The Great Stain

by Noel Rae

  “There is one incident of which I would like to speak just here. One day my master sent me to do an errand at Mr. Crumpling’s. When I reached the house I found the family at dinner, and to my great surprise I observed that the slaves were eating at the same table with the white people. I had never beheld the like before.” Clearly, “what I beheld at Mr. Crumpling’s was due to the grace of God,” which “makes all one, regardless of color or condition.”

  At his next meeting the congregation was once again composed of blacks and whites. “All of a sudden, in the midst of the sermon, an old class-leader named Sampson White sprang from his seat, ran up the aisle to the altar, and shouted, ‘My God! Preach the truth, brother, preach the truth!’ Soon after he sat down, an old colored sister arose and exclaimed, ‘Lord Jesus, let it come, let the power come!’ Next came a white brother with an occasional ‘Amen,’ and they were the longest Amens that I ever heard from human lips. But none of these things moved me, except to push me right along in the good work. I never in all my life have felt more the power of God upon me than I did that day. At the close of the sermon we held a prayer-meeting. As many as could be accommodated came and knelt at the altar, and the season of prayer that followed was one never to be forgotten. There was a perfect Babel of sound. Everybody was engaged in prayer, either for themselves or someone else. Whites prayed for blacks, and blacks for whites. All distinctions as between the different races seemed to have disappeared … I let the meeting continue in this way for a short time, and then I called the brethren and sisters to order. Several persons still remained prostrate on the floor, too much exhausted to rise. I addressed a few words to such as could give me their attention, asking any who felt that they had been blessed that day to bear testimony to the fact. The first one to rise was a young lad of about sixteen years of age. He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Glory to God! Jesus has blessed my soul!’ He then commenced shaking hands with those who stood near him. Thirteen others also testified to having obtained a hope in Christ.”

  As the summer drew to an end, Mr. Holmes and the family prepared to return to Wilmington. “It took two days for the journey. The first day we went as far as Little Washington, where we put up for the night. Before retiring, my master told me to have the horses fed and groomed, and ready for an early start the next morning. Accordingly I arose about three o’clock. As I stepped out of doors I discovered that the stars were falling in all directions. I ran to the kitchen and shouted to the cook that the heavens were all on fire. I then ran to the great house and awoke my master. He came out doors, looked at the heavens for a few moments, and then asked me what I thought it was. ‘I don’t know,’ I replied, ‘unless it is the Day of Judgment.’ He soon returned to his room and awoke the other members of his family. I turned to go back to the kitchen. As I did so I saw the cook standing outside the door, swinging her arms and shouting at the top of her voice, ‘Glory to God! Glory to God!’ supposing that the end of the world had come. By this time the whole plantation was awake and everybody was out gazing, some in fear and some in joy at the strange appearance of the heavens. The tavern-keeper came out and asked if I could not stop the cook making so much noise. I got a man to help me, and we carried her into the kitchen. We could not stop her shouting. She begged us to let her go out again; she wanted to see the Savior when he came. I went back to the tavern-keeper and told him we could do nothing with her. ‘Well, let her alone, then,’ he replied. As day began to dawn the fiery red of the heavens began to disappear, and at sunrise it was all gone. I went to my master and told him the horses were ready for a start at any moment.”

  What Jones—and almost everybody else in the country—had witnessed was the great Leonids Meteor Storm of 1833, the most spectacular on record, with meteors falling at the rate of over one hundred thousand an hour. Like the cook, a great many people took it as a sign that the Second Coming was imminent—see Mark XIII: 24-26: “The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall … And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” The event soon became known as The Night the Stars Fell.

  Interviewed in her old age, Rose Williams looked back on her life as a slave:

  “I’s born in Bell County, right here in Texas, and am owned by Massa William Black. He owns Mammy and Pappy too. Massa Black has a big plantation, but he has more niggers than he needs for work on that place, ’cause he am a nigger trader. He trade and buy and sell all the time. Massa Black am awful cruel, and Mammy and Pappy powerful glad to get sold, and they and I is put on the block with ’bout ten other niggers. One man shows the interest in Pappy. Him named Hawkins. He talk to Pappy, and Pappy talk to him and say, ‘Them my woman and childs. Please buy all of us and have mercy on we-uns.’ Massa Hawkins say, ‘That gal am a likely-looking nigger; she am portly and strong. But three am more than I wants, I guesses.’

