Chapter: THE MISTRESS' GARDEN--THE CRIMSON AND GOLDEN FRUIT--ORANGE AND
  POMEGRANATE TREES--RETURN TO BAYOU BOEUF--MASTER FORD'S REMARKS ON
  THE WAY--THE MEETING WITH TIBEATS--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE CHASE--FORD
  CENSURES HIS BRUTALITY--ARRIVAL AT THE PLANTATION--ASTONISHMENT OF
  THE SLAVES ON SEEING ME--THE ANTICIPATED FLOGGING--KENTUCKY JOHN--MR.
  ELDRET, THE PLANTER--ELDRET'S SAM--TRIP TO THE "BIG CANE BRAKE"--THE
  TRADITION OF "SUTTON'S FIELD"--FOREST TREES--GNATS AND MOSQUITOS--THE
  ARRIVAL OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE BIG CANE--LUMBER WOMEN--SUDDEN
  APPEARANCE OF TIBEATS--HIS PROVOKING TREATMENT--VISIT TO BAYOU
  BOEUF--THE SLAVE PASS--SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY--THE LAST OF ELIZA--SALE
  TO EDWIN EPPS.


After a long sleep, sometime in the afternoon I awoke, refreshed, but
very sore and stiff. Sally came in and talked with me, while John
cooked me some dinner. Sally was in great trouble, as well as myself,
one of her children being ill, and she feared it could not survive.
Dinner over, after walking about the quarters for a while, visiting
Sally's cabin and looking at the sick child, I strolled into the
madam's garden. Though it was a season of the year when the voices
of the birds are silent, and the trees are stripped of their summer
glories in more frigid climes, yet the whole variety of roses were
then blooming there, and the long, luxuriant vines creeping over
the frames. The crimson and golden fruit hung half hidden amidst the
younger and older blossoms of the peach, the orange, the plum, and
the pomegranate; for, in that region of almost perpetual warmth, the
leaves are falling and the buds bursting into bloom the whole year
long.

I indulged the most grateful feelings towards Master and Mistress
Ford, and wishing in some manner to repay their kindness, commenced
trimming the vines, and afterwards weeding out the grass from among
the orange and pomegranate trees. The latter grows eight or ten feet
high, and its fruit, though larger, is similar in appearance to the
jelly-flower. It has the luscious flavor of the strawberry. Oranges,
peaches, plums, and most other fruits are indigenous to the rich,
warm soil of Avoyelles; but the apple, the most common of them all in
colder latitudes, is rarely to be seen.

Mistress Ford came out presently, saying it was praise-worthy in me,
but I was not in a condition to labor, and might rest myself at the
quarters until master should go down to Bayou Boeuf, which would not
be that day, and it might not be the next. I said to her--to be sure,
I felt bad, and was stiff, and that my foot pained me, the stubs and
thorns having so torn it, but thought such exercise would not hurt
me, and that it was a great pleasure to work for so good a mistress.
Thereupon she returned to the great house, and for three days I was
diligent in the garden, cleaning the walks, weeding the flower beds,
and pulling up the rank grass beneath the jessamine vines, which the
gentle and generous hand of my protectress had taught to clamber along
the walls.

The fourth morning, having become recruited and refreshed, Master Ford
ordered me to make ready to accompany him to the bayou. There was but
one saddle horse at the opening, all the others with the mules having
been sent down to the plantation. I said I could walk, and bidding
Sally and John goodbye, left the opening, trotting along by the
horse's side.

That little paradise in the Great Pine Woods was the oasis in the
desert, towards which my heart turned lovingly, during many years
of bondage. I went forth from it now with regret and sorrow, not so
overwhelming, however, as if it had then been given me to know that I
should never return to it again.

Master Ford urged me to take his place occasionally on the horse, to
rest me; but I said no, I was not tired, and it was better for me to
walk than him. He said many kind and cheering things to me on the
way, riding slowly, in order that I might keep pace with him. The
goodness of God was manifest, he declared, in my miraculous escape
from the swamp. As Daniel came forth unharmed from the den of lions,
and as Jonah had been preserved in the whale's belly, even so had
I been delivered from evil by the Almighty. He interrogated me in
regard to the various fears and emotions I had experienced during the
day and night, and if I had felt, at any time, a desire to pray. I
felt forsaken of the whole world, I answered him, and was praying
mentally all the while. At such times, said he, the heart of man turns
instinctively towards his Maker. In prosperity, and when there is
nothing to injure or make him afraid, he remembers Him not, and is
ready to defy Him; but place him in the midst of dangers, cut him off
from human aid, let the grave open before him--then it is, in the time
of his tribulation, that the scoffer and unbelieving man turns to God
for help, feeling there is no other hope, or refuge, or safety, save
in his protecting arm.

