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Solomon Northup and Harriet Jacobs on the Experiences of Enslaved Women in the Antebellum South

Questions to think about: 1. From Solomon Northup, Twelve Years as a Slave (1853).1 Solomon 1. In what ways did the experiences of male and female slaves differ? Northup was born a free man in New York in 1808. In 1841, while on a trip to 2. Which parts of the autobiographies of Northup and Jacobs do you think Washington DC, he was kidnapped by slave traders and sold into slavery in would have most affected white readers and why? Louisiana. He eventually regained his freedom and wrote an autobiography. a. (Note that the target audience for many slave narratives was After being kidnapped Northup was initially taken to a slave-yard in Washington white women.) DC where he was savagely whipped by James Burch, a slave-dealer. Burch 3. Describe the relationship between female slaves and the wives of their whipped Northup until the latter ceased to insist that he was a free man. As masters. Northup was recovering he recalled: 4. Under slavery, African American men and women existed within a culture of fear. Using these sources, describe how slave owners created …The night previous to my departure a woman was brought in, weeping and used this culture of fear to control slaves. bitterly, and leading by the hand a little child. They were Randall's mother and 5. Do you think Jacobs saw herself as a victim? Why or why not? Do you half-sister.2 On meeting them he was overjoyed, clinging to her dress, kissing the think Patsey saw herself as a victim? Why or why not? child, and exhibiting every demonstration of delight. The mother also clasped 6. Why is Dr. Flint wary of Harriet Jacobs’ grandmother? him in her arms, embraced him tenderly, and gazed at him fondly through her tears, calling him by many an endearing name.

Emily, the child, was seven or eight years old, of light complexion, and

with a face of admirable beauty. Her hair fell in curls around her neck, while the style and richness of her dress, and the neatness of her whole appearance indicated she had been brought up in the midst of wealth. She was a sweet child indeed. The woman also was arrayed in silk, with rings upon her fingers, and golden ornaments suspended from her ears. Her air and manners, the correctness and propriety of her language—all showed evidently, that she had sometime

1 As printed on the site Documenting the American South (sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html. 2 Randall was a boy who was being held with Northup.

HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 2 stood above the common level of a slave. She seemed to be amazed at finding The day she was led into the pen, Brooks had brought her from the herself in such a place as that. It was plainly a sudden and unexpected turn of estate into the city, under pretence that the time had come when her free papers fortune that had brought her there. Filling the air with her complaining she was were to be executed, in fulfillment of her master's promise. Elated at the prospect hustled, with the children and myself, into the cell. Language can convey but an of immediate liberty, she decked herself and little Emmy in their best apparel, inadequate impression of the lamentations to which she gave incessant utterance. and accompanied him with a joyful heart. On their arrival in the city, instead of Throwing herself upon the floor, and encircling the children in her arms, she being baptized into the family of freemen, she was delivered to the trader Burch. poured forth such touching words as only maternal love and kindness can The paper that was executed was a bill of sale. The hope of years was blasted in suggest. …It was enough to melt heart of stone to listen to the pitiful expressions a moment. From the height of most exulting happiness to the utmost depths of of that desolate and distracted mother. Her name was Eliza; and this was the wretchedness, she had that day descended. No wonder that she wept, and filled story of her life, as she afterwards related it: the pen with wailings and expressions of heart-rending woe…

