The Castleworth Tragedy
IN a small town in the State of Virginia, on the night of the 8th of August, 18—, a terrible tragedy was enacted. A slave named Reuben was tied up by a rope to a beam in a barn, and whipped until he died, by his master and his master’s son. If this statement requires confirmation it can be found in an extract from a Southern paper, published in the Appendix to Mrs. Stowe’s “ Dred.” The reason there assigned for this act is that the man had stolen money from the cashdrawer of the tavern kept by the younger of his murderers.
io prove the falsity of this charge, for the sake of one to whom that dead man s honor and memory are dear, to say nothing of the demands of justice and truth, this narrative is written.
few who recall the terrible story will have forgotten the cry of indignant denunciation against the crime which rose throughout the whole South, nor the sickening way in which, in spite of evidence at the trial of the murderers, honor and truth were bought and sold, and the jury rendered a verdict of “Not guilty.” To the credit of Virginia, let it be said that this act of the above-named official body is still held in unutterable scorn. So much as introduction to my story.
Some years ago I was spending a few of the autumn weeks in a small town in the interior of Virginia, with the widow of an old friend of my father’s. Her husband, Dr. Gray, a former physician of the village, had been throughout his life that rarest of anomalies, a Southern Abolitionist ; and as his wife had adoringly and believingly listened to and echoed all his opinions from the day of their marriage, it is scarcely necessary to add that her views upon the question of slavery did not differ materially from her husband’s.
She was a kind-hearted, hospitable, not very clever woman, fond of her friends, free with her money, and the greatest talker I ever knew. To this last quality am I indebted for the story which I am going to tell you, and which I hope may interest you no less than it did me.
I had been there about a week, when one morning, as we sat on the veranda with our knitting, I was startled by hearing, instead of the familiar voice of Fannie, — the little maid who had been in the habit of waiting upon us, — an entirely strange one, which informed Mrs. Gray that lunch was ready. The announcement was simple enough in itself, but the voice was so rare, so unusually clear and liquid and musical, that I turned to see what its owner was like. Standing in the doorway just behind me was the most remarkable-looking woman I had ever seen ; and as she is to be the principal character in this story, I claim the privilege of describing her.
It is so easy to draw a charming fancy sketch, and so hard to present a correct pen-and-ink portrait, that, were the subject any less wonderful than she really was, I should find it difficult to refrain from exaggeration. But, indeed, words are much more likely to fall short of the truth than to overrate her. Her form was perfectly regal in its magnificent outline and development. Upon a neck that rose like a grand column from her bust and shoulders sat her exquisitely shaped head with a grace I have never seen equalled. In her features there was not the faintest characteristic of her race. Her face was as faultlessly classic as her head ; and when I looked at her, and saw a complexion scarcely a shade darker than my own, I found it almost impossible to believe that the few words I had heard — words proving unmistakably her servitude — could have been uttered by her lips.
Mrs. Gray’s voice dispelled the feeling of wonder that had crept over me, by saying in a loud, jolly tone, “ Why, is that you, Harriet ? How d’y ? I thought you were in bed. Miss Mary, this is my Harriet.”
I rose to my feet at the introduction ; I think I should as soon have thought of sitting on being presented to an empress. With a stately courtesy she acknowledged my greeting, raising her great dark velvety eyes for a moment to my face. Then, with a slight bend of the head, which astonished me equally by its grace and the utter indifference which it expressed, she swept through the doorway out of sight.
“ In the name of all that is wonderful, Mrs. Gray, who is that awfully tragic beauty ? ” I exclaimed, when I had recovered from my amazement sufficiently to say anything.
“ Why, I just told you,” she said, laughing; “that’s my Harriet.”
“ But you don’t mean to say that she’s — that she ’s not white,” I gasped.
“ Yes, my dear, I mean just that,” was the quiet answer; “and more than that, for years she was a slave. She has been free for a long time, but she was a slave for years.”
“ Do tell me something about her, won’t you ? ” I urged. “ I feel sure that woman has a story ; has n’t she ?”
“ A story ! I should think she had ! My dear, if you were to put in a book that woman’s life,” said my hostess, “there isn’t a publisher in the land would buy it. He would simply say that your imagination had run away with your common sense, and that such exaggeration was ridiculous.”
I knew I should hear the whole story now, so when she stopped talking for a moment I remained silent. In a few moments she broke out with this : “ Mary, do you remember the Castleworth tragedy ? ”
“ Remember it! O Mrs. Gray, how could any one ever forget it?” was my earnest, if very youthful, rejoinder.
“ Well, my dear,” she went on, “ the man who was murdered was that woman’s son. Now don’t get excited, but come in and have your lunch, and then, if you like, I shall be glad to tell you all about her.”
We were soon back in our places on the piazza, and what follows is the story she told me, which I shall give in her own words, without interruption.
