. . in his own abilities, reluctant at their dissuadings, how beautiful is the loyalty with which he still clung to their principles in all things else, and even in this. It shows that any man in our land, "no matter in what battle his liberty may have been cloven down, * * * * no matter what complexion an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him," not only may "stand forth redeemed and disenthralled," but may also stand up a candidate for the highest suffrage of a great people--the tribute of their honest, hearty admiration. HUGH AULD. The tender asparagus, the succulent celery, and the delicate cauliflower; egg plants, beets, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and French beans, early and late; radishes, cantelopes, melons of all kinds; the fruits and flowers of all. When this good man was at our house, we were all sure to be called in to prayers in the morning; and he was not slow in making inquiries as to the state of our minds, nor in giving us a word of exhortation and of encouragement. . Not long after his marriage, Master Thomas had a. misunderstanding with Master Hugh, and, as a means of punishing his brother, he ordered him to send me home. The family of old master consisted of two sons, Andrew and Richard; his daughter, Lucretia, and her newly married husband, Capt. It is the interest and business of slaveholders to study human nature, with a view to practical results, and many of them attain astonishing proficiency in discerning the thoughts and emotions of slaves. and yet a perfect stranger! The Journey to Col. Lloyd's Plantation, . Grant that slavery is right; grant that the relation of master and slave may innocently exist; and there is not a single outrage which was ever committed against the slave but what finds an apology in the very necessity of the case. The heart of pity, which would melt in due time over the brutal chastisements it sees inflicted on the helpless, must be hardened. With his directions, and without stopping to question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to perform my first exploit in driving, in a creditable manner. From the dawn of day in the morning, till the darkness was complete in the evening, I was kept at hard work, in the field or the woods. . I was not without the suggestion, at the moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of Man; and, in my then state of mind, I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer. he adds, "It happened to her--as it will happen to any careful and thrifty person residing in an ignorant and improvident neighborhood--to enjoy the reputation of being born to good luck." colored people. With him, it is literally a word and a blow, and, in most cases, the blow comes first. . Our hopes (founded on the discipline) soon vanished; for the authorities let him into the church at once, and before he was out of his term of probation, I heard of his leading class! In this condition, Covey finding out where I was, came, to me; and, after standing over me a while, he asked me what the matter was. Nevertheless, I sometimes got full meals and kind words from sympathizing old slaves, who knew my sufferings, and received the comforting assurance that I should be a man some day. Some of these have had wives and children dependent on them for bread; but of this no account was made. She knew if she went back, she must be a slave forever--she must be dragged down to the scenes of pollution which the slaveholders continually provide for most of the poor, sinking, wretched young women, whom they call their property. Who, but a fanatic, could get up any sympathy for persons whose every movement was agile, easy and graceful, and who evinced a consciousness of high superiority? Covey; there was something in his manner that quite forbade that. . Of who or what these were, I was totally ignorant. could, in any manner, prejudice our cause; and there was hope, yet, that we should be able to return to our homes--if for nothing else, at least to find out the guilty man or woman who had betrayed us. It is the result of years of toil and labor, assisted in his researches by several scholars of known ability, and has been gotten up at a great expense by the proprietors. I was sure of getting enough to eat at Covey's, even if I suffered in other respects. It is an illustration of southern slavery in all its phases and bearings; and apparently a stronger condemnation of the system we never read, than in Mr. Hildreth's pages. Here was a recently converted man, holding, with tight grasp, the well-framed, and able bodied slaves left him by old master--the persons, who, in freedom, could have taken care of themselves; yet, turning loose the only cripple among them, virtually to starve and die. There is much rivalry among slaves, at times, as to which can do the most work, and masters generally seek to promote such rivalry. I preferred to live within my. It was with the utmost difficulty that I could stand erect, or that I could command and articulate two words without hesitation and stammering. I have enough, and more than your. . We are left to gather his feelings by imagining what ours would be, were our souls in his soul's stead. Men do not love those who remind them of their sins--unless they have a mind to repent--and the mulatto child's face is a standing accusation against him who is master and father to the child. This is the great house; it is the home of the LLOYDS! respectively. Strange, and even ridiculous as it may seem, among a people so uncultivated, and with so many stern trials to look in the face, there is not to be found, among any people, a more rigid enforcement of the law of respect to elders, than they maintain. Auld. You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! Among the services which a senator is expected by his state to perform, are many that can only be done efficiently on committees; and, in saying to these honorable senators, you shall not serve on the committees of this body. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. I want to see the sons and daughters of such a sire. Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding out the true solution of the matter. . In my desperation, I had fully made up my mind to measure strength with Master Hugh, in case he should undertake to execute his threats. . Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers were pleased to regard my lecture as an insult offered to them, and swore I should not speak. of sisters and brothers; but the thought of leaving my friends, was among the strongest obstacles to my running away. Unique Speech of Mrs. Freeland, . Among those whose eyes were riveted on the speaker full two hours and a half, were Thurlow Weed and Lieutenant Governor Raymond; the latter, at the conclusion of the address, exclaimed to a friend, "I would give twenty thousand dollars, if I could deliver that address in that manner." A Conjuror--His Advice--The Magic Root, . At first, I was called upon to bear some part in these exercises; but the repeated flogging given me by Covey, turned the whole thing into mockery. Here, thought I, is something worth living for; here is an excellent chance for usefulness; and I shall soon have a company of young friends, lovers of knowledge, like some of my Baltimore friends, from whom I now felt parted forever. Knowing this fact, as the slaveholder does, and judging the slave by himself, he naturally concludes the slave will be idle whenever the cause for this fear is absent. It was not enough to subsist upon; and we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the expense of our neighbors. IN Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town of that county, there is a small district of country, thinly populated, and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. A more devout man than he, I never saw. Nor can those from whom they separate, give them up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing one that he is removed from his native place. There is nothing very striking or peculiar about my career as a freeman, when viewed apart from my life as a slave. The fruits of his righteousness were to show themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. . But books on England are abundant, and the public may, therefore, dismiss any fear that I am meditating another infliction in that line; though, in truth, I should like much to write a book on those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of the many dear friends, whose benevolent actions, toward me are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart. The more beautiful and charming were the smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate was my condition. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his master's will. "Sir," said I, "I hired my time and paid you the price you asked for it. . This was the case with Uncle Isaac Copper. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. I shall never be able to narrate the mental experience through which it was my lot to pass during my stay at Covey's. . The reader might imagine a difficulty in finding faults enough for such frequent whipping. Lloyd occasionally resorted in their little canoes, at night, with a view to make up the deficiency of their scanty allowance of food, by the oysters that they could easily get there. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I do not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of my enslaved and oppressed people. Had I let you into the secret, you would have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should have been really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave. He had not, in all the scuffle, drawn a single drop of blood from me. It was, however, scarcely necessary for Mr. It would be easy to amplify this summary, and to swell the vast conglomeration of our material forces; but there is a deeper and truer method of measuring the power of our cause, and of comprehending its vitality. Let this damning fact be perpetually told. He asked permission of his new master to go and take the hand of his wife at parting. It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost invariably say they are contented, and that their masters are kind. It is alleged, that they are, naturally, inferior; that they are so low in the scale of humanity, and so utterly stupid, that they are unconscious of their wrongs, and do not apprehend their rights. I love the religion of our blessed Savior. They have little respect for your honesty, and less for your religion. Although often annoyed, and sometimes outraged, by this prejudice against color, I am indebted to it for many passages of quiet amusement. In addition to words and looks, she sometimes gave me a piece of bread and butter; a thing not set down in the bill of fare, and which must have been an extra ration, planned aside from either Aunt Katy or old master, solely out of the tender regard and friendship she had for me. To such a mind, the ordinary processes of logical deduction are like proving that two and two make four. In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our circumstances, I probably suffered more than most of my fellow servants. Indeed, I was not aware that any one connected with the convention even so much as knew my name. Is like the dew-drop on the rose,-- He would creep and crawl, in ditches and gullies; hide behind stumps and bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of the serpent, that Bill Smith and I--between ourselves--never called him by any other name that "the snake." Every man had to do that which he knew how to do. Large eyes were generally made when the order was given to remove the dishes from my table to that of White's. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind, gentle and cheerful. Sunday school. . . was the heading of leading editorials in the. kindly urged me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and my life as a freeman. This arrangement admits of the greatest license to brutal slaveholders, and their profligate sons, brothers, relations and friends, and gives to the pleasure of sin, the additional attraction of profit. It was absolutely painful to listen to the many unreasonable and fretful scoldings, poured out at the stable, by Col. Lloyd, his sons and sons-in-law. It is difficult, too, for a slave-master to believe that slaves escaping have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow slaves. My fears were groundless. Every slaveholder seeks to impress his slave with a belief in the boundlessness of slave territory, and of his own almost illimitable power. I have thought, before now, that he looked at me in answer to my glances, as much as to say, "I will teach you, young man, that, though I have parted with my sins, I have not parted with my sense. stop, stop! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. I went, one day, on the wharf of Mr. These papers were not the only parties surprised. But, in a moment like that, sensations are too intense and too rapid for words. Slaveholders, however, are not very ceremonious in approaching a slave; and my ignorance of the new material in the shape of a master was but transient. and may blessings attend them in this life and in that which is to come! These were the perplexing questions which began now to claim my thoughts, and to exercise the weak powers of my mind, for I was still but a child, and knew less than children of the same age in the free states. . home. By the shock, the body of the cart was flung in one direction, and the wheels and tongue in another, and all in the greatest confusion. I do not know that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye witness of the revolting and brutal inflictions by Mrs. Hamilton; and what lends a deeper shade to this woman's conduct, is the fact, that, almost in the very moments of her shocking outrages of humanity and decency, she would charm you by the sweetness of her voice and her seeming piety. . There is always more or less excitement about the matter of changing hands, but I had become somewhat reckless. