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| The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
Chapter VIII: Kidnapping.
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The principle which declares that one human
being may lawfully hold another as property leads directly to the trade in
human beings; and that trade has, among its other horrible results, the temptation
to the crime of kidnapping.
The trader is generally a man of coarse nature and low associations, hard-hearted,
and reckless of right or honour. He who is not so is an exception, rather
than a specimen. If he has anything good about him when he begins the business,
it may well be seen that he is in a fair way to lose it.
Around the trader are continually passing and repassing men and women who
would be worth to him thousands of dollars in the way of trade--who belong
to a class whose rights nobody respects, and who, if reduced to slavery, could
not easily make their word good against him. The probability is that hundreds
of free men and women and children are all the time being precipitated into
slavery in this way.
The recent case of Northrop, tried in Washington,
D. C., throws light on this fearful subject. The following account is abridged
from the New York Times:--
Solomon Northrop is a free coloured citizen of the United States; he was
born in Essex County, New York, about the year 1808; became early a resident
of Washington County, and married there in 1829. His father and mother resided
in the county of Washington about fifty years, till their decease, and were
both free. With his wife and children he resided at Saratoga Springs in the
winter of 1841, and while there was employed by two gentlemen to drive a team
South, at the rate of a dollar a day. In fulfilment of his employment, he
proceeded to New York, and, having taken out free papers, to show that he
was a citizen, he went on to Washington city, where he arrived the second
day of April, the same year, and put up at Gadsby's Hotel. Soon after he arrived
he felt unwell, and went to bed.
While suffering with severe pain, some persons came in, and seeing the
condition he was in, proposed to give him some medicine, and did so. This
is the last thing of which he had any recollection, until he found himself
chained to the floor of Williams' slave-pen in this city, and
handcuffed. In the course of a few hours, James H. Burch, a slave-dealer,
came in, and the coloured man asked him to take the irons off from him, and
wanted to know why they were put on. Burch told him it was none of his business.
The coloured man said he was free, and told where he was born. Burch called
in a man by the name of Ebenezer Rodbury, and they two stripped the man and
laid him across a bench, Rodbury holding him down by his wrists. Burch whipped
him with a paddle until he broke that, and then with a cat-o'-nine-tails,
giving him a hundred lashes; and he swore he would kill him if he ever stated
to any one that he was a free man. From that time forward the man says he
did not communicate the fact, from fear, either that he was a free man, or
what his name was, until the last summer. He was kept in the slave-pen about
ten days, when he, with others, was taken out of the pen in the night by Burch,
handcuffed and shackled, and taken down the river by a steam-boat, and then
to Richmond, where he, with forty-eight others, was put on board the brig
"Orleans." There Burch left them. The brig sailed for New Orleans,
and on arriving there, before she was fastened to the wharf, Theophilus Freeman,
another slave-dealer, belonging to the city of New Orleans, and who in 1833
had been a partner with Burch in the slave-trade, came to the wharf, and received
the slaves as they were landed, under his direction. This man was immediately
taken by Freeman, and shut up in his pen in that city. He was taken sick with
the small-pox immediately after getting there, and was sent to a hospital
where he lay two or three weeks. When he had sufficiently recovered to leave
the hospital, Freeman declined to sell him to any person in that vicinity,
and sold him to a Mr. Ford, who resided in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where
he was taken, and lived more than a year, and worked with a carpenter, working
with Ford at that business.
Ford became involved, and had to sell him. A Mr. Tibaut became the purchaser.
He, in a short time, sold him to Edwin Eppes, in Bayou Beouf, about one hundred
and thirty miles from the mouth of Red River, where Eppes has retained him
on a cotton plantation since the year 1843.
To go back a step in the narrative, the man wrote a letter, in June, 1841,
to Henry B. Northrop, of the State of New York, dated and post-marked at New
Orleans, stating that he had been kidnapped and was on board a vessel, but
was unable to state what his destination was; but requesting Mr. N. to aid
him in recovering his freedom, if possible. Mr. N. was unable to do anything
in his behalf, in consequence of not knowing where he had gone, and not being
able to find any trace of him. His place of residence remained unknown, until
the month of September last, when the following letter was received by his
friends:
Bayou Beouf, August 1852.
GENTLEMEN,--It having been a long time
since I have seen or heard from you, and not knowing that you are living,
it is with uncertainty that I write to you; but the necessity of the case
must be my excuse. Having been born free just across the river from you, I
am certain you know me; and I am here now a slave. I wish you to obtain free
papers for me, and forward them to me at Marksville, Louisiana, Parish of
Avovelles, and oblige
Yours, SOLOMON NORTHROP.