“You see, honey,” Mrs. Gray began, “ you’ve got to bear in mind that Harriet ’s queer, that is, she ’s different from other people; anybody can see that at a glance, and she’s always been so. As far as being a first-rate, likely servant goes, there is n’t her equal in the State. She’s too proud to be anything else ; but she’s been queer all her days, and she ’ll die as queer as she ’s lived.
“ She and I were children together, and she was brought up more like my sister than my servant. Her mother died when she was born ; and my father, who was all beat out by her death, said the baby should be brought into the house and treated different from the rest of the servants. My mother did n’t like it much at first, but my father had his way; so Harriet and I, being near of an age, were brought up almost alike until we were about twelve years old; then, somehow, she got to be looked upon as my maid. As far as being my maid went, I was hers just about as much as she was mine. We were mighty fond of each other,” she went on in her eminently SouthernEnglish, “always playing together, taking each other’s part if either got into a scrape, learning the same lessons, — only she was about twice as smart as I was, and that’s a fact,—and being, as I said, more like sisters than anything else. It seems funny, too, for we w’ere n’t a bit alike in disposition. I was pretty even-tempered always, and she was just as spicy as pepper until the first trouble came upon her. That I am going to tell you about. Indeed, it was only by the hardest that I was able many a time to keep her from being punished, she was so obstreperous. I was an only child, however, and my father was a good, easy-natured man, and when I said she should n’t be whipped, he never let her, you may be sure. People did say that she looked something like me, though you would n’t believe it now, and that that was the reason he was always so good to her. At any rate she never came under the lash but once, and that pretty nearly killed her, and me too for the matter of that.
“ I was eighteen that summer, and had just come home from Charlottesville Academy, where I’d been finishing for a year ; and my father being considered a rich man, and I being young and pretty blooming, why, I had plenty of beaux, as you may imagine. Almost the first person I saw when I got back was Harriet, and I declare to you, she had altered so in one year that I did n't know her. She knew that I was coming, and had gone down to the great gate about half a mile from the house to meet the carriage ; and as she stood on one side to let us pass, I do think she was the prettiest thing I ever saw in my life. She was so handsome as she stood there in her pink muslin dress, with her straw hat in her hand, and her splendid hair blowing in short loose curls about her face and neck, that I felt real jealous for a minute, thinking that I was n’t going to be the belle of the neighborhood, after all, if this great beauty was about. Just then she swept me one of her grand courtesies, exactly as she did to you a little while ago, and by that I knew her. I called to Ben, the driver, to stop, and in a minute more I Was beside her under the trees, with my hand stretched out to say ‘ How d’y,’ when what does she do but fling herself down on the grass beside me, and take to sobbing and crying as though she was crazy with grief.
“ I tried to comfort her the best way I could ; but she was in such a storm of excitement, that I saw the only thing for me to do was to let her have her cry out, and after that find out, if I could, what troubled her, for I knew something very unusual had happened. I ordered Ben to drive on and say that I would walk with Hattie from the gate. After a little she seemed to feel better, so I knelt down beside her and begged her to tell me what ailed her, and what I could do for her ; but it was n’t of the least use, — she wouldn’t tell me a thing. She just put her two arms right round me and held me close, saying she only cried because she was so glad to see me, — but I knew better than that, and I told her so,— and that she loved me and begged me to love her always ; and that was all I could get out of her. At last, when she felt better, we walked on towards the house.
“ My father had gone to the country-seat that day, and had n’t got home yet; and, not finding my mother in the parlor, I flew up to her room, while Hattie followed me almost as fast to the head of the stairs. There she left me with a frightened look on her face that I barely noticed then, but remembered well afterwards. I had just got through hugging and kissing my mother, who hadn’t expected me so soon, and who was dressing herself, when there was a great racket in the hall below ; running down stairs I found my father with six or eight ladies and gentlemen that he had brought home to give me a welcome, he said. When I had been petted and made much of to my heart’s content by the whole of them, we all went to tea. When it was over and we were going away from the table, my father called out for Hattie. He was never so well satisfied as when we were together. ‘ Where’s Hattie, Puss ? ’ he said. ' Have n’t you seen her yet ? She ought to be here.’ And then he called her two or three times, but no Hattie came. I told him that I had seen her, and that she was waiting up stairs to help dress me ; for I would n't tell them that she did n’t want them to see her red eyes, which I thought was the truth.
“ ‘ Waiting to dress you, is she?’ my father said. ‘Well, then, be off and do it; and look your prettiest, and see which of these chaps’ hearts you can catch. And mind, when you come back, you ’re to give us some tunes, for I have n’t heard that old piano rattle since you went away.’ My father was real old-fashioned and queer, and did n't care a bit how he talked.
