HORSE-RACING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
Capt. Helm had a race-course on his plantation, on which he trained young
horses for the fall races. One very fine horse he owned, called _Mark
Anthony_, which he trained in the most careful manner for several months
previous to the races. He would put him on the course every morning,
sometimes covering him with a blanket, and then put him to his utmost
speed, which he called "sweating him." Mark Anthony was to be put on the
race-course in October following, as a competitor for the purse of ten
thousand dollars, which was the amount to be lost or gained on the first
day of the fall races. Capt. H. had also another young horse, called
_Buffer_, under a course of training, which he designed to enter the lists
for the second day. His course of training had been about the same as Mark
Anthony's, but being a year or two younger, it was thought that he had not
sufficient "bottom" to risk so much money on, as was at stake on the first
day.
[Illustration: "Away they go, sweeping round the course with lightning
speed, while every spectator's eye is strained, and every countenance
flushed with intense anxiety."]
When the time for the races to commence came, all was bustle and
excitement in the house and on the plantation. It was a fine October
morning, and the sun shed a mellow radiance on all around, when people
began to throng the race-course. Some came with magnificent equipages,
attended by their numerous train of black servants, dressed in livery,
--some in less splendid array,--and others on foot, all hurrying on to the
exciting scene. There the noblest blood of Old Virginia, of which many are
wont to boast, was fully represented, as was also the wealth and fashion
of the country for many miles around.
All were in high spirits, and none seemed to fear that they would be the
losers in the amount of money about to change hands. And for what, pray,
is all this grand outlay--this vast expenditure? Merely the pleasure and
gratification of witnessing the speed of a fine horse, and the vanity of
prejudging concerning it.
The arrangements were at length completed,--the horses regularly entered,
Mark Anthony among the rest,--and then the word "go!" was given, when each
horse sprang as if for his life, each striving to take the lead. Away they
go, sweeping round the course with lightning speed, while every
spectator's eye is strained, and every countenance flushed with intense
anxiety.
Some of the noble animals were distanced the first heat, and others were
taken away by their owners.
The judges allowed twenty minutes to prepare the horses for the second
trial of their speed--a trial which must enrich or empoverish many of the
thousands present. Already there were sad countenances to be seen in the
crowd.
The horses were again in readiness, and the word given,--away they flew
with the fleetness of the wind, to come in the second time.
But who can describe the anxiety written on every face, as they prepared
for the third and last trial? I cannot. Many had already lost all they had
staked, and others who had bet high began to fear for the result. Soon,
however, all was again prepared and those foaming steeds, after having
exerted their animal power to the utmost, have accomplished their task and
come in for the last time. The purse was won, _but not by Mark Anthony_.
Capt. Helm was more fortunate the second day. Buffer won the smaller
purse, but the Captain came from the races, a much poorer man than when
they commenced. These repeated failures and heavy losses had the effect to
arouse him to a sense of his pecuniary position, and he soon after began
to think and talk about going to some new country.
He resolved at last to visit the far-off "Genesee Country," which he
shortly after put in practice, and after an absence of about three weeks
he returned in good health, and delighted with the country; the more so,
doubtless, because he said, "the more slaves a man possessed in that
country the more he would be respected, and the higher would be his
position in society."
Capt. Helm finally concluded to sell his plantation and stock, except the
slaves, and remove to the Genesee Country, where he designed to locate his
future residence.
The plantation and stock (retaining the slaves) were advertised for sale,
and on a certain day named, all would be disposed of at a public sale, or
to the highest bidder.
When the day of sale arrived, there flocked from all parts of the
surrounding country the largest assemblage of people I ever saw in that
place. A large number of wealthy and respectable planters were present,
whose gentlemanly behavior should have been an example to others.
The majority of that vast crowd, however, were a rough, quarrelsome,
fighting set, just such as might be expected from slave-holding districts.
There were several regularly fought battles during the first day of the
sale.
One Thomas Ford, a large, muscular, ferocious-looking fellow, a good
specimen of a southern bully and woman-whipper, had been victorious
through the day in numerous fights and brawls; but he had to pay dear for
it when night came. Some one or more of the vanquished party, took
advantage of the dark night to stab him in both sides. The knife of the
assassin had been thrust into his thigh, tearing the flesh upward, leaving
a frightful and dangerous wound; but what is most singular, both sides
were wounded in nearly the same manner, and at the same time, for so
quickly was the deed committed that the offenders made their escape,
before an alarm could be raised for their detection; nor have I ever heard
of any one being arrested for the crime.
