Twelve Years a Slave - Enhanced Edition (45 page)

197.
Lodowick and Ann Martha Eldred Tanner owned Tiger Bend Plantation. It lay in the same vicinity as Douglas Marshall’s plantation, across the Bayou Boeuf from the Epps plantation. A leading Rapides Parish planter, Ezra Bennett, living on Bayou Boeuf, left an extensive collection of documents and copies of letters that provide much information regarding Tiger Bend plantation, which was owned by his sister-in-law, widowed Ann Martha Eldred Tanner [See Bennett Papers]. Douglas Marshall was the son of Roger Banks Marshall, an immigrant to Holmesville from Virginia and brother of United States Attorney General John Marshall. Roger Banks Marshall owned the plantation across Bayou Boeuf from the Epps’ plantation, where his son lived. Douglas Marshall is not mentioned in any Avoyelles Parish conveyance records. He is buried in the now abandoned Marshall cemetery, Evergreen, Louisiana.

198.
An H.A. Varnell is listed in the U.S. Census for 1850, but no William Varnell. Nor is William Pierce listed. “Pierce” is probably the wrong spelling of the name Pearce, the surname of a large Pearce family living in the Evergreen area, where Alanson Pearce’s home still stands. There is no William Pearce or William Pierce listed in the 1850 U.S. Census of Avoyelles or Rapides parishes. However, other male Pearce members of the family lived in the area.

199.
“Bits and picayunes” were a part of the Spanish monetary system widely used in Louisiana; the names are sometimes used in Louisiana to this day. A “bit” is half of a quarter in U.S. money, and the term “picayune” is frequently used as a derogatory term, a holdover from the time a picayune represented 1/16 of a dollar [See Johnson, 245-58].

Chapter Twenty-One

200.
There is no mention of a letter mailed to Anne Northup, but to William Perry, Cephas Parker, and Judge Marvin. Attorney Henry Northup, abolitionist and political figure that he was, wrote the letter signed by the wife of Solomon to appeal for the designation of an agent to rescue the free citizen of New York. [See a photo of Henry Northup in the Extras & More section of our website at
www.TwelveYearsASlave.org
].

Anne Northup was not literate, as shown by the fact that in a judgment from the Supreme Court, Warren County, rendered against Anne Northup on March 25, 1859, Anne Northup’s acknowledgement of her indebtedness is signified by a mark. In part the document reads:

I, Ann Northup, defendant hereby confess myself indebted to the Glens Falls Bank in the Sum of forty-nine dollars and seventy-five cents with interest from the 26th of September 1857 and authorize said Bank or its attorney or assigns to enter judgment against me for that amount . . . And I hereby state that above sum by one [word unclear] is justly due to the said Bank.

Dated March 21, 1859

Ann Northup X [her mark]

[See Benjamin P. Burham vs. Ann Northup]

201.
Henry Northup, an attorney and leading Whig political figure in New York, was a passionate abolitionist who had championed another beleaguered black in a hard-fought lawsuit. In another book also published in 1853, Wilson wrote about that event. L.R. Lewis, respected attorney and also a leading New York Methodist, wrote concerning the other case:

Henry B. Northup represented Joseph S. Brown, a negro preacher and missionary to Liberia in a New York civil case demanding that Brown’s superior official in the African church admit the inaccuracy of slanderous remarks made by the official against Brown. I think he had to do with “Brown’s Journal” which is the story of the negro preacher’s experiences leading up to his efforts in Liberia and concluding with the conclusion of the civil action. [See Lewis to Morton]

202.
The letter Samuel Bass wrote for Solomon Northup arrived at a most opportune time. Henry Northup was able to secure the appointment to rescue Solomon while a fellow Whig, Washington Hunt, was still governor of New York. That same fall, Hunt had lost his bid for reelection to a Democrat, Horatio Seymour, who might not have been receptive to a Whig request to be named the agent to rescue the f.m.c. (free man of color) who was a citizen of New York. Henry Northup’s timely appointment while he could secure it from a Whig governor was only one of a series of events critical to Solomon Northup’s rescue. Without Henry Northup’s gaining free time to pursue the project, there would probably have been no rescue attempt at that time [See
New York Times
, January 20, 1853].

