Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

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THE AMERICAN NEGRO

HIS HISTORY AND LITERATURE

RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM

William and Ellen Craft

RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
OR, THE ESCAPE OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN CRAFT
FROM SLAVERY.

"Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall."

COWPER

RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM

PREFACE.

HAVING heard while in Slavery that "God made
of one blood all nations of men," and also that the
American Declaration of Independence says, that
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness;" we could not understand by what
right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we
felt perfectly justified in undertaking the dan-
gerous and exciting task of "running a thousand
miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so
vividly set forth in the Declaration.

I beg those who would know the particulars of
our journey, to peruse these pages.

This book is not intended as a full history of the
life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an
account of our escape; together with other matter
which I hope may be the means of creating in
some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and
abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our
fellow-creatures.

Without stopping to write a long apology for
offering this little volume to the public, I shall
commence at once to pursue my simple story.

W. CRAFT.

12, CAMBRIDGE ROAD,
HAMMERSMITH,
LONDON.

RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR
FREEDOM.

-----+-----

PART I.

"God gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation. But man over man
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."

MILTON.

MY wife and myself were born in different
towns in the State of Georgia, which is one of the
principal slave States. It is true, our condition as
slaves was not by any means the worst; but the
mere idea that we were held as chattels, and de-
prived of all legal rights--the thought that we
had to give up our hard earnings to a tyrant, to
enable him to live in idleness and luxury--the
thought that we could not call the bones and
sinews that God gave us our own: but above all,
the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in
the shambles like a brute, and then scourge us if
we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate,
haunted us for years.

But in December, 1848, a plan suggested itself
that proved quite successful, and in eight days
after it was first thought of we were free from the
horrible trammels of slavery, rejoicing and praising
God in the glorious sunshine of liberty.

My wife's first master was her father, and her
mother his slave, and the latter is still the slave of
his widow.

Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex-
traction on her mother's side, she is almost white--
in fact, she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old
lady to whom she first belonged became so annoyed,
at finding her frequently mistaken for a child of
the family, that she gave her when eleven years of
age to a daughter, as a wedding present. This
separated my wife from her mother, and also from
several other dear friends. But the incessant
cruelty of her old mistress made the change of
owners or treatment so desirable, that she did not
grumble much at this cruel separation.

It may be remembered that slavery in America
is not at all confined to persons of any particular
complexion; there are a very large number of
slaves as white as any one; but as the evidence of a
slave is not admitted in court against a free white
person, it is almost impossible for a white child,
after having been kidnapped and sold into or re-
duced to slavery, in a part of the country where it
is not known (as often is the case), ever to recover
its freedom.

I have myself conversed with several slaves who
told me that their parents were white and free; but
that they were stolen away from them and sold
when quite young. As they could not tell their
address, and also as the parents did not know
what had become of their lost and dear little
ones, of course all traces of each other were gone.

The following facts are sufficient to prove, that
he who has the power, and is inhuman enough to
trample upon the sacred rights of the weak, cares
nothing for race or colour:--

In March, 1818, three ships arrived at New
Orleans, bringing several hundred German emi-
grants from the province of Alsace, on the lower
Rhine. Among them were Daniel Muller and his
two daughters, Dorothea and Salome, whose mother
had died on the passage. Soon after his arrival,
Muller, taking with him his two daughters, both
young children, went up the river to Attakapas
parish, to work on the plantation of John F. Miller.
A few weeks later, his relatives, who had remained
at New Orleans, learned that he had died of the
fever of the country. They immediately sent for
the two girls; but they had disappeared, and the
relatives, notwithstanding repeated and persevering
inquiries and researches, could find no traces of
them. They were at length given up for dead.
Dorothea was never again heard of; nor was any
thing known of Salome from 1818 till 1843.

