 CHAPTER XI. The Persuasion of Mr. Peck, and fascinated with the charms of Georgiana, Carlton had prolonged his stay two months with his old school fellow. During the latter part of the time he had been almost as one of the family. If Miss Peck was invited out, Mr. Carlton was, as a matter of course. She seldom wrote out unless with him. If Mr. Peck was absent, he took the head of the table, and to the delight of the young lady he had on several occasions taken part in the family worship. I am glad, said Mr. Peck one evening while at the tea table. I am glad, Mr. Carlton, that my neighbor Jones has invited you to visit him at his farm. He is a good neighbor, but a very ungodly man. I want that you should see his people, and then when you return to the North you can tell how much better a Christian's slaves are situated than one who does nothing for the cause of Christ. I hope, Mr. Carlton, said Georgiana, that you will spend the Sabbath with him and have a religious interview with the Negroes. Yes, replied the parson, that's well thought of Georgie. Well, I think I will go up on Thursday next, and stay till Monday, said Carlton, and I shall act upon your suggestion, Miss Peck, continued he, and try to get a religious interview with the blacks. By the by, remarked Carlton, I saw an advertisement in the free trader today that rather puzzled me. Ah, here it is now. And drawing the paper from his pocket. I will read it, and then you can tell me what it means. To planters and others, wanted fifty Negroes, any person having sick Negroes, considered incurable by their respective physicians, their owners of course, and wishing to dispose of them, Dr. Stillman will pay cash for Negroes, affected with scrawfula or king's evil, confirmed hypochondriacism, apoplexy, or diseases of the brain, kidneys, spleen, stomach, and intestines, bladder and its appendages, diarrhea, dysentery, etc. The highest cash price will be paid as above. When I read this today I thought that the advertiser must be a man of eminent skill as a physician, and that he intended to cure the sick Negroes. But on second thought I find that some of the diseases enumerated are certainly incurable. What can he do with these sick Negroes? You see, replied Mr. Peck, laughing, that he is a doctor and has used for them in his lectures. The doctor is connected with a small college. Look at his prospectus, where he invites students to attend, and that will explain the matter to you. Calton turned to another column and read the following. Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected with this institution, which it may be proper to point out. No place in the United States offers as great opportunities for the acquisition of anatomical knowledge, subjects being obtained from among the colored population in sufficient numbers for every purpose and proper dissections carried on without offending any individuals in the community. They are for dissection, then? Inquired Carlton with a trembling voice. Yes, answered the parson. Of course they wait till they die before they can use them. They keep them on hand, and when they need one they bleed him to death. Returned Mr. Peck. Yes, but that's murder. Oh, the doctors are licensed to commit murder, you know, and what's the difference whether one dies owing to the loss of blood or taking too many pills? For my part, if I had to choose, I would rather submit to the former. I have often heard what I considered hard stories in abolition meetings in New York about slavery, but now I shall begin to think that many of them are true. The longer you remain here, the more you will be convinced of the inequity of the institution. Remarked Georgiana. Now, Georgie, my dear, don't give us another abolition lecture, if you please. Said Mr. Peck. Here, Carlton, continued the parson, I have written a short poem for your sister's album, as you requested me. It is a domestic piece, as you'll see. She will prize it the more for that. Remarked Carlton. And taking the sheet of paper he laughed as his eyes glanced over it. Read it out loud, Mr. Carlton, said Georgiana, and let me hear what it is. I know Papa gets off some very droll things at times. Carlton complied with the young lady's request and read aloud the following rare specimen of poetical genius. My little nake. I have a little nigger the blackest thing alive. He'll be just four years old if he lives till forty-five. His smooth cheek half the glossy hue, like a new polished boot, and his hair curls over his little head as black as any soot. His lips bulged from his countenance, his little ivories shine, his nose is what we call a little pug, but fashioned very fine. Although not quite a fairy, he's comely to behold, and I wouldn't sell him, upon my word, for a hundred all in gold. He gets up early in the morn, like all the other nigs, and runs off to the hoglot where he squabbles with the pigs. And when the sun gets out of bed and mounts up in the sky, the warmest corner of the yard is where my nake doth lie. And there, extended lazily, he contemplates and dreams. I cannot qualify to this, but plain enough it seems, until it is time to take and grub when you can't find him there, for like a politician he has gone to hunt his share. I haven't said a single word concerning my plantation, though a prettier, I guess, cannot be found within the nation. When he gets a little bigger, I'll take into him show it. And then I'll say, my little nigg, now just prepare to go it. I'll have a hoe into his hand, he'll soon know what it means, and every day for dinner he shall have bacon and greens. CHAPTER XII A NIGHT IN THE PARSON'S KITCHEN And see the servants met, their daily labours o'er, and with the jest and song they set, the kitchen in a roar. Mr. Peck kept around him four servants, besides Curra, of whom we have made mention. Of these Sam was considered the first. If a dinner party was in contemplation, or any company to be invited to the Parsons, after all the arrangements had been talked over by the minister and his daughter, Sam was sure to be consulted upon the subject, by Miss Georgie. As Miss Peck was called by the servants. If furniture, crockery, or anything else was to be purchased, Sam felt that he had been slighted if his opinion had not been asked. As to the marketing, he did it all. At the servants' table in the kitchen he sat at the head and was master of ceremonies. A single look from him was enough to silence any conversation or noise in the kitchen, or any other part of the premises. There is in the southern states a great amount of prejudice against colour amongst the negroes themselves. The nearer the negro or mulatto approaches to white, the more he seems to feel his superiority over those of a darker hue. This is no doubt the result of the prejudice that exists on the part of the whites towards both mulattoes and blacks. Sam was originally from Kentucky, and through the instrumentality of one of his young masters, whom he had to take to school, he had learned to read, so as to be well understood, and owing to that fact was considered a prodigy among the slaves, not only of his own masters, but those of the town who knew him. Sam had a great wish to follow in the footsteps of his master and be a poet, and was therefore often heard singing dog-girls of his own composition. But there was one great drawback to Sam, and that was his colour. He was one of the blackest of his race. This he evidently regarded as a great misfortune. However, he made up for this in his dress. Mr. Peck kept his servants well dressed. And as for Sam, he was seldom seen, he was seldom seen except in a ruffled shirt. Indeed, the washerwoman feared him more than all others about the house. Carrer, as we have already stated, was chief of the kitchen department, and had a general supervision of the household affairs. Alfred the coachman, Peter and Hedy, made up the remainder of the house servants. Besides these, Mr. Peck owned eight slaves who were masons. These worked in the city. Being mechanics, they were let out to greater advantage than to keep them on the farm. However, every Sunday night Peck's servants, including the brick layers, usually assembled in the kitchen, when the events of the week were freely discussed and commented on. It was on a Sunday evening, in the month of June, that there was a party at Mr. Peck's, and according to custom in the southern states the ladies had their maid servants with them. Tea had been served in the house, and the servants, including the strangers, had taken their seats at the tea table in the kitchen. Sam, being a single gentleman, was usually attentive to the ladies on this occasion. He seldom or ever let the day pass without spending at least an hour in combing and brushing up his hair. Sam had an idea that fresh butter was better for his hair than any other kind of grease, and therefore, on churning days, half a pound of butter had always to be taken out before it was salted. When he wished to appear to great advantage he would grease his face to make it shiny. On the evening of the party, therefore, when all the servants were at the table, Sam cut a big figure. There he sat with his wool well combed and buttered, face nicely greased and his ruffles extending five or six inches from his breast. The parson in his own drawing-room did not make a more imposing appearance than did his servant on this occasion. I'd just been had my fortune told last Sunday night," said Sam as he helped one of the girls to some sweet hash. "'Indeed,' cried half a dozen voices. "'Yes,' continued he. "'Aunt Winnie, tell me I is to have the prettiest yellow girl in town, and that I is to be free.' All eyes were immediately turned toward Sally Johnson, who was seated near Sam. "'I suspect I see somebody blush at Datrovog,' said Alfred. "'Pass down pancakes and molasses up this way, Mr. Alf. "'And none of your insinuation here,' rejoined Sam. "'Dat reminds me,' said Cara. "'Dat Doria Simpson is going to get married.' "'Who too, I want to know,' inquired Peter. "'To one of Mr. Dobby's field hands,' answered Cara. "'I should think that that girl would not throw herself away in that manner,' said Sally. "'She's good enough looking to get a house earn, and not to put up with a field-nigger,' continued she. "'Yes,' said Sam. "'That's a very insensible remark of yours, Miss Sally. I admire your judgment very much, I assure you. "'There's plenty of susceptible and well-dressed house-servants that a gal of her looks can get. Without taking up with them common doggies.' "'Is the man black or a mulatto?' inquired one of the company. "'He's an early white,' replied Cara. "'Well, then, dat some excuse for her,' remarked Sam. "'For I don't like to see this amalgamation of blacks and mulattos.' "'No, mulatto,' inquired one of the corn-how. "'Continued, Sam. If I had my rights, I would be a mulatto, too, for my mother was almost as light-coloured as Miss Sally,' said he. "'Although Sam was one of the blackest men living, he nevertheless contended that his mother was a mulatto, and no one was more prejudiced against the blacks than he. A good deal of work, and the free use of fresh butter, had no doubt done wonders for his hair in causing it to grow long, and to this he would always appeal when he wished to convince others that he was part of an Anglo-Saxon. "'I always thought you was not clear black, Mr. Sam,' said Agnes. "'You are right there, Miss Agnes. My hair tells what company I belong to,' answered Sam. He and the whole company joined in the conversation about colour, which lasted for some time, given unmistakable evidence that caste is owing to ignorance. The evening's entertainment concluded by Sam's relating a little of his own experience, while with his first master in Old Kentucky. Sam's former master was a doctor and had a large practice among his neighbours, doctoring both masters and slaves. Since Sam was about fifteen years of age, his old master set him to grinding up the ointment than to making pills. As the young student grew older and became all practised in his profession, his services were of more importance to the doctor. The physician having a good business and a large number of his patients being slaves, the most of whom had to call on the doctor when ill, he put Sam to bleeding, pulling teeth, and administering medicine to the slaves. Sam soon acquired the name amongst the slaves of the Black Doctor. With this appellation he was delighted, and no regular physician could possibly have put on more heirs than did the Black Doctor when his services were acquired. In bleeding he must have more bandages, and rub and smack the arm more than the doctor would have thought of. He once saw Sam taking out a tooth for one of his patients, and nothing appeared more amusing. He got the poor fellow down on his back, and he got a straddle of the man's chest, and getting the turn keys on the wrong tooth he shut both eyes and pulled for his life. The poor man screamed as loud as he could, but to no purpose, Sam had him fast. After a great effort out came the sound grinder, and the young doctor saw his mistake, but consoled himself with the idea that as the wrong tooth was out of the way it was more room to get at the right one. Bleeding in a dose of Calamel was always considered indispensable by the old boss, and as a matter of course Sam followed in his footsteps. On one occasion the old doctor was ill himself, so as to be unable to attend to his patients. A slave with pass in hand called to receive medical advice, and the old master told Sam to examine him and see what he wanted. This delighted him beyond measure, for although he had been acting his part in the way of giving out medicine as the master ordered, he had never been called upon by the latter to examine a patient, and this seemed to convince him that, after all, he was no sham doctor. As might have been expected he cut a rare figure in his first examination, placing himself directly opposite his patient, and folding his arms across his breast and looking very knowingly he began, What's the matter with you? Ah, you're sick. Where is you sick? Here, replied the man, putting his hand upon his stomach. Put out your tongue, continued the doctor. The man ran out his tongue at full length. Let me fill your pulse. At the same time, taking his patient's hand in his, placing his fingers on his pulse, he said, Ah, your case is a bad one. If I don't do something for you, and dat pretty quick, you'll be a gone coon, and dat certain. At this the man appeared frightened and inquired, what was the matter with him? In answer Sam said, I done told you dat your case is a bad one, and dat's enough. Upon Sam's returning to his master's bedside, the latter said, Well, Sam, what do you think is the matter with him? His stomach is out of order, sir, he replied. What do you think had best be done for him? I think I better bleed him and give him a dose of Kalamel. Returned Sam. So to the latter's gratification, the master let him have his own way. We need not further say that the recital of Sam's experience as a physician gave him a high position amongst the servants that evening, and made him a decided favorite with the ladies, one of whom feigned illness when the black doctor, to the delight of all, and certainly to himself, gave medical advice. Thus ended the evening amongst the servants in the Parson's kitchen. End of CHAPTER XII. CHAPTER XIII. OF CLOTEL. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer. Please visit LibriVox.org. Tell by William Wills Brown, CHAPTER XIII. A SLAVE HUNTING Parson. Tis too much proved that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar all the devil himself. Shakespeare. You will no doubt be well pleased with Nipah Jones, said Mr. Peck, as Carlton stepped into the chaise to pay his promised visit to the ungodly man. Don't forget to have a religious interview with the Necros, remarked Georgiana, as she gave the last nod to her young convert. I will do my best, returned Carlton, as the vehicle left the door. As might have been expected, Carlton met with a coagule reception at the hands of the proprietor of the Grove Farm. The servants in the Great House were well dressed and appeared as if they did not want for food. Jones knew that Carlton was from the North, and a non-slave holder, and therefore did everything in his power to make a favourable impression on his mind. My Negros are well-clothed, well-fed, and not overworked, said the slave-holder to his visitor, after the latter had been with him nearly a week. As far as I can see your slaves appeared a good advantage, replied Carlton. But, continued he, if it is a fair question, do you have preaching among your slaves on Sunday, Mr. Jones? No, no, returned he, I think that's all nonsense. My Negros do their own preaching. So you do permit them to have meetings. Yes, when they wish, there's some very intelligent and clever chaps among them. As tomorrow is the Sabbath, said Carlton, if you have no objection I will attend meeting with them. Most certainly you shall, if you will do the preaching, returned the planter. Here the young man was about to decline, but he remembered the parting words of Georgiana, and he took courage and said, Oh, I have no objection to give the Negros a short talk. It was then understood that Carlton was to have a religious interview with the blacks the next day, and the young man waited with a degree of impatience for the time. In no part of the South are slaves in a more ignorant and degraded state than in the cotton, sugar, and rice districts. If they are permitted to cease labor on the Sabbath, the time is spent in hunting, fishing, or lying beneath the shade of a tree, resting for the morrow. Religious instruction is unknown in the Fire South, except among such men as the reverend C. C. Jones, John Peck, and some others who regard religious instruction, such as they impart to their slaves, as calculated to make them more trustworthy and valuable as property. Jones, aware that his slaves would make rather a bad show of intelligence if questioned by Carlton, resolved to have them ready for him, and therefore gave his driver orders with regard to their preparation. Consequently, after the day's labor was over, Dogget, the driver, assembled the negroes together and said, Now, boys and gals, your master is coming down to the quarters to-morrow with his visitor, who is going to give you a preach. And I want you to understand what he says to you. Now many of you who came of old Virginia and Kentucky know what preaching is. And others who have been raised in these parts do not. Preaching is to tell you that you are mighty wicked and bad at heart. This I suppose you all know. But if the gentleman should ask you who made you, tell him the Lord. If he should ask if you wish to go to heaven, tell him yes. Remember that you are all Christians. All of the Lord, all want to go to heaven, all of your masters, and all of me. Now, boys and gals, I want you to show yourselves smart to-morrow. Be on your peas and cues. And Monday morning I will give you all a glass of whiskey bright and early. Until to arrangement the slaves were assembled together on Sunday morning unto the large trees near the great house, and after going through another drilling from the driver, Jones and Carleton made their appearance. You see, said Jones to the Negroes as he approached them, you see he is a gentleman that's come to talk to you about your souls, and I hope you will all pay that attention that you ought. Jones then seated himself in one of the two chairs placed there for him and the stranger. One had already selected a chapter in the Bible to read to them, which he did, after first prefacing it with some remarks of his own. Not being accustomed to speak in public, he determined, after reading the Bible, to make it more of a conversational meeting than otherwise. He therefore began asking them questions. Do you feel that you are a Christian? Asked he of a full-blooded Negro that sat near him. Yes, sir, was the response. Do you feel, then, that you shall go to heaven? Yes, sir. Of course you know who made you. The man put his hand to his head and began to scratch his wall, and after a little hesitation answered, to oversee it told us last night who made us, but indeed I forgot the gentleman's name. This reply was almost too much for Carleton, and his gravity was not a little moved. However he bit his tongue and turned to another man who appeared from his looks to be more intelligent. Do you serve the Lord? Asked he. No, sir, I don't serve anybody but Mr. Jones. I never belong to anybody else. To hide his feelings of this juncture, Carleton turned and walked to another part of the grounds, to where the women were seated, and said to a malata woman who had rather an anxious countenance. Did you ever hear of John the Baptist? Oh, yes, my sir, John the Baptist. I know that nigga very well indeed. He lives in Old Kentuck, where I come from. Carleton's gravity here gave way, and he looked at the planter and laughed right out. The old woman knew a slave near her old master's farm in Kentucky, and was ignorant enough to suppose that he was the John the Baptist inquired about. Carleton occupied the remainder of the time in reading scripture and talking to him. My niggas ain't shown off very well today, said Jones as he and his visitor left the grounds. No, replied Carleton. You did not get hold of the bright ones, continued the planter. So it seems, remarked Carleton, the planter evidently felt that his neighbor, Parson Peck, would have enough to crack over the account that Carleton would give of the ignorance of the slaves, and said and did all in his power to remove the bad impression already made, but to no purpose. The report made by Carleton on his return amused the Parson very much. It appeared to him the best reason why professed Christians, like himself, should be slaveholders. Not so was Georgiana. She did not even smile when Carleton was telling his story, but seemed sore at heart that such ignorance should prevail in their mist. The question turned upon the heathen of other lands, and the Parson began to expatiate upon his own efforts in foreign missions, when his daughter, with a childlike simplicity, said, Send bibles to the heathen on every distant shore, from light that's vehement over us, that's streams increasing poor, but keep it from the millions downtrodden at our door. Send bibles to the heathen, their famished spirits fed, o' hasten join your efforts, the priceless gift to speed, then flog the trembling negro if he should learn to read. I saw a curiosity while at Mr. Jones that I shall not forget soon, said Carleton. What was it, inquired the Parson, a kennel of bloodhounds and such dogs I never saw before. They were of a species between the bloodhound and the foxhound, and were ferocious, gaunt and savagely looking animals. They were part of a stalk imported from Cuba, he informed me. They were kept in an iron cage and fed on Indian cornbread. This kind of food, he said, made them eager for their business. Sometimes they would give the dogs meat, but it was always after they had been chasing a negro. Were those the dogs you had, Papa, to hunt Harry? asked Georgiana. No, my dear, was the short reply, and the Parson seemed anxious to change the conversation to something else. When Mr. Peck had left the room, Carleton spoke more freely of what he had seen, and spoke more pointedly against slavery, for he well knew that Miss Peck sympathized with him in all he felt and said. You mentioned about your father hunting a slave, said Carleton, in an undertone. Yes, replied she, Papa went with some slave-catches in a parcel of those nasty negro dogs to hunt poor Harry. He belonged to Papa and lived on the farm. His wife lives in town, and Harry had been to see her and did not return quite as early as he should, and Huckleby was flogging him and he got away and came here. I wanted Papa to keep him in town so that he could see his wife more frequently, but he said they could not spare him from the farm and flogged him again and sent him back. The poor fellow knew that the overseer would punish him over again, and instead of going back he went into the woods. Did they catch him? asked Carleton. Yes, replied she, and chasing him through the woods he attempted to escape by swimming across a river and the dogs were sent in after him and soon caught him, for Harry had great courage and fought the dogs. With a big club, and Papa seeing the negro would escape from the dogs, shod at him, as he says only to wound him, that he might be caught, but the poor fellow was killed. Come by relating this incident Georgiana burst into tears. Although Mr. Peck fed and clothed his house servants well and treated them with a degree of kindness, he was nevertheless a most cruel master. He encouraged his driver to work the field-hands from early dawn to late at night, and the good appearance of the house servants and the preaching of Snyder to the field negroes was to cause himself to be regarded as a Christian master. Being on a visit one day at the farm and having with him several persons from the free states and wishing to make them believe that his slaves were happy, satisfied, and contented, the parson got out the whiskey and gave each one a dram, who in return had to drink the master's health, or give a toast of some kind. The company were not a little amused at some of the sentiments given, and Peck was delighted at every indication of contentment on the part of the blacks. At last it came to Jack's turn to drink, and the master expected something good from him, because he was considered the cleverest and most witty slave on the farm. Now, said the master as he handed Jack the cup of whiskey, now, Jack, give us something rich. You know, continued he, we have raised the finest crop of cotton that's been seen in these pots for many a day, now give us a toast on cotton. Come, Jack, give us something to laugh at. The negro felt not a little elated at being made the hero of the occasion, and taking the whiskey in his right hand, put his left to his head and began to scratch his wool and said, The big beef lies high, the little bee makes the honey. The black folks mix the cotton, and the white folks gets the money. End of CHAPTER XIII. CHAPTER XIV of Clotel. