University of Virginia Library

14. CHAPTER XIV.
CRUEL MERCIES.

MRS. BENSON the younger was visited by many of the Boston ladies who were in that circle in which the Benson family moved. We regret that she was so poor a sample of Virginia refinement and cultivation. Many were the remarks which were made about her simplicity, and her

calling an old black woman mammy; but it was generally allowed that she was good enough for that plodding, sombre, disagreeable-looking creature, Bob Benson.

The months of July and August were mostly spent by her in receiving and returning visits, and in long conversations in her own room, with her dear Mammy Betty. Occasionally, Mrs. Benson the elder would come with her work, and spend some time in her chamber, and she returned the old lady's visits with as much punctiliousness as she did those of other visiters.

About the first of September, when she was returning from a morning call, she was overtaken without umbrella, by a shower, and before she reached home was completely drenched. That night she complained of hoarseness and sore throat, and her mammy thought she had a slight fever when she retired to bed at a much earlier hour than usual. When Mr. Benson, Jr., came up to bed, the old woman said she thought her 'Melia was right sick. "Oh! she'll be well in the morning," he replied. Mammy Betty retired to her closet, not to sleep, however. About the middle of the night she went to her bedside, and called her in a low voice: "'Melia—my 'Melia!" "I'm not asleep, mammy," she answered, "my head aches so bad, and my temples throb so I can't sleep."

"Well, my chil', I'll set by you, wid my han' 'pun you head; may be dat will do you som' good."

She remained by her until the day dawned, when she left the room to get her water, and some wood to make a little fire, as it was a damp drizzling morning. When she returned, Mr. Benson had dressed himself, and gone down to his counting-room as usual.

"How you do now, my chil'?" she inquired.

"Oh, Mammy Betty, I'm mighty sick; I don't think I ever felt before as I do now."

"You eyes does look mighty red; does de pain you, my chile?"

"Yes, mammy, I'm in pain all over."

"My 'Melia, you ought to hav' one doctor to see you."

"Oh, no, mammy, I hope I shall get better after a while."

After the old woman had made a little fire, she went down and told Mrs. Benson the elder, that she thought her 'Melia was mighty sick, and asked her to go up and see her. She went up immediately, and finding her much more unwell than she had expected, sent the old woman down to ask Robert to come up. When he came into the room, she said,

"Robert, indeed I think Amelia is very sick; she should take some medicine, but you know we don't keep medicine, and if we did we don't know what kind to give. Don't you think we had better send over for Dr. Reid?"

"Yes, mother, if you think her very sick, I will go over myself for the Doctor."

He soon returned with the Doctor, who examined the symptoms of her disease, and pronounced her quite sick. He gave her some medicine, and said he hoped she would be better after a while; that he would be back again, towards the afternoon. Mr. Benson, Jr., took a seat by his wife's bed, remained about an hour, and then returned to his business, leaving his mother and her mammy to take care of her.

The medicine which she had taken was all thrown off her stomach in a very short time after it was administered.

When the Doctor returned, towards night, he found her much worse, and repeated the dose which he had given in the morning. He told Mrs. Benson that the fever was increasing in violence, that she was a little flighty, and that if the last dose did not produce a change for the better, she would have a severe spell. Mammy Betty overheard what he said, and it was with much difficulty she could be restrained from breaking out into violent grief. The Doctor told her that her young mistress's recovery depended in a great measure upon her being kept quiet. With much exertion she suppressed her grief while in the chamber. She often went, however, into her closet, shut the door, and gave vent to her tears.

Mr. Benson, Jr., was informed by the Doctor that his wife's situation was dangerous. As soon as he heard it he left his business, went up into the chamber, where he remained all the afternoon, assisting in nursing her. She had a restless, sleepless night, and on the following morning the Doctor pronounced her in imminent danger. Her fever raged with such violence as to take from her all consciousness. It caused exquisite torture to Mammy Betty, to find that her 'Melia did not know her. During the day the Doctor proposed that her father should be telegraphed, thinking that she might possibly live until his arrival. Old Mr. Benson went to the office and sent a despatch to Winchester, with a request that a messenger should be sent with it to Major Scott's.