She was the slave of a rich man,3 living in the neighborhood of Washington. She was born, I think she said, on his plantation. Years before, he had fallen into dissipated habits, and quarreled with his wife. In fact, soon after Northup, Eliza, Randall and Emily, along with others, were sent by Burch to the birth of Randall, they separated. Leaving his wife and daughter in the house New Orleans, to be sold by his partner Theophilus Freeman: they had always occupied, he erected a new one nearby, on the estate. Into this The very amiable, pious-hearted Mr. Theophilus Freeman, partner or house he brought Eliza; and, on condition of her living with him, she and her consignee of James H. Burch, and keeper of the slave pen in New-Orleans, was children were to be emancipated. She resided with him there nine years, with out among his animals early in the morning. With an occasional kick of the older servants to attend upon her, and provided with every comfort and luxury of life. men and women, and many a sharp crack of the whip about the ears of the Emily was his child!4 Finally, her young mistress, who had always remained younger slaves, it was not long before they were all astir, and wide awake. Mr. with her mother at the homestead, married a Mr. Jacob Brooks.5 At length, for Theophilus Freeman bustled about in a very industrious manner, getting his some cause, (as I gathered from her relation,) beyond Berry's control, a division property ready for the sales-room, intending, no doubt, to do that day a rousing of his property was made. She and her children fell to the share of Mr. Brooks. business. During the nine years she had lived with Berry, in consequence of the position she was compelled to occupy, she and Emily had become the object of Mrs. In the first place we were required to wash thoroughly, and those with Berry and her daughter's hatred and dislike. Berry himself she represented as a beards, to shave. We were then furnished with a new suit each, cheap, but clean. man of naturally a kind heart, who always promised her that she should have her The men had hat, coat, shirt, pants and shoes; the women frocks of calico, and freedom, and who, she had no doubt, would warrant it to her then, if it were only handkerchiefs to bind about their heads. We were now conducted into a large in his power. As soon as they thus came into the possession and control of the room in the front part of the building to which the yard was attached, in order to daughter, it became very manifest they would not live long together. The sight of be properly trained, before the admission of customers. The men were arranged Eliza seemed to be odious to Mrs. Brooks; neither could she bear to look upon on one side of the room, the women on the other. The tallest was placed at the the child, half-sister, and beautiful as she was! head of the row, then the next tallest, and so on in the order of their respective heights. Emily was at the foot of the line of women. Freeman charged us to remember our places; exhorted us to appear smart and lively, —sometimes 3 Named Mr. Berry. threatening, and again, holding out various inducements. During the day he 4 (Randall was not Berry’s son.) 5 That is, Berry’s daughter by his (white) wife married a man named Jacob Brooks. HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 3 exercised us in the art of "looking smart," and of moving to our places with exact tears, but it was all in vain. She wanted to be with her children, she said, the little precision… time she had to live. All the frowns and threats of Freeman, could not wholly silence the afflicted mother. She kept on begging and beseeching them, most Next day many customers called to examine Freeman's "new lot." piteously not to separate the three. Over and over again she told them how she …[One] gentleman was very loquacious, dwelling at much length upon our loved her boy. A great many times she repeated her former promises—how very several good points and qualities. He would make us hold up our heads, walk faithful and obedient she would be; how hard she would labor day and night, to briskly back and forth, while customers would feel of our hands and arms and the last moment of her life, if he would only buy them all together. But it was of bodies, turn us about, ask us what we could do, make us open our mouths and no avail; the man could not afford it. The bargain was agreed upon, and Randall show our teeth, precisely as a jockey examines a horse which he is about to must go alone. Then Eliza ran to him; embraced him passionately; kissed him barter for or purchase. Sometimes a man or woman was taken back to the small again and again; told him to remember her— all the while her tears falling in the house in the yard, stripped, and inspected more minutely. Scars upon a slave's boy's face like rain. back were considered evidence of a rebellious or unruly spirit, and hurt his sale. …The planter from Baton Rouge, with his new purchases, was ready to One old gentleman, who said he wanted a coachman, appeared to take a depart. fancy to me. From his conversation with Burch, I learned he was a resident in the city. I very much desired that he would buy me, because I conceived it would not "Don't cry, mama. I will be a good boy. Don't cry," said Randall, be difficult to make my escape from New-Orleans on some northern vessel. looking back, as they passed out of the door. Freeman asked him fifteen hundred dollars for me. The old gentleman insisted it was too much, as times were very hard. Freeman, however, declared that I was What has become of the lad, God knows. It was a mournful scene sound and healthy, of a good constitution, and intelligent… The old gentleman indeed. I would have cried myself if I had dared… argued quite adroitly that there was nothing extraordinary about the nigger, and At length, one day, while we were in the yard, Freeman came out and finally, to my regret, went out, saying he would call again. During the day, ordered us to our places, in the great room. A gentleman was waiting for us as however, a number of sales were made. …Lethe was sold to a planter of Baton we entered, and inasmuch as he will be often mentioned in the progress of this Rouge, her eyes flashing with anger as she was led away. narrative, a description of his personal appearance, and my estimation of his 6 The same man also purchased Randall. The little fellow was made to character, at first sight, may not be out of place. jump, and run across the floor, and perform many other feats, exhibiting his He was a man above the ordinary height, somewhat bent and stooping activity and condition. All the time the trade was going on, Eliza was crying forward. He was a good-looking man, and appeared to have reached about the aloud, and wringing her hands. She besought the man not to buy him, unless he middle age of life. There was nothing repulsive in his presence; but on the other also bought