203.
The Northup rescue was taking place in an atmosphere of growing acrimony between North and South. By the 1850s the conflict had become more and more bitter. The Compromise of 1850 with the Fugitive Slave Act did nothing to allay the anger of either section. In Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, as all through the South, hostility over what citizens considered an invasion of their states’ rights rose to fever pitch. At stake was the plantation system, the base of the economy on which the entire population, including that of New Orleans, depended. Tempers flared quickly on what to Southerners seemed the destruction of their only means of a livelihood. Had politically powerful figures, including Soulé, attempted to dictate a course of action to Avoyelles Parish officials, Solomon Northup would likely have lived out his life as a slave on a Bayou Boeuf plantation.

204.
Had attorney Northup gone on to New Orleans rather than take passage up Red River to Marksville 3.5 miles away, he would have missed Bass, and finding Northup among the thousands of slaves on Bayou Boeuf would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack. His timing—later than he had originally planned for the trip—happened to be equally fortunate. Northup had pressing business of his own in his bid to become a New York Congressman representing the Whig party in Washington. With his own party selecting him to run for the office, he was in the midst of a campaign for the election, which he lost to a Democrat who had once belonged to the Free Soilers. The election was so close Whigs challenged the outcome, and the final decision in favor of the Democrat was not made until November [See
Saratoga Whig
, October 22; November 12, 26, 1852, as cited in footnotes 1 and 2,
Twelve Years a Slave
(1968), 227].

205.
The most critical action marking the success of the venture came with the meeting between New York attorney Henry Northup and the Marksville attorney Waddill, himself a planter and owner of over 200 slaves. The backlash in Marksville against the fervor of the North to free the slaves involved more than profound respect for the law by Waddill and that of other Avoyelles Parish officials. The dignity and respect with which Henry Northup stated his mission to Waddill and the instantly positive response of the Avoyelles attorney contributed the
sine qua non
to the success of Northup’s rescue effort. With the business-like approach of these men, they were able to get the job done. Waddill followed the law and Henry Northup obtained the freedom of a New York citizen.

Waddill, although an Avoyelles courthouse authority, could not have prevailed without the New Yorker’s mannerly request for help in freeing the free man of color. Clearly, this was no simple situation with a slave to be located bearing a name unheard of in Bayou Boeuf country.

As it happened, the two men enjoyed moments of conversation about politics in their respective states during the interval in which Waddill developed his plan. Waddill searched for answers as to how to locate Platt, lost among the thousands of slaves on plantations along both sides of Bayou Boeuf about twenty-three miles south of Marksville. After the puzzle of Northup’s identity was solved when Waddill determined that Bass had written the letter, Waddill knew that speed was of the essence in reaching Bayou Boeuf. The rescuers reached the Epps place in a buggy or carriage traveling over new land where there were no roads; some areas may well have been covered with water from sub-tropical rains.

206.
Louisiana was one of the five “Cotton States” bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Settled by the French beginning in 1699 and owned by the Spanish for most of the last half of the eighteenth century, it was after Louisiana became a state in 1812 that English-speaking pioneers migrated into the state by the thousands, often bringing slaves. The rich lands along the Mississippi River were settled, and New Orleans was becoming a city, but much of inland Louisiana remained unsettled. After a short staple cotton crop was developed that would grow on almost any soil, farmers from the mostly North Louisiana hills and would-be planters alike migrated to the rich lands along the rivers, bayous, and some creeks to develop cotton plantations. The boom had come after 1793 when Eli Whitney developed a small cotton gin that separated cottonseed from the lint. Bayou Boeuf had a five-mile stretch of some of the richest land in the world. The “Great Pine Woods” stretched from its fringe to the Sabine River, which forms the border between Louisiana and Texas.

Cheap, unsettled land that had to be cleared of trees before being developed into plantations sold for as little as $1.25 an acre. A few wealthy entrepreneurs with political clout received grants of thousands of acres, most of which was slowly developed into plantations.

With all of the work converting the frontier into livable, workable plantations, slaves became nearly one-half the plantation country population, while few lived in the hill country.

