Suck on the Marrow

The House Book, or a Manual of Domestic Economy: Fuel, Fires, & etc.

65 The House Book, or a Manual of Domestic Economy: Fuel, Fires, & etc. Chapter I. Coal Scuttle When the grate is entirely emptied, sweep it out clean with a hearth-brush, and…wash it out with a wet cloth. Remove the portable hearth from underneath, and empty the ashes into…an old scuttle brought for the purpose. I’m emptied, made heavy, emptied again, waiting on the fire. Melinda Freeman. Joe was proud to give his name to me. Hadn’t been a slave in his Daddy’s line since ’73. And both of us born right here in Philadelphia. Seems to me, now, it’s no matter. If you’re born black anywhere you’re most unlucky. A negro ain’t nothing but a thing to be used up. Being proud of a name like Freeman. There’s as much sense in that as in trying to heat a house by burning ashes. 66 Chapter II. Grates and Stoves What is called a perpetual fire, or such as many persons boast of continuing unextinguished all winter, is wasteful of coal, and is never so bright and strong as that which is entirely renewed everyday, without the remains of the old fire. The Committee met on Thursday to celebrate safely conducting fifteen fugitives through our stations to New York and then across the lake. Such a large group, and still more were knocking before we adjourned. I bring Jacob with me when the Committee gathers in the evenings. He’s at Clarkson’s school on Locust when I’m at Mrs. Cartwright’s in the daytime, but at night… his thighs are growing the same tensed muscles that flexed his father’s. I do not trust him to stay still in the house while I am away. The Committee calculates it has aided nearly two hundred men through Philadelphia and on to Canada this year. All those legs running through our houses. I’d held hope awhile, but I know I should expect no news of Joe. 67 Chapter III. Hot Coals If the dress of a female catches fire when she is alone, if she cannot extinguish it by squeezing it in her hands, let her immediately ring the bell violently, or knock on the floor, but if possible, avoid opening the door to run out, as admitting the air will increase the flame. A gentleman just returned from Baltimore, where his lodgings were adjacent to a slave pen, spoke at our last meeting of these shambles: the brick walls higher than the oldest elm and thicker than a man’s spanned hands; the countless iron shutters; the rowdies in the proprietor’s employ who make a practice of enticing men and boys from Philadelphia; the coins exchanged for every body herded there— so many, it seems, that they must take into slavery more than all the anti-slavery committees can take from it. This is what we women gather to learn after spending the day bent over boiling pots of someone else’s soiled laundry. This is the information men collect to hear at the end of their laboring hours. Where can our bodies rest and trust that filth and tribulation will not overtake us there? 68 Chapter IV. Fire-Screens In traveling on railroads, particles of cinder from the chimney of the locomotive frequently fly into the eyes of the passenger, causing intolerable pain…To avoid these painful and sometimes dangerous accidents, ladies should always travel with veils, holding them closely down over their faces. Met a woman today thought she’d shipped herself off of harm’s door porch. You’re just free of Virginia, I scolded. She couldn’t read, so I showed her one of the caution placards the Committee has taken to posting and told her what it said. What this girl loved best was to walk without pass or purpose and then return home to her own bed. Mind yourself, I cautioned, pointing toward the scruffed man who’d started lurking at the grocer’s corner. He fit the description of the scoundrel the handbill suggested might be bent on stealing any colored person he could get a hold of. Signs all around: curtains drawn, women not hawking, no men with picker’s shoulders to be seen even on this laborers’ street. I saw the sun eclipsed the year Joseph was taken and was a fool to be surprised by the...