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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave by Frederick Douglass · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain. Narrative of the Life of
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  Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas, An American Slave by Frederick Douglas, Chapter one.
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  Speaker 1: I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve
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  Speaker 1: miles from Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. I have no
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  Speaker 1: accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic
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  Speaker 1: record containing it. By far the larger part of the
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  Speaker 1: slaves know as little of their ages as horses know
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  Speaker 1: of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters
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  Speaker 1: within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I
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  Speaker 1: do not remember to have ever met a slave who
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  Speaker 1: could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to
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  Speaker 1: it than planting time, harvest time, cherry time, springtime, or
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  Speaker 1: fall time. A want of information concerning my own was
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  Speaker 1: a source of unhappiness to me, even during childhood. The
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  Speaker 1: white children could tell their ages. I could not tell
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  Speaker 1: why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.
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  Speaker 1: I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my
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  Speaker 1: master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the
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  Speaker 1: part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of
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  Speaker 1: a restless spirit. The nearest estimate I can give makes
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  Speaker 1: me now between twenty seven and twenty eight years of age.
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  Speaker 1: I come to this from hearing my master say some
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  Speaker 1: time during eighteen thirty five, I was about seventeen years old.
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  Speaker 1: My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter
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  Speaker 1: of Isaac and Betsy Bailey, both colored and quite dark.
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  Speaker 1: My mother was of a darker complexion than either my
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  Speaker 1: grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. He
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  Speaker 1: was admitted to be such by all I ever heard
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  Speaker 1: speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that
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  Speaker 1: my master was my father. But of the correctness of
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  Speaker 1: this opinion, I know nothing. The means of knowing was
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  Speaker 1: withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when
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  Speaker 1: I was but an infant, before I knew her as
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  Speaker 1: my mother. It is a common custom in the part
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  Speaker 1: of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children
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  Speaker 1: from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before
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  Speaker 1: the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is
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  Speaker 1: taken from it and hired out on some farm a
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  Speaker 1: considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the
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  Speaker 1: care of an old woman too old for field labor.
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  Speaker 1: For what this separation is done, I do not know,
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  Speaker 1: unless it be to hinder the development of the child's
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  Speaker 1: affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the
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  Speaker 1: natural affection of the mother for the child. This is
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  Speaker 1: the inevitable result. I never saw my mother, to know
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  Speaker 1: her as such, more than four or five times in
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  Speaker 1: my life, and each of these times was very short
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  Speaker 1: in duration. And at night. She was hired by a
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  Speaker 1: mister Stuart, who lived about twelve miles from my home.
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  Speaker 1: She made her journeys to see me in the night,
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  Speaker 1: traveling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of
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  Speaker 1: her day's work. She was a field hand, and a
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  Speaker 1: whipping is the penalty of not being in the field
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  Speaker 1: at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his
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  Speaker 1: or her master. To the contrary, a permission which they
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  Speaker 1: seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives
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  Speaker 1: it the proud name of being a kind master. I
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  Speaker 1: do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the
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  Speaker 1: light of day. She was with me in the night.
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  Speaker 1: She would lie down with me and get me to sleep,
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  Speaker 1: But long before I waked, she was gone. Very little
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  Speaker 1: communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what
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  Speaker 1: little we could have while she lived, and with it
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  Speaker 1: her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about
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  Speaker 1: seven years old, on one of my master's farms, near
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  Speaker 1: Lee's mill. I was not allowed to be present during
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  Speaker 1: her illness, at her death or burial. She was gone
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  Speaker 1: long before I knew any thing about it, never having
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed to any considerable extent her soothing presence, her tender
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  Speaker 1: and watchful care. Are received the tidings of her death
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  Speaker 1: with much the same emotions I should have probably felt
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  Speaker 1: at the death of a stranger called thus suddenly away.
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  Speaker 1: She left me without the slightest intimation of who my
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  Speaker 1: father was. The whisper that my master was my father
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  Speaker 1: may or may not be true, and true or false,
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  Speaker 1: it is of but little consequence to my purpose. Whilst
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  Speaker 1: the fact remains in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders
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  Speaker 1: have ordained, and by law established, that the children of
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  Speaker 1: slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of
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  Speaker 1: their mothers. And this is done too obviously to administer
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  Speaker 1: to their own lusts and make a gratification of their
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  Speaker 1: wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable. For by this
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  Speaker 1: cunning arrangement, the slaveholder in cases not a few sustains
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  Speaker 1: to his slaves the double relation of master and father.
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  Speaker 1: I know of such cases, and it is worthy of
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  Speaker 1: remark that such slaves invariably suffer greater hardships and have
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  Speaker 1: more to contend with than others. They are, in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, a constant offense to their mistress. She is
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  Speaker 1: ever disposed to find fault with them. They can sell them,
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  Speaker 1: do anything to please her. She is never better pleased
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  Speaker 1: than when she sees them under the lash, especially when
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  Speaker 1: she suspects her husband of showing to his mulatto children
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  Speaker 1: favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master
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  Speaker 1: is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves
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  Speaker 1: out of deference to the feelings of his white wife,
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  Speaker 1: and cruel as the deed may strike any one to be.
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  Speaker 1: For a man to sell his own children to human
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  Speaker 1: flesh mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for
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  Speaker 1: him to do so, for unless he does this, he
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  Speaker 1: must not only whip them himself, but must stand by
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  Speaker 1: and see one white son tie up his brother of
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  Speaker 1: but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the
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  Speaker 1: gory lash to his naked back. And if he lisp
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  Speaker 1: one word of disapproval. It is set down to his
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  Speaker 1: parental partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse both
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  Speaker 1: for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend.
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  Speaker 1: Every year brings with it multitudes of this class of slaves.
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  Speaker 1: It was doubtless in consequence of a knowledge of this fact,
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  Speaker 1: that one great statesman of the South predicted the downfall
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  Speaker 1: of slavery by the inevitable laws of population. Whether this
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  Speaker 1: prophecy is ever fulfilled or not, it is nevertheless plain
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  Speaker 1: that a very different looking class of people are springing
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  Speaker 1: up at the South and are now held in slavery
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  Speaker 1: from those originally brought to this country from Africa. And
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  Speaker 1: if their increase do no other good, it will do
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  Speaker 1: away the force of the argument that God cursed Ham,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants
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  Speaker 1: of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is
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  Speaker 1: certain that slavery at the South must soon become unscriptural.
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  Speaker 1: For thousands are ushered into the world annually, who like myself,
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  Speaker 1: owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers, most
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  Speaker 1: frequently their own masters. I have had two masters. My
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  Speaker 1: first master's name was Anthony. I do not remember his
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  Speaker 1: first name. He was generally called Captain Anthony, a title
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  Speaker 1: which I presume he acquired by sailing a craft on
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  Speaker 1: the Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich slaveholder.
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  Speaker 1: He owned two or three farms and about thirty slaves.
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  Speaker 1: His farms and slaves were under the care of an overseer.
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  Speaker 1: The overseer's name was Plumber. Mister Plummer was a miserable drunkard,
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  Speaker 1: a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went
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  Speaker 1: armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have
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  Speaker 1: known him to cut and slash the women's head so
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  Speaker 1: horribly that even Master would be enraged at his cruelty,
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  Speaker 1: and would threaten to whip him if he did not
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  Speaker 1: mind himself. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It
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  Speaker 1: required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to
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  Speaker 1: affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a
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  Speaker 1: long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to
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  Speaker 1: take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often
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  Speaker 1: been awakened at the dawn of day by the most
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  Speaker 1: heart rending shrieks of an own and of mine, whom
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  Speaker 1: he used to tie up to a joist and whip
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  Speaker 1: upon her naked back, till she was literally covered with blood.
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  Speaker 1: No words, no tears, no prayers. From his gory, victim
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  Speaker 1: seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose.
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  Speaker 1: The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped. And where
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  Speaker 1: the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would
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  Speaker 1: whip her to make her scream, and whip her to
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  Speaker 1: make her hush, And not until overcome by fatigue would
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  Speaker 1: he cease to swing the blood clotted cowskin. I remember
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  Speaker 1: the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I
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  Speaker 1: was quite a child, but I well remember it. I
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  Speaker 1: never shall forget it whilst I remember anything. It was
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  Speaker 1: the first of a long series of such outrages of
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  Speaker 1: which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant.
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  Speaker 1: It struck me with awful force. It was the blood
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  Speaker 1: at stain Gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery
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  Speaker 1: through which I was about to pass. It was a
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  Speaker 1: most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper
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  Speaker 1: the feelings with which I beheld it. This occurrence took
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  Speaker 1: place very soon after I went to live with my
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  Speaker 1: old Master, and under the following circumstances. Aunt Hester went
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  Speaker 1: out one night where or for what, I do not know,
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  Speaker 1: and happened to be absent when my Master desired her presence.
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  Speaker 1: He had ordered her not to go out evenings, and
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  Speaker 1: warned her that she must never let him catch her
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  Speaker 1: in company with a young man who was paying attention
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  Speaker 1: to her, belonging to Colonel Lloyd. The young man's name
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  Speaker 1: was Ned Roberts, generally called Lloyd's Ned. Why Master was
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  Speaker 1: so careful of her may be safely left to conjecture
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  Speaker 1: she was a woman of noble form and of graceful proportions,
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  Speaker 1: having very few equals and fewer superiors in personal appearance
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  Speaker 1: among the colored or white women of our neighborhood. Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out,
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  Speaker 1: but had been found in company with Lloyd's Ned, which
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  Speaker 1: circumstance I found, from what he said while whipping her
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  Speaker 1: was the chief offense. Had he been a man of
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  Speaker 1: pure morals himself, he might have been thought interested in
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  Speaker 1: protecting the innocence of my aunt. But those who knew
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  Speaker 1: him will not suspect him of any such virtue. Before
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  Speaker 1: he commenced whipping aunt hester. He took her into the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck,
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  Speaker 1: shoulders and back entirely naked. He then told her to
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  Speaker 1: cross her hands, calling her at the same time a
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  Speaker 1: d D b H. After crossing her hands, he tied
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  Speaker 1: them with a strong rope and led her to a
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  Speaker 1: stool under a large hook in the joist put in
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool
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  Speaker 1: and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood
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  Speaker 1: fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up
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  Speaker 1: at their full length, so that she stood upon the
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  Speaker 1: ends of her toes. Then said to her, now you'd
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  Speaker 1: D b H. I'll learn you how to disobey my orders.
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  Speaker 1: And after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay
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  Speaker 1: on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm red blood,
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  Speaker 1: amid heart rending shrieks from her and horrid oaths from him,
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  Speaker 1: came tripping to the floor. I was so terrified and
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  Speaker 1: horror stricken at the sight that I hid myself in
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  Speaker 1: a closet and dared not venture out till long after
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  Speaker 1: the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be
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  Speaker 1: my turn next. It was all new to me. I
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  Speaker 1: had never seen any thing like it before. I had
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  Speaker 1: always lived with my grandmother on the outskirts of the plantation,
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  Speaker 1: where she was put to raise the children of the
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  Speaker 1: younger women. I had therefore been until now out of
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  Speaker 1: the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on
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  Speaker 1: the plantation. Chapter two. My master's family consisted of two sons,
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  Speaker 1: Andrew and Richard, one daughter, Lucretia, and her husband, Captain
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Auld. They lived in one house upon the home
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  Speaker 1: plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd. My master was Colonel Lloyd's
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  Speaker 1: clerk and superintendent. He was what might be called the
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  Speaker 1: overseer of the overseers. I spent two years of childhood
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  Speaker 1: on this plantation in my old master's family. It was
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  Speaker 1: here that I witnessed the bloody transaction recorded in the
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  Speaker 1: first chapter. And as I received my first impressions of
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  Speaker 1: slavery on this plantation, I will give some description of
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  Speaker 1: it and of slavery as it there existed. The plantation
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  Speaker 1: is about twelve miles north of Easton in Talbot County,
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  Speaker 1: and is situated on the border of Myles River. The
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  Speaker 1: principal products raised upon it were tobacco, corn, and wheat.
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  Speaker 1: These were raised in great abundance, so that with the
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  Speaker 1: products of this and the other farms belonging to him,
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  Speaker 1: he was able to keep in almost constant employment a
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  Speaker 1: large sloop in carrying them to market at Baltimore. This
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  Speaker 1: sloop was named Sally Lloyd, in honor of one of
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  Speaker 1: the colonel's My master's son in law, Captain Auld, was
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  Speaker 1: master of the vessel. She was otherwise manned by the
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  Speaker 1: colonel's own slaves. Their names were Peter, Isaac, Rich, and Jake.
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  Speaker 1: These were esteemed very highly by the other slaves and
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  Speaker 1: looked upon as the privileged ones of the plantation, for
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  Speaker 1: it was no small affair in the eyes of the
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  Speaker 1: slaves to be allowed to see Baltimore. Colonel Lloyd kept
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  Speaker 1: from three to four hundred slaves on his home plantation,
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  Speaker 1: and owned the large number more on the neighboring farms
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  Speaker 1: belonging to him. The names of the farms nearest to
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  Speaker 1: the home plantation were why Town and New Design. Why
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  Speaker 1: Town was under the overseership of a man named Noah Willis.
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  Speaker 1: New Design was under the overseership of a mister Townshend.
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  Speaker 1: The overseers of these and all the rest of the farms,
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  Speaker 1: numbering over twenty, received advice and direction from the managers
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  Speaker 1: of the home plantation. This was the great business place.
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  Speaker 1: It was the seat of government for the whole twenty farms.
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  Speaker 1: All disputes among the overseers were settled here. If a
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  Speaker 1: slave was convicted of any high misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or
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  Speaker 1: evinced a determination to run away, he was brought immediately here,
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  Speaker 1: severely whipped, put on board the sloop carried to Baltimore,
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  Speaker 1: and sold to Austin Woolfolk or some other slave trader,
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  Speaker 1: as a warning to the slave's remaining here too. The
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  Speaker 1: slaves of all the other farms received their monthly allowance
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  Speaker 1: of food and their yearly clothing. The men and women
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  Speaker 1: slaves received as their monthly allowance of food eight pounds
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  Speaker 1: of pork or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel
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  Speaker 1: of corn meal. Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse
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  Speaker 1: linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers like the shirts,
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  Speaker 1: one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter made of
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  Speaker 1: coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair
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  Speaker 1: of shoes, the whole of which could not have cost
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  Speaker 1: more than seven dollars. The allowance of the slave children
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  Speaker 1: was given to their mothers or the old women having
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  Speaker 1: the care of them. The children unable to work in
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  Speaker 1: the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers given
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  Speaker 1: to them. Their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts
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  Speaker 1: per year. When these failed them, they went naked until
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  Speaker 1: the next allowance day. Children from seven to ten years old,
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  Speaker 1: of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all
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  Speaker 1: seasons of the year. There were no beds given to slaves,
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  Speaker 1: unless one coarse blanket be considered such, and none but
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  Speaker 1: the men and women had these. This, however, is not
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  Speaker 1: considered a very great privation. They find less difficulty from
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  Speaker 1: the want of beds than from the want of time
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  Speaker 1: to sleep, for when their days work in the field
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  Speaker 1: is done, the most of them having their washing, mending
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  Speaker 1: and cooking to do, and having few or none of
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  Speaker 1: the ordinary facilities for doing either of these, very many
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  Speaker 1: of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the
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  Speaker 1: field the coming day, And when this is done, old
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  Speaker 1: and young, male and female, married and single, dropped down
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  Speaker 1: side by side on one common bed the cold damp floor,
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  Speaker 1: each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets, and
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  Speaker 1: here they sleep till they are summoned to the field
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  Speaker 1: by the driver's horn. At the sound of this all
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  Speaker 1: must rise and be off to the field. There must
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  Speaker 1: be no halting. Every one must be at his or
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  Speaker 1: her post. And woe betides them who hear not this
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  Speaker 1: morning summons to the field. For if they are not
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  Speaker 1: awakened by the sense of hearing, they are by the
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  Speaker 1: sense of feeling. No age nor sex finds any favor.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Severe, the overseer, used to stand by the door
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  Speaker 1: of the quarter, armed with a large hickory stick and
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  Speaker 1: heavy cowskin, ready to whip any one who was so
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  Speaker 1: unfortunate as not to hear, or from any other cause,
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  Speaker 1: was prevented from being ready to start for the field
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  Speaker 1: at the sound of the horn. Mister Severe was rightly named.
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  Speaker 1: He was a cruel man. I have seen him whip
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  Speaker 1: a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour
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  Speaker 1: at the time, and this too in the midst of
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  Speaker 1: her crying children pleading for their mother's release. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity. Added to
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  Speaker 1: his cruelty, he was a profane swearer. It was enough
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  Speaker 1: to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an
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  Speaker 1: ordinary man to hear him talk scarce. A sentence escaped him,
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  Speaker 1: but that was commenced or concluded by some horrid oath.
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  Speaker 1: The field was the place to witness his cruelty and profanity.
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  Speaker 1: His presence made it both the field of blood and
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  Speaker 1: of blasphemy. From the rising till the going down of
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  Speaker 1: the sun, he was cursing, raving, cutting and slashing among
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  Speaker 1: the slaves of the field in the most frightful manner.
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  Speaker 1: His career was short. He died very soon after I
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  Speaker 1: went to Colonel Lloyd's, and he died as he lived,
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  Speaker 1: uttering with his dying groans, bitter curses, and horrid oaths.
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  Speaker 1: His death was regarded by the slaves as the result
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  Speaker 1: of a merciful providence. Mister Severe's place was filled by
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  Speaker 1: a mister Hopkins. He was a very different man. He
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  Speaker 1: was less cruel, less profane, and made less noise than
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  Speaker 1: mister Severe. His course was characterized by no extraordinary demonstrations
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  Speaker 1: of cruelty. He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure
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  Speaker 1: in it. He was called by the slaves a good overseer.
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  Speaker 1: The home plantation of Colonel Lloyd wore the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: a country village. All the mechanical operations for all the
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  Speaker 1: farms were performed here. The shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: cart riding, coopering, weaving, and grain grinding were all performed
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  Speaker 1: by the slaves on the home plantation. The whole place
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  Speaker 1: wore a business like aspect, very unlike the neighboring farms.
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  Speaker 1: The number of houses, too, conspired to give it advantage
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: over the neighboring farms. It was called by the slaves
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the Great House Farm. Few privileges were esteemed higher by
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the slaves of the out farms than that of being
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: selected to do errands at the Great House Farm. It
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: was associated in their minds with greatness. A representative could
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: not be prouder of his election to a seat in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the American Congress than a slave on one of the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: out farms would be of his election to do errands
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: at the Great House Farm. They regarded it as evidence
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: of great confidence reposed in them by their overseers, And
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: it was on this account, as well as a constant
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: desire to be out of the field from under the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: driver's lash, that they esteemed it a high privilege, one
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: worth careful living, for he was called the smartest and
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: most trusty fellow who had this honor conferred upon him
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the most frequently. The competitors for this office sought as
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: diligently to please their overseers as the office seekers in
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the political parties seek to please and deceive the people.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: The same traits of character might be seen in Colonel
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Lloyd's slave as are seen in the slaves of the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: political parties. The slaves selected to go to the Great
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: House Farm for the monthly allowance for themselves and their
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: fellow slaves were peculiarly enthusiastic. While on their way, they
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: would make the dense old woods for miles around reverberate
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joy
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and the deepest sadness. They would compose and sing as
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: they went along, consulting neither time nor tune. The thought
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that came up came out, if not in the word,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: in the sound, and as frequently in the one as
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in the other. They would sometimes sing the most pathetic
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: sentiment in the most pathetic tone into all of their songs,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: they would manage to weave something of the great house farm.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Especially would they do this when leaving home. They would
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: then sing most exultingly the following words, I am going
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: away to the Great House farm. Oh yeah, oh, yea oh.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: This they would sing as a chorus to words which
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to many would seem unmeaning jargon, but which nevertheless were
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought that
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the mere hearing of those songs would do more to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery than
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: could do. I did not, when a slave, understand the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was myself within the circle, so that I neither saw
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: nor heard as those without might see and hear. They
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: my feeble comprehension. They were tones, loud, long and deep.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: They breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: songs even now afflicts me. And while I am writing
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: way down my cheek. To those songs, I trace my
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: follow me to deepen my hatred of slavery and quicken
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: wishes to be impressed with the soul killing effects of slavery,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and on allowance
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: day place himself in the deep pine woods, and there
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: through the chambers of his soul. And if he is
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: not thus impressed, it will only be because there is
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: no flesh in his obdurate heart. I have often been
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: utterly astonished since I came to the North to find
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: persons who could speak of the singing among slaves as
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: evidence of their contentment and happiness, it is impossible to
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: sorrows of his heart, and he is relieved by them
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: At least, such is my experience. I have often sung
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Crying for joy and singing for joy were alike uncommon
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: to me. While in the jaws of slavery, the singing
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of a man cast away upon a desolate island might
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: as the singing of a slave. The songs of the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Chapter three. Colonel Lloyd kept a large and finely cultivated garden,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: which afforded almost constant employment for four men besides the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: chief gardener, mister Durmot. This garden was probably the greatest
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: attraction of the place. During the summer months, people came
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: from far and near, from Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: see it. It abounded in fruits of almost every description,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: from the hardy apple of the north to the delicate
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: orange of the south. This garden was not the least
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: source of trouble on the plantation. Its excellent fruit was
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: quite a temptation to the hungry swarms of boys as
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: well as the older slaves belonging to the colonel, few
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of whom had the virtue or the vice to resist it.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Scarcely a day passed during the summer but that some
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: slave had to take the lash for stealing fruit. The
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: colonel had to resort to all kinds of stratagems to
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: keep his slaves out of the garden. The last and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: most successful one was that of tarring his fence all around,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: after which if a slave was caught with any tar
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: upon his person, it was deemed sufficient proof that he
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: had either been into the garden or had tried to
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: get in. In either either case, he was severely whipped
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: by the chief gardener. This plan worked well. The slaves
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: became as fearful of tar as of the lash. They
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: seemed to realize the impossibility of touching tar without being defiled.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: The colonel also kept a splendid riding equipich. His stable
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and carriage house presented the appearance of some of our
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: large city livery establishments. His horses were of the finest
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: form and noblest blood. His carriage house contained three splendid coaches,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: three or four gigs, besides dearborn's and baroushas of the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: most fashionable style. This establishment was under the care of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: two slaves, Old Barney and Young Barney, father and son.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: To attend to this establishment was their sole work. But
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it was by no means an easy employment. For in
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: nothing was Colonel Lloyd more particular than in the management
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of his horses. The slightest in attention to these was unpardonable,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and was visited upon those under whose care they were
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: placed with the severest punishment. No excuse could shield them
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: if the colonel only suspected any want of attention to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: his horses, a supposition which he frequently indulged, and one witch,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of course, made the office of Old and Young Barney
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: a very trying one. They never knew when they were
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: safe from punishment. They were frequently whipped when least deserving,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and escaped whipping when most deserving. It everything depended upon
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the looks of the horses and the state of Colonel
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Lloyd's own mind. When his horses were brought to him
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: for use. If a horse did not move fast enough
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: or hold his head high enough, it was owing to
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: some fault of his keepers. It was painful to stand
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: near the stable door and hear the various complaints against
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the keepers when a horse was taken out for use.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: This horse has not had proper attention. He has not
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: been sufficiently rubbed and curried, or he has not been
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: properly fed. His food was too wet or too dry.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: He got it too soon or too late. He was
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: too hot or too cold. He had too much hay
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and not enough of grain, or he had too much
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: grain and not enough of hay. Instead of Old Barney's
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: attending to the horse, he had very improperly left it
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to his son. To all these complaints, no matter how unjust,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the slave must answer never a word. Colonel Lloyd could
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: not brook any contradiction from a slave when he spoke.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: A slave must stand, listen, and tremble. And such was
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: literally the case. I have seen Colonel Lloyd make Old Barney,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: a man between fifty and sixty years of age, uncover
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: his bald head, kneel down upon the cold, damp ground,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and receive upon his naked and toil worn shoulders more
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: than thirty lashes. At the time, Colonel Lloyd had three sons, Edward,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Murray and Daniel, and three sons in law, mister Winder,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Mister Nicholson, and mister Louds. All of these lived at
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the Great House Farm and enjoyed the luxury of whipping
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the servants when they pleased, from Old Barney down to
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: William Wilkes, the coach driver. I have seen Winder make
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: one of the house servants stand off from him a
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: suitable distance to be touched with the end of his whip,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and at every stroke raised great ridges upon his back.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: To describe the wealth of Colonel Lloyd would be almost
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: equal to describing the riches of job he kept from
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: ten to fifteen house servants. He was said to own
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: a thousand slaves, and I think this estimate quite within
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the truth. Colonel Lloyd owned so many that he did
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: not know them when he saw them, nor did all
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: the slaves of the out farms know him. It is
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: reported of him that while riding along the road one day,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: he met a colored man and addressed him in the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: usual manner of speaking to colored people on the public
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: highways of the South. Well, boy, whom do you belonged
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to Colonel Lloyd? Replied the slave. Well, does the colonel
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: treat you well? No, sir, was the ready reply, what
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: does he work you too hard? Yes, sir? Well don't
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: he give you enough to eat? Yes, sir, he gives
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: me enough such as it is. The colonel, after ascertaining
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: where the slave belonged, rode on. The man also went
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: on about his business, not dreaming that he had been
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: more of the matter until two or three weeks afterwards.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: The poor man was then informed by his overseer that,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: for having found fault with his master, he was now
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: chained and handcuffed, and thus, without a moment's warning, he
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: was snatched away and forever sundered from his family and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: friends by a hand more unrelenting than death. This is
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: truth in answer to a series of plain questions. It
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: is partly in consequence of such facts that slaves when
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: inquired of as to their condition in the character of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: their masters, almost universally say they are contented and that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: their masters are kind. The slave holders have been known
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: to send in spies among their slaves to ascertain their
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: views and feelings in regard to their condition. The frequency
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of this has had the effect to establish among the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: slaves the maxim that a still tongue makes a wise head.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: They suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: telling it, and in so doing prove themselves a part
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: of the human family. If they have anything to say
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: of their masters, it is generally in their master's favor,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: especially when speaking to an untried man. I have been
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: frequently asked, when a slave if I had a kind master,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Nor did I, in pursuing this course, consider myself as
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: uttering what was absolutely false, for I always measured the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: up among slave holders around us. Moreover, slaves are like
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: other people and imby prejudices quite common to others. They
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: think their own better than that of others. Many, under
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the influence of this prejudice think their own masters are
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: better than the masters of other slaves, and this too
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: in some cases when the very reverse is true. Indeed,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: it is not uncommon for slaves even to fall out
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: each contending for the superior goodness of his own over
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: that of the others. At the very same time, they
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: mutually execrate their masters when viewed separately. It was so
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: on our plantation. When Colonel Lloyd's slaves met the slaves
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: of Jacob Jepson, they seldom parted without a quarrel about
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: their masters. Colonel Lloyds slaves contending that he was the richest,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: and mister Jepson slaves that he was the smartest and
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: most of a man. Colonel Lloyd's slaves would boast his
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson. Jepsen slaves would
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: boast his ability to whip Colonel Lloyd. These quarrels would
