WEDDING RING
403
in an apartment on the second floor of her palatial home, a small
negro boy entered the room and began to whimper. She seized him
and bodily hurled him through the window of the apartment so that
he fell upon a
s~one
below and broke his back to become a cripple for
his days. To protect her from the process of law and the wrath of the
community, Judge Turner committed her to a lunatic asylum. But
later the physicians said her to be of sound mind and released her.
Her husband in his will left her no slaves, for to do so would, the will
said, be to doom them to misery in life and a speedy death. But she
procured slaves, among them a yellow coachman named Richard,
mild of manner, sensible, and of plausible disposition. One day she
had him chained and proceeded to flog him. But he tore himself from
the chains that held him to the wall and seized the woman by the
throat and strangled her. Later he was captured and hanged for mur–
der, though many wished that his escape had been contrived. This
story was told me in Lexington. One lady said to me: 'Mrs. Turner
did not understand negroes.' And another: 'Mrs. Turner did it be–
cause she was from Boston where the Abolitionists are.' But I did not
understand. Then, much later, I began to understand. I understood
that Mrs. Turner. flogged her negroes for the same reason that the
wife of my friend sold Phebe down the river: she could not bear their
eyes upon her. I understand, for I can no longer bear their eyes upon
me. Perhaps only a man like my brother Gilbert can in the midst of
evil retain enough of innocence and strength to bear their eyes upon
him and to do a little justice in the terms of the great injustice.''
So Cass, who had a plantation with no one to work it, went to
.Jackson, the capital of the state, and applied himself to the law. Be–
fore he left, Gilbert came to him and offered to take over the planta–
tion and work it with a force of his people from
his
own great place
on a share basis. Apparently he was still trying to make Cass rich. But
Cass declined, and Gilbert said: "You object to my working it with
slaves, is that it? Well, let me tell you, if you sell it, it will be worked
with slaves. It is black land and will be watered with black sweat.
Does 1t make any difference then, which black sweat falls on it?" And
Cass replied that he was not going to sell the plantation. Then Gil–
bert, in an apopletic rage, bellowed : "My God, man, it is land, don't
you understand, it is land, and land cries out for man's hand!" But
Cass did not sell. He installed a caretaker in the house, and rented a
little
la~d
to a neighbor for pasture.
He went to Jackson, sat late with
his
books, and watched trouble
gathering over the land. For it was the autumn of
1858
when he went
