 CHAPTER 54 THE ESCAPE Clayton had not been an unsympathizing or inattentive witness of these scenes. It is true that he knew not the whole depth of the affair, but Harry's letter and his own observations had led him without explanation to feel that there was a perilous degree of excitement in some of the actors in the scene before him, which, unless some escape valve were opened, might lead to most fatal results. The day after the funeral he talked with Harry, wisely and kindly, assuming nothing to himself on the ground either of birth or position, showing to him the undesirableness and hopelessness under present circumstances of any attempt to right by force the wrongs under which his class were suffering, and opening to him and his associates a prospect of a safer way by flight to the free states. One can scarcely appreciate the moral resolution and force of character which could make a person in Clayton's position in society, himself sustaining in the eye of the law the legal relation of a slaveholder, give advice of this kind. No crime is visited with more unsparing rigor by the regime of southern society than the aiding or abetting the escape of a slave. He who does it is tried as a negro stealer, and in some states death, in others a long and disgraceful imprisonment in the penitentiary is the award. For granting the slightest assistance and sucker in cases like these, for harboring the fugitive for even a night, for giving him the meanest shelter and food, persons have been stripped of their whole property, and turned out destitute upon the world. Others for no other crime have languished years in unhealthy dungeons, and coming out at last with broken health and wasted energies. Nor has the most saintly patience and purity of character in the victim been able to lessen or mitigate the penalty. It was therefore only by the discerning power of a mind sufficiently clear and strong to see its way through the mists of educational association that Clayton could feel himself to be doing right in thus violating the laws and customs of the social state under which he was born. But in addition to his belief in the inalienable right of every man to liberty, he had at this time affirmed conviction that nothing but the removal of some of these minds from the oppressions which were goading them could prevent a development of bloody insurrection. It is probable that nothing has awakened more bitterly the animosity of the slaveholding community than the existence in the northern states of an indefinite yet very energetic institution known as the Underground Railroad, and yet would they but reflect wisely on the things that belong to their peace, they would know that this has removed many a danger from their dwellings. One has only to become well acquainted with some of those fearless and energetic men who have found their way to freedom by its means, to feel certain that such minds and hearts would have proved in time an incendiary magazine under the scorching rain of slavery. But by means of this men of that class who cannot be kept in slavery have found a road to liberty which endangered the shedding of no blood but their own, and the record of the strange and perilous means by which these escapes have been accomplished sufficiently shows the resolute nature of the men by whom they were undertaken. It was soon agreed that a large party of fugitives should in concert affect their escape. Harry, being so white as easily to escape detection out of the immediate vicinity where he was known, assumed the task of making arrangements for which he was amply supplied with money by Clayton. It is well known that there are during the greater part of the year, lumberers engaged in the cutting and making of shingles who have extensive camps in the swamp and live there for months at a time. These camps are made by laying foundations of logs on the spongy soil, thus forming platforms on which rude cabins are erected. In the same manner, roads are constructed into distant parts of the swamp by means of which transportation is carried on. There is also a canal cut through the middle of the swamp on which small sailing craft pass backwards and forwards with shingles and produce. In the employ of these lumberers are multitudes of slaves hired from surrounding proprietors. They live here in a situation of comparative freedom, being obliged to make a certain number of staves or shingles within a stipulated time, and being furnished with very comfortable provision. Living thus somewhat in the condition of free men, they are said to be more intelligent, energetic, and self-respecting than the generality of slaves. The camp of the fugitives had not been without intercourse with the camp of lumberers some five miles distant. In cases of straits they had received secret supplies from them, and one or two of the more daring and intelligent of the slave lumberers had attended some of Dred's midnight meetings. It was determined therefore to negotiate with one of the slaves who commanded a lighter or small vessel in which lumber was conveyed to Norfolk to assist their escape. On some consultation, however, it was found that the numbers wanting to escape were so large as not to be able without exciting suspicion to travel together, and it was therefore decided to make two detachments. Millie had determined to cast in her lot with the fugitives out of regard to her grandchild poor little Tom Tit, whose utter and merry thoughtlessness formed a touching contrast to the gravity and earnestness of her affections and desires for him. He was to her the only remaining memorial of a large family which had been torn from her by the ordinary reverses and chances of slavery, and she clunked to him therefore with the undivided energy of her great heart. As far as her own rights were concerned, she would have made a willing surrender of them, remaining patiently in the condition wherein she was called, and bearing injustice and oppression as a means of spiritual improvement and seeking to do what good lay in her power. Every individual has an undoubted right if he chooses thus to resign the rights and privileges of his earthly birthright. But the question is a very different one when it involves the improvement and the immortal interest of those for whom the ties of blood oblige him to have care. Millie, who viewed everything with the eye of a Christian, was far less impressed by the rigor and severity of Tom Gordon's administration than by the dreadful demoralization of character which he brought upon the plantation. Tom Tit, being a bright handsome child, his master had taken a particular fancy to him. He would always have him about his person, and treated him with the same mixture of indulgence and caprice which one would bestow upon a spaniel. He took particular pleasure in teaching him to drink and to swear. Apparently for nothing else than the idle amusement it afforded him to witness the exhibition of such accomplishments in so young a child. In vain Millie, who dared use more freedom with him than any other servant, expostulated. He laughed or swore at her, according to the state in which he happened to be. Millie, therefore, determined it once to join the flying party and to take her darling with her. Perhaps she would not have been able to accomplish this, had not what she considered a rather fortunate reverse about this time, brought Tom Tit into disgrace with his master, owing to some piece of careless mischief which he had committed. He had been beaten with a severity as thoughtless as the indulgence he had other times received, and, while bruised and trembling from this infliction, he was fully ready to fly anywhere. Quite unexpectedly to all parties, it was discovered that Tom Gordon's confidential servant and valet, Jim, was one of the most forward to escape. This man, from that peculiar mixture of boldness, adroitness, cunning, and drollery, which often exists among Negroes, had stood for years as prime and undisputed favorite with his master. He had never wanted for money or for anything that money could purchase, and he had had an almost unreproved liberty of saying in an odd fashion what he pleased with the licensed audacity of a court buffoon. One of the slaves expressed astonishment that he, in his favorite position, should think of such a thing. Jim gave a knowing inclination of his head to one side, and said, Fact is, Bredrin, this child is just tired of these year partnership concerns. I and Master, we has all things in common show enough, but did not rather have less of them, and have something that's mine, sides which I'd never going to have a wife till I can get one that'll belong to myself. Not there's a thing I'm particular about. The conspirators were wont to hold their meetings nightly in the woods, near the swamp, for purposes of concert and arrangement. Jim had been trusted so much to come and go at his own pleasure that he felt little fear of detection, always having some plausible excuse on hand if inquiries were made. It is to be confessed that he had been a very profane and irreverent fellow, often attending prayer meetings and other religious exercises of the Negroes, for no other apparent purpose than to be able to give burlesque imitations of all the proceedings for the amusement of his master and his master's vile associates. Whenever therefore he was missed he would upon inquiry assert with a knowing wink that he's been out to the prayer meeting. Seems to me, Jim, says Tom one morning, when he felt particularly ill-natured. Seems to me you're doing nothing but going to meeting lately. I don't like it, and I'm not going to have it. Some devil tree or other you are up to, and I'm going to put a stop to it. Now, mind yourself, don't you go any more, or I'll give you. We shall not mention particularly what Tom was in the habit of threatening to give. Here was a dilemma. One attendance more in the woods this very night was necessary, was indeed indispensable. Jim put all his powers of pleasing into requisition. Never had he made such desperate efforts to be entertaining. He sang, he danced, he mimicked sermons, carried on mock meetings, and seemed to whip all things sacred and profane together in one great syllabub of uproarious merriment, and this to an idle man, with a whole day upon his hands, and an urgent necessity for never having time to think, was no small affair. Tom mentally reflected in the evening, as he lay stretched out in the verandah smoking his cigar what in the world he should do without Jim to keep him in spirits, and Jim, under cover of the day's glory, had ventured to request of his master the liberty of an hour, which he employed in going to his trist in the woods. This was a bold step, considering how positively he had been forbidden to do it in the morning. But Jim heartily prayed to his own wits, the only God he had ever been taught to worship, to help him out once more. He was returning home, hastening, in order to be in season for his master's bedtime, hoping to escape unquestion as to where he had been. The appointments had all been made, and between two and three o'clock that night the whole party were to strike