Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

copy the example." This defence was deemed satisfactory: he retained his office and acquired fame as a first-rate overseer. Three other Slaves belonging to neighbouring estates met with similar untimely ends, but the White murderers were not recognized as criminals ;-one even boasted of his bloody deed! A young girl, the cousin of Douglass's wife, being violently beaten by her mistress with a log of wood, for sleeping too soundly to be roused by the cry of a baby of whom she had the charge, died in the course of a few hours. But for this outrage the lady was neither punished nor even brought to trial!

During his residence on Col. Lloyd's plantation, Douglass, being too young for field labour, escaped much whipping; but he suffered severely from hunger, and still more from cold. His only clothing was a coarse shirt reaching to his knees; and his bed, a sack which he used to steal and crawl into, while his feet lay exposed on the damp cold floor, and became in consequence badly cracked His food consisted of boiled corn-meal; it was turned out into a large trough, round which the children crowded like pigs, devouring as much as they could get hold of with oyster-shells, shingles or naked hands; the strongest coming off best, though but few left the trough satisfied.

At the age of seven or eight, he was sent to live with a connection of his master's, Mr. Hugh Auld, of Baltimore. Having no home ties, and associating every conceivable idea of magnificence and luxury with Baltimore, he hailed this event with unmixed joy. He still considers it as having opened the gateway to all his future prosperity. "I have ever regarded it," he says, "as the first manifestation of that kind Providence which has ever since attended me, and marked my life with so many favours."

His new mistress, having never until now had a Slave under her control, received him with an air of kindness so contrary to the treatment he had hitherto experienced from any White person, that it quite overwhelmed him. On first meeting him, she committed her little son to his charge, saying to the latter that "there was his Freddy." He says that "the crouching servility with which he was accustomed to approach White ladies was out of place with her;" that she was disturbed by it, and did not deem it impudent for a Slave to look her in the face. But soon the fatal possession of irresponsible power effected a lamentable change in this amiable lady. Douglass describes her as at this time full of piety, tenderness and compassion; but continues-"Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamb-like disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness." first, she kindly commenced teaching him to read; but by the time he had learnt to spell short words, Mr. Auld discovered what was going on and strictly forbade its continuance, telling his wife it was both unlawful and unsafe to teach Slaves to read; "that learning would spoil the best nigger in the world; would unfit him for being a Slave, and make him discontented." These words made a deep impression on Douglass, revealing to him the secret of "the White man's power to enslave the Black," and inspiring him with a determination to acquire that knowledge which was the key to freedom. He says, learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my

[blocks in formation]

At

"In

master as to the kindly aid of my mistress." After this warning, Mrs. Auld not only ceased her instructions, but by degrees grew even more anxious to prevent his progress than her husband himself, assiduously precluding him from access to books, and on one occasion furiously snatching a newspaper from his hand. But these precautions came too late. Douglass accomplished his purpose. He made friends of the little White boys he met in the streets by giving them bread, and in return obtained reading lessons from them, at the same time exciting their pity at his hard fate in being a Slave for life.

At the age of twelve, when this thought began to press heavily upon him, he got hold of a book entitled "The Columbian Orator," where the claims of the Slave were advocated, and the tyranny of the masters exposed. These arguments kindled his indignation, and produced the despondency his master had predicted. He wished himself a brute, "to get rid of thinking," and envied his fellow-slaves their stupidity. He at length discovered the meaning of the word Abolition, which had long perplexed him, owing to the evils he heard the Slave-holders attribute to it; and about the same time two Irishmen, to whom he had volunteered some assistance, told him it was a pity for such a fine fellow to be a Slave, and counselled his running away. To this suggestion he pretended indifference, from dread of the men's proving spies and intending only to get a reward for restoring the fugitive; but from that moment he resolved to escape, and thinking he might require to write a pass, applied himself to learning to write. He began by copying the letters L. S. F. A., which he saw the ship-carpenters chalk on their timbers. After mastering these, he would challenge boys whom he met to surpass his performance, and by their attempts he gained many lessons in the art of writing. After long practice on walls and pavements, he procured some old copy-books of his little master's, and while his mistress was attending class-meetings, he copied the writing in the blank spaces.

When Douglass had been between three and four years in Baltimore, the death of Capt. Anthony without leaving a will, caused him to be sent for to be valued with the rest of the property. He gives the following description of this ceremony:

"There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all ranked together; old and young, married and single, maids and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. At this moment I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of Slavery upon both Slaves and Slave-holders."

