The experience of a slave in South Carolina

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THE

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EXPERIENCE OE A SLAVE

SOUTH CAKOLIM.

JOHN ANDREW JACKSON.

itonifon :

PRINTSD BT PASSMOBB & ALABASTRR, WILSON STREET, FINSBCRf.

1862.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

EAC-SIMILE OE THE GIMLET WHICH I USED TO BORE A
HOLE IN THE DECK OE THE VESSEL. (See page 27.)

PREFACE.

In aiming to arrest the attention of the reader, ere he
proceeds to the unvarnished, but ower true tale of John
Andrew Jackson, the escaped Carolinian slave, it might
be fairly said that " truth was stranger than fiction/' and
that the experience of slavery produces a full exhibition
of all that is vile and devilish in human nature.

Mrs. Stowe, as a virtuous woman, dared only allude to
some of the hellish works of slavery — it was too foul to
sully her pen ; but the time is come when iniquity should
no longer be hid : and that evil which Wilberforce and
Clarkson exposed, and of which Wesley said it was " the
sum of all human villanies," must now be laid bare in
all its hellish atrocities. The half has not yet been told ;
but appalling as are the statements made, yet when the
fiercest organized effort to extend the monster evil of
North- American slavery is being made, every patriot is
called on to sympathize over the woes and sufferings
of human kind, and plead for freedom and liberty.

Cowper long ago told his fellow-cDuntryman that

" Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in white and black the same."

Therefore, kind reader, we ask your sympathy, while you
peruse some of the iniquities perpetrated upon a suffering
race, and that too often by men and women calling them-
selves Christians, and using a religious cloak to screen
their monstrous, foul, and cruel acts.

Shrink not, gentle reader, when those fearful atrocities
are brought before your notice. Such narratives as
Jackson's are wanted to arouse the people. The evil is
afar off, and interested parties say, " Don't believe it ; it
is false, or it is exaggerated." Not so ; the worst cannot
a6 be told. Tou cannot speak out, or tell a fraction of the

IV PBEFACE.

horrid scenes enacted, where every child and feeble woman
is at the brutal mercy of brutalised man ; where marriage
is a fiction, and five millions of people live practically in
a state of unrecognised whoredom and polygamy.

Would that English mothers and English daughters
could feel as they ought for those whose virtue and
honour, whose life and liberty, may be purchased by any
libertine wretch, who has the " almighty dollar" in plenty
in his pocket. Let us but think of our sisters, our wives,
our children, and thank Gfod with them, that

"I was not born a little slave,
To labour in the sun ;
To wish I was but in my grave,
And all my labour done."

Many an English reader, knowing that every year we
pay a million of money as interest for the twenty millions
by which the freedom of "West Indian slaves was pur-
chased, and spend nearly another million to keep down
the slave trade of America, Cuba, and Brazil, are very
earnest in declaring their abhorrence of American slavery,
and, like the Times, finds fault with President Lincoln's
government for not putting an end to slavery by pro-
clamation, thinking that our British hands are quite clean.
But they forget the share that England has had in the
bondage of the human race. Liverpool and Bristol for
years was the seat of the African slave trade ; and, once
upon a time, Gr. E. Cooke, the actor, on the boards of a
Liverpool theatre, when displeased with his audience for
hissing him, turned fiercely on them, and told them that
Liverpool was paved with the blood of the negro slaves ;
and in 1862 it is not quite clear of the same, vide the
Nightingale Slaver.

Three hundred years ago Sir John Hawkins procured
the first cargo of negroes from the coast of Guinea, and
took them to Hispaniola, and so profitable was his trip
that a new expedition was soon prepared, of which Queen
Elizabeth shared the profits. This royal patronage of the
slave trade was further extended under other reigns, and,

*H

PREFACE.

on the 10th of December, 1770, our good King George
issued a proclamation under his own hand, commanding
the Governor of Virginia, « upon pain of the highest dis*
pleasure, to assent to no law by which the importation of
slaves shall be in any respect prohibited and obstructed "
-Before we then heartily condemn the United States let
us remember that when they would not have slavery it
was forced upon them by the English Government.

When in 1645 the ship of one Thomas Keyser and
James Smith brought a cargo of negroes to Boston, they
were heavily fined and compelled to return those negroes
again to Africa. Noble men were they of Massachusetts ;
and despite the Irish and rowdy element of Boston and
i\>rtland, yet noble men are they at the present hour.
Ihere the fugitive slave has liberty and protection.

Virginia, long the battle ground of freedom during
the old war, as well as the new one, often spoke out nobly
against slavery. Her patriots, like Jefferson, though
himself a slaveholder, yet steadily resented the influence
of that growing evil. At that time, Franklin spoke
through the press, and memorials from all the States
were sent to King George. The king was inexorable-
and while the English judges declared that when a slave
set his foot on the soil of England he was free, yet the
monarch stood in the path of humanity, and became the
pillar oi the American Slave Trade.

England gave America slavery. England by the use
of her cotton, has mainly helped to continue it : and let
but English sympathy be withdrawn from the South and
soon slavery there must fall. It lies with Christian'men
and women to expose its evils, denounce its cruelties lav
open its horrors, and spare not its infamous immoralities
Truly there is a God that judgeth the earth. There is
wanted fact upon fact to enlighten the English public

when its leadtng papers palliate and excuse the atrocities
of the South. Thej WQuld .gnore the ex.gtence Qf fo^

millions out of the twenty who live and breathe beyond

VI PREFACE.

the Atlantic under the stars and stripes. Christian
England should stand to a man opposed to those who
would kill every slave found with arms in hand, or away
from his master's plantation; who have no scruples in
brutalizing, burning, flaying, flogging, scourging, and
shooting the wives and daughters of their runaway
slaves.

Every sickening brutality is practised upon the hapless
men and women, without hope of any redress ; surely
these injustices cry to heaven for vengeance. How long,
Lord, how long. Stonewall Jackson may, with the courage
and piety of a Cromwell, but without his rightful cause,
carry the war into Maryland, and Pope and M' Clellan be
driven back to the Eree States ; but yet with one burst
of freedom, even Dr. Mackay shall re-echo from Washing-
ton to the " Times " of to-morrow, his favourite phrase :

" There's a good time coming, boys,
Wait a little longer."

The day of escape from bondage will come to all, as it
has to some ; and surely their cry will be heard, and the
refrain so long sung by the negroes of the South :
" 0 let my people go,"

be answered from heaven, perhaps even with a slaughter
as great as that of the "smart Egyptians," when they
came onward with all the panoply of their chariots and
horsemen to the Red Sea, there to sink amid the waters.
Then sang Miriam :

" Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea,
Jehovah hath triumph'd, his people are free."

W. M. S.

September 20, 1862.

THE EXPERIENCE OE A SLAVE

IN

SOUTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER I.

MY BIRTH AND TRAINING.

I was born in South Carolina. My grandfather was
stolen from Africa. My father learned the African method
of curing snake bites, and was in consequence, called Dr.
Clavern. My mother's name was Betty. I had five bro-
thers and five sisters. Of these, two brothers and two
sisters were dead when I left the plantation. My earliest
recollection was of my mistress, whom I feared above all
persons, as she used every means in her power to spite
me. The reason for this was as follows : — When I was
about ten years old, I and her son were digging for hickory
root to amuse ourselves with, when he, seeing that I was
obtaining mine quicker than he, kicked me on the nose,
upon which I wiped the blood upon him. He ran and
informed his mother, who whipped me on my naked back,
to console her son, till the blood ran down. After that,
she always hated not only me but my family, and would
even stint my mother's allowance ; and since then, I had
many whippings through her influenee.

My mistress had four daughters, viz. : — Anne, Eliza,
Jane, and Martha. Of Anne, the eldest, I knew but
little, as she married when I was very young, and went to
another plantation. Eliza, the next, was the worst of the
three. She used to whip me almost as much as my mis-
tress. Of Jane, the next, I also knew but little, as she
married a minister named Brailly, when I was very young;
but, as far as I know, she was the best of the three.
Martha, the youngest, was very bad. I will give a speci-

8 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLATE.

men of her abilities. One day, as she was returning from
a walk in the garden, she saw my youngest "brother,
William, walking in the yard, and, from pure mischief,
she picked some horse nettles, and, coming up to him, (he
was quite naked) began to sting him with them, and, as
he ran away, she ran after him, and kept up with him,
stinging him on the sides and back, till at last he fell
down through pain ; nevertheless, she kept on stinging
him, without any intermission; at last he got up and
began running, and by that time I got up to him, (I was
about ten years of age, and he being between five and
six) and I cried out to him, " Run faster, William, run
faster," whereupon she turned upon me, and I being able
to run faster than she, I escaped her, and by that means
my brother William effected his escape. When William
got home, he was covered with large lumps all over his
body. When she was married she had my sister whipped
to death. The circumstances were as follows : —

My sister was religious, and perhaps it stung her con-
science, or it might have been for some other reason; but,
at all events, she ordered my sister to leave off praying,
and as she discovered my sister did not obey her com-
mands, she asked her husband, Gamble M'Farden (a
member of the Salem Brick Church, who was, if possible,
worse than herself, and she was a member also) to give her
a hundred lashes, and he took her and hung her up by the
hands -to the beef gallows, (an apparatus on which they
hang oxen when they slun them) and called his negro slave
Toney, and ordered him to give her a hundred lashes, and
he commenced beating her incessantly ; he then remon-
strated with his master, because she fainted, and his brutal
master, (who, though a member of a Christian church, was
notwithstanding, equal to the devil himself) coolly ordered
him to bring a pail of water and throw over her, to revive
her ; and when she came to, he ordered him to continue,
which Toney did ; but at length made a pause, and told
his master that he had given her fifty lashes, but the
brutal answer was, " Give me the whip, and I will give her
the other fifty, which he did. She died at the end of
three weeks, leaving two childre^^a boy and girl, who,
with my father, I now hope to buy. My mistress also had
four sons, James, Robert, Thomas, and Mack. James
English, a member of Brick Church, was as bad as any of
them ; he was married when I was little. I worked on his

MY BIRTH AND TRAINING. 9

plantation once, driving oxen, and I will relate what I saw
there. A slave named Jack, was taken sick while working
on the plantation, and he laid himself down in the fence
corner. When his master came, he saw him lying down,
and he told him to get up immediately and go on working.
Jack replied, " 0 massa, I'm so sick." " Get up imme-
diately, you lazy varmint," replied his master, and he
commenced whipping him till he got up ; but as soon as
his master was off that field, he lay down again. The
slaves, seeing his master returning, told him he had better
get up, as master was coming, but he could not, and when
the master returned he began to whip him again ; but
seeing he could not get up, he went to the house and
brought a tumblerful of castor oil, and forced him to drink
it, and then said, " Now get up, you rascal, or I will whip
you," and made him continue his work ; but his conscience
smote him, and he sent for a doctor, and upon his certi-
ficate allowed him to return home. I cannot leave off
without relating another incident about him. On one
occasion there were a hundred negroes to be sold, and James
English went to buy. Among the negroes to be bought
there was one named Willis ; when he was put on the
block, and the bidding began, James English began to bid,
and Willis, seeing him bidding, jumped down from the
auction-block. The auctioneer said, " Why do you jump
down, you rascal?" He replied, "Because that man,
(pointing to James English) is bidding for me." " Why
do you not want him to bid for you ? " " 'Cause he's the
baddest massa 'tween this an' hell fire." This scene was
repeated twice, but James English at length bought him ;
and he went towards the plantation till within three miles
of it, when the negroes of another plantatian again told
him that there was not a worse master in the whole dis-
trict. His fears returning afresh, he fled to the woods, but
hunger compelled him to return. When he got back he
was put into irons, and taken out next morning and hung up,
and received a hundred lashes ; and when the stripes were
partially healed, the^fcave him twenty-five lashes every
other morning as long as they thought he could bear it.