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: almost always end in a fight between the parties, and
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: those that whipped were supposed to have gained the point
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: at issue. They seemed to think that the greatness of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: their masters was transferable to themselves. It was considered as
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: being bad enough to be a slave, but to be
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace. Indeed, Chapter four,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: mister Hopkins remained but a short time in the office
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: of overseer. Why his career was so short I do
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: not know, but suppose he lacked the necessary severity to
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: suit Colonel Lloyd. Mister Hopkins was succeeded by mister Austin Gore,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: a man possessing in an eminent degree all those traits
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: of character indispensable to what is called the first rate overseer.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Mister Gore had served Colonel Lloyd in the capacity of
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: overseer upon one of the out farms, and had shown
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: himself worthy of the high station of overseer upon the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: home or great house farm. Mister Gore was proud, ambitious,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: and persevering. He was artful, cruel, and obdurate. He was
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: just the man for such a place, and it was
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: just the place for such a man. It afforded scope
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: for the full exercise of all his powers, and he
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: seemed to be perfectly at home in it. He was
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: one of those who could torture the slightest look, word,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: or gesture on the part of the slave into impudence,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: and would treat it accordingly. There must be no answering
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: back to him. No explanation was allowed a slave showing
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: himself to have been wrongfully accused. Mister Gore acted fully
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: up to the maxim laid down by slaveholders. It is
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: better that a dozen slaves should suffer under the lash
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: than that the overseers should be convicted in the presence
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: of the slaves of having been at fault. No matter
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: how innocent a slave might be, it availed him nothing
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: when accused by mister Gore of any misdemeanor. To be
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: to be punished, though one always following the other with
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: immutable certainty. To escape punishment was to escape accusation, and
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: few slaves had the fortune to do either. Under the
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: overseership of mister Gore. He was just proud enough to
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: demand the most debasing homage of the slave, and quite
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: servile enough to crouch himself at the feet of the master.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: He was ambitious enough to be contented with nothing short
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: of the highest rank of overseers, and persevering enough to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: reach the height of his ambition. He was cruel enough
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: the voice of a reproving conscience. He was, of all
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the overseers the most dreaded by the slaves. His presence
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: was painful, his eye flashed confusion, and seldom was his sharp,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: shrill voice heard without producing horror and trembling in their ranks.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Mister Gore was a grave man, and though a young man,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: he he indulged in no jokes, said no funny words,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: seldom smiled. His words were in perfect keeping with his looks,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and his looks were in perfect keeping with his words.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Overseers will sometimes indulge in a witty word, even with
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the slaves. Not so with mister Gore. He spoke but
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: to command, and commanded but to be obeyed. He dealt
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: sparingly with his words and bountifully with his whip, never
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: using the former where the latter would answer as well.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: When he whipped, he seemed to do so from a
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: sense of duty, and feared no consequences. He did nothing reluctantly,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: no matter how disagreeable, always at his post, never inconsistent,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: He never promised, but to fulfill. He was, in a word,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: a man of the most inflexible firmness and stone like coolness.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: His savage barbarity was equalled only by the consummate coolness
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: with which he committed the grossest and most savage deeds
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: upon the slaves under his charge. Mister R. Gore once
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: undertook to whip one of Colonel Lloyd's slaves by the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: name of Demby. He had given Demby but few stripes, when,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: himself into a creek, and stood there at the depth
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: of his shoulders, refusing to come out. Mister Gore told
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: him that he would give him three calls, and that
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: if he did not come out at the third call,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: he would shoot him. The first call was given, Demby
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: made no response, but stood his ground. The second and
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: third calls were given with the same result. Mister Gore, then,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of sight. And blood and brains marked the water where
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: he had stood. A thrill of horror flashed through every
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: soul upon the plantation, excepting mister Gore. He alone seemed
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: cool and collected. He was asked by Colonel Lloyd and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: my old master why he resorted to this extraordinary expedient.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: His reply was, as well as I can remember, that
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: demby had become unmanageable. He was setting a dangerous example
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to the other slaves, one which, if suffered to pass
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: without some such demonstration on his part, would finally lead
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: to the total subversion of all rule and order upon
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the plantation. He argued that if one slave refused to
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: be corrected and escaped with his life, the other slaves
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: would soon copy the example, the result of which would
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: be the freedom of the slaves and the enslavement of
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the whites. Mister Gore's defense was satisfactory. He was continued
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: in his station as overseer upon the home plantation. His
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: fame as an overseer went abroad. His horrid crime was
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: not even submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the presence of slaves, and they of court could neither
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: institute a suit nor testify against him, and thus the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: guilty perpetrator of one of the bloodiest and most foul
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: murders goes unwhipped of justice and uncensured by the community
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: in which he lives. Mister Gore lived in Saint Michael's,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Talbot County, Maryland when I left there, and if he
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: is still alive, he very probably lives there now. And
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: if so, he is now as he was then, as
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: highly esteemed and as much respected, as though his guilty
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: soul had not been stained with his brother's blood. I
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: speak advisedly when I say this that killing a slave
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: or any colored person in Talbot County, Maryland is not
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Mister Thomas landman of Saint Michael's, killed two slaves, one
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: of whom he killed with a hatchet by knocking his
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: brains out. He used to boast of the commission of
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the awful and bloody deed. I have heard him do
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: so laughingly, saying, among other things, that he was the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: only benefactor of his country in the company, and that
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: when others would do as much as he had done,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: we should be relieved of the d d Niggers. The
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: wife of mister Giles Hicks, living but a short distance
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: from where I used to live, murdered my wife's cousin,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: a young girl between fifteen and sixteen years of age,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: mangling her person in the most horrible manner, breaking her
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: nose and breastbone with a stick, so that the poor
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: girl expired in a few hours. Afterward. She was immediately buried,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: but had not been in her untimely grave but a
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: few hours before she was taken up and examined by
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the coroner, who decided that she had come to her
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: death by severe beating. The offense for which this girl
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: was thus murdered was this. She had been set that
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: night to mind Missus Hicks's baby, and during the night
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: she fell asleep and the baby cried. She, having lost
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: her rest for several nights previous, did not hear the crying.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: They were both in the room with Missus Hicks. Missus Hicks,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: finding the girls slow to move, jumped from her bed,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: with it broke the girl's nose and breastbone, and thus
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: ended her life. I will not say that this most
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It did
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: produce sensation, but not enough to bring the murderess to punishment.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: There was a warrant issued for her arrest, but it
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: was never served. Thus she escaped not only punishment but
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: even the pain of being arraigned before a court for
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: her horrid crime. Whilst I am detailing bloody deeds which
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: took place during my stay on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: will briefly narrate another which occurred about the same time
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: as the murder of Demby by mister Gore. Colonel Lloyd's
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: slaves were in the habit of spending a part of
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: their nights and sundays in fishing for oysters, and in
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: this way made up the deficiency of their scanty allowance.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: An old man belonging to Colonel Lloyd, while thus engaged,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: happened to get beyond the limits of Colonel Lloyd and
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: on the premises of mister Beale Bondy. At this trespass,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: mister Bondley took offense and with his musket came down
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to the shore and blew its deadly contents into the
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: poor old man. Mister Bondley came over to see Colonel
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Lloyd the next day, whether to pay him for his
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: property or to justify himself in what he had done,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I know not. At any rate. This whole fiendish transaction
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: was soon hushed up. There was very little said about
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: it at all, and nothing done. It was a common saying,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: even among little white boys, that it was worth a
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: half sent to kill a nigger and the half sent
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: to bury one. Chapter five. As to my own treatment
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: while I lived on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, it was very
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: similar to that of the other slave children. I was
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: not old enough to work in the field, and there
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: being little else than field work to do, I had
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: a great deal of leisure time. The most I had
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: to do was to drive up the cows at evening,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: keep the fowls out of the garden, keep the front
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: yard clean, and run of errands for my old master's daughter,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Missus Lucretia Auld. The most of my leisure time I
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: spent in helping Master Daniel Lloyd in finding his birds
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: after he had shot them. My connection with Master Daniel
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: was of some advantage to me. He became quite attached
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: to me and was a sort of protector of me.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: He would not allow the older boys to impose upon me,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: and would divide his cakes with me. I was seldom
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: whipped by my old master, and suffered little from anything
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: else than hunger and cold. I suffered much from hunger,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: but much more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I was kept almost naked. No shoes, no stockings, no jacket,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: reaching only to my knees. I had no bed. I
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: must have perished with cold, but that the coldest nights
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I used to steal a bag which was used for
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: carrying corn to the mill. I would crawl into this
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: bag and their sleep on the cold, damp clay floor,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: with my head in and feet out. My feet have
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: been so cracked with the frost that the pen with
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: which I am writing might be laid in the gashes.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: the ground. The children were then called like so many pigs,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and like so many pigs, they would come and devour
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the mush, some with oyster shells, others with pieces of shingle,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: ate fastest got most, he that was strongest secured the
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: best place, and few left the trough satisfied. I was
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: probably between seven and eight years old when I left
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Colonel Lloyd's plantation. I left it with joy. I shall
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: never forget the ecstasy with which I received the intelligence
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: that my old master Anthony had determined to let me
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: go to Baltimore to live with mister Hugh Auld, brother
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to my old master's son in law, Captain Thomas Auld.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I received this information about three days before my departure.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: They were three of the happiest days I ever enjoyed.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I spent the most part of all these three days
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: in the creek, washing off the plantation skurf, and preparing
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: myself for my departure. The pride of appearance, which this
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: would indicate, was not my own. I spent the time
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: in washing, not so much because I wished to, but
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: because Missus Lucretia had told me I must get all
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the dead skin off my feet and knees before I
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: could go to Baltimore. For the people in Baltimore were
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: very cleanly and would laugh at me if I looked dirty. Besides,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: she was going to give me a pair of trousers,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: which I should not put on unless I got all
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the dirt off me. The thought of owning a pair
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: of trousers was great. Indeed, it was almost a sufficient motive,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: not only to make me take off what would be
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: called by pig drovers the mange, but the skin itself.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I went at it in good earnest, working for the
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: first time with the hope of reward. The ties that
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: ordinarily bind children to their homes were all suspended. In
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: my case, I found no severe trial in my departure.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: My home was charmless. It was not home to me.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: On parting from it, I could not feel that I
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: was leaving anything which I could have enjoyed by staying.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: My mother was dead. My grandmother lived far off, so
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: that I seldom saw her. I had two sisters and
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: one brother that lived in the same house with me,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: but the early separation of us from our mother had
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: well nigh blotted the fact of our relationship from our memories.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I looked for home elsewhere, and was confident of finding
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: none which I should relish less than the one which
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I was leaving. If, however, I found in my new
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: home hardship, hunger, whipping, and nakedness, I had the consolation
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: that I should not have escaped any one of them
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: by staying, having already had more than a taste of
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: them in the house of my old master, and having
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: endured them there, I very naturally inferred my ability to
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: endure them elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore. For I had
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: something of the feeling about Baltimore that is expressed in
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the proverb that being hanged in England is preferable to
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: dying and natural death in Ireland. I had the strongest
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: desire to see Baltimore. Cousin Tom, though not fluent in speech,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: had inspired me with that desire by his eloquent description
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: of the place. I could never point out anything at
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the Great House, no matter how beautiful or powerful, but
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: that he had seen something at Baltimore far exceeding both
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: in beauty and strength the object which I pointed out
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: to him. Even the Great House itself, with all its pictures,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: was far inferior to many buildings in Baltimore. So strong
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: was my desire that I thought a gratification of it
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: would fully compensate for whatever loss of comforts I should
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: sustain by the exchange I I left without a regret
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: and with the highest hopes of future happiness. We sailed
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: out of Myles River for Baltimore on a Saturday morning.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I remember only the day of the week, for at
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that time I had no knowledge of the days of
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the month, nor the months of the year. On setting sail,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I walked aft and gave to Colonel Lloyd's plantation what
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: I hoped would be the last look. I then placed
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: myself in the bows of the sloop, and there spent
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the remainder of the day in looking ahead, interesting myself
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: in what was in the distance, rather than in things
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: near by or behind. In the afternoon of that day
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: we reached Annapolis, the capital of the state. We stopped
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: but a few moments, so that I had no time
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: to go on shore. It was the first large town
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: that I had ever seen, and though it would look
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: small compared with some of our New England factory villages,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: I thought it a wonderful place for its size, more
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: imposing even than the Great House Farm. We arrived at
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Baltimore early on Sunday morning, landing at Smith's Wharf, not
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: far from Bully's wharf. We had on board the sloop
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: a large flock of sheep, and after aiding and driving
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: them to the slaughter house of mister Curtis on Louden
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Slatter's Hill, I was conducted by Rich, one of the
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: hands belonging on board of the sloop, to my new
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: home in Aliciana Street, near mister Gardner's shipyard on Fell's Point.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Mister and Missus Auld were both at home and met
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: me at the door with their little son Thomas, to
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: take care of, whom I had been given. And here
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: I saw what I had never seen before. It was
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions. It
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: was the face of my new mistress, Sophia Auld. I
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: wish I could describe the rapture that flashed through my
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: soul as I beheld it. It was a new and
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: strange sight to me, brightening up my pathway with the
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: light of happiness. Little Thomas was told there was his Freddy,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: and I was told to take care of little Thomas.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: And thus I entered upon the duties of my new
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: home with the most cheering prospect ahead. I I look
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: upon my departure from Colonel Lloyd's plantation as one of
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the most interesting events of my life. It is possible,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and even quite probable, that, but for the mere circumstance
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: of being removed from that plantation to Baltimore, I should
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: have to day, instead of being here, seated by my
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: own table, in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: of home, writing this narrative been confined in the galling
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: chains of slavery. Going to live at Baltimore laid the
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: foundation and opened the gateway to all my subsequent prosperity.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: I have ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: of that kind providence which has ever since attended me
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: and marked my life with so many favors. I regarded
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: the selection of myself as being somewhat remarkable. There were
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: a number of slave children that might have been sent
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: from the plantation to Baltimore. There were those younger, those older,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: and those of the same age. I was chosen from
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: among them all, and was the first, last, and only choice.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: I I may be deemed superstitious and even egotistical in
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: regarding this event as a special interposition of divine providence
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: in my favor, but I should be false to the
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: I prefer to be true to myself, even at the
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: be false and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: would not always be able to hold me within its
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: foul embrace. And in the darkest hours of my career
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: hope departed not from me, but remained, like ministering angels
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: to cheer me through the gloom. This good spirit was
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Chapter six. My new mistress proved to be all she
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: appeared when I first met her at the door, A
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings. She had
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: never had a slave under her control. Previously to myself,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: and prior to her marriage, she had been dependent upon
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: her own industry for a living. She was, by trade
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: a weaver, and by constant application to her business, she
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: and dehumanizing effects of slavery. I was utterly astonished at
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: her goodness. I scarcely knew how to behave towards her.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: She was entirely unlike any other white woman I had
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: ever seen. I could not approach her as I was
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: accustomed to approach other white ladies. My early instruction was
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: all out of place. The crouching servility, usually so acceptable
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: a quality in a slave, did not answer when manifested
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: toward her. Her favor was not gained by it. She
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: seemed to be disturbed by it. She did not deem
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: it impudent or unmannerly for a slave to look her
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: in the face. The meanest slave was put fully at
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: ease in her presence, and none left without feeling better
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: for having seen her. Her face was made of heavenly smiles,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: and her voice of tranquil music. But alas this kind
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: heart had but a short time to remain such, the
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: the influence of slavery, soon became read with rage. That
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: voice made all of sweet accord, changed to one of
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: harsh and horrid discord, and that angelic face gave place
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: to that of a demon. Very soon after I went
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: to live with mister and Missus Auld, she very kindly
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: commenced to teach me the A, B. C. After I
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: words of three or four letters. Just at this point
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: of my progress, mister Auld found out what was going on,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: and at once forbade missus All to instruct me further,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful as
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read to
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: use his own words. Further, he said, if you give
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: a nigger an inch, he will take an l A
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: nigger should know nothing but to obey his master, to
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the best nigger in the world, now, said he. If
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: you teach that nigger, speaking of myself, how to read,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: him to be a slave. He would at once become
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: unmanageable and of no value to his master. As to himself.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: It could do him no good, but a great deal
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy. These
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: that lay slumbering and called into existence an entirely new
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: train of thought. It was a new and special revelation
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: explaining dark and mysterious things with which my youthful understanding
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: had been to me a most perplexing difficulty to wit
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the white man's power to enslave the black. It was
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: moment I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: was just what I wanted, and I got it at
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: by the merest accident I had gained from my master.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I set out with high hope and a fixed purpose,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: The very decided manner with which he spoke and strove
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: me instruction served to convince me that he was deeply
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: confidence on the results which he said would flow from
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: teaching me to read what he most dreaded, that I
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: most desired, what he most loved, that I most that
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: which to him was a great evil to be carefully shunned,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: was to me a great good to be diligently sought.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: And the argument which he so warmly urged against my
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: learning to read only served to inspire me with a
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: desire and determination to learn. In learning to read, I
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: master as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: acknowledged the benefit of both. I had resided but a
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: in the treatment of slaves from that which I had
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: witnessed in the country. A city slave is almost a
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: freeman compared with a slave on the plantation. He is
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: to the slave on the plantation. There is a vestige
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: of decency, a sense of shame that does much to
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: Kurub and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: enacted upon the plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder who
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: will shock the humanity of his non slave holding neighbors
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: with the cries of his lacerated slave. Few are willing
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: to incur the odium attaching to the reputation of being
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: a cruel master, and above all things, they would not
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: be known as not giving a slave enough to eat.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Every city slaveholder is anxious to have it known of
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: him that he feeds his slaves well, and it is
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: due to them to say that most of them do
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: give their slaves enough to eat. There are, however, some
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: painful exceptions to this rule. Directly opposite to us. On
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: Philpot Street lived mister Thomas Hamilton. He owned two slaves.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Their names were Henrietta and Mary. Henrietta was about twenty
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: two years of age, Mary was about fourteen. And of
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: all the mangled and emaciated creatures I ever looked upon,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: these two were the most. So his heart must be
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: harder than stone that could look upon these unmoved. The head, neck,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces. I
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: have frequently felt her head and found it nearly covered
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: with festering sores caused by the lash of her cruel mistress.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: I do not know that her master ever whipped her,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: but I have been an eye witness to the cruelty
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of Missus Hamilton. I used to be in mister Hamilton's
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: house nearly every day. Missus Hamilton used to sit in
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: a large chair in the middle of the room, with
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: a heavy cowskin always by her side, and scarce an
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: hour passed during the day, but was marked by the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: blood of one of these slaves. The girls seldom passed
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: her without her saying move faster, you black jip, at
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the same time giving them a blow with the cowskin
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: over the head or shoulders, often drawing the blood. She
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: would then say, take that, you black jip, continuing if
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: you don't move faster, I'll move you. Added to the
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: cruel lashings to which these slaves were subjected, they were
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: kept nearly half starved. They seldom knew what it was
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: to eat a full meal. I have seen Mary contending
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: with the pigs for the awful throne into the street.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: So much was Mary kicked and cut to pieces, that
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: she was oftener called pecked than by her name. Chapter
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: seven I lived in Master Hughes's family about seven years.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: During this time I succeeded in learning to read and write.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: but had set her face against my being instructed by
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: any one else. It is due, however, to my mistress,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: to say of her, that she did not adopt this
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: course of treatment immediately. She at first lacked the depravity
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness. It was
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: at least necessary for her to have some training in
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: the exercise of irresponsible power to make her equal to
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: the ten of treating me as though I were a brute.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: tender hearted woman, and in the simplicity of her soul
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: she commenced when I first went to live with her,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: to treat me as she supposed one human being ought
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a slaveholder.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: She did not seem to perceive that I sustained to
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: her to treat me as a human being was not
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: only wrong, but dangerously so. Slavery proved as injurious to
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: her as it did to me. When I went there.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: She was a pious, warm, and tender hearted woman. There
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: a tear. She had bred for the hungry, clothes for
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: of tiger like fierceness. The first step in her downward
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: course was in her ceasing to instruct me. She now
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: commenced to practice her husband's precepts. She finally became even
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: had commanded. She seemed anxious to do better. Nothing seemed
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: to make her more angry than to see me with
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: a newspaper. She seemed to think that here lay the danger.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: I have had her rush at me with a face
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: made all up of fury, and snatch for me a
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: newspaper in a manner that fully revealed her apprehension. She
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: was an apt woman, and a little experience soon demonstrated
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: to her satisfaction that education and slavery were incompatible with
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: each other. From this time I was most narrowly watched.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: If I was in a separate room any considerable length
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: of time, I was sure to be suspected of having
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a book, and was at once called to give an
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: account of myself. All this, however, was too late. The
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: first step had been taken Mistress in teaching me the
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: alphabet had given me the inch, and no precaution could
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: prevent me from taking the l The plan which I adopted,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: and the one by which I was most successful, was
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: that of making friends of all the little white boys
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: whom I met in the street. As many of these
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: as I could I converted into teachers. With their kindly
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: aid obtained at different times and in different places, I
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: finally succeeded in learning to read. When I was sent
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: of errands, I always took my book with me, and
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: by going one part of my errand quickly I found
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: time to get a lesson before my return. I used
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: also to carry bread with me, enough of which was
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: always in the house, and to which I was always welcome,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: For I was much better off in this regard than
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: who in return would give me that more valuable bread
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: of knowledge. I am strongly tempted to give the names
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: of two or three of those little boys as a
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: testimonial of the gratitude and affection I bear them, but
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: prudence forbids, not that it would injure me, but it
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: might embarrass them, For it is almost an unpardonable offense
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: to teach slaves to read in this Christian country. It
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: is enough to say of the dear little fellows that
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: they lived on Philpot Street, very near Durgin and Bailey's
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: ship yard. I used to talk this matter of slavery
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: over with them. I would sometimes say to them, I
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: wished I could be as free as they would be
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: when they got to be men. You will be free
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: as soon as you are twenty one. But I am
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: a slave for life. Have not I as good a
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: right to be free as you have. These words used
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: to trouble them. They would express for me the liveliest
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: sympathy and console me with the hope that something would
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: occur by which I might be free. I was now
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: about twelve years old, and the thought of being a
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Just about this time I got hold of a book
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: entitled The Columbian Orator. Every opportunity one got I used
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: to read this book. Among much of other interesting matter,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: I found in it a dialogue between a master and
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: his slave. The slave was represented as having run away
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: from his master three times. The dialogue represented the conversation
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: which took place between them when the slave was retaken
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: the third time. In this dialogue, the whole argument in
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: behalf of slavery was brought forward by the master, all
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: of which was disposed of by the slave. The slave
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: was made to say some very smart as well as
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: impressive things in reply to his master, things which had
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: the desired though unexpected effect, for the conversation resulted in
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the master. In the same book, I met with one
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: of Sheridan's mighty speeches on and in behalf of Catholic Emancipation.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: These were choice documents to me. I read them over
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: through my mind and died away for want of utterance.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: The moral which I gained from the dialog was the
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: slavery and a powerful vindication of human rights. The reading
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery. But
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: while they relieved me of one difficulty, they brought on
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: another even more painful than the one of which I
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: was relieved. The more I read, the more I was
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: them in no other light than a band of successful
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: robbers who had left their homes and gone to Africa
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: as well as the most wicked of men. As as
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I read and contemplated the subject, behold that very discontentment
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: had already come to torment and sting my soul to
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: times feel that learning to read had been a curse
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: rather than a blessing. It had given me a view
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: of my wretched condition without the remedy. It opened my
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: eyes to the horrible pit, but to no latter upon
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: my fellow slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: reptile to my own any thing, no matter what, to
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: get rid of thinking. It was this everlasting thinking of
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: of it. It was pressed upon me by every object
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: of freedom had roused my soul to a turn wakefulness.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Freedom now appeared to disappear no more. Forever It was
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: was ever present to torment me with a sense of
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm. I
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: often found myself regretting my own existence and wishing myself dead.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: And but for the hope of being free, I have
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: no doubt but that I should have killed myself or
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: done something for which I should have been killed. While
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: in this state of mind, I was eager to hear
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: any one speak of slavery. I was a ready listener.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Every little while I could hear something about the abolitionists.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: It was some time before I found what the word meant.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: It was always used in such connections as to make
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: it an interesting word to me. If a slave ran
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: away and succeeded in getting clear, or if a slave
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: killed his master, set fire to a barn, or did
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: anything very wrong in the mind of a slaveholder, it
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: was spoken of as the fruit of abolition. Hearing the
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: word in this connection very often, I set about learning
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: what it meant. The dictionary afforded me little or no help.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: I found it was the act of abolishing. But then
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: I did not know what was to be abolished here.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: I was perplexed. I did not dare to ask any
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: one about its meaning, for I was satisfied that it
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: was something they wanted me to know very little about.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: After a patient waiting, I got one of our city
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: papers containing an account of the number of petitions from
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the north praying for the abolition of slavery in the
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the states.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionist,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: and always drew near when that word was spoken, expecting
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: to hear something of importance to myself and things fellow slaves.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: The light broke in upon me by degrees. I went
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: one day down on the wharf of Mister Waters, and
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: seeing two irishmen unloading a scowl of stone, I went
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: unasked and helped them. When we had finished, one of
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: them came to me and asked me if I were
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: a slave. I told him I was. He asked, are
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: ye a slave for life? I told him that I was.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: The good irishman seemed to be deeply affected by the statement.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: He said to the other that it was a pity
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: so fine a little fellow as myself should be a
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: slave for life. He said, it was a shame to
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: hold me. They both advised me to run away to
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the north, that I should find friends there, and that
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: I should be free. I pretended not to be interested
