_My safe return to Kentucky.--The perils I encountered there.--Again
betrayed, and taken by a mob; ironed and imprisoned.--Narrow escape
from death.--Life in a slave prison._
I prepared myself for the journey before named, and started back in
the month of July, 1839.
My intention was, to let no person know my business until I returned
back to the North. I went to Cincinnati, and got a passage down on
board of a boat just as I did the first time, without any misfortune
or delay. I called on my mother, and the raising of a dead body from
the grave could not have been more surprising to any one than my
arrival was to her, on that sad summer's night. She was not able to
suppress her feelings. When I entered the room, there was but one
other person in the house with my mother, and this was a little slave
girl who was asleep when I entered. The impulsive feeling which is
ever ready to act itself out at the return of a long absent friend,
was more than my bereaved mother could suppress. And unfortunately for
me, the loud shouts of joy at that late hour of the night, awakened
the little slave girl, who afterwards betrayed me. She kept perfectly
still, and never let either of us know that she was awake, in order
that she might hear our conversation and report it. Mother informed me
where my family was living, and that she would see them the next day,
and would make arrangements for us to meet the next night at that
house after the people in the village had gone to bed. I then went off
and concealed myself during the next day, and according to promise
came back the next night about eleven o'clock.
When I got near the house, moving very cautiously, filled with fearful
apprehensions, I saw several men walking around the house as if they
were looking for some person. I went back and waited about one hour,
before I returned, and the number of men had increased. They were
still to be seen lurking about this house, with dogs following them.
This strange movement frightened me off again, and I never returned
until after midnight, at which time I slipped up to the window, and
rapped for my mother, who sprang to it and informed me that I was
betrayed by the girl who overheard our conversation the night before.
She thought that if I could keep out of the way for a few days, the
white people would think that this girl was mistaken, or had lied. She
had told her old mistress that I was there that night, and had made a
plot with my mother to get my wife and child there the next night, and
that I was going to take them off to Canada.
I went off to a friend of mine, who rendered me all the aid that one
slave could render another, under the circumstances. Thank God he is
now free from slavery, and is doing well. He was a messenger for me to
my wife and mother, until at the suggestion of my mother, I changed an
old friend for a new one, who betrayed me for the sum of five dollars.
We had set the time when we were to start for Canada, which was to be
on the next Saturday night. My mother had an old friend whom she
thought was true, and she got him to conceal me in a barn, not over
two miles from the village. This man brought provisions to me, sent by
my mother, and would tell me the news which was in circulation about
me, among the citizens. But the poor fellow was not able to withstand
the temptation of money.
My owners had about given me up, and thought the report of the slave
girl was false; but they had offered a little reward among the slaves
for my apprehension. The night before I was betrayed, I met with my
mother and wife, and we had set up nearly all night plotting to start
on the next Saturday night. I hid myself away in the flax in the barn,
and being much rest broken I slept until the next morning about 9
o'clock. Then I was awakened by a mob of blood thirsty slaveholders,
who had come armed with all the implements of death, with a
determination to reduce me again to a life of slavery, or murder me on
the spot.
When I looked up and saw that I was surrounded, they were exclaiming
at the top of their voices, "shoot him down! shoot him down!" "If he
offers to run, or to resist, kill him!"
I saw it was no use then for me to make any resistance, as I should be
murdered. I felt confident that I had been betrayed by a slave, and
all my flattering prospects of rescuing my family were gone for ever,
and the grim monster slavery with all its horrors was staring me in
the face.
I surrendered myself to this hostile mob at once. The first thing
done, after they had laid violent hands on me, was to bind my hands
behind me with a cord, and rob me of all I possessed.
In searching my pockets, they found my certificate from the Methodist
E. Church, which had been given me by my classleader, testifying to my
worthiness as a member of that church. And what made the matter look
more disgraceful to me, many of this mob were members of the M.E.