Afterwards, James English was taken ill, but such were
his savage propensities, that he got out of bed and dressed
himself, and took his whip and went into the cotton field,
and commenced quarrelling with a slave named Old
George, on the plea that he did not pick cotton fast

10 MT EXPEBIEHCE AS A SLAYE.

enough. I will repeat his words : " Never mind, you old
rascal, when I get better I'll give you sixty lashes, — never
mind, you old rascal you." But from that time he began
to get worse, and went home and sent for the doctor, Mr.
Miller. The following conversation then took place : —
" Doctor, I am very sick, can you help me?" The doctor,
after feeling his pulse, replied, " I can't save you." " Why,
doctor ? " " You have mortification in the head." He did
not believe this, and sent for Dr. Hainsworth. When Dr.
Hainsworth came, he said also, " I can't save you, you
will die in a few days." His terror on hearing this an-
nouncement was extreme. He prayed the doctors to save
his life, but in vain. In five days that terrible hour drew
nigh, and his agony and death struggles were such that he
required to be held down. Thus ended the life of a mem-
ber of a Christian Church. When the tidings of his death
reached the negroes, they were overjoyed, and especially
Willis, who went round to every hut, and shook hands
with every negro, saying, " How d'ye do, brudder, de devil
is dead an' gon' to hell, an' Old George got clear of his
sixty lashes." Of Robert, the next brother, I knew
nothing, as he died when very young. Thomas, the next,
was, if possible, worse than James. He was also a mem-
ber of Mount Zion Chapel. He was articled to a lawyer.
While studying the law, he used to whip the negroes on the
plantation exceedingly. I will give you an instance of it.
He had just bought a new whip, and wished to try it, and,
seeing me go by, he called me and told me to bring him
some water to wash his hands in. I went and got it
as quickly as possible. When I brought it to him, he
said, " You have been too slow, now pull off your jacket,"
and he then commenced whipping me, having first shut
both doors, but I pushed open one of them and ran. I
was then between ten und twelve years of age. He ran
after me, and soon caught me, and whipped me again till
the blood ran. When a young man, he went to Tenessee,
and married. The lady's name was Livinia. At his mar-
riage his father gave him twelve negroes. He had then a
son named West, and after ten years he returned to South
Carolina. His father bought him a plantation five miles
from his own, and gave him another slave girl as a nurse
for his boy. The boy was very cross, and his mother
asserted that the girl pinched the baby, which was not
true. This girl was continually being whipped upon that

MY BIRTH AND TRAINING. 11

false accusation, so that at length she ran away and went
back to her old plantation. But the master tied a rope
round her neck and sent her back to his son, who imme-
diately ordered two flat irons to be put on the fire, and had
her laid down on a log, and made three negroes, by the
names of Frank, Save, and Peter, hold her down. He
then took the first iron and pressed it to her body on one
side ; and when he removed it the skin stuck to it. He
repeated the same with the other iron, on the other side
of the body. She then left him, and started that night
for the old plantation : her pain was so great that she
was all night going that little distance. The old master,
on seeing the burns, declared she should not go back any
more. The following conversation took place when Thomas
came to see his father : " Thomas, did you burn this girl
so ? " " Yes, pa, I did, because she ran away." " Well.
you shan't have her any more." But, in this case, Thomas
was a true son of his father, and the old proverb remained
unshaken, viz., " The chip off the old block don't fall far
from the stump." About this time he became a minister.
He preached his first sermon in Mount Zion Chapel, and
the negroes flocked to hear him, and were so overjoyed to
think that now he had experienced true religion, he would
be more merciful to them, but he was the same devil still.
He owned a slave whose name was January, who could
not pick cotton as fast as the other negroes. For this
reason, this minister of religion gave him from twenty-five
to one hundred lashes, and fifty blows with the paddle,
which so frightened the negro that he ran away into the
woods ; but was caught, and again whipped, and put into
the stocks, and was taken out every other morning, and
received twenty-five lashes for a time, and then put to
work with a lock and chain round his neck. At that time,
his son West was overseer and whipping the negroes for
his father. At the time I left slavery he often whipped
the slaves severely.* In the Southern States of America,
any negro found out at night after nine o'clock, without a
pass, is liable to be taken up and receive thirty-nine
lashes ; and it is a common amusement for young men to
go out at night in parties patrolling. This minister,
Thomas English, one night joined a party, and they came
upon a slave named Isaac, on Dr. Grag's plantation, and
they gave chase, but he outran them, and this minister
was leading them on, shouting at the top of his voice,

12 MY EXPERIENCE A3 A SLAVE.

with horrid oaths, " Catch the rascal." We will now
pass on to Mack, the youngest brother, he was worsa-
than either of the others, and was the one who kicked
me when I was digging for hickory root. He had not
finished his schooling, before he was put to oversee his
father's plantation. He used to whip the slaves more
than his father. Among the atrocities which he com-
mitted, he knocked my mother down with the butt of his
whip, while I stood by feeling as if I had been struck
myself, when he suddenly turned round and said, " Go on

with your work, you rascal." His whip spared

neither old nor young. This youth ordered every negro
to pick one cwt. of cotton each day — which was almost im-
possible for them to do — and on their not presenting that
amount of cotton at the machine, he gave them from
twenty-five to fifty lashes each ; so that during the cotton-
picking season, the place was filled with screams of agony
every evening. There was a sh ve named Isaac, who
could not pick cotton so fast as the others, and the conse-
quence was, that he was flogged every night by this youth.
This tyrant was going to give him fifty lashes again one
evening, on the scaffold where they weigh the cotton,
about ten feet high ; and Isaac jumped down in the dark
on a snaggy stump and ruined his feet, and could not work
for more than a month. He used often to call the negroes
up at midnight to screw cotton, and to move fences in the
sweet potatoe fields.

The time of killing hogs is the negroes' feast, as it is
the only time that the negroes can get meat, for they are
then allowed the chitterlings and feet ; then they do not
see any more till next hog-killing time. Their food is a
dry peck of corn that they have to grind at the hand-mill
after a hard day's work, and a pint of salt, which they
receive every week. They are only allowed to eat twice
a-day. Mack English once tied down a slave named Old
Prince, and gave him one hundred lashes with the whip,
and fifty blows with the paddle, because he could not work
fast enough to please him. A slaveholder named Mr.
Wilson, having died in debt, my master bought two of his
slave girls, named Rose and Jenny. Jenny was forced
to have Adam, who was already married ; also her
sister Rose was married to March, before she came on
our plantation. Mack English, having turned a wishful
eye on Rose, wrapped himself up in his big cloak,
and went to the nigger-house in the night, and called a

MY BIETH AND TEAINING. 13

slave named Esau, and told him to tell Rose to come to
him as he wanted her. She sent back to say, " I'm
nursing my baby and can't come." " Go and teil her I
don't care about her baby, she must come," answered
Mack, "and if she does not come, I'll give her twenty-five
lashes to-morrow morning." " Go and tell him, Esau, my
husband will be coming, and I can't come," answered
she. The next morning he tied her up and cut her naked
back all over ; the further particulars are too revolting to
tell.

We will now relate his death. He went with liis father
one summer to the White Sulphur Springs. There he
was taken ill, and death took place in five days. His
death-bed was a scene of heartrending agony. He swore,
and he cursed, he shrieked " Murder ! Murder ! ! Mur-
der ! ! ! Pa, you stand here and see all these doctors
hunching and punching me. Murder! Murder!!" Then,
as he expired, he shrieked with fearful agony, " God to
blast." This I heard from Old Bob, the carriage driver,
who was his nurse till his death. The following conver-
sation I overheard when his father returned : — " Wife, our
son is dead and gone to hell." " Hush ! hush ! talking
so before the niggers." " Well, he is, he died cursing and
swearing." Just then, Mack's playmate, named Davey
Wilson, entered and inquired for him. " Your playmate
is dead and gone to hell," was the answer he received.
His wife immediately replied, " Hush ! hush ! shut your
mouth, you old fool, what are you telling him that for."
Davey Wilson went and told his mother, who told the
minister, Mr. Reed, of Mount Zion Church, who preached
a sermon to the young about his death After that, none
of the English's family attended Mount Zion Chapel.
When he went to the White Sulphur Springs, I prayed
that I might never see him again, and thus was my prayer
signally answered. I remembered when he and his father
both whipped me at the same time, about sunrise, on my
naked back, and then made me work till twelve o'clock
without eating anything. I also remember that when he
was going to the Springs, he said, " When I get back, my
father will give me the Creek Swamp plantation and fifty
niggers, and then I will buy a cowhide whip, well corded,
five feet long, and I'll make all the niggers take Ephraim
by force, and tie him to an oak tree, and I'll make Adam
give him one of the hardest hundred lashes that ever man
put on nigger." I, myself, was willed to that tyrant, but God

14 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLATE.

had willed me to myself. Surely the words of the Psalmist
came true in this case : " Th y search out iniquities ; they
accomplish a diligent search ; both the inward thought of
every one of them, and the heart, is deep. But God shall
shoot at them with an arrow ; suddenly shall they be
wounded."

CHAPTER II.

REMINISCENCES OP MY OLD MASTER.

