The martyrs and the fugitive, or, A narrative of the captivity, sufferings and death of an African family, and the slavery and escape of their son
page: 0 (TitlePage) [View Page 0 (TitlePage) ]THE MARTYRS, AND OR A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY, SUFFERINGS, AND DEATH OF AN AFRICAN FAMLY, AND THE SLAVERY AND ESCAPE OF THEIR SON. BY REV. S. H. PLATT, 'Author of "The Gift of Power," and "Christ and Adornments," &c;. PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FUGITIVE. NEW-YORK: PRINTED BY DANIEL FAN8HAWR,. Ceoner of Ann and Nassau-streets 1859. page: 0[View Page 0] Entered according toAct of Congress, in the year 1859, by Rev. S. H. PLATT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. The reader may wish to know whether the following pages are fictitious or historical. They are both. The chief per- sonages, with their " sentiments, virtues, vices, follies, and pe- culiarities, surroundings," etc. are historical. The connections in which they are placed are sometimes supposed, and when true, are in some places changed from their real relations to" prevent the exposure of the parties, who are still living; yet in no case are they so changed as to distort the facts of the slave system. It is admitted that the heroes of the story are extreme cases, and that it was their misfortune to be such but the author does not present their experience as an ave- rage sample of the sufferings of slave life; he simply vouches for the accuracy of the story as illustrative of the liabilities. of their life. If this feeble .effort may avail to stir up the minds of some, to a more active hatred of the system, and'afford some pecu- niary aid to the suffering fugitive, the object in sending it forth will be accomplished. S So H. P. BROOKLYN, April, 1859. page: 0[View Page 0] THE MARTYRS, AND THE FUGITIVE. CHATTER I. "Why are you so sad?" exclaimed the play- ful Molly Myrtle, as her brother laid aside his pen. "I have just finished writing out the notes that I took the other evening while conversing with the colored man whom you saw at church, and who-narrated his experience there." "What; have you written his history? O, I shall be delighted to read it. Poor man! he must have suffered a great deal, judging from his appearance. But was he not afraid to give you all the facts? How did he know that you would not betray him?" "He was fearful, and it was a long time before I could persuade him to confide in me. Poor fellow! he seems to distrust everybody. His enjoyment of freedom must be sadly disturbed by his suspicions. I could only get his story by l* . . page: 6-7[View Page 6-7] 6 THE MARTYRS, solemnly promising to so disguise it that there would be no danger to him from it." "But can you rely upon his statement?" "O yes. He gave so many dates and names of persons and places, and I cross-questioned him so closely, that what he says must be true. Be- sides,I have independent proof from other sources." "O! do let me hear it, brother; wont you?" "This is only the outline that I now have; but if you wish, I will relate the history from this sketch." "Well, I am all attention; but you must allow me to ask questions if I wish." "Certainly; that is one of the privileges con- ceded to such attractive listeners." About five hundred miles toward the interior of South-Western Africa,-was a beautiful valley some miles in length, entirely covered with coarse grass several feet in height, and drained by a small stream, which, running slowly through, marked its course by the tall rushes which-lined its banks. An unusually hot season had dried all the streams in the vicinity but this, and the valley was now a scene of no ordinary activity. The huge and unwieldy hippopotamus wallowed in the stream, and herds of wild animals, such as elands, koodoos, and antelopes, were gathered be- neath the shade of the forests that bounded the AND THE FUGITIVE. 7 neighboring hills, or threading their way through the high grass, in the narrow path of the elephant or buffalo, toward the water. There in that secluded vale lived Bobah, with his wife, Mabowah, their two children, and her aged parents. Their little hut of reeds was sheltered from the sun and rain by an almost impenetrable grove of banana-trees and shrubs of manioc, interlaced with vines and creepers, and situated upon an elevation near the stream. In a small opening was his patch of manioc (a species of plant used for food, from which cassava and tapioca are pre- pared) and maize, with here and there beans and. ground-nuts interspersed, which, together with the game he took in hunting, furnished them a comfortable support. The day had been one of extreme heat, and Bobah and his wife were sitting, in the cool of the evening, singing a native song, and watching the gambols of their children as they sported by the door, when- suddenly a rustling sound, pro- ceeding from the narrow path that led to his hut, attracted his attention, and before he could rise, several soldiers of his tribe from the village of his chief, several miles distant, rushed upon him, and saying that the chief wanted a "palaver "* * Talk, or conversation. page: 8-9[View Page 8-9] 8 THE MARTYRS, with him, bound his hands, and ordered him, with his wife and children, to start at once. He obeyed; when, just as they were passing into the shadow of the grove, a succession of dull, heavy sounds caused him to turn, and the scene transfixed him with horror. Mabowah uttered a shriek of anguish, tore away from her captors, and threw herself upon the bodies of her murdered parents, from which she was driven a moment after by the flames of her burning house. A short pole was then laid upon the shoulder of Bobah, and firmly lashed round his neck by a tough vine, and Mabowah was bound in the same way to the opposite end, while the children, a, boy of thirteen and a girl of eleven, were placed between the two, and fastened by longer pieces to the same pole; then, with some of the captors before and some behind, they began, their sad march through the narrow path to the distant. village. The silence of their journey was only broken by the sobs of the heart-stricken captives, Their loss they knew, for none could rever- ence parents more than they ;x but what to fear they could not tell, Had they been subject to some other chief, they knew that this would prove but the begin- * Thompson, Wilson, Livingston, eto. assert the attachment of Africans to their parents. AND THE FUGITIVE. 9 ning of the life-long doom of slavery. But their chief had never sold his people, and to be con- victed of some fearful but unknown crime seemed -now their fate. Arrived at the village, they were taken at once before the chief, where the pre- sence of a savage half-blood Portuguese revealed their destiny. Their minds instinctively strove to penetrate the dark future before them, but the very hopelessness of the effort threw them back upon the past, and the images of murdered pa rents, and burning home, and captive children, rose with apalling distinctness before them, till the strong man writhed in agony, and the mother lifted up her voice in the long, low wail of hope- less despair. Already the chieftain's heart was beginning to -relent, when the practiced eye of the trader discovered his hesitation, and another dram from his ready flask, accompanied-with a significant glance at a pile of coveted -' cloths," decided the question.. They were accused of some trifling crime, and condemned, without a hearing, to be sold a s slaves, "The wretch!" exclaimed the indignant Molly, " why did he treat them so?" "Because the trader had exhibited his cloths, beads, etc, and refused to trade except for slaves and ivory. The chief had but little ivory, and could not then make war for slaves;' so the trader page: 10-11[View Page 10-11] 10 THE MARTYRS, made him drunk, and then incited him to sell some of his own people, as was frequently done in similar cases." "Then why did they kill the old people?" "Because they were not fit for slaves; and the Africans believe that the relatives of those whom they have greatly injured may bewitch them in revenge; so they kill them, to avoid the power of their supposed witchcraft." "How horrid! Do they do so all over Africa?" "No-only where the slave-traders go: it is a result of their business. In those places where the slave trade is not practised, the people are hospitable and possess many of the virtues of humanity. True, they are heathen, but they have no vice, aside from their idolatry, so sinful and degrading as the slave-holding of their Chris- tian [?] oppressors." The next day they were marched to another village, from which they were to commence their long and dreary journey to the coast. -When once on the way, the younger slaves were allowed to run free, as there was then little danger of losing them. The older ones were tied "as before described, and -loaded with ivory and such other articles as the trader had procured, and with the goods still reserved with which to pay for passing through the country. AND THE FUGITIVE. " For several days they proceeded slowly along, sweltering in the heat and parched with thirst, when late one evening they reached a place where they expected to find water and spend the night; but, to their dismay, the bed of the stream was dry, and nothing but a little slimy moisture oozing from the boggy banks- could be found. The sultry march, the unavailing cries of the thirsty children for water, with all the increasing tor- tures of their condition, wrought fearfully upon the mother's mind. The stupid gaze of despair had been succeeded by the wild flashing of an eye that looked upon a purpose too desperate to be told. The deep, mournful shadows of a night of gloom were fast creeping over them. Great rolling masses of black clouds were scattered like withered leaves in an autumn tem- pest around the heavens, while through their riven forms the grey moonbeams struggled, and the light and shade chased each other like mad phantoms o'er the-earth. It was just the time to awaken all the fears or arouse all the phrenzy of the superstitious soul, and- from one dark and bewildered mind the response -arose full and free. As the night deepened, Mabowah called her little girl to her side, and folding her in her arms, she lay down and fixed her eyes upon her child in the long, searching, yet fitful gaze of a mother's love burn- page: 12-13[View Page 12-13] 12 THE MARTYRS, ing through a tottering reason, and mingling with the revengeful flame of a crushed and wounded heart. Nor long did she smother that consuming fire. "' Me child a slave! me child a slave!" she uttered through her fevered, trembling lips; "No-no slave!" and her eye flashed and her hands clenched, and all the mother was lost in the maniac. Yet who shall say that her act then was not the most motherly one of her whole life? Slowly and quietly she laid her child upon the ground; then cautiously glanced around upon the sleeping slaves, to make sure that no eye beheld her, then quickly unwound the fibres of a short piece of rope that she had found, twisted it into a strong cord with a running noose around the neck of the innocent sleeper, and then with one hand over her mouth to suppress her cries, with the other she drew the noose tighter and tighter till the sufferer ceased to struggle; then bending low over the form of her dead, while her reeling mind chuckled over her successful cheat of the trader and the doom of slavery, she gazed till the delirious joy burst forth, "Me child no slave--no slave!"And then, as the rushing tide rolled back upon her heart, she uttered one wild shriek of woe, and fell swooning upon her child. Her accents of triumph, followed so suddenly by her unearthly screech of agony, brought the trader to the spot; and when he saw his loss, his AND THE FUGITIVE. 13 anger vented itself in kicks and blows upon the insensible form before him. The blood flowed freely and relieved her over-charged brain, and she returned to consciousness only to sink into the sleep of exhaustion. When she was aroused by the brutal kicks of the trader, in the morning, the body of her child had been dragged away to be devoured by beasts and fowls, and her own bruised and swollen limbs increased the thirst that was fast drying up the'fountain of her life. With tottering steps and haggard looks she was compelled to resume the march; and though again and again did she attempt to throw herself down to die, the lash of the trader drove her on, till, exasperated by her repeated efforts, he re- solved' to give her to the next chief who should demand a slave, a tooth, (of ivory,) a gun, or cloth, for permission to pass through his territory. After the most terrible sufferings, the party arrived at a place where water was abundant, and there rested a few days to recruit their strength, having lost several on the way by heat and thirst, and many others being scarcely able to stand. The son of Bobah had suffered intensely from the heat, and on the fourth day of their stay at the place, was permitted, with others of his age, to sport in the waters of the stream. Before- they were aware of it, they had worked themselves to a greater distance from the camp than was allowed, 2 page: 14-15[View Page 14-15] " THE MARTYRS, when the approach of one of the drivers caused them to scamper toward it. In the noise and confusion of their flight they did not observe an immense aligator that plunged into the stream, close in their rear, but in front -of young Bobah, and -effectually cut off his retreat. A sudden bend in the stream concealed him from the driver, and before his loss was discovered he had disap- peared, but whether he had gained the shore and been lost in the high grass, or had become food for the alligator, none could tell. In either case it was now over with the poor boy. He had gone where no slave-gangs swelter, and no traders drive. Soon after leaving this place they entered the territory of another chief, and halted while he made the usual demand for a-- gun, or a slave, etc. and Mabowah was sent to "shake his hand." "What do you mean, brother, by 'shaking his hand?"' "In some parts of Africa, when any one wishes to see the chief, or pass through his country, a present is sent to him, which is called ' shaking his hand.' If the present is accepted, the chief returns a much smaller one, and then the parties are friends." We must here leave them until another even- ing; but let us not forget that He who has AND THE FUGITIVE. 15 stamped His image within a casing of ebony,!s as mindful of their sorrows as He is of ours ; and that our duty is to repair, as far as we can, the wrongs done to the parents, by breaking off the yoke from the children and training them for their immortal destiny. CHAPTER II. "I have been thinking, brother," said Molly, at their next interview, " of poor Mabowah, and I wonder how men could be so cruel." "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." If its- wickedness can im- pel to such deeds of blood as midnight assassina- ations and wholesale piracy for gold, its deceit- fulness will furnish some fancied justification of a system which civilization and religion have apparently sanctioned. It is stated that some Greek pirates captured a vessel and murdered all the crew, during Lent, but recoiled with horror at the very thought of eating meat, during the fast of their church, from a well-spread table in the cabin. They could murder without scruple, but to breakea fast, was a crime of which they could not be guilty. page: 16-17[View Page 16-17] 16 THE MARTYRS, "How strange!" said Molly, " and so I sup. pose that inhuman monster, the trader, persuaded himself that he was not doing a very great wrong." Very likely. But let us proceed with the story. The mind of the African may not be as gifted in intellect as ours, but his heart glows with a fervor of attachment unknown to us. The powers of his nature running in the channel of affection intensify its action, and he lives in what lie loves. You can imagine some of the feelings of the broken-hearted Bobah, as he started on the next morning with the troop, but with no wife- no boy--no girl-no parents-no home; to go, he knew not whither, and to suffer, he knew not what. Sadly that day he bore his burden on; and the tender flowers looked up and caught his falling tear-drops and treasured them away, while a voice came in the moaning of the breeze, call- ing-him to join his loved and lost in the land of shades. The trader had learned, at his cost, that with many of his captives liberty was dearer than life, and he could not drive the conviction from their minds, that death was the gateway to the. path that would lead them back to their own country; hence he was constantly watching to discover the first indication of a suicidal wish, AND THE F UGITIVE. 