The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
A few days afterwards Miss Anthony was seated in her brother's office
reading the papers when she learned to her amazement that several
resolutions had been offered in the House of Representatives
sanctioning disfranchisement on account of sex. Up to this time the
Constitution of the United States never had been desecrated by the word
"male," and she saw instantly that such action would create a more
formidable barrier than any now existing against the enfranchisement of
women. She hesitated no longer but started immediately on her homeward
journey, stopping in Atchison, where she was the guest of ex-Mayor
Crowell. Senator Pomeroy called, accompanied her to church and arranged
for her to address the colored people next day. She lectured also in
St. Joseph, Mo. At Chillicothe one of the editors sent word that if she
would not "lash" him he would print her handbills free of charge. Here
she addressed a great crowd of colored people in a tobacco factory. At
Macon City she spoke to them in an abandoned barracks, and slept in a
slab house. Her night's experience at Ottumwa was repeated here, except
that the army of invaders were fleas. The next day she was invited to
the Methodist minister's home and his church placed at her disposal,
where she addressed a large white audience. Of her speech in St. Louis
she wrote:
Sunday afternoon I spoke to the colored people in an old slave
church in which priests used to preach "Servants, obey your
masters;" and in which slaves never dared breathe aloud their
hearts' deepest prayer for freedom. The church was built by actual
slaves with money they earned working odd hours allowed them by
their masters. The greatest danger for these people now lies in
being duped by the priests and Levites who used to pass them by on
the other side but who, now that they have become popular prey,
wildly run to and fro to do them good--that is, get their money and
give themselves easy, fat posts as superintendents, missionaries,
teachers, etc. The country is full of these soul-sharks, men who
haven't had brains enough to find pulpits or places in the free
States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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