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: in what they said, and treated them as if I
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: did not understand them, for I feared they might be treacherous.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: and then to get the reward, catch them and return
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: them to their masters. I was afraid that these seemingly
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: good men might use me so. But I nevertheless remembered
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: their advice, and from that time I resolved to run away.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: I looked forward to a time at which it would
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: be safe for me to escape. I was too young
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: to think of doing so immediately. Besides, I wished to
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: learn how to write, as I might have occasioned to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: write my own pass. I consoled myself with the hope
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: that I should one day find a good chance meanwhile
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: I would learn to write. The idea as to how
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: I might learn to write was suggested to me by
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: being in Durgent and Bailey's ship yard, and frequently seeing
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: the ship carpenters. After hewing and getting a piece of
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: timber ready for use, write on the timber the name
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: of that part of the ship for which it was intended.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: When a piece of timber was intended for the larboard side,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: it would be marked thus L. When a piece was
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: for the starboard side, it would be marked thus S.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: A piece for the larboard side forward would be marked
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: thus l F. When a piece was for starboard side forward,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: it would be marked thus S F. For larboard aft,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: it would be marked thus l A. For starboard aft,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: it would be marked thus S A. I soon learned
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: the names of these letters and for what they were intended.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: When placed upon a piece of timber in the ship yard,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: was able to make the four letters named After that,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: when I met with any boy who I knew could write,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I would tell him I could write as well as he.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: The next word would be, I don't believe you, Let
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: me see you try it. I would then make the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: letters which I had been so fortunate as to learn,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: and ask him to beat that. In this way I
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: got a good many lessons in writing, which it is
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: quite possible, I should never have gotten in any other way.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: During this time, my copy book was the board fence,
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: brick wall, and pavement. My pen and ink was a
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: lump of chalk. With these I learned mainly how to write.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: I then commenced and continued copying the italics in Webster's
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: spelling book until I could make them all without looking
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: on the book. By this time, my little Master Thomas
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: had gone to school and learned how to write, and
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: had written over a number of copy books. These had
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: been brought home and shown to some of our near neighbors,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: and then laid aside. My mistress used to go to
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: class meeting at the Wilke Street Meeting House every Monday
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: afternoon and leave me to take care of the house.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: When left, thus I used to spend the time in
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: writing in the spaces left in Master Thomas's copy book,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: copying what he had written. I continued to do this
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: until I could write a hand very similar to that
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: of Master Thomas. Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: I finally succeeded in learning how to write Chapter eight.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: In a very short time. After I went to live
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: at Baltimore, my old master his youngest son, Richard, died,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: and in about three years and six months after his death,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: my old master, Captain Anthony died, leaving only his son
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: Andrew and daughter Lucretia to share his estate. He died
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: while on a visit to see his daughter at Hillsborough,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: cut off. Thus, unexpectedly, he left noble as to the
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: disposal of his property. It was therefore necessary to have
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: a valuation of the property, that it might be equally
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: divided between Missus Lucretia and Master Andrew. I was immediately
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: sent for to be valued with the other property. Here
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: again my feelings rose up in detestation of slavery. I
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: had now a new conception of my degraded condition. Prior
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: to this, I had become, if not insensible to my lot,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: at least partly. So. I left Baltimore with a young heart,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: overborne with sadness and a soul full of apprehension. I
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: took passage with Captain Rowe in the schooner wild Cat,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: and after a sail of about twenty four hours, I
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: found myself near the place of my birth. I had
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: now been absent from it almost, if not quite five years. I, however,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: remembered the place very well. I was only about five
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: years old when I left it to go and live
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: with my old master on Colonel Lloyd's plantation, so that
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: I was now between ten and eleven years old. We
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women,
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: scale of being, and were all subjected to the same
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: narrow examination. Silvery headed age and sprightly youth, maids and
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: matrons had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. At this moment,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: slavery upon both slave and slaveholder. After the valuation, then
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: came the division. I have no language to express the
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: high excitement and deep anxiety which were felt among us
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: poor slaves during this time. Our fate for life was
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: now to be decided. We had no more voice in
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: that decision than the brutes among whom we were ranked.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: A single word from the white men was enough against
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties to sunder forever. The
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: dearest friends, dearest kindred and strongest ties known to human beings.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: In addition to the pain of separation, there was the
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: horrid dread of falling into the hands of Master Andrew.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: He was known to us all as being a most
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: cruel wretch, a common drunkard, who had, by his reckless
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: mismanagement and profligate dissipation, already wasted a large portion of
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: his father's property. We all felt that we might as
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: well be sold at once to the Georgia traders as
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: to pass into his hands, for we knew that that
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: would be our inevitable condition, a condition held by us
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: all in the the utmost horror and dread. I suffered
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: more anxiety than most of my fellow slaves. I had
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: known what it was to be kindly treated. They had
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: known nothing of the kind. They had seen little or
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: nothing of the world. They were in very deed, men
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: and women of sorrow, and acquainted with grief. Their backs
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: had been made familiar with the bloody lash, so that
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: they had become callous. Mine was yet tender, For while
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: at Baltimore I got few whippings, and few slaves could
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: boast of a kinder master and mistress than myself. And
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: the thought of passing out of their hands into those
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: of Master Andrew, a man who but a few days
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: before to give me a sample of his bloody disposition,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: took my little brother by the throat, threw him on
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the ground, and with the heel of his boots stamped
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: upon his head till the blood gushed from his nose
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: and ears. Was well calculated to make me anxious as
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: to my fate. After he had committed this savage outrage
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: upon my brother, he turned to me and said that
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: was the way he meant to serve me one of
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: these these days, meaning I suppose when I came into
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: his possession. Thanks to a kind providence, I fell to
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: the portion of Missus Lucretia, and was sent immediately back
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: to Baltimore to live again in the family of Master Hugh.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: Their joy at my return equaled their sorrow at my departure.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: It was a glad day to me. I had escaped
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: the worse than lion's jaws. I was absent from Baltimore
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of valuation and division just about one month,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: and it seemed to have been six. Very soon after
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: my return to Baltimore, my mistress Lucretia died, leaving her
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: husband in one child, Amanda, and in a very short
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: time after her death, Master Andrew died. Now all the
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: property of my old master, slaves included, was in the
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: hands of strangers, strangers who had had nothing to do
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: with accumulating it. Not a slave was left free. All
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: remained slaves, from the youngest to the oldest. If any
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: one thing in my experience more than another served to
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: to fill me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: their base and gratitude to my poor old grandmother. She
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: had served my old master faithfully from youth to old age.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: She had been the source of all his wealth. She
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: had peopled his plantation with slaves. She had become a
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: great grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy,
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: attended him in childhood, served him through life, and at
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: his death, wiped from his icy brow the cold death sweat,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: and closed his eyes forever. She was nevertheless left a slave,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: a slave for life, a slave in the hands of strangers,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: and her great grandchildren divided, like so many sheep without
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: being gratified with the small privilege of a single word
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: as to their or her own destiny, and to cap
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: the climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarians. My grandmother,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: who was now very old, having outlived my old master
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: and all his children, having seen the beginning and end
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: of all of them, and her present owners, finding she
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: was of but little value, her frame already racked with
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: the pains of old age and complete helplessness, fast stealing
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: over her once active limbs, they took her to the woods,
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: built her a little hut, put up a little mud chimney,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: herself there in perfect loneliness, thus virtually turning her out
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: to die. If my poor old grandmother now lives, she
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: lives to suffer in utter loneliness. She lives to remember
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: and mourn over the loss of children, the loss of grandchildren,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: and the loss of great grandchildren. They are in the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: language of the slave's poet, Whittier, gone, gone, sold, and
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: gone to the rice swamp, dank and lone, where the
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: slave whip ceaseless swings, where the noisome insect stings where
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: the fever demon strews poison with the falling dews, where
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: the sickly sunbeams glare through the hot and misty air. Gone, gone,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: sold and gone to the rice swamp, dank and lone
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: from Virginia hills and waters. Woe is me, my stolen daughters.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children who
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: gropes her way in the darkness of age for a
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: drink of water. Instead of the voices of her children,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: she hears by day the moans of the dove, and
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: by night the screams of the hideous owl. All is gloom.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: The grave is at the door. And now, when weighed
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: down by the pains and aches of old age, when
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: the head inclines to the feet, when the beginning and
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: ending of human existence meet, and helpless infancy in painful
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: old age combine together at this time, this most needful time,
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: the time for the exercise of that tenderness and affection
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: which children only can exercise towards a declining parent. My
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve children, is
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: left all alone in yonder little hut before a few
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: dim embers. She stands, she sits, she staggers, she falls,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: she groans, she dies, And there are none of her
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: children or grandchildren present to wipe from her wrinkled brow
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: the cold sweat of death, or to place beneath the
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: sod her fallen remains. Will not a righteous God visit
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: for these things. In about two years after the death
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: of Missus Lucretia, Master Thomas married his second wife. Her
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: name was Rowena Hamilton. She was the eldest daughter of
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: mister William Hamilton. Master now lived in Saint Michael's. Not
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: long after his marriage, a misunderstanding took place between himself
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: and Master Hugh, and as a means of punishing his brother,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: he took me from him to live with himself at
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael's. Here I underwent another most painful separation. It, however,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: was not so severe as the one I dreaded at
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: the division of property, For during this interval a great
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: change had taken place in Master Hugh and his once
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: kind and affectionate wife. The influence of brandy upon him
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: and of slavery upon her had effected a disastrous change
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: in the characters of both so that as far as
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: they were concerned, I thought I had little to lose
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: by the change. But it was not to them that
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: I was attached. It was to those little Baltimore boys
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: that I felt the strongest attachment. I had received many
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: good lessons from them, and was still receiving them, and
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: the thought of leaving them was painful. Indeed, I was
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: leaving too, without the hope of ever being allowed to return.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: Master Thomas had said he would never let me return again.
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: The barrier betwixt himself and brother he considered impassable. I
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: then had to regret that I did not at least
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: make the attempt to carry out my resolution to run away,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: for the chances of success are tenfold greater from the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: city than from the country. I sailed from Baltimore for
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael's in the sloop Amanda Captain Edward Dodson. On
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: my passage, I paid particular attention to the direction which
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: the steamboats took to go to Philadelphia. I found, instead
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: of going down on reaching north point, they went up
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: the bay in a northeasterly direction. I deemed this knowledge
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: of the utmost importance. My determination to run away was
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: again revived. I resolved to wait only so long as
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: the offering of a favorable opportunity. When that came, I
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: was determined to be off. Chapter nine. I have now
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: reached a period of my life when I can give dates.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: I left Baltimore and went to live with Master Thomas
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: Auld at Saint Michael's in March eighteen thirty two. It
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: was now more than seven years since I lived with
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: him in the family of my old master on Colonel
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: Lloyd's plantation. We of course, were now almost entire strangers
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: to each other. He was to me a new master,
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and I to him a new slave. I was ignorant
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: of his temper and disposition. He was equally so of mine.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: A very short time, however, brought us into full acquaintance
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: with each other. I was made acquainted with his wife,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: not less than with himself. They were well matched, being
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: equally mean and cruel. I was, now, for the first time,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: during a space of more than seven years, made to
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: feel the painful gnawings of hunger, a something which I
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: had not experienced before since I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: It went hard enough with me then, when I could
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: look back to no period at which I had enjoyed
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: a sufficiency. It was tenfold harder after living in Master
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: Hughes family, where I had always had enough to eat,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: and of that which was good. I have said Master
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: Thomas was a mean man. He was so not to
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: give a slave enough to eat is regarded as the
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: most aggravated development of meanness. Even among slaveholders, the rule is,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: no matter how coarse the food, only let there be
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: enough of it. This is the theory, and in the
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: part of Maryland from which I came it is the
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: general practice, though there are many exceptions. Master Thomas gave
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: us enough of neither course nor fine food. There were
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: four slaves of us in the kitchen, my sister Eliza,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: my aunt Priscilla, Henny, and myself, and we were allowed
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: less than a half of a bushel of corn meal
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: per week, and very little else, either in the shape
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: of meat or vegetables. It was not enough for us
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: to subsist upon. We were therefore reduced to the wretched
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: necessity of living at the expense of our neighbors. This
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: we did by begging and stealing whichever came handy in
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: the time of need, the one being considered as legitimate
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: as the other. A great many times have we poor
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: creatures been nearly perishing with hunger, when food and abundance
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: lay moldering in the safe and smoke house, And our
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: pious mistress was aware of the fact. And yet that
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: mistress and her husband would kneel every morning and pray
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: that God would bless them in basket and store. Bad
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: as all slaveholders are, we seldom meet one destitute of
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: every element of character commanding respect. My master was one
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: of this rare sort. I do not know of one
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: single noble act ever performed by him. The leading trade
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: in his character was meanness, and if there were any
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: other element in his nature, it was made subject to this.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: He was mean, and like most other mean men, he
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: lacked the ability to conceal his meanness. Captain Auld was
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: not born a slaveholder. He had been a poor man
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: master only of a bay craft. He came into possession
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: of all his slaves by marriage. And of all men,
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: adopted slaveholders are the worst. He was cruel, but cowardly.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: He commanded without firmness in the enforcement of his rules.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: He was at times rigid and at times lacks. At
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: times he spoke to his slaves with the firmness of
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: Napoleon and the fury of a demon. At other times
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: he might well be mistaken for an inquirer who had
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: lost his way. He did nothing of himself. He might
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: have passed for a lion, but for his ears. In
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: all things noble which he attempted, his own meanness shone
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: most conspicuous. His heirs words and actions were the heirs
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: words and actions of born slaveholders, and, being assumed were
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: awkward enough, he was not even a good imitator. He
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: possessed all the disposition to deceive, but wanted the power.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: Having no resources within himself, he was compelled to be
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: the copyist of many, and being such he was forever
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: the victim of inconsistency and of consequence. He was an
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: object of contempt, and was held as such even by
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: his slaves. The luxury of having slaves of his own
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: to wait upon him was something new and unprepared for.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: He was a slaveholder without the ability to hold slaves.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: He found himself in capable of managing his slaves, either
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: by force, fear, or fraud. We seldom called him master.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: We generally called him captain auld and were hardly disposed
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: to title him at all, I doubt not that our
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: conduct had much to do with making him a pure, awkward,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: and of consequence fretful. Our want of reverence for him
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: must have perplexed him greatly. He wished to have us
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: call him master, but lacked the firmness necessary to command
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: us to do so. His wife used to insist upon
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: our calling him so, but to no purpose. In August
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two, my master attended a Methodist camp meeting
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: held in the bayside, Talbot County, and their experienced religion.
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: him to emancipate his slaves, and that if he did
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: not do this, it would at any rate make him
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: more kind and humane. I was disappointed in both these respects.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: It neither made him to be humane to his slaves,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: all his ways. For I believe him to have been
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity. But after
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: slave holding cruelty. He made the greatest pretensions to piety.
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: His house was the house of prayer. He prayed morning,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: noon and night. He very soon distinguished himself among his
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: brethren and was soon made a class leader and exhorder.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: His activity and revivals was great, and he proved himself
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: an instrument in the hands of the church in converting
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: many souls. His house was the preacher's home. They used
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: to take great pleasure in coming there to put up
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: for while he starved us, he stuffed them. We have
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: had three or four preachers there at a time. The
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: names of those who used to come most frequently while
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: I lived there were mister Stork's, Mister Yury, mister Humphrey,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: and mister Hickey. I have also seen mister George Cookman
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: at our house. We slaves loved mister Cookman. We believed
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: him to be a good man. We thought him instrumental
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: in getting mister Samuel Harrison, a very rich slaveholder, to
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: emancipate his slaves, and by some means, got the impression
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: that he was laboring to effect the emancipation of all
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: the slaves. When he was at our house, we were
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: sure to be called in to prayers. When the others
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: were there, we were sometimes called in and sometimes not.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: Mister Cookman took more notice of us than either of
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: the other ministers. He could not come among us without
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: betraying his sympathy for us, and stupid as we were,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: we had the sagacity to see it. While I lived
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: with my master in Saint Michael's there was a white
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: young man, a mister Wilson, who proposed to keep a
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: Sabbath school for the instruction of such slaves as might
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: be disposed to learn to read the New Testament. We
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: met but three times, when mister West and mister Fairbanks,
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: both class leaders, with many others, came upon us with
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: sticks and other missiles, drove us off and forbade us
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: to meet again. Thus ended our little Sabbath school in
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the pious town of Saint Michael's. I have said my
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: master found religious sanction for his cruelty. As an example,
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: I will state one of many facts going to prove
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: the charge. I have seen him tie up a lame
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: young woman and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: and in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: this passage of scripture. He that knoweth his Master's will
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up in
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: this horrid situation four or five hours at a time.
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: I have known him to tie her up early in
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: the morning and whip her before breakfast, leave her go
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: to his store, return at dinner, and whip her again,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: cutting her in the places already made raw with his
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: cruel lash. The secret of Master's cruelty toward Henny is
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: found in the fact of her being almost helpless. When
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: quite a child, she fell into the fire and burned
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: herself horribly. Her hands were so burnt that she never
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: got the use of them. She could do very little
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: but bear heavy burdens. She was to Master of a
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: bill of expense, and as he was a mean man,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: she was a constant offense to him. He seemed desirous
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: of getting the poor girl out of existence. He gave
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: her away once to his sister, but being a poor gift,
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: she was not disposed to keep her. Finally, my benevolent
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Master to use his own words, set her adrift to
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: take care of herself. Here was a recently converted man
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: holding on upon the mother and at the same time
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: turning out her helpless child to starve and die. Master
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: Thomas was one of the many pious slave holders who
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: hold slaves for the very charitable purpose of taking care
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: of them. My master and myself had quite a number
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: of differences. He found me unsuitable to his purpose. My
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: city life, he said, had had a very pernicious effect
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: upon me. It had almost ruined me for every good purpose,
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: and fitted me for everything which was bad. One of
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: my greatest faults was that of letting his horse run
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: away and go down to his father in law's farm,
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: which was about five miles from Saint Michael's. I would
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: then have to go after it. My reason for this
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: kind of carelessness or carefulness, was that I could always
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: get something to eat when I went there. Master William Hamilton,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: my master's father in law, always gave his slaves enough
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: to eat. I never left there hungry, no matter how
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: great the need of my speedy return. Master Thomas at
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: length said he would stand it no longer. I had
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: lived with him nine months, during which time, he had
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: given me a number of severe whippings, all to no
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: good purpose. He resolved to put me out, as he
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: said to be broken, and for this purpose he led
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: me for one year to a man named Edward Covey.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: Mister Covey was a poor man, a farm renter. He
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: rented the place upon which he lived, as also the
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: hands with which he tilted. Mister Covey had acquired a
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: very high reputation for breaking young slaves, and this reputation
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: was of immense value to him. It enabled him to
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: get his farm tilled with much less expense to himself
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: than he could have had it done without such a reputation.
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: Some slaveholders thought it not much lost to allow mister
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: Covey to have their slaves one year for the sake
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: of the training to which they were subjected, without any
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: other compensation. He could hire young help with great ease.
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: In consequence of this reputation. Added to the natural good
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: qualities of mister Covey, he was a professor of religion,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: a pious soul, a member, and a class leader in
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: the Methodist Church. All of this added weight to his
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: reputation as a nigger breaker. I was aware of all
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: the facts, having been made acquainted with them by a
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: young man who had lived there. I nevertheless made the
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: change gladly, for I was sure of getting enough to eat,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: which is not the smallest consideration to a hungry man.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. I had left Master Thomas's house and went
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: to live with mister Covey on the first of January
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty three. I was now, for the first time
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: in my life, a field hand. In my new employment,
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: I found myself even more awkward than a country boy
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: appeared to be in a large city. I had been
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: at my new home but one week before mister Covey
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: as large as my little finger. The details of this
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: affair are as follows. Mister Covey sent me very early
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: in the morning of one of our coldest days in
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: the month of January to the woods to get a
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: load of wood. He gave me a team of unbroken oxen.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: He told me which was the in hand ox and
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: which the off hand won. He then tied the end
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: of a large rope around the horns of the inn
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: hand ox and gave me the other end of it
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: and told me if the oxen started to run, that
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: I must hold on upon the rope. I had never
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: driven oxen before, and of course I was very awkward. I, however,
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: succeeded in getting to the edge of the woods with
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: little difficulty. But I had got a very few rods
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: into the woods when the oxen took fright and started
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: full tilt, carrying the cart against trees and over stumps
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: in the most frightful manner. I expected every moment that
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: my brains would be dashed out against the trees. After
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: running thus for a considerable distance, they finally upset the cart,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: dashing it with great force against a tree, and threw
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: themselves into a dense thicket. How I escaped death, I
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: do not know. There I was entirely alone in a
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: thick wood, in a place new to me. My cart
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: was upset and shattered, my oxen were entangled among the
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: young trees, and there was none to help me. After
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: a long spell of effort, I succeeded in getting my
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: cart righted, my oxen disentangled and again yoked to the cart.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: I now proceeded with my team to the place where
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: I had the day before been chopping wood, and loaded
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: my cart pretty heavily, thinking in this way to tame
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: my oxen. I then proceeded on my way home. I
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: had now consumed one half of the day. I got
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: out of the woods safely, and now felt out of danger.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: I stopped my oxen to open the woods gate, and
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: just as I did so, before I could get hold
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: of my ox rope, the oxen again started rushed through
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: the gate, catching it between the wheel and the body
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: of the cart, tearing it to pieces, and coming within
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: a few inches of crushing me against the gate. Thus
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: twice in one short day, I escaped death by the
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: merest chance. On my return, I told mister Covey what
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: had happened and how it happened. He ordered me to
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: return to the woods again. Immediately I did so, and
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: he followed on after me. Just as I got into
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the woods, he came up and told me to stop
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: my cart and that he would teach me how to
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: trifle away my time and break gates. He then went
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: to a large gum tree and with his axe cut
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: three large switches, and after trimming them up neatly with
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: his pocket knife, he ordered me to take off my clothes.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: I made him no answer, but stood with my clothes on.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: He repeated his order. I still made him no answer,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: nor did I move to strip myself. Upon this, he
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: off my clothes and lashed me till he had worn
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: was the first of a number just like it, and
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: for similar offenses. I lived with mister Covey one year.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: During the first six months of that year, scarce a
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: week passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: from a sore back. My awkwardness was almost always his
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: excuse for whipping me. We were worked fully up to
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: the point of endurance. Long before day, we were up,
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: our horses fed, and by the first approach of day
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: we were off to the field with our hoes and
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: plowing teams. Mister Covey gave us enough to eat, but
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: scarce time to eat it. We were often less than
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: five minutes taking our meals. We were often in the
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: field from the first approach of day till its last
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: lingering ray had left us, and as saving fodder time
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: midnight often caught us in the field binding blades. Covey
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: would be out with us. The way he used to
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: stand it was this he would spend the most of
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: his afternoons in bed. He would then come out fresh
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: in the evening, ready to urge us on with his words, example,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: and frequently with the whip. Mister Covey was one of
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: the few slaveholders who could and did work with his hands.
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: He was a hard working man. He knew by himself
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: just what a man or a boy could do. There
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: was no deceiving him. His work went on in his
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: absence almost as well as in his presence, and he
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: had the faculty of making us feel that he was
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: ever present with us. This he did by surprising us.
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: He seldom approached the spot where we were at work openly,
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: if he could do it secretly. He always aimed at
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: taking us by surprise. Such was his cunning that we
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: used to call him among ourselves the snake. When we
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: were at work in the cornfield, he would sometimes crawl
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: on his hands and knees to avoid detection, and all
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: at once. He would rise nearly in our midst and
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: scream out, ha ha, come, come, dash on, dash on.
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: This being his mode of attack, it was never safe
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: to stop a single minute. His comings were like a
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: thief in the night. He appeared to us as being
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: ever at hand. He was under every tree, behind every stump,
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: in every bush, and at every window on the plantation.
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: He would sometimes mount his horse as if bound to
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael's, a distance of seven miles, and in half
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: an hour afterwards you would see him coiled up in
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: the corner of the wood fence, watching every motion of
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: the slaves. He would for this purpose leave his horse
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: tied up in the woods. Again. He would sometimes walk
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: up to us and give us orders as though he
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: was upon the point of starting on a long journey,
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: turn his back upon us, and make as though he
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: was going to the house to get ready. And before
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: he would get half way thither, he would turn short
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: and crawl into a fence corner or behind some tree,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: and there watch us till the going down of the sun.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: Mister Covey's forte consisted in his power to deceive. His
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: life was devoted to planning and perpetrating the grossest deceptions.
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: Everything he possessed in the shape of learning or religion
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: he made conform to his disposition to deceive. He seemed
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: to think himself equal to deceiving the Almighty. He would
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: make a short prayer in the morning and a long
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: prayer at night, and strange as it may seem, few
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: men would at times appear more devotional than he. The
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: exercises of his family devotions were always commenced with singing,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: and as he was a very poor singer himself, the
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: duty of raising the hymn generally came upon me. He
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: would read his hymn and nod at me to commence.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: I would at times do so, at others I would not.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: My non compliance would almost always produce much confusion. To
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: show himself independent of me, he would start and stagger
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: through with him in the most discordant manner. In this
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: state of mind he prayed with more than ordinary spirit,
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: poor man, such was his disposition and success at deceiving.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: the solemn belief that he was a sincere worshiper of
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: the Most High God. And this too at a time
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: when he may be said to have been guilty of
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: The facts in the case are these. Mister Covey was
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: a poor man. He was just commencing in life. He
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: was only able to buy one slave, and shocking as
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: is the fact he bought her, as he said, for
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: a breeder. This woman was named Caroline. Mister Covey bought
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: her from mister Thomas Lowe, about six miles from Saint Michael's.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: She was a large, able bodied woman about twenty years old.