Church, and they were the persons who took away my church ticket, and
then robbed me also of fourteen dollars in cash, a silver watch for
which I paid ten dollars, a pocket knife for which I paid seventy-five
cents, and a Bible for which I paid sixty-two and one half cents. All
this they tyrannically robbed me of, and yet my owner, Wm. Gatewood,
was a regular member of the same church to which I belonged.
He then had me taken to a blacksmith's shop, and most wickedly had my
limbs bound with heavy irons, and then had my body locked within the
cold dungeon walls of the Bedford jail, to be sold to a Southern slave
trader.
My heart was filled with grief--my eyes were filled with tears. I
could see no way of escape. I could hear no voice of consolation.
Slaveholders were coming to the dungeon window in great numbers to ask
me questions. Some were rejoicing--some swearing, and others saying
that I ought to be hung; while others were in favor of sending both me
and my wife to New Orleans. They supposed that I had informed her all
about the facilities for slaves to escape to Canada, and that she
would tell other slaves after I was gone; hence we must all be sent
off to where we could neither escape ourselves, nor instruct others
the way.
In the afternoon of the same day Malinda was permitted to visit the
prison wherein I was locked, but was not permitted to enter the door.
When she looked through the dungeon grates and saw my sad situation,
which was caused by my repeated adventures to rescue her and my little
daughter from the grasp of slavery, it was more than she could bear
without bursting in tears. She plead for admission into the cold
dungeon where I was confined, but without success. With manacled
limbs; with wounded spirit; with sympathising tears and with bleeding
heart, I intreated Malinda to weep not for me, for it only added to my
grief, which was greater than I could bear.
I have often suffered from the sting of the cruel slave driver's lash
on my quivering flesh--I have suffered from corporeal punishment in
its various forms--I have mingled my sorrows with those that were
bereaved by the ungodly soul drivers--and I also know what it is to
shed the sympathetic tear at the grave of a departed friend; but all
this is but a mere trifle compared with my sufferings from then to the
end of six months subsequent.
The second night while I was in jail, two slaves came to the dungeon
grates about the dead hour of night, and called me to the grates to
have some conversation about Canada, and the facilities for getting
there. They knew that I had travelled over the road, and they were
determined to run away and go where they could be free. I of course
took great pleasure in giving them directions how and where to go, and
they started in less than a week from that time and got clear to
Canada. I have seen them both since I came back to the north myself.
They were known by the names of King and Jack.
The third day I was brought out of the prison to be carried off with
my little family to the Louisville slave market. My hands were
fastened together with heavy irons, and two men to guard me with
loaded rifles, one of whom led the horse upon which I rode. My wife
and child were set upon another nag. After we were all ready to start
my old master thought I was not quite safe enough, and ordered one of
the boys to bring him a bed cord from the store. He then tied my feet
together under the horse, declaring that if I flew off this time, I
should fly off with the horse.
Many tears were shed on that occasion by our friends and relatives,
who saw us dragged off in irons to be sold in the human flesh market.
No tongue could express the deep anguish of my soul when I saw the
silent tear drops streaming down the sable cheeks of an aged slave
mother, at my departure; and that too, caused by a black hearted
traitor who was himself a slave:
"I love the man with a feeling soul.
Whose passions are deep and strong;
Whose cords, when touched with a kindred power,
Will vibrate loud and long:
"The man whose word is bond and law--
Who ne'er for gold or power,
Would kiss the hand that would stab the heart
In adversity's trying hour."
"I love the man who delights to help
The panting, struggling poor:
The man that will open his heart,
Nor close against the fugitive at his door.
"Oh give me a heart that will firmly stand,
When the storm of affliction shall lower--
A hand that will never shrink, if grasped,
In misfortune's darkest hour."
