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FIFTY YEARS IN CHAINS;
OR,
THE LIFE OF AN
AMERICAN SLAVE.
"My God! can such things be?
Hast Thou not said that whatsoe'er is done
Unto thy weakest and thy humblest one,
Is even done to Thee?"--WHITTIER.
New-York
H. DAYTON, PUBLISHER
36 HOWARD STREET.
Indianapolis, Ind.:--Asher & Company.
1860.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1858, by
H. DAYTON,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
J. J. REED,
PRINTER & STEREOTYPER,
43 Centre-St., N. Y.
PREFACE.
The story which follows is _true_ in every particular. Responsible
citizens of a neighboring State can vouch for the reality of the
narrative. The language of the slave has not at all times been strictly
adhered to, as a half century of bondage unfitted him for literary work.
The subject of the story _is still a slave_ by the laws of this country,
and it would not be wise to reveal his name.
FIFTY YEARS IN CHAINS
OR,
THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN SLAVE.
CHAPTER I.
SEPARATED FROM MY MOTHER.
My story is a true one, and I shall tell it in a simple style. It will
be merely a recital of my life as a slave in the Southern States of the
Union--a description of negro slavery in the "model Republic."
My grandfather was brought from Africa and sold as a slave in Calvert
county, in Maryland. I never understood the name of the ship in which he
was imported, nor the name of the planter who bought him on his arrival,
but at the time I knew him he was a slave in a family called Maud, who
resided near Leonardtown. My father was a slave in a family named Hauty,
living near the same place. My mother was the slave of a tobacco
planter, who died when I was about four years old. My mother had
several children, and they were sold upon master's death to separate
purchasers. She was sold, my father told me, to a Georgia trader. I, of
all her children, was the only one left in Maryland. When sold I was
naked, never having had on clothes in my life, but my new master gave me
a child's frock, belonging to one of his own children. After he had
purchased me, he dressed me in this garment, took me before him on his
horse, and started home; but my poor mother, when she saw me leaving her
for the last time, ran after me, took me down from the horse, clasped me
in her arms, and wept loudly and bitterly over me. My master seemed to
pity her, and endeavored to soothe her distress by telling her that he
would be a good master to me, and that I should not want anything. She
then, still holding me in her arms, walked along the road beside the
horse as he moved slowly, and earnestly and imploringly besought my
master to buy her and the rest of her children, and not permit them to
be carried away by the negro buyers; but whilst thus entreating him to
save her and her family, the slave-driver, who had first bought her,
came running in pursuit of her with a raw-hide in his hand. When he
overtook us, he told her he was her master now, and ordered her to give
that little negro to its owner, and come back with him.
My mother then turned to him and cried, "Oh, master, do not take me from
my child!" Without making any reply, he gave her two or three heavy
blows on the shoulders with his raw-hide, snatched me from her arms,
handed me to my master, and seizing her by one arm, dragged her back
towards the place of sale. My master then quickened the pace of his
horse; and as we advanced, the cries of my poor parent became more and
more indistinct--at length they died away in the distance, and I never
again heard the voice of my poor mother. Young as I was, the horrors of
that day sank deeply into my heart, and even at this time, though half a
century has elapsed, the terrors of the scene return with painful
vividness upon my memory. Frightened at the sight of the cruelties
inflicted upon my poor mother, I forgot my own sorrows at parting from
her and clung to my new master, as an angel and a saviour, when compared
with the hardened fiend into whose power she had fallen. She had been a
kind and good mother to me; had warmed me in her bosom in the cold
nights of winter; and had often divided the scanty pittance of food
allowed her by her mistress, between my brothers, and sisters, and me,
and gone supperless to bed herself. Whatever victuals she could obtain
beyond the coarse food, salt fish and corn bread, allowed to slaves on
the Patuxent and Potomac rivers, she carefully distributed among her
children, and treated us with all the tenderness which her own miserable
condition would permit. I have no doubt that she was chained and driven
to Carolina, and toiled out the residue of a forlorn and famished
existence in the rice swamps, or indigo fields of the South.
My father never recovered from the effects of the shock, which this
sudden and overwhelming ruin of his family gave him. He had formerly
been of a gay, social temper, and when he came to see us on a Saturday
night, he always brought us some little present, such as the means of a
poor slave would allow--apples, melons, sweet potatoes, or, if he could
procure nothing else, a little parched corn, which tasted better in our
cabin, because he had brought it.
