gimlet

lacerated

pent roof,

and my brother and children were in the hands of the trader.

The Children Sold.

anathemas

She hasn’t so much feeling for her children as a cow has for its calf. If she had, she would have come back long ago, to get them out of jail, and save all this expense and trouble.

my little Benny, and Ellen, who was a little over two years old, were thrust into jail,

For that deed of Christian womanhood, may God forever bless her!

[Footnote 1: The poison of a snake is a powerful acid, and is counteracted by powerful alkalies, such as potash, ammonia, &c. The Indians are accustomed to apply wet ashes, or plunge the limb into strong lie. White men, employed to lay out railroads in snaky places, often carry ammonia with them as an antidote.—EDITOR.]

poultice

The Flight.

When I lay down beside my child, I felt how much easier it would be to see her die than to see her master beat her about, as I daily saw him beat other little ones. The spirit of the mothers was so crushed by the lash, that they stood by, without courage to remonstrate. How much more must I suffer, before I should be “broke in” to that degree?

Sir,” said he, “she don’t belong to me. She is my daughter’s property, and I have no right to sell her. I mistrust that you come from her paramour. If so, you may tell him that he cannot buy her for any money; neither can he buy her children.”

vituperations

epithet

When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.

It was natural and motherlike that she should try to defend me;

palsy

avarice

reprobate

If you were to hear them at such times, you might think they were happy. But can that hour of singing and shouting sustain them through the dreary week, toiling without wages, under constant dread of the lash?

tallow

If you disobey your earthly master, you offend your heavenly Master.

His text was, “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”

augmented

Nat Turner

fortnight

malediction

consternation

Many women hid themselves in woods and swamps, to keep out of their way.

especial

It was a grand opportunity for the low whites, who had no negroes of their own to scourge.

On that occasion every white man shouldered his musket.

O, the serpent of Slavery has many and poisonous fangs!

When I was most sorely oppressed I found a solace in his smiles.

He had learned to put up medicines, to leech, cup, and bleed.

I had often prayed for death; but now I did not want to die, unless my child could die too.

“I came here,” said he, “to make you a friendly proposition; but your ingratitude chafes me beyond endurance. You turn aside all my good intentions towards you.

lenity

obstinate

He talked of the disgrace I had brought on myself

I made a headlong plunge.

Still, in looking back, calmly, on the events of my life, I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others.

sophistry

ye happy women

Their talk is of blighted cotton crops—not of the blight on their children’s souls.

But if the white parent is the father, instead of the mother, the offspring are unblushingly reared for the market.

If they are girls, I have indicated plainly enough what will be their inevitable destiny.

She did not make her advances to her equals, nor even to her father’s more intelligent servants. She selected the most brutalized, over whom her authority could be exercised with less fear of exposure.

vitiated

odious

profligate

licentiousness

inculcated

manumit

divested

interment

attentuated

depredations

eighth commandment

queen of ‘Merica

libel

imbibe

trow

I admit that the black man is inferior. But what is it that makes him so? It is the ignorance in which white men compel him to live; it is the torturing whip that lashes manhood out of him; it is the fierce bloodhounds of the South, and the scarcely less cruel human bloodhounds of the north, who enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. They do the work.

He said he refused to take her, because he knew her master would not thank him for bringing such a miserable wretch to his house. He ended by saying to me, “This is the punishment she brought on herself for running away from a kind master.”

veracity

defray

exulted

imprecations

It expressed regret for the blow he had given me, and reminded me that I myself was wholly to blame for it. He hoped I had become convinced of the injury I was doing myself by incurring his displeasure.

loquacious

Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it “the atmosphere of hell;” and I believe it is so.

“You have struck me for answering you honestly. How I despise you!”

exhorted

scrupulous

conscientious

Sometimes I woke up, and found her bending over me. At other times she whispered in my ear, as though it was her husband who was speaking to me, and listened to hear what I would answer. If she startled me, on such occasions, she would glide stealthily away; and the next morning she would tell me I had been talking in my sleep, and ask who I was talking to.

but my experiences in slavery had filled me with distrust.

perfidy

She felt that her marriage vows were desecrated, her dignity insulted; but she had no compassion for the poor victim of her husband’s perfidy.