Ford's groans and cries were painful to hear, but his brother acted like a
madman; rushing hither and thither, with a heavy bludgeon in his hand,
with which he indiscriminately beat the fences and whatever came in his
way, crying "Oh my brother, my poor brother! Who has murdered my poor
brother?"
Physicians came to the aid of the wounded man who at first thought he
might recover, but in a climate like that of Virginia it was impossible.
His friends did all they could to save him, but the poor wretch lingered
a few days and died. Thus ended the life of a bad man and a hard master.
And who will wonder, if his slaves rejoiced to hear of his death? If they
must be sold to pay his debts, they could not fall into the hands of a
more heartless tyrant. Who then can blame those feeble women and helpless
children, long held as chattels in his iron grasp, if they are grateful
that the man-stealer is no more?
This Ford was a fair specimen of that class, known in more modern parlance
as a "Border Ruffian." Such as are at this time endeavoring, by their
swaggering and bullying, to cast on the fair fields of Kansas the deep
curse of Slavery--a curse which, like the poison of the deadly Upas,
blights all within its influence: the colored and the white man, the slave
and the master. We were thankful, however, that no more lives were lost
during the vendue, which was commenced with the stock; this occupied two
days.
The reader will see that we had cause to be grateful, when he takes into
consideration that drinking and fighting was the order of the day, and
drunkenness and carousing the order of the night.
Then too, the practice of dueling was carried on in all its hideous
barbarity. If a gentleman thought himself insulted, he would immediately
challenge the offender to mortal combat, and if he refused to do so, then
the insulted gentleman felt bound by that barbarous code of honor, to take
his life, whenever or wherever he might meet him, though it might be in a
crowded assembly, where the lives of innocent persons were endangered.
A case of this kind happened in Kentucky, where the belligerent parties
met in a large concourse of people, the majority of them women and
children; but the combat ensued, regardless of consequences. One woman was
shot through the face, but that was not worthy of notice, for she was
only a _colored woman_; and in that, as in other slave States, the laws
give to the white population the liberty to trample under foot the claims
of all such persons to justice. Justly indignant ladies present
remonstrated, but all to no purpose. The Governor of the State was there
and was in danger of being wounded by their flying bullets, and it is
possible that if he had been in the place of the poor African, some action
would have been taken, and laws made to protect the people against such
inhuman practices. But I must return to Capt. Helm and the vendue.
The sale continued for several days, during which there was no such thing
as rest or sleep or one quiet moment on the premises. As was customary in
that State, Capt. Helm provided the food and drink for all who came, and
of course a great many came to drink and revel and not to buy; and that
class generally took the night time for their hideous outbreaks, when
the more respectable class had retired to their beds or to their homes.
And many foul deeds and cruel outrages were committed; nor could the
perpetrators be detected or brought to justice. Nothing could be done
but to submit quietly to their depredations.
One peaceable old slave was killed by having his head split open with an
ax. He was found in the morning lying in the yard, with the bloody
instrument of death by his side. This occasioned some excitement
among the slaves, but as the white people paid but little attention to it,
it soon passed off, and the sorrowful slaves put the old man's remains in
a rough box, and conveyed them to their last resting-place.
After the sale was over, the slaves were allowed a holiday, with
permission to go and visit their friends and relatives previous to their
departure for their new home in a strange land.
The slaves generally on Capt. Helm's plantation looked upon this removal
as the greatest hardship they had ever met; the severest trial they had
ever endured; and the separation from our old home and fellow-slaves,
from our relatives and the old State of Virginia, was to us a
contemplation of sorrowful interest. Those who remained, thought us the
most unfortunate of human beings to be taken away off into the State of
New York, and, as they believed, beyond the bounds of civilization, where
we should in all probability be destroyed by wild beasts, devoured by
cannibals, or scalped by the Indians. We never expected to meet again in
this life, hence our parting interviews were as solemn as though we were
committing our friends to the grave. But He whose tender mercies are over
all his creatures, knew best what was for our good.
