Africa's Children. Sharon Robart-Johnson
a few slave owners felt it was their God-given right to subject their slaves to cruel and barbaric treatment, to whip, maim, brutalize, and rape at will. Men, women, and children alike were forced into this life of bondage, with, in some cases, only bread to eat and stagnant water to drink. Many women and young girls were forced to endure the unwanted attentions of their masters and sons. Attempting to resist this injustice invited a beating, or worse, death — for some a welcome state. Children were often born of these rapes, born to be cast into the life of slavery as their ancestors before them. Would it ever end?
The first following chapter recounts the death of a slave girl and subseqent trial of Samual Andrews of Yarmouth and his family. His last will and testament identifies him as a slave owner:
The Last Will and Testament of Samuel Andrews of Yarmouth
In the name of God Amen, I Samuel Andrews, of Yarmouth, in the County of Shelburne and Province of Nova Scotia again being of sound and perfect mind and memory do this fifth day of April in the year one thousand seven hundred and Ninety Nine make and publish this my last will and testament in manner following, that is to say, I give and bequeath to my dear Wife Mary Andrews, all my real estate situate lying and being in the said township of Yarmouth and whereon I now reside and which I occupy and improve consisting of a tract of land of two hundred and fifty acres, together with the buildings and other improvements thereon — Also all my person estate consisting of two female negro infant slaves, thirty head of horned cattle, ten head of sheep, forty pounds in cash, household furniture, farming utensils, and whatever else I may be in possession of at the time of my decease.…21
There is more to Andrew’s will but the relevant part is, not only did he own two female Negro infant slaves (classified as infant until the age of 21), but he packaged them along with the sheep, cattle, and farming utensils.
It was the 28th day of December 1800 the day she died. She lay on the ground where she was thrown, blood oozing from her many wounds. Yet the punishment continued. Her arms strained to cover her face, her back, her stomach, and sides as the vicious, brutal blows rained down. Hands wielding a stick as long as an arm and as thick as an iron candlestick, and feet kicking unmercifully into the body of the girl left marks that few humans have had to endure. Or did she simply lie prone and take the punishment that was a frequent occurrence for her, knowing it was futile to fight back? This day, however, it was more severe — the outcome permanent.
Three men, Samuel Andrews and two of his sons, Samuel Jr. and John, trudged up the hill behind their home in Raynardton, Yarmouth County, carrying their burden to do what they felt they had the right to do, or, perhaps to hide the deed that had already been done. The still-warm body of the girl was placed in a makeshift coffin and dumped unceremoniously into a hastily dug grave without an ounce of remorse in the hearts of those who committed the atrocity. No one would miss her, would they? They thought not. But unbeknown to them, her death would make her famous in her time and her name a household word. Who was this girl who perished way before her time? Beaten to death then dropped into a hole in the ground, never to be found or so it was hoped!
Who was this young woman whose breath was snatched in the prime of her life? Was it murder most foul? As for the perpetrators, Samuel Andrews, his wife and his sons, Samuel Jr. and John, why would they commit such an atrocity on another human?
Who was she? She was Jude. She was a slave.
Jude
The God that made you And the God that made me, Deep from the Soul of the Living Tree — That Might of Shining Magnitude Also made the slave girl Jude.
A frightened child just nine years old, Came as a slave, was then resold. A fine young girl — a life unsung — She met her destiny far too young. 1
Sisters, Jude and Diana,2 lived and slaved on the homestead of their master, Samuel Andrews, a Loyalist who had come to Tusket, then a community in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, from North Carolina in the United States in 1795. When he first moved to Yarmouth County (Shelburne County as it was called then), he came with nothing, the Americans having confiscated all of his property because he had been loyal to the British. He put in his claim to have his losses replaced. Among those losses were his two Negro slaves.3
There are conflicting stories from the oral histories that have been passed down through the generations: one, that he brought his slaves with him, and two, that he acquired them here. Possibly, he acquired at least one of his slaves in Shelburne after the arrival of the Black Loyalists in 1783. An entry in “The Book of Negroes” (which list the Black Loyalists who made the long journey by ships from New York to Nova Scotia, England and several German Kingdoms in 1783. There are three original “Book of Negroes” still in existence) reads:
22 September to 3 October 1783
Clinton bound for Port Roseway [Shelburne, Nova Scotia]: Lt. Trounce Jude, 9, fine girl, (Francis Wood) Property of Francis Wood4
Slave girl being beaten by two boys. After reading the court case of the trial of the Andrews family, charged with the murder of the slave girl, Jude, a very talented young woman, Elizabeth Ogden, having researched the type of clothing that would have been worn during that time, sketched this drawing.
Jude was still enslaved when she arrived in Shelburne and therefore could have been, and may have been, resold, this time to Samuel Andrews. If it were the same girl, it would be the sale that sealed her fate.
Jude and Diana shared a room in the main house, but were forced to subsist on potatoes, fish, and coffee. Seemingly, they had no meat, no other vegetables, no fruit, and possibly no bread, if, as the Andrews family claimed, she stole bread and cheese. Jude and Diana were treated no better than animals as it became obvious that this was how this family viewed them. And they might well have gotten away with her murder, but the atrocity that had taken place on Samuel Andrews’s property was reported to the authorities, though it has not been possible to determine who did the reporting. What followed was the sensational murder trial of the Andrews family.
Nehemiah Porter, the coroner at Yarmouth, held an inquest into the death of Jude and after viewing the body he determined that Jude:
had been willfully and maliciously murdered and from the examinations taken in writing before me there appears just ground to suspect that Samuel Andrews Esqr, Mary Andrews his wife, John Andrews & Yoeman Samuel Andrews Jun his Sons were guilty or accessory to said murder — and that Mary Andrews daughter to said Samuel Andrews Esqr. and Diana his black servant girl are suspected of being present and knowing thereto.5
Joseph Norman Bond, surgeon for the town of Yarmouth, performed the autopsy on Jude. His findings were startling. He found that although the body had been buried for several days, there was no sign of putrefaction, nor were any of the bones fractured or dislocated. He did find, however, that Jude had four contusions, all about three-quarters of an inch (two centimetres) in diameter, three of which were on the crown, wounding the scalp and injuring the membrane that immediately covered the skull.6
The extent of Jude’s injuries is worth stressing if only to question the stipulation that the damage to her body was caused (as the boys claimed during the trial) by a mere fall from a hay-loft window. Dr. Bond’s own records state that there were at least twenty wounds spread across Jude’s body, not the least being six inches (fifteen centimetres) long and two inches (five centimetres) wide that ran from the right ear all the way down to the collar bone. Several more were found on her left ear, right shoulder blade, two inches (five centimetres) wide by two inches (five centimetres) long, both hips, the outside of each thigh, her right wrist and hand, and left thumb. There were also several smaller wounds scattered about her neck, shoulders,