The History of Mary Prince | Page 5

its debasing effects upon the hearts of its abettors. While the
woman was in this distressed situation she was asked, 'Can you feed
sheep?' Her reply was so indistinct that it escaped me; but it was

probably in the negative, for her purchaser rejoined, in a loud and harsh
voice, 'Then I will teach you with the sjamboc,' (a whip made of the
rhinoceros' hide.) The mother and her three children were sold to three
separate purchasers; and they were literally torn from each other."--Ed.]
My new master was a Captain I----, who lived at Spanish Point. After
parting with my mother and sisters, I followed him to his store, and he
gave me into the charge of his son, a lad about my own age, Master
Benjy, who took me to my new home. I did not know where I was
going, or what my new master would do with me. My heart was quite
broken with grief, and my thoughts went back continually to those from
whom I had been so suddenly parted. "Oh, my mother! my mother!" I
kept saying to myself, "Oh, my mammy and my sisters and my brothers,
shall I never see you again!"
Oh, the trials! the trials! they make the salt water come into my eyes
when I think of the days in which I was afflicted--the times that are
gone; when I mourned and grieved with a young heart for those whom I
loved.
It was night when I reached my new home. The house was large, and
built at the bottom of a very high hill; but I could not see much of it
that night. I saw too much of it afterwards. The stones and the timber
were the best things in it; they were not so hard as the hearts of the
owners.[3]
[Footnote 3: These strong expressions, and all of a similar character in
this little narrative, are given verbatim as uttered by Mary Prince.--Ed.]
Before I entered the house, two slave women, hired from another owner,
who were at work in the yard, spoke to me, and asked who I belonged
to? I replied, "I am come to live here." "Poor child, poor child!" they
both said; "you must keep a good heart, if you are to live here."--When
I went in, I stood up crying in a corner. Mrs. I---- came and took off my
hat, a little black silk hat Miss Pruden made for me, and said in a rough
voice, "You are not come here to stand up in corners and cry, you are
come here to work." She then put a child into my arms, and, tired as I
was, I was forced instantly to take up my old occupation of a nurse.--I

could not bear to look at my mistress, her countenance was so stern.
She was a stout tall woman with a very dark complexion, and her
brows were always drawn together into a frown. I thought of the words
of the two slave women when I saw Mrs. I----, and heard the harsh
sound of her voice.
The person I took the most notice of that night was a French Black
called Hetty, whom my master took in privateering from another vessel,
and made his slave. She was the most active woman I ever saw, and she
was tasked to her utmost. A few minutes after my arrival she came in
from milking the cows, and put the sweet-potatoes on for supper. She
then fetched home the sheep, and penned them in the fold; drove home
the cattle, and staked them about the pond side;[4] fed and rubbed
down my master's horse, and gave the hog and the fed cow[5] their
suppers; prepared the beds, and undressed the children, and laid them to
sleep. I liked to look at her and watch all her doings, for hers was the
only friendly face I had as yet seen, and I felt glad that she was there.
She gave me my supper of potatoes and milk, and a blanket to sleep
upon, which she spread for me in the passage before the door of Mrs.
I----'s chamber.
[Footnote 4: The cattle on a small plantation in Bermuda are, it seems,
often thus staked or tethered, both night and day, in situations where
grass abounds.]
[Footnote 5: A cow fed for slaughter.]
I got a sad fright, that night. I was just going to sleep, when I heard a
noise in my mistress's room; and she presently called out to inquire if
some work was finished that she had ordered Hetty to do. "No, Ma'am,
not yet," was Hetty's answer from below. On hearing this, my master
started up from his bed, and just as he was, in his shirt, ran down stairs
with