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18 - Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup · Twelve Years a Slave

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen of twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Wiley suffered
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  Speaker 1: severely at the hands of Master Epps, as has been
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  Speaker 1: related in the preceding chapter, but in this respect he
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  Speaker 1: fared no worse than his unfortunate companions. Spare the rod
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  Speaker 1: was an idea scouted by our master. He was constitutionally
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  Speaker 1: subject to periods of ill humor, and at such times,
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  Speaker 1: however little provocation, there might be a certain amount of
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  Speaker 1: punishment was inflicted the circumstances attending the last flogging, but
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  Speaker 1: one that I received will show how trivial a cause
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  Speaker 1: was sufficient with him for resorting to the whip. A
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  Speaker 1: mister O'Neill, residing in the vicinity of the Big Pine Woods,
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  Speaker 1: called upon Epps for the purpose of purchasing me. He
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  Speaker 1: was a tanner and courier by occupation, transacting an extensive business,
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  Speaker 1: and intended to place me at service in some department
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  Speaker 1: of his establishment, provided he bought me. And Phoebe, while
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  Speaker 1: preparing the dinner table in the Great House, overheard their conversation.
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  Speaker 1: On returning to the yard at night, the old woman
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  Speaker 1: ran to meet me. Designing of course to overwhelm me
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  Speaker 1: with the news. She entered into a minute repetition of
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  Speaker 1: all she'd heard, and Aunt Phoebe was one whose ears
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  Speaker 1: never failed to drink in every word of conversation uttered
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  Speaker 1: in her hearing. She enlarged upon the fact that Massa
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  Speaker 1: Epps was gwine to sell me to a tanner. Ober
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  Speaker 1: Indy Pinewood's so long and loudly as to attract the
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  Speaker 1: attention of the mistress, who, standing unobserved on the piazza
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  Speaker 1: at the time, was listening to our conversation. Well, Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Phoebe said, I I'm glad of it. I'm tired of
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  Speaker 1: scraping cotton and would rather be a tanner. I hope
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  Speaker 1: he'll buy me. O'Neill did not effect a purchase, however,
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  Speaker 1: the parties differing as to price, and the morning following
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  Speaker 1: his arrival departed homewards. He had been gone but a
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  Speaker 1: short time when Epps made his appearance in the field. Now,
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  Speaker 1: nothing will more violently enrage a master, especially Epps, than
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  Speaker 1: the intimation of one of his servants that he would
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  Speaker 1: like to leave him. Mistress Epps had repeated to him
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  Speaker 1: my expressions to Aunt Phoebe. The evening previous, as I
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  Speaker 1: learned from the latter afterwards, having mentioned to her that
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  Speaker 1: she had overheard us. On entering the field, Epps walked
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  Speaker 1: directly to me, So, Platt, you're tired of scraping cotton?
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  Speaker 1: Are you? You'd like to change your master? Eh, you're
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  Speaker 1: fond of moving round, traveler, ain't you? Ah? Yes, like
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  Speaker 1: to travel for your health. Maybe feel above cotton scraping.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose. So you're going into the tanning business. Good business, devilish,
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  Speaker 1: fine business, enterprising nigger. Believe I'll go into that business myself.
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  Speaker 1: Down on your knees and strip that rag off your back.
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  Speaker 1: I'll try my hand at tanning, I begged earnestly, and
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  Speaker 1: endeavored to soften him with excuses, but in Vain there
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  Speaker 1: was no other alternative. So, kneeling down, I presented my
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  Speaker 1: bare back for the application of the lash. How do
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  Speaker 1: you like tanning? He exclaimed, as the rawhide descended upon
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  Speaker 1: my flesh. How do you like tanning? He repeated At
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  Speaker 1: every blow. In this manner, he gave me twenty or
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  Speaker 1: thirty lashes, incessantly giving utterance to the word tanning in
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  Speaker 1: one form of expression or another. When sufficiently tanned, he
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  Speaker 1: allowed me to arise, and with a half malicious laugh,
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  Speaker 1: assured me, if I still fancied the business, he would
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  Speaker 1: give me further instruction in it whenever I desired. This time,
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  Speaker 1: he remarked, he had only given me a short lesson
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  Speaker 1: in tanning. The next time he would curry me down.