So did that benignant man speak to me of this life and of the life
hereafter; of the goodness and power of God, and of the vanity of
earthly things, as we journeyed along the solitary road towards Bayou
Boeuf.

When within some five miles of the plantation, we discovered a
horseman at a distance, galloping towards us. As he came near I saw
that it was Tibeats! He looked at me a moment, but did not address
me, and turning about, rode along side by side with Ford. I trotted
silently at their horses' heels, listening to their conversation.
Ford informed him of my arrival in the Pine Woods three days before,
of the sad plight I was in, and of the difficulties and dangers I had
encountered.

"Well," exclaimed Tibeats, omitting his usual oaths in the presence
of Ford, "I never saw such running before. I'll bet him against a
hundred dollars, he'll beat any nigger in Louisiana. I offered John
David Cheney twenty-five dollars to catch him, dead or alive, but he
outran his dogs in a fair race. Them Cheney dogs ain't much, after
all. Dunwoodie's hounds would have had him down before he touched the
palmettoes. Somehow the dogs got off the track, and we had to give
up the hunt. We rode the horses as far as we could, and then kept on
foot till the water was three feet deep. The boys said he was drowned,
sure. I allow I wanted a shot at him mightily. Ever since, I have
been riding up and down the bayou, but had'nt much hope of catching
him--thought he was dead, _sartin_. Oh, he's a cuss to run--that
nigger is!"

In this way Tibeats ran on, describing his search in the swamp, the
wonderful speed with which I had fled before the hounds, and when
he had finished, Master Ford responded by saying, I had always been
a willing and faithful boy with him; that he was sorry we had such
trouble; that, according to Platt's story, he had been inhumanly
treated, and that he, Tibeats, was himself in fault. Using hatchets
and broad-axes upon slaves was shameful, and should not be allowed,
he remarked. "This is no way of dealing with them, when first brought
into the country. It will have a pernicious influence, and set them
all running away. The swamps will be full of them. A little kindness
would be far more effectual in restraining them, and rendering them
obedient, than the use of such deadly weapons. Every planter on the
bayou should frown upon such inhumanity. It is for the interest of
all to do so. It is evident enough, Mr. Tibeats, that you and Platt
cannot live together. You dislike him, and would not hesitate to
kill him, and knowing it, he will run from you again through fear
of his life. Now, Tibeats, you must sell him, or hire him out, at
least. Unless you do so, I shall take measures to get him out of your
possession."

In this spirit Ford addressed him the remainder of the distance. I
opened not my mouth. On reaching the plantation they entered the
great house, while I repaired to Eliza's cabin. The slaves were
astonished to find me there, on returning from the field, supposing
I was drowned. That night, again, they gathered about the cabin to
listen to the story of my adventure. They took it for granted I would
be whipped, and that it would be severe, the well-known penalty of
running away being five hundred lashes.

"Poor fellow," said Eliza, taking me by the hand, "it would have been
better for you if you had drowned. You have a cruel master, and he
will kill you yet, I am afraid."

Lawson suggested that it might be, overseer Chapin would be appointed
to inflict the punishment, in which case it would not be severe,
whereupon Mary, Rachel, Bristol, and others hoped it would be Master
Ford, and then it would be no whipping at all. They all pitied me
and tried to console me, and were sad in view of the castigation
that awaited me, except Kentucky John. There were no bounds to his
laughter; he filled the cabin with cachinnations, holding his sides
to prevent an explosion, and the cause of his noisy mirth was the idea
of my outstripping the hounds. Somehow, he looked at the subject in a
comical light. "I _know'd_ dey would'nt cotch him, when he run cross
de plantation. O, de lor', did'nt Platt pick his feet right up, tho',
hey? When dem dogs got whar he was, he was'nt _dar_--haw, haw, haw! O,
de lor' a' mity!"--and then Kentucky John relapsed into another of his
boisterous fits.

Early the next morning, Tibeats left the plantation. In the course
of the forenoon, while sauntering about the gin-house, a tall,
good-looking man came to me, and inquired if I was Tibeats' boy, that
youthful appellation being applied indiscriminately to slaves even
though they may have passed the number of three score years and ten. I
took off my hat, and answered that I was.

