UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

" about
"
theymeant
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 155
while my father's owner moved off and took my
said in the pulpitthat there was no more harm in
father with him, which broke up the marriage. separating a family of slaves than a litterof pigs.
She was a
very handsome woman. My master I did not hear him
kepta largedairy, and she was the milk-woman. whether this is true or not.
Lexington was a small town in those days,and It may
seem
strange,
the dairy but it is was in a I had
fact,"
the town. Back of the collegemore sympathyand kind advice,in my effortsto
was the Masonic lodge. A get
man who belonged to my freedom,from gamblersand such sort of men,
the lodgesaw my mother when she was about than Christians. Some of the gamblerswere
her
very
work. He made proposalsof a base nature kind to me:
to her. When she would have nothing to say to 1 never knew a slave-traderthat did not seem
him,he told her that she need not be so independent,
to think,in his heartțhat the trade was a bad one.
fur if money could buyher he would have I knew a great many of them,such as Neal,
her. My mother told old mistress, and beggedMcAnn,
Cobb, Stone," Pulliam and Davis,"c.
that master mightnot sell her. But he did sell They were like Haley,
her.
My mother "had to
repent
a highspirit, being part when theygot through.
Indian. She would not consent to livewith this Intelligent colored people in my circleof ac-
man, as he wished ; and he sent her to prison,and
as a generalthing,felt no security
had her flogged, and punishedher in various ways, whatever for their familylies. Some, it is true",
so that at last she beganto have crazy turns. When who belongedto rich families, feltsome
I
security
read in " Uncle
,
Tom's Cabin" about Cassv, it but those of us who looked deeper, and knew how
put me in mind of my mother,and I wanted to many were not rich that tell seemed so, and saw how
Mrs. S
"
her. She tried to kill herself
fast money slipped away, were alwaysmiserable.
several times,once with a knife and once by The trader was all around,the slave-pens
hanging.She had long,straight
at
black hair,but hand,and we did not know what time
afterthis it all any of us
turned white,like an old person's. might be in it. Then there were the rice-swamps,
When she had her raving turns she always talked and the sugar and cotton plantations ; we had
about her children. The jailertold the owner had them held before us as terrors,byour masters
that if he would let her go to her children, perhaps
and mistresses, all our lives. We knew about
she would get quiet. They let her out one them all ; and when a friend was carriedoff,why,
time,and she came to the place* where we were. it was the same as
I might have been death,for we could not write
seven or eight years
or old," hear,and never expectedto see them
again.
don't know
my age exactly. I was not at home I have one child who is buried in Kentucky,
when she came. I came in and found her in one and that grave is pleasan to think of. I
of the cabins near the kitchen. 've got
She sprung and another that is sold nobodyknows where,and that
caught my arms, and seemed goingto break them, I never can bear to think of. Lewis Hayden.
and then said, " I '11 fix you so they '11never get
you I screamed,for I thought !" she was goingto The next
kill me ;
history
a long one,
they and came in and took part
me away. Theytied of it
hen,and carried her off. Sometimes,when she was
transpired in a most public manner, in
in her the
rightmind,she used to tell me
face of
what our
things
whole community.
theyhad done to her. At lasther owner sold her, The historyincludes in it the whole
for a small sum, to a man named Lackey.While account of that memorable
with
captureof the
hiui she had another husband and several
children. After a
Pearl,winch
while this
producedsuch a sensation in
husband eitherdied
or wfissold,I do not remember which. The man
Washington
the year 1848. The author,
then sold her to another
person, named Bryant. however,willpreface itwith a shorthistory
My own father'sowner now came and livedin the of a slave woman who had six children embarked
neighborhood of this man, and broughtmy mother
in that
with him. He had had another wife and
ill-fatedenterprise.
family of
children where he had been living Ḥe and my
mother came togetheragain, and finishedtheir
days together.My mother almost recovered her
mind in her last days.
CHAPTER
I never saw
VI.
anythingin Kentuckywhich made
me
suppose that ministers or professors
religion
considered it any
more
wrong to
Milly Edmondson is an
separatethe
aged woman,
families of slaves by sale than to separateany
now upwards of seventy. She has received
domestic animals.
the slave'sinheritance of entire
There may
ignorance.
be ministers and professors
religion
She cannot read
who think it a letterof
is a book,nor write
wrong, but I never met with
them. My master was a minister, and yet he
her own name ; but the writer must
say that
sold my mother,as I have related.
she was never so impressed with any presentation
When he was
going to leave Kentuckyfor Pennsylvania,
of the Christianreligion as thatwhich
he sold all my brothers and sistersat
auction. I
was made to her in the
stood by and saw them sold. When
language and appearance
I was justgoingup on to the of thiswoman
block,he swapped
duringthe few interviews
me off for a pairof carriage-horses. I looked at thatshe had with her. The circumstancesof
those horses with strangefeelings. I had indulgedthe interviewswill be detailed at length
hopes that master would take me into Pennsylvania
in
the course of
with him,and I should get the story.
free. How I
looked at those horses,and walked round them,
Millyis above the middle height,of a
and thoughtfor them I was sold !
It was
commonlyreported that my master had
say it,and so cannot sTiy
quaintance,
large, full figure.She dresses with the
greatest attention to neatness. A plain