CHAPTER XI.

THE MISTRESS' GARDEN--THE CRIMSON AND GOLDEN FRUIT--ORANGE AND

POMEGRANATE TREES--RETURN TO BAYOU BOEUF--MASTER FORD'S REMARKS ON

THE WAY--THE MEETING WITH TIBEATS--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE CHASE--FORD

CENSURES HIS BRUTALITY--ARRIVAL AT THE PLANTATION--ASTONISHMENT OF

THE SLAVES ON SEEING ME--THE ANTICIPATED FLOGGING--KENTUCKY JOHN--MR.

ELDRET, THE PLANTER--ELDRET'S SAM--TRIP TO THE "BIG CANE BRAKE"--THE

TRADITION OF "SUTTON'S FIELD"--FOREST TREES--GNATS AND MOSQUITOS--THE

ARRIVAL OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE BIG CANE--LUMBER WOMEN--SUDDEN

APPEARANCE OF TIBEATS--HIS PROVOKING TREATMENT--VISIT TO BAYOU

BOEUF--THE SLAVE PASS--SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY--THE LAST OF ELIZA--SALE

TO EDWIN EPPS.

After a long sleep, sometime in the afternoon I awoke, refreshed, but

very sore and stiff. Sally came in and talked with me, while John

cooked me some dinner. Sally was in great trouble, as well as myself,

one of her children being ill, and she feared it could not survive.

Dinner over, after walking about the quarters for a while, visiting

Sally's cabin and looking at the sick child, I strolled into the

madam's garden. Though it was a season of the year when the voices

of the birds are silent, and the trees are stripped of their summer

glories in more frigid climes, yet the whole variety of roses were

then blooming there, and the long, luxuriant vines creeping over

the frames. The crimson and golden fruit hung half hidden amidst the

younger and older blossoms of the peach, the orange, the plum, and

the pomegranate; for, in that region of almost perpetual warmth, the

leaves are falling and the buds bursting into bloom the whole year

long.

I indulged the most grateful feelings towards Master and Mistress

Ford, and wishing in some manner to repay their kindness, commenced

trimming the vines, and afterwards weeding out the grass from among

the orange and pomegranate trees. The latter grows eight or ten feet

high, and its fruit, though larger, is similar in appearance to the

jelly-flower. It has the luscious flavor of the strawberry. Oranges,

peaches, plums, and most other fruits are indigenous to the rich,

warm soil of Avoyelles; but the apple, the most common of them all in

colder latitudes, is rarely to be seen.

Mistress Ford came out presently, saying it was praise-worthy in me,

but I was not in a condition to labor, and might rest myself at the

quarters until master should go down to Bayou Boeuf, which would not

be that day, and it might not be the next. I said to her--to be sure,

I felt bad, and was stiff, and that my foot pained me, the stubs and

thorns having so torn it, but thought such exercise would not hurt

me, and that it was a great pleasure to work for so good a mistress.

Thereupon she returned to the great house, and for three days I was

diligent in the garden, cleaning the walks, weeding the flower beds,

and pulling up the rank grass beneath the jessamine vines, which the

gentle and generous hand of my protectress had taught to clamber along

the walls.

The fourth morning, having become recruited and refreshed, Master Ford

ordered me to make ready to accompany him to the bayou. There was but

one saddle horse at the opening, all the others with the mules having

been sent down to the plantation. I said I could walk, and bidding

Sally and John goodbye, left the opening, trotting along by the

horse's side.

That little paradise in the Great Pine Woods was the oasis in the

desert, towards which my heart turned lovingly, during many years

of bondage. I went forth from it now with regret and sorrow, not so

overwhelming, however, as if it had then been given me to know that I

should never return to it again.

