{"id":210,"date":"2021-05-31T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T14:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/therefugee\/?post_type=chapter&p=210"},"modified":"2022-02-01T10:25:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:25:02","slug":"isaac-griffin","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/chapter\/isaac-griffin\/","title":{"raw":"Isaac Griffin","rendered":"Isaac Griffin"},"content":{"raw":"I am from Trimble county, Ky. I was a slave in Kentucky forty-six years. Then I had $500 for self, wife, and child. I left eight children in bondage, who undertook to escape. The oldest got here; the others were retaken, and sold in Texas.\r\n\r\nTwo years ago, I saw one hundred men chained, besides women and children, going down south.\r\n\r\nI have often been down the Mississippi on flat-boats,\u2014following the river every year for five or six years. Mornings I would hear something like a bell\u2014it is a clock though,-\u2014then the hands have to rise; if they do n't, the overseer is among them.\r\n\r\nJust before day, the first time I went down, as I was floating down the Grand Gulf, I heard the whip cracking, and a man crying, \"Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh Lord!\" I was afraid somebody was murdering: I called my master,\u2014he said, \"Somebody is whipping his slave.\" We had to put in there. I saw the man: he was put over a log, his feet tied, and his hands tied, and a rail put between. They would whip him, and then rest upon it. They flogged him off and on until daylight. His back . . . . .\r\n\r\nAt one time I went down on a boat. There were\u00a0many slaves on board, and one yellow girl with a child. At Natchez, a man came on board who wanted to buy a yellow girl without children. Her master told her to say she had none. The man bought her, and the trader gave her child, six weeks old, to a white woman.\r\n\r\nSlavery is the greatest curse on earth. Nothing exceeds it for wickedness. A slave in the South suffers death many times before he does die.\r\n\r\nI felt, when free, as light as a feather\u2014a burden was off of me. I could get up and go to my work without being bruised and beaten. The worst thought was for my children,\u2014what they might have to go through. I cannot hear from them.\r\n\r\nI have lived in Canada one year. I find the people laboring well generally: as industrious as any men. The law is the same for one as another. We have our meetings and gatherings here, and have no trouble at all.\r\n\r\nI am doing as well, for a poor man, as I can expect\u2014I get a good living.","rendered":"

I am from Trimble county, Ky. I was a slave in Kentucky forty-six years. Then I had $500 for self, wife, and child. I left eight children in bondage, who undertook to escape. The oldest got here; the others were retaken, and sold in Texas.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, I saw one hundred men chained, besides women and children, going down south.<\/p>\n

I have often been down the Mississippi on flat-boats,\u2014following the river every year for five or six years. Mornings I would hear something like a bell\u2014it is a clock though,-\u2014then the hands have to rise; if they do n’t, the overseer is among them.<\/p>\n

Just before day, the first time I went down, as I was floating down the Grand Gulf, I heard the whip cracking, and a man crying, “Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh Lord!” I was afraid somebody was murdering: I called my master,\u2014he said, “Somebody is whipping his slave.” We had to put in there. I saw the man: he was put over a log, his feet tied, and his hands tied, and a rail put between. They would whip him, and then rest upon it. They flogged him off and on until daylight. His back . . . . .<\/p>\n

At one time I went down on a boat. There were\u00a0many slaves on board, and one yellow girl with a child. At Natchez, a man came on board who wanted to buy a yellow girl without children. Her master told her to say she had none. The man bought her, and the trader gave her child, six weeks old, to a white woman.<\/p>\n

Slavery is the greatest curse on earth. Nothing exceeds it for wickedness. A slave in the South suffers death many times before he does die.<\/p>\n

I felt, when free, as light as a feather\u2014a burden was off of me. I could get up and go to my work without being bruised and beaten. The worst thought was for my children,\u2014what they might have to go through. I cannot hear from them.<\/p>\n

I have lived in Canada one year. I find the people laboring well generally: as industrious as any men. The law is the same for one as another. We have our meetings and gatherings here, and have no trouble at all.<\/p>\n

I am doing as well, for a poor man, as I can expect\u2014I get a good living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":15,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-210","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":179,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/210\/revisions\/432"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/179"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/210\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/therefugee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}