STEP BY STEP OR TIDY’S WAY TO FREEDOM.(循序渐进)

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STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

STEP BY STEP OR

TIDY'S WAY TO

FREEDOM.

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,--All of you who read this little book have

doubtless heard more or less of slavery. You know it is the system by

which a portion of our people hold their fellow-creatures as property, and

doom them to perpetual servitude. It is a hateful and accursed institution,

which God can not look upon but with abhorrence, and which no one of

his children should for a moment tolerate. It is opposed to every thing

Christian and humane, and full of all meanness and cruelty. It treats a

fellow-being, only because his skin is not so fair as our own, as though he

were a dumb animal or a piece of furniture. It allows him no expression of

choice about any thing, and no liberty of action. It recognizes and employs

all the instincts of the lower, but ignores and tramples down all the

faculties of his higher, nature. Can there be a greater wrong?

It is said by some, in extenuation of this wrong, that the slaves are well

fed and clothed, and are kindly, even affectionately, looked after. This is

true, in some cases,--with the house-servants, particularly,--but, as a

general thing, their food and clothing are coarse and insufficient. But

supposing it was otherwise; supposing they were provided for with as

much liberality as are the working classes at the North, what is that when

put into the balance with all the ills they suffer? What comfort is it, when a

wife is torn from her husband, or a mother from her children, to know that

each is to have enough to eat? None at all. The most generous provision

for the body can not satisfy the longings of the heart, or compensate for its

bereavements.

They suffer, also, a constant dread and fear of change, which is not the

least of their torturing troubles. A kind owner may be taken away by death,

and the new one be harsh and cruel; or necessity may compel him to sell

his slaves, and thus they may be thrown into most unhappy situations. So

they live with a heavy cloud of sorrow always before them, which their

eyes can not look through or beyond. There is no hope-- no EARTHLY

hope--for this poor, oppressed race.

Their minds, too, are starved. No education, not even the least, is

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

allowed. It is a criminal offense in some of the States to teach a slave to

read. Now, if they could be made to exist without any consciousness of

intellectual capacity, it would not be so bad. But this is impossible. They

think and reason and wonder about things which they see and hear; and, in

many cases, feel an eager desire to be instructed. This desire can not be

gratified, because it would unfit them for their servile condition; therefore

all teaching is rigidly denied them. The treasures of knowledge are bolted

and barred to their approach, and they are kept in the utmost darkness and

ignorance. Oh, to starve the mind!-- Is it not far worse than to starve the

body?

There is yet another process of famishing to which the slaves are

subjected. They are not, as a general thing, taught by their masters about

God, the salvation of Jesus Christ or the way to heaven. The SOUL is

starved. To be sure, they pick up, here and there, a few crumbs of religious

truth, and make the most of their scanty supply. Many of them truly love

the Lord; and his unseen presence and joyful anticipations of heaven make

them submissive to their hardships, and cheerful and faithful in their duties.

But they can not thank their masters for what religious light and

knowledge they get.

And who are these that hold their fellow-creatures in such cruel

bondage, starving body, mind, and soul with such indifference and

inhumanity? We blush to tell you. Many of them are of the number of

those who profess to love the Lord their God with all the heart, and their

neighbor as themselves. Can it be possible that God's own children can

participate in such a wickedness; can buy and sell, beat and kill, their

fellow-creatures? Can those who have humbly repented of sin, and by

faith accepted of the salvation of Jesus Christ, turn from his holy cross to

abuse others who are redeemed by the same precious blood, and are heirs

to the same glorious immortality? CAN such be Christians?

And, children, you probably all understand that slavery is the sole

cause of the sad war which is now ravaging our beloved country; and

Christian people are praying, not only that the war may cease, but that the

sin which has caused it may cease also. We believe that God is overruling

all things to bring about this happy result, and before this little story shall

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

meet your eyes, there may be no more slaves within our borders. Still we

shall not have written it in vain, if it help you to realize, more clearly than

you have done, the sufferings and degradation to which this unfortunate

class have been subjected, and to labor with zeal in the work which will

then devolve upon us of educating and elevating them.