The division followed, and he proceeds:

"I have no language to express the high excitement and deep anxiety which was felt among us poor Slaves during this time. Our fate for life was now to be decided. We had no more voice in that decision than the brutes among whom we were ranked. A single word from the White men was enough-against all our wishes, prayers and entreaties-to sunder for ever the dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties, known to human beings."

To his unspeakable relief, Douglass was restored to his former situation; but in March, 1832, he was transferred to Captain Thomas Auld, a man distinguished for his meanness, as well as his fickleness, cowardice and cruelty. He and his wife half-starved their Slaves, who

were thus reduced to the necessity of begging or stealing for subsistence. In the August of 1832, Douglass states that Captain Auld "attended a Methodist camp-meeting, and there experienced religion."

"I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his Slaves, or at any rate make him more kind and humane. But I was disappointed. . . . . After his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his Slave-holding cruelty. I will state one of many facts to prove the charge. I have seen him tie up a lame and young woman whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders; and in justification of the bloody deed would quote this passage of Scripture-He that knoweth his Master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.' I have known him tie her up early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, go to his store, return to dinner, and whip her again, cutting her in the places already made raw with his cruel lash.”

The cause of this cruelty was, that the poor cripple was a source of expense to him and little profit, and he was desirous of getting her out of existence.

66

Douglass proved too high-spirited for Capt. Auld, who, after keeping him nine months and giving him many severe whippings to no purpose, put him out to be broken," by letting him for a year to a man named Covey, who had acquired great reputation as a "nigger-breaker." Though a member and a class-leader in the Methodist church, and outwardly more devotional than most men, he was ferocious, intriguing and deceitful, and a severe and unremitting taskmaster. Many of these facts were known to Douglass. "Nevertheless," he says, "I made the change gladly, for I was sure of getting enough to eat." He was now, for the first time, a field-hand, and had been but one week in his new home, when Covey gave him a severe whipping, causing the blood to flow, and raising great ridges on his back, solely in consequence of his inability to manage the oxen he was set to drive, which occasioned the cart to be upset, and his own life to be in the utmost jeopardy. This was a sample of similar whippings which he received from Covey for similar offences, nearly every week during the first six months of his service. He says,

"We were worked fully up to the point of endurance . . . . We were often in the fields from the first approach of day till its last lingering ray had left us; and at saving-fodder time, midnight often caught us in the field binding blades. We were often less than five minutes taking our meals.... A few months of this discipline tamed me. I was broken in body, soul and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellect languished; the disposition to read departed; the dark night of Slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!"

Sunday, his only leisure time, was spent in a sort of "beast-like stupor," from which he would at times start up, feeling goaded to madness, and the next moment sink down again in despair at his wretched lot.

One day, while at work, overcome by the heat of the sun, he sunk exhausted on the ground. Covey finding him there, unable to move or speak, kicked him several times and struck him on the head with an instrument used in preparing corn, so as to occasion profuse bleeding. When able to rise, he contrived, though extremely weak, to steal away and walk seven miles through woods and briars to the residence of his master, to whom he narrated all the circumstances,-his bruised and

bloody condition vouching for their truth. But Capt. Auld refused to interfere, lest by removing him he should lose his year's wages, and sent him back early the next morning, wearied, famishing and dejected. He spent that day in the woods, anticipating the alternative of dying from starvation if he remained there, or from whipping if he returned. Hunger prevailed, and on the next day (Sunday) he went back to Covey, having previously, at the earnest entreaties of a Negro friend, consented to wear, on the right side, a certain root, which, he was assured, would render it impossible for any White man to whip him. On entering the yard, Covey, who was on his way to meeting, addressed him kindly, which unexpected behaviour inspired him with a degree of confidence in his charm. The next morning, however, while engaged in the stable, Covey entered, seized him, and was proceeding to tie his legs and beat him, when Douglass suddenly resisted. A sharp contest ensued, and lasted two hours, at the expiration of which, Covey, who had come off much the worst, retreated. From that day he never struck Douglass, who graphically describes this encounter, and the effects of its success in rekindling his "expiring self-confidence and sense of manhood," and reviving his "long-crushed spirit." He was liable to public punishment at the whipping-post for raising his hand against a White man in self-defence; but he concluded that Covey preferred passing over the offence to endangering his own reputation by thus letting the fact of his having been mastered by a lad of sixteen transpire.

