ࡱ> ac` ?kbjbj33 :|Q_Q_c&3338k$$3"$ QQQQQQQPȑ_Qy0QH!Y|H!QH!Q(Q|H! : Term 1 Week 7 Douglas Ch 5 I was probably between seven and eight years old when I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation. I left it with joy. I shall never forget the ecstasy with which I received the intelligence that my old master (Anthony) had determined to let me go to Baltimore, to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, brother to my old master's son-in-law, Captain Thomas Auld. I received this information about three days before my departure. They were three of the happiest days I ever enjoyed. I spent the most part of all these three days in the creek, washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing myself for my departure. The pride of appearance which this would indicate was not my own. I spent the time in washing, not so much because I wished to, but because Mrs. Lucretia had told me I must get all the dead skin off my feet and knees before I could go to Baltimore; for the people in Baltimore were very cleanly, and would laugh at me if I looked dirty. Besides, she was going to give me a pair of trousers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off me. The thought of owning a pair of trousers was great indeed! It was almost a sufficient motive, not only to make me take off what would be called by pig- drovers the mange, but the skin itself. I went at it in good earnest, working for the first time with the hope of reward. The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes were all suspended in my case. I found no severe trial in my departure. My home was charmless; it was not home to me; on parting from it, I could not feel that I was leaving any thing which I could have enjoyed by staying. My mother was dead, my grandmother lived far off, so that I seldom saw her. I had two sisters and one brother, that lived in the same house with me; but the early separation of us from our mother had well nigh blotted the fact of our relationship from our memories. I looked for home elsewhere, and was confident of finding none which I should relish less than the one which I was leaving. If, however, I found in my new home hardship, hunger, whipping, and nakedness, I had the consolation that I should not have escaped any one of them by staying. Having already had more than a taste of them in the house of my old master, and having endured them there, I very naturally inferred my ability to endure them elsewhere, and especially at Baltimore; for I had something of the feeling about Baltimore that is expressed in the proverb, that "being hanged in England is preferable to dying a natural death in Ireland." I had the strongest desire to see Baltimore. Cousin Tom, though not fluent in speech, had inspired me with that desire by his eloquent description of the place. I could never point out any thing at the Great House, no matter how beautiful or powerful, but that he had seen something at Baltimore far exceeding, both in beauty and strength, the object which I pointed out to him. Even the Great House itself, with all its pictures, was far inferior to many buildings in Baltimore. So strong was my desire, that I thought a gratification of it would fully compensate for whatever loss of comforts I should sustain by the exchange. I left without a regret, and with the highest hopes of future happiness. We sailed out of Miles River for Baltimore on a Saturday morning. I remember only the day of the week, for at that time I had no knowledge of the days of the month, nor the months of the year. On setting sail, I walked aft, and gave to Colonel Lloyd's plantation what I hoped would be the last look. I then placed myself in the bows of the sloop, and there spent the remainder of the day in looking ahead, interesting myself in what was in the distance rather than in things near by or behind. In the afternoon of that day, we reached Annapolis, the capital of the State. We stopped but a few moments, so that I had no time to go on shore. It was the first large town that I had ever seen, and though it would look small compared with some of our New England factory villages, I thought it a wonderful place for its size--more imposing even than the Great House Farm! We arrived at Baltimore early on Sunday morning, landing at Smith's Wharf, not far from Bow- ley's Wharf. We had on board the sloop a large flock of sheep; and after aiding in driving them to the slaughterhouse of Mr. Curtis on Louden Slater's Hill, I was conducted by Rich, one of the hands belonging on board of the sloop, to my new home in Alliciana Street, near Mr. Gardner's ship-yard, on Fells Point. Mr. and Mrs. Auld were both at home, and met me at the door with their little son Thomas, to take care of whom I had been given. And here I saw what I had never seen before; it was a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions; it was the face of my new mistress, Sophia Auld. I wish I could describe the rapture that flashed through my soul as I beheld it. It was a new and strange sight to me, brightening up my pathway with the light of happiness. Little Thomas was told, there was his Freddy, --and I was told to take care of little Thomas; and thus I entered upon the duties of my new home with the most cheering prospect ahead. I look upon my departure from Colonel Lloyd's plantation as one of the most interesting events of my life. It is possible, and even quite probable, that but for the mere circumstance of being removed from that plantation to Baltimore, I should have to-day, instead of being here seated by my own table, in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness of home, writing this Narrative, been confined in the galling chains of slavery. Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity. I have ever regarded it as the first plain manifestation of that kind providence which has ever since attended me, and marked my life with so many favors. I regarded the selection of myself as being somewhat remarkable. There were a number of slave children that might have been sent from the plantation to Baltimore. There were those younger, those older, and those of the same age. I was chosen from among them all, and was the first, last, and only choice. Ch 6 My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at the door,--a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings. She had never had a slave under her control previously to myself, and prior to her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living. She was by trade a weaver; and by constant application to her business, she had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery. I was utterly astonished at her goodness. I scarcely knew how to behave towards her. She was entirely unlike any other white woman I had ever seen. I could not approach her as I was accustomed to approach other white ladies. My early instruction was all out of place. The crouching servility, usually so acceptable a quality in a slave, did not answer when manifested toward her. Her favor was not gained by it; she seemed to be disturbed by it. She did not deem it impudent or unmannerly for a slave to look her in the face. The meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence, and none left without feeling better for having seen her. Her face was made of heavenly smiles, and her voice of tranquil music. But, alas! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such. The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon. Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would ~spoil~ the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy." These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it. Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both. I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference, in the treatment of slaves, from that which I had witnessed in the country. A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation. There is a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder, who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding neighbors with the cries of his lacerated slave. Few are willing to incur the odium attaching to the reputation of being a cruel master; and above all things, they would not be known as not giving a slave enough to eat. Every city slave- holder is anxious to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well; and it is due to them to say, that most of them do give their slaves enough to eat. There are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule. Directly opposite to us, on Philpot Street, lived Mr. Thomas Hamilton. He owned two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. Henrietta was about twenty-two years of age, Mary was about fourteen; and of all the mangled and emaciated creatures I ever looked upon, these two were the most so. His heart must be harder than stone, that could look upon these unmoved. The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces. I have frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not know that her master ever whipped her, but I have been an eye-witness to the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton. I used to be in Mr. Hamilton's house nearly every day. Mrs. Hamilton used to sit in a large chair in the middle of the room, with a heavy cowskin always by her side, and scarce an hour passed during the day but was marked by the blood of one of these slaves. The girls seldom passed her without her saying, "Move faster, you ~black gip!~" at the same time giving them a blow with the cowskin over the head or shoulders, often drawing the blood. She would then say, "Take that, you ~black gip!~" continuing, "If you don't move faster, I'll move you!" Added to the cruel lashings to which these slaves were subjected, they were kept nearly half-starved. They seldom knew what it was to eat a full meal. I have seen Mary contending with the pigs for the offal thrown into the street. So much was Mary kicked and cut to pieces, that she was oftener called "~pecked~" than by her name. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas (Boston, 1845) Urban Slavery in Savannah Chatham County, Grand Jury, September 6, 1792 'We present as a grievance the great number of Negroes who are suffered to assemble under the pretence of religion, and recommend that their numbers on such occasion be limited, and that the patrol law be regularly put into execution' Chatham County, Grand Jury, February 20, 1794 '4th. We present as a great grievance the retailors of spirituous liquors in Savannah, keeping shops open after night & on Sundays and dealing with negroes, by which practice the negroes are induced and incouraged to steal & pillage & commit other enormities, to the great injury of our citizens, & recommend to the city Council to take measurers to suppress such proceedings. 