My story is not one of UNUSUAL interest. Thousands and ten of

thousands equally affecting might be told, and many far more romantic

and thrilling. What a day will that be, when the recorded history of every

slave-life shall be read before an assembled universe! What a long

catalogue of martyrs and heroes will then be revealed! What complicated

tales of wrongs and woes! What crowns and palms of victory will then be

awarded! What treasures of wrath heaped up against the day of wrath will

then be poured in fiery indignation upon deserving heads! Truly, then, will

come to pass the saying of the Lord Jesus, "The first shall be last and the

last first."

Then, too, will appear most gloriously the loving kindness and tender

mercy of God, who loves to stoop to the poor and humble, and to care for

those who are friendless and alone. It seems as if our Heavenly Father

took special delight in revealing the truths of salvation to this untutored

people, in a mysterious way leading them into gospel light and liberty; so

that though men take pains to keep them in ignorance, multitudes of them

give evidence of piety, and find consolation for their miseries in the sweet

love of God.

It is the dealings of God in guiding one of these to a knowledge of

himself, that I wish to relate to you in the following chapters.

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

CHAPTER II.

THE BABY.

IN a snug corner of a meager slave-cabin, on a low cot, lies a little

babe asleep. A scarlet honeysuckle of wild and luxuriant growth shades the

uncurtained and unsashed window; and the humming-birds, flitting among

its brilliant blossoms, murmur a constant, gentle lullaby for the infant

sleeper. See, its skin is not so dark but that we may clearly trace the blue

veins underlying it; the lips, half parted, are lovely as a rosebud; and the

soft, silky curls are dewy as the flowers on this June morning. A dimpled

arm and one naked foot have escaped from the gay patch-work quilt,

which some fond hand has closely tucked about the little form; and the

breath comes and goes quickly, as if the folded eyes were feasting on

visions of beauty and delight. Dear little one!

"We should see the spirits ringing Round thee, were the clouds away;

'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing In the silent-seeming clay."

Though that child-heart beats beneath a despised skin, though it has its

resting-place in a hovel, the angels may be there. Their loving, pitying

natures shrink not from poverty, but stoop with heavenly sympathy to the

mean abodes of suffering and misery.

A soft step steals in through the half-opened door, across the room, and

a fervent kiss is laid on the little velvet cheek.

Who is the intruder? Ah, who cares to watch and smile over a sleeping

infant, save its mother? Here, in this rude cabin, is a mother's heart,--

tender with its holy affections, and all aglow with delight, as she gazes on

the beautiful vision before her.

We must call the mother Annie. She had but one name, for she was a

slave. Like the horse or the dog, she must have some appellation by which,

as an individual, she might be designated; a sort of appendage on which to

hang, as it were, the commands, threats, and severities that from time to

time might be administered; but farther than that, for her own personal

uses, why did she need a name? She was not a person, only a thing,--a

piece of property belonging to the Carroll estate.

But for all that, she was a woman and a mother. God had sealed her

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

such, and who could obliterate his impress, or rob her of the crown he had

placed about her head,--a crown of thorns though it were? Her heart was

as full of all sweet motherly instincts as if she had been born in a more

favored condition; and the swarthy complexion of her child made it no less

dear or lovely in her sight; while a consciousness of its degradation and

sad future served only to deepen and intensify her love. She knew what

her child was born to suffer; but affection thrust far away the evil day, that

she might not lose the happiness of the present. The babe was hers,-- her

own,--and for long years yet would be her joy and comfort.

Annie had other children, but they were wild, romping boys, grown

out of their babyhood, and so very naturally left to run and take care of

themselves. She had not ceased to love them, however, and would have

manifested it more, but for the idol, the little girl baby, which had now for

nearly a year nestled in her arms, and completely possessed her heart.

When they were hungry, they came like chickens about her cabin-door,

and being mistress of the kitchen, she always had plenty of good,

substantial crumbs for them; and when they were sick, she nursed them

with pitying care; but this was about all the attention they received.