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Abram also was frequently treated with great brutality, although
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  Speaker 1: he was one of the kindest and most faithful creatures
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  Speaker 1: in the world. He was my cabin mate for years.
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  Speaker 1: There was a benevolent expression in the old man's face,
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  Speaker 1: pleasant to behold. He regarded us with a kind of
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  Speaker 1: parental fear, always counseling us with remarkable gravity and deliberation.
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  Speaker 1: Returning from Marshall's plantation one afternoon, whither I had been
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  Speaker 1: sent on some errand of the Mistress, I found him
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  Speaker 1: lying on the cabin floor, his clothes saturated with blood.
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  Speaker 1: He informed me that he had been stabbed while spreading
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  Speaker 1: cotton on the scaffold. Epps came home intoxicated from Holmesville.
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  Speaker 1: He found fault with everything, giving many orders so directly
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  Speaker 1: contrary that it was impossible to execute any of them.
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Abram, whose faculties were growing dull, became confused and
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  Speaker 1: committed some blunder of no particular consequence. Epps was so
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  Speaker 1: enraged thereat that, with drunken recklessness, he flew upon the
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  Speaker 1: old man and stabbed him in the back. It was
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  Speaker 1: a long, ugly wound, but did not happen to penetrate
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  Speaker 1: far enough to result fatally. It was sewed up by
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  Speaker 1: the mistress, who censured her husband with extreme severity, not
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  Speaker 1: only denouncing his inhumanity, but but declaring that she expected
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  Speaker 1: nothing else than that he would bring the family to poverty,
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  Speaker 1: that he would kill all the slaves on the plantation.
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  Speaker 1: In some of his drunken fits, it was no uncommon
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  Speaker 1: thing with him to prostrate and phoebe with a chair
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  Speaker 1: or stick of wood. But the most cruel whipping that ever,
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  Speaker 1: I was doomed to witness, one I can never recall
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  Speaker 1: with any other emotion than that of horror, was inflicted
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  Speaker 1: on the unfortunate Patsy. It has been seen that the
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  Speaker 1: jealousy and hatred of Mistress Epps made the daily life
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  Speaker 1: of her young and agile slave completely miserable. I am
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  Speaker 1: happy in the belief that, on numerous occasions I was
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  Speaker 1: the means of averting punishment from the inoffensive girl. In
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  Speaker 1: EPP's absence, the mistress often ordered me to whip her
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  Speaker 1: without the remotest provocation. I would refuse, saying that I
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  Speaker 1: feared my master's displeasure, and several times ventured to remonstrate
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  Speaker 1: with her against the treatment Patsy received. I endeavored to
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  Speaker 1: impress her with the truth that the latter was not
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  Speaker 1: responsible for the acts of which she can plained, but
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  Speaker 1: that she, being a slave and subject entirely to her
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  Speaker 1: master's will, he alone was answerable. At length, the green
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  Speaker 1: eyed monster crept into the soul of Epps also, and
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  Speaker 1: then it was that he joined with his wrathful wife
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  Speaker 1: in an infernal jubilee over the girl's miseries. On a
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  Speaker 1: Sabbath day in Hoing time not long ago, we were
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  Speaker 1: on the bayou bank washing our clothes, as was our
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  Speaker 1: usual custom. Presently Patsy was missing. Epps called aloud, but
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  Speaker 1: there was no answer. No one had observed her leaving
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  Speaker 1: the yard, and it was a wonder with us whither
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  Speaker 1: she had gone. In the course of a couple of hours,
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  Speaker 1: she was seen approaching from the direction of shores. This man,
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  Speaker 1: as has been intimated, was a notorious, profligate and withal
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  Speaker 1: not on the most friendly terms with Epps. Harriet, his
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  Speaker 1: black wife, knowing Patsy's troubles, was kind to her, in
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  Speaker 1: consequence of which the latter was in the habit of
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  Speaker 1: going over to see her every opportunity. Her visits were
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  Speaker 1: prompted by friendship merely, but the suspicion gradually entered the
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  Speaker 1: brain of Epps that another and a baser passion led
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  Speaker 1: her thither that it was not Harriet she desired to meet,
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  Speaker 1: but rather the unblushing libertine his neighbor. Patsy found her
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  Speaker 1: master in a fearful rage on her return. His violence
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  Speaker 1: so alarmed her that at first she attempted to evade
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  Speaker 1: direct answers to his questions, which only served to increase
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  Speaker 1: his suspicions. She finally, however, drew herself up proudly, and
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  Speaker 1: in a spirit of indignation, boldly denied his charges. Missus,
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  Speaker 1: don't give me soap to wash with as she does
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  Speaker 1: the rest, said Patsy, And you know why I went
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  Speaker 1: over to Harriet to get a piece, And saying this,
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  Speaker 1: she drew it forth from a pocket in her dress
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  Speaker 1: and exhibited it to him. That's what I went to
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  Speaker 1: Shaws for, Massa, Epps continued. She the Lord knows that
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  Speaker 1: was all you lie. You black Wench, shouted Epps. I
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  Speaker 1: don't lie, Massa. If you can, I'll stick to that. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'll fetch you down. I'll learn you to go to shores.
