the second time I had run away
from him; while I was gone the first time, he extorted from my wife
the fact that I had been in the habit of running away, before we left
Kentucky; that I had been to Canada, and that I was trying to learn
the art of reading and writing. All this was against me.
It is true that I was striving to learn myself to write. I was a kind
of a house servant and was frequently sent off on errands, but never
without a written pass; and on Sundays I have sometimes got permission
to visit our neighbor's slaves, and I have often tried to write myself
a pass.
Whenever I got hold of an old letter that had been thrown away, or a
piece of white paper, I would save it to write on. I have often gone
off in the woods and spent the greater part of the day alone, trying
to learn to write myself a pass, by writing on the backs of old
letters; copying after the pass that had been written by Whitfield; by
so doing I got the use of the pen and could form letters as well as I
can now, but knew not what they were.
The Deacon had an old slave by the name of Jack whom he bought about
the time that he bought me. Jack was born in the State of Virginia. He
had some idea of freedom; had often run away, but was very ignorant;
knew not where to go for refuge; but understood all about providing
something to eat when unjustly deprived of it.
So for ill treatment, we concluded to take a tramp together. I was to
be the pilot, while Jack was to carry the baggage and keep us in
provisions. Before we started, I managed to get hold of a suit of
clothes the Deacon possessed, with his gun, ammunition and bowie
knife. We also procured a blanket, a joint of meat, and some bread.
We started in a northern direction, being bound for the city of Little
Rock, State of Arkansas. We travelled by night and laid by in the day,
being guided by the unchangeable North Star; but at length, our
provisions gave out, and it was Jack's place to get more. We came in
sight of a large plantation one morning, where we saw people of color,
and Jack said he could get something there, among the slaves, that
night, for us to eat. So we concealed ourselves, in sight of this
plantation, until about bed time, when we saw the lights extinguished.
During the day we saw a female slave passing from the dwelling house
to the kitchen as if she was the cook; the house being about three
rods from the landlord's dwelling. After we supposed the whites were
all asleep, Jack slipped up softly to the kitchen to try his luck with
the cook, to see if he could get any thing from her to eat.
I would remark that the domestic slaves are often found to be traitors
to their own people, for the purpose of gaining favor with their
masters; and they are encouraged and trained up by them to report
every plot they know of being formed about stealing any thing, or
running away, or any thing of the kind; and for which they are paid.
This is one of the principal causes of the slaves being divided among
themselves, and without which they could not be held in bondage one
year, and perhaps not half that time.
I now proceed to describe the unsuccessful attempt of poor Jack to
obtain something from the female slave to satisfy hunger. The
planter's house was situated on an elevated spot on the side of a
hill. The fencing about the house and garden was very crookedly laid
up with rails. The night was rather dark and rainy, and Jack left me
with the understanding that I was to stay at a certain place until he
returned. I cautioned him before he left me to be very careful--and
after he started, I left the place where he was to find me when he
returned, for fear something might happen which might lead to my
detection, should I remain at that spot. So I left it and went off
where I could see the house, and that place too.
Jack had not long been gone, before I heard a great noise; a man,
crying out with a loud voice, "Catch him! Catch him! " and hissing the
dogs on, and they were close after Jack. The next thing I saw, was
Jack running for life, and an old white man after him, with a gun, and
his dogs. The fence being on sidling ground, and wet with the rain,
when Jack run against it he knocked down several panels of it and
fell, tumbling over and over to the foot of the hill; but soon
recovered and ran to where he had left me; but I was gone. The dogs
were still after him.
There happened to be quite a thicket of small oak shrubs and bushes in
the direction he ran. I think he might have been heard running and
straddling bushes a quarter of a mile! The poor fellow hurt himself
considerably in straddling over bushes in that way, in making his
escape.
Finally the dogs relaxed their chase and poor Jack and myself again
met in the thick forest. He said when he rapped on the cook-house
door, the colored woman came to the door. He asked her if she would
let him have a bite of bread if she had it, that he was a poor hungry
absconding slave. But she made no reply to what he said but
immediately sounded the alarm by calling loudly after her master,
saying, "here is a runaway negro! " Jack said that he was going to
knock her down but her master was out within one moment, and he had to
run for his life.
As soon as we got our eyes fixed on the North Star again, we started
on our way. We travelled on a few miles and came to another large
plantation, where Jack was determined to get something to eat. He
left me at a certain place while he went up to the house to find
something if possible.
He was gone some time before he returned, but when I saw him coming,
he appeared to be very heavy loaded with a bag of something. We walked
off pretty fast until we got some distance in the woods. Jack then
stopped and opened his bag in which he had six small pigs. I asked him
how he got them without making any noise; and he said that he found a
bed of hogs, in which there were the pigs with their mother. While the
pigs were sucking he crawled up to them without being discovered by
the sow, and took them by their necks one after another, and choked
them to death, and slipped them into his bag!
We intended to travel on all that night and lay by the next day in the
forest and cook up our pigs. We fell into a large road leading on the
direction which we were travelling, and had not proceeded over three
miles before I found a white hat lying in the road before me. Jack
being a little behind me I stopped until he camp up, and showed it to
him. He picked it up. We looked a few steps farther and saw a man
lying by the way, either asleep or intoxicated, as we supposed.
I told Jack not to take the hat, but he would not obey me. He had only
a piece of a hat himself, which he left in exchange for the other. We
travelled on about five miles farther, and in passing a house
discovered a large turkey sitting on the fence, which temptation was
greater than Jack could resist. Notwithstanding he had six very nice
fat little pigs on his back, he stepped up and took the turkey off the
fence.
By this time it was getting near day-light and we left the road and
went off a mile or so among the hills of the forest, where we struck
camp for the day. We then picked our turkey, dressed our pigs, and
cooked two of them. We got the hair off by singeing them over the
fire, and after we had eaten all we wanted, one of us slept while the
other watched. We had flint, punk, and powder to strike fire with. A
little after dark the next night, we started on our way.
Buy about ten o'clock that night just as we were passing through a
thick skirt of woods, five men sprang out before us with fire-arms,
swearing if we moved another step, they would shoot us down; and each
man having a gun drawn up for shooting we had no chance to make any
defence, and surrendered sooner than run the risk of being killed.
They had been lying in wait for us there, for several hours. They had
seen a reward out, for notices were put up in the most public places,
that fifty dollars would be paid for me, dead or alive, if I should
not return home within so many days. And the reader will remember that
neither Jack nor myself was able to read the advertisement. It was of
very little consequence with the slave catchers, whether they killed
us or took us alive, for the reward was the same to them.
After we were taken and tied, one of the men declared to me that he
would have shot me dead just as sure as he lived, if I had moved one
step after they commanded us to stop. He had his gun levelled at my
breast, already cocked, and his finger on the trigger. The way they
came to find us out was from the circumstance of Jack's taking the
man's hat in connection with the advertisement. The man whose hat was
taken was drunk; and the next morning when he came to look for his hat
it was gone and Jack's old hat lying in the place of it; and in
looking round he saw the tracks of two persons in the dust, who had
passed during the night, and one of them having but three toes on one
foot. He followed these tracks until they came to a large mud pond in
a lane on one side of which a person might pass dry shod; but the man
with three toes on one foot had plunged through the mud. This led the
man to think there must be runaway slaves, and from out of that
neighborhood; for all persons in that settlement knew which side of
that mud hole to go. He then got others to go with him, and they
followed us until our track left the road. They supposed that we had
gone off in the woods to lay by until night, after which we should
pursue our course.
After we were captured they took us off several miles to where one of
them lived, and kept us over night. One of our pigs was cooked for us
to eat that night; and the turkey the next morning. But we were both
tied that night with our hands behind us, and our feet were also tied.
The doors were locked, and a bedstead was set against the front door,
and two men slept in it to prevent our getting out in the night. They
said that they knew how to catch runaway negroes, and how to keep them
after they were caught.
They remarked that after they found we had stopped to lay by until
night, and they saw from our tracks what direction we were travelling,
they went about ten miles on that direction, and hid by the road side
until we came up that night. That night after all had got fast to
sleep, I thought I would try to get out, and I should have succeeded,
if I could have moved the bed from the door. I managed to untie myself
and crawled under the bed which was placed at the door, and strove to
remove it, but in so doing I awakened the men and they got up and
confined me again, and watched me until day light, each with a gun in
hand.
The next morning they started with us back to Deacon Whitfield's
plantation; but when they got within ten miles of where he lived they
stopped at a public house to stay over night; and who should we meet
there but the Deacon, who was then out looking for me.