17 that he might anticipate the act by giving the slave to the first chief who might demand one. Bobah was selected that eve, and sent to the village of the chief. This revived his hopes, for he knew that he was but two days' journey from Mabowah, and he might possibly escape to her. The rainy season now set in, and the village in. which he was held, being bounded on three sides by a gloomy forest of impenetrable thick- ness, and on the other by a small stream, which, when flooded, covered the adjacent plain to the depth of two or three feet, precluded all access during the wet season, except by boats. Here he remained while the rain fell and the water rose; and day after day his stricken heart would speed across the watery waste to lay it- self in fancy's dreams beside the pining one who alone bound him to earth, and each time it would return to the bitter consciousness of its misery, all the more painful from the mockery of its hope. Aside from this, his condition was not hard ; for, like other slaves there, he was treated more as a dependent than a slave. The belief in witchcraft is so strong, and slaves are supposed to have so much of that dreaded gift, that fear of their supernatural powers secures them better treatment than they might otherwise receive. The slave often owns other slaves, and some- times a greater number than his master. Z - 2* page: 18-19[View Page 18-19] 18 THE MARTYRS, But no treatment, however kind, could banish from his mind the recollection of his shaded hut and its loved inmates; and each day of con- tinued rain fell upon him like the dull sound that echoes from the grave when the first clod strikes the coffin of our shrouded joys, and crashes upon our hearts like an avalanche of woe. Little did he think that the time of their meeting was so nigh. A day of pouring rain had passed, and the gloomy shadows of twilight seemed rolled along upon the bosom of the wind, that sighed and moaned through the tall palm-trees and died away in the dense forest growth; and the poor people, as if instinctively interpreting the pro- phetic voices of the breeze, were huddled to- gether, regarding their fetiches* with superstitious awe, when a wild shout burst from the out- skirts of the village, and before the panic- stricken people could fight or fly, the foe was upon them. "Who were the foe?" asked Molly. "A party from far off to the north-west, near the river Congo." "But why did they fight these people-had' they been injured by them?" * The "' fetiches " are various articles, shells, .etc. supposed to be endowed with supernatural power for the protection or injury of those who may be subject to them. Ab THE FUGITIVE. 19 "No; but a strong party from a slave ship had sailed far up the Congo, lying in wait near some village, under cover of the thick overhanging bushes by day, and in the night darting out, firing the huts, killing the old, capturing the others, and then pushing on to the next village before the news of their approach could precede them." They had thus succeeded in securing nearly the desired number, which they hoped to com. plete by one more attack. But the village next assaulted proved much stronger than they had supposed, and made a desperate resistance; and though the men were driven from the huts, they seized the boats, which had been left poorly guarded, and spread the alarm. i The position of the slavers now became peril- ous in the extreme. Their only safety lay in the women and children whom they had captured in the fight. By their means a parley was held; and as the natives still looked upon them with unaffected dread, a "peace palaver" was con- cluded on condition that the slavers should de- liver .up the captive villagers, each with a "cloth " for herself and for each of her family, and never disturb them again, and the natives should restore the boats and give a cer-- * "Cloth," the name given to all cloth used in barter or trad- ing among the Africans. page: 20-21[View Page 20-21] 20' THE MARTYRS, tain number of slaves within a specified time. Hence the war and the surprise, as described. - "How cruel," exclaimed Molly, "to make slaves of their own countrymen in order to buy a peace with their enemies! It woul]d have been good enough for them if they had -been captured." "But you should remember, sister, that the trade has made them what they are. Now, if a chief wants slaves, and his fear of witchcraft or love for his people prevents his taking them, he sends a war-party to burn the first village they can find, and bring away all they can catch." This warlike tribe sent their party several days' journey to the south-east, where they fell upon the village in which B obah was kept, and he, with others, was carefully guarded, while the kidnappers rested, and sent a portion of their number to take more captives from a hut which, from the light gleaming faintly through the fog, they supposed stood across the plain upon the hillside. They returned toward morning with a number of prisoners, and, without bringing them on shore, Bobah and his companions were ordered- to join them in the boats. They were soon crowded in; and Bobah, who, in his utter despair, had not even raised his eyes to behold the new captives, had just been thrust, bound, into the bottom of a huge canoe, when, with a scream of frantic joy, a female captive j AND THE FUGITIVE. 21 sprang from the boat alongside and clasped him in her arms, her eyes upturned to heaven, and the big tear-drops pouring down her dusky cheeks. It was his own Mabowah. The hard hearts of their cruel captors were touched, and they were permitted to sit together and tell to each other. their tale of suffering and sorrow. A few days after Mabowah was left, as before narrated, another trader passed, who bought her, and on his journey to the coast he had encamped at the edge of the valley just in time to be intercepted by the party, who had mistaken his camp-fire for a village. After a tedious journey in open boats, and through paths covered with water and hedged in by tall, overhanging grass, adding its showers to the pouring rain whenever shaken by the wind or by the passing traveler, and wallowing through mire and fording streams, and sleeping unshel- tered save by some friendly boughs or rushes, they arrived weary, heart-sick, and hopeless, where a boat was waiting to take them to the coast. They were soon put aboard, shackled and crowded; and, after days and nights of a nxious foreboding, were taken to the ship, which proved to be an American of 320 tons' burden, with a Portuguese captain, and a crew of desperate ruf- fians from different nations. When once on board, a scene occurred which page: 22-23[View Page 22-23] 22 THE MARTYRS, utterly defies description. Each party, as they' were brought upon deck, were made secure, and then each person was thrown into such a posi, tion as was best suited to the purpose, and branded by the inhuman villains, on some part of the person, by having a red-hot iron in the form of certain letters or signs dipped into an oily preparation, and then pressed against the naked body till it burnt a deep and ineffaceable scar, to show who was the owner. The screams of the poor children were heart-rending, but a fiend in human shape stood over them with a cat-o'-nine-tails, (a whip of nine lashes with fine wire braided in the end of each lash, and attached to a short, stout handle,) and whenever their out- cries or resistance became irksome, they were lashed without mercy on the bare back, breasts, thighs; or wherever the cruelty of the inhuman slaver chose to inflict the wounds, every blow bringing with the returning lash pieces of quiv.- ering flesh. Mothers with babes at their breasts were basely branded and lashed, hewed and scarred, till it would seem as if the very heavens must smite the infernal tormentors with the doom. that they so richly merited. They were then chained two and two, the right arm and leg of one to the left arm and leg of another, and crowd. ed into the slave rooms between decks. - The wo- mten -were stowed in without being shackled. AND THE FUGITIVE. 23 Allowing six feet by one foot and four inches for each man, five feet ten inches by one foot four inches for each woman, five feet by. one foot two inches for each boy, and four feet six inches by one foot for each girl, the vessel could carry in that crowded state four hundred and fifty-one persons; but in that space were jammed six hundred and two men, woRmen, and children,-all naked and compelled to stow themselves away, by the lash, for a voyage of eight or ten weeks under a tropical sun, and where they could not sit up- right,-the space between decks being only two feet ten inches in height. Their sufferings in that confined place, (where they had not as much room, either in length or breadth, as a man in his coffin,) especially when the tarpaulins were acci- dentally thrown over the gratings, or when the scuttles were closed in foul weather, were utterly indescribable. When Bobah was shackled for the voyage, his astonishment may be imagined when he found that his fellow-captive was the identical trader who had& induced his chief to- sell him. "How singular!" exclaimed Molly. "Buuthow came he to be a slave?" He had brought his slaves on board, and suc- ceeded in making a better bargain than two rival traders, who at once resolved to be revenged upon him and get him out of their way in the future. page: 24-25[View Page 24-25] 24 THE MARTYRS, They accordingly watched his departure from the ship, pursued and overtook him, when one of them knocked him down with an oar and the other bound him. They then returned to the ship and sold him. His remonstrances were only answered by tilhe captain with the taunt, "That it mattered not who his slaves were, so long as they were paid for; and as he had been paid for, he might now go along with his gang." But the perfidious traders met with a speedy retribution; for in their glee at the success of their trick, they did not observe the speedy effedt of the mixed brandy potations with which the captain had treated them after inviting them below, where their friendly chat soon ended in a stupid, drunken sleep. The sails were immediately set, and the ter- rible voyage begun. They had run several hours along the coast, when a boat full of provisions put off from the shore and made signs to trade. The ship was at once hauled to, and the company received on board with tempting offers; but no sooner were they within the power of the silaver than the course was resumed, and the poor del uded people seized and ironed as slaves. Their bitter wails aroused the two sleepers, who, -yet halt dreaming, stumbled upon deck, and were m et wfth the derisive laugh of the Oaptail; -who ordered them shackled and. stowed away with the others. AND THE FUGITIVE. 25 On each fair day, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, they were all permitted to come on deck, which was surrounded with high nettings to prevent them from jumping over- board. ' For their additional security a ring was at- tached to the shackles of each pair, through which a large chain was reeved, which locked them all in a body to ring-bolts in the deck. About three or four in the afternoon they were again put below, to remain till morning. In the interval, while on deck, they were fed twice with rice, yams, horse-beans, and occasionally a little beef and bread, and allowed at pint of water each during the day, which was served to them after their meals. They were then made to jump, in their irons for exercise, which was called dancing, and they were compelled by the " cat" to do it, even though their irons wore to the bones, and though sick with flux or scurvy, or with 11'ms swollen so that it was painful to move at a11. The groans and suffocating cries of the poor vic- tims for air and water sickened the soul of human- ity into a loathing of the horrid traffic, which was deepened by the frequent howling, melancholy sound of- anguish caused by their thoughts or dreams of their own, country, often followed by hysteric fits of the women and the most. desperate imprecations of the,- men.- Their sorrows, coO.- ,"' . * . 3 page: 26-27[View Page 26-27] ,26 - THE MARTYRS, finement, and want of water, caused many to pine away, till a- sudden attack of dysentery re- leased them from their sufferings. Many were brought up every morning dead, suffocated by the heat, which'was so great between decks, that when the surgeon went below, his shirt was as wet with perspiration in five minutes- as if dipped in water, and he could rarely remain more than thirty minutes at a time. Yet those poor crea- tures were there compelled to moan the long hours of night away, with no water to quench their tormenting thirst, and just air enough to prolong their misery: sick or well, lying naked upon the bare boards till often their bones would wear through the skin, and no kind ana sympa- thizing hand to relieve or friendly heart to feel for them.* Yes; there was One who noticed all their cries and bottled all their tears; and though they knew not his precious name, his -angel of compassion moved amid that sweltering multi- tude, and whispered (so low that the slaver could not hear it, yet in accents that even those dark minds comprehended) of a rest somewhere--of running streams, and untainted breezes, and un- shackled limbs; and many a poor African raised his eyes imploringly toward heaven, and gasped his soul out thither. Yes, and there was at least * Yet, through such sufferings, during the ten Iyears preceding 1856, about 36,000 slaves per year were brought to America. AND THE -FUGITIVE. 27 one human heart that had not lost its impress of humanity. -When some time out, a fearful storm broke upon the ship, and raged for four hours with such fury that an ocean-grave seemed their inevitable fate. However, by the skill of the captain they were kept afloat, and, though somewhat disabled, continued their voyage. Daring the storm, while the vessel was pitching and rolling, now in a mad endeavor to scale the sky, then in a reckless plunge to fathom oceaft's depths, the poor Afric- ans were so awe-stricken, that though suffering intensely from the closed scuttles, not a sound was heard save the muffled groans that would invol-. untarily burst forth; and when at last the tem- pest ceased, the dead were many, and fear and confinement had sown dysentery broad-cast among the remainder. While the sea was yet heavily rolling, the look-out sang out from the cross-trees- "Ship ahoy! boat to the windward!" "Where away?" asked the captain through a his trumpet. "About a mile off the larboard quarter, sir." The captain sprang up the mast, and pointing his glass. in the direction indicated, saw what seemed to be a boat with her side stove in, and a single person clinging to her. "Helm hard down! Brace back the maintop- page: 28-29[View Page 28-29] 28 THE MARTYRS, sail! Haul down the jib and mainsail! Lay her to! Man the long boat! Shove off!" thun- dered from him in such quick succession, that none but a practised sailor could remember* half. "Ay, ay, sir!" was the response, and in less time than it has taken us to tell it, the ship was laid to, and the nimble boat, impelled by half a dozen as fearless hands as ever swung an oar, was dashing through the sea like a thing of life. It was a desperate chance: they could only see the object of their search when both rose on the waves at once, and a moment's delay might prove fatal to the exhausted mariner. But, guided by occasional glimpses of him and by signs from the ship, they soon reached him and drew him in, more dead than alive, and hastened back to the ship, when a few cordials and rest soon restored him sufficiently to tell his story. He was a young surgeon aboard of a merchant- * man returning from India, which had been wrecked in the gale, and all had perished. An American by birth, he had graduated from a northern medical college with distinction, and then, to enlarge his knowledge and. gratify his ardent love of adventure, he had wandered away to the eastern world, and was on his return when wrecked, as before stated. AND THE FUGITIVE. 