Obi; or, Three-fingered Jack; a romance

Front matter

OBI; o?. THREE-FINGERED JACK. A ROMANCE. BY T. FROST, Esq. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY E. LLOYD, SALISBURY-SQUARE, FLEET-STREET. MECCCLI. OBI; OK, THREE-FINGERED JACK. THE MIDNIGHT ASSASSINATION OF MR. MORTON BY THE QUADROON, an almost overpowering fragrance from the pimento groves, a tall, robust young negro was sitting beneath a tree in the island of Jamaica, resting himself after the fatigues of the day, with his right arm around the waist cf a Creole girl

CHAPTER L

. THE CEEOLE l^IDEN AND HER LOVEK. On a delightful evening in summer, when the fire-flies illumined the verdant banks, and the breath of zephyr waited No. of about sixteen years of age, who was seated by his side. The evening was warm, and the air was laden with the aroma of flowers and spice-bearing trees and shrubs. Near the levers — for such were the negro youth and the Creole gil! — rana streamlet reflecting the golden hues of sunset, and on its opposite side was a grove of pimento trees. Before them was an extensive plantation of the sugar-cane, the long light green leaves of which waved and rustled in the balmy air, while the bunches of pearly white flowers on the tops assumed a silvery lustre in the fading sunlight ; and be yond the plantation stretched a ridge of blue-looking hills, their craggy summits growing dim and indistinct with the rising mists.

Chapter II. The

revolt. Jack stood for some moment., gazing with intense admiration after the retiring form of the lovely Creole, and then he walked slowly away, revolving in his mind the schemes of revenge and eman cipation over which his mind had been brooding for years. To Cora he had spoken more freely concerning his aspirations than to any one else, but to no one had be fully revealed his plans. He knew that the project was beset with difficul ties and dangers, that the spirit of the negroes had been so much subdued by ill-treatment, and their minds so bru talized by the vicious tendencies of slavery, that he could not rely with certainty upon the co-operation of a single one, and that if even every slave upon the plantation of Mr. Morton were to rally round him, they would have to oppose their naked breasts, like the Gauls of old, to the bayonets of the military, and take the field with their implements of labour for their arms.

In such an unequal struggle success could only be hoped for from a course which would strike terror and dismay into the hearts of thc planters, and dif fuse an appalling panic among the white population throughout the island. Such a course he resolved to adopt, relying upon the vast superiority of the negroes in point of numbers to cement the revo lution, and secure every advantage as soon as gained. Well matured as his plans were, they were liable to derange ment from a hundred unforeseen incidents, and he knew that he must be guided in a great measure by circum stances as they arose. Thus pondering upon his darling and long-cherished schemes, Jack walked slowly along the edge of the sugar-plantation until uis attention was attracted to a group of negroes clustered about some object upon the ground, close to the post to which the hapless slaves were tied up when they were subjected to the torturing and degrading lash.

Moved merely by curiosity, for he had no idea of the terrible shock which awaited him, he proceeded towards the spot at an accelerated pace ; the negroes drew back -with an involuntary feeling of awe as he approached, and entering " Your father broke his hoe against a stone in the Indian corn-field," replied one of the slaves. "Massa Wilson struck him with the whip — your father took the whip from him, and belaboured Massa Wilson's shoulders with it until he roared. Golly ! how he did roar ! Then Quashee took the whip from your father, and Massa Wilson ordered him to be tied up and flogged. Oh, such a flogging 1 So Makro died." Jack sat down upon the ground over come with grief, and resting his elbows upon his knees, buried his countenance in his hands. His mother was borne away from the spot, lest the sight of ber husband's remains should renew her affliction when she recovered, and the two negroes laboured to complete the grave of their deceased comrade.

