Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
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William and Ellen Craft >> Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom
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I cannot give a more correct description of the
scene, when she was called from her brother to the
stand, than will be found in the following lines--
"Why stands she near the auction stand?
That girl so young and fair;
What brings her to this dismal place?
Why stands she weeping there?
Why does she raise that bitter cry?
Why hangs her head with shame,
As now the auctioneer's rough voice
So rudely calls her name!
But see! she grasps a manly hand,
And in a voice so low,
As scarcely to be heard, she says,
"My brother, must I go?"
A moment's pause: then, midst a wail
Of agonizing woe,
His answer falls upon the ear,--
"Yes, sister, you must go!
No longer can my arm defend,
No longer can I save
My sister from the horrid fate
That waits her as a SLAVE!"
Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark
Untutored heathen see
Thy inconsistency, and lo!
They scorn thy God, and thee!"
The low trader said to a kind lady who wished
to purchase Antoinette out of his hands, "I
reckon I'll not sell the smart critter for ten thou-
sand dollars; I always wanted her for my own use."
The lady, wishing to remonstrate with him, com-
menced by saying, "You should remember, Sir,
that there is a just God." Hoskens not under-
standing Mrs. Huston, interrupted her by saying,
"I does, and guess its monstrous kind an' him to
send such likely niggers for our convenience." Mrs.
Huston finding that a long course of reckless
wickedness, drunkenness, and vice, had destroyed
in Hoskens every noble impulse, left him.
Antoinette, poor girl, also seeing that there was
no help for her, became frantic. I can never forget
her cries of despair, when Hoskens gave the order
for her to be taken to his house, and locked in an
upper room. On Hoskens entering the apart-
ment, in a state of intoxication, a fearful struggle
ensued. The brave Antoinette broke loose from
him, pitched herself head foremost through the
window, and fell upon the pavement below.
Her bruised but unpolluted body was soon picked
up--restoratives brought--doctor called in; but,
alas! it was too late: her pure and noble spirit had
fled away to be at rest in those realms of endless
bliss, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and
the weary are at rest."
Antoinette like many other noble women who
are deprived of liberty, still
"Holds something sacred, something undefiled;
Some pledge and keepsake of their higher nature.
And, like the diamond in the dark, retains
Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light."
On Hoskens fully realizing the fact that his
victim was no more, he exclaimed "By thunder I
am a used-up man!" The sudden disappointment,
and the loss of two thousand dollars, was more
than he could endure: so he drank more than ever,
and in a short time died, raving mad with delirium
tremens.
The villain Slator said to Mrs. Huston, the kind
lady who endeavoured to purchase Antoinette from
Hoskens, "Nobody needn't talk to me 'bout
buying them ar likely niggers, for I'm not going to
sell em." "But Mary is rather delicate," said Mrs.
Huston, "and, being unaccustomed to hard work,
cannot do you much service on a plantation." "I
don't want her for the field," replied Slator, "but
for another purpose." Mrs. Huston understood
what this meant, and instantly exclaimed, "Oh,
but she is your cousin!" "The devil she is!" said
Slator; and added, "Do you mean to insult me,
Madam, by saying that I am related to niggers?"
"No," replied Mrs. Huston, "I do not wish to
offend you, Sir. But wasn't Mr. Slator, Mary's
father, your uncle?" "Yes, I calculate he was,"
said Slator; "but I want you and everybody to
understand that I'm no kin to his niggers." "Oh,
very well," said Mrs. Huston; adding, "Now what
will you take for the poor girl?" "Nothin'," he
replied; "for, as I said before, I'm not goin' to
sell, so you needn't trouble yourself no more.
If the critter behaves herself, I'll do as well by her
as any man."
Slator spoke up boldly, but his manner and
sheepish look clearly indicated that
"His heart within him was at strife
With such accursed gains;
For he knew whose passions gave her life,
Whose blood ran in her veins."
"The monster led her from the door,
He led her by the hand,
To be his slave and paramour
In a strange and distant land!"
Poor Frank and his sister were handcuffed to-
gether, and confined in prison. Their dear little
twin brother and sister were sold, and taken where
they knew not. But it often happens that mis-
fortune causes those whom we counted dearest to
shrink away; while it makes friends of those
whom we least expected to take any interest in our
affairs. Among the latter class Frank found two
comparatively new but faithful friends to watch the
gloomy paths of the unhappy little twins.
