JEGAR SAHADUTHA.
At twelve o'clock, that night, Harry rose from the side of his sleeping
wife, and looked out into the darkness. The belt of forest which
surrounded them seemed a girdle of impenetrable blackness. But above,
where the tree-tops fringed out against the sky, the heavens were seen
of a deep, transparent violet, blazing with stars. He opened the door,
and came out. All was so intensely still that even the rustle of a leaf
could be heard. He stood listening. A low whistle seemed to come from a
distant part of the underwood. He answered it. Soon a crackling was
heard, and a sound of cautious, suppressed conversation. In a few
moments a rustling was heard in the boughs overhead. Harry stepped
under.
"Who is there?" he said.
"The camp of the Lord's judgment!" was the answer, and a dark form
dropped on the ground.
"Hannibal?" said Harry.
"Yes, Hannibal!" said the voice.
"Thank God!" said Harry.
But now the boughs of the tree were continually rustling, and one after
another sprang down to the ground, each one of whom pronounced his name,
as he came.
"Where is the prophet?" said one.
"He is not here," said Harry. "Fear not, he will be with us."
The party now proceeded to walk, talking in a low voices.
"There's nobody from the Gordon place, yet," said Harry, uneasily.
"They'll be along," said one of them. "Perhaps Hokum was wakeful,
to-night. They'll give him the slip, though."
The company had now arrived at the lower portion of the clearing, where
stood the blasted tree, which we formerly described, with its
funeral-wreaths of moss. Over the grave which had recently been formed
there Dred had piled a rude and ragged monument of stumps of trees, and
tufts of moss, and leaves. In the top of one of the highest stumps was
stuck a pine-knot, to which Harry now applied a light. It kindled, and
rose with a broad, red, fuliginous glare, casting a sombre light on the
circle of dark faces around. There were a dozen men, mulatto, quadroon,
and negro. Their countenances all wore an expression of stern gravity
and considerate solemnity.
Their first act was to clasp their hands in a circle, and join in a
solemn oath never to betray each other. The moment this was done, Dred
emerged mysteriously from the darkness, and stood among them.
"Brethren," he said, "this is the grave of your brother, whose wife they
would take for a prey! Therefore he fled to the wilderness. But the
assembly of the wicked compassed him about, and the dogs tore him, and
licked up his blood, and here I buried him! Wherefore, this heap is
called JEGAR SAHADUTHA! For the God of Abraham and Nahor, the God of
their fathers, shall judge betwixt us. He that regardeth not the oath of
brethren, and betrayeth counsel, let his arm fall from his
shoulder-blade! Let his arm be broken from the bone! Behold, this heap
shall be a witness unto you; for it hath heard all the words that ye
have spoken!"
A deep-murmured "Amen" rose solemnly among them.
"Brethren," said Dred, laying his hand upon Harry, "the Lord caused
Moses to become the son of Pharaoh's daughter, that he might become
learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, to lead forth his people from
the house of bondage. And, when he slew an Egyptian, he fled into the
wilderness, where he abode certain days, till the time of the Lord was
come. In like manner hath the Lord dealt with our brother. He shall
expound unto you the laws of the Egyptians; and for me, I will show you
what I have received from the Lord."
The circle now sat down on the graves which were scattered around, and
Harry thus spoke:--
"Brothers, how many of you have been at Fourth of July celebrations?"
"I have! I have! All of us!" was the deep response, uttered not
eagerly, but in low and earnest tones.
"Brethren, I wish to explain to you to-night the story that they
celebrate. It was years ago that this people was small, and poor, and
despised, and governed by men sent by the King of England, who, they
say, oppressed them. Then they resolved that they would be free, and
govern themselves in their own way and make their own laws. For this
they were called rebels and conspirators; and, if they had failed, every
one of their leaders would have been hung, and nothing more said about
it. When they were agreeing to do this, they met together and signed a
paper, which was to show to all the world the reason why. You have heard
this read by them when the drums were beating and the banners flying.
Now hear it here, while you sit on the graves of men they have
murdered!"
And, standing by the light of the flaring torch, Harry read that
document which has been fraught with so much seed for all time. What
words were those to fall on the ears of thoughtful bondmen!
"Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed."
"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a determination to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their _right_ and their _duty_ to throw off such
government."
"Brothers," said Harry, "you have heard the grievances which our masters
thought sufficient to make it right for them to shed blood. They rose up
against their king, and when he sent his armies into the country, they
fired at them from the windows of the houses, and from behind the barns,
and from out of the trees, and wherever they passed, till they were
strong enough to get together an army, and fight them openly."
"Yes," said Hannibal, "I heard my master's father tell of it. He was one
of them."
