Twelve Years a Slave
At this time one John M. Tibeats, a carpenter, came to the opening to
do some work on master's house. I was directed to quit the looms and
assist him. For two weeks I was in his company, planning and matching
boards for ceiling, a plastered room being a rare thing in the parish
of Avoyelles.
John M. Tibeats was the opposite of Ford in all respects. He was
a small, crabbed, quick-tempered, spiteful man. He had no fixed
residence that I ever heard of, but passed from one plantation to
another, wherever he could find employment. He was without standing
in the community, not esteemed by white men, nor even respected by
slaves. He was ignorant, withal, and of a revengeful disposition. He
left the parish long before I did, and I know not whether he is at
present alive or dead. Certain it is, it was a most unlucky day for
me that brought us together. During my residence with Master Ford
I had seen only the bright side of slavery. His was no heavy hand
crushing us to the earth. _He_ pointed upwards, and with benign and
cheering words addressed us as his fellow-mortals, accountable, like
himself, to the Maker of us all. I think of him with affection, and
had my family been with me, could have borne his gentle servitude,
without murmuring, all my days. But clouds were gathering in the
horizon--forerunners of a pitiless storm that was soon to break over
me. I was doomed to endure such bitter trials as the poor slave only
knows, and to lead no more the comparatively happy life which I had
led in the "Great Pine Woods."
CHAPTER VIII.
FORD'S EMBARRASSMENTS--THE SALE TO TIBEATS--THE CHATTEL
MORTGAGE--MISTRESS FORD'S PLANTATION ON BAYOU BOEUF--DESCRIPTION
OF THE LATTER--FORD'S BROTHER-IN-LAW, PETER TANNER--MEETING
WITH ELIZA--SHE STILL MOURNS FOR HER CHILDREN--FORD'S OVERSEER,
CHAPIN--TIBEAT'S ABUSE--THE KEG OF NAILS--THE FIRST FIGHT WITH
TIBEATS--HIS DISCOMFITURE AND CASTIGATION--THE ATTEMPT TO HANG
ME--CHAPIN'S INTERFERENCE AND SPEECH--UNHAPPY REFLECTIONS--ABRUPT
DEPARTURE OF TIBEATS, COOK AND RAMSAY--LAWSON AND THE BROWN
MULE--MESSAGE TO THE PINE WOODS.
William Ford unfortunately became embarrassed in his pecuniary
affairs. A heavy judgment was rendered against him in consequence of
his having become security for his brother, Franklin Ford, residing
on Red River, above Alexandria, and who had failed to meet his
liabilities. He was also indebted to John M. Tibeats to a considerable
amount in consideration of his services in building the mills on
Indian Creek, and also a weaving-house, corn-mill and other erections
on the plantation at Bayou Boeuf, not yet completed. It was therefore
necessary, in order to meet these demands, to dispose of eighteen
slaves, myself among the number. Seventeen of them, including Sam and
Harry, were purchased by Peter Compton, a planter also residing on Red
River.
I was sold to Tibeats, in consequence, undoubtedly, of my slight skill
as a carpenter. This was in the winter of 1842. The deed of myself
from Freeman to Ford, as I ascertained from the public records in
New-Orleans on my return, was dated June 23d, 1841. At the time of my
sale to Tibeats, the price agreed to be given for me being more than
the debt, Ford took a chattel mortgage of four hundred dollars. I am
indebted for my life, as will hereafter be seen, to that mortgage.
I bade farewell to my good friends at the opening, and departed with
my new master Tibeats. We went down to the plantation on Bayou Boeuf,
distant twenty-seven miles from the Pine Woods, to complete the
unfinished contract. Bayou Boeuf is a sluggish, winding stream--one
of those stagnant bodies of water common in that region, setting back
from Red River. It stretches from a point not far from Alexandria, in
a south-easterly direction, and following its tortuous course, is more
than fifty miles in length. Large cotton and sugar plantations line
each shore, extending back to the borders of interminable swamps. It
is alive with alligators, rendering it unsafe for swine, or unthinking
slave children to stroll along its banks. Upon a bend in this bayou, a
short distance from Cheneyville, was situated the plantation of Madam
Ford--her brother, Peter Tanner, a great landholder, living on the
opposite side.
On my arrival at Bayou Boeuf, I had the pleasure of meeting Eliza,
whom I had not seen for several months. She had not pleased Mrs.
Ford, being more occupied in brooding over her sorrows than in
attending to her business, and had, in consequence, been sent down
to work in the field on the plantation. She had grown feeble and
emaciated, and was still mourning for her children. She asked me if
I had forgotten them, and a great many times inquired if I still
remembered how handsome little Emily was--how much Randall loved
her--and wondered if they were living still, and where the darlings
could then be. She had sunk beneath the weight of an excessive grief.
Her drooping form and hollow cheeks too plainly indicated that she had
well nigh reached the end of her weary road.
Ford's overseer on this plantation, and who had the exclusive
charge of it, was a Mr. Chapin, a kindly-disposed man, and a native
of Pennsylvania. In common with others, he held Tibeats in light
estimation, which fact, in connection with the four hundred dollar
mortgage, was fortunate for me.
I was now compelled to labor very hard. From earliest dawn until late
at night, I was not allowed to be a moment idle. Notwithstanding
which, Tibeats was never satisfied. He was continually cursing and
complaining. He never spoke to me a kind word. I was his faithful
slave, and earned him large wages every day, and yet I went to my
cabin nightly, loaded with abuse and stinging epithets.
