Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1844-08-02

ItlHV WOuIu TO mlure me. Z III d lew lIoLduCCas |
if my information be correct, they have been made
by persons whose knowledge of my circumstan ces
at that time, takes away every excuse which char
iy can plead for them on the ground of ignorance.
At this time, the autumn of 1888, | held as slaves,
the woman and child above mentioned and hive
house servants. was then, and had been more
han a year before, the advocate of the American
Colonization Society. | do not now remember,
hat my views as to the right of the slave to his
berry, and the duty of the master 10 emancipate,
we're much in advance of those usually entertained
by colonizationists. Certain it is, | looked for
ward to no time, | anticipated no circumstances,
which could ever bring me to consider them as !
now do. ! had then no expectation that | should
It any period of my life deserve the name OF an
bolitionist, or draw on me prosecutions of suth
ient rigor to Danish me from Kentucky, where |
5as misrepresentation from which the Constitu-
,ional Egis of the free State of Ohio, has not yet
awaited to defend me.
Before breaking up nv establishment in Alaba-
ma, proposed TO the woman to send her and her
child to Liberia, after she had, by the service she
had already performed and by her future hire, re-
turned me the price | had paid for her. She OBJ
lerted utterly to going to Liberia. ! then propos-
ed to bring her with me to Kentucky, where, after
being remunerated by her services for the sum |
.ad paid for her, | would manumit her and her
child, without any condition of removal-in the
meantime, giving to the child such education as |
could under existing circumstances. 10 this she,
so far as herself was concerned; to my great sur
prise, objected-urging that she was an entire
stranger in Kentucky and that she did not wish to
leave the acquaintance she had made since her
residenceln Alabama.
Believing her conduct to be altogether lnJudI-
cious, ! SAID to her, that whilst | felt no desire to
compel her to either of the courses had proposed,
] could not permit her to make for the child the
election Of remaining behind. So far from being
displeased with this, she expressed her full concur
rpUCn caVinU Cba E11p1p hen ch1Jn lB0uIG he 1DPMI
taken care Of, and everyprovis,on made for her that
could be erpected. She preferred being sold to be-
ing hired on account of the better treatment she
would receive from a master than a hlrer. | per-
mitted her to select her own master-and IN order
that she might have no difficulty in inducing such
an one as she might select, to purchase her' | put
her price at eighty-fve dollars less than | had CIV
en- for her and her child. The advance on the
price Of negroes at this time would have enabled
me to have sold her alone at public sale for from
seventy-fve to one hundred dollars more thap the
sum | asked. The gentleman whom she selected,
and for whose humanity to his slaves l had TecelV-
ed, on enquiry, satisfactory assurances, purchased
her without hesitation. l was not Informed OF the
reasons of her conduct, so singular, as 1t appeared
to me, till she had rejected both propositions lead
ing to her ultimate emancipation. | was atler-
wards told by my oyerscer, who was warmly at
tached to my interests, and who, believe, thought
that was already someWhat t%anatical in my de-
sire 10 OlUIue INT WOlIuuS WIN ulltC iuC W vi
her, believing that if | took her to Kentucky, !
would finally emancipate her-that her conduct
proceeded from an attachment she had formed for
n negro man, who, he supposed, had persuaded
her to object to every proposition which contem-
plated her removal from that part of the country.
The little girl, her child, | brought with me, to-
gether with the domestic servants already NEIL
toned, to Kentucky In 1883.
had already lost much of my first confidence in
the efficacy Of colonization principles for the eX-
termination of slavery among US. ! assisted, III
December, 1888, i'll the organization, at LeXing-
ton, of a gradual emancipation society, thinking Its
principles were somewhat stronger than those OF
colonization, and would he more %effectual. | en-
tered on this scheme with ardor, and became Its
active advocate. A short trial OF 1t soon convlnc-
ed me Of its ineficiency to move the hearts OF men.
During this winter and the ensuing spring, my
mind was deeply interested in the whole subject of
slavery; | read almost every work could lay my
hands on; talked much of it in public and in pri-
vate. In the month of May, 1884 | became so full
ly convinced of the right of my slaves to their
freedom, and of my duty as a christian to give 1t
to them, that | prepared, as we'll as | can now re-
member, on the first day of June, a deed of eman-
cipation for the six | had brought with me from
Alabama, and had it duly entered on record IN the
county court of the county in which l lived. 1hey
all remained with me, receiving such wages, with
the exception of the little girl, as were customary
in this country.
In the previous month of January or February
a young negro man held by the late Judge Boyle
of Kentucky, earnestly solicited me to buy him
lest, at the sale of the estate he might be sold tC
some person of whose character and temper he
knew nothing. AT first | objected on the grounC
that ! intended never again to purchase Il slave, tc
be held in the absolute sense.
He left me, but returned again bringing as al
aid to his own importantly the recommendation o.
the brother-in-law of Judge B. who held as slaves
some other members of the family. He prevailed
on this second application, and ] paid the price Of
him to the executors. Before | consented to dc
so, we had this understanding; that so soon as by
the allowance of fair wages he should return mi
the money ! had advanced, he should 60 free; tina
in the mean time would have him taught to read
and il he proved apt to learn writing and the ele
mentary rules of arithmetic that | would ask o
him no unreasonable services-but that If h
should fail to perform with fidelity what | requir
ed of him, | should return him to the state of abso
lutte slavery from (which | considered | was takini
him. 1t was but a short time before | became sat
isfed that his character had been grossly, thong
will not suffer myself to think Intentionally, mis-
represented to me. He proved trifing, lazy an
troublesome among the rest of the servants. rs
pecialIy provoking to me was his reiterated hars
treatment of the little girl above mentioned, 70
whom, as she had no relative near her, | felt al
most a parental tenderness. After bearing wit
him for several months, and after persuading all
admonishing him, | found it was out of the queS
ton to keep him about me any longer. In tn
month of July, think it was, | gave him a wri
ing authorizing him to obtain for his master an
one who would give me within one hundred do
- Al. -. I b,I o,;J II. HIM, olthOnuh