Among the Pines Part 25

"Yas, you fools, didn't I tell you dat?" said Jim, as I, not exactly relishing the idea of preaching treason, in the Colonel's absence, to his slaves, hesitated to reply. "Haint I tole you," he continued, "dat in de big city ob New York dar'm more folks dan in all Car'lina? I'se been dar, and I knows; and Ma.s.sa K----'ll tell you dat dey--most on 'em--feel mighty sorry for de brack man."

"No he wont," I replied, "and besides, Jim, you should not talk in this way before me; I might tell your master."

"No! you wont do dat; I knows you wont, ma.s.sa. Scipio tole us he'd trust his bery life wid _you_."

"Well, perhaps he might; it's true I would not injure you;" saying that, I turned away, though my curiosity was greatly excited to hear more.

I wandered farther into the woods, and a half-hour found me near one of the turpentine distilleries. Seating myself on a rosin barrel, I quietly finished my segar, and was about lighting another, when Jim made his appearance.

"Beg pardon, Ma.s.sa K----," said the negro, bowing very low, "but I wants to ax you one or two tings, ef you please, sar."

"Well," I replied, "I'll tell you any thing that I ought to."

"Der yer tink, den, ma.s.sa, dat dey'll git to fightin' at Charl'son?"

"Yes, judging by the tone of the Charleston papers you've read to-day, I think they will."

"And der yer tink dat de rest ob de Souf will jine wid Souf Car'lina, if she go at it fust?"

"Yes, Jim, I'm inclined to think so."

"I hard you say to ma.s.sa, dat ef dey goes to war, 'twill free all de n.i.g.g.e.rs--der you raily b'lieve dat, sar?"

"_You_ heard me say that; how did you hear it?" I exclaimed, in surprise.

"Why, sar, de front winder ob de carriage war down jess a crack, so I hard all you said."

"Did you let it down on purpose?"

"P'r'aps so, ma.s.sa. Whot's de use ob habin' ears, ef you don't har?"

"Well, I suppose not much; and you tell all you hear to the other negroes?"

"I reckon so, ma.s.sa," said the darky, looking very demure.

"That's the use of having a tongue, eh?" I replied, laughing.

"Dat's it 'zactly, ma.s.sa."

"Well, Jim, I do think the slaves will be finally freed; but it will cost more white blood to do it than all the n.i.g.g.e.rs in creation are worth. Do you think the darkies would fight for their freedom?"

"Fight, sar!" exclaimed the negro, straightening up his fine form, while his usual good-natured look pa.s.sed from his face, and gave way to an expression that made him seem more like an incarnate devil than a human being; "FIGHT, sar; gib dem de chance, and den see."

"Why are you discontented? You have been at the North, and you know the blacks are as well off as the majority of the poor laboring men there."

"You says dat to _me_, Ma.s.sa K----; you don't say it to de _Cunnel_. We am _not_ so well off as de pore man at de Norf! You knows dat, sar. He hab his wife and chil'ren, and his own home. What hab we, sar? No wife, no chil'ren, no home; all am de white man's. Der yer tink we wouldn't fight to be free?" and he pressed his teeth together, and there pa.s.sed again over his face the same look it wore the moment before.

"Come, come, Jim, this may be true of your race; but it don't apply to yourself. Your master is kind and indulgent to _you_."

"He am kine to me, sar; he orter be," said the negro, the savage expression coming again into his eyes. For a moment he hesitated; then, taking a step toward me, he placed his face down to mine, and hissed out these words, every syllable seeming to come from the very bottom of his being. "I tell you he orter be, sar, FUR I AM HIS OWN FATHER'S SON!"

"His brother!" I exclaimed, springing to my feet, and looking at him in blank amazement. "It can't be true!"

"It am true, sar--as true as there's a h.e.l.l! His father had my mother--when he got tired of her, he sold her Souf. _I war too young den eben to know her!_"

"This is horrible--too horrible!" I said.

"It am slavery, sar! Shouldn't we be contented?" replied the negro with a grim smile. Drawing, then, a large spring-knife from his pocket, he waved it above his head, and added: "Ef I had de hull white race dar--right dar under dat knife, don't yer tink I'd take all dar lives--all at one blow--to be FREE!"

"And yet you refused to run away when the Abolitionists tempted you, at the North. Why didn't you go then?"

"'Cause I had promised, ma.s.sa."

"Promised the Colonel before you went?"

"No, sar; he neber axed me; but _I_ can't tell you no more. P'raps Scipio will, ef you ax him."

"Oh! I see; you're in that league of which Scip is a leader. You'll get into trouble, _sure_," I replied, in a quick, decided tone, which startled him.

"You tole Scipio dat, sar, and what did _he_ tell you?"

"That he didn't care for his life."

"No more do I, sar," said the negro, turning on his heel with a proud, almost defiant gesture, and starting to go.

"A moment, Jim. You are very imprudent; never say these things to any other mortal; promise me that."

"You'se bery good, ma.s.sa, bery good. Scipio say you's true, and he'm allers right. I ortent to hab said what I hab; but sumhow, sar, dat news brought it all up _har_" (laying his hand on his breast), "and it wud come out."

The tears filled his eyes as he said this, and turning away without another word, he disappeared among the trees.

I was almost stunned by this strange revelation, but the more I reflected on it, the more probable it appeared. Now too, that my thoughts were turned in that direction, I called to mind a certain resemblance between the colonel and the negro that I had not heeded before. Though one was a high-bred Southern gentleman, claiming an old and proud descent, and the other a poor African slave, they had some striking peculiarities which might indicate a common origin. The likeness was not in their features, for Jim's face was of the unmistakable negro type, and his skin of a hue so dark that it seemed impossible he could be the son of a white man (I afterward learned that his mother was a black of the deepest dye), but it was in their form and general bearing. They had the same closely-knit and sinewy frame, the same erect, elastic step, the same rare blending of good-natured ease and dignity--to which I have already alluded as characteristic of the Colonel--and in the wild burst of pa.s.sion that accompanied the negro's disclosure of their relationship, I saw the same fierce, unbridled temper, whose outbreaks I had witnessed in my host.

What a strange fate was theirs! Two brothers--the one the owner of three hundred slaves, and the first man of his district--the other, a bonded menial, and so poor that the very bread he ate, and the clothes he wore, were another's!

I pa.s.sed the remainder of the afternoon in my room, and did not again meet my host until the family a.s.sembled at the tea-table. Jim then occupied his accustomed seat behind the Colonel's chair, and that gentleman was in more than his usual spirits, though Madam P----, I thought, wore a sad and absent look.

The conversation rambled over a wide range of subjects, and was carried on mainly by the Colonel and myself; but toward the close of the meal the lady said to me:

"Mr. K----, Sam and young Junius are to be buried this evening; if you have never seen a negro funeral, perhaps you'd like to attend."

"I will be happy to accompany you, Madam, if you go," I replied,

"Thank you," said the lady.

"Pshaw! Alice, you'll not go into the woods on so cold a night as this!"

said the Colonel.

"Yes, I think I ought to. Our people will expect me."