05 - Biography of an American Bondman, By His Daughter by Josephine Brown

Delve into the captivating life of an American Bondman, as lovingly presented by his daughter, Josephine Brown. This biography not only revisits the significant experiences documented in her fathers own narratives, but also introduces fresh anecdotes and her unique perspective on his life. While the book draws heavily from previously published autobiographical accounts, it is enriched by a narrative style brimming with humor and wit. As observed by Andrews, the biographys exceptional contribution to the legacy of William Wells Brown is the insights it provides into the rhetorical strategies employed by both father and daughter in their united stand against slavery.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapters nine and ten of Biography of an American Bondman
by his Daughter by Josephine Brown. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain. Chapter nine, Throw open to the
light of day the bondsman's sell and break away the
change the state has bound on him. As the slave

(00:23):
becomes enlightened and shows that he knows he has a
right to be free, his value depreciates. A slave who
has once ran away is shun by the slaveholders, just
as the wild and ruly horse is shun by those
who wish an animal for trustee service. The slave who
was caught in the attempt to escape is pretty sure

(00:43):
of being sold and sent off to the cotton, sugar,
or rice fields of Georgia or other slave consuming states.
Everything is done to keep the slave in ignorance of
his rights. But God has planted a spark in the
breast of men that teaches him that he was not
created to be the slave of another. Truth is omnipotent

(01:03):
and will make its way even to the heart of
the most degraded. How well has the author of the
Pleasure of hope portrayed the progress of truth? Where barbarous
hordes on Scythian mountains roam truth, mercy, freedom, Yet shall
find a home where er degraded nature bleeds and pines.
From Guinea's coast to Cyber's dreary minds. Truth shall pervade

(01:27):
the unfathomed darkness there, and light the dreadful features of
despair hark. The stern captive spurns his heavy load and
asks the image back that Heaven bestowed fierce in his eye.
The fire of valor burns, and as the slave departs,
the man returns the truth which had broken in upon

(01:51):
William's mind made him a dangerous person in the midst
of the slave population of the South, and he scarcely
hoped to find a home anywhere short of a cotton plantation.
Doctor Young, as soon as he was informed that his
slave had been caught, had him taken into the farm
and well secured until he could sell him. A wish

(02:11):
on the part of the doctor to get a good
price for William induced him to conceal the slave's attempt
to escape. This was very fortunate for William, for in
a few days he was sold to mister Samuel Willie,
a merchant in Saint Louis, but William's mother was not
so fortunate, for she was placed in the hands of
the slave trader and carried to the slave market of

(02:34):
New Orleans. How pathetically mister Brown has described the parting
scene with his mother. It was about ten o'clock in
the morning, says he, when I went on board the
steamboat where my mother had been taken with other slaves
bound for the lower country. I found chain to another woman.
On seeing me, she dropped her head upon her bosom,

(02:55):
her emotion being too deep for tears. I approached her
and fell upon my knee ease, threw my arms around
her neck, and mingled my tears with hers that now
began to flow. Feeling that I was to blame for
her being in the hands of the slave speculator, I
besought my mother to forgive me, with that generosity which

(03:16):
was one of her chief characteristics, and that love would
seldom for sake. So mother, she said, my child, you
are not to blame. You did what you could to
free me and yourself, and in this you did nothing
more than your duty. Do not weep for me. I
am old and cannot last much longer. I feel that
I must soon go home to my heavenly Master, and

(03:36):
then I shall be out of the power of the
slave dealer. I could hear no more. My heart struggled
to free itself from the human frame. The boat bell
rang as a signal for all who were not going
with the boat to get on shore once more. I
embraced my mother, and she whispered in my ear, My child,
we must now part, to meet no more on this

(03:57):
side the grave. You have always said you would not
die a slave. I beseech of you to keep this promise. Try,
my dear son, to get your freedom. The tolling of
the bell informed me that I must go on shore.
I stood and witnessed the departure of all that was
dear to me on earth. This separation of the mother
from the sun inspired the latter with renewed determination to escape,

(04:20):
But this resolve he kept locked up in his own heart.
End of chapter nine, Chapter ten, Oh, what is life
if love be lost? If man's unkind to man? While
employed on board the steamer Otto, where his new master
placed him, William had his own feelings, often lacerated by

(04:43):
seeing his fellow creatures carried in large gangs down the
Mississippi to the southern market. These dark and revolting pictures
of slavery frequently caused him to question the refinement of
feeling and goodness of heart so bountifully claimed by the
Anglo Saxon, and in language of the poet, he would
think to himself, say flows not in the negro's vein,

(05:06):
unchecked and free without control, tied as pure and clear
from stain, as feeds and warms the white man's soul.
Continued intercourse with educated persons and meeting on the steamer
so many travelers from the Free States caused the slave
to feel more keenly his degraded and a natural situation.

(05:28):
He gained much information respecting the North and Canada that
was valuable to him in his final escape. In his
written their to, mister Brown says, the anxiety to be
a free man would not let me rest day or night.
I would think of the northern cities I had heard
so much about of Canada, where many of my acquaintances
had found a refuge from their tyrannical masters. I would

(05:51):
dream at night that I was on British soil a freeman,
and on awaking weep to find myself a slave. I
would think of a tour Arria's domain. In a moment,
I seemed to be there, but the fear of being
taken again soon hurried me back to despair. Thoughts of
the future and my heart yearning for liberty kept me

(06:12):
always planning to escape. After remaining more than a year,
the property of mister Willy William was sold to Captain
Enoch Price, also a resident of Saint Louis. This change
was the turning point in the young slave's life. End
of chapter ten