out upon their course, an air mourning to have traveled the first stage of their pilgrimage towards freedom. Already the sense of a new nature was beginning to dawn on Jim's mind, a sense of something graver, steadier, and more manly than the wild, frolicsome life he had been leading, and his bosom throbbed with a strange, new, unknown hope. Suddenly, on the very boundary of the spot where the wood joins the plantation, whom should he meet but Tom Gordon, sent there as if he had been warned by his evil stars. Now, Lord, help me, if there is any Lord, said Jim, well, I've got to blaze it out now to best way I can. He walked directly up to his master, with his usual air of saucy assurance. Why, Jim, said Tom, where have you been? I've been looking for you. Why, bless you, Master Honey, I've been out to the meeting. Didn't I tell you, you dog, said Tom, with an oath, that you were not to go to any more of those meetings? Why, Lord, Master Honey-child, for my heavenly master I done forgot every word you said, said Jim. I so kind of tumbled up and down this day, and things has been so curious. The ludicrous grimace in tone, an attitude of affected contrition, with which all this was said, rather amused Tom, and though he still maintained an air of sternness, the subtle negro saw it once his advantage, and added, Clarify isn't most dead, old pomp he preached, and he gets me so full of grace, I as fit to bust, has to do something wicked, else I'll get translated one of these your days like Lygia, and then who's Master Halford to wait on him? I don't believe you've been to meeting, said Tom, eyeing him with affected suspicion. You've been out on some spree. Why, Lord, Master Honey, you hurt my feelings. Why, now, eyes and hopes you'd say you see the grace are shining out all over me. Why, I's been in a clear state of glorification all this evening. That, our old pomp, there's no mistake, he does lift a body up powerful. You don't remember a word he said now, I'll bet, said Tom. Where was the text? Text, said Jem with assurance, twas in the 24th chapter of Jerusalem, 16th verse. Well, said Tom, what was it I should like to know? Laws, Master, I believe I compete it, said Jem with an indescribable air of waggish satisfaction. Twas this year, ye shall search for me in the morning, and ye won't find me. That there's a mighty solemn text, Master, and y'all to be fleckin' on it. And Tom had occasion to reflect upon it the next morning, when, having stormed and sworn and pulled until he broke the bell wire, no Jem appeared. It was some time before he could actually realize or believe he was gone. The ungrateful dog, the impudent puppy who had had all his life everything he wanted to run away from him. Tom aroused a whole country in pursuit, and as servants were found missing in many other plantations, there was a general excitement through the community. The trumpet of liberty began to blow dullerous notes and articles headed the results of abolitionist teaching, and covert incendiarism began to appear. It was recommended that a general search should be made through the country for all persons tinctured with abolitionist sentiments, and immediate measures pursued to oblige them to leave the state forthwith. One or two respectable gentlemen who were in the habit of taking the national era were visited by members of a vigilance committee and informed that they must immediately drop the paper or leave the state, and when one of them talked of his rights as a free citizen, and inquired how they would enforce their requisitions, supposing he determined to stand for his liberty. The party informed him succinctly to the following purport. If you do not comply, your corn, grain, and fodder will be burned, your cattle driven off, and if you persist, your house will be set on fire and consumed, and you will never know who does it. When the good gentleman inquired if this was freedom, his instructors informed him that freedom consisted in their right in power to make their neighbors submit to their own will and dictation, and he would find himself in a free country so far as this, that everyone would feel at liberty to annoy and maltreat him so long as he opposed the popular will. This modern doctrine of liberty has of late been strikingly and edifyingly enforced on the minds of some of our brethren and sisters in the new States, to whom the offer of relinquishing their principles or their property and lives has been tendered with the same admirable explicitness. It is scarcely necessary to remark that both these worthy gentlemen, to use the language of their conquerors, caved in, and thus escaped with no other disadvantage than a general plundering of their smoke-houses, the hams in which were thought a desirable addition to a triumphal entertainment proposed to be given in honor of law and order by the Associate Bands of the Glorious Immortal Coons, the Bodyguard, which was Tom Gordon's instrument in all these exploits. In fact, this association, although wanting the advantage of an ordaining prayer and a distribution of Bibles, as has been the case with some more recently sent from southern states, to beat the missionary drama of state rights and the principles of law and order on our frontiers, yet conducted themselves in a manner which might have won them approbation even in Colonel Buford's regiment, giving such exhibitions of liberty as were sufficient to justify all despots for putting it down by force for centuries to come. Tom Gordon was the great organizer and leader of all these operations. His suspicions had connected Clayton with the disappearance of his slaves, and he followed upon his track with the sagacity of a bloodhound. The outrage which he had perpetrated upon him in the forest so far from being a matter of shame or concealment was paraded as a cause for open boast and triumph. Tom wrote about with his arm in a sling as a wounded hero, and received touching testimonials and demonstrations from sundry ladies of his acquaintance for his gallantry and spirit. When on the present occasion he found the pursuit of his slaves hopeless, his wrath and malice knew no bounds, and he determined to stir up an incendal against Clayton to the utmost degree, the animosities of the planters, around his estate of Magnolia Grove. This it was not difficult to do. We have already shown how much latent discontent and heart-burning had been excited by the course which Clayton and his sister had pursued on their estate. Tom Gordon had a college acquaintance with the eldest son of one of the neighboring families, a young man of as reckless and dissipated habits as his own. Hearing, therefore, that Clayton had retired to Magnolia Grove, he accepted an invitation of this young man to make him a visit, principally as it would appear for the purpose of instigating some mischief. End of Chapter 54 The Escape, Recording by Pete McKelvin Chapter 55 of Dread, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Dread, Chapter 55 Linch Law Again The reader next beholds Clayton at Magnolia Grove, whether he had fled to recruit his exhausted health and spirits. He had been accompanied there by Frank Russell. Our readers may often have observed how long habits of intimacy may survive between two persons who have embarked in moral courses which, if pursued, must eventually separate them forever. For, such is the force of moral elements that the ambitious and self-seeking cannot always walk with those who love good for its own sake. In this world, however, where all these things are imperfectly developed, habits of intimacy often subsist a long time between the most opposing affinities. The fact was that Russell would not give up the society of Clayton. He admired the very thing in him which he wanted himself, and he comforted himself for not listening to his admonitions by the tolerance and good nature with which he had always heard them. When he heard that he was ill, he came to him and insistent upon traveling with him, attending him with the utmost fidelity and kindness. Clayton had not seen Anne before since his affliction, both because his time had been very much engaged, and because they who cannot speak of their sorrows often shrink from the society of those whose habits of intimacy and affection might lead them to desire such confidence. But he was not destined in his new retreat to find the peace he desired. Our readers may remember that there were intimations conveyed through his sister's sometimes sense of discontent arising in the neighborhood. The presence of Tom Gordon soon began to make itself felt. As a conductor introduced into an electric atmosphere will draw to itself the fluid, so he became an organizing point for the prevailing dissatisfaction. He went to dinner parties and talked. He wrote in the nearest paper, he excited the inflammable and inconsiderate. And before he had been there many weeks, a vigilance association was formed among the younger and more hot-headed of his associates to search out an extirpate covert abolitionism. Anne and her brother first became sensible of an entire cessation of all those neighborly acts of kindness and hospitality in which southern people, when in good humor, are so abundant. At last one day Clayton was informed that three or four gentlemen of his acquaintance were wishing to see him in the parlor below. On descending he was received first by his nearest neighbor, Judge Oliver, a fine-licking elderly gentleman of influential family connection. He was attended by Mr. Bradshaw, whom we have already introduced to our readers, and by a Mr. Knapp, who was a very wealthy planter, a man of great energy and ability, who had for some years figured as the representative of his native state in Congress. It was evident, by the embarrassed air of the party, that they had come on business of no pleasing character. It is not easy for persons however much excited they may be to enter it once upon offensive communications to persons who receive them with calm and gentlemanly civility. Therefore, after being seated, and having discussed the ordinary topics of the weather and the crops, the party looked one upon another, in a little uncertainty which had began the real business of the interview. Mr. Clayton, at length said Judge Oliver, we are really sorry to be obliged to make disagreeable communications to you. We have all of us had the sincerest respect for your family and for yourself. I have known and honored your father many years, Mr. Clayton, and for my own part, I must say I anticipated much pleasure from your residents in our neighborhood. I am really concerned to be obliged to say anything unpleasant, but I am under the necessity of telling you that the course you have been pursuing with regard to your servants, being contrary to the laws and usages of our social institutions, can no longer be permitted among us. You are aware that the teaching of slaves to read and write is forbidden by the law, under severe penalties. We have always been liberal in the interpretation of this law, exceptional violations conducted with privacy and discretion in the case of favored servants whose general good conduct seems to merit