FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
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!
Dick Jennings the slave
speculator, was one of the few Northern men,
who go to the South and throw aside their
honest mode of obtaining a living and resort
to trading in human beings. A more repulsive
looking person could scarcely be found in
any community of bad looking men. Tall, lean
and lank, with high cheek bones, face much
pitted with the small-pox, gray eyes with
red eyebrows, and sandy whiskers, he indeed
stood alone without mate or fellow in looks.
Jennings prided himself upon what he called
his goodness of heat, and was always
speaking of his humanity. As many of the
slaves whom he intended taking to the New
Orleans market had been raised in Richmond,
and had relations there, he determined to
leave the city early in the morning, so as
not to witness any of the scenes so common
on the departure of a slave gang to the far
South. In this, he was most successful; for
not even Isabella, who had called at the
prison several times to see her mother and
sister, was aware of the time that they were
to leave.
The slave trader started at early dawn, and
was beyond the confines of the city long
before the citizens were out of their beds.
As a slave regards a life on the sugar,
cotton, or rice plantation as even worse
than death, they are ever on the watch for
an opportunity to escape. The trader, aware
of this, secures his victims in chains
before he sets out on his journey. On this
occasion, Jennings had the men chained in
pairs, while the women were allowed to go
unfastened, but were closely watched.
After a march of eight days, the company
arrived on the banks of the Ohio River,
where they took a steamer for the place of
their destination. Jennings had already
advertised in the New Orleans papers, that
he would be there with a prime lot of able
bodied slaves, men and women, fit for
fieldservice, with a few extra ones
calculated for house servants, all between
the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years;
but like most men who make a business of
speculating in human beings, he often bought
many who were far advanced in years, and
would try to pass them off for five or six
years younger than they were. Few persons
can arrive at anything approaching the real
age of the Negro, by mere observation,
unless they are well acquainted with the
race. Therefore, the slave trader frequently
carried out the deception with perfect
impunity.
After the steamer had left the wharf and was
fairly out on the bosom of the broad
Mississippi, the speculator called his
servant Pompey to him; and instructed him as
to getting the Negroes ready for market.
Among the forty slaves that the trader had
on this occasion, were some whose appearance
indicated that they had seen some years and
had gone through considerable service. Their
gray hair and whiskers at once pronounced
them to be above the ages set down in the
trader's advertisement. Pompey had long been
with Jennings, and understood his business
well, and if he did not take delight in the
discharge of his duty, he did it at least
with a degree of alacrity, so that he might
receive the approbation of his master.
Pomp, as he was usually called by the
trader, was of real Negro blood, and would
often say, when alluding to himself, "Dis
nigger am no counterfeit, he is de ginuine
artikle. Dis chile is none of your
haf-and-haf, dere is no bogus about him."
Pompey was of low stature, round face, and,
like most of his race, had a set of teeth,
which, for whiteness and beauty, could not
be surpassed; his eyes were large, lips
thick, and hair short and woolly. Pompey had
been with Jennings so long, and had seen so
much of buying and selling of his fellow
creatures, that he appeared perfectly
indifferent to the heart rending scenes
which daily occurred in his presence. Such
is the force of habit:
"Vice is a monster of such frightful mien,
That to be hated, needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
It was on the second day of the steamer's
voyage, that Pompey selected five of the
oldest slaves, took them into a room by
themselves, and commenced preparing them for
the market.
"Now," said he, addressing himself to the
company, "I is de chap dat is to get you
ready for de Orleans market, so dat you will
bring marser a good price. How old is you?"
addressing himself to a man not less than
forty.
"If I live to see next sweet potato digging
time, I shall be either forty or forty-five,
I don't know which."
"Dat may be," replied Pompey; "but now you
is only thirty years old, dat's what marser
says you is to be."
"I know I is more den dat," responded the
man.
"I can't help nuffin' about dat," returned
Pompey; "but when you get into de market and
any one ax you how old you is, and you tell
um you is forty or forty-five, marser will
tie you up and cut you all to pieces. But if
you tell um dat you is only thirty, den he
won't. Now remember dat you is thirty years
old and no more."
"Well den, I guess I will only be thirty
when dey ax me."
"What's your name?" said Pompey, addressing
himself to another.
"Jeems."
"Oh! Uncle Jim, is it?" "Yes."
"Den you must have all them gray whiskers
shaved off, and all dem gray hairs plucked
out of your head." This was all said by
Pompey in a manner which showed that he knew
what he was about.
"How old is you?" asked Pompey of a tall,
strong looking man. "What's your name?"
"I am twenty-nine years old, and my name is
Tobias, but they calls me Toby."
"Well, Toby, or Mr. Tobias, if dat will suit
you better, you are now twenty-three years
old; dat's all, do you understand dat?"
"Yes," replied Toby.
Pompey now gave them all to understand how
old they were to be when asked by persons
who were likely to purchase, and then went
and reported to his master that the old boys
were all right.
"Be sure," said Jennings, "that the niggers
don't forget what you have taught them, for
our luck this time in the market depends
upon their appearance. If any of them have
so many gray hairs that you cannot pluck
them out, take the blacking and brush, and
go at them."
Clotelle or The Colored Heroine, A tale
of the Southern States