her self and Emily. She promised, in that case, to be the most faithful hand, there was something cheerful and attractive in his face, and in his tone of slave that ever lived. The man answered that he could not afford it, and then voice. The finer elements were all kindly mingled in his breast, as any one could Eliza burst into a paroxysm of grief, weeping plaintively. Freeman turned round see. He moved about among us, asking many questions, as to what we could do, to her, savagely, with his whip in his uplifted hand, ordering her to stop her and what labor we had been accustomed to; if we thought we would like to live noise, or he would flog her. He would not have such work—such snivelling; and unless she ceased that minute, he would take her to the yard and give her a hundred lashes. Yes, he would take the nonsense out of her pretty quick—if he 6 His name was William Ford and Northup describes him favorably in his didn't, might he be d--d. Eliza shrunk before him, and tried to wipe away her autobiography. Because of financial difficulties, Ford was later forced to sell Northup. HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 4 with him, and would be good boys if he would buy us, and other interrogatories Finally, after much more of supplication, the purchaser of Eliza stepped of like character. forward, evidently affected, and said to Freeman he would buy Emily, and asked him what her price was. After some further inspection, and conversation touching prices, he finally offered Freeman one thousand dollars for me, nine hundred for Harry, "What is her price? Buy her?" was the responsive interrogatory of and seven hundred for Eliza. Whether the small-pox had depreciated our value, Theophilus Freeman. And instantly answering his own inquiry, he added, "I or from what cause Freeman had concluded to fall five hundred dollars from the won't sell her. She's not for sale." price I was before held at, I cannot say. At any rate, after a little shrewd reflection, he announced his acceptance of the offer. The man remarked he was not in need of one so young—that it would be of no profit to him, but since the mother was so fond of her, rather than see As soon as Eliza heard it, she was in an agony again. By this time she them separated, he would pay a reasonable price. But to this humane proposal had become haggard and hollow-eyed with sickness and with sorrow. It would Freeman was entirely deaf. He would not sell her then on any account whatever. be a relief if I could consistently pass over in silence the scene that now ensued. There were heaps and piles of money to be made of her, he said, when she was a It recalls memories more mournful and affecting than any language can portray. I few years older. There were men enough in New-Orleans who would give five have seen mothers kissing for the last time the faces of their dead offspring; I thousand dollars for such an extra, handsome, fancy piece as Emily would be, have seen them looking down into the grave, as the earth fell with a dull sound rather than not get her. No, no, he would not sell her then. She was a beauty—a upon their coffins, hiding them from their eyes forever; but never have I seen picture—a doll—one of the regular bloods—none of your thick-lipped, bullet- such an exhibition of intense, unmeasured, and unbounded grief, as when Eliza headed, cotton-picking niggers—if she was might he be d--d. was parted from her child. She broke from her place in the line of women, and rushing down where Emily was standing, caught her in her arms. The child, When Eliza heard Freeman's determination not to part with Emily, she sensible of some impending danger, instinctively fastened her hands around her became absolutely frantic. mother's neck, and nestled her little head upon her bosom. Freeman sternly "I will not go without her. They shall not take her from me," she fairly ordered her to be quiet, but she did not heed him. He caught her by the arm and shrieked, her shrieks commingling with the loud and angry voice of Freeman, pulled her rudely, but she only clung the closer to the child. Then, with a volley commanding her to be silent. of great oaths, he struck her such a heartless blow, that she staggered backward, and was like to fall. Oh! how piteously then did she beseech and beg and pray Meantime Harry and myself had been to the yard and returned with our that they might not be separated. Why could they not be purchased together? blankets, and were at the front door ready to leave. Our purchaser stood near us, Why not let her have one of her dear children? "Mercy, mercy, master!" she gazing at Eliza with an expression indicative of regret at having bought her at the cried, falling on her knees. "Please, master, buy Emily. I can never work any if expense of so much sorrow. We waited some time, when, finally, Freeman, out she is taken from me: I will die." of patience, tore Emily from her mother by main force, the two clinging to each other with all their might. Freeman interfered again, but, disregarding him, she still plead most earnestly, telling how Randall had been taken from her—how she never him see "Don't leave me, mama—don't leave me," screamed the child, as its him again, and now it was too bad—oh, God! it was too bad, too cruel, to take mother was pushed harshly forward; "Don't leave me—come back, mama," she her away from Emily—her pride—her only darling, that could not live, it was so still cried, stretching forth her little arms imploringly. But she cried in vain. Out young, without its mother! of the door and into the street we were quickly hurried. Still we could hear her calling to her mother, "Come back—don't leave me—come back, mama," until HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 5 her infant voice grew faint and still more faint, and gradually died away as furrow towards the cotton in the same manner as before, and killing all the grass distance intervened, and finally was wholly lost. between the rows. About the first of July, when it is a foot high or thereabouts, it is hoed the fourth and last time. Now the whole space between the rows is Eliza never after saw or heard of Emily or Randall. Day nor night, ploughed, leaving a deep water furrow in the center. During all these hoeings the however, were they ever absent from her memory. In the cotton field, in the overseer or driver follows the slaves on horseback with a whip, such as has been cabin, always and everywhere, she was talking of them—often to them, as if they described. The fastest hoer takes the lead row. He is usually about a rod in were actually present. Only when absorbed in that illusion, or asleep, did she advance of his companions. If one of them passes him, he is whipped. If one falls ever have a moment's comfort afterwards. behind or is a moment idle, he is whipped. In fact, the lash is flying from morning until night, the whole day long. The hoeing season thus continues from

