A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. HavilandHaviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith)
Religion
A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland
Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith)
Freed persons; Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith), 1808-1898; Underground Railroad
After being absent awhile, he returned with a note purporting to be
from Calvin, inquiring whether I had made the acquaintance of persons
therein named. I told the bearer I had not, and if he saw Calvin he
could tell him so. He urged me to send Fairbanks a note, as the colonel
or any one else should know nothing of it; but I refused, becoming
satisfied that he was more of a dispatch-bearer for the colonel than
for Calvin Fairbanks. I learned afterwards that this was true, and that
he was released for the purpose of getting hold of additional evidence
with which to convict him, and perhaps convict myself also.
In the evening a gentleman of their city made a call on the family, and
to him I was introduced. He spent an hour or two in conversation with
myself and the others. The jailer, Colonel Buckner, told me just before
I left that their city papers--Louisville _Courier_ and Louisville
_Commercial_--inserted a notice to the effect that "Delia Webster, from
Cincinnati, is here, and is quartered for a few days in the city." This
little notice created much excitement; and as the gentleman alluded to
knew Delia Webster personally, the colonel brought him in to make my
acquaintance and report accordingly. As he passed out of the parlor, he
told the colonel he might rest assured that lady was not Delia Webster,
and they had nothing to fear from this Cincinnati lady, and he should
set the editors right. All this excitement was carefully kept from me,
as they wished to keep me as long as they possibly could, hoping to
glean some additional evidence against Fairbanks, although the jailer
told me they had sufficient evidence to convict Fairbanks for a term of
twenty-five or thirty years at least, as this was the second offense,
and he had no doubt but that he had been guilty of many others. The
papers next day came out with a correction, "that it was not Delia
Webster, but Mrs. Haviland, from Cincinnati; and, as abolitionists
generally went in pairs, she had better keep a lookout, or she, too,
would find an apartment in Colonel Buckner's castle."
Delia Webster was arrested near the time of Calvin Fairbanks's first
arrest, and for the same offense, and sentenced to the same
penitentiary, but in six weeks was pardoned.
The colonel was disposed to spend much time in discussing the merits,
or rather demerits, of abolition principles, which seemed to be a new
theme for this Methodist class-leader and jailor. He said:
"I want to convince you that you abolitioners are all wrong, for you go
against colonization, and you can't deny it; and if there was ever a
heaven-born institution it is colonization."
"Do you claim that God has conferred the prerogative to a man or set of
men to draw a line, and say to you or me. 'You shall go the other side
of that line, never to return?'".
"O no, that is a different thing. We belong to a different race."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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