The Trial of Theodore Parker: For the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the DefenceParker, Theodore
Religion
The Trial of Theodore Parker: For the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the Defence
Parker, Theodore
Antislavery movements -- Massachusetts -- Boston; United States -- Fugitive slave law (1850)
"Let me interest you in a scene which might happen. Suppose
a poor fugitive, wrongfully held as a slave--let it be Ellen
Craft--has escaped from Savannah in some northern ship. No
one knows of her presence on board; she has lain with the
cargo in the hold of the vessel. Harder things have
happened. Men have journeyed hundreds of miles bent double
in a box half the size of a coffin, journeying towards
freedom. Suppose the ship comes up to Long Wharf, at the
foot of State Street. Bulk is broken to remove the cargo;
the woman escapes, emaciated with hunger, feeble from long
confinement in a ship's hold, sick with the tossing of the
heedless sea, and still further etiolated and blanched with
the mingling emotions of hope and fear. She escapes to land.
But her pursuer, more remorseless than the sea, has been
here beforehand; laid his case before the official he has
brought with him, or purchased here, and claims his slave.
She runs for her life, fear adding wings. Imagine the
scene--the flight, the hot pursuit through State Street,
Merchants' Row--your magistrates in hot pursuit. To make the
irony of nature still more complete, let us suppose this
shall take place on some of the memorable days in the
history of America--on the 19th of April, when our fathers
first laid down their lives 'in the sacred cause of God and
their country;' on the 17th of June, the 22d of December, or
on any of the sacramental days in the long sad history of
our struggle for our own freedom! Suppose the weary fugitive
takes refuge in Faneuil Hall, and here, in the old Cradle of
Liberty, in the midst of its associations, under the eye of
Samuel Adams, the bloodhounds seize their prey! Imagine Mr.
Webster and Mr. Winthrop looking on, cheering the
slave-hunter, intercepting the fugitive fleeing for her
life. Would not that be a pretty spectacle?
"Propose to support that bill to the fullest extent, with
all its provisions! Ridiculous talk! Does Mr. Webster
suppose that such a law could be executed in Boston? that
the people of Massachusetts will ever return a single
fugitive slave, under such an act as that? Then he knows his
constituents very little, and proves that he needs
'Instruction.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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