Master Ford urged me to take his place occasionally on the horse, to

rest me; but I said no, I was not tired, and it was better for me to

walk than him. He said many kind and cheering things to me on the

way, riding slowly, in order that I might keep pace with him. The

goodness of God was manifest, he declared, in my miraculous escape

from the swamp. As Daniel came forth unharmed from the den of lions,

and as Jonah had been preserved in the whale's belly, even so had

I been delivered from evil by the Almighty. He interrogated me in

regard to the various fears and emotions I had experienced during the

day and night, and if I had felt, at any time, a desire to pray. I

felt forsaken of the whole world, I answered him, and was praying

mentally all the while. At such times, said he, the heart of man turns

instinctively towards his Maker. In prosperity, and when there is

nothing to injure or make him afraid, he remembers Him not, and is

ready to defy Him; but place him in the midst of dangers, cut him off

from human aid, let the grave open before him--then it is, in the time

of his tribulation, that the scoffer and unbelieving man turns to God

for help, feeling there is no other hope, or refuge, or safety, save

in his protecting arm.

So did that benignant man speak to me of this life and of the life

hereafter; of the goodness and power of God, and of the vanity of

earthly things, as we journeyed along the solitary road towards Bayou

Boeuf.

When within some five miles of the plantation, we discovered a

horseman at a distance, galloping towards us. As he came near I saw

that it was Tibeats! He looked at me a moment, but did not address

me, and turning about, rode along side by side with Ford. I trotted

silently at their horses' heels, listening to their conversation.

Ford informed him of my arrival in the Pine Woods three days before,

of the sad plight I was in, and of the difficulties and dangers I had

encountered.

"Well," exclaimed Tibeats, omitting his usual oaths in the presence

of Ford, "I never saw such running before. I'll bet him against a

hundred dollars, he'll beat any nigger in Louisiana. I offered John

David Cheney twenty-five dollars to catch him, dead or alive, but he

outran his dogs in a fair race. Them Cheney dogs ain't much, after

all. Dunwoodie's hounds would have had him down before he touched the

palmettoes. Somehow the dogs got off the track, and we had to give

up the hunt. We rode the horses as far as we could, and then kept on

foot till the water was three feet deep. The boys said he was drowned,

sure. I allow I wanted a shot at him mightily. Ever since, I have

been riding up and down the bayou, but had'nt much hope of catching

him--thought he was dead, _sartin_. Oh, he's a cuss to run--that

nigger is!"

In this way Tibeats ran on, describing his search in the swamp, the

wonderful speed with which I had fled before the hounds, and when

he had finished, Master Ford responded by saying, I had always been

a willing and faithful boy with him; that he was sorry we had such

trouble; that, according to Platt's story, he had been inhumanly

treated, and that he, Tibeats, was himself in fault. Using hatchets

and broad-axes upon slaves was shameful, and should not be allowed,

he remarked. "This is no way of dealing with them, when first brought

into the country. It will have a pernicious influence, and set them

all running away. The swamps will be full of them. A little kindness

would be far more effectual in restraining them, and rendering them

obedient, than the use of such deadly weapons. Every planter on the

bayou should frown upon such inhumanity. It is for the interest of

all to do so. It is evident enough, Mr. Tibeats, that you and Platt

cannot live together. You dislike him, and would not hesitate to

kill him, and knowing it, he will run from you again through fear

of his life. Now, Tibeats, you must sell him, or hire him out, at

least. Unless you do so, I shall take measures to get him out of your

possession."

In this spirit Ford addressed him the remainder of the distance. I

opened not my mouth. On reaching the plantation they entered the

great house, while I repaired to Eliza's cabin. The slaves were

astonished to find me there, on returning from the field, supposing

I was drowned. That night, again, they gathered about the cabin to

listen to the story of my adventure. They took it for granted I would

be whipped, and that it would be severe, the well-known penalty of

running away being five hundred lashes.

"Poor fellow," said Eliza, taking me by the hand, "it would have been

better for you if you had drowned. You have a cruel master, and he

will kill you yet, I am afraid."

