Chatham
Aaron Siddles
By the law of Almighty God, I was born free,—by the law of man a slave. I was born in South Carolina: was raised in Murfreesboro’, Tenn., until nineteen. I was taken into Kentucky, and sold three times. Then I was sold to one of the worst negro-traders that ever was, to be taken five miles below Baton Rouge. While he was purchasing more, I gave my guard the slip, and went into the bush five months. In this time I slept in no man’s house nor barn: I felt that there were only two persons in the world I could trust: one girl, Lavina Robinson, who brought me food from a white man, and that white man himself, Timothy Guard. Mr. Guard knew me well,—I was his foreman—cooper. He offered $1,000 for me: the trader would n’t take it. Guard lent me the money—I offered it for myself. The trader said, “I know you had that money of Guard, and I won’t please him. I want you—you ‘ll make a first-rate nigger-driver.” I felt I would rather be killed than go. I was only afraid they ‘d chain me: I think they were afraid to undertake it. I was a stout man, and have lifted seven hundred and fifty pounds—a steamboat shaft. It was on a bet; a Southerner bet a new coat he had against five dollars, that I could not life it. I lifted it with ease, and took the coat.
I took to the woods as I said. The trader got discouraged, and sold the chance of me to Guard for $1,000. The conditions were, if Guard ever saw me in the United States, he was to pay the money. He saw me the next night, for I went in. I had a previous understanding with Guard, that if he bought me, I was to have a chance to buy myself. He gave me a paper signed before witnesses, that I was to be free, when I paid him $1,600. He also gave me papers stating that I was allowed to trade for myself: if I would not pay, he would, and if any one would not pay me, he would compel them. I went to work as steward of a steamboat. At first, I got $35 a month, which raised till I got $100 a month. I paid off Guard between six and seven years after: still remained on the boats, and, in all, I worked eleven years with one man at $100 a month,—and he would give me that now, if I would go back.
On passing up or down the Mississippi, between slave States, the first thing I heard in the morning was the sound of the great bells, which are rung to call the slaves. The next thing, before it was light enough to see, I heard the crack of the overseer’s whip, and the cries of the slaves, “Oh! pray, Mas’r! Oh! pray, Mas’r!” Every morning I heard it from both sides of the river.
Living in Indiana, I was dissatisfied with the laws of the country. I had a good deal of property there; it was not safe, for any loafing white might destroy or steal, and unless a white man were by to see it, I could get no redress.
One time in Indiana, seven white fellows, without provocation, threw brickbats at my house, and broke my windows. I was so mad, that I seized my gun and pursued them, and put some small shot in the backs of two