Railroad of Courage Read online

  The Birdman took Delilah’s hand and helped her out of the carriage. Arm in arm, they walked up the gangplank to the boat. Gruffly, Caleb shouted at Uncle Josiah, “Get over here, boy. Pick up this trunk and carry it onto that steamboat.” Then Caleb shoved my pa. “Carry these bags onto the boat.” My pa picked up two bags, one in each hand, and shuffled up the gangplank. We all kept our faces down, hoping to be invisible to the captain and crew.

  A deckhand yelled at my uncle. “You, put that trunk on the deck. Then move aside.” I stayed close to Moses; we were out in the open, without a safe place to hide if something went wrong. I watched fearfully as the Birdman and Delilah walked up to the ticket master.

  The Birdman said, “My sister, Miss Ross, and I wish to pay for passage and two staterooms. My sister has brought her slaves with her, for she will be staying in St. Louis for several months, caring for our mother who is gravely ill.”

  The ticket master took the money from the Birdman’s hand without a pause. “Sir, here are your tickets. You and the lady can go to your staterooms. One of my men will show your slaves where to carry the trunk and bags, then we’ll take your slaves to the hold below. Do you think they’ll cause trouble? If so, we can chain them to posts in the slave pen.”

  “No, there will be no need to do that,” said the Birdman. “These slaves will cause no trouble.”

  A steward walked up to the Birdman and said, “Excuse me, Sir. I assume you are the owner of the slaves?”

  The Birdman shook his head. “No, they belong to my sister, Miss Ross. She has the deeds of ownership in her handbag.”

  The steward looked at Delilah. I could see that her hands shook as she opened her bag and passed the forged papers to the man. He looked at them quickly and said, “Thank you, Miss Ross, that’s fine. Now please sign this affidavit that you will return your slaves to the South.” Delilah looked at the Birdman and her eyes were wide with fear. She did not know how to read nor write.

  The Birdman quickly came to her rescue and said to the steward, “Sir, my poor sister is not used to signing papers. I’m afraid she leads a sheltered life on the plantation as our father manages all of the family’s business. Please permit me to sign the affidavit for her.”

  He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket and passed it to the steward. “For your understanding, Sir, a little extra…”

  The steward smiled and said, “Welcome aboard!”

  I glanced at Moses and ventured a small smile. We had succeeded.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Steamboat

  After my pa and Uncle Josiah carried the trunk and bags to the staterooms, a deckhand shoved us down steep stairs and pushed us into a pen. He locked a heavy wooden door behind us. The pen was full of slaves, and many of the men were chained to posts. I gagged at the stench of hot, crowded bodies.

  The heat was stifling. A boiler sat above a huge fire that burned in a metal box. An overseer yelled at the slaves, ordering them to throw more logs onto the fire. An old woman saw that I was frightened and explained that the fire made steam to turn the paddlewheel. “That’s why it’s called a steamboat,” she said. “The steam rising out of the boiler turns the paddlewheel at the back of the boat. We’ll be hot all the way to St. Louis.”

  Moses said to us, “Find yourselves a seat because we’re going to be here for some time.” Then Moses put her arm around my shoulders and whispered, “Honey, I’ve been in worse places, but it sure is hot down here!”

  That night a deckhand came down to the pen and shouted, “Who’s Rebecca? Miss Ross, she wants Rebecca to take care of her. Hurry up, girl, don’t waste my time.”

  I looked at Moses who smiled and nodded her head. Then I understood that Delilah was helping me. I was scared to leave my family, but I had to obey; I had to obey because I was living as a slave again. The deckhand dragged me out of the pen, locked the door and took me to Delilah’s stateroom. When he knocked on the door, Delilah opened it and waved me inside, shouting, “You lazy girl, you! Who was going to take care of me while you sat down below? There’s work to be done.” She thanked the deckhand and closed the door.

  Delilah put her arms around me and whispered, “I’m sorry. I had to pretend to be your mistress. I figured the stateroom would be much nicer for you than the slave pen. Am I right?”

  I nodded. “Yes, much nicer. I wish my family and Moses weren’t in that pen.” Tears came to my eyes.