He spent the greater part of the time, which his master permitted him to
pass with us, in relating such stories as he had learned from his
companions, or in singing the rude songs common amongst the slaves of
Maryland and Virginia. After this time I never heard him laugh heartily,
or sing a song. He became gloomy and morose in his temper, to all but
me; and spent nearly all his leisure time with my grandfather, who
claimed kindred with some royal family in Africa, and had been a great
warrior in his native country. The master of my father was a hard,
penurious man, and so exceedingly avaricious, that he scarcely allowed
himself the common conveniences of life. A stranger to sensibility, he
was incapable of tracing the change in the temper and deportment of my
father, to its true cause; but attributed it to a sullen discontent with
his condition as a slave, and a desire to abandon his service, and seek
his liberty by escaping to some of the free States. To prevent the
perpetration of this suspected crime of _running away from slavery_, the
old man resolved to sell my father to a southern slave-dealer, and
accordingly applied to one of those men, who was at that time in
Calvert, to become the purchaser. The price was agreed on, but, as my
father was a very strong, active, and resolute man, it was deemed unsafe
for the Georgian to attempt to seize him, even with the aid of others,
in the day-time, when he was at work, as it was known he carried upon
his person a large knife. It was therefore determined to secure him by
stratagem, and for this purpose, a farmer in the neighborhood, who was
made privy to the plan, alleged that he had lost a pig, which must have
been stolen by some one, and that he suspected my father to be the
thief. A constable was employed to arrest him, but as he was afraid to
undertake the business alone, he called on his way, at the house of the
master of my grandfather, to procure assistance from the overseer of the
plantation. When he arrived at the house, the overseer was at the barn,
and thither he repaired to make his application. At the end of the barn
was the coach-house, and as the day was cool, to avoid the wind which
was high, the two walked to the side of the coach-house to talk over the
matter, and settle their plan of operations. It so happened that my
grandfather, whose business it was to keep the coach in good condition,
was at work at this time, rubbing the plated handles of the doors, and
brightening the other metallic parts of the vehicle. Hearing the voice
of the overseer without, he suspended his work, and listening
attentively, became a party to their councils. They agreed that they
would delay the execution of their project until the next day, as it was
then late. They supposed they would have no difficulty in apprehending
their intended victim, as, knowing himself innocent of the theft, he
would readily consent to go with the constable to a justice of the
peace, to have the charge examined. That night, however, about midnight,
my grandfather silently repaired to the cabin of my father, a distance
of about three miles, aroused him from his sleep, made him acquainted
with the extent of his danger, gave him a bottle of cider and a small
bag of parched corn, and then enjoined him to fly from the destination
which awaited him. In the morning the Georgian could not find his newly
purchased slave, who was never seen or heard of in Maryland from that
day.
After the flight of my father, my grandfather was the only person left
in Maryland with whom I could claim kindred. He was an old man, nearly
eighty years old, he said, and he manifested all the fondness for me
that I could expect from one so old. He was feeble, and his master
required but little work from him. He always expressed contempt for his
fellow-slaves, for when young, he was an African of rank in his native
land. He had a small cabin of his own, with half an acre of ground
attached to it, which he cultivated on his own account, and from which
he drew a large share of his sustenance. He had singular religious
notions--never going to meeting or caring for the preachers he could, if
he would, occasionally hear. He retained his native traditions
respecting the Deity and hereafter. It is not strange that he believed
the religion of his oppressors to be the invention of designing men, for
the text oftenest quoted in his hearing was, "Servants, be obedient to
your masters."
The name of the man who purchased me at the vendue, and became my
master, was John Cox; but he was generally called Jack Cox. He was a man
of kindly feelings towards his family, and treated his slaves, of whom
he had several besides me, with humanity. He permitted my grandfather to
visit me as often as he pleased, and allowed him sometimes to carry me
to his own cabin, which stood in a lonely place, at the head of a deep
hollow, almost surrounded by a thicket of cedar trees, which had grown
up in a worn out and abandoned tobacco field. My master gave me better
clothes than the little slaves of my age generally received in Calvert,
and often told me that he intended to make me his waiter, and that if I
behaved well I should become his overseer in time. These stations of
waiter and overseer appeared to me to be the highest points of honor and
greatness in the whole world, and had not circumstances frustrated my
master's plans, as well as my own views, I should probably have been
living at this time in a cabin on the corner of some tobacco plantation.
