Historical Romance of the American Negro

to Mr. J. B. Sutherland-Letter From Mrs. Sarah Jackson and Beulah's Answer-Beulah, M

in the full possession of our own freedom, filled our hearts and souls with the wildest enthusiasm, a

slaves in the South, and in some respects this great city was even more dangerous than Georgia and Louisiana. So we left on the first train for Buffalo, where we arrived in due time, and hired a cab that took us home. Tom had left the key with a good neighbor, so we opened the door, went in, and prepared tea for

IN BU

icing over our mother's safe arrival from the land of slavery was both loud and deep. When we next went to church, the interest there was most unbounded, and the enthusiasm ran higher than the waves of the sea. We made no secret of anything. Abolition was now under full swing; the "Border Ruffians" were now in Kansas, and

publish our whereabouts might have endangered mother, Tom and myself, because the Fugitive Slave Bill was on the National Statute books. It is true that some of the Southerners had been up to the far North after their fugitives, and tried hard to carry them back to slavery; but though the public officers were vigorously called on to do their duty, according to the letter of the law, the general public arose against such arrests, and the slave hunters had to go home again to the South without their prey, avowing and swearing that this would never be a country anyhow till slavery extended from the Lakes to the Gulf. There was, therefore, no real cause for fear on account of either mother, Tom or myself. I had promised my father to write again, and besides he

t slide altogether. Of course, I could never make up my mind to follow the latter

N. Y., Oct

l Jackson

ions to you for your present to my own dear Tom and me on the occasion of our happy wedding. We consider that you have indeed been most mindful of us

rupted in the middle of it by Tom's coming home to tea, in company with our pastor and his wife. I am now des

ter over, it was at last fully decided that I must not have a second. If you wish to hear all the particulars of what followed, I am quite willing to give you them; but in the meantime-after your own style of writing-I will be brief. I proceeded to New Orleans, rescued mother from slavery, and brought her safe and sound home to Buffalo on the steamer "Col

ry much to say, and as I think it may please you better, instead of giving you the rest of that most delightful narration and description

d I am sure I shall be delighted to receive even half a dozen lines from you at any time that you ca

AH JA

t interest by my own dear father, and also by Mrs. Jackson, though with very different feelings from his. I was perfectly wel

had a nice wedding at the church on Vine street, in the presence of an applauding and highly-respectable company. It was a perfect union of hearts, like Jacob and Rachel's over again. As we had plenty of room, and were unwilling to have mother set up a different establishment, Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland

e following letter from Mrs. Jackson at Riverside

Near Louisville

homas

e have decided to bring you back, or else you must pay us the reduced sum of one thousand dollars apiece; that is, two thousand dollars, when we will give you your free papers, and a full discharge. As your master and mistress, we are herein doing you a great favor, for we could easily get two thousand dollars apiece for each of you, Tom and Beulah, i

urs resp

H JAC

f the day is done. We read the letter aloud in the midst of great sport and laughter, which went on, grew and increased the more we examined it. It was the work of Mrs. Jackson and hers alone. None of us bel

n us with bloodhounds themselves! She would look grand in h

ee the boys and young lads pelting those dogs with

her shout of loud laughte

st-class painter in the midst of an infuriated cr

turn to put in a

of the Fugitive Slave Bill, which no man can enforce, because the Christian

pity on the great lady of Riverside Hall, and said that I would answer her one of these fine days, which would be both sport and pleasure for me,

N. Y., Nov

Sarah

time, or, indeed, to go anywhere else. Even if we had all the opportunities in the world, we would not come to Riverside unless we came as specially invited guests; a visit, in short, that would be a mutual gratification t

dom of all those who are held in the South in enforced and involuntary bondage. The committee on freedom think that the presence of a young woman like m

elf, and one for whom Christ died? I therefore rejoice at dear mother's freedom; for slavery is nothing but a revolting crime-a system of robbery and murder! Now, here I am, and in a short time intend to appear on the public stage in the capacity of a lecturer, a singer and a player on the piano. Just fancy the idea of a handsome young woman of seventeen, like myself, being sold away to Louisiana or Georgia to wear my life away among the rice fields, the cotton and the cane, when nature has qualified me with gifts and graces, the admiration o

ve been heard for many years. Of course, you cannot compel us to come back so long as we ourselves object. If you write us any more, and expect your letters to be read, you will have to make them of a r

s very res

AH JA

dangers they encountered upon the road; how they were pursued for hundreds of miles by men, horses and even bloodhounds; how they were assisted by free people of color, and even by those in bondage and white people; and thus helped along week after week, and month after month, till they felt that they were at last both safe and free. When we consider how the slave States passed one law after another, and all pulled, and hauled, and banded together to protect and perpetuate their ho

e more and more educated, and the people in general came to take a sympathetic interest in the oppressed African they had never done before. The presence of the poor, oppressed fugitive slaves in their meetings, and seen streaming along the North towards the Great Lakes and Canada, with the marks of the "peculiar institution" stamped for life upon their backs, were proof positive that none could deny. The furious quarrel was carried into the halls of Congress at Washington, and the South was unable to keep it out, though they made the most determined efforts to do so. The Quakers and all the friends of the slaves were forever at it, ding-dong, hammer and tongs, and thus the family quarrel went on. John B

the piano well, we were rather more fortunate in the line of education than most of our fugitive brothers and sisters. In those days, great anti-slavery demonstrations were all the go. The announcement that some great national abolitionist was to be on hand at the Hall, to address the general public on the wrongs and crimes of slaver

se the lie had been repeated ten thousand times in the South, and reechoed by their abetting friends in the North, that we were unfitted for civilization, and that the African was formed by God himself for slavery, and for slavery alone, and was never intended by nature to be the equ

on, determined that nobody should go away disappointed. The music discoursed sweet tunes as the people were gathering, and in due course of time the Rev. Doctor Henderson called the meeting to order, and took the chair for the

and that they are nothing but goods and chattels. I will now call upon one specimen of these goods and chattels to give us a rattling tune on t

verend speaker,

kind as to favor us with som

miles, and proceeded to play and sing with unusual vigor. When I came to the chorus the whole audience joined in, and I thought they would have brought down the roof of the hall on our heads. Nor was that the b

me another sounding cheer, when Dr. Henderson introduced my

cial and most exceptional occasion is to show what the colored race are capable of doing and becoming if they had simply an open field and fair play. It is our desire to see them get an open field and fair play! (More applau

ks, when my honored mother came to the fr

hter. (Loud cheers). The South has told you ten thousand times that we of the colored race are only fit for hewers of wood and drawers of water, like the Gibeonites. These drawers of water of our poor, oppressed race, that they themselves may live in mansions more palatial

s coming, and will soon be here when such a storm of wrath will be upon the South as will wipe out the blood-red

gs as fast and as far as they dare. They will give us no rest till we are either all slaves, or all free! (Loud applause). I look around me at the political skies, and I see them growing blacker and blacker as the great national storm is gathering. John Brown and the free-soil men are in Kansas; loud and angry words are being bandied forth between the occupants of the two ends of the house-between the powerful North and the passionate South. From words they will most assuredly come to blows over that very 'peculiar institution,' and American s