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Clotel by William Wells-Brown. CHAPTER XIV A FREE WOMEN REDUCED TO SLAVERY. Altheza found in Henry Morton a kind and affectionate husband, and his efforts to purchase her mother, although unsuccessful, had doubly endeared him to her. Having from the commencement resolved not to hold slaves, or rather not to own any, they were compelled to hire servants for their own use. Five years had passed away, and their happiness was increased by two lovely daughters. Mrs. Morton was seated, one bright afternoon, busily engaged with her needle, and near her sat Salome, a servant that she had just taken into her employ. The woman was perfectly white, so much so that Mrs. Morton had expressed her apprehensions to her husband, when the woman first came that she was not born a slave. The mistress swatched the servant, as the latter sat sewing upon some coarse work, and saw the large, silent tear in her eye. This caused an uneasiness to the mistress, and she said, Salome, don't you like your situation here? Oh, yes, madam, answered the woman in a quick tone, and then tried to force a smile. Why is it that you often look sad and with tears in your eyes? The mistress saw that she had touched a tender cord and continued, I am your friend, tell me your sorrow, and if I can I will help you. As the last sentence was escaping the lips of the mistress, the slave woman put her cheek apron to her face and wept. Mrs. Morton saw plainly that there was cause for this expression of grief, and pressed the woman more closely. Hear me, then, said the woman calming herself. I will tell you why I sometimes weep. I was born in Germany on the banks of the Rhine. Ten years ago my father came to this country, bringing with him my mother and myself. He was poor and I, wishing to assist all I could, obtained a situation as nurse to a lady in the city. My father got employment as a laborer on the Wharf, among the steamboats, but he was soon taken ill with yellow fever and died. My mother then got a situation for herself while I remained with my first employer. When the hot season came on, my master, with his wife, left New Orleans until the hot season was over and took me with them. They stopped at a town on the banks of the Mississippi River and said they should remain there some weeks. One day they went out for a ride and they had not been one more than half an hour when two men came into the room and told me that they had bought me and that I was their slave. I was bound and taken to prison and that night put on a steamboat and taken up the Yazoo River and set to work on a farm. I was forced to take up with the Negro and by him had three children. A year since my master's daughter was married and I was given to her, she came with her husband to the city and I have ever since been hired out. Unhappy woman! whispered Altheza. Why did you not tell me this before? I was afraid, replied Salome, for I was once severely flogged for telling a stranger that I was not born a slave. On Mr. Morton's return home his wife communicated to him the story which the slave-woman had told her an hour before and begged her that something might be done to rescue her from the situation she was then in, in Louisiana as well as many others of the slave states. Great obstacles are thrown in the way of persons who have been wrongly reduced to slavery regaining their freedom, a person claiming to be free must prove his right to his liberty. This it will be seen throws the burden of proof upon the slave who in all probability finds it out of his power to procure such evidence, and if any free person shall attempt to aid a free man in regaining his freedom he is compelled to enter into security in the sum of one thousand dollars, and if the person claiming to be free shall fail to establish such fact the thousand dollars are forfeited to the state. This cruel and oppressive law has kept many a free man from espousing the cause of persons unjustly held as slaves. Mr. Morton inquired and found that the woman's story was true, as regarded the time she had lived with her present owner, but the latter not only denied that she was free, but immediately removed her from the Mortons. Three months after Salome had been removed from the Mortons and led out to another family, she was one morning cleaning the doorsteps when a lady passing by looked at the slave and thought she recognized someone that she had seen before. The lady stopped and asked the woman if she was a slave. I am, said she. Were you born a slave? No, I was born in Germany. What's the name of the ship in which you came to this country? inquired the lady. I don't know, was the answer. Was it the Amazon? At the sound of this name the slave woman was silent for a moment, and then the tears began to flow freely down her care-worn cheeks. Would you know Mrs. Marshall, who was a passenger in the Amazon if you should see her? inquired the lady. At this the woman gazed at the lady with a degree of intensity that can be imagined better than described, and then fell at the lady's feet. The lady was Mrs. Marshall. She had crossed the Atlantic in the same ship with this poor woman. Salome, like many of her countrymen, was a beautiful singer and had often entertained Mrs. Marshall and the other lady passengers on board the Amazon. The poor woman was raised from the ground by Mrs. Marshall and placed upon the doorstep that she had a moment before been cleaning. I will do my utmost to rescue you from the horrid life of a slave," exclaimed the lady. As she took from her pocket her pencil and wrote down the number of the house and the street in which the German woman was working as a slave. After a long and tedious trial of many days it was decided that Salome Miller was by birth a free woman and she was set at liberty. The good and generous Altheza had contributed some of the money toward bringing about the trial and had done much to cheer on Mrs. Marshall in her benevolent object. Salome Miller is free, but where are her three children? They are still slaves and an all-human probability will die as such. This reader is no fiction. If you think so look over the files of the New Orleans newspapers of the years 1845 to 1846 and you will there see reports of the trial. CHAPTER XIV I promised the assister tale of man's perfidious cruelty. Come then and hear what cruel wrong befell the dark lady. Let us return for a moment to the home of Clotel. While she was passing lonely and dreary hours with none but her darling child, Horatio Green was trying to find relief in that insidious enemy of man, the intoxicating cup. Defeated in politics, forsaken in love by his wife? He seemed to have lost all principle of honour and was ready to nerve himself up to any deed, no matter how unprincipled. Clotel's existence was now well known to Horatio's wife, and both her and her father demanded that the beautiful quadroon and her child should be sold and sent out of the state. To this proposition he at first turned a deaf ear, but when he saw that his wife was about to return to her father's roof he consented to leave the matter in the hands of his father-in-law. The result was that Clotel was immediately sold to the slave trader, Walker, who a few years previous had taken her mother and sister to the far south. But as if to make her husband drink of the cup of humiliation to its very dregs, Mrs. Green resolved to take his child under her own roof for a servant. Mary was therefore put to the meanest work that could be found, and although only ten years of age she was often compelled to perform labour which under ordinary circumstances would have been thought too hard for one much older. On condition of the sale of Clotel to Walker was that she should be taken out of the state which was accordingly done. Most quadroon women, who are taken to the lower countries to be sold, are either purchased by gentlemen for their own use or sold for waiting-maids, and Clotel, like her sister, was fortunate enough to be bought for the latter purpose. The town of Vicksburg stands on the left bank of the Mississippi, and is noted for the severity with which slaves are treated. It was here that Clotel was sold to Mr. James French, a merchant. Mrs. French was severe in the extreme to her servants, well-dressed but scantily fed, and overworked were all who found a home with her. The quadroon had bid in her new home but a short time ere she found that her situation was far different from what it was in Virginia. What social virtues are possible in a society of which injustice is the primary characteristic? In a society which is divided into two classes, masters and slaves. Every married woman in the far south looks upon her husband as unfaithful and regards every quadroon servant as a rival. Clotel had been with her new mistress but a few days when she was ordered to cut off her long hair. The negro constitutionally is fond of dress and outward appearance. He that has short woolly hair combs it and oils it to death. He that has long hair would soon have his teeth drawn than lose it. However painful it was to the quadroon, she was soon seen with her hair cut as short as any of the full-blooded negroes in the dwelling. Even with her short hair, Clotel was handsome. Her life had been a secluded one, and though now nearly thirty years of age, she was still beautiful. At her short hair the other servants laughed. This cloney strut around so big. She got short nappy hair well as I, said Nell, with a broad grin that showed her teeth. She thinks she's white when she'd come here and had long hair hers, replied Mill. Yes, continued Nell. Misses make her take down her wool so she know put it up today. The fairness of Clotel's complexion was regarded with envy, as well by the other servants as by the mistress herself. This is one of the hard features of slavery. Today the woman is mistress of her own cottage. Tomorrow she is sold to one who aims to make her life as intolerable as possible. And be it remembered that the house servant has the best situation which a slave can occupy. Some American writers have tried to make the world believe that the condition of the laboring classes of England is as bad as the slaves of the United States. The English laborer may be oppressed, he may be cheated, defrauded, swindled, and even starved. But it is not slavery under which he groans. He cannot be sold, in point of law he is equal to the Prime Minister. It is easy to captivate the unthinking and the prejudiced by eloquent declination about the oppression of English operatives being worse than that of American slaves, and by exaggerating the wrongs on one side and hiding them on the other. But all informed and reflecting minds, knowing that bad as are the social evils of England, those of slavery are immeasurably worse. But the degradation and harsh treatment that Clotel experienced in her new home was nothing compared with the grief she underwent by being separated from her dear child. Taken from her without scarcely a moment's warning, she knew not what had become of her. The deep and hot-felt grief of Clotel was soon perceived by her owners, and fearing that her refusal to take food would cause her death, they resolved to sell her. Mr. French found no difficulty in getting a purchaser for the Quadruined Woman, for such are usually the most marketable kind of property. Clotel was sold at private sale to a young man for a housekeeper. But even he had missed his aim. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of Clotel This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Clotel by William Wells Brown. Chapter 16 The Death of the Parsons Carlton was above thirty years of age, standing on the last legs of a young man, and entering on the first of a bachelor. He had never dabbled in matters of love, and looked upon all women alike, although he respected women for her virtues and often spoke of the goodness of the heart of the sex. He had never dreamed of marriage. At first he looked upon Miss Peck as a pretty young woman, but after she became his religious teacher, he regarded her in that light, that everyone will those whom they know to be their superiors. It was soon seen, however, that the young man not only respected and reverenced Georgiana for the incalculable service she had done him, and awakening him to a sense of duty to his soul, but he had learned to bow to the shrine of Cupid. He found, weeks after he had been in her company, that when he met her at table or alone in the drawing-room, or on the Piazza, he felt a shortness of breath, a palpitating of the heart, a kind of dizziness of the head, but he knew not its cause. This was love in its first stage. Mr. Peck saw, or thought he saw, what would be the result of Carlton's visit, and held out every inducement in his power to prolong his stay. The hot season was just commencing, and the young northerner was talking of his return home, when the parson was very suddenly taken ill, the disease was the cholera, and the physicians pronounced the case incurable, and less than five hours John Peck was a corpse. His love for Georgiana and respect for her father had induced Carlton to remain by the bedside of the dying man, although against the express orders of the physician. This act of kindness caused the young orphan henceforth to regard Carlton as her best friend. He now felt at his duty to remain with the young woman until some of her relations should be summoned from Connecticut. After the funeral the family physician advised that Ms. Peck should go to the farm and spend the time at the country seat, and also advised Carlton to remain with her, which he did. At the parson's death his negroes showed little or no signs of grief. This was noticed by both Carlton and Ms. Peck, and caused no little pain to the latter. They are ungrateful, said Carlton, as he and Georgiana were seated on the piazza. What, as she, have they to be grateful for? Your father was kind, was he not? Yes, as kind as most men who own slaves, but the kindness meted out to blacks would be unkindness of giving to whites. We should think so, should we not? Yes, applied he. If we would not consider the best treatment which a slave receives good enough for us, we should not think he ought to be grateful for it. Everybody knows that slavery in its best and mildest form is wrong. Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart. Try him. Clank the chains in his ears and tell him they are for him. Give him an hour to repair his wife and children for a life of slavery. Bid him make haste and get ready their necks for the yoke, and their wrists for the coughle chains. Then look at his pale lips and trembling knees, and you have nature's testimony against slavery. Let's take a walk, said Carlton, as if to turn the conversation. The moon was just appearing through the tops of the trees, and the animals and insects in an adjoining wood kept up a continued din of music. The croaking of bullfrogs, buzzing of insects, cooling of turtle doves, and the sound from a thousand musical instruments, pitched on as many different keys, made the welkin ring. But even all this noise did not drown the singing of a party of the slaves, who were seated near a spring that was sending up its cooling waters. How prettily the negroes sing! remarked Carlton, as they were wending their way towards the place from whence the sound of the voices came. Yes, replied Georgiana. Master Sam is there, I warrant you. He's always on hand when there's any singing or dancing. We must not let him see us, or they will stop singing. Who makes their songs for them? inquired the young man. Oh, they make them up as they sing them. They are all impromptu songs. By this time they were near enough to hear distinctly every word, and true enough Sam's voice was heard above all the others. At the conclusion of each song they all joined in a hearty laugh with an expression of, That's the song for me, Dems Dems. Stop! said Carlton, as Georgiana was rising from the log upon which she was seated. Stop and let's hear this one. The peace was sung by Sam, the others joining in the chorus, and was as follows. Come, all my brethren, let us take a rest, while the moon shines so brightly and clear. Old Master is dead, and left us at last, and has gone at the bar to appear. Old Master has died, and lying in his grave, and our blood with a wile ceased to flow. He will no more trample on the neck of the slave, for he's gone where the slave holders go. Chorus. Hang up the shovel and the hoe, take down the fiddle and the bow. Old Master has gone to the slave holder's rest. He has gone where they all ought to go. Sam. I heard the old doctor say the other night, as he passed by the dining-room door. Perhaps the old man may live through the night, but I think he will die about four. Young Mistress sent me at the peril of my life, for the parson to come down and pray. For, says she, your old Master is now about to die. And says I, God, speed him on his way. Hang up the shovel and the hoe, take down the fiddle and the bow. Old Master has gone to the slave holder's rest. He has gone where they all ought to go. At four o'clock at morn the family was called, around the old man's dying bed. And oh! But I laughed to myself when I heard that the old man's spirit had fled. Mr. Carleton cried, and so did I pretend. Young Mistress very nearly went mad. And the old parson's groans did the heavens fairly rend. But I tell you, I felt mighty glad. Hang up the shovel and the hoe, take down the fiddle and the bow. Old Master has gone to the slave holder's rest. He has gone where they all ought to go. So no more be roused by the blowing of his horn. Our backs no longer he will score. He no more will feed us on cotton seeds and corn, for his reign of oppression now is o'er. He no more will hang our children on the tree, to be ate by the carrion crow. He no more will send our wives to Tennessee, for he's gone where the slave holders go. Hang up the shovel and the hoe, take down the fiddle and the bow. We'll dance and sing and make the forest ring, with the fiddle and the old banjo. The song was not half finished before Colton regretted that he had caused the young lady to remain in here, what to her must be anything but pleasant reflections upon her deceased parent. I think we will walk, said he, at the same time extending his arm to Georgiana. No, said she, let's hear them out. It is from these unguided expressions of the feelings of the Negro that we should learn a lesson. At its conclusion they walked towards the house in silence, as they were ascending the steps the young man said. They are happy after all. The Negro, situated as yours are, is not aware that he is deprived of any just rights. Yes, answered Georgiana, you may place the slave where you please, you may dry up to your utmost the fountains of his feelings, the springs of his thought, you may yoke him to your labor as an ox who liveth only to work, and worketh only to live. You may put him under any process which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being. You may do this, and the idea that he was born to be free will survive at all. It is allied to his hope of immortality. It is the ethereal part of his nature. Which pression cannot reach? It is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand of deity, and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man. On reaching the drawing-room they found Sam snuffing the candles, and looking as solemn and as dignified as if he had never sung a song or laughed in his life. Well, Miss Georgie have the supper got up now. Ask the negro. Yes, she replied. Well, remarked Carlton, that beats anything I ever met with. Do you think that was Sam we heard singing? I am sure of it, was the answer. I could not have believed that that fellow was capable of so much deception. Continued he. Our system of slavery is one of deception, and Sam, you see, has only been a good scholar. However, he has as honest a fellow as you will find among the slave population here. If we would have them more honest we should give them their liberty, and then the inducement to be dishonest would be gone. I have resolved that these creatures shall be free. Indeed, exclaimed Carlton, yes I shall let them all go free and set an example to those about me. I honour your judgment, said he. But will the state permit them to remain? If not they can go where they can live in freedom. I will not be unjust because the state is. CHAPTER XVII. RETALIATION I had a dream, a happy dream, I thought that I was free, that in my own bright land again, a home there was for me. With the deepest humiliation Horatio Green saw the daughter of Clotel, his own child, brought into his dwelling as a servant. His wife felt that she had been deceived, and determined to punish her deceiver. At first Mary was put to work in the kitchen, where she met with little or no sympathy from the other slaves, owing to the fairness of her complexion. The child was white, which should be done to make her look like other Negroes. Was the question Mrs. Green asked herself? At last she hid upon a plan. There was a garden at the back of the house over which Mrs. Green could look from her parlor window. He had the white slave girl was put to work, without either bonnet or handkerchief upon her head. A hudson poured its broiling rays on the naked face and neck of the girl until she sank down in the corner of the garden, and was actually broiled to sleep. That little nigger ain't working a bit, Mrs. said Dianna to Mrs. Green, as she entered the kitchen. She's lying in the sun-season, and she will work better by and by, replied the mistress. These white niggers always think deicef, good as white folks, continued the cook. Yes, but we will teach them better, won't we, Dianna? Yes, Mrs., I don't like these Melada niggers know-how. They always want to set deicef up for something big. The cook was black, and was not without the prejudice which is to be found among the Negroes, as well as among the whites of the southern states. The sun had the desired effect, for on less than a fort night, Mary's fair complexion had disappeared, and she was but little whiter than any mulatto child running around the yard. But the close resemblance between the father and child annoyed the mistress, more than the mere whiteness of the child's complexion. Her ratio made proposition after proposition to have the girl sent away. For every time he beheld her countenance it reminded him of the happy days he had spent with Clotel. But his wife had commenced in determined to carry out her unfeeling and fiendish designs. This child was not only white, but she was the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. The man who, when speaking against slavery and the legislature of Virginia, said, The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part and degrading submission on the other. With what execration should the statesmen be loaded, who, permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriee of the other? For if the slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live in labor for another, and which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his individual endeavours to the advantagement of the human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from him. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God, that they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever, that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events, that it may become probable by supernatural interference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. An incomprehensible machine is man, who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellowmen a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must wait with patience the workings of an overruling providence, and hope that this is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, all at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality. The same man, speaking of the probability that the slaves might some day attempt to gain their liberties by a revolution, said, I tremble for my country when I recollect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has no attribute that can take sides with us in such a struggle. But sad to say Jefferson is not the only American statesman who has spoken high-sounding words in favor of freedom, and then left his own children to die slaves. CHAPTER XVIII. THE LIBERATOR. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created free and equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Declaration of American Independence. The death of the parson was the commencement of a new era in the history of his slaves. Only a little more than eighteen years of age, Georgiana could not expect to carry out her own wishes in regard to the slaves, although she was sole heir to her father's estate. There were distant relations whose opinions she had at least to respect, and both law and public opinion in the state, or against any measure of emancipation that she might think of adopting. Unless perhaps she might be permitted to send them to Liberia. Her uncle in Connecticut had already been written to, to come down in aid in settling up the estate. He was a northern man, but she knew him to be a tight-fisted Yankee whose whole council would go against liberating the Negroes. Yet there was one way in which the thing could be done. She loved Carlton, and she knew well that he loved her. She read it in his countenance every time they met, yet the young man did not mention his wishes to her. There were many reasons why he should not. In the first place her father was just deceased, and it seemed only right that he should wait a reasonable time. Again Carlton was poor, and Georgiana was possessed of a large fortune, and his high spirit would not, for a moment, allow him to place himself in a position to be regarded as a fortune-hunter. The young girl hinted as best she could at the probable future, but all to no purpose. He took nothing to himself. True, she had read much of woman's rights, and had even attended a meeting, while at the north, which had been called to discuss the wrongs of woman, but she could not nerve herself up to the point of putting the question to Carlton, although she felt sure that she should not be rejected. She waited but in vain. At last one evening she came out of her room rather late, and was walking on the Piazza for fresh air. She passed near Carlton's room, and heard the voice of Sam. The negro had just come in to get the young man's boots, and had stopped, as he usually did, to have some talk. I wish, said Sam, that Masa Carlton and Miss Georgie would get married. Don't spec we'd have a good times. I don't think your mistress would have me, replied the young man. What make tinked at, Masa Carlton? Your mistress would marry no one, Sam, unless she loved them. Didn't I wish she would love you, because I tink we would have a good times, Dan? All our folks is the same opinion like me, returned the negro, and then left the room with the boots in his hands. During the conversation between the Anglo-Saxon and the African, one word had been dropped by the former, that haunted the young lady the remainder of the night. Your mistress would marry no one, unless she loved them. That word awoke her in the morning, and caused her to decide upon this import subject. Love and duty triumphed over the woman's timid nature, and that day Georgiana informed Carlton that she was ready to become his wife. The young man with grateful tears accepted and kissed the hand that was offered to him. The marriage of Carlton and Miss Peck was hailed with delight by