"You look as pale as a ghost. Better try a little of Maria"s blackberry cordial? No? Do you good, I"m sure, if you would," said Mr. Bradley.
"You"re taking this thing altogether too much to heart, sir. What possible difference can it make to John whether you pay for him or whether he had come to you as the others did? If yo"ll will allow me to say so, I think it is a ridiculous distinction. Somebody paid for the ones you"ve got. If you"ll allow an old neighbor to make a suggestion, I think you read those Yankee papers altogether too much and too seriously. It perverts your judgment. It"s a good sight easier for those fellows up there to settle this question than it is for us to do it.
They simply don"t know what they are talking about, and we do. With them it"s all theory. Here it"s a cold fact. What in the name of common sense would they have? Suppose we didn"t own and provide for and direct all these n.i.g.g.e.rs, what on earth would become of"em? Where would they get enough to eat? You know as well as I do there is nothing on this earth as helpless and as much to be pitied as a free n.i.g.g.e.r. They don"t know how to take care of themselves, and n.o.body is going to hire one. What in thunder do people want us to do? Brain "em?"
"Oh, I know, I know," said Mr. Davenport, helplessly, looking far off into the beautiful valley, with its hazy atmosphere and its rich fields of grain. "I"ve thought about it a thousand times, and a thousand times it has baffled me. I"m not judging, now, for you, Mr. Bradley, not in the least. I feel myself too thoroughly caught in the meshes of our social fabric to presume to unravel it for other people. But--but in _my_ position--for myself--it seems a monstrously wrong thing for me to count out this money and pay it over for John, just as if he were a horse. It makes me feel sick--as I fancy a criminal must feel after his first crime." Mr. Bradley laughed.
"You don"t look it, Davenport! Criminal! Ha, ha, ha, ha! that"s rich!"
Griffith moved uneasily and did not join the laugh which still convulsed his neighbor.
"For _me_ it is wrong--distinctly, absolutely wrong. It is a terrible thing for me to say--and still do it--I, a preacher of G.o.d! For you, I cannot judge. "Judge not, that ye be not judged," is what I always think in this matter. But for me, for _me_ it is not right--and yet what can I do?"
Mr. Bradley laughed again, partly in amus.e.m.e.nt and partly in derision, at what he looked upon as the preacher"s unworldly view, and what he spoke of with vexation to others as "Davenport"s d.a.m.ned foolishness,"
which had, of late, grown to be a matter of real unrest to the neighborhood, in which it was felt that the influence of such opinions could not fail to be dangerous to social order and stability. It was as if you or I were to spring the question of free land or free money in a convention of landlords and bankers. Or, if you please, like the arguments for anarchy or no government addressed to the "Fourth ward," or the members of Congress. It was, in short, subversive of the established order of things, and neither you, nor I, nor they, accept quite gracefully such propositions, if in their application to ourselves, they would be a sore and bitter loss--if it would render less secure and lofty our seat on the social or political throne. We revolt and we blame the disturber of the old established order of things--the order, which having been good enough for our fathers is surely good enough for you and for me. In short, was not the way in religion and in social order of our fathers far the better way? Is not the better way always that of the man who owns and rides in the carriage? If you will ask him--or if you are he--you will learn or see that there is not the least doubt of the fact. If you should happen to ask the man who walks, you may hear another story--if the man who walks happens to be a philosopher; but as all pedestrians are not philosophers and since acquiescence is an easy price to pay for peace, it may happen that the man in the carriage will be corroborated by the wayfarer whom his wheels have run down.
And so, my friend, in the year 1852, had you been sitting counting out the six hundred dollars which must change hands to enable John to play with the little black baby on his knee, after his day"s work was done, and to keep Sallie from the pitiful fate she dreaded, it is to be questioned if you would not have agreed with Mr. Bradley in his covert opinion that "Davenport"s squeamishness was all d.a.m.ned nonsense," and that he might far better stop reading those Yankee newspapers. But be that as it may, the deed was done. The transfer was made, and the Rev.
