USA > Delaware > Methodism of the peninsula, or, Sketches of notable characters and events in the history of Methodism in the Maryland and Delaware peninsula > Part 13
USA > Maryland > Methodism of the peninsula, or, Sketches of notable characters and events in the history of Methodism in the Maryland and Delaware peninsula > Part 13
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Every new invoice of slaves, arriving in that part of the colony for many years, was eagerly searched by "Wycongo," with the vague hope that his beloved "Manona" might be among the exiles, but in vain. At length he committed the last hope to the grave, and resigned himself to his cruel fate. About this time his master brought from Baltimore, in one of his schooners, several female slaves purchased in that city, one of whom was a comely Asiatic. In figure and feature she strongly resembled Manona, the bride of his youth, though of
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lighter hue; and Wycongo very soon laid his heart at her feet-the hand was not his to offer-and sued earn- estly and eloquently for her love, at least in action ; for their speech was so dissimilar as to make any verbal communication exceedingly difficult. After repeated efforts, by the employment of signs and a few English words she had been able to pick up, Altona, the Asiatic maiden, succeeded in making Wycongo understand that she also had been torn away from a lover she could not forget. Thenceforth Wycongo's love was deepened and intensified by the sympathy of a fellow feeling, which for some time he vainly tried to make her understand. In order to succeed in telling Altona his story, Wycongo devoted all his spare hours and Sundays to giving her verbal lessons in his English ; and having finally made her acquainted with his sorrowful history, he was rewarded by the assurance of both her sympathy and her affection. At Wycongo's request, and with her and her master's consent, Altona's name was thenceforth changed to Manona. "It is so purty, an' soun's so nat'ral like," explained her husband.
"Congo" and "Nona," as they were thenceforth called upon the plantation, were at once settled by the master in the aforementioned little cabin, down by the shipyard on the shore of the Annamessex. Congo became so expert as a mechanic, that he soon reached the honor- able distinction of being appointed one of the foremen among the slave laborers; and Nona was constituted cook for such of the negro workmen as were unmarried.
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UNCLE STEPHEN, THE SLAVE PREACHER.
Here, in due course of time, Sarah, our hero's mother, was born and raised. Here, as the wife of Stephen the Aborigine, she succeeded her mother in the simple arts of slave housekeeping; and here her son, whom she called by his father's name, grew up and learned his trade, becoming like Wycongo, his grandfather, an exper- ienced hand and foreman.
In Stephen's veins flowed the red current formed by a confluence of blood from three continents ; and, as the reader would naturally suppose, he was somewhat sui generis. While he was growing up, his mother treated his antics and idiosyncracies from the Asiatic stand- point. His father applied the Indian code. And his master meted out to him the kind and measure of disci- pline usually considered, by the statesmen of that day, most effectual in keeping the noble red man of the forest in his appropriate place. Thus the Asiatic rod; the American policy, and the Indian tactics for the preserva- tion of the domestic peace were applied by turns, or all at once, in poor Steve's case; and, very naturally, the graduate from such a juvenile university was an excep-
tionally unique character. Equatorial restfulness and oriental imagination and dreaming, ofttimes made Steve seem, like the cat in the chimney corner, fast asleep; but only let some mouse of possible mischief or daring deviltry attempt to steal abroad, and he was instantly wide awake and off for the "scrimmage." None of his exploits however were malicious; they were rather the outcroppings of irrepressible mischief. Hilarity and
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inquisitiveness were his besetting sins, leading him into heedlessness, and once nearly costing him his life. Hav- ing received a commission one day from "young Mars," but little older than himself, his jolly mood led him to such antics in the performance of the duty, as to occa- sion his tumbling over a steep bank into the river; whence he was finally rescued, more dead than alive, by some of the men at the shipyard, attracted to the spot by the vigorous yelling and tearful lamentations of his playmate master. When he sufficiently recovered to appreciate the lesson, his mother laid him across her lap; said to him: "De Lord must a sporn yer life fo' some good eend;" and then emphasized and impressed the oracular declaration by about twenty well aimed blows with the sole of one of her old shoes. The expression on poor little Steve's countenance, when he at last resumed an upright position, gave ample evidence that the impressive lesson had taken due effect.
The following incident will illustrate Steve's peculiar propensity for juvenile investigation. His young Mars "Jeems" having grown old enough to feel an interest in his mother's welfare-his father having meantime died -was entrusted with the duty of the general supervision of the shipyard, and took possession of the office"his father had previously occupied. He carefully imitated his father's movements and habits, even to the retention of the little brown whiskey-jug, which was replenished weekly, and statedly tested three times a day; and was then put back into the corner of the desk as he had seen his father do before him.
