Her native village in Africa lay well inland, some four days’ journey from the sea. It was raided and destroyed by a coast tribe which early in the history of the traffic had become slave-hunters for the slavers. That night of fire and slaughter1, when she saw her father brained and her four brothers cut down as they fought, old Jezebel now remembered but dimly. It was all over in a few hours; of the village nothing was left but smoking ashes and mutilated bodies. By morning she and her fellow captives were in leg chains and on their march to the sea.
When they reached the coast they were kept in the stockade2 only long enough to be stripped, shaved all over the body, and drenched3 with sea water. An English vessel4, the Albert Horn, lay at anchor out in the gulf5, with nearly a full cargo6 of negroes stowed on board. The wind was good, and the skipper was waiting impatiently for the booty of this last raid.
Jezebel and the other captives were rowed out in small boats and put on board in leg chains; they came from a fierce cannibal people, and had not been broken in by weeks of discipline in the stockade.
When the Albert Horn was under sail, and the blue lines of the inland mountains began to grow dim, the fetters7 were taken off the female captives. They were not likely to make trouble.
The Albert Horn, built for the slave trade, had two decks. The negroes were stowed between the upper and lower decks, on a platform as long and as wide as the vessel; but there was only three feet ten inches between the shelf on which they lay and the upper deck which roofed them over. The slaves made the long voyage of from two to three months in a sitting or recumbent position, on a plank8 floor, with very little space, if any, between their bare bodies. The males were stowed forward of the main hatch, the women aft. All were kept naked throughout the voyage, and their heads and bodies were shaved every fortnight. As there was no drainage of any sort, the slaves’ quarters, and the creatures in them, got very foul9 overnight. Every morning the “‘tween decks” and its inmates10 were cleaned off with streams of sea water from the hose. The Captain of the Albert Horn was not a brutal11 man, and his vessel was a model slaver. Except in rough weather, the males, ironed two and two, were allowed out on the lower deck for a few hours while their platform was being scrubbed and fumigated12. At the same time, the women were turned out on the lower after deck without chains.
On the first night after the Albert Horn got under way, the sailors gave Jezebel the name she had borne ever since. When the two hands detailed13 to watch the after ‘tween decks had seen that all the females were lying in the spaces assigned to them, they put out their lanterns and went on deck to take the air. A little later the second mate, hearing shrieks14 and screams from the women’s quarters, ran down from his cabin to find the guards flogging a girl they had dragged out from a heap of rolling, howling blacks.
“It’s this here Jezebel made all the row, sir,” one of the men panted.
The mate made a dash and drove at her throat to throttle15 her, but she was too quick for him. She snapped like a mastiff and bit through the ball of his thumb.
Next morning the mate felt an ominous16 throbbing17 in his hand. He reported the fracas18 to the Captain, saying he didn’t see anything for it but to throw the female gorilla19 overboard. She could never be tamed.
The skipper feared his mate might be in for a bad infection; but he had a third interest in the cargo, and he wasn’t anxious to throw any of it overboard. He thought he would like to see a girl who could stand up against two men and the cat.
“Clean her off and put a bridle20 on her, and bring her up,” he told the mate. Himself, he never went near the slave deck; he couldn’t stand the smell.
Jezebel was brought up in heavy irons for his inspection21. Her naked back was seamed with welts and bloody22 cuts, but she carried herself with proud indifference23, and there was no plea for mercy in her eyes. The skipper told the seamen24 in charge to loosen the noose25 round her neck. As he walked up and down, smoking his pipe, he looked her well over. He judged this girl was worth any three of the women, — as much as the best of the men. Anatomically she was remarkable26, for an African negress: tall, straight, muscular, long in the legs. The skipper had a kind of respect for a well-shaped creature; horse, cow, or woman. And he respected anybody who could take a flogging like that without buckling27.
He gave orders that Jezebel was not to go back between decks. She was to be kept on the upper deck in all weathers, fastened with a light chain to the deck rail. She was to be given a sailor’s jacket to cover her wounds, and at night she was to be provided with a tarpaulin28.
