DRED.
Harry spent the night at the place of Mr. John Gordon, and arose the
next morning in a very discontented mood of mind. Nothing is more
vexatious to an active and enterprising person than to be thrown into a
state of entire idleness; and Harry, after lounging about for a short
time in the morning, found his indignation increased by every moment of
enforced absence from the scene of his daily labors and interest. Having
always enjoyed substantially the privileges of a freeman in the ability
to regulate his time according to his own ideas, to come and go, to buy
and sell, and transact business unfettered by any felt control, he was
the more keenly alive to the degradation implied in his present
position.
"Here I must skulk around," said he to himself, "like a partridge in the
bushes, allowing everything to run at loose ends, preparing the way for
my being found fault with for a lazy fellow by and by; and all for what?
Because my younger brother chooses to come, without right or reason, to
domineer over me, to insult my wife; and because the laws will protect
him in it, if he does it! Ah! ah! that's it. They are all leagued
together! No matter how right I am--no matter how bad he is! Everybody
will stand up for him, and put me down; all because my grandmother was
born in Africa, and his grandmother was born in America. Confound it
all, I won't stand it! Who knows what he'll be saying and doing to
Lisette while I am gone? I'll go back and face him, like a man! I'll
keep straight about my business, and, if he crosses me, let him take
care! He hasn't got but one life, any more than I have. Let him look
out!"
And Harry jumped upon his horse, and turned his head homeward. He struck
into a circuitous path, which led along that immense belt of swampy
land to which the name of Dismal has been given. As he was riding along,
immersed in thought, the clatter of horses' feet was heard in front of
him. A sudden turn of the road brought him directly facing to Tom Gordon
and Mr. Jekyl, who had risen early and started off on horseback, in
order to reach a certain stage depot before the heat of the day. There
was a momentary pause on both sides; when Tom Gordon, like one who knows
his power, and is determined to use it to the utmost, broke out,
scornfully:--
"Stop, you d----d nigger, and tell your master where you are going!"
"You are not my master!" said Harry, in words whose concentrated
calmness conveyed more bitterness and wrath than could have been given
by the most violent outburst.
"You d----d whelp!" said Tom Gordon, striking him across the face twice
with his whip, "take _that_, and _that_! We'll see if I'm not your
master! There, now, help yourself, won't you? Isn't that a master's
mark?"
It had been the life-long habit of Harry's position to repress every
emotion of anger within himself. But, at this moment, his face wore a
deadly and frightful expression. Still, there was something majestic and
almost commanding in the attitude with which he reined back his horse,
and slowly lifted his hand to Heaven. He tried to speak, but his voice
was choked with repressed passion. At last he said:--
"You may be sure, Mr. Gordon, this mark will _never_ be forgotten!"
There are moments of high excitement, when all that is in a human being
seems to be roused, and to concentrate itself in the eye and the voice.
And, in such moments, _any_ man, apparently by virtue of his mere
humanity, by the mere awfulness of the human soul that is in him, gains
power to overawe those who in other hours scorn him. There was a
minute's pause, in which neither spoke; and Mr. Jekyl, who was a man of
peace, took occasion to touch Tom's elbow, and say:--
"It seems to me this isn't worth while--we shall miss the stage." And,
as Harry had already turned his horse and was riding away, Tom Gordon
turned his, shouting after him, with a scornful laugh:--
"I called on your wife before I came away this morning, and I liked her
rather better the second time than I did the first!"
This last taunt flew like a Parthian arrow backward, and struck into the
soul of the bondman with even a keener power than the degrading blow.
The sting of it seemed to rankle more bitterly as he rode along, till at
last he dropped the reins on his horse's neck, and burst into a
transport of bitter cursing.
"Aha! aha! it has come nigh _thee_, has it? It toucheth _thee_, and thou
faintest!" said a deep voice from the swampy thicket beside him.
