St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-08-16
Walkers Branded Hand.


Walker, was quite notably dedicated at
Muskegon, Wis, Thursday, by the ad
dress of that veteran abolitionist Parker
Pillsbury. 1t is a shaft of Hallowell
granite, ten feet high, and bearing ap-
propriate Inscriptions, including the de-
vice of the branded hand on one face,
and on another stanza from Whittier's
famous poem. The poem was read dur
ing the ceremonies also few lines
from Whittier and letter from Fred
erick Douglass. 1t is worth while to
quote something from Pillsbury's story
of Capt. Walker, one of those episodes
which reveal the grim character of that
accursed Institution of negro slavery,
which fortunately perished in the war
it caused. This Walker was captain of
a coasting vessel, and repeatedly aided
slaves to escape to Bermuda or the Ba-
hamas. He was captured on one of
these trips in 1874, and Mr.. Pillsbury
read part of letter which he wrote
fIom his prison i'll Pensacola:
"Dear wife and children" he said. 81
am privileged by the mercy of God the
Father, of writing to you once more,
but not in the situation would choose.
About the time of my last letter l had
arranged to take some passengers to
Nassau, in New Providence, a British
island eastward from Cape Florida. On
the 23d of June / started with seven
colored people, though quite unwell, as
l had been for two days. On the sixth
day out did not expect to live another
twenty-tour hours, my disease being
intermittent fever and internal canker,
and such hot weather | never in my life
saw before. We proceeded down the
coast till on July 8, when we were over
hauled by wrecker, the slOop Catha-
line, from Key West, and by force
taken to that'po Then was carried
before justice of the peace, and thence
to Jail, where was kept four days.
Then 1 was put down into the hold of
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 l was taken to
court and from thence again to jail,
where / now am secured to large ring
bolt by a chain made of half-inch iron,
with shackle round my ankle which
weighs five pounds. And Capt. Walker
repeatedly told his friends after his re-
lease that huge as was that shackle, it
became nearly imbedded out of sight
by the swelling of his limb but he did
not write that to his wife and children
Jane, what will become of you and the
children. | have lost all of 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 abund-
am sure he will accompany me through.
trust in him to aid you"
After that, Mr.. Pillsbury proceeded,
he was tried, and the sentence was to
stand an hour in the pillOry, pelted with
eggs. One year in prison
for each slave, seven in all 800 fine
for each slave, and all the costs, and be
branded on the right hand with large
double S by red-hot branding iron
All the bills for fines and costs were
made to exceed 100000! A boy who
saw the eggs thrown cried shame, when
a ruffianly wretch tore off bandage
which had been put on to protect the
face of the victim. That boy was ar
rested, taken into another county, and
fined for his heinous offense. The brand
ing iron had to be made for the occa-
sion. One blacksmith refused to make it.
He said he had made such to be used Oh
hogs, horses and cattle, but not on men.
was found to make it, but re-
fused his forge to heat it, when it came
to be used. He swore there was but one
fire in the universe that should heat an
iron for such use! But at length all
things were prepared. The instrument of
inquisitorial torture and torment was sent
broiling and kissing deep into the flesh
OF hand that was ever open to succOr
the poor and the outcast but never, no
never, was once lifted in any unright-
eous cause. Capt. Walker called the let
ters ''The Seal, the Coat of Arms of the
United States. His friends raised $500
and sent down to an attorney to defend
his suit. The lawyer, whose name was
Blount, bluntly pocketed the money, but
kept away from the trial and out of the
court house. The trial was in United
States court, and the name of the mar
shall at the time for the Florida district
was Ebenezer Dorr and native of the
state of Maine and willing pimp and
pander to the shareholders. His bills
and accounts were curiosities, but need
not here be reproduced.
Chaplain Fisk, who raised this shaft
to the memory of Walker, also placed
monument in Mount Auburn (near Bos-
ton) over the grave of Rev. Charles T.
Iorrey, Congregational minister who
died IN southern prison for an offense
OF the same sort as Walkers. Of Mr..
FISK Mr.. Pillsbury gave an interesting
account. "Photius Fisk" he said, sis
native Greek. His original name was
Photius Navaseles. He was born on the
island of Hylas, in the Grecian Archi-
pelago, and was one of family of five
children, and the only one of all the
family who survived a terrible visitation
Of the plague, which swept off his father.
mother, two brothers and two sisters in
one single week !" He was brought up
ill twelve years old by an uncle, and
then adopted by Rev. Pliny Fisk, then
. missionary in Greece of the American
Board, who gave him his name and sent
him to school, first in Cornwall, Ct, then
TO New Haven and to an academy in
amherst. But he early assumed the
business of his own education, fitted
himself for the Congregational ministry,
became two much of an abOlitionist to |
be tolerated in the pulpit, and through
The aid of John Quincy Adams, Joshua
dlddlngs and others, he was appointed