I tremble as I finished re-reading the saga of how the newly freed "Isabella" of New York was able to retrieve her son who had been sold into slavery, contrary to state law; the law that should have freed him, her, all in New York on July 4, 1827.
Being illiterate and obviously quite ignorant of the judicial mechanisms of retrieval of her stolen son, she nevertheless set out to do just that.
First, an unnamed person directed her to the home of some Quakers, the one sect with any sympathy for the plight of the formerly enslaved.
They helped her; put her up for the night in a bed that was "nice, high, clean, white, and beautiful." The bed intimidated her. She was used to the "floor as her bedstead." But she slept in it, so as not to offend her kind, true-Christian hosts, who took her to the Court the next morning. She was told to ask for the grand jury to tell her complaint.
Not knowing what a grand jury was , she walked up to the most auspicious -looking man she saw, and asked him if he was the grand jury? He told her to seek it upstairs. After several similar encounters, she eventually found where the grand jury was sitting and related her grievance about her son's sale.
They had her to swear out that what she was saying was true on a book. She swore on it with her lips. She was instructed to raise her hand, and a writ was sealed; given to her with instructions to give it to the constabulary for service on the offending party for law-breaking.
Regrettably, the constable served the brother of the true criminal who escaped across the North River and laid low, till he could arrange to travel to Alabama to bring back the boy of Isabella, his former slave.
He sailed in the fall and returned with the boy in the spring. Upon being told that she would have to wait for several months, before the Court could adjudicate the child's custody, she cried out in grief, wailing and walking about until a "perfect stranger " appeared from nowhere to ask about her pursuit of her son. She told him all. In turn he told her to go to the house of Lawyer Demain and beseech his assistance . She did. He required $5.00 to help her, but said he could get her son for her within 24 hours of receiving payment .
She explained that she had no means of getting $5.00, as she had never had a dollar in her life. He told her to get the $5.00 from the Quakers, who had first shown her to the Court. She did. They gave her substantially more than $5.00.
She hurried back the 10 miles to Lawyer Demain's house and gave him all the money that they had given her. He then renewed his promise of 24 hours later to have her son. He used bail bonds men, since $600 bail bond was posted by the wrongful seller to be free. "The famous Matty Styles," was used, who would have "the boy and his master on hand, in due season, either dead or alive."
Meanwhile , she was told to rest up at a designated place and he would come for her, which he did.
Sure enough, the boy was procured but a hearing in Court was needed as the boy was denying that he even had a mother and instead was craving his master who had brought him back from Alabama .
The boy had been beaten on the trip back . Brainwashed and trained what to say, the judge sensed what was afoot. He told the boy to look only to him not the master. After hearing from Lawyer Demain and Isabella, the judge finally awarded her son to her. But the poor child was still terrified of its own mother.
Eventually with quiet words and bon-bons they quieted his fears. The mother inspected his body and found horrendous scars and bruises, which he described as "nothing," compared to what his older sister had received. He said that she had had a baby and was beaten so badly that blood and milk ran out of her together. She was "scary !" He said not him .
[The foregoing recitation is but an abbreviation of the truthful account that is set forth in NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH, "The Hour Is Darkest Before Dawn " 2007), p. 47-52, was told to Olive Gilbert, by Sojourner Truth, her companion ]
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Friday, September 29, 2017
NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
I tremble as I finished re-reading the saga of how the newly freed "Isabella" of New York was able to retrieve her son who had been sold into slavery, contrary to state law; the law that should have freed him, her, all in New York on July 4, 1827.
Being illiterate and obviously quite ignorant of the judicial mechanisms of retrieval of her stolen son, she nevertheless set out to do just that.
First, an unnamed person directed her to the home of some Quakers, the one sect with any sympathy for the plight of the formerly enslaved.
They helped her; put her up for the night in a bed that was "nice, high, clean, white, and beautiful." The bed intimidated her. She was used to the "floor as her bedstead." But she slept in it, so as not to offend her kind, true-Christian hosts, who took her to the Court the next morning. She was told to ask for the grand jury to tell her complaint.
Not knowing what a grand jury was , she walked up to the most auspicious -looking man she saw, and asked him if he was the grand jury? He told her to seek it upstairs. After several similar encounters, she eventually found where the grand jury was sitting and related her grievance about her son's sale.
They had her to swear out that what she was saying was true on a book. She swore on it with her lips. She was instructed to raise her hand, and a writ was sealed; given to her with instructions to give it to the constabulary for service on the offending party for law-breaking.
Regrettably, the constable served the brother of the true criminal who escaped across the North River and laid low, till he could arrange to travel to Alabama to bring back the boy of Isabella, his former slave.
He sailed in the fall and returned with the boy in the spring. Upon being told that she would have to wait for several months, before the Court could adjudicate the child's custody, she cried out in grief, wailing and walking about until a "perfect stranger " appeared from nowhere to ask about her pursuit of her son. She told him all. In turn he told her to go to the house of Lawyer Demain and beseech his assistance . She did. He required $5.00 to help her, but said he could get her son for her within 24 hours of receiving payment .
She explained that she had no means of getting $5.00, as she had never had a dollar in her life. He told her to get the $5.00 from the Quakers, who had first shown her to the Court. She did. They gave her substantially more than $5.00.
She hurried back the 10 miles to Lawyer Demain's house and gave him all the money that they had given her. He then renewed his promise of 24 hours later to have her son. He used bail bonds men, since $600 bail bond was posted by the wrongful seller to be free. "The famous Matty Styles," was used, who would have "the boy and his master on hand, in due season, either dead or alive."
Meanwhile , she was told to rest up at a designated place and he would come for her, which he did.
Sure enough, the boy was procured but a hearing in Court was needed as the boy was denying that he even had a mother and instead was craving his master who had brought him back from Alabama .
The boy had been beaten on the trip back . Brainwashed and trained what to say, the judge sensed what was afoot. He told the boy to look only to him not the master. After hearing from Lawyer Demain and Isabella, the judge finally awarded her son to her. But the poor child was still terrified of its own mother.
Eventually with quiet words and bon-bons they quieted his fears. The mother inspected his body and found horrendous scars and bruises, which he described as "nothing," compared to what his older sister had received. He said that she had had a baby and was beaten so badly that blood and milk ran out of her together. She was "scary !" He said not him .
[The foregoing recitation is but an abbreviation of the truthful account that is set forth in NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH, "The Hour Is Darkest Before Dawn " 2007), p. 47-52, was told to Olive Gilbert, by Sojourner Truth, her companion ]
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