The Great Stain

by Noel Rae

  “Thirdly, by this means the English plantations have been so much improved that ‘tis almost incredible what great advantages have accrued to the nation thereby; especially to the Sugar Islands, which lying in a climate near as hot as the coast of Guinea, the Negroes are fitter to cultivate the lands there than white people.

  “Then as to the criminals among the Negroes, they are by this means effectually transported, never to return again; a benefit we very much want here”—that is, in England, which in fact would soon start shipping its criminals to Georgia.

  “In a word, from this trade proceed benefits far outweighing all, either real or imagined, mischiefs and inconveniences. And let the worst that can be said of it, it will be found, like all other earthly advantages, tempered with a mixture of good and evil.”

  One of the very few Africans ever to return home, Job ben Solomon owed his good fortune to the chance discovery, while in Maryland, that he was “no common slave” but “the high priest of Bonda in the country of Foota.” With the help of English philanthropists he was bought and freed, and while on a stop-over in London was taken up by high society. When writing up his story he appears to have had a good deal of help from his English friends, which may explain the many compliments to his aristocratic patrons and the Royal African Company. This portrait appeared as the book’s frontispiece.

  CHAPTER 3

  PERSONAL STORIES

  OF THE MILLIONS WHO WERE TAKEN CAPTIVE AND SENT ACROSS THE OCEAN, only a handful ever had a chance to tell their story; and often their story is the only thing we know about them—not even their names have survived.

  One of these was the anonymous friend of Charles Ball, who before escaping to freedom spent many years on a cotton plantation in South Carolina. Although by then the slave trade had become illegal, several of his companions had been smuggled in from Africa. Some of these were Muslims, including a man “who prayed five times every day, always turning his face to the east when in the performance of his devotion.” Ball befriended the newcomer, who told him the story of his life, and many years later, after his escape, Ball included the story in his book, Fifty Years in Chains. Perhaps to protect his friend from reprisals, his name was never mentioned. The book was not actually written by Ball, but dictated to Isaac Fisher, a Pennsylvania lawyer and abolitionist, who insisted that “all the facts which relate personally to the fugitive were received from his own lips.” With Fisher’s help, Ball jumped straight into the story.

  “This man told me he formerly lived on the confines of a country which had no trees nor grass upon it; and that in some places no water was to be found for several days’ journey; that this barren country was, nevertheless, inhabited by a race of men who had many camels and goats, and some horses. They had no settled place of residence, but moved from one part of the country to another in quest of places where green herbage was to be found—their chief food being the milk of their camels and goats; but that they also ate the flesh of these animals, sometimes. The hair of these people was not short and woolly, like that of the Negroes, nor were they were of a shining black. They were continually at war with some of the neighboring people, and very often with his own countrymen. He was himself once taken prisoner by them, when a lad, in a great battle fought between them and his own people, in which his party were defeated. The victors kept him in their possession more than two years, compelling him to attend to their camels and goats.”

  However, though a prisoner he was not a slave, since his captors “professed the same religion that he did, and it was forbidden by its precepts for one man to sell another into slavery, who held the same faith with himself.” After a while he became “so familiar with their customs and manner of life that they seemed almost to regard me as one of their own nation.” When they camped one of his jobs was to tie together the camels’ fore-feet, so that they could graze, but not go far.

  “When I had been a captive with them fully two years, we came one evening and encamped at a little well.” The water was “very sweet and good,” but “there was no herbage hereabout, except a few stunted and thorny bushes; and on wandering abroad in quest of something to eat, one of the best and fleetest camels entangled the rope which bound its fore-feet amongst these bushes, and broke it. I found part of the rope fast to a bush in the morning; but the camel was at a great distance from us, towards the setting sun.

  “The chief of our party ordered me to mount another camel and go with a long rope in pursuit of the stray; and told me that they should travel towards the south that day and encamp at a place where there was much grass. I went in pursuit of the lost camel, but when I came near him he took off at a great trot.” This went on all day until “a while before sundown I approached a small grove of tall, straight trees, which are greatly valued in Africa, and which bear large quantities of nuts of a very good quality. Under and about these trees was a small tract of ground, covered with long green grass; and here my stray camel stopped.

  “When I came up to the trees I dismounted from the camel I rode, and tying its feet together with a short rope, preserved my long one for the purpose of taking the runaway. I gathered as many nuts as I could eat, and after satisfying my hunger, lay down to sleep.” Then, “fearful that some wild beast might fall in with me,” he got up and climbed one of the trees. The moon was full and the night clear. Then, “when I had been in the tree about an hour I heard, at a great distance, a loud sullen noise, between a growl and a roar, which I knew to proceed from a lion … I was greatly terrified by this circumstance; not for my own safety, for I knew that no beast of prey could reach me in the tree, but I feared that my camels might be devoured, and I be left to perish in the desert. Keeping my eye steadily directed towards the point from which the sound had proceeded, it was not long before I saw some object, moving over the naked plain.