The rest remained about the spot, glancing at. intervals towards Jack, and whispering to each other their hopes and fears as to the results to which the death of Makro might lead. When the grave was finished, Jack rose to his feet again ; every trace of grief had now vanished from his coun tenance, whicli expressed calm resolution and stern determination. voice, but the next moment they seemed astonished at their own temerity. '' Then let us kneel beside the cold corpse of this last victim of oppression, and swear to exterminate the white race, or perish in the attempt '." said our hero, in a tone of deep solemnity ; and kneel ing down on one knee by the side of his father's lifeless body, he placed his left hand on the corpse, aud raised his right towards Heaven, the rest of the slaves following his example.

" Swear," said he, in an impressive voice, "to revenge the wrongs of our lace upon the heads of our oppressors, to show them no more mercy than they have accorded to us, and never to sheath the sword reddened with their blood, while one of the hated race of Europe's sons remains upon the island." " We swear I" exclaimed the negroes, and then they all rose to their feet. " The time has come !" said the negro youth, as he first gazed upon the lifeless clay at Ids feet, and then into the countenances of those who gathered around him. " This monstrous deed has sealed the doom of the whites ! Too long has our race endured oppression and misery at their hands. Is our colour a crime so heinous that we should be torn from our native land, made to toil like beasts of burden, separated from those with whom we are connected by the sacred ties of blood as remorselessly as if we were dogs, and for the slightest murmur tied up to the whipping-post, and flogged until the blood drips from our mangled backs ?

That cruelty — that degredation we have all endured. How many have been branded with a heated iron for at tempting to escape from this horrible slavery ! — how many hanged and burned for returning a blow ! How often have we been shut up iu a dungeon, dark and damp, with the toad aud the lizard for companions ! — how often have our wives and daughters, and sisters, been the victims of the tyrants' lust ! Is there one among you whose back does not bear the indelible marks of the torturing and degrading lash ? Is it not time that such atrocities should be brought to an end ?" " How is it to be done V inquired one ot the negroes, glancing around as he spoke, [and speaking in an under tone, lest he should be overheard. " Then the blow shall be struck to night !" said Jack, his dark eyes gleam ing with anticipated triumph.

"First let as consign to the earth these remains. of a brave man, and then we will com mence our work." The interment of Makro was effected in a few moments, and then Jack looked arouud for some object against which to direct the awakened fury of the slaves, and thus bind them to the cause by dread of the consequences, while he engaged them in it at once, before the excitement of the moment had had time to evaporate. The whipping-post caught his eye at the first glance, and seemed an excellent object upon which to make a commencement. " Let us begin," said he, pointing to the post, " by levelling with the ground that' instrument of torture and oppression." " Have you the courage to attempt the destruction of the horrible system under which we live, if I point out the way?" returned Jack, looking steadily at the querist. ' " Yes," replied the negro, who was a stout resolute-looking youth of eighteen or twenty.

" What say you all ?" said our hero, turning his glance from one to another until he had read the countenances of " Huzza !" cried the slaves, and beginning with alacrity, the post was speedilv' uprooted by spades and mattocks, and thrown upon the ground, its fall being hailed by another shout. ■ Forward 1" cried Jack, resolving to take advantage of the excitement to which he had worked up the feelings of the little knot of slaves ; and brandish ing their implements of labour, they followed him with rapid footsteps towards the huts of the negroes, which were grouped together upon an angle of all about him, and found in all an ex pression of mingled indignation at their wrongs, hope of redness, dread of failure, and irresolution inspired by slavery's spirit crushing tendencies. " We will all follow where you lead, Jack," they exclaimed, as if with one OBI; OR, THREE- FINGERED JACK. the estate, about a mile from the mansion of Mr. Morton.

About a hundred men and lads, with whom were mixed a number of females, the majority of both sexes being negroes, and the exceptions mulattoes and Creoles, were assembled in groups about the huts, talking of the death of Makro ; and at the sight of Jack, surrounded by a dozen of his fellow-slaves, they raised a loud shout, and in a few minutes he was in the midst of them, mounted upon an empty cask. " Sons of Africa !" he exclaimed in a stentorian voice, "the hour has struck which Heaven has decreed shall witness your self-emancipation. God's bright and glorious sun has set for the last time upon a world of slaves and tyrants ; and shall rise to-morrow upon a world in which the slave is free, and tyrants are no more. But let us not lose time in words ; let us rise at once ; our limbs are as free, our hearts as bold, as those of our oppressors.