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken, to gratify the lust, caprice, and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of men. Our souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in his sight; and he really had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery feeling mingled with his colonization ideas. * Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, deserves mention as one of the most persevering among the colored editorial fraternity. On the other hand, the slave is a fixture; he has no choice, no goal, no destination; but is pegged down to a single spot, and must take root here, or nowhere. If my mother--then long in her grave--had appeared. . Entertaining that feeling very sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in sympathizing circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views and wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. How vividly, at that moment, did the brutalizing power of slavery flash before me! I was called a dozen ways in the space of a single minute. . I need not lift up the veil by giving you any experience of my own. Com. I was the only slave now in that region who could read and write. After the preaching was over, at every service, an invitation was given to mourners to come into the pen; and, in some cases, ministers went out to persuade men and women to come in. To use his own words. the beauty of the world! I wanted no breakfast; but I went with the other slaves toward the house, for form's sake. At that time, I almost agreed with him; but, facts narrated in the first part of this work, throw a different light on this interesting question. Mob on board the Cambria--Happy Introduction to the British Public, . After this, I saw the world in a new light. My sleeping place was on the floor of a little, rough closet, which opened into the kitchen; and through the cracks of its unplaned boards, I could dictinctly see and hear what was going on, without being seen by old master. In like manner, and to the fullest extent, has Frederick Douglass passed through every gradation of rank comprised in our national make-up, and bears upon his person and upon his soul every thing that is American. . I fell to the portion of Mrs. Lucretia--the dear lady who bound up my head, when the savage Aunt Katy was adding to my sufferings her bitterest maledictions. . I would, sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, "I wish I could be free, as you will be when you get to be men." Anthony died intestate; and his property must now be equaily divided between his two children, Andrew and Lucretia. . They resembled the field hands in nothing, except in color, and in this they held the advantage of a velvet-like glossiness, rich and beautiful. The slave is represented as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own defense. As the chief butler on Col. Lloyd's plantation, his duties were numerous and perplexing. What his hand found to do, he did with his might; even while conscious that he was wronged out of his daily earnings, he worked, and worked hard. They inhabit all our southern states. side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave,--we are called upon to prove that we are men! He would not say that slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances. . With all other blessings sought at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great mercy, and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage. While slaves prefer their lives, with flogging, to instant death, they will always find christians enough, like unto Covey, to accommodate that preference. Skill of Slaveholders--Suspicion and Coercion, . Life as a Freeman. And now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together--at this time, this most needful time, the time for the exercise of that tenderness and affection which children only can exercise toward a declining parent--my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim embers.". But, let us now leave the rough usage of the field, where vulgar coarseness and brutal cruelty spread themselves and flourish, rank as weeds in the tropics; where a vile wretch, in the shape of a man, rides, walks, or struts about, dealing blows, and leaving gashes on broken-spirited men and helpless women, for thirty dollars per month--a business so horrible, hardening, and disgraceful, that, rather than engage in it, a decent man would blow his own brains out--and let the reader view with me the equally wicked, but less repulsive aspects of slave life; where pride and pomp roll luxuriously at ease; where the toil of a thousand men supports a single family in easy idleness and sin. "Little children, love one another," are words seldom heard in a slave cabin. The governor had, without changing my skin a single shade, made the place respectable which before was despicable. I have already said, or implied, that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man. Besides the exercise of mind from this state of facts, I had the painful sensation of being about to separate from a circle of honest and warm hearted friends, in Baltimore. TRANSITION FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM--A WANDERER IN NEW YORK--FEELINGS ON REACHING THAT CITY--AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE MET--UNFAVORABLE IMPRESSIONS--LONELINESS AND INSECURITY--APOLOGY FOR SLAVES WHO RETURN TO THEIR MASTERS--COMPELLED TO TELL MY CONDITION--SUCCORED BY A SAILOR--DAVID RUGGLES--THE UNDER-GROUND RAILROAD--MARRIAGE--BAGGAGE TAKEN FROM ME--KINDNESS OF NATHAN JOHNSON--THE AUTHOR'S CHANGE OF NAME--DARK NOTIONS OF NORTHERN CIVILIZATION--THE CONTRAST--COLORED PEOPLE IN NEW BEDFORD--AN INCIDENT ILLUSTRATING THEIR SPIRIT--THE AUTHOR AS A COMMON LABORER--DENIED WORK AT HIS TRADE--THE FIRST WINTER AT THE NORTH--REPULSE AT THE DOORS OF THE CHURCH--SANCTIFIED HATE--THE LIBERATOR AND ITS EDITOR. I will not stand it. Wise as Mr. Auld was, he evidently underrated my comprehension, and had little idea of the use to which I was capable of putting the impressive lesson he was giving to his wife. what's the use?" I think my circumstances all forbid that. Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith! His food is of the coarsest kind, consisting for the most part of cornmeal mush, which often finds it way from the wooden tray to his mouth in an oyster shell. Was there ever a time when this was not so? My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from old master's, and, being. . Covey to abandon herself to the object for which he had purchased her; and the result was, the birth of twins at the end of the year. . . It chills the blood to think that such things are.--Fred. I finally found that change of heart which comes by "casting all one's care" upon God, and by having faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer, Friend, and Savior of those who diligently seek Him. The story is one of thrilling interest as a mere personal history.
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