A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: Presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded. Together with corroborative statements verifying the truth of the work.Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: Presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded. Together with corroborative statements verifying the truth of the work.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Social conditions; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Political fiction -- Sources; Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896. Uncle Tom's cabin -- Sources; Uncle Tom (Fictitious character)
My mother occasionally found an opportunity to send me some token of
remembrance and affection,—a sugar-plum or an apple; but I scarcely
ever ate them; they were laid up, and handled and wept over, till
they wasted away in my hand.
My thoughts continually by day, and my dreams by night, were of
mother and home; and the horror experienced in the morning, when I
awoke and behold it was a dream, is beyond the power of language to
describe.
Lewis had a beautiful sister by the name of Delia, who, on the death of
her grandfather, was sold, with all the other children of his mother,
for the purpose of dividing the estate. She was a pious girl, a member
of the Baptist church. She fell into the hands of a brutal, drunken man,
who wished to make her his mistress. Milton Clark, a brother of Lewis,
in the narrative of his life describes the scene where he, with his
mother, stood at the door while this girl was brutally whipped before it
for wishing to conform to the principles of her Christian profession. As
her resolution was unconquerable, she was placed in a coffle and sent
down to the New Orleans market. Here she was sold to a Frenchman, named
Coval. He took her to Mexico, emancipated and married her. After
residing some time in France and the West Indies with him, he died,
leaving her a fortune of twenty or thirty thousand dollars. At her death
she endeavored to leave this by will to purchase the freedom of her
brothers; but, as a slave cannot take property, or even have it left in
trust for him, they never received any of it.
The incidents of the recovery of Lewis’ freedom are thus told:
I had long thought and dreamed of LIBERTY. I was now determined to
make an effort to gain it. No tongue can tell the doubt, the
perplexities, the anxiety, which a slave feels, when making up his
mind upon this subject. If he makes an effort, and is not
successful, he must be laughed at by his fellows, he will be beaten
unmercifully by the master, and then watched and used the harder for
it all his life.
And then, if he gets away, _who_, _what_ will he find? He is
ignorant of the world. All the white part of mankind, that he has
ever seen, are enemies to him and all his kindred. How can he
venture where none but white faces shall greet him? The master tells
him that abolitionists _decoy_ slaves off into the free states to
catch them and sell them to Louisiana or Mississippi; and, if he
goes to Canada, the British will put him in a _mine under ground,
with both eyes put out, for life_. How does he know what or whom to
believe? A horror of great darkness comes upon him, as he thinks
over what may befall him. Long, very long time did I think of
escaping, before I made the effort.
At length, the report was started that I was to be sold for
Louisiana. Then I thought it was time to act. My mind was made up.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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