_My safe arrival at Kentucky.--Surprise and delight to find my
family.--Plan for their escape projected.--Return to Cincinnati.--My
betrayal by traitors.--Imprisonment in Covington, Kentucky.--Return to
slavery.--Infamous proposal of the slave catchers.--My reply._
I succeeded very well in selling out my goods, and when I arrived in
Cincinnati, I called on some of my friends who had aided me on my
first escape. They also opposed me in going back only for my own good.
But it has ever been characteristic of me to persevere in what I
undertake.
I took a Steamboat passage which would bring me to where I should want
to land about dark, so as to give me a chance to find my family during
the night if possible. The boat landed me at the proper place, and at
the proper time accordingly. This landing was about six miles from
Bedford, where my mother and wife lived, but with different families.
My mother was the cook at a tavern, in Bedford. When I approached the
house where mother was living, I remembered where she slept in the
kitchen; her bed was near the window.
It was a bright moonlight night, and in looking through the kitchen
window, I saw a person lying in bed about where my mother had formerly
slept. I rapped on the glass which awakened the person, in whom I
recognised my dear mother, but she knew me not, as I was dressed in
disguise with my false whiskers on; but she came to the window and
asked who I was and what I wanted. But when I took off my false
whiskers, and spoke to her, she knew my voice, and quickly sprang to
the door, clasping my hand, exclaiming, "Oh! is this my son," drawing
me into the room, where I was so fortunate as to find Malinda, and
little Frances, my wife and child, whom I had left to find the fair
climes of liberty, and whom I was then seeking to rescue from
perpetual slavery.
They never expected to see me again in this life. I am entirely unable
to describe what my feelings were at that time. It was almost like the
return of the prodigal son. There was weeping and rejoicing. They were
filled with surprise and fear; with sadness and joy. The sensation of
joy at that moment flashed like lightning over my afflicted mind,
mingled with a thousand dreadful apprehensions, that none but a heart
wounded slave father and husband like myself can possibly imagine.
After talking the matter over, we decided it was not best to start
with my family that night, as it was very uncertain whether we should
get a boat passage immediately. And in case of failure, if Malinda
should get back even before day-light the next morning, it would have
excited suspicion against her, as it was not customary for slaves to
leave home at that stage of the week without permission. Hence we
thought it would be the most effectual way for her to escape, to start
on Saturday night; this being a night on which the slaves of Kentucky
are permitted to visit around among their friends, and are often
allowed to stay until the afternoon on Sabbath day.
I gave Malinda money to pay her passage on board of a Steamboat to
Cincinnati, as it was not safe for me to wait for her until Saturday
night; but she was to meet me in Cincinnati, if possible, the next
Sunday. Her father was to go with her to the Ohio River on Saturday
night, and if a boat passed up during the night she was to get on
board at Madison, and come to Cincinnati. If she should fail in
getting off that night, she was to try it the next Saturday night.
This was the understanding when we separated. This we thought was the
best plan for her escape, as there had been so much excitement caused
by my running away.
The owners of my wife were very much afraid that she would follow me;
and to prevent her they had told her and other slaves that I had been
persuaded off by the Abolitionists, who had promised to set me free,
but had sold me off to New Orleans. They told the slaves to beware of
the abolitionists, that their object was to decoy off slaves and then
sell them off in New Orleans. Some of them believed this, and others
believed it not; and the owners of my wife were more watchful over her
than they had ever been before as she was unbelieving.
This was in the month of June, 1838. I left Malinda on a bright but
lonesome Wednesday night. When I arrived at the river Ohio, I found a
small craft chained to a tree, in which I ferried myself across the
stream.
I succeeded in getting a Steamboat passage back to Cincinnati, where I
put up with one of my abolition friends who knew that I had gone after
my family, and who appeared to be much surprised to see me again. I
was soon visited by several friends who knew of my having gone back
after my family. They wished to know why I had not brought my family
with me; but after they understood the plan, and that my family was
expected to be in Cincinnati within a few days, they thought it the
best and safest plan for us to take a stage passage out to Lake Erie.