We will now speak about my old master, the father of
those whom I have spoken of in the above chapter. He
was originally a Quaker in North Carolina, United States,
but he came to South Carolina and married a lady who
had a few slaves. He then set up a liquor store on the
Creek Swamp plantation, where he sold to the white
people in the daytime, and at night traded with the slaves.
He told the slaves round about to steal cotton and bring
it to him, and he would give them whisky for it ; but if
their masters caught them, they were not to say that they
were bringing it to him. The consequence was, that some
slaves brought one cwt. to him, for which he gave them one
gallon of whiskey. The cwt. of cotton was worth four-
teen dollars, or about £2 18s. 4d. in English money, and
the gallon of whisky was worth one dollar, or about 4s. 2d. ;
but the slaves did not know this, and so they were cheated.
Others who brought a half-cwt., received half- a- gallon, and
so on. This he continued for along time, until for fear of
being betrayed, he put a stop to it. This method of getting
rich is very common among the slaveholders of South
Carolina. He afterwards became very rich, and owned
two plantations, where he hired different overseers to whip
his niggers, and he himself whipped them too. He used
to work them till nine o'clock at night, and in the winter
season he blew the horn at midnight, and put them to
killing hogs, and cutting down pine trees, and threshing
wheat and oats. He also had a mill on a " branch," and
on the other side there is a Church called the Rock
Church ; he and other masters, made their slaves go to
hear the Rev. Mr. Glen preach on such texts as " Servants
obey your masters," — " Thou shalt not steal," — " He that
knew his master's will and did it not, shall be beaten with
many stripes." But, after a while, Mr. Glen did not in-
sist sufficiently on that doctrine, and therefore, they drove

EEMINISOENCES OF MT OLD MASTEE. 15

him away, and different " circuit riders " took his place.
These circuit riders are a rascally set. The following is
an instance of their wickedness : one of them, as he was
riding along the road by the cotton fields where the slaves
were working, saw a female slave named Matilda, who
pleased him, and he told her to meet him at such a place.
She did so ; and when he had accomplished his vile pur-
pose, he gave her a dollar, which turned out to be a bad
one. He often preached at St. Luke's Church on Lynch's
Creek. If the pastors do such things, what will the mas-
ters and their sons do ? But, to return to my master ; he
could not bear any one of the negroes to finish his task
before sunset ; if any did, he would set them such a heavy
task next day, that it would be impossible for him to finish
it, and then he would give him fifty lashes, which some-
times would cause him to fly to the woods ; and when he
returned, he would receive one hundred lashes, and fifty
blows with the paddle.

A negro woman of the plantation, called my mother
names, and thereupon my mother and this woman went
to fighting ; and when my master heard of it, he tied my
mother up and gave her ninety lashes, but did not touch,
the other woman, (called Nancy) as she was his favourite ;
and there was my mistress looking on and saying, " That's
right, put it to her, cut her all to pieces." Among other
things, the mule I had to plough with was a very vicious
one, and used sometimes to kick the plough out of my
hands. Once, as the mule was kicking, my master came
into the field, and said that I spoiled the mule ; he then
at once tied me up arid gave me fifty lashes. One morning,
as he was going to whip me again, I started off for the
swamp, and he set five dogs after me, and said, " Suboy !
suboy ! catch him ! " "When the dogs came level with me,
I clapped my hands also, and said, " Suboy ! suboy ! catch
him ! " as if both my master and I were in chase of a fox
or hare ahead of us, and, upon that, the dogs went before
me and were soon out of sight, and so I got away. About
this time, my master went to the White Sulphur Springs,
and hired a man named Burl Quiney, to oversee the plant-
ation during his absence. There was a nigger-driver named
Old Peter. Mrs. English told Burl Quiney that he should
give the first slave that he took up to whip, a pretty good
hiding to scare the whole plantation, for that they were a
set of niggers never conquered by any overseer that had

16 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLATE.

ever been there. She said so, supposing that I or another
slave named Isaac — whom she hated as much as she did
me — would be the first to be made an example of. But it
turned out differently. The task of Old Peter, the nigger-
driver, was to see that all the negroes had their proper tasks.
When Burl Quiney rode along, he noticed one of the fe-
males and said, " Peggy, you shall not do so much work
as the rest of the girls to-day." So he moved the stake
back, so that she should do only three tasks instead of
four — the allotted quantity to each slave. This was done that
she should have time to meet him in the evening. After a
time, Old Peter coming along and seeing the stake moved,
enquired, " Who moved that stake ? " " Massa Burl
Quiney," said Peggy, " because I have the cows to milk."
Old Peter answered, " Massa makes" you do as much as
the rest, so I'll move the stake back." When Burl Quiney
came that way and found the stake moved back again, he
asked Peggy who moved it ? " Uncle Peter," said Peggy.
" How dare he move a stake from where a white man put
it ? Where is he ? " said Burl Quiney. " At the other end
of the field," replied Peggy. He then rode up to him and
said, " Peter, haul off your jacket, sir ! how dare you
move that stake ? " " Massa always makes that girl do as
much as the rest," replied Old Peter. Now, the example
was to be made of Old Peter, the favourite slave of' my
mistress. He cut his back with a lash in which wire was
interwoven. That evening, old Peter went to the house,
and told his mistress that Burl Quiney had cut his back
to pieces, because he told Peggy to do as much as the
other slaves. " Did he want her to do less ? " enquired
Mrs. English. " Yes, ma'am." " What for ? " "I don't
know," said he. But still, old Peter did know, but dared
not tell his mistress. When Burl Quiney went to supper,
Mrs. English said to him, " Mr. Quiney, I did not mean
that you should whip Old Peter ! " " You made no dis-
tinction, madam, but told me that the first one I took up
to whip 1 was to make an example of, to frighten the
whole plantation." Next morning, when the horn was
blown, Burl Quiney looked anxiously for Old Peter, in-
tending to give him another whipping for telling his mis-
tress what he did ; but he did not make his appearance.
So Burl Quiney hastened down to the nigger-house, and
there found Old Peter lying sick from the effects of the
whipping of the previous day. Burl Quiney then said,

REMINISCENCES OE MY OLD MASTER. 17

"Peter, did you not hear the horn hlow?" Yes, sir,
but I am sick ! " " Out with you, sir, or I'll make you
sicker than that before I have done -with you." So he
hauled him out, and kicked and beat him all the way to
the field. When he got him there, he said, " Now, sir,
haul off your jacket, I am going to give you one hundred
lashes ! " The old man would not. He then kicked him
in the stomach several times, and knocked him down with
the butt end of his whip, and said, " Now, cross your hands,
sir." And he kicked him, and he cried out to the slaves,
" Run here, this man is going to kill me ! " The slaves im-
mediately surrounded him; but Burl Quiney seeing them do
so, said, "Why do you come round me ? go off to your work! "
And he ran off a short distance ; but we all surrounded
him again like blackbirds, and would not go away, because
we thought we should frighten him from the old man. Old
Peter's daughter went to her mistress, and told her to come
and stop Burl Quiney from beating papa ; and as she was
coming, the slaves cried out to her, " Come on quickly,
missus ; Burl Quiney is going to kill Uncle Peter ! " She
answered, " What can I do ? go away from there, you
niggers, that man will have you all hung and burnt ! "
Then, Burl Quiney tied his hands and tied him to a tree,
and gave him one hundred lashes ; he then ordered him to
do his duty, but the poor old nigger-driver was unable.
Two slaves, named Isaac and Prince, took him on a hand-
barrow to the nigger-house ; but Burl Quiney went down
and ordered him into the field. He was forced out by the
cowhide. When he got to the field, he lay down, and
Burl Quiney whipped him up, and again made him dis-
charge his duties ; but he lay down again, and was again
whipped up with a horrid oath. At twelve o'clock, the
horn was again sounded for the negroes to go home to
breakfast. But, to return to Old Peter ; he was carried
home on a mule to the nigger-house, never again to come
out of it. He died three days after. A coroner's inquest
was held upon the body, and also a post mortem examina-
tion, and Dr. Gray found that one of his bowels was rup-
tured. The jury returned the following verdict : " Burl
Quiney, overseer to Mr. English, did wilfully cause the
death of the deceased by whipping with the cowhide."
But Burl Quiney answered, "Yes, gentlemen, but Mrs.
English was the cause of it." Mrs. English exclaimed,
" You are a liar, sir ! " The Rev. Thomas English here

18 MY EXPEBIENCE AS A SLAVE.

said, " Sir, if you say that ma was the instigation of your
killing that old nigger, you are a liar, and the truth is not
in you ! " Burl Quiney was then committed to jail ; and
on taking him to Sumpterville prison, all three mounted,
Burl Quiney having a much better horse than either of
the other two. When, therefore, Quiney bade the others
" Good night," he put spurs to his horse and was soon out
of sight. During the inquest, Thomas English said, "Let
this be an example to you niggers ; " but I (Jackson) said
in my mind, " No, let it be an example to you and your
mother."

CHAPTER III.

MY MISTKESS.

My mistress was a native of South Carolina; she was
mean to everybody but her own family ; she used to say
that the bran flour was too good for the slaves to eat. The
sight which most delighted her eyes, was to see a slave
whipped. John Durant had a large plantation of slaves
on Lynch's Creek, which he willed to John Ashmore, his
nephew. The uncle was drunk one night, and it was
understood that John Ashmore tied a silk handkerchief
round his uncle's neck and strangled him, in order to take
possession of the property, which he did. He took liberties
among the female slaves. Three brothers of the deceased,
Alex Durant, Davy Durant, and Dr. Durant, believed that
John Ashmore had murdered their brother, and they sued
him for the property. The lawsuit was progressing when
I left, and some of the negroes were sold to carry it on ;
but it is most likely John Ashmore won it, as he engaged
the best lawyer in Sumpterville, named Lawyer Moses.
I bought of one of the slaves, who was leaving, a little
sow pig, for which I gave three yards of cloth, and took
it to Wells' plantation, where my wife lived, and she raised
it there and it increased to twenty pigs. My mistress
found out that my wife had some hogs ; one of the
slaves informed of me. " Is it Jackson's wife ? " said she,
" they are his hogs then, and he feeds them on my plan-
tation." She then called my mother : "Old Bet, where
does Jackson get food for his hogs ? " " They live on the
acorns, ma'am." " You are a liar, they feed on my corn,"
said she ; " I will order Ransom Player (the overseer) to
give him one hundred lashes and kill all his hogs, the

MY MISTBESS. 19

unlawful rascal." He killed one, but I hid the others
until I sold them, but I was forced to sell them against my
will. A poor man named Daniels, determined to get these
hogs by stratagem. He asked me what I would take for
them, and he told me he would give me twenty dollars.
We killed some out of the drove, and for those which were
left he offered me thirteen dollars ; but I did not sell them
for a long time because I knew he would not pay me. He
told me if I did not sell them to him, the first time he
caught me when patrolling, he would whip me ; but I did
not mind that either ; but when my mistress kept tor-
menting me about them, I told Daniel he might have
them for thirteen dollars, to get rid of the fuss. He said,
" Well, you must bring me a written permission to sell
them, before I can buy them." I said, " My mistress hates
the Daniels' family and won't give me a permission."
" Well, Jack, get your wife Louisa to get an order from
her owners." My wife got it, so I went one evening, as I
was afraid he was not going to give me the money, and
said, " Now, Mr. Daniels, if you have the thirteen dollars
ready I have the order." He replied, " Well, let me see
it." " No, you put the money in my hand first." Daniel
replied, " No, I can't do that until I see the order."
" Well, if you don't give me the thirteen dollars will you
give me the order back ?" He said, "Yes." " But have
you the money with you ? " " Oh ! Yes," replied Daniels.
I then handed him the order. He then read it, and said,
" Well, this is as good in my pocket as ten dollars. Now,
Jackson, if you interfere with those hogs I'll prosecute
you — they are my hogs now." " But you promised to
give me the thirteen dollars." " Ah ! by George I havn't
got it." "Why, you told me you had." "Well, so I
have if you can change a one hundred dollar bill." " But
I have no money, I thought you were going to give me
some, and then fearing you would'nt I wanted the money
first." Now, these Daniels were considered to be great
liars. They were once had up before the magistrate for
stealing Alex Durant's long-tailed sow ; they were tried and
sentenced to be whipped in the same manner as a slave ; but
Lawyer Moses got him out of it. But, to return to the
hogs they were about to steal from me. Daniels told me
to bring my wife Louisa, and he would pay her, which I
did. He then put us off, telling us to come next week,
and so on, week after week, till we found out it was no

20 MT EXPEEIENCE AS A SLAVE.

use, for he did not intend to pay us. The last time I went,
on going to the gate, the dogs were barking furiously, and
the old father came out, and said, with a horrid oath,
"Who is that?" "It's me," said I. "What do you
want ? " "I have brought Louisa for the money." " Well,"
said he, " my son ain't at home." I stood there in the
dark, when the son came out and said, " Where is she ? "
I said, " Here I am/' " Have you got your wife with
you ? " " Yes." " Well, I ain't got the money yet." We
went away sorrowfully ; he never paid us a cent of the
money.