  Delilah pointed to a small, round window. “Look, Rebecca, look out the porthole. See that steamboat passing by? That must be what our boat looks like.” Lanterns lit the windows of the passing steamboat. At the back, sparks flew up from a smokestack and a wooden paddle-wheel churned through the water.

  I looked around the stateroom itself. The room was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was much fancier than any room at Grower Brown’s with a mirror set in a gold frame, wallpaper printed with pink roses and a bed heaped high with pillows and blankets.

  Delilah invited me to sit down beside her on a small settee. “How old are you, Rebecca?”

  “I’m twelve.”

  Delilah smiled. “How old do you think I am?”

  I looked at her. “You’re a woman.”

  There seemed to be sadness in her voice as Delilah said, “Yes, I’m eighteen. It was time for me to run away because the master was looking at me in a bad way.”

  I knew that the growers favoured pretty slave girls, and Delilah was more than pretty, she was beautiful. She looked at me and frowned. “Now, if you’re going to pretend to be my stateroom slave and walk out on the deck behind the Birdman and me, you have to have a bath. Right now you’re filthy from all that time in the coffin, but we’ll get you clean. First, you’ll have to get pails of hot water from the kitchen.”

  I walked along the deck with an empty pail in each hand. The steamboat blew its whistle, and I jumped with fright. We were passing another boat, a boat going down the river to Memphis. I wondered whether there were slaves on that boat. Were they stoking a fire to make the paddlewheel turn, just like the slaves on our boat?

  I found the kitchen but waited outside, jumping out of the way as the doors swung open and shut. I was scared to go in. Men in white shirts and white pants came in and out, carrying trays full of food. Then I got a glimpse of the cook, a woman who looked like Ada. I pushed the door open and walked in. The cook was stirring huge pots of food, but when she saw the pails I was carrying, she said, “Child, come to the stove and I’ll give you hot water for your missus.”

  She poured steaming water into the pails and I thanked her. I tried to carry the pails so their heat didn’t burn my legs as I hurried back to the stateroom. When I knocked on the door, Delilah quickly opened it. “Rebecca, you took so long, I was scared.” She took the heavy pails and poured the water into a metal tub.

  “I’ll get into the bath first,” Delilah said. “I’m dirty but not as dirty as you!”

  Delilah lowered herself into the hot water and bathed quickly. When she stepped out of the bath, she said, “Now it’s your turn, Rebecca. The water is still warm.” She poured water over me and rubbed soap into my hair. When we were through, Delilah chose a lavender-coloured dress for herself and a simple brown dress for me, a plain dress a slave would wear. My dress was too big but Delilah tied a scarf around my waist to hold it up.

  The Birdman knocked on the door and came in, carrying a plate of food for Delilah. “Rebecca, what are you doing here?”

  Then Delilah laughed and said, “Well, a fine lady like me needs a slave girl to look after her, that’s how she got here.”

  “That was a clever idea!” the Birdman said.

  Delilah and I shared the fried chicken, okra and sweet potato pie, but I thought about my family and felt sad. They would not be eating like this. I looked out the window and saw the lights of other boats passing us on the river. The floor of the stateroom shook gently as the giant paddlewheel kept turning. I was a long way from Grower Brown’s plantation.

  I
asked the Birdman, “Will you take us out on the deck? I’ll walk behind you and Delilah and pretend to be her servant.” I wanted to walk on the deck, for no matter what happened, I knew I would never forget this night on the steamboat.

  He smiled. “Yes, let’s all go out. It’s a fine night.”

  Delilah found two shawls and put one over my shoulders. The night air was cool as we stepped onto the deck. There were bright stars in the sky and the Birdman pointed to the Big Dipper. I smiled, knowing that the North Star led to freedom; it seemed closer than it had been at the plantation.

