Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South CarolinaAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
Manuel Pereira; Or, The Sovereign Rule of South Carolina
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
African Americans -- Fiction; Biographical fiction; Pereira, Manuel -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
The Colonel might have given many other instances equally as painful as
that connected with the transportation of Jones and his family, and the
fetters that were placed upon poor Lee. He might have instanced that
of Malcome Brown, a wealthy, industrious, honest, high-minded, and
straightforward man, now living at Aiken, in South Carolina. Brown
conducts a profitable mechanical business, is unquestionably the best
horticulturist in the State, and produces the best fruit brought to the
Charleston market. What has he done to be degraded in the eyes of the
law? Why is he looked upon as a dangerous citizen and his influence
feared? Why is he refused a hearing through those laws which bad white
men take the advantage of? He is compelled to submit to those which
were made to govern the worst slaves! And why is he subjected to that
injustice which gives him no voice in his own behalf when the most
depraved whites are his accusers? Can it be the little crimp that is in
his hair? for he has a fairer skin than those who make laws to oppress
him. If he inhaled the free atmosphere from abroad, can it be that
there is contagion in it, and Malcome Brown is the dreaded medium of its
communication? And if the statement rung in our ears be true, “that
the free colored of the North suffer while the slave is cared for and
comfortable,” why belie ourselves? Malcome's influence is, and always
has been, with the whites, and manifestly good in the preservation of
order and obedience on the part of the slaves. He pursues his avocation
with spirit and enterprise, while he is subjected to menial and
oppressive laws. His father visited New York, and was forbidden to
return. He appealed again and again, set forth his claims and his
integrity to the State and her laws, but all was of no avail. He was
hopelessly banished, as it were, from ever seeing his son again, unless
that son would sacrifice his property and submit to perpetual banishment
from the State. If we reflect upon the many paternal associations that
would gladden the hearts of father and child to meet in happy affection,
we may realize the effect of that law which makes the separation painful
and which denies even the death-bed scene its last cheering consolation.
We have conversed with poor Brown on many occasions, found him a very
intelligent man, full of humour, and fond of relating incidents in the
history of his family-even proud of his good credit in Charleston. He
frequently speaks of his father and the gratifying hope of meeting him
at some future day, when he can give vent to his feelings in bursts of
affection. He wants his father to return and live with him, because he
says he knows they would be more happy together. “I suppose the law was
made in justice, and it's right for me to submit to it,” he would say
when conversing upon its stringency; and it also seems a sort of comfort
to him that he is not the only sufferer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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