But being short of money, I was not able to pay my passage in the
stage, even if it would have prevented me from being caught by the
slave hunters of Cincinnati, or save me from being taken back into
bondage for life.
These friends proposed helping me by subscription; I accepted their
kind offer, but in going among friends to solicit aid for me, they
happened to get among traitors, and kidnappers, both white and colored
men, who made their living by that kind of business. Several persons
called on me and made me small donations, and among them two white men
came in professing to be my friends. They told me not to be afraid of
them, they were abolitionists. They asked me a great many questions.
They wanted to know if I needed any help? and they wanted to know if
it could be possible that a man so near white as myself could be a
slave? Could it be possible that men would make slaves of their own
children? They expressed great sympathy for me, and gave me fifty
cents each; by this they gained my confidence. They asked my master's
name; where he lived, &c. After which they left the room, bidding me
God speed. These traitors, or land pirates, took passage on board of
the first Steamboat down the river, in search of my owners. When they
found them, they got a reward of three hundred dollars offered for the
re-capture of this "stray" which they had so long and faithfully been
hunting, by day and by night, by land and by water, with dogs and with
guns, but all without success. This being the last and only chance for
dragging me back into hopeless bondage, time and money was no object
when they saw a prospect of my being re-taken.
Mr. Gatewood got two of his slaveholding neighbors to go with him to
Cincinnati, for the purpose of swearing to anything which might be
necessary to change me back into property. They came on to Cincinnati,
and with but little effort they soon rallied a mob of ruffians who
were willing to become the watch-dogs of slaveholders, for a dram, in
connection with a few slavehunting petty constables.
While I was waiting the arrival of my family, I got a job of digging a
cellar for the good lady where I was stopping, and while I was digging
under the house, all at once I heard a man enter the house; another
stept up to the cellar door to where I was at work; he looked in and
saw me with my coat off at work. He then rapped over the cellar door
on the house side, to notify the one who had entered the house to look
for me that I was in the cellar. This strange conduct soon excited
suspicion so strong in me, that I could not stay in the cellar and
started to come out, but the man who stood by the door, rapped again
on the house side, for the other to come to his aid, and told me to
stop. I attempted to pass out by him, and he caught hold of me, and
drew a pistol, swearing if I did not stop he would shoot me down. By
this time I knew that I was betrayed.
I asked him what crime I had committed that I should be murdered.
"I will let you know, very soon," said he.
By this time there were others coming to his aid, and I could see no
way by which I could possibly escape the jaws of that hell upon earth.
All my flattering prospects of enjoying my own fire-side, with my
little family, were then blasted and gone; and I must bid farewell to
friends and freedom forever.
In vain did I look to the infamous laws of the Commonwealth of Ohio,
for that protection against violence and outrage, that even the vilest
criminal with a white skin might enjoy. But oh! the dreadful thought,
that after all my sacrifice and struggling to rescue my family from
the hands of the oppressor; that I should be dragged back into cruel
bondage to suffer the penalty of a tyrant's law, to endure stripes and
imprisonment, and to be shut out from all moral as well as
intellectual improvement, and linger out almost a living death.
When I saw a crowd of blood-thirsty, unprincipled slave hunters
rushing upon me armed with weapons of death, it was no use for me to
undertake to fight my way through against such fearful odds.
But I broke away from the man who stood by with his pistol drawn to
shoot me if I should resist, and reached the fence and attempted to
jump over it before I was overtaken; but the fence being very high I
was caught by my legs before I got over.
I kicked and struggled with all my might to get away, but without
success. I kicked a new cloth coat off of his back, while he was
holding on to my leg. I kicked another in his eye; but they never let
me go until they got more help. By this time, there was a crowd on the
out side of the fence with clubs to beat me back. Finally, they
succeeded in dragging me from the fence and overpowered me by numbers
and choked me almost to death.
These ruffians dragged me through the streets of Cincinnati, to what
was called a justice office. But it was more like an office of
injustice.