"How would you like to work for me?" he inquired.

"Oh, I would like to, very much," said I, inspired with a sudden hope
of getting away from Tibeats.

"You worked under Myers at Peter Tanner's, didn't you?"

I replied I had, adding some complimentary remarks that Myers had made
concerning me.

"Well, boy," said he, "I have hired you of your master to work for me
in the "Big Cane Brake," thirty-eight miles from here, down on Red
River."

This man was Mr. Eldret, who lived below Ford's, on the same side of
the bayou. I accompanied him to his plantation, and in the morning
started with his slave Sam, and a wagon-load of provisions, drawn by
four mules, for the Big Cane, Eldret and Myers having preceded us on
horseback. This Sam was a native of Charleston, where he had a mother,
brother and sisters. He "allowed"--a common word among both black and
white--that Tibeats was a mean man, and hoped, as I most earnestly did
also, that his master would buy me.

We proceeded down the south shore of the bayou, crossing it at Carey's
plantation; from thence to Huff Power, passing which, we came upon the
Bayou Rouge road, which runs towards Red River. After passing through
Bayou Rouge Swamp, and just at sunset, turning from the highway, we
struck off into the "Big Cane Brake." We followed an unbeaten track,
scarcely wide enough to admit the wagon. The cane, such as are used
for fishing-rods, were as thick as they could stand. A person could
not be seen through them the distance of a rod. The paths of wild
beasts run through them in various directions--the bear and the
American tiger abounding in these brakes, and wherever there is a
basin of stagnant water, it is full of alligators.

We kept on our lonely course through the "Big Cane" several miles,
when we entered a clearing, known as "Sutton's Field." Many years
before, a man by the name of Sutton had penetrated the wilderness
of cane to this solitary place. Tradition has it, that he fled
thither, a fugitive, not from service, but from justice. Here he lived
alone--recluse and hermit of the swamp--with his own hands planting
the seed and gathering in the harvest. One day a band of Indians
stole upon his solitude, and after a bloody battle, overpowered and
massacred him. For miles the country round, in the slaves' quarters,
and on the piazzas of "great houses," where white children listen to
superstitious tales, the story goes, that that spot, in the heart
of the "Big Cane," is a haunted place. For more than a quarter of
a century, human voices had rarely, if ever, disturbed the silence
of the clearing. Rank and noxious weeds had overspread the once
cultivated field--serpents sunned themselves on the doorway of the
crumbling cabin. It was indeed a dreary picture of desolation.

Passing "Sutton's Field," we followed a new-cut road two miles
farther, which brought us to its termination. We had now reached
the wild lands of Mr. Eldret, where he contemplated clearing up
an extensive plantation. We went to work next morning with our
cane-knives, and cleared a sufficient space to allow the erection of
two cabins--one for Myers and Eldret, the other for Sam, myself, and
the slaves that were to join us. We were now in the midst of trees of
enormous growth, whose wide-spreading branches almost shut out the
light of the sun, while the space between the trunks was an impervious
mass of cane, with here and there an occasional palmetto.

The bay and the sycamore, the oak and the cypress, reach a growth
unparalleled, in those fertile lowlands bordering the Red River. From
every tree, moreover, hang long, large masses of moss, presenting to
the eye unaccustomed to them, a striking and singular appearance.
This moss, in large quantities, is sent north, and there used for
manufacturing purposes.

We cut down oaks, split them into rails, and with these erected
temporary cabins. We covered the roofs with the broad palmetto leaf,
an excellent substitute for shingles, as long as they last.

The greatest annoyance I met with here were small flies, gnats and
mosquitoes. They swarmed the air. They penetrated the porches of the
ear, the nose, the eyes, the mouth. They sucked themselves beneath the
skin. It was impossible to brush or beat them off. It seemed, indeed,
as if they would devour us--carry us away piecemeal, in their small
tormenting mouths.

A lonelier spot, or one more disagreeable, than the centre of the "Big
Cane Brake," it would be difficult to conceive; yet to me it was a
paradise, in comparison with any other place in the company of Master
Tibeats. I labored hard, and oft-times was weary and fatigued, yet I
could lie down at night in peace, and arise in the morning without
fear.