In a day or two after the sale, Slator had two fast
horses put to a large light van, and placed in it
a good many small but valuable things belonging
to the distressed family. He also took with him
Frank and Mary, as well as all the money for the
spoil; and after treating all his low friends and
bystanders, and drinking deeply himself, he started
in high glee for his home in South Carolina. But
they had not proceeded many miles, before Frank
and his sister discovered that Slator was too
drunk to drive. But he, like most tipsy men,
thought he was all right; and as he had with him
some of the ruined family's best brandy and wine,
such as he had not been accustomed to, and being
a thirsty soul, he drank till the reins fell from his
fingers, and in attempting to catch them he
tumbled out of the vehicle, and was unable to get
up. Frank and Mary there and then contrived
a plan by which to escape. As they were still
handcuffed by one wrist each, they alighted, took
from the drunken assassin's pocket the key, undid
the iron bracelets, and placed them upon Slator,
who was better fitted to wear such ornaments. As
the demon lay unconscious of what was taking
place, Frank and Mary took from him the large
sum of money that was realized at the sale, as well
as that which Slator had so very meanly obtained
from their poor mother. They then dragged him
into the woods, tied him to a tree, and left the
inebriated robber to shift for himself, while they
made good their escape to Savannah. The fugitives
being white, of course no one suspected that they
were slaves.
Slator was not able to call any one to his rescue
till late the next day; and as there were no rail-
roads in that part of the country at that time, it
was not until late the following day that Slator was
able to get a party to join him for the chase. A
person informed Slator that he had met a man and
woman, in a trap, answering to the description of
those whom he had lost, driving furiously towards
Savannah. So Slator and several slavehunters on
horseback started off in full tilt, with their blood-
hounds, in pursuit of Frank and Mary.
On arriving at Savannah, the hunters found that
the fugitives had sold the horses and trap, and
embarked as free white persons, for New York.
Slator's disappointment and rascality so preyed
upon his base mind, that he, like Judas, went and
hanged himself.
As soon as Frank and Mary were safe, they
endeavoured to redeem their good mother. But,
alas! she was gone; she had passed on to the
realm of spirit life.
In due time Frank learned from his friends in
Georgia where his little brother and sister dwelt.
So he wrote at once to purchase them, but the
persons with whom they lived would not sell them.
After failing in several attempts to buy them,
Frank cultivated large whiskers and moustachios,
cut off his hair, put on a wig and glasses, and
went down as a white man, and stopped in the
neighbourhood where his sister was; and after see-
ing her and also his little brother, arrangements
were made for them to meet at a particular place
on a Sunday, which they did, and got safely off.
I saw Frank myself, when he came for the little
twins. Though I was then quite a lad, I well
remember being highly delighted by hearing him
tell how nicely he and Mary had served Slator.
Frank had so completely disguised or changed
his appearance that his little sister did not know
him, and would not speak till he showed their
mother's likeness; the sight of which melted her
to tears,--for she knew the face. Frank might
have said to her
"'O, Emma! O, my sister, speak to me!
Dost thou not know me, that I am thy brother?
Come to me, little Emma, thou shalt dwell
With me henceforth, and know no care or want.'
Emma was silent for a space, as if
'Twere hard to summon up a human voice."
Frank and Mary's mother was my wife's own
dear aunt.
After this great diversion from our narrative,
which I hope dear reader, you will excuse, I shall
return at once to it.
My wife was torn from her mother's embrace
in childhood, and taken to a distant part of the
country. She had seen so many other children
separated from their parents in this cruel man-
ner, that the mere thought of her ever becoming
the mother of a child, to linger out a miserable
existence under the wretched system of American
slavery, appeared to fill her very soul with horror;
and as she had taken what I felt to be an important
view of her condition, I did not, at first, press
the marriage, but agreed to assist her in trying to
devise some plan by which we might escape from
our unhappy condition, and then be married.
We thought of plan after plan, but they all
seemed crowded with insurmountable difficulties.