April until July, a field having no sooner been finished once, than it is Northup eventually wound up on the plantation of a man named Edwin Epps commenced again. who, in addition to being an alcoholic, was also sadistically cruel. In the latter part of August begins the cotton picking season. At this time …[I]nasmuch as some may read this book who have never seen a cotton each slave is presented with a sack. A strap is fastened to it, which goes over the field, a description of the manner of its culture may not be out of place. neck, holding the mouth of the sack breast high, while the bottom reaches nearly to the ground. Each one is also presented with a large basket that will hold about The ground is prepared by throwing up beds or ridges, with the plough— two barrels. This is to put the cotton in when the sack is filled. The baskets are back-furrowing, it is called. Oxen and mules, the latter almost exclusively, are carried to the field and placed at the beginning of the rows. used in ploughing. The women as frequently as the men perform this labor, feeding, currying, and taking care of their teams, and in all respects doing the When a new hand, one unaccustomed to the business, is sent for the first field and stable work, precisely as do the ploughboys of the North. time into the field, he is whipped up smartly, and made for that day to pick as fast as he can possibly. At night it is weighed, so that his capability in cotton The beds, or ridges, are six feet wide, that is, from water furrow to water picking is known. He must bring in the same weight each night following. If it furrow. A plough drawn by one mule is then run along the top of the ridge or falls short, it is considered evidence that he has been laggard, and a greater or center of the bed, making the drill, into which a girl usually drops the seed, less number of lashes is the penalty… which she carries in a bag hung round her neck. Behind her comes a mule and harrow, covering up the seed, so that two mules three slaves, a plough and The day's work over in the field, the baskets are "toted," or in other harrow, are employed in planting a row of cotton. This is done in the months of words, carried to the gin-house, where the cotton is weighed. No matter how March and April. Corn is planted in February. When there are no cold rains, the fatigued and weary he may be—no matter how much he longs for sleep and 7 cotton usually makes its appearance in a week. In the course of eight or ten days rest—a slave never approaches the gin-house with his basket of cotton but with afterwards the first hoeing is commenced. This is performed in part, also, by the fear. If it falls short in weight—if he has not performed the full task appointed aid of the plough and mule. The plough passes as near as possible to the cotton him, he knows that he must suffer. And if he has exceeded it by ten or twenty on both sides, throwing the furrow from it. Slaves follow with their hoes, cutting pounds, in all probability his master will measure the next day's task accordingly. up the grass and cotton, leaving hills two feet and a half apart. This is called So, whether he has too little or too much, his approach to the gin-house is always scraping cotton. In two weeks more commences the second hoeing. This time the furrow is thrown towards the cotton. Only one stalk, the largest, is now left standing in each hill. In another fortnight it is hoed the third time, throwing the 7 That is, the building where the cotton gin was. HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 6 with fear and trembling. Most frequently they have too little, and therefore it is none who could excel her. When the order to halt was heard at night, she would they are not anxious to leave the field. After weighing, follow the whippings… have her mules at the crib, unharnessed, fed and curried before uncle Abram had found his hat. Not, however, for all or any of these, was she chiefly famous. The same fear of punishment with which they approach the gin-house, Such lightning-like motion was in her fingers as no other fingers ever possessed, possesses them again on lying down to get a snatch of rest. It is the fear of and therefore it was, that in cotton picking time, Patsey was queen of the field. oversleeping in the morning. Such an offence would certainly be attended with not less than twenty lashes. With a prayer that he may be on his feet and wide She had a genial and pleasant temper, and was faithful and obedient. awake at the first sound of the horn, he sinks to his slumbers nightly… Naturally, she was a joyous creature, a laughing, light-hearted girl, rejoicing in the mere sense of existence. Yet Patsey wept oftener, and suffered more, than An hour before day light the horn is blown. Then the slaves arouse, any of her companions. She had been literally excoriated. Her back bore the prepare their breakfast, fill a gourd with water, in another deposit their dinner of scars of a thousand stripes; not because she was backward in her work, nor cold bacon and corn cake, and hurry to the field again. It is an offence invariably because she was of an unmindful and rebellious spirit, but because it had fallen followed by a flogging, to be found at the quarters after daybreak. Then the fears to her lot to be the slave of a licentious master and a jealous mistress. She shrank and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest. before the lustful eye of the one, and was in danger even of her life at the hands He fears he will be caught lagging through the day; he fears to approach the gin- of the other, and between the two, she was indeed accursed. In-the great house, house with his basket-load of cotton at night; he fears, when he lies down, that for days together, there were high and angry words, poutings and estrangement, he will oversleep himself in the morning. Such is a true, faithful, unexaggerated whereof she was the innocent cause. Nothing delighted the mistress so much as picture and description of the slave's daily life, during the time of cotton-picking, to see her suffer, and more than once, when Epps had refused to sell her, has she on the shores of Bayou Boeuf [Louisiana]. tempted me with bribes to put her secretly to death, and bury her body in some lonely place in the margin of the swamp. Gladly would Patsey have appeased

