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
Who absconded from Ripley, Ohio, to evade the strong arm of the law
he richly deserved for misdemeanors in that town. This man is a
light mulatto, and betrayed one of his race for ten dollars, in
Cincinnati, bringing him into life-long trouble. He will as readily
take ten dollars from any of your slaves to bring them to
Cincinnati, and again take ten dollars to return them to you, as he
has no higher purpose to serve than paltry self. A LOVER OF RIGHT.
This was printed on a placard of ten by twelve inches. They procured
two hundred for distribution, but found it more difficult to get a
distributor than they anticipated. I told one of them to go to Levi
Coffin's and inform him and his wife where I was going after my school
was dismissed, and that I would distribute them through Covington, but
to let no one else know of it, except their committee who secured the
printing, as it would produce increased excitement. I went a mile from
the river before commencing my work, and left one or two in every yard,
when no eye seemed directed toward me, I dropped them by the street
side until I reached the ferry that returned me to my anxious friends
in Cincinnati, just as the sun dropped behind the Western hills.
The following day report gave an account of the evening's excitement in
Covington. A company of slave-holders met to consult over this placard,
and the conclusion was reached to give Bob Russel until nine o'clock
the following morning to leave the State or take the consequences. Two
slaves had left them within a couple of months, and they charged him
with taking them over the river. Some of the more excitable were for
hauling him out of bed at the close of their meeting (ten o'clock), and
dealing summary vengeance for their recent losses, but as he pledged
himself to leave their State the next morning never to return, they
left him to his own uncomfortable reflections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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