Jump Ship to Freedom

by James Lincoln Collier

  “You’re going to get in trouble, Dan.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Now finish up quick, so we can get going.”

  She didn’t want to do it, I could see that, but she would. And about ten minutes later she came out of the kitchen drying her hands on her skirt. We got the barrow, loaded it up with hay, and hid the oyster knife in it. Then we slipped around the tavern as quiet as we could and set out along Broad Street. I was pretty nervous, all right. There was a lot of risk to it. But I didn’t have any choice except to give up on the notes.

  Even though it was night there was a few people going along the streets. The streetlights made their shadows loom up sudden on the walls of the houses, then shrink down again as they walked away from the light. There was plenty of livestock, too, mostly lying down snoozing.

  We came across Dock Street until we was just a block away from the waterfront. I stopped. “Nosy, which way’s the brig?’’

  She pointed. “Up there.”

  We made a turn and worked our way along behind the waterfront for about fifteen minutes until I figured we was at about the right place. Then I told Nosy to wait, and I slipped forward sort of crouched over in the shadows of the buildings. In a moment I come to the corner. I pressed myself close against the building and eased my head around just a hair to get a look.

  There were streetlights here, too, and lanterns hanging on some of the ships, so it was light enough to see a good distance. There was the street, and a mess of ships tied up to the docks every which ways, so that a lot of the bowsprits stuck out over the street like branches of trees. There was just a little breeze, making a kind of whispery noise in all those lines. The ships rocked a little, and I could hear loose lines slapping on the masts and them all creaking in different tones as if they was alive and complaining. There was two or three fires along the street, with sailors lounging around them, smoking, drinking rum, and talking to some women who was there. They looked mighty tough.

  Down the street a little ways was the Junius Brutus. On the wharf in front of her was a stack of boxes and barrels. And sitting on one of the barrels, with his arms folded across his chest and his club across his lap, was Big Tom, his scar red as fire.

  The stack of boxes and barrels was kind of pitiful. The storm had destroyed the largest part of the cargo. The deck cargo had gone overboard, and a lot of the stuff in the hold, like grain and such, had got ruined by the saltwater. I could see the linen chest, though, its shiny cherrywood gleaming in the streetlight. It was on top of a stack of other boxes tied round with cord. It wouldn’t take Nosy more than ten seconds to cut the cord, grab the notes out, and stick them under the hay.

  I pulled back and slipped down to where Nosy was standing with the barrow. My heart was going a mile a minute, and my hands was damp with sweat. “All right, Nosy,” I said. “Here’s what you got to do. There ain’t nothing to it. You remember that big black fellow you saw this morning? Well, he’s sitting out there on a barrel. Next to him there’s a cherrywood chest with a cord around it. I want you to go out there with your barrow and just ease along aways. The minute he jumps off that barrel to chase after me, you cut that cord with the oyster knife, grab those notes out of the box, and stick them under the hay. Then you just ease off down the next street and head back to the tavern.”

  “What if he don’t chase after you?”

  “Don’t worry about that none, Nosy. He will. You got it straight?”

  “Dan, I’m scared.”

  “You ain’t got nothing to be scared of. I’m the one he’s going to be chasing.”

  “Dan, you’re gonna be in a lot of trouble if he catches you.”

  “He ain’t going to catch me, Nosy. Now you just do what I tell you. You’re going to be a hero tomorrow.”

  She eased out onto Ferry Street, pushing the barrow in front of her. None of the sailors paid her no mind. She was just a little black girl pushing a barrow full of hay, and about as important as dirt. I figured Big Tom wouldn’t even notice her. I waited until she was about twenty feet away from him. Then I took a deep breath to calm my nerves down and stepped out onto Ferry Street myself.

  The main thing was to draw Big Tom as far down the street as I could. He wasn’t going to have any trouble catching up with me once he got going, so it was important to get myself a good lead. I began to trot toward him, holding my head bent forward and turned away from him. I sure didn’t want him to spot me until I was ready for it. I passed Nosy. She gave me a look, which she shouldn’t have done because it might give it away that we were together. I didn’t look at her but just sailed on by. Four steps farther and I was coming right up to Big Tom. I raised my head so he could see it and sort of gasped out, “Big Tom,” as if it had taken me by surprise to come upon him, and then I began to run as fast as I’d ever run in my life.