5th We present as an evil tendancy of which may prove destructive to our country & involves us in calamities of the same kind as those lately experienced by the unhappy inhabitants of St Domingo that negroes are permitted to meet in a place in Yamacraw under the pretence of public worship in numbers of five and six hundred at a time, and we recommend that such impolitic & dangerous meetings may be suppressed in future, as there is room reserved in our churches for thier accommodation. Chatham County, Grand Jury, October Term 1798 7th We present as a grievance the great influx of negroes & people of color from the West Indies who are secretly brought into this state from other states over land, whereby the acts of the legislature for preventing the introduction of such persons are evaded to the imminent danger of the county. We are sorry to observe that the city ordinance preventing slaves from occupying houses within the city is not more particularly attended to and we recommend that the city council require of the city marshal an attentive observance and inforcement of the said ordinance.' January 17, 1818 We present as an evil of great magnitude the ordinance granting badges to colored and black women, for the purpose of hawking about articles for sale. These women monopolise in divers ways, many of the necessaries of life, which are brought to our market, by which the price is greatly enhanced, and the poor inhabitants of our city, proportionately distressed. They encourage theft; deprave our domestics, and by their evil influence and dissolute lives endanger the safety of the city' Chatham County, Grand Jury, June 8, 1825 'a majority of the slaves imprisoned in the course of a year, are runaway Negroes, detained in goal, waiting the call of the owners; these, with a few belonging to the city, constitute all generally found in confinement. Negroes remaining in a condition of positive idleness, having subsistence secured without labour, feel their situation infinitely better than if at work; no motives for change are presented, and instead of imprisonment being found a salutary check to their absenting themselves from their owners, the first confinement only leads to an indifference, if not a desire for another We beg leave to present to the notice of the authorities of the city, a practice long continued, as a greivance, but recently carried to an extent, to demand immediate interference. We refer to the encouragement afforded by some shopkeepers, to porters and servants, in stores under the bluff, to collect cotton for sale, by taking from each bale a part, not possible to be missed by the owner at the time, until the aggregate robbed in this way, in the course of a season amounts to a heavy loss. The cotton thus collected is carried constantly to shops for sale; and were the injury confined to the loss of property, it would be a wrong that law might restrain; but the proceeds of the sales are applied to the means of drunkenness, and some of the best servants in town have become, in consequence, worthless to their owners, and loathsome to all. The amount of cotton known to be received in this way during the season, by some individuals, would if stated at its value in money, be incredible. But the knowledge of the facts within cognizance of many of this jury. The seller of the cotton to the shop-keeper gets but a mite for his share of the robbery'. Chatham County, Grand Jury, May Term 1841 The Grand Jury now proceed to lay before this court the following list of evil practices existing in this community so far as the same have been brought to their knowledge. The present as a nuisance of the first class, the grog-shops, bar-rooms where ardent spirits are retailed and sailors boarding houses as they are now conducted in this city. They consider these evils as all belonging to one class and the Grand Jury do not see how any amendment in public morals, or any improvement in the peace and safety of the city can be expected so long as these evils exist. The unlawful trading with negroes is doubly injurious to our city and our county, and should be suppressed as far as possible by the vigilent enforcement of present enactments or by new ones to meet the case; it offers to robbery and plunder by a certainty of a ready market inducements which the moral character of that class cannot resist. The practice opens the door to evils of great magnitude, injures the master, and demoralizes the slave, who without such facilities of reaping the reward of crime, would faithfully perform the duties of his humble sphere, by remaining honest, industrious, obedient and contented, looking up to his master as his best friend instead of his dreading him, as the punisher of the faithless and the robber. The returns they most generally receive, intoxicating liquor, only add to the evil, by fastening on them the habits of drunkenness, exciting them to further depredations and sinking them lower in vice. This population is so integrally mixed up with our domestic relations and we are, as a natural consequence, so vitally affected by their good or bad conduct, that the considerations of the evil, and a remedy, should seriously present itself to every member of this community. All slaves are interested in this matter & all should unite in endeavours to stop this fruitful source of mischief & danger. Selling on the Sabbath day whether in the shops or in the streets in inconsistent in a Christian community, and we are happy to see the vigilence of our police, bringing up offenders in the former case, and their punishment by the city council for violation of the Sabbath ordinance, we could respectfully recommend that the ordinance prohibiting the selling on Sunday be more strictly enforced. Chatham County, Grand Jury, May Term 1845 In performing our duty as the Grand Inquest of the county it is with painful concern that we perceive the existence of evils which jeopardise the peace, order and safety of the community, and which we expose in the following presentments viz.: We present the illicit trading with Negroes as a formidable evil, the awful effects of which reaches every class of the community, not excepting the mercenary individual who renders the misguided slave his victim by inveighing him to perpetrate theft and insidiously involving him in habits injurious of his happiness and orals and hazardous of the safety of the community. The law is adequate to the offence, but as long as our citizens are indifferent to its existence and our magistrates delinquent a traffic cannot be omitted so fearfully deleterious. We present the practise of giving tickets to Negroes who are the property of another as an extensive evil. It renders the slave independent of his owner, and it deprives him of his services. We present as an evil of magnitude the practise of slaves being permitted to hire their own time or to labour for themselves except on the premises of their owners. The exemption of the city of Savannah from the operation of the law which prohibits Negroes elsewhere from hiring their own time we regard as seriously mischievous exacting a most deleterious influence upon them and weakening the control which should be maintained over them. We therefore recommend in explicit terms that our representatives in the legislature be required to obtain its repeal. For the proper subordination of our slaves and for the security of our citizens it is absolutely necessary that the patrol laws should be rigidly enforced. In several districts there is no organised militia company and therefore no regular patrol duty is performed in them. We present this delinquency as requiring the immediate interposition of the justices of the peace which tribunal has cognisance of it upon which we would earnestly impress the necessity of publishing the patrol laws in the gazettes of the city and having them posted up at all public places throughout the county and compelling their observance. WE present as a nuisance the number of shops for the retailing of ardent spirits in the city of Savannah by small measures exercising as they do the most corrupting influence on our black population and respectfully recommend to our corporate authorities that a limited number of licenses only should be given to each ward that the fees for such licenses be increased, proper security given & required for good behaviour and all screens be removed from the doors of such shops... Chatham County, Grand Jury, January Term 1860 We the Grand Jurors of the 1st Panel for the County of Chatham, respectfully say, we are fully aware that it is the custom of the Grand Jurors of the several counties of our state, & doubtless it is expected of us, to present such matters to the consideration of the court, & of the county, which we represent as we believe the public interests require & we are also aware, that too often such presentments are merely published - then entirely forgotten, & never afterwards alluded to or acted upon. But in this instance, we mean emphatically what we say, & feel earnestly, the absolute necessity that some peremptory action should be taken & that promptly upon the following subjects: We are each & all equally interested in them & those who have the welfare of our country at heart, we respectfully urge, cannot be listless and indifferent to what has so earnestly iccupied our thoughts & deliberations & so heartily received our reprobation. This Grand Jury do therefore Unanimously present to the consideration of the court, & community the grievous injuries resulting from the selling of spirituous & intoxicating liquors to our slaves & free persons of colour - and keeping of disorderly & gambling houses for the same. No license to sell liquor authorises the former, & our statute book is disgraced by no law permitting the latter; but that these grievances wrongs to both master & slave are daily permitted in our midst by the culpable indifference, inactivity or collusion of those officers who would detect & expose these gross violations of law, cannot be successfully contradicted. Here then are two great injuries inflicted upon masters & slaves in our very midst first by demoralising the negro & then deteriorating his value physically also. This peculiar property should be especially protected by us & hedged about by the severest penal statutes to guarantee that they should not be improperly tampered with. With these views we respectfully and unanimously suggest to the senator & representatives from the county, that an act should be passed by our legislature to the effect - that the penalty of selling liquor or any intoxicating drink to slaves or free persons of colour; or for keeping gambling rooms for their use, should be punished by nothing less that confinement in the penitentiary; & that a reward should also be allowed to the informer & prosecutor upon whose testimony the violation of such laws may be convicted. WE are taxed to pay our city & county officers & certainly the detection of these violations of the law is within the limit of their duties. Sources: Georgia Gazette, September 6, 1792, & February 20, 1794; Savannah Republican January 17, 1818; Daily Georgian, June 8, 1825; Chatham County, Superior Court Minutes Vol 4, 1796-1799; Vol 16, 1841-43; Vol. 18, 1845-1847; Vol 20, 1850-1853; Vol 24, 1859-1862.     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