such confidence, have from time to time existed, and passed among us without notice or opposition. But the institution of a regular system of instruction to the extent and degree which exists upon your plantation is a thing so directly in the face of the law that we can no longer tolerate it, and we have determined, unless this course is dropped, to take measures to put the law into execution. I had paid my adopted state the compliment, said Clayton, to suppose such laws to be a mere relic of barbarous ages, which the practical Christianity of our times would treat as a dead letter. I began my arrangements in all good faith, not dreaming that there could be found those who would oppose a course so evidently called for by the spirit of the gospel, and the spirit of the age. You are entirely mistaken, sir, said Mr. Knapp, in a tone of great decision. If you suppose these laws are, or can ever be, a matter of indifference to us, or can be suffered to become a dead letter. Sir, they are founded in the very nature of our institutions. They are indispensable to the preservation of our property and the safety of our families. Once educate the Negro population in the whole system of our domestic institutions is at an end. Our Negroes have acquired already, by living among us, a degree of sagacity and intelligence, which makes it difficult to hold an even rain over them, and once open the flood gates of education, and there is no saying where they and we might be carried. I, for my part, do not approve of these exceptional instances, Judge Oliver mentioned. Generally speaking, those Negroes whose intelligence and good conduct would make them the natural recipients of such favors are precisely the ones who ought not to be trusted with them. It ruins them. Why? Just look at the history of the insurrection that very nearly cut off the whole city of Charleston. What sort of men were those who got it up? They were just your steady, thoughtful, well-conducted men, just the kind of men that people are teaching to read. Because they think they're so good it can do no harm. Sir, my father was one of the magistrates on the trial of those men, and I have heard him say often that there was not one man of bad character among them. They had all been remarkable for their good character. Why? There was that Denmark Visi, who was the head of it. For 20 years, he served his master and was the most faithful creature that ever breathed. And after he got his liberty everybody respected him and liked him. Why? At first my father said the magistrates could not be brought to arrest him. They were so sure that he could not have been engaged in such an affair. Now all the leaders in that affair could read and write. They kept their lists of names, and nobody knows or ever will know how many were down on them. For those fellows were deep as the grave, and you could not get a word out of them. Sir, they died and made no sign. But all this is a warning to us. And do you think, said Clayton, that if men of that degree of energy and intelligence are refused instruction, they will not find means to get knowledge for themselves? And if they do get it themselves, in spite of your precautions, they will assuredly use it against you. The fact is, gentlemen, it is inevitable that a certain degree of culture must come from their intercourse with us, and minds of a certain class will be stimulated to desire more. And all the barriers we put up will only serve to inflame curiosity, and will make them feel a perfect liberty to use the knowledge they conquer from us against us. In my opinion, the only sure defense against insurrection is systematic education by which we should acquire that influence over their minds, which our superior cultivation will enable us to hold. Then, as fast as they become fitted to enjoy rights, we must grant them. Not we indeed, said Mr. Knapp, striking his cane upon the floor. We are not going to lay down our power in that way. We will not allow any such beginning. We must hold them down, firmly and consistently. For my part, I dislike even the system of oral religious instruction. It starts their minds and leads them to want something more. It's indiscreet, and I always said so. As for teaching them out of the Bible, why? The Bible is the most exciting book that ever was put together. It always starts up the mind, and it's unsafe. Don't you see, said Clayton, what an admission you're making? What sort of a system must this be that requires such a course to sustain it? I can't help that, said Mr. Knapp. There's millions and millions invested in it, and we can't afford to risk such an amount of property for mere abstract speculation. The system is as good as 40 other systems that have prevailed and will prevail. We can't take the framework of society to pieces. We must proceed with things as they are. And now, Mr. Clayton, another thing I have to say to you, said he, looking excited and getting up and walking the floor, it has been discovered that you receive incendiary documents through the post office, and this cannot be permitted, sir. The color flushed into Clayton's face, and his eye kindled as he braced himself in his chair. By what right, he says, does anyone pry into what I received through the post office? Am I not a free man? No, sir, you are not, said Mr. Knapp. Not free to receive that which may imperil a whole neighborhood. You are not free to store barrels of gunpowder on your premises where they may blow up ours. Sir, we are obliged to hold the mail under supervision in this state, and suspected persons will not be allowed to receive communications without oversight. Don't you remember that the general post office was broken open in Charleston, and all the abolition documents taken out of the mail bags and consumed, and a general meeting of all the most respectable citizens headed by the clergy in their robes of office solemnly confirmed the deed? I think Mr. Knapp, said Judge Oliver, interposing in a milder tone, that your excitement is carrying you further than you're aware. I should rather hope that Mr. Clayton would perceive the reasonableness of our demand and of himself forego the taking of these incendiary documents. I take no incendiary documents, said Clayton warmly. It is true I take an anti-slavery paper edited at Washington in which the subject is fairly and coolly discussed. I hold it no more than every man's duty to see both sides of a question. Well, there now, said Mr. Knapp. You see the disadvantage of having your slaves taught to read. If they could not read your papers, it would be no matter what you took. But to have them get to reasoning on these subjects and spread their reasonings through our plantations, why, there'll be the devil to pay at once. You must be sensible, said Judge Oliver, that there must be some individual rights which we resign for the public good. I have looked over the paper you speak of, and I acknowledge it seems to me very fair. But then in our peculiar and critical position, it might prove dangerous to have such reading about my house, and I'd never have it. In that case, said Clayton, I wonder you don't suppress your own newspapers, for as long as there is a congressional discussion or a Fourth of July orration or senatorial speech in them, so long they're full of incendiary excitement. Our history is full of it. Our state bills of rights are full of it. The lives of our fathers are full of it. We must suppress our whole literature if we would avoid it. Now don't you see, said Mr. Knapp, you have stated just so many reasons why slaves must not learn to read. To be sure I do, said Clayton, if they are always to remain slaves, if we are never to have any views of emancipation for them. Well, they are to remain slaves, said Mr. Knapp, speaking with excitement. Their condition is a finality. We will not allow the subject of emancipation to be discussed even. Then God have mercy on you, said Clayton solemnly, for it is my firm belief that in resisting the progress of human freedom you will be found fighting against God. It isn't the cause of human freedom, said Mr. Knapp hastily. They are not human. They are an inferior race made expressly for subjection and servitude. The Bible teaches this plainly. Why don't you teach them to read it then, said Clayton coolly. Long in the short of the matter is Mr. Clayton, said Mr. Knapp, walking nervously up and down the room, you'll find this is not a matter to be trifled with. We come as your friends to warn you, and if you don't listen to our warnings we shall not hold ourselves responsible for what may follow. You ought to have some consideration for your sister, if not for yourself. I confess, said Clayton, I had done the chivalry of South Carolina the honor, to think that a lady could have nothing to fear. It is so generally, said Judge Oliver, but on this subject there is such a dreadful excitability in the public mind that we cannot control it. You remember when the commissioner was sent by the legislature of Massachusetts to Charleston. He came with his daughter, very cultivated and elegant young lady, but the mob was rising and we could not control it, and we had to go and beg them to leave the city. I, for one, wouldn't have been at all answerable for the consequences if they had remained. I must confess, Judge Oliver, said Clayton, that I have been surprised this morning to hear South Carolinians palliating to such events in your history, resulting from mob violence as the breaking open of the post office and the insult to the representative of a sister state, who came in the most peaceable and friendly spirit and to womanhood in the person of an accomplished lady. Is this hydra-headed monster the mob to be our governor? Oh, it is only upon this subject, said all three of the gentlemen at once. This subject is exceptional. And do you think, said Clayton, that you can set the land on fire to burn just so high and no higher. You may depend upon it, you will find that you cannot. The mob that you smile on and encourage when it does work that suits you will one day prove itself your master in a manner that you will not like. Well now, Mr. Clayton, said Mr. Bradshaw, who had not hitherto spoken. You see, this is a very disagreeable subject. But the fact is, we came in a friendly way to you. We all appreciate, personally, the merits of your character and the excellence of your motives. But really, sir, there is an excitement rising. There is a state of the public mind which is getting every day more and more inflammable. I talked with Ms. Ann on this subject some months ago and expressed my feelings very fully. And now if you will only give us a pledge that you will pursue a different course, we shall have something to take hold of to quiet the popular mind. If you'll just write and stop your paper for the present and let it be understood that your plantation system is to be stopped, then the thing will gradually cool itself off. Gentlemen, said Clayton, you are asking a very serious thing for me and one which requires reflection. If I am violating the direct laws of the state and these laws are to be considered as still and vital force, there is