“I wish I had some of your goodness,” he replied. “You bear everything patiently, just as though you thought it was all right. I wish I could.”
She told him it had not always been so with her; that once she was like him; but when sore troubles came upon her, and she had no arm to lean upon, she learned to call on God, and he lightened her burdens. She besought him to do so likewise.
The jailer came to tell us we had overstayed our time, and we were obliged to hurry away. Grandmother went to the master and tried to intercede for her son. But he was inexorable. He said Benjamin should be made an example of. That he should be kept in jail till he was sold. For three months he remained within the walls of the prison, during which time grandmother secretly conveyed him changes of clothes, and as often as possible carried him something warm for supper, accompanied with some little luxury for her friend the jailer. He was finally sold to a slave-trader from New Orleans. When they fastened irons upon his wrists to drive him off with the coffle, it was heart-rending to hear the groans of that poor mother, as she clung to the Benjamin of her family,—her youngest, her pet. He was pale and thin now from hardships and long confinement, but still his good looks were so observable, that the slave-trader remarked he would give any price for the handsome lad, if he were a girl. We, who knew so well what slavery was, were thankful that he was not.
Grandmother stifled her grief, and with strong arms and unwavering faith set to work to purchase freedom for Benjamin. She knew the slave-trader would charge three times as much as he gave for him; but she was not discouraged. She employed a lawyer to write to New Orleans, and try to negotiate the business for her. But word came that Benjamin was missing; he had run away again.
Philip, my grandmother’s only remaining son, inherited his mother’s intelligence. His mistress sometimes trusted him to go with a cargo to New York. One of these occasions occurred not long after Benjamin’s second escape. Through God’s good providence the brothers met in the streets of New York. It was a happy meeting, though Benjamin was very pale and thin; for, on his way from bondage, he had been taken violently ill, and brought nigh unto death. Eagerly he embraced his brother, exclaiming, “O Phil! here I am at last! I came nigh dying when I was almost in sight of freedom; and O how I prayed that I might live just to get one breath of free air! And here I am. In the old jail I used to wish I was dead. But life is worth something now, and it would be hard to die.” He begged his brother not to go back to the South, but to stay and work with him till they earned enough to buy their relatives.
Philip replied: “It would kill mother if I deserted her. She has pledged her house, and is working harder than ever to buy you. Will you be bought?”
“Never!” replied Benjamin, in his resolute tone. “When I have got so far out of their clutches, do you suppose, Phil, that I would ever let them be paid one red cent? Do you think I would consent to have mother turned out of her hard-earned home in her old age? And she never to see me after she had bought me? For you know, Phil, she would never leave the South while any of her children or grandchildren remained in slavery. What a good mother! Tell her to buy you, Phil. You have always been a comfort to her; and I have always been making her trouble.”
Philip furnished his brother with some clothes, and gave him what money he had. Benjamin pressed his hand, and said, with moistened eyes, “I part from all my kindred.” And so it proved. We never heard from him afterwards.
When Uncle Philip came home, the first words he said, on entering the house, were: “O, mother, Ben is free! I have seen him in New York.” For a moment, she seemed bewildered. He laid his hand gently on her shoulder, and repeated what he had said. She raised her hands devoutly, and exclaimed, “God be praised! Let us thank Him.” She dropped on her knees, and poured forth her heart in prayer. When she grew calmer, she begged Philip to sit down and repeat every word her son had said. He told her all, except that Benjamin had nearly died on the way, and was looking very pale and thin.
Still the brave old woman toiled on to accomplish the rescue of her remaining children. After a while, she succeeded in buying Philip, for whom she paid eight hundred dollars, and came home with the precious document that secured his freedom. The happy mother and son sat by her hearth-stone that night, telling how proud they were of each other, and how they would prove to the world that they could take care of themselves, as they had long taken care of others. We all concluded by saying, “He that is willing to be a slave, let him be a slave.”