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"Mars Jeems, what's dat ye got in dat jug?" inquired Steve one day, strolling in at the office door just in time to see the vessel removed from his master's lips to its accustomed corner.
"G'long, you fool," replied the young master. "Yer always pokin' yer nose into other people's business. It's only a little medicine."
"Is ye sick, Mars Jeems? What ye take 'em for?"
"Its none o' yer bis'ness, nigger," replied Mars Jeems. "But sometimes I don't feel right, and then I take a little medicine."
"Make ye feel good, Mars?"
"Yes, all over in spots, as big as a blanket. Now, you Injin nigger, if you don't git out, I'll kick you out."
Steve vanished; but he didn't feel well. The more he thought about his condition the worse he imagined he felt, until he concluded he must die if he couldn't find opportunity to test Mars Jeems' medicine. The young master's departure to dinner finally afforded Steve the coveted chance; and when his master returned he found him indulging in all possible antics, the office in utter confusion and the jug nearly emptied of its precious con- tents. Steve thus explained : "Golly, M-Mars; wuz zo -zo bad wid a pain, tried yer me'cine. 'Spec' I took spoo-oonfull mor'n 'nuff. Mars; feels spo's-spots 's big 's two 'r tree bla-blank's. Whoop!" Saying which he gave a kick which overturned his master's desk, spilled the ink on his books and papers and broke the precious jug; and seemed bent on a general wreck of the
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office, meanwhile laughing and yelling and tearing around like one possessed. As in Steve's blood three continents were represented, so the most reckless and grotesque features of the African, the Asiatic and the Indian "drunk" seem to have been combined in this exhibition; and it took all the forces of the shipyard to bring him into subjection. Fortunately for Steve, when the hilarious effects of the "me'cine" began to subside, the "Spoo-oonfull more'n 'nuff" of the poison he had taken produced a reaction that made him deathly sick, and left him prostrate. He did not need the flogging he received next morning to strengthen his determination never to take any more of that kind of medicine. Pity it was " Mars Jeems" did not join in the promise he exacted from Steve, and take it no longer. But then Steve was only a "nigger" slave; the master was a free American gentleman, and an Eastern Shore aristocrat! And in that day and country, the wealthy young planter who failed to drink whisky, gamble, "go a fox huntin'," and
"Dance all night till broad day light,
An' go home with the gals in the mornin',"
was hardly considered eligible for admission into first- class society. This phase of southern opinion has, how- ever, been materially changed, or greatly modified by the mutations of the last quarter of a century-especially the transition from slavery to freedom. Gambling, rum-selling and drunkenness are now generally consid- ered disreputable; and labor is beginning to grow
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respectable. In fact, much of what was once the upper stratum of Eastern Shore society has settled to the bot- tom ; while the industrious, non-slaveholding whites, taking advantage of their opportunity, have arisen to the vacant place. Not infrequently the son of the plan- tation overseer of a few years ago, now gives employment to the son of the former aristocratic planter and slave- owner. It is supposed to have been an Eastern Shore aristocrat of broken fortunes, who, just after the war, for a whole year, kept the following advertisement in a New York newspaper : "Wanted-A situation for a gentle- man's son." At the end of this time, the family being about to starve, the genteel father and his darling boy pulled off their old kid gloves, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. The healthful exercise has improved their brain power and manly independence as much as it has their muscle.
Just after the incident above narrated occurred, Steve's old mistress died ; and by her will he, the human tri- partite of Africa, Asia and America, became the property of her son James. A human being property ! A mind, the vehicle of independent thought and determination- " a living soul," with the stamp of creative Infinity upon it-property! A son of God-crowned by his Maker to reign in the realm of never-ceasing being-transmuted into a machine, to be circumscribed, owned, domineered, manipulated, valued and sold for rags and dust, as the property of his brother man! "The days of this igno- rance" and wrong " God winked at." The world was a
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great infant, and the Father of Lights drew the curtains and let in his sunshine only as its unaccustomed eyes could bear it. The removal of the last vestige of those curtains by his red, right hand of bloody war caused much weeping to mercenary eyes; but joy came with the further opening of the new, bright morning of free- dom; and now, while there may be a few who would, the vast majority of Maryland's former slaveholders would not if they could, resume the rights of ownership over their former bondmen. Verily the intelligent man whose life spans the stirring events of the last half century, has lived longer than Methuselah.
