|
HUAN 5 |
| Sometimes the
slave’s running away was in protest against too much work, brutal whippings or
injustice on the part of a master or a person to whom he had been hired. If the runaway
was a good worker, he often had the sympathies of his master if he was mistreated as a
hired hand. Some masters would go so far as to hide such a slave when he came to them
because according to Tennessee law, the master could still collect the wages of the slave
for the period of time named in the contract. Again, the master might send word to a
slave, who had left him because of a particular grievance, that he had nothing to fear and
might return to him without punishment. There were also the slaves who returned of their
own accord; sometimes because they were tired of the woods, sometimes because they were
literally starving but most frequently because of fear of being caught. However, due
largely to the activities of the underground railway, slaves often succeeded in effecting
a permanent escape to the free states. In the collected documents, one finds examples of
all these types of escape from the slave situation. Sometimes they were temporary,
sometimes permanent, but always real and usually fraught with grave dangers.
|
|
HUAN 5 |
