Twelve Years a Slave
unmolested, he demeaning well and properly.
"Given under my hand and the seal of the city of New-Orleans this
7th January, 1853.
[L. S.] "TH. GENOIS, Recorder."
On the 8th we came to Lake Pontchartrain, by railroad, and, in due
time, following the usual route, reached Charleston. After going on
board the steamboat, and paying our passage at this city, Mr. Northup
was called upon by a custom-house officer to explain why he had not
registered his servant. He replied that he had no servant--that, as
the agent of New-York, he was accompanying a free citizen of that
State from slavery to freedom, and did not desire nor intend to make
any registry whatever. I conceived from his conversation and manner,
though I may perhaps be entirely mistaken, that no great pains would
be taken to avoid whatever difficulty the Charleston officials might
deem proper to create. At length, however, we were permitted to
proceed, and, passing through Richmond, where I caught a glimpse of
Goodin's pen, arrived in Washington January 17th, 1853.
We ascertained that both Burch and Radburn were still residing in that
city. Immediately a complaint was entered with a police magistrate
of Washington, against James H. Burch, for kidnapping and selling
me into slavery. He was arrested upon a warrant issued by Justice
Goddard, and returned before Justice Mansel, and held to bail in the
sum of three thousand dollars. When first arrested, Burch was much
excited, exhibiting the utmost fear and alarm, and before reaching the
justice's office on Louisiana Avenue, and before knowing the precise
nature of the complaint, begged the police to permit him to consult
Benjamin O. Shekels, a slave trader of seventeen years' standing, and
his former partner. The latter became his bail.
At ten o'clock, the 18th of January, both parties appeared before the
magistrate. Senator Chase, of Ohio, Hon. Orville Clark, of Sandy Hill,
and Mr. Northup acted as counsel for the prosecution, and Joseph H.
Bradley for the defence.
Gen. Orville Clark was called and sworn as a witness, and testified
that he had known me from childhood, and that I was a free man, as
was my father before me. Mr. Northup then testified to the same, and
proved the facts connected with his mission to Avoyelles.
Ebenezer Radburn was then sworn for the prosecution, and testified
he was forty-eight years old; that he was a resident of Washington,
and had known Burch fourteen years; that in 1841 he was keeper of
Williams' slave pen; that he remembered the fact of my confinement in
the pen that year. At this point it was admitted by the defendant's
counsel, that I had been placed in the pen by Burch in the spring of
1841, and hereupon the prosecution rested.
Benjamin O. Shekels was then offered as a witness by the prisoner.
Benjamin is a large, coarse-featured man, and the reader may perhaps
get a somewhat correct conception of him by reading the exact language
he used in answer to the first question of defendant's lawyer. He was
asked the place of his nativity, and his reply, uttered in a sort of
rowdyish way, was in these very words--
"I was born in Ontario county, New-York, and _weighed fourteen
pounds_!"
Benjamin was a prodigious baby! He further testified that he kept the
Steamboat Hotel in Washington in 1841, and saw me there in the spring
of that year. He was proceeding to state what he had heard two men
say, when Senator Chase raised a legal objection, to wit, that the
sayings of third persons, being hearsay, was improper evidence. The
objection was overruled by the Justice, and Shekels continued, stating
that two men came to his hotel and represented they had a colored man
for sale; that they had an interview with Burch; that they stated they
came from Georgia, but he did not remember the county; that they gave
a full history of the boy, saying he was a bricklayer, and played
on the violin; that Burch remarked he would purchase if they could
agree; that they went out and brought the boy in, and that I was the
same person. He further testified, with as much unconcern as if it
was the truth, that I represented I was born and bred in Georgia;
that one of the young men with me was my master; that I exhibited a
great deal of regret at parting with him, and he believed "got into
tears!"--nevertheless, that I insisted my master had a right to sell
me; that he _ought_ to sell me; and the remarkable reason I gave was,
according to Shekels, because he, my master, "had been gambling and on
a spree!"
He continued, in these words, copied from the minutes taken on the
examination: "Burch interrogated the boy in the usual manner, told him
if he purchased him he should send him south. The boy said he had no
objection, that in fact he would like to go south. Burch paid $650 for
him, to my knowledge. I don't know what name was given him, but think
it was not Solomon. Did not know the name of either of the two men.
They were in my tavern two or three hours, during which time the boy
played on the violin. The bill of sale was signed in my bar-room. It
was a _printed blank, filled up by Burch_. Before 1838 Burch was my
partner. Our business was buying and selling slaves. After that time
he was a partner of Theophilus Freeman, of New-Orleans. Burch bought
here--Freeman sold there!"
Shekels, before testifying, had heard my relation of the circumstances
connected with the visit to Washington with Brown and Hamilton, and
therefore, it was, undoubtedly, he spoke of "two men," and of my
playing on the violin. Such was his fabrication, utterly untrue, and
yet there was found in Washington a man who endeavored to corroborate
him.
