Bricks Without Straw Part 6

"Oh, bless yer, yes, Mister, should tink hit was. Hit's not above five or six miles out from h'yer."

"How old are you?"

"Wal, now, I don't know dat, not edzactly."

"How old do you think--twenty-one?"

"Oh, la, yes; more nor dat, Cap'."

"Born where?"

"Right h'yer in Horsford, sah."

"What is your name?"

"Nimbus."

"Nimbus what?" asked the officer, looking up.

"Nimbus nothin', sah; jes' straight along Nimbus."

"Well, but--" said the officer, looking puzzled, "you must have some sort of surname."

"No, sah, jes' one; n.i.g.g.e.r no use for two names."

"Yah! yah! yah!" echoed the dusky crowd behind him. "You's jes'

right dah, you is! n.i.g.g.ah mighty little use fer heap o' names. Jes'

like a mule--one name does him, an' mighty well off ef he's 'lowed ter keep dat."

"His name's Desmit," said a white man, the sheriff of the county, who stood leaning over the railing; "used to belong to old Potem Desmit, over to Louisburg. Mighty good n.i.g.g.e.r, too. I s'pec' ole man Desmit felt about as bad at losing him as ary one he had."

"Powerful good hand in terbacker," said Mr. Gla.s.s, who was himself an expert in "yaller leaf." "Ther' wasn't no better ennywhar' round."

"I knows all about him," said another. "Seed a man offer old Desmit eighteen hundred dollars for him afore the war--State money--but he wouldn't tech it. Reckon he wishes he had now."

"Yes," said the sheriff, "he's the best curer in the county. Commands almost any price in the season, but is powerful independent, and gittin' right sa.s.sy. Listen at him now?"

"They say your name is Desmit--Nimbus Desmit," said the officer; "is that so?"

"No, tain't."

"Wasn't that your old master's name?" asked the sheriff roughly.

"Co'se it war," was the reply.

"Well, then, ain't it yours too?"

"No, it ain't."

"Well, you just ask the gentleman if that ain't so," said the sheriff, motioning to the chairman of the board.

"Well," said that officer, with a peculiar smile, "I do not know that there is any law compelling a freedman to adopt his former master's name. He is without name in the law, a pure _nullius filius_--n.o.body's son. As a slave he had but one name.

He _could_ have no surname, because he had no family. He was arraigned, tried, and executed as 'Jim' or 'Bill' or 'Tom.'

The volumes of the reports are full of such cases, as The State _vs._ 'd.i.c.k' or 'Sam.' The Roman custom was for the freedman to take the name of some friend, benefactor, or patron. I do not see why the American freedman has not a right to choose his own surname."

"That is not the custom here," said the sheriff, with some chagrin, he having begun the controversy.

"Very true," replied the chairman; "the custom--and a very proper and almost necessary one it seems--is to call the freedman by a former master's name. This distinguishes individuals. But when the freedman refuses to acknowledge the master's name as his, who can impose it on him? We are directed to register the names of parties, and while we might have the right to refuse one whom we found attempting to register under a false name, yet we have no power to make names for those applying. Indeed, if this man insists that he has but one name, we must, for what I can see, register him by that alone."

His a.s.sociates looked wise, and nodded acquiescence in the views thus expressed.

"Den dat's what I chuse," said the would-be voter. "My name's Nimbus--noffin' mo'."

"But I should advise you to take another name to save trouble when you come to vote," said the chairman. His a.s.sociates nodded solemnly again.

"Wal, now, Ma.r.s.e Cap'n, you jes' see h'yer. I don't want ter carry n.o.body's name widout his leave. S'pose I take ole Ma.r.s.e War's name ober dar?"

"You can take any one you choose. I shall write down the one you give me."

"Is you willin', Ma.r.s.e War'?"

"I've nothing to do with it, Nimbus," said Ware; "fix your own name."

"Wal sah," said Nimbus, "I reckon I'll take dat ef I must hev enny mo' name. Yer see he wuz my ole oberseer, Mahs'r, an' wuz powerful good ter me, tu. I'd a heap ruther hev his name than Ma.r.s.e Desmit's; but I don't _want_ no name but Nimbus, nohow.

"All right," said the chairman, as he made the entry. "Ware it is then."

As there might be a poll held at Red Wing, where Nimbus lived, he was given a certificate showing that _Nimbus Ware_ had been duly registered as an elector of the county of Horsford and for the precinct of Red Wing.

Then the newly-named Nimbus was solemnly sworn by the patriarchal Pharaoh to bear true faith and allegiance to the government of the United States, and to uphold its const.i.tution and the laws pa.s.sed in conformity therewith; and thereby the recent slave became a component factor of the national life, a full-fledged citizen of the American Republic.

As he pa.s.sed out, the sheriff said to those about him, in a low tone,

"There'll be trouble with that n.i.g.g.e.r yet. He's too sa.s.sy. You'll see."

"How so?" asked the chairman. "I thought you said he was industrious, thrifty, and honest."

"Oh, yes," was the reply, "there ain't a n.i.g.g.e.r in the county got a better character for honesty and hard work than he, but he's too important--has got the big head, as we call it."

"I don't understand what you mean," said the chairman.

"Why he ain't respectful," said the other. "Talks as independent as if he was a white man."

"Well, he has as much right to talk independently as a white man.

He is just as free," said the chairman sharply.

"Yes; but he ain't white," said the sheriff doggedly, "and our people won't stand a n.i.g.g.e.r's puttin' on such airs. Why, Captain,"

he continued in a tone which showed that he felt that the fact he was about to announce must carry conviction even to the incredulous heart of the Yankee officer. "You just ought to see his place down at Red Wing. d.a.m.ned if he ain't better fixed up than lots of white men in the county. He's got a good house, and a terbacker-barn, and a church, and a n.i.g.g.e.r school-house, and stock, and one of the finest crops of terbacker in the county. Oh, I tell you, he's cutting a wide swath, he is." "You don't tell me," said the chairman with interest. "I am glad to hear it. There appears to be good stuff in the fellow. He seems to have his own ideas about things, too."