When I entered the room I was introduced to three slaveholders, one of
whom was a son of Wm. Gatewood, who claimed me as his property. They
pretended to be very glad to see me.
They asked me if I did not want to see my wife and child; but I made
no reply to any thing that was said until I was delivered up as a
slave. After they were asked a few questions by the court, the old
pro-slavery squire very gravely pronounced me to be the property of
Mr. Gatewood.
The office being crowded with spectators, many of whom were colored
persons, Mr. G. was afraid to keep me in Cincinnati, two or three
hours even, until a steamboat got ready to leave for the South. So
they took me across the river, and locked me up in Covington jail, for
safe keeping. This was the first time in my life that I had been put
into a jail. It was truly distressing to my feelings to be locked up
in a cold dungeon for no crime. The jailor not being at home, his wife
had to act in his place. After my owners had gone back to Cincinnati,
the jailor's wife, in company with another female, came into the jail
and talked with me very friendly.
I told them all about my situation, and these ladies said they hoped
that I might get away again, and went so far as to tell me if I should
be kept in the jail that night, there was a hole under the wall of the
jail where a prisoner had got out. It was only filled up with loose
dirt, they said, and I might scratch it out and clear myself.
This I thought was a kind word from an unexpected friend: I had power
to have taken the key from those ladies, in spite of them, and have
cleared myself; but knowing that they would have to suffer perhaps for
letting me get away, I thought I would wait until after dark, at which
time I should try to make my escape, if they should not take me out
before that time. But within two or three hours, they came after me,
and conducted me on board of a boat, on which we all took passage down
to Louisville. I was not confined in any way, but was well guarded by
five men, three of whom were slaveholders, and the two young men from
Cincinnati, who had betrayed me.
After the boat had got fairly under way, with these vile men standing
around me on the upper deck of the boat, and she under full speed
carrying me back into a land of torment, I could see no possible way
of escape. Yet, while I was permitted to gaze on the beauties of
nature, on free soil, as I passed down the river, things looked to me
uncommonly pleasant: The green trees and wild flowers of the forest;
the ripening harvest fields waving with the gentle breezes of Heaven;
and the honest farmers tilling their soil and living by their own
toil. These things seem to light upon my vision with a peculiar charm.
I was conscious of what must be my fate; a wretched victim for Slavery
without limit; to be sold like an ox, into hopeless bondage, and to be
worked under the flesh devouring lash during life, without wages.
This was to me an awful thought; every time the boat run near the
shore, I was tempted to leap from the deck down into the water, with a
hope of making my escape. Such was then my feeling.
But on a moment's reflection, reason with her warning voice overcame
this passion by pointing out the dreadful consequences of one's
committing suicide. And this I thought would have a very striking
resemblance to the act, and I declined putting into practice this
dangerous experiment, though the temptation was great.
These kidnapping gentlemen, seeing that I was much dissatisfied,
commenced talking to me, by saying that I must not be cast down; they
were going to take me back home to live with my family, if I would
promise not to run away again.
To this I agreed, and told them that this was all that I could ask,
and more than I had expected.
But they were not satisfied with having recaptured me, because they
had lost other slaves and supposed that I knew their whereabouts; and
truly I did. They wanted me to tell them; but before telling I wanted
them to tell who it was that had betrayed me into their hands. They
said that I was betrayed by two colored men in Cincinnati, whose names
they were backward in telling, because their business in connection
with themselves was to betray and catch fugitive slaves for the reward
offered. They undertook to justify the act by saying if they had not
betrayed me, that somebody else would, and if I would tell them where
they could catch a number of other runaway slaves, they would pay for
me and set me free, and would then take me in as one of the Club. They
said I would soon make money enough to buy my wife and child out of
slavery.