"Now," said Harry, "the Lord judge between us and them, if the laws that
they put upon us be not worse than any that lay upon them. They
complained that they could not get justice done to them in the courts.
But how stands it with us, who cannot even come into a court to plead?"
Harry then, in earnest and vehement language, narrated the abuse which
had been inflicted upon Milly; and then recited, in a clear and solemn
voice, that judicial decision which had burned itself into his memory,
and which had confirmed and given full license to that despotic power.
He related the fate of his own contract--of his services for years to
the family for which he had labored, all ending in worse than nothing.
And then he told his sister's history, till his voice was broken by
sobs. The audience who sat around were profoundly solemn; only
occasionally a deep, smothered groan seemed to rise from them
involuntarily.
Hannibal rose. "I had a master in Virginny. He was a Methodist preacher.
He sold my wife and two children to Orleans, and then sold me. My next
wife was took for debt, and she's gone."
A quadroon young man rose. "My mother was held by a minister in
Kentucky. My father was a good, hard-working man. There was a man set
his eye on her, and wanted her; but she wouldn't have anything to do
with him. Then she told her master, and begged him to protect her; but
he sold her. Her hair turned all white in that year, and she went crazy.
She was crazy till she died!"
"I's got a story to tell, on that," said a middle-aged negro man, of low
stature, broad shoulders, and a countenance indicative of great
resolution, who now rose. "I's got a story to tell."
"Go on, Monday," said Harry.
"You spoke 'bout de laws. I's seen 'bout dem ar. Now, my brother Sam, he
worked with me on de great Morton place, in Virginny. And dere was going
to be a wedding dere, and dey wanted money, and so some of de colored
people was sold to Tom Parker, 'cause Tom Parker he was a buying up
round, dat ar fall; and he sold him to Souther, and he was one o' yer
drefful mean white trash, dat lived down to de bush. Well, Sam was nigh
'bout starved, and so he had to help hisself de best way he could; and
he used fur to trade off one ting and 'nother fur meal to Stone's store,
and Souther he told him 'dat he'd give him hell if he caught him.' So,
one day, when he missed something off de place, he come home and he
brought Stone with him, and a man named Hearvy. He told him dat he was
going to cotch it. I reckon dey was all three drunk. Any how, dey tied
him up, and Souther he never stopped to cut him, and to slash him, and
to hack him; and dey burned him with chunks from de fire, and dey
scalded him with boiling water. He was strong man, but dey worked on him
dat way all day, and at last he died. Dey hearn his screeches on all de
places round. Now, brethren, you jest see what was done 'bout it. Why,
mas'r and some of de gen'lemen round said dat Souther 'wasn't fit to
live,' and it should be brought in de courts; and sure 'nough it was;
and, 'cause he is my own brother, I listened for what dey would say.
Well, fust dey begun with saying dat it wan't no murder at all, 'cause
slaves, dey said, wan't people, and dey couldn't be murdered. But den de
man on t'oder side he read heaps o' tings to show dat dey _was_
people--dat dey _was_ human critturs. Den de lawyer said dat dere wan't
no evidence dat Souther meant fur to kill him, any how. Dat it was de
right of de master to punish his slave any way he thought fit. And how
was he going to know dat it would kill him? Well, so dey had it back and
forth, and finally de jury said 'it was murder in de second degree.'
Lor! if dat ar's being murdered in de second degree, I like to know what
de fust is! You see, dey said he must go to de penitentiary for five
years. But, laws, he didn't, 'cause dere's ways enough o' getting out of
dese yer tings; 'cause he took it up to de upper court, and dey said
'dat it had been settled dat dere couldn't be noting done agin a mas'r
fur no kind of beating or 'busing of der own slaves. Dat de master must
be protected, even if 'twas ever so cruel.'[2]
"So, now, brethren, what do you think of dat ar?"
At this moment another person entered the circle. There was a general
start of surprise and apprehension, which immediately gave place to a
movement of satisfaction and congratulation.
"You have come, have you, Henry?" said Harry.
But at this moment the other turned his face full to the torch-light,
and Harry was struck with its ghastly expression.
"For God's sake, what's the matter, Henry? Where's Hark?"
"Dead!" said the other.
As one struck with a pistol-shot leaps in the air, Harry bounded, with a
cry, from the ground.
"Dead?" he echoed.
"Yes, dead, at last! Dey's all last night a killing of him."
"I thought so! Oh, I was afraid of it!" said Harry. "Oh, Hark! Hark!
Hark! God do so to me, and more also, if I forget this!"
The thrill of a present interest drew every one around the narrator, who
proceeded to tell how "Hark having been too late on his return to the
plantation, had incurred the suspicion of being in communication with
Harry. How Hokum, Tom Gordon, and two of his drunken associates, had
gathered together to examine him by scourging. How his shrieks the night
before had chased sleep from every hut of the plantation. How he died,
and gave no sign." When he was through, there was dead and awful
silence.