certainly some question with regard to my course. But still I have responsibilities for the moral and religious improvement of those under my care which are equally binding. I see no course but removal from the state. Of course we should be sorry, said Judge Oliver. You should be obliged to do that. Still we trust you will see the necessity and our motives. Necessity is the tyrants plea, I believe, said Clayton, smiling. At all events it is a strong one, replied Judge Oliver, smiling also. But I'm glad we have had this conversation. I think it will enable me to pacify the minds of some of our hot-headed young neighbors and prevent threatened mischief. After a little general conversation, the party separated on apparently friendly terms and Clayton went to seek counsel with his sister and Frank Russell, and was indignant with that straight out and generous indignation which belongs to women who, generally speaking, are ready to follow their principles to any result with more inconsiderate fearlessness than men. She had none of the anxieties for herself, which Clayton had for her. Having once been witness to the brutalities of a slave mob, Clayton could not, without a shutter, connect any such possibilities with his sister. I think, said Anne, we had better give up this miserable sham of a free government, a freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and all that if things must go on in this way. Oh, said Frank Russell, the fact is that our Republic in these states is like that of Venice. It's not a democracy, but an oligarchy, and the mob is its standing army. We are all of us under the Council of Ten, which has its eyes everywhere. We are free enough as long as our actions please them. When they don't, we shall find their new surround our necks. It's very edifying, certainly, to have these gentlemen call on you to tell you they will not be answerable for consequences of excitement which they are all the time stirring up. For after all, who cares what you do if they don't? The large proprietors are the ones interested. The rabble are their hands, and this warning about popular excitement just means, sir, if you don't take care, I shall let out my dogs, and then I won't be answerable for consequences. And you call this liberty, said Anne, indignantly. Oh, well, said Russell, this is a world of humbugs. We call it liberty because it's an agreeable name. After all, what is liberty that people make such a breeze about? We are all slaves to one thing or another. Nobody is absolutely free except Robinson Crusoe in the desolate island, and he tears all his shirts to pieces and hangs them up as signals of distress that he may get back into slavery again. For all that, said Anne, warming, I know there is such a thing as liberty. All that nobleness and enthusiasm which has animated people in all ages for liberty cannot be in vain. Who does not thrill at those words of the Marseillaise? O liberty, can men resign thee once having felt thy generous flame? Can dungeons, bolts, or bars confine thee, or whips thy noble spirit tame? These are certainly agreeable myths, said Russell, but these things will not bear any close looking into. Liberty has generally meant the liberty of me and my nation and my class to do what we please, which is a very pleasant thing, certainly to those who are on the upper side of the wheel and probably involving much that's disagreeable to those who are under. That is a heartless, unbelieving way of talking, said Anne with tears in her eyes. I know there have been some right true noble souls in whom the love of liberty has meant the love of right and the desire that every human brother should have what rightly belongs to him. It is not my liberty nor our liberty, but the principle of liberty itself that they strove for. Such a principle carried out logically would make smashing work in this world, said Russell. In this sense, where is there a free government on earth? What nation ever does, or ever did, respect the right of the weaker, or ever will till the millennium comes, and that's too far off to be of much use in practical calculations. So don't let's break our hearts about a name. For my part, I am more concerned about these implied threats. As I said before, the hand of Joab is in this thing. Tom Gordon is visiting in this neighborhood, and you may depend upon it that this in some way comes from him. He is a perfectly reckless fellow, and I'm afraid of some act of violence. If he should bring up a mob, whatever they do, there will be no redress for you. These respectable gentlemen, your best friends, will fold their hands and say, ah poor fellow, we told them so, while others will put their hands complacently in their pockets and say, served him right. I think, said Clayton, there will be no immediate violence. I understood that they pledged as much when they departed. If Tom Gordon is in the camp, said Russell, they may find that they have reckoned without their host in promising that. There are two or three young fellows in this vicinity who, with his energy to direct them, are reckless enough for anything, and there is always an abundance of excitable rabble to be got for a drink of whiskey. The event proved that Russell was right. Anne's bedroom was in the back part of the cottage, opposite the little grove, where stood her schoolroom. She was awakened, about one o'clock that night, by a broad, ruddy glare of light, which caused her at first to start from her bed, with the impression that the house was on fire. At the same instant she perceived that the air was full of barbarous and dissonant sounds, such as the beating of ten pans, the braing of horns, and shouts of savage merriment intermingled with slang oaths and curses. In a moment recovering herself she perceived that it was her schoolhouse which was in a blaze, crisping and shriveling the foliage of the beautiful trees by which it was surrounded, and filling the air with a lurid light. She hastily dressed, and in a few moments Clayton and Russell knocked at the door. Both were looking very pale. Don't be alarmed, said Clayton, putting his arm around her with that manner which shows that there is everything to fear. I am going out to speak to them. Indeed you are going to do no such thing, said Frank Russell decidedly. This is no time for any extra displays of heroism. These men are insane, with whiskey and excitement. They have probably been especially inflamed against you, and your presence would irritate them still more. Let me go out. I understand the ignoble vulgis better than you do. Besides which, providentially, I have an any conscience to prevent my saying in doing what is necessary for an emergency. You shall see me lead off this whole yelling pack at my heels in triumph. And now Clayton, you take care of Anne like a good fella till I come back, which may be about four or five o'clock tomorrow morning. I shall toll all these fellas down to muggins, and leave them so drunk they cannot stand for one three hours. So saying, Frank proceeded hastily to disguise himself in his shaggy old greatcoat, and to tie around his throat a red bandana silk handkerchief, with a very fiery and dashing tie, and surmounting these equipment by an old hat which had belonged to one of the servants, he stole out of the front door, and passing around through the shrubbery was very soon lost and the throng who surrounded the burning building. He soon satisfied himself that Tom Gordon was not personally among them, that they consisted entirely of the lower class of whites. So far so good, he said to himself, and springing on to the stump of a tree, he commenced a speech in that peculiar slang dialect which was vernacular with them, and of which he perfectly well understood the use. With his quick and ready talent for drollery, he soon had them around him in paroxysms of laughter, and complimenting their bravery, flattering and conjoaling their vanity, he soon got them completely in his power, and they assented, with a triumphant shout, to the proposition that they should go down and celebrate their victory at Muggins Grocery, a low haunt about a mile distant. Wither, as he predicted, they all followed him. And he was as good as his word, and not leaving them till all were so completely under the power of liquor as to be incapable of mischief for the time being. About nine o'clock the next day he returned, finding Clayton and Anne seated together at breakfast. Now Clayton, he said, seating himself, I am going to talk to you in good solemn earnest for once. The fact is, you are checkmated. Your plans for gradual emancipation or reform or anything tending in that direction are utterly hopeless. And if you want to pursue them with your own people, you must either send them to Liberia or to the northern states. There was a time fifty years ago when such things were contemplated with some degree of sincerity by all the leading minds at the south. That time is over. From the very day that they began to open new territories to slavery, the value of this kind of property mounted up so as to make emancipation a moral impossibility. It is, as they told you, a finality. And don't you see how they make everything in the union bend to it? Why, these men are about only three tenths of the population of the southern states, and yet the other seven tenths virtually have no existence. All they do is to vote as they are told, and they know they must, being too ignorant to know any better. The mouth of the north is stuffed with cotton, and will be kept full as long as it suits us. Good easy gentlemen, they are so satisfied with their pillows and other accommodations inside of the car that they don't trouble themselves to reflect that we are the engineers, nor to ask where we are going. And when anyone does wake up and pipe out in melancholia inquiry, we slam the door in his face and tell him, mind your own business, sir, and he leans back on his cotton pillow and goes to sleep again, only whimpering a little that we might be more polite. They have their fanatics up there. We don't trouble ourselves to put them down, we make them do it. They get up mobs on our account, to hoot troublesome ministers and editors out of their cities, and there are men that they send to Congress invariably do all our dirty work. There's now and then an exception, it is true, but they only prove the rule. If there was any public sentiment at the north for you reformers to fall back upon, you might, in spite of your difficulties, do something, but there is not. They are all implicated with us, except the class of born fanatics like you, who are walking in that very unfashionable, narrow way we've heard of. Well, said Anne, let us go out of state then. I will go anywhere, but I will not stop the work that I have begun. Never had Harry known a moment so full of joyous security as that which found him out at sea in a white-winged vessel flying with all speed toward the distant port of safety. Before they neared the coast of New York, however, there was a change in their prospects. The blue sky became darkened and the sea, before treacherously smoothed, began to rise in furious waves. The little vessel