The reader may well imagine how I felt to meet him. I had almost as
soon come in contact with Satan himself. He had two long poles or
sticks of wood brought in to confine us to. I was compelled to lie on
my back across one of those sticks with my arms out, and have them
lashed fast to the log with a cord. My feet were also tied to the
other, and there I had to lie all that night with my back across this
stick of wood, and my feet and hands tied. I suffered that night under
the most excruciating pain. From the tight binding of the cord the
circulation of the blood in my arms and feet was almost entirely
stopped. If the night had been much longer I must have died in that
confinement.
The next morning we were taken back to the Deacon's farm, and both
flogged for going off, and set to work. But there was some allowance
made for me on account of my being young. They said that they knew old
Jack had persuaded me off, or I never would have gone. And the
Deacon's wife begged that I might be favored some, for that time, as
Jack had influenced me, so as to bring up my old habits of running
away that I had entirely given up.
CHAPTER XIII.
_I am sold to gamblers. --They try to purchase my family. --Our parting
scene. --My good usage. --I am sold to an Indian. --His confidence in my
integrity manifested. _
The reader will remember that this brings me back to the time the
Deacon had ordered me to be kept in confinement until he got a chance
to sell me, and that no negro should ever get away from him and live.
Some days after this we were all out at the gin house ginning cotton,
which was situated on the road side, and there came along a company of
men, fifteen or twenty in number, who were Southern sportsmen. Their
attention was attracted by the load of iron which was fastened about
my neck with a bell attached. They stopped and asked the Deacon what
that bell was put on my neck for? and he said it was to keep me from
running away, &c.
They remarked that I looked as if I might be a smart negro, and asked
if he wanted to sell me. The reply was, yes. They then got off their
horses and struck a bargain with him for me. They bought me at a
reduced price for speculation.
After they had purchased me, I asked the privilege of going to the
house to take leave of my family before I left, which was granted by
the sportsmen. But the Deacon said I should never again step my foot
inside of his yard; and advised the sportsmen not to take the irons
from my neck until they had sold me; that if they gave me the least
chance I would run away from them, as I did from him. So I was
compelled to mount a horse and go off with them as I supposed, never
again to meet my family in this life.
We had not proceeded far before they informed me that they had bought
me to sell again, and if they kept the irons on me it would be
detrimental to the sale, and that they would therefore take off the
irons and dress me up like a man, and throw away the old rubbish which
I then had on; and they would sell me to some one who would treat me
better than Deacon Whitfield.
After they had cut off the irons and
dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did. They gave
me plenty to eat and put nothing hard on me to do. They expressed much
sympathy for me in my bereavement; and almost every day they gave me
money more or less, and by my activity in waiting on them, and upright
conduct, I got into the good graces of them all, but they could not
get any person to buy me on account of the amount of intelligence
which they supposed me to have; for many of them thought that I could
read and write. When they left Texas, they intended to go to the
Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, to attend a great horse race
which was to take place. Not being much out of their way to go past
Deacon Whitfield's again, I prevailed on them to call on him for the
purpose of trying to purchase my wife and child; and I promised them
that if they would buy my wife and child, I would get some person to
purchase us from them. So they tried to grant my request by calling on
the Deacon, and trying to make the purchase. As we approached the
Deacon's plantation, my heart was filled with a thousand painful and
fearful apprehensions. I had the fullest confidence in the blacklegs
with whom I travelled, believing that they would do according to
promise, and go to the fullest extent of their ability to restore
peace and consolation to a bereaved family--to re-unite husband and
wife, parent and child, who had long been severed by slavery through
the agency of Deacon Whitfield. But I knew his determination in
relation to myself, and I feared his wicked opposition to a
restoration of myself and little family, which he had divided, and
soon found that my fears were not without foundation.
When we rode up and walked into his yard, the Deacon came out and
spoke to all but myself; and not finding me in tattered rags as a
substitute for clothes, nor having an iron collar or bell about my
neck, as was the case when he sold me, he appeared to be much
displeased.
"What did you bring that negro back here for? " said he.
"We have come to try to buy his wife and child; for we can find no one
who is willing to buy him alone; and we will either buy or sell so
that the family may be together," said they.
While this conversation was going on, my poor bereaved wife, who
never expected to see me again in this life, spied me and came rushing
to me through the crowd, throwing her arms about my neck exclaiming in
the most sympathetic tones, "Oh! my dear husband! I never expected to
see you again! " The poor woman was bathed with tears of sorrow and
grief. But no sooner had she reached me, than the Deacon peremptorily
commanded her to go to her work. This she did not obey, but prayed
that her master would not separate us again, as she was there alone,
far from friends and relations whom she should never meet again. And
now to take away her husband, her last and only true friend, would be
like taking her life!
But such appeals made no impression on the unfeeling Deacon's heart.
While he was storming with abusive language, and even using the gory
lash with hellish vengeance to separate husband and wife, I could see
the sympathetic teardrop, stealing its way down the cheek of the
profligate and black-leg, whose object it now was to bind up the
broken heart of a wife, and restore to the arms of a bereaved husband,
his companion.
They were disgusted at the conduct of Whitfield and cried out shame,
even in his presence. They told him that they would give a thousand
dollars for my wife and child, or any thing in reason. But no! he
would sooner see me to the devil than indulge or gratify me after my
having run away from him; and if they did not remove me from his
presence very soon, he said he should make them suffer for it.
But all this, and even the gory lash had yet failed to break the grasp
of poor Malinda, whose prospect of connubial, social, and future
happiness was all at stake. When the dear woman saw there was no help
for us, and that we should soon be separated forever, in the name of
Deacon Whitfield, and American slavery to meet no more as husband and
wife, parent and child--the last and loudest appeal was made on our
knees. We appealed to the God of justice and to the sacred ties of
humanity; but this was all in vain. The louder we prayed the harder he
whipped, amid the most heart-rending shrieks from the poor slave
mother and child, as little Frances stood by, sobbing at the abuse
inflicted on her mother.
"Oh! how shall I give my husband the parting hand never to meet
again? This will surely break my heart," were her parting words.
I can never describe to the reader the awful reality of that
separation--for it was enough to chill the blood and stir up the
deepest feelings of revenge in the hearts of slaveholding black-legs,
who as they stood by, were threatening, some weeping, some swearing
and others declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted
on a human being. As we left the plantation, as far as we could see
and hear, the Deacon was still laying on the gory lash, trying to
prevent poor Malinda from weeping over the loss of her departed
husband, who was then, by the hellish laws of slavery, to her,
theoretically and practically dead. One of the black-legs exclaimed
that hell was full of just such Deacon's as Whitfield. This occurred
in December, 1840. I have never seen Malinda, since that period. I
never expect to see her again.
The sportsmen to whom I was sold, showed their sympathy for me not
only by word but by deeds. They said that they had made the most
liberal offer to Whitfield, to buy or sell for the sole purpose of
reuniting husband and wife. But he stood out against it--they felt
sorry for me. They said they had bought me to speculate on, and were
not able to lose what they had paid for me. But they would make a
bargain with me, if I was willing, and would lay a plan, by which I
might yet get free. If I would use my influence so as to get some
person to buy me while traveling about with them, they would give me a
portion of the money for which they sold me, and they would also give
me directions by which I might yet run away and go to Canada.
This offer I accepted, and the plot was made. They advised me to act
very stupid in language and thought, but in business I must be spry;
and that I must persuade men to buy me, and promise them that I would
be smart.
We passed through the State of Arkansas and stopped at many places,
horse-racing and gambling. My business was to drive a wagon in which
they carried their gambling apparatus, clothing, &c. I had also to
black boots and attend to horses. We stopped at Fayettville, where
they almost lost me, betting on a horse race.
They went from thence to the Indian Territory, among the Cherokee
Indians, to attend the great races which were to take place there.
During the races there was a very wealthy half Indian of that tribe,
who became much attached to me, and had some notion of buying me,
after hearing that I was for sale, being a slaveholder. The idea
struck me rather favorable, for several reasons. First, I thought I
should stand a better chance to get away from an Indian than from a
white man. Second, he wanted me only for a kind of a body servant to
wait on him--and in this case I knew that I should fare better than I
should in the field. And my owners also told me that it would be an
easy place to get away from. I took their advice for fear I might not
get another chance so good as that, and prevailed on the man to buy
me. He paid them nine hundred dollars, in gold and silver, for me. I
saw the money counted out.
After the purchase was made, the sportsmen got me off to one side, and
according to promise they gave me a part of the money, and directions
how to get from there to Canada. They also advised me how to act until
I got a good chance to run away. I was to embrace the earliest
opportunity of getting away, before they should become acquainted with
me. I was never to let it be known where I was from, nor where I was
born. I was to act quite stupid and ignorant. And when I started I was
to go up the boundary line, between the Indian Territory and the
States of Arkansas and Missouri, and this would fetch me out on the
Missouri river, near Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. I was to
travel at first by night, and to lay by in daylight, until I got out
of danger.