In the summer of that year, Madame Karl, a
German woman who had come over in the same
ship with the Mullers, was passing through a street
in New Orleans, and accidentally saw Salome in a
wine-shop, belonging to Louis Belmonte, by whom
she was held as a slave. Madame Karl recognised
her at once, and carried her to the house of another
German woman, Mrs. Schubert, who was Salome's
cousin and godmother, and who no sooner set eyes
on her than, without having any intimation that
the discovery had been previously made, she un-
hesitatingly exclaimed, "My God! here is the
long-lost Salome Muller."

The Law Reporter, in its account of this case,
says:--

"As many of the German emigrants of 1818 as
could be gathered together were brought to the
house of Mrs. Schubert, and every one of the
number who had any recollection of the little girl
upon the passage, or any acquaintance with her
father and mother, immediately identified the
woman before them as the long-lost Salome
Muller. By all these witnesses, who appeared
at the trial, the identity was fully established.
The family resemblance in every feature was
declared to be so remarkable, that some of the
witnesses did not hesitate to say that they should
know her among ten thousand; that they were
as certain the plaintiff was Salome Muller, the
daughter of Daniel and Dorothea Muller, as of
their own existence."

Among the witnesses who appeared in Court was
the midwife who had assisted at the birth of Salome.
She testified to the existence of certain peculiar
marks upon the body of the child, which were
found, exactly as described, by the surgeons who
were appointed by the Court to make an examina-
tion for the purpose.

There was no trace of African descent in
any feature of Salome Muller. She had long,
straight, black hair, hazel eyes, thin lips, and
a Roman nose. The complexion of her face and
neck was as dark as that of the darkest brunette.
It appears, however, that, during the twenty-five
years of her servitude, she had been exposed to
the sun's rays in the hot climate of Louisiana, with
head and neck unsheltered, as is customary with
the female slaves, while labouring in the cotton or
the sugar field. Those parts of her person which
had been shielded from the sun were compara-
tively white.

Belmonte, the pretended owner of the girl, had
obtained possession of her by an act of sale from
John F. Miller, the planter in whose service
Salome's father died. This Miller was a man of
consideration and substance, owning large sugar
estates, and bearing a high reputation for honour
and honesty, and for indulgent treatment of his
slaves. It was testified on the trial that he had
said to Belmonte, a few weeks after the sale of
Salome, "that she was white, and had as much
right to her freedom as any one, and was only to
be retained in slavery by care and kind treatment."
The broker who negotiated the sale from Miller to
Belmonte, in 1838, testified in Court that he then
thought, and still thought, that the girl was white!

The case was elaborately argued on both sides,
but was at length decided in favour of the girl,
by the Supreme Court declaring that "she was
free and white, and therefore unlawfully held in
bondage."

The Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, in his
Picture of Slavery, published in 1834, relates the
case of a white boy who, at the age of seven, was
stolen from his home in Ohio, tanned and stained
in such a way that he could not be distinguished
from a person of colour, and then sold as a slave
in Virginia. At the age of twenty, he made his
escape, by running away, and happily succeeded in
rejoining his parents.

I have known worthless white people to sell their
own free children into slavery; and, as there are
good-for-nothing white as well as coloured persons
everywhere, no one, perhaps, will wonder at such
inhuman transactions: particularly in the Southern
States of America, where I believe there is a
greater want of humanity and high principle
amongst the whites, than among any other
civilized people in the world.

I know that those who are not familiar with the
working of "the peculiar institution," can scarcely
imagine any one so totally devoid of all natural
affection as to sell his own offspring into returnless
bondage. But Shakespeare, that great observer
of human nature, says:--

"With caution judge of probabilities.
Things deemed unlikely, e'en impossible,
Experience often shews us to be true."

My wife's new mistress was decidedly more
humane than the majority of her class. My wife
has always given her credit for not exposing her to
many of the worst features of slavery. For instance,
it is a common practice in the slave States for ladies,
when angry with their maids, to send them to the
calybuce sugar-house, or to some other place
established for the purpose of punishing slaves,
and have them severely flogged; and I am sorry
it is a fact, that the villains to whom those de-
fenceless creatures are sent, not only flog them
as they are ordered, but frequently compel them
to submit to the greatest indignity. Oh! if there
is any one thing under the wide canopy of heaven,
horrible enough to stir a man's soul, and to make
his very blood boil, it is the thought of his dear
wife, his unprotected sister, or his young and
virtuous daughters, struggling to save themselves
from falling a prey to such demons!

