by Gregory Kopp
Finally, she gave him a letter to take with him to give to Karolina from her daughter, the Duchess Marie Amelie. Johannes thanked her, bowed and took leave of the Dowager Duchess.
As he was leaving, Empress Eugénie entered the salon accompanied by two imperial guards. She was meeting with the Dowager Duchess to plan for the birth of the Imperial Prince and to request Stéphanie arrange for her cousin Queen Joséphine of Sweden, to act as patron of the future newborn.
Chapter Nine
Le Havre was an important port for emigration to America from France, Switzerland, and the southern principalities of the German Confederation. After landing in New Orleans, many of the European immigrants would make their way up the Mississippi River to St. Louis Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio. Most of the sailing ships leaving Le Havre were American and it was necessary for immigrants to make arrangements for passage directly with the captains of the ships.
Johannes discovered he already had a ticket on the American sailing ship “Globe” in the envelopes given to him by the Dowager Duchess. As he walked on the wharf in the port of Le Havre and approached his ship, Johannes stumbled into Georg, a former Baden soldier and friend from the Grand Dukes’ army. Georg was accompanied by his new wife, Louisa, the daughter of a French nobleman. Her father was a former officer in Napoleon I’s army and a friend of Stéphanie de Beauharnais.
Louisa had danced with the Baden soldier at the wedding of Stéphanie de Beauharnais’s daughter and fallen in love with Georg at first sight. She returned to Paris and corresponded with him over the years. Her father was aware of their relationship and requested the Grand Duke post the soldier to the Baden Consulate in Paris in order to be close to his daughter. Meanwhile, her father died and her grandfather requested she joins him in New Orleans to help run his sugar cane plantation. Her grandfather had fled to New Orleans many years before when Napoleon I was exiled and he purchased a large plantation with the money he smuggled out of France.
Louisa told Johannes how his friend Georg was willing to go along with her as her protector to the plantation in Louisiana. It was settled, they were married in a quiet civil ceremony in Paris with only a few members of her family and close friends attending including Stéphanie de Beauharnais. Stéphanie then arranged for them to sail for New Orleans immediately out of the port of Le Havre.
Johannes shook his head and smiled when he heard their story and realized how Stéphanie de Beauharnais also arranged for his travel to America at the same time to help this young couple. He was amazed at how she was able to weave such intricate webs involving the lives of so many disparate people together.
New Orleans at the time was the largest city in the southern United States and trade with the plantations along the Mississippi River combined with that of France and Great Britain was making the citizens of the city very wealthy. Though the importing of slaves had been stopped in the United States in 1807, smugglers were still bringing in African slaves and the slave market was flourishing. Any slaves trying to escape to the north were being captured by bounty hunters and returned to their owners where they were beaten and chained.
Before the trio landed in New Orleans, Louisa and her soldier husband convinced Johannes to stay with them on her grandfather’s plantation. But as soon as they arrived in the city they discovered Louisa’s grandfather had died suddenly of yellow fever and the plantation was in chaos. She and her husband, with the help of Johannes, went straight to work on the plantation and ordered the overseer to give an accounting of all of the assets including the number of slaves. Her father had told her what he knew about the wealth of the plantation before he died but he had encouraged her to check with the overseer when she arrived to determine whether he was stealing from them.
The plantation flourished when her grandfather invested in the sugar trade and planted sugar cane in his fields. He became increasingly wealthy and had written long letters to his son extolling the wonders of the new world and encouraging him and his family to settle in New Orleans. Over the years he had purchased a large number of slaves to help him work the plantation.
After several months of hard work by Louisa, Georg, and Johannes, the plantation was beginning to achieve some semblance of order. It was then that Louisa announced she needed a break and was going into the city of New Orleans. “You must come with us to town, Johannes”. She begged him. “It is so exciting and I heard the latest Paris fashions have arrived and they are beautiful”. He nodded “Yes” after reviewing the work completed by the field slaves on the new fence surrounding the plantation. Georg only smiled at his beautiful wife when he heard her plans.
Chapter Ten
The next day, Georg ordered the overseer to prepare his wife’s carriage and to send one of the young slaves with them to carry his wife’s purchases from the shops in New Orleans.
When they arrived in New Orleans, it was chaos in the streets with flatboat men, immigrants, black slaves, and free people of all color milling about conducting business with shopkeepers and shipping agents to arrange for travel and or conduct trade up to the Mississippi River.
Johannes climbed down from the carriage and told his friends he was going to see about purchasing a boat that he could use to travel upriver to Ohio. Georg nodded and he and his wife continued riding into town. Johannes hurriedly walked into the center of New Orleans and spotted a young black woman standing outside a shipping agent’s place of business. He approached her and asked whether she could tell him where he might be able to buy a small boat.
Suddenly, a man stepped out of the shipping agent’s office and shouted at the woman. “I told you, not to talk to a white man!” And he hit her on the head so hard she fell to the ground. Johannes stared and said nothing. The man grabbed her and pulled her up and told her to get into the wagon parked on the street. She nodded and climbed up onto the wagon. The man strode right past Johannes and climbed into the wagon and drove it away. Johannes was in shock as the scene unfolded and shook his head while he hurried to rejoin his companions.