The same afternoon that the Indian bought me, he started with me to
his residence, which was fifty or sixty miles distant. And so great
was his confidence in me, that he intrusted me to carry his money. The
amount must have been at least five hundred dollars, which was all in
gold and silver; and when we stopped over night the money and horses
were all left in my charge.
It would have been a very easy matter for me to have taken one of the
best horses, with the money, and run off. And the temptation was truly
great to a man like myself, who was watching for the earliest
opportunity to escape; and I felt confident that I should never have a
better opportunity to escape full handed than then.
CHAPTER XIV.
_Character of my Indian Master. --Slavery among the Indians less
cruel. --Indian carousal. --Enfeebled health of my Indian Master. --His
death. --My escape. --Adventure in a wigwam. --Successful progress toward
liberty. _
The next morning I went home with my new master; and by the way it is
only doing justice to the dead to say, that he was the most
reasonable, and humane slaveholder that I have ever belonged to. He
was the last man that pretended to claim property in my person; and
although I have freely given the names and residences of all others
who have held me as a slave, for prudential reasons I shall omit
giving the name of this individual.
He was the owner of a large plantation and quite a number of slaves.
He raised corn and wheat for his own consumption only. There was no
cotton, tobacco, or anything of the kind produced among them for
market. And I found this difference between negro slavery among the
Indians, and the same thing among the white slaveholders of the South.
The Indians allow their slaves enough to eat and wear. They have no
overseers to whip nor drive them. If a slave offends his master, he
sometimes, in a heat of passion, undertakes to chastise him; but it is
as often the case as otherwise, that the slave gets the better of the
fight, and even flogs his master;[4] for which there is no law to
punish him; but when the fight is over that is the last of it. So far
as religious instruction is concerned, they have it on terms of
equality, the bond and the free; they have no respect of persons, they
have neither slave laws nor negro pews. Neither do they separate
husbands and wives, nor parents and children. All things considered,
if I must be a slave, I had by far, rather be a slave to an Indian,
than to a white man, from the experience I have had with both.
A majority of the Indians were uneducated, and still followed up their
old heathen traditional notions. They made it a rule to have an Indian
dance or frolic, about once a fortnight; and they would come together
far and near to attend these dances. They would most generally
commence about the middle of the afternoon; and would give notice by
the blowing of horns. One would commence blowing and another would
answer, and so it would go all round the neighborhood. When a number
had got together, they would strike a circle about twenty rods in
circumference, and kindle up fires about twenty feet apart, all
around, in this circle. In the centre they would have a large fire to
dance around, and at each one of the small fires there would be a
squaw to keep up the fire, which looked delightful off at a distance.
But the most degrading practice of all, was the use of intoxicating
drinks, which were used to a great excess by all that attended these
stump dances. At almost all of these fires there was some one with rum
to sell. There would be some dancing, some singing, some gambling,
some fighting, and some yelling; and this was kept up often for two
days and nights together.
Their dress for the dance was most generally a great bunch of bird
feathers, coon tails, or something of the kind stuck in their heads,
and a great many shells tied about their legs to rattle while dancing.
Their manner of dancing is taking hold of each others hands and
forming a ring around the large fire in the centre, and go stomping
around it until they would get drunk or their heads would get to
swimming, and then they would go off and drink, and another set come
on. Such were some of the practises indulged in by these Indian
slaveholders.
My last owner was in a declining state of health when he bought me;
and not long after he bought me he went off forty or fifty miles from
home to be doctored by an Indian doctor, accompanied by his wife. I
was taken along also to drive the carriage and to wait upon him during
his sickness. But he was then so feeble, that his life was of but
short duration after the doctor commenced on him.
While he lived, I waited on him according to the best of my ability. I
watched over him night and day until he died, and even prepared his
body for the tomb, before I left him. He died about midnight and I
understood from his friends that he was not to be buried until the
second day after his death. I pretended to be taking on at a great
rate about his death, but I was more excited about running away, than
I was about that, and before daylight the next morning I proved it,
for I was on my way to Canada.
I never expected a better opportunity would present itself for my
escape. I slipped out of the room as if I had gone off to weep for the
deceased, knowing that they would not feel alarmed about me until
after my master was buried and they had returned back to his
residence. And even then, they would think that I was somewhere on my
way home; and it would be at least four or five days before they would
make any stir in looking after me. By that time, if I had no bad luck,
I should be out of much danger.
After the first day, I laid by in the day and traveled by night for
several days and nights, passing in this way through several tribes of
Indians. I kept pretty near the boundary line. I recollect getting
lost one dark rainy night. Not being able to find the road I came into
an Indian settlement at the dead hour of the night. I was wet,
wearied, cold and hungry; and yet I felt afraid to enter any of their
houses or wigwams, not knowing whether they would be friendly or not.
But I knew the Indians were generally drunkards, and that occasionally
a drunken white man was found straggling among them, and that such an
one would be more likely to find friends from sympathy than an upright
man.
So I passed myself off that night as a drunkard among them. I walked
up to the door of one of their houses, and fell up against it, making
a great noise like a drunken man; but no one came to the door. I
opened it and staggered in, falling about, and making a great noise.
But finally an old woman got up and gave me a blanket to lie down on.
There was quite a number of them lying about on the dirt floor, but
not one could talk or understand a word of the English language. I
made signs so as to let them know that I wanted something to eat, but
they had nothing, so I had to go without that night. I laid down and
pretended to be asleep, but I slept none that night, for I was afraid
that they would kill me if I went to sleep. About one hour before day,
the next morning, three of the females got up and put into a tin
kettle a lot of ashes with water, to boil, and then poured into it
about one quart of corn. After letting it stand a few moments, they
poured it into a trough, and pounded it into thin hominy. They washed
it out, and boiled it down, and called me up to eat my breakfast of
it.
After eating, I offered them six cents, but they refused to accept it.
I then found my way to the main road, and traveled all that day on my
journey, and just at night arrived at a public house kept by an
Indian, who also kept a store. I walked in and asked if I could get
lodging, which was granted; but I had not been there long before three
men came riding up about dusk, or between sunset and dark. They were
white men, and I supposed slaveholders. At any rate when they asked if
they could have lodging, I trembled for fear they might be in pursuit
of me. But the landlord told them that he could not lodge them, but
they could get lodging about two miles off, with a white man, and they
turned their horses and started.
The landlord asked me where I was traveling to, and where I was from.
I told him that I had been out looking at the country; that I had
thought of buying land, and that I lived in the State of Ohio, in the
village of Perrysburgh. He then said that he had lived there himself,
and that he had acted as an interpreter there among the Maumee tribe
of Indians for several years. He then asked who I was acquainted with
there? I informed him that I knew Judge Hollister, Francis Hollister,
J. W. Smith, and others. At this he was so much pleased that he came up
and took me by the hand, and received me joyfully, after seeing that I
was acquainted with those of his old friends.
I could converse with him understandingly from personal acquaintance,
for I had lived there when I first ran away from Kentucky. But I felt
it to be my duty to start off the next morning before breakfast, or
sunrise. I bought a dozen of eggs, and had them boiled to carry with
me to eat on the way. I did not like the looks of those three men, and
thought I would get on as fast as possible for fear I might be pursued
by them.
I was then about to enter the territory of another slave State,
Missouri. I had passed through the fiery ordeal of Sibley, Gatewood,
and Garrison, and had even slipped through the fingers of Deacon
Whitfield. I had doubtless gone through great peril in crossing the
Indian territory, in passing through the various half civilized
tribes, who seemed to look upon me with astonishment as I passed
along. Their hands were almost invariably filled with bows and arrows,
tomahawks, guns, butcher knives, and all the various implements of
death which are used by them. And what made them look still more
frightful, their faces were often painted red, and their heads muffled
with birds feathers, bushes, coons tails and owls heads. But all this
I had passed through, and my long enslaved limbs and spirit were then
in full stretch for emancipation. I felt as if one more short struggle
would set me free.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] This singular fact is corroborated in a letter read by the
publisher, from an acquaintance while passing through this country in
1849.
CHAPTER XV.
_Adventure on the Prairie. --I borrow a horse without leave. --Rapid
traveling one whole night. --Apology for using other men's horses. --My
manner of living on the road. _
Early in the morning I left the Indian territory as I have already
said, for fear I might be pursued by the three white men whom I had
seen there over night; but I had not proceeded far before my fears
were magnified a hundred fold.