Dred, who had been sitting, during most of these narrations, bowed, with
his head between his knees, groaning within himself, like one who is
wrestling with repressed feeling, now rose, and, solemnly laying his
hand on the mound, said:--
"_Jegar Sahadutha!_ The God of their fathers judge between us! If they
had a right to rise up for their oppressions, shall they condemn us? For
judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off! Truth
is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter! Yea, truth faileth,
and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey! They are not
ashamed, neither can they blush! They declare their sin as Sodom, and
hide it not! The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth
himself! Therefore, forgive them not, saith the Lord!"
Dred paused a moment, and stood with his hands uplifted. As a
thunder-cloud trembles and rolls, shaking with gathering electric fire,
so his dark figure seemed to dilate and quiver with the force of mighty
emotions. He seemed, at the moment, some awful form, framed to symbolize
to human eye the energy of that avenging justice which all nature
shudderingly declares.
He trembled, his hands quivered, drops of perspiration rolled down his
face, his gloomy eyes dilated with an unutterable volume of emotion. At
last the words heaved themselves up in deep chest-tones; resembling the
wild, hollow wail of a wounded lion, finding vent in language to him so
familiar, that it rolled from his tongue in a spontaneous torrent, as if
he had received their first inspiration.
"Hear ye the word of the Lord against this people! The harvest groweth
ripe! The press is full! The vats overflow! Behold, saith the
Lord--behold, saith the Lord, I will gather all nations, and bring them
down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them for my
people, whom they have scattered among the nations! Woe unto them, for
they have cast lots for my people, and given a boy for a harlot, and
sold a girl for wine, that they may drink! For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, saith
the Lord! Because they sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for
a pair of shoes! They pant after the dust on the head of the poor, and
turn aside the way of the meek! And a man and his father will go in unto
the same maid, to profane my holy name! Behold, saith the Lord, I am
pressed under you, as a cart is pressed full of sheaves!
"The burden of the beasts of the South! The land of trouble and anguish,
from whence cometh the young and old lion, the viper, and fiery, flying
serpent! Go write it upon a table, and note it in a book, that it may be
for time to come, for ever and ever, that this is a rebellious people,
lying children--children that will not hear the law of the Lord! Which
say to the seers, See not! Prophesy not unto us right things! Speak unto
us smooth things! Prophesy deceits! Wherefore, thus saith the Holy one
of Israel, Because ye despise his word, and trust in oppression, and
perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore, this iniquity shall be to you
as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall whose breaking
cometh suddenly in an instant! And he shall break it as the breaking of
a potter's vessel!"
Pausing for a moment, he stood with his hands tightly clasped before
him, leaning forward, looking into the distance. At last, with the
action and energy of one who beholds a triumphant reality, he broke
forth:--
"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments, from Bozrah?
This, that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of
his strength?"
He seemed to listen, and, as if he had caught an answer, he repeated:--
"I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save!"
"Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the wine-press? I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of
the people there was none with me; for I will tread them in my anger,
and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled on my
garments, and I will stain all my raiment! For the day of vengeance is
in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come! And I looked, and
there was none to help! And I wondered that there was none to uphold!
Therefore mine own arm brought salvation, and my fury it upheld me! For
I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my
fury!"
Gradually the light faded from his face. His arms fell. He stood a few
moments with his head bowed down on his breast. Yet the spell of his
emotion held every one silent. At last, stretching out his hand, he
broke forth in passionate prayer:
"How long, O Lord, how long? Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Why
withdrawest thou thy hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom! We see not the
sign! There is no more any prophet, neither any among us, that knoweth
how long! Wilt thou hold thy peace forever? Behold the blood of the poor
crieth unto thee! Behold how they hunt for our lives! Behold how they
pervert justice, and take away the key of knowledge! They enter not in
themselves, and those that are entering in they hinder! Behold our wives
taken for a prey! Behold our daughters sold to be harlots! Art thou a
God that judgest on the earth? Wilt thou not avenge thine own elect,
that cry unto thee day and night? Behold the scorning of them that are
at ease, and the contempt of the proud! Behold how they speak wickedly
concerning oppression! They set their mouth against the heavens, and
their tongue walketh through the earth! Wilt thou hold thy peace for all
these things, and afflict us very sore?"
The energy of the emotion which had sustained him appeared gradually to
have exhausted itself. And, after standing silent for a few moments, he
seemed to gather himself together as a man waking out of a trance, and,
turning to the excited circle around him, he motioned them to sit down.
