Moses
Grandy was
born
a slave in Camden County, North Carolina, in
1786. He was his mother's youngest child. At least eight of his brothers
and sisters were sold by his master, Billy
Grandy, to other slave-owners. Moses was retained but hired out to
other masters.
Moses eventually married a slave owned by Enoch Sawyer. However, one
day, Sawyer
sold her to a slave-dealer and he never saw her again. In 1833 Grandy
eventually escaped from the South. With the help of the American
Anti-Slavery Society he published his autobiography, Life
of a Slave,
in 1843.
(1)
Moses Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
I
was born in Camden County, North Carolina. Slaves seldom know exactly
how old they are: neither they nor their masters set down the time
of a birth; the slaves, because they are not allowed to write or read;
and the masters, because they only care to know what slaves belong
to them.
The master, Billy Grandy, whose slave I was born, was a hard-drinking
man: he sold away many slaves. I remember four sisters and four brothers;
my mother had more children, but they were dead or sold away before
I can remember. I was the youngest. I remember well
my mother often hid us all in the woods, to prevent master selling
us. When we wanted water, she sought for it in any hole or puddle
formed by falling trees or otherwise: it was often full of tadpoles
and insects: she strained it, and gave it round to each of us in the
hollow of her hand. For food, she gathered berries in the woods, got
potatoes, raw corn, etc.
After a time the master would send word to her to come in, promising,
he would not sell us. But at length persons came who agreed to give
the prices he set on us. His wife, with much to be done, prevailed
on him not to sell me; but he sold my brother, who was
a little boy. My mother, frantic with grief, resisted their taking
her child away: she was beaten and held down : she fainted; and when
she came to herself, her boy was gone. She made much outcry, for which
the master tied her up to a peach tree in the yard, and flogged her.
Another of my brothers was sold to Mr. Tyler, Dewan's Neck, Pasquotank
County; this man very much ill-treated many coloured boys. One very
cold day he sent my brother out, naked and hungry, to find a yoke
of steers: the boy returned without finding them, when his master
flogged him, and sent him out again; a white lady who lived near,
gave him food, and advised him to try again: he did so, but it seems
again without success. He piled up a heap of leaves, and laid himself
down in them, and died there. He was found through a flock of turkey
buzzards hovering over him; these birds had pulled his eyes out.
(2)
Moses Grandy, Life of a Slave
(1843)
The first who hired me was Mr. Kemp, who
used me pretty well; he gave me plenty to eat and sufficient clothing.
The next was old Jemmy Coates, a severe man. Because I could not learn
his way of hilling corn, he flogged me naked with a severe whip made
of a very tough sapling; this lapped round me at each stroke, the
point of it at last entered my belly and broke off; leaving an inch
and a-half outside. I was not aware of it until on going to work again
it hurt my side very much, when on looking down I saw it sticking,
out of my body: I pulled it out and the blood spouted after it. The
wound festered, and discharged very much at the time, and hurt me
for years after.
In being hired out, sometimes the slave gets a good home, and sometimes
a bad one: when he gets a good one, he dreads to see January come;
when he has a bad one, the year seems five times as long as it is.
I was next with Mr. Enoch Sawyer of Camden County: my business was
to keep ferry, and do other odd work. It was cruel living;
we had not near enough of either victuals or clothes; I was half-starved
for half my time. I have often ground the husks of Indian corn over
again in a hand-mill, for the chance of getting something to eat out
of it, which the former grinding had left. In severe frosts, I was
compelled to go into the fields and woods to work, with my naked feet
cracked and bleeding from extreme cold: to warm them, I used to rouse
an ox or hog, and stand on the place where it had lain. I was at that
place three years, and very long years they seemed to me. The trick
by which he kept me so long was this: -- the Court House was but a
mile off; on hiring day, he prevented me from going till he went himself
and bid for me. On the last occasion, he was detained for a little
while by other business, so I ran as quickly as I could, and got hired
before he came up.
Mr. George Furley was my next master; he
employed me as a car-boy in the Dismal swamp; I had to drive lumber.
I had plenty to eat and plenty of clothes. I was so overjoyed at the
change, that I then thought I would not have left the place to go
to heaven.
Next year I was hired by Mr. John Micheau of the
same county, who married my young mistress, one of the daughters of
Mr. Grandy, and sister to my present owner. This master gave us very
few clothes, and but little to eat; I was almost naked. One day he
came into the field, and asked why no more work was done. The older
people were afraid of him; so I said that the reason was, we were
so hungry, we could not work. He went home and told the mistress to
give us plenty to eat, and at dinner time we had plenty. We came out
shouting for joy, and went to work with delight. From that time, we
had food enough, and he soon found that he had a great deal more work
done. The field was quite alive with the people striving who should
do most.
