contents, was that he mail the letter. When Armsby betrayed him to Epps, Northup who had been careful not to be noticed in his attentions to Armsby, and who clearly understood his owner's weaknesses denied all knowledge, persuading Epps that Armsby had invented the story as way to curry favor and gain a position as an overseer for Epps. As soon as Epps had left, Northup burned the letter. (He was vindicated in his decision not to confide in Epps by the man's reaction on being told by white officials that Northup was free "he raved and swore.... thought of nothing but his loss, and cursed [Northup] for having been born free.")Nor was this the only type of dissembling Northup practiced in resistance. Assigned work as a driver, he was forced in the presence of Epps to whip other slaves in the field if they were not working to Epps' satisfaction. But Epps was often content to observe at a distance, and Northup, with practice, was able to flick the lash "within a hair's breadth" of the field workers without actually touching them; the workers completed this deception by shrieking and squirming when he did so, and mumbling in Epps' presence that they were being whipped severely. Once, when Epps was drunk and attempting to attract the attention in the field of Patsy, a slave on whom he regularly forced himself sexually, to her distress and his wife's fury, Northup advised her to pretend she had not seen him. Epps divined this, staggered to where Northup was working, grabbed him by the shirt, and tried to cut his throat for his insubordination. Northup spun away, leaving the shirt in Epps' hand, and led him on a chase about the yard, stopping each time Epps stopped for breath. Aware that Epps' brutal whim would pass with his intoxication, and that he would not care to divulge to his wife the cause for it, Northup ran directly to Mrs. Epps when she appeared by the fence, and Epps gave up the chase. On another occasion, hired out t...