“ Well, after telling the servants where to put the company, I ran up to my room, and there, sure enough, I found Hattie waiting for me, with the same queer look on her face that I noticed at the head of the stairs, only her eyes were bigger and brighter than they were then. But I was so glad to be at home again, and so excited by the praises I ’d received, that I did n’t pay much attention to anything but the new blue silk dress and sash that Hattie had laid on the bed for me. I felt sorry, too, to see her so worried; but I thought that the best way to make her forget her trouble, whatever it might be, was to take no further notice of it. So I rattled away, all the time I was getting dressed, about school and the neighbors and the servants at home, and about how pretty she had grown,’ and how jealous I was of her, and I don’t know how much more nonsense ; but I could n’t get a smile or a word out of her scarcely. After a while I happened to tell her that there were some of the country beaux down stairs, and that when I went down I was going to play for them, and that I meant to have some dancing.
“‘Who are the gentlemen, Miss Pussie?’— that was my nickname,— she asked quietly.
“ ‘ O, Mr. Jack Maguire, Charlie Isler, Major Snow, and Colonel Fred Castleworth,’ I said.
“ She was fastening some lilies in my hair, — I remember it as well as if it had happened yesterday, and it ’s more than twenty years ago now, — and while I was answering her, she went on pinning them in with the same don’t-carish way she had shown from the time I went up stairs to dress, till I mentioned Colonel Castleworth’s name ; then she gave a start, and dropped one of the lilies in my lap. This made me look up, and I declare I never believed before that any face could change so. From looking as pale as a ghost a minute before, her cheeks were as pink as a rose, and she looked as pretty and happy as anything you ever saw in less than two minutes.
“‘Why, Hattie,’ I said, ‘what’s happened? You were as blue as indigo a little while ago, and now you ’re as bright as a button. What are you laughing at ? ’
“ She did n’t want to tell me at first; but after I teased her awhile, she said she was thinking of something that had happened over at Colonel Castleworth’s about a month before, when she was there. You see, Miss Mary, he kept bachelor’s hall, a couple of miles from my father’s, and it seems that about two months before I came from school some cousins of his came up from the South to make him a visit, and, one of the young ladies wanting a maid, mother had let Hattie go over for a few weeks.
“ After a little coaxing, she told me that one night, awhile before the visitors left, there was a little party of young folks there, and they were all eager for a dance, but there was no one who could play dancing music. They were just about giving up the idea when she, Hattie, who was in the room behind her mistress’s chair, told Colonel Castleworth that there was one of the women on the place who could play if he would like her to come in. This started a great laugh, 'Because they thought I didn’t know that drumming and playing were two things,’ said Hattie ; 'but they thought it would make some fun ; so they told me to go and get her, and I did. In a few minutes she slipped in with a sun-bonnet drawn over her face and an old shawl wrapped around her, and, taking her seat at the piano, struck a chord, ran her hands like lightning down the key-board, and, without waiting an instant, gave the call for the Virginia reel. I wish you could have seen them, Miss Puss ; the way they danced and the way she played ; you’d have thought they were all gone crazy. For a half an hour they kept it up, each trying to see which could outdo the other. But the dancers had to give up first ; for while they were finding their way to the windows and seats panting for breath, she just went on playing as if she had only that minute begun. All this time she kept her head down, so no one could see her face ; but the Colonel was n’t going to have that, and when she had finished playing a pretty little piece that the hands on the place often sang, he walked up to the piano, and, pushing her bonnet back, said, “Who the dickens are you?” I just wish, Miss Pussie, you could have seen his face when he saw it was I.’
“ ' You, Hattie !' I screamed, jumping up from my chair. ‘Why, do you know how to play ? Where upon earth did you learn ? ’
“ ' Yes, indeed, Miss Puss, I do know very well, and nobody taught me,’ she said. ‘ It just comes as natural as talking. I never knew I could, till one day I was dusting the parlor when the folks were all away, and I thought I would try ; and when I found I could, I was almost as much stunned as they were at the Colonel’s that night.’
“ ‘ Stunned,’ I said, ‘ I never was so astonished in my life. Why, Hattie, you are a real genius, and I am delighted with you. Have you played for anybody since ? ’
“ She said, yes, that she had played for the Colonel and the rest of them every day while she stayed. The Colonel taught her everything he knew by just whistling the tunes to her, and she would follow him note by note on the piano until she knew them perfectly.
“ ‘ Have you ever played for my father ? ' I asked. ‘ No,’ she said she had n’t, because she thought he might n’t like her to open the piano that I had closed before I went away to school. ‘Nonsense,’ I said, ‘he would have been as delighted to have heard you as I shall be, and I mean to hear you this very night; so get yourself dressed as quick as you can, and come down with me into the parlor. Here, quick ! put on this white frock and sash ; I know that is your best one that you have on,’ I said, flinging her a white muslin one of my own ; ‘ and let me fasten it for you.’ After I had tied on her sash I turned her round to see that she was all right, and I declare to you, Miss Mary, she was just like a lovely picture. ‘Now come along,’ I said, ‘and let me have the pleasure of showing you off.’ And with that I gave her my shawl and fan to carry, and hurried her along toward the parlor. As we were going down the stairs she leaned over the banister and listened to hear what Snell, the overseer, was talking about at the end of the hall. She could n’t tell, I was sure, for he went out at the back door at that minute; but the scared look came into her face again, and she shuddered as if a chill were passing over her. I was a little cross with her for stopping, and called out to her pretty sharply to come on and not stand there looking as though somebody was going to kill her.
