“I will speak my mind whenever it pleases me to do so,” I said, looking the jailor directly in the eye.
In this strain the conversation continued, till at length he became so enraged, that, pushing me violently back in my cell, he locked me fast to a staple driven into the floor.
While lying thus, a negro came and gazed intently at me, through the bars of the cell door. This he repeated many times during the day, and at night I asked him if he belonged to the jailor.
“No, sah,” said he, “I b’long to the richest man in dis county.”
“What are you in here for?”
He dropped his voice almost to a whisper, as he replied:
“Two white fellers came to my quarters one night, and got me to go with ’em. Dey had dar faces blacked all ober. Den dey crawled into a winder whar dar wus some white gals, an’ de gals dey hollered, an’ de two fellers dey runned, an’ I runned arter ’em. But I didn’t know what they’d done, an’ so I stopped, an’ de white men what run arter all o’ us, cotched me, an’ brought me down here. Den dey chained me like you is now, and den de white rascals what had blacked ’emselves, dey runned off right away. But dey won’t b’lieve a poor darkey. Now, massa, Tom White, an’ he’s a white man, seed dem white fellers what blacked dar faces, an’ he told so, an’ den I was tuk out o’ de cell.”
Here the poor creature started after the jailor for the performance of some duty.
I was now desirous to know what Captain Crawford’s candid opinion was concerning slavery, but the loud tones in which we were forced to talk prevented me, for fear of drawing down some cruel punishment upon us. I conversed on the subject, however, with my comrade, Lieutenant Collins, and we both resolved never to cease its agitation so long as the Lord gave us life, and so long as there remained a single slave on the fair soil of Columbia. Our minds were much strengthened in this resolve by recalling to memory the teachings of Washington, Adams, Monroe, and others. Abigail Adams, the mother of John Quincy Adams, said:
“I wish most sincerely that there was not a slave in the Province.”