I always dreaded to pass through a prairie, and on coming to one which
was about six miles in width, I was careful to look in every direction
to see whether there was any person in sight before I entered it; but
I could see no one. So I started across with a hope of crossing
without coming in contact with any one on the prairie. I walked as
fast as I could, but when I got about midway of the prairie, I came to
a high spot where the road forked, and three men came up from a low
spot as if they had been there concealed. They were all on horse back,
and I supposed them to be the same men that had tried to get lodging
where I stopped over night. Had this been in timbered land, I might
have stood some chance to have dodged them, but there I was, out in
the open prairie, where I could see no possible way by which I could
escape.
They came along slowly up behind me, and finally passed, and spoke or
bowed their heads on passing, but they traveled in a slow walk and
kept but a very few steps before me, until we got nearly across the
prairie. When we were coming near a plantation a piece off from the
road on the skirt of the timbered land, they whipped up their horses
and left the road as if they were going across to this plantation.
They soon got out of my sight by going down into a valley which lay
between us and the plantation. Not seeing them rise the hill to go up
to the farm, excited greater suspicion in my mind, so I stepped over
on the brow of the hill, where I could see what they were doing, and
to my surprise I saw them going right back in the direction they had
just came, and they were going very fast. I was then satisfied that
they were after me and that they were only going back to get more
help to assist them in taking me, for fear that I might kill some of
them if they undertook it. The first impression was that I had better
leave the road immediately; so I bolted from the road and ran as fast
as I could for some distance in the thick forest, and concealed myself
for about fifteen or twenty minutes, which were spent in prayer to God
for his protecting care and guidance.
My impression was that when they should start in pursuit of me again,
they would follow on in the direction which I was going when they left
me; and not finding or hearing of me on the road, they would come back
and hunt through the woods around, and if they could find no track
they might go and get dogs to trace me out.
I thought my chance of escape would be better, if I went back to the
same side of the road that they first went, for the purpose of
deceiving them; as I supposed that they would not suspect my going in
the same direction that they went, for the purpose of escaping from
them.
So I traveled all that day square off from the road through the wild
forest without any knowledge of the country whatever; for I had
nothing to travel by but the sun by day, and the moon and stars by
night. Just before night I came in sight of a large plantation, where
I saw quite a number of horses running at large in a field, and
knowing that my success in escaping depended upon my getting out of
that settlement within twenty-four hours, to save myself from
everlasting slavery, I thought I should be justified in riding one of
those horses, that night, if I could catch one. I cut a grape vine
with my knife, and made it into a bridle; and shortly after dark I
went into the field and tried to catch one of the horses. I got a
bunch of dry blades of fodder and walked up softly towards the horses,
calling to them "cope," "cope," "cope;" but there was only one out of
the number that I was able to get my hand on, and that was an old
mare, which I supposed to be the mother of all the rest; and I knew
that I could walk faster than she could travel. She had a bell on and
was very thin in flesh; she looked gentle and walked on three legs
only. The young horses pranced and galloped off. I was not able to get
near them, and the old mare being of no use to me, I left them all.
After fixing my eyes on the north star I pursued my journey, holding
on to my bridle with a hope of finding a horse upon which I might ride
that night.
I found a road leading pretty nearly in the direction which I wanted
to travel, and I kept it. After traveling several miles I found
another large plantation where there was a prospect of finding a
horse. I stepped up to the barn-yard, wherein I found several horses.
There was a little barn standing with the door open, and I found it
quite an easy task to get the horses into the barn, and select out the
best looking one of them. I pulled down the fence, led the noble beast
out and mounted him, taking a northern direction, being able to find a
road which led that way. But I had not gone over three or four miles
before I came to a large stream of water which was past fording; yet I
could see that it had been forded by the road track, but from high
water it was then impassible. As the horse seemed willing to go in I
put him through; but before he got in far, he was in water up to his
sides and finally the water came over his back and he swam over. I got
as wet as could be, but the horse carried me safely across at the
proper place. After I got out a mile or so from the river, I came into
a large prairie, which I think must have been twenty or thirty miles
in width, and the road run across it about in the direction that I
wanted to go. I laid whip to the horse, and I think he must have
carried me not less than forty miles that night, or before sun rise
the next morning. I then stopped him in a spot of high grass in an old
field, and took off the bridle. I thanked God, and thanked the horse
for what he had done for me, and wished him a safe journey back home.
I know the poor horse must have felt stiff, and tired from his speedy
jaunt, and I felt very bad myself, riding at that rate all night
without a saddle; but I felt as if I had too much at stake to favor
either horse flesh or man flesh. I could indeed afford to crucify my
own flesh for the sake of redeeming myself from perpetual slavery.
Some may be disposed to find fault with my taking the horse as I did;
but I did nothing more than nine out of ten would do if they were
placed in the same circumstances.
which had fallen from off the trees. We were much rest-broken,
wearied from hunger and travelling through briers, swamps and
cane-brakes--consequently we soon fell asleep after lying down. About
the dead hour of the night I was aroused by the awful howling of a
gang of blood-thirsty wolves, which had found us out and surrounded us
as their prey, there in the dark wilderness many miles from any house
or settlement.
My dear little child was so dreadfully alarmed that she screamed
loudly with fear--my wife trembling like a leaf on a tree, at the
thought of being devoured there in the wilderness by ferocious wolves.
The wolves kept howling, and were near enough for us to see their
glaring eyes, and hear their chattering teeth. I then thought that the
hour of death for us was at hand; that we should not live to see the
light of another day; for there was no way for our escape. My little
family were looking up to me for protection, but I could afford them
none. And while I was offering up my prayers to that God who never
forsakes those in the hour of danger who trust in him, I thought of
Deacon Whitfield; I thought of his profession, and doubted his piety.
I thought of his hand-cuffs, of his whips, of his chains, of his
stocks, of his thumb-screws, of his slave driver and overseer, and of
his religion; I also thought of his opposition to prayer meetings, and
of his five hundred lashes promised me for attending a prayer meeting.
I thought of God, I thought of the devil, I thought of hell; and I
thought of heaven, and wondered whether I should ever see the Deacon
there. And I calculated that if heaven was made up of such Deacons, or
such persons, it could not be filled with love to all mankind, and
with glory and eternal happiness, as we know it is from the truth of
the Bible.
The reader may perhaps think me tedious on this topic, but indeed it
is one of so much interest to me, that I find myself entirely unable
to describe what my own feelings were at that time. I was so much
excited by the fierce howling of the savage wolves, and the frightful
screams of my little family, that I thought of the future; I thought
of the past; I thought the time of my departure had come at last.
My impression is, that all these thoughts and thousands of others,
flashed through my mind, while I was surrounded by those wolves. But
it seemed to be the will of a merciful providence, that our lives
should be spared, and that we should not be destroyed by them.
I had no weapon of defence but a long bowie knife which I had slipped
from the Deacon. It was a very splendid blade, about two feet in
length, and about two inches in width. This used to be a part of his
armor of defence while walking about the plantation among his slaves.
The plan which I took to expel the wolves was a very dangerous one,
but it proved effectual. While they were advancing to me, prancing and
accumulating in number, apparently of all sizes and grades, who had
come to the feast, I thought just at this time, that there was no
alternative left but for me to make a charge with my bowie knife. I
well knew from the action of the wolves, that if I made no farther
resistance, they would soon destroy us, and if I made a break at them,
the matter could be no worse. I thought if I must die, I would die
striving to protect my little family from destruction, die striving
to escape from slavery. My wife took a club in one hand, and her child
in the other, while I rushed forth with my bowie knife in hand, to
fight off the savage wolves. I made one desperate charge at them, and
at the same time making a loud yell at the top of my voice, that
caused them to retreat and scatter, which was equivalent to a victory
on our part. Our prayers were answered, and our lives spared through
the night. We slept no more that night, and the next morning there
were no wolves to be seen or heard, and we resolved not to stay on
that island another night.
We travelled up and down the river side trying to find a place where
we could cross. Finally we found a lot of drift wood clogged together,
extending across the stream at a narrow place in the river, upon which
we crossed over. But we had not yet surmounted our greatest
difficulty. We had to meet one which was far more formidable than the
first. Not many days after I had to face the Deacon.
We had been wandering about through the cane brakes, bushes, and
briers, for several days, when we heard the yelping of blood hounds, a
great way off, but they seemed to come nearer and nearer to us. We
thought after awhile that they must be on our track; we listened
attentively at the approach. We knew it was no use for us to undertake
to escape from them, and as they drew nigh, we heard the voice of a
man hissing on the dogs.
After awhile we saw the hounds coming in full speed on our track, and
the soul drivers close after them on horse back, yelling like tigers,
as they came in sight. The shrill yelling of the savage blood hounds
as they drew nigh made the woods echo.