In the course of a fortnight, four black girls came down from Eldret's
plantation--Charlotte, Fanny, Cresia and Nelly. They were all large
and stout. Axes were put into their hands, and they were sent out
with Sam and myself to cut trees. They were excellent choppers, the
largest oak or sycamore standing but a brief season before their
heavy and well-directed blows. At piling logs, they were equal to any
man. There are lumberwomen as well as lumbermen in the forests of the
South. In fact, in the region of the Bayou Boeuf they perform their
share of all the labor required on the plantation. They plough, drag,
drive team, clear wild lands, work on the highway, and so forth. Some
planters, owning large cotton and sugar plantations, have none other
than the labor of slave women. Such a one is Jim Burns, who lives on
the north shore of the bayou, opposite the plantation of John Fogaman.

On our arrival in the brake, Eldret promised me, if I worked well, I
might go up to visit my friends at Ford's in four weeks. On Saturday
night of the fifth week, I reminded him of his promise, when he told
me I had done so well, that I might go. I had set my heart upon it,
and Eldret's announcement thrilled me with pleasure. I was to return
in time to commence the labors of the day on Tuesday morning.

While indulging the pleasant anticipation of so soon meeting my old
friends again, suddenly the hateful form of Tibeats appeared among us.
He inquired how Myers and Platt got along together, and was told, very
well, and that Platt was going up to Ford's plantation in the morning
on a visit.

"Poh, poh!" sneered Tibeats; "it isn't worth while--the nigger will
get unsteady. He can't go."

But Eldret insisted I had worked faithfully--that he had given me
his promise, and that, under the circumstances, I ought not to be
disappointed. They then, it being about dark, entered one cabin
and I the other. I could not give up the idea of going; it was a
sore disappointment. Before morning I resolved, if Eldret made no
objection, to leave at all hazards. At daylight I was at his door,
with my blanket rolled up into a bundle, and hanging on a stick over
my shoulder, waiting for a pass. Tibeats came out presently in one
of his disagreeable moods, washed his face, and going to a stump
near by, sat down upon it, apparently busily thinking with himself.
After standing there a long time, impelled by a sudden impulse of
impatience, I started off.

"Are you going without a pass?" he cried out to me.

"Yes, master, I thought I would," I answered.

"How do you think you'll get there?" demanded he.

"Don't know," was all the reply I made him.

"You'd be taken and sent to jail, where you ought to be, before you
got half-way there," he added, passing into the cabin as he said it.
He came out soon with the pass in his hand, and calling me a "d--d
nigger that deserved a hundred lashes," threw it on the ground. I
picked it up, and hurried away right speedily.

A slave caught off his master's plantation without a pass, may be
seized and whipped by any white man whom he meets. The one I now
received was dated, and read as follows:

"Platt has permission to go to Ford's plantation, on Bayou Boeuf, and
return by Tuesday morning.

                                             JOHN M. TIBEATS."

This is the usual form. On the way, a great many demanded it, read it,
and passed on. Those having the air and appearance of gentlemen, whose
dress indicated the possession of wealth, frequently took no notice of
me whatever; but a shabby fellow, an unmistakable loafer, never failed
to hail me, and to scrutinize and examine me in the most thorough
manner. Catching runaways is sometimes a money-making business. If,
after advertising, no owner appears, they may be sold to the highest
bidder; and certain fees are allowed the finder for his services, at
all events, even if reclaimed. "A mean white," therefore,--a name
applied to the species loafer--considers it a god-send to meet an
unknown negro without a pass.

There are no inns along the highways in that portion of the State
where I sojourned. I was wholly destitute of money, neither did I
carry any provisions, on my journey from the Big Cane to Bayou Boeuf;
nevertheless, with his pass in his hand, a slave need never suffer
from hunger or from thirst. It is only necessary to present it to the
master or overseer of a plantation, and state his wants, when he will
be sent round to the kitchen and provided with food or shelter, as
the case may require. The traveler stops at any house and calls for
a meal with as much freedom as if it was a public tavern. It is the
general custom of the country. Whatever their faults may be, it is
certain the inhabitants along Red River, and around the bayous in the
interior of Louisiana are not wanting in hospitality.

