william grimes runaway

7/29/2019 William Grimes Runaway

1/9

N o t e s a n d DocumnentsThe Case of William Grimes,theRunawaySlave

Charles H. Nichols, Jr.*

VERY schoolboyknows,even if in sketchyoutlines, he politicalhistory of the conflict over slavery. Accounts of the slave tradeabound,and a beginning has been made in the study of plantation

society. But scholars and historians have until recently virtually neglectedthe life and behavior of one important segment of that society-the slavehimself. All too often the discussion of slavery has been carried on interms of stereotypes about the Negro slave that had no existence outsideof the minds of white men.What did it mean to be a slave, to be a marketable chattel, to sufferinescapablecaste status, to work without wages, to be driven often withoutmercy and forced to accept the appearance,the idea of inferiority? Howdid it feel? What hopes and fears stirred in the minds of these illiterateand brutalized men? What feelings lay behind their murderous andabortiverevolts? When they were forcedinto submissionand disingenuouscooperationwhat was the nature of their tenuous "adjustment" o slavery?Or having fled the plantation, what had slavery done to their personalityand behavior? These are questions that only the slave himself coulddirectly answer. To discover the answers to them is to see in human termswhat slavery entailed. Happily, there are many biographies and auto-biographies of slaves extant.' These accounts, (called "slave narratives")whether dictated, ghosted or written by the subjectsthemselves, are note-worthy for the facts they reveal in regard to both the plantation systemand the personalitiesof the slaves molded by the system.

*Mr. Nichols is a member of the Department of English, Hampton Institute.1For studies of the slave narrativesee: VernonLoggins,The Negro Author: HisDevelopment in America (New York, I93I); MarionW. Starling, The Slave Nar-rative: Its Place in AmericanLiteraryHistory, unpublishedPh.D. thesis, New YorkUniversity, 1946; CharlesH. Nichols, A Study of the Slave Narrative,unpublishedPh.D. thesis, BrownUniversity,1948.


2/9

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 553Slave narratives are usually associated with the abolitionist movement

which reached its most militant stage after i83I. There is no doubt thatmost of these late writings were produced with the aid of the anti-slaverymen of Boston and New York, and thus contain literary, ethical, philo-sophical, and didactic elements added by the white ghost-writers. TheNarrative of James Williams (i838) was dictated by the subject to JohnG. Whittier, The Life of Josiah Henson (i849) "narrated" o Samuel Eliot.William Wells Brown, J. W. C. Pennington, Henry Bibb and FrederickDouglass-all prominent in the anti-slaverycause-are but a few of theescaped slaves whose accounts were published in this period. Their auto-biographies went into several editions and had large printings.It is not very generally known, however, that slave narratives appearedin America in colonial times and in our early national period. Accountswritten before i83i, though frequently dictated, show fewer evidences ofabolitionist tampering, a less sentimental and propagandistic tone and, ingeneral, a less careful editing and printing. Like all autobiographies theymust be critically evaluated by the accepted rules for historical evidence,but nevertheless they provide a unique and an essential perspectiveon earlyAmerican slavery. Such narratives began in I703 with John Saffin'sAdamNegro's Tryall, written in answer to Samuel Sewall's well known anti-slavery tract, The Selling of Joseph. Other eighteenth-century works in-clude The Address of Abraham Johnstone,who was hanged at Woodbury,New Jersey for the murder of another Negro; A Narrative of the Uncom-mon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a NegroMan (Boston, I760); the broadside entitled The Life and Dying Speech ofArthur, published in Boston in I768; A Narrative of the Lord's WonderfulDealings with John Marrant, a Black (London, I785); The InterestingNarrative of the Life of OlaudahEquiano or GustavusVassa,The African(London, 1789), and A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture,a Native of Africa (New London, I798).Among the most interesting of the early narratives is the Life of Wil-liam Grimes, The Runaway Slave who escaped from slavery in i8I4.Having gained the rudiments of an education after his escape, Grimeswrote the story of his life and published it in a 68-page pamphlet in i825.By so doing he placed himself among the earliestof the nineteenth-centurynarrators who told of the outrage he sufferedin slavery.The Life of Wil-liam Grimes was, in this writer's judgment, clearly written by himself,not only because the style is simple, direct and unadorned, the text full


3/9

554 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLYof misspelling and poor punctuation,but because the tone of the narrativeis so personaland so protestant.