both the servants in the house and the negroes on the farm. New rules were immediately announced for the working and general treatment of the slaves on the plantation. With this, Hucklebee, the overseer, saw his reign coming to an end, and Snyder, the Dutch preacher, felt that his services would soon be dispensed with, for nothing was more repugnant to the feelings of Mrs. Carlton than the sermons preached by Snyder to the slaves. She regarded them as something intended to make them better satisfied with their condition, and more valuable as pieces of property, without preparing them for the world to come. Mrs. Carlton found in her husband a congenial spirit, who entered into all her wishes and plans for bettering the condition of their slaves. Mrs. Carlton's views and sympathies were all in favor of immediate emancipation, but then she saw, or thought she saw, a difficulty in that. If the slaves were liberated, they must be sent out of the state. This, of course, would incur additional expense, and if they left the state, where had they better go? Let's send them to Liberia, said Carlton. Why should they go to Africa any more than to the free states or to Canada? asked the wife. They would be in their native land, he answered. It's not this their native land. What right have we, more than the Negro, to the soil here, or to style ourselves Native Americans? Indeed, it is as much their home as ours, and I have sometimes thought it was more theirs. The Negro has cleared up the lands, built towns, and enriched the soil with his blood and tears, and in return he is to be sent to a country of which he knows nothing, who fought more bravely for American independence than the blacks. A Negro, by the name of Atux, was the first that fell in Boston at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, and throughout the whole of the struggles for liberty in this country, the Negroes have contributed their share. In the last war with Great Britain, the country was mainly indebted to the blacks and New Orleans for the achievement of the victory at that place, and even General Jackson, the Commander-in-Chief, called the Negroes together at the close of the war and addressed them in the following turns. Soldiers, when on the banks of the Mobile, I called you up to take arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glories of your white fellow citizens, I expected much from you. For I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities more formidable to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst in all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your native country, and that you, as well as ourselves, had to defend what man holds most dear, his parents, wife, children, and property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the previous qualities, I before knew you to possess, I found among you a noble enthusiasm which leads to the performance of great things. Soldiers, the President of the United States shall hear how praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the representatives of the American people will give you the praise your exploits entitle you to. Your General anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor. And what did these noble men receive in return for their courage, their heroism, chains, and slavery? Their good deeds have been consecrated only in their own memories. Who rallied with more alacrity in response to the summons of danger? If in that hazardous hour, when our homes were menaced with the horrors of war, we did not disdain to call upon the Negro to assist in repelling invasion. Why should we, now that the danger has passed, deny him a home in his native land? I see, said Carleton, you are right, but I fear you will have difficulty in persuading others to adopt your views. We will set the example, replied she, and then hope for the best, for I feel that the people of the southern states will one day see their error. Liberty has always been our watchword, as far as profession is concerned. Nothing has been held so cheap as our common humanity on a national average, if every man had his alaquar proportion of the injustice done in this land, by law and violence, the present freemen of the northern section would many of them commit suicide and self-defense, and would court the liberties awarded by Ali Pasha of Egypt to his subjects. Long air this we should have tested, in behalf of our bleeding and crushed American brothers of every human complexion, every new constitution, custom or practice, by which in humanity was supposed to be upheld, the injustice and cruelty they contained, emblazoned before the great tribunal of mankind for condemnation, and the good and available power they possessed, for the relief, deliverance, and elevation of oppressed men, permitted to shine forth from under the cloud for the refreshment of the human race. Although Mr. and Mrs. Carleton felt that immediate emancipation was the right of the slave and the duty of the master, they resolved on a system of gradual emancipation, so as to give them time to accomplish their wish and to prepare the negro for freedom. Huckleby was one morning told that his services would no longer be required. The negroes, ninety-eight in number, were called together and told that the whip would no longer be used, and that they would be allowed a certain sum for every bale of cotton produced. Sam, whose long experience in the cotton field before he had been taken into the house, and whose general intelligence justly gave him the first place among the negroes on the popular farm, was placed at their head. They were also given to understand that the money earned by them would be placed to their credit, and when it amounted to a certain sum, they should all be free. The joy with which this news was received by the slaves showed their grateful appreciation of the boon their benefactors were bestowing upon them. The house servants were called, and told that wages would be allowed them, and what they earned set to their credit, and they too should be free. The next were the bricklayers. They were eight of these, who had passed their master two dollars per day, and boarded and clothed themselves. An arrangement was entered into them, by which the money they earned should be placed to their credit, and they too should be free, when a certain amount should be accumulated, and great was the change amongst all these people. The bricklayers had been to work but a short time before their increased industry was noticed by many. They were no longer apparently the same people. A sedateness, a care, an economy, an industry, took possession of them, to which there seemed to be no bounds but in their physical strength. They were never tired of laboring, and seemed as though they could never affect enough. They were temperate, moral, religious, setting an example of innocent, unoffending lives to the world around them, which was seen and admired by all. Mr. Parker, a man who worked nearly forty slaves at the same business, was attracted by the manner in which these negroes labored. He called on Mr. Carlton some weeks after they had been acting on the new system, and offered two thousand dollars for the head workman, Jim. The offer was, of course, refused. A few days after the same gentleman called again, and made an offer of double the sum that he had on the former occasion. Mr. Parker, finding that no money would purchase either of the negroes said, Now Mr. Carlton, pray tell me what is it that makes your negroes work so? What kind of people are they? I suppose, observed Carlton, that they are like other people, flesh and blood? Why, sir, continued Parker, I have never seen such people. Building as they are next door to my residence, I see and have my eye on them from morning till night. You are never there, for I have never met you or seen you once at that building. Why, sir, I am an early riser getting up before day. And do you think that I am not a work every morning in my life by the noise of their travels at work, and they are singing and noise before day? And do you suppose, sir, that they stop or leave off work at sundown? No, sir, but they work as long as they can see to lay a brick. And then they carry tip brick and mortar for an hour or two afterward to be ahead of their work the next morning. And again, sir, do you think that they walk at their work? No, sir, they run all day. You see, sir, those immensely long letters, five stories in height. Do you suppose they walk up them? No, sir, they run up and down them like so many monkeys all day long. I never saw such people as these in my life. I don't know what to make of them. Or a white man with them and over them with a whip. Then I should see and understand the cause of the running and incessant labor. But I cannot comprehend it. There's something in it, sir. Great man, sir, that Jim, great man, I should like to own him. Carlton here informed Parker that their liberties depended upon their work. When the latter applied, niggers can work so for the promise of freedom, they ought to be made to work without it. This last remark was in the true spirit of the slaveholder. And reminds us of the fact that some years since the overseer of General Wade Hampton offered the niggers under him a suit of clothes to the one that picked the most cotton in one day. And after that time, that day's work was given as a task to the slaves on that plantation. And after a while was adopted by other planters. The Negro's on the farm, under Massa Sam, were also working in a manner that attracted the attention of the planters round about. On the Sabbaths, Mr. and Mrs. Carlton read and explained the scriptures to them, and the very great attention paid by the slaves showed plainly that they appreciated the gospel when given to them in its purity. The death of Currer, from yellow fever, was to a great trial to Mrs. Carlton, for she had not only become much attached to her, but had heard with painful interest the story of her wrongs, and would, in all probability, have restored her to her daughters in New Orleans. No country has produced so much heroism in so short a time, connected with escapes from peril and oppression, as has occurred in the United States among fugitive slaves, many of whom show great shrewdness in their endeavours to escape from this land of bondage. A slave one day was seen passing on the high road from a border town in the interior of the state of Virginia to the Ohio River. The man had neither hat upon his head, or coat upon his back. He was driving before him a very nice fat pig, and appeared to all who saw him to be a labourer employed on an adjoining farm. Quote, No Negro is permitted to go at large in the slave states without a written pass from his or her master except on business in the neighborhood. Where do you live, my boy? asked a white man of the slave as he passed a white house with green blinds. Just up the road, sir, was the answer. That's a fine pig. Yes, sir, Masalactis chote very much. And the Negro drove on as if he was in great haste. In this way he and the pig travelled more than fifty miles before they reached the Ohio River. Once at the river they crossed over. The pig was sold, and nine days after the runaway slave passed over the Niagara River and for the first time in his life breathed the air of freedom. A few weeks later and on the same road two slaves were seen passing. One was on horseback, the other was walking before him with his arms tightly bound, and a long rope leading from the man on foot to the one on horseback. Oh! that's a runaway rascal, I suppose, said a farmer who met them on the road. Yes, sir, he been run away and I got him fast. Masalactan his jacket for him nicely when he gets him. You are a trustworthy fellow, I imagine, continued the farmer. Oh! yes, sir, Masalactis puts a heap of confidence in this nigger. And the slaves travelled on. When the one on foot was fatigued they would change positions, the other being tied and driven on foot. This they called ride and tie. After a journey of more than two hundred miles they reached the Ohio River, turned the horse loose, told him to go home and proceeded on their way to Canada. However they were not to have it all their own way. There are men in the free states and especially in the states adjacent to the slave states who make their living by catching the runaway slave and returning him for the reward that may be offered. As the two slaves above mentioned were travelling on towards the land of freedom, led by the North Star, they were set upon by four of these slave-catchers, and one of them unfortunately captured, the other escaped. The captured fugitive was put under the torture and compelled to reveal the name of his owner and his place of residence. Filled with delight the kidnappers started back with their victim, overjoyed with the prospect of receiving a large reward they gave themselves up on the third night to pleasure. They put up at an inn the negro was chained to the bed-post in the same room with his captors. At dead of night when all was still the slave arose from the floor upon which he had been lying, looked around, and saw that the white men were fast asleep. The brandy punch had done its work. With palpitating heart and trembling limbs he viewed his position. The door was fast, but the warm weather had compelled them to leave the window open. If he could but get his chains off he might escape through the window to the piazza and reach the ground by one of