The first impulse was to run to escape the approaching danger of
ferocious dogs, and blood thirsty slave hunters, who were so rapidly
approaching me with loaded muskets and bowie knives, with a
determination to kill or capture me and my family. I started to run
with my little daughter in my arms, but stumbled and fell down and
scratched the arm of little Frances with a brier, so that it bled very
much; but the dear child never cried, for she seemed to know the
danger to which we were exposed.
But we soon found that it was no use for us to run. The dogs were
soon at our heels, and we were compelled to stop, or be torn to pieces
by them. By this time, the soul drivers came charging up on their
horses, commanding us to stand still or they would shoot us down.
Of course I surrendered up for the sake of my family. The most abusive
terms to be found in the English language were poured forth on us with
bitter oaths. They tied my hands behind me, and drove us home before
them, to suffer the penalty of a slaveholder's broken law.
As we drew nigh the plantation my heart grew faint. I was aware that
we should have to suffer almost death for running off. I was filled
with dreadful apprehensions at the thought of meeting a professed
follower of Christ, whom I knew to be a hypocrite! No tongue, no pen
can ever describe what my feelings were at that time.
CHAPTER XII.
_My sad condition before Whitfield. --My terrible
punishment. --Incidents of a former attempt to escape--Jack at a farm
house. --Six pigs and a turkey. --Our surprise and arrest. _
The reader may perhaps imagine what must have been my feelings when I
found myself surrounded on the island with my little family, at
midnight, by a gang of savage wolves. This was one of those trying
emergencies in my life when there was apparently but one step between
us and the grave. But I had no cords wrapped about my limbs to prevent
my struggling against the impending danger to which I was then
exposed. I was not denied the consolation of resisting in self
defence, as was now the case. There was no Deacon standing before me,
with a loaded rifle, swearing that I should submit to the torturing
lash, or be shot down like a dumb beast.
I felt that my chance was by far better among the howling wolves in
the Red river swamp, than before Deacon Whitfield, on the cotton
plantation. I was brought before him as a criminal before a bar,
without counsel, to be tried and condemned by a tyrant's law. My arms
were bound with a cord, my spirit broken, and my little family
standing by weeping. I was not allowed to plead my own cause, and
there was no one to utter a word in my behalf.
He ordered that the field hands should be called together to witness
my punishment, that it might serve as a caution to them never to
attend a prayer meeting, or runaway as I had, lest they should receive
the same punishment.
At the sound of the overseer's horn, all the slaves came forward and
witnessed my punishment. My clothing was stripped off and I was
compelled to lie down on the ground with my face to the earth. Four
stakes were driven in the ground, to which my hands and feet were
tied. Then the overseer stood over me with the lash and laid it on
according to the Deacon's order. Fifty lashes were laid on before
stopping. I was then lectured with reference to my going to prayer
meeting without his orders, and running away to escape flogging.
While I suffered under this dreadful torture, I prayed, and wept, and
implored mercy at the hand of slavery, but found none. After I was
marked from my neck to my heels, the Deacon took the gory lash, and
said he thought there was a spot on my back yet where he could put in
a few more. He wanted to give me something to remember him by, he
said.
After I was flogged almost to death in this way, a paddle was brought
forward and eight or ten blows given me with it, which was by far
worse than the lash. My wounds were then washed with salt brine, after
which I was let up. A description of such paddles I have already given
in another page. I was so badly punished that I was not able to work
for several days. After being flogged as described, they took me off
several miles to a shop and had a heavy iron collar riveted on my neck
with prongs extending above my head, on the end of which there was a
small bell. I was not able to reach the bell with my hand. This heavy
load of iron I was compelled to wear for six weeks. I never was
allowed to lie in the same house with my family again while I was the
slave of Whitfield. I either had to sleep with my feet in the stocks,
or be chained with a large log chain to a log over night, with no bed
or bedding to rest my wearied limbs on, after toiling all day in the
cotton field. I suffered almost death while kept in this confinement;
and he had ordered the overseer never to let me loose again; saying
that I thought of getting free by running off, but no negro should
ever get away from him alive.
I have omitted to state that this was the second time I had run away
from him; while I was gone the first time, he extorted from my wife
the fact that I had been in the habit of running away, before we left
Kentucky; that I had been to Canada, and that I was trying to learn
the art of reading and writing. All this was against me.
It is true that I was striving to learn myself to write. I was a kind
of a house servant and was frequently sent off on errands, but never
without a written pass; and on Sundays I have sometimes got permission
to visit our neighbor's slaves, and I have often tried to write myself
a pass.
Whenever I got hold of an old letter that had been thrown away, or a
piece of white paper, I would save it to write on. I have often gone
off in the woods and spent the greater part of the day alone, trying
to learn to write myself a pass, by writing on the backs of old
letters; copying after the pass that had been written by Whitfield; by
so doing I got the use of the pen and could form letters as well as I
can now, but knew not what they were.
The Deacon had an old slave by the name of Jack whom he bought about
the time that he bought me. Jack was born in the State of Virginia. He
had some idea of freedom; had often run away, but was very ignorant;
knew not where to go for refuge; but understood all about providing
something to eat when unjustly deprived of it.
So for ill treatment, we concluded to take a tramp together. I was to
be the pilot, while Jack was to carry the baggage and keep us in
provisions. Before we started, I managed to get hold of a suit of
clothes the Deacon possessed, with his gun, ammunition and bowie
knife. We also procured a blanket, a joint of meat, and some bread.
We started in a northern direction, being bound for the city of Little
Rock, State of Arkansas. We travelled by night and laid by in the day,
being guided by the unchangeable North Star; but at length, our
provisions gave out, and it was Jack's place to get more. We came in
sight of a large plantation one morning, where we saw people of color,
and Jack said he could get something there, among the slaves, that
night, for us to eat. So we concealed ourselves, in sight of this
plantation, until about bed time, when we saw the lights extinguished.
During the day we saw a female slave passing from the dwelling house
to the kitchen as if she was the cook; the house being about three
rods from the landlord's dwelling. After we supposed the whites were
all asleep, Jack slipped up softly to the kitchen to try his luck with
the cook, to see if he could get any thing from her to eat.
I would remark that the domestic slaves are often found to be traitors
to their own people, for the purpose of gaining favor with their
masters; and they are encouraged and trained up by them to report
every plot they know of being formed about stealing any thing, or
running away, or any thing of the kind; and for which they are paid.
This is one of the principal causes of the slaves being divided among
themselves, and without which they could not be held in bondage one
year, and perhaps not half that time.
I now proceed to describe the unsuccessful attempt of poor Jack to
obtain something from the female slave to satisfy hunger. The
planter's house was situated on an elevated spot on the side of a
hill. The fencing about the house and garden was very crookedly laid
up with rails. The night was rather dark and rainy, and Jack left me
with the understanding that I was to stay at a certain place until he
returned. I cautioned him before he left me to be very careful--and
after he started, I left the place where he was to find me when he
returned, for fear something might happen which might lead to my
detection, should I remain at that spot. So I left it and went off
where I could see the house, and that place too.
Jack had not long been gone, before I heard a great noise; a man,
crying out with a loud voice, "Catch him! Catch him! " and hissing the
dogs on, and they were close after Jack. The next thing I saw, was
Jack running for life, and an old white man after him, with a gun, and
his dogs. The fence being on sidling ground, and wet with the rain,
when Jack run against it he knocked down several panels of it and
fell, tumbling over and over to the foot of the hill; but soon
recovered and ran to where he had left me; but I was gone. The dogs
were still after him.
There happened to be quite a thicket of small oak shrubs and bushes in
the direction he ran. I think he might have been heard running and
straddling bushes a quarter of a mile! The poor fellow hurt himself
considerably in straddling over bushes in that way, in making his
escape.
Finally the dogs relaxed their chase and poor Jack and myself again
met in the thick forest. He said when he rapped on the cook-house
door, the colored woman came to the door. He asked her if she would
let him have a bite of bread if she had it, that he was a poor hungry
absconding slave. But she made no reply to what he said but
immediately sounded the alarm by calling loudly after her master,
saying, "here is a runaway negro! " Jack said that he was going to
knock her down but her master was out within one moment, and he had to
run for his life.
As soon as we got our eyes fixed on the North Star again, we started
on our way. We travelled on a few miles and came to another large
plantation, where Jack was determined to get something to eat. He
left me at a certain place while he went up to the house to find
something if possible.
He was gone some time before he returned, but when I saw him coming,
he appeared to be very heavy loaded with a bag of something. We walked
off pretty fast until we got some distance in the woods. Jack then
stopped and opened his bag in which he had six small pigs. I asked him
how he got them without making any noise; and he said that he found a
bed of hogs, in which there were the pigs with their mother. While the
pigs were sucking he crawled up to them without being discovered by
the sow, and took them by their necks one after another, and choked
them to death, and slipped them into his bag!