We knew it was unlawful for any public convey-
ance to take us as passengers, without our master's
consent. We were also perfectly aware of the
startling fact, that had we left without this consent
the professional slave-hunters would have soon
had their ferocious bloodhounds baying on our
track, and in a short time we should have been
dragged back to slavery, not to fill the more favour-
able situations which we had just left, but to
be separated for life, and put to the very meanest
and most laborious drudgery; or else have been
tortured to death as examples, in order to strike
terror into the hearts of others, and thereby pre-
vent them from even attempting to escape from
their cruel taskmasters. It is a fact worthy of
remark, that nothing seems to give the slaveholders
so much pleasure as the catching and torturing of
fugitives. They had much rather take the keen and
poisonous lash, and with it cut their poor trembling
victims to atoms, than allow one of them to escape
to a free country, and expose the infamous system
from which he fled.
The greatest excitement prevails at a slave-hunt.
The slaveholders and their hired ruffians appear to
take more pleasure in this inhuman pursuit than
English sportsmen do in chasing a fox or a stag.
Therefore, knowing what we should have been
compelled to suffer, if caught and taken back,
we were more than anxious to hit upon a plan
that would lead us safely to a land of liberty.
But, after puzzling our brains for years, we were
reluctantly driven to the sad conclusion, that it
was almost impossible to escape from slavery in
Georgia, and travel 1,000 miles across the slave
States. We therefore resolved to get the consent
of our owners, be married, settle down in slavery,
and endeavour to make ourselves as comfortable
as possible under that system; but at the same
time ever to keep our dim eyes steadily fixed
upon the glimmering hope of liberty, and earnestly
pray God mercifully to assist us to escape from our
unjust thraldom.
We were married, and prayed and toiled on till
December, 1848, at which time (as I have stated)
a plan suggested itself that proved quite success-
ful, and in eight days after it was first thought of
we were free from the horrible trammels of slavery,
and glorifying God who had brought us safely out
of a land of bondage.
Knowing that slaveholders have the privilege
of taking their slaves to any part of the country
they think proper, it occurred to me that, as
my wife was nearly white, I might get her to
disguise herself as an invalid gentleman, and
assume to be my master, while I could attend as
his slave, and that in this manner we might effect
our escape. After I thought of the plan, I sug-
gested it to my wife, but at first she shrank from
the idea. She thought it was almost impossible
for her to assume that disguise, and travel a dis-
tance of 1,000 miles across the slave States. How-
ever, on the other hand, she also thought of her
condition. She saw that the laws under which we
lived did not recognize her to be a woman, but a
mere chattel, to be bought and sold, or otherwise
dealt with as her owner might see fit. Therefore
the more she contemplated her helpless condition,
the more anxious she was to escape from it. So
she said, "I think it is almost too much for us to
undertake; however, I feel that God is on our side,
and with his assistance, notwithstanding all the
difficulties, we shall be able to succeed. There-
fore, if you will purchase the disguise, I will try to
carry out the plan."
But after I concluded to purchase the disguise, I
was afraid to go to any one to ask him to sell me
the articles. It is unlawful in Georgia for a white
man to trade with slaves without the master's con-
sent. But, notwithstanding this, many persons will
sell a slave any article that he can get the money
to buy. Not that they sympathize with the slave,
but merely because his testimony is not admitted
in court against a free white person.
Therefore, with little difficulty I went to dif-
ferent parts of the town, at odd times, and purchased
things piece by piece, (except the trowsers which
she found necessary to make,) and took them home
to the house where my wife resided. She being
a ladies' maid, and a favourite slave in the family,
was allowed a little room to herself; and amongst
other pieces of furniture which I had made in my
overtime, was a chest of drawers; so when I took
the articles home, she locked them up carefully in
these drawers. No one about the premises knew
that she had anything of the kind. So when we
fancied we had everything ready the time was
fixed for the flight. But we knew it would not do
to start off without first getting our master's con-
sent to be away for a few days. Had we left with-
out this, they would soon have had us back into
slavery, and probably we should never have got
another fair opportunity of even attempting to
escape.
Some of the best slaveholders will sometimes
give their favourite slaves a few days' holiday at
Christmas time; so, after no little amount of per-
severance on my wife's part, she obtained a pass
from her mistress, allowing her to be away for a
few days. The cabinet-maker with whom I worked
gave me a similar paper, but said that he needed
my services very much, and wished me to return as
soon as the time granted was up. I thanked him
kindly; but somehow I have not been able to make
it convenient to return yet; and, as the free air of
good old England agrees so well with my wife and our
dear little ones, as well as with myself, it is not at all
likely we shall return at present to the "peculiar in-
stitution" of chains and stripes.