Fortune had decreed otherwise. When I was about twelve years old, my
master, Jack Cox, died of a disease which had long confined him to the
house. I was sorry for the death of my master, who had always been kind
to me; and I soon discovered that I had good cause to regret his
departure from this world. He had several children at the time of his
death, who were all young; the oldest being about my own age. The father
of my late master, who was still living, became administrator of his
estate, and took possession of his property, and amongst the rest, of
myself. This old gentleman treated me with the greatest severity, and
compelled me to work very hard on his plantation for several years,
until I suppose I must have been near or quite twenty years of age. As
I was always very obedient, and ready to execute all his orders, I did
not receive much whipping, but suffered greatly for want of sufficient
and proper food. My master allowed his slaves a peck of corn, each, per
week, throughout the year; and this we had to grind into meal in a
hand-mill for ourselves. We had a tolerable supply of meat for a short
time, about the month of December, when he killed his hogs. After that
season we had meat once a week, unless bacon became scarce, which very
often happened, in which case we had no meat at all. However, as we
fortunately lived near both the Patuxent river and the Chesapeake Bay,
we had abundance of fish in the spring, and as long as the fishing
season continued. After that period, each slave received, in addition to
his allowance of corn, one salt herring every day.
My master gave me one pair of shoes, one pair of stockings, one hat, one
jacket of coarse cloth, two coarse shirts, and two pair of trowsers,
yearly. He allowed me no other clothes. In the winter time I often
suffered very much from the cold; as I had to drive the team of oxen
which hauled the tobacco to market, and frequently did not get home
until late at night, the distance being considerable, and my cattle
traveled very slow.
One Saturday evening, when I came home from the corn field, my master
told me that he had hired me out for a year at the city of Washington,
and that I would have to live at the Navy Yard.
On the New Year's day following, which happened about two weeks
afterwards, my master set forward for Washington, on horseback, and
ordered me to accompany him on foot. It was night when we arrived at the
Navy Yard, and everything appeared very strange to me.
I was told by a gentleman who had epaulets on his shoulders, that I must
go on board a large ship, which lay in the river. He at the same time
told a boy to show me the way. This ship proved to be a frigate, and I
was told that I had been brought there to cook for the people belonging
to her. In the course of a few days the duties of my station became
quite familiar to me; and in the enjoyment of a profusion of excellent
provisions, I felt very happy. I strove by all means to please the
officers and gentlemen who came on board, and in this I soon found my
account. One gave me a half-worn coat, another an old shirt, and a
third, a cast off waistcoat and pantaloons. Some presented me with small
sums of money, and in this way I soon found myself well clothed, and
with more than a dollar in my pocket. My duties, though constant, were
not burthensome, and I was permitted to spend Sunday afternoon in my own
way. I generally went up into the city to see the new and splendid
buildings; often walked as far as Georgetown, and made many new
acquaintances among the slaves, and frequently saw large numbers of
people of my color chained together in long trains, and driven off
towards the South. At that time the slave-trade was not regarded with so
much indignation and disgust, as it is now. It was a rare thing to hear
of a person of color running away, and escaping altogether from his
master: my father being the only one within my knowledge, who had,
before this time, obtained his liberty in this manner, in Calvert
county; and, as before stated, I never heard what became of him after
his flight.
I remained on board the frigate, and about the Navy Yard, two years, and
was quite satisfied with my lot, until about three months before the
expiration of this period, when it so happened that a schooner, loaded
with iron and other materials for the use of the yard, arrived from
Philadelphia. She came and lay close by the frigate, to discharge her
cargo, and amongst her crew I observed a black man, with whom, in the
course of a day or two, I became acquainted. He told me he was free, and
lived in Philadelphia, where he kept a house of entertainment for
sailors, which, he said, was attended to in his absence by his wife.
His description of Philadelphia, and of the liberty enjoyed there by
the black people, so charmed my imagination that I determined to devise
some plan of escaping from the frigate, and making my way to the North.
I communicated my designs to my new friend, who promised to give me his
aid. We agreed that the night before the schooner should sail, I was to
be concealed in the hold, amongst a parcel of loose tobacco, which, he
said, the captain had undertaken to carry to Philadelphia. The sailing
of the schooner was delayed longer than we expected; and, finally, her
captain purchased a cargo of flour in Georgetown, and sailed for the
West Indies. Whilst I was anxiously awaiting some other opportunity of
making my way to Philadelphia, (the idea of crossing the country to the
western part of Pennsylvania, never entered my mind,) New Year's day
came, and with it came my old master from Calvert, accompanied by a
gentleman named Gibson, to whom, he said, he had sold me, and to whom he
delivered me over in the Navy Yard. We all three set out that same
evening for Calvert, and reached the residence of my new master the next
day. Here, I was informed, that I had become the subject of a law-suit.
