Stolen into Slavery by Judith Bloom Fradin

Author:Judith Bloom Fradin [Fradin, Judy and Dennis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4263-0987-8
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2012-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

This early 1860s photo of slave quarters on a sugarcane plantation was taken in Houma, Louisiana, not far from where Solomon supervised 75 cane cutters. (Illustration Credits 1.21)

At this time Epps was often drunk, and he was mistreating his slaves more than ever. Hardly any of his slaves escaped punishment—even those who weren’t guilty of breaking his rules.

One day when Mrs. Epps sent Solomon on an errand to a neighboring plantation, he returned to find a horrifying sight. Old Abram was lying on the cabin floor in a pool of his own blood. The old man told Solomon that he had been placing wet cotton on a platform to dry out when Epps came home drunk from Holmesville. Epps began yelling at Abram for no particular reason, and the old man became so confused that he made some small mistake in handling the cotton. Flying into a rage, Epps pulled out his knife and stabbed Old Abram in the back.

Fortunately, the wound was not deep enough to be fatal. As Mrs. Epps sewed it up, she scolded her husband. If he didn’t change his ways, she warned, he would eventually kill all their slaves in his drunken rages.

On several occasions when Phebe angered Epps, he picked up a chair and smashed it over her head. Phebe’s husband Wiley was also the target of their master’s wrath. One night Wiley visited a friend on a neighboring plantation without obtaining a pass. The patrollers who rode about looking for runaway slaves chased him down with their dogs, one of which sank its teeth into his leg. The patrollers whipped Wiley and brought him back to Epps, who gave him a ferocious beating.

Unable to tolerate any more abuse, Wiley ran away. Epps vowed that when Wiley was caught, he would make him sorry he had ever been born. For weeks Wiley evaded capture, but after nearly a month he was caught and locked in jail. Epps paid the fee to have Wiley released and whipped him so brutally that he was crushed in both body and spirit. Wiley never tried to run away again.

But it was Patsey who received the most abuse. Edwin and Mary Epps both tormented her. Epps wanted Patsey to have sex with him, but she refused, which enraged him. Mary Epps was jealous of her husband’s interest in Patsey and tried to spite her whenever she had a chance. Solomon did what little he could to protect Patsey, and that brought their master’s wrath down upon him, too.

One day Patsey and Solomon were hoeing the ground when Epps returned home drunk from a shooting match in Holmesville. Epps stood on the edge of the field motioning to Patsey. “Platt,” said Patsey, “do you see old Hog Jaw beckoning me to come to him?”

With a quick glance, Solomon saw Epps gesturing to Patsey, who began to cry. She should keep working and act as though she hadn’t seen Epps, Solomon advised. But despite being drunk, Epps noticed that Solomon had said something to Patsey.

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