We intended to travel on all that night and lay by the next day in the
forest and cook up our pigs. We fell into a large road leading on the
direction which we were travelling, and had not proceeded over three
miles before I found a white hat lying in the road before me. Jack
being a little behind me I stopped until he camp up, and showed it to
him. He picked it up. We looked a few steps farther and saw a man
lying by the way, either asleep or intoxicated, as we supposed.
I told Jack not to take the hat, but he would not obey me. He had only
a piece of a hat himself, which he left in exchange for the other. We
travelled on about five miles farther, and in passing a house
discovered a large turkey sitting on the fence, which temptation was
greater than Jack could resist. Notwithstanding he had six very nice
fat little pigs on his back, he stepped up and took the turkey off the
fence.
By this time it was getting near day-light and we left the road and
went off a mile or so among the hills of the forest, where we struck
camp for the day. We then picked our turkey, dressed our pigs, and
cooked two of them. We got the hair off by singeing them over the
fire, and after we had eaten all we wanted, one of us slept while the
other watched. We had flint, punk, and powder to strike fire with. A
little after dark the next night, we started on our way.
Buy about ten o'clock that night just as we were passing through a
thick skirt of woods, five men sprang out before us with fire-arms,
swearing if we moved another step, they would shoot us down; and each
man having a gun drawn up for shooting we had no chance to make any
defence, and surrendered sooner than run the risk of being killed.
They had been lying in wait for us there, for several hours. They had
seen a reward out, for notices were put up in the most public places,
that fifty dollars would be paid for me, dead or alive, if I should
not return home within so many days. And the reader will remember that
neither Jack nor myself was able to read the advertisement. It was of
very little consequence with the slave catchers, whether they killed
us or took us alive, for the reward was the same to them.
After we were taken and tied, one of the men declared to me that he
would have shot me dead just as sure as he lived, if I had moved one
step after they commanded us to stop. He had his gun levelled at my
breast, already cocked, and his finger on the trigger. The way they
came to find us out was from the circumstance of Jack's taking the
man's hat in connection with the advertisement. The man whose hat was
taken was drunk; and the next morning when he came to look for his hat
it was gone and Jack's old hat lying in the place of it; and in
looking round he saw the tracks of two persons in the dust, who had
passed during the night, and one of them having but three toes on one
foot. He followed these tracks until they came to a large mud pond in
a lane on one side of which a person might pass dry shod; but the man
with three toes on one foot had plunged through the mud. This led the
man to think there must be runaway slaves, and from out of that
neighborhood; for all persons in that settlement knew which side of
that mud hole to go. He then got others to go with him, and they
followed us until our track left the road. They supposed that we had
gone off in the woods to lay by until night, after which we should
pursue our course.
After we were captured they took us off several miles to where one of
them lived, and kept us over night. One of our pigs was cooked for us
to eat that night; and the turkey the next morning. But we were both
tied that night with our hands behind us, and our feet were also tied.
The doors were locked, and a bedstead was set against the front door,
and two men slept in it to prevent our getting out in the night. They
said that they knew how to catch runaway negroes, and how to keep them
after they were caught.
They remarked that after they found we had stopped to lay by until
night, and they saw from our tracks what direction we were travelling,
they went about ten miles on that direction, and hid by the road side
until we came up that night. That night after all had got fast to
sleep, I thought I would try to get out, and I should have succeeded,
if I could have moved the bed from the door. I managed to untie myself
and crawled under the bed which was placed at the door, and strove to
remove it, but in so doing I awakened the men and they got up and
confined me again, and watched me until day light, each with a gun in
hand.
The next morning they started with us back to Deacon Whitfield's
plantation; but when they got within ten miles of where he lived they
stopped at a public house to stay over night; and who should we meet
there but the Deacon, who was then out looking for me.
The reader may well imagine how I felt to meet him. I had almost as
soon come in contact with Satan himself. He had two long poles or
sticks of wood brought in to confine us to. I was compelled to lie on
my back across one of those sticks with my arms out, and have them
lashed fast to the log with a cord. My feet were also tied to the
other, and there I had to lie all that night with my back across this
stick of wood, and my feet and hands tied. I suffered that night under
the most excruciating pain. From the tight binding of the cord the
circulation of the blood in my arms and feet was almost entirely
stopped. If the night had been much longer I must have died in that
confinement.
The next morning we were taken back to the Deacon's farm, and both
flogged for going off, and set to work. But there was some allowance
made for me on account of my being young. They said that they knew old
Jack had persuaded me off, or I never would have gone. And the
Deacon's wife begged that I might be favored some, for that time, as
Jack had influenced me, so as to bring up my old habits of running
away that I had entirely given up.
CHAPTER XIII.
_I am sold to gamblers. --They try to purchase my family. --Our parting
scene. --My good usage. --I am sold to an Indian. --His confidence in my
integrity manifested. _
The reader will remember that this brings me back to the time the
Deacon had ordered me to be kept in confinement until he got a chance
to sell me, and that no negro should ever get away from him and live.
Some days after this we were all out at the gin house ginning cotton,
which was situated on the road side, and there came along a company of
men, fifteen or twenty in number, who were Southern sportsmen. Their
attention was attracted by the load of iron which was fastened about
my neck with a bell attached. They stopped and asked the Deacon what
that bell was put on my neck for? and he said it was to keep me from
running away, &c.
They remarked that I looked as if I might be a smart negro, and asked
if he wanted to sell me. The reply was, yes. They then got off their
horses and struck a bargain with him for me. They bought me at a
reduced price for speculation.
After they had purchased me, I asked the privilege of going to the
house to take leave of my family before I left, which was granted by
the sportsmen. But the Deacon said I should never again step my foot
inside of his yard; and advised the sportsmen not to take the irons
from my neck until they had sold me; that if they gave me the least
chance I would run away from them, as I did from him. So I was
compelled to mount a horse and go off with them as I supposed, never
again to meet my family in this life.
We had not proceeded far before they informed me that they had bought
me to sell again, and if they kept the irons on me it would be
detrimental to the sale, and that they would therefore take off the
irons and dress me up like a man, and throw away the old rubbish which
I then had on; and they would sell me to some one who would treat me
better than Deacon Whitfield.
After they had cut off the irons and
dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did. They gave
me plenty to eat and put nothing hard on me to do. They expressed much
sympathy for me in my bereavement; and almost every day they gave me
money more or less, and by my activity in waiting on them, and upright
conduct, I got into the good graces of them all, but they could not
get any person to buy me on account of the amount of intelligence
which they supposed me to have; for many of them thought that I could
read and write. When they left Texas, they intended to go to the
Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, to attend a great horse race
which was to take place. Not being much out of their way to go past
Deacon Whitfield's again, I prevailed on them to call on him for the
purpose of trying to purchase my wife and child; and I promised them
that if they would buy my wife and child, I would get some person to
purchase us from them. So they tried to grant my request by calling on
the Deacon, and trying to make the purchase. As we approached the
Deacon's plantation, my heart was filled with a thousand painful and
fearful apprehensions. I had the fullest confidence in the blacklegs
with whom I travelled, believing that they would do according to
promise, and go to the fullest extent of their ability to restore
peace and consolation to a bereaved family--to re-unite husband and
wife, parent and child, who had long been severed by slavery through
the agency of Deacon Whitfield. But I knew his determination in
relation to myself, and I feared his wicked opposition to a
restoration of myself and little family, which he had divided, and
soon found that my fears were not without foundation.
When we rode up and walked into his yard, the Deacon came out and
spoke to all but myself; and not finding me in tattered rags as a
substitute for clothes, nor having an iron collar or bell about my
neck, as was the case when he sold me, he appeared to be much
displeased.
"What did you bring that negro back here for? " said he.
"We have come to try to buy his wife and child; for we can find no one
who is willing to buy him alone; and we will either buy or sell so
that the family may be together," said they.
While this conversation was going on, my poor bereaved wife, who
never expected to see me again in this life, spied me and came rushing
to me through the crowd, throwing her arms about my neck exclaiming in
the most sympathetic tones, "Oh! my dear husband! I never expected to
see you again! " The poor woman was bathed with tears of sorrow and
grief. But no sooner had she reached me, than the Deacon peremptorily
commanded her to go to her work. This she did not obey, but prayed
that her master would not separate us again, as she was there alone,
far from friends and relations whom she should never meet again. And
now to take away her husband, her last and only true friend, would be
like taking her life!
But such appeals made no impression on the unfeeling Deacon's heart.
