_I am sold to gamblers.--They try to purchase my family.--Our parting
scene.--My good usage.--I am sold to an Indian.--His confidence in my
integrity manifested._
The reader will remember that this brings me back to the time the
Deacon had ordered me to be kept in confinement until he got a chance
to sell me, and that no negro should ever get away from him and live.
Some days after this we were all out at the gin house ginning cotton,
which was situated on the road side, and there came along a company of
men, fifteen or twenty in number, who were Southern sportsmen. Their
attention was attracted by the load of iron which was fastened about
my neck with a bell attached. They stopped and asked the Deacon what
that bell was put on my neck for? and he said it was to keep me from
running away, &c.
They remarked that I looked as if I might be a smart negro, and asked
if he wanted to sell me. The reply was, yes. They then got off their
horses and struck a bargain with him for me. They bought me at a
reduced price for speculation.
After they had purchased me, I asked the privilege of going to the
house to take leave of my family before I left, which was granted by
the sportsmen. But the Deacon said I should never again step my foot
inside of his yard; and advised the sportsmen not to take the irons
from my neck until they had sold me; that if they gave me the least
chance I would run away from them, as I did from him. So I was
compelled to mount a horse and go off with them as I supposed, never
again to meet my family in this life.
We had not proceeded far before they informed me that they had bought
me to sell again, and if they kept the irons on me it would be
detrimental to the sale, and that they would therefore take off the
irons and dress me up like a man, and throw away the old rubbish which
I then had on; and they would sell me to some one who would treat me
better than Deacon Whitfield. After they had cut off the irons and
dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did. They gave
me plenty to eat and put nothing hard on me to do. They expressed much
sympathy for me in my bereavement; and almost every day they gave me
money more or less, and by my activity in waiting on them, and upright
conduct, I got into the good graces of them all, but they could not
get any person to buy me on account of the amount of intelligence
which they supposed me to have; for many of them thought that I could
read and write. When they left Texas, they intended to go to the
Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, to attend a great horse race
which was to take place. Not being much out of their way to go past
Deacon Whitfield's again, I prevailed on them to call on him for the
purpose of trying to purchase my wife and child; and I promised them
that if they would buy my wife and child, I would get some person to
purchase us from them. So they tried to grant my request by calling on
the Deacon, and trying to make the purchase. As we approached the
Deacon's plantation, my heart was filled with a thousand painful and
fearful apprehensions. I had the fullest confidence in the blacklegs
with whom I travelled, believing that they would do according to
promise, and go to the fullest extent of their ability to restore
peace and consolation to a bereaved family--to re-unite husband and
wife, parent and child, who had long been severed by slavery through
the agency of Deacon Whitfield. But I knew his determination in
relation to myself, and I feared his wicked opposition to a
restoration of myself and little family, which he had divided, and
soon found that my fears were not without foundation.
When we rode up and walked into his yard, the Deacon came out and
spoke to all but myself; and not finding me in tattered rags as a
substitute for clothes, nor having an iron collar or bell about my
neck, as was the case when he sold me, he appeared to be much
displeased.
"What did you bring that negro back here for?" said he.
"We have come to try to buy his wife and child; for we can find no one
who is willing to buy him alone; and we will either buy or sell so
that the family may be together," said they.
While this conversation was going on, my poor bereaved wife, who
never expected to see me again in this life, spied me and came rushing
to me through the crowd, throwing her arms about my neck exclaiming in
the most sympathetic tones, "Oh! my dear husband! I never expected to
see you again!" The poor woman was bathed with tears of sorrow and
grief. But no sooner had she reached me, than the Deacon peremptorily
commanded her to go to her work. This she did not obey, but prayed
that her master would not separate us again, as she was there alone,
far from friends and relations whom she should never meet again. And
now to take away her husband, her last and only true friend, would be
like taking her life!
But such appeals made no impression on the unfeeling Deacon's heart.
While he was storming with abusive language, and even using the gory
lash with hellish vengeance to separate husband and wife, I could see
the sympathetic teardrop, stealing its way down the cheek of the
profligate and black-leg, whose object it now was to bind up the
broken heart of a wife, and restore to the arms of a bereaved husband,
his companion.
They were disgusted at the conduct of Whitfield and cried out shame,
even in his presence. They told him that they would give a thousand
dollars for my wife and child, or any thing in reason. But no! he
would sooner see me to the devil than indulge or gratify me after my
having run away from him; and if they did not remove me from his
presence very soon, he said he should make them suffer for it.