I arrived at Ford's plantation towards the close of the afternoon,
passing the evening in Eliza's cabin, with Lawson, Rachel, and others
of my acquaintance. When we left Washington Eliza's form was round
and plump. She stood erect, and in her silks and jewels, presented
a picture of graceful strength and elegance. Now she was but a thin
shadow of her former self. Her face had become ghastly haggard, and
the once straight and active form was bowed down, as if bearing the
weight of a hundred years. Crouching on her cabin floor, and clad
in the coarse garments of a slave, old Elisha Berry would not have
recognized the mother of his child. I never saw her afterwards. Having
become useless in the cotton-field, she was bartered for a trifle, to
some man residing in the vicinity of Peter Compton's. Grief had gnawed
remorselessly at her heart, until her strength was gone; and for that,
her last master, it is said, lashed and abused her most unmercifully.
But he could not whip back the departed vigor of her youth, nor
straighten up that bended body to its full height, such as it was when
her children were around her, and the light of freedom was shining on
her path.

I learned the particulars relative to her departure from this world,
from some of Compton's slaves, who had come over Red River to the
bayou, to assist young Madam Tanner during the "busy season." She
became at length, they said, utterly helpless, for several weeks lying
on the ground floor in a dilapidated cabin, dependent upon the mercy
of her fellow-thralls for an occasional drop of water, and a morsel of
food. Her master did not "knock her on the head," as is sometimes done
to put a suffering animal out of misery, but left her unprovided for,
and unprotected, to linger through a life of pain and wretchedness to
its natural close. When the hands returned from the field one night
they found her dead! During the day, the Angel of the Lord, who moveth
invisibly over all the earth, gathering in his harvest of departing
souls, had silently entered the cabin of the dying woman, and taken
her from thence. She was _free_ at last!

Next day, rolling up my blanket, I started on my return to the Big
Cane. After traveling five miles, at a place called Huff Power, the
ever-present Tibeats met me in the road. He inquired why I was going
back so soon, and when informed I was anxious to return by the time I
was directed, he said I need go no farther than the next plantation,
as he had that day sold me to Edwin Epps. We walked down into the
yard, where we met the latter gentleman, who examined me, and asked
me the usual questions propounded by purchasers. Having been duly
delivered over, I was ordered to the quarters, and at the same time
directed to make a hoe and axe handle for myself.

I was now no longer the property of Tibeats--his dog, his brute,
dreading his wrath and cruelty day and night; and whoever or whatever
my new master might prove to be, I could not, certainly, regret the
change. So it was good news when the sale was announced, and with a
sigh of relief I sat down for the first time in my new abode.

Tibeats soon after disappeared from that section of the country.
Once afterwards, and only once, I caught a glimpse of him. It was
many miles from Bayou Boeuf. He was seated in the doorway of a low
groggery. I was passing, in a drove of slaves, through St. Mary's
parish.

 The next day, Solomon works in Mistress Ford's garden to show his appreciation to her and Ford. Ford takes him to the bayou the next morning. Solomon's heart is heavy as he looks on the beauty of the Pine Woods, knowing he will probably be sold elsewhere. Ford speaks to him of God, His power, and His goodness. They encounter Tibeats along the way, who sneers at how fast a runner Solomon is. Ford tells him that it is shameful to attack a slave with a broad-axe and hatchet and that he must sell him because they can no longer work together. A white man named Mr. Eldret, who lives below Ford, hires Solomon to work in the Big Cane Brake for a time. They travel down to Sutton's Field, a place once lived in by a solitary white man who was killed by Native Americans; the place is now said to be haunted. They reach Eldret's wild lands; the very next morning, Solomon starts cutting cane away to build two cabins: one for the slaves, and one for Myers and Eldret. The major annoyances are the insects, but Solomon is mightily relieved to be away from Tibeats. Eldret promises he can visit his friends at Ford's in four weeks, which he looks forward to. Tibeats appears on the day when Solomon is supposed to go to Ford's; Eldret assures him that Solomon worked hard and he told him he could go. Tibeats writes him a pass reluctantly. Solomon explains to the reader that a pass allows a slave to travel unmolested. Most of the time, rich men leave the slaves alone, but unscrupulous men ask to see the pass, perhaps hoping to luck into capturing a slave and making money. With a pass, a slave can seek victuals at any plantation in Louisiana. Solomon arrives. He sees Eliza, who is a mere shell of her former self. He relates to the reader how he later learns about her death. She became helpless, would do nothing, and collapsed in her cabin. Her master at that time did nothing to help her or eliminate her, and she died. After his visit, Solomon makes his way back to Eldret's, but Tibeats meets him and tells him he has been sold to Edwin Epps. Solomon is pleased to be away from Tibeats. He tells the reader that he only would only see Tibeats one more time: when he passed with other slaves through Bayou Boeuf and caught sight of Tibeats in a slovenly groggery

