Blake or The Huts of America

by Martin R. Delany

  “This is your husband, poor outraged suffering one, and he comes to take you, if in doing it, he takes the life of every slaveholder in Cuba!” said Henry, pressing her closely to his bosom.

  “O! this can’t be you! O my God, I have suffered more than death! How did you come? O my poor child! Where’s mammy, did she come too? My poor father!” When with an innocent smile, Maggie gazed in the face of her husband, with eyes immovably fixed.

  Gently laying her on the grass under the shade of a tree, the greathearted slave hastened to the rippling stream nearby from which to get water to lave her brow and temples to relieve her of the temporary insanity; when sitting over her in discharge of his duty of love and conjugal affection, he found a solace by the intrusion of tears which freely fell from his eyes.

  At these scenes the children were surprised and hastened to their mother to tell their childish story, which only tended to aggravate an offence to her already unpardonable.

  “O, you worst of treated women, I’ll have revenge for it!” said the half-distracted husband to himself, as he leaned over her, applying the water with his handkerchief.

  Presently the child, which till then had been quietly playing on the grass aside of her, began to cry–the larger ones having gone to the house-when Henry took it, holding it on his arm, which only increased its fretfulness. The other children just returning, heard the little sister fretting, while the nurse lay unheeding it, when returning to the house, reported again to their mother concerning her conduct.

  The mistress now became impatient and sent her servant Dilsey to summon Lotty to appear immediately before her. The girl returning reported Lotty to be sick. The mistress insisted that it was all affectation, and determined on having her whipped by her master.

  Poor Maggie’s joys on recovering, were blasted by anticipation of the punishment that awaited her.

  “O Lord!” she sighed as the sun declined beneath the horizon; “I dread night coming on! I wish I was dead, so I do; they’ll beat me to death!”

  “The villain who dares lay hands on you, I’ll send into eternity as quick as my arm can execute the deed! And——”

  Here he was suddenly interrupted by Dilsey, who was a good girl and a true friend to her people, running hastily into the garden to inform Maggie that Peter Albertis had just arrived from Principe. Clasping her hands and looking Henry in the face, Maggie cried out, “O husband, what will I do?”

  “Don’t be the least frightened Maggie, my child; I assure you not a hair of your head will be hurt!”

  “But he’ll take my life, and——”

  “I’ll take his first,” said Henry so determinedly, that she concluded to say nothing more, lest he might be aggravated to an overt act and blast all hopes, however futile they were.

  The arrival of Albertis arrested the anticipated proceedings of the evening, Henry taking advantage of which carefully cautioned his wife, who required no such admonishing, to impart nothing that would in the least betray their relation. They separated for the time, when for the first night in many months, both husband and wife could retire to see each other in the morning.

  *Guanas are run down by dogs and caught-a South American custom, introduced into Cuba by Brazillian slaves, some of whom when sold carry the young animals with them.

  CHAPTER 40

  The Confrontment

  Alone, early on Monday morning, ere an inmate of the premises had risen, Henry sat in the bower devising measures and the course to pursue in relation to obtaining his wife. If she could be purchased the money was ready; if not, a determination to have her at any risk had been maturely decided on. Thus was he meditating, when the Seeleys summoned him to domestic duties.

  That morning Madame Garcia was stirring unusually early, having much in relation to his unruly servant to report to her brother. The maid was, in her estimation, the worst of beings–stubborn, disobedient, saucy, and wicked–insisting that measures the severest should be taken to check her in time, and subdue her spirit. She had tried every reasonable method to break her, but entirely failed in the effort. She had whipped her, pinched her, goaded her, and even smoked her and burned her with a smoothing iron,* but all had failed to reach her; she was so effectually depraved and obdurate.

  “She has been spoilt by her first mistress in her training, and a lifetime will not now correct the error.”

  “I know of no other remedy, Adelaide, than to sell her immediately off of our hands,” replied Peter Albertis to his sister. “She is the stubbornest creature I ever had to deal with. She takes more lashing than a dog; and if you can’t break her, she can’t be broken.”

