The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
She had scarce been ten minutes out of my sight when a very unpleasant
misgiving came over me. That great green calash that she had been so
glad to receive--what an odd and unusual head-dress it was! Surely, it
would attract attention; it would render her a marked object. If her
pursuers should once get upon her traces, it would enable them to track
her from point to point. I wished, with all my heart, it had been less
conspicuous, and I began to think that my researches in the garret were
not destined to be particularly fortunate. I wished exceedingly that my
friend the minister's daughter, had been at home, that I might have
taken counsel with her and have had the benefit of her experience in
such matters.
As I was still standing in the doorway, ruminating upon the subject with
a troubled soul, I saw in the distance the figure of a student of
theology, whom I knew to be a friend of our old minister and his
daughter, and thoroughly anti-slavery in principle. I hastened after
him, told him the circumstances of the case, and imparted to him my
misgivings. He promised me to put the matter into safe hands, and to
have a look-out kept for the wanderers. After a few hours he returned to
me with the welcome intelligence that the fugitives had been overtaken
on the turnpike road a mile or two beyond, by one of the emissaries of
the underground railway in a covered cart, in which they had been
comfortably stowed, and safely forwarded on their way, and that from
that time forth they would be speedily and quietly passed from point to
point and from friend to friend, until they reached their destination.
A weight was lifted from my heart, I could have danced for joy; and I
learned with astonishment, that the agent, who had come like an angel to
the relief of the poor fugitives, was no other than a little ugly negro
man, who had often worked in our garden, and who was usually employed to
do the roughest and dirtiest work in the neighborhood. His crooked
figure, his bandy legs, and little ape-like head, had always led me to
regard him as the most unpromising specimen of his race that I had ever
beheld; but from that time forth I regarded him with respect. The poor
crooked form, distorted by hard toil, contained a heart, and the little
ape-like head a brain, to help his outcast brethren in the hour of need.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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