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: She had already given birth to one child, which proved
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: her to be just what he wanted. After buying her,
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: he hired a married man of mister Samuel Harrison, to
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: live with him one year, and him he used to
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: fasten up with her every night. The result was that
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: at the end of the year, the miserable woman gave
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: birth to twins. At this result, mister Covey seemed to
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: be highly pleased, both with the man and the wretched woman.
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: Such was his joy and that of his wife, that
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: nothing they could do for Caroline during her confinement was
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: too good or too hard to be done. The children
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: were regarded as being quite an addition to his wealth.
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: If at any one time of my life more than another.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery.
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: That time was during the first six months of my
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: stay with mister Covey. We were worked in all weathers.
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: It was never too hot or too cold. It could
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: never rain, blow hail, or snow too hard for us
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: to work in the field. Work work, work was scarcely
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: more the order of the day than of the night.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: The longest days were too short for him, and the
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: shortest nights too long for him. I was somewhat unmanageable
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: when I first went there, but a few months of
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: this discipline tamed me. Mister Covey succeeded in breaking me.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: elasticity was crushed, My intellect languished, the disposition to redeparted.
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: The cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died. The
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: dark night of slavery closed in upon me, and behold
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: a man transformed into a brute. Sunday was my only
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: leisure time. I spent this in a sort of beastlike stupor,
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: between sleep and wake, under some large tree. At times
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: hope that flickered for a moment and then vanished. I
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: sank down again, mourning over my wretched condition. I was
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: sometimes prompted to take my life and that of Covey,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: but was prevented by a combination of hope and fear.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: My sufferings on this place tentation seemed now like a
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: dream rather than a stern reality. Our house stood within
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: a few rods of the Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: was ever white, with sails from every quarter of the
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: habitable globe. Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: of my wretched condition. I have often, in the deep
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: stillness of a summer sabbath, stood all alone upon the
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced with saddened
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: heart and tearful eye, the countless number of sails moving
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance, and there,
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: with no audience but the almighty I would pour out
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: my soul's complaint in my rude way, with an apostrophe
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: to the moving multitude of ships. You are loosed from
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: your moorings and are free. I am fast in my chains,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: and them a slave. You move merrily before the gentle gale,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: and I sadly before the bloody whip. You are freedom,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: swift winged angels that fly round the world. I am
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: confined in bands of iron. Oh that I were free,
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: Oh that I were on one of your gallant decks
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: and under your protecting wing. Alas betwixt me and you,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: the turbid water's roll, go on, go on? Oh that
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: I could also go? Could I but swim? If I
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: could fly? Oh? Why was I born a man of
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: whom to make a brute? The glad ship is gone.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: She hides in the dim distance. I am left in
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: the hottest hell of unending slavery. Oh God, save me,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: God deliver me, Let me be free. Is there any God?
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: Why am I a slave? I will run away. I
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: will not stand it, get caught or get clear try it.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: I had as well die with ague as the fever.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: I have only one life to lose. I had as
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: well be killed running as die standing only think of it.
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: One hundred miles straight north, and I am free. Try it, Yes,
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: shall live and die a slave. I will take to
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom.
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: The steamboat steered in a northeast course from north point.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: I will do the same. And when I get to
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: the head of the bay, I will turn my canoe
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: adrift and walk straight through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: get there, I shall not be required to have a pass.
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: I can travel without being disturbed. Let but the first
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: opportunity offer and come what will I am off? Meanwhile,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: I will try to bear up under the yoke. I
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: am not the only slave in the world. Why should
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: I fret? I can bear as much as any of them. Besides,
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: I am but a boy, and all boys are bound
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: to some one. It may be that my misery and
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: There is a better day coming. Thus I used to think,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: and thus I used to speak to myself, goaded almost
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: to madness at one moment, and at the next, reconciling
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: myself to my wretched lot. I have already intimated that
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: my condition was much worse during the first six months
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: of my stay at mister Covey's than in the last six.
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: The circumstances leading to the change in mister Covey's course
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: toward me form an epoch in my humble history. You
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: have seen how a man was made a slave. You
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: shall see how a slave was made a man. On
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: one of the hottest days of the month of August
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty three, Bill Smith, William Hughes, a slave named Eli,
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: and myself were engaged in fanning wheat. Hughes was clearing
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: the fan weak from before the fan, Eli was turning,
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: Smith was feeding, and I was carrying weak to the fan.
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: The work was simple, requiring strength rather than intellect. Yet
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: to one entirely and use to such work it came
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: very hard. About three o'clock of that day, I broke down.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: My strength failed me. I was seized with a violent
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness. I trembled
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: in every limb. Finding what was coming, I nerved myself up,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: feeling it would never do to stop work. I stood
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: as long as I could, stagger to the hopper with
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: grain when I could stand no longer, I fell and
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: felt as if held down by an immense weight. The fan,
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: of course, stopped. Every one had his own work to do,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: and no one could do the work of the other
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: and have his own go on. At the same time,
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: mister Covey was at the house about one hundred yards
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: from the treading yard where we were fanning. On hearing
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: the fan stop, he left immediately and came to the
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: spot where we were. He hastily inquired what the matter was.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: Bill answered that I was sick, and there was no
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: one to bring weak to the fan. I had by
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: this time crawled away under the side of the post
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: and rail fence by which the yard was enclosed, hoping
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: to find relief by getting out of the sun. He
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: then asked where I was. He was told by one
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: of the hands. He came to the spot, and, after
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: looking at me awhile, asked me what was the matter.
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: I told him as well as I could, for I
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: savage kick in the side and told me to get up.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt.
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: He gave me another kick and again told me to rise.
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: I again tried and succeeded in gaining my feet, but
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: the fan, I again staggered and fell while down. In
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: this situation, mister Covey took up the hickory slat with
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: which Hughes had been striking off the half bushel measure,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: and with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head,
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: making a large wound, and the blood ran freely. And
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: with this again told me to get up. I made
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: no effort to comply, having now made up my mind
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: to let him do his worst. In a short time
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: after receiving this blow, my head grew better. Mister Covey
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: had now left me to my fate. At this moment,
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: I resolved for the first time to go to my master,
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: enter a complaint and ask his protection. In order to
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: do this, I must that afternoon walk seven miles, and this,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: under the circumstances, was truly a severe undertaking. I was
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: exceedingly feeble, made so as much by the kicks and
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: blows which I received as by the severe fit of
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: sickness to which I had been subjected. I, however, watched
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: my chance while Covey was looking in an opposite direction
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: and started for Saint Michael's. I succeeded in getting a
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: considerable distance on my way to the woods, when Covey
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: discovered me and called after me to come back, threatening
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: what he would do if I did not come. I
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: disregarded both his calls and his threats and made my
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: way to the woods as fast as my feeble state
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: would allow, and, thinking I might be overhauled by him
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: if I kept the road, I walked through the woods,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: keeping far enough from the road to avoid detection and
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: near enough to prevent losing my way. I had not
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: gone far before my little strength again failed me. I
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: could go no farther. I fell down and lay for
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: a considerable time. The blood was yet oozing from the
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: wound on my head. For a time I thought I
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: should bleed to death, and think now that I should
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: have done so, but that the blood so matted my
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: hair as to stop the wound. After lying there about
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: three quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: and started on my way through bogs and briars, barefooted
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: and bareheaded, tearing my feet sometimes at nearly every step,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: and after a journey of about seven miles, occupying some
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: five hours to perform it. I arrived at Master's store.
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: I then presented an appearance enough to effect any but
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: a heart of iron. From the crown of my head
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: to my feet, I was covered with blood. My hair
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: was all clotted with dust and blood. My shirt was
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: stiff with blood. I suppose I looked like a man
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: escaped them. In this state, I appeared before my master, humbly,
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: entreating him to interpose his authority for my protection. I
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: told him all the circumstances as well as I could,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: and it seemed as I spoke at times to affect him.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: He would then walk the floor and seek to justify
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: Covey by saying he expected I deserved it. He asked
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: me what I wanted. I told him to let me
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: get a new home, that as sure as I lived
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: with mister Covey again, I should live with but to
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: die with him, that Covey would surely kill me. He
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: was in a fair way way for it. Master Thomas
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: ridiculed the idea that there was any danger of mister
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: Covey's killing me, and said that he knew mister Covey
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: that he was a good man, and that he could
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: not think of taking me from him, that should he
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: do so, he would lose the whole year's wages. That
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: I belonged to mister Covey for one year, and that
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: I must go back to him, come what might, and
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: that I must not trouble him with any more stories,
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: or that he would himself get hold of me after
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: threatening me. Thus, he gave me a very large dose
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: of salts, telling me that I might remain in Saint
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: Michael's that night, it being quite late, but that I
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: must be off back to mister Covey's early in the morning,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: and that if I did not, he would get hold
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: of me, which meant that he would whip me. I
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: remained all night, and according to his orders, I started
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: off to Covey's in the morning Saturday morning, Wearied in
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: body and broken in spirit. I got no supper that
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: night or breakfast that morning. I reached Coveys about nine o'clock,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: and just as I was getting over the fence that
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: divided missus Kemp's fields from ours, out ran Covey with
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: his cowskin to give me another whipping before he could
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: reach me. I succeeded in getting to the cornfield, and
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: as the corn was very high, it afforded me the
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: means of hiding. He seemed very angry and searched for
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: me a long time. My behavior was altogether unaccountable. He
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: finally gave up the chase, thinking I suppose that I
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: must come home for something to eat. He would give
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: himself no further trouble in looking for me. I spent
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: that day mostly in the woods, having the alternative before
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: me to go home and be whipped to death or
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: stay in the woods and be starved to death. That
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: night I fell in with Sandy Jenkins, a slave with
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: whom I was somewhat acquainted. Sandy had a free wife
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: who lived about four miles from mister Covey's, and it
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: being Saturday, he was on his way to see her.
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: I told him my circumstances, and he very kindly invited
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: me to go home with him. I went home with
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: him and talked this whole matter over and got his
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: advice as to what course it was best for me
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: to pursue. I found Sandy an old adviser. He told me,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: with great solemnity, I must go back to Covey, but
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: that before I went, I must go with him into
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: another part of the woods, where there was a certain route, which,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: if I would take some of it with me, carrying
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: it always on my right side, would render it impossible
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: for mister Covey or any other white man to whip me.
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: He said he had carried it for years, and since
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: he had done so, he had never received a blow,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: and never expected to while he carried it. I at
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: first rejected the idea that the simple carrying of a
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: root in my pocket would have any such effect as
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: he had said, and was not disposed to take it.
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: But Sandy impressed the necessity with much earnestness, telling me
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: it could do no harm if it did no good
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: to please him. I at length took the root, and,
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: according to his direction, carried it upon my right side.
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: This was Sunday morning. I immediately started for home, and
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: upon entering the yard gate, out came mister Covey, on
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: his way to meeting. He spoke to me very kindly,
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: bade me drive the pigs from a lot near by,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: and passed on towards the church. Now this singular conduct
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: of mister Covey really made me begin to think that
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: there was something in the route which Sandy had given me,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: And had it been on any other day than Sunday,
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: I could have attributed the conduct to no other cause
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: than the influence of that route. And as it was,
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: I was half inclined to think the route to be
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: something more than I at first had taken it to be.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: All went well till Monday morning. On this morning the
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: virtue of the route was fully tested. Long before daylight,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: I was called to go and rub, curry and feed
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: the horses. I obeyed, and was glad to obey. But
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: whilst thus engaged, whilst in the act of throwing down
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: some blades from the loft, Mist Covey entered the stable
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: with a long rope, and just as I was half
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: out of the loft, he caught hold of my legs
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: and was about tying me. As soon as I found
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: what he was up to, I gave a sudden spring,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: and as I did so, he holding to my legs,
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: I was brought sprawling on the stable floor. Mister Covey
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: seemed now to think he had me and could do
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: what he pleased. But at this moment, from whence came
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: the spirit I don't know. I resolved to fight, and,
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: by the throat, and as I did so, I rose.
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: He held on to me, and I to him. My
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: resistance was so entirely unexpected that Covey seemed taken all aback.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: He trembled like a leaf. This gave me assurance, and
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: I touched him with the ends of my fingers. Mister
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: Covey soon called out to Hughes for help. Hughes came,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: and while Covey held me, attempted to tie my right hand.
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: While he was in the act of doing so, I
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 1: watched my chance and gave him a heavy kick close
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: under the ribs. This kick fairly sickened Hughes so that
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: he left me in the hands of mister Covey. This
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: kick had the effect of not only weakening Hughes, but
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: Covey also. When he saw Hughes bending over with pain,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: his courage quailed. He asked me if I meant to
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: persist in my resistance. I told him I did come
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: what might that he had used me like a brute
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: for six months and that I was determined to be used,
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: so no longer with that. He strove to drag me
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: to a stick that was lying just out of the
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: stable door. He meant to knock me down, but just
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: as he was leaning over to get the stick, I
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: seized him with both hands by his collar and brought
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: him by a sudden snatch to the ground. By this
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: time Bill came Covey called upon him for assistance. Bill
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to know what he could do cuve TV he said,
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: take hold of him, take hold of him. Bill said,
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: his master hired him out to work and not to
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: help to whip me. So he left Covey and myself
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: to fight our own battle out. We were at it
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: for nearly two hours. Covey at length let me go,
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: puffing and blowing at a great rate, saying that if
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: I had not resisted, he would not have whipped me
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: half so much. The truth was that he had not
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: whipped me at all. I considered him as getting entirely
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: the worst end of the bargain, for he had drawn
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: no blood from me, but I had from him. The
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: whole six months afterwards that I spent with mister Covey,
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: he never laid the weight of his finger upon me.
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: In anger, he would occasionally say he didn't want to
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: get hold of me again. No thought, I you need not,
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: for you will come off worse than you did before.
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: This battle with mister Covey was the turning point in
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: embers of freedom and revived within me a sense of
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: my own manhood. It recalled the departed self confidence and
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: inspired me again with a determination to be free. The
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: gratification afforded by the triumph was a full compensation for
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: whatever else might follow, even death itself. He only can
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: from the tomb of slavery to the heaven of freedom.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: My long crushed spirit rose, Cowardice departed, bold defiance took
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: its place, and I now resolved that, however long I
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: might remain a slave in form, the day had passed
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: forever when I could be a slave. In fact, I
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: did not hesitate to let it be known of me
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: must also succeed in killing me. From this time I
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: was never again what might be called fairly whipped, though
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: I remained a slave four years afterwards. I had several fights,
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: but was never whipped. It was for a long time
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: a matter of surprise to me why mister Covey did
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: not immediately have me taken by the constable to the
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: whipping post and there regularly whipped for the crime of
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: raising my hand against a white man in defense of myself.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: And the only explanation I can now think of as
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: not entirely satisfy me, but such as it is, I
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: will give it. Mister Covey enjoyed the most unbounded reputation
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: for being a first rate overseer and Negro breaker. It
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: was of considerable importance to him that reputation was at stake,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: and had he sent me, a boy about sixteen years old,
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: to the public whipping post, his reputation would have been lost.
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: So to save his reputation, he suffered me to go unpunished.
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: My term of actual service to mister Edward Covey ended
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: on Christmas Day, eighteen thirty three. The days between Christmas
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: and New year's day are allowed as holidays, and accordingly
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: we were not required to perform any labor more than
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: to feed and take care of the stock. This time
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: we regarded as our own, by the grace of our masters,
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: and we therefore used or abused it nearly as we pleased.
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: Those of us who had families at a distance were
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: generally allowed to spend the whole six days in their society.
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: This time, however, was spent in various ways. The staid,
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: sober thinking and industrious ones of our number would employ
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: themselves in making corn brooms, mats, horse collars, and baskets,
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: and another class of us would spend the time in
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: hunting possums, hares and coons. But by far the larger
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wrestling,
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: running foot races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey. And this
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: latter mode of spending the time was by far the
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: most agreeable to the feelings of our masters. A slave
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: who would work during the holidays was considered by our
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: masters as scarcely deserving them. He was regarded as one
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: who rejected the favor of his master. It was deemed
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas, and he
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: was regarded as lazy, indeed, who had not provided himself
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: with the necessary means during the year to get whisky
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: enough to last him through Christmas. From what I know
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: of the effect of these holidays upon the slave, I
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: believe them to be among the most effective means in
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: the hands of the slaveholder in keeping down the spirit
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: of insurrection. With the slaveholders at once. To abandon this practice,
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: I have not the slightest doubt it would lead to
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: an immediate insurrection among the slaves. These holidays serve as
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: conductors or safety valves to carry off the rebellious spirit
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: of enslaved humanity. But for these the slave would be
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: forced up to the wildest desperation. And woe betide the
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: slaveholder the day he ventures to remove or hinder the
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: operation of those conductors. I warn him that in such
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: an event, a spirit will go forth in their midst,
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: more to be dreaded than the most appalling earthquake. The
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: holidays are part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrong,
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: and inhumanity of slavery. They are professively accustomed, established by
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: the benevolence of the slaveholders, but I undertake to say
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: it is the result of selfishness and one of the
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: grossest frauds committed upon the down trodden slave. They do
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: not give the slaves this time because they would not
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: like to have their work during its continuance, but because
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it.
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: This will be seen by the fact that the slaveholders
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: like to have their slaves spend those days just in
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: such a manner as to make them as glad of
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: their ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: be to discuss their slaves with freedom by plunging them
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: into the lowest depths of dissipation. For instance, the slaveholders
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: not only like to see the slave drink of his
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: own accord, but will adopt various plans to make him drunk.
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: One plan is to make bets on their slaves as
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: to who can drink the most whisky without getting drunk,
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: and in this way they succeed in getting whole multitudes
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: to drink to excess. Thus, when the slave asks for
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: virtuous freedom, the cunning slaveholder, knowing his ignorance, cheats him
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: with a dose of vicious dissipation, artfully labeled with the
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: name of liberty, the most of us used to drink
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: it down, and the result was just what might be supposed.
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: Many of us were led to think that there was
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: little to choose between liberty and slavery. We felt, and
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: very properly too, that we had almost as well be
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: slaves to man as to rum. So when the holidays ended,
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: we staggered up from the filth of our wallowing, took
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: a long breath, and marched to the field, feeling upon
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: the whole rather glad to go from what our master
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: had deceived us into a belief was freedom, back to
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: the arms of slavery. I have said that this mode
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: of treatment is a part of the whole system of
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: fraud and inhumanity of slavery. It is so the mode
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: here adopted to discuss the slave with freedom, by allowing
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: him to see only the abuse of it, is carried
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: out in other things. For instance, a slave loves molasses.
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: He steals some. His master in many cases, goes off
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: to town and buys a large quantity. He returns, takes
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: his whip and commands the slave to eat the molasses,
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 1: until the poor fellow is made sick at the very
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: mention of it. The same mode is sometimes adopted to
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: make the slaves refrain from asking for more food than
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: their regular allowance. A slave runs through his allowance and
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: applies for more. His master, is enraged at him, but
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: not willing to send him off without food, gives him
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: more than is necessary and compels him to eat it
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: within a given time. Then if he complains that he
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: cannot eat it, he is said to be satisfied, neither
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: full nor fasting, and is whipped for being hard to please.
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: I have an abundance of such illustrations of the same principle,
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: drawn from my own observation, but think the cases I
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: have cited sufficient. The practice is a very common one.
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: On the first of January eighteen thirty four, I left
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: mister Covey and went to live with mister William Freeland,
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: who lived about three miles from Saint Michael's. I soon
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: found mister Freeland a very different man from mister Covey.
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: Though not rich, he was what would be called an
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: educated Southern gentleman. Mister Covey, as I have shown, was
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: a well trained Negro breaker and slave driver. The former slaveholder,
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: though he was seemed to possess some regard for honor,
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: some reverence for justice, and some respect for humanity. The
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: latter seemed totally insensible to all such sentiments. Mister Freeland
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: had many of the faults peculiar to slaveholders, such as
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: being very passionate and fretful. But I must do him
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: the justice to say that he was exceedingly free from
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: those degrading vices to which mister Covey was constantly addicted.
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: The one was open and frank, and we always knew
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: where to find him. The other was a most artful deceiver,
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: and could be understood only by such as were skillful
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: enough to detect his cunningly devised frauds. Another advantage I
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: gained in my new master was he made no pretensions
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: to or profession of religion, and this, in my opinion,
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: was truly a great advantage. I assert most unhesitatingly that
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: the religion of the South is a mere covering for
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: the most horrid crimes, a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, and a dark
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: be again reduced to the chains of slavery. Next to
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: slaveholders are the worst I have ever found them, the
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly of all others.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: a religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: such religionists. Very near mister Freeland lived the Reverend Daniel Whedon,
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: and in the same neighborhood lived the Reverend Rigby Hopkins.
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: These were members and ministers in the Reformed Methodist Church.
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: Mister Whedon owned, among others, a woman slave whose name
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: I have forgotten. This woman's back, for weeks was kept
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: literally raw, made so by the lash of this merciless
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: religious wretch. He used to hire hands. His maxim was
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: behave well or behave ill. It is the duty of
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: a master occasionally to whip a slave to remind him
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: of his master's authority. Such was his theory, and such
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: his practice. Mister Hopkins was even worse than mister Whedon.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: His chief boast was his ability to manage slaves. The
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: peculiar feature of his government was that of whipping slaves
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: in advance of deserving it. He always managed to have
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: one or more of his slaves to whip every Monday morning.
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: He did this to alarm their fears and strike terror
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: into those who escaped. His plan was to whip for
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: the smallest offenses to prevent the commission of large ones.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: Mister Hopkins could always find some excuse for whipping a slave.
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: It would astonish one unaccustomed to a slave holding life
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: to see with what wonderful ease a slaveholder can find
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: things of which to make occasion to whip a slave.
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: A mere look, word or motion, a mistake, accident, or
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: want of power are all matters for which a slave
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied,
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: it is said he has the devil in him and
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: it must be whipped out. Does he speak loudly when
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: spoken to by his master, Then he is getting high
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: minded and should be taken down a buttonhole lower. Does
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: he forget to pull off his hat at the approach
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: of a white person, then he is wanting in reverence,
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: and should be whipped for it. Does he ever venture
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: to vindicate his conduct when censured for it, then he
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: is guilty of impudence, one of the greatest crimes of
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: which a slave can be guilty. Does he ever venture
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: to suggest a different mode of doing things from that
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: pointed out by his master? He is indeed presumptuous and
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: getting above himself, and nothing less than a flogging will
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: do for him. Does he, while plowing break a plow,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: or while hoeing break a hole? It is owing to
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: his carelessness, and for it a slave must always be whipped.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: Mister Hopkins could always find something of this sort to
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: justify the use of the lash, and he seldom failed
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: to embrace such opportunities. There was not a man in
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: the whole county with whom the slaves who had the
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: getting their own home would not prefer to live rather
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: than with this rect in mister Hopkins. And yet there
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: was not a man anywhere round who made higher professions
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: of religion, or was more active in revivals, more attentive
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: to the class love, feast, prayer and preaching meetings, or
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: more devotional in his family that prayed earlier, later, louder
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: and longer than this same reverend slave driver Rigby Hopkins.
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: But to return to mister Freeland and to my experience.
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: While in his employment, he, like mister Covey, gave us
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: enough to eat, But unlike mister Covey, he also gave
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: us sufficient time to take our meals. He worked us hard,
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: but always between sunrise and sunset. He required a good
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: deal of work to be done, but gave us good
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: tools with which to work. His farm was large, but
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: he employed hands enough to work it, and with ease.
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: Compared with many of his neighbors, My treatment while in
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: his employment was heavenly compared with what I experienced at
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 1: the hands of mister Edward Covey. Mister Freeland was himself
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: the owner of but two slaves. Their names were Henry
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: Harris and John Harris. The rest of his hands he hired.
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: These consisted of myself, Sandy Jenkins one, and Handy Caldwell one.
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: This is the same man who gave me the roots
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: to prevent my being whipped by mister Covey. He was
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: a clever soul. We used frequently to talk about the
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: fight with Covey, and as often as we did so,
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: he would claim my success as the result of the
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: roots which he gave me. This superstition is very common
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: among the more ignorant slaves. A slave seldom dies, but
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: that his death is attributed to trickery. Henry and John
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: were quite intelligent, and in a very little while after
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: I went there, I succeeded in creating in them a
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: strong desire to learn how to read. This desire soon
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: sprang up in the others also. They very soon mustered
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: up some old spelling books, and nothing would do but
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 1: that I must keep a Sabbath school. I agreed to
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: do so, and accordingly devoted my sundays to teaching these
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: my loved fellow slaves how to read. Neither of them
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: knew his letters. When I went there. Some of the
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: slaves of the neighboring farms found what was going on,
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: and also availed themselves of this little opportunity to learn
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: to read. It was understood among all who came that
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: there must be as little display about it as possible.