The implements o£ our daily toil, wielded by stout arms, are all the weapons we require. Follow me, all ye who would be free !" He leaped to the ground as he spoke, and waving his hand towards the man sion of Mr. Morton, which was visible above the trees at a distance, he rushed off in that direction. He was followed by all the slaves, and in a quarter of an hour they appeared before the mansion, armed with axes, mattocks, spades, hoes, sickles, and uttering the most terror inspiring and discordant yells. The planter had been warned of their approach, however, and had sent a servant on a swift horse to obtain the assistance of the military. Wilson, the overseer, with the cowardice of conscious guilt, had, in the meantime, concealed himself in the sugar-house. A shower of stones was directed by the insurgent slaves against the windows of the mansion, and Jack took an axe, and attempted to force with it an entrance through the door.

The windows had been broken, and the door was beginning to yield to the heavy strokes of our hero's axe, when the red coats and glittering bayonets of a company of soldiers were per ceived through the trees. As if seized with a sudden panic, the whole of the slaves immediately took to flight, and Jack strove in vain to rally them. " Surrender, rebel !" cried the com mander of the military, as his company wheeled upon the lawn, and confronted Jack with their levelled muskets. " Yon sorry curs have deceived me !" said Jack, a feeling of contempt mingling with his rage at being baffled in his schemes of vengeance, and disappointed in his hope of achieving his emancipation. "I thought all men loved liberty as dearly as I do myself !" Escape was impossible; he surren dered to the troops, and was taken at once to prison, with an intimation that he would be hanged on the following morning, an example being deemed necessary to check the progress of in subordination.

Chapter III

, THE PLANTER AND THE CREOLE. An hour had elapsed since the sup pression of the revolt of the slaves on the plantation of Mr. Morton, and the capture of tbeir leader in the rash under taking ; and the planter was seated in his drawing-room, before a table on whicli stood the choicest fruits of the island. The windows wer# open to admit the evening breeze, so refreshing after the heat of the day in a tropical climate, but the fine muslin blinds were drawn down to exclude the rnusquitoes, who were buzzing outside like a cloud of gnats. The apartment was elegantly and tastefully furnished ; a harp stood in one corner, and a vase of beautiful and extremely fragrant flowers in another, and everything bore evidence to the ample means of the planter. Mr. Morton was about fifty years of age ; in person he was stout, and his indolent habits had rendered him some what corpulent, but his countenance was not unhandsome when he was in his ordinary good humour, though, when he was irritated or thwarted, it was capable of expressing the most horrible passions by which humanity is disgraced.

His complexion was sallow, and tinged by the climate with a browner shade ; his eyes were dark and lively, his hair black and curling, but slightly tinged with gray, and his teeth were even and in good preservation. In character he was one whom the world regarded as a highly- OBI ; OR, THREE-FINGERED JACK. 7 respectable man, and by his brother planters he was considered an agreeable companion, though liable to gusts of passion. But neither his neighbours nor the world in general were fully acquainted with the vices which made up the character of Mr. Morton, and the standard of morality is unfortunately not so high among the West-India proprietors that they can afford to scan very closely the vicious habits of each other. But to those who came in daily contact with him, and who experienced the effects of his evil passions, it was known that he was a man of very violent temper, easily irritated, and implacable in his resent ments ; proud equally of his family and his wealth, and inveterately selfish.

He bad never been married, and had made the only son of a deceased brother, an officer in the British army, heir to his hoard ed wealth and extensive possessions; his nephew was daily expected to arrive in Jamaica, on a visit to the rich planter, and tbe latter was much vexed by the outbreak, which had been, however, so promptly and easily suppressed, as he had intended to get up a festive welcome on the occasion of the young man's arrival, with which, gloomy looks on the part of the slaves would ill accord. the planter's festive parties, which she invariably did, such connections being so frequent in the West- Indies as to excite no surprise, most of the planters having a Creole or quadroon mistress, and ille gitimate slave-children of every shade of colour. There was a dark frown upon the brow of Mr. Morton, for the revolt, though so speedily suppressed, had irritated and vexed him, and the beautiful quadroon sat silent and pensive upon the sofa, playing with a flower, and at intervals glancing fervently at the planter's countenance.