Louisa tapped her husband on the shoulder and pointed at a slave auction taking place down the street. “You promised me I would have a new house slave to help me with my clothes”, she pleaded. Her husband nodded, dismounted from the carriage and whispered in the ear of the auctioneer. The auctioneer turned and pointed at a black woman holding two young children in the wagon. She was the same woman Johannes encountered outside the shipping agent’s office. Georg agreed and handed the auctioneer several large dollar bills from his wallet.
The auctioneer shouted “Sold” to the waiting crowd and pointed at the black woman. The auctioneer whispered to Georg that her husband had run away from their last plantation master and he wanted to sell her quickly before she ran away to join him.
The black woman wearing metal shackles was taken to the carriage of her new owners. As she approached the carriage, she dropped to her knees, grabbed Georg’s leg, began sobbing and cried out in French for her two children to come with her. Georg visibly shaken tried to pull her off his leg but was unable to make her release it. Louisa was aghast and cried out to her husband to do something. Georg looked up and pointed at the two children and asked the auctioneer how much they cost. The auctioneer smiled a big toothy grin and gave him an over inflated price for the two children. Georg shook his head and handed over several larger dollar bills. The young black woman released his leg and held her children after they were brought to her by two burly white men. The auctioneer counted his money as he walked away laughing.
Georg recovered his composure and pointed out to his wife that he purchased the two children to work in the stables hiding the fact he had been swindled by the slave auctioneer. Louisa smiled and told the black slave boy riding with them to accompany the young black woman and her children to the plantation. Johannes was sickened as he watched the woman and her children being sold to his friend.
When they arrived back at the plantation after a long day of shopping and sightseeing in the city of New Orl
eans, Johannes pulled Georg aside and told him it was time for him to leave. He was disgusted at seeing the slave auction and the treatment of the slave woman. Georg argued with him, pointing out the advantages of remaining on the plantation and the opportunity to make himself a lot of money. He reminded him that they treated their slaves rather well compared to the other southern plantation owners. Johannes still insisted he needed to be on his way but did not tell him about the letter from the Dowager Duchess he was entrusted to deliver to Karolina.
His friend grew tired of arguing and requested he stay a few more days to help him oversee their first harvest of sugar cane. Johannes agreed knowing it would take a few days for him to arrange passage upriver or to purchase a boat of his own.
Chapter Eleven
A few days after the sugar cane harvest was complete, Johannes told Georg and Louisa it was time for him to go. Louisa hugged him and wished him good luck on his journey. He said goodbye to his friends and began walking towards the river. For the past several days he had been loading a small keelboat he purchased with provisions for the trip upriver to Ohio.
As he was leaving, he overheard Louisa scolding her new house slave for arranging her clothing incorrectly and telling her she would be punished if she did not fix them immediately. She then slapped the slave woman’s hand and made her do it again. The young black woman saw him leaving as her two children were cleaning up after the horses in the stables.
He continued walking towards the river with a pack on his shoulders. Several of the field slaves looked up as he walked past the sugar cane fields. As he grew closer to the river he heard shouting and gunfire in the woods. Several bounty hunters on horseback were chasing a black man through the woods. He shuddered as he remembered his own escape from the Prussian army and continued walking toward the keelboat. The boat’s previous owner had told him it was the perfect means to go up the river and even offered him goods to sell to the plantation owners along the river to help pay for his journey. He agreed and loaded household goods in the bottom of the boat.
After spending the first night on his boat, he went to town to pick up some more provisions for his journey upriver. He was tired when he finally returned to his boat as the sun was setting on the horizon. The shopkeepers had driven a hard bargain and he was in a foul mood. As he approached his boat he thought he saw something moving. He had carefully covered the boat with leaves and branches from a nearby tree to thwart any thieves and they appeared to have been pushed aside.
Slowly, he approached the boat and saw the tarp he used to hide his stores was turned back and puffed up. He pulled his knife out of his belt and slowly crept towards the tarp. He pulled the tarp back and was surprised to see the young black slave woman and her two children.
At that moment he heard shouting and a man on horseback rode up to him just as he was climbing on board his boat. The man on horseback approached the boat wearing the semblance of a uniform including a sword at his side. Johannes paled as he saw him, remembering the Prussian officer from so long ago. The man shouted to him from the riverbank. “Did you see a black slave woman with two young children?”
Johannes froze for a second and then shook his head “No” and climbed onboard. The man on horseback turned his horse away and headed further down along the river road. The black slave woman was startled and the two children began to cry loudly. At that instant, the bounty hunter reappeared out of the woods, raised his pistol and pointed it directly at Johannes. “You told me that you did not see any runaway slaves, and now they are on your boat” He snarled
Johannes stammered and said he never saw them before. He told him they must have been stowaways on his boat. The bounty hunter dismounted and walked towards Johannes and the black woman with his pistol raised. He barked at the woman and her children, “Get off the boat now and come with me!”