the posts that supported the piazza. The sleeper's clothes hung upon chairs by the bed-side, the slave thought of the padlock key, examined the pockets, and found it. The chains were soon off, and the negro stealthily making his way to the window. He stopped and said to himself, These men are villains, they are enemies to all who like me are trying to be free. Then why not I teach them a lesson? He then undressed himself, took the clothes of one of the men, dressed himself in them, and escaped through the window, and a moment more he was on the high road to Canada. Fifteen days later and the writer of this gave him a passage across Lake Erie and saw him safe in her Britannic Majesty's dominions. We have seen Clotel sold to Mr. French in Vicksburg, her hair cut short, and everything done to make her realize her position as a servant. Soon we have seen her resold, because her owners feared she would die through grief. As yet, her new purchaser treated her with respectful gentleness, and sought to win her favour by flattery and presence, knowing that whatever he gave her he could take back again. But she dreaded every moment lest the scene should change, and trembled at the sound of every footfall. At every interview with her new master, Clotel stoutly maintained that she had left a husband in Virginia, and would never think of taking another. The gold watch and chain and other glittering presents which he purchased for her were all laid aside by the quadrune, as if they were of no value to her. In the same house with her was another servant, a man who had from time to time hired himself from his master. William was his name. He could feel for Clotel, for he, like her, had been separated from near and dear relatives, and often tried to console the poor woman. One day the quadrune observed to him that her hair was growing out again. Yes, replied William, you look a good deal like a man with your short hair. Oh, rejoined she, I have often been told that I would make a better looking man than a woman if I had the money, contingent she, I would bid farewell to this place. In a moment more she feared that she had said too much, and smilingly remarked, I'm always talking nonsense, William was a tall, full-bodied negro, whose very countenance beamed with intelligence, being a mechanic he had by his own industry made more than what he paid his owner. This he laid aside with the hope that some day he might get enough to purchase his freedom. He had in his chest one hundred and fifty dollars. His was a heart that felt for others, and he had again and again wiped the tears from his eyes as he heard the story of Clotel as related by herself. If she can get free with a little money, why not give her what I have, thought he? And then he resolved to do it. An hour after he came into the Quadron's room and laid the money in her lap and said, There, Miss Clotel, you said if you had the means you would leave this place there is money enough to take you to England where you will be free. You are much fairer than many of the white women of the South and can easily pass for a free white lady. At first Clotel feared that it was a plan by which the negro wished to try her fidelity to her owner. But she was soon convinced by his earnest manner and the deep feeling with which he spoke that he was honest. I will take the money only on one condition, said she, and that is that I effect your escape as well as my own. How can that be done? he inquired. I will assume the disguise of a gentleman and you that of a servant, and we will take passage on a steamboat and go to Cincinnati and thence to Canada. Here William put in several objections to the plan. He feared detection, and he knew well that when a slave is once caught when attempting to escape, if returned is sure to be worse treated than before. However Clotel satisfied him that the plan could be carried out if he would only play his part. The resolution was taken, the clothes for her disguise procured, and before night everything was in readiness for their departure. That night Mr. Cooper, their master, was to attend a party, and this was their opportunity. William went to the wharf to look out for a boat, and had scarcely reached the landing ere he heard the puffing of a steamer. He returned and reported the fact. Clotel had already packed her trunk, and had only to dress and all was ready. In less than an hour they were on board the boat. Under the assumed name of Mr. Johnson, Clotel went to the clerk's office and took a private stateroom for herself, and paid her own and servant's fare. Besides being attired in a neat suit of black, she had a white silk handkerchief tied round her chin, as if she was an invalid. A pair of green glasses covered her eyes, and fearing that she would be talked to too much, and thus render her libel to be detected. She assumed to be very ill. On the other hand William was playing his part well in the servant's hall. He was talking loudly of his master's wealth. Nothing appeared as good on the boat as in his master's fine mansion. I don't like these steam-boats know-how, said William. I hope when Massa goes on a journey again he will take the carriage and the horses. Mr. Johnson, for such was the name by which Clotel now went, remained in his room to avoid as far as possible conversation with others. After a passage of seven days they arrived at Louisville and put up at Goff's Hotel. Here they had to await the departure of another boat for the North. They were now in their most critical position. They were still in a slave-state, and John C. Calhoun, a distinguished slave-owner, was a guest at this hotel. They feared also that trouble would attend their attempt to leave this place for the North, as all persons taking Negroes with them have to give bail that such Negroes are not runaway slaves. The law upon this point is very stringent. All steam-boats and other public conveyances are libel to a fine for every slave that escapes by them, besides paying the full value for the slave. After a delay of four hours Mr. Johnson and servant took passage on the steamer Rodolphe, for Pittsburgh. It is usual before the departure of the boats for an officer to examine every part of the vessel to see that no slave secretes himself on board. Where are you going, asked the officer of William as he was doing his duty on this occasion? I'm going with Massa," was the quick reply. Who is your master? Mr. Johnson, sir, a gentleman in the cabin. You must take him to the office and satisfy the captain that all is right or you can't go on this boat. William informed his master what the officer had said. The boat was on the eve of going, and no time could be lost, yet they knew not what to do. At last they went to the office, and Mr. Johnson, addressing the captain, said, I'm informed that my boy can't go with me unless I give security that he belongs to me. Yes, replied the captain, that is the law. A very strange law indeed rejoined Mr. Johnson that one can't take his property with him. After a conversation of some minutes and a plea on the part of Johnson that he did not wish to be delayed owing to his illness, they were permitted to take their passage without further trouble, and the boat was soon on its way up the river. The fugitives had now passed the Rubicon, and the next place at which they would land would be in a free state. Clotel called William to her room, and said to him, We are now free, you can go on your way to Canada, and I shall go to Virginia in search of my daughter. The announcement that she was going to risk her liberty in a slave state was unwelcome news to William. With all the eloquence he could command he tried to persuade Clotel that she could not escape detection, and was only throwing her freedom away. But she had counted the cost, and made up her mind for the worst. When returned for the money he had furnished she had secured for him his liberty, and their engagement was at an end. After a quick passage the fugitives arrived at Cincinnati, and there separated. William proceeded on his way to Canada, and Clotel again resumed her own apparel, and prepared to start in search of her child. As might have been expected the escape of those two valuable slaves created no little sensation in Vicksburg. It was soon, however, known that they had left the town as master and servant, and many were the communications which appeared in the newspapers, in which the writers thought, or pretended, that they had seen the slaves in their disguise. One was to the effect that they had gone off in a she-s. One is master, and the other is servant. But the most probable was an account given by a correspondent of one of the southern newspapers, who happened to be a passenger in the same steamer in which the slaves escaped, and which we here give. Quote, One bright starlet night in the month of December last, I found myself in the cabin of the steamer Rodolphe, then lying in the port of Vicksburg, and bound to Louisville. I had gone early on board in order to select a good birth, and having got tired of reading the papers, amused myself with watching the appearance of the passengers as they dropped in, one after another, and I, being a believer in physiognomy, formed my own opinion of their characters. The second bell rang, and as I yawningly returned my watch to my pocket, my attention was attracted by the appearance of a young man who entered the cabin supported by his servant, a strapping negro. The man was bundled up in a capacious overcoat, his face was bandaged with a white handkerchief, and its expression entirely hid by a pair of enormous spectacles. It was something so mysterious and unusual about the young man as he sat restless in the corner, that curiosity led me to observe him more closely. He appeared anxious to avoid notice, and before the steamer had fairly left the wharf, requested in a low, womanly voice, to be shown his birth as he was in invalid and must retire early. His name he gave as Mr. Johnson, his servant was called, and he was put quietly to bed. I paced the deck until Taihi light grew dim in the distance, and then went to my birth. I awoke in the morning with the sun shining in my face. We were then just passing St. Helena. It was a mild, beautiful morning, and most of the passengers were on deck enjoying the freshness of the air and stimulating their appetites for breakfast. Mr. Johnson soon made his appearance arrayed as on the night before, and took his seat quietly upon the guard of the boat. From the better opportunity afforded by daylight I found that he was a slight build, apparently handsome young man, with black hair and eyes, and of a darkness of complexion that betokened Spanish extraction. Any notice from others seemed painful to him, so to satisfy my curiosity I questioned his servant, who was standing near, and gained the following information. His master was an invalid. He had suffered for a long time under a complication of diseases that had baffled the skill of the best physicians in Mississippi. He was now suffering principally with the rheumatism, and he was scarcely able to walk or help himself in any way. He came from Vicksburg, and was now on his way to Philadelphia, at which place resided his uncle, a celebrated physician, and through whose means he hoped to be restored to perfect health. This information communicated in a bold, offhand manner enlisted my sympathies for the sufferer. Although it occurred to me that he walked rather too gingerly for a person afflicted with so many ailments. After thanking Clotel for the great service she had done him in bringing him out of slavery, William bade her farewell. The prejudice that exists in the free states against colored persons on account of their color is attributable solely to the influence of slavery, and is but another form of slavery itself. And even the slave who escapes from the southern plantations is surprised when he reaches the north at the amount and withering influence of this prejudice. William applied at the railway station for a ticket for the train going to Sundusky, and was told that if he went by that train he would have to ride in the luggage van. Why? asked the astonished negro. We don't send a Jim Crow carriage but once a day, and that went this morning. The Jim Crow carriage is the one in which the blacks have to ride. slavery is a school in which its victims learn much shrewdness and William had been an apt scholar. Without asking any more questions the negro took his seat in one of the first class carriages. He was soon seen and ordered out. Afraid to remain in the town longer he resolved to go by that train and consequently seated himself on a goods-box in the luggage van. The train started at its proper time and all went on well. Just before arriving at the end of the journey the conductor called on William for his ticket. I have none, was the reply. Well, then you can pay your fare to me, said the officer. How much is it? asked the black man. Two dollars. What do you charge those in the passenger carriage? Two dollars. And do you charge me the same as you do those who ride in the best carriages? asked the negro. Yes, was the answer. I shan't pay it, returned the man. You black scamp, do you think you can ride on this road without paying your fare? No, I don't want to ride for nothing, I only want to pay what's right. Well, launch out two dollars, and that's right. No I shan't, I will pay what I ought and won't pay any more. Come, come, nigger, your fare and be done with