|  |
Primary source: Anthony Chase to Jeremiah Hoffman, letter, 1827.
Caption: In this letter, escaped slave Anthony Chase explains to his former master Jeremiah Hoffman why he has run away.
[Misspellings were preserved for historical accuracy]
August 8th, 1827
Sir
I know that you will be astonished and surprised when you becom acquainted with the unexspected course that I am now about to take, a step that I never had the most distant Idea of takeing, but what can a man do who has his hands bound and his feet fettered He will certainly try to get them loosened by fair and Honorable means and if not so he will ceartainly get them loosened in any way that he may think the most adviseable. I hope Sir that you will not think that I had any faoult to find of you or your family no sir I have none and I could of lived with you all the days of my life if my conditions could have been in any way bettered which I intreated with my mistress to do but it was all in vain She would not consent to any thing that would melorate my condition in any shape of measure So I shall go to sea in the first vessel that may ofer an opportunity and as soon as I can acumulate a sum of money suficent I will Remit it to my mistress to prove to her and to [the] world that I dont mean to be dishonest but wish to pay her every cent that I think my servaces is worth I have served her 11 years faithfully and think it hard that I offered $5.00 what I was valued at 4 years ago and also to pay 4 per cent until the whole sum was payed which I believe I could of done in 2 years and a half or 3 years at any rate but now as I have to Runaway like a crimnal I will pay her when I can...Though I am truly sorry that I must leave you in this situation that I do, but I will Recomend to you as a Servant Samuel Brown that I think a good & honest man and one that is acquainted well with his business but you can Refer to Mrs Snyder who is well acquainted with him and has lived in the hous with him. as my mistress is not in Town I [have] taken the Last months wages to defray my exspenses but that money and the five dollars that you lent me the day before I left you I shall ceartainly Return before I ship for the sea. I dont suppose that I shall ever be forgiven for this act but I hope to find forgiveness in that world that is to com. I dont take this step mearly because I wish to be free but because I want to do justice to myself and to others and also to procure a liveing for a family a thing that my mistress would not let me do though I humblely Requested her to let me do so
Before I was married I was Promised my freedom then after find this Peace of writeing whish you will find incloesed I was then confident that I was free at Mr Williams Death, and so I married. . . I must no beg your forgiveness and at the same time pray to god for your helth and happyness as well as that of your family
I am Sir your most Obedient Servt &c
Anthony Chase
|
Anthony Chase to Jeremiah Hoffman, Chatsworth House [Baltimore], 8 August 1827, in Robert S. Starobin, ed., Blacks in Bondage: Letters of American Slaves, (New York: M. Weiner, 1988), 120.
|
| |