Lawson suggested that it might be, overseer Chapin would be appointed

to inflict the punishment, in which case it would not be severe,

whereupon Mary, Rachel, Bristol, and others hoped it would be Master

Ford, and then it would be no whipping at all. They all pitied me

and tried to console me, and were sad in view of the castigation

that awaited me, except Kentucky John. There were no bounds to his

laughter; he filled the cabin with cachinnations, holding his sides

to prevent an explosion, and the cause of his noisy mirth was the idea

of my outstripping the hounds. Somehow, he looked at the subject in a

comical light. "I _know'd_ dey would'nt cotch him, when he run cross

de plantation. O, de lor', did'nt Platt pick his feet right up, tho',

hey? When dem dogs got whar he was, he was'nt _dar_--haw, haw, haw! O,

de lor' a' mity!"--and then Kentucky John relapsed into another of his

boisterous fits.

Early the next morning, Tibeats left the plantation. In the course

of the forenoon, while sauntering about the gin-house, a tall,

good-looking man came to me, and inquired if I was Tibeats' boy, that

youthful appellation being applied indiscriminately to slaves even

though they may have passed the number of three score years and ten. I

took off my hat, and answered that I was.

"How would you like to work for me?" he inquired.

"Oh, I would like to, very much," said I, inspired with a sudden hope

of getting away from Tibeats.

"You worked under Myers at Peter Tanner's, didn't you?"

I replied I had, adding some complimentary remarks that Myers had made

concerning me.

"Well, boy," said he, "I have hired you of your master to work for me

in the "Big Cane Brake," thirty-eight miles from here, down on Red

River."

This man was Mr. Eldret, who lived below Ford's, on the same side of

the bayou. I accompanied him to his plantation, and in the morning

started with his slave Sam, and a wagon-load of provisions, drawn by

four mules, for the Big Cane, Eldret and Myers having preceded us on

horseback. This Sam was a native of Charleston, where he had a mother,

brother and sisters. He "allowed"--a common word among both black and

white--that Tibeats was a mean man, and hoped, as I most earnestly did

also, that his master would buy me.

We proceeded down the south shore of the bayou, crossing it at Carey's

plantation; from thence to Huff Power, passing which, we came upon the

Bayou Rouge road, which runs towards Red River. After passing through

Bayou Rouge Swamp, and just at sunset, turning from the highway, we

struck off into the "Big Cane Brake." We followed an unbeaten track,

scarcely wide enough to admit the wagon. The cane, such as are used

for fishing-rods, were as thick as they could stand. A person could

not be seen through them the distance of a rod. The paths of wild

beasts run through them in various directions--the bear and the

American tiger abounding in these brakes, and wherever there is a

basin of stagnant water, it is full of alligators.

We kept on our lonely course through the "Big Cane" several miles,

when we entered a clearing, known as "Sutton's Field." Many years

before, a man by the name of Sutton had penetrated the wilderness

of cane to this solitary place. Tradition has it, that he fled

thither, a fugitive, not from service, but from justice. Here he lived

alone--recluse and hermit of the swamp--with his own hands planting

the seed and gathering in the harvest. One day a band of Indians

stole upon his solitude, and after a bloody battle, overpowered and

massacred him. For miles the country round, in the slaves' quarters,

and on the piazzas of "great houses," where white children listen to

superstitious tales, the story goes, that that spot, in the heart

of the "Big Cane," is a haunted place. For more than a quarter of

a century, human voices had rarely, if ever, disturbed the silence

of the clearing. Rank and noxious weeds had overspread the once

cultivated field--serpents sunned themselves on the doorway of the

crumbling cabin. It was indeed a dreary picture of desolation.

Passing "Sutton's Field," we followed a new-cut road two miles

farther, which brought us to its termination. We had now reached

the wild lands of Mr. Eldret, where he contemplated clearing up

an extensive plantation. We went to work next morning with our

cane-knives, and cleared a sufficient space to allow the erection of

two cabins--one for Myers and Eldret, the other for Sam, myself, and

the slaves that were to join us. We were now in the midst of trees of

enormous growth, whose wide-spreading branches almost shut out the

light of the sun, while the space between the trunks was an impervious

mass of cane, with here and there an occasional palmetto.