In calling attention to the story of William Grimes it is not contendedthat his was the typical experience and behavior of all slaves.A perusal ofslave literaturemakes clearthat therewas a great variety of reactionson thepart of the enslaved-from submissivecooperation to open rebellion. Thenarrativesshow, however, that while many slaves who were well-treatedtended to be loyal to their mastersmany of the field hands, who sufferedmore, rebelled. Grimes is an exampleof the lattergroup.Laziness, malingering, sabotage, strikes, flight, self-mutilation werecommon indices of the rebellious Negroes' unwillingness to "adjust"totheir situation. The treatment accorded them caused an emotional in-stability and persistent feelings of fear, hate, aggression and guilt. Al-though the slaveholder usually succeeded in frustrating these slaves'physical efforts to escape, the result was a disorganized and unsettledpersonality. There is little doubt that in some chattels this psychologicalinjury was permanent. Fully aware of the wrongs committed againstthem, many still sufferedfeelings of guilt even in the act of rebelling, forfear lay behind their aggression. The conflicts of personalitywhich thus de-veloped can be betterunderstood as the behavior of a particular slave suchas William Grimes is closely scrutinized. His might be consideredtypicalof the rebellious pattern of behavior. There are notable exceptions, but ingeneral, such slaves were poorly integratedpersons-permanently damagedsouls. Grimes never achieved a well-balanced, "adjusted" life even infreedom.While analyzing the behavior of the Negro slave it is important to bearin mind the enormous limitations placed upon him. The lower caste hadits attitudes, its ideals, and its aspirationsdetermined for it by the super-ordinate group who were, of course, its models. The Negro observed hismaster's freedom of movement, the security of his master's family, thewhite man's refusal to permit personal affront and so on. But being aNegro meant "notonly living in the presenceof severephysical limitations,but, more important for personality development, also . . . living in anintimate culture whose incentives, rewards and punishments preventred]the development of that type of personal standards,attitudes and habitswhich the general community . . . [deemed] desirable."' Hence in at-2Quoted from AmericanYouth Commission(Owen D. Young,chairman),FirstReport on PersonalityDevelopmentof Negro Youth, by Dorothy CanfieldFisherinIntroduction to Richard Wright, Native Son (New York, 1940), ix-x.


4/9

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 555tempting to live up to the ideals of the dominant group the slave wasconsistently frustrated. In the light of this conflict, the many stratagemsand deceitful methods employed by the subordinate group seemed vitalto their survival. A human being subjected to the denial of all that thecommunity around him valued not unnaturally became sullen, resentfuland emotionally unstable.The story which William Grimes tells of his life illustrates well theeffect of caste status, deprivation and physical suffering on a personality.Born in I784 in King George County, Virginia, William Grimes was theson of "one of the most wealthy planters in Virginia."3 Old Grimes was awild sort of man who murdered a neighboring planter, was tried, and wasacquitted on grounds of insanity. He died early in William's life, and hishalf-white son became the property of another planter. In his early yearsGrimes' masters were not unkind, but when he was old enough to workin the fields he was often whipped and cruelly driven by black and whiteoverseers.One white overseer, as Grimes told it,set us to making fence, and wouldcompelus to run with the rails on our backs,whipping us all the time most unmercifully.This hard treatmentcontinuingforsometimeI at length resolved o runaway.4After Grimes went to his friend George, confiding plans to him andasking for help, the fellow slave informed against him:The overseercame directly to the cabinand sent in George to question me,while he should listen without. George asked me if I intended to run away,provided he would give me the jacket and some meal; being partly asleepIanswered hat I did not know. He repeated he questionseveral imes and stillreceived the same answer.The overseerthen hollered out, hey you son of abitch, you are going to runawayareyou, I'll give it to you: bring him out here.So they broughtme out and horsed me upon the back of PlanterGeorge,andwhippedme until I could scarcely tand.5Bitter and resentful,he did run away, but was captured by a neighbor andbrought back. Again Grimes escaped to the woods and remained for threedays; forced by hunger to return, he appealed to his master. The owner

3Life of William Grimes,the RunawaySlave, written by himself (New York,i 825), 5.4 Ibid., io.5 Ibid., i i.


5/9

556 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLYgave orders that the slave was not to be whipped without his consent, butthe overseerrepeatedthe flogging after Grimes had the "impertinence" ocall a slavegirl "miss."Afraid to complain, he was constantly given hard work and little food:Colonel Thornton was a severemaster, and he made his slaveswork harderthananyoneaboutthere,and keptthempoorer.Sometimeswe hada littlemeator fish, but not often anythingmore than our peck of meal. We used to stealmeat wheneverwe could get a chance; and such was my craving for it, thatif the punishmenthad been death, I could not have resistedthe temptation.6Once ravenouslyhungry, he ate hog's entrailswhich were severaldays oldand nearly died in consequence.When he recovered, he was compelled tobeat out hominy after his work in the field was done; yet having stayedup nearly all night doing his task, Grimes was severely flogged for nothaving accomplishedenough:It seemsas though I shouldnot forget this floggingwhen I die; it grieved mysoul beyondthe power of time to cure. I shouldnot have been alive now if Ihad remaineda slave,for I would have resistedwith my life, when I becameolder,treatmentwhich I havewitnessed owardsothers, rom the overseers ndsuch as I shouldprobablyhave met with, nay, such as I havereceivedwhen aboy from overseers.7