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  Speaker 1: I'll take the starch out of you, he muttered fiercely
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  Speaker 1: through his shut teeth. Then turning to me, he ordered
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  Speaker 1: four stakes to be driven into the ground, pointing with
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  Speaker 1: the toe of his boot to the places where he
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  Speaker 1: wanted them. When the stakes were driven down, he ordered
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  Speaker 1: her to be stripped of every article of dress. Ropes
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  Speaker 1: were then brought and the naked girl was laid upon
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  Speaker 1: her face, her wrists and feet each tied firmly to
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  Speaker 1: the stake. Stepping to the piazza, he took down a
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  Speaker 1: heavy whip, and, placing it in my hands, commanded me
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  Speaker 1: to lash her. Unpleasant as it was, I was compelled
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  Speaker 1: to obey him. Nowhere that day, on the face of
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  Speaker 1: the whole earth, I venture to say, was there such
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  Speaker 1: a demoniac exhibition witnessed? As then ensued. Mistress Epps stood
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  Speaker 1: on the piazza among her children, gazing on the scene
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  Speaker 1: with an air of heartless satisfaction. The slaves were huddled
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  Speaker 1: together at a little distance, there countenances indicating the sorrow
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  Speaker 1: of their hearts. Poor Patsy prayed piteously for mercy, but
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  Speaker 1: her prayers were vain. Epps ground his teeth and stamped
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  Speaker 1: upon the ground, screaming at me like a mad fiend.
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  Speaker 1: To strike harder, strike harder, or your turn will come next,
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  Speaker 1: you scoundrel, he yelled. Oh mercy, massa, Oh have mercy do?
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  Speaker 1: Oh God, pity me, Patsy exclaimed, continually struggling fruitlessly and
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  Speaker 1: the flesh quivering at every stroke. When I had struck
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  Speaker 1: her as many as thirty times, I stopped and turned
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  Speaker 1: round toward Epps, hoping he was satisfied, but with bitter
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  Speaker 1: oaths and threats he ordered me to continue. I inflicted
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  Speaker 1: ten or fifteen blows more. By this time her back
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  Speaker 1: was covered with long welts intersecting each other like network.
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  Speaker 1: Epps was yet furious and savage as ever, demanding if
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  Speaker 1: she would like to go to shores again, and swearing
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  Speaker 1: he would flog her until she wished she in hell.
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  Speaker 1: Throwing down the whip, I declared I could punish her
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  Speaker 1: no more. He ordered me to go on, threatening me
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  Speaker 1: with a severer flogging than she could received in case
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  Speaker 1: of refusal. My heart revolted at the inhuman scene, and
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  Speaker 1: risking the consequences, I absolutely refused to raise the whip.
