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Slavery In The District: The Escape

Slavery In The District: The Escape image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
September
Year
1842
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

One of the reaeons always adduced tor not Interfering witli plavery in the District of Co¦lumbia, is, ihat "Slavery exists thero 'fn n very modified form," that we there "behold its -ni'ildest features." I'do not doubt this; and havihg Tnyself witnessed Skyery in the District, 1 confcss I am preparad toAëKeve the truth of that vast colleclection horrid and aslounding cruelties charged upon the eystem generally in VVeids "Slavery os it is." The füllowing adveitisement graces the column of the Daily National Intelligen¦cee from month to m'onth: NEGROES WANTED.- The subscriber vishes to parchase immediately, a number of negroea. for which he will pay the highest cash price. He can at all times be found at the corner of 7th street and Maryland avenue. All Communications addressed through .the post office will be promptly aUended to. Joshua Staples. This'shameless human flesh dealer hae the nee of a private slaye prison, standing midway between the Capítol and the Presidentes House, in the city of Washington, on the lowlands below Gadsby'6, where he seciirts the poor heart-broken captíves that lie purchases. Could that old prison reveal all the agonizing scènes, and publitsh abroad all the cruelties, groans, and tears its gloomy walls have witnessed, I doubt not every freeman would exclaim, that the system "in its mildest form," had in it enough of the elements of human jnisery and wretchedness, to provoke the exlamation - "Cursed be Slavery and let all the peoplesay, Amen!1' .;--An owncr oi a slave m tne LMstnct, wuo from losscs at the gatning table or race course, from exlravngance, improvidence, or other cause, determines upon the salo of his slave, will most assuredly, from motives of shame, jnake a secret salet o Mr. Joslnm Staples.- The first notice the poor slave has of his sale for a Southern plantation, may be, that he or ahe is suddenly drawn and locked into that private "pbn," as it is callcd, having been sent there, undcr pretence of carryinga letter, or doing an errand! Occasionally an incident occurs, which aflbrds a glimpse at the deeds of darkness and infamy practised there, and of the keenness of the miscry, and the dtsólation of hopes, experienced by the cantiye? ¦wlio are shut within it, Ly; ;he truth óf the following occ'jrrence, T might refer to at least One member of Congress. as weil as to many of the citizens of the District, who saw and lieard of ihe transaclion at the time. A small and active female slave was placed In this prison, having been sold for the south'ern market, and the time of her departure was =nt hand. Her particular hidtory I cannot give. Whelhèr it was the dread of the cruelties and fctarvatïon of a Southern cotton plantation; the dread of the abuse and yiolence of some licentious purchaaer; or the grief of being euddenly and forever separated from husband, children, and the friends of her youth, that drove the unhappy woman to adopt, not only in theory, but in practice, the eentiment of Patrick Henry - "Give me liberty, or give me death," I know not. Whatever was the cauee, the sentiment was adopted; and at dusk oftheevening previous to the day when she was to be sent off; as the old prison was being closed for the night, she suddenly darted past her keeper, and run for her life. It is not n great distance from the prison to Ihe long bridge, which passes frorn the lower part of the city across the Potomac, to the extensive forests and woodlands of the celebrated Arlington Place, occupied by that distinguished relative and descendant of the immortal Washington, Mr, Geo. W. Custiss. Thither the poor pursued fugitive directed her flight. - So unexpected was her escape, that she had quite a number of rods the start before the keeper had secured the other prisonerp, and rallied his assistant in pursuit. ït was an hour when, end in a part of the city where Jiorses could not readily be obtamed for thechase; no bloodhounds were at hand to run down the fiying woman; and for once it seemed as though there was Iike to be a fair tria] of speed and endnrance, between the slave ane the slave catchers. Tlie keeper and his forces raised the hueand cry on her pathway, close behind; but eo rapid was the flight along the wide Avenue, that the astonished citizens, as they poured forth from their dwellmgs to learn the cause of alarm, were only enabled to comprehend the nature of the case, in sea'son to fall in with the motley mass in pursuit, or, (as many a oue did that night) to raise an anxious prayer to heaven, as they rrfused to join in pursuit, that the panting fugitive might escape, and the merciless soul-dealer for once be disappointed of his prey. And now, with the speed of an arrow - having safely paesec the Avenue; - with the distance betweeu her and gher pursuers constantly increasmg, the poor hunted female gained the " Lono Bridgr," as it is called, where interniption seemed improbable, and olreatïy did her heart begin to beat high wil h the hope of success. She had only to pass three-fourths of a mile more across the bridge, and she could bury herself in a vast forest, just at the moment when the curtain of night would close around her, and protect her froru the pursuit of her enemies. But God by his Providence had otherwise determined. He had determined that an appalling tragedy should be enacted that night, within plain sight of the President's House and the Capítol of the Union, which should be known, of the unconquerable love of liberty the heart of the elave rnay inlierit ; as well asa fresh adraonition to tho slave dealer, of the cruelty and enormity of his crimes. Just as the pursuers crossed the high draw for the passage of 6loops, soon after entering upon the bridge, they bcheld in the distance, three men slowly advancing from the Virginia side. They immediately called to them to arrest the fugitive, whom they proclaimed a runaway elave. True to their Virginia instinets, as che carne near, they formed in line across the narrow bridge, and prepared to seize her. - Seeing escape impossible in that quarter, she stopped Buddenly, and turned upon her pursuers. On carne 'the profane and ribald crew, faster than ever, already exulting in her capture, and threatenini puishment for her flight. For a moment she looked wildly and anxiously around, to tee if there was no other hope of escape. On either hand, far down below, rolled the deep Jonrny watera of Potomac, and before and bebind the rapidly approuching Ftep and fierce and noisy ehout of pursuers, showed how vain would be any further effort for freedom. Her resolution was taken. She claaped her hundo convulsiveJy, &. raised theui,as she at the same time raised her eyes, towards heaven, and begged for that meïcy and compassion lliere, which had boen denied her on earth; and then, with a single bnund, slie vaulted over the railing of the bridge, and suak forever beneath the waves of the riverü Slavetradcr! "thy prey hath escaped thee," and if thou comest up to tlie judgment without deep repentance for thy damnable traffic, as thy deeds of wickedness shall one after an other be passed in review before an asscmbled universo, and tl)ou shalt be driven away from the presence of God and the Lainb, will not all created i ntell genees cry out, Amen, to thy sentence, when they shall eee that thou didst persist ir. buying and selling the bodies and souls of thy fellow-men, after bein? warned of the tendency andcmelly of thy villainous trade, by the selMestruction of the poor hunted fugitive npon the "Long Bridge?'

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News