“ ‘ I wish somebody would, or that I had the courage to do it myself,’ she said ; and then she gave a queer little laugh not a bit like herself. I had found her so odd ever since I came home, that I did n’t mind this much, but just took her hand, and, giving her a little pull, brought her down the steps beside me. ‘ Now then,’ I said, giving her a little slap on the neck, ‘don’t be grumpy, but come into the parlor like a dear, and look as pretty as you can, and don’t bother.’ With that she brightened up, and said she would be very good, and so we went into the parlor together. I sha’ n’t tell you of all the attention I received that night, because you don’t know how I looked when I was young; but Harriet has kept her promise better than I have, and it seems easier to believe of her, so I will only tell of her conquests.
“ You know, Miss Mary, with us if one of our young girls is pretty and sprightly, and is a great favorite with the family, there is no end to the petting she ’ll get from everybody who comes to the house ; and, indeed, in most cases, it is n’t best; for it often makes them saucy and independent. But it was n’t so with Hattie ; it seemed to make her sweeter and more lovable than ever ; and that night, I assure you, she got her share of flattery and attention. The gentlemen were delighted with her; and when I got her to playing, which I did when most of them had their backs toward the piano, I thought they would go crazy over her ; all except young Castleworth, and he never said a word about it, except that he had heard her before. I rather wondered at that, for Hattie had spoken as though he had been very kind to her, and it did n’t seem so not to take any notice of her, when the rest were so pleased. Just then she struck up ‘ Money Musk,’ and the gentlemen choosing their partners, we all took our places, but Colonel Castleworth, who said he would look at a book of my drawings while the rest danced, as there were more gentlemen than ladies in the room.
“ I had just passed with my partner down the middle and stood waiting at the end for the others to right and left through, when my attention was fastened on Hattie and the Colonel by what I saw as I glanced towards him in the pause of the dance. He was sitting at a little distance from the piano, with the book of drawings open on his lap ; but his eyes were fixed on Hattie’s face with a look I had never seen in anybody’s in my life, while she kept hers turned steadily to the key-board. I was standing where I could see them both without turning my head; and, feeling sure that something was going on between them, I watched them, more to have something to tease her about than anything else. Well, he never moved his eyes from her face for a second, but I saw the hand that rested on the book clench tighter and tighter, and his look grew darker and darker; but Hattie never looked up once, but kept on playing in the most wonderful way. I knew that she felt that he was looking at her, for her color came and went with every breath, and her chest was rising and falling in a way that showed she was dreadfully excited about something. I did n't understand the look in his face at all, but I began to feel a little frightened, when just then he gave a start which forced her to look at him.
“If I did n’t understand the meaning in his face, there was no mistaking hers. Young as I was, I knew that she loved him, and that her look was telling him so as plain as words could have done. In an instant more he was beside her, and leaning down said in a fierce whisper that I believe no one heard but myself, for no one seemed to notice, ‘You love me! you know you do ! Answer me now, here, this very moment ! Say yes ! I will be answered ! Do you hear me ? I will be answered ! ’
“ ‘ Yes, yes, I will answer,’ she said, quickly ; ' I do love you, dearly, dearly ; but go away now and be quiet, or somebody will hear you, and I will talk to you again by and by.’
“ The dark look faded out of his face in a moment, and in its place came one so gentle and loving that I hardly knew him ; for he was n’t looked upon as a very amiable man in the neighborhood. But I thought then and I know now that love works wonders. I had had too little experience to think seriously on any subject; and I was so unused to thinking of Hattie as a slave or as anything but a friend, that it only seemed nice and romantic to have a love-affair going on in the house. That marriage was impossible, and that misery to her, at least, must come sooner or later, never occurred to me.
“ Poor little thing ! I shall never forget how lovely she was that night, and, indeed, I have good reason, for she has never looked like it from that night to this. She was perfectly beautiful as she sat there, her satiny cheeks flushed crimson, and her great soft black eyes as bright as happiness could make them, while her hair rippled back over her ears in loose waves, and fell in a cluster of curls at the back of her pretty little head. I could n’t give you much more of an idea of her looks, if I were to talk all day ; but you see how handsome she is now, and you can judge what she must have been more than twenty years ago.
“The Colonel had just walked away from the piano ; we had finished the dance and taken our seats ; Hattie was playing something soft and low ; and we were just saying how pretty she was and how bright, when we were all astounded by seeing Snell, the overseer, come in at the door just behind Hattie, with his hat and his boots covered with mud. He stood looking at her for an instant, with the wickedest face I ever saw, and then, before we could dream of what he was going to do, or she had seen who was behind her, there was a flash of something in the air, and a horsewhip had fallen across the poor little neck and shoulders, each cut followed by a shriek that I shall remember while I live.