29 He met with the hearty welcome which the sailor, however hardened, always extends to a shipwrecked brother, and, when sufficiently re- stored, was offered and accepted the post of sur- geon, which had been made vacant by the pre- vious death of that officer while on the coast. Although himself a slaveholder, he was a man of nature's noblest pattern. To a keen and searching intellect was added a disposition as mild and tranquil as it was be- nevolent and sympathizing. Having been all his life absorbed in his studies, and a great part of the time not in immediate contact with the system of slavery, he knew little of it, and far less of the foreign trade. When he saw it in all its horrors before him, his soul sickened, and he regretted for the mo. ment that he had not found his grave upon the sea-weed's bed, rather than live to behold such utter wretchedness, and such heaven-defying ini- quity. Then, when he thought-"All this for paltry gold!" the noble instincts of his nature rose in indignant reprobation of the sin. He remon- strated, entreated, did everything that he could do in his dependent position to induce the cap- tain to remit the rigors of their condition. The captain at first listened respectfully, and an- swered that self-preservation drove them to such 3* f page: 30-31[View Page 30-31] rTH ' MARTYRS, severity; that if they should relax their discipline, the slaves would rise and kill themn all. But as this did not satisfy the humane surgeon, he raved and swore, and at last told him if he did not like their conduct he might return where they found him. Finding entreaties unavailing, he turned his whole attention to ministering to the wants of the unfortunate victims as best he could. In each slave-room two or three large tubs were placed for their convenience. But often one of a shackled couple would be attacked with the dysen- tery while his fellow would be unable or disin- clined to move, especially as they must drag them- selves over the bodies of others; and thus the deck was soon covered with blood and mucous, emit- ting the most horrid stench, and breeding death continually. Yet into that living hell the noble martyr would plunge barefoot that he might not tread upon them-'often before they had learned his kindness, to be scratched, and bitten, and pinched, till his feet and legs were scarred, and fre- quently, as he leaned over some poor gasping suf- ferer, would he find him shackled to a corpse ! 0 how earnestly did he long to tell them of the Savior; but ignorance of their language for- bade it. Yet death to them had no terrors. The linger- ing one would look down upon the cold body be- side him, and with sorrow that he had been left, AIN 1D '1' . t' U F 1 ' V . 01 mournfully repeat, "Gone to- he own country! Gone to he own friends!" Then, in their wild agony, crowds would rush to the scuttles as fast as their manacled limbs would go, some dragging the dead with them in their desperate madness, and cry for air and water, till they fell fainting beneath the throng that pressed for their places, only to repeat their unavailing cries. O, it would have melted the heart of a brute to behold them! Yet the cruel sailors would curse them in their rage, and per- haps lash them for their impudence. Good God! was it thy wind that sped them on their course? Was it thy ocean that bore them on its bosom? Was it thy image that they scathed, and peeled, and smothered? Yes-; and judgment belongeth unto thee! The companion of Bobah now realized the full iniquity of his horrid traffic, and, goaded by the pangs, of remorse, he resolved to die. But as no violent means of self-destruction were within his reach, he determined to starve himself to death. His design was soon detected and he was commanded to eat, and upon refusal, was lashed till he fainted, and then dragged back- to the slave-room, and told that he would be whipped every day until he yielded. For three successive days he was lashed, until his entire body was one mass of raw and quiveringfibre. After each page: 32-33[View Page 32-33] 32 THE MARTYRS, whipping he was washed off in salt brine to pre- vent mortification, and the last time; red pepper was added to increase his tortures. Nature sank beneath the repeated inflictions, and the night after his fourth whipping he breathed his last. Poor Bobah envied him his fate, but from the terrible process of delivery he shrank in fear, till the dripping perspiration- and raging thirst, which could only be gratified by a single paltry pint of water during all the long hours of sun-hot- days and the longer ones of suffo- cating nights, drove him to the desperate resolu- tion to die, cost what pain it might. Our tongue refuses to tell all the awful scourgings he received, or how cruelly his jaws were forced open by the speculum-oris, (an instru- ment used by surgeons in the treatment of lock- jaw,) and his mouth crammed so full that he was nearly choked. A record so much like that which devils might cause to be made, is only here given in part with deepest loathing. It-was all in vain. Yet what pain could not extort, the per- suasions of kindness effected. The sympathy of the noble surgeon melted the heart that would not bend to force, and he yielded; Both Bobah and Mabowah, each ignorant of the fate of the other, comforted themselves with the hope that when the voyage was over they might meet again; yet that hope was faint in- f , AND THE FUGITIVE. 33 Reed, for all around them their fellow-captives were dying nightly by dozens, and were pitched into the sea as unceremoniously as so many brute carcasses, often before the last breath was drawne As they drew near the termination of their voyage, the ceaseless watchfulness and untiring exertions of the noble surgeon, together with the constant strain upon his sympathies, wore fear- fully upon his strength. But once more he felt that he must explore the horrors of that living tomb between decls. His weakness had increased his nervous sensi- bility to such an extent that he lost his usual self-possession, and, overcome with the scene, he fell upon his knees, and then, amidst that wonder- ing, stricken throng, he prayed-prayedonly a the strong man in agony can pray, till, stifled by the fumes; and exhausted by the excitement, he fainted and was hauled up, nearly dead. The captain had passed the hatchway during the prayer, and his quick ear caught the hated sounds that were even then bearing his guilty soul with all its enormities before the throne of mercy, and he gnashed his teeth in rage. Sud- denly all the demon seemed roused within him, and he ran for his pistols, determined to shoot the rash pleader on the spot.- When he returned he found him insensible page: 34-35[View Page 34-35] upon the deck, and, ashamed to maim himn then, he turned to wreak his vengeance upon a babe. "' There was a child on board, of nine months' age, which had-refused to eat, and the captain had taken it in his hand and flogged it with the cat,' saying with an oath,' -- you; I'll make - you eat, or I'll kill you." The poor child having swollen feet, he ordered them to be put into water, although the cook told him it was too hot. This brought off the skin and nails. He then ordered sweet-oil and cloths to be applied; and as the child again refused to eat, he again flogged it, : and then tied a piece of mango-wood, weighing some twelve or fourteen pounds, to its neck as a i punishment." He had flogged it three times, when he became so enraged at the surgeon. He now took it and repeated the scourging, then I dropped it from his arms upon the deck, and in a few moments it ceased to breathe. Then, with a I barbarous refinement of cruelty, he called its own mother to heave it overboard, and beat her for re- fusing till she was forced to take it to the ship's side, where, with her head averted that she might not see it, she dropped it overboard, and then shrank away and wept the night's long hours through. "O the cruel monster!" exclaimed Molly, how could he treat it so, and then call its own dear mother to throw her darling overboard! I am sure there are few such men in the world." "It may seem to you like an extreme case, and so no doubt it is; yet it is the natural result of the system, to destroy sympathy and even create an unnatural love of cruelty." None but hard-hearted men will be captains of slavers; and their crew, if engaged with a knowledge' of their business, will be like them- selves, or if engaged on some other pretext and forced into the business, so abhorrent to all their better feelings, they will be morose and undutiful except from fear of the lash; so that the crew itself tends to make the captain still worse. Then he becomes so much accustomed to regard negroes only as so much property to make money on, that he loses all thought that they are his fellow- creatures. It would be singular, indeed, if his natural hardness should not deepen under such circumstances to utter callousness, and make him only an intelligent and malicious tiger. The good surgeon's hours were numbered. Hie revived but in part, and knowing that his moments were fast passing, he called the incensed captain, and before he had time to speak or strike, poured upon him such a flood of sublime and holy rebuke, rising to the grandeur of prophetic denunciation, and mingled with such melting pathos of entreaty, that the crime-steeped man was overwhelmed- and fled from the scene. page: 36-37[View Page 36-37] vu THE MARTYRS, Then, turning to the hardened crew, he preached salvation through Christ with such power, that had a bolt of heaven's wrath been speeding towards that sin-laden vessel, it must have turned aside, at least till that dying exhort. ation was over. Its last accents fell upon hearts from which the tear of penitence had not been wrung before, but now they wept! Yes, they wept; for the march of death was upon those words, and an unseen power clothed them with a spell-binding might. He ceased; the chin quivered, the head dropped, and the noble Astern was no more. He had done his work, and had reached his reward. Solemnly, and with more respect -than ever be- fore, the human clay was committed to the deep from that ship's side-did they lay him upon the bosom of the sea to await the resurrection of the just. Nearly three hundred of the slaves had died on the passage, and when at last they arrived in port, many were sick and numbers died-some after landing. The healthy ones, except a few reserved for the owners of the ship, were sold by scramble; i. e. the ship was covered and darken. ed with sails, the men placed on the, main deck, and the women on the quarter deck. When all was ready, the purchasers on shore came on board, each with cards bearing his own name, and rush- AND THE FUGITIVE. b' ed through the barricade door, some with hand- kerchiefs tied together to encircle all they thought fit. The sick and disabled ones were sold at auction for whatever they might bring; some selling for a single dollar. Col. Halman, a wealthy planter in Georgia, owned one-eighth of the vessel, and was therefore entitled to some of the slaves. Bobah and Mabowah were among the number which fell -to hirn, and thus they met. They were at once sent off to his large cotton and rice plantation near Savannah, where he em- ployed between seven and eight hundred slaves. Their names were changed to Jacob and Ruth Welden, and they were shown a miserable hut, which was to be their future home. But in their- joy at being released -from the ter- rible slave-ship, it seemed for a time, in compari- son, a palace. It was eight feet by ten, and eight feet high, with a hole in the top to let the smoke out-put up without a nail, and totally destitute of window-glass, chairs, table, and bedstead. Their only bedding was a blanket, and wrapping themselves in that, on the cold ground they were compelled to sleep. Their food consisted of one peck of corn meal each, per week, which they were- obliged to grind for themselves after the day's toil, and which, from the insufficient ac-. commodations for so many, often brought the labor late in the night. 4 page: 38-39[View Page 38-39] "u I"THE MAR TYRS, They were allowed all hour and a half or two hours to prepare and eat their first meal, at about eleven o'clock, and the second was taken after the day's work was over. They had not been here long when Ruth be- came a mother. The birth of her child was fol- lowed by a painful illness of some three weeks' duration, in which her utter loneliness seemed almost as hard to be borne as the suffocating tor- tures of the middle pass/age. With no kind hand to soothe her, and no one to supply her wants during all the long fifteen hours of Jacob's daily toil, she would often lie, with the tears streaming down her cheeks, and trace in each feature of her boy some resemblance to those whom she had so fondly loved yet lost in her fatherland. The vigor of a good constitution at length tri- umphed, and as soon as she recovered so that her master thought she could bear it without a re- lapse, he ordered the babe to be taken from her and sent a few miles away to a cotton-cleaning establishment which he owned, to be cared for by the old and infirm slaves at work there. There he was named Caesar. This separation opened all poor Ruth's wounds afresh; and in the bitter. ness of her spirit she cursed the white man, and sobbed, and implored heaven-and sobbed, and cursed, and implored again, till Jacob entered,. -,JA .LJ UX s ' A. - L . X v vr w after his day's toil, and found her rolling in an- guish, smiting her breast, and tearing her hair in a phrensy of unutterable and uncontrollable grief. To all his anxious inquiries she could only an- swer, "Me child--me child-me child!" Over. whelmed with sorrow and dread, he rushed to every corner of the hut, then out, around and in again, madly seeking for his child. "Why, Lor, now, what yer goin' on so fur?" exclaimed a fat, bustling negress, with eyes half starting from their sockets. "Me child-me child-me child!" in slow, bro- ken, mournful tones, as if embittered woe had found an utterance, fell upon her ear from the dark- ness of the hut; to which she answered, "Wal, now, I 'spect yer takin' on so 'bout yer baby, what Mas'r sent off. 