The bay and the sycamore, the oak and the cypress, reach a growth

unparalleled, in those fertile lowlands bordering the Red River. From

every tree, moreover, hang long, large masses of moss, presenting to

the eye unaccustomed to them, a striking and singular appearance.

This moss, in large quantities, is sent north, and there used for

manufacturing purposes.

We cut down oaks, split them into rails, and with these erected

temporary cabins. We covered the roofs with the broad palmetto leaf,

an excellent substitute for shingles, as long as they last.

The greatest annoyance I met with here were small flies, gnats and

mosquitoes. They swarmed the air. They penetrated the porches of the

ear, the nose, the eyes, the mouth. They sucked themselves beneath the

skin. It was impossible to brush or beat them off. It seemed, indeed,

as if they would devour us--carry us away piecemeal, in their small

tormenting mouths.

A lonelier spot, or one more disagreeable, than the centre of the "Big

Cane Brake," it would be difficult to conceive; yet to me it was a

paradise, in comparison with any other place in the company of Master

Tibeats. I labored hard, and oft-times was weary and fatigued, yet I

could lie down at night in peace, and arise in the morning without

fear.

In the course of a fortnight, four black girls came down from Eldret's

plantation--Charlotte, Fanny, Cresia and Nelly. They were all large

and stout. Axes were put into their hands, and they were sent out

with Sam and myself to cut trees. They were excellent choppers, the

largest oak or sycamore standing but a brief season before their

heavy and well-directed blows. At piling logs, they were equal to any

man. There are lumberwomen as well as lumbermen in the forests of the

South. In fact, in the region of the Bayou Boeuf they perform their

share of all the labor required on the plantation. They plough, drag,

drive team, clear wild lands, work on the highway, and so forth. Some

planters, owning large cotton and sugar plantations, have none other

than the labor of slave women. Such a one is Jim Burns, who lives on

the north shore of the bayou, opposite the plantation of John Fogaman.

On our arrival in the brake, Eldret promised me, if I worked well, I

might go up to visit my friends at Ford's in four weeks. On Saturday

night of the fifth week, I reminded him of his promise, when he told

me I had done so well, that I might go. I had set my heart upon it,

and Eldret's announcement thrilled me with pleasure. I was to return

in time to commence the labors of the day on Tuesday morning.

While indulging the pleasant anticipation of so soon meeting my old

friends again, suddenly the hateful form of Tibeats appeared among us.

He inquired how Myers and Platt got along together, and was told, very

well, and that Platt was going up to Ford's plantation in the morning

on a visit.

"Poh, poh!" sneered Tibeats; "it isn't worth while--the nigger will

get unsteady. He can't go."

But Eldret insisted I had worked faithfully--that he had given me

his promise, and that, under the circumstances, I ought not to be

disappointed. They then, it being about dark, entered one cabin

and I the other. I could not give up the idea of going; it was a

sore disappointment. Before morning I resolved, if Eldret made no

objection, to leave at all hazards. At daylight I was at his door,

with my blanket rolled up into a bundle, and hanging on a stick over

my shoulder, waiting for a pass. Tibeats came out presently in one

of his disagreeable moods, washed his face, and going to a stump

near by, sat down upon it, apparently busily thinking with himself.

After standing there a long time, impelled by a sudden impulse of

impatience, I started off.

"Are you going without a pass?" he cried out to me.

"Yes, master, I thought I would," I answered.

"How do you think you'll get there?" demanded he.

"Don't know," was all the reply I made him.

"You'd be taken and sent to jail, where you ought to be, before you

got half-way there," he added, passing into the cabin as he said it.

He came out soon with the pass in his hand, and calling me a "d--d

nigger that deserved a hundred lashes," threw it on the ground. I

picked it up, and hurried away right speedily.

A slave caught off his master's plantation without a pass, may be

seized and whipped by any white man whom he meets. The one I now

received was dated, and read as follows:

"Platt has permission to go to Ford's plantation, on Bayou Boeuf, and

return by Tuesday morning.

JOHN M. TIBEATS."