“After that I can’t tell what followed, clearly. Everything was confusion and noise. There was a heavy fall, a pistol was fired, a great glass was shattered to atoms by the ball; screams and tears from the ladies, and curses from the men, with cries of, ‘ Don’t let him escape ! Tar and feather him ! Kill him ! Shoot him down like a dog, as he deserves ! ’ together with trampling of feet and shouts for horses and servants outside. After that the house was quiet, and as well as we could, between our sobs, we tried to find out some clew to the meaning of the horrid scene.
“ But no one could tell anything about it. Poor Hattie had been lifted from where she had fallen by Colonel Castleworth the moment after he had fired the pistol, and now lay on the sofa as white as death and entirely unconscious, while he knelt beside her, sobbing as though his heart would break. We were all so wretched that I suppose the rest thought it perfectly natural for him to show his feelings as he did ; I thought it natural, too, but for a very different reason. My mother and the rest of the ladies did everything they could to restore her, and after a while she revived so that she knew us, but for a long time she seemed dazed, and could not talk coherently. She took my kisses very quietly, and told me not to cry, wiping my tears off with her handkerchief. After a little she sat up, and, seeing Colonel Castleworth in another part of the room, she put me gently aside, then rose to her feet, and, going over to him, she put her arms round his neck, and laying her head on his shoulder, said in the most broken-hearted voice I ever heard, ‘ O, take me away from here, take me away ! There is nobody who will save me from what I have borne to-night and worse, all through my life, but you, because there is nobody else who loves me so ! ’
“ He had put his arms round her gently when she first went to him, but when she said that he clasped them tightly about her and said quickly but tenderly, ‘You want me to take you away from here, home with me ? Think, Hattie, what you are saying; be sure before you speak, and then, if you want to go, you shall! ’
“ ' I have thought,’ she said ; ‘ I do want to go; I do mean what I say. What is there for me that is not worse ? ’ she cried out passionately, ‘what but to be bought and sold from master to master, as they desire or grow tired of me, or to find freedom and rest for myself, as I have been tempted to do today, at the bottom of the river ? ’
“ ‘ O Hattie ! my father will free you,’ I said, going to her and taking her hand. ‘ I will ask him this very night, and I know he will if I tell him he must.’
“‘Your father can’t free me,’ she said, ‘ or he would have done it yesterday when Snell set his own price upon me. You wanted me to tell you what ailed me to-day ; I did n’t want to then, for it would only have troubled you, and would have done no good ; now it can make no difference. He gave me until sundown to-day to consent to a proposition he made me, — a proposition that needs no name from me, a slave; and when I struck his hand back with which he attempted to take hold of me, he grew frantic with rage, and said if I did n’t change my mind, and tell him so between that and night, he would whip me before you all. He only laughed at me when I threatened to tell your father, and said he could n’t protect me, and he told the truth. I don’t know how it is, but your father is in his power ; and if Colonel Castleworth does n’t buy me tonight, I shall as surely be sold to Snell to-morrow as that I am now here. When I knew how I was in his power I was frightened, and that is why I behaved so strangely; but I didn't believe he would dare to whip me so,’ she said, breaking into the wildest weeping.
“ Not one of us could say a single word to comfort her ; for we all had a dreadful feeling that it was true, though none of us knew why. As Plattie told her story, it seemed as if young Castleworth would go wild with rage ; but when she broke down so at the last, he couldn’t bear it another minute. He had unclasped his arms from round her and walked away while she talked ; but as she finished he snatched her to him, and, kissing her frantically, swore with a great oath that he would save her from that wretch let come what would, and with that he rushed from the room. We found afterwards that he had gone in search of my father, who went out with the rest, when Snell made his escape.
“ After the Colonel had gone we did what we could to comfort Hattie, but we all felt that at the best some great trouble was coming upon her. We could do nothing but wait until some of them came back. All the ladies went off into one corner, leaving me and Hattie by ourselves, and were talking in low shocked tones, not only of the dreadful outrage by Snell, but of what to them was even worse, the open show of love Fred Castleworth had made. In about an hour he came back, looking more grave and quiet now, and followed by my father, who came in with an anxious, careworn face, carrying a folded paper in his hand. ' My dear,’ he said, ‘ here is something I want you to sign, and I think when you hear my reasons and bear in mind what has happened to-night you will be very willing.’ My mother took the paper and glanced over it; then, taking the pen the Colonel held ready for her, walked over to the table and signed it without a word. Then we knew that Hattie was sold. As soon as my mother had signed the paper my father told us that all Hattie had said was true, in regard to Snell and himself.
“It seems that, becoming involved, he had borrowed money of the overseer, giving a mortgage on all the slaves but Hattie. Failing to pay the interest, Snell had threatened to foreclose, unless my father would consent to sell her to him. Horrified at the bare idea, he refused, and they had parted with high words, Snell swearing that he would have her in less than twentyfour hours, and my father knowing that he would be obliged at last to yield.
