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While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
I was born in the state of Maryland, which
is one of the smallest and most northern of
the slave holding states; the products of
this state are wheat, rye, Indian corn,
tobacco, with some hemp, flax, &c. By
looking at the map, it will be seen that
Maryland, like Virginia her neighbor, is
divided by the Chesapeake Bay into eastern
and western shores. My birthplace was on the
eastern shore, where there are seven or
eight small counties; the farms are small,
and tobacco is mostly raised.
At an early period in the history of
Maryland, her lands began to be exhausted by
the bad cultivation peculiar to slave
states; and hence she soon commenced the
business of breeding slaves for the more
southern states. This has given an enormity
to slavery, in Maryland, differing from that
which attaches to the system in Louisiana,
and equaled by none of the kind, except
Virginia and Kentucky, and not by either of
these in extent.
My parents did not both belong to the same
owner: my father belonged to a man named; my
mother belonged to a man named. This not
only made me a slave, but made me the slave
of him to whom my mother belonged; as the
primary law of slavery is, that the child
shall follow the condition of the mother.
When I was about four years of age, my
mother, an older brother and myself, were
given to a son of my master, who had studied
for the medical profession, but who had now
married wealthy, and was about to settle as
a wheat planter in Washington County, on the
western shore. This began the first of our
family troubles that I knew anything about,
as it occasioned a separation between my
mother and the only two children she then
had, and my father, to a distance of about
two hundred miles. But this separation did
not continue long; my father being a
valuable slave, my master was glad to
purchase him.
About this time, I began to feel another
evil of slavery, I mean the want of parental
care and attention. My parents were not able
to give any attention to their children
during the day. I often suffered much from
hunger and other similar causes. To estimate
the sad state of a slave child, you must
look at it as a helpless human being thrown
upon the world without the benefit of its
natural guardians. It is thrown into the
world without a social circle to flee to for
hope, shelter, comfort, or instruction. The
social circle, with all its heaven ordained
blessings, is of the utmost importance to
the tender child; but of this, the slave
child, however tender and delicate, is
robbed.
There is another source of evil to slave
children, which I cannot forbear to mention
here, as one which early embittered my life,
I mean the tyranny of the master's children.
My master had two sons, about the ages and
sizes of my older brother and myself. We
were not only required to recognize these
young sirs as our young masters, but they
felt themselves to be such; and, in
consequence of this feeling, they sought to
treat us with the same air of authority that
their father did the older slaves.
Another evil of slavery that I felt severely
about this time, was the tyranny and abuse
of the overseers. These men seem to look
with an evil eye upon children. I was once
visiting a menagerie, and being struck with
the fact, that the lion was comparatively
indifferent to every one around his cage,
while he eyed with peculiar keenness a
little boy I had; the keeper informed me
that such was always the case. Such is true
of those human beings in the slave states,
called overseers. They seem to take pleasure
in torturing the children of slaves, long
before they are large enough to be put at
the hoe, and consequently under the whip.
We had an overseer, named Blackstone; he was
an extremely cruel man to the working hands.
He always carried a long hickory whip, a
kind of pole. He kept three or four of these
in order, that he might not at any time be
without one.
I once found one of these hickories lying in
the yard, and supposing that he had thrown
it away, I picked it up, and boy like, was
using it for a horse; he came along from the
field, and seeing me with it, fell upon me
with the one he then had in his hand, and
flogged me most cruelly. From that, I lived
in constant dread of that man; and he would
show how much he delighted in cruelty by
chasing me from my play with threats and
imprecations. I have lain for hours in a
wood, or behind a fence, to hide from his
eye.
At this time my days were extremely dreary.
When I was nine years of age, myself and my
brother were hired out from home; my brother
was placed with a pump-maker, and I was
placed with a stonemason. We were both in a
town some six miles from home. As the men
with whom we lived were not slaveholders, we
enjoyed some relief from the peculiar evils
of slavery. Each of us lived in a family
where there was no other negro.
The slaveholders in that state often hire
the children of their slaves out to
non-slaveholders, not only because they save
themselves the expense of taking care of
them, but in this way they get among their
slaves useful trades. They put a bright
slave boy with a tradesman, until he gets
such a knowledge of the trade as to be able
to do his own work, and then he takes him
home. I remained with the stonemason until I
was eleven years of age: at this time I was
taken home. This was another serious period
in my childhood; I was separated from my
older brother, to whom I was much attached;
he continued at his place, and not only
learned the trade to great perfection, but
finally became the property of the man with
whom he lived, so that our separation was
permanent, as we never lived nearer after,
than six miles. My master owned an excellent
blacksmith, who had obtained his trade in
the way I have mentioned above. When I
returned home at the age of eleven, I was
set about assisting to do the mason work of
a new smith's shop. This being done, I was
placed at the business, which I soon
learned, so as to be called a "first rate
blacksmith." I continued to work at this
business for nine years, or until I was
twenty-one, with the exception of the last
seven months.