"Julia," said Mr. Morton, after a long pause, " I will smoke a cigar in the garden ; the fresh air and the cigar will calm my mind. Will you go with me ?" Julia replied not, but rose languidly from the sofa, arranged her gauze scarf over her jetty hair as a veil, the ends covering her neck and bosom, and took the proffered arm of her master. At that moment voices were heard in the passage without — the voice of a female speaking in a tone of entreaty and men tal distress, and that of a man alter nately threatening and expostulating with the female. On a sofa near him a beautiful female was reclining; she was about twenty five years of age, rather tall and admira bly proportioned. Nothing could exceed the graceful slope of her shoulders, the roundness of her well-shaped arms, the plumpness of the twin semi-globes which rose so grandly beneath the corsage of her white muslin dress ; the exquisite con tour of her waist, or the symmetry of her faultless feet.

The light brown shade of her complexion indicated to a close observer the presence of negro blood in the veins of that beautiful creature, whom Mr. Morton had selected a few years since to be the partner of his bed and the companion of his hours of indo lence and relaxation. She was a quadroon, the offspring of an illicit connec tion between a Creole slave-girl and the gentleman of whom Mr. Morton had purchased the estate, and who had not hesitated to sell his illegitimate child to a stranger — to slavery and dishonour. She had been taught the accomplishments prized in and by her sex, to enhance her value, and was thus fitted to preside over " What new uproar is this ?" ex claimed the planter, his brow darken ing again. " See what it is, Julia." The quadroon opened the door, and advanced into the passage, where she saw a black footman endeavouring to prevent a Creole girl from making her way into their master's presence.

" What is the matter, Cæsar ? — what means this uproar ?" said Julia, advancing up the passage. ;' This girl will persist, in spite of all I say, in throwing herself at massa's feet, and asking him to pardon Jack, Miss July," replied the negro. " Poor girl !" murmured Julia, almost inaudibly, as she glanced at Cora, and comprehended at once the relation in which she stood to the condemned rebel. " Oh, dear missy !" cried the Creole maiden, breakiag from Cæsar, and fall ing on her knees before Julia, in whose countenance she read sympathy and compassion, " pray let me see Massa Morton, that I may beg of him the life of Jack." _> '-»■ ■ . .... - — , OBI ; OR, THREE-FINGERED JACK. 8 tear-bedewed cheeks. " I will join you in the garden in a few minutes." His mistress glanced mistrustfully at him, as if suspicious of the motive which had prompted him to desire her absence ; but. she feared to irritate nim by exhibiting an unwillingness to obey, and slowly withdrew.

"What is your name?" demanded Mr. Morton, when he was alone with the Creole maiden. " Cora, sir," replied the girl, casting down her eyes. " You shall see him, but I am afraid yonr application for mercy will meet with a stern rejection," said Julia, in a low voice ; and motioning to Cora to follow her, she returned to the drawing room. " Mercy, dear massa — mercy !" cried the Creole maiden, throwing herself on her knees before the planter, and raising her clasped hands and tearful counte nance in an attitude of intense grief and earnest supplication. " Mercy ! for whom ?" said Mr. Morton, sternly. "For Jack, sir," returned Cora. " Oh, pray do not hang him ! He knew not what he did — thc death of his father ■excited him to madness." "And what would Cora give for the life of Jack?" inquired the planter, surveying her with increasing admiration, and speaking in a milder tone than she had yet heard him.