About this time an event occurred that formed an important epoch in Steve's life. In fact it completely revolutionized his nature, and gave new impulse and direction to those invisible forces of his being that were least fettered by the chains of his bondage. We will relate the story as nearly as possible in Stephen's own quaint dialect. Said he:
"When I was 'bout twenty years old-dat wus a gwine on well nigh to fifty years ago-dere was a camp- meetin' in one o' Mars Jeemses woodses, 'bout two miles from the shipyard. An' dem times de cullud folkses dey camped wid de white folkses, an' had dere part o' de 'campment to de rare ob de preachin' stan', wid a fence atween dem an' de white people. Dat was all right I reckons; but I used to set dare on a plank to hear de preachin', an' fogit what de preachah was a sayin', a thinkin' an' a wonderin' whedder in de place
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de Master was a preparin' up yander, dere was any 'tition fence to keep de niggers in dere own part of de great camp-meetin'; an' wedder de great Mars an' de mighty angels, when dey gits up to preach a great 'scourse to de 'deemed 'sembly, turns der backs all de time to de po' darkeys; but dat was when I wus young an' thoughtless.
" Well, as I was a goin' to say, says I to Mars Jeems one day-dat was afo' I'd eber seed a camp-meetin'- says I: 'Mars Jeems, please sah, kin I go to de camp- meetin' to-night, arter I git done dis task o' hewin' you done gone gib me dis mornin'?' Sez he to me, sez he: 'Wot you want to go dar fur, nigger?' Sez I to him, sez I: 'Jes fo' a little fun, Mars ; I's comin' back afo day, in time to feed de hosses an' git ready for de day's work.' An' den Mars Jeems he say : 'Yes, you rascal, an' den be too sleepy to work termorry? Well, go dis time, but you need'nt ax no mo' afore Sat'day night.'
" Well, sir, ef eber you seed a darkey make chips fly, dis chile did from dat time till sundown, when I finished up de last stick. Den Mammy she had my pone an' herrin' all ready, an' when I slid inter a clean shirt, wid a herrin' in one hand an' a hunk o' corn pone in de udder, dis chile cut stick down de road fo' de 'camp- ment. When I got dar, de pine knots was a blazin' on de fire stan's; an' two pow'ful big men was a blowin' de trumpets ; an' somehow it kind o' made me feel like de judgment day was a comin'. Howsomever de great 'Sidin' Elder he got up in de stan', an' call all de people
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out to preachin'; an' aldo I didn't see no cullud folkses about where I was, an' was kind o' skeered an' trim- blin', I 'cluded I'd better go up to de stan' wid de rest. An' bless yo' sould, honeys, when I got dar, I was de only nigger in de 'sembly. Dreckly a gemman he come an' say: 'You black rascal, what you a doin' on dis side de fence ?" An' I say : 'I didn't know as dey was any udder side de fence.'' An' den he say : 'I'll show you der is;' an' wid' dat, he grab me by de arm, an' led me through de crowd to a high plank fence, an' say : 'Now, nigger, git out'n dis.' I 'cepted de invitation in sich a hurry dat I fell'd ober, 'kase I was afeered he wus a gwine ter kick me. Some o' de folkses, white an' cul- lud, was considerable tickled at de way I tumbled ; but I got up, an' went' an' sot down 'mongst de cullud 'sembly. Dreckly de preachah denounce de hime an' de meetin' begun.
" When de preachah tuck his tex' 'bout de sheep an' de goats, some on one side an' some on de udder, thinks I to myself dat mus' be me he's talkin' 'bout: 'spec I's one ob de goats. Anyhow, I's 'vided off on dis side de fence. An' den when he tell 'bout de great judgment day, an' 'bout de King 'vidin' de good from de bad, an' drivin' de wicked down to 'dition, I begun to feel pow'- ful bad; so I tried to think 'bout suffin' else, an' put my head down, an' stuck my fingers inter my years. But jes' den de preachah he call out mighty loud : ' Him dat has years to heah, let 'im heah;' an' all to onct it seem to me de Debil war about to put de han'-
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cuffs onter me, an' I hearn de chains jingle, an' I begun to go down ; an' den I look up an' seed Heaben a flyin' away like a clowd, all full ob de saints wid snow-white wings an' golden harps. An' den I hearn der singing, away furder an' furder off, like a echo dies away 'mong de woodses 'long de riber shore; an' de same time I hearn a mighty rumlin' 'way down, dat comed nearer an' nearer, till de groun' begin to shake under whar I sot; an' dat's de las' I knowed till I comed to an' found myself a hollerin' for mercy, a rollin' on de groun', an' de cullud folkses a singin' an' a shoutin' all roun' me.