(3) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
It was some time after this, that I married a slave belonging to Enoch
Sawyer, who had been so hard a master to me. I left her at home, (that
is, at his house,) one Thursday morning, when we had been married
about eight months. She was well, and seemed likely to be so: we were
nicely getting together our little necessaries. On the Friday, as
I was at work as usual with the boats, I heard a noise behind me,
on the road which ran by the side of the canal: I turned to look,
and saw a gang of slaves coming. When they came up to me, one of them
cried out, "Moses, my dear!" I wondered who among them should
know me, and found it was my wife. She cried out to me, "I am
gone." I was struck with consternation. Mr. Rogerson was with
them, on his horse, armed with pistols. I said to him, "for God's
sake, have you bought my wife?" He said he had; when I asked
him what she had done; he said she had done nothing, but that her
master wanted money.
He drew out a pistol, and said that if I went near the waggon on which
she was, he would shoot me. I asked for leave to shake hands with
her, which he refused, but said I might stand at a distance and talk
with her. My heart was so full, that I could say very little. I asked
leave to give her a dram: he told Mr. Burgess, the man who was with
him, to get down and carry it to her. I gave her the little money
I had in my pocket, and bid her farewell. I have never seen or heard
of her from that day to this. I loved her as I loved my life.
(4) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
MacPherson was an overseer where slaves were employed in cutting canals.
The labour there is very severe. The ground is often very boggy: the
negroes are up to the middle or much deeper in mud and water, cutting
away roots and baling out mud: if they can keep their heads above
water, they work on. They lodge in huts, or as they are called camps,
made of shingles or boards. They lie down in the mud which has adhered
to them, making a great fire to dry themselves, and keep off the cold.
No bedding whatever is allowed them; it is only by work done over
his task, that any of them can get a blanket. They are paid nothing
except for this overwork. Their masters come once a month to receive
the money for their labour: then perhaps some few very good masters
will give them two
dollars each, some others one dollar, some a pound of tobacco, and
some nothing at all. The food is more abundant than that of field
slaves; indeed it is the best allowance in America: it consists of
a peck of meal, and six pounds of pork per week; the pork is commonly
not good, it is damaged, and is bought as cheap as possible at auctions.
(5) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
MacPherson gave the same task to each slave; of
course the weak ones often failed to do it. I have often seen him
tie up persons and flog them in the morning, only because they were
unable to get the previous day's task done: after they were flogged,
pork or beef brine was put on their bleeding
backs, to increase the pain; he sitting by resting himself, and seeing
it done. After being thus flogged and pickled, the sufferers often
remained tied up all day, the feet just touching the ground, the legs
tied, and pieces of wood put between the legs. All the motion allowed
was a slight turn of the neck. Thus exposed and helpless, the yellow
flies and mosquitoes in great numbers would
settle on the bleeding and smarting back,
and put the sufferer to extreme torture. This continued all day, for
they were not taken down till night.
In flogging, MacPherson would sometimes tie the slave's shirt over
his head, that he might not flinch when the blow was coming: sometimes
he would increase his misery, by blustering and calling out that he
was coming to flog again, which he did or did not, as happened. I
have seen him flog slaves with his own hands, till their entrails
were visible; and I have seen the sufferers dead when they were taken
down. He never was called to account in any way for it.
It is not uncommon for flies to blow the
sores made by flogging. In that case, we get a strong weed growing
in those parts, called the Oak of Jerusalem; we boil it at night,
and wash the sores with the liquor, which is extremely bitter: on
this, the creepers or maggots come out. To relieve them in some degree
after severe flogging, their fellow-slaves rub their backs with part
of their little allowance of fat meat.
(6) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
When my mother became old, she was sent
to live in a little lonely log-hut in the woods. Aged and worn out
slaves, whether men or women, are commonly so treated. No care is
taken of them, except, perhaps, that a little ground is cleared about
the hut, on which the old slave, if able, may raise a little corn.
As far as the owner is concerned, they live or die as it happens;
is is just the same thing as turning out an old horse. Their children
or other near relations, if living in the neighbourhood, take it by
turns to go at night, with a supply saved out of their own scanty
allowance of food, as well as to cut wood and fetch water for them:
this is done entirely through
the good feelings of the slaves, and not through
the masters' taking care that it is done. On these night-visits, the
aged inmate of the hut is often found crying, on account of sufferings
from disease or extreme weakness, or from want of food and water in
the course of the day: many a time, when I have drawn near to my mother's
hut, I have heard her grieving and crying on these accounts: she was
old and blind too, and so unable to help herself. She was not treated
worse than others: it is the general practice. Some few good masters
do not treat their old slaves so: they employ them in doing light
jobs about the house and garden.
(7) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
Before I close this narrative, I ought to express my grateful thanks
to the many friends in the Northern States, who have encouraged and
assisted me: I shall never forget to speak of their kindness, and
to pray for their prosperity. I am delighted to say, that not only
to myself, but to very many other coloured persons, they have lent
a benevolent helping hand. Last year, gentlemen whom I know bought
no less than ten families from slavery, and this year they are pursuing
the same good work. But for these numerous and heavy claims on their
means and their kindness, I should have had no need to appeal to the
generosity of the British public; they would gladly have helped me
to redeem all my children and relations.