My mistress's expressed opinion was this, "Never to
give the niggers any meat ; for where she was brought up
a dry peck of corn and a pint of salt was all that was
allowed to niggers per week." My master, her husband,
did as she said, so that we were often on the verge of
starvation. Nevertheless, she had a favourite dog, which
she called " Old Rip," of the mastiff breed, which she
continually fed with meat that we would have given any-
thing to possess. She would tie the female slaves, who
did the domestic work, to trees or bedposts, whichever
was handiest, and whip them severely with a dogwood or
hickory switch, for the slightest offence, and often for no-
thing at all apparently, but merely for the purpose of
keeping up her practice. She would also make her
daughters whip them, and thus she brought up her children
in the way they should not go, and in consequence, when
they were old they did not depart from it. Through her
my mother got many a hundred lashes. Since my escape
I heard of the death of my mother. My mistress had two
household gods, viz., her bunch of keys, in which she
manifested a peculiar interest, and her brandy bottle,
which she consulted with a frequency which was most
alarming, especially as when she was drunk it was her
invariable practice to attack" the cook (one Ann Dolly)
most unmercifully with the broomstick.

CHAPTER IV.

MY YOUTHFUL DAYS.

My first employment was that of a scarecrow in the corn
fields. I was driven into the field at the earliest dawn of
day, and I did not leave the field till sunset. My food
was a cake made by mixing Indian meal with water and

MT YOUTHFUL DATS. 21

a little salt, and which, was then haked in the ashes. This
I had to take to the field to subsist on during the day.
When I was older I had to manage the plough. Being
young, I had not sufficient strength to hold the plough
steadily ; in consequence of which, my master used to
follow me from end to end of the field, beating me over
the head with a cowhide. On our way across the field
one of the leashes happening to tou«h the mule, it kicked
the plough from my hands, for which my master stripped
me totally naked, and beat me till my back was covered
with blood. My brothers, and indeed, all of my age
shared the same fate with me. The horses were usually
turned out at night into the field, and it was my duty to
bring them home before daylight. The horses, however,
apparently anxious to escape the hard work imposed on
man and beast alike, had hid themselves in a wood which
abounded with rattlesnakes. This caused me great fear
as I was barefooted. After a hard hunt I succeeded in
finding them. However, on my arrival home, I was tied
up and beaten severely by both my master and son at the
same time. I was also ox-driver, and in that capacity, I
was sent to Wilson's Steam Saw Mill for planks, on various
occasions. When the account was rendered, my master
was surprised at the number of planks he had used, and
to escape paying for the whole, he declared that I had
fetched the planks for myself, which was a diabolical
falsehood. I wanted no planks, and had I wanted them,
I should not have got them in that way, as I should have
been sure to have been found out. Nevertheless, to carry
conviction that his word was true, he took me before Mr.
Wilson's house, and stripped me, and gave me fifty lashes.
About this time, I fell in love with a slave girl named
Louisa, who belonged to a Mrs. Wells, whose plantation
was about a mile off. Mrs. Wells was a comparatively
kind mistress. Shortly after, I married Louisa. Do not
let the reader run away with the idea that there was any
marriage ceremony, for the poor slaves are debarred that
privilege by the cruel hand of their fellow-man. My
master was exceedingly angry when he heard of my mar-
riage, because my children would not belong to him, and
whenever he discovered that I had visited my wife's plan-
tation during the night, I was tied up and received fifty
lashes. But no man can be prevented from visiting his wife,
and the consequence was, that I was beaten on the average,

22 MT EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

at least every week for that offence. I shall .carry these
scars to my grave. My wife had two children, one of
whom died. But we were soon separated, as her owner
removed to Georgia, and we were parted for ever.

Our clothes were rags, and we were all half naked, and
the females were not sufficiently clothed to satisfy common
decency.

I will now refer to the " American Camp-Meeting,"
which is held in tents, and is a gathering of "both black
and white Methodists for worship and prayer. It is con-
tinued day by day for a week ; but the blacks can only
attend during Saturday night and part of Sunday, having
to he at work again early on Monday morning. These
meetings are infested by a set of white people, who are
libertine scoundrels, and attend for the purpose of seizing
and carrying off by force, for their own vile purposes, the
most beautiful slave girls they can see. On the father's
interfering to save their daughters, they only receive a
shower of blows on the head with hickory sticks. I often
saw this with my own eyes, and not daring to say a word.
One of these wretches, John Mulder by name, having
seized a negro's wife, on their way to the camp-meeting,
and threatening the hushand's life with a pistol, was
knocked down senseless hy the enraged husband with a
stick. In consequence of which, a Lynch law was made that
no negro should carry a stick. It is no wonder that this is
the case, for " if the blind lead the blind, they will both
fall into the ditch ; " and the Methodist ministers there are
notorious for their villany. As an instance of the truth of
this, I may mention the case of the Rev. Thomas English,
of whom we have already spoken, and indeed I could give
many instances too vile to speak about. It was the custom
among them when conducting the Lord's Supper, to have
the white people partake first, and then say to the negroes
— " Now, all you niggers that are humble and obedient
servants to your masters, can come and partake." The
negroes said among themselves " There is no back kitchen
in heaven ; " but if they had been overheard, they would
have been whipped severely. I fear this case will he an
example of the truth of our Lord's saying, " The first shall
be last and the last first."

We were now put to picking cotton. This is not so
pleasant a job as might he imagined. The whole field is
covered with " stinging worms," a species of caterpillar.

MY ESCAPE. 23

At the setting of the sun each slave had to hring one
hundred weight of cotton, which many of the weaker
slaves could not do. In consequence of this, each night
there were two hours' whipping at the " ginning house."
The masters would not even allow them their usual night's
rest. They made them pack cotton before daylight, and
as soon as twenty bales were packed they were sent off to
Charleston. The cotton plant is planted in April or May,
and the cotton is picked out of the pods in August. The
heat of that month raises large bumps on the slaves backs ;
besides, the frequent infliction of the whip and the lash is
almost intolerable. One slave, named " Old Prince," be-
cause he could not do sufficient work, was continually
being beaten. On one occasion, he received fifty lashes,
and fifty blows with the paddle — a paddle is a board six
inches broad, and eight inches long, with twelve
gimlet holes in it; each of these holes raised a blister
every time a blow was inflicted, which rendered it ex-
tremely painful — in a few days the skin all peeled off his
lacerated body. At this time we were under the control
of Burl Quiney, who murdered Old Peter, as related before.
He also murdered four negroes belonging to James Ram-
bert. Wherever he was overseer, he succeeded in murder-
ing one or more negroes. He used to make the negroes
shuck corn till past midnight, and they had to rise with the
sun next morning to their day's work. They are not
allowed a change of clothes, but only one suit for summer,
and the perspiration is so great that they smell rank ; thus
they are robbed of comfort and cleanliness by the cruelty
and avarice of their masters. They wear no shoes, and
they had to work in " the New Ground," a place infested
by snakes and scorpions, and they were often bitten by
snakes, while 6,000,000 of lazy white men are riding about
calling negroes lazy, whilst they are the laziest.

CHAPTER V.

MY ESCAPE.

A slave on a neighbouring plantation had a pony; it
being discovered by his mistress, she ordered the overseer,
the Rev. P. Huggin, to kill it. Meanwhile, I went in the
night and purchased it of the slave with some fowls. As
my master had just then gone out of his mind I could
keep it with greater impunity, so that at length I went to

24 MT EXPEDIENCE AS A SLATE.

a camp meeting on it. My mistress' grandson saw me on
it, and told Ransom Player, the overseer, and my mistress
ordered him to give me one hundred lashes, and to kill
the pony. When he attempted to tie me I resisted and
fled, and swam across a mill pond, which was full of alli-
gators, and so escaped the whipping. I went to work
next day, and kept a look out for them. My mistress
hearing of it, said to the overseer, Mr. Player, " You can't
whip that nigger yourself, wait till Rev. T. English, and
Mr. M'Farden, and Mr. Cooper, are here, and then you can
catch him in the barn." The last two were her sons-in-law.
I kept the pony hid in the woods till Christmas.

We all had three days' holiday at Christmas, and I,
therefore, fixed upon that time as most appropriate for m
escape. I may as well relate here, how I became acquainted
with the fact of there being a Free State. The " Yankees,"
or Northerners, when they visited our plantations, used to
tell the negroes that there was a country called England,
where there were no slaves, and that the city of Boston was
free ; and we used to wish we knew which way to travel to
find those places. When we were picking cotton, we used
to see the wild geese flying over our heads to some distant
land, and we often used to say to each other, " O that we
had wings like those geese, then we would fly over the
heads of our masters to the 'Land of the free.' " I had
often been to Charleston — which was 150 miles distant
from our plantation — to drive my master's cattle to mar-
ket, and it struck me that if I could hide in one of the
vessels I saw lading at the wharfs, I should be able to get
to the " Free country," wherever that was. I fixed, as I
said before, on our three days' holiday at Christmas, as
my best time for escape. The first day I devoted to bid-
ding a sad, though silent farewell to my people ; for I did
not even dare to tell my father or mother that I was going,
lest for joy they should tell some one else. Early next
morning, I left them playing their " fandango " play. I
wept as I looked at them enjoying their innocent play, and
thought it was the last time I should ever see them, for I
was determined never to return alive. However, I hastened
to the woods and started on my pony. I met many white
persons, and was hailed, " You nigger, how far are you
going ? " To which I would answer, " To the next plant-
ation, mas're ; " but I took good care not to stop at the
next plantation. The first night I stopped at G. Nelson's

MY ESCAPE. 25

plantation. I stopped with the negroes, who thought I
had got leave during Christmas. Next morning, before
day, I started on for the Sante River. The negro who
kept that ferry, was allowed to keep for himself all the
money he took on Christmas day, and as this was Christ-
mas day, he was only too glad to get my money and ask
no questions ; so I paid twenty cents, and he put me and
my pony across the main gulf of the river, but he would
not put me across to the " Bob Landing ; " so that I had
to wade on my pony through a place called " Sandy Pond "
and " Boat Creek." The current was so strong there, that
I and my pony were nearly washed down the stream ; but
after hard struggling, we succeeded in getting across. I
went eight miles further, to Mr. Shipman's hotel, where
one Jessie Brown, who hired me of my master, had often
stopped. I stayed there until midnight, when I got my
pony and prepared to start. This roused Mr. Shipman's
suspicions, so he asked me where I belonged to. I was
scared, but at length, I said, " Have you not seen me here
with Jesse Brown, driving cattle?" He said, "Yes, I
know Jesse Brown well. Where are you going ? " I
answered, " I am going on my Christmas holiday." This
satisfied him. I was going to take a longer holiday than
he thought for. I reached Charleston by the next evening.
There I met a negro, who allowed me to put my pony in
his master's yard, his master being out of town at the time.
It is the custom there, for the masters to send their slaves
out in the morning to earn as rmich money as they can,
how they like. So I joined a gang of negroes working on
the wharfs, and received a dollar-and-a- quarter per day,
without arousing any suspicion. Those negroes have to
maintain themselves, and clothe themselves, and pay their
masters two-and-a-half dollars per week out of this, which,
if they fail to do, they receive a severe castigation with a
cat-o' -nine-tails. One morning, as I was going to join a
gang of negroes working on board a vessel, one of them
asked me if I had my badge ? Every negro is expected to
have a badge with his master's name and address inscribed
on it. Every negro unable to produce such a badge when
disked for, is liable to be put in jail. When I heard that,
I was so frightened that I hid myself with my pony, which
I sold that night for seven-and-a-half dollars, to a negro.
I then bought a cloak from a Jewish lady, who cheated
jae, and gave me a lady's cloak instead of a mark's, which.

