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
A day or two afterwards, about as quickly as he could then get to me
after the receipt of my letter, the door of my study was opened, and in
walked Arthur Tappan. I sprang to my feet, and gave him a pressure of
the hand which told him more emphatically than words could have done
how overjoyed I was to see him. In his usual quiet manner and undertone
he said, “Your last letter implied that you were in so much trouble I
thought it best to come and see, and consider with you what it will be
advisable for us to do.” I soon spread before him the circumstances
of the case,--the peculiar difficulties by which we were beset, the
increased and increasing malignity of Miss Crandall’s persecutors,
provoked, and almost justified in the public opinion, by the false
reports that were diligently circulated, and which we had no means of
correcting. “Let me go,” said he, “and see for myself Miss Crandall
and her school, and learn more of the particulars of the sore trials
to which her benevolence and her fortitude seem to be subjected.”
As soon as possible the horse and chaise were brought to the door,
and the good man went to Canterbury. In a few hours he returned. He
had been delighted, nay, deeply affected, by the calm determination
which Miss Crandall evinced, and the quiet courage with which she had
inspired her pupils. He had learned that the treatment to which they
were subjected by their neighbors was in some respects worse even than
I had represented it to him; and he said in a low, firm tone of voice,
which showed how thoroughly in earnest he was, she must be protected
and sustained. “The cause of the whole oppressed, despised colored
population of our country is to be much affected by the decision of
this question.”
After some further consultation he rose to his feet and said, “You are
almost helpless without the press. You must issue a paper, publish it
largely, send it to all the persons whom you know in the county and
State, and to all the principal newspapers throughout the country.
Many will subscribe for it and contribute otherwise to its support,
and I will pay whatever more it may cost.” No sooner said than done.
We went without delay to the village, where fortunately there was a
pretty-well-furnished printing-office that had been lately shut up for
want of patronage. We found the proprietor, examined the premises,
satisfied ourselves that there were materials enough to begin with, and
Mr. Tappan engaged for my use for a year the office, press, types,
and whatever else was necessary to commence at once the publication
of a newspaper, to be devoted to the advocacy of all human rights in
general, and to the defence of the Canterbury school, and its heroic
teacher in particular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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