I was selected for that office, and informed for what purpose that arrangement had been made.

buoyant

In view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak! There are noble men, and women who plead for us, striving to help those who cannot help themselves. God bless them! God give them strength and courage to go on! God bless those, every where, who are laboring to advance the cause of humanity!

suffering as I once suffered.

Moreover, she was known and patronized by many people; and he did not wish to have his villany made public.

Surely, if you credited one half the truths that are told you concerning the helpless millions suffering in this cruel bondage, you at the north would not help to tighten the yoke. You surely would refuse to do for the master, on your own soil, the mean and cruel work which trained bloodhounds and the lowest class of whites do for him at the south.

My master began to whisper foul words in my ear.

epoch

plaguy

He said he would give any price if the handsome lad was a girl.

When a man is hunted like a wild beast he forgets there is a God, a heaven. He forgets every thing in his struggle to get beyond the reach of the bloodhounds. ”

Farewells were exchanged, and the bright, kind boy, endeared to us by so many acts of love, vanished from our sight.

I once heard her father allude to her attachment to me; and his wife promptly replied that it proceeded from fear.

I had imagined if I died, or was laid up for some time, that my mistress would feel a twinge of remorse that she had so hated “the little imp,” as she styled me. It was my ignorance of that mistress that gave rise to such extravagant imaginings.

ardor

While I advised him to be good and forgiving I was not unconscious of the beam in my own eye.

how he whipped the little boys, but was a perfect coward when a tussle ensued between him and white boys of his own size

dint

I wish I had died when poor father did.”

When he told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong.

disencumber

scathed

…

THE SLAVES’ NEW YEAR’S DAY.

THE SLAVE WHO DARED TO FEEL LIKE A MAN.

haggard

an ignorant creature

O, you happy free women, contrast your New Year’s day with that of the poor bond-woman! With you it is a pleasant season, and the light of the day is blessed. Friendly wishes meet you every where, and gifts are showered upon you. Even hearts that have been estranged from you soften at this season, and lips that have been silent echo back, “I wish you a happy New Year.” Children bring their little offerings, and raise their rosy lips for a caress. They are your own, and no hand but that of death can take them from you. But to the slave mother New Year’s day comes laden with peculiar sorrows.

thronged

four or five holidays,

that her mistress felt unable to stay; but when she left the room, the scornful smile was still on her lips. Seven children called her mother. The poor black woman had but the one child, whose eyes she saw closing in death, while she thanked God for taking her away from the greater bitterness of life.

“You suffer, do you?” she exclaimed. “I am glad of it. You deserve it all, and more too.”

incarnate

To which he replied, “You have let your tongue run too far; damn you!” She had forgotten that it was a crime for a slave to tell who was the father of her child.

others said the slave had quarrelled with his wife, in presence of the overseer, and had accused his master of being the father of her child. They were both black, and the child was very fair.

joist

away from her nursing baby, for a whole day and night.

Indian mush

The poor, hungry creature might not have objected to eating it; but she did not object to having her master cram it down her throat till she choked.

epicure

She was a member of the church; but partaking of the Lord’s supper did not seem to put her in a Christian frame of mind.

and now my brother and I were slaves to the man who had defrauded her of her money, and tried to defraud her of her freedom.

But what consequence was that, when she had a big heart overflowing with human kindness? She gave the old servant her freedom.

My grandmother saw through his hypocrisy; she understood very well that he was ashamed of the job. She was a very spirited woman, and if he was base enough to sell her, when her mistress intended she should be free, she was determined the public should know it.

the silver candelabra, which had been purchased with that money.

insolvent

I have a vivid recollection of the linsey-woolsey dress given me every winter by Mrs. Flint. How I hated it! It was one of the badges of slavery.

scanty

Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children, by teaching them to feel that they were human beings.

festoons

My heart rebelled against God, who had taken from me mother, father, mistress, and friend.

“You are my child,” replied our father, “and when I call you, you should come immediately, if you have to pass through fire and water.”

