The Flower of the Chapdelaines

by George Washington Cable

  There was strange contrast in store for us. Late in the afternoon westarted home. On the way two friends, a lady and her daughter,persuaded us to turn and take a walk on the north-side road, at thetown's western border. It drew us southward toward "the lagoon," nearto where this water formed a kind of moat behind the fort, and wasspanned by a slight wooden bridge. While we went the sun slowly sankthrough a golden light toward the purple sea, among temples, towers,and altars of cloud.

  As we neared this bridge two black men crossing it from opposite waysstopped and spoke low:

  "Yes, me yerry it; dem say sich t'ing' as nebber bin known befo' goin'be done in West-En' town to-night."

  "Well, you look sharp, me frien'----"

  Seeing us, they parted abruptly, one troubled, the other pleased andbrisk. Our friends drew back: "What does he mean, mother?"

  "Oh, some meeting to make Christmas songs, I suppose."

  "I think not," said Aunt Marion. "Let's go back; my mother's alone."

  Just then Gilbert, young son of an intimate neighbor, appeared, sayingto the four of us: "I've come to find you and see you home. Thething's on us. The slaves rise to-night. Some free negroes havebetrayed them. At eight o'clock they, the slaves, are to attack thetown."

  Our home was reached first. Grandmamma heard the news calmly. "We'rein God's hands," she said. "Gilbert, will you stop at Mr. Kenyon's"[another neighbor] "and send Anna and Marcia home?"

  Mr. Kenyon came bringing them and begging that we all go and pass thenight with him. But grandmamma thought we had better stay home, and hewent away to propose to the neighborhood that all the women andchildren be put into the fort, that the men might be the freer todefend them.

  "Marion," said grandmamma, "let us have supper and prayers."

  The meal was scarcely touched. Aunt Marcia put Bible and prayer-bookby the lamp and barred all the front shutters. When grandmamma hadread we knelt, but the prayer, was scarcely finished when Aunt Marciawas up, crying: "The signal! Hear the signal!"

  Out in the still night a high mournful note on a bamboo pipe wasanswered by a conch, and presently the alarm was ringing from point topoint, from shells, pipes and horns, and now and then in the solemnclangor of plantation bells. It came first from the south, then fromthe east, swept around to the north, and answered from the westerncliffs, springing from hilltop to hilltop, long, fierce, exultant. Westood listening and, I fear, pale. But by and by grandmamma took hereasy chair.

  "I will spend the night here," she said.

  Aunt Anna took a rocking-chair beside her. Aunt Marcia chose the sofa.Aunt Marion spread a pallet for me, lay down at my side, and bade menot fear but sleep. And I slept.

  XXXI

  (REVOLT AND RIOT)

  Suddenly I was broad awake. Distant but approaching, I heard horses'feet. They came from the direction of the fort. Aunt Marcia wasunbarring the shutters and fastening the inner jalousies so as to lookout unseen.

  "It's nearly one o'clock," some one said, and I got up, wondering howthe world looked at such an hour. All hearkened to the nearing sound.

  "Ah!" Aunt Marcia gladly cried, "the troopers!"

  There were only some fifty of them. Slowly, in a fitful moonlight,they dimly came, hoofs ringing on the narrow macadam, swords clanking,and dark plumes nodding over set faces, while the distant war-signalfrom shell, reed, and horn called before, around, and after them.

  Still later came a knock at the door, and Mr. Kenyon was warilyreadmitted. He explained the passing of the troopers. They hadhurried about the country for hours, assembling their families atpoints easy to defend and then had come to the fort for ammunition andorders; but the captain of the fort, refusing to admit them without thegovernor's order, urged them to go to their homes.

  "But," Mr. Kenyon had interposed, "a courier can reach the governor inan hour and a half."

  "One will be sent as soon as it is light," was the best answer thatcould be got.

  Our friend, much excited, went on to tell us that the town militia werewithout ammunition also. He believed the fort's officers wereconniving with the revolt. Presently he left us, saying he had met oneof our freed servants, Jack, who would come soon to protect us.Shortly after daybreak Jack did appear and mounted guard at the frontgate. "Go sleep, ole mis's. Miss Mary Ann" [Marion], "you-all gosleep. Chaw! wha' foo all you set up all night? Si' Myra, you go drawwatah foo bile coffee."