  “The sale start, and ‘fore long Pappy am put on the block. Massa Hawkins wins the bid for Pappy, and when Mammy am put on the block, he wins the bid for her. Then there am three or four other niggers sold before my time comes. Then Massa Black calls me to the block, and the auction man say, ‘What am I offer for this portly, strong young wench? She’s never been ’bused and will make a good breeder.’

  “I wants to hear Massa Hawkins bid, but him say nothing. Two other men am bidding ‘gainst each other, and I sure has the worriment. There am tears coming down my cheeks ’cause I’s being sold to some man that would make separation from my Mammy. One man bids $500, and the auction man ask, ‘Do I hear more? She am gwine at $500.’ Then someone say ‘$525,’ and the auction man say, ‘She am sold for $525 to Massa Hawkins.’ Am I glad and ‘cited! Why, I’s quivering all over.

  “Massa Hawkins takes we-uns to his place, and it am a nice plantation. Lots better than Massa Black’s. There is ’bout fifty niggers what is growed and lots of chillen. The first thing Massa do when we-uns gets home am give we-uns rations and a cabin. You must believe this nigger when I say them rations a feast for us. There plenty meat and tea and coffee and white flour. The quarters am pretty good. There am twelve cabins all made from logs, and a table and some benches and bunks for sleeping, and a fireplace for cooking and the heat.

  “Massa Hawkins am good to he niggers,” but there was on thing he did “what I can’t shunt from my mind. After I been at he place ’bout a year, the Massa come to me and say, ‘You gwine live with Rufus in that cabin over yonder. Go fix it for living.’ I’s ’bout sixteen years old and has no larning, and I’s just ignomus child. I’s thought that him mean for me to tend the cabin for Rufus and some other niggers. Well, that am start the pestigation for me.

  “I’s took charge of the cabin after work am done and fixes supper. Now, I don’t like that Rufus, ’cause he a bully. He am big and ’cause he so he think everybody do what him say. We-uns has supper, then I goes here and there talking till I’s ready for sleep, and then I gets in the bunk. After I’s in, that nigger come and crawl in the bunk with me ’fore I knows it. I says, ‘What you means, you fool nigger?’ He say for me to hush the mouth. ‘This am my bunk too,’ he say. ‘You’s teched in the head, get out,’ I’s told him, and I puts the feet ‘gainst him and give him a shove, and out he go on the floor ’fore he knows what I’s doing. That nigger jump up and he mad. He look like the wild bear. He starts for the bunk, and I jumps quick for the poker. It am ’bout three feet long, and when he comes at me I lets him have it over the head. Did that nigger stop in he tracks? I’s say he did. He looks at me steady for a minute, and you could tell he thinking hard. Then he go and set on the bench and say, ‘Just wait. You thinks it am smart, but you am foolish in the head. They’s gwine larn you something.’

  “The next day I goes to the Missy and tells her what Rufus wants, and Missy say that am the Massa’s wishes. She say, ‘You am the portly gal, and Rufus am the portly man. The massa wants you-uns for to bring forth portly chillen.’

  “I’s thinking
’bout what the Missy say, but say to myself, ‘I’s not gwine live with that Rufus.’ That night when him come in the cabin, I grabs the poker and sits on the bench and says, ‘Get ’way from me, nigger, ’fore I bust your brains out and stomp on them.’ He say nothing and get out.

  “The next day the Massa call me and tell me, ‘Woman, I’s pay big money for you, and I’s done that for the cause I wants you to raise me chillens. I’s put you to live with Rufus for that purpose. Now, if you doesn’t want whipping at the stake, you do what I wants.’

  “I thinks ’bout Massa buying me offen the block and saving me from being separated from my folks, and ’bout being whipped at the stake. There it am. What am I’s to do? So I decides to do as the Massa wish, and so I yields.

