When Dr. Flint’s family heard that William had deserted Mr. Sands, they chuckled greatly over the news.  Mrs. Flint made her usual manifestations of Christian feeling, by saying, “I’m glad of it.  I hope he’ll never get him again.  I like to see people paid back in their own coin.  I reckon Linda’s children will have to pay for it.  I should be glad to see them in the speculator’s hands again, for I’m tired of seeing those little niggers march about the streets.”

XXVII.  New Destination For The Children.

Mrs. Flint proclaimed her intention of informing Mrs. Sands who was the father of my children.  She likewise proposed to tell her what an artful devil I was; that I had made a great deal of trouble in her family; that when Mr. Sands was at the north, she didn’t doubt I had followed him in disguise, and persuaded William to run away.  She had some reason to entertain such an idea; for I had written from the north, from time to time, and I dated my letters from various places.  Many of them fell into Dr. Flint’s hands, as I expected they would; and he must have come to the conclusion that I travelled about a good deal.  He kept a close watch over my children, thinking they would eventually lead to my detection.

A new and unexpected trial was in store for me.  One day, when Mr. Sands and his wife were walking in the street, they met Benny.  The lady took a fancy to him, and exclaimed, “What a pretty little negro!  Whom does he belong to?”

Benny did not hear the answer; but he came home very indignant with the stranger lady, because she had called him a negro.  A few days afterwards, Mr. Sands called on my grandmother, and told her he wanted her to take the children to his house.  He said he had informed his wife of his relation to them, and told her they were motherless; and she wanted to see them.

When he had gone, my grandmother came and asked what I would do.  The question seemed a mockery.  What could I do?  They were Mr. Sands’s slaves, and their mother was a slave, whom he had represented to be dead.  Perhaps he thought I was.  I was too much pained and puzzled to come to any decision; and the children were carried without my knowledge.  Mrs. Sands had a sister from Illinois staying with her.  This lady, who had no children of her own, was so much pleased with Ellen, that she offered to adopt her, and bring her up as she would a daughter.  Mrs. Sands wanted to take Benjamin.  When grandmother reported this to me, I was tried almost beyond endurance.  Was this all I was to gain by what I had suffered for the sake of having my children free?  True, the prospect seemed fair; but I knew too well how lightly slaveholders held such “parental relations.”  If pecuniary troubles should come, or if the new wife required more money than could conveniently be spared, my children might be thought of as a convenient means of raising funds.  I had no trust in thee, O Slavery!  Never should I know peace till my children were emancipated with all due formalities of law.