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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. As the
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  Speaker 1: steamer glided on its way towards New Orleans, perhaps I
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  Speaker 1: was not happy. Perhaps there was no difficulty in restraining
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  Speaker 1: myself from dancing round the deck. Perhaps I did not
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  Speaker 1: feel grateful to the man who had come so many
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  Speaker 1: hundred miles for me. Perhaps I did not light his
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  Speaker 1: pipe and wait and watch his word, and run at
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  Speaker 1: his slightest bidding. If I didn't, well, no matter. We
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  Speaker 1: tarried New Orleans two days. During that time I pointed
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  Speaker 1: out the locality of Freeman's slave pen and the room
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  Speaker 1: in which Ford purchased me. We happened to meet Theophilus
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  Speaker 1: in the street, but I did not think it worthwhile
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  Speaker 1: to renew acquaintance with him. From respectable citizens, we ascertained
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  Speaker 1: he had become a low, miserable rowdye, a broken down,
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  Speaker 1: disreputable man. We also visited the recorder, mister Jenois, to
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  Speaker 1: whom Senator Souley's letter was directed, and found him a
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  Speaker 1: man well deserving the wide and honorable reputation that he bears.
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  Speaker 1: He very generously furnished us with a sort of legal
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  Speaker 1: pass over his signature and seal of office. And as
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  Speaker 1: it contains the recorder's description of my personal appearance, it
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  Speaker 1: may not be amissed to insert it here. The following
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  Speaker 1: is a copy State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: Recorder's Office, second District, to all to whom these presents
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  Speaker 1: shall come. This is to certify that Henry B. Northup,
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  Speaker 1: Esquire of the County of Washington, New York, has produced
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  Speaker 1: before me due evidence of the freedom of Solomon, a
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  Speaker 1: Mulatto man aged about forty two years, five feet seven
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  Speaker 1: inches and six lines, wooly hare and chestnut eyes, who
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  Speaker 1: is a native born of the state of New York.
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  Speaker 1: That the said north Up being about bringing the said
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  Speaker 1: Solomon to his name place through the southern routes, the
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  Speaker 1: civil authorities are requested to let the aforesaid coloured man
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  Speaker 1: Solomon pass unmolested, he demeaning well and properly given under
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  Speaker 1: my hand and the seal of the City of New Orleans.
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  Speaker 1: This seventh January eighteen fifty three thhjenhois Recorder. On the
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  Speaker 1: eighth we came to Lake ponshour train by railroad, and
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  Speaker 1: in due time following the usual route reached Charleston, after
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  Speaker 1: going on board the steamboat and paying our passage. At
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  Speaker 1: this city, mister Northup was called upon by a custom
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  Speaker 1: house officer to explain why he had not registered his servant.
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  Speaker 1: He replied that he had no servant, that as the
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  Speaker 1: agent of New York, he was accompanying a free citizen
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  Speaker 1: of that state from slavery to freedom, and did not
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  Speaker 1: desire nor intend to make any registry. Whatever I conceived
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  Speaker 1: from his conversation and manner, though I may perhaps be
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  Speaker 1: entirely mistaken, that no great pains would be taken to
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  Speaker 1: avoid whatever difficulty that Charleston officials might deem proper to create.
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  Speaker 1: At length, however, we were permitted to proceed, and, passing
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  Speaker 1: through Richmond, where I caught a glimpse of Goodin's pen,
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  Speaker 1: arrived in Washington January seventeenth, eighteen fifty three. We ascertained
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  Speaker 1: that both Birch and Radburn were still residing in that city. Immediately,
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  Speaker 1: a complaint was entered with a Police Magistrate of Washington
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  Speaker 1: against James H. Birch for kidnapping and selling me into slavery.