  “Arabus,” he shouted. “Stop.” His footsteps began to clunk on the cobblestones, and I went full tilt down Water Street. It wasn’t easy going, for there was cargo standing everywhere in stacks and heaps and I had to keep dodging back and forth. But Big Tom had to dodge, too, and I had the advantage because I knew which way I was going to dodge, and he didn’t. By maneuvering right, I could keep stacks of things between him and me. Still, by the sound of his footsteps, I knew he was gaining on me.

  When I’d gone about a hundred yards, I took a chance and swung my head around. Big Tom wasn’t more than twenty feet behind me. His mouth was open and I could see all those busted teeth and the red scar clear as day. A cold shiver ran up my back. But behind him, in the distance, I could see Nosy and the barrow disappearing around the corner onto Ferry Street. I swung my head back around and swerved off the street onto the dockside. The ships were packed in close to each other, with hardly any space between. “Arabus,” Big Tom shouted. He wasn’t more’n ten feet behind me now.

  I kept on running, looking for a gap between the ships. Then I saw on up ahead a space where a ship had gone out. I veered toward it. “Arabus,” Big Tom shouted. Something slapped on my back, and I knew he’d made a grab for me and missed. I ran for the water. “Arabus.” The hand hit my back again, and this time his fingers clutched at my collar. He jerked me back, and I twisted around. He had me. He loomed over me like a great black tower and swung his free hand back to lam me. I ducked forward, threw my hands up over my head, and jerked backward. My shirt slid up over my head, I pulled my arms free, tumbled back onto the dock, and rolled into the water. “Arabus,” he shouted.

  I sunk down and swum underwater as long as I could, and then I burst up on top and looked back at the dock. He was standing there with my shirt in his hands. He was shouting and cursing, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it, because he couldn’t swim any more than the rest of them. Suddenly he left off shouting and dashed away. I figured he was heading back to the brig to get the longboat and come after me.

  But it was going to take him awhile to get started, because first he’d have to get one of the other men to guard the cargo, and then he’d have to lower the longboat into the water. I turned and began to swim along the harbor in the opposite direction. When I’d covered a couple of hundred yards, I swum in between two ships that was tied up there, hoisted myself up onto the dock, and broke for Fraunces’ Tavern.

  10

  We’d got the notes back. Nosy slept with them tucked down in her shirt. In the morning I took them up into the hayloft of the stable and hid them down in the hay way at the back of the loft, where the hay wasn’t likely to be touched until the winter. I couldn’t decide about telling Mr. Fraunces about getting them back. I’d probably want him to help me sell them, but I knew he was likely to be mighty sore about me and Nosy taking a chance like that.

  But before I got a chance to think it over, Nosy came out to the stables where I was working and told me that I was supposed to go see the Quaker, Mr. Fatherscreft, in his room up there on the top floor of the tavern. I dropped my pitchfork, washed up a little bit, went on up, and knocked at his door.
“Come in,” he said.

  I went in. Mr. Fatherscreft was lying in bed still, but he’d got himself shaved, and he didn’t look so pale as he had before. Mr. Fraunces was there, too, sitting on a chair by one of the little windows. I shut the door. They both looked at me. I didn’t say anything. Then Mr. Fraunces said, “I hear you did something foolish last night, Arabus.”

  I went hot and prickly. “How’d you know that, sir?”

  “You don’t think Carrie would keep a good story like that to herself, do you?”

  “Oh,” I said. I never figured she’d go bragging about what we’d done, for fear of getting into trouble herself. I should have known better.

  “Thou hast thy father’s notes, then, Daniel?” Mr. Fatherscreft said.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “I hid them out in the hayloft.”

  He gave a little cough. “I’d be glad to hold them for thee, Daniel,” he said. “It might be safer that way.”

  I thought about it for a minute. “Yes, sir, I guess it would.”

