Martin Luther King Jr. Day Anthology | Page 7

was wont to chant the
"Marseillaise" in a manner that made her seem, for the time, the very
spirit and impersonation of the gaunt, wild, hungry, avenging mob
which rose against aristocratic oppression; and in like manner,
Sojourner, singing this hymn, seemed to impersonate the fervor of
Ethiopia, wild, savage, hunted of all nations, but burning after God in
her tropic heart, and stretching her scarred hands towards the glory to
be revealed. "Well, den ye see, after a while, I thought I'd go back an'
see de folks on de ole place. Well, you know, de law had passed dat de
culled folks was all free; an' my old missis, she had a daughter married
about dis time who went to live in Alabama,--an' what did she do but
give her my son, a boy about de age of dis yer, for her to take down to
Alabama? When I got back to de ole place, they told me about it, an' I
went right up to see ole missis, an' says I,-- "'Missis, have you been an'
sent my son away down to Alabama?' "'Yes, I have,' says she; 'he's
gone to live with your young missis.' "'Oh, Missis,' says I, 'how could
you do it?' "'Poh!' says she, 'what a fuss you make about a little nigger!
Got more of 'em now than you know what to do with.'
"I tell you, I stretched up. I felt as tall as the world! "'Missis,' says I,
'I'LL HAVE MY SON BACK AGIN!' "She laughed. "'YOU will, you
nigger? How you goin' to do it? You ha'n't got no money." "'No,
Missis,--but GOD has,--an' you'll see He'll help me!'--an' I turned round
an' went out. "Oh, but I WAS angry to have her speak to me so haughty
an' so scornful, as ef my chile wasn't worth anything. I said to God, 'O
Lord, render unto her double!' It was a dreadful prayer, an' I didn't
know how true it would come. "Well, I didn't rightly know which way
to turn; but I went to the Lord, an' I said to Him, 'O Lord, ef I was as
rich as you be, an' you was as poor as I be, I'd help you,--you KNOW I
would; and, oh, do help me!' An' I felt sure then that He would. "Well, I
talked with people, an' they said I must git the case before a grand jury.
So I went into the town when they was holdin' a court, to see ef I could
find any grand jury. An' I stood round the court-house, an' when they
was a-comin' out, I walked right up to the grandest-lookin' one I could
see, an' says I to him,-- "'Sir, be you a grand jury?' "An' then he wanted
to know why I asked, an' I told him all about it; an' he asked me all
sorts of questions, an' finally he says to me,-- "'I think, ef you pay me

ten dollars, that I'd agree to git your son for you.' An' says he, pointin'
to a house over the way, 'You go 'long an' tell your story to the folks in
that house, an' I guess they'll give you the money.' "Well, I went, an' I
told them, an' they gave me twenty dollars; an' then I thought to myself,
'Ef ten dollars will git him, twenty dollars will git him SARTIN.' So I
carried it to the man all out, an' said,-- "'Take it all,--only be sure an' git
him.' "Well, finally they got the boy brought back; an' then they tried to
frighten him, an' to make him say that I wasn't his mammy, an' that he
didn't know me; but they couldn't make it out. They gave him to me, an'
I took him an' carried him home; an' when I came to take off his clothes,
there was his poor little back all covered with scars an' hard lumps,
where they'd flogged him. "Well, you see, honey, I told you how I
prayed the Lord to render unto her double. Well, it came true; for I was
up at ole missis' house not long after, an' I heerd 'em readin' a letter to
her how her daughter's husband had murdered her,--how he'd thrown
her down an' stamped the life out of her, when he was in liquor; an' my
ole missis, she giv a screech, an' fell flat on the floor. Then says I, 'O
Lord, I didn't mean all that! You took me up too quick.' "Well, I went
in an' tended that poor critter all night. She was out of her
mind,--a-cryin', an' callin' for her daughter; an' I held her poor ole head
on my arm, an' watched for her as ef she'd been my