it, said the conductor in a manner that is never used, except by Americans to blacks. I won't pay you two dollars, and that enough, said William. Well, as you have come all the way in the luggage van, pay me a dollar and a half, and you may go. I shan't do any such thing. Don't you mean to pay for riding? Yes, but I won't pay a dollar and a half for riding up here in the freight van. If you had let me come in the carriage where others ride, I would have paid you two dollars. Where were you raised? You seem to think yourself as good as white folks. I want nothing more than my rights. Well, give me a dollar, and I will let you off. No, sir, I shan't do it. What do you mean to do, then? Don't you wish to pay anything? Yes, sir, I want to pay you the full price. What do you mean by full price? What do you charge per hundred weight for goods? inquired the negro with a degree of gravity that would have astonished Diogenes himself. A quarter of a dollar per hundred, answered the conductor. I weighed just one hundred and fifty pounds, returned William, and will pay you three-eighths of a dollar. Do you expect that you will pay only thirty-seven cents for your ride? This, sir, is your own price. I came in a luggage van, and I'll pay for luggage. After a vain effort to get the negro to pay more, the conductor took the thirty-seven cents, and noted in his cash-book, received for one hundred and fifty pounds of luggage thirty-seven cents. This reader is no fiction. It actually occurred in the railway above described. Thomas Corwin, a member of the American Congress, is one of the blackest white men in the United States. He was once on his way to Congress, and took passage in one of the Ohio river-steamers. As he came just at the dinner-hour, he immediately went into the dining-saloon and took his seat at the table. A gentleman with his whole party of five ladies at once left the table. Where is the captain? cried the man in an angry tone. The captain soon appeared, and it was some time before he could satisfy the old gent that Governor Corwin was not a nigger. The newspapers often have notices of mistakes made by in-keepers and others who undertake to accommodate the public, one of which we give below. On the sixth instance, the Honourable Daniel Webster and family entered Edgertown on a visit for health and recreation. Arriving at the hotel, without alighting from the coach, the landlord was sent for it to see if suitable accommodation could be had. That dignitary appearing and surveying Mr. Webster, while the Honourable Senator addressed him, seemed woefully to mistake the dark features of the traveller as he sat back in the corner of the carriage, and to suppose him a coloured man, particularly as there were two coloured servants of Mr. W. outside. So he promptly declared that there was no room for him and his family, and he could not be accommodated there, at the same time suggesting that he might perhaps find accommodation at some of the huts up back to which he pointed. So deeply did the prejudice of looks possess him that he appeared not to notice that the stranger introduced himself to him as Daniel Webster, or to be so ignorant as not to have heard of such a personage, and turning away he expressed to the driver his astonishment that he should bring black people there for him to take in. It was not till he had been repeatedly assured and made to understand that the said Daniel Webster was a real live senator of the United States, that he perceived his awkward mistake and the distinguished honour which he and his house were so near missing. In most of the free states the coloured people are disenfranchised on account of their colour. The following scene, which we take from a newspaper in the State of Ohio, will give some idea of the extent to which this prejudice is carried. Quote, the whole of Thursday last was occupied by the Court of Common Pleas for this county in trying to find out whether one Thomas West was of the voting colour, as some had very constitutional doubts as to whether his colour was orthodox and whether his hair was of the official crisp. Was it not a dignified business? Four profound judges, four acute lawyers, twelve grave jurors, and I don't know how many venerable witnesses, making an all about thirty men perhaps, all engaged in the profound, laborious and illustrious business of finding out whether a man who pays tax, works on the road, and is an industrious farmer, has been born according to the republican, Christian constitution of Ohio, so that he can vote. And they wisely, gravely, and judgematically decided that he should not vote. What wisdom! What research it must have required to evolve this truth! It was left for the Court of Common Pleas for Columbian County, Ohio, in the United States of North America, to find out what Solomon never dreamed of. The courts of all civilized, heathen, or Jewish countries never contemplated. Lest the wisdom of our courts should be circumvented by some such men as might be named, who are so near being born constitutionally that they might be taken for white by sight, I would suggest that our court be invested with smelling powers, and that if a man don't excel, that constitutional smell he shall not vote. This would be an additional security to our liberties. William found, after all, that liberty in the so-called free states was more a name than a reality, that prejudice followed the colored man into every place that he might enter. The temples erected for the worship of the living God are no exception. The finest Baptist church in the city of Boston has the following paragraph in the deed that conveys its seats to pew-holders. It is a further condition of these presents, that if the owner or owners of said pew shall determine hereafter to sell the same, it shall first be offered in writing to the standing committee of said society for the time being at such price as might otherwise be obtained for it, and the said committee shall have the right, for ten days after such offer, to purchase said pew for said society at that price, first deducting therefrom all taxes and assessments on said pew, then remaining unpaid. And if the said committee shall not complete such purchase within said ten days, then the pew may be sold by the owner or owners thereof, after payment of all such arrears, to any one respectable white person, but upon the same conditions as are contained in this instrument, and immediate notice of such sale shall be given in writing by the vendor to the treasurer of said society." Such are the conditions upon which the Rose Street Baptist Church, Boston, disposes of its seats. The writer of this is able to put that whole congregation, minister and all, to flight by merely putting his colored face in that church. We once visited a church in New York that had a place set apart for the sons of Ham. It was a dark, dismal-looking place in one corner of the gallery, seated in front like a hen-coupe, with a black border around it. It had two doors. Over one was B. M., black men. Over the other, B. W., black women. CHAPTER XXI. OF CLOTEL. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Clotel by William Wells Brown, CHAPTER XXI. A True Democrat. Who can, with patience, for a moment see the medley mass of pride and misery, of whips and charters, manacles and rites, of slaving blacks and democratic whites, and all the piebald policy that reigns, and free confusion or Columbia's planes, to think that man, thou just and gentle God, should stand before thee with the tyrant's rod, or creatures like himself with souls from thee, yet dared a boast of perfect liberty. Thomas More. Educated in a free state and marrying a wife who had been a victim to the institution of slavery, Henry Morton became strongly opposed to the system. His two daughters at the age of twelve years were sent to the north to finish their education, and to receive that refinement that young ladies cannot obtain in the slave states. Although he did not publicly advocate the abolition of slavery, he often made himself obnoxious to private circles, owing to the denunciatory manner in which he condemned the peculiar institution. Being one evening at a party, and hearing one of the company talking loudly of the glory and freedom of American institutions, he gave it as his opinion that, unless slavery was speedily abolished, it would be the ruin of the union. It is not our boast of freedom, said he, that will cause us to be respected abroad. It is not our loud talk in the favor of liberty that will cause us to be regarded as friends of human freedom, but our acts will be scrutinized by the people of other countries. We say much against European despotism. Let us look to ourselves. That government is despotic with the ruler's govern subjects by their own mere will, by decrees and laws emanating from their uncontrolled will in the enactment and execution of which the ruled have no voice, and under which they have no right except at the will of the rulers. Despotism does not depend upon the number of the rulers or the number of the subjects. It may have one ruler or many. Rome was a despotism, a denero. Although she was under the triumvirate, Athens was a despotism under thirty tyrants, under her four hundred tyrants, under her three thousand tyrants. It has been generally observed that despotism increases in severity with the number of despots. The responsibility is more divided, and the claims more numerous. The triumvers each demanded his victims. The smaller the number of subjects in proportion to the tyrants, the more cruel the oppression, because the less dangerous from rebellion. In this government the free white citizens are the rulers, the sovereigns as we delight to be called, all others of subjects. There are perhaps some sixteen or seventeen million of sovereigns, and four million of subjects. The rulers and the ruled are of all colors, from the clear white of the Caucasian tribes to the swarthy Ethiopian. The former, by courtesy, are all called white, the latter black. In this government the subject has no rights, social, political, or personal. He has no voice in the laws which govern him. He can hold no property. His very wife and children are not his. His labor is another's. He and all that appertain to him are the absolute property of his rulers. He is governed, bought, sold, punished, executed by laws to which he never gave his assent, and by rulers whom he never choose. He is not a serf merely, with half the rights of men, like the subjects of despotic Russia, but a native slave, stripped of every right which God in nature gave him, and which the high spirit of our revolution declared inalienable, which he himself could not surrender, and which man could not take from him. Is he not, then, the subject of despotic sway? The slaves of Athens and Rome were free in comparison. They had some rights, could acquire some property, could choose their own masters and purchase their own freedom, and, when free, could rise in social and political life. The slaves of America, then, lie under the most absolute and grinding despotism that the world ever saw. But who are the despots? The rulers of the country, the sovereign people. Not merely the slave-holder who cracks the lash. He is but the instrument in the hands of despotism. That despotism is the government of the slave-states, and the United States, consisting of all its rulers, all the free citizens. Do not look upon this as a paradox, because you and I, and the sixteen million of rulers, are free. The rulers of every despotism are free. Nicholas of Russia is free. The Grand Sultan of Turkey is free. The Butcher of Austria is free. Augustus, Anthony, and Lepidus were free, while they drenched Rome in blood. The Thirty Tyrants, the Four Hundred, the Three Thousand, were free while they bound their countrymen in chains. You and I, and the sixteen millions, are free. While we fasten iron chains and rivet manacles on four millions of our fellow men, take their wives and children from them, separate them, sell them, and doom them to perpetual, eternal bondage. Are we then not despots? Despots such as history will brand and God abhor? We as individuals are fast losing our reputation for honest dealing. Our nation is losing its character. The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a nation's honor, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction. Behold the once proud fabric of a Roman Empire, an empire carrying its arts and arms into every part of the eastern continent. The monarchs of mighty kingdoms, dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots. Her eagle waving over the ruins of desolated countries. Where's her splendor, her wealth, her power, her glory? Extinguished forever. Her mouldering temples. The mournful vestiges of her former grandeur affording a shelter to her muttering monks. There are her statesmen, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, generals. Go to the solitary tombs and inquire. She lost her national character and her destruction followed. The ramparts of her national pride were broken down, and vandalism desolated her classic fields. Then let the people of our country take warning ere it is too late. But most of us say to ourselves, Who questions the right of mankind to be free? What are the rights of the negro to me? I'm well fed and clothed, I have plenty of pelf. I'll care for the blacks when I turn black myself. New Orleans is doubtless the most immoral place in the United