Morgan IUR

"The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things."
--- Assata Shakur, "Assata: An Autobiography", 1987

"On 17 August 1840 the day of a great Whig political convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Jake a slave owned by an old and respected farmer, Robert Bradford, refused to go to work.

Like other Blacks in the neighborhood, he wanted to go to the convention, listen to the speeches, and attend the celebration.
The overseer informed Bradford that Jake was 'in an ugly mood' and asked him what to do. Bradford said he would speak with Jake and see if he could calm him down. Bradford was unable to placate the Black man and ordered his oversee to tie him up for a whipping. Jake quickly drew a knife. 'Whether he aimed to cut the rope or the overseer no one knew," a Nashville slave recalled, 'but he made a wild thrust which killed Mr. Bradford on the spot.'

Jake absconded into the woods. Nine days later a notice appeared in the Nashville Whig [newspaper]: “a thirty-year old slave named Jake, a raw-boned, quick-spoken man of bright complexion, weighing about 160 or 170 pounds, had murdered old man Bradford. When he escaped he was dressed in white homespun 'linsey pantaloons, and roundabout.” A short time later, Governor James K. Polk offered a reward for the slave's apprehension. Despite concerted efforts by constable, justices of the peace and local citizens, Jake remained at large for a number of months. Finally however, he was captured, tried, convicted and hanged. Few lamented his passing, but the death of the esteemed Bradford was universally mourned by whites in the community."

--- John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger in their book, "Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation", p. 1