was tossed baffling about by contrary and tumultuous winds. When she began to pitch and roll in all the violence of a decided storm, Lisette and the children cried for fear. Old Tiff exerted himself for their comfort to the best of his ability. Seated on the cabin floor with his feet firmly braced, he would hold the children in his arms and remind them what Miss Nina had read to them, of the storm that came down on the lake of Gnasserith, and how Jesus was in the hinder part of the boat asleep on a pillow. And he's dark yet, Tiff would say. I wish they'd wake him up then, said Teddy disconsolently. I don't like this dreadful noise. What has he let it be so for? Before the close of that day the fury of the storm increased. The horrors of the night can only be told by those who have felt the like, the plunging of the vessel, the creaking and straining of the timbers, the hollow and subpulchral sound of waves striking against the hull, and the shiver with which, like a living creature, she seemed to tremble at every shock, where things frightful even to the experienced sailor, much more so to our trembling refugees. The morning dawned, only to show the sailors their bark drifting helplessly toward a fatal shore, whose name is a sound of evil almond to semen. It was not long before the final crash came, and the ship was wedged among rugged rocks washed over every moment by the fury of the waves. All hands came now on deck for the last chance of life. One boat after another was attempted to be launched, but was swamped by the furious waters. When the last boat was assayed there was a general rush of all on board. It was the last chance for life. In such hours the instinctive fear of death often overbears every other consideration, and the boat was rapidly filled by the hands of the ship, who, being strongest and most accustomed to such situations, were more able to affect this than their passengers. The captain alone remained standing on the wreck, and with him Harry, Lisette, Tiff, and the children. Pass along, said the captain, hastily pressing Lisette on board, simply because she was the first that came to hand. For the good Lord's sake, said Tiff, put the children on board. There won't be no room for me, and to no matter. You go on board and take care of them, he said, pushing Harry along. Harry mechanically sprang into the boat, and the captain after him. The boat was full. Oh, do take poor Tiff, do, said the children, stretching their hands after their old friend. Clear away, boys, the boat's full, shouted a dozen voices, and the boat parted from the wreck, and sunk in eddies and whirls of boiling waves, foam and spray, and went rising and sinking onward, driven toward the shore. A few, looking backwards, saw a mighty green wave come roaring and shaking its crusted head, lift the hull as if it had been an eggshell, then dash it in fragments upon the rocks. This was all they knew, till they themselves were cast, wet, and dripping, but still living, upon the sands. A crowd of people were gathered upon the shore, who, with the natural kindness of humanity on such occasions, gathered the drenched and sea-beaten wanderers into neighboring cottages, where food and fire and changes of dry clothing weighted them. The children excited universal sympathy and attention, and so many mothers of the neighborhood came bringing offerings of clothing that their lost wardrobe was soon very tolerably replaced. But nothing could comfort them for the loss of their old friend. In vain, the little deers were tempted with offers of cake and custard, and every imaginable eatable. They sat with their arms around each other, quietly weeping. No matter how unsightly the casket may be which holds all the love there is on earth for us, be that love lodged in the heart of the poorest and most uneducated, the whole world can offer no exchange for the loss of it. Tiff's devotion to these children had been so constant, so provident, so absolute, that it did not seem to them possible they could live a day without him, and the desolation of their lot seemed to grow upon them every hour. Nothing would restrain them. They would go out and look up and down if perhaps they might meet him, but they searched in vain, and Harry, who had attended them, led them back again, disconsolate. I say, Fanny, said Teddy, after they had said their prayers and lain down in their little bed. Has Tiff gone to heaven? Certainly he has, said Fanny, if ever anybody went there. Won't he come and bring us pretty soon? said Teddy. He won't want to be there without us, will he? Oh, I don't know, said Fanny. I wish we could go. The world is so lonesome, and thus talking the children fell asleep. But it is written in an ancient record. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And verily the next morning Teddy started up in bed, and awakened his sister with a cry of joy. Oh, Fanny, Fanny, Tiff isn't dead. I heard him laughing. Fanny started up, and sure enough there came through the partition which separated their little sleeping room from the kitchen, a sound very much like Tiff's old, unctuous laugh. One would have thought no other pair of lungs could have rolled out the jolly ho-ho-ho with such a joyous fullness of intonation. The children hastily put on their clothes and opened the door. Why, breast-a-lord, Poppets here day is sure enough. Ho-ho-ho, said Tiff, stretching out his arms while both the children ran and hung upon him. Oh, Tiff, we are so glad. Oh, we thought you was drowned. We've been thinking so all night. No, no, no, breast-a-lord. You don't get shed of old Tiff died, are we? Won't get shed of him till you's fetched up and able to do for yourselves. Oh, Tiff, how did you get away? Laws, why, childrens? It was a very straight way. I told the Lord about it, says I. Good Lord, you know I don't care nothing about it on my own count, but peers like these children is so young and tender I couldn't leave them no way, and so I asked him if he wouldn't just please to help me, because I know he had the power of the winds and the sea. Well, sure enough that our big wave told me clear right on up on the show, but it took my breath and my senses so I didn't fairly know where I was, and the peoples that found me took me a good bit way to a house down here, and they was amazing good to me and rub me with the hot flannels and give me one tang in another, so that I woke up quite pert this morning and I came out to look up my Poppets, because you see it was kind of bone in my mind that I should find you, and now you see children you mark my words, the Lord been with us in six troubles and in seven, and he'll bring us to good luck yet, tell you to see and wash that dare out of me for all its banging and bruising, and tiff chuckled in the fullness of his heart and made a joyful noise. His words were so far accomplished that before many days the little party rested and refreshed, and with the losses of their wardrobe made up by friendly contributions found themselves under the roof of some benevolent friends in New York. Thither in due time the other detachment of the party arrived which had come forward under the guidance of Hannibal by ways and means which, as they may be wanted for others in like circumstances, we shall not further particularize. Harry, by the kind patronage of friends, soon obtained employment, which placed him and his wife in a situation of comfort. Millie and her grandson, and old tiff and his children, were enabled to hire a humble tenement together, and she, finding employment as a pastry cook in a confectioner's establishment, was able to provide a very comfortable support, while tiff presided in the housekeeping department. After a year or two an event occurred of so romantic a nature that had we not ascertained it as a positive fact, we should hesitate to insert it in our voracious narrative. Fanny's mother had an aunt in the Peyton family, a maiden lady of very singular character, who, by habit of great pineriousness, had amassed a large fortune. Apparently for no other purpose, then that it should someday fall into the hands of somebody who would know how to enjoy it. Having quarreled shortly before her death with all her other relatives, she cast about in her mind for ways and means to revenge herself on them, by placing her property out of their disposal. She accordingly made a will, bequeathing it to the heirs of her niece, Susan, if any such heirs existed, and if not the property was to go to an orphan asylum. By chance the lawyer's letter of inquiry was addressed to Clayton, who immediately took the necessary measures to identify the children and put them in possession of the property. Tiff now was glorious. He always noted. He said that Miss Sue's children will come to luck, and that the Lord would open the door for them, and he had. Fanny, who was now a well-grown girl of twelve years, chose Clayton as her guardian, and by his care she was placed at one of the best New England schools where her mind and her person developed rapidly. Her brother was placed at school in the same town. As for Clayton, after some inquiry and consideration, he bought a large and valuable tract of land in that portion of Canada where the climate is least severe, and the land the most valuable for culture. To this place he removed his slaves and formed there a township, which is now one of the richest and finest in the region. Here he built for himself a beautiful residence where he and his sister live happily together, finding their enjoyment in the improvement of those by whom they are surrounded. It is a striking comment on the success of Clayton's enterprise that the neighboring white settlers who at first looked coldly upon him, fearing he would be the means of introducing a thriftless population among them, have been entirely won over, and that the value of the improvements which Clayton and his tenants have made has nearly doubled the price of real estate in the vicinity. So high a character have his schools borne that the white settlers in the vicinity have discontinued their own, preferring to have their children enjoy the advantages of those under his and his sister's patronage in care. Footnote. These statements are all true of the Elgin Settlement, founded by Mr. King, a gentleman who removed and settled his slaves in the south of Canada. End of footnote. Harry is one of the head men of the settlement and is rapidly acquiring property and consideration in the community. A large farm, waving with some acres of fine wheat with its fences and outhouses in excellent condition, marks the energy and thrift of Hannibal, who, instead of slaying men, is great in felling trees and clearing forests. He finds time winter evenings to read with none to molest or make afraid. His oldest son is construing Caesar's commentaries at school, and often reads his lesson of an evening to his delighted father, who willingly resigns the palm of scholarship into his hands. As to our merry friend, Jim, he is the life of the settlement. Liberty, it is true, has made him a little more sober, and a very energetic and capable wife, soberer still. But yet Jim has enough and to spare of