THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502010481
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J03 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
The deeply moving saga of Moses Grandy, an early 19th-century Eastern North Carolina slave with close Norfolk connections, is a horrendous example of man's inhumanity to man.
But Grandy's story had a happy ending - a rare occurrence in the dark and bloody history of southern African-American slavery.
Grandy's life is detailed in the book, ``Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy: Late a Slave in the United States of America,'' which was published in Boston and London in 1844. It is a powerful indictment of the brutalities of the South's cherished ``Peculiar Institution'' and contributed to the moral indignation that resulted in the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865.
Written from Grandy's dictation by George Thompson, a visiting Englishman interested in the abolition cause, the book details how Grandy eventually freed himself and other family members from slavery's bounds.
Grandy was born in Camden County, N.C., a slave of ``hard-drinking'' Billy Grandy, whose rascally cunning had gained him the scorn of his neighbors. Billy Grandy realized early that his personable slave was more profitable when he was allowed to make his own decisions. Thus, Grandy was permitted to ``hire himself out'' to other employers rather than be a field hand subject to half-starvation and brutality. Grandy kept half his independent earnings and gave his master half.
As a youth, Grandy worked as a cypress-shingle maker in the Dismal Swamp. Later, during the British blockade of the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812, he secured employment on a canal barge that brought smuggled European goods from North Carolina ports to Norfolk and Portsmouth by way of the Dismal Swamp Canal. Grandy was so successful in the canal boat trade that he soon became a foreman with his own boat.
He was also praised for his honesty by Moses Myers, the builder of Norfolk's still-existing Myers House and one of the borough's leading merchants.
Encouraged by his partial independence, Grandy married. But his happiness was short-lived. During one of Grandy's absences, his wife was sold by her owner. And Grandy, who loved his wife ``as I loved my life,'' never saw her again. Desperate, Grandy began to consider buying his freedom. When he approached his master, James Grandy, who had inherited him from his brutal father, he was told he could buy his freedom for $600.
An overjoyed Grandy paid his master in installments over the next few years. When he turned up with the last payment, however, his unprincipled owner tore up the receipts and refused to grant him his freedom.
Grandy retaliated by persuading a white friend to sue his master. When the time came for the case to be tried, however, his owner hid until after the court adjourned.
Shortly thereafter, when he was in Norfolk, Grandy sought Moses Myers' help. One of Myers' friends heard of Grandy's plight, bought Grandy from his owner, and arranged for him to start buying his freedom for $600. Grandy went about accumulating the money. Again, when the last payment was made, Grandy learned his new master had mortgaged him to another man for a loan of $600.
Sorely discouraged, Grandy appealed to his new owner again and was told he would be freed if he could come up with $600. Hoping to borrow the sum, Grandy set out for Norfolk.
When he reached Deep Creek, he met Captain Edward Minner, a man long acquainted with his reliability. After hearing Grandy's story, Minner said, ``What did I always say to you? Was it not `I would let you have the money at any time if you would only tell me when you could be sold?' ''
With Minner's help, Grandy finally became a free man. Fearing he might be kidnapped and returned to slavery if he remained in the South, Grandy moved to Providence, R.I. Once established in New England, Grandy quickly gained employment and was soon able to buy the freedom of his second wife and a son who had remained in Norfolk. His other six children - three boys and three girls - were sold by their master to a New Orleans slave trader and he never saw them again.
Grandy's last years were spent in Boston, where Thompson, the English abolitionist, took down his narrative. One of the most moving paragraphs in Thompson's book describes his euphoria when he realized for the first time what it was to be a free man:
``When at length, I had repaid Captain Minner, and had got my free papers, so that my freedom was quite secure, my feelings were greatly excited. I felt myself so light, that I could almost think I could fly: in my sleep I was always dreaming of flying over woods and rivers. My gait was so altered by my gladness, that people often stopped me, saying, `Grandy, what is the matter?' I excused myself as well as I could; but many perceived the reason, and said, `O! he is so pleased with having got his freedom.' '' MEMO: Tommy Y. Bogger, university archivist at Norfolk State University,
assisted in the preparation of this article. by CNB