Three Years in Europe | Page 3

poor lad was confined to his bed for five weeks, at the end of which

time he found that, to his personal sufferings, were superadded the
calamity of the loss of the best master he ever had in slavery.
His next employment was that of waiter on board a steam-boat plying
on the Mississippi. Here his occupation again was pleasant, and his
treatment good; but the freedom of action enjoyed by the passengers in
travelling whithersoever they pleased, contrasted strongly in his mind
with his own deprivation of will as a slave. The natural result of this
comparison was an intense desire for freedom--a feeling which was
never afterwards eradicated from his breast. This love of liberty was,
however, so strongly counteracted by affection for his mother and
sisters, that although urgently entreated by one of the latter to take
advantage of his present favourable opportunity for escape, he would
not bring himself to do so at the expense of a separation for life from
his beloved relatives.
His period of living on board the steamer having expired, he was again
remitted to field labour, under a burning sun. From that labour, from
which he suffered severely, he was soon removed to the lighter and
more agreeable occupation of house-waiter to his master. About this
time Dr. Young, in the conventional phraseology of the locality, "got
religion." The fruit of his alleged spiritual gain, was the loss of many
material comforts to the slaves. Destitute of the resources of education,
they were in the habit of employing their otherwise unoccupied minds
on the Sunday in fishing and other harmless pursuits; these were now
all put an end to. The Sabbath became a season of dread to William: he
was required to drive the family to and from the church, a distance of
four miles either way; and while they attended to the salvation of their
souls within the building, he was compelled to attend to the horses
without it, standing by them during divine service under a burning sun,
or drizzling rain. Although William did not get the religion of his
master, he acquired a family passion which appears to have been
strongly intermixed with the devotional exercises of the household of
Dr. Young--a love of sweet julep. In the evening, the slaves were
required to attend family worship. Before commencing the service, it
was the custom to hand a pitcher of the favourite beverage to every
member of the family, not excepting the nephew, a child of between
four and five years old. William was in the habit of watching his
opportunity during the prayer and helping himself from the pitcher, but

one day letting it fall, his propensity for this intoxicating drink was
discovered, and he was severely punished for its indulgence.
In 1830, being then about sixteen years of age, William was hired to a
slave-dealer named Walker. This change of employment led the youth
away south and frustrated, for a time, his plans for escape. His
experience while in this capacity furnishes some interesting, though
painful, details of the legalized traffic in human beings carried on in the
United States. The desperation to which the slaves are driven at their
forced separation from husband, wife, children, and kindred, he found
to be a frequent cause of suicide. Slave-dealers he discovered were as
great adepts at deception in the sale of their commodity as the most
knowing down-easter, or tricky horse dealer. William's occupation on
board the steamer, as they steamed south, was to prepare the stock for
the market, by shaving off whiskers and blacking the grey hairs with a
colouring composition.
At the expiration of the period of his hiring with Walker, William
returned to his master rejoiced to have escaped an employment so
repugnant to his feelings. But this joy was not of long duration. One of
his sisters who, although sold to another master had been living in the
same city with himself and mother, was again sold to be sent away
south, never in all probability to meet her sorrowing relatives. Dr.
Young also, wanting money, intimated to his young kinsman that he
was about to sell him. This intimation determined William, in
conjunction with his mother, to attempt their escape. For ten nights
they travelled northwards, hiding themselves in the woods by day. The
mother and son at length deemed themselves safe from re-capture, and,
although weary and foot-sore, were laying down sanguine plans for the
acquisition of a farm in Canada, the purchase of the freedom of the six
other members of the family still in slavery, and rejoicing in the
anticipated happiness of their free home in Canada. At that moment
three men made up to and seized them, bound the son and led him, with
his desponding mother, back to