  “It was a monstrous lion, of the black-maned species. It was now within one hundred paces of me, and the poor camels raised their heads as high as they could towards me, and crouched close to the trunk of the tree, apparently so stupefied by fear as to be incapable of attempting to fly. The lion approached with a kind of circular motion; and at length dropping on his belly, glided along the ground until within about ten yards of the tree, when uttering a terrific roar, which shook the stillness of the night for many a league around, he sprang upon and seized the unbound camel by the neck.

  “The animal, after striving in vain to shake off his assailant, rushed out upon the open plain, carrying on his back the lion, which I could perceive had already fastened upon the throat of his victim, which did not go more than a stone’s cast from the trees before he fell, and after a short struggle ceased to move his limbs. The lion held the poor beast by the throat for some time after he was dead, and until, I suppose, the blood had ceased to flow from his veins. Then, quitting the neck, he turned to the side of the slain, and tearing a hole into the cavity of the body, extracted the intestines, and devoured the liver and heart, before he began to gorge himself with the flesh.

  “The moon was now high in the heavens, and shone with such exceeding brilliancy that I could see distinctly for many miles round me.” But to his great alarm, there was no sign of the other camel, which had apparently broken the cord tying its fore-feet and fled, “leaving me alone and without any means of escaping from the desert.

  “I slept none this night—but from my couch in the boughs watched the motions of the lion which, after swallowing at least one third of the camel, stretched himself at full length on his belly, about twenty paces from it, and laying his head between his fore-feet, prepared to guard his spoil against all the intruders of the night. In this position he remained until the sun was up in the morning, when, rising and stretching himself, he walked slowly towards the grove, passed under me, went to the other side of the trees and entered some very tall herbage, where I heard him lap water.” After slaking his thirst, the lion came to the tree, “rubbed himself against the trunk … and then lying down on his side in the shade, appeared
to fall into a deep sleep. Great as was my anxiety to leave my present lodgings, I dared not attempt to pass the sentinel that kept guard at the root of the tree, even though he slept at his post; for whenever I made the least rustling in the branches I perceived that he moved his ears and opened his eyes, but closed the latter again when the noise ceased. The lion lay all day under the tree, only removing so as to place himself in the shade in the afternoon.” Even when night came, the lion stayed nearby and “I remained in the tree, burning with thirst, until the moon was elevated high in the heavens, when the silence was interrupted by the roaring of a lion”—another lion—“at a great distance, which was again repeated after a short interval. At the end of half an hour I again heard the same lion, apparently not far off. Casting my eye in the direction of the sound I saw the beast advancing rapidly … coming to partake of the dead camel, whose flesh or blood he had doubtlessly smelled … I knew the nature of the lion too well to suppose that the stranger was going to get his supper free of cost; and before he had reached the carcass, my jailer quitted his post and set off to defend his acquisition of the last night.

  “The newcomer arrived first, and fell upon the dead camel with the fury of a hungry lion—as he was; but he had scarcely swallowed a second morsel when the rightful owner, uttering a roar yet more dreadful than any that had preceded it, leapt upon the intruder and brought him to the ground. For a moment I heard nothing but the gnashing of teeth, the clashing of talons and the sounds caused by the lacerations of the flesh and hides of the combatants.” The battle lasted more than an hour; but in the end the black-maned lion lost and walked off, while the stranger “returned to the remnant of the camel and lay down panting beside it. After he had taken time to breathe, he recommenced his attack and consumed far the larger part of the carcass. Having eaten to fullness, he took up the bones and remaining flesh of the camel and set off across the desert.

  “Parched as my throat was, but afraid to descend from my place of safety, I remained on the tree until the light of the next morning, when I examined carefully around to see that there was no beast of prey lurking around the place where I knew the water to be. Perceiving no danger, I descended before the sun was up, and going to the water knelt down and drank as long and as much as I thought I could with safety.

  “I walked out upon the desert and prayed to be delivered from the perils that environed me. At the distance of two or three miles I now observed a small sand hill, rising to the height of eight or ten feet.” Climbing to the top of this hill he saw a “hollow place on the side opposite to that by which I had ascended; and on coming to this spot, beheld my camel crouched down close to the ground, with his neck extended at full length. My joy was unbounded—I leaped with delight, and was wild for some minutes with a delirium of gladness. I hastened to loose his feet from the cords with which I had bound them, mounted upon his back, and was quickly at the watering place. I filled my two water skins with water, and gathering as many nuts as my sacks would contain, caused my camel to take a full draught, and fill his stomach with grass, and then directed my course to the south, with a quick pace.

  “I pursued my route without anything worthy of relating happening to me until the eighth day, when I discovered trees and all the appearance of a woody country before me. Soon after entering the forest I came to a small stream of water. Descending this stream a few miles, I found some people who were cutting grass for the purpose of making mats to sleep on. These people spoke my own language. They took me and my camel to their village and treated me very kindly, promising me that after I had recovered from my fatigue they would go with me to my friends.