26 MY EXPEBIENCE AS A SLATE.

however, answered my purpose equally well. I then got
seven biscuit-loaves of bread, and a bottle of water which
I put in my pocket, and I also bought a large gimlet and
two knives. I then found I had over ten dollars left of
what I had earned. I then went to the wharf early in the
morning with my cloak on, and underneath all my rattle-
traps. A few days previously, I had enquired of a mulatto
negro, for a vessel bound for Boston. I then went on
board and asked the cook, a free negro, if his vessel was
bound for Boston ? To which he replied, " Yes." " Can't
you stow me away ? " said I. " Yes," said he, " but don't
you betray me I Did not some white man send you here
to ask me this ? " " No/' " Well," answered he, " don't
you betray me ! for we black men have been in jail ever
since the vessel has been here ; the captain stood bond for
us yesterday and took us out." " What did they put you
in jail for?" said I. "They put every free negro in jail
that comes here, to keep them from going among the
slaves. Well, I will look out a place to stow you away,
if you are sure no white man has sent you here." So I
went the next morning to ask him to redeem his promise.
I went on board, and saw him lighting a fire in his galley,
so I said to him, " Now I am ready for you to stow me
away." " Walk ashore, I will have nothing to do with
you ; I am sure some white person sent you here." I said
" No, no one knows it but me and you." " I don't believe
it," said he, " so you walk ashore ; " which I did. But
as I looked back, I saw him go into the galley again and
shut the door, so I went on board the vessel again, and
crept stealthily on tiptoe to the hatch. I stood there
fearing and hoping — fearing lest the cook should come
out of the galley, and hoping that the mate or captain
would come from the cabin, and order me to take off the
hatch. Presently the mate came out of the cabin, and I
asked him if I should take off the hatch. He thinking
that I was one of the gang coming to work there, told me
I might. So I immediately took off the hatch, and des-
cended. The gang soon came down ; they asked me, " Are
you going to work here this morning ? " I said, "No."
" Arn't you a stevedore ? " I said, " No." " I know bet-
ter, I know by that cloak you wear. Who do you belong
to? " I answered, "I belong to South Carolina." It was
none of their business whom I belonged to ; I was trying
to belong to myself. Just then they were all ordered on

MY ESCAPE. 27

deck, and as soon as I was left, I slipped myself between
two bales of cotton, with the deck above me, in a space
not large enough for a bale of cotton to go ; and just then
a bale was placed at the mouth of my crevice, and shut
me in a space about 4-ft. by 3-ft., or thereabouts. I then
heard them gradually filling up the hold ; and at last the
hatch was placed on, and I was left in total darkness, I
should have, been stifled for want of air, but by the provi-
dence of God, a board in the partition between the sailors1
sleeping place and the hold where I was, was broken out,
so that the air came through there. Next morning, I heard
the sailors singing their farewell songs, and soon after, the
vessel began to rock from side to side. I then began to
feel that I was indeed, now upon my journey from slavery
to freedom, and that I soon should be able to call myself
FREE, and I felt so happy, and rejoiced so in my heart ;
but all these feelings were rudely stopped by a feeling of
sickness, and the more the vessel went, the sicker I got,
till I felt as miserable as I was happy before. I then be-
gan to bore with my gimlet, and after a long time, I was
able to bore two holes in the deck with great labour,
through which I could see the sailors passing and repass-
ing overhead. By this time I found that my water was
exhausted, and I began to feel all the horrors of thirst. I
felt that 1 could with pleasure have drank the filthiest
water in my native swamps. I cast my eyes up through
the gimlet holes and saw the stars, and I thought that
God would provide for me, and the stars seemed to be put
there by Him to tell me so ; and then I felt that He would
care for me as He did for Jonah in the whale's belly, and
I was refreshed. Next morning I saw through the holes,
a man standing over them with his arms folded, apparently
in deep thought, so I called out, " Pour me some water
down, I am most dead for water." He, however, looked
up instead, and persisted in examining the rigging, ap-
parently thinking the voice came from there, so I cut a
splinter and pushed it through the hole to attract his at-
tention ; as soon as he caught sight of it, he ran away and
called to the captain, " Run here, cap'n, there is a ghost
aboard ! " The captain came and knelt down and ex-
amined the holes, and asked me how I came there ? I
said, " I got stowed away." He asked me if some white
man did not stow him away to get him in trouble ? I as-
sured him he was mistaken, as I stowed myself away.

28 MT EXPEBIENCTE AS A SLAVE.

The cook said, " Cap'n, there was one wanted me to stow
him away at Charleston, but I would not." " Cook, you
should have told me that," said the captain. " Boys, get
the chisel and cut him out." As soon as I was out, I saw
the cook preparing to wash his hands, and I seized upon
the water and drained it to the last drop. It was nearly
half-a-gallon.

The vessel continued her journey to Boston. The cap-
tain persisted that some white man had placed me there
to get him into trouble ; and said he would put me into
the first vessel he met, and send me back ; however, he
met no vessel, and we gradually approached Boston. At
last the pilot came on board, and I was sent into the fore-
castle to prevent his seeing me, and we soon arrived at
Boston. At nine o'clock on the evening of the 10th of
February, 1847, I landed at Boston, and then indeed I
thanked God that I had escaped from hell to heaven, for
I felt as I had never felt before — that is, master of myself \
and in my joy I was as a bouncing sparrow. Three sailors
named Jim Jones, Frank, and Dennis, took me to the
sailor's boarding-house, kept by one Henry Fonnan,
Richmond-street, and I became his servant, and worked
for him, and received my board as payment. About June
I left him, and went to Salem, and worked for James
Brayton, Samuel Pittman, and many others, in the tan yards.
I received a dollar-and-a-half per day, out of which I saved
one hundred dollars in the course of a year, which I put
in the savings' bank. I used often to work at sawing wood
during the night, and it did not seem such a hardship as
when I did the same in South Carolina. Why? Because
I felt that I was free, and that I worked because I wished ;
whilst in South Carolina I worked because my master
compelled me. This fact is, in my mind, more satisfac-
tory than twenty theories, as to the superiority of free
labour over slave labour. When I was a slave we were
employed the whole of the day in breaking and hauling
home the corn, and then when night came on we were not
allowed to snatch an instant's sleep until we had shucked
the whole of the corn brought in during the day ; so that
it was generally between one and two o'clock in the morn-
ing before we were allowed to rest our wearied bodies. As
soon as dawn appeared we were roused by the overseer's
whip, for we were so exhausted that the horn failed to
rouse us as usual ; and then we would discover that the

MY ESCAPE. 29

tats had actually eaten a part of our feet. As the slaves
are not allowed boots or shoes (except for a short time in
the winter), the combined action of the frost at night, and
the heat during the day, harden the feet ; so that the out-
side skin at last cracks, and is very painful to the negroes.
This outside skin is called " dead skin," as the slaves can-
not feel the rats eating it until their teeth touch the more
tender part of the feet. During the day, that part of the
foot which has been skinned by the rats is very tender and
causes great pain. The presence of rats in our houses
brought venemous snakes, who frequented them for the
purpose of swallowing the rats, and who sometimes bit
the negoes, and then my father's power of curing snake-
bites was called into play. On one occasion there was a
sale of slaves near, and a man came to the auction to pur-
chase a slave girl. He fixed on one who pleased him, and
took her into a neighbouring barn and stripped her start
naked, for the purpose of examining her, as he would a
horse, previous to buying ber. The father and mother of
the girl were looking through the window and keyhole and
various crevices, with many other slaves, who saw all
that passed. He ultimately purchased her for his own
vile purposes, and when he had had several children by
her, sold both her and her children. Marriage in the slave
States among the slaves is absolutely " Nil." There was
■on one plantation, a slave about thirty years of age and six
feet high, named Adam. He had a wife on a neighbouring
plantation belonging to Mr. Hancock. My master bought
a young slave girl afeout fourteen years old, named Jenny
Wilson, and he then ordered Adam to leave his present
wife and take Jenny. Adam, after having some hun-
dreds of lashes for obstinately persisting in loving his
wife, at last consented, but not so Jenny, who was,in love
with me and I with her. But she was at last compelled
to obey her master by the bloody cowhide. My master
served nearly all his male slaves in a similar manner. One
of his slaves, however, named Abraham, was unusually
obstinate, and would not give up his wife. At last my
master, in despair, sent him to his son-in-law's plantation,
■Gamble M'Farden, who was an inveterate drunkard, and
who murdered my sister Bella, as related elsewhere. He
ordered Abraham not to go up to see his wife any more ;
but Abraham loved his wife too much to be parted from
her in that manner, so he went fifteen long miles once

30 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

every fortnight, on the Saturday night, for the pleasure of
seeing his wife for a short time. He was found out, and
whipped to death by that drunkard Mr. M'Farden. My
brother'' Ephraim did not escape; he was compelled to
leave his wife and marry the house girl.

But I am wandering. While I was at Salem, I heard
from Mr. Porman, that Anderson, my old slave-driver, had
called for me. I will give some incidents that will illus-
trate his character. He was brought up among the negroes,
and was so familiar with negro habits, that he possessed
unusual facilities for getting them into trouble. He was
hired for the purpose of subduing me and another slave
named Isaac, but fortunately my escape saved me from
experiencing his tender mercies.

