[I chose to write a letter based upon “Cuff Dix” or “Willis
Brown” found on page 260 in David Waldstreicher’s “Reading the Runaways:
Self-Fashioning, Print Culture, and Confidence in Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century
Mid-Atlantic.” This letter is intended to be a letter that Cuff Dix could have
written to a judge or lawyer trying to convince them that he is in fact “a
preacher, as he says, among the Indians,” by the name of Willis Brown. This
letter as written seeks to spark a debate regarding whether Cuff Dix could have
actually been Willis Brown considering these fictive details I have placed
around what we do know about Cuff Dix/Willis Brown. I also seek to bring to
light what Cuff Dix/Willis Brown could have said at the time to prove his
identification as Willis Brown as debated by David Waldstreicher.]
Dear Sir or Madam of the Law:
May the Lord bless you for receiving this letter! My
flock awaits my return, and I fear the worst, as you know what has been the
fate of many of the Godless Indians living near this town.
My name is Willis Brown, and I am writing to you
with the utmost urgency. At present I
have been wrongly accused and I am being imprisoned under the pretense of being
a runaway slave by the name of “Cuff Dix.” I invite you to come and see if I
look like a “Cuff Dix” to you!
I will get straight to the point, as my time is
short, as I believe the Master of this poor fellow “Cuff Dix” is intending on
receiving me as his property in the coming week. While I cannot yet prove such, my suspicion is
that this man is in business with the jailor in charge here, a quite profitable
one I calculate, a business in which he captures freemen as myself, and thereafter
places them into servitude.
I have managed to get this letter to you through one
of the jailors here sympathetic to my plight.
As a man of the law, he has agreed to do his best to challenge my
captor, the man in charge here, who insists that I am masquerading under false
pretenses. He is a Godly man, and we
have spoken about the grace of the Lord when the time has allowed.
I wrongly supposed, which of course is very
regretful now, that it would be testimony enough to be in possession of this
striped linen I bought in Salem County, but my captor is a ruthless and a
morally suspicious man. I personally
suspect that he intends to take me away from continuing my mission with the
Indians living near here not only for his own profit and dealings, but because
he is a heathen himself!
While he pretends to know and accept the Lord, do
not be fooled by his trickery or his status at his station, believe me! I beg
you to come and hear me talk of the Lord, while I am young to this profession,
I believe that you will be sufficiently impressed to know that I am not lying
to say that I am in fact a preacher.
Although I cannot yet fluently quote the words of the Lord, this should
not be taken as lack of confidence in who I say I am, but instead be accepted
as the reality of my few years as a man of God.
Give me a Bible and I will surely fill you with the Spirit of the Lord!
In closing, I know a letter such as this is highly
unusual, but take its unusual nature as a sign of my determination to once
again be free to walk and preach to my flock.
While you may be able to rest your head easily if you decide to
disregard this letter and think of this testimony to my position as facts of a
liar, think how God will punish you if you do not accept my words if they are
true (which they are!). Do not risk the
fires for a bit of doubt.
I look forward to meeting you upon my release, bless
you!
Willis Brown
Wonderful! So creative -- I particularly like the way you are careful to keep Willis Brown in character throughout the letter. He is so convincing that he is a preacher and what God-fearing judge would choose to "risk the fires for a bit of doubt"?? I also like the mention of the striped linen from Salem County -- who but a free man would be in possession of such a thing? Excellent!
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