As we approached the city of Louisville, we attracted much attention,
my being tied and handcuffed, and a person leading the horse upon
which I rode. The horse appeared to be much frightened at the
appearance of things in the city, being young and skittish. A carriage
passing by jammed against the nag, which caused him to break from the
man who was leading him, and in his fright throw me off backwards. My
hands being confined with irons, and my feet tied under the horse with
a rope, I had no power to help myself. I fell back off of the horse
and could not extricate myself from this dreadful condition; the horse
kicked with all his might while I was tied so close to his rump that
he could only strike me with his legs by kicking.
The breath was kicked out of my body, but my bones were not broken. No
one who saw my situation would have given five dollars for me. It was
thought by all that I was dead and would never come to life again.
When the horse was caught the cords were cut from my limbs, and I was
rubbed with whiskey, camphor, &c, which brought me to life again.
Many bystanders expressed sympathy for me in my deplorable condition,
and contempt for the tyrant who tied me to the young horse.
I was then driven through the streets of the city with my little
family on foot, to jail, wherein I was locked with handcuffs yet on. A
physician was then sent for, who doctored me several days before I was
well enough to be sold in market.
The jail was one of the most disagreeable places I ever was confined
in. It was not only disagreeable on account of the filth and dirt of
the most disagreeable kind; but there were bed-bugs, fleas, lice and
musquitoes in abundance, to contend with. At night we had to lie down
on the floor in this filth. Our food was very scanty, and of the most
inferior quality. No gentleman's dog would eat what we were compelled
to eat or starve.
I had not been in this prison many days before Madison Garrison, the
soul driver, bought me and my family to sell again in the New Orleans
slave market. He was buying up slaves to take to New Orleans. So he
took me and my little family to the work-house, to be kept under lock
and key at work until he had bought up as many as he wished to take
off to the South.
The work-house of Louisville was a very large brick building, built on
the plan of a jail or State's prison, with many apartments to it,
divided off into cells wherein prisoners were locked up after night.
The upper apartments were occupied by females, principally. This
prison was enclosed by a high stone wall, upon which stood watchmen
with loaded guns to guard the prisoners from breaking out, and on
either side there were large iron gates.
When Garrison conducted me with my family to the prison in which we
were to be confined until he was ready to take us to New Orleans, I
was shocked at the horrid sight of the prisoners on entering the yard.
When the large iron gate or door was thrown open to receive us, it was
astonishing to see so many whites as well as colored men loaded down
with irons, at hard labor, under the supervision of overseers.
Some were sawing stone, some cutting stone, and others breaking stone.
The first impression which was made on my mind when I entered this
place of punishment, made me think of hell, with all its terrors of
torment; such as "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," which was
then the idea that I had of the infernal regions from oral
instruction. And I doubt whether there can be a better picture of it
drawn, than may be sketched from an American slave prison.
In this prison almost every prisoner had a heavy log chain riveted
about his leg. It would indeed be astonishing to a Christian man to
stand in that prison one half hour and hear and see the contaminating
influences of Southern slavery on the body and mind of man--you may
there find almost every variety of character to look on. Some singing,
some crying, some praying, and others swearing. The people of color
who were in there were slaves, there without crime, but for safe
keeping, while the whites were some of the most abandoned characters
living. The keeper took me up to the anvil block and fastened a chain
about my leg, which I had to drag after me both day and night during
three months. My labor was sawing stone; my food was coarse corn bread
and beef shanks and cows heads with pot liquor, and a very scanty
allowance of that.
I have often seen the meat spoiled when brought to us, covered with
flies and fly blows, and even worms crawling over it, when we were
compelled to eat it, or go without any at all. It was all spread out
on a long table in separate plates; and at the sound of a bell, every
one would take his plate, asking no questions. After hastily eating,
we were hurried back to our work, each man dragging a heavy log chain
after him to his work.
About a half hour before night they were commanded to stop work, take
a bite to eat, and then be locked up in a small cell until the next
morning after sunrise. The prisoners were locked in, two together. My
bed was a cold stone floor with but little bedding! My visitors were
bed-bugs and musquitoes.