Blake or The Huts of America

by Martin R. Delany

  “My frien’, who yeh lookin’ foh?” kindly enquired a cautious black man, standing concealed in the shrubbery near the door of a low, tile-covered house standing back in the yard.

  “A friend,” replied Henry.

  “Wat’s ’is name?” continued the man.

  “I do not rightly know.”

  “Would yeh know it ef yeh heahed it, my fren’?”

  “I think I would.”

  “Is it Seth?”

  “That’s the very name!” said Henry.

  “Wat yeh want wid ’im, my fren’?”

  “I want to see him.”

  “I spose yeh do, fren’; but dat ain’ answer my questin’ yet. Wat yeh want wid ’em?”

  “I would rather see him, then I’ll be better able to answer.”

  “My fren’,” replied the man, meaningly, “ah see da is somethin’ in yeh; come in!” giving a significant cough before placing his finger on the latchstring.

  On entering, from the number and arrangement of the seats, there was evidence of an anticipated gathering; but the evening being that of the Mardi Gras, there was nothing remarkable in this. Out from another room came a sharp, observing, shrewd little dark brown-skin woman, called in that community a griffe. Bowing, sidling and curtsying, she smilingly came forward.

  “Wat brotha dis, Seth?” enquired she.

  “Ah don’o,” carelessly replied he with a signal of caution, which was not required in her case.

  “Ah!” exclaimed Henry. “This is Mr. Seth! I’m glad to see you.”

  After a little conversation, in which freely participated Mrs. Seth, who evidently was deservingly the leading spirit of the evening, they soon became reconciled to the character and mission of their unexpected and self-invited guest.

  “Phebe, go tell ’em,” said Seth; when lightly tripping away she entered the door of the other room, which after a few moments’ delay was partially opened, and by a singular and peculiar signal, Seth and the stranger were invited in. Here sat in one of the most secret and romantic-looking rooms, a party of fifteen, the representatives of the heads of that many plantations, who that night had gathered for the portentious purpose of a final decision on the hour to strike the first blow. On entering, Henry stood a little in check.

  “Trus’ ’em!” said Seth. “Yeh fine ’em da right saut uh boys–true to deh own color! Da come fom fifteen diffent plantation.”

  “They’re the men for me!” replied Henry, looking around the room. “Is the house all safe?”

  “Yes brotha, all safe an’ soun’, an’ a big dog in da yahd, so dat no one can come neah widout ouah knowin’ it.”

  “First, then, to prayer, and next to seclusion,” said Henry, looking at Seth to lead in prayer.

  “Brotha, gib us wud a’ prah,” said Seth to Henry, as the party on their knees bowed low their heads to the floor.

  “I am not fit, brother, for a spiritual leader; my warfare is not Heavenly, but earthly; I have not to do with angels, but with men; not with righteousness, but wickedness. Call upon some brother who has more of the grace of God than I. If I ever were a Christian, slavery has made me a sinner; if I had been an angel, it would have made me a devil! I feel more like cursing than praying–may God forgive me! Pray for me, brethren!”

  “Brotha Kits, gib us wud a prah, my brotha!” said Seth to an athletic, powerful black man.

  “Its not fah ouah many wuds, noah long prah–ouah ’pinion uh ouah self, nah sich like, dat Dou anseh us; but de ’cerity ob ouah hahts an ouah ’tentions. Bless de young man dat come ’mong us; make ’im fit fah ’is day, time, an’ genration! Dou knows, Laud, dat fah wat we ’semble; anseh dis ouah ’tition, an’ gib us token ob Dine ’probation!” petitioned Kits, slapping his hand at the conclusion down upon and splitting open a pine table before him.

  “Amen,” responded the gathering.

  “Let da wud run an’ be glorify!” exclaimed Nathan Seth.

  The splitting of the table was regarded as ominous, but of doubtful signification, the major part considering it as rather unfavorable. Making no delay, lest a despondency ensue through fear and superstition, Henry at once entered into seclusion, completing an organization.

  “God sen’ yeh had come along dis way befo’!” exclaimed Phebe Seth.

  “God grant ’e had!” responded Nathan.

