Peter emancipated by his old Master’s Will—but is stolen and sold at auction, and bid off by GIDEON MOREHOUSE ☜—Hagar tries to buy her brother back—parting scene—his reception at his new Master’s—sudden change in fortune—Master’s cruelty—the Muskrat skins—prepare to go into “the new countries”—start on the journey—“incidents of travel” on the road—Mr. Sterling, who is a sterling-good man, tries to buy Peter—gives him a pocket full of “Bungtown coppers”—abuse—story of the Blue Mountain—Oswego—Mr. Cooper, an Abolitionist—journey’s end—Cayuga county, New York.
Author. “Well, Peter, I’ve come up to your house this morning, to write another chapter in the book; and you can go on with your boots while I write, and so we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”
Peter. “Well, I felt distressedly when mistress died, and I cried, and mourned, and wept, night and day. I was now in my eleventh year. While she lived I worked in the house, but, as soon as she died, I was put into the field; and so, on her death, I entered into what I call the field of trouble; and now my story will show ye what stuff men and women is made of.
“My master didn’t own me, for I was made free by my old master’s will, who died when I was little; and, in his will, he liberated my mother, who had always been a slave and all her posterity; so that as soon as old master died, I was free by law—but pity me if slavery folks regard law that ever I see: ☜ for slavery is a tramplin’ on all laws. Well, arter mother was free, she got a comfortable livin’ till her death. In that will I was set free, but I lived with master till after mistress’ death, and then I was stole, and in this way. Master got uneasy and thought he could do better than to stay in that country, and so he advertised his plantation for sale. It run somethin’ like this, on the notice he writ:
‘FOR SALE,
‘A plantation well stocked with oxen, horses, sheep, hogs, fowls, &c.—and ☞ one young, smart nigger, sound every way. ☜’
“You see they put me on the stock-list!! Well, when the day came that I was to be sold, oh! how I felt! I knew it warn’t right, but what could I do? I was a black boy. They sold one thing, and then another, and bim’bye they made me mount a table, and then the auctioneer cries out:—
‘Here’s a smart, active, sound, well trained, young nigger—he’s a first rate body servant, good cook, and all that; now give us a bid:’ and one man bid $50, and another $60; and so they went on. Sister Hagar, she was four years older than me, come up and got on to the table with me, (they dassent sell her,) and she began to cry, and sob, and pity me, and says she, ‘oh Peter, you ain’t agoin’ way off, be ye, ‘mong the wild Ingens at the west, be ye?’ You see there was some talk, that a man would buy me, who was a goin’ out into York State, and you know there was a sight of Ingens here then, and folks was as ‘fraid to go to York State then, as they be now to go to Texas—and so Hagar put her arms round my neck, and oh! how she cried; $95 cries out one man; $100 cries another, and so they kept a bidden’ while Hagar and I kept a cryin’ and finally, ☞ GIDEON MOREHOUSE ☜ (oh! it fairly makes my blood run cold, to speak that name, to this day,) well, he bid $110, and took me—master made him promise to school me three quarters, or he’d not give him a bill of sale; so he promised to do it, and I was his ☞ Property. ☜ And that’s all a slaveholder’s word is good for, for he never sent me to school a day in his life. Now, how could that man get any right to me, when he bought me as stolen property; or how could any body have even a legal right to me? why no more as I see than you would have to my cow, if you should buy her of a man that stole her out of my barn. And yit that’s the way that every slaveholder gits his right to every slave, for a body must know that a feller owns himself. But I gin up long ago all idee of slavery folks thinkin’ any thing ’bout law. ☜
“Well, I should think I stood on that table two hours, for I know when I come down, my eyes ached with cryin’ and my legs with standin’ and tears run down my feet, and fairly made a puddle there. Sister Hagar, she was a very lovin’ sister, and she felt distressedly to think her brother was a goin’ to be sold; and so she went round and borrowed and begged all the money she could, and that, with what she had afore, made 110 Mexican dollars, jist what I sold for, and she comes to my new master, and says she, ‘Sir, I’ve got $110 to buy my brother back agin, and I don’t want him to go off to the west, and wont you please Sir, be so kind, as sell me back my brother?’ ‘Away with ye,’ he hollered, ‘I’ll not take short of 150 silver dollars, and bring me that or nothin’;’ and so Hagar tried hard to raise so much, but she couldn’t, and oh! how she cried, and come to me and sobbed, and hung round my neck, and took on dreadfully, and wouldn’t be pacified; and besides, mother stood by, and see it all, and felt distressedly, as you know a mother must; but, what could she do? she was a black woman. ☞ Now, how would your mother feel to see you sold into bondage? Why, arter mistress died, it did seem to me that master become a very devil—he ‘bused me and other folks most all-killin’ly. He married a fine gal as soon arter mistress’ death as she would have him; and she had 400 silver dollars, and a good many other things, and he took her money and went off to Philadelphia, and sold some of his property, and the rest at this auction I tell on; and then told her she must leave the premises, and another man come on to ’em, and she had to go; and she and Hagar lived together a good many year, and got their livin’ by spinnin’ and weavin’, and she was almost broken-hearted all the time; and when I got way off into the new countries, I hears from Hagar, that she died clear broken-hearted. Well, I was sold a Friday, and master was to take me to Morehouse’s a Sunday; Sunday come, and I was obliged to go. I parted from mother, and never see her agin, till I heard she was dead; but you must know how I felt, so I won’t describe it. She felt distressedly, and gin me a good deal of good advice, but oh! ’twas a sorrowful day for our little family, I tell ye, Mr. L——.
“Well, I got to my new master’s, and all was mighty good, and the children says, “Oh! dis black boy fader bought, and he shall sleep with me;” and the children most worshipped me, and mistress gin me a great hunk of gingerbread, and I thought I had the nicest place in the world. But my joy was soon turned into sorrow. I slept that night on a straw bed, and nothin’ but an old ragged coverlid over me; and next morning I didn’t go down to make a fire, for old master always used to do that himself; and so when I comes down, master scolds at me, and boxes my ears pretty hard, and says, ‘I didn’t buy you to play the gentleman, you black son of a bitch—I got ye to work.’