I have just returned from Porto Rico, in a Boston brig, and am now returning home. I was speaking of these eastern fellows not having any spunk; on the passage home we had a couple of chaps that belonged to Ellsworth. The mate flogged them every day, and they had not spunk enough to resist him; and even after we had got in, they were as meaching to him as kittens. I don't think much of these down-easters, anyhow." " How long have you lived here among them?'! "Well, sir, I have been married about three years; am a runaway slave, and think I shall have time to relate to you my story. I believe I was born in Richmond, but am not certain, nor did I ever know anything about my parents.
The first thing I ever knew was, of being a little boy in Tappahannock. My master had a little son near my age, whose name was William, but they called him Billy. My master died when I was quite young, and Billy taught me my letters, by making them in the sand; it was against the law for any one in Tappahannock to teach their slaves to read. Billy and I were good friends; my mistress was a nice woman, and I seldom got a whipping. " When I grew a big boy, my mistress let me out to a man that followed packeting form Norfolk to Richmond. On board this packet I learned to read, by taking the letters off the boxes, and getting Billy to show me how to put them together, and very soon could read a chapter in the Bible, and reckon figures.
When I was old enough, my mistress allowed me to marry. I had been acquainted with a nice girl, that belonged to a man up river. I paid him seventy-five dollars for her for three years, and at the end of that time, if I paid two hundred more, I might have her altogether. " The captain of the schooner had a job to supply a steamboat that run to Philadelphia with coal; we carried two loads there. " One day, one of the men at work with us, says to me, 'Bill, why don't you cut sticks now? You are in a free State, and now is your chance! ' " This was the first time I ever thought of running away.
There was a colored family that lived a little way from where we discharged our coal, and the old man was one who waited on parties. I told him I had a mind to run away, but had left my wife and some money at home, and the next trip would manage to bring my wife and mqney, and be a free man. When I got back to Eichmond, I got a fellow to bring my wife up to the schooner, and the captain consented to let her go with me to Philadelphia. I took her ashore, and my old colored friend got a place for her in the country. I then made tracks for New York, got a voyage as steward of a packet ship to Havre.
Was gone four months, and on my return to New York, went to Philadelphia to see about my wife. My old friend was mighty glad to see me, but told me bad news about her. She had a place in an abolition family, but they treated her so bad, she went back and gave herself up to her old master. I believe " continued the negro, " that the slaves at the South would have been much better off if the Northern people had let them alone, and not troubled them at all. " I went back to New York, and got a voyage to New Orleans. I knew I was a fool for doing so; but perhaps it is just as well now.
When we reached the city, I was marched off to prison for safe keeping, till the ship was ready for sea. As I went along with the policeman, who should I fall in with, but a man that lived the next house to my mistress; he knew all about my running away, so I was put in irons, and was confined as a runaway slave. Information of my arrest was sent home, and in two weeks Billy had arrived at New Orleans, and came to the prison to see me. When I saw him, these eyes began to leak, and he was a baby too, and in a few minutes, says, ' Bill, as soon as mother heard you were here, she sent me to tell you if you would come back with me, she would overlook all; but if you refuse to return on these terms, I have orders to sell you.' " I told him that as I had now tasted liberty, couldn't think of beino; a slave any longer.
" ' Well then, you must be sold.' " He advertised me in the newspaper, and gave me a firstrate character, and brought me one to read. When mv wife went back, her master did not whip her, nor even say a hard word to her, but my mistress claimed her, because she was my wife. I was sold to a tobacco merchant, and put in the packing house to take account of the shipments, and in thirty-seven days from the time that I was sold, I was in Boston. I had got acquainted with the steward, while in prison, and the night before the ship went from the levy, I was stowed away between two bales of cotton behind the pantry, and lie on my side the whole passage; the.steward fed me through a small hole in the boards.