  “There is now an opportunity to do so, Mr. Albertis, as our man Gilbert and she seem much attached; and he may make proposals to buy her,” suggested Madame Seeley, intentionally for him to profit by the hint, as he was passing at the time it was spoken.

  “I decidedly object to the proposal of Madame Seeley; as she should be allowed no such privileges,” readily responded Madame Garcia.

  “You can’t object if she desire it; so you must make the best of a bad thing, Adelaide,” replied Albertis.

  “I don’t understand you, brother! Do you mean to say that we cannot do as we please with our own Negroes?”

  “You may think it hard, but what is law is fair, I suppose. This law gives the slave the right, whenever desirous to leave his master, to make him a tender in Spanish coin, which if he don’t accept, on proof of the tender the slave may apply to the parish priest or bishop of the district, who has the right immediately to declare such slave free.”[24]

  “I’m sure I was not aware of that before.”

  “Very likely, sister; but that does not make it any the less law.”

  “And what is the sum that the Negro must offer?”

  “Four hundred and fifty dollars, I think.”

  “If this is the kind of place Cuba is, I don’t want to live here! We better go back to Louisiana. Why, your Negro girl cost you more than twice that much!”

  “Yes, I paid for her two thousand dollars cash; but it is better to get a part of my money back than lose the whole. The law in its wisdom supposes it better to lose our property than our lives; better to let the Negro have his liberty at his own expense at a price fixed by the law, than have him to take his liberty and the Island by violence at the expense of our blood. Those who made the laws could probably see farther than you or I, Adelaide.”

  “Then if what you say be true, I don’t see what’s to be gained by staying in such a country. I want to go home!”

  “You might not better it by going there, for, as in Cuba, there are also many existing laws of which you know nothing. And respecting the contingencies of insurrection, you are not more safe than here. In New Orleans, as in Havana, the great gun at the fort must at a certain hour every night be fired, to intimidate and keep down the Negroes; and there as here, while you are unsuspectingly sleeping in your quiet bed in seeming safety, a guard for private and public safety must be kept through the night, and even secret guards through the day, to keep in check the disposition to rebellion on the part of the slave population.”[25]

  “Then indeed must we be in a most dangerous position.”

  “I know it; but hang it, it can’t be helped. We must do the best we can under the circumstances, that’s all.”

  “I wonder all the Negroes in Cuba are not free, since they have the right to purchase themselves.”

  “They don’t all know it; and if they did, few comparatively could raise the means. And even now among those who have the means and desire, a given fee dropped into the hands of certain parties impairs their memory wonderfully, making them forget the existence of such law or the time when to proclaim it.

  “I should think that the English, who are such friends to the Negroes, would see that the law was strictly enforced.”

  “Womanlike Adelaide, you don’t understand political matters. The English have nothing to do with it; and they have no more love for Negroes
than for other people. They have sympathy for the Negro because he is oppressed: but never help those, in a general sense, who don’t help themselves. If the Negroes rise and take off our heads, declaring their independence, the English will be the first to acknowledge it. But they’ll never come and cut off our heads, politely handing them to the Negroes. The English must see that something is done before they’ll recognize the doer. Until the Negro does something, the English will let him remain as he is; so don’t be troubled about English Negro-interference in Cuba, nor your own country.”

  “Well,” said Adelaide with a deep, long sigh, “I wish I was in Louisiana.”

  Henry having been a secret auditor, found opportunity to impart to his wife the entire conversation between Albertis, his sister, and Cornelia Seeley. He strictly instructed her to preemptorily refuse to live with him an hour longer, and seize an opportunity immediately of confronting him on the subject of her rights.

  As if unconscious of the existing state of her feelings, Maggie with the children went sautering into the parlor.

  “Well, my girl,” saluted Albertis, “are you ready to go home with me?”

  “No, sir!”

  “Don’t want to go, hey! Then we’ll find a way to make you!”

  “I won’t live on your place any more; and there is no use in asking me!