My new master claimed me under his purchase from old Mr. Cox; and
another gentleman of the neighborhood, named Levin Ballard, had bought
me of the children of my former master, Jack Cox. This suit continued in
the courts of Calvert county more than two years; but was finally
decided in favor of him who had bought me of the children.
I went home with my master, Mr. Gibson, who was a farmer, and with whom
I lived three years. Soon after I came to live with Mr. Gibson, I
married a girl of color named Judah, the slave of a gentleman by the
name of Symmes, who resided in the same neighborhood. I was at the house
of Mr. Symmes every week; and became as well acquainted with him and his
family, as I was with my master.
Mr. Symmes also married a wife about the time I did. The lady whom he
married lived near Philadelphia, and when she first came to Maryland,
she refused to be served by a black chambermaid, but employed a white
girl, the daughter of a poor man, who lived near. The lady was reported
to be very wealthy, and brought a large trunk full of plate and other
valuable articles. This trunk was so heavy that I could scarcely carry
it, and it impressed my mind with the idea of great riches in the owner,
at that time. After some time Mrs. Symmes dismissed her white
chambermaid and placed my wife in that situation, which I regarded as a
fortunate circumstance, as it insured her good food, and at least one
good suit of clothes.
The Symmes' family was one of the most ancient in Maryland, and had
been a long time resident in Calvert county. The grounds had been laid
out, and all the improvements projected about the family abode, in a
style of much magnificence, according to the custom of the old
aristocracy of Maryland and Virginia.
Appendant to the domicile, and at no great distance from the house, was
a family vault, built of brick, in which reposed the occupants of the
estate, who had lived there for many previous generations. This vault
had not been opened or entered for fifteen years previous to the time of
which I speak; but it so happened, that at this period, a young man, a
distant relation of the family, died, having requested on his death-bed,
that he might be buried in this family resting place. When I came on
Saturday evening to see my wife and child, Mr. Symmes desired me, as I
was older than any of his black men, to take an iron pick and go and
open the vault, which I accordingly did, by cutting away the mortar, and
removing a few bricks from one side of the building; but I could not
remove more than three or four bricks before I was obliged, by the
horrid effluvia which issued at the aperture, to retire. It was the most
deadly and sickening scent that I have ever smelled, and I could not
return to complete the work until after the sun had risen the next day,
when I pulled down so much of one of the side walls, as to permit
persons to walk in upright. I then went in alone, and examined this
house of the dead, and surely no picture could more strongly and vividly
depict the emptiness of all earthly vanity, and the nothingness of human
pride. Dispersed over the floor lay the fragments of more than twenty
human skeletons, each in the place where it had been deposited by the
idle tenderness of surviving friends. In some cases nothing remained but
the hair and the larger bones, whilst in several the form of the coffin
was yet visible, with all the bones resting in their proper places. One
coffin, the sides of which were yet standing, the lid only having
decayed and partly fallen in, so as to disclose the contents of this
narrow cell, presented a peculiarly moving spectacle. Upon the centre of
the lid was a large silver plate, and the head and foot were adorned
with silver stars.--The nails which had united the parts of the coffin
had also silver heads. Within lay the skeletons of a mother and her
infant child, in slumbers only to be broken by the peal of the last
trumpet. The bones of the infant lay upon the breast of the mother,
where the hands of affection had shrouded them. The ribs of the parent
had fallen down, and rested on the back bone. Many gold rings were about
the bones of the fingers. Brilliant ear-rings lay beneath where the ears
had been; and a glittering gold chain encircled the ghastly and haggard
vertebræ of a once beautiful neck The shroud and flesh had disappeared,
but the hair of the mother appeared strong and fresh. Even the silken
locks of the infant were still preserved. Behold the end of youth and
beauty, and of all that is lovely in life! The coffin was so much
decayed that it could not be removed. A thick and dismal vapor hung
embodied from the roof and walls of this charnel house, in appearance
somewhat like a mass of dark cobwebs; but which was impalpable to the
touch, and when stirred by the hand vanished away. On the second day we
deposited with his kindred, the corpse of the young man, and at night I
again carefully closed up the breach which I had made in the walls of
this dwelling-place of the dead.