After she was thus isolated29, the girl gave no more trouble, — though she always laughed aloud when the second mate passed with his arm in a sling30. The voyage was long and rough. Jezebel was knocked about and drenched by heavy seas, and was sometimes seasick31, but she made no complaint. When the seamen hosed out the scupper, she took off her jacket and invited the stream of salt water over her body. Except for a few long scars on her back and thighs32, there was nothing now to show what had happened the first night she came on board.
When the Albert Horn at last reached Baltimore, her skipper kept her out at anchor until buyers from Maryland and Virginia could be notified and arrive. Jezebel, he noticed, regarded the water line of the city with lively curiosity, quite different from the hopeless indifference on the faces of her fellow captives.
“She’ll make the best sale of the lot,” he told the mate.
In the first boat-load of purchasers who came out to inspect the skipper’s cargo, there was a Dutch dairy farmer. He brought with him the country doctor of his neighbourhood. The dairyman and his friend, the doctor, were in no hurry. They looked over a great number of negroes. To Jezebel they gave a searching physical examination, talking together in the low Dutch vernacular33, and asking no questions of the skipper. The dairyman called attention to the whip scars on her body, and beckoned34 the second mate.
“Disposition?” he asked.
“The niggers who captured her did that. She put up a fight. Strong as an ox.”
The Dutchman himself looked very like an ox, but the doctor looked kind and shrewd. He fumbled35 in his pocket and brought out a deerskin pouch36, from which he took two squares of maple37 sugar. One he put in his own mouth, and smacked38 his lips. The other he offered to Jezebel with a questioning smile. She opened her jaws39. At this the second mate, standing40 by, looked the other way. The doctor put the sugar on Jezebel’s tongue. She crunched41 it, grinned, and stuck out her tongue for more. The doctor gave his friend the deciding nod. The Dutchman paid the skipper’s price, took Jezebel into Baltimore, and stowed her in the heavy wagon42 in which he had come to town.
When he reached home, he set about breaking in his new wench. On the journey from Baltimore he had discovered that her personal manners were too strong for even a Dutch farmer’s household, so he lodged43 her in the haymow over the cow barn. She learned to milk the cows and to do all the stable work, but she was kept in the barn and was never allowed to touch the butter. The dairy farmer died in an outbreak of smallpox44; his widow promptly45 sold Jezebel. She had been owned by several masters and had learned some English before the Dodderidge farm steward46 bought her. She went to the Dodderidges the year that Sapphira was born, and had been in the family ever since.
Until Jezebel was eighty years old, Sapphira had entrusted47 her to oversee48 the gardens at the Mill Farm. As late as last spring she still got out to sit in the sun and watch the boys who did the shrubbery and shaped the hedges. In wintertime she stayed in her cabin, sewed carpet-rags, and patched the farm-hands’ shirts and breeches. She meted49 out justice by giving a slack boy a rough seat in his breeches, and a likely boy a smooth seat. When Manuel, since dead, had come to her whining50 that “his pants wasn’t comf’able,” she gave him a scornful look and said:
“You ain’t no call to be comf’able, you settin’ down de minute a body’s back’s turned. I wisht I could put dock burs in yo’ pants!”
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1
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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2
stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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3
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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4
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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7
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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8
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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9
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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fumigated
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| v.用化学品熏（某物）消毒( fumigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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14
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
throttle
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| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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fracas
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| n.打架；吵闹 | |
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gorilla
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| n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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25
noose
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| n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑 | |
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26
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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buckling
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| 扣住 | |
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tarpaulin
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| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
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29
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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30
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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31
seasick
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| adj.晕船的 | |
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32
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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33
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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34
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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36
pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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37
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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38
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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40
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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41
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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42
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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43
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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44
smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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45
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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46
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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47
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
oversee
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| vt.监督，管理 | |
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49
meted
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| v.（对某人）施以，给予（处罚等）( mete的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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