An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called AfricansChild, Lydia Maria
History
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Child, Lydia Maria
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
"To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of man-stealing,
which are known to have occurred in the State of Delaware, within the
recollection of many of the citizens of that State, would require a
volume. In many cases, whole families of free colored people have been
attacked in the night, beaten _nearly_ to death with clubs, gagged and
bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless captivity, leaving no
traces behind, except the blood from their wounds.
"During the last winter, the house of a free black family was broken
open, and its defenceless inhabitants treated in the manner just
mentioned, except, that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp,
while on their way to the State of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom
there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses;
and the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an
opportunity, as they were passing a house, and sprang off. Not daring
to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little
farther along, by the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed,
that its cries would attract the mother; but she prudently waited until
morning, and recovered it again in safety.
"I consider myself more fully warranted in particularizing this fact,
from the circumstances of having been at Newcastle, at the time that
the woman was brought with her child, before the grand jury, for
examination; and of having seen several of the persons against whom
bills of indictment were found, on the charge of being engaged in the
perpetration of the outrage; and also that one or two of them were the
same who were accused of assisting in seizing and carrying off another
woman and child whom I discovered at Washington. A monster in human
shape, was detected in the city of Philadelphia, pursuing the occupation
of courting and marrying mulatto women, and selling them as slaves. In
his last attempt of this kind, the fact having come to the knowledge of
the African population of this city, a mob was immediately collected,
and he was only saved from being torn in atoms, by being deposited in
the city prison. They have lately invented a method of attaining their
object, through the instrumentality of the laws:--Having selected a
suitable free colored person, to make a _pitch_ upon, the kidnapper
employs a confederate, to ascertain the distinguishing marks of his
body; he then claims and obtains him as a slave, before a magistrate,
by describing those marks, and proving the truth of his assertions,
by his well-instructed accomplice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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