But all this, and even the gory lash had yet failed to break the grasp
of poor Malinda, whose prospect of connubial, social, and future
happiness was all at stake. When the dear woman saw there was no help
for us, and that we should soon be separated forever, in the name of
Deacon Whitfield, and American slavery to meet no more as husband and
wife, parent and child--the last and loudest appeal was made on our
knees. We appealed to the God of justice and to the sacred ties of
humanity; but this was all in vain. The louder we prayed the harder he
whipped, amid the most heart-rending shrieks from the poor slave
mother and child, as little Frances stood by, sobbing at the abuse
inflicted on her mother.
"Oh! how shall I give my husband the parting hand never to meet
again? This will surely break my heart," were her parting words.
I can never describe to the reader the awful reality of that
separation--for it was enough to chill the blood and stir up the
deepest feelings of revenge in the hearts of slaveholding black-legs,
who as they stood by, were threatening, some weeping, some swearing
and others declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted
on a human being. As we left the plantation, as far as we could see
and hear, the Deacon was still laying on the gory lash, trying to
prevent poor Malinda from weeping over the loss of her departed
husband, who was then, by the hellish laws of slavery, to her,
theoretically and practically dead. One of the black-legs exclaimed
that hell was full of just such Deacon's as Whitfield. This occurred
in December, 1840. I have never seen Malinda, since that period. I
never expect to see her again.
The sportsmen to whom I was sold, showed their sympathy for me not
only by word but by deeds. They said that they had made the most
liberal offer to Whitfield, to buy or sell for the sole purpose of
reuniting husband and wife. But he stood out against it--they felt
sorry for me. They said they had bought me to speculate on, and were
not able to lose what they had paid for me. But they would make a
bargain with me, if I was willing, and would lay a plan, by which I
might yet get free. If I would use my influence so as to get some
person to buy me while traveling about with them, they would give me a
portion of the money for which they sold me, and they would also give
me directions by which I might yet run away and go to Canada.
This offer I accepted, and the plot was made. They advised me to act
very stupid in language and thought, but in business I must be spry;
and that I must persuade men to buy me, and promise them that I would
be smart.
We passed through the State of Arkansas and stopped at many places,
horse-racing and gambling. My business was to drive a wagon in which
they carried their gambling apparatus, clothing, &c. I had also to
black boots and attend to horses. We stopped at Fayettville, where
they almost lost me, betting on a horse race.
They went from thence to the Indian Territory, among the Cherokee
Indians, to attend the great races which were to take place there.
During the races there was a very wealthy half Indian of that tribe,
who became much attached to me, and had some notion of buying me,
after hearing that I was for sale, being a slaveholder. The idea
struck me rather favorable, for several reasons. First, I thought I
should stand a better chance to get away from an Indian than from a
white man. Second, he wanted me only for a kind of a body servant to
wait on him--and in this case I knew that I should fare better than I
should in the field. And my owners also told me that it would be an
easy place to get away from. I took their advice for fear I might not
get another chance so good as that, and prevailed on the man to buy
me. He paid them nine hundred dollars, in gold and silver, for me. I
saw the money counted out.
After the purchase was made, the sportsmen got me off to one side, and
according to promise they gave me a part of the money, and directions
how to get from there to Canada. They also advised me how to act until
I got a good chance to run away. I was to embrace the earliest
opportunity of getting away, before they should become acquainted with
me. I was never to let it be known where I was from, nor where I was
born. I was to act quite stupid and ignorant. And when I started I was
to go up the boundary line, between the Indian Territory and the
States of Arkansas and Missouri, and this would fetch me out on the
Missouri river, near Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. I was to
travel at first by night, and to lay by in daylight, until I got out
of danger.
The same afternoon that the Indian bought me, he started with me to
his residence, which was fifty or sixty miles distant. And so great
was his confidence in me, that he intrusted me to carry his money. The
amount must have been at least five hundred dollars, which was all in
gold and silver; and when we stopped over night the money and horses
were all left in my charge.
It would have been a very easy matter for me to have taken one of the
best horses, with the money, and run off. And the temptation was truly
great to a man like myself, who was watching for the earliest
opportunity to escape; and I felt confident that I should never have a
better opportunity to escape full handed than then.