  “Don’t let her give such impudence, brother! I’d knock her down first!” interposed Madame Garcia.

  “I’ll sell you, you impudent strap, to the hardest master I can find!”

  “I won’t serve any person any more, so I won’t! And its no use to talk about selling me!” said Maggie, emboldened at the thought of freedom, knowing that her husband sustained her in it.

  “I want none of your impudence here, Lot, and won’t take it,” reproved Madame Garcia.

  “I now demand a bill of sale of you to myself, Mr. Albertis, and tender in Spanish gold four hundred and fifty dollars!” reaching out to him the money in a careless way, which she drew from under her apron.

  At this Albertis was surprised, his sister indignant, and the other two ladies highly pleased. The matter was too plain, and no longer to be ignored. Maggie knew her rights, and Albertis discovered it. Dissembling for the moment he said:

  “I want more money; that’s not half what I paid for you!”

  “I make you a legal tender, and I’ll give no more!” concluded Maggie, abruptly turning from him and walking out of the room.

  “It’s all over with her, I see,” said Albertis; that Cuban Negro has taught her this!” referring to Henry, who, on account of his fluent Spanish, was not suspected as a stranger.

  “And are you going to take so small a sum as that?” inquired Madame Garcia anxiously.

  “There is no use, Adelaide, in cutting off one’s nose to spite his face; for the truth of the matter is, if I don’t hasten to take that sum, she can decline giving me anything at all, and go to the parish priest and be declared free, in spite of all I can say or do!”

  “There seems then to be no chance for us Americans here, except in the prospect of a patriotic movement?”

  “But little reliance can be placed in them, a set of dissatisfied, irresponsible American intruders, who only stir up strife to the danger of life and property.”

  “Are not the patriots the Creoles?”

  “They assume the name of Creole, but are little short of marauding foreigners. The Negroes are the mainstay of Cuba, and can never be induced to join the patriots, who, as soon as they got the island, would deny the Negroes the rights they now have. I know this information is against me, but you must be made sensible of your true position here, that when trouble comes you may the better be prepared to meet it.”

  “But why should the Spanish government in the event of a loss of the island, prefer a Negro to a white dominion? This I confess I cannot comprehend.”

  “Simply because the Negroes are more docile, contented, religious and happy. They are civil, and more easily governed as a race than the Anglo-American; hence they make better subjects, being more submissive than they.”

  In half an hour after the withdrawal of Maggie from the parlor, Albertis presented the following document, which was hastily executed and delivered.

  CASTILIAN HACIENDA,

  *ISLE OF CUBA, April 16, 1853.

  Received of my girl Lotty, of zambo complexion, calling herself Lotty Holland, formerly my slave, the sum of four hundred and fifty dollars legal tender, as purchase money for herself; by which act she is manumitted,* set free and enfranchised, according to the laws of Cuba, made and provided for in such cases.

  SIGNED PETER ALBERTIS

  Proprietor of El Paso Hacienda

  AUGUSTUS SEELEY,

  Witness CORNELIA SEELEY,

  CELIA BONSELLE.

  Adelaide Garcia refusing to witness the transaction, had gone into the lawn, while Garcia, Paul, and Spencer, who from the first intended being only silent spectators to the whole, sat intently watching the proceedings.

  The long-desired end being attained–the dearest object of his desires, his wife found, her freedom obtained, and having secured this simple Magna Charta of her liberty, Henry was among the happiest of men.

