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248        TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

ment, he proclaimed among the planters the number
collected in the swamp, and, instead of stating truly
the object they had in view, asserted their intention
was to emerge from their seclusion the first favorable
opportunity, and murder every white person along the
bayou.
    Such an announcement, exaggerated as it passed
from mouth to mouth, filled the whole country with
terror. The fugitives were surrounded and taken pris-
oners, carried in chains to Alexandria, and hung by
the populace. Not only those, but many who were
suspected, though entirely innocent, were taken from
the field and from the cabin, and without the shadow
of process or form of trial, hurried to the scaffold.
The planters on Bayou Boeuf finally rebelled against
such reckless destruction of property, but it was not
until a regiment of soldiers had arrived from some
fort on the Texan frontier, demolished the gallows,
and opened the doors of the Alexandria prison, that
the indiscriminate slaughter was stayed. Lew Che-
ney escaped, and was even rewarded for his treachery.
He is still living, but his name is despised and exe-
crated by all his race throughout the parishes of
Rapides and Avoyelles.
    Such an idea as insurrection, however, is not new
among the enslaved population of Bayou Boeuf. More
than once I have joined in serious consultation, when
the subject has been discussed, and there have been
times when a word from me would have placed hun-
dreds of my fellow-bondsmen in an attitude of defi-