Benjamin A. Thorn testified he was at Shekels' in 1841, and saw a
colored boy playing on a fiddle. "Shekels said he was for sale. Heard
his master tell him he should sell him. The boy acknowledged to me he
was a slave. I was not present when the money was paid. Will not swear
positively this is the boy. The master _came near shedding tears: I
think the boy did_! I have been engaged in the business of taking
slaves south, off and on, for twenty years. When I can't do that I do
something else."
I was then offered as a witness, but, objection being made, the court
decided my evidence inadmissible. It was rejected solely on the ground
that I was a colored man--the fact of my being a free citizen of
New-York not being disputed.
Shekels having testified there was a bill of sale executed, Burch
was called upon by the prosecution to produce it, inasmuch as such
a paper would corroborate the testimony of Thorn and Shekels. The
prisoner's counsel saw the necessity of exhibiting it, or giving some
reasonable explanation for its non-production. To effect the latter,
Burch himself was offered as a witness in his own behalf. It was
contended by counsel for the people, that such testimony should not be
allowed--that it was in contravention of every rule of evidence, and
if permitted would defeat the ends of justice. His testimony, however,
was received by the court! He made oath that such a bill of sale had
been drawn up and signed, _but he had lost it, and did not know what
had become of it_! Thereupon the magistrate was requested to dispatch
a police officer to Burch's residence, with directions to bring his
books, containing his bills of sales for the year 1841. The request
was granted, and before any measure could be taken to prevent it, the
officer had obtained possession of the books, and brought them into
court. The sales for the year 1841 were found, and carefully examined,
but no sale of myself, by any name, was discovered!
Upon this testimony the court held the fact to be established, that
Burch came innocently and honestly by me, and accordingly he was
discharged.
An attempt was then made by Burch and his satellites, to fasten
upon me the charge that I had conspired with the two white men to
defraud him--with what success, appears in an extract taken from an
article in the New-York Times, published a day or two subsequent to
the trial: "The counsel for the defendant had drawn up, before the
defendant was discharged, an affidavit, signed by Burch, and had a
warrant out against the colored man for a conspiracy with the two
white men before referred to, to defraud Burch out of six hundred
and twenty-five dollars. The warrant was served, and the colored man
arrested and brought before officer Goddard. Burch and his witnesses
appeared in court, and H. B. Northup appeared as counsel for the
colored man, stating he was ready to proceed as counsel on the part of
the defendant, and asking no delay whatever. Burch, after consulting
privately a short time with Shekels, stated to the magistrate that
he wished him to dismiss the complaint, as he would not proceed
farther with it. Defendant's counsel stated to the magistrate that
if the complaint was withdrawn, it must be without the request or
consent of the defendant. Burch then asked the magistrate to let him
have the complaint and the warrant, and he took them. The counsel
for the defendant objected to his receiving them, and insisted they
should remain as part of the records of the court, and that the court
should endorse the proceedings which had been had under the process.
Burch delivered them up, and the court rendered a judgment of
discontinuance by the request of the prosecutor, and filed it in his
office."
* * * * *
There may be those who will affect to believe the statement of the
slave-trader--those, in whose minds his allegations will weigh heavier
than mine. I am a poor colored man--one of a down-trodden and degraded
race, whose humble voice may not be heeded by the oppressor--but
_knowing_ the truth, and with a full sense of my accountability, I
do solemnly declare before men, and before God, that any charge or
assertion, that I conspired directly or indirectly with any person
or persons to sell myself; that any other account of my visit to
Washington, my capture and imprisonment in Williams' slave pen, than
is contained in these pages, is utterly and absolutely false. I never
played on the violin in Washington. I never was in the Steamboat
Hotel, and never saw Thorn or Shekels, to my knowledge, in my life,
until last January. The story of the trio of slave-traders is a
fabrication as absurd as it is base and unfounded. Were it true, I
should not have turned aside on my way back to liberty for the purpose
of prosecuting Burch. I should have _avoided_ rather than sought him.
I should have known that such a step would have resulted in rendering
me infamous. Under the circumstances--longing as I did to behold my
family, and elated with the prospect of returning home--it is an
outrage upon probability to suppose I would have run the hazard, not
only of exposure, but of a criminal prosecution and conviction, by
voluntarily placing myself in the position I did, if the statements of
Burch and his confederates contain a particle of truth. I took pains
to seek him out, to confront him in a court of law, charging him with
the crime of kidnapping; and the only motive that impelled me to this
step, was a burning sense of the wrong he had inflicted upon me, and a
desire to bring him to justice. He was acquitted, in the manner, and
by such means as have been described. A human tribunal has permitted
him to escape; but there is another and a higher tribunal, where false
testimony will not prevail, and where I am willing, so far at least as
these statements are concerned, to be judged at last.
* * * * *
We left Washington on the 20th of January, and proceeding by the way
of Philadelphia, New-York, and Albany, reached Sandy Hill in the night