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  Speaker 1: He then seized it himself and applied it with tenfold
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  Speaker 1: greater force than I had. The painful cries and shrieks
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  Speaker 1: of the tortured Patsy, mingling with the loud and angry
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  Speaker 1: curses of Epps, loaded the air. She was terribly lacerated,
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  Speaker 1: I may say, without exaggeration, literally flayed. The lash was
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  Speaker 1: wet with blood, which flowed down her sides and dropped
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  Speaker 1: upon the ground. At length, she ceased struggling. Her head
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  Speaker 1: sank listlessly on the ground. Her screams and supplications gradually
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  Speaker 1: decreased and died away into a low moan. She no
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  Speaker 1: longer writhed and shrank beneath the lash when it bit
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  Speaker 1: out small peace of her flesh, I thought that she
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  Speaker 1: was dying. It was the sabbath of the Lord. The
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  Speaker 1: field smiled in the warm sunlight. The birds chirped merrily
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  Speaker 1: amidst the foliage of the trees. Peace and happiness seemed
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  Speaker 1: to rain everywhere, save in the bosoms of Epps and
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  Speaker 1: his panting victim, and the silent witnesses around him. The
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  Speaker 1: tempestuous emotions that were raging there were little in harmony
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  Speaker 1: with the calm and quiet beauty of the day. I
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  Speaker 1: could look on Epps only with unutterable loathing and abhorrence,
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  Speaker 1: and thought within myself, thou devil. Sooner or later, somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in the course of eternal justice, thou shalt answer for
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  Speaker 1: this sin. Finally, he ceased whipping from mere exhaustion and
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  Speaker 1: ordered Phoebe to bring a bucket of salt and water.
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  Speaker 1: After washing her thoroughly with this, I was told to
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  Speaker 1: take her to her cabin. Untying the ropes, I raised
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  Speaker 1: her in my arms. She was unable to stand, and
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  Speaker 1: as her head read stood on my shoulder, she repeated
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  Speaker 1: many times, in a faint voice, scarcely perceptible, oh Plat,
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  Speaker 1: oh plat, But nothing further. Her dress was replaced, but
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  Speaker 1: it clung to her back and was soon stiff with blood.
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  Speaker 1: We laid her on some boards in the hut, where
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  Speaker 1: she remained a long time with eyes closed and groaning
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  Speaker 1: in agony. At night, Phoebe applied melted tallow to her wounds,
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  Speaker 1: and so far as we were able, all endeavored to
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  Speaker 1: assist and console her. Day after day she lay in
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  Speaker 1: her cabin, upon her face, the sows preventing her resting
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  Speaker 1: in any other position. A blessed thing it would have
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  Speaker 1: been for her days and weeks and months of misery.
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  Speaker 1: It would have saved her had she never lifted up
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  Speaker 1: her head in life again. Indeed, from that time forward,
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  Speaker 1: she was not what she had been. The burden of
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  Speaker 1: a deep melancholy weighed heavily on her spirits. She no
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  Speaker 1: longer moved with that buoyant and elastic step. There was
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  Speaker 1: not that mirthful spot in her eyes that formerly distinguished her.
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  Speaker 1: The bounding vigor, the sprightly, laughter, loving spirit of her
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  Speaker 1: youth were gone. She fell into a mournful and desponding mood,
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  Speaker 1: and oftentimes would start up in her sleep and with
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  Speaker 1: raised hands plead for mercy. She became more silent than
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  Speaker 1: she was toiling all day in our midst, not uttering
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  Speaker 1: a word. A careworn, pitiful expression settled on her face,
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  Speaker 1: and it was her humor now to weep rather than rejoice.
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  Speaker 1: If ever, there was a broken heart, one crushed and
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  Speaker 1: blighted by the rude grasp of suffering and misfortune. It
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  Speaker 1: was Patsy's. She had been reared no better than her
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  Speaker 1: master's beast, looked upon merely as a valuable and handsome animal,
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  Speaker 1: and consequently possessed but a limited amount of knowledge. And
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  Speaker 1: yet a faint light cast its rays over her intellect,
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  Speaker 1: so that it was not wholly dark. She had a
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  Speaker 1: dim perception of God and of eternity, and a still
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  Speaker 1: more dim perception of a savior who had died even
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  Speaker 1: for such as her. She entertained but confused notions of
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  Speaker 1: a future life, not comprehending the distinction between the corporeal
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  Speaker 1: and spiritual existence. Happiness in her mind was exemption from stripes,
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  Speaker 1: from labour, from the cruelty of masters and overseers. Her
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  Speaker 1: idea of the joy of heaven was simply rest, and
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  Speaker 1: is fully expressed in these lines of a melancholy bard.
