|
|
Signal of Liberty 1843
From The Signal of Liberty, CONDITION OF SLAVES We have taken pains to inquire of different fugitives respecting their
former condition.-- Their statements have varied greatly according to the
character of their master, and the surrounding circumstances. Some were
well fed, clothed and treated, and never beaten. The condition of others
was the reverse.
The last who called on us was a young man, age 23, named Robert Coxe,
from Frankfort, Ky. His master's name was O'Harra, an Irish Catholic, who
kept an academy for boys. Robert had twelve brothers and sisters, a part
of whom were sold down the river. His father was a Baptist minister. -- He
had shown his back to Robert, where it had been cut up by the whip when he
was young. Think of that, ye pro slavery Baptists! That is the way some of
your ministers are educated at the South. Robert had often seen his aged
mother and four sisters hauled up to the whipping post, and flogged. Upon
asking if they were stripped, he said it was considered no whipping at all
unless they were stripped to the skin. Their treatment was so bad, that
they were all forced to run away, and then whipped for that. His sisters
had been severely flogged for looking into the books that lay around the
house and trying to read them. The mistress usually kept a rawhide beside
her on the sofa, so that she could punish the girls without the trouble of
getting up. Robert was overworked. He often had to work hard Sundays and
holidays. He and his master had a falling out about work, and O'Harra
thought Robert must be whipped. Robert was of a different opinion, and by
the help of his brother, broke away from the whipping post, and fled for a
land of liberty, followed by two men & a bloodhound, which was kept in
the family on purpose to hunt fugitives. When he arrived at the Ohio, he
followed Gerrit Smith's advice without having ever read it, and "took?"
the boat from one side of the river and left it on the other. Where is the
man, unless it be the Rev. Editor of the New York Observer, who will not
acknowledge he did right? Robert and his brother travelled three weeks
without entering a house, led by that unfailing guide, the North Star.
Robert had learned a little Geography by looking at the map with his
master's son. They come into Adrian in the day time, and were kindly
accosted by a broad brimmed gentleman, who saw their necessities relieved.
Robert is a Methodist, and is determined to get an education at Hiram
Wilson's Institute in Canada.
|
Students On Site is a community project of the
Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan, funded in part by
the Michigan
Humanities Council and the U-M Office of the Vice-President For
Research.
This website is a collaboration between the Arts of Citizenship
Program
theCHICO Project of the
School of Information and the Bentley
Historical Library at the University of Michigan.
