Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada WestSteward, Austin
History
Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West
The servant withdrew, but soon returned to say that his master was engaged
and could not see him that day. Smith followed the servant into the hall,
calling out to him in the most boisterous manner, demanding to be told the
reason _why_ he could not see his master. The noise which Smith purposely
made, soon brought into the hall one of the agents, a Mr. Longworth, a
short, fat man,--weighing in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds!
When he saw Smith, he strutted about, assuring him that this disgraceful
uproar was quite uncalled for, and finally putting on a severe look, told
him that he could not have anything for his improvements; of course not,--
he really could not expect; certainly not, &c. Smith plainly assured the
agent that his "blarney" would avail him nothing; he had come by their own
appointment to get his pay, and that he certainly should _have_--if not in
the way they themselves agreed upon, he would choose his own method of
getting it! Thus saying, he stepped back, threw down his woolly head, and
goat fashion, let drive into the fat Englishman's "bread basket!" He
sprawled about and soon recovered his standing, but continued to scream
and halloo with rage and mortification, more than with pain, until he had
brought to the spot landlord, boarders, and servants, to witness the
affray; but Smith, nothing daunted, administered two or three more
effectual butts with his hard head into the lordly agent, when the subdued
and now silent English gentleman, drew from his pocket book, and carefully
counted out, every dollar Smith had at first demanded. Smith accepted it
pleasantly, thanked him and withdrew, amid the shouts and jeers of the
spectators, which the agent was more willing to avoid than he. That was
the way the land agent paid the squatter.
It seemed, however, a little too bad, to make a fine English gentleman,
feel as "flat" as Longworth appeared to feel; yet it was undoubtedly the
only method by which Smith could recover a farthing. The agents, it was
supposed, did not design to pay for any improvements; indeed, some very
hard and unjust incidents occurred in connection with, that matter, and
probably Smith was about the only one, who ever received the full value of
his claim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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