The baby engrossed every leisure moment she could command. Many

times a day she would pause in her work to caress it. She would seat it

upon the floor, amid a perfect bed of honeysuckle blossoms, and bring the

bright orange gourds that grew around the door for its amusement.

Sometimes a broken toy or a shining trinket, which she had picked up in

the house, or a smooth pebble from the yard, would be added to the

treasures of the little one. Then she would come with food, the soft-boiled

rice, or the sweet corn gruel, she knew so well how to prepare; and often,

often she would steal in, as now, out of pure fondness, to watch its

peaceful slumbers.

"Named the pickaninny yet?" asked the master one day, as he passed

the cabin, and carelessly looked in upon the mother and child amusing

themselves within. "'Tis time you did; 'most time to turn her off now, you

see."

"Oh, Massa, don't say dat word," answered the woman, imploringly.

"'Pears I couldn't b'ar to turn her off yet,--couldn't live without her, no

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

ways. Reckon I'll call her Tidy; dat ar's my sister's name, and she's got dat

same sweet look 'bout de eyes,-- don't you think so, Massa? Poor Tidy!

she's"--and Annie stopped, and a deep sigh, instead of words, filled up the

sentence, and tears dropped down upon the baby's forehead. Memory

traveled back to that dreadful night when this only sister had been dragged

from her bed, chained with a slave-gang, and driven off to the dreaded

South, never more to be heard from.

WE talk of the "sunny South;"--to the slave, the South is cold, dark,

and cheerless; the land of untold horrors, the grave of hope and joy.

"'Pears as if my poor old mudder," said Annie, brushing away the tears,

"never got up right smart after Tidy went away. She'd had six children sold

from her afore, and she set stores by her and me, 'cause we was girls, and

we was all she had left, too. Tidy was pooty as a flower; and dat's just

what your fadder, Massa Carroll, sold her for. My poor mudder-- how she

cried and took on! but then she grew more settled like. She said she'd gi'n

her up for de good Lord to take care on. She said, if he could take care of

de posies in de woods, he certain sure would look after her, and so she left

off groaning like; but she's never got over that sad look in her face. 'Oh,'

says she to me, says she, 'Annie, do call dat leetle cretur's name Tidy,--

mebbe 'twill make my poor, sore heart heal up;' and so I will."

"So I would, Annie; yes, so I would," said the Master soothingly. "So I

would, if 'twill be any comfort to poor old Marcia,--clever old soul she is.

She was my mammy, and I was always fond of her. She has trotted me on

her knee, and toted me about on her back, many an hour. I must go down

to the quarters this very day, and see if she has things comfortable. She's

getting old, and we must do well by her in her old age. And you, Annie,

you mustn't mind those other things. We mustn't borrow trouble. And we

can't help it, you know; and we mustn't cry and fret for what we can't help.

What's the use? It don't do any good, you see, and only makes a bad matter

worse. Must take things as they come, in this world of ours, Annie;" and

the Master thought thus to assuage the tide of bitter recollection in the

breast of his down-trodden bond-woman, and divert her mind from the

painful future before her and her darling child. In vain. The tears still fell

over the brow of the baby, flowing from the deep fountain of sorrow and

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

tenderness that springs forth only from a mother's heart.

"Oh, Massa," she ventured timidly to say amid her sobs, "please don't

never part baby and me."

"Be a good girl, Annie," said he, "and mind your work, and don't be

borrowing trouble. We'll take good care of you. You've got a nice baby,

that's a fact,--the smartest little thing on the whole plantation; see how

well you can raise her now."

The fond heart of the trembling mother leaped back again to its

happiness at the praise bestowed upon her baby; and taking up the little

blossom, she laid it with pride upon her bosom, murmuring, "Years of

good times we'll have, sweety, afore sich dark days come,-- mebbe they'll

never come to you and me."

Alas, vain hope! Scarcely a single year had passed, when one day she

came to the cot to look at the little sleeper, and lo, her treasure was gone!

