American Scenes, and Christian Slavery: A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United StatesDavies, Ebenezer
History
American Scenes, and Christian Slavery: A Recent Tour of Four Thousand Miles in the United States
Davies, Ebenezer
Slavery -- United States; United States -- Description and travel
The ground was covered with snow, otherwise the scenery would have been
magnificent. For a long time the Potomac was our companion. More than
once we had to cross the stream on wooden bridges; so that we had it
sometimes on our right and sometimes on our left, ourselves being
alternately in Virginia and in Maryland. When within 14 miles of
Baltimore, and already benighted, we were told we could not proceed, on
account of some accident to a luggage-tram that was coming up. The
engine, or (as the Americans invariably say) the "locomotive," had got
off the rail, and torn up the ground in a frightful manner; but no one
was hurt. We were detained for 7 hours; and instead of getting into
Baltimore at 8 P.M., making an average of about 15 miles an hour, which
was the utmost we had been led to expect, we did not get there till 3
A.M., bringing our average rate per hour down to about 9-1/2 miles. The
tediousness of the delay was considerably relieved by a man sitting
beside me avowing himself a thorough Abolitionist, and a hearty friend
of the coloured race. He spoke out his sentiments openly and
fearlessly, and was quite a match for any one that dared to assail him.
His name was Daniel Carmichael, of Brooklyn. He is a great railway and
canal contractor, and has generally in his employ from 500 to 800
people. He is also a very zealous "teetotaler." We had also a _Mrs.
Malaprop_, from Baltimore, with us, who told us, among other marvellous
things, that in that city they took the _senses_ (census) of the people
every month. She was very anxious to let all around her know that her
husband was a medical man: she therefore wondered what "the Doctor" was
then doing, what "the Doctor" thought of the non-arrival of the train,
whether "the Doctor" would be waiting for her at the station, and
whether "the Doctor" would bring his own carriage, or hire one, to meet
her, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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