Dr. Reid, at the suggestion of Mr. Benson, Jr., called in an assistant physician of high reputation, who confirmed the opinion before expressed by Dr. Reid, that her case was hopeless. Mammy Betty, now that she could no

longer disturb her 'Melia, indulged in violent grief. She could be persuaded to take scarcely a mouthful of food, and no persuasions could induce her to take rest. She sat every night in a chair by the bed, wringing her bands, and weeping bitterly.

In the afternoon of the fifth day from the telegraphic despatch, Major Scott arrived. His daughter was still living, but in a state of insensibility. When he entered her chamber, Mammy Betty threw her arms round his neck, screaming, "O masser, my 'Melia gwine die." It was with difficulty he could disengage himself from her. He walked up to the bed, kissed his daughter's forehead, and sank into a chair by her side. Understanding that the family had been sitting up for several nights, Major Scott proposed they should take rest, and that he should be suffered to watch over his daughter that night. Mrs. Benson and her husband, who both required rest, retired early. Mr. Benson, Jr., remained, and occasionally took a little sleep on a trundle bed which had been brought into the room for his convenience. Mammy Betty and her master watched the whole night; in the morning there were no favourable symptoms. She lingered until the morning of the ninth day, when she expired.

Mammy Betty's grief was beyond all description. She threw herself upon the bed near the corpse, and in agony exclaimed, "My 'Melia! my chil'! talk to you mammy; let you poo' mammy hear de soun' of dat voice once mo'. My darlin' chil' gone and lef' me here by my poo' lone self. What is I to do ? what is I to do, now my poo' chil' gone ?" Mr. Benson, Jr., was deeply distressed. Major Scott paced the room, in anguish of soul too deep for

utterance. While those around him were bewailing their individual bereavement, his heart was stricken by his own, and the sorrows of a far distant mother and sister.

Mammy Betty was carried and laid upon her own bed. The violence of her grief subsided into a deep settled melancholy, bordering on insensibility to everything around. At four o'clock the next day, a respectable procession followed the corpse to its final resting-place, where another frail tenement of clay was consigned to its kindred earth.

Major Scott, on his return from the funeral in a hack with Mr. Benson, Jr., expressed his intention of leaving Boston in a steamship, which be understood would get under weigh for Philadelphia, from the harbour, about ten o'clock. He told Mr. Benson it was his wish to carry Betty back to Virginia.

"I would wish you to do so, sir," he replied, "as I suppose she would like it above all things; but, Major Scott, it must be done with as much secrecy as possible, or she might be prevented from going."

"I don't exactly understand you, Mr. Benson; who would think of preventing her from going?"

"If she were your own servant, Major, it is doubtful whether you would be suffered to take her; but, as she is known to be free, the difficulty will be greatly increased, from an apprehension that you, a Southern slave-owner, were about to carry a free negro from Boston to make a slave of her in Virginia."

"But, sir, I suppose free people of colour here have a right to go where they please; and if she proclaims to the mob, who were attempting to take her, not only her

willingness, but her great anxiety to go, would they not let her exercise her own choice?"

"I have understood, Major, that in some instances, where that willingness to go has been declared to the mob, they said the assent had been obtained by trick and deception, and that they did not regard it as any positive evidence of the inclination of the free person to go away."

"Well, sir, what precaution had we better take to avoid these difficulties?"

"Why, I know of no other than to take her to the steamship in a hack, as secretly as possible."

"We will engage, then, the hack we are now in to be at your door about nine o'clock to-morrow morning."

When they returned, Major Scott went up into Mammy Betty's closet. A cold shuddering came over him as he passed through the chamber which had been once his daughter's, and from which he had seen her corpse taken but a short time before. He found the old woman in a doze, perhaps the first she had taken for several days and nights.