  “When we-uns am given freedom, Massa Hawkins tells us we can stay and work for wages or share-crop the land. I stays with my folks till they dies. I never marries, ’cause one ’sperience am ’nough for this nigger. After what I does for the Massa, I’s never wants no truck with any man. The Lord forgive this colored woman, but he have to ’scuse me and look for some others for to ’plenish the earth.”

  Like Col. Landon Carter, lord of Sabine Hall and owner of large plantations in Virginia (who appears in an earlier chapter), William Johnson also kept a diary with many entries about the misdeeds of his troublesome slaves. Like most masters—and indeed like most parents of the time—both men believed in the whip, though Johnson’s punishments were a far cry from the savage floggings common on plantations. Unlike the colonel, Johnson had to work for a living, which he did by running a successful barber shop in Natchez. Another difference between Carter and Johnson was that Johnson did his best to teach his slaves to read and write. Yet another was that Johnson was a free black.

  His diary began when he was about twenty-six, and eventually ran to several hundred pages. From the thousands of entries here are some of those concerning his “boys”—most of them slaves, but some of them free blacks—who worked in his barbershop and lodged with him:

  1835. October 25: “William & John Stayed Out until after ten Oclock. I beat them Both with my stick when they came home. They were both doun at Mr Parkers kitchen”—i.e. at the Mississippi Hotel, owned by Mr. Parker. November 3: “Find William at Mr Parkers Kitchen with his Girls. Struck him with the whip 1st and then with the stick. He ran home and I followed him there and whiped him well for it, having often told him about going Down there.” December 17: “William & John & Bill Nix staid out untill ½ 10 O’clock at night. When they came they knocked so Loud at the Door and made so much noise that I came Out with my stick and pounded both of them.”

  1836. August 6: “Bill Nix Commences in the spelling Book to Read for he failed in Reading.” September 1: Steven, a slave who was addicted to drink, had been hired out. He was supposed to hand his wages over to Johnson, but it was now “three weeks since since I Received any wages from Steven. I found Out this Evening by whiping him prety severely that he had Received his wages from Messrs. Spraigue & Howll, and had made away with the whole of it. On the Back of which old Mr Christopher Miller comes and complained of Steven Coming Out to his House after his girl &c.” October 13: “I sent Steven Out to Col. Bingamans to work in the Cotton field.” November 29: “Col. Bingaman Sent Steven in town to me to day and instead of coming in he went under the Hill and got Drunk.”

  1837. March 21: “Mr Thom Evans Came up to my shop to tell French William that he must not Let him find Him coming about his primices again. French had been peeping through his fence at One of his Girls on Sunday Last.” July 23: “I herd to day that my Negro man Walker had ran away On Bourd of Some Steam Boat that Left here on Friday Evening, 21st inst.” July 24: “I was writing and Flying around as Buisy as you please in search of Walker, that ranaway from me. I Sent a Letter by Mr Birk to be handed to the Sheriff of Louisville with a Discription of the thief and the Negro—and I also Sent an advertizement to the office of the Courrier to be published in the daily.” September 19: “This morning Little Hastings was making some remarks in the presence of several gentleman about Mrs Horn … and it happened that Mr Horn was present and Hastings did not know him—he Just Caught Hastings by the nose and pulled his nose for him then Kicked his back sides.”

  1838. March 19: “Steven got drunk Last night and went of and remained all night and was not here this morning to go to Market. I sent Bill Nix to the Jail to see if He was there and He was not there. I then sent Him out to Dr. Ogdons and in going there He found Him and brought Him Down and Left Him in the gate, and he [Steven] Jumped over the Fence and went threw Judge Montgomery’s yard. Bill He ran around the Corner and found him and brought him Home after a while and I went to the stable and gave him a pretty severe thrashing with the Cow hide—then he was perfectly Calm and Quiet and could then do his work. Tis singular how much good it does some people to get whiped.” March 22: “I wrote the following Lines and gave them to Mr. Umphrys: ‘Ranaway from the subscriber in Natchez on the 21st July, 1837, a negro man by the name of Walker. He is about forty years of age—very black Complection, smiles when spoken to and shows his teeth which are very sound and white tho he chews tobacco to Excess.’” The reward offered was $200 if Walker was taken in Natchez, and $300 if in Ohio. March 27: “Steven ran off last Night and God Only Knows where he has gone to.” March 31: “I got on my Horse Early this morning and wrode Out to Washington in search of Steven but Could not find Him at all. I also went out again in the afternoon to Becon Landing but could not hear of Him. During the time that I was in search of him He sent me word that if I would Only Let him off without whiping him that he would never runaway again Durring His Life.” November 16: “This morning quite Early I Came Down in my shop and found that the Boys had Just been smoking some of my Cegars which they Denied. I Listened a while and was satisfied that they had stolen them. I then Boxed Bills Jaws and Kicked his Back Side and I slaped Charles along side of the head several times.”