" Her own, sir I" returned Cora, raising to the planter's countenance her fine dark eyes, in whch he read a holy enthusiasm and a passionate devo tion. "You shall not pay so fearful a price, Cora," said Mr. Morton. " I should not like to see that lovely face distorted by the agonies of strangulation. Give yourself to my arms, Cora, and you shall carry to the prison in which Jack is confined, an order for his immediate release." " Mad or not, he hangs to-morrow morning," relumed the planter, bru tally. ' "Away! I will not hear another word in his behalf." "Oh, say not that you will hang him !" exclaimed Cora, almost frantic with uncontrollable grief. "He will not be so mad again — grief for his father's death had deprived him of his reason ; but pardon him, and gratitude will render him the best slave upon the whole plantation."

" For my sake, sir, pray grant this .girl the life of him she loves," said Julia, in a compassionate tone. " If you hang Jack, her heart will break; they have loved each other long." " He must die, Julia," returned the planter. "He is the most dangerous, disaffected, mischief-breeding rascal on the estate." " Jack would rather die than owe his liberty to my dishonour," exclaimed Cora, rising from her supplicatory position, her lovely countenance crimson with indignation and insulted virtue. "Fool!" said Mr. Morton, with miugled sternness and mock derison. " I can possess you unconditionally whenever I choose. The death of Jack shall be your punishment for this foolish opposition to my wishes, which shall not save you from me. Cæsar ! " he continued, advancing to the door, " see this girl out of the house."

Thus repulsed and insulted, Cora left the mansion of the planter, and returned slowly and sadly towards the huts of the slaves, in one of which she dwelt with her parents. Before joining his mistress in the garden, Mr. Morton despatched a brief note to Wilson, his overseer, by Cæsar, and then he lighted a cigar, and proceeded in search of Julia. The beautiful quadroon endeavoured to read in his countenance what had passed between him and Cora during her absence, but its placidity " Then sell him, sir," said Julia, in a tone of entreaty. "No," exclaimed Mr. Morton, sternly. "The mutinous "rascals must be pre sented with an example ot severity." "Then hang me instead of Jack !" cried the hapless Cora, clinging to the planter's knees as he moved away from her. The stern and almost savage expression that had hitherto marked the coun tenance of Mr. Morton, gave way as Cora uttered these last words of devo tion and despair, to one of involuntary admiration, blended with sensual desire.

"Leave us, Julia," said he, after gazing for a moment upon the lovely countenance of the Creole girl, with an earnestness that called blushes to her baffled her, and she knew that to hazard a question upon the subject migh be perdous to the continuance of the good understanding which existed between them. All at once he stood still; he had trodden with his naked foot on something w hich hurt it. He stooped dewn, felt on the stone floor of his cell for the object, and picked it up. It was a large nail ; Jack felt that it might be of great service to him, but for some moments he knew not how to make it available. At length he stooped down, and traced with his finger the mortar in which was imbedded the central flag of the pave 1 ment of his cell ; and then bent down his ear to the stone, and listened.

Not the slightest sound reached his ears from below, but at, intervals the ' night wind bore through the barred j window the footfalls of the sentinel, as he paced his lonely round benea'h. He I thought if he could force a way into the j room or corridor, or whatever might be ' below the cell, he might be better able to escape from thence than from his cell. No sooner was his mind impressed with the practicability of escape by this means, than he began to pick out the mortar between the central flag and those adjoining it, and in much less time than he could have expected, he had so far loosened the stone that he could move it. To raise it was a work of some difficulty, as he had only his fingers to use as a lever ; but at length he succeeded, and the ponderous stone was set on end against the wall.

At that moment the whole of the cell was as vividly illumined as if a lantern had been suddenly flashed before the grated window. Jack started up, but the cell was again involved in darkness — he listened, but not a sound met his ears. He was about to resume his labours, when the artillery of heaven pealed and crashed overhead, and the echoing corridors of the prison rever berated the roar.

Chapter IV. Jacx's Escape

For more that an hour after the massive door of his cell had closed upon our hero, he sat motionless upon his straw, with his head bent down, and his face concealed by his arms, which were folded over his knees. He thought not of the ignominious death in store for him on the moirow, but he bitterly cursed the cowardice of his fellow slaves in deserting him at the first approach of danger, ..nd he ground his teeth with rage as he thonght upon his baffled schemes of vengeance. These dark thoughts and feelings gradually gave way to others, springing from a purer source, and he thought of his mother, mourning for her husband in solitude, with unavailing tears — he thought of Cora, the dark-eyed maiden of his love, until he saw her, in his mind's eye, prostrated by the intensity of her sorrow, and the bitterness of her despair.