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  Speaker 1: He was arrested upon a warrant issued by Justice Godard
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  Speaker 1: and returned before Justice Mansell and held to bail in
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  Speaker 1: the sum of three thousand dollars. When first arrested, Birch
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  Speaker 1: was much excited, exhibiting the utmost fear and alarm, and
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  Speaker 1: before reaching the Justice's office on Louisiana Avenue, and before
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  Speaker 1: knowing the precise nature of the complaint, begged the police
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  Speaker 1: to permit him to consult Benjamin O. Shekels, a slave
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  Speaker 1: trader of seventeen years standing and his former partner. The
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  Speaker 1: latter became his bail. At ten o'clock the eighteenth of January,
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  Speaker 1: both parties appeared before the Magistrate, Senator Chase of Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Honorable Orville Clerk of Sandy Hill and mister Northup acted
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  Speaker 1: as counsel for the prosecution and Joseph H. Bradley for
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  Speaker 1: the defense. General Orville Clark was called and sworn as
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  Speaker 1: a witness and testified that he had known me from
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  Speaker 1: childhood and that I was a free man, as was
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  Speaker 1: my father before me. Mister Northup then testified to the
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  Speaker 1: same and proved the facts connected with his mission to
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  Speaker 1: avoyel Ebenezer Radbourn was then sworn for the prosecution and
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  Speaker 1: testified he was forty eight years old, that he was
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  Speaker 1: a resident of Washington and had known Birch fourteen years,
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  Speaker 1: That in eighteen forty one he was keeper of William's
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  Speaker 1: slave pen, that he remembered the fact of my confinement
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  Speaker 1: in the pen that year. At this point it was
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  Speaker 1: admitted by the defendant's council that I had been placed
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  Speaker 1: in the pen by Birch in the spring of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: forty one. And hereupon the prosecution rested. Benjamin O'shekels was
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  Speaker 1: then offered as a witness by the prisoner. Benjamin is
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  Speaker 1: a large, coarse featured man, and the reader may perhaps
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  Speaker 1: get a somewhat correct conception of him by reading the
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  Speaker 1: exact language he used in answer to the first question
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  Speaker 1: of defendant's lawyer. He was asked the place of his nativity,
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  Speaker 1: and his reply, uttered in a sort of rowdyish way,
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  Speaker 1: was in these very words. I was born in Ontario County,
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  Speaker 1: New York, and weighed fourteen pounds. Benjamin was a prodigious baby.
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  Speaker 1: He further testified that he kept the steamboat hotel in
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  Speaker 1: Washington in eighteen forty one and saw me there in
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  Speaker 1: the spring of that year. He was proceeding to state
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  Speaker 1: what he had heard two men say. When Senator Chase
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  Speaker 1: raised the legal objection to wit that the sayings of
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  Speaker 1: third persons being hearsay was in proper evidence, the objection
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  Speaker 1: was overruled by the Justice, and Shekels continued, stating that
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  Speaker 1: two men came to his hotel and represented they had
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  Speaker 1: a colored man for sale, that they had an interview
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  Speaker 1: with Birch, That they stated they came from Georgia, but
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  Speaker 1: he did not remember the county. That they gave a
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  Speaker 1: full history of the boy, saying he was a bricklayer
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  Speaker 1: and played on the violin. That Burch remarked he would
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  Speaker 1: purchase if they could agree, that they went out and
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  Speaker 1: brought the boy in, and that I was the same person.
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  Speaker 1: He further testified, with as much unconcern as if it
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  Speaker 1: was the truth, that I represented I was born and
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  Speaker 1: bred in Georgia, that one of the young men with
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  Speaker 1: me was my master, that I exhibited a great deal
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  Speaker 1: of regret at parting with him, and he believed got
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  Speaker 1: into tears. Nevertheless, that I insisted my master had a
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  Speaker 1: right to sell me, that he ought to sell me.
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  Speaker 1: And the remarkable reason I gave was, according to Shekels,
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  Speaker 1: that he my master had been gambling and honest free.
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  Speaker 1: He continued in these words copied from the minute taken
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  Speaker 1: on the examination. Birch interrogated the boy in the usual manner,
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  Speaker 1: told him, if he purchased him, he should send him south.
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  Speaker 1: The boy said he had no objection, that, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: he would like to go south. Birch paid six hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty dollars for him. To my knowledge, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what name was given him, but think it was not.
