Some Recollections of Our Antislavery ConflictMay, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph)
History
Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict
May, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph)
Antislavery movements -- United States
This incident of the voyage was reported in the newspapers immediately
on the arrival of the vessel at Liverpool, and introduced Mr. Douglass
at once to the British public. He was treated with great attention
by the Abolitionists of the United Kingdom; was invited to lecture
everywhere, and rendered most valuable services to the cause of his
oppressed countrymen. So deeply did he interest the philanthropists of
that country that they paid seven hundred and fifty dollars to procure
from his master a formal, legal certificate of manumission, so that,
on his return to these United States, he would be no longer liable to
be sent back into slavery. They also presented him with the sum of
twenty-five hundred dollars for his own benefit, to be appropriated,
if he should see fit, to the establishment of a weekly paper edited by
himself, which was then his favorite project.
Soon after his return in 1847 he did establish such a paper at
Rochester and conducted it with ability for several years. He has since
become one of the popular lecturers of our country, and every season
has as many invitations as he cares to accept. He is extensively known
and much respected. Many there are who wish to see him a member of
Congress; and we confidently predict that, if he shall ever be sent
to Washington as a Representative or a Senator, he will soon become a
prominent man in either House.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
Everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad. Many have read of its
operations who have been puzzled to know where it was laid, who were
the conductors of it, who kept the stations, and how large were the
profits. As the company is dissolved, the rails taken up, the business
at an end, I propose now to tell my readers about it.
There have always been scattered throughout the slaveholding States
individuals who have abhorred slavery, and have pitied the victims
of our American despotism. These persons have known, or have taken
pains to find out, others at convenient distances northward from their
abodes who sympathized with them in commiserating the slaves. These
sympathizers have known or heard of others of like mind still farther
North, who again have had acquaintances in the free States that they
knew would help the fugitive on his way to liberty. Thus, lines of
friends at longer or shorter distances were formed from many parts
of the South to the very borders of Canada,--not very straight lines
generally, but such as the fleeing bondmen might pass over safely, if
they could escape their pursuers until they had come beyond the second
or third stage from their starting-point. Furnished at first with
written “passes,” as from their masters, and afterwards with letters
of introduction from one friend to another, we had reason to believe
that a large proportion of those who, in this way, attempted to escape
from slavery were successful. Twenty thousand at least found homes in
Canada, and hundreds ventured to remain this side of the Lakes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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