While I think this has value as a historical document, and gives character and context to a time period, it doesn't make for a very interesting book. William Still recorded the stories and kept the letters of escaping slaves who made their way through Philadelphia, and those documents were eventually published as this novel. He did his best to introduce each individual and give a brief overview of their life, but I found myself wanting a deeper dive into each person. The quality of the writing was also incredibly variable, being a collection of letters from a wide variety of people.
If you want to read a first-hand account of slavery and escape from this time period, I think there are several other biographies that would be more useful to the average person. I'd recommend 12 Years a Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl instead.
February 13, 1882: Minister and stanch abolitionist, Henry Highland Garnet, who was the first African-American to deliver a sermon at the Capitol Building on February 12, 1865, dies.
On this day in 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and found his calling as a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. Douglass escaped slavery by boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. He was dressed in a sailor's uniform, provided to him by Anna Murray, (he married her 12 days later, she was a free black woman in Baltimore) she also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, and carried identification papers which he had obtained from a free black seaman.
He crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there he went by steamboat to "Quaker City" (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and continued to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York; the whole journey took less than 24 hours. Frederick Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York: "I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me.
If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil." Frederick Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him out from his owner Colonel Lloyd, but was unsuccessful.
In 1836, he tried to escape from his new owner Covey, but failed again. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray, her freedom strengthened his belief in the possibility of his own. Once he had arrived, he sent for Murray to follow him to New York; she arrived with the necessary basics for them to set up home. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister eleven days after his arrival in New York.
I think this is the right place to start the story. This is Circe’s story. It follows the backstory of my character in a Mass Effect ttrpg and her enslavement to a Batarian family as a child. This chuck should serve as a good introduction to some of the characters and the story, I hope.
Let’s get into this!
CW: sci-fi space typical violence, slavery mentions, escaped slave
The sounds of a firefight ricocheted through the corridor as the girl slipped along silently. The Batarian ship had been stalking a freighter for the past while but as they moved into strike, the freighter started to fire back, revealing cannons that hadn’t shown up on the initial scans. The Batarians had attempted to lock their ships together in order to board but whoever was on the freighter had been ready for a fight.
When they fought, she was supposed to be locked in the engine room, where her sleeping pallet lay among the machinery. However, for the first time in her life, someone had forgotten to lock the door. She hadn’t believed it at first, thinking maybe it was a trap or a test but the noise of a firefight raged on in the background.
She was going to die if she stayed here. Not today, not this year even but with Segar in charge of her, her odds became slimmer and slimmer. He’d throw her in some fighting pit or just get… get too angry one day.
Ghorek was dead and it was her fault. Part of her wondered how he had died. Had it been quick? Was he floated out the airlock, his frozen body floating in the endless void?
Something damp trickled down her cheek. The girl ignored it.
She kept her wrench tightly clasped in her hand as she slipped down the corridors. There wasn’t really a plan. If there was a plan, then it could be foiled. And if there was hope, it would be crushed. So she didn’t let herself think about the possibilities as she slowly approached the side bay doors that the pirates used to lock into vessels that they were planning to raid.
There was a body on the ground, Batarian, and she tried not to relish giving the lifeless form a kick too much. And suddenly, she was at the door. But there was no one there. It sounded like there were battles raging on both the ships but in this perfect instant, there was no one in the bays of either of the ships.
She dashed through the open, not willing to take the chance, aware that someone could enter at any moment and shot her down. Or worse, take her back. She saw what happened to people who ran. Or who tried to.
Entering into the other ship revealed that it was indeed not a freighter but a battleship disguised as one. Blaster marks littered the walls of the corridors and she stepped over another fallen body, this time a human.
A human. Was this a human ship?
Before she could further investigate, she heard footsteps slamming down the corridor in her direction, calling out in Batarian dialect. Without hesitating, she flung herself at the pad for the door closest to her and was overwhelmed with relief to find it unlocked as it slid open. Hurling herself inside, she jammed at the keypad to close the door which it did with a hiss.
It was a supply closet and she pushed herself back in there as far as possible while trying to limit the amount of noise. Footsteps slapped past the door, followed by more yelling and more footsteps after them. And then it was quiet. As quiet as it could be with the alarms blaring all over the ship and the red lights flashing brightly.
The adrenaline was wearing off and she started to shake. What had she done? If Balakhad won, if they found her like this. It might be better to crawl back, to beg for forgiveness, blame it on her stupidity. They might kill her quickly then. There was no way they were letting her live after this.
Or maybe they would. Maybe they would make life more hellish. Sell her off to a gladiator pit. Or worse. There were so many worse things and she had been lucky until now. Fortunate.
It was Balak. The mines wouldn’t be good enough. He would make her suffer. And then she would be locked there, forever.
Her mind swam with foreboding potentialities as she pressed herself backwards into the darkness, curling around herself tightly.
She was no longer aware of time passing. Her muscles cramped and then went numb as she continued to press herself back as far as possible, holding her head in her hands. Her breathing seemed impossibly loud on the now quiet ship and she tried to breath more and more shallowly in order to not give herself away.
Eventually, the girl slept.
It was a heavy, exhausted sleep but her eyes slammed open when the sound of the magnetic doors opening filled the small space.
“Alright, we know you’re in there. It got picked up on the cams. Come out slowly with your hands raised.” A low feminine voice spoke assuredly. “None of your buddies are around anymore so I suggest you cooperate.”