  The dreadful signals had ceased at last, and all lay down to rest; butI remained awake and saw through the great seaward windows thewonderful dawn of the tropics flush over sky and ocean. But presentlyits heavenly silence was broken by the gallop of a single horse, and aDanish orderly, heavily armed, passed the street-side windows, off atlast for Christiansted.

  Soon the conchs and horns began again. With them was blent now thetramp of many feet and the harsh voices of swarming insurgents. Theirlong silence was explained; they had been sharpening their weapons.

  Their first act of violence was to break open a sugar storehouse. Theymixed a barrel of sugar with one of rum, killed a hog, poured in hisblood, added gunpowder, and drank the compound--to make them brave.Then with barrels of rum and sugar they changed a whole cistern ofwater into punch, stirring it with their sharpened hoes, dipping it outwith huge sugar-boiler ladles, and drinking themselves half blind.

  Jack dashed in from the gate: "Oh, Miss Marcia, go look! dem a-comin'!Gin'ral Buddoe at dem head on he w'ite hoss."

  We ran to the jalousies. In the street, coming southward toward thefort, were full two thousand blacks. They walked and ran, the womenwith their skirts tied up in fighting trim, and all armed withhatchets, hoes, cutlasses, and sugar-cane bills. The bills were fittedon stout pole handles, and all their weapons had been ground andpolished until they glittered horridly in their black hands and abovethe gaudy Madras turbans or bare woolly heads and bloodshot eyes.

  "Dem goin' to de fote to ax foo freedom," Jack cried.

  At their head rode "Gin'ral Buddoe," large, powerful, black, in acocked hat with a long white plume. A rusty sword rattled at hishorse's flank. As he came opposite my window I saw a white man, alone,step out from the house across the way and silently lift his arms tothe multitude to halt.

  They halted. It was the Roman Catholic priest. For a moment they gaveattention, then howled, brandished their weapons, and pressed on. AuntMarcia dropped to her knees and in tears began to pray aloud; but wecried to her that Rachel, a slave woman, was coming, who must not seeour alarm. Indeed, both Rachel and Tom had already entered.

  "La! Miss Mary Ann, wha' fur you cryin'? Who's goin' tech you?"Rachel held by its four corners a Madras kerchief full of sugar. "Dawhat we done come fur, to tell Miss Paula" [grandmamma] "not befrightened."

  Tom was off again while grandmamma said: "Rachel, you've been stealing."

  "Well, Miss Paula! ain't I gwine hab my sheah w'en dem knock de head'out dem hogsitt' an' tramp de sugah under dah feet an' mix a wholecisron o' punch?"

  Rachel told the events of the night. But as she talked a roar withoutrose higher and higher, and I, running with Jack to the gate, beheldtwo smaller mobs coming round a near corner. The foremost was draggingalong the ground by ropes a huge object, howling, striking, and hackingat it. The other was doing the same to something smaller tied to astick of wood, and the air was full of their cries:

  "To de sea! Frow it in de sea! You'll nebber hole obbe" [us] "no mo'!You'll be drownded in de sea-watah!" Their victims were thewhipping-post and the thumbscrews.

  Tom returned to say: "Dem done to'e up de cote-house and de Jedge'shouse, an' now dem goin' Bay Street too tear up de sto'es."

  Gilbert came up from the fort telling what he had seen. The blacks hadtried to scale the ramparts, on one another's shoulders, howling forfreedom and defying the garrison to fire. But the commander had notdared without orders from the governor, and his courier had notreturned. A leading merchant standing on the fort wall was lessdiscreet: "Take the responsibility
! Fire! Every white man on theisland will sustain you, and you'll end the whole thing here!"

  Upon that word off again up-town had gone the whole black swarm, hadsacked the bold merchant's store, and seemed now, by the noises theymade, to be sacking others. "I come," Gilbert said, "with an offer ofthe ship-captains to take the white people aboard the ships."