  “My protectors were at war with a nation whose religion was different from ours; and about a month after I came to the village we were alarmed one morning, just at break of day, by the horrible uproar caused by mingled shouts of men and blows given with heavy sticks upon large wooden drums. The village was surrounded by enemies who attacked us with clubs, long wooden spears, and bows and arrows. After fighting for more than an hour, those who were not fortunate enough to run away were made prisoners. It was not the object of our enemies to kill; they wished to take us alive and sell us as slaves. I was knocked down by a heavy blow of a club, and when I recovered from the stupor that followed I found myself tied fast with the long rope that I had brought from the desert, and with which I had formerly led the camels of my masters.

  “We were immediately led away from the village through the forest, and were compelled to travel all day as fast as we could walk. We had nothing to eat on this journey but a small quantity of grain, taken with ourselves. This grain we were compelled to carry on our backs and roast by the fires which we kindled at nights to frighten away the wild beasts. We traveled three weeks in the woods—sometimes without any path at all; and arrived one day at a large river, with a rapid current. Here we were forced to help our conquerors to roll a great number of dead trees into the water, from a vast pile that had been thrown together by high floods.

  “These trees being dry and light floated high out of the water; and when several of them were fastened together with the tough branches of young trees, formed a raft upon which we all placed ourselves and descended the river for three days, when we came in sight of what appeared to me the most wonderful object in the world: this was a large ship at anchor in the river. When our raft came near the ship, the white people—for such they were on board—assisted to take us on deck, and the logs were suffered to float down the river.

  “I had never seen white people before, and they appeared to me the ugliest creatures in the world. The persons who brought us down the river received payment for us of the people in the ship in various articles, of which I remember that a keg of liquor and some yards of blue and red cotton cloth were the principal. At the time we came into this ship she was full of black people, who were all confined in a dark and low place, in irons. The women were in irons as well as the men.

  “About twenty persons were seized in our village at the time I was; and among these were three children so young that they were not able to walk or to eat any hard substance. The mothers of these children had brought them all the way with them, and had them in their arms when we were taken on board this ship. When they put us in irons, to be sent to our place of confinement in the ship, the men who fastened the irons on these mothers took the children out of their hands and threw them over the side of the ship into the water. When this was done, two of the women leaped overboard after the children—the third was already confined by a chain to another woman and could not get into the water, but in struggling to disengage herself she broke her arm and died a few days after of a fever. One of the two women who were in the river was carried down by the weight of her irons before she could be rescued; but the other was taken up by some men in a boat, and brought on board. This woman threw herself overboard one night when we were at sea.

  “The weather was very hot whilst we lay in the river and many of us died every day; but the number brought on board greatly exceeded those who died, and at the end of two weeks the place in which we were confined was so full that no one could lie down, and we were obliged to sit all the time, for the room was not high enough for us to stand. When our prison would hold no more the ship sailed down the river, and on the night of the second day after she sailed I heard the roaring of the ocean as it dashed against her sides.”

  The story ends as abruptly as it began: “More than one third of us died on the passage; and when we arrived at Charleston I was not able to stand. It was more than a week after I left the ship before I could straighten my limbs. I was bought by a trader with several others, brought up the country, and sold to our present master. I have been here five years.”

  Another African Muslim came to a happier end. This was the upper-class Job ben Solomon, whose brief biography was published in England early in the eighteenth century. The book’s full title told the reader what to expect: Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boo
nda in Africa; Who was a slave about two years in Maryland; and afterwards being brought to England was set free, and sent to his native land in the year 1734. By Thomas Bluett, Gentleman, who was intimately acquainted with him in America and came over to England with him. London. MDCCXXXIV. Price, one shilling.

  “Job’s name in his own country is Hyuba, Boon Salumena, Boon Hibrahema, i.e. Job, the Son of Solomon, the Son of Abraham. The surname of his family is Jallo. Job, who is now about 31 or 32 years of age was born at a town called Boonda, in the county of Galumbo in the kingdom of Futa in Africa, which lies on both sides the River Senegal, and on the south side reaches as far as the River Gambia.

  “About fifty years ago Hibrahim, the grandfather of Job, founded the town of Boonda, in the reign of Bubaker, then king of Futa, and was by his permission sole Lord Proprietor and Governor, and at the same time High Priest, or Alpha; so that he had a power to make what laws and regulations he thought proper for the increase and good government of his new city. Among other institutions one was that no person who flies thither for protection shall be made a slave. This privilege is in force there to this day, and is extended to all in general that can read and know God, as they express it; and it has contributed much to the peopling of this place, which is now very large and flourishing.

  “Some time after the settlement of this town Hibrahim died; and as the priesthood is hereditary there Salumen, his son, the father of Job, became High Priest. About the same time Bubaker, the king, dying, his brother Gelazi, who was next heir, succeeded him. Gelazi had a son named Sambo, whom he put under the care of Salumen, Job’s father, to learn the Koran and the Arabic language. Job was at this time also companion to Sambo, and studied along with him. Sambo, upon the death of Gelazi, was made king of Futa and reigns there at present.