The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1922-03-11
Continued from last week..
Copyright by the Paramount
Syndicate Company
THE TURNING POINT IN THE HIS
TORY OF THE SLAVES.
Y Alice Dunbar-Nelson.

BY Alice Dunbar-Nelson.
who would be free, themselves
must strike the blow.
Now and then there comes n turn
ing point in the life of a man or of
Il race. 1t is usually some small
event that determines ever after the
destiny of that man or that race. 1t
was some such small event, not so
small in itself, as seemingly insight
ficant, that determined the destiny of
Frederick Douglass. and through him,
the Who'll" race of which he was a
part.
The young Frederick; known as
Billy then but sixteen years of age,
had been hired out by his master. Cap
tain Thomas Aud, a piller of the
church, to one Edward Convey, a poor
white man, tenant farmer, with a
reputation of being an excellent slave
breaker The high spirits Of the boy.
his determination not to he conquered,
had tried the patience of Capt. Aud,
and so to the slave breakers he was
sent.
For six months Convey lived up to
his reputation with Frederick. Every
week he was whipped, either with
cow-hide whips or with brutal sticks.
Aching bones, sore back, labor so ar
duous. constant and steady that il is
horrible to remember were the boys
constant companions. 1t was never
too hot or too cold to work; it could
never rain blow, snow or hail too
hard for the slaves to labor in the
field and so in months time the dis
cipline told on Frederick. The longest
days were too short for Covey, the slave
breaker and the shortest nights were
too long, and though the boy was
somewhat unmanageable at first, he
was tanned at last. His elasticity
was crushed, his intellect languished.
he had surreptitiously acquired in
his early childhood, ceased to allure.
The dark night of slavery closed in
upon him. and the man was trans
formed into brute. He was COM
pletely wrecked, changed, bewilder-
ed. The over-worked. and the brutal
chastisements made him living en-
bodiment OF mental and physical
wretchedness.
And so would have sunk into bru-
tally and oblivion the young slave,
Frederick, and with him all the hopes
of the race. The story of the Negro
would have been far different, the
history of the country would have
been written on a darker page, had
it not been for one incident in his
career.
After six months of these gruelling
experiences. one day in August, one
stand no more. and me boy succumb-
ed to the heat and the labor of keep
ing the winnowing fan going. Brutal
kicks and blows rained in vain upon
his helpless body. When he finally
was revived he decided to go back
to his master, Capt. Aud and tell his
story, and beg for relief from his
hard fate. 1t was only a few miles
from Covey's place back to his mas
ters home in st. Michaels, but 1t took
the poor boy all night to make the
trip, so sick and emaciated was he.
And then, on gaining his master 3
place, and telling his story OF wrongs
and cruelties, corroborated by the
wretched appearance, he was told to
go back. and finish out the next six
months, else the master would lose
a years wages. Convey had said the
boy was lazy; Covey being a white
man must be right. Frederick was
allowed to remain all night, after a
huge dose of EPSON salts the only
medicine allowed slaves.
Morning, after sleepless night, and
the prospects of facing Convey. All
day in the woods between the two
farms, lying among the thickets.
thinking over the miserable fate al
lotted him, covering in wretchedness
and hunger. Then in the early night,
came a friend. Sandy" the hired out
sieve of a kinder master. He was the
husband of a free woman, and was
going to visit her, when he came
upon the lad.
To shelter the poor miserable lad
lowering between the two fates, would