"Betty! Betty!" he called.

"Who dat call me?"

"Don't you know me, Betty?"

"Is dat my masser, my 'Melia pa ? Yes I does know my 'Melia pa: what dey gwine do wid my 'Melia? where dey gwine car' her to ?"

"I am come to know of you, old woman, whether you wish to go back with me to Virginia?"

"Yes, masser, I go if dey let my 'Melia go."

"Old woman, don't you know that your Miss Amelia is dead, and that she can't go back to Virginia ?"

"If dey don' let my 'Melia go, masser, Betty no go nudder, masser."

The Major, finding that her mind was wandering, either from want of rest or from excessive grief, postponed further conversation with her until the morning, when he hoped she would be more rational after a good night's rest. He returned below, and requested Mrs. Benson to have her removed to another room, and something given her to eat.

The next morning, early, he went to the room to which she had been removed, found her awake, and quite rational.

"Old woman, will you go back to Virginia with me?"

"Yes, masser, dat I will, I neber gwine stay here, sir, now my 'Melia gone."

"Well, you must get up and have everything ready by nine o'clock."

"O, my masser, I is so glad I gwine from dis place! I bin see nothin' but trouble an' sorrow here, masser. Poo' Tom he die, an' 'stress me mightly; but dis las' blow, O 'tis too hebby, too hebby for me to bear!"

"It is indeed heavy, very heavy to us all, Betty; but it has come, and we must bear it."

"Masser, I hope de Lord wilI 'nable us to bear it, sir."

"I hope so indeed, Betty."

After breakfast, the hack was soon at the door; Major Scott and Mammy Betty took a cordial leave of old Mr. and Mrs. Benson. Mr. Benson, Jr., went with them in the hack to the steamship; when they approached, they saw a crowd on the deck of the ship, and many persons on the wharf. The Major, Mr. Benson, and Mammy Betty went immediately on board. Just as they got there, a tall stout man, wearing the badge of office,

stepped up and asked, "Is this Major Scott of Virginia?"

"Yes, sir, my name is Scott."

"I am a constable, sir, of the city, and have a precept from Judge Thorndike, commanding me to take from your possession, and bring before him, a free negro woman called Betty, information having been given his honour, on oath, that you, Major Scott, are about to convey this said negro woman Betty to Virginia, with the supposed intention of making her a slave."

"I have no intention of doing any such thing, sir. The woman is free, and is very anxious to go back with me to Virginia, where all her relations reside, and she will be as free there as here; I can't let you take her, sir," taking hold of Mammy Betty as he spoke.

The captain of the ship came up, and addressing himself to Major Scott said, "Stranger, you'd better mind what you are about; this is an officer of the law, and if you resist him we shall have the devil to pay here. You must give up this woman, sir. I shall be made to suffer as captain of this vessel if I take her away." The words "look out," were sounded with the bell; the crowd rushed to the wharf, the officer dragging away Mammy Betty, the vessel was off in a moment, and Major Scott and Mammy Betty were separated for ever. She uttered an unearthly shriek, and not another sigh or groan escaped her. She was led by the officer to the Judge, who said to her, "Old woman, were you willing to have gone with Major Scott to Virginia?"

With a shriek she fell dead at his feet; the word Virginia had fallen as a flash of lightning upon her heart, and riven its last chord. Another monument was there

erected to Northern philanthropy, upon which we will inscribe from Holy Writ, "Thy prayers and thine alms have come up as a memorial before God," and "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

Great was the excitement in the crowd; many were heard to say, that that occurrence was only one of the many evils of slavery. A South Carolinian, however, who had been spending the summer in Boston, and was in that crowd, thought differently; and fearlessly expressed his thought, that it was the result of an officious meddling with Southern rights, miscalled philanthropy.

[Chapters 15-17 (pp. 265-299 omitted.]