'Taint no use, yer may 's well gin in, Yer baby aint killed, nor sold. He's jist goin' out a piece to grow up light, to ride Mas'rs hosses." This utterance, though they scarcely under- stood its meaning, served to quiet them for the moment, and the old woman went on to explain that the child was taken away in order to stunt his growth, that he might become a rider of his master's race-horses. Comforted with the hope of seeing him again, Ruth and Jacob settled them- selves for the night's sleep. But the burden lay too heavily upon their hearts; and, locked in each, other's embrace, they lay sighing those deep heart- page: 40-41[View Page 40-41] 40 THE MARTYRS, sighs which succeed the tumultuous outhurst of impassioned woe. We will now leave them, and glance at their master and his family. Col. Halmnan was a short, fleshy, stout-built, red-faced, gray-headed, hard-drinking man of about two hundred pounds' weight, naturally pleasant and good-natured, but rendered irritable by his vices, till he had become exceedingly passionate, overbearing, and cruel. Mrs. Halman was a tall, slim, rather sharp- featured, though handsome Spanish creole, nearly twenty years younger than her husband, with an ungovernable temper, goaded by her ill-starred position into constant fretfulness, which made her both cruel and revengeful. They had two children, of which he was ex- tremely fond--particularly the daughter-his two former wives having died childless, and the son being subject to fits of derangement. The daughter was a beautiful, kind-hearted child of three years, with eyes and hair of jet black, but complexion lighter than her mother's. The overseer was a spare but stout-built, wiry, full-faced, black-haired Irishman called McCabe. He had been found trustworthy, and, committing the oversight of the plantation to him, the Colonel had given himself up to a life of ease and pleasure. oHunting, horse-racing, and drinking were his principal amusements. AND THE FUGITIVE. 41 CHAPTIER III. We will now pass over four years, marked by no special incident, other than the occasional scourgings and constant hard usage which they had learned to regard as their ordinary lot. Col. Halman had been away on a racing tour, and had lost several races, and involved himself so deeply that upon his return he was unable to meet a payment which was then due.' The sale of one of his slaves was the only alternative. A New-Orleans trader was in the neighborhood, who, upon being informed of the Colonel's wishes, immediately repaired to the plantation and selected Jacob, offering a large price, and refusing any other. Accordingly, he was ordered to go- to the quarters upon some trifling errand, where he was at once shackled and marched off to the trader's coffie. Poor Jacob begged earnestly to be allowed to say a t least one farewell word to Ruth, but a " scene" was not to be endured just then, and he was compelled to go. When the coffle was made up, they were driven to a distant market. While on their way, they stopped one night at a tavern where Jacob and his fellow prisoner were un bound, to assist in some slight repairs about the driver's wagon, when they heard groans, as of some one in distress, issuing from an adjoining shed. 4* page: 42-43[View Page 42-43] *san THE MARTYRS, The driver walked carelessly toward the place, stood a moment surveying the- scene, and with an oath turned away. Not so with Jacob and his companion. With the curiosity natural to the race, and thoughtless of the consequences, they followed the driver, and when he turned they stood transfixed with horror. I There, under the shed, hung by the thumbs the naked and writhing form of a beautiful quadroon girl of sixteen summers, and by her stood a burly, drunken villain, holding in one' hand a bloody knife, and in the other the dripping cowskin, alternately swearing, maiming, and whipping, and she groaning, writhing, and almost dying. He had bought her for the basest of purposes, and when she refused his will and resisted his pollu. tion, and then tried by running away to escape from his power, all the fiend was aroused within him. He pursued and captured her, then stripped her naked, and hung her, as has been stated, by her thumbs, and whipped her till her entire body, from her neck to her feet, was gored-cut off a toe from each foot, and both ears, and knocked out two front teeth, as marks, if she should ever run away again; and that maimed and bleeding girl wn s the object that they saw! As the trader turned and saw them, he raised his whip to strike, when the horrified expression of their counte- nances arrested the blow, and ere he could repeat the effort they had dashed forward, and Jacob, snatching the knife from the monster's grasp, had severed the cords that bound the bleeding victim, while his companion knocked him down, and then both lifted the poor creature in their arms nrd -bore her out. They had scarcely reached the open space, when the infuriated villain sprang up, drew a pistol from his pocket and fired. The ball passed through Jacob's neck, severing the jugular vein, -and lodged against the skull of the miserable girl. -She drew one convulsive gasp and all was over. Jacob fell forward upon her, and his com- panion was about to feel the force of the clubbed pistol,' when the trader interfered and the slave retreated to the coffle. The trader raised Jacob's head upon his knee, examined the wound atten- tively, and seeing that he was almost gone, laid him down, and with a desperate oath demanded nine hundred dollars of the murderer. But he in turn looked-upon the corpse before him, and de- manded fifteen hundred of the trader bfor his slave's act in occasioning her death. The dispute ran high, and was only decided by appealing to the law. A jury of slave-holders was called the next day, the boon companions of the murderer,-and the slave, Jacob's companion, arraigned for as- saulting a white man! page: 44-45[View Page 44-45] " THE. MARTYRS, No other proof was needed than the oath of the person thus assaulted, and the case was clear. He was condemned to " receive five hundred lashes, and (to make the cruel torture more keen) not more than thirty nine at any one time; and the physician of the jail was instructed to see that they should not be administered too fre-* quently, and only when in his opinion he could bear them." Most infernal decision! Five hun. dred blows for one! And yet this is law! Good God, save us from its protecting shadow!* The trader was now fairly aroused. He had lost nine hundred dollars already, and now seven hundred more were to lie in jail-till they could bear five hundred lashes; because, forsooth, it would be cruel and a crime to kill him outright for his guilt. (?) So Christian mercy ordains that he shall die thirteen times over! The trader at once instituted a suit against his enemy for cruelly and maliciously punishing his slave girl with unlawful severity, and another for the unjustifiable killing of the slave Jacob. On the trial of the first case it was decided that "The end of the law respecting the slave is the profit of the master and his security, not the good of the slave; and to secure this end, the power of the master must be absolute, to render * Yet under such laws more than 600,000 slaves are hed by men professing to be Christians. AND THE FUGITIVE. 45 the submission of the slave perfect. That the slave, -to remain a slave, must be sensible, that there is no appeal from his master." "Therefore it is the policy of the law, in respect to the rela- tion of master and slave, and for the purpose of securing subordination and obedience on the part of the slave, to protect the master from prosecu- tion in all such cases, even if the whipping and punishment be malicious, cruel, and excessive." Again : All colored testimony is excluded ; and no white man saw the punishment except the trader, who only saw two or three blows, and could not tell whether the punishment was of "unusual severity" or not-not knowing for what she was punished; and as obedience was abso- lutely necessary, she was in a state of insurrec- tion until she obeyed him, and a slave in insur- rection might be killed by any person." Case decided for defendant. As to the second case, it was decreed that "When the slave of one party is killed, or his property value diminished by another party, the person thus doing is liable for damages to the owner of the slave thus injured, to the full amount of the loss sustained, except the slave be out- lawed,* or offers resistance when running away, * Outlawry is this: If a slave runs away and hides, and kills hogs, etc. to keep from starring, two justices of the peace of the county shall issue a proclamation requiring him to surrender, and the sheriff to arrest him; said proclamation to be read at the do6r' page: 46-47[View Page 46-47] " THE MARTYR-S, or assaults a white man. In the case in question, the slave was killed while aiding and abetting a rebel slave, and after assaulting the defendant; therefore, the case is ruled for defendant. O, even-handed justice, is this thy ruling? Is it rebellion to the death, for the innocelt and pure to turn with loathing from the wretch whose very touch is pollution? Is it outlawry, and crilne, and life-blood, to pity the' maimed, quivering, gasping, dying, stainless lnaiden, whomY lust, and passion, and power. (cursed trio!) had striped, and gored, and mutilated? And this in a Christian land, where the symbol of liberty proudly floats on every flag, and a falsified Constitution declares that all men are born free and equal, but black men are chattels personal! Yet, thank God! there are men better than their laws, although, from the more. numerous class of the uncultivated in manners and morals in the commiunity, they are in a small mninority; still, the bare fact that some, in the exercise of their irresponsible power, are better than the laws, goes far to redeem humanity from the utter stigma that must otherwise attach to it. "But, brother!" exclaimed Molly, "that of the court-house, and such other places as the justices shall desig- nate. If the slave do not immediately return, it shall be lawful for any person to kill him in such way as he may think best. AND THE FUGITIVE. 47 must have been an extreme case ; all masters can- not certainly be so cruel." "'They are not, and I believe but few are; but every one has it in his power to be, and the slave has no redress. True, the law professes to protect him, but the testimony of colored wit- nesses,-slave or free,-cannot be received; so that all the master has to do, is to perpetrate his barbarities where no white person can see him, and he is safe." And should hie be prosecuted on suspicion, his own oath clears him, in spite of any amount of circumstantial evidence. Besides, ordinarily, no friend of the slave will prosecute the master for ill-treatinent; because, if proved, (as a southern judge has himself said,) "No mnan can anticipate the many and aggravated provocations of the master, which the slave would be constantly stimulated, by his own passions or the instiga- tions of others, to give; or the consequent wrath of the master, prompting him to bloody verngeance upon the turbulent traitor-a vengeance generally practised with impunity, by reason of its priva- cy." Hence, says another judge, "There have been no prosecutions of the sort. The established and uniform practice of the country, in this re- spect, is the best evidence of the portion of power deemed by the whole community requisite to the preservation of the master's dominion." page: 48-49[View Page 48-49] 48 THE MARTYRS, "But would not their own "interest lead them to avoid inhuman punishment.?" If interest-:were always superior to passion it might; -but that it is not, is seen everywhere in the passionate cruelty to animals, which dimin- ishes their value; and you should remember that the whole slave system is one great nursing mother of passion, as Jefferson wrote "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and de- grading submission on the other. Our children see this, and learn to- imnitate it; for man is an imitative animal. The parent storms ; the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in a circle of-smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculi- arities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his morals and manners undepraved in such circumstances." Besides, it is often more for the master's interest to overwork and subject, his slaves to murderous hardship, than to treat them well, because of the increased pecuniary gain. Thus, on the southern sugar plantations it is an established custom to task the -hands so. as to kill them in from five to seven years, and. then re-stock; it being cheaper to purchase new- A-ND THE FUGITIVE. 49 hands, than to keep a sufficient number to do the work without injury to themselves. And again, itis for the master's interest to exact obedience at all hazards; and if the poor slave girl has been so unfortunate as to inherit the female slave's greatest curse, personal beauty, and their to save her honor dares to resist, she must be compelled to yield, or-the master's authority is at an end ; and to whatever extremity the punish- ment may be carried, the. law and public senti- ment will uphold it, and interest demands it; for it then sustains the most essential and necessary right of the master's relation-one without which the relation itself must cease. Some other mode of exacting obedience might hbe preferred, but obedience itself to any and every mandate of the master- must be enforced, come life or death. And every slaveholder is compelled, by the necessities of the case, virtually to act upon this principle, whether he approves it or not. Hence, many of the hardships of the slave's life are chargeable not so much upon the disposition of the master, as upon the requirements of the sys- tem. And when, in the case of th6 stubbornly refractory all other measures fail,--and he is sold to the: southern- driver instead of being whipped to death,'--it is only a refinement of the torture and protraction of the agony. No wonder that 5 page: 50-51[View Page 50-51] oU THE MARTYRS, the moral sentiment in regard to the negro is so blunted and paralyzed. It would be so with us were we exposed to the direct educational in- fluence of the slave system. Says a south- ern paper: "There are many persons-and we regret to say it--who think they have the same right to shoot a negro, if he insults them, or even runs from them, that they have to shoot down a dog." And why should they not think so,? Their papers are filled with advertisements of re- wards for runaways,-" dead or alive,"-de- scribed as having "lost toes," "fingers," or "ears," having "front teeth knocked out," "branded on the cheek," "breast," "back,' "marks of severe cuttings with the whip," "sores caused by the wearing of irons," "scars from the bite of hounds," ." lame from broken limbs," "having only one eye," etc., etc., etc. What can such things suggest, but the treat- ment that has caused them-a treatment familiar- - ized by observation and perhaps experience, till it would be strange indeed if their rights and feel- ings as men should not be totally disregarded.* * Humanity is a greater crime than the most outrageous cruelty. For cruel punishment (provided it is proved by white witnesses and is not usually inflicted) a man may be fined $500. For brenk- ing an iron collar from the neck of a slave he may be fined $1000 andi4mprisoned two years! In South Carolina, for killing a slave outright a man may be put to death,:(if convicted;) but if he tortures him to death with the lash, or otherwise, he may pay $500 and possibly be imprisoned six months. AND THE FUGITIVE. 