drollery, which makes him an indispensable requisite in all social gatherings. He works on his farm with energy, and repels with indignation any suggestion that he was happier in the old times when he had abundance of money and very little to do. One suggestion more we almost hesitate to make, lest it should give rise to unfounded reports, but we are obliged to speak the truth. Anne Clayton, on a visit to a friend's family in New Hampshire, met with Livy Ray, of whom she had heard Nina speak so much, and very naturally the two ladies fell into a most intimate friendship. Visits were exchanged between them, and Clayton, on first introduction, discovered the lady he had met in the prison in Alexandria. The most intimate friendship exists between the three, and of course in such cases reports will arise, but we assure our readers we have never heard of any authentic foundation for them, so that, in this matter, we can clearly leave everyone to predict a result according to their own fancies. We have now two sketches, with which the scenery of our book must close. End of Chapter 56. Flight. Recording by Pete McKelvin. Chapter 57 of Dread, The Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a LibriVox recording. A LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 57. Clear Shining After Rain. Clayton had occasion to visit New York on business. He never went without carrying some token of remembrance from the friends in his settlement to Millie, now indeed far advanced in years, while yet in the expressive words of Scripture, her eye was not dim, nor her natural force abated. He found her in a neat little tenement in one of the outer streets of New York, surrounded by about a dozen children, among whom were Blacks, Whites, and Foreigners, the issue she had rescued from utter destitution in the streets, and was giving to them all the attention and affection of a mother. Why bless you, sir, she said to him pleasantly as he opened the door. It's good to see you once more. How is Miss Anne? Very well, Millie. She sent you this little packet, and you will find something from Harry and Lisette and all the rest of your friends in our settlement. Ah, are these all your children, Millie? Yes, honey, mine and the Lord's. This year's my second dozen. The first is all in good places and doing well. I kiss my eye on them and goes round to see them after a little, now and then. And how is Tomit? Oh, Tomit's doing beautiful. Thank you, sir. He's come a Christian, enjoying the church, and they has him to wait and tend at the anti-slavery office, and he does well. I see you have Black and White here, said Clayton, glancing around the circle. Laws, yes, said Millie, looking complacently around. I don't make no distinctions of color. I don't believe in them. White children, when they hate themselves, is just as good as Black, and I love them just as well. Don't you think it's a little hard you should have to work so in your old age? Why, Bress you, honey. No, I take comfort of my money as I go along. There's a heap in me yet, she said, laughing. I was hoping to get this year's batch put out and take in another before I die. You see, she said, this year's the way I took to get my heart whole. I found it was getting so sore from my children I'd had took from me, peers like the older I growed, the more I thought about them, but as long as I keep doing for children, it kinder eases me. I cause them all mine, so I've got good many children now. We will inform our reader in passing that Millie, in the course of her life, on the humble wages of a laboring woman, took from the streets, brought up and placed in reputable situations no less than forty destitute children. Footnote. These circumstances are true of an old colored woman in New York, known by the name of Aunt Katie, who in her youth was a slave and who is said to have established among these destitute children the first Sunday school in the city of New York. When Clayton returned to Boston, he received a note written in a graceful female hand from Fanny expressing her gratitude for his kindness to her and her brother and begging that he would come and spend a day with them at their cottage in the vicinity of the city. Accordingly, eight o'clock the next morning found him whirling in the cars through green fields and pleasant meadows, garlanded with flowers and draped with bending elms to one of those peaceful villages which lie like pearls on the bosom of our fair old mother, Massachusetts. Stopping at Blank Station, he inquired his way to a little eminence which commanded a view of one of those charming lakes which opened their blue eyes everywhere through the New England landscape. Here, embowered in blossoming trees stood a little gothic cottage, a perfect gem of rural irregularity and fanciful beauty. A porch in the front of it was supported on pillars of cedar with a rough bark still on, around which were trained multitudes of climbing roses, now in full flower. From the porch a rustic bridge led across a little ravine into a summer house which was built like a nest into the branches of a great oak which grew up from the hollow below the knoll in which the house stood. A light form dressed in a pretty white wrapper came fluttering across the bridge as Clayton ascended the steps of the porch. Perhaps our readers may recognize in the smoothly potted brown hair the large blue eyes and the bashful earnestness of the face are sometimes little friend fanny. If they do not, we think they'll be familiar with the cheery ho-ho-ho which comes from the porch as a old frontiff dressed in a respectable suit of black comes bowing forward. Bless the Lord, Master Clayton, it's good for the eyes to look at you, so you've come to see Miss Fanny. Now she's come to her property and has got to play she ought for to have. Ah, ah, old Tiff always knows it. He's seen it. He'd know the Lord would bring her outright and he did. Ho-ho-ho! Yes, said Fanny, and I sometimes think I don't enjoy it half as well as Uncle Tiff. I'm sure he ought to have some comfort of us, for he worked hard enough for us. Didn't you, Uncle Tiff? Work? Bless your soul, Din, I said, Tiff. Giggling all over in cheerful undulations. Recognize work, though I doesn't have much of it to do now. But I see he's good at my work nowadays. Does so. Master Teddy, he's grown up tall, handsome young gentleman, and he's in college. Only take of that. Laws, he can make the Latin fly. This year's pretty good country, too. There's families around here that's even most up to Old Virginia, and she goes with the best on them. That she does. Fanny now led Clayton into the house, and while she tripped the stairs to change her morning dress, Tiff busied himself in arranging cake and fruit on a silver solver as an apology for remaining in the room. He seemed to consider the interval as an appropriate one for making some confidential communications on a subject that lay very near his heart. So after looking out of the door with an air of great mystery to ascertain that Miss Fanny was really gone, he returned to Clayton and touched him on the elbow with an air of infinite secrecy and precaution. This year ain't to be spoken about loud, he said. It's been mighty anxious. But bless the Lord, eyes come safely through, because you see eyes found out he is a right likely man, besides being one of the very firstest old families in the state. And these year old families here about as good as they was in Virginia. And when all said and done, he's the man that's the ting, after all, because a gal can't marry all the generations back if they is ever so nice. But he's one of your like list men. What's his name? Russell said Tiff, lifting up his hand apprehensively to his mouth and shouting out the name and allowed whisper. I reckon he'll be here today because Master Teddy's coming home and going to bring him with him. So please, Master Clayton, you won't notice nothing because Miss Fanny, she's just like her mom. She'll turn red clara up to her hair. The body only looks at her. See here, said Tiff, fumbling in his pocket and producing a spectacle case, out of which he extracted a portentous pair of gold mounted spectacles. See what he gives me the last time he's here? I put these year on of a Sunday's when I sit down to read my Bible. Indeed, said Clayton, have you learned then to read? Why, no, honey, I don't know as I can rightly say that I learned to read because I was amazed and slow at that there. But then I was learned all the best words like Christ, Lord and God and Demmar and war days pretty thick. I make out quite comfortable. We shall not detain our readers with minute descriptions of how the day was spent, how Teddy came home from college, a tall handsome fellow, and rattled over Latin and Greek sentences and Tiff's delighted ears, who considered his learning as without a doubt the eighth wonder of the world, nor how George Russell came with him. A handsome senior just graduated, nor how Fanny blushed and trembled when she told her gardening in her little secret, and like other ladies, asked advice after she had made up her mind. Nor shall we dilate on the yet brighter glories of the cottage three months after when Clayton and Anne and Livy Ray were all at the wedding and Tiff became three and four times blessed in this brilliant consummation of his hopes. The last time we saw him he was walking forth in magnificence. His gold spectacles set conspicuously astride of his nose, trundling a little wicker wagon, which cradled a fair, pearly little Miss Fanny, whom he informed all beholders was the very spirit of the Patons, end of chapter 57, clear shining after rain. Appendix 1 of Dread, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Dread. Appendix 1. Nat Turner's Confessions. As an illustration of a character and views ascribed to Dread, we make a few extracts from the Confessions of Nat Turner, as published by T. R. Gray Esquire of Southampton, Virginia in November 1831. One of the principal conspirators in this affair was named Dread. We will give first the certificate of the Court and a few sentences from Mr. Gray's introductory remarks, and then proceed with Turner's own narrative. We the undersigned members of the Court convened in Jerusalem on Saturday, the fifth day of November 1831, for the trial of Nat, alias Nat Turner, a Negro slave late the property of Putnam Moore, deceased. To hear by certify that the confession of Nat to Thomas R. Gray was read to him in our presence, and that Nat acknowledged the same to be full, free, and voluntary, and that furthermore, when called upon by the presiding magistrate of the Court to state if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, replied he had nothing further than he had communicated to Mr. Gray, given under our hands and seals at Jerusalem this fifth day of November 1831. Jeremiah Cobb, James W. Parker, Samuel B. Hines, Thomas Pretlow, Carr Bowers, Oris A. Brown, State of Virginia, Southampton County, to which I, James Rochelle, Clerk of the County Court of Southampton, and the State of Virginia, do hereby certify that Jeremiah Cobb, Thomas Pretlow, James W. Parker, Carr Bowers, Samuel B. Hines, and Oris A. Brown, Esquires, are acting justices of the peace and and for the county, aforesaid, and were members of the Court which convened at Jerusalem on Saturday, the fifth day of November 1831, for the trial of Nat, alias Nat Turner, a Negro slave, late the property of Putnamor deceased, who was tried and convicted as an insurgent in the late insurrection in the County of Southampton, aforesaid, and that full faith and credit are due and ought to be given to their acts as justices of the peace aforesaid. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Court, aforesaid, to be affixed, the fifth day of November 1831, James Rochelle, C.S. C.C. Everything connected with this sad affair was wrapped in mystery until Nat Turner, the leader of this ferocious band whose name has resounded through our widely extended empire, was captured. Since his confinement by permission of the jailer, I've had ready access to him and finding that he was willing to make a full and free confession of the origin, progress, and consummation of the insurrectory movements of the slaves, of which he was the contriver in head. I determined for the gratification of public curiosity to commit his statements to writing and publish them, with little or no variation from his own words. He was not only the contriver of the conspiracy, but gave the first blow towards its execution. It will thus appear that whilst everything upon the surface of society wore a calm and peaceful aspect, whilst not one note of preparation was heard to warn the devoted inhabitants of woe and death, a gloomy fanatic was revolving in the recesses of his own dark bewildered and overwrought mind, schemes of indiscriminate massacre to the whites, schemes too fearfully executed as far as his vandish band proceeded in their desolating march. No cry for mercy penetrated their flinty bosoms. No acts of remembered kindness made the least impression upon these remorseless murderers. Men, women, and children from hoary age to helpless infancy were involved in the same cruel fate, never did a band of savages do their work of death more unsparingly. Nat has survived all his followers, and the gallows will speedily close his career. His own account of the conspiracy has submitted to the public, without comment. It reads, in awful, and it is hoped a useful lesson, as to the operations of a mind like his, endeavoring to grapple with things beyond its reach. How it first became bewildered and confounded, and fondly corrupted, and led to the conception and perpetration of the most atrocious and heart-rending deeds. If Nat's statements can be relied on, the insurrection in this county was entirely local, and his designs confided but to a few, and these in his immediate vicinity. It was not instigated by motives of revenge or sudden anger, but the result of long deliberation and a settled purpose of mind, the offspring of gloomy fanaticism acting upon materials but too well prepared for such impressions. I was thirty-one years of age, the second of October last, and born the property of Benjamin Turner of this county. In my childhood a circumstance occurred which made an indelible impression on my mind, and laid the groundwork of that enthusiasm which has terminated, so fatally, to many, both white and black, and for which I am about to atone at the gallows. It is here necessary to relate this circumstance triflingly as it may seem. It was with the commencement of that belief which has grown with time, and even now, sir, in this dungeon, helpless and forsaken as I am, I cannot divest myself of. Being at play with other children when three or four years old, I was telling them something, which my mother over hearings said it had happened before I was born. I stuck to my story, however, and related some things which went, in her opinion, to confirm it. Others being called on were greatly astonished, knowing that these things had happened and caused them to say in my hearing, I surely would be a prophet, as the Lord had shown me things that had happened before my birth, and my father and mother strengthened me in this first impression, saying in my presence I was intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from certain marks on my head and breast. Parentheses, a parcel of excrescences which I believe were not at all uncommon, particularly among Negroes, as I have seen several with the same. In this case he has either cut them off or they have nearly disappeared. Parentheses closed. My grandmother, who was very religious and to whom I was very much attached, my master who belonged to the church and other religious persons who visited the house, in whom I often saw at prayers noticing the singularity of my manners, I suppose, and my uncommon intelligence for a child, remarked, I had too much sense to be raised, and if I was, I would never be of any service to anyone as a slave. To a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive, and observant of everything that was passing, it was easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would be directed, and although this subject principally occupied my thoughts, there was nothing that I saw or heard of to which my attention was not directed, the manner in which I learned to read and write not only had great influence on my mind as I acquired it with the utmost perfect ease, so much so that I have no recollection whatever of learning the alphabet, but to the astonishment of the family one day when a book was shown to me to keep me from crying, I began spelling the names of different objects. This was a source of wonder to all in the neighborhood, particularly the blacks, and this learning was constantly improved at all opportunities. When I got large enough to go to work while employed, I was reflecting on many things that would present themselves to my imagination, and whenever an opportunity occurred of looking at a book when the school children were getting their lessons, I would find many things that the fertility of my own imagination had depicted to me before. All my time not devoted to my master's service was spent either in prayer or making experiments and casting different things in molds made of earth, and attempting to make paper, gunpowder, and many other experiments that, although I could not perfect, yet convince me of its practicability if I had the means. Footnote. When questioned as to the manner of manufacturing these different articles, he was found well informed. End of footnote. I was not addicted to stealing in my youth, nor have ever been, yet such was the confidence of the negroes in the neighborhood, even at this early period of my life, in my superior judgment, that they would often carry me with them when they were going on any roguery to plan for them, growing up among them with this confidence of my superior judgment, and when this, in their opinions, was perfected by divine inspiration. From the circumstances already alluded to in my infancy, in which belief was ever afterwards zealously inculcated by the austerity of my life and manners, which became the subject of remark by white and black, having soon discovered to be, great I must appear so, and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society and wrap myself in mystery, devoting my time to fasting and prayer. By this time, having arrived to Man's estate and hearing the scriptures commented on at meetings, I was struck by that particular passage which says, Seek ye the kingdom of heaven, and all things shall be added unto you. I reflected much on this passage and prayed daily for light on this subject. As I was praying one day at my plow, the Spirit spoke to me, saying, Seek ye the kingdom of heaven, and all things shall be added unto you. Question, what do you mean by the Spirit? Answer, the Spirit that spoke to the prophets in former days. And I was greatly astonished, and for two years praying continually, whenever my duty would permit, and then again I had the same revelation which fully confirmed me in the impression that I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty. Several years rolled round, in which many events occurred to strengthen me in this my belief. At this time I reverted in my mind to the remarks made of me and my childhood in the things that had been shown me, and as it had been said of me in my childhood by those by whom I had been taught to pray, both white and black, and in whom I had the greatest confidence that I had too much sense to be raised, and if I was I would never be of any use to one as a slave. Now finding I had arrived to man's estate and was a slave, in these revelations being made known to me, I began to direct my attention to this great object to fulfill the purpose for which by this time I felt assured I was intended. Knowing the influence I had attained over the minds of my fellow servants, not by the means of conjuring and such like tricks, for to them I always spoke of such things with contempt, but by the communion of the Spirit, whose revelations I often communicated to them, and they believed and said my wisdom came from God. I now began to prepare them for my purpose by telling them something was about to happen that would terminate in fulfilling the great promise that had been made to me. About this time I was placed under an overseer, from whom I ran away and after remaining in the woods thirty days I returned to the astonishment of the negroes on the plantation, who thought I had made my escape to some other part of the country as my father had done before. But the reason of my return was that the Spirit appeared to me and said I had wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the kingdom of heaven, that I should return to the service of my earthly master, for he who knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, and thus have I chastened you. And the negroes found fault and murmured against me, saying that if they had my sense they would not serve any master in the world. And about this time I had a vision, and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened, the thunder rolled in the heavens, and blood flowed in streams, and I heard a voice saying such is your luck, such you are called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it. I now withdrew myself as much as my situation would permit from the intercourse of my fellow servants, for the avowed purpose of serving the Spirit more fully, and it appeared to me and reminded me of the things it had already shown me, and that it would then reveal to me the knowledge of the elements, the revolution of the planets, the operation of tides, and the changes of the seasons. After this revelation, in the year 1825, and the knowledge of the elements being made known to me, I sought more than ever to obtain true holiness before the great day of judgment should appear. And then I began to receive the true knowledge of faith. And from the first steps of righteousness, until the last, was I made perfect, and the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, Behold me as I stand in the heavens. And I looked and saw the forms of men in different attitudes, and there were lights in the skies, to which