Little did Capt. Helm think when bringing his slaves to New York that in a
few short years, they would be singing the song of deliverance from
Slavery's thralldom; and as little thought he of the great and painful
change, to be brought about in his own circumstances. Could any one have
looked into futurity and traced the difficult path, my master was to
tread,--could any one have foreseen the end to which he must soon come,
and related it to him in the days of his greatness and prosperity, he
would, I am certain, have turned from such a narrator of misfortune in a
greater rage than did Namaan when the man of God told him "to go and dip
seven times in the Jordan."
He could not have believed, nor could I, that in a few years the powerful,
wealthy slaveholder, living in luxury and extravagance, would be so
reduced that the _necessaries_ of life even, were beyond his means, and
that he must be supported by the town!
But I anticipate. Let us return to the old plantation which seems dearer
than ever, now that we are about to leave it forever.
We thought Capt. Helm's prospects pretty fair, and yet we shuddered when
we realized our condition as slaves. This change in our circumstances was
calculated to awaken all our fears that had been slumbering, and bring all
the perilous changes to which we might be subjected most vividly to mind.
We were about to leave the land of our birth, the home of our childhood,
and we felt that untried scenes were before us. We were slaves, it is
true, but we had heart-felt emotions to suppress, when we thought
of leaving all that was so familiar to us, and chose rather to "bear the
ills we had, than to fly to those we knew not of." And oh, the terrible
uncertainty of the future, that ever rests on the slave, even the most
favored, was now felt with a crushing weight. To-day, they are in the old
familiar cabin surrounded by their family, relatives and friends;
to-morrow, they may be scattered, parted forever. The master's
circumstances, not their own, may have assigned one to the dreadful
slave-pen, and another to the distant rice-swamp; and it is this continual
dread of some perilous future that holds in check every joyous emotion,
every lofty aspiration, of the most favored slave at the South. They know
that their owners indulge in high living, and they are well aware also
that their continual indulgences engender disease, which make them very
liable to sudden death; or their master may be killed in a duel, or at a
horse-race, or in a drunken brawl; then his creditors are active in
looking after the estate; and next, the blow of the auctioneer's hammer
separates them perhaps for life.
Now, after the lapse of so many years, when my thoughts wander back, as
they often do, to my native State, I confess that painful recollections
drive from my mind those joyful emotions that should ever arise in the
heart of man, when contemplating the familiar scenes of his youth, and
especially when recurring to the venerable shades and the sheltering roof
under which he was born. True, around the well-remembered spot where our
childhood's years were spent, recollection still loves to linger; yet
memory, ever ready with its garnered store, paints in glowing colors,
Virginia's crouching slaves in the foreground. Her loathsome slave-pens
and slave markets--chains, whips and instruments of torture; and back of
all this is as truthfully recorded the certain doom, the retributive
justice, that will sooner or later overtake her; and with a despairing
sigh I turn away from the imaginary view of my native State.
What though she may have been justly styled, "The Mother of Presidents?"
What avails the honor of being the birth-place of the brave and excellent
Washington, while the prayers and groans of the down-trodden African
daily ascend to heaven for redress? What though her soil be fertile,
yielding a yearly product of wealth to its possessors? And what matter is
it, that their lordly mansions are embowered in the shade of trees of a
century's growth, if, through their lofty and tangled branches, we espy
the rough cabin of the mangled bondman, and know that the soil on which he
labors has drunk his heart's blood?
Ah! to me, life's sweetest memories are all embittered. Slavery had cast
its dark and fearful shadow over my childhood, youth, and early manhood,
and I went out from the land of my birth, a fettered slave. A land which
I can regard only as "the house of bondage and the grave of freedom." But
God forgive me for having envied my master his fair prospects at this
time.
After the sale of the plantation, Capt. Helm was in possession of quite a
large sum of money, and having never paid much attention to his pecuniary
interests, he acted as if there could be no end of it. He realized about
forty thousand dollars from the sale of his estate in Virginia, which
would have been a pretty sum in the hands of a man who had been accustomed
to look after his own interests; but under the management of one who had
all his life lived and prospered on the unrequited toil of slaves, it was
of little account. He bought largely of every thing he thought necessary
for himself or the comfort of his family, for which he always paid the
most extravagant prices. The Captain was not as well qualified to take
care of himself and family as some of his slaves were; but he thought
differently, and so the preparations for leaving the old plantation for a
home in the wilds of New York, went on under his direction, and at last we
bade a final adieu to our friends and all we held dear in the State of
Virginia.