章节正文
THE AMERICAN NEGRO
HIS HISTORY AND LITERATURE
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
William and Ellen Craft
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
OR, THE ESCAPE OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN CRAFT
FROM SLAVERY.
"Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall."
COWPER
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
PREFACE.
HAVING heard while in Slavery that "God made
of one blood all nations of men," and also that the
American Declaration of Independence says, that
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness;" we could not understand by what
right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we
felt perfectly justified in taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking the dan-
gerous and exciting task of "running a thousand
miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so
vividly set forth in the Declaration.
I beg those who would know the particulars of
our journey, to peruse these pages.
This book is not intended as a full history of the
life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an
account of our escape; together with other matter
which I hope may be the means of creating in
some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and
abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our
fellow-creatures.
Without stopping to write a long apology for
offering this little volume to the public, I shall
commence at once to pursue my simple story.
W. CRAFT.
12, CAMBRIDGE ROAD,
HAMMERSMITH,
LONDON.
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR
FREEDOM.
-----+-----
PART I.
"God gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation. But man over man
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."
MILTON.
MY wife and myself were born in different
towns in the State of Georgia, which is one of the
principal slave States. It is true, our condition as
slaves was not by any means the worst; but the
mere idea that we were held as chattels, and de-
prived of all legal rights--the thought that we
had to give up our hard earnings to a tyrant, to
enable him to live in idleness and luxury--the
thought that we could not call the bones and
sinews that God gave us our own: but above all,
the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in
the shambles like a brute, and then scourge us if
we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate,
haunted us for years.
But in December, 1848, a plan suggested itself
that proved quite successful, and in eight days
after it was first thought of we were free from the
horrible trammels of slavery, rejoicing and praising
God in the glorioussunshine of liberty.
My wife's first master was her father, and her
mother his slave, and the latter is still the slave of
his widow.
Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex-
traction on her mother's side, she is almost white--
in fact, she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old
lady to whom she first belonged became so annoyed,
at finding her frequently mistaken for a child of
the family, that she gave her when eleven years of
age to a daughter, as a wedding present. This
separated my wife from her mother, and also from
several other dear friends. But the incessant
cruelty of her old mistress made the change of
owners or treatment so desirable, that she did not
grumble much at this cruel separation.
It may be remembered that slavery in America
is not at all confined to persons of any particular
complexion; there are a very large number of
slaves as white as any one; but as the evidence of a
slave is not admitted in court against a free white
person, it is almost impossible for a white child,
after having been kidnapped and sold into or re-
duced to slavery, in a part of the country where it
is not known (as often is the case), ever to recover
its freedom.
I have myself conversed with several slaves who
told me that their parents were white and free; but
that they were stolen away from them and sold
when quite young. As they could not tell their
address, and also as the parents did not know
what had become of their lost and dear little
ones, of course all traces of each other were gone.
The following facts are sufficient to prove, that
he who has the power, and is inhuman enough to
trample upon the sacred rights of the weak, cares
nothing for race or colour:--
In March, 1818, three ships arrived at New
Orleans, bringing several hundred German emi-
grants from the province of Alsace, on the lower
Rhine. Among them were Daniel Muller and his
two daughters, Dorothea and Salome, whose mother
had died on the passage. Soon after his arrival,
Muller, taking with him his two daughters, both
young children, went up the river to Attakapas
parish, to work on the plantation of John F. Miller.
A few weeks later, his relatives, who had remained
at New Orleans, learned that he had died of the
fever of the country. They immediately sent for
the two girls; but they had disappeared, and the
relatives, notwithstandingrepeated and persevering
inquiries and researches, could find no traces of
them. They were at length given up for dead.
Dorothea was never again heard of; nor was any
thing known of Salome from 1818 till 1843.
In the summer of that year, Madame Karl, a
German woman who had come over in the same
ship with the Mullers, was passing through a street
in New Orleans, and accidentally saw Salome in a
wine-shop, belonging to Louis Belmonte, by whom
she was held as a slave. Madame Karl recognised
her at once, and carried her to the house of another
German woman, Mrs. Schubert, who was Salome's
cousin and godmother, and who no sooner set eyes
on her than, without having any intimation that
the discovery had been previously made, she un-
hesitatingly exclaimed, "My God! here is the
long-lost Salome Muller."
