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Page 7
Then the system of slavery gives them almost unlimited power over
the persons and lives of large numbers of human beings, and this
fosters a spirit of despotism so natural to all men, even the most
civilized, when invested with supreme power.
And, still further, some fanatical men from the North, determined
violently to break the bonds of the poor slave, had been found in
recent years spreading incendiary works among the poor white
population and the negroes who could read, thus endangering the
lives of the masters and their families. As a matter of
self-defence, Northern men were watched with unremitting and
eagle-eyed vigilance.
But whether all this explains the fact or not, no Northern man's
life was safe for an hour in that section of Arkansas at the time of
which I speak. Hence I concluded that their advice was good, though
I must lose what interest I had in my business partnership. Then,
how was I to travel thirty miles before daybreak, as it was now two
o'clock? I immediately took the road to Helena, on the Mississippi
river. I will not record all my thoughts during that ride--homeless,
friendless, and, though innocent of crime, hunted like a very
murderer, in free and enlightened America!
How long is this system of terrorism to continue? This utter
disregard of law and the sanctity of human life? Among the
questions to be settled by this war, are not these important? Shall
an American citizen be allowed in safety to travel or reside
anywhere in his own land? Shall there be any freedom of opinion and
speech upon the question of slavery?
If it be said that the institution of slavery can not tolerate
freedom of thought and speech with safety to the master, then the
system is barbarous, and can not exist in a free land. Let it be
admitted that there are difficulties connected with the institution;
that John Brown raids, and incendiary emissaries, are wicked; that
unlicensed denunciations of all implicated in the system, are
grossly wrong. Still, can there be no calm and considerate
discussion of the rightfulness or sinfulness of the laws which
define and regulate slavery? Must all the cruelties and iniquities
which accompany its existence be left unchallenged, and their
authors uncondemned? Then is the whole system to be swept away as a
curse and enormity, which neither the civilization of the nineteenth
century nor a just God will longer tolerate?
The blood of hundreds of American citizens, shed on Southern plains
with dreadful tortures, cries from the ground, "How long, O Lord,
holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that
dwell on the earth?" Has not the day of avenging already commenced?
The intensity of my emotions for three hours had exhausted me, and
now the temporary escape from imminent peril allowed me to sink down
almost to fainting, scarcely able for a time to keep my seat in the
saddle. A feeling of loneliness and utter desertion, such as I have
never else experienced, came over me, and I longed once more to be
in the free North, and at the home of my affectionate parents.
But as the day broke, I aroused myself to the realities before me,
and after procuring breakfast at a private house, rode into Helena,
in time to take the Memphis boat, which left at ten o'clock, A.M.
This boat, the St. Francis, No. 3, left Jeffersonville (where I was
tried and released) at seven o'clock in the morning, on its way down
the St. Francis river, thence to Helena, and thence up to Memphis.
As it left Jeffersonville four hours after my escape from that
place, the report that "an abolitionist had been tried that night
and ran off," had reached the boat at the wharf. When I took the
same boat at Helena at ten o'clock, I heard the excited crowds
detailing the incidents in which I had been so deeply interested a
few hours before.
It required all the skill in controlling the muscles of my face
which I could possibly command, to appear neither too much nor too
little interested in what was the theme of every tongue. I was
pleased to see that no one thought of the probability of the escaped
"abolitionist" having reached that boat, and hence I was not
suspected: at least, I thought so. Yet there was nothing in my
surroundings that gave me much encouragement, as the passengers, who
were numerous, were chiefly violent men and full of denunciation of
the North. I was already exhausted by the scenes through which I had
passed, and poorly prepared for another and more trying one, which
soon met me, and of course was not able to get much rest during the
day and night passed on the way to Memphis.
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