Publication: DOUGLASS' MONTHLY
Date: August, 1861
Frederick DouglassTitle: A BLACK HERO.
Location: ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
While our Government still refuses to acknowledge the just claims of the negro, and takes all possible pains to assure 'our Southern brethren' that it does not intend to interfere in any way with this kind of property; while the assistance of colored citizens in suppressing the slaveholders' rebellion is peremptorily and insultingly declined; while even Republicans still deny and reject their natural allies and unite with pro-slavery Democrats in recognizing their alleged inferiority—it has happened that one of the most daring and heroic deeds—one which will be likely to inflict the heaviest blow upon the piratical enterprizes of JEFF. DAVIS—has been struck by an obscure negro. All know the story of this achievement: The schooner 'S.J. Waring,' bound to Montevideo, having on board a valuable cargo, when, scarcely beyond the waters of New York, was captured by the privateer 'Jeff. Davis.' The captain and the mate of the Waring were sent home, and a prize crew, consisting of five men, were put on board of her. Three of the original crew, two seamen and WILLIAM TILLMAN, the colored steward, besides a passenger, were retained. TILLMAN, our hero, very soon ascertained from conversations which he was not intended to hear, that the vessel was to be taken to Charleston, and that he himself was to be said as a slave. The pirates had chuckled over their last item of their good luck; but, unfortunately for them, they had a man to deal with, one whose brave heart and nerves of steel stood athwart their infernal purposes.
TILLMAN took an early occasion to make known to his fellow prisoners the devilish purpose of the pirates, and declared that they should never succeed in getting him to Charleston alive. Only one of his fellow prisoners, a German named STEDDING, consented to take part in the dangerous task of recapturing the vessel. He watched anxiously for a favorable moment to slay the pirates and gain his freedom. So vigilant, however, were the prize captain and crew, that it was not until they had nearly reached the waters of Charleston, in the very jaws of a fate which he dreaded more than death, that an opportunity offered. They were within fifty miles of Charleston; night and sleep had come down upon them— for even pirates have to sleep. STEDDING, the German, discovered that LOW was the time, and passing the word to TILLMAN, the latter began his fearful work—killing the pirate captain, mate and second mate, and thus making himself master of the ship with no other weapon than a common hatchet, and doing his work so well that the whole was accomplished in seven minutes, including the giving the bodies of the pirates to the sharks. The other two men were secured, but afterwards released on condition that they would help to work the ship back to New York. Here was a grand difficulty, even after the essential had been accomplished, one before which a man less hopeful and brave than TILLMAN would have faltered. Neither himself nor his companions possessed any knowledge of navigation, and they might have fallen upon shores quite as unfriendly as those from which they were escaping, or they might have been overtaken by pirates as savage as those whose bodies they had given to the waves. But, despite of possible shipwreck and death, they managed safely to reach New York, TILLMAN humorously remarking that he came home as captain of the vessel in which he went out as steward.
When we consider all the circumstances of
this transaction, we cannot fail to perceive in
TILLMAN a degree of personal valor and presence
of mind equal to those displayed by the
boldest deeds recorded in history. The soldier
who marches to the battle field with all
inspirations of numbers, music, popular applause,
'the pomp and circumstance of glorious
war,' is brave; but he who, like TILLMAN,
has no one to share danger with him, in whose
surroundings there is nothing to steel his arm
or fire his heart, who has to draw from his
own bosom the stern confidence required for
the performance of the task of man-slaying, is
braver. The soldier knows that even in case
of defeat there are stronger probabilities in
his favor than against him. TILLMAN, on the
other side, was almost alone against five, and
well knew that if he failed, an excruciating
death would be the consequence. He was
on the perilous ocean, at the mercy of the
winds and waves, with whose powers he was
as well acquainted as he was conscious of his
inability by skill and knowledge to defy them.
How much nerve, moreover, does it not require
in a man unaccustomed to bloodshed, a
stranger to the sights and scenes of the battle
field, to strike thus for liberty! TILLMAN is
described as anything but a sanguinary man.
His whole conduct in sparing the lives of part
of the pirate crew proves that the description
of his good-natured and gentle disposition is
no exaggeration of his virtues. Love of liberty
alone inspired him and supported him, as
it had inspired DENMARK VESEY, NATHANIEL
TURNER, MADISON WASHINGTON, TOUSSAINT
L'OUVERTURE, SHIELDS GREEN, COPELAND, and
other negro heroes before him, and he walked
to his work of self-deliverance with a step as
firm and dauntless as the noblest Roman of
them all. Well done for TILLMAN! The N.
Y.
