During the midst of slavery, the slaves learned to make their lives easier by agreeing and pretending to hold the same values as their masters. Of course, this is an action that is used to make the masters believe that the slaves were loyal and happy with the families who bought them. In “The Passing of Grandison,” Grandison’s master perceives him as happy, loyal and simple minded, which later plays out to show that the Colonel had underestimated him. The colonel’s son was allowed to take one slave up north with him as help and Grandison was chosen for the job.
Dick Owens wanted to free a slave for the woman he was courting, but his father gives him the most relentless of the plantation. During Owens’ and Grandison’s journey, Owens gives the slave every opportunity possible to escape the chains of slavery from long errands to leaving Grandison money while Owens went on a two day trip. Owens even went as far as taking Grandison to Canada and says “…’If you wished, Grandison, you might walk away from me this very minute, and I could not lay my hand upon you to take you back.
” Grandison replies, “I’s feared I’ll lose you ovuh heah an’ den I won’ hab no marster, an’ won’t nebber be able to git back home no mo” (Passing of Grandison, p. 722).
Owens finally left him on the Canadian side and returned home and even then, the Colonel still did not blame Grandison; he blamed the abolitionists whom he thought had pressured Grandison into abandoning his master and his family back at the plantation. Grandison surprises the Colonel when he shows up weeks later having been abused. The colonel was so excited that he even killed a calf for dinner in Grandison’s name.
The Essay on Letter to Slave Master
I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to ...
About three weeks after Grandison’s return, he, his wife, mother, aunt, father, brothers and sisters went missing. It was then that the Colonel “…came near losing his belief in the fidelity of the Negro to his master…” (Passing of Grandison, p. 725).
He then set up an immediate search party for the slave family; that was a lot of valuable property to lose. The Colonel and his friends traced and followed the fugitive slave family from place to place, hot on their heels at times, but never were able to catch up with them because the slaves had the aid of the abolitionists and the Underground Railroad.
Then when he thought he had the family within his grasp, he saw the whole family on a steamboat that was in full throttle towards the Canadian border. The family and one of the crew waved at the Colonel mockingly as they headed for real freedom. The Colonel shook his fist back at them being struck with the reality that Grandison and his family wanted to be free, not enslaved on a plantation. The original perception of Grandison was that he was a faithful, loyal, and happy slave to the Colonels family and plantation.
I believe that the Colonel as well as most of the whites during that time perceived the Negro population to be simple minded and dependent upon the white folk to ultimately take care of them. Grandison voids the Colonel’s ignorant perception and underestimation of the Negro race when he decides to run for the border. Grandison could have run when Owens gave him the chance but he waited until he could bring his family with him.