States. The theaters are open on the Sabbath. Bullfights, horse racing, and other cruel amusements are carried on in this city to an extent unknown in any other part of the Union. The most stringent laws have been passed in that city against negroes. But a few years since, the state legislature passed a special act to enable a white man to marry a colored woman on account of her being possessed of a large fortune. And very recently the following paragraph appeared in the city papers. There has been quite a stir recently in this city, in consequence of a marriage of a white man named Buddington, a teller in the Canal Bank, to the negro daughter of one of the wealthiest merchants. Buddington, before he could be married, was obliged to swear that he had negro blood in his veins, and to do this he made an incision in his arm and put some of her blood in the cut. The ceremony was performed by a Catholic clergyman, and the bridegroom has received with his wife a fortune of fifty or sixty thousand dollars. It seems that the fifty or sixty thousand dollars entirely covered the negro woman's black skin, and the law prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites was laid aside for the occasion. Altheza felt proud, as well she might, at her husband's taking such high ground in a slave-holding city like New Orleans. The Christian's Death O weep ye friends of freedom, weep, your harps to mournful measures, sweep! On the last day of November, sixteen-twenty, on the confines of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, lo, we behold one little solitary, tempest-tost, and weather-beaten ship. It is all that can be seen on the length and breadth of the vast intervening solitudes, from the melancholy, wilds of Labrador, and New England's iron-bound shores, to the western coasts of Ireland, and the rock-defendant Hebrides, but one lonely ship greets the eyes of angels or of men, on this great thoroughfare of nations in our age. Next in moral grandeur was this ship, to the great discoverers Columbus found a continent, the Mayflower brought the sea-weep of states and empire. That is the Mayflower, with its servants of the living God, their wives and little ones, hastening to lay the foundations of nations in the accidental lands of the setting sun. Hear the voice of prayer to God for His protection, and the glorious music of praise, as it breaks into the wild tempest of the mighty deep upon the ear of God. Here in this ship are great and good men. Just as mercy, humanity, respect for the rights of all, each man honoured, as he was useful to himself and others, labor respected, law-abiding men, constitution-making and respecting men, men whom no tyrant could conquer or hardship overcome, with the high commissions sealed by a spirit divine to establish religious and political liberty for all. This ship had the embryo elements of all that is useful, great and grand in northern institutions. It was the great type of goodness and wisdom illustrated in two and a quarter centuries gone by. It was the good genius of America. But look far in the southeast, and you behold on the same day in 1620 a low, rakeish ship hastening from the tropics, solitary and alone to the New World. What is she? She is freighted with the elements of unmixed evil. Hark! Hear those rattling chains. Hear that cry of despair and wail of anguish as they die away in the unpitying distance. Listen to those shocking oaths. The crack of that flesh-cutting whip. Ah! It is the first cargo of slaves on their way to Jamestown, Virginia. Old Amayflower anchored at Plymouth Rock, the slave ship in James River. Each apparent one of the prosperous labor-honoring, law-sustaining institutions of the North, the other the mother of slavery, illness, lynch-law, ignorance, unpaid labor, poverty, and dueling, despotism, the ceaseless swing of the whip, and the peculiar institutions of the South. These ships are the representation of good and evil in the New World, even to our day. Inshel one of those parallel lines come to an end. The origin of American slavery is not lost in the obscurity of bygone ages. It is a plain historical fact that it owes its birth to the African slave trade, now pronounced by every civilized community, the greatest crime ever perpetrated against humanity. Of all causes intended to benefit mankind, the abolition of chattel slavery must necessarily be placed amongst the first, and the Negro hails with joy every new advocate that appears in his cause. Commiseration for human suffering and human sacrifices awakened the capacious mind and brought into action the enlarged benevolence of Georgiana Calton. With respect to her philosophy it was of a noble cast. It was that all men are by nature equal, that they are wisely and justly endowed by the Creator with certain rights that are irrefragable, and that however human pride and human avarice may depress and debase, still God is the author of good to man, and of evil, man is the artificer to himself and to his species. Unlike Plato and Socrates, her mind was free from the gloom that surrounded theirs. Her philosophy was founded in the School of Christianity, though a devoted member of her father's church she was not a sectarian. We learn from Scripture, and it is a little remarkable that it is the only exact definition of religion found in the sacred volume, that pure religion, and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them. This was her view of Christianity, and to this end she labored with all her energies to convince her slaveholding neighbors that the Negro could not only take care of himself, but that he also appreciated liberty and was willing to work and redeem himself. Her most sanguine wishes were being realized when she suddenly fell into a decline. Her mother had died of consumption, and her physician pronounced this to be her disease. She was prepared for this sad intelligence and received it with the utmost composure. Although she had confidence in her husband that he would carry out her wishes and freeing the Negroes after her death, Mrs. Carlton resolved upon their immediate liberation. Consequently, the slaves were all summoned before the noble woman and informed that they were no longer bondsmen. From this hour, said she, you are all free, and all eyes will be fixed upon you. I dare not predict how far your example may affect the welfare of your brethren yet in bondage. If you are temperate, industrious, peaceable, and pious, you will show to the world that slaves can be emancipated without danger. Remember what a singular relation you sustain to society. The necessities of the case require not only that you should behave as well as the whites, but better than the whites. And for this reason, if you behave no better than they, your example will lose a great portion of its influence. Make the Lord Jesus Christ your refuge and exemplar. He is the only standard around which you can successfully rally. If ever there was a people who needed the constellations of religion to sustain them in their grievous afflictions, you are that people. You had better trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Get as much education as possible for yourselves and your children. And ignorant people can never occupy any other than a degraded station in society. They can never be truly free until they are intelligent. In a few days you will start for the State of Ohio, where land will be purchased for some of you who have families, and where I hope you will all prosper. We have been urged to send you to Liberia, but we think it wrong to send you from your native land. We did not wish to encourage the colonization society, for it originated in hatred of the free colored people. Its pretences are false, its doctrines odious, its means contemptible. Now whatever may be your situation in life, remember those in bonds as bound with them. You must get ready as soon as you can for your journey to the North. seldom was there ever witnessed a more touching scene than this. There sat the liberator, pale, feeble, emaciated, with death stamped upon her countenance, surrounded by the sons and daughters of Africa, some of whom had, in former years, been separated from all that they had held near and dear, and the most of whose backs had been torn and gashed by the negro whip. Some were upon their knees at the feet of their benefactors. Others were standing around her weeping. Many begged that they might be permitted to remain on the farm and work for wages, for some had wives and some husbands on their plantations in the neighborhood and would rather remain with them, but the laws of the state forbade any emancipated negroes remaining under penalty of again being sold into slavery, hence the necessity of sending them out of the state. Mrs. Carlton was urged by her friends to send the emancipated negroes to Africa. Extracts from the speeches of Henry Clay and other distinguished colonization society men were read to her to induce her to adopt this cause. Some thought they should be sent away because the blacks are vicious. Others because they would be missionaries to their brethren in Africa. But if we send away the negroes because they are profligate and vicious, what sort of missionaries will they make? Why not send away the vicious among the whites for the same reason and the same purpose? Death is a leveler, and neither age, sex, wealth, nor usefulness can avert when he is permitted to strike. The most beautiful flowers soon fade and droop and die. This is also the case with man. His days are uncertain as the passing breeze. This hour he glows in the blush of health and vigor, but the next he may be counted with the number no more known on earth. Although in a low state of health Mrs. Carlton had the pleasure of seeing all her slaves, except Sam and three others, start for a land of freedom. The morning they were to go on board steamer bound for Louisville they all assembled on the large grass plot in front of the drawing room window and wept while they bid their mistress farewell. When they were on the boat about leaving the wharf, they were heard giving the charge to these on shore. Sam, take care of Mrs., take care of Massa, as you love us and hope to meet us in Ohio, Ohio, and in heaven be sure and take care of Mrs. and Massa. In less than a week after her mans pated people had started for Ohio Mrs. Carlton was cold in death. Mr. Carlton felt deeply, as all husbands must do who love their wives, the loss of her who had been a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. She had converted him from infidelity to Christianity, from the mere theory of liberty to practical freedom. He had looked upon the Negro as an ill-treated distant link of the human family. He now regarded them as a part of God's children. Oh! What a silence pervaded the house when the Christian had been removed. His indeed was a lonesome position. It was midnight and he sat alone the husband of the deed. That day the dark dust had been thrown upon the buried head. In the midst of the buoyancy of youth this cherished one had drooped and died. Deep were the sounds of grief and mourning heard in that stately dwelling when the stricken friends, whose office it had been to nurse and soothe the weary sufferer, beheld her pale and motionless in the sleep of death. On what a chill creeps through the breaking heart when we look upon the insensible form and feel that it no longer contains the spirit we so dearly loved. How difficult to realize that the eye which always glowed with affection and intelligence, that the ear which had so often listened to the sounds of sorrow and gladness, that the voice whose accents had been to us like sweet music, in the heart the habitation of benevolence and truth are now powerless and insensate as the buyer upon which the form rests. Will faith be strong enough to penetrate the cloud of gloom which hovers near and to behold the freed spirit safe, forever safe in its home in heaven? Yet the thoughts will linger sadly and cheerlessly upon the grave. Peace to her ashes she fought the fight, obtained the Christian's victory, and weigh as the crown. But if it were that departed spirits are permitted to note the occurrences of this world, with what a frown of disabrobation would her views the effort being made in the United States to retard the work of emancipation for which she labored and so wished to see brought about. In what light would she consider that hypocritical priesthood who gave their aid and sanctions to the infamous fugitive slave law? If true greatness consists in doing good to mankind, then was Georgiana Colton an ornament to human race. Who can think of the broken hearts made whole of sad and dejected countenances now beaming with contentment and joy, of the mother offering her free-born babe to heaven, and of the father whose cup of joy seems overflowing in the presence of his family, where none can molest or make him afraid, O, that God may give more such persons to take the whip scarred negro by the hand, and raise him to a level with our common humanity. May the professed lovers of freedom in the new world see that true liberty is freedom for all. And may every American continually hear it sounding in his ear. Shall every flap of England's flag proclaim that all around are free from farthest end to each blue-crack that beetles all the western sea? And shall we scoff at Europe's kings when freedom's fire is dim with us, and round our country's altar clings the damning shade of slavery's curse?