The American Prejudice Against Color: An Authentic Narrative, Showing How Easily the Nation Got into an Uproar.Allen, William G., active 1849-1853
History
The American Prejudice Against Color: An Authentic Narrative, Showing How Easily the Nation Got into an Uproar.
Allen, William G., active 1849-1853
Allen, William G., active 1849-1853; Miscegenation -- United States; United States -- Race relations
These assaults and attempts at ridicule served to bring me into general
notice. I soon found that, by reason of them, and without merit or
effort of my own, I had become known throughout the whole country as
"the Colored Professor." I had a status. The lady being the daughter of
a highly respectable minister, she also had a status. To permit
therefore the union of these parties would be to bring the principle of
amalgamation into respectability. So reasoned those who attempted to
reason on behalf, or rather in excuse, of the mob. "We are sorry," they
went on condescendingly to say, "for Professor Allen, for though a man
of color, he is nevertheless a gentleman, a Christian and a scholar. But
this union must not be; the 'proprieties of society,' must not be
violated!" Here then was the secret of this extraordinary outbreak. Had
we moved in what these good people would have been pleased to term a
lower strata of society, they would have let us alone with infinite
contempt.
The most lamentable feature of this Fulton mob was the fact, that we
could not, if we had sought it, have secured any redress. No court of
law in the State would have undertaken to bring to justice the
perpetrators of this outrage. But on the contrary, such court would have
been inclined to take sides with the mobocrats, and to justify them in
the means which they employed wherewith to chastise a colored man who
had presumed so grossly to violate the "proprieties of society."
Before closing I cannot forebear a further word with regard to New York
Central College. During the four years I was in connexion with that
college as professor, I never experienced the slightest disrespect from
trustees, professors or students. All treated me kindly, so kindly
indeed that I can truly say that the period of my professorship forms
one of the pleasantest remembrances of my life. Terrible as prejudice
against color is, my experience has taught me that it is not invincible;
though, as it is the offspring of slavery, it will never be fully
vanquished until slavery has been abolished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account