But I replied, "No, gentlemen, I cannot commit or do an act of that
kind, even if it were in my power so to do. I know that I am now in
the power of a master who can sell me from my family for life, or
punish me for the crime of running away, just as he pleases: I know
that I am a prisoner for life, and have no way of extricating myself;
and I also know that I have been deceived and betrayed by men who
professed to be my best friends; but can all this justify me in
becoming a traitor to others? Can I do that which I complain of others
for doing unto me? Never, I trust, while a single pulsation of my
heart continues to beat, can I consent to betray a fellow man like
myself back into bondage, who has escaped. Dear as I love my wife and
little child, and as much as I should like to enjoy freedom and
happiness with them, I am unwilling to bring this about by betraying
and destroying the liberty and happiness of others who have never
offended me!"
I then asked them again if they would do me the kindness to tell me
who it was betrayed me into their hands at Cincinnati? They agreed to
tell me with the understanding that I was to tell where there was
living, a family of slaves at the North, who had run away from Mr.
King of Kentucky. I should not have agreed to this, but I knew the
slaves were in Canada, where it was not possible for them to be
captured. After they had told me the names of the persons who betrayed
me, and how it was done, then I told them their slaves were in Canada,
doing well. The two white men were Constables, who claimed the right
of taking up any strange colored person as a slave; while the two
colored kidnappers, under the pretext of being abolitionists, would
find out all the fugitives they could, and inform these Constables for
which they got a part of the reward, after they had found out where
the slaves were from, the name of his master, &c. By the agency of
these colored men, they were seized by a band of white ruffians,
locked up in jail, and their master sent for. These colored
kidnappers, with the Constables, were getting rich by betraying
fugitive slaves. This was told to me by one of the Constables, while
they were all standing around trying to induce me to engage in the
same business for the sake of regaining my own liberty, and that of my
wife and child. But my answer even there, under the most trying
circumstances, surrounded by the strongest enemies of God and man, was
most emphatically in the negative. "Let my punishment be what it may,
either with the lash or by selling me away from my friends and home;
let my destiny be what you please, I can never engage in this business
for the sake of getting free."
They said I should not be sold nor punished with the lash for what I
had done, but I should be carried back to Bedford, to live with my
wife. Yet when the boat got to where we should have landed, she wafted
by without making any stop. I felt awful in view of never seeing my
family again; they asked what was the matter? what made me look so
cast down? I informed them that I knew I was to be sold in the
Louisville slave market, or in New Orleans, and I never expected to
see my family again. But they tried to pacify me by promising not to
sell me to a slave trader who would take me off to New Orleans;
cautioning me at the same time not to let it be known that I had been
a runaway. This would very much lessen the value of me in market. They
would not punish me by putting irons on my limbs, but would give me a
good name, and sell me to some gentleman in Louisville for a house
servant. They thought I would soon make money enough to buy myself,
and would not part with me if they could get along without. But I had
cost them so much in advertising and looking for me, that they were
involved by it. In the first place they paid eight hundred and fifty
dollars for me; and when I first run away, they paid one hundred for
advertising and looking after me; and now they had to pay about forty
dollars, expenses travelling to and from Cincinnati, in addition to
the three hundred dollars reward; and they were not able to pay the
reward without selling me.
I knew then the only alternative left for me to extricate myself was
to use deception, which is the most effectual defence a slave can use.
I pretended to be satisfied for the purpose of getting an opportunity
of giving them the slip.
But oh, the distress of mind, the lamentable thought that I should
never again see the face nor hear the gentle voice of my nearest and
dearest friends in this life. I could imagine what must be my fate
from my peculiar situation. To be sold to the highest bidder, and then
wear the chains of slavery down to the grave. The day star of liberty
which had once cheered and gladdened my heart in freedom's land, had
then hidden itself from my vision, and the dark and dismal frown of
slavery had obscured the sunshine of freedom from me, as they supposed
for all time to come.
But the understanding between us was, I was not to be tied, chained,
nor flogged; for if they should take me into the city handcuffed and
guarded by five men the question might be asked what crime I had
committed? And if it should be known that I had been a runaway to
Canada, it would lessen the value of me at least one hundred dollars.