  As we walked to the front of the steamboat, we saw a man holding an enormous wooden wheel, with spokes like a wagon wheel. The Birdman said, “That’s the pilot. He stands on that raised platform, called the bridge, and steers, finding safe passage along the river.” Every few minutes, we heard the pilot call out, “Depth?” Another man stood on the deck below and took soundings with a long pole that measured the depth of the water. He shouted to the pilot, “Mark Twain.” The Birdman explained that sandbars were continually shifting from place to place in the Mississippi River. The boat needed to stay in deep water or it would run aground. “Mark Twain” meant two fathoms or twelve feet.

  Another steamboat passed by. Sparks flew up from its smokestack and fell like rain on the river. Then the boat went around a bend and disappeared from sight. I thought of my family down below deck. I remembered the heat and the smell of that pen, and, despite the beauty of the river passage, I hoped it would end quickly.

  We stayed on the deck for a long time. In the darkness, the fact that the Birdman and Delilah had white skin and I had black skin did not seem to make any difference. The Birdman walked us back to Delilah’s room and Delilah made a bed for me on the floor. I lay down on the soft blankets, resting my head on a feather pillow, and fell asleep thinking of the North Star.

  When I woke up, the sun was shining through the small round window. Delilah was still sleeping so I stayed quiet and still until she awakened. That morning she put on a clean blue-coloured dress with white lace at the collar. I wore the same brown dress because a slave girl would have only one dress.

  The Birdman knocked on the door and said, “I think it is safer for you to stay in the stateroom during the day, Delilah. There is no need for you to go on deck where other passengers, especially men, will want to make your acquaintance. Rebecca can bring you breakfast on a tray and you two can share the food.”

  I asked the Birdman if I could go to see my family and Moses, but he shook his head sadly. “No, that would put all of you at risk. I’m sorry, Rebecca.”

  The Birdman and I walked to the upper deck to get breakfast for Delilah. As we neared the dining room, I saw a man sitting beside a pretty white woman, talking and laughing. My heart stopped, and for a moment, I could not breathe.

  I quickly turned my back to the man and woman and whispered to the Birdman, “It is Grower Brown’s son—Master Jeff—sitting on the deck.”

  The Birdman was shocked. “Oh, no. Are you sure, Rebecca?”

  I nodded. There was no doubt that I had seen Master Jeff. I kept my face down as I followed the Birdman back to Delilah’s stateroom. When we walked into the room, Delilah could see the fear on our faces. She asked, “What is it? What happened?”

  “Rebecca saw Master Jeff, the son of the man who was her master, sitting on deck,” the Birdman said. “She is sure it is him. This was not what we planned, no, not at all. This is a very unwelcome complication.”

  Delilah saw that I was trembling and took my hand in hers. I looked at her and said, “When I saw Master Jeff, I realized that our journey has not taken us very far from slavery.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Disaster on Board

  The Birdman sat in the stateroom, his forehead deeply furrowed. “Rebecca and Delilah, you should not go out on the deck again. If anyone asks, I will say you both fell ill. Fortunately, Rebecca’s family and Moses are out of sight. I must warn them that Jeff is on the boat before we disembark in St. Louis. That’s when there’s a danger that he will see them. I wonder why on earth Master Jeff is here? Why is he going north?”

  I remembered the meeting Grower Brown and Master Jeff had called, when all the growers in the county had come to the plantation, and Master Jeff had told them about the Knights of the Golden Circle. I looked at the Birdman. “I know why he is going north.”

  The Birdman was surprised. “Please tell us what you know, Rebecca. This is very important.”

  I said, “Just before we ran away, Master Jeff and the other growers formed a secret group. They called it a castle, part of the Knights of the Golden Circle. Master Jeff said he would go to Cincinnati to meet the leader of the Knights. He planned to take him money, money to hire more bounty hunters.”

  The Birdman was silent, thinking about what I had said. “But why is he going to St. Louis then? Cincinnati is to the east.”

  I shook my head. I could not answer that.

  “I’ll go back on deck,” the Birdman said. “I’ll find a way to talk with Jeff and find out why he’s here.”

  I said, “Master Jeff likes to play poker. Do you know how to play poker?”

  The Birdman laughed. “Not well. I’ll pretend to be a wealthy gentleman who always loses. Then I can be sure that Jeff will want to play poker with me.”