  A private interview was had with the Seeleys, in which he made known his intention of leaving them, and they having no idea of the relation between them, supposed his intention was to unite with the maid in wedlock. Intending to leave immediately for America to remain in the country but a fortnight, the Seeleys at once proposed that the two accompany them as man and maidservants, as Seeley had inherited a large estate which for several years had been available. Money to him was not an object, the happiness of his wife being his only concern; and Henry had but to name his terms, which would readily be complied with. This the man, as yet to them unknown, declined; preferring, as he stated, rather for the time to remain awhile at Havana. He proposed to them instead, the arrangement of bringing with them a man and maidservant and two small boys–one the child of the servants and the other a black boy eight years old, no relation, whom they might keep subject to his guardianship, until such times as he should himself have use for him. The man and maidservants proposed to be bought, would be left to their own choice. The restrictions being great concerning foreign Negroes and mulattoes, Henry having gone into Cuba as a Creole, that as soon as they boarded the vessel at New York on return, the servants should be claimed as their slaves, the custom being common in America to take slave servants to the free states, their masters instructing them to pass as free people. Madame Seeley was to have the boy as her page, but strictly to instruct him and attend to his morals. The persons would meet the Seeleys in the city, so soon as intelligence reached them through the friend to whom he would give them a note, enclosed to the care of the intelligencer who procured for them his services.

  Everything having been well understood, the following is a copy of the notes borne by the hands of the Seeleys, superscribed to the proprietor of the intelligence office:

  B. A. P., Esq., New York, U. S.–

  DEAR SIR: Enclosed please find two letters, one addressed to our mutual friend, C. R–h, who called to see me; the old veteran in the cause of the runaway slave, which you will please hand to him; and the other to Rev. W. Mon——, of Detroit, Mich.,[26] which you will have mailed to him. Any assistance you can give to Lieutenant Seeley and lady, will very much oblige

  Yours respectfully,

  GILBERT.

  CUBA, April, 1853.

  P. S.–You will remember having procured a place for me to go with a party to Cuba, some time since.

  G.

  The letter addressed to C. R–h, the slave’s old friend in New York read thus:

  ISLE OF CUBA, April, 1853.

  C. R–h-MY DEAR SIR:

  This letter is enclosed in a note to our friend, B. A. P., of the intelligence office, in Leonard St.; borne by a gentleman and lady, Lieutenant Augustus Seeley and his wife, Madame Cornelia Seeley, with whom I came to Cuba wh
en I left you. A mulatto man and his wife, a quadroon woman, and two little boys-a small brown child, said to be their own, and a little black boy some eight years of age, no relation to them-will come to you from the neighborhood of Windsor, Canada West, sent on by that excellent, pious friend of the slave and his race, Rev. W. Mon——. Their names are Charles and Polly Tiptoe, who are to come to Cuba as servants to the Seeleys; for whom you need have no fears, as the lieutenant and his excellent lady have proven themselves the best of friends, and worthy of all confidence. Some day perhaps you may be surprised to learn who I am; but until then,

  I am very Respect’ly, GILBERT.

  The Detroit letter read:

  NEW YORK, April, 1853.

  REV. W. MON–MY VERY DEAR FRIEND:

  The mere thought of your name produces in me emotions. You will please call over to the settlement as soon as possible, see our people there, and tell Charles Tiptoe and his wife to come immediately and bring my little son, Joe, and little Tony to New York. The particulars will be made known to you hereafter. Console the old people by giving them to understand that I must either have got my wife, or am certain of doing so, else I would not send for the children; and that they will all hear in due season from me. Tell Charles to bring with him all the available money he has, but none of the others must come with him. Love to the old people particularly, also Andy and Clara, Eli, Ailcey and Ambrose. That you may know the letter is genuine, I fix my mark.

  Some day, my dearest of friends, I shall be able to do, and you will know me other than as now, your ever indebted and very grateful runaway slave,

  HENRY

  P.S.–To prevent all traces of me, I assumed the name of Gilbert, my old travelling name after I left you, which is the only name by which I am known here. Should you hereafter hear of my whereabouts, it must be strictly kept to yourself, not even Andy and Eli are to know it till I am ready to inform them.

  G.

  With cheerfulness receiving this billet addressed to the New York agent, a reciprocal hearty shake of the hands, and wish by the Seeleys for the happy union of Gilbert and Lotty against their return, they left for Havana early next morning en route for New York, there to celebrate their nuptials, and Henry and Maggie in another diligence in the afternoon of the same day, also proceeded direct to the city.