The American Prejudice Against Color Part 5

But to return to the story: Soon after the "interview" between Miss King and myself, I received the following note from Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe--the renowned Auth.o.r.ess of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." A "divine-hearted woman," this, as Horace Mann hath rightly called her, and more precious than rubies to me is her kind and Christian epistle:--

Andover, Ma.s.sachusetts, February 21st, 1853.

"Professor Allen,-- "Dear Sir:--

"I have just read with indignation and sorrow your letter in the Liberator (copied from the Syracuse Standard). I had hoped that the day for such outrages had gone by. I trust that you will be enabled to preserve a patient and forgiving spirit under this exhibition of vulgar and unchristian prejudice. _Its day is short._

"Please accept the accompanying volume as a mark of friendly remembrance from,--

"H. B. STOWE."

Just before Miss K. left Fulton for Pennsylvania, she received the following letter from the Rev. Timothy Stowe--the gentleman to whom reference has already been made. He is not related to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, but is nevertheless of royal race:--

"Peterboro', New York, March 1st, 1853.

"Miss Mary E. King,-- "Dear Friend:--

"You will not be offended that I should address you by this t.i.tle, though I never saw you, to my recollection, until last July at Mc.

Grawville; I then felt an interest in your welfare--an interest which has been deepened by your recent insults and trials. I am not one of those who can censure you for your attachment and engagement to Professor Allen. He is a man--a n.o.ble man--a whole man; a man, in fine, of whom no woman need be ashamed. I am aware, you are aware, that the world will severely condemn you; so it did Luther, when he married a nun; it was then thought to be as great an outrage on decency, for a minister to marry a nun, as it now is for a white young lady to marry a colored gentleman. You have this consolation, that G.o.d does not look upon the countenance--the color of men; that in his eye, black and white are the same; and consequently, to marry a colored person of intelligence and worth is no immorality, and in his eye, no impropriety.

It is probably the design of Providence in this case, to call the attention of the public to the fresh consideration of what is implied in the great doctrine of human brotherhood. Is it true or not, that a colored man has all the rights of a white man? Is this a question still mooted among Abolitionists? If so, then we may as well settle it now as at any other time, and though the controversy may be, and must be a very painful one to your feelings, yet, the result will be a better understanding of the great principles of our common nature and brotherhood. Professor Allen is with me in my study, and has detailed to me the whole of this outrage against yourself and him, and has also made me acquainted with your relations to each other. I extend to you my sympathy, I proffer to you my friendship. You have not fallen in my estimation, nor in the estimation of Mr. Smith and others in this place.

Lay not this matter to heart, be not cast down; put your trust in G.o.d, and he will bring you out of this crucible seven times purified. He in mercy designs to promote your spiritual growth and consolation. Keep the Saviour in your heart. My good wife sympathises with you. We would be glad to see you at our humble home, either before or after your marriage. We would try to comfort you; we would bear your burdens, and so 'fulfil the law of Christ.'

"Yours, with fraternal and Christian affection, "TIMOTHY STOWE."

On the day after Miss King left for Pennsylvania, I received the following note from a friend in Fulton. It is significant, and certainly corroborative of the opinion which I have expressed of the Fulton people--that they had determined to leave nothing undone by which to make their tyranny complete:--

"Fulton, March 5th, 1853.

"Dear Friend:-- "Yesterday I heard from you by a friend

"Mary has gone to Pennsylvania.

"What we feared was, she would be again imprisoned, and hindered from going to Pa. If her relatives and other friends knew of your intentions, she would have been put under lock and key as sure as there are _mean men_ in Fulton.

"Professor, they were as mad as wild a.s.ses here about that 'resolution of Smith's,' especially King's folks.

I want your miniature--_must have it_. I want to show it to my friends that they may see this man whose idle moments in the bower of love sets half the world crazy.

"In friendship, yours,

The Resolution to which reference has been made, is as follows. It was presented by the Hon. Gerrit Smith, Member of Congress, from New York, at a Convention of "Liberty Party Men," held in Syracuse, about four weeks after the mob:--

"Resolved, That the recent outrage committed upon that accomplished and worthy man--Professor William G. Allen--and the general rejoicing throughout the country therein, evinces that the heart of the American people, on the subject of slavery is utterly corrupt, and almost past cure."

