Quite an agreeable interview took place between Cornelius and the
Committee. He gave his experience of Slavery pretty fully, and the
Committee enlightened him as to the workings of the Underground Rail
Road, the value of freedom, and the safety of Canada as a refuge.
Cornelius was a single man, thirty-six years of age, full black, medium
size, and intelligent. He stated that he had had his face set toward
Canada for a long while. Three times he had made an effort to get out of
the prison-house. "Within the last four or five years, times have gone
pretty hard with me. My mistress, Mrs. Mary F. Price, had lately put me
in charge of her brother, Samuel M. Bailey, a tobacco merchant of
Richmond. Both believed in nothing as they did in Slavery; they would
sooner see a black man dead than free. They were about second class in
society. He and his sister own well on to one hundred head, though
within the last few years he has been thinning off the number by sale. I
was allowed one dollar a week for my board; one dollar is the usual
allowance for slaves in my situation. On Christmas week he allowed me no
board money, but made me a present of seventy-five cents; my mistress
added twenty-five cents, which was the extent of their liberality. I was
well cared for. When the slaves got sick he doctored them himself, he
was too stingy to employ a physician. If they did not get well as soon
as he thought they should, he would order them to their work, and if
they did not go he would beat them. My cousin was badly beat last year
in the presence of his wife, and he was right sick. Mr. Bailey was a
member of St. James' church, on Fifth street, and my mistress was a
communicant of the First Baptist church on Broad Street. She let on to
be very good."
"I am one of a family of sixteen; my mother and eleven sisters and
brothers are now living; some have been sold to Alabama, and some to
Tennessee, the rest are held in Richmond. My mother is now old, but is
still in the service of Bailey. He promised to take care of her in her
old age, and not compel her to labor, so she is only required to cook
and wash for a dozen slaves. This they consider a great favor to the old
'grandmother.' It was only a year ago he cursed her and threatened her
with a flogging. I left for nothing else but because I was dissatisfied
with Slavery. The threats of my master caused me to reflect on the North
and South. I had an idea that I was not to die in Slavery. I believed
that God would assist me if I would try. I then made up my mind to put
my case in the hands of God, and start for the Underground Rail Road. I
bade good-bye to the old tobacco factory on Seventh street, and the
First African Baptist church on Broad street (where he belonged), where
I had so often heard the minister preach 'servants obey your masters;'
also to the slave pens, chain-gangs, and a cruel master and mistress,
all of which I hoped to leave forever. But to bid good-bye to my old
mother in chains, was no easy job, and if my desire for freedom had not
been as strong as my desire for life itself, I could never have stood
it; but I felt that I could do her no good; could not help her if I
staid. As I was often threatened by my master, with the auction-block, I
felt I must give up all and escape for my life."
Such was substantially the story of Cornelius Henry Johnson. He talked
for an hour as one inspired, and as none but fugitive slaves could talk.
* * * * *