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32 I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? — sojourner truth With black sheep’s wool is my head crowned I am a Devil for the Dutch women My nose, a flat beak, exhibits a horrible beauty, Such are suspicious in squeamish eyes. — flip de duyvel chapter 3 “Better to Me Than a Man” female life, labor, and slavery in rural new york I Bell’s family remained together for two years after Charles Hardenbergh ’s death in 1808, while his estate was settled. Advertisements appearing repeatedly in the 1808 Plebeian might have been for Elizabeth, “a middle aged Negro wench, brought up on a farm, for sale for life.” The deceased Old Colonel’s instructions that his kin care for “old Negro James” led to a contentious debate that was finally resolved by emancipating both of Bell’s parents. Elizabeth would care for James, now nearly blind. Another Plebeian sale notice beginning January 16, 1810, sounds like Charles Hardenbergh’s real estate. It offered property “on the turnpike road leading from Esopus,” consisting of a “tavern and store,” as well as “a large, convenient new dwelling house, with a ball chamber, and other convenient rooms for a store and tavern.” Livestock, Bell, Peter, and a man named Sam were listed in Hardenbergh’s inventory but were not advertised for sale. The Dutch commonly held private tavern sales, especially as slavery became unpopular. “My mother, when I was sold from her,” recalled Sojourner Truth, “set down and wept as though her heart would break.” In what had been Female Life, Labor, and Slavery in Rural New York 33 their home, early in 1810, Elizabeth and James watched Charles Hardenbergh’s “slaves, horses, and other cattle” go under the hammer.1 The man who purchased Bell, John Neely Jr., was a yeoman whose family came from Rye, in Westchester County. Like many of the English in Ulster, the Neelys were not previous slave owners. But they were a roguish family. John Neely Sr. and other family members appeared in court for felonious assault in 1729, and in 1739 the two John Neelys were charged with passing “counterfeit dollars.” In 1762, a John Neely was charged with “breach of the peace and grand larceny.” And unlike other yeomen and freeholders, Neelys never appear on grand jury or petit jury duty lists.2 Bell’s work at the Neelys’s was simple enough—household, garden, and yard chores. She was strong, obedient, and disciplined—what Southerners called a “sound slave.” But the Neelys treated Bell cruelly. They clothed her scantily, and she went barefoot all winter, causing extreme frostbite. The Neelys also beat her mercilessly. Completely unfamiliar with English American language and culture, Bell constantly misunderstood her instructions. “If they sent me for a fryingpan , I carried them the pot-hooks and trammels. Then, oh! How angry mistress would be with me!” Floggings at the hands of John Neely scarred Bell for life. The most torturous whipping happened one Sunday morning, when Mrs. Neely directed the unsuspecting child to the barn, where John Neely had prepared a bundle of rods bound with cords. He tied her hands, stripped her to the waist, and beat her until “the flesh was deeply lacerated and the blood streamed from her wounds” onto the ground. Besides her physical anguish, this treatment bespoke Bell’s isolation from sympathetic influences. No female healing hands rubbed salve into Bell’s wounds after the whippings; no soothing poultices treated her numbed, frostbitten feet; no spiritual leader offered emotional comfort.3 Bell’s suffering, confusion, and fear had to have been mixed with shame. She was at the age of menarche. Laboring girls had no childhood to speak of and experienced physical maturation earlier than their middle-class counterparts. In particular, enslaved girls such as Bell had womanly bodies before their mental , emotional, and chronological progression occurred. If Bell’s mother did not alert her tall, well-developed daughter about the wiles of men and the pitfalls of black womanhood, this was not unusual. Enslaved mothers rarely taught their daughters about sexuality, even as their bodies changed. The disrobing and flagellation of enslaved people involved a perverse eroticism and homoeroticism. One slaveholder admitted that he would rather flog a black woman than eat when hungry. “When I go before the throne of God,” Sojourner...

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