61 Hence we should be the deadly foes of the ac- cursed system, spurning compromises as infamous bargains with the devil and compacts with hell, all the more dangerous as they profess to be "constitutional-!" Why, brother, you are getting excited." "So I am, Molly; and shame on the detest- able cowardice that fears to become excited upon such a question as this! But we must leave it till to-morrow." CHAPTER IV. When Ruth came from the field, after the sale of Jacob, and learned her loss from the old ne- gress, who was her comforter before, her cheek blanched, her frame quivered for a moment like an aspen-leaf, and then, without a groan or a sigh, she fell heavily upon the ground. The old woman was accustomed to strange sights, and could bear any ordinary scene with a stoical indifference that clearly belied the good- ness of her nature. But this awful silence of woe, this chilling despair that settled with such frigid coldness upon the heart; and looked its calm iciness through the half-closed eyes, this was something she had never seen before. "God page: 52-53[View Page 52-53] 62 T-HlE MARTYRS, Lor e massa! ded an' gone! O, marcy! marcy! gone off in an eberlastin' fit! Fetch de water! Here, yer lazy niggers, tell massa! O Lor! what kin a poor creetur du?" And old Chloe, once overcome, fairly crazy with excitement, danced about, uttering such wild, disconnected sentences that the hubbub soon brought scores of blacks and the overseer to the spot. As soon as the trouble could be ascertained,-for poor Chloe was too much excited to tell,-Ruth was borne away from the confusion, and a few restoratives administered with success. She partially revived, then sank away again, then revived to a state of sleepy, muttering delirium, or wild, staring, speechless mania. Weeks passed away, and she slowly recovered her strength till she was able to sit on a bench outside the sick-quarters. While sitting there, one day, sadly musing upon the past, little May chanced to stray by, and, with the quick perception of childhood, saw at once that something more than common ailed her. She instantly ran to her, and not knowing her name, stood before her, and for a moment looked upon her with the un- affected tenderness and sympathy of her years, then in the soft and subdued tones which the presence of a great sorrow elicits, asked, "What's the matter, Aunty?" The words fell like the voice of an angel upon the o'erfraught heart, and -AN) THE FUGITIVE. 58 it welled up afresh, as grief's fountain does when the hand of rare kindness is laid upon it. The burst of tears only deepened Mary's sympathy, and she laid .her little face upon Ruth's lap and wept with her. O, it was a lovely sight, to see that young unburdened heart bend. itself beneath the weight of woes that the strength of years could scarcely stagger under; and it eased for a brief moment the cankering heart-ache of stricken Ruth, and she clasped her to her bosom and wept again. When the tumult of her feelings had some- what subsided, she answered the inquiries of her little comforter, till she had told her the whole story of her life. From that hour Ruth found a friend, and from that same hour the thoughtful mind of Mary took a new channel; and if her light-hearted gayety was chastened, and her vivacity dimin- ished, it could easily be seen that a richer harvest of heart-treasure was ripening within for the garner. She was not allowed to associate with the plantation-slaves, but she often found an opportu- nity to slip away to see Ruth, whose only desire Bow seemed to be to see her boy. It was preying upon her life, and the sympathies of Mary could not rest till her desires were gratified. The guileless artlessness of her manner, and the tears of unaffected sympathy with which she 5* page: 54-55[View Page 54-55] 54. THE MARTYRS, plead with the overseer, soon prevailed, and Ruth was permitted to go to see her boy, and remain with him until able to work in the fields again. Her recovery was slow, so slow that all the native affection of her heart had time to warm into a fervid glow of love for her child, the intensity of which only embittered her existence the more. It would be useless to describe all the pangs she felt when compelled to return to the plantation, and resume the dreary life of toil from which even her painful sickness had been a recreation. - We will leave her in her loneliness and sor- row, and pass on to the time when Cesar com- mnenced his active life. He was put to knitting when about three years old, and then hemming cotton handkerchiefs. When between five and' six he was sent to the plantation, and put under the care of one Dick Burley, his master's principal jockey and trainer, to be trained for a race-horse rider. Col. Hallmlan kept a number of horses, and' prided himnself upon keeping some of the fleetest in the country. Dick was of about middling height, sharp features, sandy hair, quick-tempered, and given to drink. His method of training was to first put the boy on a well-trained horse, and instruct him how to sit and rein. After becoming somewhat accus- tomed to this, he tied him upon a young unbroken AND THE FUGITIVE. 5* horse, gave him the bridle, and then turned him loose. Just before Csesar was tied on, he was -very much frightened by an awful scene in the training of two boys, who were a little farther advanced than himself. The two boys were tied on at the same time, and for a few moments managed bravely, but by a sudden turn of one of the horses, his rider slipped around under him, and hung head downwards; this frightened the timid colt so much, that in his frantic plunges to rid himself of the boy, before any one could in. terfere he was a bruised and mangled corpse. The terrific bounds of this horse so terrified the other, that he too began to rear and plunge, and the poor little rider, seeing the fate of his compan- ion and losing all presence of mind, jerked with all his strength upon the reins just as the animal reared, and brought him over, and was crushed to death in an -instant. This scene did not greatly strengthen the nerves of Csesar, when, a few days after, he was tied on in the same man- ner. He too would have shared their fate, had not two old slave women noticed his slipping, anrd caught the horse just in time to prevent his going under. Col. Halman owned a plantation and stables in Virginia; and Caesar was employed, after his tenth year, as a rider and a body-servant, that is, to wait upon his master. In -this capacity, he page: 56-57[View Page 56-57] - *JL a D JK, A H T Y E S; came to Virginia, and while there ran his first race for money near the James River, where he won $2,000, and a few days after ran again and lost $2,500. They then went to Norfolk, and took a steamer to New-York, and put up in Cherry. street. While there the Colonel made arrange. ments for a race on the Long Island Course, and meantime went to Hunting Park Course in Penn- sylvania, where he won $3,000. Burley was a notorious scoundrel, and taught Caesar all sorts of tricks to balk his adversaries' horses, which he often used successfully. Thence they went to New-Jersey, and in Hoboken won another purse of $2,500. While traveling, especially in free States, Caesar was well used; but not knowing that he was then free, he could not take advantage of the fact. Major J-, of Cold Spring was the competi- tor in the race on the Long Island Course. The first heat Caesar's horse won with ease, when the Colonel took Caesar aside, and ordered him not to do his best, but let the Major win, so that he would be induced to bet higher. The purse of $2,000 was then again lost, but the Major would not bet again, so they then returned to Georgia. The next season they went to Mobile, in Alaba- ma, and ran four races and lost them all. Col- onel Halman was in liquor most of the time; and the more bad luck he had, the harder he drank, and the worse poor Coesar/ fared, being whipped after every race, if unsuccessful. His usual pun. ishment was twenty-five lashes on the bare back, and then rubbed down with salt brine, and left standing in the sun from fifteen minutes to half an hour-which was often worse than the whipping. The Colonel resolved to try once more; and after a rainy week, when the track was slippery, he ordered him to " win or catch it." The horse made tremendous exertions under the goadings of his almost despairing rider, but slipped and fell- broadside, breaking Caesar's -arm and leg. The Colonel was watching the race with much anxiety, when the fall aroused all his drunken wrath. He rushed to the spot, and instantly or-- dered him to be stripped and receive twenty-fiver lashes. A physician, who chanced to be present,. now came forward and examined his wounds, and decidedly objected to any punishment in that condition. The master raved and swore; the doc- tor stood firm and objected. At length the dis- pute ran so high that they drew pistols over his body, when others interfered and prevented any further mischief. He was then carried to the hos- pital, where he lay nearly five months. His master would occasionally call to see him,-al- ways in a passion,-and generally, before leav- ing, wish him dead. Before his recovery he was sent home, and page: 58-59[View Page 58-59] 58 THE MARTYRS, while his arm was still weak he was forced to ride again. The horse was young and not well trained, and his armn not being strong, the horse ran and threw him, his head struck a post, and he was taken up for dead with a broken skull. He then lay two or three months, most of the time delirious, and, after recovering sufficiently, traveled with his master as body-servant. They visited. Niagara Falls and other places, and he was treated better than he ever was at any other time, except when' on a subsequent journey to England. They returned by way of St. Louis, New-Orleans, and Mobile; and while at Mobile his master, while in a drunken spree, sold him to a southern trader named Jim Wallace, who in- tended taking him to New-Orleans where he lived. The morning before he was to start, Col. Halman came to him and wished to buy C esar back. The trader replied : "You have not money enough to do it." But the Colonel remonstrated-said it was not a fair trade-was done when intoxicated, etc.; and at last bought him back for $1,000, losing $500 by the trade, but swearing that he would have it out of him before a year passed. While there he witnessed one of those thrilling scenes that not unfrequently transpires in slave markets. An old woman and her daughter were put up to be sold for debt. They had lived with :a kind mistress, and were struck off to different AND THE FUGITIVE. 59 persons. The old woman cried aloud, when the cruel trader stepped up to her, and cut her two or three times with his whip, saying at the same time, "Shut up, you old wench, or I'll whip you till the blood runs into your shoes!"The mistress then came forward and begged to buy her back; but he would not sell, and the mother and daugh- ter were parted, never -to meet again till that day when the slave and the free shall alike "be judged according to the deeds done in the body." When Coesar was well, his master was accus- tomed to' order him to attack any negro that chanced to pass, that the fight might afford amusement to the spectators. He became very skillful in these "rough and tumble" encounters, for he was stimulated by his love of applause if successful, and fear of blows from his master if unsuccessful. After spending some time at home, the Col- onel resolved to visit England, to try his Grey against the English trotting-horses. He accord- ingly sailed for Liverpool; but the passage was very rough, and the horse was so bruised that he was unfit to run upon their arrival. Hence the match was postponed, and finally won. Thence they, went to Ireland, and ran on the Curragh of Kildare, and after an unsuccessful season returned home. While in Dublin, Caesar was offered $40 per month by a sportsman, to page: 60-61[View Page 60-61] S6O THE MARTYRS, stay with him as jockey and rider. But poor Caesar knew not that he was free; and fearing that his master might hear of the offer and whip him for it, according to previous instructions he replied he " was not out of his time." After his return he was employed as body and house ser. vant. His mistress would sit in a large rocking. chair in the middle of the room, with her cowskin in her hand; and whenever he or her two female servants came within her reach, if she was dis- pleased at anything, she would vent her spite in blows upon their necks. One of her female ser- vants had been so injured in early life that her intellect was blunted, and she became the special object of aversion. Her neck was kept a raw and bleeding sore constantly, by the stripes of her tormentor. Of course, such treatment roused all the hateful and vindictive feelings of Caesar's heart, and his whole delight was to study out some means to teaze her, a;nd yet escape chastise- ment. One day, while drawing water for his horses, he observed some nice apple-dumplings just taken from the fire. At that moment the room was left vacant, and he dodged in and seized a large one, with which he was about to make his escape, when his mistress entered; but quickly turning, he dropped the scalding dumpling into the pocket of his thin -tow pants, and catching up his pail, AND THE FUGITIVE. 61 ran for the stables; but before he had reached there his thigh was burned to a blister. A short time after, the family were all away, and he resolved to revenge himself upon his mis- tress. Accordingly he went to the kitchen, and there found her favorite cat. He then heated the poker, and with it burned her nose and paws till she became desperate. Having cornered her where there was no escape, he plied his iron with increas- ing zeal, when she suddenly sprang upon him, and fixing her claws in his breast, fought and tore like a tigress. Poor Caesar had now found more than he had bargained for, and roared aloud with pain; but before he could open the door and re- lease himself his bosom was terribly lacerated. His wounds made him weak and sick; and as he dare not tell of them for fear of worse ones on his back, he had to dress them with his horse-lini- ment and endure the pain. While yet lame and dull from their effects, his mistress frequently gave him passing blows, and finally sent him to the quarters to receive a dozen lashes there. When he returned to the house she ordered him to take a pitcher, and go to the spring-run, and get some milk that was kept there. He went and kicked the milk-pot into the spring, then filled his pitcher with the water and took it to her, saying that "some one had upset the pot." She saw the trick at once, and accused f " . - page: 62-63[View Page 62-63] 62 THE MARTYRS, him of it, but he denied it. She then ordered him to follow her; and taking her cowskin, lede the way to the spring, where she whipped himn till she was tired, then told him if he did not confess it she would drown him in the spring. She ac-i cordingly seized him; but he contrived to so en- tangle himself with her, that as she made an effort, to put him in, she fell backwards and struck her: head against the stone side, and lay insensible in the run. He resolved to let her drown; but be- fore she was quite gone, some other member of the family discovered her and carried her to the house. When his master returned, a few days after, he called for Caesar, and gave him a note to take to the quarters. He took it, suspecting something of its import, when the overseer ordered him to strip, tied him up, gave him twenty-five lashes, and brined him as usual. He was unable to work for two weeks after this, and it taught him to be more prudent in his plans of revenge. "Well," said Molly, "he, deserved some pun- ishment that time." "Very true, and no doubt slaves often deserve it; for a more vexatious life can scarcely be imag- ined, than to be obliged to control a lot of lazy, stubborn, and revengeful negroes. Yet it is this very fact that makes the system the more repul AND THE FUGITIVE. 