The girl covered her hands over her mouth in order to stifle her scream. This was it. Life or death. Slowly, she worked her way out of her hiding spot, hands raised above her head. She kept her eyes trained on the ground as she stepped out of the closet. There was a large pair of heavy duty boots standing in front of her and she could tell from the hushed whispers that there were people standing on either side.
“What the-“
“Oh god”
“That’s a girl”
Her body shook in terror as the person in front of her stood silent. The other voices were hushed and she heard a rustle of movement. Closing her eyes firmly, she was surprised when she opened them to see a middle aged human woman crouching in front of her. The woman was broad and muscled, with short cropped hair and a scar slashing through her mouth, causing it to twist slightly.
“Do you know where you are right now?” The woman asked. The girl ducked her eyes out of the way and shook her head slightly.
“You can put your arms down. Unless you are planning on braining me with that” The woman gestured to the wrench tucked into the band of her pants.
The girl shook her head again and lowered her hands slowly, careful not to make any sudden motions. She hear the muttering picking up again as the people standing to the side saw her hand, which quickly hid under the right one.
“Stop standing around. Someone go get Doc and find her some real clothes.” The woman said, still looking up at her. Her gaze burned into the girl. “You are safe now,” the woman said, more quietly than when she had ordered the others around. “My name is Hephaestus and this is my ship. Do you have a name?”
Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes and she wiped them away before they could fall. She shook her head in response. The floor seemed to tip for a moment and she found herself falling backwards as her head swum.
“Woah woah, steady there girly. You’ve been through a lot.” Hephaestus approached slowly, keeping her hands in the girl’s sight lines. “Can I help prop you up?”
The girl shook her head again and pressed her back to the wall as she sat on the ground, arms wrapping around her legs. The world still spun slightly and she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to make it stop.
The worst was the woman. She couldn’t tell what she wanted from her. Were they going to sell her off again? And who was this Doc person? Hephaestus sat on the floor with her on the opposite wall of the corridor. When she had fallen, she hadn’t seen anyone around. Presumably they had left to follow Hephaestus’s orders.
Hephaestus cleared her throat. “Is that all you can do? Shake your head?”
The girl shook her head and Hephaestus let out a barking laugh.
A minute of silence passed before they could hear more steps echoing down the corridor.
“Okay Hef, what is it this time?” The girl turned her head to the side slightly in order to see another pair of boots walking towards them. Hephaestus (Hef?) stood up and walked towards the new figure. They spoke in hushed tones but the girl could pick out some of the key ones.
Slave. Escaped. Broken.
The last one caused her to curl further in on herself, shutting out the rest of the conversation.
A hand touched her shoulder and she flinched heavily, managing to slam her head into the wall behind her.
“Hun, you there?” The voice was Hephaestus. The girl worked on controlling her breathing. “You weren’t responding. I was saying, this is Doc and they are going to take a look at you. It’s just a scan but we need you to stand up for it. Do you think you can manage that?”
“It won’t work as well if you are all crunched up and I need to be fully able to assess you for the safety of our crew.” The person that she assumed was Doc said clinically.
The girl started to push herself to her feet but halfway up, the world spun and she fell back to her hands and knees. She tried again but failed in a similar manner, landing poorly on her bad hand and twisting to the side.
She watched as a hand hovered above her own. “Hun, I’m gonna help you up. Is that okay?” Hef asked, not grabbing onto her until the girl nodded in response.
Getting to her feet, she noted the way that Hef glanced upwards towards Doc and tried to ignore the nausea brewing in her stomach.
There was a sound of beeping and buttons being pressed before a holographing scan passed over her body. She leaned heavily on the arm offered to her by Hef, eyes still focused on the ground.
“Huh,” Doc said, swiping through their omnitool. “Nothing we can’t fix. Dehydration and malnutrition is the main issue at the moment. Scar tissue is limiting some mobility and there are A couple old breaks that haven’t healed properly but again, nothing wrong on a system level.” They closed down their tool. “Let’s get you to the med bay and start treating some of this. You’re in better shape than some of our crew after that attack.”
Black spots formed in the girl’s vision and she found herself floating away, her corporal body crashing to the floor, with Doc calling for help and Hef effortlessly catching her as she went down. Floating above, she let unconsciousness take her.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Huckleberry Finn] *** (1960, Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore) - Classic Movie Review 10,009
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Huckleberry Finn] *** (1960, Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore) – Classic Movie Review 10,009
MGM toast the 75th anniversary of the American publication of Mark Twain’s 1884 classic book with Michael Curtiz’s nimble 1960 film version The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was first published in the UK in December 1884 and in the US in February 1885.
Eddie Hodges is spry as the runaway boy adventurer Huck and boxing champion Archie Moore is an asset…
LONDON | US writers Kushner, Powers in running for Man Booker Prize
LONDON | US writers Kushner, Powers in running for Man Booker Prize
LONDON — The Man Booker Prize is set to be awarded to one of six finalists, including a gritty story set in a women’s prison, a novel in verse about a divided America and an environmental epic that has been likened to “Moby Dick” for trees.
U.S. novelist Rachel Kushner‘s “The Mars Room,” U.K. poet Robin Robertson’s “The Long Take” and American writer Richard Powers’ “The Overstory” are competing…
Meet Placida, an escaped Tevinter slave turned dual-wielding rogue that a friend of mine will be RPing as in our upcoming DA tabletop game! She is (and I quote): teeny and growly, but with a squooshy underbelly.
