Fugitive slaves -- United States; Hopper, Isaac T. (Isaac Tatem), 1771-1852
Thus bearing up bravely against the pelting storms of life, he went on,
hand in hand with his beloved Sarah. But at last, he was called to part
with the steady friend and pleasant companion of his brightest and his
darkest hours. She passed from him into the spiritual world on the
eighteenth of the Sixth Month, (June,) 1822, in the forty-seventh year
of her age. She suffered much from the wasting pains of severe
dyspepsia; but religious hope and faith enabled her to endure all her
trials with resignation, and to view the approach of death with cheerful
serenity of soul. Toward the close of her life, the freshness of her
complexion was injured by continual suffering; but though pale, she
remained a handsome woman to the last. During her long illness, she
received innumerable marks of respect and affection from friends and
neighbors; for she was beloved by all who knew her. A short time before
her death, she offered the following prayer for the dear ones she was so
soon to leave; "O Lord, permit me to ask thy blessing for this family.
Thy favor is better than all the world can give. For want of keeping
close to thy counsel, my soul has often been pierced with sorrow. Pity
my weakness. Look thou from heaven, and forgive. Enable me, I beseech
thee, to renew my covenant, and so to live under the influence of thy
Holy Spirit, as to keep it. Preserve me in the hour of temptation. Thou
alone knowest how prone I am to err on the right side and on the left.
Bless the children! O Lord, visit and re-visit their tender minds. Lead
them in the paths of uprightness, for thy name's sake. I ask not riches
nor honor for them; but an inheritance in thy ever-blessed truth." She
left nine children, the youngest but six years old, to mourn the loss of
a most tender careful and self-sacrificing mother.
While her bereaved husband was still under the shadow of this great
grief, he was called to part with his son Isaac, who in little more than
a year, followed his mother, at the early age of fifteen. He was a
sedate gentle lad, and had always been a very pleasant child to his
parents. His father cherished his memory with great tenderness, and
seldom spoke of him without expressing his conviction that if he had
lived he would have become a highly acceptable minister in the Society
of Friends; a destiny which would have been more agreeable to his
parental feelings, than having a son President of the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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