63 sive; because it is a vast educational establish. ment, in which the worst-passions are developed as a principle, and iniquity is studied as a science! Instead of training them for usefulness and the thigh destiny of immortality, they'are constantly educated in the development of passions bf which it would be slander to accuse the brute, and to which devils never could, sink. And yet men say that the very God who has redeemed them, authorizes such an educational influence. If I believed it, I would burn my Bible as the most despicable humbug on earth, and reprobate its God as I now hate the devil. But more of this at our next interview. CHAPTER V. I will now attempt to show the educational influence of the slave system, as it operates upon tooth classes, in the incidents that follow. The father of Col. Halman had a female house- servant by whom he had a child, a handsome mulatto girl, who grew up with Col. H., and by whom she had a beautiful quadroon child. This child's mother the Colonel had been compelled to sell, in consequence of the constant reproaches of a former wife; and the present Mrs. Halmnan could page: 64-65[View Page 64-65] illy brook seeing the beautiful quadroon upon the premises, rivaling her own charms, and a con- stant reminder of her husband's shame. She oc- casionally wreaked her ill-humor upon her, till the Colonel sent her to his plantation in Virginia, to save her from further severity and himself from merited reproaches. While on one of his northern tours, he fell in company with Mr. De Alembert, of one of the proudest and most aristocratic families of south. ern Virginia, and invited him to visit him at his Longfield plantation. Alembert had just succeeded, by the death of his widowed mother, to the inheritance of the old family homestead; and as he desired to increase his patrimony, he sold all the house-slaves, and with the avails re-stocked his plantation with a sufficiency of good .healthy hands, mostly young females, and set out to visit Col. Halman. One article in his inventory of goods he had purposely left unsupplied, until one to his taste sho ld fall in his way. The condition was quickly met, for at the Colonel's he saw Rosette, the beautiful quadroon, and at once unfolded his plans and made an offer. "You see, Colonel," said he, "if I marry I shall have to keep two or three house-servants, which will cost me $3,000, beside all the expense of a wife; so I have concluded to buy me a, AN U Tl U t1'1' V FJ. -I right sort of a girl, and manage without a wife. Now, there is that quadroon there--what will you take for her?" "Don't want to sell!" gruffly replied the Col- onel, as the recollection of her near relationship forced itself' upon him. "But would'nt $1,500 be something of an in- ducement?" urged Alembert, "Lord knows I need the money bad enough, but ye see I don't just like to sell her." They sat some time in sirence, each watching the graceful movements of Rosette, one thinking of the past, the other of the future. ,The past was not a very pleasant theme for the Colonel's meditations, and he sat uneasily, hitching, hemming, and spitting, till he uncon- sciously thrust his hand into his pocket, and it rested upon a letter that he had received the day before, challenging him to a race. He had thought little of it, because the want of funds prevented his acceptance of the offer. But now a new idea struck him. ' I tell you what, young fellow, if you will give me $2,000 for her, she's yours, sure as fate; but not a picayune less." "Two thousand dollars! two thbusand dol- lars! that's a heap for one girl! But then she's mighty handsome (and she'll raise splendid young ones, too,") mused Alembert, and then spoke out: 6* page: 66-67[View Page 66-67] "Well, Colonel, that's a high figure; but I'll take her." And the papers were made out and signed, and Alembert, with his property mistress, started for his plantation, . In due time she bore her chaste bachelor lord a beautiful, flaxen-haired boy, who grew in inte- rest and. beauty as he did in stature, and moreover so favored his master's features, that even stran- gers were at no loss to divine his paternity. Meantime a strange bleaching process was going on in the somewhat numerous children of the plantation-slaves. They-particularly the child- ren of the younger mothers-were a great part of them mulattoes, or quadroons, according as the mothers were black or mulattoes; and as the value of the children increased in the ratio of their whiteness, the master, of course, would not trouble himself to ascertain the cause. Nearly three years passed away, and Rosette's child grew more and more like " master," till it could be endured no longer, and one day he wassold to go off south. His mother had left him to step out for a few moments, and when she returned he was gone. The trader had taken him and rode away. We will not attempt to describe poor Ro- * sette's feelings. She had seen the children of other slaves sold thus, but she fondly hoped that Ii ' : Bi2# r iaUUTrCss,CUsb t'\ ers would be spared to her. Alembert at once old her that if she cheered up and behaved her- elf, she would be treated the same as before; but she "moped and whimpered" around in that ray, he would sell her to the first New.-Orleans rader. She saw the hopelessness of her lot, nd though her heart buried itself in anguish, she ssumed a cheerful aspect in his- presence and vas retained in his favor. Not long after, she aund herself exposed to the same fearful trial Jgain ; and rather than endure the suspense that aust always hang over her, she resolved to secure ter freedom or perish in the attempt. She had learned enough to know that her only lope was in reaching the mountains without dis- overy, which she had been told lay towards the etting sun, and then following the north star till ;he came to a land of freedom. Animated by he hope of escape, and not knowing the dangers ff the way, she assumed a cheerful guise and raited foran opportunity. Alembert had gone mn some business to the sea-shore, and would not :eturn before three days, when the favorable time amne. A lowery day was succeeded by a night ff pitchy darkness and rain, with a strong wind ?rom the south-east; when late in the eve she nmerged from the mansion, with a small bundle containing such food as she had been able to se- :ure, and a few little articles, among others, a page: 68-69[View Page 68-69] 68 THE MARTYRS, dress which had been worn by her little boy. Placing her back to the wind, she stumbled on through the darkness, falling over various ob- structions, and into holes and gullies; but still she kept on till the light began to break in the east, when weary, faint, bruised, and hungry, she crawled into a thick hedge, ate her morning meal, and slept--the dreamy, disturbed, and fitful sleep of anxious fatigue. The next night she continued the same course, with the north star for her pilot, instead of the wind, keeping it con- stantly upon her right. Thus she proceeded till she reached the mountains and struck for the north. Great was the commotion at the mansion on the morning after her escape. The heavy rain of the night had completely obliterated every trace of her course, hence all was doubt and uncertainty respecting it. However, no time was to be lost, and the energetic overseer at once caused the fol- lowing advertisement to be- inserted in the county papers, and sent off for a notorious negro-catcher to come with his hounds, and, if possible, trace her: , $200 REWARD!! ' Ran away from the subscriber. living near Barksdale, Halifax Co., a very light quadroon woman, of medium size, very handsome, and about 20 years old; has long, straight, auburn hair, which she usually keeps in good order. When she left, she had on either a white dress or a striped muslin, and a pink sun-bonnet. She dresses very neatly, wears one or two rings, is very intelligent, converses well, and can spell out print. Her name is Rosette, and the above reward will be paid for her if taken out of the State, and $100 if taken within the State. DE AT RIMR BaT." AND THE FUGITIVE. 69 But notwithstanding all the efforts of dogs and men, the rain had so effectually befriended her, that they were compelled to relinquish the search. We will now continue the narrative of Caesar. We left him-T "If you please, brother, I would like to ask if it is the custom in Virginia to raise slaves to sell, and if what you have intimated is really true-that they increase in value as they are white in color?" "I have heard that they do. not separate fami- lies; but I should think if they raise them to sell, they must do so." Your inquiry includes so much, that I shall have to answer each point separately. In -regard to the raising of slaves for the southern market, nothing is more common in the papers of Mississippi, Louisiana, etc., than to find advertisements from dealers closing with such an assurance as this, viz: "The subscriber will con- tinue to receive fresh supplies from Richmond, Va., during the season, and will be able to furnish to order any description of negroes sold in Rich- mnond." - In 1836 Virginia exported forty thousand ,slaves. During the same year the four States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, imported from the more northern States two hun- page: 70-71[View Page 70-71] 70 THE MARTYRS, dred and fifty thousand. At least one-third of these (over 80,000) were sold, and the remainder immigrated with their masters. In reference to these facts, a southern writer (Professor Dow, of the University of William and Mary, in Virginia) says: "A full equivalent being, left in the place of the slave, (the purchase money,) this, emigra- tion becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised." "Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for the other States." From 1817 to 1837, from Virginia and North Carolina alone, 300,000 slaves were sent to the south. From January 1st, 1851, to November 20th, 1852, were sent from the single port of Baltimore: to southern ports 1,033 slaves, mostly between: the ages of ten and thirty, I presume these facts will be sufficient to, show the truth in regard to raising. Now how can all these young slaves be sent. away without a separation of families? Look at such advertisements as this: "I have just re- turned to my stand, at the forks of the road, with fifty likely young negroes for sale." AND THE FUGITIVE. 71 Were they all of one family? Where were - the fathers and mothers, and --bung brothers and sisters? Sixty-four southern papers report, during the last two weeks of the month of November, 1852, the sale of- 4,100 slaves, besides 30 lots of various numbers, and 92 runaways. We do not accuse slaveholders of wishing to separate fami. lies, but simply assert the utter impossibility of doing otherwise, as a common thing, as long as they foster such a trade4 with such a market. As to the increased value of mixed blood, the simple fact that the 350,000 slaveholders of the south own 800,000 mulattoes, is fearfully suggest- ive of that-and another fact of the slave sys- tem also, viz: its constant temptations to the indulgence of the passions. Able field-hands now bring from $600 to $1,500; but beautiful young mulatto girls bring from $1,000 to $2,500, and one was sold at public auction to a rich young planter for $7,500. A rich admixture of white blood is a great improve- ment of the breed, and many of the best and most valued slaves of the south are as white as their masters! page: 72-73[View Page 72-73] 72 THE MARTYRS, CHAP TER VI. After Caesar's return from England, he lived about three years in much the same way as be- fore his journey. He slept in the stables, and had trained one of the horses so that he could lie in the stall with him; and if the horse wished to move, he would shove Cmesar across the stall with fiis nose, and never tread on him, however soundly he might sleep. When in the stall, the horse would allow no person, not even Col. Halman, to enter. In the faithful attachment of this horse Caesar found his greatest comfort. But the care- fulness of his horse proved, upon one occasion, a serious misfortune. They were in the stable, in the midst of the racing season, and it often hap- pened when several races came off in quick suc- cession, that the care of the horses and the riding took most of Caesar's time, so that he had little opportunity for sleep. At one time he had been up two entire nights, and was busily rubbing down his horse, with the animal's hind leg across his knees, when, overcome with fatigue, he fell asleep in that position. Thus his master found him, and seizing a large bar of wood which was used as a fastening to the door, struck him a se- vere blow across the arm and ordered him to go to work. "I can't, master, my arm is broke." AND THE- FUGITIVE. 73 "Your arm is broke, is it-pity it was'nt your head! Come out and I'll break your neck, you lazy, sleepy nigger, if you don't mind my orders and keep your eyes open!" 'An examinination showed that the limb was really broken, and-he was sent to the overseer to be cared for. Some time after his recovery his master re- solved upon a tour through France anid Spain, and- concluded to take two of his best horses along, and Caesar to groom them. One horse died on the passage, but the other landed- in good condition. They ran one race in France for $20,000 and lost, and then proceeded to Spain. There was to be 'a great race for $40,000, and Col. Halman determined to compete for thie purse. As they were proceeding towards the place, and within two or three days' journey, Caesar ran a scrub-race with a young Spaniard, and then disputed with him about the race, when the Spaniard drew a dirk and threw it, intending it to strike his heart; but by a sudden movement lhe dodged the weapon, and received it in his arm. He at once drew it out, and knocked his assail. ant down with his riding-whip, and beat him "till he lay quiet ;" then bound up his arln with his handkerchief and rode as quickly as possible to his master, when they both mounted and rode nearly all night to avoid. pursuit. At the great 7 page: 74-75[View Page 74-75] *74 THE MARTYRS, race the Colonel's horse won the purse, but again poor Caesar suffered. In endeavoring to pull up his horse the bits parted, and he was thrown and three ribs broken. On their return they had a stormy passage, and Caesar was so knocked about that his impe.- fectly healed ribs were displaced, and for four- teen months he was disabled, and, has never en, tirely recovered. Even now they gather and dis- charge during every long storm. Just previous to his return, a number of the plantation-slaves, who were experienced, were sent up to Virginia to the Longfield farm, and ex- changed for those less accustomed to their work. Ruth was among the number. But -the pro- gress of years and sorrows had wrought their change. A deep melancholy had settled upon her: she seldom smiled, and when she did, it was quickly followed by a sigh. But the time of her redemption drew nigh: a new destiny was awaiting her. In the shade of a thick wood near the ILong- field farm stood an old deserted hut, in which the negroes of the adjoining plantations were accus- tomed, whenever they could steal away, to as- semble for religious services. In spite of their secresy, however, the place and employment was known. But the overseers were shrewd -nen, aud as long as no treasonable designs were enter- AND THE' FUGITIVE. 