Читать книгу From Dixie to Canada - H. U. Johnson - Страница 14
VIII.
ОглавлениеAs an index of Jo’s native quickness of perception, the following excerpts, taken from Pettit’s “Sketches of the Underground Railroad,” published some years ago by W. McKinstry & Son, are added, the only change being that the places where the events are thought to have taken place are given.
Jo was a serious, devoted Christian, yet his wit and mirthfulness were often exhibited in keen, sarcastic repartee. At Delanti the question was asked, ‘Did you work hard when you were a slave?’
‘No! I didn’t work hard when I could help it.’
‘Did you have enough to eat?’
‘Yes, such as it was.’
‘Did you have decent clothes?’
‘Yes, midlin’.’
‘Well, you were better off than most people are here, and you were a fool to run away.’
‘Well, now, the place I lef’ is there yet, I s’pose. Guess nobody’s never got into it, and if my frien’ here wants it, he can have it fo’ the askin’, though p’raps he better get his member of Congress to recommend him.’
At Westfield, a fellow asked, ‘Is the speaker in favor of amalgamation?’
‘’Gamation! what’s dat?’
‘It means whites and blacks marrying together.’
‘O dat’s it! as fo’ such things they ’pends mostly on peples’ tas’. Fo’ my part, I have a colored woman fo’ a wife,—that’s my choice,—an’ if my frien’ here wants a black wife, an’ if she is pleased with him, I’m suah I shan’t get mad about it.’
Soon after he commenced collecting funds to redeem his family from bondage, he was invited to go to a school-house in Villenova. When near the place he saw two boys chopping, and heard one of them say: ‘There’s the nigger.’
Jo stopped and said: ‘I ain’t a nigger! I allus pays my debts; my massa was a nigger. See here! when you chop, you be a chopper, ain’t dat so?’
‘Yes,’ responded the boys.
‘Well, when a man nigs, I call him a nigger. Now ol’ massa nigged me out of all I earned in my life. Of course he is a nigger.’ Then Jo sang the chorus to one of Geo. W. Clark’s Liberty songs:
