Twelve Years a Slave
How it is in other dark places of slavery, I do not know, but on
Bayou Boeuf there is an organization of patrollers, as they are
styled, whose business it is to seize and whip any slave they may find
wandering from the plantation. They ride on horseback, headed by a
captain, armed, and accompanied by dogs. They have the right, either
by law, or by general consent, to inflict discretionary chastisement
upon a black man caught beyond the boundaries of his master's estate
without a pass, and even to shoot him, if he attempts to escape. Each
company has a certain distance to ride up and down the bayou. They
are compensated by the planters, who contribute in proportion to the
number of slaves they own. The clatter of their horses' hoofs dashing
by can be heard at all hours of the night, and frequently they may be
seen driving a slave before them, or leading him by a rope fastened
around his neck, to his owner's plantation.
Wiley fled before one of these companies, thinking he could reach
his cabin before they could overtake him; but one of their dogs, a
great ravenous hound, griped him by the leg, and held him fast. The
patrollers whipped him severely, and brought him, a prisoner, to
Epps. From him he received another flagellation still more severe,
so that the cuts of the lash and the bites of the dog rendered him
sore, stiff and miserable, insomuch he was scarcely able to move. It
was impossible in such a state to keep up his row, and consequently
there was not an hour in the day but Wiley felt the sting of his
master's rawhide on his raw and bleeding back. His sufferings became
intolerable, and finally he resolved to run away. Without disclosing
his intentions to run away even to his wife Phebe, he proceeded to
make arrangements for carrying his plan into execution. Having cooked
his whole week's allowance, he cautiously left the cabin on a Sunday
night, after the inmates of the quarters were asleep. When the horn
sounded in the morning, Wiley did not make his appearance. Search was
made for him in the cabins, in the corn-crib, in the cotton-house, and
in every nook and corner of the premises. Each of us was examined,
touching any knowledge we might have that could throw light upon his
sudden disappearance or present whereabouts. Epps raved and stormed,
and mounting his horse, galloped to neighboring plantations, making
inquiries in all directions. The search was fruitless. Nothing
whatever was elicited, going to show what had become of the missing
man. The dogs were led to the swamp, but were unable to strike his
trail. They would circle away through the forest, their noses to the
ground, but invariably returned in a short time to the spot from
whence they started.
Wiley had escaped, and so secretly and cautiously as to elude and
baffle all pursuit. Days and even weeks passed away, and nothing could
be heard of him. Epps did nothing but curse and swear. It was the only
topic of conversation among us when alone. We indulged in a great deal
of speculation in regard to him, one suggesting he might have been
drowned in some bayou, inasmuch as he was a poor swimmer; another,
that perhaps he might have been devoured by alligators, or stung by
the venomous moccasin, whose bite is certain and sudden death. The
warm and hearty sympathies of us all, however, were with poor Wiley,
wherever he might be. Many an earnest prayer ascended from the lips of
Uncle Abram, beseeching safety for the wanderer.
In about three weeks, when all hope of ever seeing him again was
dismissed, to our surprise, he one day appeared among us. On leaving
the plantation, he informed us, it was his intention to make his way
back to South Carolina--to the old quarters of Master Buford. During
the day he remained secreted, sometimes in the branches of a tree, and
at night pressed forward through the swamps. Finally, one morning,
just at dawn, he reached the shore of Red River. While standing on
the bank, considering how he could cross it, a white man accosted
him, and demanded a pass. Without one, and evidently a runaway, he
was taken to Alexandria, the shire town of the parish of Rapides,
and confined in prison. It happened several days after that Joseph
B. Roberts, uncle of Mistress Epps, was in Alexandria, and going
into the jail, recognized him. Wiley had worked on his plantation,
when Epps resided at Huff Power. Paying the jail fee, and writing him
a pass, underneath which was a note to Epps, requesting him not to
whip him on his return, Wiley was sent back to Bayou Boeuf. It was
the hope that hung upon this request, and which Roberts assured him
would be respected by his master, that sustained him as he approached
the house. The request, however, as may be readily supposed, was
entirely disregarded. After being kept in suspense three days, Wiley
was stripped, and compelled to endure one of those inhuman floggings
to which the poor slave is so often subjected. It was the first and
last attempt of Wiley to run away. The long scars upon his back, which
he will carry with him to the grave, perpetually remind him of the
dangers of such a step.
There was not a day throughout the ten years I belonged to Epps that I
did not consult with myself upon the prospect of escape. I laid many
plans, which at the time I considered excellent ones, but one after
the other they were all abandoned. No man who has never been placed
in such a situation, can comprehend the thousand obstacles thrown in
the way of the flying slave. Every white man's hand is raised against
him--the patrollers are watching for him--the hounds are ready to
follow on his track, and the nature of the country is such as renders
it impossible to pass through it with any safety. I thought, however,
that the time might come, perhaps, when I should be running through
the swamps again. I concluded, in that case, to be prepared for Epps'
dogs, should they pursue me. He possessed several, one of which was
a notorious slave-hunter, and the most fierce and savage of his
breed. While out hunting the coon or the opossum, I never allowed an
opportunity to escape, when alone, of whipping them severely. In this
manner I succeeded at length in subduing them completely. They feared
me, obeying my voice at once when others had no control over them
whatever. Had they followed and overtaken me, I doubt not they would
have shrank from attacking me.