At about this time Grimes thought that several slaves had beenpoisoned:Several of the servants n the spinning room died, and after that therewas agroaningheardin thatroom; andI have myselfheard the spiritsgroan n thatroom.If ever there was a room haunted t was that.I will believe t as long asI havebreath o draw.I slept in the passage, lose by the doorof mymasterandmistress.Sometimeswhen I was as wide awake as I am now, the spiritswouldunlockthe doors,and comeup stairs,and trampleon me, pressme to the floor,and squeezeme almostto death.I shouldhave screamed,but the fear of mymaster,who would not believe,but would have whippedme, prevented.8This passage is an interesting clue to Grimes' mental state. The belief in"spirits," witches, and in occult happenings of the most fantastic sort

6Ibid., 14.7Ibid., '5.8 Ibid., '5.


6/9

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 557was common with the slaves.9It is clear that as certain psychologistshavepointed out, such superstitious beliefs are to be attributedto fear, ignoranceand suppressedhate. Freud writes,Superstitionoriginates from repressedhostile and cruel impulses.The greaterpart of superstition ignifiesfear of impendingevil and, he who has frequentlywished evil to others,but . . . has repressed he same into the unconsciouswillbe particularly pt to expect punishment or such unconscious vil in the formof a misfortune hreateninghim from without.'0More unstable than many of the authors of slave narratives, Grimes wasfrequently haunted by all sorts of occult manifestations. Taken to waitupon his master's son, a medical student, the slave was terrified by theskeletons in the garret. "My poor heart never walloped so before," hewrote.11 On two occasions Grimes consulted fortune tellers in whosepowers he fervently believed.One of his ten masters owned an old slave called Frankee, whomGrimes thought was a witch. Because she often told her master lies aboutGrimes and was instrumental in his being whipped, his hostility towardher is not hard to explain. The two slaves slept in a room beneath theirmaster's, and Grimes apparently lived in constant terror of Frankee'ssupernatural powers.I have at differenttimes of the night felt a singularsensationsuch as peoplegenerally call the night-mare; would feel her coming toward me, and en-deavoringto make a noise . . . but the nearer she approachedme the morefaintlyI would cryout. I calledto her, 'AuntFrankee,Aunt Frankee,'asplainas I could, until she got upon me and began to exerciseher enchantments nme. I was then entirelyspeechlessmakinga noise like one apparently hokingor strangling.My masteroften heardme makethisnoise in the night, and hadcalledto me to know what was the matter;but as long as she remained hereI could not answer.She wouldthen leaveme andgo to herown bed.Aftermymaster had calledher a numberof times, 'Frankee,Frankee,'when she got toher own bed, she would answer, Sair?' Whatails,Theo?'. . . She answered,'Hag ride him, sair.'He then calledto me, tellingme to go and sleepwith her.I couldthen,after she had left me, speakmyselfand also haveuse of my limbs.

9 The narrativesof Hayden, Bibb, Ball, and Douglass present considerabledetailto support his assertion.10Sigmund Freud,BasicWritings (New York, i938), i65.11Life of William Grimes, I6.


7/9

558 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLYI got up and went to herbed,and triedto get under hercoverlid,but couldnotfind her.... I kept feeling for her,butcouldnotfindher.Her bedwastumbledfrom head to foot. I was then convinced he wasa witchand thatsherode me."2

When he was sold to a new master Grimes lodged in a room over thecarriage house in which a man once died of a fit. All the slaves insistedthat the place was haunted, and Grimes saw his usual hallucinations:After lying there about an hour, I was looking very steadyup towards he roofof the building,when to my greathorrorand surprise could plainly perceivea large, bright,sparklingpair of eyes intently ixed on me, staringme full in theface.13Stricken with a sense of guilt that he was doing wrong by sleeping in thedead man'sbed, Grimes thereaftercrouchedon the floor.William Grimes revealed himself throughout his autobiographyas ahighly strung, nervous man, and he said repeatedlythat he was "afraid,""fearful," "terrified." His surroundings affected him profoundly, andwhipping always filled him with horror. "I saw Bennett strip off James'shirt and whip his naked back part as if he had been cutting down atree. I thought what was to be my fate."14 Of another slave he saw, Grimeswrote, "This poor man's back was cut up with the lash until I could com-pare it to nothing but a field lately ploughed."15 Again he said:I at this time was in such dread of the whipping post, where I daily saw somanyhumanbeings sacrificedo the lash of the tyrant that it struckme withhorror. I prayed constantlyto my God to protect and defend me in thisadversity.16His reaction to a certain master was: "He was cross to me, and I fearedhim like death." 7 Grimes on one occasion was driving the coach for hismistress and lost the way, but he was so fearful of punishment for hiserror that he pretended to know the road and wandered about untilluckily he regained it.Unsuccessful in his attempts to escape, Grimes sought to mutilatehimself, to break his own leg. He often pretended to be ill, went on

