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
When these false accusations were brought into Congress, and the judge
was informed of the necessity of his presence to answer thereto, he
inquired of Henry Bibb and others where I was. They informed him that I
was absent from home. On my return from Cincinnati with a few
underground railroad passengers, I learned of the trouble Judge Wilkins
met, and I called on him. He told me of the pile of Southern papers he
had received, with scurrilous articles, designed to prejudice Southern
members of Congress against him. Said he, "Although they failed in the
impeachment, they said they would come against me with double force
next Congress, and should effect their object." Said the judge, "I want
your address, for if they do repeat their effort, with the explanation
you have now given, I think I can save another journey to Washington.
The judge was never again called upon to defend himself on this
subject, as their effort was not repeated; neither did their
oft-repeated threat to imprison me disturb us."
DEATH OF THE CHESTERS
In the third year of the Rebellion, while in Memphis, Tennessee, on a
mission to the perishing, I found myself in the city where my Tennessee
correspondents lived a few years previous to their deaths. From a
minister who had long been a resident of that city, and had also lived
near Jonesboro, where they resided during the correspondence, I learned
the following facts: A few years prior to the war John P. Chester
removed with his family to Memphis, where he became a patroller. His
son Thomas transacted business as a lawyer. I was shown his residence,
and the office where John P. Chester was shot through the heart by a
mulatto man, whose free papers he demanded, doubting their validity.
Said the man, "I am as free as you are; and to live a slave I never
shall." He then drew a six-shooter from its hiding-place and shot him
through the heart. He fell, exclaiming, "O God, I'm a dead man." The
man threw down the fatal weapon, saying to the bystanders, "Here I am,
gentlemen, shoot me, or hang me, just as you please, but to live a
slave to any man I never shall." He was taken by the indignant crowd,
and hung on the limb of a tree near by, pierced with many bullets. I
can not describe the feeling that crept over me, as I gazed upon the
pavement where John P. Chester met his fate, and which I had walked
over in going to officers' head-quarters from the steamer. Oh! what a
life, to close with such a tragedy!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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