the children of darkness gave other names than what they really were, for they were the lights of the Savior's hands stretched forth from east to west, even as they were extended on the cross on Calvary. And I wonder greatly at these miracles, and prayed to be informed of a certainty of the meaning thereof. And shortly afterwards, while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were due from heaven. And I communicated it to many, both white and black in the neighborhood, and I then found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens. And now the Holy Ghost had revealed itself to me, and made plain the miracles it had shown me, for as the blood of Christ had been shed on this earth, and had ascended to heaven for the salvation of sinners, and was now returning to earth again in the form of dew. And as the leaves on the trees bore the impression of the figures I had seen in the heavens, it was plain to me that the Savior was about to lay down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and the great day of judgment was at hand. About this time I told these things to a white man, Ethel Dredd, T. Brantley, on whom it had a wonderful effect, and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked immediately with a cutaneous eruption, and blood oozed from the pores of his skin. And after praying and fasting nine days, he was healed. And the Spirit appeared to me again, and said, As the Divine Savior had been baptized, so should we be also. And when the white people would not let us be baptized by the church, we went down into the river together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit. After this I rejoiced greatly, and gave thanks to God. And on the 12th of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me, and said the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last, and the last should be first. Question. Do you not find yourself mistaken now? Answer. Was not Christ crucified? And by signs in the heaven that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men. And on the appearance of the sign, the eclipse of the sun, last February, I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons. And immediately on the sign appearing in the heavens, the seal was removed from my lips, and I communicated the great work laid out for me to do to for in whom I had the greatest confidence, Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam. It was intended by us to have begun the work of death on the 4th of July last. Many were the plans formed and rejected by us, and it affected my mind to such a degree that I fell sick, and the time passed without our coming to any determination had to commence, still forming new schemes and rejecting them, when the sign appeared again, which determined me not to wait longer. Since the commencement of 1830 I had been living with Mr. Joseph Travis, who was to me a kind master, and placed the greatest confidence in me. In fact, I had no cause to complain of his treatment to me. On Saturday evening, the 20th of August, it was agreed between Henry, Hark, and myself to prepare a dinner the next day for the men we expected, and then to concert a plan, as we had not yet determined on any. Hark on the following morning brought a pig in Henry Brandy, and being joined by Sam, Nelson, Will, and Jack, they prepared in the woods at dinner, where about three o'clock I joined them. Question. Why were you so backward in joining them? Answer. The same reason that had caused me not to mix with them for years before. I saluted them on coming up and asked Will how he came there. He answered his life was worth no more than others, and his liberty is dear to him. I asked him if he thought to obtain it. He said he would, or lose his life. This was enough to put him in full confidence. Jack I knew was only a tool in the hands of Hark. It was quickly agreed we should commence a home, Mr. J. Travisus, on that night, and until we had armed and equipped ourselves and gathered sufficient force, neither age nor sex was to be spared, which was invariably adhered to. We remained at the feast until about two hours in the night, when we went to the house and found Austin. We will not go into the horrible details of the various massacres, but only make one or two extracts to show the spirit and feelings of Turner. I then went to Mr. John T. Harrowes. They had been here and murdered him. I pursued on their track to Captain Newet Harrisus, where I found the greater part mounted and ready to start. The men now, amounting to about forty, shouted and hurrayed as I rode up. Some were in the yard, loading their guns, others drinking. They said Captain Harris and his family had escaped. The property in the house they destroyed, robbing him of money and other valuables. I ordered them to mount and march instantly. This was about nine or ten o'clock, Monday morning. I proceeded to Mr. Levi Wallers, two or three miles distant. I took my station in the rear, and as it was my object to carry terror and devastation wherever we went. I placed fifteen or twenty of the best armed and most to be relied on in front, who generally approached the houses as fast as the horses could run. This was for two purposes, to prevent their escape and strike terror to the inhabitants. On this account I never got to the houses, after leaving Mrs. Whiteheads, until the murders were committed. Except in one case I sometimes got in sight in time to see the work of death completed, viewed the mangled bodies as they lay. In silent satisfaction, I immediately started in quest of other victims. Having murdered Mrs. Waller and the ten children, we started for Mr. William Williams, having killed him and two little boys that were there. While engaged in this, Mrs. Williams fled and got some distance from the house, but she was pursued, overtaken, and compelled to get up behind one of the company who brought her back. And after showing her the mangled body of her lifeless husband, she was told to get down and lay by his side, where she was shot dead. The white men pursued and fired on us several times, harked his horse-shot under him, and I caught another for him as it was running by me. Five or six of my men were wounded, but none left on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly determined to go through a private way and cross the Nautoway River at the Cyprus Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in the rear, as I expected they would look for me on the other road. And I had a great desire to get there to procure arms in ammunition. After going a short distance in this private way, accompanied by about twenty men, I overtook two or three who told me the others were dispersed in every direction. On this I gave up all hope for the present, and on Thursday night, after having supplied myself with provisions from Mr. Travisus, I scratched a hole under a pile of fence rails in a field where I concealed myself for six weeks, never leaving my hiding place but for a few minutes in the dead of night to get water, which was very near. Thinking by this time I could venture out, I began to go out in the night and eavesdrop the houses in the neighborhood, pursuing this course for about a fortnight, gathering little or no intelligence, afraid of speaking to any human being, and returning every morning to my cave before the dawn of day. I know not how long I might have led this life, if accident had not betrayed me. A dog in the neighborhood passing by my hiding place one night while I was out was attracted by some meat I had in my cave and crawled in and stole it, and was coming out just as I returned. A few nights after, two Negroes having started to go hunting with the same dog and passed that way, the dog came again to the place and having just gone out to walk about, discovered me and barked, on which, thinking myself discovered, I spoke to them to beg concealment. I'll make myself known they fled from me. Knowing then they would betray me, I immediately left my hiding place and was pursued almost incessantly, until I was taken a fortnight afterwards by Mr. Benjamin Phipps, in a small hole I had dug out with my sword, for the purpose of concealment under the top of a fallen tree. During the time I was pursued I had many hair breath escapes, which your time will not permit you to relate. I am here loaded with chains and willing to suffer the fate that awaits me. Mr. Gray asked him if he knew of any extensive or concerted plan. His answer was I do not. When I questioned him as to the insurrection in North Carolina happening about the same time, he denied any knowledge of it. When I looked him in the face as though I would search his inmost thoughts. He replied, I see, sir, you doubt my word, but can you not think the same ideas in strange appearances about this time in the heavens, my prompt others, as well as myself, to this undertaking? I now had much conversation with and asked him many questions, having foreborn to do so previously, except in the cases noted in parentheses. But during his statement had, unnoticed by him, taken notes as to some particular circumstances, and having the advantage of his statement before me in writing. On the evening of the third day that I had been with him, I began a cross-examination and found his statement corroborated by every circumstance coming within my own knowledge, or the confessions of others who had been either killed or executed, in whom he had not seen or had any knowledge of since the 22nd of August last. He expressed himself fully satisfied as to the impracticability of this attempt. It has been said he was ignorant and cowardly, and that his object was to murder and rob for the purpose of obtaining money to make his escape. It is notorious that he was never known to have a dollar in his life to swear an oath or drink a drop of spirits. As to his ignorance, he certainly never had the advantages of education, but he can read and write. It was taught him by his parents, and for natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension is surpassed by few men I have ever seen. As to his being a coward, his reason is given for not resisting Mr. Phipps shows the decision of his character. When he saw Mr. Phipps present his gun, he said he knew it was impossible for him to escape, as the woods were full of men. He therefore thought it was better to surrender and trust a fortune for his escape. He is a complete fanatic or plays his part most admirably. On other subjects he possesses an uncommon share of intelligence, with a mind capable of attaining anything, but warped and perverted by the influence of early impressions. He is below the ordinary stature, though strong and active, having the true Negro face, every feature of which is strongly marked. I shall not attempt to describe the effect of his narrative as told and commented on by himself in the condemned whole of the prison. The calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still bears the stains of the blood of helpless innocents about him. Clothed with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man, I looked on him and my blood curdled in my veins. End of appendix number one.