'Bout dat time I look up, an' seed de same clowd dat went away comin' down agin from Heaben; but it was a pow'ful distance off. An' I seed de great Marster, in de form ob a lamb, a standin' on de edge ob de clowd an' a lookin' right down to whar I was. An' 'bout dat time de people seemed to see him too, for dey struck up de hime:
"Oh, de bleedin' Lamb ! He was found worthy ; "
an' den, chil'n, I cried, 'O! dow blessed Lamb, do please ride down on di clowdy chariot to dis awful pit an' help dis po' sinkin' sinner !' An' den I seed dat de Lamb was all bloody, an' I 'membered de ole song :
'Oh, he died fo' you an' he died fo' me ;'
an' de nex' thing I knowed he knocked off my han'cuffs, an' pulled me outen de mire, an' washed me clean, an' put a white robe onter me, an' tuck me up on de cloud on a 'scursion through all de Paradises ob de halleluyer
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regions. I tells ye, chil'n, I neber 'membered to tell Jesus 'bout promisin' Mars Jeems to be home afo' day to feed de hosses ; an' when he landed me agin on de yearth at de blessed ole camp-groun', de mornin' sun was up an' a-shinin' ! 'Dere now !' sez I to myself, ' I done gone forgot all 'bout Mars Jeems an' de hosses ; but neber mind, I'll go tell him 'bout de 'scursion, an' as how I couldn't git back no sooner, an' what a good nigger I's agoin to be, an' may be he'll let me off. So off I goes, runnin' an' jumpin' an' a hollerin' glory down de road, till I meets Mars Jeems a comin' out de gate on his hoss, a gwine to look for me. Sez he :
"' You crazy fool ! whar you bin ?'
"'O, glory ! Mars Jeems,' sez I, 'I's bin on a heb'nly 'scursion, an' I wants you to go dar too.'
"' Yes, you black rascal !' sez he, ' I'll take you on a yarthly 'scursion. Take that !'
" Jes' den he brought me a wipe ober de shoulder wid his cowhide, dat a'most lifted me off'n my feet; but I hol- lered 'Glory, halleluyer !' an' started a runnin' for de house, an' he a runnin' his hoss alongside o' me, an' a puttin' de cowskin onter me wid all his might, an' I a hollerin' glory ebery time till I made harbor in de stables. By dat time he got tired o' fightin' an' I'd got sobered down so I could 'splain matters. So I told him all 'bout bein 'saved by de bleedin' Lamb, an' how much I love him, an' how happy I was, an' how good an' faithful I was a goin' to be ef he'd let me jine de meetin'; an' den he say: 'You black rascal, you oughter come
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home when you promise to. I'll teach you to mind what's said to you;' an' den he turned and walked away to de office, an' I seed de tears a runnin' down his face as he turned to go in at de door. Bime by, when I was a hewin' off by myself, Mars Jeems he come out to me, an' sez he: 'Steve, how does ye feel?' Sez I: 'Bress de Lord, Mars Jeems, I feels mighty sore on de back, but pow'ful gladsome in de heart.' Den Mars Jeems go to de office agin, an' dreckly he comed out wid some wheel-grease on a oster shell, an' say : 'Steve, I speck I struck you harder nor I 'tended dis mornin'. Lem'me 'noint yer back wid some o' dis.' So I strip down my shirt, an' Mars Jeems greased my back whar it was cut an' welted; an', sez he: 'Steve, I hope I shall never have to whip you agin ;' an' dem was de las' licks he eber struck me. Chil'n, dat blessed day was, as I said, long time ago; but I's neber forgot it. I's still on de 'scursion to de New Jeruserlam ; but sometimes de passage am bery stormy, an' de waves roll high an' de heabens git dark; but de ole ship o' Zion mighty safe boat; de Cap'n he know de sea an' he bridle de storm ; an', bime by, I specs to heave de anker overboard in de harbor ob de kingdom !"
I have thus given Uncle Stephen's experiences as nearly as possible, as detailed by himself, in an exhorta- tion delivered at a camp-meeting many years ago. The effect was most thrilling. Smiles and tears came and went like April sunshine and showers; and, at the close, a tempest of divine power burst upon the assembly ; and
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many, like the boy of fifty years before to whose experi- ence they had listened, were crying for mercy.