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: It was necessary to keep our religious masters at Saint
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: Michael's unacquainted with the fact that instead of spending the
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, we were trying
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 1: to learn how to read the will of God, for
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: sports than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral and
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: accountable beings. My blood boils as I think of the
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: bloody manner in which Messrs Wright Fairbanks and Garrison West,
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: both class leaders, in connection with many others, rushed in
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: upon us with still and stones, and broke up our
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: virtuous little Sabbath school at Saint Michael's, all calling themselves Christians,
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: humble followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I am
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: again digressing. I held my Sabbath school at the house
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: of a free colored man, whose name I deem it
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: imprudent to mention, for should it be known, it might
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: embarrass him greatly. Though the crime of holding the school
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: was committed ten years ago, I had at one time
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: over forty scholars, and those of the right sort, ardently
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: desiring to learn. They were of all ages, though mostly
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: men and women. I look back to those sundays with
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: an amount of pleasure not to be expressed. They were
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: great days to my soul. The work of instructing my
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: dear fellow slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: was ever blessed. We loved each other, and to leave
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross. Indeed,
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: when I think that these precious souls are to day
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: shut up in the prison house of slavery, my feelings
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: overcome me, and I am almost ready to ask does
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: a righteous God govern the universe? And for what does
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: he hold the thunders in his right hand if not
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: to smite the oppressor and deliver the spoiled out of
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: the hand of the spoiler. These dear souls came not
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: to Sabbath School because it was popular to do so,
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: Nor did I teach them because it was reputable to
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: they were liable to be taken up and given thirty
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: minds had been starved by their cruel masters, they had
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them because
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: it was the delight of my soul to be doing
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: something that looked like bettering the condition of my race.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: I kept up my school nearly the whole year. I
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: lived with mister Freeland, and beside my Sabbath School. I
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: devoted three evenings in the week during the winter to
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: teaching the slaves at home, and I have the happiness
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: to know that several of those who came to Sabbath
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: School learned how to read, and that one at least
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: is now free through my agency. The year passed off smoothly.
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: It seemed only about half as long as the year
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 1: which preceded it. I went through it without receiving a
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: single blow. I will give mister Freeland the credit of
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: being the best master I ever had till I became
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: my own master. For the ease with which I passed
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: the year, I was, however, somewhat indebted to the society
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: of my fellow slaves. They were noble souls. They not
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: only possessed loving hearts, but brave ones. We were linked
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: and interlinked with each other. I loved them with a
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: love stronger than anything I have experienced. Since it is
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes said that we slaves do not love and confide
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: in each other, in answer to this assertion, I can
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: say I never loved any or confided in any people
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: more than my fellow slaves, and especially those with whom
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: I lived at mister Freeland's I believe we would have
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: died for each other. We never undertook to do any
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: thing of any importance without a mutual consultation. We never
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: moved separately. We were one, and as much so by
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: our tempers and dispositions as by the mutual hardships to
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: which we were necessarily subjected by our condition as slaves.
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: At the close of the year eighteen thirty four, mister
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: Freeland again hired me of my master for the year
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five. But by this time I began to
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: want to live upon free land as well as with Freeland,
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: and I was no longer content therefore to live with
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: him or any other slaveholder. I began with the commencement
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: of the year to prepare myself for a final struggle
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: which should decide my fate one way or the other.
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: My tendency was upward, I was fast approaching manhood, and
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: year after year had passed and I was still a slave.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: These thoughts roused me I must do something thing. I
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: therefore resolved that eighteen thirty five should not pass without
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: witnessing an attempt on my part to secure my liberty.
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: But I was not willing to cherish this determination alone.
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: My fellow slaves were dear to me. I was anxious
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: to have them participate with me in this my life
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: giving determination. I therefore, though with great prudence, commenced early
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition,
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: and to imbue their minds with thoughts of freedom. I
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: bent myself to devising ways and means for our escape,
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: and meanwhile strove on all fitting occasions to impress them
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: with the gross fraud and inhumanity of slavery. I went
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: first to Henry, next to John, then to the others.
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: I found in them all warm hearts and noble spirits.
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: They were ready to hear and ready to act in
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: a feasible plan should be proposed. This was what I wanted.
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: I talked to them of our want of man if
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: we submitted to our enslavement without at least one noble
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: effort to be free. We met often, and consulted frequently,
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: and told our hopes and fears, recounted the difficulties real
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: and imagined, which we should be called on to meet.
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: At times we were almost disposed to give up and
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: try to content ourselves with our wretched lot. At others
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: we were firm and unbending in our determination to go.
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: Whenever we suggested any plan, there was shrinking. The odds
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: were fearful. Our path was beset with the greatest obstacles,
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: and if we succeeded in gaining the end of it,
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: our right to be free was yet questionable. We were
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: yet liable to be returned to bondage. We could see
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: no spot this side of the ocean where we could
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: be free. We knew nothing about Canada. Our knowledge of
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: the North did not extend farther than New York. And
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: to go there and be forever harassed with the frightful
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: liability of being returned to slavery, with the certainty of
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: being treated tenfold worse than before, the thought was truly
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: a horrible one, and one which it was not easy
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: to overcome. The case sometimes stood thus, at every gate
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: through which we were to pass, we saw a watchmen,
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: at every ferry, a guard, on every bridge, a sentinel,
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: and in every wood a patrol. We were hemmed in
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: upon every side. Here were the difficulties, real or imagined,
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: the good to be sought and the evil to be shunned.
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: On the one hand, there stood slavery, a stern reality
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: glaring frightfully upon us, its robes already crimsoned with the
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: blood of millions, and even now feasting itself greedily upon
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: our own flesh. On the other hand, away back in
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: the dim distance, under the flickering light of the north Star,
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 1: behind some craggy hill or snow covered mountain, stood a
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: doubtful freedom, half frozen, beckoning us to come and share
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: its hospitality. This in itself was sometimes enough to stagger us.
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: But when we permitted ourselves to survey the road, we
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: were freequently appalled. Upon either side we saw grim death
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: assuming the most horrid shapes. Now it was starvation causing
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: us to eat our own flesh. Now we were contending
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: with the waves and were drowned. Now we were overtaken
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: and torn to pieces by the fangs of the terrible bloodhound.
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: We were stung by scorpions, chased by wild beasts, bitten
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: by snakes. And finally, after having nearly reached the desired spot,
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: after swimming rivers, encountering wild beasts sleeping in the woods,
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: suffering hunger and nakedness, we were overtaken by our pursuers,
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: and in our resistance we were shot dead. Upon the spot.
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: I say this picture sometimes appalled us and made us
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: rather bear those ills we had than fly to others
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: that we knew not of. In coming to a fixed
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: determination to run away, we did more than Patrick Henry,
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: when he resolved upon liberty or death with us. It
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: was a doubtful liberty at most, and all almost certain
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: death if we failed. For my part, I should prefer
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: death to hopeless bondage. Sandy, one of our number, gave
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: up the notion, but still encouraged us. Our company then
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: consisted of Henry Harris, John Harris, Henry Bailey, Charles Roberts,
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: and myself. Henry Bailey was my uncle and belonged to
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: my master. Charles married my aunt. He belonged to my
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: master's father in law, mister William Hamilton. The plan we
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: finally concluded upon was to get a large canoe belonging
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 1: to mister Hamilton, and upon the Saturday night previous to
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: Easter holidays, paddled directly up the Chesapeake Bay. On our
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: arrival at the head of the bay, a distance of
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: seventy or eighty miles from where we lived, it was
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: our purpose to turn our canoe adrift and follow the
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: guidance of the North Star till we got beyond the
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 1: limits of Maryland. Our reason for taking the water route
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: was that we were less liable to be suspected as runaways.
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: We hoped to be regarded as fishermen, whereas if we
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: should take the land route, we should be subjected to
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: interruptions of almost every kind. Any One having a white
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: face and being so disposed could stop us and subject
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: us to examination. The week before our intended start, I
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: wrote several protections, one for each of us, as well
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: as I can remember. They were in the following words
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: to wit. This is to certify that I, the undersigned,
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: have given the bearer my servant, full liberty to go
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: to Baltimore and spend the Easter holidays. Written with mine
• 2:25:36
  Speaker 1: own hand, and see eighteen thirty five William Hamilton, near
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael's in Talbot County, Maryland. We were not going
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: to Baltimore, but in going up the Bay, we went
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: toward Baltimore, and these protections were only intended to protect
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: us while on the bay. As the time drew near
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: for our departure, our anxiety became more and more intense.
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: It was truly a matter of life and death with us.
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: The strength of our determination was about to be fully tested.
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: At this time I was very active in explaining every difficulty,
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 1: removing every doubt, dispelling every fear, and inspiring all with
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: the firmness indispensable to success in our undertaking, assuring them
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: that half was gained the instant we made the move.
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: We had talked long enough. We were now ready to move.
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 1: If not now, we never should be. And if we
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 1: did not intend to move now, we had as well
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: fold our arms, sit down, and acknowledge ourselves fit only
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: to be slaves. This none of us were prepared to acknowledge.
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: Every man stood firm, and at our last meeting we
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: pledged ourselves afresh in the most solemn manner, that at
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: the time appointed we would certainly start in pursuit of freedom.
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: This was in the middle of the week, at the
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: end of which we were to be off. We went
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: as usual to our several fields of labor, but with
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: bosoms highly agitated with thoughts of our truly hazardous undertaking.
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: We tried to conceal our feelings as much as possible,
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: and I think we succeeded very well. After a painful waiting,
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: the Saturday morning, whose night was to witness our departure came.
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: I hailed it with joy, Bring what of sadness it might.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: Friday night was a sleepless one for me. I probably
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: felt more anxious than the rest, because I was, by
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: common consent, at the head of the whole affair. The
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: responsibility of success or failure lay heavily upon me. The
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: glory of the one and the confusion of the other
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: were alike mine. The first two hours of that morning
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: were such as I never experienced before and hoped never
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: to again. Early in the morning we went as usual
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 1: to the field. We were spreading manure, and all at once,
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: while thus engaged, I was overwhelmed with an indescribable feeling,
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: in the fullness of which I turned to Sandy, who
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: was near by, and said, we are betrayed. Well, said he,
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 1: that thought has this moment struck me? We said no more.
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: I was never more certain of anything. The horn was
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: blown as usual, and we went up from the field
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: to the house for breakfast. I went for the form
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: more than for want of anything to eat. That morning,
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: just as I got to the house, in looking out
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: at the lane gate, I saw four white men with
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: two colored men. The white men were on horseback, and
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: the colored ones were walking behind as if tied. I
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: watched them a few moments till they got up to
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: our lane gate. Here they halted and tied the colored
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: men to the gate post. I was not yet certain
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: as to what the matter was. In a few moments
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: in rode mister Hamilton with a speed betokening great excitement.
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: He came to the door and inquired if Master William
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: was in. He was told he was at the barn.
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: Mister Hamilton, without dismounting, rode up to the barn with
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: extraordinary speed. In a few moments, he and mister Freeland
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: returned to the house. By this time the three constables
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: rode up and in great haste dismounted, tied their horses,
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: and met Master William and mister Hamilton returning from the barn,
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: and after talking a while, they all walked up to
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: the kitchen door. There was no one in the kitchen
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: but myself and John, Henry and Sandy were up at
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: the barn. Mister Freeland put his head in at the
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: door and called me by name, saying there were some
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: gentlemen at the door who wished to see me. I
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: stepped to the door and inquired what they wanted. They
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 1: at once seized me, and, without giving me any satisfaction,
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: tied me, lashing my hands closely together. I insisted upon
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 1: knowing what the matter was. They at length said that
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: they had learned I had been in a scrape, and
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: that I was to be examined before my master, and
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: if their information proved false, I should not be hurt.
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: In a few moments, they succeeded in tying John. They
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 1: then turned to Henry, who had by this time returned,
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: and commanded him to cross his hands. I won't, said Henry,
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: in a firm tone, indicating his readiness to meet the
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: consequences of his refusal. Won't you, said Tom Graham, the constable. No,
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: I won't, said Henry in a still stronger tone. With this,
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: two of the constables pulled out their shining pistols and
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: swore by their creator that they would make him cross
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 1: his hands or kill him. Each cocked his pistol and,
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: with fingers on the trigger, walked up to Henry, saying
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: at the same time if he did not cross his hands,
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 1: they would blow his damned heart out. Shoot me, shoot me,
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: said Henry. You can't kill me, but once shoot, shoot,
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: and be damned. I won't be tied. This, he said
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: in a tone of loud defiance, and at the same time,
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: with a motion as quick as lightning, he with one
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 1: single stroke, dashed the pistols from the hand of each constable.
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 1: As he did this, all hands fell upon him, and
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: after beating him some time, they finally overpowered him and
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: got him tied. During the scuffle, I managed, I know
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: not how to get my pass out, and without being discovered,
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: put it into the fire. We were all now tied,
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: and just as we were to leave for Easton jail,
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 1: Betsy Freeland, mother of William Freeland, came to the door
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: with her hands full of biscuits and divided them between
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: Henry and John. She then delivered herself of a speech
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: to the following effect. Addressing herself to me, she said,
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: you devil, you yellow devil. It was you that put
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: it into the heads of Henry and John to run away.
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: But for you, you long legged mulatto devil. Henry nor
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: John would never have thought of such a thing. I
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: made no reply and was immediately hurried off towards Saint Michael's.
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: Just a moment previous to the scuffle with Henry, mister
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: Hamilton suggested the propriety of making a search for the
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: protections which he had understood Frederick had written for himself
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: and the rest. But just at the moment he was
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: about carrying his proposal into effect, his aid was needed
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 1: in helping to tie Henry, and the excitement attending the
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: scuffle caused them either to forget or to deem it
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: unsafe under the circumstances to search, So we were not
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: yet convicted of the intention to run away. When we
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: got about half way to Saint Michael's, while the constables
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: having us in charge, were looking ahead, Henry inquired of
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: me what he should do with his pass. I told
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: him to eat it with his biscuit and own nothing.
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: And we passed the word around own nothing and own nothing,
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 1: said we all. Our confidence in each other was unshaken.
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: We were resolved to succeed or fail together. After the
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 1: color lamity had befallen us as much as before, we
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: were now prepared for anything. We were to be dragged
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: that morning fifteen miles behind horses, and then to be
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: placed in the Eastern jail. When we reached Saint Michael's.
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 1: We underwent a sort of examination. We all denied that
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 1: we ever intended to run away. We did this more
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: to bring out the evidence against us than from any
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: hope of getting clear of being sold for. As I
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: have said, we were ready for that. The fact was,
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 1: we cared but little where we went. So we went together.
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: Our greatest concern was about separation. We dreaded that more
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 1: than anything this side of death. We found the evidence
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: against us to be the testimony of one person. Our
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: master would not tell who it was, but we came
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: to a unanimous decision among ourselves as to who their
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: informant was. We were sent off to the jail at Easton.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: When we got there, we were delivered up to the sheriff,
• 2:33:58
  Speaker 1: mister Joseph Graham, and by him placed in jail. Henry
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 1: John and myself were placed in one room together, Charles
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 1: and Henry Bailey in another. Their object in separating us
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: was to hinder concert. We had been in jail scarcely
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes when a swarm of slave traders and agents
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: for slave traders flocked into jail to look at us
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 1: and to ascertain if we were for sale. Such a
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 1: set of beings I never saw before. I felt myself
• 2:34:29
  Speaker 1: surrounded by so many fiends from perdition. A band of
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 1: pirates never looked more like their father, the Devil. They
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 1: laughed and grinned over us, saying, ah, my boys, we
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 1: have got you, haven't we, And after taunting us in
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: various ways, they won by one, went into an examination
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 1: of us with intent to ascertain our value. They would
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: impudently ask us if we would not like to have
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: them for our masters. We would make them no answer
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: and leave them to find out as best they could.
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: Then they would curse and swear at us, telling us
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: that they could take the devil out of us in
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 1: a very little while if we were only in their hands.
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: While in jail, we found ourselves in much more comfortable
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: quarters than we expected when we went there. We did
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 1: not get much to eat, nor that which was very good.
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: But we had a good clean room, from the windows
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: of which we could see what was going on in
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: the street, which was very much better than though we
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: had been placed in one of the dark, damp cells.
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: Upon the whole we got along very well, so far
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: as the jail and its keeper were concerned. Immediately after
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: the holidays were over. Contrary to all our expectations, mister
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: Hamilton and mister Freeland came up to Easton and took Charles,
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: the two Henrys, and John out of jail and carried
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 1: them home, leaving me alone. I regarded this separation as
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: a final one. It caused me more pain than anything
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 1: else in the whole transaction. I was ready for anything
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: rather than separation. I supposed that they had consulted together
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: and had decided that, as I was the whole cause
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: of the intention of the others to run away, it
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 1: was hard to make the innocent suffer with the guilty,
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: and that they had therefore concluded to take the others
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: home and sell me as a warning to the others
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: that remained. It is due to the noble Henry to
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: say he seemed almost as reluctant at leaving the prison
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: as at leaving home to come to the prison. But
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: we knew we should, in all probability be separated if
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: we were sold, And since he was in their hands,
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 1: he concluded to go peaceably home. I was now left
• 2:36:39
  Speaker 1: to my fate. I was all alone and within the
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: walls of a stone prison. But a few days before
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: and I was full of hope. I expected to have
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: been safe in a land of freedom, But now I
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 1: was covered with gloom, sunk down to the utmost despair.
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: I thought the possibility of freedom was gone. I was
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: kept in this way about one week, at the end
• 2:37:02
  Speaker 1: of which Captain Auld, my master, to my surprise and
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: utter astonishment, came up and took me out with the
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: intention of sending me with a gentleman of his acquaintance
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: into Alabama. But from some cause or other, he did
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: not send me to Alabama, but concluded to send me
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: back to Baltimore to live again with his brother Hugh,
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: and to learn a trade. Thus, after an absence of
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 1: three years and one month, I was once more permitted
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: to return to my old home at Baltimore. My master
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: sent me away because there existed against me a very
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 1: great prejudice in the community, and he feared I might
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 1: be killed. In a few weeks after I went to Baltimore,
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: Master Hugh hired me to mister William Gardner, an extensive
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: ship builder. On Fell's point, I was put there to
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: learn how to talk. It however, proved a very unfavorable
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 1: place for the accomplishment of this object. Mister Gardner was
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 1: engaged that spring and building two large men of war brigs,
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: professedly for the Mexican government. The vessels were to be
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: launched in the July of that year, and in failure
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: thereof mister Gardner was to lose a considerable sum, so
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 1: that when I entered all was hurry. There was no
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: time to learn anything. Every man had to do that
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: which he knew how to do. In entering the shipyard,
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: my orders from mister Gardner were to do whatever the
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: carpenters commanded me to do. This was placing me at
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 1: the beck and call of about seventy five men. I
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 1: was to regard all these as masters. Their word was
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: to be my law. My situation was a most trying one.
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: At times I needed a dozen pair of hands. I
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: was called a dozen ways. In the space of a
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: single minute, three or four voices would strike my ear.
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: At the same moment, it was Fred, come help me
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 1: to cant this timber here. Fred, come carry this timber yonder. Fred,
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 1: bring that roller here. Fred, go get a fresh can
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 1: of water. Fred, come help saw off the end of
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 1: this timber. Fred, go quick and get the crowbar. Fred
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: hold on the end of this fall. Fred, go to
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: the blacksmith's shop and get a new punch. Hurah, Fred,
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: run and bring me a cold chisel, I say, Fred,
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 1: bear a hand and get up a fire as quick
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: as lightning under that steam box. Halloo, nigger, Come turn
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: this grindstone, Come, come move, move and bowse this timber forward.
• 2:39:44
  Speaker 1: I say, Darky, blast your eyes. Why don't you heat
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 1: up some pitch? Halloo, halloo, halloo, three voices at the
• 2:39:54
  Speaker 1: same time. Come here, go there, Hold on where you are,
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: Damn you. If you move, I'll knock your brains out.
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: This was my school for eight months, and I might
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: have remained there longer but for a most horrid fight
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 1: I had with four of the white apprentices, in which
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 1: my left eye was nearly knocked out, and I was
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 1: horribly mangled in other respects. The facts in the case
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 1: were these. Until a very little while after I went there.
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: White and black ship carpenters worked side by side, and
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: no one seemed to see any impropriety in it. All
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: hands seemed to be very well satisfied. Many of the
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: black carpenters were freemen. Things seemed to be going on
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: very well. All at once the white carpenters knocked off
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: and said they would not work with free colored workmen.
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: Their reason for this, as alleged, was that if free
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: colored carpenters were encouraged, they would soon take the trade
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: into their own hands, and poor white men would be
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: thrown out of employment. They therefore felt called upon at
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 1: once to put a stop to it, and, taking advantage
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: of mister Gardner's necessities, they broke off, swearing they would
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: work no longer unless he would discharge his black carpenters. Now,
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: though this did not extend to me in form, it
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: did reach me. In fact, my fellow apprentices very soon
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: began to feel it degrading to them to work with me.
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: They began to put on airs and talk about the
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: niggers taking the country, saying we all ought to be killed,
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 1: and being encouraged by the journeymen, they commenced making my
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: condition as hard as they could, by hectoring me around
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 1: and sometimes striking me. I, of course kept the vow
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 1: I made after the fight with mister Covey, and struck
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: back again regardless of consequences. And while I kept them
• 2:41:42
  Speaker 1: from combining, I succeeded very well, for I could whip
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: the whole of them, taking them separately. They, however, at
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: length combined and came upon me, armed with sticks, stones,
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: and heavy hand spikes. One came in front with a
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: half brick. There was one one at each side of me,
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: and one behind me. While I was attending to those
• 2:42:04
  Speaker 1: in front and on either side, the one behind ran
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: up with the hand spike and struck me a heavy
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: blow upon the head. It stunned me. I fell, and
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: with this they all ran upon me and fell to
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 1: beating me with their fists. I let them lay on
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: for a while, gathering strength. In an instant, I gave
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: a sudden surge and rose to my hands and knees.
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: Just as I did that, one of their number gave me,
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: with his heavy boot a powerful kick in the left eye.
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: My eyeballs seemed to have burst. When they saw my
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: eye closed and badly swollen, they left me with this.
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: I seized the hand spike and for a time pursued them.
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 1: But here the carpenters interfered, and I thought I might
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 1: as well give it up. It was impossible to stand
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: my hand against so many. All this took place in
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 1: sight of not less than fifty white ship carpenters, and
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: not one interposed a friendly word, but some cried kill
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 1: the damned nigger, kill him, kill him. He struck a
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 1: white person. I found my only chance for life was
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: in flight. I succeeded in getting away without an additional blow,
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: and barely so, For to strike a white man is
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: death by lynch law, and that was the law in
• 2:43:22
  Speaker 1: mister Gardner's shipyard. Nor is there much of any other
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: out of mister Gardner's shipyard. I went directly home and
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 1: told the story of my wrongs to Master Hugh, and
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: I am happy to say of him. He religious as
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: he was, his conduct was heavenly compared with that of
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 1: his brother Thomas under similar circumstances. He listened attentively to
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 1: my narration of the circumstances leading to the savage outrage,
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 1: and gave many proofs of his strong indignation at it.
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 1: The heart of my once overkind mistress was again melted
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: into pity. My puffed out eye and blood covered face
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: moved her to tears. She took a chair by me,
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: washed the blood from my face, and with a mother's tenderness,
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: bound up my head, covering the wounded eye with a
• 2:44:07
  Speaker 1: lean piece of fresh beef. It was almost compensation for
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 1: my suffering to witness once more a manifestation of kindness
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 1: from this my once affectionate old mistress. Master Hugh was
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: very much enraged. He gave expression to his feelings by
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: pouring out curses upon the heads of those who did
• 2:44:26
  Speaker 1: the deed. As soon as I got a little the
• 2:44:29
  Speaker 1: better of my bruises, he took me with him to
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: Esquire Watson's on Bond Street to see what could be
• 2:44:35
  Speaker 1: done about the matter. Mister Watson inquired who saw the
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 1: assault committed. Master Hugh told him it was done in
• 2:44:42
  Speaker 1: mister Gardner's shipyard at midday, where there were a large
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 1: company of men at work. As to that, he said,
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: the deed was done, and there was no question as
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: to who did it. His answer was he could do
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 1: nothing in the case unless some white man would come
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 1: forward and testify. He could issue no warrant on my word.
• 2:45:03
  Speaker 1: If I had been killed in the presence of a
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: thousand colored people, their testimony combined would have been insufficient
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: to have arrested one of the murderers. Master Hugh for
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: once was compelled to say this state of things was
• 2:45:15
  Speaker 1: too bad. Of course, it was impossible to get any
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: white man to volunteer his testimony in my behalf and
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: against the white young men. Even those who may have
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 1: sympathized with me were not prepared to do this. It
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: required a degree of courage unknown to them to do so.
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: For just at that time, the slightest manifestation of humanity
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 1: toward a colored person was denounced as abolitionism, and that
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: name subjected its bearer to frightful liabilities. The watchwords of
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: the bloody minded in that region and in those days
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: were damned the abolitionists and damned the niggers. There was
• 2:45:53
  Speaker 1: nothing done, and probably nothing would have been done if
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 1: I had been killed. Such was, and such remains the
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 1: state of things in the Christian city of Baltimore. Master Hugh,
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: finding he could get no redress, refused to let me
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: go back again to mister Gardner. He kept me himself,
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 1: and his wife dressed my wound till I was again
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: restored to health. He then took me into the shipyard
• 2:46:17
  Speaker 1: of which he was foreman in the employment of mister
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: Walter Price. There I was immediately set to cocking, and
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 1: very soon learned the art of using my mallet and irons.
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 1: In the course of one year from the time I
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 1: left mister Gardner's I was able to command the highest
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: wages given to the most experienced calkers. I was now
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 1: of some importance to my master. I was bringing him
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 1: from six to seven dollars per week. I sometimes brought
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 1: him nine dollars per week. My wages were a dollar
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 1: and a half a day. After learning how to cock,
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: I sought my own employment, made my own contracts, and
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 1: collected the money which I earned. My pathway became much
• 2:46:58
  Speaker 1: more smooth than before. My condition was now much more comfortable.
• 2:47:02
  Speaker 1: When I could get no calking to do, I did
• 2:47:05
  Speaker 1: nothing during these leisure times. Those old notions about freedom
• 2:47:09
  Speaker 1: would steal over me again. When in mister Gardner's employment
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: I was kept in such a perpetual whirl of excitement,
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 1: I could think of nothing scarcely but my life, And
• 2:47:20
  Speaker 1: in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty.
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 1: I have observed this in my experience of slavery, that
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 1: whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment,
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 1: it only increased my desire to be free, and set
• 2:47:33
  Speaker 1: me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: have found that to make a contented slave, it is
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 1: darken his moral and mental vision, and as far as possible,
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 1: to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able
• 2:47:51
  Speaker 1: to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. He must be made
• 2:47:54
  Speaker 1: to feel that slavery is right, and he can be
• 2:47:57
  Speaker 1: brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.