  As he left, the Birdman locked the door. Delilah slumped in her chair and tears rolled down her cheeks. Even though I was afraid, I said to Delilah, “Have faith. We’re going to reach Canada.”

  We waited a long time for the Birdman to come back. Finally, we heard a key turning in the lock, and the Birdman came in and told us what he had learned. “I sat down beside Jeff and we started talking. He told me about your family running away, led by a man named Moses. As you know, the growers believe that Moses is a man. Jeff said he thought the Quakers were hiding you runaways, Quakers or some other abolitionists. He told me he had travelled from town to town hiring patrollers, and along the way, he met Quakers who told him slavery is evil. Jeff thinks Quakers hold that view because they own small farms, not big plantations. He believes slaves are necessary if you want to make money on a plantation.

  “I asked Jeff where he’s going. He said he’s going first to St. Louis, then on to Cincinnati. When I asked him why, he told me about the Knights of the Golden Circle. He is very proud of the fact that he formed a castle in South Carolina. Just as you said, Rebecca, he’s taking money to the founder of the Knights to hire more bounty hunters. On the way he’s stopping in St. Louis to see the trial of a slave named Dred Scott. The case will decide whether slaves are free under the law if they live for some time in a free state but are forced to go back to a slave state. The key issue is whether any black man, free or slave, can claim citizenship in this country. The trial will have profound implications.”

  The Birdman continued, “Now it seems I have become a spy, as well as a doctor and an ornithologist! For the rest of our time on the river, I will keep company with Jeff, unpleasant as he is, so I can learn more about his plans. People say it’s important to keep your enemies close to you.”

  The Birdman left us in the stateroom. Later he told us how he warned Moses and my family. He began by telling a deckhand that his sister’s slaves had stolen a necklace and he needed to go down to the slave pen. In the hold, the Birdman pretended to be angry, shouting at Moses and my ma, “Come close so I can look in your eyes and see who is the thief.” When they were close to him, he whispered, “Grower Brown’s son, Jeff, is on this boat. When we reach St. Louis, you must be careful not to be seen by him.”

  Moses gasped, “Has he seen Rebecca?”

  The Birdman said, “No, and she is staying out of sight.”

  Moses said, “You will have to distract him when it’s time to get off the boat.”

  Every evening, the Birdman went to the salon and played cards with Master Jeff. The Birdman said a young slave called Boots served them whiskey and lit their cigars. Because his master, Wyatt
, was most particular about his boots, the young slave had to polish them morning, noon and night. The Birdman said Wyatt was as nasty as Jeff.

  Master Jeff confided in the Birdman, telling him that he was gambling with the money the growers had given him for the Knights of the Golden Circle. Jeff had lost a considerable amount of money but he was sure he would win it back, and more besides. The Birdman pretended to sympathize with Master Jeff over his losses. In order to win Jeff’s trust, the Birdman said he was furious that the federal marshals weren’t capturing runaways and that Jeff and the other growers had to spend their own money to hire patrollers.

  Master Jeff said, “What about hiring patrollers in Canada? They could catch runaway slaves there, just as they do in the United States.” My heart sank when the Birdman told us what Jeff had said. Would patrollers continue to hunt us down in Canada?

  The next night brought a disaster that changed our lives. Only later did we learn what happened on deck. When the last poker hand had been played, the Birdman walked out on the deck and saw Boots standing near the pilot house. The pilot shouted to the Birdman, “We are on the Missouri side of the river now. After two more bends, we’ll see the lights of St. Louis.” He raised a telescope to his eye and searched the river for sandbars. Suddenly he shouted, “Hard to starboard! Hard to starboard!” The boat turned, very slowly, then shuddered and stopped.

  The Birdman told us that he was thrown forward and fell on the deck. As he rose to his feet, there was a loud explosion. He looked over the side of the boat and saw flames. He shouted to Boots, “Run to the slave pen and get those people out!” Then the Birdman hurried to the stateroom to save Delilah and me.

  We were frightened when the boat shuddered to a stop but relieved when the Birdman threw open our door and shouted, “We have hit a sandbar and the steamboat is sinking. We have to get off the boat quickly!”