La crueldad de los
amos blancos se muestra aquí aún con las mujeres esclavas. En estos párrafos los hombres se convierten en
los peores enemigos de los hombres. No hay respeto por las mujeres y los castigos son terribles.
Más abajo explicamos overseer, cowsking,
cudgel, joist y gory; y encontramos
una foto de Charley Taylor, ¡un esclavo blanco!
“No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose…”
Paragraps
I have had two masters. My first master's name was
Anthony. I do not remember his first name. He was generally called Captain
Anthony—a title which, I presume, he acquired by sailing a craft on the
Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich slaveholder. He owned two or three
farms, and about thirty slaves. His farms and slaves were under the care of an overseer.
The overseer's name was
Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage
monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the women's heads
so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would
threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself.
Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It
required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer
to affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He
would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often
been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own
aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon
her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no
tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed
to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed,
the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped
longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush;
and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted
cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I
was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I
remember any thing.
It was the first of a long series of such outrages,
of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with
awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of
slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I
wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.
This occurrence took place very soon after I went to
live with my old master, and under the following circumstances. Aunt Hester
went out one night,—where or for what I do not know,—and happened to be absent
when my master desired her presence. He had ordered her not to go out evenings,
and warned her that she must never let him catch her in company with a young
man, who was paying attention to her belonging to Colonel Lloyd. The young
man's name was Ned Roberts, generally called Lloyd's Ned. Why master was so
careful of her, may be safely left to conjecture. She was a woman of noble
form, and of graceful proportions, having very few equals, and fewer superiors,
in personal appearance, among the colored or white women of our neighborhood.
Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in
going out, but had been found in company with Lloyd's Ned; which circumstance,
I found, from what he said while whipping her, was the chief offence. Had he
been a man of pure morals himself, he might have been thought interested in
protecting the innocence of my aunt; but those who knew him will not suspect
him of any such virtue. Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her
into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck,
shoulders, and back, entirely naked. He then told her to cross her hands,
calling her at the same time a d——d b—-h. After crossing her hands, he tied
them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the
joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her
hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were
stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes.
He then said to her, "Now, you d——d b—-h, I'll learn you how to disobey my
orders!" and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the
heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from
her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified
and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not
venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it
would be my turn next. It was all new to me. I had never seen any thing like it
before. I had always lived with my grandmother on the outskirts of the
plantation, where she was put to raise the children of the younger women. I had
therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often
occurred on the plantation. (From Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass, chapter 1. Versión
en español)Charley Taylor, hijo de una esclava negra, fue vendido por su propio padre
Vocabulario
Overseer: a person who supervises
others, especially workers.
Cowskin: A whip made of leather.
Cudgel: a short, thick stick
used as a weapon.
Joist: any of the small
timbers or metal beams ranged parallel from wall to wall in a structure to
support a floor or ceiling
Gory: covered with gore,
bloodstained.
From around the web
Jim,
telling his friend, Huck, how he escaped from his master (From The Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn)
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