Illustrated Edition of the Life and Escape of Wm. Wells Brown from American Slavery: Written by HimselfBrown, William Wells
History
Illustrated Edition of the Life and Escape of Wm. Wells Brown from American Slavery: Written by Himself
Brown, William Wells
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Slavery -- Missouri
Several meetings were held to determine what should be done with
her. Some were in favor of hanging her, others for burning her, but a
majority were for taking her to the Niagara river, tying a fifty-six
pound weight to her, and throwing her in. There seemed to be no way in
which she could be reached by the civil law. She was kept in confinement
three days, being removed to different places each night.
So conflicting were the views of those who had her in charge, that
they could not decide upon what should be done with her. However, there
seemed to be such a vast majority in favor of throwing her into the
Niagara river, that some of us, who were opposed to taking life,
succeeded in having her given over to another committee, who, after
reprimanding her, let her go.
Tate, in the mean time, hearing that the colored people had resolved to
take vengeance on him, thought it best to leave the city. On Monday, at
ten o’clock, we were all carried before Justice Grosvenor; and of the
forty who had been committed the evening before, twenty-five were held
to bail to answer to a higher court. When the trials came on, we were
fined more or less, from five to fifty dollars each.
During the fight no one was killed, though there were many broken noses
and black eyes; one young man, who was attached to a theatrical corps,
was so badly injured in the conflict that he died some three months
after.
Thus ended one of the most fearful fights for human freedom that I ever
witnessed. The reader will observe that this conflict took place on the
Sabbath, and that those who were foremost in getting it up were officers
of justice. The plea of the sheriff and his posse was, that we were
breaking the Sabbath by assembling in such large numbers to protect
a brother slave and his wife and child from being dragged back into
slavery which is far worse than death itself.
THE AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE.
From the Liberty Bell of 1848.
By William Wells Brown.
Of the many features which American slavery presents, the most cruel
is that of the slave-trade. A traffic in the bodies and souls of
native-born Americans is carried on in the slave-holding states to
an extent little dreamed of by the great mass of the people in the
non-slave-holding states. The precise number of slaves carried from the
slave-raising to the slave-consuming states we have no means of knowing.
But it must be very great, as forty thousand were sold and carried out
of the State of Virginia in one single year!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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