Charles
Ball,
a
slave from Maryland, was born in about 1780 . His grandfather was
brought from Africa and sold as a slave.
His mother was the slave of a tobacco planter.
When the planter died when Ball was four years old, he family were
sold separately. Ball stayed in Maryland
but his mother went to Georgia and he never saw her again.
Ball was allowed to marry but in 1805 he was sold to a cotton plantation
owner in South Carolina while his wife and children remained in Maryland.
Ball made several attempts to escape but was captured and became another
man's slave.
After a period in Georgia he escaped again and managed to get back
to his previous home in Maryland. Unfortunately, his wife and children
had been sold to a slave-owner in another state. He re-married and
obtained a small farm until in about 1830 he was seized and returned
to slavery in Georgia.
Ball managed to escape again and this time settled in Philadelphia.
With the help of Isaac
Fisher, a white lawyer,
wrote his autobiography, The
Life and Adventures of Charles Ball
(1837). Afraid of being recaptured, Ball moved again and its is not
known when and where he died.
(1) Charles Ball, The Life
of an American Slave (1859)
My
mother had several children, and they were sold upon master's death
to separate purchasers. She was sold, my father told me, to a Georgia
trader. I, of all her children, was the only one left in Maryland.
When sold I was naked, never having had on clothes in my life, but
my new master gave me a child's frock, belonging to one of his own
children. After he had purchased me, he dressed me in this garment,
took me before him on his horse, and started home; but my poor mother,
when she saw me leaving her for the last time, ran after me, took
me down from the horse, clasped me in her arms, and wept loudly and
bitterly over me.
My master seemed to pity her; and endeavored to soothe her distress
by telling her that he would be a good master to me, and that I should
not want anything. She then, still holding me in her arms, walked
along the road beside the horse as he moved slowly, and earnestly
and imploringly besought my master to buy her and the rest of her
children, and not permit them to be carried away by the negro buyers;
but whilst thus entreating him to save her and her family, the slave-driver,
who had first bought her, came running in pursuit of her with a raw-hide
in his hand. When he overtook us, he told her he was her master now,
and ordered her to give that little negro to its owner, and come back
with him.
My mother then turned to him and cried, "Oh, master, do not take
me from my child!" Without making any reply, he gave her two
or three heavy blows on the shoulders with his raw-hide, snatched
me from her arms, handed me to my master, and seizing her by one arm,
dragged her back towards the place of sale. My master then quickened
the pace of his horse; and as we advanced, the cries of my poor parent
became more and more indistinct - at length they died away in the
distance, and I never again heard the voice of my poor mother.
(2)
Charles Ball, The Life of an American
Slave (1859)
After the flight of my father, my grandfather was the only person
left in Maryland with whom I could claim kindred. He was an old man,
nearly eighty years old, he said, and he manifested all the fondness
for me that I could expect from one so old. He was feeble, and his
master required but little work from him. He always expressed contempt
for his fellow-slaves, for when young, he was an African of rank in
his native land. He had a small cabin of his own, with half an acre
of ground attached to it, which he cultivated on his own account,
and from which he drew a large share of his sustenance. He had singular
religious notions - never going to meeting or caring for the preachers
he could, if he would, occasionally hear. He retained his native traditions
respecting the Deity and hereafter. It is not strange that he believed
the religion of his oppressors to be the invention of designing men,
for the text oftenest quoted in his hearing was, "Servants, be
obedient to your masters."
(3)
Charles Ball, The
Life of an American Slave (1859)
When I was about twelve years old, my master, Jack Cox, died of a
disease which had long confined him to the house. I was sorry for
the death of my master, who had always been kind to me; and I soon
discovered that I had good cause to regret his departure from this
world. He had several children at the time of his death, who were
all young; the oldest being about my own age. The father of my late
master, who was still living, became administrator of his estate,
and took possession of his property, and amongst the rest, of myself.
This old gentleman treated me with the greatest severity, and compelled
me to work very hard on his plantation for several years, until I
suppose I must have been near or quite twenty years of age.
As I was always very obedient, and ready to execute all his orders,
I did not receive much whipping, but suffered greatly for want of
sufficient and proper food. My master allowed his slaves a peck of
corn, each, per week, throughout the year; and this we had to grind
into meal in a hand-mill for ourselves. We had a tolerable supply
of meat for a short time, about the month of December, when he killed
his hogs. After that season we had meat once a week, unless bacon
became scarce, which very often happened, in which case we had no
meat at all. However, as we fortunately lived near both the Patuxent
river and the Chesapeake Bay, we had abundance of fish in the spring,
and as long as the fishing season continued. After that period, each
slave received, in addition to his allowance of corn, one salt herring
every day.
(4)
Charles Ball, The
Life of an American Slave (1859)
I
went home with my master, Mr. Gibson, who was a farmer, and with whom
I lived three years. Soon after I came to live with Mr. Gibson, I
married a girl of color named Judah, the slave of a gentleman by the
name of Symmes, who resided in the same neighborhood. I was at the
house of Mr. Symmes every week; and became as well acquainted with
him and his family, as I was with my master.
Mr.