• 2:48:00
  Speaker 1: I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: and fifty cents per day. I contracted for it, I
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: earned it, it was paid to me, it was rightfully
• 2:48:09
  Speaker 1: my own. Yet upon each returning Saturday night, I was
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 1: compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh.
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: And why not because he earned it, not because he
• 2:48:20
  Speaker 1: had any hand in earning it, not because I owed
• 2:48:23
  Speaker 1: it to him, nor because he possessed the slightest shadow
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 1: of a right to it, but solely because he had
• 2:48:28
  Speaker 1: the power to compel me to give it up. The
• 2:48:31
  Speaker 1: right of the grim visaged pirate upon the high Seas
• 2:48:34
  Speaker 1: is exactly the same chapter eleven. I now come to
• 2:48:38
  Speaker 1: that part of my life during which I planned and
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: finally succeeded in making my escape from slavery. But before
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: narrating any of the peculiar circumstances I deem it proper
• 2:48:48
  Speaker 1: to make known my intention not to state all the
• 2:48:51
  Speaker 1: facts connected with the transaction. My reasons for pursuing this
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 1: course may be understood from the following. First, were I
• 2:48:59
  Speaker 1: to give a minute statement of all the facts, it
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: is not only possible, but quite probable, that others would
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 1: thereby be involved in the most embarrassing difficulties. Secondly, such
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 1: a statement would most undoubtedly induce greater vigilance on the
• 2:49:13
  Speaker 1: part of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them, which
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 1: would of course be the means of guarding a door
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 1: whereby some dear brother bondman might escape his galling chains.
• 2:49:24
  Speaker 1: I deeply regret the necessity that impels me to suppress
• 2:49:27
  Speaker 1: anything of importance connected with my experience in slavery. It
• 2:49:31
  Speaker 1: would afford me great pleasure, indeed, as well as materially
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: add to the interest of my narrative, were I at
• 2:49:37
  Speaker 1: liberty to gratify a curiosity which I know exists in
• 2:49:41
  Speaker 1: the minds of many, by an accurate statement of all
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: the facts pertaining to my most fortunate escape. But I
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: must deprive myself of this pleasure, and the curious of
• 2:49:50
  Speaker 1: the gratification which such a statement would afford, I would
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 1: allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations which evil
• 2:49:58
  Speaker 1: minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself and thereby
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 1: run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 1: a brother slave might clear himself of the chains and
• 2:50:08
  Speaker 1: fetters of slavery. I have never approved of the very
• 2:50:11
  Speaker 1: public manner in which some of our Western friends have
• 2:50:14
  Speaker 1: conducted what they call the underground railroad, but which I think,
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: by their open declarations, has been made most emphatically the
• 2:50:21
  Speaker 1: upper ground railroad. I honor those good men and women
• 2:50:25
  Speaker 1: for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly subjecting
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 1: themselves to bloody persecution by openly avowing their participation in
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 1: the escape of slaves. I, however, can see very little
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 1: good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or
• 2:50:40
  Speaker 1: the slaves escaping, while upon the other hand, I see
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: and feel assured that those open declarations are a positive
• 2:50:46
  Speaker 1: evil to the slaves remaining who are seeking to escape.
• 2:50:51
  Speaker 1: They do nothing towards enlightening the slave, whilst they do
• 2:50:54
  Speaker 1: much towards enlightening the master. They stimulate him to greater
• 2:50:58
  Speaker 1: watchfulness and enhance his power to capture his slave. We
• 2:51:02
  Speaker 1: owe something to the slave south of the line, as
• 2:51:05
  Speaker 1: well as to those north of it, and in aiding
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 1: the latter on their way to freedom, we should be
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 1: careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 1: the former from escaping from slavery. I would keep the
• 2:51:15
  Speaker 1: merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 1: by the slave. I would leave him to imagine himself
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors, ever ready to snatch
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 1: from his infernal grasp his trembling prey. Let him be
• 2:51:30
  Speaker 1: left to feel his way in the dark. Let darkness
• 2:51:33
  Speaker 1: commensurate with his crime hover over him, and let him
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 1: feel that at every step he takes in pursuit of
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: the flying Bondman, he is running the frightful risk of
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 1: having his hot brains dashed out by an invisible agency.
• 2:51:45
  Speaker 1: Let us render the tyrant no aid. Let us not
• 2:51:48
  Speaker 1: hold the light by which he can trace the footprints
• 2:51:50
  Speaker 1: of our flying brother. But enough of this, I will
• 2:51:54
  Speaker 1: now proceed to the statement of those facts connected with
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: my escape for which I am alone responsible, and for
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 1: which no one can be made to suffer but myself.
• 2:52:04
  Speaker 1: In the early part of the year eighteen thirty eight,
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: I became quite restless. I could see no reason why
• 2:52:10
  Speaker 1: I should, at the end of each week, pour the
• 2:52:13
  Speaker 1: reward of my toil into the purse of my master.
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: When I carried to him my weekly wages, he would,
• 2:52:19
  Speaker 1: after counting the money, look me in the face with
• 2:52:22
  Speaker 1: a robber like fierceness, and ask is this all? He
• 2:52:26
  Speaker 1: was satisfied with nothing less than the last cent? He would, However,
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 1: when I made him six dollars sometimes give me six
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 1: cents to encourage me. It had the opposite effect. I
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 1: regarded it as a sort of admission of my right
• 2:52:41
  Speaker 1: to the whole. The fact that he gave me any
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 1: part of my wages was proof to my mind that
• 2:52:47
  Speaker 1: he believed me entitle to the whole of them. I
• 2:52:50
  Speaker 1: always felt worse for having received any thing, for I
• 2:52:53
  Speaker 1: feared that the giving me a few cents would ease
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 1: his conscience and make him feel himself to be a
• 2:52:58
  Speaker 1: pretty honorable sort of robber. My discontent grew upon me.
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 1: I was ever on the lookout for means of escape,
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 1: and finding no direct means, I determined to try to
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 1: hire my time with a view of getting money with
• 2:53:11
  Speaker 1: which to make my escape. In the spring of eighteen
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 1: thirty eight, when Master Thomas came to Baltimore to purchase
• 2:53:18
  Speaker 1: his spring goods, I got an opportunity and applied to
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 1: him to allow me to hire my time. He unhesitatingly
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 1: refused my request and told me this was another stratagem
• 2:53:29
  Speaker 1: by which to escape. He told me I could go nowhere,
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 1: but that he could get me, and that in the
• 2:53:35
  Speaker 1: event of my running away, he should spare no pains
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 1: in his efforts to catch me. He exhorted me to
• 2:53:41
  Speaker 1: content myself and be obedient. He told me if I
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 1: would be happy, I must lay out no plans for
• 2:53:48
  Speaker 1: the future. He said, if I behaved myself properly, he
• 2:53:52
  Speaker 1: would take care of me. Indeed, he advised me to
• 2:53:56
  Speaker 1: complete thoughtlessness of the future, and taught me to depend
• 2:53:59
  Speaker 1: solely upon him for happiness. He seemed to see fully
• 2:54:03
  Speaker 1: the pressing necessity of setting aside my intellectual nature in
• 2:54:07
  Speaker 1: order to contentment in slavery. But in spite of him,
• 2:54:10
  Speaker 1: and even in spite of myself, I continued to think
• 2:54:14
  Speaker 1: and to think about the injustice of my enslavement and
• 2:54:16
  Speaker 1: the means of escape. About two months after this I
• 2:54:20
  Speaker 1: applied to Master Hugh for the privilege of hiring my time.
• 2:54:24
  Speaker 1: He was not acquainted with the fact that I had
• 2:54:26
  Speaker 1: applied to Master Thomas and had been refused. He too,
• 2:54:31
  Speaker 1: at first seemed disposed to refuse, but after some reflection
• 2:54:35
  Speaker 1: he granted me the privilege and proposed the following terms.
• 2:54:39
  Speaker 1: I was to be allowed all my time, make all
• 2:54:42
  Speaker 1: contracts with those for whom I worked, and find my
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 1: own employment. And in return for this liberty, I was
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 1: to pay him three dollars at the end of each week,
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 1: find myself in calking tools, and in board and clothing.
• 2:54:56
  Speaker 1: My board was two dollars and a half per week. This,
• 2:55:00
  Speaker 1: with the wear and tear of clothing and calking tools,
• 2:55:03
  Speaker 1: made my regular expenses about six dollars per week. This
• 2:55:07
  Speaker 1: amount I was compelled to make up or relinquish the
• 2:55:10
  Speaker 1: privilege of hiring my time rain or shine, work or
• 2:55:14
  Speaker 1: no work. At the end of each week, the money
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 1: must be forthcoming, or I must give up my privilege.
• 2:55:20
  Speaker 1: This arrangement, it will be perceived, was decidedly in my
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 1: master's favor. It relieved him of all need of looking
• 2:55:27
  Speaker 1: after me. His money was sure. He received all the
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 1: benefits of slaveholding without its evils, while I endured all
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: the evils of a slave and suffered all the care
• 2:55:38
  Speaker 1: and anxiety of a freeman. I found it a hard bargain,
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 1: but hard as it was, I thought it better than
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 1: the old mode of getting along. It was a step
• 2:55:49
  Speaker 1: towards freedom, to be allowed to bear the responsibilities of
• 2:55:52
  Speaker 1: a freeman, and I was determined to hold on upon it.
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: I bent myself to the work of making money. I
• 2:55:59
  Speaker 1: was ready to work at night as well as day,
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 1: and by the most untiring perseverance and industry, I made
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 1: enough to meet my expenses and lay up a little
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 1: money every week. I went on thus from May till August.
• 2:56:12
  Speaker 1: Master Hugh then refused to allow me to hire my
• 2:56:15
  Speaker 1: time longer. The ground for his refusal was a failure
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 1: on my part one Saturday night to pay him for
• 2:56:22
  Speaker 1: my week's time. This failure was occasioned by my attending
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 1: a camp meeting about ten miles from Baltimore. During the week,
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 1: I had entered into an engagement with a number of
• 2:56:32
  Speaker 1: young friends to start from Baltimore to the camp ground
• 2:56:35
  Speaker 1: early Saturday evening, and being detained by my employer, I
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 1: was unable to get down to Master Hughes without disappointing
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 1: the company. I knew that Master Hugh was in no
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: special need of the money. That night, I therefore decided
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: to go to camp meeting, and upon my return pay
• 2:56:51
  Speaker 1: him the three dollars. I stayed at the camp meeting
• 2:56:55
  Speaker 1: one day longer than I intended when I left, But
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: as soon as I returned, I I called upon him
• 2:57:00
  Speaker 1: to pay him what he considered his due. I found
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 1: him very angry. He could scarce restrain his wrath. He
• 2:57:08
  Speaker 1: said he had a great mind to give me a
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 1: severe whipping. He wished to know how I dared go
• 2:57:13
  Speaker 1: out of the city without asking his permission. I told
• 2:57:16
  Speaker 1: him I hired my time, and while I paid him
• 2:57:18
  Speaker 1: the price which he asked for it, I did not
• 2:57:21
  Speaker 1: know that I was bound to ask him when and
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 1: where I should go. This reply troubled him, and after
• 2:57:27
  Speaker 1: reflecting a few moments, he turned to me and said
• 2:57:30
  Speaker 1: I should hire my time no longer, that the next
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 1: thing he should know of I would be running away.
• 2:57:35
  Speaker 1: Upon the same plea, he told me to bring my
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 1: tools and clothing home forthwith. I did so, but instead
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: of seeking work as I had been accustomed to do previously,
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 1: to hiring my time. I spent the whole week without
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: the performance of a single stroke of work. I did
• 2:57:52
  Speaker 1: this in retaliation. Saturday night he called upon me as
• 2:57:56
  Speaker 1: usual for my week's wages. I told him I had
• 2:58:00
  Speaker 1: no wages. I had done no work that week. Here
• 2:58:03
  Speaker 1: we were upon the point of coming to blows. He
• 2:58:06
  Speaker 1: raved and swore his determination to get hold of me.
• 2:58:10
  Speaker 1: I did not allow myself a single word, but was
• 2:58:13
  Speaker 1: resolved if he laid the weight of his hand upon me,
• 2:58:16
  Speaker 1: it should be blow for blow. He did not strike me,
• 2:58:20
  Speaker 1: but told me that he would find me in constant
• 2:58:22
  Speaker 1: employment in future. I thought the matter over during the
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 1: next day Sunday, and finally resolved upon the third day
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 1: of September as the day upon which I would make
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: a second attempt to secure my freedom. I now had
• 2:58:36
  Speaker 1: three weeks during which to prepare for my journey. Early
• 2:58:40
  Speaker 1: on Monday morning, before Master Hugh had time to make
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: any engagement for me, I went out and got employment
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 1: of mister Butler at his ship yard near the drawbridge,
• 2:58:48
  Speaker 1: upon what is called the city Block, thus making it
• 2:58:51
  Speaker 1: unnecessary for him to seek employment for me. At the
• 2:58:55
  Speaker 1: end of the week. I brought him between eight and
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: nine dollars. He seemed very very well pleased, and asked
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 1: why I did not do the same the week before.
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 1: He little knew what my plans were. My object in
• 2:59:08
  Speaker 1: working steadily was to remove any suspicion he might entertain
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 1: of my intent to run away, and in this I
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 1: succeeded admirably. I suppose he thought I was never better
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 1: satisfied with my condition than at the very time during
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: which I was planning my escape. The second week passed,
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 1: and again I carried him my full wages, and so
• 2:59:27
  Speaker 1: well pleased was he that he gave me twenty five cents,
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: quite a large sum for a slaveholder to give a slave,
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 1: and bade me to make a good use of it.
• 2:59:36
  Speaker 1: I told him I would. Things went on without very smoothly, indeed,
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 1: but within there was trouble. It is impossible for me
• 2:59:44
  Speaker 1: to describe my feelings as the time of my contemplated
• 2:59:47
  Speaker 1: start drew near. I had a number of warm hearted
• 2:59:51
  Speaker 1: friends in Baltimore, friends that I loved almost as I
• 2:59:53
  Speaker 1: did my life, and the thought of being separated from
• 2:59:56
  Speaker 1: them forever was painful beyond expression. It is my opinion
• 3:00:00
  Speaker 1: that thousands would escape from slavery. Who now remain but
• 3:00:04
  Speaker 1: for the strong chords of affection that bind them to
• 3:00:06
  Speaker 1: their friends. The thought of leaving my friends was decidedly
• 3:00:10
  Speaker 1: the most painful thought with which I had to contend.
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 1: The love of them was my tender point and shook
• 3:00:16
  Speaker 1: my decision more than all things else. Besides the pain
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: of separation, the dread and apprehension of a failure exceeded
• 3:00:24
  Speaker 1: what I had experienced at my first attempt, The appalling
• 3:00:27
  Speaker 1: defeat I then sustained return to torment me. I felt
• 3:00:31
  Speaker 1: assured that if I failed in this attempt, my case
• 3:00:34
  Speaker 1: would be a hopeless one. It would seal my fate
• 3:00:37
  Speaker 1: as a slave forever. I could not hope to get
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: off with any thing less than the severest punishment and
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: being placed beyond the means of escape. It required no
• 3:00:47
  Speaker 1: very vivid imagination to depict the most frightful scenes through
• 3:00:50
  Speaker 1: which I should have to pass In case I failed.
• 3:00:54
  Speaker 1: The wretchedness of slavery and the blessedness of freedom were
• 3:00:57
  Speaker 1: perpetually before me. It was life and death with me.
• 3:01:02
  Speaker 1: But I remained firm and according to my resolution. On
• 3:01:05
  Speaker 1: the third day of September eighteen thirty eight, I left
• 3:01:09
  Speaker 1: my chains and succeeded in reaching New York without the
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 1: slightest interruption of any kind. How I did so, what
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: means I adopted, what direction I traveled, and by what
• 3:01:19
  Speaker 1: mode of conveyance I must leave unexplained. For the reasons
• 3:01:23
  Speaker 1: before mentioned, I have been frequently asked how I felt
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: when I found myself in a free state. I have
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 1: never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction.
• 3:01:33
  Speaker 1: To myself, it was a moment of the highest excitement
• 3:01:37
  Speaker 1: I ever experienced. I suppose I felt as one may
• 3:01:41
  Speaker 1: imagine the unarmed mariner to feel when he is rescued
• 3:01:44
  Speaker 1: by a friendly man of war from the pursuit of
• 3:01:46
  Speaker 1: a pirate. In writing to a dear friend immediately after
• 3:01:50
  Speaker 1: my arrival at New York, I said, I felt like
• 3:01:52
  Speaker 1: one who had escaped a den of hungry lions. This
• 3:01:56
  Speaker 1: state of mind, however, very soon subsided, and I was
• 3:01:59
  Speaker 1: again seized with a feeling of great insecurity. In loneliness,
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 1: I was yet liable to be taken back and subjected
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: to all the tortures of slavery. This in itself was
• 3:02:10
  Speaker 1: enough to damp the ardor of my enthusiasm, But the
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 1: loneliness overcame me there I was in the midst of thousands,
• 3:02:18
  Speaker 1: and yet a perfect stranger, without home and without friends,
• 3:02:22
  Speaker 1: in the midst of thousands of my own brethren, children
• 3:02:24
  Speaker 1: of a common father, and yet I dared not to
• 3:02:27
  Speaker 1: unfold to any one of them my sad condition. I
• 3:02:31
  Speaker 1: was afraid to speak to any one, for fear of
• 3:02:33
  Speaker 1: speaking to the wrong one, and thereby falling into the
• 3:02:36
  Speaker 1: hands of money loving kidnappers, whose business it was to
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 1: lie in wait for the panting fugitive, as the ferocious
• 3:02:42
  Speaker 1: beasts of the forest lie in wait for their prey.
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 1: The motto which I adopted when I started from slavery
• 3:02:48
  Speaker 1: was this trust no man. I saw in every white
• 3:02:52
  Speaker 1: man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause
• 3:02:55
  Speaker 1: for distrust. It was a most painful situation, and to
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 1: understand it one must needs experience it, or imagine himself
• 3:03:04
  Speaker 1: in similar circumstances. Let him be a fugitive slave in
• 3:03:08
  Speaker 1: a strange land, a land given up to be the
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 1: hunting ground for slaveholders whose inhabitants are legalized kidnappers, where
• 3:03:15
  Speaker 1: he is every moment subjected to the terrible liability of
• 3:03:18
  Speaker 1: being seized upon by his fellow men, as the hideous
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 1: crocodile seizes upon his prey. I say, let him place
• 3:03:26
  Speaker 1: himself in my situation, without home or friends, without money
• 3:03:30
  Speaker 1: or credit, wanting shelter and no one to give it,
• 3:03:34
  Speaker 1: wanting bread and no money to buy it. And at
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 1: the same time let him feel that he is pursued
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 1: by merciless men, hunters, and in total darkness as to
• 3:03:42
  Speaker 1: what to do, where to go, or where to stay,
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: perfectly helpless both as to the means of defense and
• 3:03:49
  Speaker 1: means of escape, in the midst of plenty, yet suffering
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 1: the terrible gnawings of hunger, in the midst of houses,
• 3:03:55
  Speaker 1: yet having no home among fellow men, yet feeling as
• 3:03:58
  Speaker 1: if in the midst of wild beasts, whose greediness to
• 3:04:02
  Speaker 1: swallow up the trembling and half famished fugitive is only
• 3:04:05
  Speaker 1: equalled by that with which the monsters of the deep
• 3:04:07
  Speaker 1: swallow up the helpless fish upon which they subsist. I say,
• 3:04:11
  Speaker 1: let him be placed in this most trying situation, the
• 3:04:14
  Speaker 1: situation in which I was placed then, and not till
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 1: then will he fully appreciate the hardships of and know
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: how to sympathize with the toil worn and whipscarred fugitive slave.
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 1: Thank Heaven. I remained but a short time in this
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 1: distressed situation. I was relieved from it by the humane
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: hand of mister David Ruggles, whose vigilance, kindness, and perseverance
• 3:04:38
  Speaker 1: I shall never forget. I am glad of an opportunity
• 3:04:42
  Speaker 1: to express, as far as words can, the love and
• 3:04:45
  Speaker 1: gratitude I bear him. Mister Ruggles is now afflicted with
• 3:04:50
  Speaker 1: blindness and is himself in need of the same kind
• 3:04:52
  Speaker 1: offices which he was once so forward in the performance
• 3:04:55
  Speaker 1: of toward others. I had been in New York but
• 3:04:59
  Speaker 1: a few days when mister Ruggles sought me out and
• 3:05:02
  Speaker 1: very kindly took me to his boarding house at the
• 3:05:04
  Speaker 1: corner of Church and Lesbonard Streets. Mister Ruggles was then
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: very deeply engaged in the memorable dark Case, as well
• 3:05:12
  Speaker 1: as attending to a number of other fugitive slaves, devising
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 1: ways and means for their successful escape, and though watched
• 3:05:19
  Speaker 1: and hemmed in on almost every side, he seemed to
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 1: be more than a match for his enemies. Very soon
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: after I went to mister Ruggles, he wished to know
• 3:05:27
  Speaker 1: of me where I wanted to go, as he deemed
• 3:05:30
  Speaker 1: it unsafe for me to remain in New York. I
• 3:05:33
  Speaker 1: told him I was a calker and should like to
• 3:05:35
  Speaker 1: go where I could get work. I thought of going
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: to Canada, but he decided against it and in favor
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: of my going to New Bedford, thinking I should be
• 3:05:43
  Speaker 1: able to get work there at my trade. At this time, Anna, too,
• 3:05:48
  Speaker 1: my intended wife, came on for I wrote to her
• 3:05:51
  Speaker 1: immediately after my arrival at New York, notwithstanding my homeless,
• 3:05:55
  Speaker 1: houseless and helpless condition, informing her of my successful flight
• 3:06:00
  Speaker 1: and wishing her to come on forthwith. In a few
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 1: days after her arrival, mister Ruggles called in the Reverend J. W. C. Pennington, who,
• 3:06:10
  Speaker 1: in the presence of mister Ruggles, Missus Michaels, and two
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 1: or three others, performed the marriage ceremony and gave us
• 3:06:17
  Speaker 1: a certificate of which the following is an exact copy.
• 3:06:20
  Speaker 1: This may certify that I joined together in holy matrimony,
• 3:06:24
  Speaker 1: Frederick Johnson three and Anna Murray as man and wife,
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 1: in the presence of mister David Ruggles and Missus Michaels
• 3:06:33
  Speaker 1: James W. C. Pennington, New York, September fifteenth, eighteen thirty
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: eight two. She was free. Three. I had changed my
• 3:06:43
  Speaker 1: name from Frederick Bailey to that of Johnson. Upon receiving
• 3:06:47
  Speaker 1: this certificate and a five dollar bill from mister Ruggles,
• 3:06:50
  Speaker 1: I shouldered one part of our baggage, and Anna took
• 3:06:53
  Speaker 1: up the other, and we set out forthwith to take
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: passage on board of the steamboat John W. Richmond for Newport.
• 3:07:00
  Speaker 1: On our way to New Bedford, mister Ruggles gave me
• 3:07:03
  Speaker 1: a letter to a mister Shaw in Newport and told me,
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 1: in case my money did not serve me to New Bedford,
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: to stop in Newport and obtain further assistance. But upon
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 1: our arrival at Newport, we were so anxious to get
• 3:07:16
  Speaker 1: to a place of safety that, notwithstanding we lacked the
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 1: necessary money to pay our fare, we decided to take
• 3:07:23
  Speaker 1: seats in the stage and promised to pay when we
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 1: got to New Bedford. We were encouraged to do this
• 3:07:29
  Speaker 1: by two excellent gentlemen, residents of New Bedford, whose names
• 3:07:33
  Speaker 1: I afterward ascertained to be Joseph Rickittson and William C. Tabor.
• 3:07:37
  Speaker 1: They seemed at once to understand our circumstances and gave
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: us such assurance of their friendliness as put us fully
• 3:07:44
  Speaker 1: at ease in their presence. It was good indeed to
• 3:07:47
  Speaker 1: meet with such friends at such a time. Upon reaching
• 3:07:51
  Speaker 1: New Bedford, we were directed to the house of mister
• 3:07:54
  Speaker 1: Nathan Johnson, by whom we were kindly received and hospitably
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: provided for. Both mister and missus Johnson took a deep
• 3:08:02
  Speaker 1: and lively interest in our welfare. They proved themselves quite
• 3:08:06
  Speaker 1: worthy of the name of abolitionists. When the stage driver
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: found us unable to pay our fare, he held on
• 3:08:12
  Speaker 1: upon our baggage as security for the debt. I had
• 3:08:16
  Speaker 1: but to mention the fact to mister Johnson, and he
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 1: forthwith advanced the money. We now began to feel a
• 3:08:22
  Speaker 1: degree of safety, and to prepare ourselves for the duties
• 3:08:26
  Speaker 1: and responsibilities of a life of freedom. On the morning
• 3:08:29
  Speaker 1: after our arrival at New Bedford, while at the breakfast table,
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: the question arose as to what name I should be
• 3:08:35
  Speaker 1: called by. The name given me by my mother was
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. I, however, had dispensed with the
• 3:08:44
  Speaker 1: two middle names long before I left Maryland, so that
• 3:08:46
  Speaker 1: I was generally known by the name of Frederick Bailey.
• 3:08:50
  Speaker 1: I started from Baltimore bearing the name of Stanley. When
• 3:08:54
  Speaker 1: I got to New York, I again changed my name
• 3:08:56
  Speaker 1: to Frederick Johnson, and thought that would be the last change.
• 3:09:01
  Speaker 1: But when I got to New Bedford, I found it
• 3:09:03
  Speaker 1: necessary again to change my name. The reason of this
• 3:09:07
  Speaker 1: necessity was that there were so many Johnsons in New
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: Bedford it was already quite difficult to distinguish between them.