  Then I noticed that Mr. Fraunces was looking at me kind of funny. “Dan, that was a foolish stunt you tried last night. You might have spent the rest of your life in the cane fields as a result of it.”

  “I know there was a risk, but I couldn’t have gone off free myself and left Mum up in Connecticut to work for the Iverses for the rest of her life.”

  “It was brave, Daniel,” Mr. Fatherscreft said.

  “Oh, I wasn’t a hero. I was scared to death the whole time.”

  Mr. Fatherscreft coughed a couple of times. He took a swallow of rum. Nobody said anything for a minute. Then he said, “Daniel, Mr. Fraunces and I have been talking about thee. Thou’re clearly an intelligent and resourceful boy. I expect to go to Philadelphia to the convention shortly. Perhaps tomorrow. I’ll need somebody to travel with me.”

  “Mr. Fatherscreft is only barely well enough to travel, Daniel,” Mr. Fraunces said. “He’ll need somebody to look after him. It’ll get you away from New York, besides.”

  Well, there wasn’t anything calculated to please me more. “Yes, sir,” I said. “I’d sure be glad of the chance.” But I didn’t get a chance to say anything more, for just then there came a knock on the door. Mr. Fraunces opened it. The man who came in was tall and slim and dressed as fine as could be.

  “William Few,” he said, and shook Mr. Fraunces’s hand. Then he went over to the bed and shook Mr. Fatherscreft’s hand, too. “How are you feeling, Peter?”

  “Better, I’m happy to say.”

  I slunk over to the wall to be out of the way.

  “Able to travel, I hope?”

  ‘‘Will there be reason for traveling?”

  “I think we have hope of compromise, Peter. I’ve canvassed the Southerners here in Congress. We’ll vote with you to outlaw slavery in the Northwest Territories, if the men at the convention will refrain from attempting to close the backlands south of the Ohio River to slavery, and if you’ll give us a fugitive-slave provision in the new constitution.”

  I didn’t know exactly who Mr. Few was or what he was talking about, but it had to do with the convention, that was pretty clear. Some way, he and Mr. Fatherscreft was bargaining out what would happen to us black people if a new constitution got written. It was sort of queer that it was all going to be decided by white folks, and us black folks wouldn’t have no say in it at all. But we had to be thankful that at least there was some white people around like Mr. Fatherscreft who was on our side and would try to get the best bargain he could for us.

  “What about prohibiting the further importation of slaves?” Mr. Fatherscreft said.

  “We’ll support a compromise that blocks any interference with the foreign slave trade for twenty years,” Mr. Few said.

  “And after that, William?”

  “We wish the question of the further importation of Negroes to be left open after the twenty-year period. It can be taken up again then. Let the next generation decide whether Negroes shall or shall not be imported.”

  Mr. Fatherscreft didn’t say nothing but lay in his bed, staring down at his hands. “My people were hoping for something better, William. We didn’t expect that the new constitution would prohibit slavery now, but we were hoping that we could see that happening in the near future.”

  Mr. Few pursed his lips. “There’s too much opposition. The big planters see the whole agricultural system as based on slavery. They can’t bargain this away. They won’t interfere if the Northern states decide to give up their own slaves, but the Southerners can’t allow themselves to be put in a position where someday a group of new states will vote against them.”

  “In other words we’re going to create a country with slave labor in the South and free labor in the north—a country divided from its first day.”

  “It is the best compromise we can get, Peter.”

  Mr. Fatherscreft sighed. “And what about the fugitive-slave law?”

  “We must have it. The more Northern country that’s free territory, the easier it’ll be for Southern blacks to run away. Why, with this compromise all they have to do is paddle across the Ohio River to get to free soil. Hundreds, maybe thousands, are running away every year as it is. We’ve got to protect our property. That’s what a government is for, isn’t it? And these black folks are our most valuable property. The Northerners will have to agree to help us recover the runaways.”

  Mr. Fatherscreft shook his head. “It’s asking too much, William. It’ll rankle those of us who are opposed to slavery to be forced to assist in returning fugitives to their owners.”