  “My Laud! I feels like a Sampson! ah feels like gwine up to take de city mehself!” cried out Kits, standing erect in the floor with fists clenched, muscles braced, eyes shut, and head thrown back.

  “Yes, yes!” exclaimed Phebe. “Blessed be God, brotha Kits, da King is in da camp!”

  “Powah, powah!” responded Seth. “Da King is heah!”

  “Praise ’is name!” shouted Phebe clapping and rubbing her hands. “Fah wat I feels an’ da knowledge I has receive dis night! I been all my days in darkness till now! I feels we shall be a people yit! Thang’ God, thang God!” when she skidded over the floor from side to side, keeping time with a tune sung to the words–

  “We’ll honor our Lord and Master;

  We’ll honor our Lord and King;

  We’ll honor our Lord and Master,

  And bow at His command!

  O! brothers, did you hear the news?

  Lovely Jesus is coming!

  If ever I get to the house of the Lord,

  I’ll never come back any more.”

  “It’s good to be heah!” shouted Seth.

  “Ah! dat it is, brotha Seth!” responded Kits. “Da Laud is nigh, dat ’e is! ’e promise whahsomeveh two-three ’semble, to be in da mids’ and dat to bless ’em, an’ ’is promise not in vain, case ’e heah tonight!”

  At the moment which Phebe took her seat, nearly exhausted with exercise, a loud rap at the door, preceded by the signal for the evening, alarmed the party.

  “Come in, brotha Tib–come quick, if yeh comin!” bade Seth, in a low voice hastily, as he partially opened the door, peeping out into the other room.

  “O, pshaw!” exclaimed Phebe, as she and her husband yet whispered; “I wish he stay away. I sho nobody want ’em! he all’as half drunk anyhow. Good ev’nin’, brotha Tib. How yeh been sense we see yeh early paut da night?”

  “Reasable, sistah–reasable, thang God. Well, what yeh all ’cided on? I say dis night now au neveh!” said Tib, evidently bent on mischief.

  “Foolishness, foolishness!” replied Phebe. “It make me mad see people make fool uh demself! I wish ’e stay home an’ not bothen heah!”

  “Ah, ’spose I got right to speak as well as da rest on yeh! Yeh all ain’ dat high yit to keep body fom talkin’, ah ’spose. Betta wait tell yeh git free fo’ ye ’temp’ scrow oveh people dat way! I kin go out yeh house!” retorted the mischievous man, determined on distracting their plans.

  “Nobody odeh yeh out, but I like see people have sense, specially befo’ strangehs! an’ know how behave demself!”

  “I is gwine out yeh house,” gruffly replied the man.

  “My friend,” said Henry, “listen a moment to me. You are not yet ready for a strike; you are not yet ready to do anything effective. You have barely taken the first step in the matter, and——”

  “Strangeh!” interrupted the distracter. “Ah don’o yeh name, yeh strangeh to me–I see yeh talk ’bout ‘step’; how many step man got take fo’ ’e kin walk? I likes to know dat! Tell me that fus, den yeh may ax me what yeh choose!”

  “You must have all the necessary means, my brother,” persuasively resumed Henry, “for the accomplishment of your ends. Intelligence among yourself on everything pertaining to your designs and project. You must know what, how, and when to do. Have all the instrumentalities necessary for an effective effort, before making the attempt. Without this, you will fail, utterly fail!”

  “Den ef we got wait all dat time, we neveh be free!” gruffly replied he. “I goes in foh dis night! I say dis night! Who goes——”

  “Shet yo’ big mouth! Sit down! Now make a fool o’ yo’self!” excl
aimed several voices with impatience, which evidently only tended to increase the mischief.

  “Dis night, dis night au neveh!” boisterously yelled the now infuriated man at the top of his voice. “Now’s da time!” when he commenced shuffling about over the floor, stamping and singing at the top of his voice–

  Come all my brethren, let us take a rest,

  While the moon shines bright and clear;

  Old master died and left us all at last,

  And has gone at the bar to appear!

  Old master’s dead and lying in his grave;

  And our blood will now cease to flow;

  He will no more tramp on the neck of the slave,

  For he’s gone where slaveholders go!