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  Speaker 1: Solomon did not know the name of either of the
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  Speaker 1: two men. They were in my tavern two or three hours,
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  Speaker 1: during which time the boy played on the violin. The
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  Speaker 1: bill of sale was signed in my bar room. It
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  Speaker 1: was a printed blank filled up by Birch. Before eighteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty eight Birch was my partner. Our business was buying
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  Speaker 1: and selling slaves. After that time he was a partner
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  Speaker 1: of Theophilus Freeman of New Orleans. Birch bought here, Freeman
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  Speaker 1: sold there. Shekel before testifying had heard my relation of
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances connected with the visit to Washington with Brown
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  Speaker 1: and Hamilton, and therefore it was undoubtedly he spoke of
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  Speaker 1: two men and of my playing on the violin. Such
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  Speaker 1: was his fabrication utterly untrue, and yet there was found
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  Speaker 1: in Washington a man who endeavored to corroborate him. Benjamin
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  Speaker 1: Athorne testified he was at Shekel's in eighteen forty one
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  Speaker 1: and saw a colored boy playing on a fiddle. Shekel
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  Speaker 1: said he was for sale, heard his master tell him
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  Speaker 1: he should sell him. The boy acknowledged to me he
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  Speaker 1: was a slave. I was not present when the money
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  Speaker 1: was paid. Will not swear positively this is the boy.
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  Speaker 1: The master came near shedding tears. I think the boy did.
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  Speaker 1: I have been engaged in the business of taking slaves
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  Speaker 1: south off and on for twenty years. When I can't
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  Speaker 1: do that, I do something else. I was then offered
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  Speaker 1: as a witness, but objection being made, the court decided
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  Speaker 1: my evidence in admissible. It was rejected solely on the
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  Speaker 1: grounds that I was a colored man, the fact of
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  Speaker 1: my being a free citizen of New York not being disputed.
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  Speaker 1: Shekels having testified there was a bill of sale executed,
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  Speaker 1: Birch was called upon by the prosecution to produce it,
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as such a paper would corroborate the testimony of
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  Speaker 1: Thorn and Shekels. The prisoner's council saw the necessity of
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  Speaker 1: exhibiting it or giving some reasonable explanation for its non
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  Speaker 1: production to affect the latter. Birch himself was offered as
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  Speaker 1: a witness in his own behalf. It was contended by
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  Speaker 1: Counsel for the people that such testimony should not be allowed,
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  Speaker 1: that it was in contravention of every rule of evidence,
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  Speaker 1: and if permitted, would defeat the ends of justice. His testimony, however,
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  Speaker 1: was received by the court. He made oath that such
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  Speaker 1: a bill of sale had been drawn up and signed,
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  Speaker 1: but he had lost it and did not know what
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  Speaker 1: had become of it. Thereupon, the magistrate was requested to
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  Speaker 1: dispatch a place police officer to Birch's residence with directions
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  Speaker 1: to bring his books containing his bills of sales for
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  Speaker 1: the year eighteen forty one. The request was granted, and
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  Speaker 1: before any measure could be taken to prevent it, the
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  Speaker 1: officer had obtained possession of the books and brought them
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  Speaker 1: into court. The sales for the year eighteen forty one
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  Speaker 1: were found and carefully examined, but no sale of myself
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  Speaker 1: by any name was discovered. Upon this testimony, the court
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  Speaker 1: held the fact to be established that Birch came innocently
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  Speaker 1: and honestly by me, and accordingly he was discharged. An
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  Speaker 1: attempt was then made by Birch and his satellites to
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  Speaker 1: fasten upon me the charge that I had conspired with
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  Speaker 1: the two white men to defraud him with what success.
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  Speaker 1: Appears in an extract taken from an article in The
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  Speaker 1: New York Times published a day or two subsequent to
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  Speaker 1: the trial. The council for the defendant had drawn up
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  Speaker 1: before the defendant was discharged, and after David sighed Birch
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  Speaker 1: and had a warrant out against the colored man for
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  Speaker 1: a conspiracy with the two white men before referred to
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  Speaker 1: to defraud Birch out of six hundred and twenty five dollars.