this unforgiving spirit, if it had been in her power, but not like Joseph, dared she Northup then describes the other slaves with whom he lived on Epps’ plantation; escape from Master Epps, leaving her garment in his hand. Patsey walked under among them was Patsey: a cloud. If she uttered a word in opposition to her master's will, the lash was resorted to at once, to bring her to subjection; if she was not watchful when Patsey is twenty-three—also from Buford's plantation. She … glories in about her cabin, or when walking in the yard, a billet of wood, or a broken bottle the fact that she is the offspring of a "Guinea nigger," brought over to Cuba in a perhaps, hurled from her mistress' hand, would smite her unexpectedly in the slave ship, and in the course of trade transferred to Buford, who was her mother's face. The enslaved victim of lust and hate, Patsey had no comfort of her life. owner… These were my companions and fellow-slaves, with whom I was Patsey was slim and straight. She stood erect as the human form is accustomed to be driven to the field, and with whom it has been my lot to dwell capable of standing. There was an air of loftiness in her movement, that neither for ten years in the log cabins of Edwin Epps. They, if living, are yet toiling on labor, nor weariness, nor punishment could destroy. Truly, Patsey was a splendid the banks of Bayou Boeuf, never destined to breathe, as I now do, the blessed air animal, and were it not that bondage had enshrouded her intellect in utter and of liberty, nor to shake off the heavy shackles that enthrall them, until they shall everlasting darkness, would have been chief among ten thousand of her people. lie down forever in the dust… She could leap the highest fences, and a fleet hound it was indeed, that could outstrip her in a race. No horse could fling her from his back. She was a skillful teamster. She turned as true a furrow as the best, and at splitting rails there were HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 7