The master had found it convenient, in making a sale of some field hands,

to THROW IN this infant, by way of closing a satisfactory bargain.

None can tell, but those who have gone through the trying experience,

how hard it is for a mother to part with her child when God calls it away

by death. But oh, how much harder it must be to have a babe torn away

from the maternal arms by the stern hand of oppression, and flung out on

the cruel tide of selfishness and passion! Let us weep, dear children, for

the poor slave mothers who have to endure such wrongs.

I will not undertake to describe the distress of this poor woman when

the knowledge of her loss burst upon her. It was as when the tall tree is

shivered by the lightning's blast. Her strong frame shook and trembled

beneath the shock; her eye rolled and burned in tearless anguish, and her

voice failed her in the intensity of her grief. For hours she was unable to

move. Alone, uncomforted, she lay upon the earth, crushed beneath the

weight of this unexpected calamity.

"Leave her alone," said the master, "and let her grieve it out. The cat

will mew when her kittens are taken away. She'll get over it before long,

and come up again all right."

"Ye mus' b'ar it, chile," said Annie's poor, old mother, drawing from

her own experience the only comfort which could be of any avail. "De

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

bressed Lord will help ye; nobody else can. I's so sorry for ye, honey; but

yer poor, old mudder can't do noffin. 'Tis de yoke de Heavenly Massa puts

on yer neck, and ye can't take it off nohow till he ondoes it hissef wid his

own hand. Ye mus' b'ar it, and say, De will ob de bressed Lord be done."

But, trying as this separation was, it proved to be the first link in that

chain of loving-kindnesses by which this little slave-child was to be drawn

towards God. Do you remember this verse in the Bible: "I have loved thee

with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn

thee"?

STEP BY STEP OR TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.

CHAPTER III.

SUNSHINE.

IF ever there was a sunshiny corner of slavery, it was that into which a

kind Providence dropped this little, helpless babe, now but a little more

than two years old.

It was a pleasant day in early spring when Colonel Lee alighted from

his gig before the family mansion at Rosevale, and laid the child, as a

present, at the feet of his daughter Matilda.

Miss Matilda Lee was about thirty years of age,-- as active and thrifty

a little woman as could be found any where within the domains of this

cruel system of oppression. Slavery is like a two-edged knife, cutting both

ways. It not only destroys the black, but demoralizes and ruins the white

race. Those who hold slaves are usually indolent, proud, and inefficient.

They think it a disgrace to work by the side of the negro, and therefore

will allow things to be left in a very careless, untidy way, rather than put

forth their energy to alter or improve them. And as it is impossible for

slaves, untaught and degraded as they are, to give a neat and thrifty

appearance to their homes, we, who have been brought up at the North,

accustomed to work ourselves, assisted by well-trained domestics, can

scarcely realize the many discomforts often to be experienced in Southern

houses. But Miss Lee was unusually energetic and helpful, desirous of

having every thing about her neat and tasteful, and not afraid to do

something towards it with her own hands.

Being the eldest daughter, the entire charge of the family had devolved

upon her since the death of her mother, which had occurred about ten

years before. Within this time, her brothers and sisters had been married,

and now she and her father were all that were left at the old homestead.

Their servants, too, had dwindled away. Some had been given to the

sons and daughters when they left the parental roof; some had died, and

others had been sold to pay debts and furnish the means of living. Old

Rosa, the cook, Nancy, the waiting-maid, and Methuselah, the ancient

gardener, were all the house-servants that remained. So they lived in a

very quiet and frugal way; and Miss Matilda's activities, not being entirely

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STEPBYSTEPORTIDY'SWAYTOFREEDOM.1STEPBYSTEPORTIDY'SWAYTOFREEDOM.STEPBYSTEPORTIDY'SWAYTOFREEDOM.2CHAPTERI.INTRODUCTION.MYDEARCHILDREN,--Allofyouwhoreadthislittlebookhavedoubtlessheardmoreorlessofslavery.Youknowitisthesystembywhichaportionofourpeopleholdtheirfellow-creaturesasproperty,anddoomthemtoperp...

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