This is the usual form. On the way, a great many demanded it, read it,

and passed on. Those having the air and appearance of gentlemen, whose

dress indicated the possession of wealth, frequently took no notice of

me whatever; but a shabby fellow, an unmistakable loafer, never failed

to hail me, and to scrutinize and examine me in the most thorough

manner. Catching runaways is sometimes a money-making business. If,

after advertising, no owner appears, they may be sold to the highest

bidder; and certain fees are allowed the finder for his services, at

all events, even if reclaimed. "A mean white," therefore,--a name

applied to the species loafer--considers it a god-send to meet an

unknown negro without a pass.

There are no inns along the highways in that portion of the State

where I sojourned. I was wholly destitute of money, neither did I

carry any provisions, on my journey from the Big Cane to Bayou Boeuf;

nevertheless, with his pass in his hand, a slave need never suffer

from hunger or from thirst. It is only necessary to present it to the

master or overseer of a plantation, and state his wants, when he will

be sent round to the kitchen and provided with food or shelter, as

the case may require. The traveler stops at any house and calls for

a meal with as much freedom as if it was a public tavern. It is the

general custom of the country. Whatever their faults may be, it is

certain the inhabitants along Red River, and around the bayous in the

interior of Louisiana are not wanting in hospitality.

I arrived at Ford's plantation towards the close of the afternoon,

passing the evening in Eliza's cabin, with Lawson, Rachel, and others

of my acquaintance. When we left Washington Eliza's form was round

and plump. She stood erect, and in her silks and jewels, presented

a picture of graceful strength and elegance. Now she was but a thin

shadow of her former self. Her face had become ghastly haggard, and

the once straight and active form was bowed down, as if bearing the

weight of a hundred years. Crouching on her cabin floor, and clad

in the coarse garments of a slave, old Elisha Berry would not have

recognized the mother of his child. I never saw her afterwards. Having

become useless in the cotton-field, she was bartered for a trifle, to

some man residing in the vicinity of Peter Compton's. Grief had gnawed

remorselessly at her heart, until her strength was gone; and for that,

her last master, it is said, lashed and abused her most unmercifully.

But he could not whip back the departed vigor of her youth, nor

straighten up that bended body to its full height, such as it was when

her children were around her, and the light of freedom was shining on

her path.

I learned the particulars relative to her departure from this world,

from some of Compton's slaves, who had come over Red River to the

bayou, to assist young Madam Tanner during the "busy season." She

became at length, they said, utterly helpless, for several weeks lying

on the ground floor in a dilapidated cabin, dependent upon the mercy

of her fellow-thralls for an occasional drop of water, and a morsel of

food. Her master did not "knock her on the head," as is sometimes done

to put a suffering animal out of misery, but left her unprovided for,

and unprotected, to linger through a life of pain and wretchedness to

its natural close. When the hands returned from the field one night

they found her dead! During the day, the Angel of the Lord, who moveth

invisibly over all the earth, gathering in his harvest of departing

souls, had silently entered the cabin of the dying woman, and taken

her from thence. She was _free_ at last!

Next day, rolling up my blanket, I started on my return to the Big

Cane. After traveling five miles, at a place called Huff Power, the

ever-present Tibeats met me in the road. He inquired why I was going

back so soon, and when informed I was anxious to return by the time I

was directed, he said I need go no farther than the next plantation,

as he had that day sold me to Edwin Epps. We walked down into the

yard, where we met the latter gentleman, who examined me, and asked

me the usual questions propounded by purchasers. Having been duly

delivered over, I was ordered to the quarters, and at the same time

directed to make a hoe and axe handle for myself.

I was now no longer the property of Tibeats--his dog, his brute,

dreading his wrath and cruelty day and night; and whoever or whatever

my new master might prove to be, I could not, certainly, regret the

change. So it was good news when the sale was announced, and with a

sigh of relief I sat down for the first time in my new abode.

Tibeats soon after disappeared from that section of the country.

Once afterwards, and only once, I caught a glimpse of him. It was

many miles from Bayou Boeuf. He was seated in the doorway of a low

groggery. I was passing, in a drove of slaves, through St. Mary's

parish.