75 tained, they cared not how many of the slaves experienced religion, nor how much they ob- tained; for real genuine piety enhanced a ne. gro's value full a hundred dollars, by making hiln honest and obedient. They therefore allowed the meetings to continue, in spite of the law, and Ruth was invited to attend thc;m. She did so, and her mournful expression soon elicited all the sympathies of the African heart. She was in- structed, prayed for, exhorted, etc., till by the Divine Spirit's agency she was led to the Savior, of whom she now for the first time definitely heard. Her joy then equaled her ignorance and dakness before, and she prayed and sang from morning till night. Thus her mistress found her on her return from- a visit, to the north. At first she was confounded, then -her wrath was kindled. She could not endure to see any one happier than herself; especially that a, slave woman like Ruth should presume to such an experience, was a trans- gression of propriety closely bordering upon inso- lence. Then, when she remembered May's early interest in her, she resolved to watch. May was now with her, just returning after a long absence to complete her education, but had not as yet re- cognized Ruth in her transient glimpses of her among the other slaves. Mrs. Halman requested her own waiting-maid to be exchanged for a time for Ruth. page: 76-77[View Page 76-77] 76 THE MARTYRS, When May and Ruth first met, it was when Mrs. Halman was absent; and well for Ruth that it was so, for had her mistress have seen that meeting, Ruth would have suffered for her te- merity. In the fullness of her heart she had forgotten that the little 'tender-hearted May, who once wept with her, had now become the queenly belle of twenty-one summers, and she unburdened her heart in the salne simple and undisguised manner that she did before the quarters in her earlier sorrows. But the story was now very dif- ferent. For a time May listened with mechan. ical attention; for though the looks, the voice, ald the gestures of the speaker were strangely new and touching, her memory was busy in recalling that scene of her infant years. When it stood before her in all its proportions, the contrast of the present pressed with overwhelming power upon her heart. With melting pathos Ruth told of her long years of darkness, her troubled seeking after sorne- thing that should satisfy her soul, and then hler joyful finding ;and as she knelt before May and clasped her arms around her, and with flowing tears exclaimed, "O, missus May! de Lor loe be berry good! O, he my song all de day, an' me joy in de night time!"May could refrain no longer, and bending over, she buried her head AND THE FUGITIVE. " upon the shoulder of Ruth and sobbed like an in- ftnt. "Her apparent sylnpathy only called out a fresh burst ot praise from Ruth: "O0, bress de Lor! -bress de Lor! me be ready to go up in de charyat ob fire!"Little did she know the terri- ble storm that was raging within the fair bosom that to her seemed the shrine of all innocence and loveliness. But ONE saw it, and his angels rejoiced, May had always been thoughtful, but she now, for the first time, saw her sinfulness and felt her need of a Savior. Not long did she struggle; for the native trustfulness of her heart seemed in- stinctively to fly toward Him, and she was soon at peace. Tile external change was not great, yet the keen observer-such sas her mother was-- could detect a quiet peacefulness, and a more ra- diant loveliness than ever before. Mrs. Halnman soon discovered the cause, and, true to the instincts of her depraved heart, she re- solved to whip the foolishness out of Ruth. When she found her efforts vain, she wrote to the Col- oliel, requesting hiln to order Ruth back to Geor- gia and cure her of her fanaticism. He accord- ingly had- her sent back to the plantation, and ordered her to stop singing and praying. She re- fused, and was whipped; still she persisted, and again was whipped, but still refused. The Col- onel then swore that no nigger on his plantation 7 page: 78-79[View Page 78-79] 78 THE MARTYRS, should break his orders, and she must yield or die. He then ordered her to have twenty-five lashes every day till she stopped her ' -- nonsense.' But the more she, was whipped the more obstinate she became, declaring that she would die rather than give up her religion. May had meantime arrived, and having heard of the punishment, interceded for Ruth with all the powers of persuasion which she could command; and gladly would the Colonel have granted her desire, but the thing was too well known -upon the plantation to allow it to pass. So, with a seeming compliance, he sent her off upon. a short excursion, promising to follow in a few hours. He then ordered Ruth to be brought out, and a large number of the slaves collected, among whom was Caesar, to witness her submission. She was tied up and stripped, then told that she must yield or die. The Colonel had at that time two overseers-the Irishman before described, and a stout, large-fisted Scotchman, named Anderson. She saw that her hour had come, and turning her eyes toward heaven, she prayed for strength to persevere. Anderson at once laid on the lash with all his strength, mangling her body with every stroke. Her screams and screeches for a time were perfectly heart-rending; then they subsided into low moans, mingled with ejaculatory prayers for strength, for her boy, for her master, and for her overseer. Anderson could endure it no longer. He threw the whip down, and swore he would never strike her another blow. But McCabe seized it, and for one hour, with occasional intermissions, he plied the lash, till the master ordered him to desist. They then untied her, and she fell dead at their feet 1 On the adjoining plantation lived Dr. Whitlow, a kind and Christian man. Caesarlhad been sent there occasion- AND THE FUGITIVE. 79 ally upon errands, and had heard the Doctor read the Bible to his slaves, and pray with them., He knew, too, that they were contented and happy, and that no induce' ment would prove sufficient to cause them to run away.* He became interested, and often stole away and listened, about the time- the Doctor usually read, and thus had learned considerable about the Bible and his soul. When he saw his mother martyred, and listened to her exhorta- tion and prayers, his seriousness was deepened. Soon after, he went with his master to Virginia to groom the horses there, as he was no longer of any service as a rider. The Colonel supposed that there would be no danger of his learning to pray, after seeing his mother's fate. iHe was soon invited to the meetings, and was prayed for. The third time he went he fell prostrate and senseless, and lay all night and the most of the next day in that condition. The slaves hid him, and the master searched for him. His feelings while in that state are given in his own words, thus: - "I seemed to be in a great meeting in a large house, and wanted to get out, but the door was fast. I then tried to leap from the window, but under it was a great gulf of fire, into which I was falling, when I cried for- mercy. Then a tall person with white hair appeared, and asked, 'Dost thou believe?' I answered, 'Yes, Lord,' and was at once lifted away and carried into another room, brilliantly lighted, from which a door opened into another * Such cases are often urged in proof of- the assertion " that slaves are better off than if they were free." But what greater injury can be inflicted upon them, than to crush out the first prin- ciple of manhood, as well as enslave the body? The slave is not all a slave while he detests his chains and struggles against them; but when he learns to love them, he has sunk to the lowest possi- ble depths of degradation. page: 80-81[View Page 80-81] 80- THE MARTYRS, which seemed filled with singers and harpers, singing, 'This is the place of holiness.? Then two angels ap- peared, singing, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God and in the mountain of his holiness.' When I recovered I was happy, and I ex- claimed, 'As my mother died praying, so will I.' Soon after, master found me in a back room praying. "' What are you doing here?' said he. "' Seeking the salvation of my soul.' "I'll give you salvation, when I get you home I These --- niggers are getting you into the same way that your mother was. You saw what became of her, and if you don't give up this cursed foolishness, I'll whip the heart out of you!' "Said I, 'Master, I mean to serve you just as well as I can, but I must save my soul.' "' Soul! What do you know about soul? Niggers have no more souls than horses. Now go about your business; and mind, let me hear no more of this.' " He was at once sent back to Georgia, where he delib. erated some time as to the best plan to pursue; but he at length determined to pray on, and suffer the conse- quences. Meantime he had heard Dr. Whitlow read about Ja- cob, and had composed the following song, with which he enlivened many solitary hours: JACOB'S LADDER. As Jacob in travels was weary by day, At night on a stone for a pillow he lay; A vision appeared-'twas a Ladder so high, Its feet on the earth, and its top in the sky. CHORUS. Hallelujah! to Him who died on the tree, To raise up this Ladder of Mercy for me; AND THE FUGITIVE. St' Press forward, press forward! the prize is in view--, A crown of bright glory is waiting for you. This Ladder is long, it is strong and well made, Has stood thousands of years, and not yet decayr I So ftee to accept, all the world may get up-- Bright angels will guard you from bottom to to CHORUS, This Ladder is JESUS, that glorious God-Man, Whose blood, richly stieaming, from Calvary-rai On his perfect atonement to heav'n we'll rise;- We'll sinmg in his mansions prepared in the skies. CHORUS. Come, let us ascend it-behold, never fear- It's stood every tempest, and always will bear; Millions have tried it, and have gained Zion's hill, And ten thousands, by faith, are climbing it still. CHORUS. Our fathers, by faith, thus have mounted to God, They finished their labors and reached their abode; And we still are climbing-,we soon shall be there, To join in their raptures; their happiness share. CHoRUS. He now endeavored, in every possible way, to do his duty to his master, hoping thus to show that religion had not injured him, and for several weeks he was permitted to enjoy himself. But he soon grew bolder, and instead of praying softly, his voice could be heard at some dis- tance from the stables; and his master came in a tearing passion and ordered him to be, whipped, and never pray again, commanding every one upon the premises to report to him if they knew'of his attempting it. Poor Caesar begged for mercy, promised to do anything, day or night, but said he must escape the punishment of hell. His mhaster told himthere- was " no future for a -niggr---w when he died it was the end of him," etc. page: 82-83[View Page 82-83] 82 THE MARTYRS, But all this was poor consolation for Caesar, amid his stripes. Again and again he was scored, till the very mention of the whip sent a tremor through his frame. Again and again did the lovely May plead with tears for him, till she was compelled to -fly like an angel of purity from the presence of her enraged and maddened father. But all the scourgings could not lash out the manhood from the patient Caesar. He composed another song and sang it at his work: Slaves have a trying life to lead, While roving through this wilderness. CHORUS. White man, you'd better repent, For the judgment's rolling 'round! O there is glory, yes there is glory, How can the white man reach the promised land? We work all day, and half the night, And up before 'tis morning light. CHORUS. We're like brute beasts in the market sold, And suffer heat, and lash, and cold. CHORUS. 'We suffer here like father Job, But soon tI go to wear the robe. CHORUS. You drag us now from shore to shore, Our Savior's name we'll praise the more. CHORUS. Yes, kill our bodies if you will, Our soul will land on Zion'is hill. CHORUS. Then, when you think that we are dead, You'll hear us shouting o'er your head. CHORUS. AND THE FUGITIVE. 88 White man,- I bid you now farewell, I will not go with you to hell. CHORUS. White man, you'd better repent, For the judgment's rolling round! O there is glory, yes there is glory,- How can the white man reach the promised land? One day his master heard him sing it, and at once sent him off with a note to the overseer, who took it, saying, "What's this?" Poor Csesar answered, sobbing-"It's for you to whip me, for praying and singing." "Well, if you're fool enough to be excited in that way, go ahead, and I'll put you in the same hole your mother's in." After that he dared pray no more in the stables, but selected a place in a thick grove about half a mile away; but that was soon discovered, and he then saw that he must escape, or yield, or be cut to pieces by inches and die by the week. From this he shrank, and determined, desperate as was the effort, to make his escape. In his voyages to Europe he had -heard the sailors talk about the stars, till he could shape his course by them. While in Virginia, too, he had learned that if he could reach Pennsylvania safely, he need fear no more. He at once commenced making preparations, by digging a hole under the stable floor, in which to put whatever he might collect. He had a brace of pistols which he always carried at races, and his master kept a large quantity of powder and balls in his cellar for sporting purposes, of which he con- trived to secure a sufficient amount. He also had the dirk that he took from the Spaniard who stabbed him. He then removedl a board from the stable and replaced it, so that he could go out and in at pleasure, when locked page: 84-85[View Page 84-85] &8lf: - THE MAR TYRS, in during the night. He- was allowed for food a pound of crackers per day, and occasionally a quarter of a pound of cheese, during the racing season, and about the same substance in other things at other times. Out of that he saved one meal each day and stored it away in his cellar; also, twentyreight- boxes of matches. He then gathered pitch, and with some rosin which was in the stables he -made three or four hundred torches, about 2 inches long by an inch in diameter, by melting the ingredients together over a little furnace near the stables, which he used to heat water with for the horses. Then, with a large, round- bottomed, canvass union bag, his preparations were com- pleted. He knew that an overseer of an adjacent plantation ' was in the habit of crossing the Ogeechee river every night, and leaving his boat on the bank. His plan was to wait until some night when the wind would blow directly across the river, so as to drive the boat back, after he had crossed. After some time the favorable moment came, and. shouldering his bag, with pistols and dirk in his pocket,; he. made his way out of the stables late in the evening, and- struck for- the .river, which he crossed, and shoved the boat .off, and the wind took it back to the other shore,- His object in this was to escape the dogs. His dress con- iasted of-tow-cloth, and thin riding-slippers. He traveled all that night, asd- in the morning, after wading in. a small biook several miles so that the hounds might not track him, he climbed a thick tree, and remained throughout the day, eating but one meal and trembling at every sound. Th'us. he went on several- days, till one time he heard the hounds, and gave up all for lost. A short distance from the place on which he stood he saw a large stream, AND THE FUGITIVIE. 85 and started for it, with the intention of drowning hnsaelf in it rather than be captured. But the sound suddenly receded, and he then concluded it was only the baying of huntsmen's dogs. Then, with safety from that danger, Ilme the- overwhelming sense of his loneliness and Wretchedness. Alone in ;the vast forest, with hundreds of- miles--of weary travel before him, and every man a, foe, he sat down and. wept.