Children of the Market Place | Page 3

the United States was founded by white
men for white men; that negroes were a lower order of beings; that their
servitude was justified by the Bible; that a majority of the clergy and
the churches of the country approved of the institution; that the slaves
were well treated, much better housed and fed than the workers of
Europe; better than the free laborers even in America. His thesis was
that the business of life was the obtaining of the means of life; that all
the uprisings in Europe, the French Revolution included, were inspired
by hunger; that the struggle for existence was bound to produce
oppression; that the strong would use and control the weak, make them
work, keep them in a state where they could be worked. All this for
trade. He topped off this analysis with the remark that negro slavery
was a benign institution, exactly in line with the processes of the
business of life; that it had been lied about by a growing fanaticism in
the States; New York had always been in sympathy, for the most part
with the Southern States, where slavery was a necessary institution to
the climate and the cotton industry. He went on to tell me that about a
year before a maniacal cobbler named William Lloyd Garrison had
started a little paper called The Liberator in which he advocated slave
insurrections and the overthrow of the laws sustaining slavery; and that
a movement was now on foot in New England to found the American
Anti-Slavery Society. And that John Quincy Adams, once President,

but now a senile intermeddler, had been presenting petitions in
Congress from various constituencies for the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia. This would be finally squelched, he thought. New
England had always demanded a tariff in order to foster her industries,
and that policy trenched on the rights of the states not needing and not
wanting a tariff. While slavery did not in any way harm New England,
she intermeddled in a mood of moral fanaticism.
I was much interested in these revelations by Mr. Yarnell, for such was
his name.... One morning we began to sense land. We had been about
three weeks on the water. We were nearing the harbor of New York.

CHAPTER III
Yarnell was a man of about thirty. He seemed very mature to me. In
fact he was quite a man of the world. I had told him my destination,
and asked him how best to reach it. He had given me some information,
but it was not wholly clear. He advised me to ask for direction at the
Franklin House, which he recommended to me as a comfortable hotel.
As we came into the harbor we stood on the deck together while he
pointed out the places of interest. I was thrilled with its beauty and its
extent. The day was mild. A fresh breeze was blowing. May clouds
floated swiftly in the clear sky. I felt my blood course electrically in
expectation of the wonders of New York. It was now lying before me
in all its color and mystery. Boats of all kinds passed us. There was a
tangled thicket of masts at the piers. I discerned gay awnings over a
walk around a building near the water. Yarnell said this was Castle
Garden, where many diners came for the excellence of the food and the
view of the harbor. I could begin to see up the streets of the city beyond
the Battery. But there was a riot of stir and activity, in expectation of
our boat.
I disembarked and hired a hack. I was traveling with a huge valise. This
the hackman took for me. Yarnell came up to bid me adieu, promising
to call upon me at the Franklin House. The fare was twenty-five cents a

mile. The hotel was at 197 Broadway. Was it more than a mile? I did
not know. I was charged fifty cents for the trip. I was not stinted for
money, and it did not matter. I paid the amount demanded, and walked
into the hotel.
How simple things are at the end of a journey and a daily restlessness
to arrive! My valise was taken to my room. I went with the negro porter.
I looked from my window out upon Broadway. The porter departed.
The door was closed. My journey to New York was over. I was alone. I
began to wish for Yarnell, wish to be back upon the boat. Above all I
began to sense the distance that separated me from England and those I
loved. Here was the afternoon on my hands. Should I not see something
of the city? When should I start west? I took from my pocket the