When my father reproved him for it, he said, “You both called me, and I didn’t know which I ought to go to first.”

While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory.

I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

bequeathed

chattel

blight

No toilsome or disagreeable duties were imposed on me.

weaned

My mother’s mistress was the daughter of my grandmother’s mistress.

The reader probably knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property

an equal portion of dollars and cents

nd she obtained leave to do it, provided she would clothe herself and her children from the profits.

evinced

St. Augustine

I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment.

They lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves

His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded. I

penname of Harriet Jacobs

their shouts of laughter coming faintly on the wind.

arnt

“I’d be glad to do something for ye,” said he; “but then there’s nowhar I could take ye. The best I can do is to tell ye to go thar,” said he, pointing to a large white house which stood by itself, off the main street of the village. “Go thar; they’re kind folks. Thar’s no kind o’ danger but they’ll help you,—they’re up to all that sort o’ thing.”

craggy

portentously

prodigiously

chaff

“My good boy,” said he, “the Lord knows you say but the truth; and if I was able to help it, all the world shouldn’t buy you.”

de novo

dignitary

Here we must take our leave of her for the present, to follow the course of her pursuers.

consarned

Jordan

As she was also so white as not to be known as of colored lineage, without a critical survey, and her child was white also, it was much easier for her to pass on unsuspected.

Sublime is the dominion of the mind over the body, that, for a time, can make flesh and nerve impregnable, and string the sinews like steel, so that the weak become so mighty.

“O, George, for my sake, do be careful! Don’t do anything wicked; don’t lay hands on yourself, or anybody else! You are tempted too much—too much; but don’t—go you must—but go carefully, prudently; pray God to help you.”

“To Canada,” said he, straightening himself up; “and when I’m there, I’ll buy you; that’s all the hope that’s left us.

smote

“I an’t a Christian like you, Eliza; my heart’s full of bitterness; I can’t trust in God. Why does he let things be so?”

Mas’r came along, and said I was feeding him up at his expense, and that he couldn’t afford to have every nigger keeping his dog, and ordered me to tie a stone to his neck and throw him in the pond.” “O, George, you didn’t do it!” “Do it? not I!—but he did. Mas’r and Tom pelted the poor drowning creature with stones. Poor thing! he looked at me so mournful, as if he wondered why I didn’t save him.

“Well,” said Eliza, mournfully, “I always thought that I must obey my master and mistress, or I couldn’t be a Christian.”

What’s the use of our trying to do anything, trying to know anything, trying to be anything? What’s the use of living? I wish I was dead!”

forlorn drudge

wormwood

Surprised and frightened, Eliza sat down, leaned her head on her husband’s shoulder, and burst into tears.

verandah

No; there is another use that a man can be put to that is WORSE!

doggedly;

kind employer

remonstrance

victim

It was during the happy period of his employment in the factory that George had seen and married his wife.

indubitable

drudgery

conjectured

ebullition

“O yes! a machine for saving work, is it? He’d invent that, I’ll be bound; let a nigger alone for that, any time. They are all labor-saving machines themselves, every one of ‘em.

He was waited upon over the factory, shown the machinery by George, who, in high spirits, talked so fluently, held himself so erect, looked so handsome and manly, that his master began to feel an uneasy consciousness of inferiority. What business had his slave to be marching round the country, inventing machines, and holding up his head among gentlemen? He’d soon put a stop to it. He’d take him back, and put him to hoeing and digging, and “see if he’d step about so smart.” Accordingly, the manufacturer and all hands concerned were astounded when he suddenly demanded George’s wages, and announced his intention of taking him home.

chattel

mulatto

adroitly

Perhaps the mildest form

Tan’t, you know, as if it was white folks, that’s brought up in the way of ‘spectin’ to keep their children and wives, and all that. Niggers, you know, that’s fetched up properly, ha’n’t no kind of ‘spectations of no kind; so all these things comes easier.”

spiled

yallow gals

Perhaps you laugh too, dear reader; but you know humanity comes out in a variety of strange forms now-a-days, and there is no end to the odd things that humane people will say and do.

elucidations