“Separate them,” said the other ship’s captain.
Grover didn’t understand what he meant until he realized what was happening. They were separating the whites and blacks. The white passengers were on one side of the ship, the black passengers on the other.
“Sir, may I ask what you’re doing?” asked Grover.
“Boy, if you want to live, you’ll shut your mouth.” He jabbed a large stick into his abdomen, causing Grover to cough and bend at the waist.
Grover was tempted to give a sharp retort but refrained. If he stayed quiet, he might be let go when they reached land. At the very least, he would be able to prove that he was a Creole man, a free Creole man.
Grover had no idea who the men were, but they were flying a French flag on their ship. It had to be a ruse. The French weren’t considered pirates, at least not from what he knew. Then again, perhaps his parents were right. He didn’t know all there was to know about the world.
The white passengers were left on the ship, while the black passengers were transported to the pirate ship. Groverstared at those they were leaving behind, wondering if they would survive without an experienced crew. He didn’t know how difficult it would be to sail a ship that size, but it couldn’t be easy.
There were seventeen colored passengers standing in the middle of the deck on the pirate ship. Two men walked toward them, ripping off their finer clothing. The males were left only in their trousers and no shirts. The women, humiliated in their undergarments and slips.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Grover.
“I told you once to shut up,” said the captain. Grover didn’t see it coming. From behind him, a man slashed a bullwhip across his back, driving him to his knees in agony. “You speak to me again without permission, and I’ll throw you from this ship for fish food.”
The group was forced below deck, behind iron bars. Their wrists and ankles were placed in chains, and they were forced to sit on the worn, weathered boards beneath them. It smelled of death and human filth.
“Oh, lord,” said a young woman. Grover, still in extreme pain, looked up and saw what the woman was seeing.
Hundreds of black men, women, and children in chains. Lined up like ants on a hill, many naked and beaten.
“Dear God,” whispered Grover. “What are they going to do with us?”
Grover got his answer sooner than he expected. One of the men from his ship who had sailed before, another black man, recognized the direction they were headed.
“I think we’re headed to New Orleans,” he said.
“That’s good!” said Grover excitedly. “I know that there are free Creole men and women who live there.”
“Have you ever been anywhere besides Saint Lucia?” asked the man.
“No. It has been my home since birth,” said Grover defensively.
“Boy, there are thousands of Creoles there, but they are slaves. There are no free blacks in New Orleans. If there are, they know enough to hide and keep their mouths shut. Something you might want to consider.”
“But,” he stuttered.
“Ain’t no buts. We’re headed to the slave markets. They’ll line us up like cattle for auction, and every white man and woman there will bid on us. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a good one and be treated kindly. If you’re not lucky, well, life won’t be easy for you.”
“We have to escape,” said Grover. “We have to leave here.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” asked the other man. “Those waters are filled with sharks. They’ll eat you alive if the crew doesn’t shoot you first. This ship is twice as large as the one we were on. There are twice as many crew. We are outnumbered and chained to this ship.”
“But surely someone will listen to us when we tell them that he killed the crew of the previous vessel,” said Grover.
“They will applaud him for killing a captain and his crew that was allowing us to travel the same as whites. Why do you think we were bypassing New Orleans and Carolina? Why do you think we were headed straight to New York first? Because there, we would have been reasonably safe,” said the man. He shook his head, then looked at Grover again.
“You have been protected, shielded from the world, and your mama and daddy did you no favors. It will be a rude awakening for you when you get to New Orleans. Just remember what I said. Keep your mouth shut, and you just might live.”
“This can’t be happening,” he whispered. “I’m a free man. I’m an educated man. This is a mistake.”
The door to the top decks opened, and a crew member came down with buckets of fresh water and moldy pieces of bread for the captives.
“Best put somethin’ on yer stomachs. Captain says we’re headed into a storm. You’re about to get wet.”