  As he turned away groups of negroes began to dash by laden with allsorts of "prog" [booty] from the wrecked stores. Grandmamma had laindown, my aunts were trying to make up some sort of midday meal, and Iwas standing alone behind the jalousies, when a ferocious-looking negrorattled them with his bill.

  "Lidde gal, gi' me some watah."

  "Wait a minute," I said, and left the room. If I hid he might burst inand murder us. So I brought a bowl of water.

  "Tankee, lidde missee," he said, returned the bowl, and went away. Tomwas thereupon set to guard the gate, which he did poorly. Anothernegro slipped in and sat down on our steps. He looked around thepretty enclosure, gave a tired grunt, and said:

  "Please, missee, lemme res'; I done bruk up." He held in his hands theworks of a clock, fell to studying them, and became wholly absorbed.

  Rachel asked him who had broken it. He replied:

  "Obbe" [our] "Ca'lina. She no like de way it talkin'. She say: 'W'atmek you say, night und day, night und day?' Un' she tuk her bill un'bruk it up. Un' Georgina chop' up de pianneh, 'caze it wouldn' talkfoo her like it talk too buckra. Da shame!"

  But now came yells and cheers in the street, the rush and trample ofhundreds, and the cry:

  "De gub'nor! de gub'nor a-comin'!"

  XXXII

  (FREEDOM AND CONFLAGRATION)

  We ran to the windows. In an open carriage, with two officialattendants, surrounded by a mounted guard and clad in the uniform of aDanish general, the aged governor came. On his breast were theinsignia of the order of Dannebrog. His cavalcade could hardly makeits way, and when one of the crowd made bold to seize the horses' reinsthe equipage, just before our house, stopped. The governor sat still,very pale.

  Suddenly he rose, uncovered, and with graceful dignity bowed. Then heunfolded a paper with large seals attached, and in a trembling butclear voice began to read. In the name and by the authority of hisMajesty Christian VIII, King of Denmark, he proclaimed freedom to everyslave in the Danish West Indies.

  Our cries of dismay were drowned in the huzzas of the black mob: "Free!Free! God bless de gub'nor! Obbe is free!"

  The retinue moved again; but the crowd, ignoring the command todisperse to their homes, surged after it in transports of rejoicing.At the fort the proclamation, with the order to disperse, was readagain. But the mob, suddenly granted all its demands, could notinstantly return to quiet toils made odious by slavery. Mad with joyand drink, it broke into small companies, some content to stay in towncarousing, others roaming out among the island estates to pillage andburn. Here the governor, in failing to employ prompt measures ofpolice, proved himself weak.

  At evening, leaving our house in care of Jack and Tom, we went to spendthe night at Mr. Kenyon's, where several neighbors were gathered, underarms. Our way led us by the ruined court-house, where for severalsquares the ground was completely covered with torn records, books, andother documents.

  The night wore by in fitful sleep or anxious vigils. Near us all wasquiet; but the distant sky was in many places red with incendiaryfires. At dawn Mr. Kenyon, Gilbert, and others ventured out, andreturned with sad tidings brought by courier from Christiansted. Atthe signal on Sunday night the negroes had swarmed there by thousands.Next day, when the governor had just departed for our town, leavingword to do nothing in his absence, they had attacked the fort as theyhad ours. But its commander, of a sturdy temper, had opened fire,killing and wounding many. This had only defended the town at theexpense of the country, into which thousands scattered to break,pillage, and burn. Yet even so no whites had been killed except two orthree men who had opposed the blacks single-handed, although the wholeisland, outside the two towns, was at the mercy of the insurgents.

  However, there was better news. A Danish man-of-war was near by. Aschooner was gone to look her up, and another to ask aid in the islandof Porto Rico, only seventy miles away and heavily garrisoned withSpaniards. Still it was deemed wise to accept for Fredericksted theoffer from the ships and send the women and children on board, so thatthe military might be free to hold the uprising in check until astronger force could extinguish it.

  "Tom," Mr. Kenyon said, "is to have a boat at the beach to take us offto an American schooner. Pack no trunks. Gather your lightestvaluables in small bundles. Be quick; if a crowd gets there before youyou may be refused."