When he spoke to them in his ordinary tone:--
"Brethren," he said, "the vision is sealed up, and the token is not yet
come! The Lamb still beareth the yoke of their iniquities; there be
prayers in the golden censers which go up like a cloud! And there is
silence in heaven for the space of half an hour! But hold yourselves in
waiting, for the day cometh! And what shall be the end thereof?"
A deep voice answered Dred. It was that of Hannibal.
"We will reward them as they have rewarded us! In the cup that they have
filled to us we will measure to them again!"
"God forbid," said Dred, "that the elect of the Lord should do that!
When the Lord saith unto us, Smite, then will we smite! We will not
torment them with the scourge and fire, nor defile their women, as they
have done with ours! But we will slay them utterly, and consume them
from off the face of the earth!"
At this moment the whole circle were startled by the sound of a voice
which seemed to proceed deep in from among the trees, singing, in a wild
and mournful tone, the familiar words of a hymn:--
"Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a wretch as I?"
There was a dead silence as the voice approached still nearer, and the
chorus was borne upon the night air:--
"Oh, the Lamb, the loving Lamb,
The Lamb of Calvary!
The Lamb that was slain, but liveth again,
To intercede for me!"
And as the last two lines were sung, Milly emerged and stood in the
centre of the group. When Dred saw her, he gave a kind of groan, and
said, putting his hand out before his face:--
"Woman, thy prayers withstand me!"
"Oh, brethren," said Milly, "I mistrusted of yer councils, and I's been
praying de Lord for you. Oh, brethren, behold de Lamb of God! If dere
must come a day of vengeance, pray not to be in it! It's de Lord's
strange work. Oh, brethren, is we de fust dat's been took to de
judgment-seat? dat's been scourged, and died in torments? Oh, brethren,
who did it afore us? Didn't He hang bleeding three hours, when dey
mocked Him, and gave Him vinegar? Didn't He sweat great drops o' blood
in de garden?"
And Milly sang again, words so familiar to many of them, that,
involuntarily, several voices joined her:--
"Agonizing in the garden,
On the ground your Maker lies;
On the bloody tree behold Him,
Hear Him cry, before He dies,
It is finished! Sinners, will not this suffice?"
"Oh, won't it suffice, brethren!" she said. "If de Lord could bear all
dat, and love us yet, shan't we? Oh, brethren, dere's a better way. I's
been whar you be. I's been in de wilderness! Yes, I's heard de sound of
dat ar trumpet! Oh, brethren! brethren! dere was blackness and darkness
dere! But I's come to Jesus, de Mediator of de new covenant, and de
blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better tings than dat of Abel.
Hasn't _I_ suffered? My heart has been broke over and over for every
child de Lord give me! And, when dey sold my poor Alfred, and shot him,
and buried him like a dog, oh, but didn't my heart burn? Oh, how I hated
her dat sold him! I felt like I'd kill her! I felt like I'd be glad to
see mischief come on her children! But, brethren, de Lord turned and
looked upon me like he done on Peter. I saw him with de crown o' thorns
on his head, bleeding, bleeding, and I broke down and forgave her. And
de Lord turned her heart, and he was our peace. He broke down de middle
wall 'tween us, and we come together, two poor sinners, to de foot of de
cross. De Lord he judged her poor soul! She wan't let off from her sins.
Her chil'en growed up to be a plague and a curse to her! Dey broke her
heart! Oh, she was saved by fire--but, bress de Lord, she _was_ saved!
She died with her poor head on my arm--she dat had broke my heart! Wan't
dat better dan if I'd killed her? Oh, brethren, pray de Lord to give 'em
repentance! Leave de vengeance to him. Vengeance is mine--I will repay,
saith de Lord. Like he loved us when we was enemies, love yer enemies!"
A dead silence followed this appeal. The key-note of another harmony had
been struck. At last Dred rose up solemnly:--
"Woman, thy prayers have prevailed for this time!" he said. "The hour is
not yet come!"
FOOTNOTE:
[2] Lest any of our readers should think the dark witness who is
speaking mistaken in his hearing, we will quote here the words which
stand on the Virginia law records, in reference to this very case.
"It has been decided by this court, in Turner's case, that the owner of
a slave, for the _malicious, cruel, and excessive beating of his own
slave, cannot be indicted_.... It is the policy of the law in respect to
the relation of the master and slave and for the sake of securing proper
subordination and obedience on the part of the slave, to _protect the
master from prosecution even if the whipping and punishment be
malicious, cruel, and excessive_."--7 _Grattan_, 673, 1851, _Souther vs.
Commonwealth_.
Any one who has sufficiently strong nerves to peruse the records of this
trial will see the effect of the slave system on the moral sensibilities
of educated men.