2. From Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).8 Harriet was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof with him—where I Jacobs was born a slave in 1813. Both her parents were mixed-race slaves. In saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments this book, published under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Jacobs tells how she of nature. He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all resisted the sexual advances of her master and gained a measure of freedom things. My soul revolted against the mean tyranny. But where could I turn for while a slave. After hiding in the attic of her grandmother’s house for seven protection? No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her years, and fooling her master into thinking that she had escaped to the North, mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from Jacobs eventually made it to New York City and freedom with her two children. violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was edited by a white abolitionist, and of men. The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other Jacobs’ identity was kept secret. People living in the 1800s, as well as modern feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage. The degradation, the wrongs, historians, questioned whether Incidents was actually written by an escaped the vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe… female slave and it was only in 1981 that the identity of the book’s author was established. Incidents shares some similarities with sentimental novels of the Every where the years bring to all enough of sin and sorrow; but in slavery time, especially the popular anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by the very dawn of life is darkened by these shadows. Even the little child, who is Harriet Beecher Stowe. accustomed to wait on her mistress and her children, will learn, before she is twelve years old, why it is that her mistress hates such and such a one among the slaves. Perhaps the child's own mother is among those hated ones. She listens to violent outbreaks of jealous passion, and cannot help understanding what is the THE TRIALS OF GIRLHOOD cause. She will become prematurely knowing in evil things. Soon she will learn to tremble when she hears her master's footfall. She will be compelled to realize …DURING the first years of my service in Dr. Flint's family, I was accustomed that she is no longer a child. If God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove to share some indulgences with the children of my mistress. Though this seemed her greatest curse. That which commands admiration in the white woman only to me no more than right, I was grateful for it, and tried to merit the kindness by hastens the degradation of the female slave. I know that some are too much the faithful discharge of my duties. But I now entered on my fifteenth year—a brutalized by slavery to feel the humiliation of their position; but many slaves sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in feel it most acutely, and shrink from the memory of it. I cannot tell how much I my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import. I tried to suffered in the presence of these wrongs, nor how I am still pained by the treat them with indifference or contempt. The master's age, my extreme youth, retrospect. My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to and the fear that his conduct would be reported to my grandmother, made him him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to bear this treatment for many months. He was a crafty man, and resorted to many him. If I went out for a breath of fresh air, after a day of unwearied toil, his means to accomplish his purposes. Sometimes he had stormy, terrific ways, that footsteps dogged me. If I knelt by my mother's grave, his dark shadow fell on me made his victims tremble; sometimes he assumed a gentleness that he thought even there. The light heart which nature had given me became heavy with sad must surely subdue. Of the two, I preferred his stormy moods, although they left forebodings. The other slaves in my master's house noticed the change. Many of me trembling. He tried his utmost to corrupt the pure principles my grandmother them pitied me; but none dared to ask the cause. They had no need to inquire. had instilled. He peopled my young mind with unclean images, such as only a They knew too well the guilty practices under that roof; and they were aware that vile monster could think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he to speak of them was an offence that never went unpunished.

