The Abolitionists / Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights, 1830-1864

have in our language. In the South it was soon settled that no man could preach Anti-Slaveryism and live. In the North the conditions were not much better. Every man and woman-because the muster-r

ight on the state of

place at a cost of forty thousand dollars was fired by a mob, the fire department of that city threw wat

avery was generally denounced; when men like Washington and Jefferson and Henry, although themselves slave-owners, led public opinion in its condemnation. Everybody was anticipating the day of universal ema

well as in the South. Opposition to it was not

became profitable. A Yankee magician had touched it with a wand of gold, and fro

uld not produce cotton, but they could produce negroes. They shared in the golden harvest. Such cities as Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Wheeling, and Louisville became centers of a flourishing traffic in human beings. They had great warehouses, commonly spoken

atest industrial combination-what at this time we would call a trust-ever known to this or any other country. Our mighty Steel Corporation would have been a baby beside it. If to-day all our great financial companies were consolidated, the unit would scarcely come up to the dimens

They raised no cotton and they raised no negroes, but many of them, and esp

e import were being perpetrated all over the North, it was carefully given out that those deeds were not the work of irresponsible rowdies, but of "gentlemen"-of merchants,

heir cotton they bought Northern machinery and merchandise. They sent their boys and girls to Northern schools. They came North themselves when their p

parties had each a Southern wing. Religious denominations had their Sou

. Southern gentlemen were popular in the North. They spent money lavishly. Their manners were grandiose. T

s. Many domestic alliances strengthened the bond

was a brilliant woman and a leader in the highest sense in that city. But when she consented to preside over a small conference of Anti-Slavery women, society cut her dead, her former associates refusing to recognize her on the street. The families of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the distinguished merchants of New York, were noted for their intelli

e of them was that the slaves, if manumitted, would at once rush to the North and overrun th

Do you want your son or your daughter to marry a nigger?" was regarded as a knockout anti-Abolitionist argument. The idea, of course, was absurd. "Is it to be inferred that because I don't want a negro woman for a

r where I lived when a boy was in all respects eligible for matrimony. He became devoted to the daughter of an old farmer who had been a Kentuckian, and asked him for her hand. "But I am told," s

the blacks were appropriately called, were inhuman in the extreme. Ohio was in the main a liberal State. She was called a free State, but her negroes were not free men. Under her laws they could only remain in the State by giving bonds for good behavior. Any one employing negroes, not so bon

here was genuine affection between owner and slave. "How much better off they would be if they only had good masters," was a remark I very often heard in Ohio, as the negroes would go slouching by with hanging heads and averted countenances. There is no doubt that at this time the physical condition of the blacks was generally much better in slavery than it was in fr

e back to

irginy's

instrels." It was assumed to express the feelings of colored fugitives from bondage when they had time to realize what

very question; but who about this time spent several months in a visit to one of the slave States. She came back thoroughly imbued with admiration for "the institution." She could not find words to describe the good times that were enjoyed by the wives and daughters of the slave-owners. They had

t; but at this time it was thought well to make an example of somebody. The wrists of the poor creature were fastened together by a cord that passed through a ring in the side of the barn, which had been put there for that purpose, and she was drawn

" said the narrator, "as if sh

your kind!" exclaimed a voice

present was a relative of the a

would be my duty to interfere in case the combatants came to blows, or rather to scratches and hair-pulling. I did not like the prospect, which seemed to me to be really alarming, and was thinking of some peaceable solution, when

hers whose names are here omitted, although they richly deserve to be mentioned. Of all that sisterhood, the most pugnacious undoubtedly was Abby Kelly, a little New England woman, with, as the name would indicate, an Irish crossing of the blood. I heard her once, and it seemed to me that I never listened to a tongue that was so sharp and merciless. Her eyes were small and it appeared

ey seemed to enjoy most heartily. Foster's life was more than once in serious danger, but they kept right on and never showed the slightest fear

y and ran with equal force in the opposite direction. The county in which I lived when a boy, that furnished only one vote for the first Abolitionist presidential ticket,

hich to garnish the Abolitionists, was wanted, and the money for their purchase was called for, the

rove. When I reached the scene of operations a procession to march to the grove was being formed. There was considerable enthusiasm and noise, but by far the most excited individual was the Gr