Now for something spicy. The following letter was written to Elder King by a Slaveholder of Mississippi, about five weeks after the mob. The Elder re-mailed it to his daughter while she was in Pennsylvania. Having become the property of the daughter, and the daughter and I now being one, I shall take the liberty of giving this specimen of Southern chivalry to the public. The reader shall have it without alteration:--

"Warrenton, Mississippi, "March 5th, 1853.

"Rev. Sir:--

"You cannot judge of my surprise and indignation, on reading an Editorial in one of my papers concerning an intending marriage of your lovely and accomplished daughter, with a negro man; which thanks to providence has been prevented by the excited and enraged populace of the enterprising citizens of the good town of Fulton.

"During my sojourn in the state of New York last year, I visited for mere curiosity the Mc. Grawville Inst.i.tute in Cortland Co., which gave me an opportunity of seeing your daughter, then a pupil of that equality and amalgamated Inst.i.tute; and I believe in all my travels north, I never saw one more interesting and polite to those of her acquaintances.

"I have thought much about your daughter since my return home, and do yet, notwithstanding the ignominious connection she has lately escaped from. Your daughter--innocent, as I must in charity presume--because deluded and deranged by the false teachings of the abolition Inst.i.tute at Mc. Grawville.

"My object in writing to you this letter is to obtain your permission to correspond with your daughter if it should be agreeable with herself, for I do a.s.sure you that I have no other than an honorable intention in doing so.

"I reside in Warren County near Warrenton--am the owner of Nine Young Negroes in agriculture, who would not exchange their bondage for a free residence in the north. I am happy to inform you Revd. Sir that my character is such that will bear the strictest investigation, and my relations respectable. I am yet young having not yet obtained my 25th year.

"Well sir, I am a stranger to both yourself and interesting family, and as a matter of course you may desire to know something about the humble individual who has thought proper to address you on a subject which depends on the future happiness of your daughter. For your Reverence's gratification you are at liberty to refer to either or all of the following gentlemen, by letter or in person,--viz., Hon. J. E. Sharkey, State Senator, Warren Co., P. O., Warrenton, Miss.;--Hon. A. G. Brown, Ex-Gov., Miss., now Member of Congress, P. O., Gallatin, Miss.;--Samuel Edwards, High Sheriff, Warren Co., P. O., Vicksburg, Miss.;--E. B.

Scarbrough Clerk, Probate Court, Warren Co., P. O., Vicksburg, Miss.;--M.

Shannon, Editor, Vicksburg, Miss., Whig;--Geo. D. Prentice, Editor, Louisville, Ky., Journal;--and Reed, Brothers, and Co., 177, Market Street, Philadelphia.

"Again Rev. Sir, I a.s.sure you that in writing you this letter, I only do that which is the result of mature deliberation.

"I shall wait anxiously your reply, "THOS. K. KNOWLAND."

"P. S.--As Messrs. Reed, Brothers, and Co., are the nearest reference to whom I refer, I enclose you a letter from them."

The two letters immediately following were received by Miss K. just before she left Pennsylvania for New York. Many other letters were also received by both of us, which are not given in this book, but we can a.s.sure the writers thereof that they have our hearts' grat.i.tude:--

"Fulton, March 27th, 1853.

"My dear and brave Sister:--

"For two weeks past we have been stopping with Mr. B. Yesterday we received four letters--two from my good brother B., and two from Pennsylvania, yours and Jane's. Right glad were we to receive those welcome favors--those little _epistolary_ angels, telling us of your safety, (for safety has of late become quite a consideration) of your affection, of your anxiety, and a hundred things more than what were written.

"Mary, I judge from your letters and notes--from the tone of them--that there are feelings and emotions in your heart utterly beyond the power of words to express. You are resolved, and you are happy in your resolve, and strong in the providential certainty of its success. Yet you tremble for probabilities, or rather for _possibilities_.

"What feelings, dear Mary, you must have in the hour of your departure from this country. Through the windows of imagination I can catch a glimpse of it all. Your flight is a flight for freedom, and I can almost call you _Eliza_. To you this land will become a land of memory. And, oh! what memories! But we will talk of this hereafter.