In the adjacent swamp there was an abundance of wild
turkeys, the sight of which greatly tantalized the negroes,
as they had no gun to shoot them with. On one occasion
my father, old Doctor Clavern', had made a pen to catch
the wild turkeys with. This soon came to the ears of
Anderson, and he immediately sought cut my father, and
accosted him with "Old Doc. Clave., where is your turkey
pen ?" " In the swamp, massa." " Tell me where it is ?
turkeys are too good for niggers." "I can't exactly tell
where it is, massa." " Then I will find out and destroy
it; for turkeys are too good for niggers." He fully carried
out his threat ; for soon afterwards he discovered the pen,
and destroyed it. When he next met with my father, he
said, "Old Doc. Clave., does you catch turkeys now?"
" No, massa Anderson; somebody spoil my pen." " 'Twas
I spoiled it, you rascal, so that you should not catch turkeys
any more." This may serve to show his badness of dis-
position. On another occasion, I had made a fish trap in
the stream which ran through the swamp. Anderson
heard of it, and organized a party to proceed to the swamp,
and search for it. After a long search they succeeded in
discovering it, and took all the fish out, and destroyed it,
for the simple reason that " fish was too good for niggers."
Owing to his having been brought up among negroes, he
was perfectly familiar with their peculiarities of dialect,
&c. If he suspected that any negroes had fresh meat,
obtained as narrated above, he would sneak to the nigger
houses in the dead of night, and say, in their peculiar man-
ner, " Brudder, ope' t' door; I want to 'peak to you for a
minnit." This would deceive the negroes, and they would

MY ESCAPE. 31

open the door, expecting to see another negro, when, to their
amazement and confusion, it would be "Neddy Anderson,"
as he was called. " O you rascals ! " he would say, " you got
fresh meat here ; you steal it ; " and next day they would have
so many lashes for daring to eat meat, or whatever it might
be. He was accustomed to be hired to whip negroes, and
he used to revel in this (to him) delightful occupation.
He would sneak about during the night, for the purpose
of catching negroes wandering from their plantations, so
that he might have the pleasure of whipping them. I
heard since my escape, of my mother's death, and that she
died under him. I therefore cannot but conclude that my
mistress, who hated her, incited him to whip her in par-
ticular, and that, horrible to think of, she must have died
under his lash. I believe, also, that my youngest brother,
Casey, must have fallen a victim to his cruelty; for I have
heard of his death also, and that Anderson had given him
some severe whippings. Had I sufficient space I could
fill a volume with instances of his wickedness and cruelty.
But, to proceed — he was so anxious to catch me that he
followed me to Boston — at least, I believe, from the de-
scription given by Mr. Forman, that it was he ; but fortun-
ately I had gone to Salem, which is 15 miles from Boston.
Mr. Forman did not tell Anderson where I was, but merely
told him that there was no such person as Jackson there.
Anderson said, " I know better, here is the letter he wrote
home, wishing to know what he can buy his father and
mother for, and I now want to see him." This incensed
the sailors, who said, " Here are the slave-hunters, hunting
for niggers," and drove them from the house. Mr. Forman
wrote to me at Salem, to warn me not to come to Boston,
as they were hunting for me there. I remained at Salem,
and worked in the tan yard there, turning the splitting
machine, until I had saved one hundred dollars. Since
my escape I have saved about one thousand dollars of my
own earnings, for the purpose of purchasing my relatives.
1 was in correspondence with some gentlemen in America,
through my friend the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, for that pur-
pose, when the present war interrupted and broke up my
hopes and plans. If this war obviates the necessity of
buying my people, by freeing the negroes, (as I hope and
pray to God it will, and as I believe it will) I shall then,
if God pleases, devote my money in building a Chapel in
Canada, for escaped slaves ; or wherever my old fellow-

32 MT EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

labourers are located. Though " absent in the body," my
whole heart is with my fellow- sufferers in that horrible
bondage ; and I will exert myself until the last of my
relatives is released. On one occasion I saw my brother
Ephraim tied up and blindfolded with his own shirt, and
beaten with fifty lashes before his own wife and children,
by a wretch named Sam Cooper, because he was falsely
accused of having stolen a yard of bagging. Fathers !
think of being tied up and stripped before your wife and
children, and beaten severely for nothing at all ; and then
think that it is a daily, nay, hourly, occurrence in the Slave
States of America, and you will begin to have some idea
of what American slavery is. But to proceed with my
life. Just as I was beginning to be settled at Salem, that
most atrocious of all laws, the " Fugitive Slave Law," was
passed, and I was compelled to flee in disguise from a
comfortable home, a comfortable situation, and good wages,
to take refuge in Canada. I may mention, that during my
flight from Salem to Canada, I met with a very sincere
friend and helper, who gave me a refuge during the night,
and set me on my way. Her name was Mrs. Beecher
Stowe. She took me in and fed me, and gave me some
clothes and five dollars. She also inspected my back,
which is covered with scars which I shall carry with me
to the grave. She listened with great interest to my story,
and sympathized with me when I told her how long I had
been parted from my wife Louisa and my daughter Jenny,
and perhaps, for ever. I was obliged to proceed, however,
and finally arrived in safety at St. John's, where I met my
present wife, to whom I was married lawfully, and who was
also an escaped slave from North Carolina. I stayed there
some time, and followed the trade of whitewashes and at
last I embarked for England. When I arrived at Liverpool,
I proceeded to Scotland, where I met with true friends of
abolition. I lectured in most of the Free Churches there,
including Dr. Candlish's, Dr. Guthrie's, and Mr. Alex-
ander Wallis's. I lectured twice in Dr. Candlish's Church.
1 then proceeded to Aberdeen, where I lectured to crowded
audiences ; and I then fell in with more friends, until I
met with the Rev. Mr. Barker, of Huddersfield, who
directed me to the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, who received me
and my wife into his Church as members, and who has
been my firm friend and adviser ever since. I am now
only anxious for the war to end with freedom to the

AMERICAN BUTTERFLY AND SLAVERY. 33

oppressed, (for I firmly believe that will be its ultimate
issue) and then I will revisit the old scenes of oppression,
and read the Bible to those to whom it has long been a
sealed Book. May God hasten this happy consummation,

CHAPTER VI.

AMERICAN BUTTERFLY AND SLAVERY.

A bad man called Old Ben Calo, who was nearly seven
feet high, used to go about ditching for different slave-
holders, far too lazy to work on his own plantation in
the Pine Woods. On one occasion, he wanted me to steal
from my master a bushel of corn for him, which I refused
to do. This annoyed him very much, and, in the course
of time, he came to my white people and told them that
he saw me the night before on a horse, and that he believed
me to be trading with Tom Hancock. This he did to gain
their favour. They then asked him how he knew it was
me. " 1 know it was him, he replied." " It might have
been a white man," said they. " No ; I am sure it was
Jackson, for I waited some time for him to return on this
side of the branch. After I had started to go home, I
heard the noise of horses' feet coming behind. As he ap-
proached, I gave him the road, and ordered him to stop ;
he disregarded this and galloped by. I then pulled the
trigger of my gun three times to shoot him, but it would
not fire, because he bewitched it." Foolish man — if what
he said was true — God alone preserved my life that night.
Ben Calo is not the only man who acts so deceitfully ;
there are scores whom I might mention. One more instance
I will mention here of a man named Squire Sanders ; he
lived in South Carolina, Sumpter District ; he had been in
the habit for a long time of trading secretly with slaves,
which trading he, of course, found very profitable ; and he
encouraged them to steal cotton, corn, etc. He was at last
suspected of having received stolen property. Thereupon,
James Laws and another slaveholder, at once hit on the
following plan to find him out : they placed a basket of
cotton on the head of one of their own slaves, named Job.
Previous to this, however, a negro from the same planta-
tion, named Alex, ran ahead on purpose to inform Squire
Sanders that his master was coming that night to test his
honesty, and begged him not to purchase anything of any
slave that might come to him. " Well, my boy," said the

34 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

Squire joyfully, " if I find this to be true, I will make you
a present of five dollars." Between ten and eleven o'clock,
Job arrived, followed at a distance by his master on horse-
back. The dogs began to bark, and Squire Sanders came
out to enquire what was the matter. " Who's tbat ? " he
asked. " James Law's Job," was the answer. " What do
you want?" "I have some cotton for you." "Have
you got an order from your master to bring me cotton this
time of night?" "No, sir," said Job. "How dare you
bring me cotton here without an order ? go along back,
and to-morrow I will see your master about this." James
Law then returned, convinced in his own mind that the
Squire was an honest man, and did not trade with slaves.
And Alex received his five dollars. So the Squire went
on trading as usual ; but he adopted the plan of having
the cotton taken to one of the negro-houses, and received
by Abraham, a negro. This I know to be the truth.

THE AMERICAN BUTTERFLY.

The character of the slaveholder, is to work his slaves
very hard so that they may not get up in the night to raise
an insurrection, or carry off cotton or corn to other masters
who trade with slaves at night. "The harder we work
them," say they, "the sounder they will sleep until we
blow the horn to put them to work next day." The butter-
fly, and bumble bee, and the mosquito-hawk, fly from
blossom to blossom through the cotton fields, enjoying
the glorious liberty which is denied to the slaves. A cir-
cumstance occured in the cotton fields, during a very
heavy thunderstorm, which I think is woithy of notice
here. The thunder and lightning was terrific, frightening
the most hardened. One old negro sinner named Munday,
who was ploughing in the field, and who was swearing
fearfully, was struck dead by the lightning.

The lightning once burnt a space of ground in the cotton
fields, and nothing afterwards ever grew on that spot.

We will now turn to the hawk and the owl. The hawk
snatches away chickens from the hen during the day, and
the owl steals them at night, yet the slave is not allowed
to have a gun to shoot them. I went one Sunday to see
my old aunt, and I came back through my master's pas-
ture, three miles in length and about the same in width,
killing snakes and scorpions as I went along, until I came

THE NEGRO SONGS. 35

up to a region where the great storm — which we call a
hurricane — had torn up the pine trees hy the roots. On
one of these trees there was a large head, which frightened
me ; it had large dreadful-looking eyes, which turned as
I walked on. I afterwards discovered this to be an owl,
not able to fly ; but the head was quite as large as a full-
grown owl's. I succeeded in killing this, but not until I
had had a sharp fight with the old ones, who were over-
head, and who followed me quite half a mile, knowing I.
had taken their young one. The slaveholders live upon
their slaves just as the hawk and owl live upon the hen
and chicken.

The Methodists and Independents hold slaves, as also
do the Baptists.

CHAPTER VII.

THE NEGRO SONGS.

I fear that this chapter will prove to many rather unin-
teresting; but at the same time, there are many who, I am
quite sure, would wish to know what are the songs with
which the negroes beguile their leisure hours. The fol-
lowing is one of them, and a great favourite among the
negroes.

A SPIRITUAL HYMN.

" 0 Shepherd, wha' thou bin all day,
O Shepherd, wha' thou bin all day,
0 Shepherd, wha' thou bin all day,

You promised my Jesus to mind these lambs,
And he pays you at the coming day.

O children, he pays you at the coming day,
O children, he pays you at the coming day,
O children, he pays you at the coming day.

0 Shepherd, the lambs all gone astray,
O Shepherd, the lambs all gone astray,
0 Shepherd, the lambs all gone astray,

You promised my Jesus to mind these lambs,
And he pays you at the coming day.

O children, he pays you at the coming day,
O children, he pays you at the coming day,
0 children, he pays you at the coming day.

