Part 1 (2/2)
Finally, Wilson gave up chasing Ben with blood-hounds, and resolved to try a better and ht Ben's wife and left her with Strucker, with instructions to send her and Ben to his plantation if Ben illing for the arrangeot word of how matters stood with reference to himself, and concluded if he could live with his wife on the same plantation that it was the very best he could do, so he acceded to the wishes of Wilson, and was sent with his wife to Wilson
The happiness of this couple was unbounded when they found they could once ether as God intended they should, and the poor wife in her great gratitude cried, ”God is on our side!” Ben replied that he had told her on one occasion that God was on their side, and that ”the darkest hour was just before day”
The usual expression used by the blacks when a runaway returned to his master was that he ”had co place in the woods and returned to the plantation to work
When I heard that uncle Ben had co to live on our plantation, my joy knew no bounds On the day when he was expected to arrive I got pero out on the road soht a horse and started Every wagon I on contained my uncle and aunt, and fear that it did not I rode on, on, on, all that day, until my heart was sick with hope deferred I had received orders before starting that if I did not meet them that day to return ho limpse ofthem, made me feel tired, sick, and worn out So I stopped at a friendly cabin that night, after telling the in I was out, and the anxiety to see ht I would ride out the road a short distance in the hope ofabout an hour Iuncle Ben and his wife The joy of thatbeen deprived of mother and father he was the only relative ain My heart rejoiced exceedingly I was, as it were, a new boy entirely, so overcome was I
We all arrived home that same day, and it was a much more pleasant trip than I had taken the day before On that day it was all anxiety, iving, again proving uncle Ben's saying that ”the darkest hour is always just before day” My sisters were simply ith joy e arrived They ran out the road to , ”There comes uncle Ben; we have one reat extent, and we felt indeed that we had ”one more friend” with us We were as happy as slaves could be, and spent all the tiether--uncle Ben, his wife, e toward uncle Ben because he had to buy his wife in order to get hiot Ben after he ran away he would whip hi, but about a year after he had got hian to put his plans into operation for severely punishi+ng hih Wilson would not have hesitated a moment to have put any plan into execution he may have conceived, under ordinary circu hier than with carnal weapons in his hands Wilson proceeded cautiously and laid snares for Ben Uncle Ben was one of the best hands on the plantation, and religiously performed the labor alloted him truly and persistently He obeyed his overseer and Wilson in all things pertaining to his manual occupation, and obeyed God to the very best of his ability in this as in everything else But Wilson wanted to punish Ben, and was determined to do so He knew that Ben was a faithful slave to labor, and was reliable, yet he wished to break Ben's spirit--his manhood, the God part of hi Ben in his sche God in Ben, and that although he punished Ben to the death he would be conquered himself, and more severely punished than he could ever hope to punish Ben But Wilson was mad, infatuated, and satanically determined Precautious preparations were eful schehbors hat ht be called professional slave-whippers, he dee to punish and conquer Ben fully ripe for execution Ben being a field hand was busily e cotton, with a prayerful heart, and a watchful eye on Wilson
Fro to occur which would nearly concern hi been hunted like a beast he had beco of presentiment, he was uneasy, and, as was usual with him, he kneeled down and asked God to protect hiive hith to overco he was startled by the snort of a horse, and on looking around to ascertain the cause of the noise he discovered himself almost surrounded by armed men on horseback No time to think now; the tiht was for life Better, however, was death than to be thus hunted and harassed Bounding through the field he gained a friendly covert, and seely by mere chance he eluded his pursuers and the hounds Ben thanked God for his deliverance
Wilson with his heartless band were again baffled, and withand disappointments in his man-chase he became furious Ben stayed in the woods about four weeks, and during all this time my sisters, Ben's wife, and myself were kept in close confine him any assistance Thus all of us had to suffer But ere only slaves
Wilson finally took Ben's wife to a man in Oxford, about twenty-fivethe blacks that he had sold her Wilson had ements at Oxford with some professional slave-hunters to catch Ben if he ever came to see his wife, for which purpose she had been taken there
After a time Ben was informed that he and his wife had been sold by Wilson to asuch to be the fact, he went there to see her, and ements for the future His as told by the ht both her and Ben, and wished her to get Ben to ”co under this delusion, Ben was month The cabin was surrounded by armed men, when Ben was overpowered, chained, and put in jail for safe keeping until Wilson should co and the harsh treat wore Ben down considerably; yet, believing that ”the darkest hour is just before day,”
he relied on God's help in his misery
