The Fugitive Blacksmith | Page 6

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 recognise 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 re-purchased me, and
proposed to me to undertake the carpentering business. I had been
working at this trade six months with a white