Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
They have a way here of building the cottages two or three in a block
together, which struck me as different from our New England manner,
where, in the country, every house stands detached.
In the evening I went into Liverpool, to attend a party of friends of
the antislavery cause. In the course of the evening, Mr. Stowe was
requested to make some remarks. Among other things he spoke upon the
support the free part of the world give to slavery, by the purchase of
the produce of slave labor; and, in particular, on the great quantity of
slave-grown cotton purchased by England; suggesting it as a subject for
inquiry, whether this cannot be avoided.
One or two gentlemen, who are largely concerned in the manufacture and
importation of cotton, spoke to him on the subject afterwards, and said
it was a thing which ought to be very seriously considered. It is
probable that the cotton trade of Great Britain is the great essential
item which supports slavery, and such considerations ought not,
therefore, to be without their results.
When I was going away, the lady of the house said that the servants were
anxious to see me; so I came into the dressing room to give them, an
opportunity.
While at Mr. C.'s, also, I had once or twice been called out to see
servants, who had come in to visit those of the family. All of them had
read Uncle Tom's Cabin, and were full of sympathy. Generally speaking,
the servants seem to me quite a superior class to what are employed in
that capacity with us. They look very intelligent, are dressed with
great neatness, and though their manners are very much more deferential
than those of servants in our country, it appears to be a difference
arising quite as much from self-respect and a sense of propriety as from
servility. Every body's manners are more deferential in England than in
America.
The next day was appointed to leave Liverpool. It had been arranged
that, before leaving, we should meet the ladies of the Negroes' Friend
Society, an association formed at the time of the original antislavery
agitation in England. We went in the carriage with our friends Mr. and
Mrs. E. Cropper. On the way they were conversing upon the labors of Mrs.
Chisholm, the celebrated female philanthropist, whose efforts for the
benefit of emigrants are awakening a very general interest among all
classes in England. They said there had been hesitation on the part of
some good people, in regard to coöperating with her, because she is a
Roman Catholic.
It was agreed among us, that the great humanities of the present day are
a proper ground on which all sects can unite, and that if any feared the
extension of wrong sentiments, they had only to supply emigrant ships
more abundantly with the Bible. Mr. C. said that this is a movement
exciting very extensive interest, and that they hoped Mrs. Chisholm
would visit Liverpool before long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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