It always appears strange to me that any one
who was not born a slaveholder, and steeped to the
very core in the demoralizing atmosphere of the
Southern States, can in any way palliate slavery.
It is still more surprising to see virtuous ladies
looking with patience upon, and remaining indif-
ferent to, the existence of a system that exposes
nearly two millions of their own sex in the manner
I have mentioned, and that too in a professedly
free and Christian country. There is, however,
great consolation in knowing that God is just, and
will not let the oppressor of the weak, and the
spoiler of the virtuous, escape unpunished here and
hereafter.

I believe a similar retribution to that which
destroyed Sodom is hanging over the slaveholders.
My sincere prayer is that they may not provoke
God, by persisting in a reckless course of wicked-
ness, to pour out his consuming wrath upon them.

I must now return to our history.

My old master had the reputation of being a
very humane and Christian man, but he thought
nothing of selling my poor old father, and dear
aged mother, at separate times, to different persons,
to be dragged off never to behold each other again,
till summoned to appear before the great tribunal
of heaven. But, oh! what a happy meeting it
will be on that day for those faithful souls.
I say a happy meeting, because I never saw
persons more devoted to the service of God
than they. But how will the case stand with those
reckless traffickers in human flesh and blood, who
plunged the poisonous dagger of separation into
those loving hearts which God had for so many
years closely joined together--nay, sealed as it
were with his own hands for the eternal courts of
heaven? It is not for me to say what will become
of those heartless tyrants. I must leave them in
the hands of an all-wise and just God, who will, in
his own good time, and in his own way, avenge the
wrongs of his oppressed people.

My old master also sold a dear brother and a
sister, in the same manner as he did my father and
mother. The reason he assigned for disposing of
my parents, as well as of several other aged slaves,
was, that "they were getting old, and would soon
become valueless in the market, and therefore he
intended to sell off all the old stock, and buy in a
young lot." A most disgraceful conclusion for a
man to come to, who made such great professions
of religion!

This shameful conduct gave me a thorough
hatred, not for true Christianity, but for slave-
holding piety.

My old master, then, wishing to make the most
of the rest of his slaves, apprenticed a brother
and myself out to learn trades: he to a black-
smith, and myself to a cabinet-maker. If a slave
has a good trade, he will let or sell for more
than a person without one, and many slave-
holders have their slaves taught trades on this
account. But before our time expired, my old
master wanted money; so he sold my brother, and
then mortgaged my sister, a dear girl about four-
teen years of age, and myself, then about sixteen,
to one of the banks, to get money to speculate in
cotton. This we knew nothing of at the moment;
but time rolled on, the money became due, my
master was unable to meet his payments; so the
bank had us placed upon the auction stand and
sold to the highest bidder.

My poor sister was sold first: she was knocked
down to a planter who resided at some distance
in the country. Then I was called upon the stand.
While the auctioneer was crying the bids, I saw
the man that had purchased my sister getting her
into a cart, to take her to his home. I at once
asked a slave friend who was standing near the
platform, to run and ask the gentleman if he
would please to wait till I was sold, in order
that I might have an opportunity of bidding her
good-bye. He sent me word back that he had
some distance to go, and could not wait.

I then turned to the auctioneer, fell upon my
knees, and humbly prayed him to let me just step
down and bid my last sister farewell. But, instead
of granting me this request, he grasped me by the
neck, and in a commanding tone of voice, and with
a violent oath, exclaimed, "Get up! You can do
the wench no good; therefore there is no use in
your seeing her."