The Law Reporter, in its account of this case,
says:--
"As many of the German emigrants of 1818 as
could be gathered together were brought to the
house of Mrs. Schubert, and every one of the
number who had any recollection of the little girl
upon the passage, or any acquaintance with her
father and mother, immediately identified the
woman before them as the long-lost Salome
Muller. By all these witnesses, who appeared
at the trial, the identity was fully established.
The family resemblance in every feature was
declared to be so remarkable, that some of the
witnesses did not hesitate to say that they should
know her among ten thousand; that they were
as certain the plaintiff was Salome Muller, the
daughter of Daniel and Dorothea Muller, as of
their own existence."
Among the witnesses who appeared in Court was
the midwife who had assisted at the birth of Salome.
She testified to the existence of certain peculiar
marks upon the body of the child, which were
found, exactly as described, by the surgeons who
were appointed by the Court to make an examina-
tion for the purpose.
There was no trace of African descent in
any feature of Salome Muller. She had long,
straight, black hair, hazel eyes, thin lips, and
a Roman nose. The complexion of her face and
neck was as dark as that of the darkest brunette.
It appears, however, that, during the twenty-five
years of her servitude, she had been exposed to
the sun's rays in the hot climate of Louisiana, with
head and neck unsheltered, as is customary with
the female slaves, while labouring in the cotton or
the sugar field. Those parts of her person which
had been shielded from the sun were compara-
tively white.
Belmonte, the pretended owner of the girl, had
obtained possession of her by an act of sale from
John F. Miller, the planter in whose service
Salome's father died. This Miller was a man of
consideration and substance, owning large sugar
estates, and bearing a high reputation for honour
and honesty, and for indulgent treatment of his
slaves. It was testified on the trial that he had
said to Belmonte, a few weeks after the sale of
Salome, "that she was white, and had as much
right to her freedom as any one, and was only to
be retained in slavery by care and kind treatment."
The broker who negotiated the sale from Miller to
Belmonte, in 1838, testified in Court that he then
thought, and still thought, that the girl was white!
The case was elaborately argued on both sides,
but was at length decided in favour of the girl,
by the Supreme Court declaring that "she was
free and white, and therefore unlawfully held in
bondage."
The Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, in his
Picture of Slavery, published in 1834, relates the
case of a white boy who, at the age of seven, was
stolen from his home in Ohio, tanned and stained
HIS HISTORY AND LITERATURE
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
William and Ellen Craft
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
OR, THE ESCAPE OF WILLIAM AND ELLEN CRAFT
FROM SLAVERY.
"Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall."
COWPER
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR FREEDOM
PREFACE.
HAVING heard while in Slavery that "God made
of one blood all nations of men," and also that the
American Declaration of Independence says, that
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness;" we could not understand by what
right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we
felt perfectly justified in taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking the dan-
gerous and exciting task of "running a thousand
miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so
vividly set forth in the Declaration.
I beg those who would know the particulars of
our journey, to peruse these pages.
This book is not intended as a full history of the
life of my wife, nor of myself; but merely as an
account of our escape; together with other matter
which I hope may be the means of creating in
some minds a deeper abhorrence of the sinful and
abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying our
fellow-creatures.
Without stopping to write a long apology for
offering this little volume to the public, I shall
commence at once to pursue my simple story.
W. CRAFT.
12, CAMBRIDGE ROAD,
HAMMERSMITH,
LONDON.
RUNNING A THOUSAND MILES FOR
FREEDOM.
-----+-----
PART I.
"God gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation. But man over man
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."
MILTON.
MY wife and myself were born in different
towns in the State of Georgia, which is one of the
principal slave States. It is true, our condition as
slaves was not by any means the worst; but the
mere idea that we were held as chattels, and de-
prived of all legal rights--the thought that we
had to give up our hard earnings to a tyrant, to
enable him to live in idleness and luxury--the
thought that we could not call the bones and
sinews that God gave us our own: but above all,
the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in
the shambles like a brute, and then scourge us if
we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate,
haunted us for years.
But in December, 1848, a plan suggested itself
that proved quite successful, and in eight days
after it was first thought of we were free from the
horrible trammels of slavery, rejoicing and praising
God in the glorioussunshine of liberty.
My wife's first master was her father, and her
mother his slave, and the latter is still the slave of
his widow.
Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex-
traction on her mother's side, she is almost white--
in fact, she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old
lady to whom she first belonged became so annoyed,
at finding her frequently mistaken for a child of
the family, that she gave her when eleven years of
age to a daughter, as a wedding present. This
separated my wife from her mother, and also from
several other dear friends. But the incessant
cruelty of her old mistress made the change of
owners or treatment so desirable, that she did not
grumble much at this cruel separation.