Did you ever see such a carriage roll,

Did you ever see such a carriage roll,

Did you ever see such a carriage roll,

And it rolls like judgment day.

O children, it rolls like judgment day,

O children, it rolls like judgment day,

0 children, it rolls like judgment day.

36 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

The fore-wheel roll by the grace of God,

The fore-wheel roll by the grace of God,

The fore-wheel roll by the grace of God,
And the hind-wheel roll by faith.

O children, the hind-wheel roll by faith,
0 children, the hind-wheel roll by faith,
0 children, the hind- wheel roll by faith.

It roll for me and it roll for you,

It roll for me and it roll for you,

It roll for me and it roll for you,

And it roll for the whole world round.

0 children, it roll for the whole world round,
O children, it roll for the whole world round,
0 children, it roll for the whole world round.

Did you ever hear such a trumpet ring,
Did you ever hear such a trumpet ring,
Did you ever hear such a trumpet ring,
And it ring like judgment day.

O children, it ring like judgment day,

0 children, it ring like judgment day,

O children, it ring like judgment day.

It ring for me and it roll for you,

It rint? for me and it roll for you,

I , It ring for me and it roll for you,

And it ring for the whole world round.

0 children, it ring for the whole world round,
0 children, it ring for the whole world round,
0 children, it ring for the whole world round.

My Jesus he put on the long white robe,
My Jesus he put on the long white robe,
My Jesus he put on the long white robe,
And he sail thro' Galilee.

0 children, he sail thro' Galilee,

0 children, he sail thro' Galilee,

O children, he sail thro' Galilee.

He sail for me and he sail for you,

He sail for me and he sail for you,

He sail for me and he sail for you,

And he sail for the whole world round.

O children, he sail for the whole world round,
O children, he sail for the whole world round,
0 children, he sail for the whole world round."

This hymn is a great favourite with the slaves, and is
sung by them while they clap their hands to keep time.
Probably the reason for the number of repeats, is because
they have no books allowed them ; and indeed, they cannot
read, and therefore, on hearing a single line sung by the
white people, these poor slaves cannot prize it too much,
as is shown by their singing it over and over.

THE NEGE0 SONGS. 37

The following is a favourite hymn of the poor negroes
in the dusk of eventide, or on the dark night, after work :

" We shall hear the trumpet sounding

'Fore the break of day,
We'll take the wings of th' morning,

And fly away to my Canaan land,
Bright angels shall come to bear my soul

To my rosen, rosen* Lamb."

This hymn was often to me a sweet solace after a hard
day's work under the horrible tyranny of slavery. It
used to refresh us to think that heaven was so near, and
that soon we should be there.

The following is perhaps, not quite so intelligible as the
previous one : —

" Oh, me an' my wife we'er hand in hand,
And all our children in one band —

They honour tbe Lamb.
Oh, silver slippers on my feet,
We'll slip and slide thro' paradise,

And honour the Lamb."

• It must be remembered that these hymns are composed
of fragments of hymns, which we had heard sung at the
meeting-houses and camp-meetings of the white men.
Under these circumstances, it is indeed wonderful that
they are as intelligible as they are. A few more may, per-
haps, be acceptable to the reader. This one we used to
"sing when in some such spirit as was David of old, when
he indicted that interesting Psalm, beginning "Truly God
is good to Israel." (lxxiii.)

" Old Satan told me to my face
He'd drag my kingdom down ;
But Jesus whispered in my ears
He'd build it up again.
Chorus.
Oh, we'll walk and talk 'bout Jesus,

Glory, hallelujah !
Oh, we'll walk and talk 'bout Jesus,
Glory to my soul."

We used to sing this when we had seen the wicked in
high places, and the servants of God suffering injustice.
But when we had sung this we considered the end, and
saw that they were set in slippery places. Our hymns
were all we could get of real spiritual food, and yet they
were blest by God to the conversion of many, and to the

* rosen, probably a corruption ol risen.

38 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SEAVE.

building up of his saints. " Truly out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings hath he perfected praise."

After we had sung one of these songs, we would kneel
down, and 'one of us would offer prayer, and then we
would spring up and strike up a new song — one of joy
and gladness : —

" Oh, what a happy day
When the Christian people meet,
They shall meet to part no more.

Tracks I see and I'll pursue
The narrow way to heaven I view,
Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone,
He whom I fix my hopes upon.
Chorus.
Oh, what a happy day, &c, &c."

It will be seen more particularly from the foregoing,
that the negroes compose their songs chiefly from snatches
of hymns which they hear sung by the white people,
interpolated, it is true, with now and then a line of the
original. Judge them not harshly, gentle reader, for their
plagiarism, if such it may be called, for were you in their
position, we doubt if you could do better.

As perhaps these slave songs may be interesting to the
reader, I Avill give two or three more, with which I will
conclude : —

" I want to go where Moses gone,

Glory, hallelujah !
I want to go to the promised land,

Glory, hallelujah !
Sweet milk and honey overflows,

Glory, hallelujah ! "

These lines would be repeated with great energy, the
hallelujah being sometimes in the middle of the line, in-
stead of in its legitimate position ; thus : —

" I want to go, hallelu', hallelu',
Where Moses gone, hallelu', hallelu', halleluV

The following may show our feelings with regard to

death :: — «■

" Death, 0 death, O where are you going ?
Oh hallelu', hallelu', hallelujah !
I'm coming for some of your souls,
Oh hallelu', hallelu', hallelujah !

We feared not death, but would rather welcome it with
songs, for we, ignorant as we are, felt that we should
receive the " Crown of Life."

THE NEGRO SONGS. 39

It is remarkable to notice that, although the poor
negroes are but very little acquainted with the Sacred
Scriptures, yet the Almighty, apparently to show man the
futility of attempting to keep the mind of his fellow-man
in ignorance of Him, has imparted to the poor despised
one a species of subtlety in acquiring religious know-
ledge, which may appear to those who are not personally
acquainted with the fact, extraordinary and impossible.
If God so honour the negro, and if He works for his de-
liverance from bondage as He has been doing, ought we to
be idle? Surely if we stand calmly by, and see our
brother murdered, shall not we be guilty of his blood ?
Some have blamed "Abolitionists" for over-zealousness ;
but surely no one could be too zealous for the destruction
of a system which works, or can work, as described in
these pages. " Let us be up and doing, for the night
cometh when no man can work."

" Oh, early in the morning,
Early in the evening,
Then we'll shout glory, glory, in my soul.

Old fathers, can't you rise and tell ?

Bless the Lord, we'll rise and tell,

Then we'll shout glory, glory, in my soul."

This the slaves sing to keep time while picking cotton in
the fields under the burning sun ; soon after, the whip-
lash falls on their backs by their drunken masters and
overseers, till the blood runs down. And still they say
that the slaves are better off than the working people in
free countries, which is as big a lie as ever was told.

A man by the name of Stevondecause, in South Carolina,
kept a storehouse at the cross road, over the mill branch,
where he sold liquor and other things to the white people
at daytime ; he enticed the negroes to steal at night cotton
and corn, and other things, for which he gave them liquor
and one thing or another ; and he steals it from them by
not giving them what it is worth, and tells them to go and
steal more, and not let their masters see them. And when
he got rich enough to buy niggers himself, he stopped
trading with the others. He went across Black Kiver
Swamp, where he bought a plantation, and was one of the
worst masters that ever lived. He was afraid to let any of
his niggers leave his plantation at night, and told them if
they did he would whip them ; and why, because it takes a
rough to catchy a rough, and he is afraid they will steal

40 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

his cotton, as he got other master's niggers to steal for
him to make him rich. Mr. Neddy Anderson, and William
Miles, and Stevondecause, are very bad men — more like
beasts than men — they used to go about all the plantations
on Sunday nights, and frighten the negroes that used to
come together to hold prayer-meetings, chasing them here
and there, and whipping as many as they could catch
without a pass. Mr. Anderson spends a great deal
of his time in plaiting whips to whip the negroes with ;
my mistress hired him as overseer to come and flog all the
negroes, and me in particular, after Christmas, because I
had a black pony. But she gave us three days at Christ-
mas, and I have not been home since ; for I and the pony
gave them leg-bail for security, and thank God, got safe
to a Free State.

Two negroes were being taken away from their families
in chains to the new countries, on the way there, the mas-
ter stopped for dinner at one of the planter's houses,
while the slaves were fastened to a tree. After dinner, he
sent for his horse to be brought. The horse would not let
the slave put the bridle on him, he bit at him. " Master,"
said the slave, "I can't catch your horse, he bites " " Oh,
well, I'll go." He went, and said, " What are you about,
sir ? " and rubbing him down behind, and lifting one of his
hind feet, the horse kicked his brains out. The slaves were
then let loose and sent back.

The Rev. Mr. Reed, minister of Mount Zion Church,
South Carolina, when his wife wanted him to whip her slave
girl, he said, " I can't, I am a minister of the gospel."
" Well, other ministers whip their niggers, and you can
whip yours too." " No, I can't." " Well, I will send
her to Mr. Sam. Wilson, and have her whipped." So she
sat down and wrote a few lines, and she called her slave
girl to her and said, " Here, Madam Manda, take this let-
ter to Mr. Wilson." Which was five miles from her
house. When he broke open the letter, he read, " Please
give the bearer fifty lashes on the bare back, well put on."
The girl looked astonished, and thought she had com-
mitted some crime, and said, " Please massa, don't whip
me, mistress give me this letter to give you." He said, " I
don't care, I am going to give you fifty lashes." After she
was flogged, she returned to her cruel mistress, who ex-
amined her back, and said, "Kight good for you; I'm
glad, I long wanted you whipped." A drunken slave-

ANTI-SLA.VEKY SONGS. 41

holder, by the name of Old Billy Dunn, whipped one of
his negroes to death, and dug a hole in the field, and
threw him in without coffin or anything of the kind, just as
dogs are buried ; and in the course of time, the niggers
ploughed up the bones, and said, "Brudder, this the place
where Old Billy Dunn buried one of his slaves that was
flogged to death."

I, John Andrew Jackson, once a slave in the United
States, have seen and heard all this, therefore I publish it.

J. A. JACKSON.

FLIGHT OF THE BONDMAN,

DEDICATED TO WILLIAM W. BROWN,

And Sung by the Hutchinsons.

BT ELIAS SMITH.

Aik — Silver Moon.

From the crack of the rifle and baying of hound,

Takes the poor panting bondman his flight ;
His couch through the day is the cold damp ground,

But northward he runs through the night.

Chokus.

0 God, speed the flight of the desolate slave,

Let his heart never yield to despair ;
There is room 'mong our hills for the true and the brave,

Let his lungs breath© our free northern air !

Oh, sweet to the storm- driven sailor the light,

Streaming far o'er the dark swelling wave ;
But sweeter by far 'mong the lights of the night.

Is the star of the north to the slave.
O God, speed, &c.

Cold and bleak are our mountains, and chilling our winds,

But warm as the soft southern gales
Be the hands and the hearts which the hunted one finds,

TVIong our hills and our awn winter vales*
O God, speed, &c.