On reaching my wife's cottage she handed me
her pass, and I showed mine, but at that time
neither of us were able to read them. It is not only
unlawful for slaves to be taught to read, but in
some of the States there are heavy penalties at-
tached, such as fines and imprisonment, which will
be vigorously enforced upon any one who is humane
enough to violate the so-called law.
The following case will serve to show how per-
sons are treated in the most enlightened slavehold-
ing community.
"INDICTMENT.
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, } In the Circuit
NORFOLK COUNTY, ss.} Court. The
Grand Jurors empannelled in the body of the said
County on their oath present, that Margaret Doug-
lass, being an evil disposed person, not having the
fear of God before her eyes, but moved and insti-
gated by the devil, wickedly, maliciously, and
feloniously, on the fourth day of July, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four, at Norfolk, in said County, did teach a certain
black girl named Kate to read in the Bible, to the
great displeasure of Almighty God, to the per-
nicious example of others in like case offending,
contrary to the form of the statute in such case made
and provided, and against the peace and dignity of
the Commonwealth of Virginia.
"VICTOR VAGABOND, Prosecuting Attorney."
"On this indictment Mrs. Douglass was arraigned
as a necessary matter of form, tried, found guilty
of course; and Judge Scalaway, before whom she
was tried, having consulted with Dr. Adams, or-
dered the sheriff to place Mrs. Douglass in the
prisoner's box, when he addressed her as follows:
'Margaret Douglass, stand up. You are guilty of
one of the vilest crimes that ever disgraced society;
and the jury have found you so. You have taught
a slave girl to read in the Bible. No enlightened
society can exist where such offences go unpun-
ished. The Court, in your case, do not feel for you
one solitary ray of sympathy, and they will inflict
on you the utmost penalty of the law. In any
other civilized country you would have paid the
forfeit of your crime with your life, and the Court
have only to regret that such is not the law in
this country. The sentence for your offence is,
that you be imprisoned one month in the county
jail, and that you pay the costs of this prosecution.
Sheriff, remove the prisoner to jail.' On the pub-
lication of these proceedings, the Doctors of
Divinity preached each a sermon on the necessity
of obeying the laws; the New York Observer noticed
with much pious gladness a revival of religion on
Dr. Smith's plantation in Georgia, among his
slaves; while the Journal of Commerce commended
this political preaching of the Doctors of Divinity
because it favoured slavery. Let us do nothing to
offend our Southern brethren."
However, at first, we were highly delighted at
the idea of having gained permission to be absent
for a few days; but when the thought flashed
across my wife's mind, that it was customary for
travellers to register their names in the visitors'
book at hotels, as well as in the clearance or
Custom-house book at Charleston, South Carolina
--it made our spirits droop within us.
So, while sitting in our little room upon the
verge of despair, all at once my wife raised her
head, and with a smile upon her face, which was a
moment before bathed in tears, said, "I think
I have it!" I asked what it was. She said, "I
think I can make a poultice and bind up my right
hand in a sling, and with propriety ask the officers
to register my name for me." I thought that
would do.
It then occurred to her that the smoothness of
her face might betray her; so she decided to make
another poultice, and put it in a white handkerchief
to be worn under the chin, up the cheeks, and to
tie over the head. This nearly hid the expression
of the countenance, as well as the beardless chin.
The poultice is left off in the engraving, because
the likeness could not have been taken well with
it on.
My wife, knowing that she would be thrown
a good deal into the company of gentlemen, fancied
that she could get on better if she had something
to go over the eyes; so I went to a shop and
bought a pair of green spectacles. This was in the
evening.
We sat up all night discussing the plan, and
making preparations. Just before the time arrived,
in the morning, for us to leave, I cut off my wife's
hair square at the back of the head, and got her to
dress in the disguise and stand out on the floor.
I found that she made a most respectable looking
gentleman.