(8) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
When I first went to the Northern States, which
is about ten years ago, although I was free as to the law, I was made
to feel severely the difference between persons of different colours.
No black man was admitted to the same seats in churches with the whites,
nor to the inside of public conveyances, nor into street coaches or
cabs: we had to be content with the decks of steam-boats in all weathers,
night and day, - not even our wives or children being allowed to go
below, however it might rain, or snow, or freeze; in various other
ways, we were treated as though we were of a race of men below the
whites.
But the abolitionists boldly stood up for us, and through them things
are much changed for the better. Now, we may sit in any part of many
places of worship, and are even asked into the pews of respectable
white families; many public conveyances now make no distinction between
white and black. We begin to feel that we are really on the same footing
as our fellow citizens. They see we can and do conduct ourselves with
propriety, and they are now admitting us in many cases to the same
standing with themselves.
During the struggles which have procured for us
this justice from our fellow-citizens, we have been in the habit of
looking in public places for some well-known abolitionists, and if
none that we knew were there, we addressed any person dressed as a
Quaker; these classes always took our part against ill usage, and
we have to thank them for many a contest in our behalf. We were greatly
delighted by the zealous efforts and powerful eloquence in our cause
of George Thompson, who came from our English friends to aid our suffering
brethren. He was hated and mobbed by bad men amongst the whites; they
put his life in great danger, and threatened destruction to all who
sheltered him. We prayed for him, and did all we could to defend him.
The Lord preserved him, and thankful were we when he escaped from
our country with his life.
At that time, and ever since, we have had a host of American friends,
who have laboured for the cause night and day; they have nobly stood
up for the rights and honour of the coloured man; but they did so
at first in the midst of scorn and danger. Now, thank God, the case
is very different Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, who was hunted for his
life by a mob in the streets of Boston has lately been chairman of
a large meeting in favour of abolition, held in Fanueil Hall, the
celebrated public hall of Boston, called "the Cradle of Liberty."
(9) Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
I am glad to say also, that numbers of my coloured brethren now escape
from slavery; some by purchasing their freedom, others by quitting,
through many dangers and hardships, the land of bondage. The latter
suffer many privations in their attempts to reach the free states.
They hide themselves during the day in the woods and swamps; at night
they travel, crossing rivers by swimming, or by boats they may chance
to meet with, and passing over hills and meadows which they do not
know; in these dangerous journeys they are guided by the north-star,
for they only know that the land of freedom is in the north. They
subsist on such wild fruit as they can gather, and as they are often
very long on their way, they reach the free states almost like skeletons.
On their arrival, they have no friends but such as pity those who
have been in bondage, the number of which, I am happy to say, is increasing;
but if they can meet with a man in a broad-brimmed hat and Quaker
coat, they speak to him without fear-relying on him as a friend. At
each place the escaped slave inquires for an abolitionist or a Quaker,
and these friends of the coloured man help them on their journey northwards,
until they are out of the reach of danger.
(10)
Moses
Grandy, Life of a Slave (1843)
Our untiring friends, the abolitionists, once obtained
a law that no coloured person should be seized as a slave within the
free states; this law would have been of great service to us, by ridding
us of all anxiety about our freedom while we remained there; but I
am sorry to say, that it has lately been repealed, and that now, as
before, any coloured person who is said to be a slave, may be seized
in the free states and carried away, no matter how long he may have
resided there, as also may his children and their children, although
they all may have been born there. I hope this law will soon be altered
again.
At present, many escaped slaves are forwarded by their friends to
Canada where, under British rule, they are quite safe. There is a
body of ten thousand of them in Upper Canada; they are known for their
good order, and loyalty to the British government; during the late
troubles, they could always be relied on for the defence of the British
possessions, against the lawless Americans who attempted to invade
them.
As to the settlement of Liberia on the coast of Africa, the free coloured
people of America do not willingly go to it. America is their home:
if their forefathers lived in Africa, they themselves know nothing
of that country None but free coloured people are taken there: if
they would take slaves, they might have plenty of colonists. Slaves
will go any where for freedom.
We look very much to Great Britain and Ireland
for help. Whenever we hear of the British or Irish people doing good
to black men, we are delighted, and run to tell each other the news.
Our kind friends, the abolitionists, are very much encouraged when
they hear of meetings and speeches in England in our cause. The first
of August, the day when the slaves in the West Indies were made free,
is always kept as a day of rejoicing by the American coloured free
people.
I do hope and believe that the cause of freedom
to the blacks is becoming stronger and stronger every day. I pray
for the time to come when freedom shall be established all over the
world. Then will men love as brethren; they will delight to do good
to one another; and they will thankfully worship the Father of all.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