I longed for some one to confide in. I would have given the world to have 8 Excerpted from the American Studies website at the University of Virginia: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/jacobs/hj-site-index.htm. laid my head on my grandmother's faithful bosom, and told her all my troubles. HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 8

But Dr. Flint swore he would kill me, if I was not as silent as the grave. Then, themselves. God bless them! God give them strength and courage to go on! God although my grandmother was all in all to me, I feared her as well as loved her. I bless those, every where, who are laboring to advance the cause of humanity! had been accustomed to look up to her with a respect bordering upon awe. I was very young, and felt shamefaced about telling her such impure things, especially as I knew her to be very strict on such subjects. Moreover, she was a woman of a THE JEALOUS MISTRESS high spirit. She was usually very quiet in her demeanor; but if her indignation was once roused, it was not very easily quelled. I had been told that she once I WOULD ten thousand times rather that my children should be the half-starved chased a white gentleman with a loaded pistol, because he insulted one of her paupers of Ireland than to be the most pampered among the slaves of America. I daughters. I dreaded the consequences of a violent outbreak; and both pride and would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to fear kept me silent. But though I did not confide in my grandmother, and even give me rest, than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress. The evaded her vigilant watchfulness and inquiry, her presence in the neighborhood felon's home in a penitentiary is preferable. He may repent, and turn from the was some protection to me. Though she had been a slave, Dr. Flint was afraid of error of his ways, and so find peace; but it is not so with a favorite slave. She is her. He dreaded her scorching rebukes. Moreover, she was known and not allowed to have any pride of character. It is deemed a crime in her to wish to patronized by many people; and he did not wish to have his villany made public. be virtuous… It was lucky for me that I did not live on a distant plantation, but in a town not so large that the inhabitants were ignorant of each other's affairs. Bad as are the I had entered my sixteenth year, and every day it became more apparent laws and customs in a slaveholding community, the doctor, as a professional that my presence was intolerable to Mrs. Flint. Angry words frequently passed man, deemed it prudent to keep up some outward show of decency… between her and her husband. He had never punished me himself, and he would not allow any body else to punish me. In that respect, she was never satisfied; I once saw two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white but, in her angry moods, no terms were too vile for her to bestow upon me. Yet I, child; the other was her slave, and also her sister. When I saw them embracing whom she detested so bitterly, had far more pity for her than he had, whose duty each other, and heard their joyous laughter, I turned sadly away from the lovely it was to make her life happy. I never wronged her, or wished to wrong her; and sight. I foresaw the inevitable blight that would fall on the little slave's heart. I one word of kindness from her would have brought me to her feet. knew how soon her laughter would be changed to sighs. The fair child grew up to be a still fairer woman. From childhood to womanhood her pathway was After repeated quarrels between the doctor and his wife, he announced blooming with flowers, and overarched by a sunny sky. Scarcely one day of her his intention to take his youngest daughter, then four years old, to sleep in his life had been clouded when the sun rose on her happy bridal morning. apartment. It was necessary that a servant should sleep in the same room, to be on hand if the child stirred. I was selected for that office, and informed for what How had those years dealt with her slave sister, the little playmate of her purpose that arrangement had been made. By managing to keep within sight of childhood? She, also, was very beautiful; but the flowers and sunshine of love people, as much as possible, during the day time, I had hitherto succeeded in were not for her. She drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her eluding my master, though a razor was often held to my throat to force me to persecuted race are compelled to drink. change this line of policy. At night I slept by the side of my great aunt, where I felt safe. He was too prudent to come into her room. She was an old woman, and In view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the had been in the family many years. Moreover, as a married man, and a north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had professional man, he deemed it necessary to save appearances in some degree. more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak! There are noble But he resolved to remove the obstacle in the way of his scheme; and he thought men and women who plead for us, striving to help those who cannot help he had planned it so that he should evade suspicion. He was well aware how HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 9 much I prized my refuge by the side of my old aunt, and he determined to A PERILOUS PASSAGE IN THE SLAVE GIRL’S LIFE dispossess me of it. The first night the doctor had the little child in his room alone. The next morning, I was ordered to take my station as nurse the following Dr. Flint contrived a new plan. He seemed to have an idea that my fear of my night. A kind Providence interposed in my favor. During the day Mrs. Flint mistress was his greatest obstacle. In the blandest tones, he told me that he was heard of this new arrangement, and a storm followed. I rejoiced to hear it rage… going to build a small house for me, in a secluded place, four miles away from the town. I shuddered; but I was constrained to listen, while he talked of his The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My intention to give me a home of my own, and to make a lady of me. Hitherto, I master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers had escaped my dreaded fate, by being in the midst of people. My grandmother dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to had already had high words with my master about me. She had told him pretty allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too plainly what she thought of his character, and there was considerable gossip in well the terrible consequences… the neighborhood about our affairs, to which the open-mouthed jealousy of Mrs. Flint contributed not a little. When my master said he was going to build a house Southern women often marry a man knowing that he is the father of for me, and that he could do it with little trouble and expense, I was in hopes many little slaves. They do not trouble themselves about it. They regard such something would happen to frustrate his scheme; but I soon heard that the house children as property, as marketable as the pigs on the plantation; and it is seldom was actually begun. I vowed before my Maker that I would never enter it. I had that they do not make them aware of this by passing them into the slave-trader's rather toil on the plantation from dawn till dark; I had rather live and die in jail, hands as soon as possible, and thus getting them out of their sight. I am glad to than drag on, from day to day, through such a living death. I was determined that say there are some honorable exceptions. the master, whom I so hated and loathed, who had blighted the prospects of my youth, and made my life a desert, should not, after my long struggle with him, I have myself known two southern wives who exhorted their husbands succeed at last in trampling his victim under his feet. I would do any thing, every to free those slaves towards whom they stood in a "parental relation;" and their thing, for the sake of defeating him. What could I do? I thought and thought, till request was granted. These husbands blushed before the superior nobleness of I became desperate, and made a plunge into the abyss. their wives' natures. Though they had only counselled them to do that which it was their duty to do, it commanded their respect, and rendered their conduct And now, reader, I come to a period in my unhappy life, which I would more exemplary. Concealment was at an end, and confidence took the place of gladly forget if I could. The remembrance fills me with sorrow and shame. It distrust. pains me to tell you of it; but I have promised to tell you the truth, and I will do it honestly, let it cost me what it may. I will not try to screen myself behind the Though this bad institution deadens the moral sense, even in white plea of compulsion from a master; for it was not so. Neither can I plead women, to a fearful extent, it is not altogether extinct. I have heard southern ignorance or thoughtlessness. For years, my master had done his utmost to ladies say of Mr. Such a one, "He not only thinks it no disgrace to be the father pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated of those little niggers, but he is not ashamed to call himself their master. I by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood. The influences of declare, such things ought not to be tolerated in any decent society!" slavery had had the same effect on me that they had on other young girls; they had made me prematurely knowing, concerning the evil ways of the world. I know what I did, and I did it with deliberate calculation.