207.
Sugar mills such as the Northup party viewed that day were located on many plantations along Bayou Boeuf all the way to the port of Washington. They consisted of a small machine near the mill to which was attached a long pole. To the pole was harnessed a mule, horse, or probably, in some cases, an ox, that walked endlessly in circles to grind several stalks of cane stoked by the man running this operation. Cane juice, dark in color, poured into a large barrel placed under the machine. When the barrel was full, workmen carried the juice to the small mill. The mill consisted of a series of at least three iron kettles over a brick furnace fueled with wood, often pine knots. Into the largest kettle, located toward the opening to the mill, the juice from the barrel was poured. A skilled workman watched the progress of the juice until it became thicker and was poured into the second largest kettle. The quantity from first to second and then from the second kettle to the third was smaller. The boiling continued until a raw brown sugar was produced. Barrels were filled with moist brown sugar to be shipped to market in New Orleans as quickly as possible.

Before the Civil War these mills were located about a mile and a half apart on the lines of plantations on either side of Bayou Boeuf. These were almost all destroyed during the Union invasions of Red River in 1863 and 1864. The sugar industry in this region was destroyed during the war, including its small sugar mills that were built on almost all of the sugar plantations which lined the bayou. It was decades before the industry was restored.

208.
Henderson Taylor, the lawyer for Epps, is noted as the syndic [civil magistrate] for the District on June 9, 1853 [See Waddill, 86]. Henderson Taylor, forty-five, a lawyer, is listed in the United States Census of 1850 as having been born in South Carolina and owning real estate valued at $19,000. He had a wife, Louisa, a male slave named Josh Lewis, and four children: Clara, seventeen; John, fourteen; Simon, eleven; and Ellen, twelve. Aristide Barbin was the recorder for Avoyelles Parish court documents.

209.
Waddill, with an economy of words, noted on January 1, 1853:

To-day I was employed by Henry B. Northup Esqr. of Sandy Hill, Washington County, State of New York, to bring suit against Edwin Epps, to reclaim from slavery a free Negro named Solomon Northup, who had been kidnapped in the City of Washington in 1841.

On January 4, 1853, he noted:

Today the slave Solomon was released & I received fifty dollars for my services. [See Waddill, 47; see an image of Waddill’s note in the Extras & More section of our website
www.TwelveYearsASlave.org
]

The Villager
, the weekly newspaper in Marksville, commented on the treatment of attorney Henry Northup in the village to obtain the freedom of Solomon Northup, as preserved in the
New Orleans Bee
on January 22, 1853:

The Villager
, published in Marksville, Avoyelles parish, in this State, in its edition of the 13th inst., notices the arrival in that parish of H.B. Northup, Esq., of New York, and gives the following account of the occasion of his visit and his reception by the citizens of Avoyelles parish. The striking contrast between the treatment he received, and that accorded to Southern gentlemen who visit the North for the purpose of recovering their property, is well set forth in the concluding paragraph:

A free negro of New York having some twelve years ago, gone to Washington, D.C., in pursuance of his calling as a musician, was, while there, kidnapped by some villains, sent South and sold as a slave. After passing through the hands of several masters, he eventually came into the possession of a planter of our parish. As he knew how to read and write, he either personally or by others made his friends at the North acquainted with his condition and his residence. His friends at once communicated the intelligence of Mr. N., to whose ancestors the negro’s ancestors formerly belonged, who had himself appointed as agent of the State of New York and came South in that capacity.

Mr. Northup, on his arrival here, after taking legal advice, commenced suit by having the negro sequestered. Mr. Epps, in whose possession the negro was, as being served with the writ, declared that he would offer no opposition, although he loses the amount he paid for him. On the next day Mr. Northup, accompanied by the negro, left for his home, Sandy Hill, New York.

This gentleman remained in the midst of a slaveholding population for four days, without being, although his object was known, subjected to the slightest affronts and inconvenience; on the contrary received every facility and attention that he required. What a contrast this presents to the treatment the Southerners receive at the hands of the people of the North, when in pursuit of their fugitive slaves. How different it is from the Gorauch, Kennedy, Lensnob, and other cases, which are so common in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and other free states. Well may the south boast of its justice and loyalty. [See
New Orleans Bee
, January 22, 1853]