While he was storming with abusive language, and even using the gory
lash with hellish vengeance to separate husband and wife, I could see
the sympathetic teardrop, stealing its way down the cheek of the
profligate and black-leg, whose object it now was to bind up the
broken heart of a wife, and restore to the arms of a bereaved husband,
his companion.
They were disgusted at the conduct of Whitfield and cried out shame,
even in his presence. They told him that they would give a thousand
dollars for my wife and child, or any thing in reason. But no! he
would sooner see me to the devil than indulge or gratify me after my
having run away from him; and if they did not remove me from his
presence very soon, he said he should make them suffer for it.
But all this, and even the gory lash had yet failed to break the grasp
of poor Malinda, whose prospect of connubial, social, and future
happiness was all at stake. When the dear woman saw there was no help
for us, and that we should soon be separated forever, in the name of
Deacon Whitfield, and American slavery to meet no more as husband and
wife, parent and child--the last and loudest appeal was made on our
knees. We appealed to the God of justice and to the sacred ties of
humanity; but this was all in vain. The louder we prayed the harder he
whipped, amid the most heart-rending shrieks from the poor slave
mother and child, as little Frances stood by, sobbing at the abuse
inflicted on her mother.
"Oh! how shall I give my husband the parting hand never to meet
again? This will surely break my heart," were her parting words.
I can never describe to the reader the awful reality of that
separation--for it was enough to chill the blood and stir up the
deepest feelings of revenge in the hearts of slaveholding black-legs,
who as they stood by, were threatening, some weeping, some swearing
and others declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted
on a human being. As we left the plantation, as far as we could see
and hear, the Deacon was still laying on the gory lash, trying to
prevent poor Malinda from weeping over the loss of her departed
husband, who was then, by the hellish laws of slavery, to her,
theoretically and practically dead. One of the black-legs exclaimed
that hell was full of just such Deacon's as Whitfield. This occurred
in December, 1840. I have never seen Malinda, since that period. I
never expect to see her again.
The sportsmen to whom I was sold, showed their sympathy for me not
only by word but by deeds. They said that they had made the most
liberal offer to Whitfield, to buy or sell for the sole purpose of
reuniting husband and wife. But he stood out against it--they felt
sorry for me. They said they had bought me to speculate on, and were
not able to lose what they had paid for me. But they would make a
bargain with me, if I was willing, and would lay a plan, by which I
might yet get free. If I would use my influence so as to get some
person to buy me while traveling about with them, they would give me a
portion of the money for which they sold me, and they would also give
me directions by which I might yet run away and go to Canada.
This offer I accepted, and the plot was made. They advised me to act
very stupid in language and thought, but in business I must be spry;
and that I must persuade men to buy me, and promise them that I would
be smart.
We passed through the State of Arkansas and stopped at many places,
horse-racing and gambling. My business was to drive a wagon in which
they carried their gambling apparatus, clothing, &c. I had also to
black boots and attend to horses. We stopped at Fayettville, where
they almost lost me, betting on a horse race.
They went from thence to the Indian Territory, among the Cherokee
Indians, to attend the great races which were to take place there.
During the races there was a very wealthy half Indian of that tribe,
who became much attached to me, and had some notion of buying me,
after hearing that I was for sale, being a slaveholder. The idea
struck me rather favorable, for several reasons. First, I thought I
should stand a better chance to get away from an Indian than from a
white man. Second, he wanted me only for a kind of a body servant to
wait on him--and in this case I knew that I should fare better than I
should in the field. And my owners also told me that it would be an
easy place to get away from. I took their advice for fear I might not
get another chance so good as that, and prevailed on the man to buy
me. He paid them nine hundred dollars, in gold and silver, for me. I
saw the money counted out.
After the purchase was made, the sportsmen got me off to one side, and
according to promise they gave me a part of the money, and directions
how to get from there to Canada. They also advised me how to act until
I got a good chance to run away. I was to embrace the earliest
opportunity of getting away, before they should become acquainted with
me. I was never to let it be known where I was from, nor where I was
born. I was to act quite stupid and ignorant. And when I started I was
to go up the boundary line, between the Indian Territory and the
States of Arkansas and Missouri, and this would fetch me out on the
Missouri river, near Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. I was to
travel at first by night, and to lay by in daylight, until I got out
of danger.
The same afternoon that the Indian bought me, he started with me to
his residence, which was fifty or sixty miles distant. And so great
was his confidence in me, that he intrusted me to carry his money. The
amount must have been at least five hundred dollars, which was all in
gold and silver; and when we stopped over night the money and horses
were all left in my charge.
It would have been a very easy matter for me to have taken one of the
best horses, with the money, and run off. And the temptation was truly
great to a man like myself, who was watching for the earliest
opportunity to escape; and I felt confident that I should never have a
better opportunity to escape full handed than then.
CHAPTER XIV.
_Character of my Indian Master. --Slavery among the Indians less
cruel. --Indian carousal. --Enfeebled health of my Indian Master. --His
death. --My escape. --Adventure in a wigwam. --Successful progress toward
liberty. _
The next morning I went home with my new master; and by the way it is
only doing justice to the dead to say, that he was the most
reasonable, and humane slaveholder that I have ever belonged to. He
was the last man that pretended to claim property in my person; and
although I have freely given the names and residences of all others
who have held me as a slave, for prudential reasons I shall omit
giving the name of this individual.
He was the owner of a large plantation and quite a number of slaves.
He raised corn and wheat for his own consumption only. There was no
cotton, tobacco, or anything of the kind produced among them for
market. And I found this difference between negro slavery among the
Indians, and the same thing among the white slaveholders of the South.
The Indians allow their slaves enough to eat and wear. They have no
overseers to whip nor drive them. If a slave offends his master, he
sometimes, in a heat of passion, undertakes to chastise him; but it is
as often the case as otherwise, that the slave gets the better of the
fight, and even flogs his master;[4] for which there is no law to
punish him; but when the fight is over that is the last of it. So far
as religious instruction is concerned, they have it on terms of
equality, the bond and the free; they have no respect of persons, they
have neither slave laws nor negro pews. Neither do they separate
husbands and wives, nor parents and children. All things considered,
if I must be a slave, I had by far, rather be a slave to an Indian,
than to a white man, from the experience I have had with both.
A majority of the Indians were uneducated, and still followed up their
old heathen traditional notions. They made it a rule to have an Indian
dance or frolic, about once a fortnight; and they would come together
far and near to attend these dances. They would most generally
commence about the middle of the afternoon; and would give notice by
the blowing of horns. One would commence blowing and another would
answer, and so it would go all round the neighborhood. When a number
had got together, they would strike a circle about twenty rods in
circumference, and kindle up fires about twenty feet apart, all
around, in this circle. In the centre they would have a large fire to
dance around, and at each one of the small fires there would be a
squaw to keep up the fire, which looked delightful off at a distance.
But the most degrading practice of all, was the use of intoxicating
drinks, which were used to a great excess by all that attended these
stump dances. At almost all of these fires there was some one with rum
to sell. There would be some dancing, some singing, some gambling,
some fighting, and some yelling; and this was kept up often for two
days and nights together.
Their dress for the dance was most generally a great bunch of bird
feathers, coon tails, or something of the kind stuck in their heads,
and a great many shells tied about their legs to rattle while dancing.
Their manner of dancing is taking hold of each others hands and
forming a ring around the large fire in the centre, and go stomping
around it until they would get drunk or their heads would get to
swimming, and then they would go off and drink, and another set come
on. Such were some of the practises indulged in by these Indian
slaveholders.
My last owner was in a declining state of health when he bought me;
and not long after he bought me he went off forty or fifty miles from
home to be doctored by an Indian doctor, accompanied by his wife. I
was taken along also to drive the carriage and to wait upon him during
his sickness. But he was then so feeble, that his life was of but
short duration after the doctor commenced on him.
While he lived, I waited on him according to the best of my ability. I
watched over him night and day until he died, and even prepared his
body for the tomb, before I left him. He died about midnight and I
understood from his friends that he was not to be buried until the
second day after his death. I pretended to be taking on at a great
rate about his death, but I was more excited about running away, than
I was about that, and before daylight the next morning I proved it,
for I was on my way to Canada.
I never expected a better opportunity would present itself for my
escape. I slipped out of the room as if I had gone off to weep for the
deceased, knowing that they would not feel alarmed about me until
after my master was buried and they had returned back to his
residence. And even then, they would think that I was somewhere on my
way home; and it would be at least four or five days before they would
make any stir in looking after me. By that time, if I had no bad luck,
I should be out of much danger.
