Illustrated Edition of the Life and Escape of Wm. Wells Brown from American Slavery: Written by HimselfBrown, William Wells
History
Illustrated Edition of the Life and Escape of Wm. Wells Brown from American Slavery: Written by Himself
Brown, William Wells
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Slavery -- Missouri
As soon as they became satisfied of this, they commenced leaving, one
after another. One of the hands on the boat informed the captain that
they had killed the man, and that the dead body was lying on the deck.
The captain came on deck, and said to those who were remaining, “You
have killed this nigger; now take him off of my boat.” The captain’s
name was Hart. The dead body was dragged on shore and left there. I went
on board of the boat where our gang of slaves were, and during the whole
night my mind was occupied with what I had seen. Early in the morning I
went on shore to see if the dead body remained there. I found it in the
same position that it was left the night before. I watched to see what
they would do with it. It was left there until between eight and nine
o’clock, when a cart, which takes up the trash out of the streets, came
along, and the body was thrown in, and in a few minutes more was covered
over with dirt which they were removing from the streets. During the
whole time, I did not see more than six or seven persons around it, who,
from their manner, evidently regarded it as no uncommon occurrence.
During our stay in the city I met with a young white man with whom I was
well acquainted in St. Louis. He had been sold into slavery, under the
following circumstances. His father was drunkard, and very poor, with a
family of five or six children. The father died, and left the mother to
take care of and provide for the children as best she might. The eldest
was a boy, named Burrill, about thirteen years of age, who did chores
in a store kept by Mr. Riley, to assist his mother in procuring a living
for the family. After working with him two years, Mr. Riley took him to
New Orleans to wait on him while in that city on a visit, and when he
returned to St. Louis, he told the mother of the boy that he had died
with the yellow fever. Nothing more was heard from him, no one supposing
him to be alive. I was much astonished when Burrill told me his story.
Though I sympathized with him I could not assist him. We were both
slaves. He was poor, uneducated, and without friends; and, if living,
is, I presume, still held as a slave.
After selling out this cargo of human flesh, we returned to St. Louis,
and my time was up with Mr. Walker. I had served him one year, and it
was the longest year I ever lived.
CHAPTER VII.
I was sent home, and was glad enough to leave the service of one who
was tearing the husband from the wife, the child from the mother, and
the sister from the brother--but a trial more severe and heart-rending
than any which I had yet met with awaited me. My dear sister had been
sold to a man who was going to Natchez, and was lying in jail awaiting
the hour of his departure. She had expressed her determination to
die, rather than go to the far south, and she was put in jail for
safekeeping. I went to the jail the same day that I arrived, but as the
jailer was not in I could not see her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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