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
Utica is a small city, of about 14,000 inhabitants. Its progress has
been but slow. The houses are painted white, and appear neat and
comfortable. I was struck with the immense number of them that were
erected with their gable end to the street, and with a small portico
supported by two fluted columns. A large portion of the inhabitants are
Welsh, who have here four or five places of worship. The Rev. James
Griffiths, a man of great piety and worth, is the minister of the Welsh
Independents. At his house we were most kindly entertained during our
stay. On the Sabbath I preached for him twice in Welsh. The following
week we were taken to Remsen, eighteen miles off, to see the Rev. Mr.
Everett, whose farewell sermon on leaving Wales I had heard when quite
a boy,--and the Rev. Morris Roberts, to whom I had bidden adieu in
Liverpool sixteen years before. It was delightful to meet these
honoured brethren in their adopted home, after the lapse of so many
years. Remsen is quite a Welsh settlement; and these men both preside
over Welsh churches there. Mr. Everett is the editor of a Welsh Monthly
Magazine. In that periodical, as well as in his ministrations, he has
been unflinching in his denunciations of slavery. This has exposed him
to cruel persecutions. There are about 70,000 Welsh people in the
United States who worship in their own language. At Remsen I had to
deliver two addresses on the results of emancipation in the West
Indies. On our return to Utica, the friend who drove us happened
incidentally to mention that in that country they make the dogs churn!
"The dogs churn!" I said, "Yes," said he; "and I dare say they have a
churning-machine so worked at this house: let us call and see." It was
a farm-house. At the door about half-a-dozen chubby little children,
with fine rosy cheeks, were assembled to see the strangers. I began to
speak in English to the eldest, a boy about 10 years of age; but the
lad stared! He understood not a word I said.
Though born and so far brought up there, he knew nothing but Welsh! We
were gratified with an inspection of the machine for churning. It was
worked very much on the same principle as a treadmill, and exceedingly
disliked by the poor dog. Goats are sometimes made to perform the same
service. In several instances, we saw horses in like manner made to saw
wood, and admired the ingenuity of our cousins in turning to account
every particle of power they possess. "What is the difference," said
Dr. Beecher once to a ship-captain, "between an English sailor and a
Yankee one?" The answer was, "An English sailor can do a thing very
well in _one_ way, but the Yankee can do it in half-a-dozen ways."
LETTER XXXV.
A Peep at the House of Representatives in Albany--"The Chair is but a
Man," &c.--Sailing down the Hudson--Dr. Spring--His Morning
Sermon--Afternoon Service--Gough the great Lecturer--The Tract House
and Steam-presses--May-day in New York--Staten Island--Immigrants--A
hurried Glance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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