12 Ibid., 25.18 Ibid., 30.4Ibid., i9.15 Ibid.,36.6 Ibid-,36.1Ibid., I7.


8/9

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 559hunger strikes and in one instance managed by this device to get a newmaster.18Moreover, he drank heavily whenever he could get whisky. Hisbehavior showed marked aggression, as when he fought with his master'sother servant Cato, and bit off the latter's nose."9 n another fight with aNegro driver Grimes beat the man, struck him with his head and bithim, "hardly knowing what I was about, being so much terrified." 0At the same time the slave showed considerable indifference and care-lessness about his work. This attitude so incensed a master that he beatGrimes in his chest and face until he was "all in a gore of blood"and thensent him to jail.2"The jail had no water for washing, nor were the slavesgiven any changesof clothing.The lice were so thick and largethat I was obligedto spreada blanketon thefloor, and as they crawledup on it, take a junk or porterbottle . . . and rolledit over the blanket repeatedly,and in the same way that I have seen peoplegrindorpowdermustard eedon a board.22

Shortly afterwardsGrimes was released from prison and finally madehis escape from slavery by stowing away on a ship bound for Boston. Buteven in the North, some years later, he was recognized by one of hismaster's friends, retaken, and "forced to purchase his freedom with thesacrifice of all he had earned."23Although he became a free man, henever really adjusted himself to the society around him; he had persistentfeelings of guilt, prayed, searched his soul and repented of his sins:My conscienceused sometimesto upbraidme with havingdone wrong, afterI had run frommy masterand arrived n Connecticut; nd while I was livingin Southington,Connecticut . . I went up on a high mountainand prayed othe Lord,to teachme my dutythat I might ... knowwhetherornot I ought togo back to my master. . .24He finally decided, however, that God had delivered him "out of the landof Egypt, and out of the house of bondage."25

18 Ibid.,23-28.19 Ibid.,28.20 Ibid.,38.21 Ibid.,46.22 Ibid.,48.23 Ibid., i i i.24 Ibid.,28.25 Ibid.,28.


9/9

560 WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLYThe same guilt over running away was experiencedby SolomonBayley,William Parkerand others.Such feelings were not only evidenceof the effectivenessof the slaveholder's eaching, but also, and moresignificantly, hey indicate how guilt followed closely upon fear andaggression.William Grimes, having escapedbondage,lived in a half-dozencitiesin New Englandand engaged n a scoreof differentoccupa-tions from janitoringat Yale Collegeto keeping a barber hop in Provi-dence.At the sametime he was constantly nvolved n law suits and wasonce tried for rape and acquitted.A restlessand ratherpatheticman,hedid not find in the North the freedomthat meant peaceof mind.Eventhough some of his behaviorwas pathological,Grimes was an ordinaryman; he did not have the latent powersof a FrederickDouglassor themind of a JamesW. C. Pennington. t is reasonableo suppose hat thou-sandsof fugitiveswere,perhaps,not unlikehim in theirsuffering, n theirfear,andin thedifficultiesheyfaced n freedom.For most Americansslaveryand, ts consequencesor the Negro arestill rathervague and unreal.The narratives f slavesbring certain acetsof the institution nto clearfocus.The experiences f William Grimesarean indictmentof the societywhich madehim a slave.His autobiographyshows that in his casephysicalpunishment,owercastestatus, he denialof every chance or improvementmarkedhim with spiritual carswhichmade his life extremelydifficult ven afterhis escape o freedom.Grimesfeltkeenly heanomalyof maintaininghe institution f plantation laveryin a democraticociety.He wrotebitterlyat the end of the accountof hislife:

If it werenotfor thestripes nmybackwhichweremadewhileI wasa slave,I would, n my will,leavemyskina legacyo thegovernment,esiringhat tbe takenoff and madeinto parchmentnd then bind the constitutionfglorious, appy, ndfreeAmerica. et the skinof anAmericanlavebind hecharterof Americaniberty! 6

26Ibid.,68.

william grimes runaway

Documents