“Failing in his purpose with my father, Snell found Hattie and made her the brutal proposal of which she had told us, threatening her with the punishment he had so horribly inflicted, if she refused. I may as well tell you here, that Colonel Castleworth proved a good friend to my father; for the night he bought Hattie he found out the whole matter, and after lecturing him well for not coming to his friends, in the first place, he lent him money to pay off the mortgage, so that he was out of Snell’s power, and in a few days the wretch left the place, and we never saw him again. My husband told me long afterwards that he came near swinging for that night’s work. They caught him about a mile from the house, and it was only because Dick Maguire was a little cooler headed than the rest that he got off. They gave him a tremendous thrashing as it was, and then, making him promise to leave the county in three days, they let him go.
“When my father had finished the story of his troubles and had gone to talk to my mother alone, Colonel Castleworth came over to Hattie, and, leaning down, said, ‘ It is all settled as you wished ; you belong to me now.’ ' Do I ? I am very glad,’ she said ; that was all. ‘ I shall send the carriage for you in the morning ; will you come ? ’ ‘ Yes, I will come,’ she said. Then he bade us good night and went away. After he had gone my mother came over to Hattie, and told her that if she felt well enough she would better go to her own room ; but I said I wanted her to stay with me that night, and my father, as usual, said I should have my way. My mother shrank from it now that she knew what her future was to be ; but I had just got home, and my first evening was so sad, that she did n’t say very much against it, so I carried my point. Hattie talked a great deal that night about what had happened, and of her going away, and of how much she loved me, but all in a very sad way, just as she might have talked if in high health she had been struck by a mortal disease and knew that nothing could save her from death. She said very little about her future, but without words from her I felt that when we parted in the morning we should never again hold the same relation to each other that we had held until then.
“ There was one thing I found out that night that surprised me, — how intelligent Hattie was, and how much she knew. We had a very good library in the house, as libraries went in those days ; and I assure you, Miss Mary, she had read nearly everything in it, and understood it too. She told me how glad she was that my father had let her learn to read and write ; that the comfort she had gained from books during the past two years was all that had kept her from destroying herself. She said that when she first knew that she was a slave and understood what slavery meant, it seemed as though she would go mad, but that we were all so kind to her, and she knew how fond I was of her, that she never lost hope that some day she might be free, and that hope, together with her books, had saved her. After a while I asked her how she felt about going to Colonel Castleworth’s. She said, ‘ I am very glad of that, it will be much better for me ; I love him and he loves me, and he will free me I am sure. If I were as white as I look,’ she said, sadly, ‘ he would marry me ; but as he can’t do that, he will free me I know.’ I don’t remember all the conversation, and it would take too long to tell it if I did, but it lasted till nearly morning ; then we kissed each other and went to sleep, and when I woke Hattie was gone.
“It seemed very sad for a long time after she went, and my father never was the same again. About six months afterwards Dr. Gray asked me to be his wife ; and in less than a year from that time my poor dear father and mother were both dead, and I was married and settled here, with my husband, in this very house.
“ Well, my dear, some few months after my marriage Dr. Gray was kept out all night, and when he came home in the morning he told me that Hattie had given birth to a son. I felt dreadfully for her, and wanted to go and see her ; but he said it would n’t do for her at all, and so I did n’t go. One thing he told me that delighted me ; just before her baby was born Colonel Castleworth had freed her. Her position at the Colonel’s was gossiped about a good deal in the neighborhood, and all sorts of stories were started, — a good many of them without foundation ; but one of them came to be pretty generally believed, whether it was true or not. By some means it came to be reported that young Castleworth wanted Hattie to marry him, and that she had refused, because she knew that it would injure him. At any rate, some of the gentlemen took the trouble to wait on and expostulate with him about it; but they got mighty little for their pains, for as soon as the Colonel found out their errand, he grew so lofty, and let them know so plainly that they had nothing to do with his domestic matters, that they left without being much the wiser. My husband got himself into trouble by saying, when the neighbors talked to him about it, that he hoped, for the credit of the Colonel, that it was true. But then he was an Abolitionist, and had never owned a slave in his life.