Harry stopped his horse and his imprecations. There was a crackling in
the swamp, and a movement among the copse of briers; and at last the
speaker emerged, and stood before Harry. He was a tall black man, of
magnificent stature and proportions. His skin was intensely black, and
polished like marble. A loose shirt of red flannel, which opened very
wide at the breast, gave a display of a neck and chest of herculean
strength. The sleeves of the shirt, rolled up nearly to the shoulders,
showed the muscles of a gladiator. The head, which rose with an imperial
air from the broad shoulders, was large and massive, and developed with
equal force both in the reflective and perceptive department. The
perceptive organs jutted like dark ridges over the eyes, while that part
of the head which phrenologists attribute to the moral and intellectual
sentiments, rose like an ample dome above them. The large eyes had that
peculiar and solemn effect of unfathomable blackness and darkness which
is often a striking characteristic of the African eye. But there burned
in them, like tongues of flame in a black pool of naphtha, a subtle and
restless fire that betokened habitual excitement to the verge of
insanity. If any organs were predominant in the head, they were those of
ideality, wonder, veneration, and firmness; and the whole combination
was such as might have formed one of the wild old warrior prophets of
the heroic ages. He wore a fantastic sort of turban, apparently of an
old scarlet shawl, which added to the outlandish effect of his
appearance. His nether garments, of coarse negro-cloth, were girded
round the waist by a strip of scarlet flannel, in which was thrust a
bowie-knife and hatchet. Over one shoulder he carried a rifle, and a
shot-pouch was suspended to his belt. A rude game-bag hung upon his
arm. Wild and startling as the apparition might have been, it appeared
to be no stranger to Harry; for, after the first movement of surprise,
he said, in a tone of familiar recognition, in which there was blended
somewhat of awe and respect:--
"Oh, it is you, then, Dred! I didn't know that you were hearing me!"
"Have I not heard?" said the speaker, raising his arm, and his eyes
gleaming with wild excitement. "How long wilt thou halt between two
opinions? Did not Moses refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter? How long wilt thou cast in thy lot with the oppressors of
Israel, who say unto thee, 'Bow down that we may walk over thee'? Shall
not the Red Sea be divided? 'Yea,' saith the Lord, 'it shall.'"
"Dred! I know what you mean!" said Harry, trembling with excitement.
"Yea, thou dost!" said the figure. "Yea, thou dost! Hast thou not eaten
the fat and drunk the sweet with the oppressor, and hid thine eyes from
the oppression of thy people? Have not _our_ wives been for a prey, and
thou hast not regarded? Hath not our cheek been given to the smiter?
Have we not been counted as sheep for the slaughter? But thou saidst,
'Lo! I knew it not,' and didst hide thine eyes! Therefore, the curse of
Meroz is upon thee, saith the Lord. And _thou_ shalt bow down to the
oppressor, and his rod shall be upon thee; and _thy_ wife shall be for a
prey!"
"Don't talk in that way!--don't!" said Harry, striking out his hands
with a frantic gesture, as if to push back the words. "You are raising
the very devil in me!"
"Look here, Harry," said the other, dropping from the high tone he at
first used to that of common conversation, and speaking in bitter irony,
"did your master strike you? It's sweet to kiss the rod, isn't it? Bend
your neck and ask to be struck again!--won't you? Be meek and lowly!
that's the religion for you! You are a _slave_, and you wear broadcloth,
and sleep soft. By and by he will give you a fip to buy salve for those
cuts! Don't fret about your wife! Women always like the master better
than the slave! Why shouldn't they? When a man licks his master's foot,
his wife scorns him,--serves him right. Take it meekly, my boy!
'Servants, obey your masters.' Take your master's old coats--take your
wife when he's done with her--and bless God that brought you under the
light of the Gospel! Go! _you_ are a slave! But as for me," he said,
drawing up his head, and throwing back his shoulders with a deep
inspiration, "_I_ am a free man! Free by this," holding out his rifle.
"Free by the Lord of hosts, that numbereth the stars, and calleth them
forth by their names. Go home--that's all I have to say to you! You
sleep in a curtained bed.--I sleep on the ground, in the swamps! You eat
the fat of the land. I have what the ravens bring me! But no man whips
me!--no man touches _my_ wife!--no man says to me, 'Why do ye so?' Go!
_you_ are a slave!--I am free!" And, with one athletic bound, he sprang
into the thicket, and was gone.
The effect of this address on the already excited mind of the bondman
may be better conceived than described. He ground his teeth, and
clenched his hands.
"Stop!" he cried; "Dred, I will--I will--I'll do as you tell me--I will
not be a slave!"
A scornful laugh was the only reply, and the sound of crackling
footsteps retreated rapidly. He who retreated struck up, in a clear,
loud voice, one of those peculiar melodies in which vigor and spirit are
blended with a wild inexpressible mournfulness. The voice was one of a
singular and indescribable quality of tone; it was heavy as the sub-bass
of an organ, and of a velvety softness, and yet it seemed to pierce the
air with a keen dividing force which is generally characteristic of
voices of much less volume. The words were the commencement of a wild
camp-meeting hymn, much in vogue in those parts:--
"Brethren, don't you hear the sound?
The martial trumpet now is blowing;
Men in order listing round,
And soldiers to the standard flowing."
