Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-08-14
The Branded Hand.


generation, we repeat that on the first day
of the present month-the anniversary OF
emancipation in the West Indies-a monu-
ment to Captain Jonathan Walker was un-
yelled in the cemetery at Muskegon Mich,
on which occasion an address was delivered
by his old friend Parker Pillsbury. The
monument is a shaft of Hallowell granite
ten feet high and bearing appropriate in
scriptons, including the device of the
branded hand on one face, and on another
this verse from Whittier's celebrated poem
"Then lift that manly right hand,
Bold ploughman of the wave;
Its branded palm shall prophecy
Salvation to the slave
Hold up its fire-wrought language,
That whose reads may feel
His heart swell strong within him,
His sinews changed to STEEL
Walker was the captain of coasting YES
sci, and frequently, from motives of pure
humanity, assisted slaves to escape to the
West Indies or to the North. He well knew
what severe penalties he would incur if de-
tected, but he loved liberty as a sou of the
Purtans from old Cape Cod ought to do,
and he would not harden his heart to the
pleadings of the slave for help to escape
from bondage. On one of his trips, being
suspected he was followed, captured and
taken to Pensacola in the summer of 1874.
From the Jail he wrote letter to his wife and
children, telling them what had befalen him:
81 was carried before a justice Of the peace, and
thence to a jail where was kept four days. Then
was put down into the hold of a steamboat
among rubbish and filth, the heat being extreme
placed in heavy irons, both hands and feet and
kept six days, in which time the vessel steamed
to Pensacola There | was taken to court and
from thence again to jail where am now secured
to large rng-bolt by a chain made of half-inch
| iron, with shackle round my ankle which weighs
five pounds. Jane, what will become of you and
the children? have lost all the little had here,
and am confident that at this time you and the
children are in want Send to Fall River and get
the little money due there, and do as well as you
can The Lord Jesus has been abundantly good
to me in my affections, and | am sure he will ac-
company me through. For cannot let him go.
Mr.. Pillsbury, in his address, gave an ac-
count of the trial and said
"The sentence was to stand an hour in the pill
lory, pelted with understandable eggs one year
in prison for each slave, seven in all; 5000 fine
for each slave, and all the costs, and be branded
on the right hand with large double by red
hot branding iron All the bills for fines and
| 40, A bn,, Ia,
saw the eggs thrown cried shame, when ruff
fianly wretch tore off the bandage which had
been put on TO protect the face of the victim
| That boy was arrested, taken into another county
and fined for his henous oifense. The branding
iron had to be made for the occasion One black
smith refused TO make it. He said he made such
to be used on hogs, horses and cattle, but not on
men Another was found to make it; but refused
his forge to heat it, when it came to be used, He
| declared there was but one fire in the universe
that should heat an iron for such use! But al
length all things were prepared The instrument
of nqusitorial torture and torment was sen
brong and kissing deep into the flesh of a hant
that was ever open to succor the poor and the out
cast; but never, no never, was once lifted in any
unrighteous cause Captain Walker called tn,
letters ''The Seal, the Coat Of Arms of the United
States His friends raised 500 and sent down t,
an attorney to defend his suit The lawyer
whose name was Blount, bluntly pocketed thu
money, but kept away from the trial and out o
the courthouse The trial was in the unitet
States Court, and the name Of the marshal at tn
time, for the Florida district, was Ebenezer Dorr
a native Of the state of Maine, and willing PIN
and pander to the shareholders His bills an'
accounts were curiosites, but need not here b
reproduced
The monument was erected by the Rev
Photius Fisk, who also erected the monu
ment at the grave of Rev. Charles T. ToI
rey, who, it will be remembered, died in
Baltimore prison, where he was placed TO
the same crime for which Walkers han,
; was branded, OF Mr.. Fisk Mr.. Pllsbur
gave this account:
"Photus Fisk is native Greek His origins
name was Photius Navaseless. lie was born o
s the Island of Hylas, in the Grecan Archipelago
:, and was one of family of five children, and til
f only one of the family who survived terrb
visitation of the plague, which swept off h
father, mother, two brothers and two sisters
one single week lie was brought up till twel,
" years Of age by an uncle, and then adopted l
l. Rev Pliny Fisk, then missionary in Greece
y the American Board, who gave him his name al
e sent him to school, first in Cornwall, Ct, then
k New Haven and to an academy In Amherst b
. he early assumed the business OF his own educ
ton, fitted himself for the Congregational mini
y try, became too much Of abolitionist to be t.
e. Grated in the pulpit and, through the aid Of Jol
is Quincy Adams and Joshua Giddings, and Other
he he was appointed in 1Si3 chaplain in the nav
IA which post he has but just resigned, to pass j
AZ closing years in Boston"
ID What tide of memories oyerwhelms
10 as we recall the history of Captain Wake
II. The generation now coming on the sta
m will never be able to appreciate the hero
AZ. sacrifices and terrible prosecutions encou
70 tered by those who, nearly half centu
40 ago, began the agitation for the abolition
In slavery. But not in vain were their effoi
no to arouse the conscience of the nation al
". kndle a public sentiment before viii
IN slavery went down-even though it must
., in blood
ny The subscriptions to the four per Gel
le' loan are growing more active daily, II
ue not, however, very gratifying state of
In. fairs for the country in the showing III
for there is so little confidence felt by moni
men in the development of new enterpris
nc that the surplus capital seeks permanent
vestment at so low rates of interest.