On rising, I saw the cart in which she sat
moving slowly off; and, as she clasped her hands
with a grasp that indicated despair, and looked
pitifully round towards me, I also saw the large
silent tears trickling down her cheeks. She made
a farewell bow, and buried her face in her lap.
This seemed more than I could bear. It appeared
to swell my aching heart to its utmost. But
before I could fairly recover, the poor girl was
gone;--gone, and I have never had the good for-
tune to see her from that day to this! Perhaps
I should have never heard of her again, had it not
been for the untiring efforts of my good old
mother, who became free a few years ago by pur-
chase, and, after a great deal of difficulty, found
my sister residing with a family in Mississippi.
My mother at once wrote to me, informing me of
the fact, and requesting me to do something to get
her free; and I am happy to say that, partly by
lecturing occasionally, and through the sale of an
engraving of my wife in the disguise in which
she escaped, together with the extreme kind-
ness and generosity of Miss Burdett Coutts,
Mr. George Richardson of Plymouth, and a few
other friends, I have nearly accomplished this.
It would be to me a great and ever-glorious
achievement to restore my sister to our dear
mother, from whom she was forcibly driven in
early life.

I was knocked down to the cashier of the
bank to which we were mortgaged, and ordered
to return to the cabinet shop where I previously
worked.

But the thought of the harsh auctioneer not
allowing me to bid my dear sister farewell, sent
red-hot indignation darting like lightning through
every vein. It quenched my tears, and appeared
to set my brain on fire, and made me crave for
power to avenge our wrongs! But alas! we were
only slaves, and had no legal rights; consequently
we were compelled to smother our wounded feel-
ings, and crouch beneath the iron heel of des-
potism.

I must now give the account of our escape;
but, before doing so, it may be well to quote
a few passages from the fundamental laws of
slavery; in order to give some idea of the
legal as well as the social tyranny from which
we fled.

According to the law of Louisiana, "A slave
is one who is in the power of a master to whom he
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his
person, his industry, and his labour; he can do
nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything but
what must belong to his master."--Civil Code,
art. 35.

In South Carolina it is expressed in the following
language:--"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken,
reputed and judged in law to be chattels personal
in the hands of their owners and possessors, and
their executors, administrators, and assigns, to all
intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.--
2 Brevard's Digest, 229.

The Constitution of Georgia has the following
(Art. 4, sec. 12):--"Any person who shall mali-
ciously dismember or deprive a slave of life, shall
suffer such punishment as would be inflicted in
case the like offence had been committed on a free
white person, and on the like proof, except in case
of insurrection of such slave, and unless SUCH
DEATH SHOULD HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT IN GIVING
SUCH SLAVE MODERATE CORRECTION."--Prince's
Digest, 559.

I have known slaves to be beaten to death, but
as they died under "moderate correction," it was
quite lawful; and of course the murderers were
not interfered with.

"If any slave, who shall be out of the house or
plantation where such slave shall live, or shall be
usually employed, or without some white person
in company with such slave, shall REFUSE TO SUBMIT
to undergo the examination of ANY WHITE person,
(let him be ever so drunk or crazy), it shall be
lawful for such white person to pursue, apprehend,
and moderately correct such slave; and if such
slave shall assault and strike such white person,
such slave may be LAWFULLY KILLED."--2 Brevard's
Digest, 231.

"Provided always," says the law, "that such
striking be not done by the command and in the
defence of the person or property of the owner, or
other person having the government of such slave;
in which case the slave shall be wholly excused."

According to this law, if a slave, by the direction
of his overseer, strike a white person who is beating
said overseer's pig, "the slave shall be wholly
excused." But, should the bondman, of his own
accord, fight to defend his wife, or should his
terrified daughter instinctively raise her hand and
strike the wretch who attempts to violate her
chastity, he or she shall, saith the model republican
law, suffer death.

From having been myself a slave for nearly
twenty-three years, I am quite prepared to say,
that the practical working of slavery is worse than
the odious laws by which it is governed.

At an early age we were taken by the persons who
held us as property to Macon, the largest town in the
interior of the State of Georgia, at which place
we became acquainted with each other for several
years before our marriage; in fact, our marriage
was postponed for some time simply because one
of the unjust and worse than Pagan laws under
which we lived compelled all children of slave
mothers to follow their condition. That is to say,
the father of the slave may be the President of the
Republic; but if the mother should be a slave at the
infant's birth, the poor child is ever legally doomed
to the same cruel fate.