  1839. June 18: “I find by being absent for a few minutes that as I returned Bill and Charles had a Black Girl at the Shop Door. Oh how they were Shaking Hands and Cutting up in Greate Friendship—Oh what Puppys. Fondling—beneath a Levell—Low minded Creatures. I look on them as Soft.”

  1840. Many entries about Steven, ranging from January 10: “Steven ranaway yesterday—He got Drunk as usual and then ranaway.” through December 1: “Steven Ranaway.”

  1841. More of the same—March 6: “When I got up this morning I found that Steven had not fed the Horses nor gone to work—After Breakfast I found Him in the Guard House—Had been taken up during the night and put in thare—I had him Flogged and then turned Him Out and sent Him down to work …” April 4: “I Kept the Boys Home to day until Dinner time at there Books.” April 5: “Theater and Circus and several other shows are in operation to day—I, Bill & Charles were all down at the Animall Show.” May 14: “I wrode out this afternoon to the Forks of the Road to try and swop Steven off for Some One Else, but could find no one that I would Like.” July 24: “Large Company of Our Citizens went out to day in the Bayous in search of Runaway Negroes. Mr R finds a fire Burning in the woods—Jo Mesho finds a Bucket of meat in a tree where the Runaways has been tho there was no Negroes Caught.” August 22: “To day I wrode down into the Swamp and took Steven with me and Left him at Mr Gregorys to work at the rate of 20 dollars per month.” September 12: “I understood this morning Early that Steven was in town and I Knew if he was in town that he must have runaway from Mr Gregory where I had hired him to haul wood in the swamp.” He was soon caught, whipped, and returned to Mr. Gregory. November 8: “I Gave Lucinda a Good Floging this Evening for her Conduct on yesterday. She asked Leave to go to Church yesterday and in place of going to Church and remaining she went off in some private Room, the Little Strumpet.” November 24: “Steven got up very Early this morning and ranaway.”

  1843. More entries about Steven getting drunk and running away, including this for September 24: “Near 11 Oclock to day Phill Came down Ma
in St. Leading Steven who had gone up the Street and had got drunk, very drunk. I was Buisy at the time and could not get out to see him. He managed to Slip away from Phill and … ran off arround the Corner and the Boys took after him and I followed but Could not See him. They however Caught him Some where up town and brot him down. When he found that I was not thare he cut up Greate Shines, got in a fight with one of the men, an Italian that Lives in a part of my House, Antonio Lynch is his name. He bit the Italians hand a Little and the fellow made more talk about it than Enough—All this was done whilst I was up the street and when I Came down they had put him in the Guard House.” September 25: “I went to the Guard House this morning after Breakfast and took Steven Out, tho not until Capt. Hanstable had given him thirty nine Lashes with a whip which the Italian said he was satisfied. He is Jailed up in my Corn Cribb. I intend to send him to New Orleans Soon.” December 19: “Steven is drunk to day and is on the town but I herd of him around at Mr Brovert Butlers and I sent arround thare and had him brot Home and I have him now up in the garret fast and I will Sell him if I Can get Six Hundred Dollars for Him. I was offered 550 to day for him but would not take it. He must go for he will drink.” December 30: “I Expect from what past between Mr Cannon [a broker] and myself that he will take Steven On Monday if Nothing happens—And what is the Cause of my parting with him, why it is nothing more but Liquor, Liquor, His fondness for it. Nothing more, Poor Fellow. There are many worse fellows than poor Steven is, God Bless Him. Tis his Own fault.” December 31: “To day has been to me a very Sad Day; many tears was in my Eyes On acct. of my Selling poor Steven.”