by Jeff Carter
the back door."
"I's sorry, Massuh. I's not used to goin' in the white folk's house."
He sat down. "Let's go, Adam," he said. I drove the carriage into the stable. Master jumped down and closed the stable door. "You take care of Alice, Adam, and I'll put the carriage away." He started unfastening the horse. I figured that this was a white man who liked to work, and let him.
I was currying the horse when he had finished putting the carriage in its place and had washed off the mud. "Are you nearly done?" he asked.
"Yessuh, jus' a little moah and then I give her some feed. That her stall?" I pointed.
"That's right, though as my only horse I suppose she could use any stall. You've worked with horses a lot, I'd say. I could not have finished with her so soon."
"I's mainly a field nigger, Massuh, but I done hepped with the horses some, too."
"Good. There's no field work here, yet. When you finish, come into the house. Remember to use the back door."
"Yessuh."
When I came into the house Mandy came out of the kitchen to meet me. "Looky heah, Adam," she said. "Theah's a pump in the kitchen." She ran in and got a cup. She took it to the pump and raised the handle. The water started flowing out of the pump in a steady stream. Mandy jumped back and dropped the cup, which broke.
"I ain't nevah seen no pump like that," I said. I pushed the handle down and the water stopped.
"I see you've discovered the water supply," Master said from the door, startling us. "The actual pump is up the hill, run by a water wheel. It keeps a tank filled up there. This is just a valve. I don't want anything to look different about me, though, so I've disguised it as a pump. A couple of houses have indoor pumps."
"Mos' wonderful thing I ever seed," Mandy said.
"It's nothing, really. Would you two please come into my study? I have something for you."
We followed him into a room filled with books, with a big desk in the middle. He opened a drawer and took out a few sheets of paper with writing on them. "Your name is Adam?" he asked me. I nodded. He wrote on one of the pieces of paper. "Your name is Mandy?" he asked.
"Yessuh."
"Is that short for 'Amanda?'" he asked.
"I doan know, suh. I's always been called 'Mandy.'"
"If you don't mind, we'll consider that your name is 'Amanda' from now on, called 'Mandy.'"
"It doan mind me, Massuh." He wrote on another piece of paper.
"What is your child's name?" he asked.
"She be called 'Lizzie May,' Massuh," I said. "She be yeah and a haff old."
"Nineteen full moons," Mandy said.
"Again, is that short for 'Elizabeth May?' And if not, would you object to her name being considered 'Elizabeth May' from now on, known as 'Lizzie May?'"
"We always jus' called her 'Lizzie May.' You think 'Lizzie' short for 'Elizabeth?'"
"That's customary. I'll refer to her as 'Elizabeth May,' then." He wrote on the third piece of paper. "This one's for you, Adam," he said, handing me one of the pieces of paper. "This one's for Mandy, and this is for Lizzie May." We took the paper, puzzled. "You'll probably consider those papers to be very valuable," he said. "I know I would in your place. Those are your manumission papers."
"Thank you, Massuh," Mandy said, looking at me strangely.
"Massuh, if it's all right, what's a 'manamission paper?'"
"Of course it's all right. 'Manumission' means liberation or setting free. Those papers say that I've set you free. You are no longer slaves."
Mandy and I looked at each other for a moment, speechless. "You mean we's free?" I said. "We can leave and go anywheres we want?"
"Technically, yes. I wouldn't advise it, though. You don't know how to read and write. You've got no money and no property. No one will give you a job. And most of the whites around here would rather string you up than listen to you talk about being free. They wouldn't be too pleased with me, either."
"Then what we do? What good this paper?" I thought it was mean of him to build up our hopes like this, then dash them down again, and I'd lost enough awe of him to let my anger show.
"To answer your second question first, in and of themselves, the papers are no good at all. But together with training and a paying job, followed by transportation somewhere where a free Negro is not automatically considered fair game, the papers are, as I said, quite valuable. As to your first question, you stay with me for a while. I need the help fixing up the place. I'll pay you and teach you the skills you'll need to get by on your own. When the time comes, I'll help you get to New England and put you in touch with some people there who will help you get jobs. In the future I'll buy and manumit more slaves, and I'd like your help with that."