“ They soon got tired of gossiping, and concluded by saying that the story originated with his brother Jim, who hated him because the Colonel had inherited more property from their father than he had. At any rate, the story died away, and the next thing of interest, nearly a year afterwards, was the birth of this child and Hattie’s freedom. This was late in the fall, and, my husband’s health being poor, he engaged another doctor to take his place, and we went for the winter to New Orleans. One of the first things I did when I came back was to go over and see Hattie. My husband had objected, while there was so much gossip, to my going, so I had n’t seen her at all since her child was born, and only occasionally, and always by chance, from the time she left my father’s house. Now I was seized with a real longing to see her ; and as the Colonel was away, and I was in no danger of meeting anybody there, my husband consented to my going, and drove me over one morning, when he went out on his round of visits to his patients. I found Hattie in a large, pleasant room, on the second floor, which had been converted into a nursery, playing with her baby, who was as fair as a snowdrop. Hattie was so delighted to see me that she cried, and I reckon I cried a little too ; I know I felt wretchedly. She looked almost as pretty as ever, only paler and thinner, a little, I thought She talked a good deal about the Colonel, telling me how kind and good he always was to her, and how much he had done for her. But the sadness that I had noticed the night she was sold had never left her; its marks were in her face, and her voice was full of it. One trouble she said she had, and that was all. Colonel Castleworth’s brother Jim, who was married and lived about a mile away, and between whom and young Colonel Fred a bitter quarrel existed, annoyed her greatly. He knew better than do it when his brother was at home, but in his absence she was constantly receiving insulting messages, which the servants were only too glad of an excuse to bring. She said it troubled her greatly before she was freed, but that she did n’t care afterwards, because if anything dreadful happened now,— meaning the Colonel’s death, — that nobody could interfere with her or the baby. She said she had her freedom papers locked up where nobody could find them but herself, and besides that, they were both free by the Colonel’s will. We had a little more talk about my father and mother and our old home ; and then my husband called, and, after bidding her and the baby good by, I went away, feeling, I could n’t tell just why, sadder than I had since my first night home from school. Another year went by, and then news came that Hattie had a little daughter; and in three months from that time the real tragedy of her life began. Colonel Castleworth led the hounds at a fox-chase one day, and in leaping a ditch he was thrown from his horse and instantly killed. My husband and I were away at the time, and when we returned, a month afterwards, his will, in which he had freed all his slaves, had been set aside by the court to which the heirs had appealed, for no reason, that we could ever learn, except that it was a ‘ bad precedent.’ Jim Castleworth had possession of the place; Hattie and her children were slaves, as much as though they had never been freed, and she lay dying, as everybody supposed, of brain-fever. Dr. Gray went over as soon as we got home, and found her lying in the heat and dust of the negro quarter, tended by an old black woman, while her poor little children were crying on the floor beside her. I never saw my husband in a rage but that once, Miss Mary, and then he frightened me half out of my wits. He had gone straight to Jim Castleworth, as soon as he found her in that condition, and tried to shame him into treating her better ; but it was n’t of the slightest use ; he only cursed and swore and raved like a madman, and said he would teach her and her brats to know their place, or he would take it out of their hides.
“ My husband told him that the most he would have to do for her would be to get her a coffin. That seemed to bring him to reason a little. ' You don’t mean to say that she is going to die ?’ he asked. ‘ I most certainly do mean to say so,’ my husband said, ‘or I am greatly mistaken ; but I ’ll tell you one thing : whether she lives or dies, she will never be worth three hundred dollars to you or anybody else as long as she lives ; for if she recovers from this attack, she will have lost her reason ; one or the other must go,— that or her life.' Then Castleworth cursed again, saying that that was a cool two thousand dollars out of his pocket, and that the fiends were in it, or he would be well out of it. My husband then made him an offer ; he told him that Hattie had belonged to my father’s family, as he knew; that I had an affection for her, and if he would name his price, he would buy her and her children. No, Castleworth swore he would n’t. He might take the woman, as she lay, if he would pay five hundred dollars for her and take her away ; but the children he would keep. ‘ I ’ll pay her for her impudence, the hussy, through her children,’ he said. ‘ I ’ll make her smart ; just wait till this girl grows up ; I only hope her mother may live to see it.’ And my husband said he looked like a demon while he talked. But the thing to be thought of then was Harriet; so, for fear he might change his mind if he left him, my husband went into the house and signed papers binding the bargain ; and in two hours Hattie was landed safe and sound here in my best bedroom. I won’t trouble you, Miss Mary, with the particulars of her getting well, which she did in body and mind in spite of my husband’s prediction, nor of what she suffered in hearing that her children were with that wicked man. My husband gave her her freedom as soon as she was well enough to understand it, and we wanted her to go North ; but she said she never would, unless her children could go with her. So here she has stayed, my dear, suffering, year after year, more than tongue can tell ; and, indeed, we have all been wretched enough. Jim Castleworth has more than kept his promise; the cruelties that he has inflicted upon those children could never be told, — things so dreadful that I don’t even want to think of them. And, indeed, he was very little better to his own family ; his wife and daughters were mortally afraid of him, and the only thing upon earth that ever had any influence over him was his son Joe ; and, if possible, he was worse than his father. Everybody abhorred them ; and if it had not been for the sake of his family, he’d have been dealt with by the law long ago for his villanies. I don’t believe there is a decent man or woman in the county that would n’t have been glad to have seen him hanged for the murder of Reuben. But you see he was rich, and his money bought just the jury and verdict that were wanted.
