The American Prejudice Against Color | Page 7

and

defeats the objects which it aims most to accomplish.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MOB.
Hardly unlooked for by myself was this mob, especially after I had
learned of the direction which "the subject" had taken in the family of
Mr. King.
On Sabbath afternoon, January 30th, while Mr. and Mrs. Porter, Mrs.
Porter's sister, Miss King, and myself, were enjoying ourselves in
social conversation, a gentleman from the village of Fulton called at the
residence of Mr. Porter, to give an account of events as they were
transpiring in the village. This gentleman was decidedly opposed to
"amalgamation," expressed the utmost surprise that Mr. Porter should
for a moment suppose that God ever designed the inter-marriage of
white and colored persons,--but he was, nevertheless, a man of friendly
disposition,--and as a friend he came to Mr. Porter. _We were to be
mobbed_,--so this gentleman informed us. He advised escape on the
part of Mr. Porter and myself, otherwise the house would be
demolished! All Fulton, since Saturday night, he informed us, had been
in arms. Crowds of men could be seen in the streets, at every point,
discussing the subject of our marriage, and with feelings of the most
extraordinary excitement; and similar discussions, he added, had been
held during the live-long night preceding, in all the grog shops and
taverns of the village.
All sorts of oaths had been uttered, and execrations vented. Tar,
feathers, poles, and an empty barrel spiked with shingle nails had been
prepared for my especial benefit; and, so far as I was concerned, it must
be escape or death. Mr. Porter was to be mobbed, he said, for offering
me entertainment, and for being supposed friendly to our union. This
friend did not understand the whole plan of the onslaught, but he gave
sufficient information to justify us in surmising that no harm was
intended to be inflicted upon Miss King, or any lady of the house.
Knowing the brutal character of prejudice against color, and knowing

also that I was supposed to be about to commit the unpardonable sin, I
confess, that though surprised to learn that the mob intended murder,
yet I was not surprised to learn many of the details which this friend so
kindly gave us.
Mr. Porter suggested that after supper, he and I should retire to a
neighbour's house, he supposing that if the mob should be foiled in
their attempt to get us into their hands, they would, after all, pass away,
and thus the matter blow quietly over. The suggestion, however, was
not carried into effect; for we had scarcely finished tea ere they (the
mob) were down upon us like wild beasts out of a den.
We first observed some twenty men turning a corner in the direction of
the house; then about thirty or forty more, and soon the streets were
filled with men--some four or five hundred. In the rear of this multitude
there was driven a sleigh in which, we rightly conjectured, Miss King
was to be taken home.
From the statements of the leader of the mob--statements afterwards
given to the public--it seems that a Committee, composed of members
of the mob, and constituted by the mob, suggested before reaching the
house that if we were still unmarried there should be no violence done,
as they intended to carry off the lady. A portion of this Committee also
made it their duty to gain access to the apartment where our company
were sitting, and to inform us of the intentions of the assembled
multitude below, while the remainder of the Committee endeavoured
by speeches and reasoning to quiet the mob spirit, which soon after the
assembling, began to reach its climax.
This Committee was composed of some of the most "respectable" men
of Fulton--lawyers, merchants, and others of like position. The reader
will doubtless think it strange that such men should be members of a
mob; and so it would be, if prejudice against color were not the saddest
of all comments upon the meanness of human depravity. In this, more
than in anything else did the malignant character of this American
feeling evince itself--that to drive me off or kill me, if need be, the
"respectable" and the base were commingled, like--

"Kindred elements into one."
Men who, under other circumstances, would have been regarded as
beneath contempt, the vulgar minded and vulgar hearted--with these,
even Christians (so called) did not hesitate to affiliate themselves in
order to crush a man who was guilty of no crime save that, having a
colored skin, he was supposed to be about to marry a lady a few shades
lighter than himself. O, the length and breadth, the height and depth,
the cruelty and the irony of a prejudice which can so belittle human
nature.
But