Griffith Davenport rode home with a sad heart and troubled conscience.
He did not sing nor even hum his favorite hymns as he rode. His usually radiant face was a study in perplexity. When he pa.s.sed the cross-roads he did not whistle to the robin who always answered him.
Selim"s successor and namesake slackened his gait and wondered. Then he jogged on, and when he stopped at the home "stile" and Griffith still sat on his back, apparently oblivious of the fact that the journey was at an end, Selim whinnied twice before the responsive pat fell upon his glossy neck.
Jerry ran out. "Dinnah"s raidy, Mos" Grif. Mis" Kath"rine she been a waitin" foh yoh."
The rider roused himself and dismounted, more like an old man than like his cheery, jovial, alert self.
"Is that so? Is it dinner-time already?" he asked absently. "Feed him, but don"t put him up. I may want him again after dinner."
"You ain"t sick, is you, Mos" Grif?"
"No, no, boy, I"m not sick," he said, and then recognizing the look of anxiety on the faithful fellow"s face: "What made you ask that?"
"Yoh look so monst"ous lemoncholly, Mos" Grif. Hit ain"t seem like yo"se"f. I des fought dey mus" be somp"in de mattah wid yo" insides."
Mr. Davenport laughed and snapped the riding whip at the boy. Jerry dodged the stroke, but rubbed the place where it was supposed to fall.
"Lemoncholly, am I? I"ll lemoncholly you, you rascal, if you don"t just knock off and go fishing this afternoon. I shan"t need you with me."
He was half way to the house when he called back: "Bring me a nice mess of trout, boy, and you"ll see my insides, as you call"em, will be all right. It"s trout I need. Now mind!"
And Jerry was comforted.
CHAPTER VII.--WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
It was a year later before the Rev. Griffith Davenport found himself in a position to carry out, even in part, a long-cherished plan of his. For some time past, he had been strengthening himself in the belief that in the long run he would have to flee from the problem that so perplexed him. That he would have to make one supreme effort which should, thereafter, shield him against himself and against temptation. This determination had cost him the severest struggle of his life, and it had resulted in the rupture of several lifelong friendships and in strained relations with his own and his wife"s near kinsmen. It had divided his church and made ill-feeling among his brother clergymen, for it had become pretty generally known and talked about, that the Rev. Griffith Davenport had definitely determined to leave his old home and take his sons to be educated "where the trend of thought is toward freedom" as he had expressed it, and as his neighbors were fond of quoting derisively.
He had finally secured a position in connection with a small college somewhere in Indiana, together with an appointment as "presiding elder"
in the district in which the college was located. He had arranged for the sale of his property, and he was about to leave.
To those whose traditions of ancestry all center about one locality, it costs a fearful struggle to tear up root and branch and strike out into unknown fields among people of a different type and cla.s.s; with dissimilar ideas and standards of action and belief. To such it is almost like the threat or presence of death in the household. But to voluntarily disrupt and leave behind all of that which has given color and tone and substance to one"s daily life, and at its meridian, to begin anew the weaving of another fabric from unaccustomed threads on a strange and unknown loom, to readjust one"s self to a different civilization--all this requires a heroism, a fidelity to conscience and, withal, a confidence in one"s own judgment and beliefs that surpa.s.s the normal limit. But, if in addition to all this, the contemplated change is to be made in pursuance of a moral conviction and will surely result in financial loss and material discomfort, it would not be the part of wisdom to ask nor to expect it of those who are less than heroic. In order to compa.s.s his plans Mr. Davenport knew that it would be necessary to dispose of his slaves. But how?
He hoped to take with him to his new home--although they would be freed by the very act--several of the older ones and Jerry and his little family. He knew that these would, by their faithful services, be a comfort and support to his wife and of infinite use and advantage to the children, whose love and confidence they had. To take all into his employ in the new home would, of course, be impossible. He would no longer have the estate of an esquire. At first, at least, he must live in a small town. There would be no land to till and no income to so support them. The house would no longer be the roomy mansion of a planter. His income would be too meager to warrant the keeping of even so many servants as they were planning to take--and there would be little work for them to do. The others must be disposed of in some other way. But how? They are yours, my friend, for the moment. How will you dispose of them? What would you have done?
"Free them and leave them in the state of their birth and of their love where their friends and kinsmen are?" But you cannot! It is against the law! If you free them you must take them away. Sell them? Of course not!
give them to your wife"s and your own people? Would that settle or only perpetuate and shift the question for which you are suffering and sacrificing so much? And it would discriminate between those you take and thus make free and those you leave and farther fix in bondage, and the Rev. Griffith Davenport had set out to meet and perform, and not merely to shift and evade, what he had grown to look upon as his duty to himself and to them. It was this which had burdened and weighed upon him all these last months, until at last he had determined to meet it in the only way that seamed to settle it once and for all. He would go.
He would free all of them and take them with him into the state of his adoption. He would then give hired employment to those he needed in his household and the others would have to shift for themselves. This he prepared to do. Some of them would not want to go into a homeless and strange new land. This he also knew. Pete was, as the negroes phrased it, "settin" up to" Col. Phelps" Tilly. Pete would, therefore, resist, and wish to remain in Virginia. Old Milt and his wife had seven children who were the property of other people in the neighborhood, and their grandchildren were almost countless. It would go hard with Milt and Phillis to leave all these. It would go even harder with them to be free--and homeless. Both were old. Neither could hope to be self-supporting. My friend, have you decided what to do with Milt and Phillis? Add Judy and Mammy and five other old ones to your list when you have solved the problem.
Mr. Bradley had spoken to Griffith of all these things--of the hardships to both black and white--and of the possible outcome.
Over and over during the year, when they had talked of the proposed new move, he had urged these points.
"It seems to me, Mr. Davenport, that you are going to tackle a pretty rough job. You say you will take all of them as far as Washington, anyhow. Now you ought to know that there are no end of free n.i.g.g.e.rs in Washington, already, with no way to support themselves. Look at Milt and Phillis and Judy and Dan, and those other old ones in the two end cabins! They"ve all served you and your father before you faithfully all of their lives, and now you are proposing to turn them out to die--simply to starve to death. That"s the upshot of your foolishness.
You know they won"t steal, and they can"t work enough to support themselves. All the old ones are in the same fix, and the young ones will simply be put on the chain-gang for petty thefts of food before you get fairly settled out west. Lord, Lord, man, you don"t know what you are doing! I wish the old Major was here to put a stop to it. You"re laying up suffering for yourself, you"re laying up sorrow and crime for them, you are robbing your children of their birthright, and of what their grandfathers have done for them, you are making trouble among other people"s n.i.g.g.e.rs here who hear of it, and think it would be a fine thing to be a free n.i.g.g.e.r in Washington or Indiana--and what good is it all going to do? Just answer me that? It would take a microscope to see any good that _can_ come out of it. It"s easy enough to see the harm.
Look at "Squire Nelson"s Jack! He undertook to run off last week, and Nelson had him whipped within an inch of his life. Yes, bad policy, and cruel, of course, but that"s the kind of a man Nelson is. Now your move is going to stir up that sort of thing all around here. It does it every time. You know that. What in thunder has got into the heads of some of you fellows, I can"t see. It started in about the time you Methodists began riding around here. Sometimes I think they were sent down here just for that purpose, and that the preaching was only a blind." Mr.
Davenport laughed. "Ha, ha, ha, ha! Bradley, you are a hopeless case! If I didn"t know you so well, I"d feel like losing my temper; but--"
"Oh, I don"t mean you, of course. I know _you_ got to believing in the new religion and got led on. I mean those fellows who came down here and started it all when you were a good, sensible boy. And how do they get their foolishness, anyhow? Your Bible teaches the right of slavery plain enough, in all conscience, and even if it didn"t, slavery is here and we can"t help ourselves; and what"s more we can"t help the n.i.g.g.e.rs by turning some of "em loose to starve, and letting them make trouble for both the masters and the slaves that are left behind. I just tell you, Mr. Davenport, it is a big mistake and you are going to find it out before you are done with it."
Griffith had grown so used to these talks and to those of a less kindly tone that he had stopped arguing the matter at all, and, indeed, there seemed little he could say beyond the fact, that it was a matter of conscience with him. His wife"s father had berated him soundly, and her sisters plainly stated that, in their opinion, "poor Brother Grif was insane." They pitied their sister Katherine from the bottom of their hearts, and thanked G.o.d devoutly that their respective husbands were not similarly afflicted. And, as may be readily understood, it was all a sore trial for Katherine.
At last, when the manumission papers came, Katherine sent LeRoy, her second son, to tell the negroes to come to the "big house."
Roy ran, laughing and calling, to the negro quarters. "Oh, John, Pete, Sallie, Uncle Milt everybody I Father says for _all_ of you--every single one--to come to the big house right after supper! Every single one! He"s got something for you. Something he is going to make you a present of! I can"t tell you what--only every one will have it--and you must come right away after supper!"
"G"way fum heah, chile! What he gwine t" gib _me?_ New yaller dress?"
inquired Lippy Jane, whereupon there arose a great outcry from the rest, mingled with laughter and gibes.
"I know wat he gwine t" gib Lippy Jane! He gwine t" gib"er a swing t"
hang onter dat lip, yah! yah! yah!" remarked Pete, and dodged the blow that his victim leveled at him. "New dress! Lawsy, chile, I reckon he be mo" likely ter gib you a lickin" along "er dat platter you done bus"
widout tellin" Mis" Kate!" put in Sallie, whose secure place in the affections of the mistress rendered her a severe critic of manners and morals in the "quarters." "Come heah, Mos" Roy, honey, an" tell ole Une"
Milt wat"e gwine t" git. Wat dat is wat Mos" Grif gwine t" gib me? Some mo" "er dat dar town terbacker? Laws a ma.s.sy, honey, dat dar las" plug what he fotch me nebber las" no time ertal."
But Roy was tickling the ear of old Phillis with a feather he had picked up from the gra.s.s, and the old woman was nodding and slapping at the side of her head and humoring the boy in the delusion that she thought her tormentor was a fly. Roy"s delight was unbounded.
"G"way fum heah, fly! Shoo! G"way fum heah! I lay dat I mash you flat"
fo" a nudder minnit! Sho-o-o!"
Roy and the twins were convulsed with suppressed mirth, and Aunt Phillis slapped the side of her head with a resounding whack which was not only a menace to the life and limb of the aforenamed insect, but also, bid fair to demolish her ear as well. One of the twins undertook to supplement the proceeding on the other ear with a blade of "fox tail,"
but found himself sprawling in front of the cabin door. "You trillin"
little n.i.g.g.e.r! Don" you try none"er yoah foolin" wid me! I lay I break yoah fool neck! I lay I do," exclaimed the old woman in wrath. Then in a sportively insistent tone, as she banged at the other side of her head, "Fore de good Lawd on high! twixt dat imperent little n.i.g.g.e.r an" dis heah fly, I lay I"m plum wore out. Sho-o-o, fly!"
Suddenly she swung her fat body about on the puncheon stool and gave a tremendous snort and snapped her teeth at the young master. "Lawsey me, honey, was dat yoh all dis long c.u.m short? Was dat yo" teasin" yoah po"
ole Aunt Phillis wid dat fedder? I lay I gwine ter ketch yo" yit, an"
swaller yo" down whole! I lay I is!"
The threat to swallow him down whole always gave Roy the keenest delight. He ran for the big house, laughing and waving the feather at Phillis.