There was a wild, exultant fulness of liberty that rolled in the note;
and, to Harry's excited ear, there seemed in it a fierce challenge of
contempt to his imbecility, and his soul at that moment seemed to be
rent asunder with a pang such as only those can know who have felt what
it is to be a slave. There was an uprising within him, vague,
tumultuous, overpowering; dim instincts, heroic aspirations; the will
to do, the soul to dare; and then, in a moment, there followed the
picture of all society leagued against him, the hopeless impossibility
of any outlet to what was burning within him. The waters of a nature
naturally rally noble, pent up, and without outlet, rolled back upon his
heart with a suffocating force: and, in his hasty anguish, he cursed the
day of his birth. The spasm of his emotion was interrupted by the sudden
appearance of Milly coming along the path.
"Why, bless you, Milly," said Harry in sudden surprise, "where are you
going?"
"Oh, bless you, honey, chile. I's gwine on to take de stage. Dey wanted
to get up de wagon for me; but, bless you, says I, what you s'pose de
Lord gin us legs for? I never wants no critturs to tug me round, when I
can walk myself. And, den, honey, it's so pleasant like, to be a walking
along in de bush here, in de morning; 'pears like de voice of de Lord is
walking among de trees. But, bless you, chile, honey, what's de matter
o' yer face?"
"It's Tom Gordon, d--n him!" said Harry.
'Don't talk dat ar way, chile!' said Milly; using the freedom with Harry
which her years and weight of character had gradually secured for her
among the members of the plantation.
"I _will_ talk that way! Why shouldn't I? I am not going to be good any
longer."
"Why, 'twon't help de matter to be _bad_, will it, Harry? 'Cause you
hate Tom Gordon, does you want to act just like him?"
"No!" said Harry, "I won't be like him, but I'll have my revenge! Old
Dred has been talking to me again, this morning. He always did stir me
up so that I could hardly live; and I won't stand it any longer!"
"Chile," said Milly, "you take care! Keep clear on him! He's in de
wilderness of Sinai; he is with de blackness, and darkness, and tempest.
He han't come to de heavenly Jerusalem. Oh! Oh! honey! dere's a blood of
sprinkling dat speaketh better things dan dat of Abel. Jerusalem above
is _free_--is _free_, honey; so, don't you mind, now, what happens in
_dis_ yer time."
"Ah, ah, Aunt Milly! this may do well enough for old women like you;
but, stand opposite to a young fellow like me, with good strong arms,
and a pair of doubled fists, and a body and soul just as full of light
as they can be; it don't answer to go to telling about a heavenly
Jerusalem! We want something here. We'll have it too! How do you know
there is any heaven, anyhow?"
"Know it?" said Milly, her eye kindling, and striking her staff on the
ground. "Know it? I knows it by de _hankering arter it_ I got in here;"
giving her broad chest a blow which made it resound like a barrel. "De
Lord knowed what he was 'bout when he made us. When he made babies
rooting round, with der poor little mouths open, he made milk, and de
mammies for 'em too. Chile, we's nothing but great babies, but an't got
our eyes opened--rooting round and round; but de Father'll feed us
yet--he will so."
"He's a long time about it," said Harry, sullenly.
"Well, chile, an't it a long time 'fore your corn sprouts--a long time
'fore it gets into de ears?--but you plants for all dat. What's dat to
me what I is here?--Shan't I reign with de Lord Jesus?"
"I don't know," said Harry.
"Well, honey, _I does_! Jest so sure as I's standing on dis yer ground.
I knows in a few years I shall be reigning with de Lord Jesus, and a
casting my crown at his feet. Dat's what I knows. Flesh and blood didn't
reveal it unto me, but de Spirit of de Father. It's no odds to me what I
does here; every road leads straight to glory, and de glory an't got no
end to it!" And Milly uplifted her voice in a favorite stave--
"When we've been dere ten thousand years,
Bright shining like de sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun."
"Chile," said she to him, solemnly, "I an't a fool. Does ye s'pose dat I
thinks folks has any business to be sitting on der cheers all der life
long, and working me, and living on my money? Why, I knows dey han't!
An't it all wrong, from fust to last, de way dey makes merchandise o'
us! Why, I know it is; but I's still about it, for de Lord's sake. I
don't work for Miss Loo; I works for de Lord Jesus; and he is good
pay--no mistake, now I tell you."
"Well," said Harry, a little shaken, but not convinced, "after all,
there isn't much use in trying to do any other way. But you're lucky in
feeling so, Aunt Milly; but I can't."
"Well, chile, any way, don't you do nothing rash, and don't you hear
_him_. Dat ar way out is through seas of blood. Why, chile, would you
turn against Miss Nina? Chile, if they get a going, they won't spare
nobody. Don't you start up dat ar tiger; 'cause, I tell ye, ye can't
chain him, if ye do!"
"Yes," said Harry, "I see it's all madness, perfect madness; there's no
use thinking, no use talking. Well, good-morning, Aunt Milly. Peace go
with you!" And the young man started his horse, and was soon out of
sight.