Then list to the 'plaint of the heart-broken thrall,

Ye blood-hounds go back to. your lair ;
May a free northern soil soon give freedom to a?J»

Who shall breathe in its pure mountain air.
0 God, speed, &c.

42 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE.

THE BEREAVED MOTHER.

Aik — Kathleen O'More.

Oh, deep was the anguish of the slave mother's heart,
When called from her darling for ever to part ;
So grieved that lone mother, that heart-broken mother,
In sorrow and woe.

The lash of the master her deep sorrows mock,
While the child of her bosom is sold on the block ;
Yet loud shrieked that mother, poor heart-broken mother,
In sorrow and woe.

The babe in return, for its fond mother cries,
While the sound of their waitings together arise ;
They shriek for each other, the child and the mother,
In sorrow and woe.

The harsh auctioneer, to sympathy cold,
Tears the babe from its mother and sells it for gold ;
While the infant and mother loud shriek for each other,
In sorrow and woe.

At last came the parting of mother and child,
Her brain reeled with madness, that mother was wild ;
Then the lash could not smother the shrieks of that mother,
Of sorrow and woe.

The child was borne off to a far distant clime,
While the mother was left in anguish to pine ;
But reason departed, and she sank broken-hearted,
In sorrow and woe.

That poor mourning mother of reason bereft,
Soon ended her sorrows and sank cold in death ;
Thus died that slave mother, poor heart-broken mother,
In sorrow and woe.

O list ye kind mothers, to the cries of the slave ;
The parents and children implore you to save ;
Go ! rescue the mothers, the sisters and brothers,

From sorrow and woe.

THE YANKEE GIRL.

She sings by her wheel at that low cottage door,
Which the long evening shadow is stretching before,
With a music as sweet as the music which seems
Breathed softly and faintly in the ear of our dreams.

How brilliant and mirthful the light of her eye,
Like a star glancing out from the blue of the sky
And lightly and freely her dark tresses play
O'er a brow and a bosom as lovely as they.

ANTI-SLAVEBY SONGS. 43

Who comes in his pride to that low cottage door —
The haughty and rich to the humble and poor ?
'Tis the great Southern planter — the master who waves
His whip of dominion o'er hundreds of slaves.

' Nay, Ellen, for shame ! Let those Yankee fools spin,
Who would pass for our slaves with a change of their skin ;
Let them toil as they will at the loom or the wheel,
Too stupid for shame and too vulgar to feel.

But thou art too lovely and precious a gem
To be bound to their burdens and sullied by them — -
For shame, Ellen, shame ! — cast thy bondage aside,
And away to the South, as my blessing and pride.

0 come where no winter thy footsteps can wrong,
liut where flowers are blossoming all the year long ;
Where the shade of the palm-tree is over my home,
And the lemon and orange are white in their bloom,

O come to my home, where my servants shall all
Depart at thy bidding and come at thy call ;
They shall heed thee as mistress with trembling and awe,
And each wish of thy Tieart shall be felt as a law.'

0 could ye have seen her — that pride of our girls —
Arise and cast back the dark wealth of her curls,
With scorn in her eye which the gazer could feel,
And a glance like the sunshine that flashes on steel :

"Go back, haughty Southron ! thy treasures o£ gold
Are dim with the blood of the hearts thou hast sold ;
Thy home may be lovely, but round it I hear
The crack of the whip and the footsteps of fear !

And the sky of thy South may be brighter than ours,
And greener thy landscapes, and fairer thy flowers ;
But, dearer the blast round our mountains which raves,
Than the sweet sunny zephyr which breathes over slaves

Full low at thy bidding thy negroes may kneel,
With the iron of bondage on spirit and heel ;
Yet know that the Yankee girl sooner would be
In fetters with them, than in freedom with thee /"

THE SLAVE'S SONG.

Air — Dearest May.

ow, freemen, listen to my song, a story I'll relate,
; happened in the valley of the old Carolina State :
hey marched me to the cotton field, at early break of day,
nd worked me there till late sunset, without a cent of pay.
Chords..

They worked me all the day,

Without a bit of pay,

And believed me when I told them

That I would not run away.

44 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLATE.

Massa gave me a holiday, and said he'd give me more,

I thanked him very kindly, and shoved my boat from shore ;

I drifted down the river, my heart was light and free,

I had my eye on the bright north star, and thought of liberty.

They worked me all the day,

Without a bit of pay,

So I took my flight in the middle of the night,

When the sun was gone away.

I jumped out of my good old boat and shoved it from the shore,

And travelled faster that night than I had ever done before ;

I came up to a farmer's house, j ust at the break of day,

And saw a white man standing there, said he, "You are run away."

They worked me all the day,

Without a bit of pay,

So I took my flight in the middle of the night,

When the sun was gone away.

I told him I had left the whip, and baying of the hound,

To find a place where man was man, if such there could be found,

That I heard in Canada, all men were free

And that I was going there in search of liberty.

They worked me all the day,

Without a bit of pay,

So I took my flight in the middle of the night,

When the sun was gone away.

YE HERALDS OF FREEDOM.

Ye heralds of freedom, ye noble and brave,
Who dare to insist on the rights of the slave.
Go onward, go onward, your cause is of God,
And he will soon sever the oppressor's strong rod.

The finger of slander may now at you point,
That finger will soon lose the strength of its joint ;
And those who now plead for the rights of the slave,
Will soon be acknowledged the good and the brave.

Though thrones and dominions, and kingdoms and powers,
May now all oppose you, the victory is yours ;
The banner of Jesus will soon be unfurled,
And he will give freedom and peace to the world.

Go under his standard, and fight by his side,

O'er mountains and billows you'll then safely ride ;

His gracious protection will be to you given,

And bright crowns of glory he'll give you in heaven.

TESTIMONIALS. 45

TESTIMONIALS IX FAVOUR OF JOHN ANDREW
JACKSON, A FUGITIVE SLAVE.

" I am very happy to say that Mr. Jackson is a member
of my Church, and is well worthy of all confidence and
regard.

April 12th, 1860. C. H. SPURGEON."

" We, the undersigned, bear testimony to the truth of
Mr. Jackson's statements, being satisfied regarding these
either by personal investigation of his case, or by the evi-
dence of those who have done so, and on whose veracity
we can depend. The credentials he carries with him are
attested by parties of the very highest respectability in
Edinburgh. We therefore commend him to the kind
sympathies of every friend of the slave, not only on ac-
count of his exposure and denunciation of slavery in
general, but his very laudable object of raising funds to
procure the deliverance of his father and two children of
a murdered sister from bondage.

MEREAMLER WALLACE, Minister, East Campbell
Street N. P. Church, Glasgow.

WILLIAM BRUCE, Minister, U. P. Church, Edin-
burgh.

Wm. GRAHAM, Minister, Newhaven.

Robt. NELSON, Deacon, St. John's Free Church.

Thos. NELSON, Printer, etc.

W. J. DUNCAN, Banker."

" 18, Coates Crescent,

Edinburgh, 7th May, 1857,
Mr. Jackson, on producing what seemed to me sufficient
testimonials, and particularly a strong one from Mrs.
Beecher Stowe, was allowed to deliver two lectures in my
Church. These lectures were, I have reason to know,
very creditable to him. I have no doubt of his being en-
titled to countenance and support in his laudable under-
taking.

Thos. CANDLISH, D.D.,

Minister of Free St. George's.

JAMES GRANT, 7, Gilmore Place,"

46 MY EXPERIENCE AS A SLATE.

" Resermere Presbyterian Manor,

Loanhouse, Edinburgh, 18th May, 1857.

From testimonials produced by Mr. Jackson, given by
Mrs. Beecher Stowe and others, I was convinced of the
truth of his case, gave him the use of my Church for
public lectures on two occasions, and felt happy in afford-
ing him hospitality for two nights. From all I have seen
and heard, it gives me pleasure to testify my conviction
that he is entitled to cordial sympathy and encouragement
in the laudable object he has in view — the deliverance of
some relations from that state of bondage from which
he himself has in the good providence of God escaped.

I can cordially unite with the above, from

Wm. ANDERSON, Minister of the gospel.

DAVID GUTHRIE, Minister of the Free
Church, Tibetson."

" Glasgow, October 15, 1857.

At a meeting of the Joint Committees of the " Glasgow
New Association for the Abolition of Slavery," the certi-
ficates of John Andrew Jackson, a fugitive slave, having
been examined and considered satisfactory, it was unani-
mously agreed to vote him two guineas towards the object
of his mission.

JOHN SMITH, Treasurer."

"J. A. Jackson having called on me and shown his
testimonials, I took him to a lady, Miss Griffith, who was
visiting this town on anti-slavery business, and who has
resided several years in America. She examined him
very closely, and was fully satisfied that his representa-
tions of himself are correct. I believe implicit reliance
may be placed in his truthfulness and honesty.

Richd. SKINNER,

Minister of Ramsden Street Chapel,
March 25th, 1858. Huddersfield."

TESTIMONIALS. 47

Samuel Fessenden, a gentleman well known in the
United States, with whom Mr. Jackson lived some time,
gave him this character : —

" This may certify that I have known Mr. John Andrew
Jackson more than five years ; I believe him to be a reli-
able man for integrity and truth. His history, which is
very thrilling, may be relied on, as he relates it. He is
anxious to redeem his father and two children of a sister
in slavery. He has a claim on your sympathies.

SAMUEL FESSENDEN."

"Boston, April 30th, 1856

Be it known that we know John Andrew Jackson, a
coloured man, to be industrious and honest ; said Jackson
worked in Salem, Mass., having worked for us at different
times during the years of 1847-8-9, and 50. We further
state that we believe said John Andrew Jackson was
formerly a slave, and that his word may be relied upon, as
we think him a man of integrity and truth.

SAMUEL HIGBEE, North Street.

JOHN GILMER."

" Be it known to whom it may concern, that I went with
the above John Andrew Jackson and saw Mrs. Foreman,
in Richmond Street, Boston, and she fully corroborated
his statement in reference to his being a slave ; also said
her son had been on board the vessel, and seen the spot
where the said John Andrew Jackson was cut out, accord-
ing to his statement ; I would further add, that I know
the above gentlemen, Samuel Higbee and John Gilmer, to
be men of character and highly respectable, and that their
statement may be fully relied upon.

G. W. COCHRANE, 60 & 70, Read St."

48 MY EXPERIENCE AS. A SLAVE.

Mr. Jackson lectured twice in the Rev. Mr. Candlish's
Church, Edinburgh, when the rev. gentleman took the
chair ; he also lectured in almost all the Churches in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, and he lectured all the way
through to London, where he still continues to lecture on
slavery, and endeavours to bring in the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ; he is now waiting to see how the con-
flict in America will end ; and if it please God that the
slaves get their freedom, his intention is to go and preach
the gospel among them as long as he lives.

I am happy to say, that since writing the foregoing,
President Lincoln has issued his proclamation, that " On
January 1st, 1863, all slaves within any State, or part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against
the Federal Government, shall be then, thenceforward, and
for ever free." — J. A. J.

PA8SMOBE &, Alababthb, Printers, Wilson Street, Finsbtfrj.