The Narrative contains particulars of but one fact illustrative of the disgusting violation of human and divine laws which American Slavery sanctions by its practice of rearing Slaves for the market.

Douglass says that Covey was in narrow circumstances, and that one of his speculations for improving his worldly condition was the following. He purchased a healthy young Slave, named Caroline, with the hope of her having a family, and, continues the Narrative,

[ocr errors]

to complete the wickedness of this transaction, Covey hired of Mr. Samuel Harrison a married Slave, who was torn from his own wife, and compelled to live as the husband of this wretched woman. Eventually she gave birth to twins, and such was the joy of Covey and his wife, that nothing they could do for Caroline during her confinement was too good or too hard to be done. The children were regarded as quite an addition to his wealth."

While so revolting a system as this is pursued, there is no difficulty in understanding why the Bible is studiously withheld from the Negro population, and why laws are enacted for the express purpose of keeping the minds of the Slaves in the lowest depths of ignorance and debasement. We cannot deny the justice of the charge of inconsistency brought by the Abolitionists against the American Foreign Mission Society, for sending the Scriptures to the distant Heathen, and refusing them to three millions of their own countrymen !

Some important observations are introduced in this portion of the Narrative upon the holidays allowed the Slaves between Christmas and New-year's day. Douglass considers them among the principal means employed by the Slave-holders to keep the Negroes in a state of mental degradation. Every kind of sensuality is encouraged, drink is freely distributed among them, and intoxication promoted. Those who would prefer spending their holidays in a rational manner, making articles of

convenience for home use, are sure to displease their masters. These holidays, Douglass says, are "part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrong and inhumanity of Slavery."

"The Slave-holders like their Slaves to spend those days just in such a manner as to make them as glad of their ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to be to disgust them with freedom by plunging them into the lowest depths of dissipation."

At the expiration of his year's service under Covey, he was hired by Mr. William Freeland, an educated man, just and straightforward in his dealings and requirements, though passionate and possessed of other faults peculiar to Slave-holders. Douglass says, "My treatment, while in his employment, was heavenly, compared with what I experienced at the hands of Mr. Ed. Covey." Mr. Freeland had, in Douglass's estimation, another great recommendation in not being a professor of religion; for he declares his experience to be, that those who were prominent members in religious societies were more cruel than such as made no pretences to piety. He instances the Rev. Daniel Weeden and the Rev. Rigby Hopkins, neighbours of Mr. Freeland, and ministers in the Reformed Methodist Church, whose cruelty to their Slaves, in severely flogging them upon the most trifling pretexts, and committing other barbarities, was notorious.

Douglass, while with Mr. Freeland, succeeded in inspiring his fellowslaves with a desire to learn to read; and he secretly commenced a Sunday-school in which forty Slaves assembled regularly for nearly a year, though they were constantly liable to be seized and to receive thirty-nine lashes for this employment. None were so hostile to these efforts of Douglass and his companions to pass the day of rest in improving their minds instead of in drinking, as the leaders of the religious societies in that locality; on one occasion two class-leaders, heading a band of White men, dispersed their little Sabbath-school by breaking in upon them with sticks and stones.

This year Douglass considered as a very happy one, partly owing to the absence of ill-usage, but much more to the warm friendships he formed. But in proportion as his condition improved, and his mind was able to expand, his longing to be his own master increased. He succeeded in awakening the same sentiments in four of his fellow-slaves, whom he persuaded to join him in a plan of escape which he had devised. His details of this scheme, with its attendant anxieties and suspense, are deeply interesting. But on the eve of execution it was discovered, and the parties concerned in it were carried off to prison, where amidst their many sources of misery-the brutal taunts and examinations of Slave-traders, and the dread of their impending fate-no part of their trial was so severe as that of their separation. Their owners, however, took home his four companions, and, after remaining one week alone in a state of most trying suspense and dejection, Douglass was sent back to Mr. Hugh Auld, of Baltimore, to be taught a trade. For eight months he was employed in a large ship-yard, and might have remained here longer, but for the serious consequences of a fight between himself and some of the White carpenters, who protested against working with a person of colour, and annoyed him in every possible way. One day four of them, heavily armed, attacked him at once; he was overpowered, stunned with blows, and had one eye nearly kicked out. About fifty

« PředchozíPokračovat »