It may be remembered that slavery in America
is not at all confined to persons of any particular
complexion; there are a very large number of
slaves as white as any one; but as the evidence of a
slave is not admitted in court against a free white
person, it is almost impossible for a white child,
after having been kidnapped and sold into or re-
duced to slavery, in a part of the country where it
is not known (as often is the case), ever to recover
its freedom.
I have myself conversed with several slaves who
told me that their parents were white and free; but
that they were stolen away from them and sold
when quite young. As they could not tell their
address, and also as the parents did not know
what had become of their lost and dear little
ones, of course all traces of each other were gone.
The following facts are sufficient to prove, that
he who has the power, and is inhuman enough to
trample upon the sacred rights of the weak, cares
nothing for race or colour:--
In March, 1818, three ships arrived at New
Orleans, bringing several hundred German emi-
grants from the province of Alsace, on the lower
Rhine. Among them were Daniel Muller and his
two daughters, Dorothea and Salome, whose mother
had died on the passage. Soon after his arrival,
Muller, taking with him his two daughters, both
young children, went up the river to Attakapas
parish, to work on the plantation of John F. Miller.
A few weeks later, his relatives, who had remained
at New Orleans, learned that he had died of the
fever of the country. They immediately sent for
the two girls; but they had disappeared, and the
relatives, notwithstandingrepeated and persevering
inquiries and researches, could find no traces of
them. They were at length given up for dead.
Dorothea was never again heard of; nor was any
thing known of Salome from 1818 till 1843.
In the summer of that year, Madame Karl, a
German woman who had come over in the same
ship with the Mullers, was passing through a street
in New Orleans, and accidentally saw Salome in a
wine-shop, belonging to Louis Belmonte, by whom
she was held as a slave. Madame Karl recognised
her at once, and carried her to the house of another
German woman, Mrs. Schubert, who was Salome's
cousin and godmother, and who no sooner set eyes
on her than, without having any intimation that
the discovery had been previously made, she un-
hesitatingly exclaimed, "My God! here is the
long-lost Salome Muller."
The Law Reporter, in its account of this case,
says:--
"As many of the German emigrants of 1818 as
could be gathered together were brought to the
house of Mrs. Schubert, and every one of the
number who had any recollection of the little girl
upon the passage, or any acquaintance with her
father and mother, immediately identified the
woman before them as the long-lost Salome
Muller. By all these witnesses, who appeared
at the trial, the identity was fully established.
The family resemblance in every feature was
declared to be so remarkable, that some of the
witnesses did not hesitate to say that they should
know her among ten thousand; that they were
as certain the plaintiff was Salome Muller, the
daughter of Daniel and Dorothea Muller, as of
their own existence."
Among the witnesses who appeared in Court was
the midwife who had assisted at the birth of Salome.
She testified to the existence of certain peculiar
marks upon the body of the child, which were
found, exactly as described, by the surgeons who
were appointed by the Court to make an examina-
tion for the purpose.
There was no trace of African descent in
any feature of Salome Muller. She had long,
straight, black hair, hazel eyes, thin lips, and
a Roman nose. The complexion of her face and
neck was as dark as that of the darkest brunette.
It appears, however, that, during the twenty-five
years of her servitude, she had been exposed to
the sun's rays in the hot climate of Louisiana, with
head and neck unsheltered, as is customary with
the female slaves, while labouring in the cotton or
the sugar field. Those parts of her person which
had been shielded from the sun were compara-
tively white.
Belmonte, the pretended owner of the girl, had
obtained possession of her by an act of sale from
John F. Miller, the planter in whose service
Salome's father died. This Miller was a man of
consideration and substance, owning large sugar
estates, and bearing a high reputation for honour
and honesty, and for indulgent treatment of his
slaves. It was testified on the trial that he had
said to Belmonte, a few weeks after the sale of
Salome, "that she was white, and had as much
right to her freedom as any one, and was only to
be retained in slavery by care and kind treatment."
The broker who negotiated the sale from Miller to
Belmonte, in 1838, testified in Court that he then
thought, and still thought, that the girl was white!
The case was elaborately argued on both sides,
but was at length decided in favour of the girl,
by the Supreme Court declaring that "she was
free and white, and therefore unlawfully held in
bondage."
The Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, in his
Picture of Slavery, published in 1834, relates the
case of a white boy who, at the age of seven, was
stolen from his home in Ohio, tanned and stained
- slavery [´sleivəri]
n.奴隶制；奴役 (初中英语单词) - independence [,indi´pendəns] n.独立，自主，自立 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- obtain [əb´tein] v.获得；买到；得到承认 (初中英语单词)
- volume [´vɔlju:m, ´vɑljəm] n.卷；书籍；体积；容量 (初中英语单词)
- pursue [pə´sju:] v.追赶；追踪；从事 (初中英语单词)
- absolute [´æbsəlu:t] a.绝对的 n.绝对 (初中英语单词)
- cradle [´kreidl] n.摇篮；发源地 (初中英语单词)
- glorious [´glɔ:riəs] a.光荣的；辉煌的 (初中英语单词)
- sunshine [´sʌnʃain] n.日光，阳光 (初中英语单词)
- wedding [´wediŋ] n.婚礼，结婚 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- treatment [´tri:tmənt] n.待遇；对待；治疗 (初中英语单词)
- desirable [di´zaiərəbəl] a.向往的；极好的 (初中英语单词)
- stolen [´stəulən] steal 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- province [´prɔvins] n.省；领域；范围 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- acquaintance [ə´kweintəns] n.相识；熟人，相识的人 (初中英语单词)
- remarkable [ri´mɑ:kəbl] a.值得注意的；显著的 (初中英语单词)
- hesitate [´heziteit] vi.犹豫，踌躇 (初中英语单词)
- existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
- climate [´klaimit] n.气候；特殊气候地带 (初中英语单词)
- female [´fi:meil] a.女(性)的 n.女人 (初中英语单词)
- supreme [su:´pri:m, sju:-] a.最高的，无上的 (初中英语单词)
- virginia [və´dʒinjə] n.佛吉尼亚(州) (初中英语单词)
- declaration [,deklə´reiʃən] n.宣布；宣言；申报 (高中英语单词)
- perfectly [´pə:fiktli] ad.理想地；完美地 (高中英语单词)
- undertaking [,ʌndə´teikiŋ] n.任务；事业；计划 (高中英语单词)
- cambridge [´keimbridʒ] n.剑桥 (高中英语单词)
- georgia [´dʒɔ:dʒjə] n.乔治亚 (高中英语单词)
- tyrant [´taiərənt] n.暴君；霸主；专制君主 (高中英语单词)
- scourge [skə:dʒ] v.&n.鞭(打)；严惩 (高中英语单词)
- rejoicing [ri´dʒɔisiŋ] n.高兴；欢呼 (高中英语单词)
- finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
- mistaken [mis´teikən] mistake的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- plantation [plæn´teiʃən] n.种植园；栽植；移民 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- notwithstanding [,nɔtwiθ´stændiŋ] prep.&conj.虽然；还是 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- previously [´pri:viəsli] ad.预先；以前 (高中英语单词)
- reporter [ri´pɔ:tə] n.报告人；记者；广播员 (高中英语单词)
- recollection [,rekə´lekʃən] n.回忆；追想；记忆力 (高中英语单词)
- resemblance [ri´zembləns] n.类似；肖像；外表 (高中英语单词)
- descent [di´sent] n.出身，家世 (高中英语单词)
- complexion [kəm´plekʃən] n.肤色；情况；局面 (高中英语单词)
- customary [´kʌstəməri] a.通常的；惯例的 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- honesty [´ɔnisti] n.诚实，老实 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- creator [kri:´eitə] n.创造者；设立者 (英语四级单词)
- apology [ə´pɔlədʒi] n.道歉(的话)；辩解 (英语四级单词)
- idleness [´aidlnis] n.懒；闲着不干事 (英语四级单词)
- orleans [ɔ:´liənz] n.奥尔良 (英语四级单词)
- louisiana [lu(:),izi´ænə] n.路易斯安那州 (英语四级单词)
- miller [´milə] n.磨坊主；铣床(工) (英语四级单词)
- planter [´plɑ:ntə] n.种植者；殖民者；花盆 (英语四级单词)
- reputation [repju´teiʃən] n.名誉；名声；信誉 (英语四级单词)
- broker [´brəukə] n.经纪人，掮客 (英语四级单词)
- earnings [´ə:niŋz] n.收益；报酬；获得 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- accidentally [,æksi´dentəli] ad.偶然地 (英语六级单词)
- godmother [´gɔdmʌðə] n.教母 (英语六级单词)
- identity [ai´dentiti] n.身份；同一性；一致 (英语六级单词)
- servitude [´sə:vitju:d] n.奴隶状态；苦役 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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