Wilson ca him securely around the neck he fastened one end of the chain to the rear of his buggy and literally, a part of the tis, about thirty miles from Oxford, where he sold hi the hardest master in the country Wilson afterwards took Ben's wife home Thus they were separated,--Ben and his wife,--never to ot home that he had sent Ben to hell, and that he would send me there too Infatuated man; he supposed he had done with Ben for the very worst; he thought he had as much power over the souls of his slaves as he had under ”the laws” over their bodies He found, however, in tiood tie and punished our persecutors as they deserved
CHAPTER II
Not sent to hell by Wilson--Mrs Wilson protects --Sent to school with the children--The school-children teach me to read and write--What came of it--Mount that mule or I'll shoot you--I mounted the mule--A start for the railroad to work--I disiance to God and my country only
The monotonous tedium of routine slave-labor was very often broken by some scene of cruelty to one or another of the poor blacks, either by the master or his overseer; and woe unto the luckless one if the ood h slaves orth overnable passions of some if not most masters found free vent in cruelty to their own property--that is, their slaves This was the case with Wilson, and no opportunity was missed by him to make a poor black feel the effects of his brutish nature and passions His wife, on the other hand, made every effort to protect the blacks on the plantation as much as possible When Wilson threatened to send me to hell, as he had tried to send uncle Ben, Mrs Wilson came forward in my behalf and savedhim that she wished ”Charles to accoht be required” It was customary in the South for families ned slaves to send one or more of them with their children when they attended school as waiters, or personal servants, and as I belonged to Mrs
Wilson, being an inherited chattel, Wilson acceded to her de with the children when they went to school I was not allowed to sit with the white children in school, but I ”loafed around handy,” ready for a call frohtened laws of the southern states, prohibited, under heavy penalties, the education of a slave, or even a negro, although free; yet soeous circumstances, learned to read and write
It has always been a kind of habit with ” all the time, and when not actually employed in soood purpose; and while ”loafing around”
that school-house it occurred to e that the white children should be compelled to sit and study hour after hour, while us little darkies ”loafed around” and did nothing Why couldn't we lighten our young masters and mistresses of that labor as well as other kinds of labor? I deter mistresses should not be made slaves of by the school-enerally so kind to me So I proposed the matter to thehed and chatted a great deal abouttheir lessons for the handsprings and soreat at the idea of doing reat labor off their hands as getting their lessons I did not doubt my ability to perfore, and could almost make a full hand in the field Such waslessons However, the next daymistresses told me the school-master would not allow ht take a book and sit outside of the school-house and study there, but that I must be sure and not let any one see me Why not? Why should _I_ not study lessons in the school-house for ainst the ”law” for slaves to learn to read and write Well, that is curious A person, because he is a slave, must not study lessons; ainst the ”law” What law?
My mistress used often to read to the children from a book which told about Jesus, and Mary, and Lazarus, and Peter, and Paul; and how Jesus was our Savior, and shed his precious blood for the redemption of all who believed him and would obey his commands; and how Jesus said, ”Suffer little children to codo lessons out of a book about Jesus, and learning to read about Jesus aswith them just the same as she sent me to school with the; and I deter their lessons, law or no law, let the consequences be what they may
I received the book and went out from the school-house a short distance, and secured myself fro-book it was Hallo! here's a dog and a cat, and here's a sheep too, and right here in the corner is a yoke--a regular ox-yoke
Well, now, this _is_ nice So I got my first idea of what a book contained by the pictures in a spelling-book The print in the book , I was sure, and my mind was employed until recess in endeavors to make out what the print and pictures were intended for The scholars caave ave me a start ahead that enabled me to memorize the first six letters of the alphabet by the tian to be deeply interested in ”studying lessons,” and was soon, after hard study, complete master of the alphabet I could repeat it forwards and backwards, and could instantly tell the name of any letter pointed out tome, and I was very anxious to learn I soon found that I could understand in a great ave to the different scholars, by which I profited I sat in the back part of the house, behind the scholars, withmistress' old book in my hand, and held it so that nobody could see it, and studied constantly day after day, which soon advanced me beyond so I learned to spell and read; andmistress set copies for me, and by the time the school-tere plantations in the South orked in gangs, under the general supervision of the overseer or slave-owner The gangs were placed under the ient slave, whose duty it was to see that each hand perfor the picking season, and to direct the slaves in their labor, and were called field superintendents or bosses This was my position on the plantation a short time after school was out for the term