My wife had no ambition whatever to assume
this disguise, and would not have done so had it
been possible to have obtained our liberty by more
simple means; but we knew it was not customary
in the South for ladies to travel with male servants;
and therefore, notwithstanding my wife's fair com-
plexion, it would have been a very difficult task for
her to have come off as a free white lady, with me as
her slave; in fact, her not being able to write
would have made this quite impossible. We knew
that no public conveyance would take us, or any
other slave, as a passenger, without our master's
consent. This consent could never be obtained to
pass into a free State. My wife's being muffled in
the poultices, &c., furnished a plausible excuse for
avoiding general conversation, of which most
Yankee travellers are passionately fond.
There are a large number of free negroes residing
in the southern States; but in Georgia (and I
believe in all the slave States,) every coloured per-
son's complexion is prima facie evidence of his
being a slave; and the lowest villain in the country,
should he be a white man, has the legal power to
arrest, and question, in the most inquisitorial and
insulting manner, any coloured person, male or
female, that he may find at large, particularly at
night and on Sundays, without a written pass,
signed by the master or some one in authority; or
stamped free papers, certifying that the person is
the rightful owner of himself.
If the coloured person refuses to answer ques-
tions put to him, he may be beaten, and his defend-
ing himself against this attack makes him an
outlaw, and if he be killed on the spot, the mur-
derer will be exempted from all blame; but after the
coloured person has answered the questions put to
him, in a most humble and pointed manner, he may
then be taken to prison; and should it turn out,
after further examination, that he was caught
where he had no permission or legal right to be,
and that he has not given what they term a satis-
factory account of himself, the master will have to
pay a fine. On his refusing to do this, the poor
slave may be legally and severely flogged by
public officers. Should the prisoner prove to be a
free man, he is most likely to be both whipped
and fined.
The great majority of slaveholders hate this class
of persons with a hatred that can only be equalled
by the condemned spirits of the infernal regions.
They have no mercy upon, nor sympathy for, any
negro whom they cannot enslave. They say that
God made the black man to be a slave for the white,
and act as though they really believed that all free
persons of colour are in open rebellion to a direct
command from heaven, and that they (the whites)
are God's chosen agents to pour out upon them
unlimited vengeance. For instance, a Bill has
been introduced in the Tennessee Legislature to
prevent free negroes from travelling on the rail-
roads in that State. It has passed the first reading.
The bill provides that the President who shall
permit a free negro to travel on any road within
the jurisdiction of the State under his supervision
shall pay a fine of 500 dollars; any conductor
permitting a violation of the Act shall pay 250
dollars; provided such free negro is not under the
control of a free white citizen of Tennessee, who
will vouch for the character of said free negro
in a penal bond of one thousand dollars. The
State of Arkansas has passed a law to banish all
free negroes from its bounds, and it came into effect
on the 1st day of January, 1860. Every free negro
found there after that date will be liable to be sold
into slavery, the crime of freedom being unpardon-
able. The Missouri Senate has before it a bill
providing that all free negroes above the age of
eighteen years who shall be found in the State after
September, 1860, shall be sold into slavery; and
that all such negroes as shall enter the State after
September, 1861, and remain there twenty-four
hours, shall also be sold into slavery for ever. Mis-
sissippi, Kentucky, and Georgia, and in fact, I be-
lieve, all the slave States, are legislating in the same
manner. Thus the slaveholders make it almost im-
possible for free persons of colour to get out of the
slave States, in order that they may sell them into
slavery if they don't go. If no white persons travelled
upon railroads except those who could get some one
to vouch for their character in a penal bond of one
thousand dollars, the railroad companies would soon
go to the "wall." Such mean legislation is too low
for comment; therefore I leave the villainous acts to
speak for themselves.
But the Dred Scott decision is the crowning act
of infamous Yankee legislation. The Supreme Court,
the highest tribunal of the Republic, composed of
nine Judge Jeffries's, chosen both from the free and
slave States, has decided that no coloured person,
or persons of African extraction, can ever become a
citizen of the United States, or have any rights
which white men are bound to respect. That is to
say, in the opinion of this Court, robbery, rape, and
murder are not crimes when committed by a white
upon a coloured person.
Judges who will sneak from their high and
honourable position down into the lowest depths of
human depravity, and scrape up a decision like this,
are wholly unworthy the confidence of any people.
I believe such men would, if they had the power,
and were it to their temporal interest, sell their
country's independence, and barter away every
man's birthright for a mess of pottage. Well
may Thomas Campbell say--
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