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Allen Parker's Worcester
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BY ALLEN PARKER (Worcester, Mass.: Chas. W. Burbank & Co., 1895, 96 pp) CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER VIII.A short time after my mother died, I got tired of living with Burk and ran away to the woods. I would stay in the woods in the day time, and in the night I would go to the house of a poor white woman who had been a friend to my mother. After I had stayed away about a week I got tired of that sort of life and went back to Mr. Buck. When I got back Buck called two of his slaves, who helped him to tie me, and then he gave me a whipping on the legs with a cowhide. I did not run away again, and for a time he treated me better than he had done before. As the years of my service drew to a close he grew more close, but at times was unkind to me. He did not try to injure me again till the end of my service, not daring to touch me any more, while my term of service lasted. On the last day he came to me and said he was going to whip me. I said he should not and started to run. He ran after me, but did not catch me until I got on the old Parker Plantation. I then raised my hand and told him that he could not touch me He went to my mistress and told her that he wanted to whip me, but she informed him that as I had got through my term of service, he had nothing more to do with me, and so the matter ended. My mistress, however, called me to her and told me to look out for myself for Mr. Buck, she said, would be likely to injure me if he got a chance when I was off that plantation. The following January I was let to a man of the name of John Littlefield. He was a poor white who had two women slaves and a slave of his own. He was a small farmer. I stayed with him some months, and being near the old plantation I saw my owners quite often. One day Miss Annie said to me, "Allen, if the war continues shall you run away or will you stay with me?" I told her that I did not want to leave her and would not run off to the Yankees, I was on good terms with Miss Annie for there was only a few days difference in our ages, I being the older, and we were both still young and did not feel the difference in our stations, it was true that she owned me but as she had up to this time had no care of her own property, she did not seem to relize that I was her slave. And as I had slways been well treeted by all the Parker family I had no feelings for any of them except love and respect. The plantation had always been my home when I was not out at work, either alone or with my mother so, that I felt as if in a measure I was one of the family> However in common with all the Negroes I had inbribed very strong yearning for freedom and was hoping that in some way my freedom would come to me. But up to the time of my mother's death I had no idea of running away to stay But while I was with Littlefield we kept hearing more and more about the "Yankees" and the more we heard, the more uneasy we became. Many of the slaves from the plantation had been sent to Richmond for fear they would run away, but none of the Parker slaves had been sent off, nor had any of them ran away. But as the summer months passed, those of us that were left on the plantation, felt more and more restless, for added to our increasing desire for liberty we could not help feeling the xtra restraint that was put upon all the slaves in the vicinity to prevent them from running away. The roads were patrolled and every effort was made to keep the slaves on the plantations at night, and it was very hard to get a pass to leave home at all; but nevertheless we did manage to get away quite often and many conferences were hold, in which the doings of the "Yankees" were talked over, and ideas in relacion to freedom exchanged by the slaves. During the month of August 1862 slaves living on the adjoining plantation together with myself began to form plans of in some way getting to the "yankees" We used to get together when we could and talk our plans over, but for a time did nothing else. But finally finding that lots of the slaves from the neighboring plantation were running away we concluded that we would take our chance, as soon as we could get any. One day we heard a gun fire about four o'clock in the morning and upon gathering in the morning to see what the matter was we saw a United States gunboat out in the river. As this was by no means the first we had seen of Uncle Sam's vessels we were not at all surprised and in fact for some days we had agreed that the next time a vessel came up the river we would try and get on board her. That night after it was quiet, my three friends, whose names were Joe, Arden and Dick all slaves of one Robert Felton came to see me. We talked the matter over and concluded to start that night. We waited till everything was quiet for as it happened there were no "pattie rollers" out that night; and then stole our way down to the river bank, where we knew there was a boat. We found the boat all right but it was fastened to a tree with a chain the ends being locked together. I told the other three men to get some sticks and march up and down the beach like soldiers while I took another stick with which I managed to pull out the staple that held the chain to the boat thereby leaving chain and lock fast to the tree where it may be yet for ought I know to the contrary. There were some paddles in the boat, and we were not long in making use of them. Pushing out from the shore we bid goodbye to the old plantations and slave life forever. As we neared the boat we were hailed with, "Who are you?" We replied, "Friends," and received the reply, "Advance, friends, and come alongside." As we got alongside of the gunboat we were hailed again with, "Who are you?" and "where did you come from?" My friends said that they were from Rob. Felton's plantation, and I told them that I belonged to Miss Annie Parker. They then inquired if our owners were Union people or not, and we replied that they were not. The officer who had hailed us then reported what we said to the captain, but before he went away we told him that all wanted to go on board the vessel and stay. We asked him if he could not take us on board to let us know at once, so that we could got back home before morning. When the officer came back he said he had orders from the captain to let us come aboard. We immediately accepted the invitation, and being very tired, were soon fast asleep on the deck of the vessel. In the morning we were told that we could stay on the boat. Accordingly, we let our boat drift, which, by the way, was only a cypress dug out, being made of a single log. When it was light we found that we had been missed at home, for soon there was quite a number of men, armed with guns and accompanied by dogs, collected on the shore, but there was a wide step of water between us, and we did not feel very much alarmed. The captain watched them for a while, then ordered a gun loaded with a shell to be fired in that direction. The shell burst in the air, but our friends did not stay to see another fired. They seemed to remember very suddenly that they had something to do at home; at any rate, in a very short time not a man or dog was to be seen. The next night some of the sailors taking Joe as a pilot, went to the Felton plantation and got quite a lot of chickens, ducks and geese. A few nights afterward they went to the plantation again, and finding that Mr. Fulton was at home, they surrounded the house and took him prisoner He was carried on board the vessel and kept there until she went to New Berne. The morning after he was taken prisoner his wife and two little children went to the vessel and asked to see him, which was permitted. But it chanced that before Mrs. Felton saw her husband she sighted Joe, to whom she used some very hard language, to say the least. Among other things she told him that if the south were successful they would kill all the negroes that ran away. Joe quietly informed her that as the south would not win, he thought he was safe enough. It happened that Joe was a son of Mr. Felton, and his mother was one of Col. Felton's slaves. But the tables had turned; Joe remained on the vessel a free man, and Felton was a prisoner of war. A few months afterward Joe was accidentally drowned. In a few days I embarked in the United States Navy and was placed on board a vessel that had been captured from the rebels. I served on this vessel, which was called "The Knockum," and was used as an ammunition boat, for one year when I got my discharge. I then went to Beaufort, where I worked in a saw mill for some months. After that I went to sea again as steward on a sailing vessel, owned in Portland Me. We loaded with timber for Brooklyn, N. Y., and after discharging our cargo, we sailed to Portland, at which place I left the vessel, and have never been South since. After staying in Portland about a week, I went directly to New Haven, Conn., where I had a cousin who had formerly been a slave in the Parker family, but had been purchased by an Alabama planter. When this planter died he left it in his will that my cousin should be free; he also left a sum of money with which she came north. I stayed with her for about a year, during which time I worked for a mason as hod carrier and general laborer. From New Haven I went to various places, staying but a short time in each I finally drifted to Worcester, where I have lived most of the time for the last thirty years. RETURN TO TOP
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