Good Morning POU!
We continue reading about the extraordinary life of Robert Reed Church.
In 1851, Emmeline finally passed away on Rosalie’s plantation; in her last moments she hoped that her soul was bound for heaven and her sons would grow up free. Her death left her sons without a mother and crushed Rosalie. “I could never see as much sunshine in the after,” she said.
Not long after Emmeline was buried, a horse-drawn carriage arrived on Rosalie’s estate. The buggy carried Captain Charles Church, a thirty-nine-year-old white man of large stature. Church had tanned skin and dark hair that he wore parted at the side and tucked behind his ears. His face was round and boyish with small blue eyes and a downturned mouth. He wore expensive suits with ties knotted into a stubby bow around his collar.
As a boy growing up in Ohio, he had become fascinated with the work of Robert Fulton, the developer of the commercially successful steamboat, and taken to the river. He skipped his later years of schooling to work in the machine rooms of steamboats and taught himself engineering and sailing. In a few years, he worked his way up to the rank of captain. Now he was successful and wealthy and owned a steamboat line, multiple properties, and several slaves. His purpose in going to Rosalie’s estate was clear: he had come to the estate to take Robert away.
Robert was twelve years old when Captain Church came for him. He packed his things, said good-bye to his younger brother, James, and boarded his father’s carriage. They departed down a dirt road, rolling through acres of cotton fields, leaving the life he knew behind. Reflecting on Robert’s departure, Rosalie later lamented, “my love for your mother endeared her little ones to me. . . . I never intended to hold them in bondage . . . but your father promised your mother . . . he would put you in school and educate you.”
Captain Church had no intention of putting Bob in school; he told him he was taking him to Memphis to put him to work aboard his steamship.
In 1858 Captain Church bought a new steamboat. It was massive at two hundred tons and two engines. The interior was furnished with chaises, lounges and armchairs. It had parlors, dining rooms, kitchens and dozens of sleeping cabins. Captain Church christened his new boat the Victoria and put her into service on the Mississippi River from St Louis to New Orleans, with a stopover in Memphis.
The captain made Robert Reed Church a steward above his newest vessel. The rank of steward was the highest possible for a slave. Robert was now 19 years old and had spent the last seven years on the river in kitchens and dining rooms of Captain Church’s boats to earn the promotion. “My father gave me anything I wanted” Robert remembered. “Though he doesn’t actually recognize me,” he equivocated. Earlier in the year, Captain Church’s other son, Charles Jr, died at the age of 10, resting the legacy of the Church name on Robert, Captain Church’s bastard son and slave.
On the ship, Robert became acquainted with a porter named Blanche K. Bruce. Like Robert, Bruce was the product of a white slave owner and his female slave. Unlike Robert, his father had freed him and sent him to school. Bruce was stout with light brown skin and short, wavy hair. In Bruce, Robert saw an alternative of himself, were he free. The two became fast friends and Robert allowed himself to dream of freedom.
Just after Robert turned 18, Captain Church arranged for him to have a “slave marriage” with a woman named Margaret Pico who was owned by friends of his in New Orleans. Captain Church had often lodged with the family that owned Margaret when in New Orleans. After the marriage was arranged, whenever the Captain and his son were in New Orleans, the Captain would deposit Robert in Margaret’s slave quarters where he would spend the duration of their stay. In 1859, Robert and Margaret produced a daughter whom they named Laura.
In the fall of 1860, Abraham Lincoln’s victory sent shock waves through the South, setting off a chain of events that would lead to the Civil War. On April 19, 1861, Lincoln ordered the Union Navy to blockade all Southern waterways, cutting off the South’s trade with Europe and interfering with the Confederacy’s transportation of troops and provisions.
Not long after the blockade went into effect, Robert was on board the Victoria when a group of Confederate sailors boarded the ship. The men announced they were commandeering the ship and renaming it The Confederate Steamship Victoria (CSS Victoria).
Robert was conscripted to the CSS Victoria in the employ of the rebel navy. While Robert was working on this ship, his younger half-brother James Wilson, was conscripted into the Confederate Army as a soldier in Arkansas.
Emmeline had hoped during her dying days to save her sons from slavery, and now they found themselves aiding the Confederacy in the war to protect the right of white Southerners to hold black men like themselves in bondage.