Notwithstanding the certainty of being captured, the woods and swamps
are, nevertheless, continually filled with runaways. Many of them,
when sick, or so worn out as to be unable to perform their tasks,
escape into the swamps, willing to suffer the punishment inflicted for
such offences, in order to obtain a day or two of rest.
While I belonged to Ford, I was unwittingly the means of disclosing
the hiding-place of six or eight, who had taken up their residence in
the "Great Pine Woods." Adam Taydem frequently sent me from the mills
over to the opening after provisions. The whole distance was then a
thick pine forest. About ten o'clock of a beautiful moonlight night,
while walking along the Texas road, returning to the mills, carrying
a dressed pig in a bag swung over my shoulder, I heard footsteps
behind me, and turning round, beheld two black men in the dress of
slaves approaching at a rapid pace. When within a short distance,
one of them raised a club, as if intending to strike me; the other
snatched at the bag. I managed to dodge them both, and seizing a pine
knot, hurled it with such force against the head of one of them that
he was prostrated apparently senseless to the ground. Just then two
more made their appearance from one side of the road. Before they
could grapple me, however, I succeeded in passing them, and taking
to my heels, fled, much affrighted, towards the mills. When Adam was
informed of the adventure, he hastened straightway to the Indian
village, and arousing Cascalla and several of his tribe, started in
pursuit of the highwaymen. I accompanied them to the scene of attack,
when we discovered a puddle of blood in the road, where the man whom I
had smitten with the pine knot had fallen. After searching carefully
through the woods a long time, one of Cascalla's men discovered a
smoke curling up through the branches of several prostrate pines,
whose tops had fallen together. The rendezvous was cautiously
surrounded, and all of them taken prisoners. They had escaped from a
plantation in the vicinity of Lamourie, and had been secreted there
three weeks. They had no evil design upon me, except to frighten me
out of my pig. Having observed me passing towards Ford's just at
night-fall, and suspecting the nature of my errand, they had followed
me, seen me butcher and dress the porker, and start on my return.
They had been pinched for food, and were driven to this extremity by
necessity. Adam conveyed them to the parish jail, and was liberally
rewarded.
Not unfrequently the runaway loses his life in the attempt to escape.
Epps' premises were bounded on one side by Carey's, a very extensive
sugar plantation. He cultivates annually at least fifteen hundred
acres of cane, manufacturing twenty-two or twenty-three hundred
hogsheads of sugar; an hogshead and a half being the usual yield of
an acre. Besides this he also cultivates five or six hundred acres
of corn and cotton. He owned last year one hundred and fifty three
field hands, besides nearly as many children, and yearly hires a drove
during the busy season from this side the Mississippi.
One of his negro drivers, a pleasant, intelligent boy, was named
Augustus. During the holidays, and occasionally while at work in
adjoining fields, I had an opportunity of making his acquaintance,
which eventually ripened into a warm and mutual attachment. Summer
before last he was so unfortunate as to incur the displeasure of the
overseer, a coarse, heartless brute, who whipped him most cruelly.
Augustus ran away. Reaching a cane rick on Hawkins' plantation, he
secreted himself in the top of it. All Carey's dogs were put upon
his track--some fifteen of them--and soon scented his footsteps to
the hiding place. They surrounded the rick, baying and scratching,
but could not reach him. Presently, guided by the clamor of the
hounds, the pursuers rode up, when the overseer, mounting on to the
rick, drew him forth. As he rolled down to the ground the whole pack
plunged upon him, and before they could be beaten off, had gnawed and
mutilated his body in the most shocking manner, their teeth having
penetrated to the bone in an hundred places. He was taken up, tied
upon a mule, and carried home. But this was Augustus' last trouble. He
lingered until the next day, when death sought the unhappy boy, and
kindly relieved him from his agony.
It was not unusual for slave women as well as slave men to endeavor
to escape. Nelly, Eldret's girl, with whom I lumbered for a time in
the "Big Cane Brake," lay concealed in Epps' corn crib three days. At
night, when his family were asleep, she would steal into the quarters
for food, and return to the crib again. We concluded it would no
longer be safe for us to allow her to remain, and accordingly she
retraced her steps to her own cabin.
But the most remarkable instance of a successful evasion of dogs and
hunters was the following: Among Carey's girls was one by the name of
Celeste. She was nineteen or twenty, and far whiter than her owner, or
any of his offspring. It required a close inspection to distinguish
in her features the slightest trace of African blood. A stranger
would never have dreamed that she was the descendant of slaves. I was
sitting in my cabin late at night, playing a low air on my violin,
when the door opened carefully, and Celeste stood before me. She was
pale and haggard. Had an apparition arisen from the earth, I could