"After this cruel treatment of John, Judy, with the aid of one of the
other slaves who sympathized with her and John, carried him to a little
hut that was not so much exposed as the one in which he had previously
lain. He had a razor with which he had attempted to kill himself, but
Judy came in at that moment, and as he was very weak, she easily took it
from him; but he said:
"'O let me die! I would rather be in my grave, than endure this over
again.'
"He was sick and helpless a long time, but he would have suffered much
more if Judy had not been free, and had it in her power to nurse him.
There is many a poor slave that has fallen a victim to this kind of
barbarity, with no eye to witness his distress but his heavenly Father's.
"To add to John's misery was the brutal treatment of a little brother; a
smart active child of eight years of age, who was owned by the same man.
Mr. Jackson was a great drunkard, and when under the influence of liquor
no crime was too great for him. One day, for some slight offense, he
took the child, marked his throat from ear to ear, and then cut the rims
of his ears partly off and left them hanging down. A little while after
this, a gentleman, who had been in the habit of visiting at the house,
rode up, and noticing the child's throat, asked him how it happened. He
said, "Massa did it." The gentleman was so enraged, that he immediately
mounted his horse, rode away, and had him arrested.
"When John was able to leave his bed, his mistress, a kind and humane
woman, whose slave he had been before her marriage, took him and hid him
in a cave that was on the plantation, and supplied him with food,
intending to send him away as soon as she could do so safely.
"He was there several weeks, and his master supposed he had again
escaped, and was hid somewhere in the woods, but he had become so much
dissipated that he took no interest in his business affairs, and never
explored the hiding-places on his own plantation. One day a gentleman by
the name of Mr. Lawrence, of Vincennes, came to Mr. Jackson's to
purchase a servant to take with him to Indiana.
"Why, mother, I thought that they would not allow any one to hold slaves
here," said Ally.
"No, they do not, my son, but this gentleman was to take him as a bound
servant for a term of years, and he probably supposed that poor John's
legal rights would not be very carefully examined. John was sold in the
woods for a small sum. After the barga
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