Mr. William Peny, or Mr. Lewis Parker.
On receiving the above letter, Mr. N. applied to Governor Hunt, of New
York, for such authority as was necessary for him to proceed to Louisiana
as an agent to procure the liberation of Solomon. Proof of his freedom was
furnished to Governor Hunt by affidavits of several gentlemen, General Clarke
among others. Accordingly, in pursuance of the laws of New York, Henry B.
Northrop was constituted an agent, to take such steps, by procuring evidence,
retaining council, &c., as were necessary to secure the freedom of Solomon,
and to execute all the duties of his agency.
The result of Mr. Northrop's agency was the establishing of the claim of
Solomon Northrop to freedom, and the restoring him to his native land.
It is a singular coincidence that this man was carried to a plantation
in the Red River country, that same region where the scene of Tom's captivity
was laid; and his account of this plantation, his mode of life there, and
some incidents which he describes, form a striking parallel to that history.
We extract them from the article of the Times.
The condition of this coloured man during the nine years that he was in
the hands of Eppes was of a character nearly approaching that described by
Mrs. Stowe as the condition of "Uncle Tom" while in that region.
During that whole period his hut contained neither a floor, nor a chair, nor
a bed, nor a mattress, nor anything for him to lie upon, except a board about
twelve inches wide, with a block of wood for his pillow, and with a single
blanket to cover him, while the walls of his hut did not by any means protect
him from the inclemency of the weather. He was sometimes compelled to perform
acts revolting to humanity, and outrageous in the highest degree. On one occasion,
a coloured girl belonging to Eppes, about seventeen years of age, went one
Sunday, without the permission of her master, to the nearest plantation, about
half a mile distant, to visit another coloured girl of her acquaintance. She
returned in the course of two or three hours, and for that offence she was
called up for punishment, which Solomon was required to inflict. Eppes compelled
him to drive four stakes into the ground at such distances that the hands
and ankles of the girl might be tied to them, as she lay with her face upon
the ground; and, having thus fastened her down, he compelled him, while standing
by himself, to inflict one hundred lashes upon her bare flesh, she being stripped
naked. Having inflicted the hundred blows, Solomon refused to proceed any
further. Eppes tried to compel him to go on, but he absolutely set him at
defiance, and refused to murder the girl. Eppes then seized the whip, and
applied it until he was too weary to continue it. Blood flowed from her neck
to her feet, and in this condition she was compelled the next day to go into
the field to work as a field-hand. She bears the marks still upon her body,
although the punishment was inflicted four years ago.
When Solomon was about to leave, under the care of Mr. Northrop, this girl
came from behind her hut, unseen by her master, and, throwing her arms around
the neck of Solomon, congratulated him on his escape from slavery, and his
return to his family; at the same time, in language of despair, exclaiming,
"But, O God! what will become of me?"
These statements regarding the condition of Solomon while with Eppes, and
the punishment and brutal treatment of the coloured girls, are taken from
Solomon himself. It has been stated that the nearest plantation was distant
from that of Eppes a half-mile, and of course there could be no interference
on the part of neighbours in any punishment, however cruel, or however well
disposed to interfere they might be.
Had not Northrop been able to write, as few of the free blacks in the slave
States are, his doom might have been sealed for life in this den of misery.
Two cases recently tried in Baltimore also unfold facts of a similar nature.
The following is from
THE CASE OF RACHEL PARKER AND HER SISTER.
It will be remembered that more than a year since a young coloured woman,
named Mary Elizabeth Parker, was abducted from Chester County and conveyed
to Baltimore, where she was sold as a slave, and transported to New Orleans.
A few days after her sister, Rachel Parker, was also abducted in like manner,
taken to Baltimore, and detained there in consequence of the interference
of her Chester County friends. In the first case, Mary Elizabeth was, by an
arrangement with the individual who had her in charge, brought back to Baltimore,
to await her trial on a petition for freedom. So also with regard to Rachel.
Both, after trial-- the proof in their favour being so overwhelming--were
discharged, and are now among their friends in Chester County. In this connexion
we give the narratives of both females, obtained since their release.
RACHEL PARKER'S NARRATIVE.
"I was taken from Joseph C. Miller's about twelve o'clock on Tuesday
(Dec. 30th, 1851), by two men who came up to the house by the back door. One
came in and asked Mrs. Miller where Jesse McCreary lived, and then seized
me by the arm, and pulled me out of the house. Mrs. Miller called to her husband,
who was in the front porch, and he ran out and seized the man by the collar,
and tried to stop him. The other, with an oath, then told him to take his
hands off, and if he touched me he would kill him. He then told Miller that
I belonged to Mr. Schoolfield, in Baltimore. They then hurried me to a waggon,
where there was another large man, put me in, and drove off.