Then he sprang suddenly to his feet, and paced his narrow cell with the restlessness of a caged tiger. No light had been left him, and none penetrated from without through the barred window of his cell, deeply set in the massive wall. His limbs were unfettered, for manacles were considered superfluous in that strongly-built and well-guarded prison, and he seized one of the iron stancheons Which barred the narrow window of his cell with both hands, and shook it until the sweat stood in large drops upon his heated forehead, and the muscles of his powerful arms rose beneath the sable skin like thick cords. In vain ! The iron bats were strong, and firmly soldered with lead into the massive stones. Jack ground his teeth with rage, and paced his narrow cell littering half-suppressed growls like those emitted by a wild beast.

Through ihe pitchy darkuess, his eyes gleamed ike those of a tiger seen through the ibscurity, when crouching in the most emote recess of a cavern. " The din of this awful strife of the elements will favour my escape," thought Jack, and keeeling down again, he fell to work with increased energy, picking away the mortar in which the stone was imbedded, and breaking the laths b;low the joints on which it rested. Again the lightning momentarily illuminated the Cimmerian darkness of the cell, and again the thunder crashed over the prison, and reverberated along its passages aud cells, gradually dying away in the distance. The plaster was No 2. half an hour after his escape from prison and the sentinel, Jack reached the house of Wilson, the overseer. Upon this man, a monster of cruelly and lust, he resolved to revenge the death of his father, and then to seek refuge in the most inaccessible mountains in the neighbourhood of Montego Bay.

But how was he to obtain an entrance into the house without alarming the overseer ? He glanced up ward at the window of Wilson's chamber, and was surprised to find a light therein, as it was now just upon midnight ; and he was about to retire, the evidence afforded by the light in the chamber that Wilson had not yet retired to rest compelling him to defer his anti cipated vengeance until another opportunity, when he heard a shriek in the chamber from which the light emanated, and then another and another, in quick succession. soon broken when the laths had been removed, and then Jack again inclined his ear to the aperture and listened at tentively. All was still, aud without a moment's hesitation, he dropped into the apartment below. A vivid flash of lightning streamed through a window at that moment, and showed him that he was in a small fur nished room, probably belonging to one of the turnkeys, for a bottle of rum stood upon the table, and the window was glazed and undefended with bars.

Jack helped himself to a sup of the rum, and then examined the window. The fastenings were easily removed, and a violent peal of thunder drowned the slight noise which he made in opening it. He looked out into the darkness, but could distinguish nothiug; he heard the approaching footsteps of the sentinel in the court -yard, and he knew that there was another on the other side of the wall which enclosed it. The tone reminded him of the voice of Cora, and feeling the blood boil in his veins at the idea that she was, perhaps, struggling in the brutal embrace of a wretch whom he regarded as his father's murderer, he was about to rush at the door and beat it down with his axe, when a gleam of lightning discovered to him a ladder, which had been used on the previous day in thatching an out house.

Throwing down h.s firelock, he seized the ladder, set it against the window of the overseer's chamber, and grasping the ensanguined axe firmly in his right hand, rushed to the rescue of the female by whom those piercing shrieks were raised. Another flash of lightning enabled him to discern a carpenter's axe stand ing in one corner of the room ; with this he armed himself, and as soon as the retiring footsteps of the sentinel had died away in the distance, he thrust him self through the open window, and, axe in hand, leaped to the ground. The darkness of the night enabled him to cross the yard unperceived by the sentinel, and his naked feet fell noise lessly upon the pavement. The wall was not too high for Jack to raise himself to the top of it by using the head of the axe as a hook, and then drawing himself up by means of the handle ; but scarcely had he accomplished this task, when a vivid flash of lightning revealed him to the sentinel on the other side.