Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada WestSteward, Austin
History
Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West
About this time, too, was the Carthage bridge built by a company of
enterprising gentlemen of that village which at that day was considered
one of the wonders of the age; but as its history is well known to all
interested in the enterprises of those days, it is only necessary to say,
that the magnificent structure, so grand in its appearance, such a pattern
of mechanical ingenuity, exhibiting in all its vast proportions, both
strength and beauty, combined with utility and grandeur; and erected at
such an enormous expense of time, labor, and cash, was destined soon to
fall.
It had cost some ten thousand dollars; and had been warranted by the
builders to stand one year. How great then must have been the loss and
disappointment when in a little more than twenty-four hours after the time
specified, the ruins of that beautiful structure were found floating on
the broad bosom of the Genesee! And yet when we take into consideration
the vast amount of human life which hourly passed over its solid surface,
we can but wonder at the intervention of a kind Providence which prevented
any loss of life at the time of its fall. A child had but just passed over
it, when with one general crash it sank to the waters below; mocking in
its rapid flight, the wisdom of the architect and foresight of frail
humanity. The fall of Carthage bridge was indeed a calamity felt by the
public generally, and sounded the death-knell of all future greatness to
Carthage, or at least for some years to come.
About this time the village was thrown into a state of excitement by the
arrest of a colored woman named Ellen, who it was charged had escaped from
service due to a Mr. D., south of Mason and Dixon's Line. She had been
arrested in accordance with a law passed by Congress in 1793, which
forbids persons owing service in one State to flee to another; and which
also obliges those receiving such service, to render to the claimant
any fugitive from labor due, &c. Poor Ellen! She had many friends and able
counsel, but nothing short of an open violation of the law of the land,
could prevent her return to the house of bondage. She was tried and given
up to him who claimed dominion over her. Hopeless and heart-broken, she
was escorted from the boasted land and village of freedom, by a company of
the "Light Horse," under the command of Capt. Curtis. One poor, persecuted
slave woman, upon whose heart had fallen a shadow darker than death's;
driving every earthly hope of liberty from her wounded spirit; helpless
and forlorn! She indeed must have required this military parade--this
show of power! And that too, by men who throw up their caps with a shout
for freedom and equal rights! Oh, "consistency, thou art a jewel!"
As I recollect but one other incident of the kind occurring in Rochester,
I will now name it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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