The Fugitive Blacksmith | Page 3

liberality of the humane and the good to aid him, and has
requested us to state in writing the conditions upon which we will sell
his daughters.
"We expect to start our servants to the South in a few days; if the sum
of twelve hundred dollars be raised and paid us in fifteen days, or we be
assured of that sum, then we will retain them for twenty-five days more,
to give an opportunity for raising the other thousand and fifty dollars,
otherwise we shall be compelled to send them along with our other
servants.
(Signed) "BRUIN AND HILL."
The old man also showed me letters from other individuals, and one
from the Rev. Matthew A. Turner, pastor of Asbury Chapel, where
himself and his daughters were members. He was himself free, but his
wife was a slave. Those two daughters were two out of fifteen children
he had raised for the owner of his wife. These two girls had been sold,
along with four brothers, to the traders, for an attempt to escape to the
North, and gain their freedom.
On the next Sabbath evening, I threw the case before my people, and
the first fifty dollars of the sum was raised to restore the old man his
daughters. Subsequently the case was taken up under the management

of a committee of ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
consisting of the Rev. Gr. Peck, D.D., Rev. E.E. Griswold, and Rev. D.
Curry, and the entire sum of 2,250 dollars, (£450.) was raised for two
girls, fourteen and sixteen years of age!
But why this enormous sum for two mere children? Ah, reader, they
were reared under the mildest form of slavery known to the laws of
Maryland! The mother is an invalid, and allowed to live with her free
husband; but she is a woman of excellent mind, and has bestowed great
pains upon her daughters. If you would know, then, why these girls
were held at such a price, even to their own father, read the following
extract of a letter from one who was actively engaged in behalf of them,
and who had several interviews with the traders to induce them to
reduce the price, but without success. Writing from Washington, D.C.,
September 12th, 1848, this gentleman says to William Harned, "The
truth is, _and is confessed to be, that their destination is prostitution_;
of this you would be satisfied on seeing them: they are of elegant form,
and fine faces."
And such, dear reader, is the sad fate of hundreds of my young
countrywomen, natives of my native state. Such is the fate of many
who are not only reared under the mildest form of slavery, but of those
who have been made acquainted with the milder system of the Prince
of Peace.
When Christians, and Christian ministers, then, talk about the "mildest
form of slavery,"--"Christian masters," &c., I say my feelings are
outraged. It is a great mistake to offer these as an extenuation of the
system. It is calculated to mislead the public mind. The opinion seems
to prevail, that the negro, after having toiled as a slave for centuries to
enrich his white brother, to lay the foundation of his proud institutions,
after having been sunk as low as slavery can sink him, needs now only
a second-rate civilization, a lower standard of civil and religious
privileges than the whites claim for themselves.
During the last year or two, we have heard of nothing but revolutions,
and the enlargements of the eras of freedom, on both sides of the
Atlantic. Our white brethren everywhere are reaching out their hands to
grasp more freedom. In the place of absolute monarchies they have
limited monarchies, and in the place of limited monarchies they have
republics: so tenacious are they of their own liberties.

But when we speak of slavery, and complain of the wrong it is doing us,
and ask to have the yoke removed, we are told, "O, you must not be
impatient, you must not create undue excitement. You are not so badly
off, for many of your masters are kind Christian masters." Yes, sirs,
many of our masters are professed Christians; and what advantage is
that to us? The grey heads of our fathers are brought down by scores to
the grave in sorrow, on account of their young and tender sons, who are
sold to the far South, where they have to toil without requite to supply
the world's market with _cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, &c_. Our
venerable mothers are borne down with poignant grief at the fate of
their children. Our sisters, if not by the law, are by common consent
made the prey of vile men, who can bid the highest.
In all the bright achievements we have obtained in