  Suddenly it struck me that they was talking about me. I was a fugitive slave. I’d run off, there was no question about that, even if I did mean to go back and pay Captain Ivers for myself. I was a fugitive slave, and if the constitution came out the way Mr. Few wanted it, why, Mr. Fatherscreft and Mr. Fraunces would be obliged by law to turn me back to Captain Ivers or risk going to jail themselves.

  “I understand the feelings of your people, Peter. You know I lived many years among Quakers. But in the Congress, I represent the state of Georgia. And I have to tell you that in the South there’s the fear that anti-slavery folks will encourage slaves to run away unless there are strong measures taken to prevent it.”

  “Isn’t there any way around it, William?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  There it was. They’d bargained away the chance for thousands of black folks to escape, me included. The minute the constitution was agreed to, anybody who knew me would be bound by law to catch me and send me back to the Iverses in chains. Oh, it made me sad and sick to think of it. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it. To them, I was just a fugitive slave and didn’t matter more’n an ant matters to a dog. I didn’t want to hear any more of it, either. They wasn’t paying attention to me, so I opened the door real quiet, slipped out of the room, and went on down the back stairs to the kitchen.

  I tell you, I was pretty mixed up in my feelings. On the one hand, they’d bargained us blacks into slavery forever. On the other hand, if there was no bargain, maybe there’d be no new government and my soldiers’ notes wouldn’t be worth a penny.

  I went back down to the stables, found the oil-cloth with the notes in it, and tucked it under my shirt. Then they gave me a rag and some water and sent me out front to wash the windows along the Broad Street side. After a while Mr. Fraunces and Mr. Few came down and got into a carriage and went off. Mr. Fraunces gave me a look as he passed by, but he didn’t say nothing. Then around lunchtime Nosy came out with her barrow and headed off to the docks for fish.

  Polishing windows was easy work, so I went slow and careful to make it last longer. And I was still working on the Broad Street side when Nosy came back with her barrow. I was glad to see her. When you got down to it, she was the best friend I had there—maybe the only one, too. She was all right, even if she was just a child, and nosy in the bargain. “Hey, Nosy,” I said. “How about stealing me a roll when you’re in
the kitchen.”

  “You can’t get yourself in enough trouble, you got to get me in some, too, Dan?”

  “And get a nice big piece of cheese, too.”

  She stuck out her tongue at me, and I started to laugh. But then I stopped right quick, for coming along Broad Street about fifty feet behind Nosy was Captain Ivers and Big Tom. Quick as a flash I ducked into the front door, dashed through the dining room, and went on up the back stairs, but I knew they’d spotted me, for as I went through the door I heard Captain Ivers shout my name. I flew up the stairs, ran into Mr. Fatherscreft’s room, slammed the door, and flung the bolt to.

  “Daniel?” Mr. Fatherscreft said.

  “It’s them. Captain Ivers and Big Tom. They came to the tavern.”

  “Did they see thee?”

  “Yes,” I gasped out. My heart was pounding and my knees was shaking. “They’ll be prowling around looking for me right this minute.”

  “Well. Now. What’s to be done?”

  “I don’t know, sir. When are we supposed to leave for Philadelphia?”

  “As soon as we can. We and the Southern interests have reached our compromise agreement. It’s not what I had hoped for, but it’s the best we can get. I must go immediately and bring the agreement to the delegates at the convention to act on. I would like to leave this evening.” Suddenly he put his fist to his mouth and began a fit of coughing.

  I waited until he calmed down some. “Sir, you ain’t fit for traveling,” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. He swallowed some rum. “I’m well enough.”

  “Maybe somebody else could take the message for you.”

  “It has to come from me. I was the one empowered to negotiate for our side. They won’t trust a stranger.”

  “I just wish you wasn’t coughing so bad, sir.”

  “It’s nothing. The rum helps. Now, dost thou suppose thy companions from the brig have left?”

  I shook my head. “No, sir. If I know Captain Ivers, he’ll be downstairs keeping a lookout for me. I’m worth a lot of money to him. He ain’t going to let that go easy.”