- Then he thought he would return, and perhaps his master would not be hard with him. Then he thought :he would feign himself lost. But prayer-soon brought relief, and he traveled on. His food, was soon exhausted' and his, slippers-worn out, and he was compelled to bear hunger and pain as he had never anticipated. Still,' he. foulfd a poor subsistence upon nuts, wild oranges - persimmons, iad, such ssma ll game as -he could shoot. After being out a few weeks, he slept'within a-circle of fire, his strengthening to no much exhausted to climb trees. Often, as the gloomy shades of night hang around him, did the loneliness!of his,:condition-force itself upon him with such resistless power, that he threw himself upon the cold, wet ground land sobbed his strength away, and, longed to: find his grave: And anon :as some trembling starlight would penetrate the, dense overhanging branches, it would seem to lift -the sense of utter desolation: from her heart, and a whispered prayer for protection; and strength would compose:-him for his weary slumbers. ; One day, as he was looking, around for a- conve- nient place to collect his bed of leaves and circle of brush, -he was suddenly confronted by a large wolf. He dare, not fire upon her for fear of only wounding her, and thus reordering his position still more dangerous; but he had heard hunters say that if a man- fixed his eye. steadily page: 86-87[View Page 86-87] 86 THE MARTYRS, upon a wild animal without quailing, the beast would shrink away. Nerving himself by a mental prayer, he fastened his eyes upon her while he struck a match, kindled a torch, and hurled it at her, upon which she turned and slowly galloped off. Some days after, he came to a large river, which he- swam with his bag tied upon his head. But the effort had nearly proved fatal. He had reached the middle of the stream, when his strength failed and the current began to sweep him down. Again prayer was his re- fuge, and animated by a faith that he should yet escape, he cast his eyes down the stream, and saw that just below him a point jutted out into the river, making a bend in the current. Towards that point he directed his exer- tions, when the current swept him past, and he yielded in despair and sunk; but his feet touched the bottom, and he gained the shore. Thirteen weeks and four days was that poor slave wandering thus, an exile and a criminal, for daring to wish to own himself. During the eleventh week of his journey, while in the Blue Mountains of Virginia, thread- ing a deep and gloomy gorge, he suddenly came to the body of a female ieve. He had found several before, some in different stages of decay, and some with only the bleaching bones to tell how vainly they had sought for earthly freedom. But this one was but recently dead. He drew near with the solemn awe that any man would feel after a separation of eleven weeks from everything human, and then to find himself in the presence of the dead. Alone with the dead I Not in lighted rooms, and with the corpse robed for its long rest, but in the deep gloom of forest trees and mountain gorges, and the dead robed for flight, and beautiful in death. AND THE FUGITIVE. 87 He stooped over the prostrate form, as it lay with its face turned towards heaven, and hands clasped across the bosom, and a smile still lingering upon the lips, and with the exclamation, "O God, 'tis Rosette!" fell upon his knees beside the corpse. Her flight and exposure had over- come her, and she haa died alone and apparently without a struggle, but with joy that Alembert could claim her no longer. At last he reached , Penn. and just in the edge of evening made his way towards the house of a Quaker, and asked for help. The good man took him in, and his family nursed him for many weeks, before he recovered from the long exposure and hardships of that fearful forest journey. He then found work at a place toward the interior of the State, as hostler, where he remained till observed by a gentleman from New-Jersey, who induced him to leave and go to to live. There he had a fellow-laborer, a colored man who professed to be very pious, and who succeeded by his apparent friendship in drawing from him his whole history, and saw his brand. A few days after, this man wrote several letters, and in due time received others. He then professed to have busi- ness to Philadelphia. A day or two after, as Caesar was sit- ting in the kitchen eating supper, a loud knock was heard at the front door of the kitchen, which his employer opened, and some one asked, "Have you a nigger work- ing for you?"C. Csar knew the voice as his old master's, and seizing his cap from a chair by his side, he darted through the rear door and ran for a large wood about a quarter of a mile from the house. His pursuers saw his movements, and immediately gave chase. They were Col. Halman, a constable from the south, and the sheriff page: 88-89[View Page 88-89] )388 THE- MARTYRS, of the place. The constable was a small man and a fleet runner, and just before they reached the wood he had his hand almost upon poor C(esar's shoulder, when he drew his pistol. and snapped it over his shoulder. The weapon missed fire, but it checked the pursuer so that he reached the shade in safe'y. The officers halted at the edge of the pines till Col. Halman came up, puffing and blowing, and seeing that they had not secured him, he raved like a madman. He swore that he "1 would have him, dead or alive, if he had to go through perdition for him." The sheriff proposed surrounding the woods, but the Colonel answered,- "May as well chase a deer through , as to hunt him there." They then started for the village for help, and he struck for New-Brunswick, which he reached just in time to take the six o'clock boat for New-York, where he ar- rived and placed himself in the care of a colored minis- ter's family, the minister himself being on a journey to Canada with some fugitives; and by their influence he was provided with a temporary home. Thus the Colonel's $500 reward, his long journey, and the execrable perfidy of the black hypocrite who be- trayed him, (may he long live to repent of his cowardly villainy!) all failed. He has since met his master in a railroad depot, but was not recognized, and, to use his own phrase, he " did not care - to be introduced to him." Now the old man: sleeps his last sleep, and it is not for us to say bow much or how little of his cruel and tyrannical life is clargeable upon his early associations, and 'the distorting: influence of the accursed system which blights both master and- slave for time and eternity. The Judge of all the earth AND THE FUGITIVE.- 89 will do right. Be it ours to spread the mantle of a Christian charity as far as possible over the actors in the dark scene, while we abate not one jot or tittle of the deep and irradicable hatred which we cherish toward the abominable .system. A few more pages will now complete our record. Col. Halman had sold to Dr. Whitlow a mulatto man, his own son, who by his intelligence and faithfulness won the regard of his master, and was rewarded by emanci- pation and a free passage to a northern port; and soon af- ter, the good doctor died and emancipated all his slaves by will. In order to prepare the mulatto for freedom, he taught him to read and write. The Colonel being in- formed of these things, and incensed at what Caesar had told him about hearing the Doctor read the Bible in- duced a low, scurrilous white resident to institute two suits against the Doctor-one for teaching his slave to read and write, for which he was fined one hundred dol- lars; the other suit, for emancipating the same slave, was commenced on the day of his death, and was un- known to him, but continued against his heirs, who were fined two hundred dollars, (one-half to the informter,) and the negro remanded to a state of slavery. The last part of the decree came too late--he was beyond pursuit. Not so fortunate, however, were the. other slaves. For attempting to execute the will of the Doctor, his heirs were fined one thousand dollars, and every slave being convicted of being the subject of such merciful intentions was sold at public auction to southern drivers. These things had been transpiring during the last three months of Coesar's captivity, and May had heard of them till her very soul loathed the system which created such Abomina'tions and she longed to flee from it for ever. L* page: 90-91[View Page 90-91] 90 THE MARTYRS, While reflecting upon them her heart turned towards the land of freedom, and she sought relief from her sad thoughts in re-perusing some letters from her northern friends. As she was seeking them, she accidentally dis- covered a tract which had been given her by one of her friends, on the "Rights of Conscience," and which in the hurry of her departure she had thrown into her trunk, and had not thought of since. She now read it with the deepest interest. It was founded on the words, "We ought to obey God rather thanmen," and illustrated the truth in clear and forcible terms. Taking the tract in her hand, she had gone to en- courage Caesar to remain faithful, hoping yet to overcome the opposition of her father, when she found him in tears and covered with blood from a recent whipping. In the agitation of the moment she laid down the tract, consoled him as well as she could, and returned to her room. A moment after, he discovered the tract and took it to carry to her. But unfortunately for him, he had learned to spell out the names of horses on their blankets, and he stopped a short time to spell out a few words through his tears. While thus engaged, the Colonel came upon him, and snatching it from his hand, demanded angrily, "What he had there?"Then glancing over a page or two, he thought he discovered a conspiracy of his daughter's, whose pious feelings he derided, and instantly ordered a most unmer- ciful lashing for poor Caesar, (utterly regardless of his pro. testations of innocence,) and a general branding of some two hundred of his slaves, (Caesar among the number, whose brand had nearly grown out,)as soon as the plantation-work would permit. He then commanded his daughter before him, and demanded an explanation. The appearance of her father for a moment overcame her, and without wait- , . AND THE FUGITIVE. 91 ing for her reply, he proceeded in a storm of invective against "religion, northern sentiment, her insurrectionary folly," etc. Shame, pride, and indignation struggled in the poor girl's heart for the mastery, and with a violent effort she controlled her emotion, drew herself up to her fullheight, and with a withering glance of firm and scornful determination, checked his tirade. "Father, if you have anything to say to me, say it as a gentleman and a parent, or excuse me from your presence." The old man stood abashed. There was a spirit of which he had never dreamed, and he quailed before her stern look of virtuous indignation; then suddenly turn- ing, he requested her to remain till his return, which was in a few moments, with a ponderous law-book in his hand. "I wish you to see to what you have exposed your- self," said he, pointing to the open page. She took it and read: "The publishing or circulating any pamphlet or pa- per, having an evident tendency to excite slaves or free persons of color to insurrection or resistance," (Caesar was resisting,) "shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than one year, and standing in the pillory, and whip- ping, at the discretion of the court," (even if it be within an inch of death,) " for the first offense, and death for the second." "Father, are such laws necessary to sustain the slave system?" "Yes." "Then farewell to them and it togetherl I will not longer breathe the air that is tainted by the horrid thing I I shall soon depart for the north t" page: 92-93[View Page 92-93] 92 THE MARTYRS, The look and the voice proclaimed the earnestness of feeling and decision of will that prompted the words. The father well knew that beneath the lovely and gentle exterior of his daughter there lay, in her instinctive -ab- horrence of wrong, the elements of a conflict, which if once aroused would impel her to any sacrifice; and hard as it was for his domineering spirit to yield, he saw its necessity now. Still his hatred of her principles must find vent. - ' So your self-sacrificing religion leads you to run awayv from what you don't like?"Then, in a mournful tone he added: "I am an old man now, and shall not stay here long. Your brother will never be fit for anything, and who then will take care of all these niggers?" She had never viewed the subject in this light before, but now her course was clear. "Father, forgive my hasty resolution; I will re- main, and show you by my life that the religion of Christ, while it abhors the traffic in the souls of men, can nerve its possessor to endure association with it, to some extent, for the good of the oppressed." And while C(esar was threading the lonely wilds of Virginia, she was an angel of compassion to many a sor- rowing heart in the place where he had borne his last stripes, and which he had left for ever. Caesar still lives, has a wife and children, and retains his Christian integrity; and though his hardships have been great in the past, they have purchased for -him but slight exemption in the present. He is yet a child of sorrow; and as he treads his thorny way toward the grave, his un- complaining spirit, pressed beneath a load of poverty, and sickness, and trial, looks up amid its tears and -anticipates AND TtHE FUGITIVE. 93 a -rest in heaven. Since he gained his freedom, one leg has been broken by the kick of a horse, and he has been confined more than a year from the effects of a dose of poison administered for some unknown cause in a glass of beer, by a dastardly scoundrel with a white skin. Probably it was not designed to affect him so seriously, but his early sufferings had so undermined his constitu- tion, that there was little strength to resist its influence. -He is every year confined from. two to six or eight months by sickness, and supported by the labors of his wife, with assistance from sympathizing friends, and the little that he can earn (from five to ten dollars per month) when able to work. His mind. naturally superior to most of his race, has inclined to song, and he has composed a number of homely, uncouth- "ballads," as he calls them -poor enough according to our standard of judgment, but which, sung in his melodious but now broken voice, sounct really pleasing. He has thus earned some small change from time to time, and is now soliciting the aid of the benevolent to secure a small old house, that he may die a freeman and leave a shelter for his family. Heaven prosper his efforts I If the sufferings of the un- fortunate merit sympathy, he has surely earned success. Now, kind reader, if you have had patience to follow us through this somewhat disguised narrative thus far, and your heart now prompts to some act of kindness to this son of misfortune, lend your aid in the circulation of this book, as its profits will be sacredly devoted to his use. As specimens of his composition, (always only memo- rized,) two or three of his " ballads" are appended. To ourselves they suggest many mournful reflections. Is it upon such wings only that the soul, that would delight to page: 94-95[View Page 94-95] -94 THE MARTYRS, soar in song, may rise? How deep their degradation I How terrible the ignorance to which they are doomed I God hasten the day of deliverance! SAL VATION. Salvation, 'tis a joyful sound To tell to all the people round,- To Jew and Gentile, bond and free, O every one may come and see. CHORUS. Jesus, the meek and lovely lamb, Appeared a babe in Bethlehem, And now he says that all may be So happy in eternity. O sinner, Jesus died for thee, A suffering death on Calvary; While on the cross he hung and cried, And then he bowed his head and died. CHORUS. And then he lay within the tomb, Silent, until the third-day morn; And then about the break of day An angel rolled the stone away. CHORUS. Ye young, ye gay, ye rich and proud, You soon must die and wear the shroud; O time will rob you of your bloom, And death will drag you to the tomb. CHORUS. Say, will you go to heav'n or hell? For one you must, and there to dwell; For Christ will come, and quickly too, And I must meet him--so must you. CHORUS. The great white throne will soon appear, And all the world must then draw near; And sinners will be driven down, While saints shall wear the starry crown 7' CHORUS. AND THE FUGITIVE. 95 THE HOLY WAR. I've listed in this holy war- Eternal life, eternal joy. CHORUS. It takes a valiant soldier To walk the heavenly road. I'll praise God till I die; I'll praise God till I die: It takes a valiant soldier To walk the heavenly road. Religion 'tis that makes a man-- Deny it, sinners, if you can. CHORUS. I neve sh1'all forget the day When Jesuls washed my sins away. CHORUS. I'l noV a soldier of the cross, All earthly things I count but dross. CHORUS. I have my breast-plate, sword, and shield And boldly march into the field. CHORUS. Though tribulation we shall meet, We soon shall walk the golden street. CHORUS Then run up, children, get your crown, .. .. And by your Father's side sit down. CHORUS. THE END.