  Hang up the shovel and the hoe–o–o–o!

  I don’t care whether I work or no!

  Old master’s gone to the slaveholders rest–

  He’s gone where they all ought to go!

  pointing down and concluding with an expression which indicated anything but a religious feeling.

  “Shame so it is dat he’s lowed to do so! I wish I was man foh ’im, I’d make ’im fly!” said Phebe much alarmed, as she heard the great dog in the yard, which had been so trained as to know the family visitors, whining and manifesting an uneasiness unusual with him. On going to the back door, a person suddenly retreated into the shrubbery, jumping the fence, and disappearing.

  Soon, however, there was an angry low heavy growling of the dog, with suppressed efforts to bark, apparently prevented by fear on the part of the animal. This was succeeded by cracking in the bushes, dull heavy footsteps, cautious whispering, and stillness.

  “Hush! Listen!” admonished Phebe. “What is dat? Wy don’t Tyger bark? I don’t understan’ it! Seth, go out and see, will you? Wy don’t some you men make dat fool stop? I wish I was man, I’d break ’is neck, so I would!” during which the betrayer was shuffling, dancing, and singing at such a pitch as to attract attention from without.

  Seth seizing him from behind by a firm grasp of the collar with both hands, Tib sprang forward, slipping easily out of it, leaving the overcoat suspended in his assailant’s hands, displaying studded around his waist a formidable array of deathly weapons, when rushing out of the front door, he in terrible accents exclaimed–

  “Insurrection! Insurrection! Death to every white!”

  With a sudden spring of their rattles, the gendarmes, who in cloisters had surrounded the house, and by constant menacing gestures with their maces kept the great dog, which stood back in a corner, in a snarling position in fear, arrested the miscreant, taking him directly to the old fort calaboose. In the midst of the confusion which necessarily ensued, Henry, Seth, and Phebe, Kits and fellow-leaders from the fifteen plantations, immediately fled, all having passes for the day and evening, which fully protected them in any part of the city away from the scene of disturbance.

  Intelligence soon reached all parts of the city, that an extensive plot for rebellion of the slaves had been timely detected. The place was at once thrown into a state of intense excitement, the military called into requisition, dragoons flying in every direction, cannon from the old fort sending forth hourly through the night, thundering peals to give assurance of their sufficiency, and the infantry on duty traversing the streets, stimulating with martial air with voluntary vocalists, who readily joined in chorus to the memorable citing words in the Southern States of–

  Go tell Jack Coleman,

  The Negroes are arising!

  Alarm and consternation succeeded pleasure and repose, sleep for the time seemed to have departed from the eyes of the inhabitants, men, women and children ran every direction through the streets, seeming determined if they were to be massacred, that it should be done in the open highways rather than secretly in their own houses. The commotion thus continued till the morning; meanwhile editors, journalists, reporters, and correspondents, all were busily on the alert, digesting such information as would form an item of news for the press, or a standing reminiscence for historical reference in the future.

  CHAPTER 23

  The Rebel Blacks

  For the remainder of the night secreting themselves in Conti and Burgundi streets, the rebel proprietors of the house in which was laid the plot for the destruction of the city were safe until the morning, their insurrectionary companions having effected a safe retreat to the respective plantations to which they belonged that evening.

  Jason and Phebe Seth were the hired slaves of their own time from a widower master, a wealthy retired attorney at Baton Rouge, whose only concern about them was to call every ninety days at the counter of the Canal Bank of New Orleans, and receive the price of their hire, which was there safely deposited to his credit by the industrious and faithful servants. The house in which the rebels met had been hired for the occasion, being furnished rooms kept for transient accommodation.

  On the earliest conveyance destined for the City of Mobile, Henry left, who, before he fled, admonished as his parting counsel, to “stand still and see the salvation”; the next day being noted by General Ransom, as an incident in his history, to receive a formal visit of a fortnight’s sojourn, in the person of his slaves Jason and Phebe Seth.

  The inquisition held in the case of the betrayer Tib developed fearful antecedents of extensive arrangements for the destruction of the city by fire and water, thereby compelling the white inhabitants to take refuge in the swamps, whilst the blacks marched up the coast, sweeping the plantations as they went.