We had completed the corn mill, the kitchen, and so forth, and were
at work upon the weaving-house, when I was guilty of an act, in that
State punishable with death. It was my first fight with Tibeats. The
weaving-house we were erecting stood in the orchard a few rods from
the residence of Chapin, or the "great house," as it was called. One
night, having worked until it was too dark to see, I was ordered by
Tibeats to rise very early in the morning, procure a keg of nails
from Chapin, and commence putting on the clapboards. I retired to the
cabin extremely tired, and having cooked a supper of bacon and corn
cake, and conversed a while with Eliza, who occupied the same cabin,
as also did Lawson and his wife Mary, and a slave named Bristol, laid
down upon the ground floor, little dreaming of the sufferings that
awaited me on the morrow. Before daylight I was on the piazza of the
"great house," awaiting the appearance of overseer Chapin. To have
aroused him from his slumbers and stated my errand, would have been
an unpardonable boldness. At length he came out. Taking off my hat,
I informed him Master Tibeats had directed me to call upon him for
a keg of nails. Going into the store-room, he rolled it out, at the
same time saying, if Tibeats preferred a different size, he would
endeavor to furnish them, but that I might use those until further
directed. Then mounting his horse, which stood saddled and bridled
at the door, he rode away into the field, whither the slaves had
preceded him, while I took the keg on my shoulder, and proceeding to
the weaving-house, broke in the head, and commenced nailing on the
clapboards.
As the day began to open, Tibeats came out of the house to where I
was, hard at work. He seemed to be that morning even more morose and
disagreeable than usual. He was my master, entitled by law to my flesh
and blood, and to exercise over me such tyrannical control as his mean
nature prompted; but there was no law that could prevent my looking
upon him with intense contempt. I despised both his disposition and
his intellect. I had just come round to the keg for a further supply
of nails, as he reached the weaving-house.
"I thought I told you to commence putting on weather-boards this
morning," he remarked.
"Yes, master, and I am about it," I replied.
"Where?" he demanded.
"On the other side," was my answer.
He walked round to the other side, examined my work for a while,
muttering to himself in a fault-finding tone.
"Didn't I tell you last night to get a keg of nails of Chapin?" he
broke forth again.
"Yes, master, and so I did; and overseer said he would get another
size for you, if you wanted them, when he came back from the field."
Tibeats walked to the keg, looked a moment at the contents, then
kicked it violently. Coming towards me in a great passion, he
exclaimed,
"G--d d--n you! I thought you _knowed_ something."
I made answer: "I tried to do as you told me, master. I didn't mean
anything wrong. Overseer said--" But he interrupted me with such a
flood of curses that I was unable to finish the sentence. At length he
ran towards the house, and going to the piazza, took down one of the
overseer's whips. The whip had a short wooden stock, braided over with
leather, and was loaded at the butt. The lash was three feet long, or
thereabouts, and made of raw-hide strands.
At first I was somewhat frightened, and my impulse was to run. There
was no one about except Rachel, the cook, and Chapin's wife, and
neither of them were to be seen. The rest were in the field. I knew he
intended to whip me, and it was the first time any one had attempted
it since my arrival at Avoyelles. I felt, moreover, that I had been
faithful--that I was guilty of no wrong whatever, and deserved
commendation rather than punishment. My fear changed to anger, and
before he reached me I had made up my mind fully not to be whipped,
let the result be life or death.
Winding the lash around his hand, and taking hold of the small end of
the stock, he walked up to me, and with a malignant look, ordered me
to strip.
"Master Tibeats" said I, looking him boldly in the face, "I will
_not_." I was about to say something further in justification, but
with concentrated vengeance, he sprang upon me, seizing me by the
throat with one hand, raising the whip with the other, in the act of
striking. Before the blow descended, however, I had caught him by
the collar of the coat, and drawn him closely to me. Reaching down,
I seized him by the ankle, and pushing him back with the other hand,
he fell over on the ground. Putting one arm around his leg, and
holding it to my breast, so that his head and shoulders only touched
the ground, I placed my foot upon his neck. He was completely in my
power. My blood was up. It seemed to course through my veins like
fire. In the frenzy of my madness I snatched the whip from his hand.
He struggled with all his power; swore that I should not live to see
another day; and that he would tear out my heart. But his struggles
and his threats were alike in vain. I cannot tell how many times I
struck him. Blow after blow fell fast and heavy upon his wriggling
form. At length he screamed--cried murder--and at last the blasphemous
tyrant called on God for mercy. But he who had never shown mercy did
not receive it. The stiff stock of the whip warped round his cringing
body until my right arm ached.
Until this time I had been too busy to look about me. Desisting for a
moment, I saw Mrs. Chapin looking from the window, and Rachel standing
in the kitchen door. Their attitudes expressed the utmost excitement
and alarm. His screams had been heard in the field. Chapin was coming
as fast as he could ride. I struck him a blow or two more, then pushed
him from me with such a well-directed kick that he went rolling over
on the ground.
Rising to his feet, and brushing the dirt from his hair, he stood
looking at me, pale with rage. We gazed at each other in silence. Not
a word was uttered until Chapin galloped up to us.
"What is the matter?" he cried out.