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  Speaker 1: The warrant was served and the colored man arrested and
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  Speaker 1: brought before Officer Godard. Birch and his witnesses appeared in court,
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  Speaker 1: and HB. Northup appeared as council for the colored man,
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  Speaker 1: stating he was ready to proceed as counsel on the
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  Speaker 1: part of the defendant and asking no delay whatever. Burch,
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  Speaker 1: after consulting privately a short time with Shekels, stated to
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  Speaker 1: the magistrate that he wished him to dismiss the complaint,
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  Speaker 1: as he would not proceed farther with it. Defendant's council
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  Speaker 1: stated to the magistrate that if the complaint was withdrawn,
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  Speaker 1: it must be without the request or consent of the defendant.
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  Speaker 1: Birch then asked the magistrate to let him have the
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  Speaker 1: complaint and the warrant, and he took them. The council
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  Speaker 1: for the defendant objected to his receiving them and insisted
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  Speaker 1: they should remain as part of the records of the court,
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  Speaker 1: and that the Corps should endorse the proceedings which had
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  Speaker 1: been had under the process. Birch delivered them up, and
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  Speaker 1: the court rendered a judgment of discontinuance by the request
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  Speaker 1: of the prosecutor, and filed it in his office. There
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  Speaker 1: may be those who will affect to believe the statement
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  Speaker 1: of the slave trader, those in whose minds his allegations
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  Speaker 1: will weigh heavier than mine. I am a poor colored man,
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  Speaker 1: one of a down trodden and degraded race, whose humble
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  Speaker 1: voice may not be heeded by the oppressor. But knowing
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  Speaker 1: the truth and with a full sense of my accountability,
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  Speaker 1: I do solemnly declare before men and before God, that
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  Speaker 1: any charge or assertion that I conspired directly or indirectly
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  Speaker 1: with any person or persons to sell myself, that any
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  Speaker 1: other account of my visit to Washington, my capture and
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  Speaker 1: imprisonment in William's slave pen than is contained in these
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  Speaker 1: pages is utterly and absolutely false. I never played on
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  Speaker 1: the violin in Washington, I never was in the steamboat hotel,
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  Speaker 1: and never saw Thorn or Shekels, to my knowledge, in
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  Speaker 1: my life until last January. The story of the trio
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  Speaker 1: of slave traders is a fabrication, as absurd as it
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  Speaker 1: is base and unfounded. Were it true, I should not
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  Speaker 1: have turned aside on my way back to liberty for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of prosecuting Birch. I should have avoided rather
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  Speaker 1: than sought him. I should have known that such a
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  Speaker 1: step would have resulted in rendering me infamous. Under the circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: longing as I did to behold my family and elated
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  Speaker 1: with the prospect of returning home. It is an outrage
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  Speaker 1: upon probability to suppose I would have run the hazard
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  Speaker 1: not only of exposure, but of a criminal prosecution and
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  Speaker 1: conviction by voluntarily placing myself in the position I did.
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  Speaker 1: If the statements of Birch and his confederates contain a
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  Speaker 1: particle of truth. I took pains to seek him out,
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  Speaker 1: to confront him in a court of law, charging him
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  Speaker 1: with the crime of kidnapping, and the only motive that
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  Speaker 1: impelled me to this step was a burning sense of
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  Speaker 1: the wrong he had inflicted upon me, and a desire
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  Speaker 1: to bring him to justice. He was acquitted in the
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  Speaker 1: manner and by such means as have been described. A
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  Speaker 1: human tribunal has permitted him to escape. But there is another,
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  Speaker 1: and a higher tribunal, where false testimony will not prevail,
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  Speaker 1: and where I am willing so far at least as
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  Speaker 1: these statements are concerned, to be judged at last. We
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  Speaker 1: left Washington on the twentieth of January, and, proceeding by
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  Speaker 1: way of Philadelphia, New York, and Albany, reached Sandy Hill
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  Speaker 1: in the night of the twenty first. My heart overflowed
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  Speaker 1: with happiness as I looked around upon old, familiar scenes
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  Speaker 1: and found myself in the midst of friends of other days.
