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Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom-Part5_William and Ellen Craft_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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forfeit of your crime with your life, and the Court



have only to regret that such is not the law in

this country. The sentence for your offence is,



that you be imprisoned one month in the county

jail, and that you pay the costs of this prosecution.



Sheriff, remove the prisoner to jail.' On the pub-

lication of these proceedings, the Doctors of



Divinity preached each a sermon on the necessity

of obeying the laws; the New York Observer noticed



with much pious gladness a revival of religion on

Dr. Smith's plantation in Georgia, among his



slaves; while the Journal of Commerce commended

this political preaching of the Doctors of Divinity



because it favouredslavery. Let us do nothing to

offend our Southern brethren."



However, at first, we were highly delighted at

the idea of having gained permission to be absent



for a few days; but when the thought flashed

across my wife's mind, that it was customary for



travellers to register their names in the visitors'

book at hotels, as well as in the clearance or



Custom-house book at Charleston, South Carolina

--it made our spirits droop within us.



So, while sitting in our little room upon the

verge of despair, all at once my wife raised her



head, and with a smile upon her face, which was a

moment before bathed in tears, said, "I think



I have it!" I asked what it was. She said, "I

think I can make a poultice and bind up my right



hand in a sling, and with propriety ask the officers

to register my name for me." I thought that



would do.

It then occurred to her that the smoothness of



her face might betray her; so she decided to make

another poultice, and put it in a white handkerchief



to be worn under the chin, up the cheeks, and to

tie over the head. This nearly hid the expression



of the countenance, as well as the beardless chin.

The poultice is left off in the engraving, because



the likeness could not have been taken well with

it on.



My wife, knowing that she would be thrown

a good deal into the company of gentlemen, fancied



that she could get on better if she had something

to go over the eyes; so I went to a shop and



bought a pair of green spectacles. This was in the

evening.



We sat up all night discussing the plan, and

making preparations. Just before the time arrived,



in the morning, for us to leave, I cut off my wife's

hair square at the back of the head, and got her to



dress in the disguise and stand out on the floor.

I found that she made a most respectable looking



gentleman.

My wife had no ambitionwhatever to assume



this disguise, and would not have done so had it

been possible to have obtained our liberty by more



simple means; but we knew it was not customary

in the South for ladies to travel with male servants;



and therefore, notwithstanding my wife's fair com-

plexion, it would have been a very difficult task for



her to have come off as a free white lady, with me as

her slave; in fact, her not being able to write



would have made this quite impossible. We knew

that no public conveyance would take us, or any



other slave, as a passenger, without our master's

consent. This consent could never be obtained to



pass into a free State. My wife's being muffled in

the poultices, &c., furnished a plausible excuse for



avoiding general conversation, of which most

Yankee travellers are passionately fond.



There are a large number of free negroes residing

in the southern States; but in Georgia (and I



believe in all the slave States,) every coloured per-

son's complexion is prima facie evidence of his






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