Twelve Years a Slave
"Master Tibeats wants to whip me for using the nails you gave me," I
replied.
"What is the matter with the nails?" he inquired, turning to Tibeats.
Tibeats answered to the effect that they were too large, paying little
heed, however, to Chapin's question, but still keeping his snakish
eyes fastened maliciously on me.
"I am overseer here," Chapin began. "I told Platt to take them and
use them, and if they were not of the proper size I would get others
on returning from the field. It is not his fault. Besides, I shall
furnish such nails as I please. I hope you will understand _that_, Mr.
Tibeats."
Tibeats made no reply, but, grinding his teeth and shaking his fist,
swore he would have satisfaction, and that it was not half over yet.
Thereupon he walked away, followed by the overseer, and entered the
house, the latter talking to him all the while in a suppressed tone,
and with earnest gestures.
I remained where I was, doubting whether it was better to fly or abide
the result, whatever it might be. Presently Tibeats came out of the
house, and, saddling his horse, the only property he possessed besides
myself, departed on the road to Cheneyville.
When he was gone, Chapin came out, visibly excited, telling me not to
stir, not to attempt to leave the plantation on any account whatever.
He then went to the kitchen, and calling Rachel out, conversed with
her some time. Coming back, he again charged me with great earnestness
not to run, saying my master was a rascal; that he had left on no
good errand, and that there might be trouble before night. But at all
events, he insisted upon it, I must not stir.
As I stood there, feelings of unutterable agony overwhelmed me. I was
conscious that I had subjected myself to unimaginable punishment. The
reaction that followed my extreme ebullition of anger produced the
most painful sensations of regret. An unfriended, helpless slave--what
could I _do_, what could I _say_, to justify, in the remotest manner,
the heinous act I had committed, of resenting a _white_ man's
contumely and abuse. I tried to pray--I tried to beseech my Heavenly
Father to sustain me in my sore extremity, but emotion choked my
utterance, and I could only bow my head upon my hands and weep. For
at least an hour I remained in this situation, finding relief only
in tears, when, looking up, I beheld Tibeats, accompanied by two
horsemen, coming down the bayou. They rode into the yard, jumped from
their horses, and approached me with large whips, one of them also
carrying a coil of rope.
"Cross your hands," commanded Tibeats, with the addition of such a
shuddering expression of blasphemy as is not decorous to repeat.
"You need not bind me, Master Tibeats, I am ready to go with you
anywhere," said I.
One of his companions then stepped forward, swearing if I made the
least resistance he would break my head--he would tear me limb from
limb--he would cut my black throat--and giving wide scope to other
similar expressions. Perceiving any importunity altogether vain, I
crossed my hands, submitting humbly to whatever disposition they might
please to make of me. Thereupon Tibeats tied my wrists, drawing the
rope around them with his utmost strength. Then he bound my ankles
in the same manner. In the meantime the other two had slipped a cord
within my elbows, running it across my back, and tying it firmly. It
was utterly impossible to move hand or foot. With a remaining piece of
rope Tibeats made an awkward noose, and placed it about my neck.
"Now, then," inquired one of Tibeats' companions, "where shall we hang
the nigger?"
One proposed such a limb, extending from the body of a peach tree,
near the spot where we were standing. His comrade objected to it,
alleging it would break, and proposed another. Finally they fixed upon
the latter.
During this conversation, and all the time they were binding me, I
uttered not a word. Overseer Chapin, during the progress of the scene,
was walking hastily back and forth on the piazza. Rachel was crying
by the kitchen door, and Mrs. Chapin was still looking from the
window. Hope died within my heart. Surely my time had come. I should
never behold the light of another day--never behold the faces of my
children--the sweet anticipation I had cherished with such fondness. I
should that hour struggle through the fearful agonies of death! None
would mourn for me--none revenge me. Soon my form would be mouldering
in that distant soil, or, perhaps, be cast to the slimy reptiles
that filled the stagnant waters of the bayou! Tears flowed down my
cheeks, but they only afforded a subject of insulting comment for my
executioners.
At length, as they were dragging me towards the tree, Chapin, who had
momentarily disappeared from the piazza, came out of the house and
walked towards us. He had a pistol in each hand, and as near as I can
now recall to mind, spoke in a firm, determined manner, as follows:
"Gentlemen, I have a few words to say. You had better listen to them.
Whoever moves that slave another foot from where he stands is a dead
man. In the first place, he does not deserve this treatment. It is
a shame to murder him in this manner. I never knew a more faithful
boy than Platt. You, Tibeats, are in the fault yourself. You are
pretty much of a scoundrel, and I know it, and you richly deserve the
flogging you have received. In the next place, I have been overseer
on this plantation seven years, and, in the absence of William Ford,
am master here. My duty is to protect his interests, and that duty I
shall perform. You are not responsible--you are a worthless fellow.
Ford holds a mortgage on Platt of four hundred dollars. If you hang
him he loses his debt. Until that is canceled you have no right to
take his life. You have no right to take it any way. There is a law
for the slave as well as for the white man. You are no better than a
murderer.
"As for you," addressing Cook and Ramsay, a couple of overseers from
neighboring plantations, "as for you--begone! If you have any regard
for your own safety, I say, begone."
Cook and Ramsay, without a further word, mounted their horses and rode
away. Tibeats, in a few minutes, evidently in fear, and overawed by
the decided tone of Chapin, sneaked off like a coward, as he was, and
mounting his horse, followed his companions.
I remained standing where I was, still bound, with the rope around my
neck. As soon as they were gone, Chapin called Rachel, ordering her to
run to the field, and tell Lawson to hurry to the house without delay,
and bring the brown mule with him, an animal much prized for its
unusual fleetness. Presently the boy appeared.
"Lawson," said Chapin, "you must go to the Pine Woods. Tell your
master Ford to come here at once--that he must not delay a single
moment. Tell him they are trying to murder Platt. Now hurry, boy. Be
at the Pine Woods by noon if you kill the mule."
Chapin stepped into the house and wrote a pass. When he returned,
Lawson was at the door, mounted on his mule. Receiving the pass, he
plied the whip right smartly to the beast, dashed out of the yard, and
turning up the bayou on a hard gallop, in less time than it has taken
me to describe the scene, was out of sight.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HOT SUN--YET BOUND--THE CORDS SINK INTO MY FLESH--CHAPIN'S
UNEASINESS--SPECULATION--RACHEL, AND HER CUP OF WATER--SUFFERING
INCREASES--THE HAPPINESS OF SLAVERY--ARRIVAL OF FORD--HE CUTS THE
CORDS WHICH BIND ME, AND TAKES THE ROPE FROM MY NECK--MISERY--THE
GATHERING OF THE SLAVES IN ELIZA'S CABIN--THEIR KINDNESS--RACHEL
REPEATS THE OCCURRENCES OF THE DAY--LAWSON ENTERTAINS HIS COMPANIONS
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS RIDE--CHAPIN'S APPREHENSIONS OF TIBEATS--HIRED
TO PETER TANNER--PETER EXPOUNDS THE SCRIPTURES--DESCRIPTION OF THE
STOCKS.
As the sun approached the meridian that day it became insufferably
warm. Its hot rays scorched the ground. The earth almost blistered
the foot that stood upon it. I was without coat or hat, standing
bare-headed, exposed to its burning blaze. Great drops of perspiration
rolled down my face, drenching the scanty apparel wherewith I was
clothed. Over the fence, a very little way off, the peach trees cast
their cool, delicious shadows on the grass. I would gladly have
given a long year of service to have been enabled to exchange the
heated oven, as it were, wherein I stood, for a seat beneath their
branches. But I was yet bound, the rope still dangling from my neck,
and standing in the same tracks where Tibeats and his comrades left
me. I could not move an inch, so firmly had I been bound. To have been
enabled to lean against the weaving house would have been a luxury
indeed. But it was far beyond my reach, though distant less than
twenty feet. I wanted to lie down, but knew I could not rise again.
The ground was so parched and boiling hot I was aware it would but
add to the discomfort of my situation. If I could have only moved my
position, however slightly, it would have been relief unspeakable.
But the hot rays of a southern sun, beating all the long summer day
on my bare head, produced not half the suffering I experienced from
my aching limbs. My wrists and ankles, and the cords of my legs and
arms began to swell, burying the rope that bound them into the swollen
flesh.
All day Chapin walked back and forth upon the stoop, but not once
approached me. He appeared to be in a state of great uneasiness,
looking first towards me, and then up the road, as if expecting some
arrival every moment. He did not go to the field, as was his custom.
It was evident from his manner that he supposed Tibeats would return
with more and better armed assistance, perhaps, to renew the quarrel,
and it was equally evident he had prepared his mind to defend my life
at whatever hazard. Why he did not relieve me--why he suffered me to
remain in agony the whole weary day, I never knew. It was not for
want of sympathy, I am certain. Perhaps he wished Ford to see the
rope about my neck, and the brutal manner in which I had been bound;
perhaps his interference with another's property in which he had no
legal interest might have been a trespass, which would have subjected
him to the penalty of the law. Why Tibeats was all day absent was
another mystery I never could divine. He knew well enough that Chapin
would not harm him unless he persisted in his design against me.
Lawson told me afterwards, that, as he passed the plantation of John
David Cheney, he saw the three, and that they turned and looked after
him as he flew by. I think his supposition was, that Lawson had been
sent out by Overseer Chapin to arouse the neighboring planters, and to
call on them to come to his assistance. He, therefore, undoubtedly,
acted on the principle, that "discretion is the better part of valor,"
and kept away.
But whatever motive may have governed the cowardly and malignant
tyrant, it is of no importance. There I still stood in the noon-tide
sun, groaning with pain. From long before daylight I had not eaten a
morsel. I was growing faint from pain, and thirst, and hunger. Once
only, in the very hottest portion of the day, Rachel, half fearful she
was acting contrary to the overseer's wishes, ventured to me, and held
a cup of water to my lips. The humble creature never knew, nor could
she comprehend if she had heard them, the blessings I invoked upon
her, for that balmy draught. She could only say, "Oh, Platt, how I do
pity you," and then hastened back to her labors in the kitchen.
Never did the sun move so slowly through the heavens--never did it
shower down such fervent and fiery rays, as it did that day. At
least, so it appeared to me. What my meditations were--the innumerable