"Mr. Miller ran across the field to head the waggon, and picked up
a stake to run through the wheel, when one of the men pulled out a sword (I
think it was a sword, I never saw one), and threatened to cut Miller's arm
off. Pollock's waggon being in the way, and he refusing to get out of the
road, we turned off to the left. After we rode away, one of the men tore a
hole in the back of the carriage, to look out to see if they were coming after
us, and they said they wished they had given Miller and Pollock a blow.
"We stopped at a tavern near the railroad, and I told the landlord
(I think it was) that I was free. I also told several persons at the car-office;
and a very nice looking man at the car-office was talking at the door, and
he said he thought they had better take me back again. One of the men did
not come further than the tavern. I was taken to Baltimore,
where we arrived about seven o'clock the same evening, and I was taken to
jail.
"The next morning a man with large light-coloured whiskers took me
away by myself, and asked me if I was no Mr. Schoolfield's slave. I told him
I was not; he said that I was, and that if I did not say I was he would 'cow-hide
me and salt me, and put me in a dungeon.' I told him I was free, and that
I would say nothing but the truth."
MARY E. PARKER'S NARRATIVE.
"I was taken from Matthew Donelly's on Saturday night (Dec. 6th or
13th, 1851); was caught whilst out of doors, soon after I had cleared the
supper-table, about seven o'clock, by two men, and put into a waggon. One
of them got into the waggon with me, and rode to Elkton, Md., where I was
kept until Sunday night at twelve o'clock, when I left there in the cars for
Baltimore, and arrived there early on Monday morning.
"At Elkton a man was brought in to see me by one of the men, who
said that I was not his father's slave. Afterwards, when on the way to Baltimore
in the cars, a man told me that I must say that I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave,
or he would shoot me, and pulled a 'rifle' out of his pocket and showed it
to me, and also threatened to whip me.
"On Monday morning Mr. Schoolfield called at the jail in Baltimore,
to see me, and on Tuesday morning he brought his wife and several other ladies
to see me. I told them I did not know them, and then Mr. C. took me out of
the room, and told me who they were, and took me back again, so that I might
appear to know them. On the next Monday I was shipped to New Orleans.
"It took about a month to get to New Orleans. After I had been there
about a week, Mr. C. sold me to Madame C., who keeps a large flower-garden.
She sends flowers to sell to the theatres, sells milk in market, &c. I
went out to sell candy and flowers for her when I lived with her. One evening,
when I was coming home from the theatre, a watchman took me up, and I told
him I was not a slave. He put me in the calaboose, and next morning took me
before a magistrate, who sent for Madame C., who told him she bought me. He
then sent for Mr. C., and told him he must account for how he got me. Mr.
C. said that my mother and all the family were free, except me. The magistrate
told me to go back to Madame C., and he told Madame C. that she must not let
me go out at night, and he told Mr. C. that he must prove how he came by me.
The magistrate afterwards called on Mrs. C. at her house, and had a long talk
with her in the parlour. I do not know what he said, as they were by themselves.
About a month afterwards I was sent back to Baltimore. I lived with Madame
C. about six months.
"There were six slaves came in the vessel with me to Baltimore, who
belonged to Mr. D., and were returned because they were sickly.
"A man called to see me at the jail after I came back to Baltimore,
and told me that I must say that I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave, and that if
I did not do it he would kill me the first time he got a chance. He said Rachel
(her sister) said she came from Baltimore, and was Mr. Schoolfield's slave.
Afterwards some gentlemen called on me (Judge Campbell and Judge Bell, of
Philadelphia, and William H. Norris, Esq., of Baltimore), and I told them
I was Mr. Schoolfield's slave. They said they were my friends, and I must
tell them the truth. I then told them who I was, and all about it.
"When I was in New Orleans Mr. C. whipped me because I said that
I was free."
Elizabeth, by her own account above, was seized and taken from Pennsylvania,
Dec. 6th or 13th, 1851, which is confirmed by other testimony.
It is conceded that such cases, when brought into Southern Courts, are
generally tried with great fairness and impartiality. The agent for Northrop's
release testifies to this, and it has been generally admitted fact; but it
is probably only one case in a hundred that can get into Court. Of the multitudes
who are drawn down in the ever-widening Maëlstrom, only now and then
one ever comes back to tell the tale.
The succeeding chapter of advertisements will show the reader how many
such victims there may probably be.
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