A Childs Anti-Slavery Book | Page 6

her there! catch her!"

All this hubbub roused the people at the house, and Master Stamford
forthwith appeared on the verandah, with a crowd of servants of all
sizes. Amid the orders, and cries, and general confusion that followed,
Nancy was caught, Lewis was taken away, and she was carried back to
the cabin, while the big negro was preparing to tie her. As she entered
the cabin, her eye caught sight of a knife that lay there, and snatching it
up, she gave herself a bad wound with it. Poor woman, she was tired of
her miserable life. I don't wonder that she wanted to die.
Was it right, you ask, for her to take her own life? Certainly not. But let
us see what led to this attempt.
For a long time she had been separated from Lewis and Ned, the last of
her children that remained to her. To be sure, the other three were
probably living somewhere, and so was her husband. But she only
knew that they had gone into hopeless servitude, where she knew not.
Indeed, she did not know but that they were already dead, and she did
not expect ever to hear, for slaves are seldom able to write, and often
not permitted to when they can. If there had only been hope of hearing
from them at some time or other she could have endured it. But
between her and those loved ones there rested a thick cloud of utter
darkness; beyond that they might be toiling, groaning, bleeding,
starving, dying beneath the oppressor's lash in the deadly swamp, or in
the teeth of the cruel hounds, and she could not have the privilege of
ministering to the least of their wants, of soothing one of their sorrows,
or even dropping a silent tear beside them. If she could have heard only
one fact about them it would have been some relief. But she could not
enjoy even this poor privilege. And then came the dead, heavy stillness
of despair creeping over her spirits.
Do you wonder that she became perfectly wild, and beside herself at
times? How would you feel if all you loved best were carried off by a
cruel slave-driver, and you had no hope of hearing from them again in
this world?
During these dreadful fits of insanity she would bewail the living as
worse than dead, and pray God to take them away. Then she would
curse herself for being the mother of slave children, declaring that it

would be far better to see them die in their childhood, than to see them
grow up to suffer as she had suffered.
She lived only a few miles from her old home; but her new master was
an uncommonly hard man, and would not permit her to go and see her
children. He said it would only make her worse, and his slaves should
learn that they were not to put on airs and have whims. It was their
business to live for him. Didn't he pay enough for them, and see that
they were well fed and clothed, and what more did they want? This he
called kind treatment. Very kind, indeed, not to allow a mother to go
and see her own children! But when she was taken with those insane
spells, and would go on so about her children that she was not fit to
work, indeed could not be made to work, it was finally suggested to
him that a visit to her children would do her good.
This was the occasion of her present visit, and it was because she was
insane that she attempted to take her own life. The wound, however,
was not very deep, and Nancy did not die at this time. After the doctor
had been there and dressed her wound, and affairs had become quiet,
Lewis stole to the door of the cabin. He was afraid to go in. He hardly
knew, any of the time, whether that strange wild woman could be his
mother, only they told him she was. There was blood spattered here and
there on the bare earth that served as a floor to the cabin, and on a straw
mattress at one side lay the strange woman. Her eyes were shut, and
now that she was more composed, he saw in the lineaments of that pale
face the features of his mother; But her once glossy black hair had
turned almost white since she had been away, and altogether there was
such a wild expression that he was afraid, and crept quietly away again.
He then went to find his brother, who, of course, did not remember so
much about her. But it was touching to see the two little lone brothers
stand peeping