…I have told you that Dr. Flint's persecutions and his wife's jealousy had given rise to some gossip in the neighborhood. Among others, it chanced that a

HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 10 white unmarried gentleman had obtained some knowledge of the circumstances his wife. Of a man who was not my master I could ask to have my children well in which I was placed. He knew my grandmother, and often spoke to me in the supported; and in this case, I felt confident I should obtain the boon. I also felt street. He became interested for me, and asked questions about my master, which quite sure that they would be made free. With all these thoughts revolving in my I answered in part. He expressed a great deal of sympathy, and a wish to aid me. mind, and seeing no other way of escaping the doom I so much dreaded, I made He constantly sought opportunities to see me, and wrote to me frequently. I was a headlong plunge. Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew a poor slave girl, only fifteen years old. what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of So much attention from a superior person was, of course, flattering; for another. You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding human nature is the same in all. I also felt grateful for his sympathy, and the power of a hated tyrant; you never shuddered at the sound of his footsteps, encouraged by his kind words. It seemed to me a great thing to have such a and trembled within hearing of his voice. I know I did wrong. No one can feel it friend. By degrees, a more tender feeling crept into my heart. He was an more sensibly than I do. The painful and humiliating memory will haunt me to educated and eloquent gentleman; too eloquent, alas, for the poor slave girl who my dying day. Still, in looking back, calmly, on the events of my life, I feel that trusted in him. Of course I saw whither all this was tending. I knew the the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others. impassable gulf between us; but to be an object of interest to a man who is not married, and who is not her master, is agreeable to the pride and feelings of a The months passed on. I had many unhappy hours. I secretly mourned over slave, if her miserable situation has left her any pride or sentiment. It seems less the sorrow I was bringing on my grandmother, who had so tried to shield me degrading to give one's self, than to submit to compulsion. There is something from harm. I knew that I was the greatest comfort of her old age, and that it was akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which a source of pride to her that I had not degraded myself, like most of the slaves. I he gains by kindness and attachment. A master may treat you as rudely as he wanted to confess to her that I was no longer worthy of her love; but I could not pleases, and you dare not speak; moreover, the wrong does not seem so great utter the dreaded words. with an unmarried man, as with one who has a wife to be made unhappy. There may be sophistry in all this; but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of As for Dr. Flint, I had a feeling of satisfaction and triumph in the thought of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible. telling him. From time to time he told me of his intended arrangements, and I was silent. At last, he came and told me the cottage was completed, and ordered When I found that my master had actually begun to build the lonely cottage, me to go to it. I told him I would never enter it. He said, "I have heard enough of other feelings mixed with those I have described. Revenge, and calculations of such talk as that. You shall go, if you are carried by force; and you shall remain interest, were added to flattered vanity and sincere gratitude for kindness. I knew there." I replied, "I will never go there. In a few months I shall be a mother." nothing would enrage Dr. Flint so much as to know that I favored another; and it was something to triumph over my tyrant even in that small way. I thought he He stood and looked at me in dumb amazement, and left the house without would revenge himself by selling me, and I was sure my friend, Mr. Sands, a word. I thought I should be happy in my triumph over him. But now that the would buy me. He was a man of more generosity and feeling than my master, truth was out, and my relatives would hear of it, I felt wretched. Humble as were and I thought my freedom could be easily obtained from him. The crisis of my their circumstances, they had pride in my good character. Now, how could I look fate now came so near that I was desperate. I shuddered to think of being the them in the face? My self-respect was gone! I had resolved that I would be mother of children that should be owned by my old tyrant. I knew that as soon as virtuous, though I was a slave. I had said, "Let the storm beat! I will brave it till I a new fancy took him, his victims were sold far off to get rid of them; especially die." And now, how humiliated I felt! if they had children. I had seen several women sold, with his babies at the breast. He never allowed his offspring by slaves to remain long in sight of himself and HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer 11

I went to my grandmother. My lips moved to make confession, but the real state of the case, and all I had been bearing for years, she would perhaps words stuck in my throat. I sat down in the shade of a tree at her door and began judge me less harshly. My friend advised me to send for her. I did so; but days of to sew. I think she saw something unusual was the matter with me. The mother agonizing suspense passed before she came. Had she utterly forsaken me? No. of slaves is very watchful. She knows there is no security for her children. After She came at last. I knelt before her, and told her the things that had poisoned my they have entered their teens she lives in daily expectation of trouble. This leads life; how long I had been persecuted; that I saw no way of escape; and in an hour to many questions. If the girl is of a sensitive nature, timidity keeps her from of extremity I had become desperate. She listened in silence. I told her I would answering truthfully, and this well-meant course has a tendency to drive her bear any thing and do any thing, if in time I had hopes of obtaining her from maternal counsels. Presently, in came my mistress, like a mad woman, and forgiveness. I begged of her to pity me, for my dead mother's sake. And she did accused me concerning her husband. My grandmother, whose suspicions had pity me. She did not say, "I forgive you;" but she looked at me lovingly, with her been previously awakened, believed what she said. She exclaimed, "O Linda! eyes full of tears. She laid her old hand gently on my head, and murmured, "Poor has it come to this? I had rather see you dead than to see you as you now are. child! Poor child!" You are a disgrace to your dead mother." She tore from my fingers my mother's wedding ring and her silver thimble. "Go away!" she exclaimed, "and never come to my house, again." Her reproaches fell so hot and heavy, that they left me no chance to answer. Bitter tears, such as the eyes never shed but once, were my only answer. I rose from my seat, but fell back again, sobbing. She did not speak to me; but the tears were running down her furrowed cheeks, and they scorched me like fire. She had always been so kind to me! So kind! How I longed to throw myself at her feet, and tell her all the truth! But she had ordered me to go, and never to come there again. After a few minutes, I mustered strength, and started to obey her. With what feelings did I now close that little gate, which I used to open with such an eager hand in my childhood! It closed upon me with a sound I never heard before.

Where could I go? I was afraid to return to my master's. I walked on recklessly, not caring where I went, or what would become of me. When I had gone four or five miles, fatigue compelled me to stop. I sat down on the stump of an old tree. The stars were shining through the boughs above me. How they mocked me, with their bright, calm light! The hours passed by, and as I sat there alone a chilliness and deadly sickness came over me. I sank on the ground. My mind was full of horrid thoughts. I prayed to die; but the prayer was not answered. At last, with great effort I roused myself, and walked some distance further, to the house of a woman who had been a friend of my mother. When I told her why I was there, she spoke soothingly to me; but I could not be comforted. I thought I could bear my shame if I could only be reconciled to my grandmother. I longed to open my heart to her. I thought if she could know the

HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer