Twelve Years a Slave
required. Suffice to say, I was never permitted to be idle.
It was rarely that a day passed by without one or more whippings. This
occurred at the time the cotton was weighed. The delinquent, whose
weight had fallen short, was taken out, stripped, made to lie upon the
ground, face downwards, when he received a punishment proportioned to
his offence. It is the literal, unvarnished truth, that the crack of
the lash, and the shrieking of the slaves, can be heard from dark till
bed time, on Epps' plantation, any day almost during the entire period
of the cotton-picking season.
The number of lashes is graduated according to the nature of the case.
Twenty-five are deemed a mere brush, inflicted, for instance, when a
dry leaf or piece of boll is found in the cotton, or when a branch
is broken in the field; fifty is the ordinary penalty following all
delinquencies of the next higher grade; one hundred is called severe:
it is the punishment inflicted for the serious offence of standing
idle in the field; from one hundred and fifty to two hundred is
bestowed upon him who quarrels with his cabin-mates, and five hundred,
well laid on, besides the mangling of the dogs, perhaps, is certain to
consign the poor, unpitied runaway to weeks of pain and agony.
During the two years Epps remained on the plantation at Bayou Huff
Power, he was in the habit, as often as once in a fortnight at least,
of coming home intoxicated from Holmesville. The shooting-matches
almost invariably concluded with a debauch. At such times he was
boisterous and half-crazy. Often he would break the dishes, chairs,
and whatever furniture he could lay his hands on. When satisfied
with his amusement in the house, he would seize the whip and walk
forth into the yard. Then it behooved the slaves to be watchful and
exceeding wary. The first one who came within reach felt the smart
of his lash. Sometimes for hours he would keep them running in all
directions, dodging around the corners of the cabins. Occasionally
he would come upon one unawares, and if he succeeded in inflicting a
fair, round blow, it was a feat that much delighted him. The younger
children, and the aged, who had become inactive, suffered then. In the
midst of the confusion he would slily take his stand behind a cabin,
waiting with raised whip, to dash it into the first black face that
peeped cautiously around the corner.
At other times he would come home in a less brutal humor. Then there
must be a merry-making. Then all must move to the measure of a tune.
Then Master Epps must needs regale his melodious ears with the music
of a fiddle. Then did he become buoyant, elastic, gaily "tripping the
light fantastic toe" around the piazza and all through the house.
Tibeats, at the time of my sale, had informed him I could play on
the violin. He had received his information from Ford. Through the
importunities of Mistress Epps, her husband had been induced to
purchase me one during a visit to New-Orleans. Frequently I was called
into the house to play before the family, mistress being passionately
fond of music.
All of us would be assembled in the large room of the great house,
whenever Epps came home in one of his dancing moods. No matter how
worn out and tired we were, there must be a general dance. When
properly stationed on the floor, I would strike up a tune.
"Dance, you d--d niggers, dance," Epps would shout.
Then there must be no halting or delay, no slow or languid movements;
all must be brisk, and lively, and alert. "Up and down, heel and toe,
and away we go," was the order of the hour. Epps' portly form mingled
with those of his dusky slaves, moving rapidly through all the mazes
of the dance.
Usually his whip was in his hand, ready to fall about the ears of
the presumptuous thrall, who dared to rest a moment, or even stop to
catch his breath. When he was himself exhausted, there would be a
brief cessation, but it would be very brief. With a slash, and crack,
and flourish of the whip, he would shout again, "Dance, niggers,
dance," and away they would go once more, pell-mell, while I spurred
by an occasional sharp touch of the lash, sat in a corner, extracting
from my violin a marvelous quick-stepping tune. The mistress often
upbraided him, declaring she would return to her father's house at
Cheneyville; nevertheless, there were times she could not restrain a
burst of laughter, on witnessing his uproarious pranks. Frequently,
we were thus detained until almost morning. Bent with excessive
toil--actually suffering for a little refreshing rest, and feeling
rather as if we could cast ourselves upon the earth and weep, many a
night in the house of Edwin Epps have his unhappy slaves been made to
dance and laugh.
Notwithstanding these deprivations in order to gratify the whim of
an unreasonable master, we had to be in the field as soon as it was
light, and during the day perform the ordinary and accustomed task.
Such deprivations could not be urged at the scales in extenuation of
any lack of weight, or in the cornfield for not hoeing with the usual
rapidity. The whippings were just as severe as if we had gone forth
in the morning, strengthened and invigorated by a night's repose.
Indeed, after such frantic revels, he was always more sour and savage
than before, punishing for slighter causes, and using the whip with
increased and more vindictive energy.
Ten years I toiled for that man without reward. Ten years of
my incessant labor has contributed to increase the bulk of his
possessions. Ten years I was compelled to address him with down-cast
eyes and uncovered head--in the attitude and language of a slave. I am
indebted to him for nothing, save undeserved abuse and stripes.
Beyond the reach of his inhuman thong, and standing on the soil of
the free State where I was born, thanks be to Heaven, I can raise my
head once more among men. I can speak of the wrongs I have suffered,
and of those who inflicted them, with upraised eyes. But I have no
desire to speak of him or any other one otherwise than truthfully.
Yet to speak truthfully of Edwin Epps would be to say--he is a man
in whose heart the quality of kindness or of justice is not found. A
rough, rude energy, united with an uncultivated mind and an avaricious
spirit, are his prominent characteristics. He is known as a "nigger
breaker," distinguished for his faculty of subduing the spirit of the
slave, and priding himself upon his reputation in this respect, as a
jockey boasts of his skill in managing a refractory horse. He looked
upon a colored man, not as a human being, responsible to his Creator
for the small talent entrusted to him, but as a "chattel personal," as
mere live property, no better, except in value, than his mule or dog.
When the evidence, clear and indisputable, was laid before him that I
was a free man, and as much entitled to my liberty as he--when, on the
day I left, he was informed that I had a wife and children, as dear
to me as his own babes to him, he only raved and swore, denouncing the
law that tore me from him, and declaring he would find out the man who
had forwarded the letter that disclosed the place of my captivity, if
there was any virtue or power in money, and would take his life. He
thought of nothing but his loss, and cursed me for having been born
free. He could have stood unmoved and seen the tongues of his poor
slaves torn out by the roots--he could have seen them burned to ashes
over a slow fire, or gnawed to death by dogs, if it only brought him
profit. Such a hard, cruel, unjust man is Edwin Epps.
There was but one greater savage on Bayou Boeuf than he. Jim Burns'
plantation was cultivated, as already mentioned, exclusively by women.
That barbarian kept their backs so sore and raw, that they could not
perform the customary labor demanded daily of the slave. He boasted of
his cruelty, and through all the country round was accounted a more
thorough-going, energetic man than even Epps. A brute himself, Jim
Burns had not a particle of mercy for his subject brutes, and like a
fool, whipped and scourged away the very strength upon which depended
his amount of gain.
Epps remained on Huff Power two years, when, having accumulated a
considerable sum of money, he expended it in the purchase of the
plantation on the east bank of Bayou Boeuf, where he still continues
to reside. He took possession of it in 1845, after the holidays
were passed. He carried thither with him nine slaves, all of whom,
except myself, and Susan, who has since died, remain there yet. He
made no addition to this force, and for eight years the following
were my companions in his quarters, viz: Abram, Wiley, Phebe, Bob,
Henry, Edward, and Patsey. All these, except Edward, born since, were
purchased out of a drove by Epps during the time he was overseer for
Archy B. Williams, whose plantation is situated on the shore of Red
River, not far from Alexandria.
Abram was tall, standing a full head above any common man. He is
sixty years of age, and was born in Tennessee. Twenty years ago, he
was purchased by a trader, carried into South Carolina, and sold to
James Buford, of Williamsburgh county, in that State. In his youth
he was renowned for his great strength, but age and unremitting toil
have somewhat shattered his powerful frame and enfeebled his mental
faculties.
Wiley is forty-eight. He was born on the estate of William Tassle,
and for many years took charge of that gentleman's ferry over the Big
Black River, in South Carolina.
Phebe was a slave of Buford, Tassle's neighbor, and having married
Wiley, he bought the latter, at her instigation. Buford was a kind
master, sheriff of the county, and in those days a man of wealth.
Bob and Henry are Phebe's children, by a former husband, their father
having been abandoned to give place to Wiley. That seductive youth
had insinuated himself into Phebe's affections, and therefore the
faithless spouse had gently kicked her first husband out of her cabin
door. Edward had been born to them on Bayou Huff Power.
Patsey is twenty-three--also from Buford's plantation. She is in no
wise connected with the others, but glories in the fact that she is
the offspring of a "Guinea nigger," brought over to Cuba in a slave
ship, and in the course of trade transferred to Buford, who was her
mother's owner.
This, as I learned from them, is a genealogical account of my master's
slaves. For years they had been together. Often they recalled the
memories of other days, and sighed to retrace their steps to the
old home in Carolina. Troubles came upon their master Buford, which
brought far greater troubles upon them. He became involved in debt,
and unable to bear up against his failing fortunes, was compelled
to sell these, and others of his slaves. In a chain gang they had
been driven from beyond the Mississippi to the plantation of Archy
B. Williams. Edwin Epps, who, for a long while had been his driver
and overseer, was about establishing himself in business on his own
account, at the time of their arrival, and accepted them in payment of
his wages.
Old Abram was a kind-hearted being--a sort of patriarch among us,
fond of entertaining his younger brethren with grave and serious
discourse. He was deeply versed in such philosophy as is taught in
the cabin of the slave; but the great absorbing hobby of Uncle Abram
was General Jackson, whom his young master in Tennessee had followed
to the wars. He loved to wander back, in imagination, to the place
where he was born, and to recount the scenes of his youth during those
stirring times when the nation was in arms. He had been athletic,
and more keen and powerful than the generality of his race, but now
his eye had become dim, and his natural force abated. Very often,