In the spring of 1828, my master sold me to
a Methodist man, named , for the sum of
seven hundred dollars. It soon proved that
he had not work enough to keep me employed
as a smith, and he offered me for sale
again. On hearing of this, my old master
repurchased me, and proposed to me to
undertake the carpentering business. I had
been working at this trade six months with a
white workman, who was building a large barn
when I left. I will now relate the abuses
which occasioned me to fly.
Three or four of our farm hands had their
wives and families on other plantations. In
such cases, it is the custom in Maryland to
allow the men to go on Saturday evening to
see their families, stay over the Sabbath,
and return on Monday morning, not later than
"half an hour by sun." To overstay their
time is a grave fault, for which, especially
at busy seasons, they are punished.
One Monday morning, two of these men had not
been so fortunate as to get home at the
required time: one of them was an uncle of
mine. Besides these, two young men who had
no families, and for whom no such provision
of time was made, having gone somewhere to
spend the Sabbath, were absent. My master
was greatly irritated, and had resolved to
have, as he said, "a general whipping match
among them."
Preparatory to this, he had a rope in his
pocket, and a cowhide in his hand, walking
about the premises, and speaking to every
one he met in a very insolent manner, and
finding fault with some without just cause.
My father, among other numerous and
responsible duties, discharged that of
shepherd to a large and valuable flock of
Merino sheep. This morning he was engaged in
the tenderest of a shepherd's duties; a
little lamb, not able to go alone, lost its
mother; he was feeding it by hand. He had
been keeping it in the house for several
days. As he stooped over it in the yard,
with a vessel of new milk he had obtained,
with which to feed it, my master came along,
and without the least provocation, began by
asking, "Bazil, have you fed the flock?"
"Yes, sir."
"Were you away yesterday?"
"No, sir."
"Do you know why these boys have not got
home this morning yet?"
"No, sir, I have not seen any of them since
Saturday night."
"By the Eternal, I'll make them know their
hour. The fact is, I have too many of you;
my people are getting to be the most
careless, lazy, and worthless in the
country."
"Master," said my father, "I am always at my
post; Monday morning never finds me off the
plantation."
"Hush, Bazil! I shall have to sell some of
you; and then the rest will have enough to
do; I have not work enough to keep you all
tightly employed; I have too many of you."
All this was said in an angry, threatening,
and exceedingly insulting tone. My father
was a high spirited man, and feeling deeply
the insult, replied to the last expression,
"If I am one too many, sir, give me a chance
to get a purchaser, and I am willing to be
sold when it may suit you."
"Bazil, I told you to hush!" and suiting the
action to the word, he drew forth the
"cowhide" from under his arm, fell upon him
with most savage cruelty, and inflicted
fifteen or twenty severe stripes with all
his strength, over his shoulders and the
small of his back. As he raised himself upon
his toes, and gave the last stripe, he said,
"By the way I will make you know that I am
master of your tongue as well as of your
time!"
Being a tradesman, and just at that time
getting my breakfast, I was near enough to
hear the insolent words that were spoken to
my father, and to hear, see, and even count
the savage stripes inflicted upon him.
Let me ask any one of Anglo-Saxon blood and
spirit, how would you expect a son to feel
at such a sight?
This act created an open rupture with our
family each member felt the deep insult that
had been inflicted upon our head; the spirit
of the whole family was roused; we talked of
it in our nightly gatherings, and showed it
in our daily melancholy aspect. The
oppressor saw this, and with the
heartlessness that was in perfect keeping
with the first insult, commenced a series of
tauntings, threatenings, and insinuations,
with a view to crush the spirit of the whole
family.
Although it was sometime after this event
before I took the decisive step, yet in my
mind and spirit, I never was a Slave after
it.
Whenever I thought of the great contrast
between my father's employment on that
memorable Monday morning, (feeding the
little lamb,) and the barbarous conduct of
my master, I could not help cordially
despising the proud abuser of my sire; and I
believe he discovered it, for he seemed to
have diligently sought an occasion against
me. Many incidents occurred to convince me
of this, too tedious to mention; but there
is one I will mention, because it will serve
to show the state of feeling that existed
between us, and how it served to widen the
already open breach.
I was one day shoeing a horse in the shop
yard. I had been stooping for some time
under the weight of the horse, which was
large, and was very tired; meanwhile, my
master had taken his position on a little
hill just in front of me, and stood leaning
back on his cane, with his hat drawn ever
his eyes. I put down the horse's foot, and
straightened myself up to rest a moment, and
without knowing that he was there, my eye
caught his. This threw him into a panic of
rage; he would have it that I was watching
him. "What are you rolling your white eyes
at me for, you lazy rascal?" He came down
upon me with his cane, and laid on over my
shoulders, arms, and legs, about a dozen
severe blows, so that my limbs and flesh
were sore for several weeks; and then after
several other offensive epithets, left me.
