Life of a slave: Pain and humiliation

Slaves’ lives were punctuated with pain and humiliation. The few kindnesses that some slaves might be afforded occasionally did not come close to easing the difficulties of everyday life.

This was certainly the case with a Black man named Alfred (last name unavailable) who was arrested in Phillips County, Ark. on suspicion of being an escaped slave on Feb. 8, 1831.

Though Arkansas was only a territory at the time, the law there still mandated that any person who was Black would be arrested and sold into slavery if not claimed by an “owner.”

That Alfred had been a slave could hardly be argued. A common way of marking a Black man as a slave was to “crop” their ears and both of his ears had been cut in that manner. He was also missing the first joint off the forefinger of his left hand. That was a common form of punishment.

Alfred was described as about 32 years old with his height listed as an exact 5-7 and three-fourths inches.

Alfred originally said that he escaped from slave holder William Owen who had a plantation on the Washita River, then changed that to escaping from slave holder William Leveret of St. Francisville, La. Alfred later said that he had been kidnapped from slave owner Henry Smith.

Phillips County Sheriff Henry L. Briscoe did not believe any of the stories and scheduled a public sale of Alfred on the courthouse steps.

The notice of the sale appeared in the June 20, 1831 edition of the Arkansas Times and Advocate of Little Rock, Ark.

On to this week’s stories.