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  Speaker 1: I ask no paradise on high, with cares on earth oppressed.
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  Speaker 1: The only heaven for which I sigh is rest, eternal rest.
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  Speaker 1: It is a mistaken opinion that prevails in some quarters
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  Speaker 1: that the slave does not understand the term, does not
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  Speaker 1: comprehend the idea of freedom even on Bayu Birth, where
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  Speaker 1: I conceive slavery exists in its most abject and cruel form,
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  Speaker 1: where it exhibits features altogether unknown in more northern states.
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  Speaker 1: The most ignorant of them generally know full well. They
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  Speaker 1: understand the privilege and exemptions that belong to it, that
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  Speaker 1: it would bestow upon them the fruits of their own labours,
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  Speaker 1: and that it would secure to them the enjoyment of
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  Speaker 1: domestic happiness. They do not fail to observe the difference
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  Speaker 1: between their own condition and the meanest white man's, and
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  Speaker 1: to realize the injustice of the laws which place it
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  Speaker 1: in his power not only to appropriate the profits of
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  Speaker 1: their industry, but to subject them to unmerited and unprovoked punishment,
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  Speaker 1: without remedy or the right to resist or to remonstrate.
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  Speaker 1: Patsy's life, especially after her whipping, was one long dream
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  Speaker 1: of liberty. Far away to her fancy and immeasurable distance.
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  Speaker 1: She knew there was a land of freedom. A thousand
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  Speaker 1: times she had heard that somewhere in the distant north
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  Speaker 1: there were no slaves, no masters. In her imagination, it
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  Speaker 1: was an enchanted region, the paradise of the earth to
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  Speaker 1: dwell where the black man may work for himself, live
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  Speaker 1: in his own cabin till his own soil. Was a
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  Speaker 1: blissful dream of Patsy's, a dream alass the fulfillment of
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  Speaker 1: which she can never realize. The effect of these exhibitions
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  Speaker 1: of brutality on the household of the slaveholder is apparent.
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  Speaker 1: EPP's oldest son is an intelligent lad of ten or
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  Speaker 1: twelve years of age. It is pitiable sometimes to see
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  Speaker 1: him chastising, for instance, the venerable Uncle Abram. He will
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  Speaker 1: call the old man to account, and, if in his
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  Speaker 1: childish judgment it is necessary, sentence him to a certain
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  Speaker 1: number of lashes, which he proceeds to inflict with much
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  Speaker 1: gravity and deliberation. Mounted on his pony, he often rides
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  Speaker 1: into the field with his whip, playing the overseer greatly
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  Speaker 1: to his father's delight. Without discrimination. At such times he
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  Speaker 1: applies the rawhide, urging the slaves forward with shouts and
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  Speaker 1: occasional expressions of profanity, while the old man laughs and
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  Speaker 1: commends him as a thorough going boy. The child is
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  Speaker 1: father to the man, and with such training, whatever may
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  Speaker 1: be his natural disposition, it cannot well be otherwise than that.
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  Speaker 1: On arriving at maturity, the sufferings and miseries of the
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  Speaker 1: slave will be looked upon with entire indifference. The influence
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  Speaker 1: of the iniquitous system necessarily fosters an unfeeling and cruel spirit,
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  Speaker 1: even in the bosoms of those who, among their equals,
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  Speaker 1: are regarded as humane and generous. Young Master Epps possessed
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  Speaker 1: some noble qualities, yet no process of reasoning could lead
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  Speaker 1: him to comprehend that in the eye of the almighty
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  Speaker 1: there is no distinction of colour. He looked upon the
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  Speaker 1: black man simply as an animal, differing in no respect
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  Speaker 1: from any other animal, and the possession of somewhat higher instincts,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore the more valuable to work like his father's mules,
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  Speaker 1: to be whipped and kicked and scourged through life, to
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  Speaker 1: address the white man with hat in hand and eyes
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  Speaker 1: bent servilely on the earth. In his mind was the
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  Speaker 1: natural and proper destiny of the slave, brought up with
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  Speaker 1: such ideas in the notion that we stand without the
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  Speaker 1: pale of humanity, no wonder, the oppressors of my people
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  Speaker 1: are a pitiless and unrelenting race. End of Chapter eighteen