After the first day, I laid by in the day and traveled by night for
several days and nights, passing in this way through several tribes of
Indians. I kept pretty near the boundary line. I recollect getting
lost one dark rainy night. Not being able to find the road I came into
an Indian settlement at the dead hour of the night. I was wet,
wearied, cold and hungry; and yet I felt afraid to enter any of their
houses or wigwams, not knowing whether they would be friendly or not.
But I knew the Indians were generally drunkards, and that occasionally
a drunken white man was found straggling among them, and that such an
one would be more likely to find friends from sympathy than an upright
man.
So I passed myself off that night as a drunkard among them. I walked
up to the door of one of their houses, and fell up against it, making
a great noise like a drunken man; but no one came to the door. I
opened it and staggered in, falling about, and making a great noise.
But finally an old woman got up and gave me a blanket to lie down on.
There was quite a number of them lying about on the dirt floor, but
not one could talk or understand a word of the English language. I
made signs so as to let them know that I wanted something to eat, but
they had nothing, so I had to go without that night. I laid down and
pretended to be asleep, but I slept none that night, for I was afraid
that they would kill me if I went to sleep. About one hour before day,
the next morning, three of the females got up and put into a tin
kettle a lot of ashes with water, to boil, and then poured into it
about one quart of corn. After letting it stand a few moments, they
poured it into a trough, and pounded it into thin hominy. They washed
it out, and boiled it down, and called me up to eat my breakfast of
it.
After eating, I offered them six cents, but they refused to accept it.
I then found my way to the main road, and traveled all that day on my
journey, and just at night arrived at a public house kept by an
Indian, who also kept a store. I walked in and asked if I could get
lodging, which was granted; but I had not been there long before three
men came riding up about dusk, or between sunset and dark. They were
white men, and I supposed slaveholders. At any rate when they asked if
they could have lodging, I trembled for fear they might be in pursuit
of me. But the landlord told them that he could not lodge them, but
they could get lodging about two miles off, with a white man, and they
turned their horses and started.
The landlord asked me where I was traveling to, and where I was from.
I told him that I had been out looking at the country; that I had
thought of buying land, and that I lived in the State of Ohio, in the
village of Perrysburgh. He then said that he had lived there himself,
and that he had acted as an interpreter there among the Maumee tribe
of Indians for several years. He then asked who I was acquainted with
there? I informed him that I knew Judge Hollister, Francis Hollister,
J. W. Smith, and others. At this he was so much pleased that he came up
and took me by the hand, and received me joyfully, after seeing that I
was acquainted with those of his old friends.
I could converse with him understandingly from personal acquaintance,
for I had lived there when I first ran away from Kentucky. But I felt
it to be my duty to start off the next morning before breakfast, or
sunrise. I bought a dozen of eggs, and had them boiled to carry with
me to eat on the way. I did not like the looks of those three men, and
thought I would get on as fast as possible for fear I might be pursued
by them.
I was then about to enter the territory of another slave State,
Missouri. I had passed through the fiery ordeal of Sibley, Gatewood,
and Garrison, and had even slipped through the fingers of Deacon
Whitfield. I had doubtless gone through great peril in crossing the
Indian territory, in passing through the various half civilized
tribes, who seemed to look upon me with astonishment as I passed
along. Their hands were almost invariably filled with bows and arrows,
tomahawks, guns, butcher knives, and all the various implements of
death which are used by them. And what made them look still more
frightful, their faces were often painted red, and their heads muffled
with birds feathers, bushes, coons tails and owls heads. But all this
I had passed through, and my long enslaved limbs and spirit were then
in full stretch for emancipation. I felt as if one more short struggle
would set me free.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] This singular fact is corroborated in a letter read by the
publisher, from an acquaintance while passing through this country in
1849.
CHAPTER XV.
_Adventure on the Prairie. --I borrow a horse without leave. --Rapid
traveling one whole night. --Apology for using other men's horses. --My
manner of living on the road. _
Early in the morning I left the Indian territory as I have already
said, for fear I might be pursued by the three white men whom I had
seen there over night; but I had not proceeded far before my fears
were magnified a hundred fold.
I always dreaded to pass through a prairie, and on coming to one which
was about six miles in width, I was careful to look in every direction
to see whether there was any person in sight before I entered it; but
I could see no one. So I started across with a hope of crossing
without coming in contact with any one on the prairie. I walked as
fast as I could, but when I got about midway of the prairie, I came to
a high spot where the road forked, and three men came up from a low
spot as if they had been there concealed. They were all on horse back,
and I supposed them to be the same men that had tried to get lodging
where I stopped over night. Had this been in timbered land, I might
have stood some chance to have dodged them, but there I was, out in
the open prairie, where I could see no possible way by which I could
escape.
They came along slowly up behind me, and finally passed, and spoke or
bowed their heads on passing, but they traveled in a slow walk and
kept but a very few steps before me, until we got nearly across the
prairie. When we were coming near a plantation a piece off from the
road on the skirt of the timbered land, they whipped up their horses
and left the road as if they were going across to this plantation.
They soon got out of my sight by going down into a valley which lay
between us and the plantation. Not seeing them rise the hill to go up
to the farm, excited greater suspicion in my mind, so I stepped over
on the brow of the hill, where I could see what they were doing, and
to my surprise I saw them going right back in the direction they had
just came, and they were going very fast. I was then satisfied that
they were after me and that they were only going back to get more
help to assist them in taking me, for fear that I might kill some of
them if they undertook it. The first impression was that I had better
leave the road immediately; so I bolted from the road and ran as fast
as I could for some distance in the thick forest, and concealed myself
for about fifteen or twenty minutes, which were spent in prayer to God
for his protecting care and guidance.
My impression was that when they should start in pursuit of me again,
they would follow on in the direction which I was going when they left
me; and not finding or hearing of me on the road, they would come back
and hunt through the woods around, and if they could find no track
they might go and get dogs to trace me out.
I thought my chance of escape would be better, if I went back to the
same side of the road that they first went, for the purpose of
deceiving them; as I supposed that they would not suspect my going in
the same direction that they went, for the purpose of escaping from
them.
So I traveled all that day square off from the road through the wild
forest without any knowledge of the country whatever; for I had
nothing to travel by but the sun by day, and the moon and stars by
night. Just before night I came in sight of a large plantation, where
I saw quite a number of horses running at large in a field, and
knowing that my success in escaping depended upon my getting out of
that settlement within twenty-four hours, to save myself from
everlasting slavery, I thought I should be justified in riding one of
those horses, that night, if I could catch one. I cut a grape vine
with my knife, and made it into a bridle; and shortly after dark I
went into the field and tried to catch one of the horses. I got a
bunch of dry blades of fodder and walked up softly towards the horses,
calling to them "cope," "cope," "cope;" but there was only one out of
the number that I was able to get my hand on, and that was an old
mare, which I supposed to be the mother of all the rest; and I knew
that I could walk faster than she could travel. She had a bell on and
was very thin in flesh; she looked gentle and walked on three legs
only. The young horses pranced and galloped off. I was not able to get
near them, and the old mare being of no use to me, I left them all.
After fixing my eyes on the north star I pursued my journey, holding
on to my bridle with a hope of finding a horse upon which I might ride
that night.
I found a road leading pretty nearly in the direction which I wanted
to travel, and I kept it. After traveling several miles I found
another large plantation where there was a prospect of finding a
horse. I stepped up to the barn-yard, wherein I found several horses.
There was a little barn standing with the door open, and I found it
quite an easy task to get the horses into the barn, and select out the
best looking one of them. I pulled down the fence, led the noble beast
out and mounted him, taking a northern direction, being able to find a
road which led that way. But I had not gone over three or four miles
before I came to a large stream of water which was past fording; yet I
could see that it had been forded by the road track, but from high
water it was then impassible. As the horse seemed willing to go in I
put him through; but before he got in far, he was in water up to his
sides and finally the water came over his back and he swam over. I got
as wet as could be, but the horse carried me safely across at the
proper place. After I got out a mile or so from the river, I came into
a large prairie, which I think must have been twenty or thirty miles
in width, and the road run across it about in the direction that I
wanted to go. I laid whip to the horse, and I think he must have
carried me not less than forty miles that night, or before sun rise
the next morning. I then stopped him in a spot of high grass in an old
field, and took off the bridle. I thanked God, and thanked the horse
for what he had done for me, and wished him a safe journey back home.
I know the poor horse must have felt stiff, and tired from his speedy
jaunt, and I felt very bad myself, riding at that rate all night
without a saddle; but I felt as if I had too much at stake to favor
either horse flesh or man flesh. I could indeed afford to crucify my
own flesh for the sake of redeeming myself from perpetual slavery.
Some may be disposed to find fault with my taking the horse as I did;
but I did nothing more than nine out of ten would do if they were
placed in the same circumstances.