It is a common practice for gentlemen (if I may
call them such), moving in the highest circles of
society, to be the fathers of children by their slaves,
whom they can and do sell with the greatest im-
punity; and the more pious, beautiful, and virtuous
the girls are, the greater the price they bring, and
that too for the most infamous purposes.

Any man with money (let him be ever such a
rough brute), can buy a beautiful and virtuous
girl, and force her to live with him in a criminal
connexion; and as the law says a slave shall
have no higher appeal than the mere will of the
master, she cannot escape, unless it be by flight or
death.

In endeavouring to reconcile a girl to her fate,
the master sometimes says that he would marry
her if it was not unlawful.* However, he will
always consider her to be his wife, and will treat
her as such; and she, on the other hand, may
regard him as her lawful husband; and if they
have any children, they will be free and well edu-
cated.

I am in duty bound to add, that while a great
majority of such men care nothing for the happi-
ness of the women with whom they live, nor for
the children of whom they are the fathers, there
are those to be found, even in that heterogeneous
mass of licentious monsters, who are true to their
pledges. But as the woman and her children are
legally the property of the man, who stands in the
anomalous relation to them of husband and father,
as well as master, they are liable to be seized and
sold for his debts, should he become involved.

There are several cases on record where such
persons have been sold and separated for life. I
know of some myself, but I have only space to
glance at one.

I knew a very humane and wealthy gentleman,
that bought a woman, with whom he lived as his

* It is unlawful in the slave States for any one of purely
European descent to intermarry with a person of African ex-
traction; though a white man may live with as many coloured
women as he pleases without materially damaging his reputa-
tion in Southern society.
wife. They brought up a family of children,
among whom were three nearly white, well edu-
cated, and beautiful girls.

On the father being suddenly killed it was found
that he had not left a will; but, as the family had
always heard him say that he had no surviving
relatives, they felt that their liberty and property
were quite secured to them, and, knowing the insults
to which they were exposed, now their protector
was no more, they were making preparations to
leave for a free State.

But, poor creatures, they were soon sadly unde-
ceived. A villain residing at a distance, hearing of
the circumstance, came forward and swore that he
was a relative of the deceased; and as this man
bore, or assumed, Mr. Slator's name, the case
was brought before one of those horrible tribunals,
presided over by a second Judge Jeffreys, and
calling itself a court of justice, but before whom
no coloured person, nor an abolitionist, was ever
known to get his full rights.

A verdict was given in favour of the plaintiff,
whom the better portion of the community thought
had wilfully conspired to cheat the family.

The heartless wretch not only took the ordi-
nary property, but actually had the aged and
friendless widow, and all her fatherless children,
except Frank, a fine young man about twenty-two
years of age, and Mary, a very nice girl, a little
younger than her brother, brought to the auction
stand and sold to the highest bidder. Mrs. Slator
had cash enough, that her husband and master left,
to purchase the liberty of herself and children; but
on her attempting to do so, the pusillanimous
scoundrel, who had robbed them of their freedom,
claimed the money as his property; and, poor
creature, she had to give it up. According to law,
as will be seen hereafter, a slave cannot own any-
thing. The old lady never recovered from her sad
affliction.

At the sale she was brought up first, and after
being vulgarly criticised, in the presence of all her
distressed family, was sold to a cotton planter, who
said he wanted the "proud old critter to go to his
plantation, to look after the little woolly heads,
while their mammies were working in the field."

When the sale was over, then came the separa-
tion, and

"O, deep was the anguish of that slave mother's heart,
When called from her darlings for ever to part;
The poor mourning mother of reason bereft,
Soon ended her sorrows, and sank cold in death."

Antoinette, the flower of the family, a girl who
was much beloved by all who knew her, for her
Christ-like piety, dignity of manner, as well as her
great talents and extreme beauty, was bought by
an uneducated and drunken salve-dealer.

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