Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-11-18

10 the weak. LlEElo " 40 w Va N''N w
err of the family. The mistress restricts
ed the servants to black bread. This
was distasteful 10 poor Lizzie, and on
one occasion, when she had been knead
ing the family batch, she scraped from
the sides of ample knot bowl, former
" in rustic use, enough dough to make a
little cake, aud moulded it for herself
The mistress came into the kitchen at
the moment the oven was cleaned ready
to receive the bread. The oven of those
DAYS was sort Of immortal affair. II
was heated with wood burned to Goals,
aud then cleaned with broad or in shoV-
ell called a peel! The oven had just
been cleaned, and WAS still at red heat
The little cake caught the mistress's eye.
"What is this for" she demanded. "For
me, missis," replied the trembling girl
The woman seized the shovel and aimed
blow at Lizzie. Mum Bet interposed
her arm, saying, you shant strike her );
and herself received b t blow. The
shovel cut to the bone, and to her grave
she carried tie scar. can never for,
get it hideou5 broad scar across the
whole breadth Of her arm. When she
described this outrage, she would say,
"She never struck at Lizzie again-nor
at me-. | let my arm 90 bare. 1t was
awful sore, but put nothing over 1t ;
when people came into the kitchen and
asked, What aiIs your arm, Bet " / only
said, ASK missis,' and she heard and
darent speak" In all my experience in a
long life favored with an intimate friend
slip with many distinguished people Of
my own race, have never known a
person Of a character made up Of eIe-
ments superior 20 Mum Bets. Her
name as you will readily perceive, was
contraction of t h familiar nursery
soubriquet of Nanny Bet. She is no.
lced n a French journal-b j some
translator, perplexed by the name AS
Hush Bet. | saw her often during her
last Illness, and never entered her apart
ment but with a sentiment such as might
have felt in entering that of Washington.
To iu-tif, that sentiment permit me to
add one more anecdote. Dlring one OF
her last Days she had a professional visit
from clergy man Of the old school, per
meated with the popular faith. "Ion are
going to die, Bet" be said. Yes, sir, "
she answered calmly, He proceeded to
set before her death and the Judgment,
and the terrors of the law. "You are
not a professor, Bet? ~ lie said, interrog-
atively No. sir; | never made no pro-
fession." This, ifnot said dramatically,
was uttered understandingiy of its foil
meaning. "Arn't y o u afraid to meet
your Jadse, Be;?" mo sir" she repli-
e slowly and added deliberately and
emphatically, with quite assured dignity
never to be forgotten, No sir, am not
afeard l have tried to do my duty -and
am not afeard" Thus she died God''
witness in life and in death. No wonder
she should say, as | have often hear'
her: "At any lime while was slave
l would have given my life for one min
ate of free breath"
In support of my assertion that Nun
Bet was Gods witness, allow me to cit
here a passage from the article on 9Th
Negro Race in America" to which
have referred. Ii may indicate to othc
minds, as it does to mine, that Mum BE
was Gods chosen instrument TO heral
the emancipation of her race. Sine wa
worthy such a mission. $50 far as it
true that the first emancipation Of slav
on the ground of personal or politics
right is a pledge Of ultimate release fc
all, the doom of American slavery wa
passed before the d caration Of lndeper
: dence. A negro woman wa, born j
slavery in 1742, who obtained her ow
. freedom on that ground, and thus brougl
about the abolition Of slavery in Massa
. chusetts first, and afterwards in the otht
:, northern states. This Elizabeth Free
u man, better known as Mum Bet, heal
Il while waiting at table discussions Of ii
. bill Of rights and the new constitution
: Massachusetts, and il was clear that a
. but dumb beasts had, under those prov
isions, claim to personal liberty. ST.
. consulted an eminent lawyer-no less
man than Judge Sedgwick he took u
d the case seriously, and obtained her FIRE,
dom, with wages for her services frot
twenty-one years of age. This harper
ed in l772: SO many Of her class follow
ed her example that it soon became
matter of convenience to abolish SLAYER
in Massachusetts and drop the subject
i