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  Speaker 1: The following morning, I started, in company with several acquaintances
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  Speaker 1: for Glen Falls the residence of Anne and our children.
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  Speaker 1: As I entered their comfortable cottage. Mark Margaret was the
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  Speaker 1: first that met me. She did not recognize me when
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  Speaker 1: I left her. She was but seven years old, a
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  Speaker 1: little prattling girl playing with her toys. Now she was
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  Speaker 1: grown to womanhood, was married with a bright eyed boy
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  Speaker 1: standing by her side, not forgetful of his enslaved unfortunate grandfather.
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  Speaker 1: She had named the child Solomon northup Staunton. When told
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  Speaker 1: who I was, she was overcome with emotion and unable
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  Speaker 1: to speak. Presently, Elizabeth entered the room, and Anne came
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  Speaker 1: running from the hotel, having been informed of my arrival.
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  Speaker 1: They embraced me, and, with tears flowing down their cheeks,
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  Speaker 1: hung upon my neck. But I draw a veil over
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  Speaker 1: a scene which can better be imagined than described, When
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  Speaker 1: the violence of our emotions had subsided to a sacred joy,
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  Speaker 1: when the household gathered round the fire that sent out
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  Speaker 1: its warm and crackling comfort through the room weakened verse
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  Speaker 1: of the thousand events that had occurred, the hopes and fears,
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  Speaker 1: the joys and sorrows, the trials and troubles we had
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  Speaker 1: each experienced during the long separation. Alonzo was absent in
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  Speaker 1: the western part of the state. The boy had written
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  Speaker 1: to his mother a short time previous, of the prospect
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  Speaker 1: of his obtaining sufficient money to purchase my freedom. From
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  Speaker 1: his earliest years, that had been the chief object of
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts and his ambition. They knew I was in
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  Speaker 1: bondage the letter written on board the brig and clem
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  Speaker 1: Ray himself had given them that information, But where I
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  Speaker 1: was until the arrival of Bass's letter was a matter
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  Speaker 1: of conjecture. Elizabeth and Margaret once returned from school, so
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  Speaker 1: Anne informed me, weeping bitterly. On inquiring the cause of
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  Speaker 1: the children's sorrow, it was found that, while studying geography,
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  Speaker 1: their attention had been attracted to the picture of slaves
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  Speaker 1: working in the cotton field and an overseer following them
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  Speaker 1: with his whip. It reminded them of the sufferings their
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  Speaker 1: father might be, and, as it happened, actually was enduring
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  Speaker 1: in the South. Numerous incidents such as these were related
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  Speaker 1: incidents showing they still held me in constant remembrance, but
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  Speaker 1: not perhaps of sufficient interest to the reader to be recounted.
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  Speaker 1: My narrative is at an end. I have no comments
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  Speaker 1: to make upon the subject of slavery. Those who read
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  Speaker 1: this book may form their own opinions of the peculiar institution.
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  Speaker 1: What it may be in other states, I do not
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  Speaker 1: profess to know what it is in the region of
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  Speaker 1: Red River is truly and faithfully delineated in these pages.
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  Speaker 1: This is no fiction, no exaggeration. If I have failed
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  Speaker 1: in anything, it has been in presenting to the reader
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  Speaker 1: too prominently the bright side of the picture. I doubt
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  Speaker 1: not hundreds have been as unfortunate as myself. That hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of free citizens have been kidnapped and sold into slavery,
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  Speaker 1: and are at this moment wearing out their lives on
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  Speaker 1: plantations in Texas and Louisiana. But I forbear chastened and
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  Speaker 1: subdued in spirit by the sufferings I have borne, and
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  Speaker 1: thankful to that good being through whose mercy I have
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  Speaker 1: been restored to happiness and liberty. I hope henceforward to
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  Speaker 1: lead an upright, though lowly life, and rest at last
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  Speaker 1: in the churchyard where my father sleeps. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty two.