The slave woman turned towards Johannes with a pleading look but slowly grabbed her children’s hands and climbed out of the boat onto the riverbank. The bounty hunter quickly grabbed her and placed metal shackles on her wrists and bound the two children`s hands with a small piece of rope. He pointed them towards his horse with his pistol and ordered them to march.
Johannes`s mind began to whirl. He started to have flashbacks of the villagers in Baden being evicted out of their homes, of Stanislaus, Karolina, and their two children marching in the cold and snow with Prussian soldier’s rifles and bayonets pointed at their backs. He also remembered the death of the young mother at the hands of the Prussian officer and the subsequent killing of her two children as he ran away in the woods.
His eyes flashed with anger and the veins of his neck began to throb, so he climbed down from his boat and tightened his hand around his knife while he ran directly towards the bounty hunter. With the butt of his knife, he hit him on the back of his head before he could turn and fire his pistol. The bounty hunter fell on the ground unconscious. Johannes grabbed his pistol and quickly rifled through the man’s clothing to find the slave woman’s bill of sale, arrest warrants and any other type of official papers he may be carrying. He told the black woman and her two children to hurry and follow him as he ran back to his boat.
The woman grabbed her two children and followed him. Johannes bounded up the side of the boat, grabbed her by the hand and pulled her and her two children aboard. He told them to go back to the bottom of the boat and he began pushing the boat away from the shore, as quickly as he could. He steered the boat upriver, looking back towards the banks of the river for the bounty hunter. He pulled as quickly as he could, pushing against the current as night fell.
After several hours he began to tire and dared pull the boat back to the shore of the river under the cover of darkness. He helped take the metal shackles off of the slave woman. He offered the slave family some food and drink from his provisions and then sat back exhausted from the day’s events. The two children ate the food quickly and fell fast asleep in the bottom of the boat tired after their miraculous escape. The black slave woman looked at him and thanked him in French. He nodded at her and she curled up next to her children to sleep. Johannes watched the river bank through the night in case the bounty hunter returned.
Johannes, with the shock and adrenaline slowly wearing off, realized he would be accused of having stolen these slaves. He pulled out the map his friends had given him of their new country and remembered they complained to him about how slaves crossing the Ohio River up north could obtain their freedom. Under the dim moonlight, he tried to determine the best route to take upriver to Ohio.
Chapter Twelve
Days passed and Johannes and the slave family slowly made their way up the Mississippi River, averaging about a mile a day. The young mother would help him push the boat against the current while the two children played in the bottom of the boat. He would dock on the bank of the river every evening and hunt for any type of small game he could find. With four mouths to feed, his stores were becoming rapidly depleted. The paddle wheel steamboats would go past them on the river loaded with cargo and passengers on their open decks destined for the cities up north. The passengers would wave and laugh at him while he was pushing the small boat and the steamboats would disturb the water forcing him to steer around their wakes. At the end of each day, Johannes and the young black woman would lay down exhausted from pushing and pulling the boat.
One evening, Johannes realized the current of the river would be too strong for them to continue to push and pull his boat to the Ohio River in order to secure freedom for the young black family. He unfolded his map and saw many small towns and cities that dotted the banks of the river. He resolved to sell his boat in the next small town and then travel with the black family by foot along the river until they reached Cairo, Illinois. At Cairo, he hoped to secure passage down the Ohio River to Cincinnati with the money he received from the sale of his boat in order to meet up with Karolina and Stanislaus. He hoped the papers he had stolen from the bounty hunter would be enough to convince curious fellow tra
velers that he captured the slaves and was returning them to their rightful owners. He fell fast asleep secure in the knowledge his plan was sound but not before ensuring the slave woman’s bounty papers and the letter for Karolina from the Dowager Duchess were in his vest pocket.
Chapter Thirteen
December 1853
German and Irish immigrants continued to flood into the city of Cincinnati during the fall and early winter of 1853 to the consternation of the original Ohio settlers. Tensions between the Ohio “Nativists” as they were called and the immigrants were becoming more and more hostile and the breaking point would come when Archbishop Bedini, an emissary of Pope Pius IX, visited Cincinnati, Ohio, during his travels to the United States.
The German Protestant immigrants who came to Cincinnati after the Revolution of 1849, identified the Archbishop with the cruelty of their royal rulers in the old country. Their unlikely allies, the anti-Catholic Nativist or “Know-Nothing” political party members in Cincinnati also singled the Archbishop out as a target for attack. Meanwhile, the German and Irish Catholic immigrants like Stanislaus, Karolina, and other families welcomed him.
On Christmas Day, the Archbishop preached at the Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral while his opponents were meeting to prepare a demonstration later that evening. Five hundred ”Nativist” men and German Protestant immigrants marched through the city streets at 10:00 pm towards the cathedral holding clubs and a wooden scaffold hanging an effigy of the Archbishop. They were followed by over 100 women carrying banners and placards reading "No Priests, No Kings." "Down with the Butchers of Rome!" "Down with the Papacy!"