  We hurried home over a carpet of archives and title-deeds, swallowed asort of breakfast, and began the hard task of choosing the little wecould take from the much we must leave, in a dear home that might soonbe in ashes.

  On the schooner we found a kind welcome, amid a throng of friends andstrangers, and a chaos of boxes, bundles, and _trunks_. Children werecrying to go home, or viewing with babbling delight the wide roadsteaddotted with boats still bringing the fugitives to every anchoredvessel. Women were calling farewells and cautions to the men in thereturning boats, and meeting friends were telling in many tongues thedroll or sad distresses of the hour.

  A friend, with his wife and little daughter, gave us a thrilling story.Except their house-keeper, a young English girl, they three were theonly white persons on their beautiful "North End" estate when on Sundaynight their slaves came to them in force demanding "freedom papers."

  "Not under compulsion, never!"

  "Den obbe set eb'ryt'ing on fiah! Wen yo' house bu'n up we try t'inkw'at too do wid you and de missie!" They rushed away to thesugar-works, yelling: "Git bagasse foo bu'n him out!"

  The household loaded all the firearms in the house, filled all vesselswith water, and piled blankets here and there to fight fire. Then theymade merry. The wife played her piano till after midnight. Whethermoved by this show or not, the blacks failed to return, and next daythe family escaped to the schooner.

  To grandmamma and the wife of the American consul, the oldest ladies onthe vessel, was given, at nightfall, the only sofa on board. The restdropped asleep on boxes and bundles anywhere. For my couch theboatswain lent me his locker, and for a pillow a bag of something thatfelt like rope ends, and for three successive mornings I was wakenedwith:

  "Sorry to disturb you, little miss, but I must get to my locker."

  XXXIII

  (AUTHORITY, ORDER, PEACE)

  Three days of heat, glare, hubbub, and anxious suspense dragged away,and Thursday's gorgeous sunset brought a change. The Danish frigate,bright with flags and swarming with sailors, swept in, dropped anchor,and wrapped herself in thunder and white smoke. Soon she lowered aboat, a glittering officer took its tiller-ropes, its long oarsflashed, and it bore away to the fort. But evening fell, a starrysilence reigned, and when a late moon rose we slept.

  Next morning we knew that Captain Erminger, of the frigate, had assumedcommand over the whole island, declared martial law, landed hismarines, and begun operations. Soon the harbor was populous again,with refugees returning home. Tom came with his boat. Just as westarted landward a schooner came round the bluffs bringing theSpaniards. At early twilight these landed and marched with muchclatter through the vacant streets to the town's various points ofentrance, there to mount guard, the Danes having gone to scatter theinsurgents.

  The pursuing forces, in two bodies, were to move toward each other fromopposite ends of the island, spanning it from sea to sea and meeting inthe centre, thus entirely breaking up the bands of aimless pillagersinto which the insurrection had already dispersed. This took but a fewdays. Buddoe was almost at once trapped by the baldest flatteries oftwo leading Danish residents and, finding himself without even thehonor of armed capture, betrayed his confederates and disappeared.

  Only one small band of blacks made any marked
resistance. Under acertain "Moses" they occupied a hill, hurling down stones upon theirassailants, but were soon captured. Many leaders of the revolt werecondemned and shot, displaying in most cases a total absence offortitude.

  In less than a week from the day of flight to the ships quiet wasrestored, and a meeting of planters was adopting rules and rates forthe employment of the freed slaves. Some estates resumed work at once;on others the ravages of the torch had first to be repaired. Somenegroes would not work, and it was months before all the windmills onthe hills were once more whirling. The Spaniards lingered long, butwere finally relieved by a Danish regiment. Captain Erminger wascommended by his home government. The governor was censured andsuperseded. The planters got no pay for their slaves.

  The government may have argued that the ex-master should no more bepaid for his slave than the ex-slave recover back pay for his labor;and that, after all, a general emancipation was only a moderate raisingof wages unjustly low and uniform. Both kings and congresses will attimes do the easy thing instead of the fair one and let two wrongsoffset each other. Make haste, rising generations! and, as you trulyhonor your fathers, bring to their graves the garlandry of juster lawsand kinder, purer days.