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 1: I gave mister Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name,
• 3:09:17
  Speaker 1: but told him he must not take for me the
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: name of Frederick. I must hold on to that to
• 3:09:23
  Speaker 1: preserve a sense of my identity. Mister Johnson had just
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 1: been reading The Lady of the Lake and at once
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 1: suggested that my name be Douglas. From that time until
• 3:09:33
  Speaker 1: now I have been called Frederick Douglas, and as I
• 3:09:36
  Speaker 1: am more widely known by that name than by either
• 3:09:38
  Speaker 1: of the others, I shall continue to use it as
• 3:09:41
  Speaker 1: my own. I was quite disappointed at the general appearance
• 3:09:45
  Speaker 1: of things in New Bedford. The impression which I had
• 3:09:48
  Speaker 1: received respecting the character and condition of the people of
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: the North I found to be singularly erroneous. I had
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: very strangely supposed, while in slavery that few of the comforts,
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: and scarcely any of the luxuries of life were enjoyed
• 3:10:03
  Speaker 1: at the North compared with what were enjoyed by the
• 3:10:05
  Speaker 1: slaveholders of the South. I probably came to this conclusion
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 1: from the fact that northern people owned no slaves. I
• 3:10:13
  Speaker 1: supposed that they were about upon a level with the
• 3:10:15
  Speaker 1: non slaveholding population of the South. I knew they were
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 1: exceedingly poor, and I have been accustomed to regard their
• 3:10:23
  Speaker 1: poverty as the necessary consequence of their being non slaveholders.
• 3:10:27
  Speaker 1: I had somehow imbibed the opinion that in the absence
• 3:10:31
  Speaker 1: of slaves there could be no wealth and very little refinement.
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 1: And upon coming to the North, I expected to meet
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 1: with a rough, hard handed and uncultivated population living in
• 3:10:42
  Speaker 1: the most spartan like simplicity, knowing nothing of the ease, luxury,
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 1: pomp and grandeur of Southern slaveholders. Such being my conjectures,
• 3:10:51
  Speaker 1: any one acquainted with the appearance of New Bedford may
• 3:10:54
  Speaker 1: very readily infer how palpably I must have seen my mistake.
• 3:10:59
  Speaker 1: In the afternoon of when I reached New Bedford, I
• 3:11:02
  Speaker 1: visited the wharves to take a view of the shipping.
• 3:11:05
  Speaker 1: Here I found myself surrounded with the strongest proofs of
• 3:11:08
  Speaker 1: wealth lying at the wharves, and Riding in the stream,
• 3:11:12
  Speaker 1: I saw many ships of the finest model, in the
• 3:11:15
  Speaker 1: best order, and of the largest size. Upon the right
• 3:11:19
  Speaker 1: and left, I was walled in by granite warehouses of
• 3:11:21
  Speaker 1: the widest dimensions, stowed to their utmost capacity, with the
• 3:11:25
  Speaker 1: necessaries and comforts of life added to this. Almost every
• 3:11:29
  Speaker 1: body seemed to be at work, but noiselessly, so compared
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: with what I had been accustomed to in Baltimore. There
• 3:11:36
  Speaker 1: were no loud songs heard from those engaged in loading
• 3:11:39
  Speaker 1: and unloading ships. I heard no deep oaths or horrid
• 3:11:43
  Speaker 1: curses on the laborer. I saw no whipping of men,
• 3:11:47
  Speaker 1: but all seemed to go smoothly on. Every man appeared
• 3:11:51
  Speaker 1: to understand his work and went at it with a
• 3:11:53
  Speaker 1: sober yet cheerful earnestness, which betokened the deep interest which
• 3:11:57
  Speaker 1: he felt in what he was doing, as well as
• 3:11:59
  Speaker 1: a sense of his own dignity as a man. To me,
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 1: this looked exceedingly strange from the wharves. I strolled around
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: and over the town, gazing with wonder and admiration at
• 3:12:10
  Speaker 1: the splendid churches, beautiful dwellings, and finely cultivated gardens, evincing
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 1: an amount of wealth comfort, taste, and refinement such as
• 3:12:19
  Speaker 1: I had never seen in any part of slave holding Maryland.
• 3:12:23
  Speaker 1: Everything looked clean, new, and beautiful. I saw few or
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: no dilapidated houses with poverty stricken inmates, no half naked
• 3:12:32
  Speaker 1: children and barefooted women, such as I had been accustomed
• 3:12:35
  Speaker 1: to see in Hillsborough, Easton, Saint Michael's and Baltimore. The
• 3:12:40
  Speaker 1: people looked more able, stronger, healthier, and happier than those
• 3:12:44
  Speaker 1: of Maryland. I was for once made glad by a
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 1: view of extreme wealth, without being saddened by seeing extreme poverty.
• 3:12:53
  Speaker 1: But the most astonishing, as well as the most interesting
• 3:12:55
  Speaker 1: thing to me, was the condition of the colored people,
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 1: a great many of whom, like my had escaped thither
• 3:13:01
  Speaker 1: as a refuge from the hunters of men. I found
• 3:13:05
  Speaker 1: many who had not been seven years out of their chains,
• 3:13:08
  Speaker 1: living in finer houses, and evidently enjoying more of the
• 3:13:11
  Speaker 1: comforts of life than the average of slaveholders in Maryland.
• 3:13:16
  Speaker 1: I will venture to assert that my friend mister Nathan Johnson,
• 3:13:19
  Speaker 1: of whom I can say with a grateful heart, I
• 3:13:22
  Speaker 1: was hungry and he gave me meat. I was thirsty
• 3:13:25
  Speaker 1: and he gave me drink. I was a stranger, and
• 3:13:27
  Speaker 1: he took me in, lived in a needer house, dined
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 1: at a better table, took paid for and read more newspapers.
• 3:13:34
  Speaker 1: Better understood the moral, religious, and political character of the
• 3:13:39
  Speaker 1: nation than nine tenths of the slaveholders in Talbot County, Maryland.
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: Yet mister Johnson was a working man. His hands were
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: hardened by toil, and not his alone, but those also
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: of Missus Johnson. I found the colored people much more
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 1: spirited than I had supposed they would be. I found
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: among them a determined to protect each other from the
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 1: bloodthirsty kidnapper at all hazards. Soon after my arrival, I
• 3:14:06
  Speaker 1: was told of a circumstance which illustrated their spirit. A
• 3:14:10
  Speaker 1: colored man and a fugitive slave were on unfriendly terms.
• 3:14:15
  Speaker 1: The former was heard to threaten the latter with informing
• 3:14:17
  Speaker 1: his master of his whereabouts straightway. A meeting was called
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 1: among the colored people under the stereotyped notice Business of importance.
• 3:14:27
  Speaker 1: The betrayer was invited to attend. The people came at
• 3:14:31
  Speaker 1: the appointed hour and organized the meeting by appointing a
• 3:14:34
  Speaker 1: very religious old gentleman as president, who I believe made
• 3:14:38
  Speaker 1: a prayer, after which he addressed the meeting as follows. Friends,
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: we have got him here, and I would recommend that
• 3:14:44
  Speaker 1: you young men just take him outside the door and kill him.
• 3:14:48
  Speaker 1: With this, A number of them bolted at him, but
• 3:14:51
  Speaker 1: they were intercepted by some more timid than themselves, and
• 3:14:54
  Speaker 1: the betrayer escaped their vengeance, and has not been seen
• 3:14:57
  Speaker 1: in New Bedford since. I believe that there have been
• 3:15:00
  Speaker 1: no more such threats, and should there be hereafter, I
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: doubt not that death would be the consequence. I found
• 3:15:07
  Speaker 1: employment the third day after my arrival, in stowing a
• 3:15:10
  Speaker 1: sloop with a load of oil. It was new, dirty
• 3:15:14
  Speaker 1: and hard work for me, but I went at it
• 3:15:16
  Speaker 1: with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was
• 3:15:20
  Speaker 1: now my own master. It was a happy moment, the
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: rapture of which can be understood only by those who
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 1: have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward
• 3:15:30
  Speaker 1: of which was to be entirely my own. There was
• 3:15:33
  Speaker 1: no master Hughes standing ready the moment I earned the
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 1: money to rob me of it. I worked that day
• 3:15:39
  Speaker 1: with a pleasure I had never before experienced. I was
• 3:15:43
  Speaker 1: at work for myself and newly married wife. It was
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 1: to me the starting point of a new existence. When
• 3:15:50
  Speaker 1: I got through with that job, I went in pursuit
• 3:15:53
  Speaker 1: of a job of calking. But such was the strength
• 3:15:55
  Speaker 1: of prejudice against color among the white calkers that they
• 3:15:59
  Speaker 1: refused to work with me, And of course I could
• 3:16:01
  Speaker 1: get no employment. For finding my trade of no immediate benefit,
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 1: I threw off my calking habiliments and prepared myself to
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 1: do any kind of work I could get to do.
• 3:16:12
  Speaker 1: Mister Johnson kindly let me have his wood horse and saw,
• 3:16:15
  Speaker 1: and I very soon found myself a plenty of work.
• 3:16:19
  Speaker 1: There was no work too hard, none too dirty. I
• 3:16:23
  Speaker 1: was ready to saw wood, shovel coal, carry wood, sweep
• 3:16:26
  Speaker 1: the chimney, or roll oil casks, all of which I
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 1: did for nearly three years in New Bedford before I
• 3:16:32
  Speaker 1: became known to the anti slavery world. For I am
• 3:16:36
  Speaker 1: told that colored persons can now get employment at calking
• 3:16:39
  Speaker 1: in New Bedford, a result of anti slavery effort. In
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 1: about four months after I went to New Bedford, there
• 3:16:46
  Speaker 1: came a young man to me and inquired if I
• 3:16:49
  Speaker 1: did not wish to take the liberator. I told him
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: I did, but just having made my escape from slavery,
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 1: I remarked that I was unable to pay for it.
• 3:16:58
  Speaker 1: Then I, however, vver, finally became a subscriber to it.
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 1: The paper came, and I read it from week to
• 3:17:05
  Speaker 1: week with such feelings as it would be quite idle
• 3:17:08
  Speaker 1: for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 1: meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire.
• 3:17:16
  Speaker 1: Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds, its scathing denunciations
• 3:17:20
  Speaker 1: of slaveholders, its faithful exposures of slavery, and its powerful
• 3:17:25
  Speaker 1: attacks upon the upholders of the institution sent a thrill
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: of joy through my soul such as I had never
• 3:17:30
  Speaker 1: felt before. I had not long been a reader of
• 3:17:34
  Speaker 1: The Liberator. Before I got a pretty correct idea of
• 3:17:37
  Speaker 1: the principles, measures, and spirit of the anti slavery reform.
• 3:17:41
  Speaker 1: I took right hold of the cause. I could do
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 1: but little, But what I could I did with a
• 3:17:47
  Speaker 1: joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in an
• 3:17:50
  Speaker 1: anti slavery meeting. I seldom had much to say at
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 1: the meetings, because what I wanted to say was said
• 3:17:57
  Speaker 1: so much better by others. But while while attending an
• 3:18:00
  Speaker 1: anti slavery convention at Nantucket on the eleventh of August,
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 1: eighteen forty one, I felt strongly moved to speak, and
• 3:18:07
  Speaker 1: was at the same time much urged to do so
• 3:18:09
  Speaker 1: by mister William C. Coffin, a gentleman who had heard
• 3:18:13
  Speaker 1: me speak in the Colored People's meeting at New Bedford.
• 3:18:17
  Speaker 1: It was a severe cross, and I took it up reluctantly.
• 3:18:21
  Speaker 1: The truth was, I felt myself a slave, and the
• 3:18:24
  Speaker 1: idea of speaking to white people weighed me down. I
• 3:18:27
  Speaker 1: spoke but a few moments when I felt a degree
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 1: of freedom and said what I desired with considerable ease.
• 3:18:34
  Speaker 1: From that time until now, I have been engaged in
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: pleading the cause of my brethren. With what success and
• 3:18:40
  Speaker 1: with what devotion? I leave those acquainted with my labors
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 1: to decide. Appendix. I find, since reading over the foregoing narrative,
• 3:18:48
  Speaker 1: that I have, in several instances spoken in such a
• 3:18:52
  Speaker 1: tone and manner respecting religion as may possibly lead those
• 3:18:56
  Speaker 1: unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent
• 3:18:59
  Speaker 1: of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension,
• 3:19:03
  Speaker 1: I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation.
• 3:19:07
  Speaker 1: What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean
• 3:19:10
  Speaker 1: strictly to apply to the slave holding religion of this land,
• 3:19:14
  Speaker 1: and with no possible reference to Christianity proper. For between
• 3:19:17
  Speaker 1: the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ,
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: I recognize the widest possible difference, so wide that to
• 3:19:26
  Speaker 1: receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of
• 3:19:29
  Speaker 1: necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked.
• 3:19:33
  Speaker 1: To be the friend of the one is of necessity
• 3:19:36
  Speaker 1: to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable,
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: and impartial Christianity of Christ. I therefore hate the corrupt,
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 1: slaveholding women, whipping cradle plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 1: this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the
• 3:19:54
  Speaker 1: most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land Christianity.
• 3:19:59
  Speaker 1: I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers,
• 3:20:02
  Speaker 1: the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.
• 3:20:06
  Speaker 1: Never was there a clearer case of stealing the livery
• 3:20:09
  Speaker 1: of the court of Heaven to serve the devil in.
• 3:20:12
  Speaker 1: I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the
• 3:20:15
  Speaker 1: religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies which
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 1: everywhere surround me. We have men stealers for ministers, women
• 3:20:23
  Speaker 1: whippers for missionaries, and cradle plunderers for church members. The
• 3:20:29
  Speaker 1: man who wields the blood clotted cowskin during the week
• 3:20:31
  Speaker 1: fills the pulpit on Sunday and claims to be a
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 1: minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 1: robs me of my earnings at the end of each
• 3:20:40
  Speaker 1: week meets me as a class leader on Sunday morning
• 3:20:43
  Speaker 1: to show me the way of life and the path
• 3:20:45
  Speaker 1: of salvation. He who sells my sister for purposes of
• 3:20:50
  Speaker 1: prostitution stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 1: who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible
• 3:20:57
  Speaker 1: denies me the right of learning to read the name
• 3:20:59
  Speaker 1: of the God, God who made me. He who is
• 3:21:02
  Speaker 1: the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its
• 3:21:05
  Speaker 1: sacred influence and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution.
• 3:21:10
  Speaker 1: The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation
• 3:21:13
  Speaker 1: is the same that scatters whole families, sundering husbands and wives,
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: parents and children, sisters and brothers, leaving the hut vacant
• 3:21:21
  Speaker 1: and the hearth desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft,
• 3:21:25
  Speaker 1: and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to
• 3:21:29
  Speaker 1: build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babe
• 3:21:33
  Speaker 1: sold to purchase bibles for the poor heathen, all for
• 3:21:36
  Speaker 1: the glory of God and the good of souls. The
• 3:21:40
  Speaker 1: slave auctioneer's bell and the church going bell chime in
• 3:21:43
  Speaker 1: with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart
• 3:21:45
  Speaker 1: broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his
• 3:21:48
  Speaker 1: pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 1: trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and
• 3:21:57
  Speaker 1: the church stand near each other, thinking of fetters and
• 3:22:01
  Speaker 1: the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious
• 3:22:03
  Speaker 1: psalm and solemn prayer in the church may be heard.
• 3:22:06
  Speaker 1: At the same time. The dealers in the bodies and
• 3:22:09
  Speaker 1: souls of men, erect their stand in the presence of
• 3:22:12
  Speaker 1: the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer
• 3:22:15
  Speaker 1: gives his blood stained gold to support the pulpit, and
• 3:22:18
  Speaker 1: the pulpit in return covers his infernal business with the
• 3:22:22
  Speaker 1: garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery, the
• 3:22:26
  Speaker 1: allies of each other, devils dressed in angels, robes and
• 3:22:29
  Speaker 1: help presenting the semblance of paradise. Just God. And these
• 3:22:35
  Speaker 1: are they thee who minister at Thine altar, God of right,
• 3:22:39
  Speaker 1: men who their hands with prayer and blessing lay on
• 3:22:42
  Speaker 1: Israel's ark of light. WoT preach and kidnap men give
• 3:22:48
  Speaker 1: thanks and rob thy own afflicted poor, talk of thy
• 3:22:52
  Speaker 1: glorious liberty. And then bolt heart the captive's door. WoT
• 3:22:58
  Speaker 1: servants of thy own merciful son, who came to seek
• 3:23:01
  Speaker 1: and save the homeless and the outcast, fettering down the
• 3:23:04
  Speaker 1: task in plundered slave, pilot and herod friends, chief, priests
• 3:23:09
  Speaker 1: and rulers, as of old combine, Just God, and holy
• 3:23:15
  Speaker 1: is that church which lends strength to the spoiler Thine.
• 3:23:19
  Speaker 1: The Christianity of America is a Christianity of whose votaries
• 3:23:23
  Speaker 1: it may be as truly said as it was of
• 3:23:25
  Speaker 1: the ancient scribes and Pharisees. They bind heavy burdens and
• 3:23:29
  Speaker 1: grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders,
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 1: but they themselves will not move them with one of
• 3:23:34
  Speaker 1: their fingers. All their works they do for to be
• 3:23:38
  Speaker 1: seen of men. Dot they love the uppermost rooms, at
• 3:23:42
  Speaker 1: feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues, and to
• 3:23:46
  Speaker 1: be called of men Rabbi Rabbi dot. But woe unto
• 3:23:49
  Speaker 1: you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, For ye shut up the
• 3:23:54
  Speaker 1: kingdom of Heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves,
• 3:23:58
  Speaker 1: neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
• 3:24:01
  Speaker 1: Ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.
• 3:24:05
  Speaker 1: Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye compass sea
• 3:24:09
  Speaker 1: and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made,
• 3:24:12
  Speaker 1: ye make him twofold, more the child of health than yourselves.
• 3:24:15
  Speaker 1: Dot woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, For ye
• 3:24:20
  Speaker 1: pay tithe of mint and Anis and Cuman, and have
• 3:24:24
  Speaker 1: omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: These ought ye to have done, and not to leave
• 3:24:30
  Speaker 1: the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a
• 3:24:35
  Speaker 1: gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites,
• 3:24:42
  Speaker 1: For ye make clean the outside of the cup and
• 3:24:45
  Speaker 1: of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
• 3:24:48
  Speaker 1: and excess. Dot woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites,
• 3:24:53
  Speaker 1: For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear
• 3:24:56
  Speaker 1: beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones
• 3:25:00
  Speaker 1: and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear
• 3:25:04
  Speaker 1: righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy
• 3:25:07
  Speaker 1: and iniquity, dark and terrible. As is this picture, I
• 3:25:11
  Speaker 1: hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass
• 3:25:14
  Speaker 1: of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat
• 3:25:18
  Speaker 1: and swallow a camel. Could anything be more true of
• 3:25:22
  Speaker 1: our churches. They would be shocked at the proposition of
• 3:25:25
  Speaker 1: fellowshipping a sheep stealer, and at the same time they
• 3:25:28
  Speaker 1: hug to their communion a man stealer, and brand me
• 3:25:31
  Speaker 1: with being an infidel if I find fault with them
• 3:25:34
  Speaker 1: for it. They attend with pharisaical strictness to the outward
• 3:25:38
  Speaker 1: forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the
• 3:25:41
  Speaker 1: weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They
• 3:25:46
  Speaker 1: are always ready to sacrifice, but seldom to show mercy.
• 3:25:50
  Speaker 1: They are they who are represented as professing to love God,
• 3:25:53
  Speaker 1: whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother,
• 3:25:56
  Speaker 1: whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the
• 3:25:59
  Speaker 1: other side of the globe. They can pray for him,
• 3:26:02
  Speaker 1: pay money to have the Bible put into his hand,
• 3:26:05
  Speaker 1: and missionaries to instruct him, while they despise and totally
• 3:26:09
  Speaker 1: neglect the heathen at their own doors. Such is very
• 3:26:13
  Speaker 1: briefly my view of the religion of this land, And
• 3:26:16
  Speaker 1: to avoid any misunderstanding growing out of the use of
• 3:26:19
  Speaker 1: general terms, I mean by the religion of this land
• 3:26:22
  Speaker 1: that which is revealed in the words, deeds, and actions
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: of those bodies North and South calling themselves Christian churches,
• 3:26:30
  Speaker 1: and yet in union with slaveholders. It is against religion
• 3:26:34
  Speaker 1: as presented by these bodies that I have felt it
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 1: my duty to testify. I conclude these remarks by copying
• 3:26:41
  Speaker 1: the following portrait of the religion of the South, which
• 3:26:44
  Speaker 1: is by communion and fellowship the religion of the North,
• 3:26:47
  Speaker 1: which I soberly affirm is true to the life and
• 3:26:51
  Speaker 1: without caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to
• 3:26:55
  Speaker 1: have been drawn several years before the present anti slavery agitation,
• 3:27:00
  Speaker 1: again by a Northern Methodist preacher, who, while residing at
• 3:27:03
  Speaker 1: the South, had an opportunity to see slave holding morals, manners,
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 1: and piety with his own eyes. Shall I not visit
• 3:27:11
  Speaker 1: for these things set the Lord, Shall not my soul
• 3:27:16
  Speaker 1: be avenged on such a nation as this a parody. Come,
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: saints and sinners, hear me tell how pious priests whip
• 3:27:24
  Speaker 1: jack and nell, and women buy and children sell, and
• 3:27:27
  Speaker 1: preach all sinners down to hell and sing of heavenly Union.
• 3:27:31
  Speaker 1: They'll bleat in bah dona like goats, gorge down black sheep,
• 3:27:35
  Speaker 1: and strain at moats, ray their backs in fine black coats,
• 3:27:39
  Speaker 1: then seize their negroes by their throats and choke for
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 1: heavenly Union. They'll church you if you sip a dram
• 3:27:46
  Speaker 1: and damn you if you steal a lamb, yet rob
• 3:27:49
  Speaker 1: old tony doll and sam of human rights and bread
• 3:27:53
  Speaker 1: and ham kidnappers. Heavenly Union. They'll loudly talk of Christ's
• 3:27:58
  Speaker 1: reward and bind his image with a chord, and scold
• 3:28:01
  Speaker 1: and swing the lash of hord and sell their brother
• 3:28:04
  Speaker 1: in the Lord to handcuffed heavenly Union. They'll read and
• 3:28:08
  Speaker 1: sing a sacred song and make a prayer both loud
• 3:28:11
  Speaker 1: and long, and teach the right and do the wrong,
• 3:28:14
  Speaker 1: hailing the brother sister throng with words of heavenly union.
• 3:28:18
  Speaker 1: We wonder how such saints can sing or praise the
• 3:28:21
  Speaker 1: Lord upon the wing, who roar and scold and whip
• 3:28:25
  Speaker 1: and sting, and to their slaves and mammon cling in
• 3:28:28
  Speaker 1: guilty conscience union. They'll raise tobacco, corn and rye and drive,
• 3:28:34
  Speaker 1: and thieve and cheat and lie, and lay up treasures
• 3:28:38
  Speaker 1: in the sky by making switch and cowskin fly in
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: hope of heavenly union. They'll crack old Tony on the
• 3:28:45
  Speaker 1: skull and preach and roar like batian bull or braying
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: ass of mischief full, then seize old Jacob by the
• 3:28:52
  Speaker 1: wool and pull for heavenly union. A roaring, ranting, sleek
• 3:28:57
  Speaker 1: man thief who lived on mutton veal, and yet never
• 3:29:01
  Speaker 1: would afford relief to needy sable sons of grief was
• 3:29:04
  Speaker 1: big with heavenly union. Love not the world, the preacher said,
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 1: and winked his eye and shook his head. He seized
• 3:29:12
  Speaker 1: on Tom and Dick and ned, cut short their meat
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: and clothes and bread, yet still loved heavenly union. Another preacher, whining,
• 3:29:21
  Speaker 1: spoke of one whose heart for sinners broke. He tied
• 3:29:24
  Speaker 1: Old Nanny to an oak and drew the blood at
• 3:29:27
  Speaker 1: every stroke, and prayed for heavenly union. Two others OpEd
• 3:29:31
  Speaker 1: their iron jaws and waved their children stealing paws. There
• 3:29:35
  Speaker 1: sat their children in geugaws. By stinting negroes, backs and moths.
• 3:29:39
  Speaker 1: They kept up heavenly union. All good from jack another
• 3:29:43
  Speaker 1: takes and entertains their flirts and rakes, who dress as
• 3:29:46
  Speaker 1: sleek as glossy snakes, and cram their mouths with sweetened cakes.
• 3:29:51
  Speaker 1: And this goes down for union. Sincerely and earnestly, hoping
• 3:29:55
  Speaker 1: that this little book may do something towards throwing light
• 3:29:58
  Speaker 1: on the American slave system and hastening the glad day
• 3:30:01
  Speaker 1: of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds.
• 3:30:04
  Speaker 1: Faithfully relying upon the power of truth, love and justice
• 3:30:08
  Speaker 1: for success in my humble efforts, and solemnly pledging myself
• 3:30:12
  Speaker 1: anew to the sacred cause, I subscribed myself. Frederick Douglas Lynn, Massachusetts,
• 3:30:19
  Speaker 1: April twenty eighth, eighteen forty five. Frederick Douglas Frederick Douglas
• 3:30:25
  Speaker 1: was born in Slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, near
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of
• 3:30:33
  Speaker 1: the exact year of his birth, but he knew that
• 3:30:35
  Speaker 1: it was one thousand, eight hundred seventeen or eighteen eighteen.
