Excerpt
The year was 1862 and the country was embroiled in a violent civil war. Slaves by the scores were escaping to the north and Canada by means of the Underground Railroad. A group of seventeen of which ten were blood relatives had traveled the railroad from Virginia, through Maryland, New Jersey and now to the village of Richardsville in New York. “We need to give ourselves a name because the masters couldn’t understand real African names and the silly names they gave us like Jumbo and Mumbo are insulting,” the leader said. (Of course their English wasn’t as polished as the foregoing. They also were unable to speak any specific African language since after two and a half centuries tribal affiliations all but disappeared.) “I’m calling myself John Black because I am very black and my wife is to be called Mary who was the mother of Jesus. The mother of Jesus was a very special and good woman as is my Mary. ”
They had eight sons ranging in age from nine to twenty who bickered over names until John announced, “I will give you names.”
Mary, who had learned to read and had kept a bible well hidden from her owners for years, told John, “We will name them after the apostles. Thus the children were, in order of age;
Peter 20 James 18 John 16 Bartholomew 15 Thomas 14 Matthew 13 Luke 11 Andrew 9
Ordinarily the family would have been broken up and Peter and James were in fact sold off when they became sixteen. But the slave owners’ main concern now was the war and they would keep all their slaves until the Yankees surrendered.
When John and Mary began their journey, they knew where their boys were and through signals given to other slaves by means of hymns, clothing hung on lines, lanterns and other codes, Peter and James knew where to meet the family.
The other seven of the group were slaves that joined John and Mary along the way. The eldest of that group, a very large man had the slave name Brutus. He asked his fellow travelers if they wished to be a part of John’s family and received unanimous approval. “I shall be called George,” Brutus told John, “George Black, and I beg to be your brother.”
After several days of traveling, John thought about George‘s desire to be his (John’s) brother. “George, there may be a problem with being my brother,” John said, “You have five beautiful daughters and my sons have already shown an interest in them.”
“Hmmm, I shall be your best friend and my name shall be George York since we are in New York. My wife is called Martha and my daughters are Rachel, Naomi, Miriam, Ruth and Esther.”
Mary had read biblical passages to the group whenever they stopped at one of the stations along the route. George named his daughters after the women in the Old Testament.
Being in New York did not assure safety to the runaway slaves for there were many people sympathetic towards the southern cause and considered Africans inferior beings whose role was that of servants to the chosen people, namely those whose direct ancestors were Americans and had taken part in the Revolutionary War. Thus it was still necessary to travel at night and to conceal themselves, at times, in hidden rooms and underground passages. One such tunnel terminated in a large house that overlooked Rondo creek. This house had a big cellar in which the seventeen were able to rest and regain their strength to continue on to Canada. Mary, who was the only literate one among them, maintained a journal of the escape from the plantation and hopefully to the start of the new life in Canada.
Peter and Rachel were falling in love and sat off by themselves usually, talking about getting married and beginning a life in Canada. “I’m sure we’ll find a preacher in Canada who will marry us,” Peter told Rachel. They said they were going to walk in the woods and Mary said, “Be careful, we don’t know who is out there.” The abolitionists who owned the house were not happy about their going out but after looking all around and assuring themselves there was no one about, they signaled the lovers to go. Peter took Rachel’s hand and they ran into the cover of the trees, disappearing from view.
Tom and Hester Zorn, the owners of the house, were mistaken. The area was not free of intruders. They heard the hoof beats approaching the house and Tom muttered, “Oh no, I hope those kids stay out of sight.” He could see the cloud of dust on the winding road and in a few minutes the first of eight horses appeared. Hester came out of the house to see what the noise was all about just in time to see the lead horseman draw his pistol and shoot Tom in his head. She didn’t have time to scream because the next bullet tore her heart apart and she was dead before she hit the ground.
John heard the shots and tried to get the fifteen ex-slaves into the tunnel but before he could, the gunmen burst through the cellar door and began shooting everything that moved. The whole incident lasted about three minutes and the smell of blood mixed with the acrid odor of gunpowder.
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