Symmes also married a wife about the time I did. The lady whom he
married lived near Philadelphia, and when she first came to Maryland,
she refused to be served by a black chambermaid, but employed a white
girl, the daughter of a poor man, who lived near. The lady was reported
to be very wealthy, and brought a large trunk full of plate and other
valuable articles. This trunk was so heavy that I could scarcely carry
it, and it impressed my mind with the idea of great riches in the
owner, at that time. After some time Mrs. Symmes dismissed her white
chambermaid and placed my wife in that situation, which I regarded
as a fortunate circumstance, as it insured her good food, and at least
one good suit of clothes.
(5)
Charles Ball, The
Life of an American Slave (1859)
I was now a slave in South Carolina, and had no hope of ever again
seeing my wife and children. I had at times serious thoughts of suicide
so great was my anguish. If I could have got a rope I should have
hanged myself at Lancaster. The thought of my wife and children I
had been torn from in Maryland, and the dreadful undefined future
which was before me, came near driving me mad. It was long after midnight
before I fell asleep, but the most pleasant dream, succeeded to these
sorrowful forebodings. I thought I had escaped my master, and through
great difficulties made my way back to Maryland, and was again in
my wife's cabin with my little children on my lap. Every object was
so vividly impressed on my mind in this dream, that when I awoke,
a firm conviction settled upon my mind, that by some means, at present
incomprehensible to me, I should yet again embrace my wife, and caress
my children in their humble dwelling.
Early in the morning, our master called us up and distributed to each
of the party a cake made of corn-meal and a small piece of bacon.
On our journey, we had only eaten twice a day, and had not received
breakfast until about nine o'clock; but he said this morning meal
was given to welcome us to South Carolina. He then addressed us all,
and told us we might now give up all hope of ever returning to the
places of our nativity; as it would be impossible for us to pass through
the States of North Carolina and Virginia, without being taken up
and sent back. He further advised us to make ourselves contented,
as he would take us to Georgia, a far better country than any we had
seen; and where we would be able to live in the greatest abundance.
About sunrise we took up our march on the road to Columbia, as we
were told. Hitherto our master had not offered to sell any of us,
and had even refused to stop to talk to any one on the subject of
our sale, although he had several times been addressed on this point,
before we reached Lancaster; but soon after we departed from this
village, we were overtaken on the road by a man on horseback, who
accosted our driver by asking him if his niggars were for sale. The
latter replied, that he believed he would not sell any yet, as he
was on his way to Georgia, and cotton being now much in demand, he
expected to obtain high prices for us from persons who were going
to settle in the new purchase. He, however, contrary to his custom,
ordered us to stop, and told the stranger he might look at us, and
that he would find us as fine a lot of hands as were ever imported
into the country - that we were all prime property, and he had no
doubt would command his own prices in Georgia.
The
stranger, who was a thin, weather-beaten, sunburned figure, then said,
he wanted a couple of breeding wenches, and would give as much for
them as they would bring in Georgia. He then walked along our line,
as we stood chained together, and looked at the whole of us - then
turning to the women; asked the prices of the two pregnant ones. Our
master replied, that these were two of the best breeding-wenches in
all Maryland - that one was twenty-two, and the other only nineteen
- that the first was already the mother of seven children, and the
other of four - that he had himself seen the children at the time
he bought their mothers - and that such wenches would be cheap at
a thousand dollars each; but as they were not able to keep up with
the gang, he would take twelve hundred dollars for the two.
(6)
Charles Ball eventually decided
to escape and try and return to his family in Maryland.
I received this admonition as a warning of the dangers that I must
encounter in my journey to the North. After adjusting my clothes,
I again took to the woods, and bore a little to the east of north;
it now being my determination to turn down the country, so as to gain
the line of the roads by which I had come to the South. I traveled
all day in the woods; but a short time before sundown, came within
view of an opening in the forest, which I took to be cleared fields,
but upon a closer examination, finding no fences or other enclosures
around it, I advanced into it and found it to be an open savanna,
with a small stream of water creeping slowly through it. At the lower
side of the open space were the remains of an old beaver dam, the
central part of which had been broken away by the current of the stream
at the time of some flood.
As it was growing late, and I believed I must now be near the settlements,
I determined to encamp for the night, beside this old beaver dam.
I again took my supper from my bag of meal, and made my bed for the
night amongst the canes that grew in the place. This night I slept
but little; for it seemed as if all the owls in the country had assembled
in my neighborhood to perform a grand musical concert. Their hooting
and chattering commenced soon after dark, and continued until the
dawn of day.
(7)
After several failed escaped
attempts, Charles Ball eventually reached his former home in Maryland.
This intelligence almost deprived me of life; it was the most dreadful
of all the misfortunes that I had ever suffered. It was now clear
that some slave-dealer had come in my absence and seized my wife and
children as slaves, and sold them to such men as I had served in the
South. They had now passed into hopeless bondage, and were gone forever
beyond my reach. I myself was advertised as a fugitive slave, and
was liable to be arrested at each moment, and dragged back to Georgia.
I rushed out of my own house in despair and returned to Pennsylvania
with a broken heart.
For the last few years, I have resided about fifty miles from Philadelphia,
where I expect to pass the evening of my life, in working hard for
my subsistence, without the least hope of ever again seeing, my wife
and children: - fearful, at this day, to let my place of residence
be known, lest even yet it may be supposed, that as an article of
property, I am of sufficient value to be worth pursuing in my old
age.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