• 3:30:40
  Speaker 1: As a young boy, he was sent to Baltimore to
• 3:30:42
  Speaker 1: be a house servant, where he learned to read and
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 1: write with the assistance of his master's wife. In eighteen
• 3:30:49
  Speaker 1: thirty eight, he escaped from slavery and went to New
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 1: York City, where he married Anna Murray, a free colored
• 3:30:54
  Speaker 1: woman whom he had met in Baltimore. Soon thereafter, he
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 1: changed his name to Frederick Douglas. In eighteen forty one,
• 3:31:03
  Speaker 1: he addressed a convention of the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society
• 3:31:06
  Speaker 1: in Nantucket, and so greatly impressed the group that they
• 3:31:09
  Speaker 1: immediately employed him as an agent. He was such an
• 3:31:13
  Speaker 1: impressive orator that numerous persons doubted if he had ever
• 3:31:16
  Speaker 1: been a slave, So he wrote narrative of the life
• 3:31:18
  Speaker 1: of Frederick Douglas. During the Civil War, he assisted in
• 3:31:22
  Speaker 1: the recruiting of colored men for the fifty fourth and
• 3:31:25
  Speaker 1: fifty fifth Massachusetts Regiments, and consistently argued for the emancipation
• 3:31:29
  Speaker 1: of slaves. After the war, he was active in securing
• 3:31:33
  Speaker 1: and protecting the rights of the freemen. In his later years,
• 3:31:37
  Speaker 1: at different times he was Secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission,
• 3:31:41
  Speaker 1: Marshal and Recorder of Deeds of the District of Columbia,
• 3:31:44
  Speaker 1: and United States Minister to Haiti. His other autobiographical works
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 1: are My Bondage and My Freedom and Life and Times
• 3:31:51
  Speaker 1: of Frederick Douglas, published in eighteen fifty five and eighteen
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 1: eighty one, respectively. He died in eighteen ninety five preface.
• 3:32:00
  Speaker 1: In the month of August eighteen forty one, I attended
• 3:32:04
  Speaker 1: an anti slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was
• 3:32:07
  Speaker 1: my happiness to become acquainted with Frederick Douglas, the writer
• 3:32:10
  Speaker 1: of the following narrative. He was a stranger to nearly
• 3:32:14
  Speaker 1: every member of that body, but having recently made his
• 3:32:17
  Speaker 1: escape from the Southern prison house of Bondage, and feeling
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 1: his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of
• 3:32:24
  Speaker 1: the abolitionists of whom he had heard a somewhat vague
• 3:32:27
  Speaker 1: description while he was a slave, he was induced to
• 3:32:30
  Speaker 1: give his attendants on the occasion alluded to, though at
• 3:32:34
  Speaker 1: that time a resident in New Bedford, fortunate most fortunate occurrence.
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 1: Fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting
• 3:32:42
  Speaker 1: for deliverance from their awful thraldom. Fortunate for the cause
• 3:32:46
  Speaker 1: of negro emancipation and of universal liberty. Fortunate for the
• 3:32:51
  Speaker 1: land of his birth, which he has already done so
• 3:32:54
  Speaker 1: much to save, and bless Fortunate for a large circle
• 3:32:57
  Speaker 1: of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and the affection he
• 3:33:00
  Speaker 1: has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 1: by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever abiding
• 3:33:06
  Speaker 1: remembrance of those who are in bonds as being bound
• 3:33:10
  Speaker 1: with them. Fortunate for the multitudes in various parts of
• 3:33:14
  Speaker 1: our Republic whose minds he has enlightened on the subject
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 1: of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by
• 3:33:19
  Speaker 1: his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring
• 3:33:23
  Speaker 1: eloquence against the enslavers of men. Fortunate for himself, as
• 3:33:28
  Speaker 1: it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness,
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 1: gave the world assurance of a man, quickened the slumbering
• 3:33:34
  Speaker 1: energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great
• 3:33:36
  Speaker 1: work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting
• 3:33:39
  Speaker 1: the oppressed go free. I shall never forget his first
• 3:33:43
  Speaker 1: speech at the Convention, the extraordinary emotion it excited in
• 3:33:46
  Speaker 1: my own mind, the powerful impression it created upon a
• 3:33:49
  Speaker 1: crowded auditory completely taken by surprise, the applause which followed
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 1: from the beginning to the end of his felicitous remarks.
• 3:33:57
  Speaker 1: I think I never hated slavery so in intensely as
• 3:34:00
  Speaker 1: at that moment. Certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage
• 3:34:04
  Speaker 1: which is inflicted by it on the godlike nature of
• 3:34:07
  Speaker 1: its victims was rendered far more clear than ever There
• 3:34:11
  Speaker 1: stood one in physical proportion and stature, commanding in exact
• 3:34:15
  Speaker 1: in intellect, richly endowed in natural eloquence, a prodigy in soul,
• 3:34:20
  Speaker 1: manifestly created, but a little lower than the angels. Yet
• 3:34:23
  Speaker 1: a slave, ay, a fugitive slave, trembling for his safety,
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: hardly daring to believe that on the American soil a
• 3:34:31
  Speaker 1: single white person could be found who would befriend him
• 3:34:34
  Speaker 1: at all hazards for the love of God and humanity.
• 3:34:38
  Speaker 1: Capable of high attainments as an intellectual and moral being,
• 3:34:42
  Speaker 1: needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to
• 3:34:45
  Speaker 1: make him an ornament to society and a blessing to
• 3:34:48
  Speaker 1: his race. By the law of the land, by the
• 3:34:51
  Speaker 1: voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code.
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: He was only a piece of property, a beast of burden,
• 3:34:57
  Speaker 1: a chattel personal. Nevertheless, a beloved friend from New Bedford
• 3:35:02
  Speaker 1: prevailed on mister Douglas to address the convention. He came
• 3:35:06
  Speaker 1: forward to the platform with a hesitancy and embarrassment, necessarily
• 3:35:11
  Speaker 1: the attendance of a sensitive mind in such a novel position.
• 3:35:15
  Speaker 1: After apologizing for his ignorance and reminding the audience that
• 3:35:19
  Speaker 1: slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and heart,
• 3:35:22
  Speaker 1: he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his
• 3:35:24
  Speaker 1: own history as a slave, and in the course of
• 3:35:27
  Speaker 1: his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections.
• 3:35:32
  Speaker 1: As soon as he had taken his seat, filled with
• 3:35:34
  Speaker 1: hope and admiration, I rose and declared that Patrick Henry,
• 3:35:38
  Speaker 1: of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in
• 3:35:41
  Speaker 1: the cause of liberty than the one we had just
• 3:35:44
  Speaker 1: listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive. So
• 3:35:47
  Speaker 1: I believed at that time such is my belief. Now,
• 3:35:51
  Speaker 1: I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this
• 3:35:54
  Speaker 1: self emancipated young man at the north, even in Massachusetts,
• 3:35:58
  Speaker 1: on the soil of the pilgrim fathers, among the descendants
• 3:36:00
  Speaker 1: of revolutionary sires. And I appealed to them whether they
• 3:36:04
  Speaker 1: would ever allow him to be carried back into slavery
• 3:36:07
  Speaker 1: law or no law, constitution or no constitution. The response
• 3:36:12
  Speaker 1: was unanimous and in thunder tones. And O will you
• 3:36:16
  Speaker 1: succor and protect him as a brother man, a resident
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 1: of the old Bay State. Yes, shouted the whole mass
• 3:36:24
  Speaker 1: with an energy so startling that the ruthless tyrants south
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 1: of Mason and Dixon's line might almost have heard the
• 3:36:30
  Speaker 1: mighty burst of feeling and recognized it as the pledge
• 3:36:33
  Speaker 1: of an invincible determination on the part of those who
• 3:36:36
  Speaker 1: gave it, never to betray him that wanders, but to
• 3:36:39
  Speaker 1: hide the outcast, and firmly to abide the consequences. It
• 3:36:44
  Speaker 1: was at once deeply impressed upon my mind that if
• 3:36:47
  Speaker 1: mister Douglas could be persuaded to consecrate his time and
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 1: talents to the promotion of the anti slavery enterprise, a
• 3:36:54
  Speaker 1: powerful impetus would be given to it, and a stunning
• 3:36:56
  Speaker 1: blow at the same time inflicted on Northern prejudice against
• 3:36:59
  Speaker 1: the colored complexion. I therefore endeavored to instill hope and
• 3:37:04
  Speaker 1: courage into his mind in order that he might dare
• 3:37:07
  Speaker 1: to engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for
• 3:37:10
  Speaker 1: a person in his situation. And I was seconded in
• 3:37:13
  Speaker 1: this effort by warm hearted friends, especially by the late
• 3:37:16
  Speaker 1: General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society, mister John A. Collins,
• 3:37:22
  Speaker 1: whose judgment in this instance entirely coincided with my own.
• 3:37:26
  Speaker 1: At first he could give no encouragement. With unfeigned diffidence,
• 3:37:31
  Speaker 1: he expressed his conviction that he was not adequate to
• 3:37:33
  Speaker 1: the performance of so great a task. The path marked
• 3:37:36
  Speaker 1: out was wholly an untrodden one. He was sincerely apprehensive
• 3:37:40
  Speaker 1: that he should do more harm than good. After much deliberation, however,
• 3:37:45
  Speaker 1: he consented to make a trial. And ever since that
• 3:37:48
  Speaker 1: period he has acted as a lecturing agent under the
• 3:37:51
  Speaker 1: auspices either of the American or the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society.
• 3:37:57
  Speaker 1: In labours he has been most abundant, and his success
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 1: in combating prejudice in gaining proselytes in agitating the public mind,
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: has far surpassed the most sanguine expectations that were raised
• 3:38:08
  Speaker 1: at the commencement of his brilliant career. He has borne
• 3:38:12
  Speaker 1: himself with gentleness and meekness, yet with true manliness of character.
• 3:38:17
  Speaker 1: As a public speaker, he excels in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation,
• 3:38:22
  Speaker 1: strength of reasoning, and fluency of language. There is in
• 3:38:26
  Speaker 1: him that union of head and heart which is indispensable
• 3:38:29
  Speaker 1: to an enlightenment of the heads and a winning of
• 3:38:32
  Speaker 1: the hearts of others. May his strength continue to be
• 3:38:35
  Speaker 1: equal to his day. May he continue to grow in
• 3:38:39
  Speaker 1: grace and in the knowledge of God, that he may
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 1: be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, whether
• 3:38:45
  Speaker 1: at home or abroad. It is certainly a very remarkable
• 3:38:49
  Speaker 1: fact that one of the most efficient advocates of the
• 3:38:52
  Speaker 1: slave population now before the public is a fugitive slave,
• 3:38:56
  Speaker 1: in the person of Frederick Douglas, and that the free
• 3:38:59
  Speaker 1: colored population of the United States are as ably represented
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: by one of their own number, in the person of
• 3:39:04
  Speaker 1: Charles Lennox Romand, whose eloquent appeals have extorted the highest
• 3:39:09
  Speaker 1: applause of multitudes on both sides of the Atlantic. Let
• 3:39:13
  Speaker 1: the calumniators of the colored race despise themselves for their
• 3:39:16
  Speaker 1: baseness and illiberality of spirit, and henceforth cease to talk
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 1: of the natural inferiority of those who require nothing but
• 3:39:24
  Speaker 1: time and opportunity to attain to the highest point of
• 3:39:27
  Speaker 1: human excellence. It may perhaps be fairly questioned whether any
• 3:39:32
  Speaker 1: other portion of the population of the earth could have
• 3:39:35
  Speaker 1: endured the privations, sufferings, and horrors of slavery without having
• 3:39:39
  Speaker 1: become more degraded in the scale of humanity than the
• 3:39:42
  Speaker 1: slaves of African descent. Nothing has been left undone to
• 3:39:46
  Speaker 1: cripple their intellects, darken their minds, debase their moral nature,
• 3:39:50
  Speaker 1: obliterate all traces of their relationship to mankind. And yet
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of a
• 3:39:56
  Speaker 1: most frightful bondage under which they have been groaning for century.
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: To illustrate the effect of slavery on the white man,
• 3:40:04
  Speaker 1: to show that he has no powers of endurance in
• 3:40:07
  Speaker 1: such a condition superior to those of his black brother.
• 3:40:10
  Speaker 1: Daniel O'Connell, the distinguished advocate of universal emancipation and the
• 3:40:14
  Speaker 1: mightiest champion of prostrate but not conquered Ireland relates the
• 3:40:19
  Speaker 1: following anecdote in a speech delivered by him in the
• 3:40:22
  Speaker 1: Conciliation Hall, Dublin before the Loyal National Repeal Association, March
• 3:40:27
  Speaker 1: thirty first, eighteen forty five. No matter said mister O'Connell,
• 3:40:32
  Speaker 1: under what specious term it made disguise itself, slavery is
• 3:40:35
  Speaker 1: still hideous. It has a natural and inevitable tendency to
• 3:40:40
  Speaker 1: brutalize every noble faculty of man. An American sailor who
• 3:40:45
  Speaker 1: was cast away on the shore of Africa, where he
• 3:40:47
  Speaker 1: was kept in slavery for three years, was at the
• 3:40:50
  Speaker 1: expiration of that period, found to be imbrooded and stultified.
• 3:40:54
  Speaker 1: He had lost all reasoning power, and, having forgotten his
• 3:40:57
  Speaker 1: native language, could only utter some savage gibberish between Arabic
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 1: and English, which nobody could understand, and which even he
• 3:41:05
  Speaker 1: himself found difficulty in pronouncing. So much for the humanizing
• 3:41:10
  Speaker 1: influence of the domestic institution. Admitting this to have been
• 3:41:14
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least
• 3:41:18
  Speaker 1: that the white slave can sink as low in the
• 3:41:21
  Speaker 1: scale of humanity as the black one. Mister Douglas has
• 3:41:25
  Speaker 1: very properly chosen to write his own narrative, in his
• 3:41:28
  Speaker 1: own style and according to the best of his ability,
• 3:41:31
  Speaker 1: rather than to employ some one else. It is therefore
• 3:41:35
  Speaker 1: entirely his own production. And considering how long and dark
• 3:41:39
  Speaker 1: was the career he had to run as a slave,
• 3:41:41
  Speaker 1: how few have been his opportunities to improve his mind
• 3:41:44
  Speaker 1: since he broke his iron fetters, It is, in my
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: judgment highly creditable to his head and heart, he who
• 3:41:51
  Speaker 1: can peruse it without a tearful eye, a heaving breast,
• 3:41:54
  Speaker 1: an afflicted spirit, without being filled with an unutterable abhorrence
• 3:41:58
  Speaker 1: of slavery and all its betters, and animated with a
• 3:42:01
  Speaker 1: determination to seek the immediate overthrow of that execrable system,
• 3:42:05
  Speaker 1: without trembling for the fate of this country in the
• 3:42:07
  Speaker 1: hands of a righteous God, who is ever on the
• 3:42:11
  Speaker 1: side of the oppressed, and whose arm is not shortened
• 3:42:14
  Speaker 1: that it cannot save, must have a flinty heart and
• 3:42:17
  Speaker 1: be qualified to act the part of a trafficker in
• 3:42:19
  Speaker 1: slaves and the souls of men. I am confident that
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 1: it is essentially true in all its statements, that nothing
• 3:42:26
  Speaker 1: has been set down in malice, nothing exaggerated, nothing drawn
• 3:42:30
  Speaker 1: from the imagination that it comes short of the reality,
• 3:42:33
  Speaker 1: rather than overstates a single fact in regard to slavery,
• 3:42:36
  Speaker 1: as it is, the experience of Frederick Douglas as a
• 3:42:40
  Speaker 1: slave was not a peculiar one. His lot was not
• 3:42:44
  Speaker 1: especially a hard one. His case may be regarded as
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 1: a very fair specimen of the treatment of slaves in Maryland,
• 3:42:50
  Speaker 1: in which stated is conceded that they are better fed
• 3:42:53
  Speaker 1: and less cruelly treated than in Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana.
• 3:42:58
  Speaker 1: Many have suffered incomparably more, while very few on the
• 3:43:01
  Speaker 1: plantations have suffered less than himself. Yet, how deplorable was
• 3:43:06
  Speaker 1: his situation, What terrible chastisements were inflicted upon his person,
• 3:43:12
  Speaker 1: What still more shocking outrages were perpetrated upon his mind?
• 3:43:17
  Speaker 1: With all his noble powers and sublime aspirations. How like
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 1: a brute was he treated, even by those professing to
• 3:43:23
  Speaker 1: have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus.
• 3:43:27
  Speaker 1: To What dreadful liabilities was he continually subjected, How destitute
• 3:43:32
  Speaker 1: of friendly counsel and aid, even in his greatest extremities,
• 3:43:36
  Speaker 1: How heavy was the midnight of woe, which shrouded in blackness,
• 3:43:39
  Speaker 1: the last ray of hope and filled the future with
• 3:43:42
  Speaker 1: terror and gloom. What longings after freedom took possession of
• 3:43:46
  Speaker 1: his breast, And how his misery augmented in proportion as
• 3:43:49
  Speaker 1: he grew reflective and intelligent, thus demonstrating that a happy
• 3:43:53
  Speaker 1: slave is an extinct man. How he thought, reasoned, felt
• 3:43:58
  Speaker 1: under the lash of the driver, with the chains upon
• 3:44:00
  Speaker 1: his limbs. What perils he encountered in his endeavors to
• 3:44:04
  Speaker 1: escape from his horrible doom, And how signal have been
• 3:44:08
  Speaker 1: his deliverance and preservation in the midst of a nation
• 3:44:11
  Speaker 1: of pitiless enemies. This narrative contains many affecting incidents, many
• 3:44:16
  Speaker 1: passages of great eloquence and power, But I think the
• 3:44:19
  Speaker 1: most thrilling one of them all is the description Douglas
• 3:44:22
  Speaker 1: gives of his feelings as he stood soliloquising, respecting his
• 3:44:25
  Speaker 1: fate and the chances of his one day being a
• 3:44:28
  Speaker 1: freeman on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, viewing the
• 3:44:32
  Speaker 1: receding vessels as they flew with their white wings before
• 3:44:35
  Speaker 1: the breeze, and apostrophising them as animated by the living
• 3:44:38
  Speaker 1: spirit of freedom. Who can read that passage and be
• 3:44:42
  Speaker 1: insensible to its pathos and sublimity compressed into it is
• 3:44:46
  Speaker 1: a whole Alexandrian library of thought, feeling, and sentiment. All
• 3:44:51
  Speaker 1: that can, all that need, be urged in the form
• 3:44:53
  Speaker 1: of expostulation, entreaty, rebuke against that crime of crimes making
• 3:44:58
  Speaker 1: man the property of his fellow men. Oh, how accursed
• 3:45:02
  Speaker 1: is that system which entombs the godlike mind of man,
• 3:45:06
  Speaker 1: defaces the divine image, reduces those who by creation were
• 3:45:09
  Speaker 1: crowned with glory and honor to a level with four
• 3:45:12
  Speaker 1: footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above
• 3:45:15
  Speaker 1: all that is called God. Why should its existence be
• 3:45:18
  Speaker 1: prolonged one hour? Is it not evil? Only evil? And
• 3:45:22
  Speaker 1: that continually. What does its presence imply but the absence
• 3:45:27
  Speaker 1: of all fear of God, all regard for man on
• 3:45:30
  Speaker 1: the part of the people of the United States. Heaven
• 3:45:33
  Speaker 1: speed its eternal overthrow. So profoundly ignorant of the nature
• 3:45:37
  Speaker 1: of slavery are many persons that they are stubbornly incredulous
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 1: whenever they read or listen to any recital of the
• 3:45:43
  Speaker 1: cruelties which are daily inflicted on its victims. They do
• 3:45:48
  Speaker 1: not deny that the slaves are held as property, But
• 3:45:51
  Speaker 1: that terrible fact seems to convey to their minds no
• 3:45:54
  Speaker 1: idea of injustice, exposure to outrage, or savage barbarity. Tell
• 3:45:59
  Speaker 1: them of cruel scourgings, of mutilations and brandings, of scenes
• 3:46:03
  Speaker 1: of pollution and blood, of the banishment of all light
• 3:46:06
  Speaker 1: and knowledge, and they effect to be greatly indignant at
• 3:46:09
  Speaker 1: such enormous exaggerations, such wholesale misstatements, such abominable libels on
• 3:46:14
  Speaker 1: the character of the Southern planters, as if all these
• 3:46:18
  Speaker 1: direful outrages were not the natural results of slavery, as
• 3:46:22
  Speaker 1: if it were less cruel to reduce a human being
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 1: to the condition of a thing than to give him
• 3:46:26
  Speaker 1: a severe flagellation, or to deprive him of necessary food
• 3:46:30
  Speaker 1: and clothing, As if whips, chains, thumbscrews, paddles, bloodhounds, overseers, drivers,
• 3:46:38
  Speaker 1: patrols were not all indispensable to keep the slaves down
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 1: and to give protection to their ruthless oppressors, As if
• 3:46:46
  Speaker 1: when the marriage institution is abolished, concubinage, adultery, and incest
• 3:46:51
  Speaker 1: must not necessarily abound. When all the rights of humanity
• 3:46:55
  Speaker 1: are annihilated, any barrier remains to protect the victim from
• 3:46:58
  Speaker 1: the fury of the spoiler. When absolute power is assumed
• 3:47:01
  Speaker 1: over life and liberty, it will not be wielded with
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 1: destructive sway. Skeptics of this character abound in society. In
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: some few instances, their incredulity arises from a want of reflection,
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 1: but generally it indicates a hatred of the light, a
• 3:47:18
  Speaker 1: desire to shield slavery from the assaults of its foes,
• 3:47:21
  Speaker 1: a contempt of the colored race, whether bond or free.
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 1: Such will try to discredit the shocking tales of slave
• 3:47:28
  Speaker 1: holding cruelty which are recorded in this truthful narrative, but
• 3:47:31
  Speaker 1: they will labor in vain. Mister Douglas has frankly disclosed
• 3:47:36
  Speaker 1: the place of his birth, the names of those who
• 3:47:38
  Speaker 1: claimed ownership in his body and soul, and the names
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 1: also of those who committed the crimes which he has
• 3:47:43
  Speaker 1: alleged against them. His statements therefore may easily be disproved
• 3:47:48
  Speaker 1: if they are untrue. In the course of his narrative,
• 3:47:52
  Speaker 1: he relates two instances of murderous cruelty, in one of
• 3:47:55
  Speaker 1: which a planter deliberately shot a slave belonging to a
• 3:47:58
  Speaker 1: neighboring plantation who had unintentionally gotten within his lordly domain.
• 3:48:02
  Speaker 1: In quest of fish, and in the other an overseer
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 1: blew out the brains of a slave who had fled
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 1: to a stream of water to escape a bloody scourging.
• 3:48:12
  Speaker 1: Mister Douglas states that in neither of these instances was
• 3:48:15
  Speaker 1: anything done by way of legal arrest or judicial investigation.
• 3:48:20
  Speaker 1: The Baltimore American of March seventeenth, eighteen forty five relates
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 1: a similar case of atrocity perpetrated with similar impunity as
• 3:48:29
  Speaker 1: follows shooting a slave dot we learn, upon the authority
• 3:48:34
  Speaker 1: of a letter from Charles County, Maryland, received by a
• 3:48:37
  Speaker 1: gentleman of this city, that a young man named Matthews,
• 3:48:41
  Speaker 1: a nephew of General Matthews, and whose father, it is believed,
• 3:48:44
  Speaker 1: holds an office at Washington, killed one of the slaves
• 3:48:47
  Speaker 1: upon his father's farm by shooting him. The letter states
• 3:48:51
  Speaker 1: that young Matthews had been left in charge of the farm,
• 3:48:54
  Speaker 1: that he gave an order to the servant, which was
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 1: disobeyed when he proceeded to the house, obtained a gun,
• 3:49:00
  Speaker 1: and returning shot the servant. He immediately, the letter continues,
• 3:49:05
  Speaker 1: fled to his father's residence, where he still remains unmolested.
• 3:49:10
  Speaker 1: Let it never be forgotten that no slaveholder or overseer
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 1: can be convicted of any outrage perpetrated on the person
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: of a slave, however diabolical it may be. On the
• 3:49:21
  Speaker 1: testimony of colored witnesses, whether bond or free by the
• 3:49:26
  Speaker 1: slave Code, they are a judged to be as incompetent
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 1: to testify against a white man as though they were
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 1: indeed a part of the brute creation. Hence there is
• 3:49:35
  Speaker 1: no legal protection in fact, whatever there may be in
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: form for the slave population, and any amount of cruelty
• 3:49:42
  Speaker 1: may be inflicted on them with impunity. Is it possible
• 3:49:45
  Speaker 1: for the human mind to conceive of a more horrible
• 3:49:48
  Speaker 1: state of society. The effect of a religious profession on
• 3:49:52
  Speaker 1: the conduct of Southern masters is vividly described in the
• 3:49:55
  Speaker 1: following narrative, and shown to be any thing but salutary.
• 3:50:00
  Speaker 1: In the nature of the case, it must be in
• 3:50:02
  Speaker 1: the highest degree pernicious. The testimony of mister Douglas on
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 1: this point is sustained by a cloud of witnesses whose
• 3:50:10
  Speaker 1: veracity is unimpeachable. A slaveholder's profession of Christianity is a
• 3:50:15
  Speaker 1: palpable imposture. He is a felon of the highest grade.
• 3:50:20
  Speaker 1: He is a man stealer. It is of no importance
• 3:50:23
  Speaker 1: what you put in the other scale. Reader. Are you
• 3:50:27
  Speaker 1: with the man stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on
• 3:50:30
  Speaker 1: the side of their downtrodden victims? If with the former,
• 3:50:34
  Speaker 1: then are you the foe of God and man? If
• 3:50:37
  Speaker 1: with the latter, what are you prepared to do and
• 3:50:39
  Speaker 1: dare in their behalf? Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring
• 3:50:44
  Speaker 1: in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the
• 3:50:47
  Speaker 1: oppressed go free. Come what may cost, what it may
• 3:50:51
  Speaker 1: Inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: as your religious and political motto, no compromise with slavery,
• 3:50:59
  Speaker 1: No union with sin slaveholders. W. M. Lloyd Garrison, Boston,
• 3:51:04
  Speaker 1: May one, eighteen forty five. Thanks for listening to this audiobook.