"You goan pay us?" I asked.
"You goan learn us?" Mandy asked.
"Yes and yes. I believe a rate of one dollar a week is suitable for your duties, if you don't object." We didn't. "Since you won't have to pay for room, board, or clothing, that should go a long way. I'll also start teaching you reading, writing, and basic arithmetic right away. You will have to pretend in public that you are still slaves. You should call me 'Massuh' and defer to other whites. When your English improves, you should still talk the way you do now. You should not use your money to buy fancy clothes, since it would be unwise to wear them. Above all, you must never, ever, tell anyone, Negro or white, what we are doing. It is against the law in this state to teach a Negro to read or write. They would probably hang us all if they ever found out."
"I doan b'lieve it," I said. "I is dreaming."
"We's free!" Mandy said.
"We's gonna get paid!" I said.
"We's gonna learn readin' and writin'!" Mandy said. "Thank you, Massuh, thank you!"
"Why's you doin' this, Massuh?" I asked. "What's you get outta this?"
"I'm doing it because I'm opposed to the concept of human slavery and I have the means and the opportunity. Now, there are no slave quarters on the estate, so you will have to make do with rooms in the house. Come with me."
That night Mandy and I went to bed when it got dark, as we usually did. Master had given us a new candle, but we didn't want to waste it, and had nothing to do with our leisure time anyway. Later we were awakened by a strange noise, a kind of vibrating rumble. I got up and went to see what it was. I followed the sound upstairs to a room in the center of the top floor. Bright light shone out of the room under the door.
My first thought was that there was a fire in the room. Forgetting about the noise, I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I banged on the door, shouting, "Massuh!" A moment later the door opened and Master slipped out, closing the door behind him. The light from inside the room was so bright that it dazzled my eyes, and I couldn't see anything in the room.
"I'm sorry if I woke you, Adam," Master said. "This is my private study, and I work up here most evenings. When you learn to read you will probably want to spend your evenings reading, rather that going to bed as soon as it gets dark."
"You got a fire in there, Massuh?"
"No, I don't have a fire. The noise is a generator. The generator makes electricity, which I use to make the light."
"I doan unnerstan', Massuh."
"I know you don't. It will take a long time to teach you enough to understand it. For now, you'll just have to accept it, and not mention it to anyone. I only use it in this room so none of the light will be visible from outside the house. If word of this got out, the local people, in their ignorance, would probably hang me for witchcraft. There's no telling what would happen to you and your family."
"Is you a witch, Massuh?" I asked, afraid the answer would be yes.
"No, I'm not. The principles involved can be learned by anyone with sufficient intelligence, but, as I said, it will take a long time for you to learn enough to learn them. U
ntil then I'm afraid that you will have to take my word that it isn't magic, since it will appear to be magic to you."
"You say it looks like magic but it ain't?"
"That's right. I guess you were bound to find out about this eventually. I should have told you today. I'll explain further to you and Mandy tomorrow. For now you should go back to bed. I'll be finished here soon."
The next day Master explained about electricity, what was known about it and who had discovered it. I mainly remember him telling us about Benjamin Franklin's experiment to prove that lightning was a form of electricity, since I had heard Franklin's name before. Master said he had developed a machine to generate a steady source of electricity, and a device to convert electricity into light. He planned to make a lot of money from these inventions some day, but in the meantime we must not tell anyone about them.
True to his word, Master started to teach us to read and write. It was hard work at first, as we scratched out letters and our names on paper Master gave us. It was a bit discouraging to have our hard work burned in the fireplace after each lesson, but Master reminded us that it was illegal to teach a Negro to read or write, and that we would all be hanged if anyone found out.
Mandy did the cleaning and cooking and took care of Lizzie May, and I helped Master repair the house and his modifications to it, such as the water supply. We also planned and started building slave quarters, although they were much nicer than the shacks we'd lived in at Master Ballington's and hardly deserved the