  Suspicions were fixed upon many, among whom was an unfortunate English schoolteacher, who was arrested and imprisoned, when he died, to the last protesting his innocence. Mr. Farland was a good and bravehearted man, disdaining to appeal for redress to his country, lest it might be regarded as the result of cowardice.

  Taking fresh alarm at this incident, the municipal regulations have been most rigid in a system of restriction and espionage toward Negroes and mulattoes, almost destroying their self-respect and manhood, and certainly impairing their usefulness.

  CHAPTER 24

  A Flying Cloud

  Safely in Mobile Henry landed without a question, having on the way purchased of a passenger who was deficient of means to bear expenses, a horse by which he made a daring entry into the place. Mounting the animal which was fully caparisoned, he boldly rode to the principal livery establishment, ordering for it the greatest care until his master’s arrival.

  Hastening into the country he readily found a friend and seclusion in the hut of Uncle Cesar, on the plantation of Gen. Audly. Making no delay, early next morning he returned to the city to effect a special object. Passing by the stable where the horse had been left, a voice loudly cried out:

  “There’s that Negro boy, now! Hallo, there, boy! didn’t you leave a horse here?”

  Heeding not the interrogation, but speedily turning the first corner, Henry hastened away and was soon lost among the inhabitants.

  “How yeh do, me frien’?” saluted a black man whom he met in a by-street. “Ar’ yeh strangeh?”

  “Why?” enquired Henry.

  “O, nothin’! On’y I hearn some wite men talkin’ j’s now, an’ da say some strange nigga lef’ a hoss dar, an’ da blev ’e stole ’em, an’ da gwine ketch an’ put ’em in de jail.”

  “If that’s all, I live here. Good morning!” rejoined he who soon was making rapid strides in the direction of Georgia.

  Every evening found him among the quarters of some plantations, safely secreted in the hut of some faithful, trustworthy slave, with attentive, anxious listeners, ready for an issue. So, on he went with flying haste, from plantation to plantation, till Alabama was left behind him.

  In Georgia, though the laws were strict, the Negroes were equally hopeful. Like the old stock of Maryland and Virginia blacks from whom they were descended, they manifested a high degree of intelligence for slaves. Receiving their messenger with open arms, the aim of his advent among them spread like fire in a stubble. Everywh
ere seclusions were held and organizations completed, till Georgia stands like a city at the base of a burning mountain, threatened with destruction by an overflow of the first outburst of lava from above. Clearing the state without an obstruction, he entered that which of all he most dreaded, the haughty South Carolina.

  Here the most relentless hatred appears to exist against the Negro, who seems to be regarded but as an animated thing of convenience or a domesticated animal, reared for the service of his master. The studied policy of the whites evidently is to keep the blacks in subjection and their spirits below a sentiment of self-respect. To impress the Negro with a sense of his own inferiority is a leading precept of their social system; to be white is the only evidence necessary to establish a claim to superiority. To be a “master” in South Carolina is to hold a position of rank and title, and he who approaches this the nearest is heightened at least in his own estimation.

  These feelings engendered by the whites have been extensively incorporated with the elements of society among the colored people, giving rise to the “Brown Society” an organized association of mulattos, created by the influence of the whites, for the purpose of preventing pure-blooded Negroes from entering the social circle, or holding intercourse with them.[14]

  Here intelligence and virtue are discarded and ignored, when not in conformity with these regulations. A man with the prowess of Memnon, or a woman with the purity of the “black doves” of Ethiopia and charms of the “black virgin” of Solomon, avails them nothing, if the blood of the oppressor, engendered by wrong, predominates not in their veins.

  Oppression is the author of all this, and upon the heads of the white masters let the terrible responsibility of this miserable stupidity and ignorance of their mulatto children rest; since to them was left the plan of their social salvation, let upon their consciences rest the penalties of their social damnation.

  The transit of the runaway through this state was exceedingly difficult, as no fabrication of which he was capable could save him from the penalties of arrest. To assume freedom would be at once to consign himself to endless bondage, and to acknowledge himself a slave was at once to advertise for a master. His only course of safety was to sleep through the day and travel by night, always keeping to the woods.