This affair my mother saw from her cottage,
which was near; I being one of the oldest
sons of my parents, our family was now
mortified to the lowest degree. I had always
aimed to be trustworthy; and feeling a high
degree of mechanical pride, I had aimed to
do my work with dispatch and skill, my
blacksmith's pride and taste was one thing
that had reconciled me so long to remain a
slave. I sought to distinguish myself in the
finer branches of the business by invention
and finish; I frequently tried my hand at
making guns and pistols, putting blades in
penknives, making fancy hammers, hatchets,
sword canes, &c., &c. Besides I used to
assist my father at night in making
straw-hats and willow baskets, by which
means we supplied our family with little
articles of food, clothing and luxury, which
slaves in the mildest form of the system
never get from the master; but after this, I
found that my mechanic's pleasure and pride
were gone. I thought of nothing but the
family disgrace under which we were
smarting, and how to get out of it.
Perhaps I may as well extend this note a
little. The reader will observe that I have
not said much about my master's cruel
treatment; I have aimed rather to shew the
cruelties incident to the system. I have no
disposition to attempt to convict him of
having been one of the most cruel masters
that would not be true his prevailing temper
was kind, but he was a perpetualist. He was
opposed to emancipation; thought free
negroes a great nuisance, and was, as
respects discipline, a thorough slaveholder.
He would not tolerate a look or a word from
a slave like insubordination. He would
suppress it at once, and at any risk. When
he thought it necessary to secure
unqualified obedience, he would strike a
slave with any weapon, flog him on the bare
back, and sell. And this was the kind of
discipline he also empowered his overseers
and sons to use.
I have seen children go from our plantations
to join the chained-gang on its way from
Washington to Louisiana; and I have seen men
and women flogged I have seen the overseers
strike a man with a hayfork nay more, men
have been maimed by shooting! Some dispute
arose one morning between the overseer and
one of the farm hands, when the former made
at the slave with a hickory club; the slave
taking to his heels, started for the woods;
as he was crossing the yard, the overseer
turned, snatched his gun which was near, and
fired at the flying slave, lodging several
shots in the calf of one leg. The poor
fellow continued his flight, and got into
the woods; but he was in so much pain that
he was compelled to come out in the evening,
and give himself up to his master, thinking
he would not allow him to be punished as he
had been shot. He was locked up that night;
the next morning the overseer was allowed to
tie him up and flog him; his master then
took his instruments and picked the shot out
of his leg, and told him, it served him just
right.
My master had a deeply pious and exemplary
slave, an elderly man, who one day had a
misunderstanding with the overseer, when the
latter attempted to flog him. He fled to the
woods; it was noon; at evening he came home
orderly. The next morning, my master, taking
one of his sons with him, a rope and cowhide
in his hand, led the poor old man away into
the stable; tied him up, and ordered the son
to lay on thirty-nine lashes, which he did,
making the keen end of the cowhide lap
around and strike him in the tenderest part
of his side, till the blood sped out, as if
a lance had been used.
While my master's son was thus engaged, the
sufferer's little daughter, a child six
years of age, stood at the door, weeping in
agony for the fate of her father. I heard
the old man articulating in a low tone of
voice; I listened at the intervals between
the stripes, and lo! he was praying!
When the last lash was laid on, he was let
down; and leaving him to put on his clothes,
they passed out of the door, and drove the
man's weeping child away! I was mending a
hinge to one of the barn doors; I saw and
heard what I have stated. Six months after,
this same man's eldest daughter, a girl
fifteen years old, was sold to
slave-traders, where he never saw her more.
This poor slave and his wife were both
Methodists, so was the wife of the young
master who flogged him. My old master was an
Episcopalian.
These are only a few of the instances which
came under my own notice during my childhood
and youth on our plantations; as to those
which occurred on other plantations in the
neighborhood, I could state any number.
I have stated that my master was watching
the movements of our family very closely.
Sometime after the difficulties began, we
found that he also had a confidential slave
assisting him in the business. This wretched
fellow, who was nearly white, and of Irish
descent, informed our master of the
movements of each member of the family by
day and by night, and on Sundays. This
stirred the spirit of my mother, who spoke
to our fellow slave, and told him he ought
to be ashamed to be engaged in such low
business.
Master hearing of this, called my father,
mother, and myself before him, and accused
us of an attempt to resist and intimidate
his "confidential servant." Finding that
only my mother had spoken to him, he swore
that if she ever spoke another word to him,
he would flog her.
I knew my mother's spirit and my master's
temper as well. Our social state was now
perfectly intolerable. We were on the eve of
a general fracas. This last scene occurred
on Tuesday; and on Saturday evening
following, without counsel or advice from
any one, I determined to fly.
The Fugitive
Blacksmith; or Events in the History of
James W. C. Pennington, 1849