To a philosophic observer Steve's sudden conversion -unexpected to himself, and unheralded by a single sober thought or serious reflection-might have given little promise of permanency. But "God's ways are not as our ways." He who formed the mind and fashioned the heart, knows more than one door of possible ingress ; and, in this instance, as in that of the Philippian Jailer, he seems to have loosened the bars and bolts with the wrench of an earthquake and a hammer of thunder. So real was the moral revolution, in this case, and so com- pletely was the prisoner of Satan set free, that the vicis- situdes and exposures of fifty years, varying all the way from the humiliation of slavery to the honor and respon- sibility of the Christian pastorate, have never moved him from his steadfastness. "Uncle Stephen," the patri- arch of seventy years, and an honored superannuate of the Delaware Conference, still lives to take his occasional turn as lookout on board "de ole ship," but says he is "roundin' de cape an' nearin' de port."
Very soon after his conversion, Steve graduated to his position as one of the foremen in the shipyard and upon the plantation. When he was twenty-five years old, his mother died ; and soon after, Rachel, a dusky maid of the plantation, by consent of the master and the kindly office of the senior preacher of Annamessex circuit, was taken to the cabin by the riverside to be the partner of his joys and sorrows. Here, in the course of a few
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years, three little slaves, they called their children, were added to "Mars Jeems'" estate.
At length an irrepressible longing for freedom moved Steve to make a proposition to his master to purchase his liberty. Could he but get free, he thought he could, in course of time, also "buy the time" of his wife and children, and thus leave to his descendants a heritage of manhood. His master would not consent to an absolute sale, but said: "Steve, I shall not probably live very long : pay me eighty dollars a year while I live; and at my death my will will make you free." He accepted the offer, and immediately hired himself to another party, who, at this time, was managing the ship-yard ; and, besides meeting his obligations to his master, laid by a considerable sum every year as the nucleus of his future fortune. With these accumulations, he finally purchased a lot of his master, and built himself a com- fortable cabin. Under the slave code, no title to prop- erty could be given to a bondman ; but the instrument that was to make him a freeman was also to secure to him his little home.
Said Stephen to his master one Christmas day : "Mars Jeems, has ye eber fixed dat bisness of our'n?"
"No, Steve," said his master, "but I'm going to do it on New. Year's day. Come, take a little Christmas apple toddy with me."
"No, thankee, Mars Jeems," said he; "ye knows I got 'nuff dat stuff dat day in yer office, when I was a boy. I promist you, an' I promist de Lord, I'd neber
10
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do so no more. An' furdermore, ye knows I's a 'zorter in de church now, an how'd dat look-de brown jug in de pulpit ! Hyah, hyah, hyah ! No, Mars; ye must 'scuse me."
"Mars Jeems"-rarely sober of late years at any time-entered, that Christmas day, upon a prolonged debauch from which he never recovered. Delirium- tremens ensued; but, at length, after weeks of anxiety on the part of his family, he seemed about to regain his health. Finally, one March night, he retired, apparently in full possession of his normal faculties, to awake next morning a raving maniac, in which hopeless condition, after a few weeks, he left this world.
Stephen was a sincere mourner at his master's grave. They had been playmates in childhood, and companions in youth. With the exception of a few instances of cruelty, for which no doubt the master was afterwards sorry, his bearing and conduct had been considerate and kindly. But, alas! that master was himself a slave to evil habits and died a prisoner in hopeless chains. To Stephen, however, there was one consolation. He was now a freeman and a freeholder! His master had secured the presence of an attorney at his home, on New Year's day; and, it was generally supposed, had made suitable disposition of his business affairs. At length, however, one of the heirs assured Stephen that his master had left no will and no papers or memoranda whatever touching his case; that the attorney who was present on New Year's day found him mentally disqualified for
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business; and that it would be the sworn duty of the Administrator to return him in the schedule of appraise- ment as a part of the personal estate.
Poor Stephen's heart sank within him. From the summit of manhood's royalty, in which for a brief day he had rejoiced ; from the heights of a glowing expec- tancy irradiating all his future, he went down, down to the uttermost depths of a helpless and hopeless bondage ! In the sixteen years his master had lived after selling him his time, he had paid him thirteen hundred dollars for his promised freedom; and had invested besides about four hundred dollars in the lot he had purchased and its improvements. By the absence of a will with the promised title, all this too reverted to the estate. A correct estimate of justice would have induced Christian heirs to have carried out the contract ; to have said to the disappointed and sorrowful man: "Go in peace ;" but the descendants of the honorable house of W- gauged their notions of equity and justice by what the frigid technicalities of the law permitted. In this decision they were greatly strengthened, the following Sunday, by a sermon from the Rector of the parish church on the text: " All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." The learned divine was himself a slave-owner. In his exegesis; he applied the rule to all the relations of life on this wise : " Whatsoever ye, being in the lawful con- dition of slaves, would that men should do unto you, as subjects of a lawful servitude, so do ye, as slaves, to those
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