“But I am getting ahead of my story. Clara, Harriet’s daughter, grew to be an almost perfect beauty ; Reuben, her son, was a fine-looking fellow, but not handsome ; he was more like his father ; but Clara was like her mother, — superbly beautiful. Knowing to a certainty what, in her position, her fate must be, nothing distressed Harriet so much as this constantly increasing attractiveness, and she lost no opportunity to warn her daughter against all approaches of a familiar nature from the young men of the neighborhood, and especially those of young Joe Castleworth, the person most to be feared. Strangely enough, there was nothing occurred to excite apprehension, until the summer Clara was seventeen, when one evening, just after dark, Reuben, who attended the bar of the tavern kept by Joe Castleworth, came over to see his mother, and, in a great state of excitement, told her that his sister had been brought down that day to act as chambermaid in the hotel, and that, in consequence of a conversation that she had had with her master’s son, she was crying bitterly, and was threatening to drown herself. There was no need of words upon the subject; we knew what it all meant, and were as wretched as helpless, hopeless trouble could make us. After a while I was surprised to see Harriet suddenly brighten up wonderfully ; and, telling me that she would be back in a few minutes, started away with Reuben, saying that she would walk a short distance with him.
“ The following morning the whole neighborhood was horrified to hear that Clara had disappeared, and that a portion of her clothes had been found on the bank of the river, close to a whirlpool where, only a year before, a negro of Castleworth’s had drowned himself to keep from being branded. I was appalled, at first, by the conviction that Harriet had been instrumental in bringing about her daughter’s death ; but my mind was soon disabused of that idea. There was a great hue and cry made about her death, and the Castleworths came to be more hated than ever. Joe met Harriet one day, after drinking more than was good for him, and accused her of being the cause of her daughter’s death. She said some things back which were not pleasant to hear, and in his rage he threatened to pay her for it through Reuben. Well, my dear, a few days after this, your father stopped on his way North, and when he went away there was a young lady went with him. I suppose I need scarcely tell you that it was Harriet’s daughter. The clothes on the border of the river were merely placed there by her mother to mislead, as they did, her persecutors ; and when she brought her to me and asked me to help her, I did it with all my heart. She was simply concealed in my room for a short time ; and as I happened to be a cripple and could not leave my chamber, and as Harriet was the only person who ever waited upon me or served my meals, it was easily managed. I don’t know how we would have disposed of her, if it had not been for your father ; but, fortunately, he came ; and, after hearing her story, nobly took charge of her and got her away. It was less difficult than you would suppose. They left at night ; no one suspected that she was not at the bottom of the whirlpool ; and there was nothing to suggest her existence in the well-dressed, closely veiled lady who went with your father when he left.
“ Now, my dear, I wish that ended the story ; but, unfortunately, it don’t, quite.
“ Harriet’s anxiety for Reuben, after Castleworth’s threat, or that she hoped to induce him to make an effort for his own escape, now that Clara’s had proved successful, or some similar thing, led her to go over to see him one evening, just before nightfall. He was not in the bar-room, as usual, and one of the servants, she thinks, told her that he was in the barn, throwing down hay into the stables for the cattle. Her memory has always been so uncertain since that night, that she has never been able to remember perfectly ordinary details. At all events, she found him there ; and, believing themselves to be entirely alone, they talked freely of Clara and her escape, but, fortunately for me, mentioned neither the time nor the means. Harriet says they had just finished speaking of that, and she was urging Reuben to get away himself, when they were both terrified to find old Castleworth and Joe leering at them from behind a corner of the hay-mow, having evidently heard every word that they had said. At the first movement she made the two Castleworths, raving and cursing like fiends, sprang upon them. Reuben made a tremendous fight, and would have won, being much stronger than Joe, who had attacked him ; but just then a powerful negro, who by his treachery had won the favor of his masters, went to Joe’s aid, and poor Reuben was overpowered, and bound hand and foot with ropes. Old Castleworth held Harriet down until Joe was ready to help him, and then they bound her hands behind her back, and tied her to one of the props in the barn, where she was forced to see all that followed. God knows how she lived through it all ; but she did live to witness what you would not wish to hear, nor I to tell. I cannot go over the sickening story, — you have heard it all, — how, in spite of shrieks of agony and prayers for mercy, they drew him up by ropes over a beam, until his toes barely touched the floor, and then, stripping him to the waist, they whipped him until he died, father and son relieving each other as one or the other grew too weary to wield the lash effectually.
“ When the devils had finished their work, being frightened, or too weary to attack Harriet, they set her free, or she would have probably met the same fate. She found herself at home some time in the night ; how she got here she does n’t remember; and I have never, since I first heard the story, let her talk about it; it is not best for either of us.
“ I can tell you no more, my dear ; this is enough to make us both ill. Only this ; at the time of the trial, that woman’s testimony was refused because she was a negro! The few papers which felt called upon at the time to defend the ‘rights of slaveholding citizens ’ trumped up the falsehood of a week’s petty pilfering as the cause of the murder ; I say that it was the result of thirty years of headlong, reckless passion. At any rate, you have Harriet’s story and the truth of the Castleworth tragedy.”
So have you, reader. Clara is living in Canada, and is well married. Harriet died a year ago in an insane asylum.
Alice Dutton.