ELIZA MCCOY--the wife of Robert McCoy, whose narrative has just been
given--and who was left to wait in hope when her husband escaped--soon
followed him to freedom. It is a source of great satisfaction to be able
to present her narrative in so close proximity to her husband's. He
arrived about the first of October--she about the first of November,
following. From her lips testimony of much weight and interest was
listened to by several friends relative to her sufferings as a slave--on
the auction-block, and in a place of concealment seven months, waiting
and praying for an opportunity to escape. But it was thought sufficient
to record merely a very brief outline of her active slave life, which
consisted of the following noticeable features.
Eliza had been owned by Andrew Sigany, of Norfolk--age about
thirty-eight--mulatto, and a woman whose appearance would readily
command attention and respect anywhere outside of the barbarism of
Slavery. She stated that her experience as a sufferer in cruel hands had
been very trying, and that in fretting under hardships, she had "always
wanted to be free." Her language was unmistakable on this point. Neither
mistress nor servant was satisfied with each other; the mistress was so
"queer" and "hard to please," that Eliza became heartily sick of trying
to please her--an angel would have failed with such a woman. So, while
matters were getting no better, but, on the contrary, were growing worse
and worse, Eliza thought she would seek a more pleasant atmosphere in
the North. In fact she felt that it would afford her no little relief to
allow her place to be occupied by another. When she went into close
quarters of concealment, she fully understood what was meant and all the
liabilities thereto. She had pluck enough to endure unto the end without
murmuring. The martyrs in olden times who dwelt in "dens and caves of
the earth," could hardly have fared worse than some of these way-worn
travelers.
After the rest, needed by one who had suffered so severely until her
arrival in Philadelphia, she was forwarded to her anxiously waiting
husband in New Bedford, where she was gladly received.
From the frequent arrivals from Virginia, especially in steamers, it may
be thought that no very stringent laws or regulations existed by which
offenders, who might aid the Underground Rail Road, could be severely
punished--that the slave-holders were lenient, indifferent and unguarded
as to how this property took wings and escaped. In order to enlighten
the reader with regard to this subject, it seems necessary, in this
connection, to publish at least one of the many statutes from the slave
laws of the South bearing directly on the aid and escape of slaves by
vessels. The following enactment is given as passed by the Legislature
of Virginia in 1856: