Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 120
provisions he would then have been released on payment of the gaol fees by the
captain. The ship was detained considerably beyond the time the captain had
reckoned upon, owing to delays in procuring the cargo. Slave labour was dear,
and the captain
Page 233
had to pay high wages to the slave who had been hired to him to do John
Glasgow's work. When, therefore, the time came for the ship to set sail, he
found that the gaol fees for John's release had run up enormously high, so the
captain refused to pay them, and set sail without him. John Glasgow was then
taken out of the gaol and sold on the auction block for three hundred and fifty
dollars to Thomas Stevens, on whose plantation I found him as above described.
From this point I can declare to the facts stated as within my personal
knowledge. I remember his naturally brave look: this offended his master, who
swore he "would flog his nigger pride out of him." When he had been some
three or four years on the plantation his master bade him take a wife. John told
him he had one in England, and two children. Then his master flogged him for
saying so and for insisting upon it he was free, and a British subject. At last, to
save his body from the cow-hide and the paddle, he promised his master never
to say as much again, and to look out for a wife. In Jones County, and about five
miles from Stevens' plantation, there lived another planter named John Ward.
John Glasgow having to go backwards and forwards on errands, saw and at
length
Page 234
selected a young coloured girl named Nancy, and they were married in the way
that slaves are, that is, nominally. This did not please Stevens, because Nancy,
being Ward's property, her children would be Ward's also; so John was flogged
for marrying Nancy instead of one of Stevens' "likely gals," and was forbidden
to visit her: still he contrived to do so without his master's discovering it. The
young woman was of a very sweet disposition, and knew all about John's
misfortunes and his having a wife and children in England: she was very kind to
him. On Christmas Day, a holiday for all, he thought he would slip away from
the other slaves who were having a feast before Stevens' house, and go see
Nancy. Accordingly, watching his opportunity, he soon succeeded in getting
away. His master saw him, but instead of calling him back, allowed him to get a
good distance off, when, beckoning to him three other slaves, of whom I,
24.03.2006