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APPENDIX. L. M. C.
"As we
became acquainted, she related to me, from time to time some of the incidents
in her bitter experiences as a slave-woman. Though impelled by a natural
craving for human sympathy, she passed through a baptism of suffering, even in
recounting her trials to me, in private confidential conversations. The burden
of these memories lay heavily upon her spirit—naturally virtuous and refined. I
repeatedly urged her to consent to the publication of her narrative; for I felt
that it would arouse people to a more earnest work for the disinthralment of
millions still remaining in that soul-crushing condition, which was so
unendurable to her. But her sensitive spirit shrank from publicity. She said,
'You know a woman can whisper her cruel wrongs in the ear of a dear friend much
easier than she can record them for the world to read.' Even in talking with
me, she wept so much, and seemed to suffer such mental agony, that I felt her
story was too sacred to be drawn from her by inquisitive questions, and I left
her free to tell as much, or as little, as she chose. Still, I urged upon her
the duty of publishing her experience, for the sake of the good it might do;
and, at last, she undertook the task. "Having
been a slave so large a portion of her life, she is unlearned; she is obliged
to earn her living by her own labor, and she has worked untiringly to procure
education for her children; several times she has been obliged to leave her
employments, in order to fly from the man-hunters and woman-hunters of our
land; but she pressed through all these obstacles and overcame them. After the
labors of the day were over, she traced secretly and wearily, by the midnight
lamp, a truthful record of her eventful life. "This
Empire State is a shabby place of refuge for the oppressed; but here, through
anxiety, turmoil, and despair, the freedom of Linda and her children was
finally secured, by the exertions of a generous friend. She was grateful for
the boon; but the idea of having been bought was always galling to a
spirit that could never acknowledge itself to be a chattel. She wrote to us
thus, soon after the event: 'I thank you for your kind expressions in regard to
my freedom; but the freedom I had before the money was paid was dearer to me.
God gave me that freedom; but man put God's image in the scales with the
paltry sum of three hundred dollars. I served for my liberty as faithfully as
Jacob served for Rachel. At the end, he had large possessions; but I was robbed
of my victory; I was obliged to resign my crown, to rid myself of a tyrant.' "Her story,
as written by herself, cannot fail to interest the reader. It is a sad
illustration of the condition of this country, which boasts of its
civilization, while it sanctions laws and customs which make the experiences of
the present more strange than any fictions of the past. AMY POST "ROCHESTER, N. Y., Oct. 30th, 1859." The following is
from a man who is now a highly respectable colored citizen of Boston. L. M. C. "This
narrative contains some incidents so extraordinary, that, doubtless, many
persons, under whose eyes it may chance to fall, will be ready to believe that
it is colored highly, to serve a special purpose. But, however it may be
regarded by the incredulous, I know that it is full of living truths. I have
been well acquainted with the author from my boyhood. The circumstances
recounted in her history are perfectly familiar to me. I knew of her treatment
from her master; of the imprisonment of her children; of their sale and
redemption; of her seven years' concealment; and of her subsequent escape to
the North. I am now a resident of Boston, and am a living witness to the truth
of this interesting narrative. GEORGE W. LOWTHER." |