Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-09-05
MISCELLANEOUS.
POOR AMY.
A TALE OF BLACK LAW OPPRESSION
WriHcn for tie Youths Monthly risiter,
by MRs. NJ. L. DAlLY.

over 10 IIlcnlnOnu 10 see aunt IldHlldn'-
Mayn't ! go this evening and stay all night
Hitty's at home now, and | want to see her
mighty bad"
"No, ANY," said the mother, ''you'd bet
ter not 90 to Richmond to stay all night
They say kidnappers are mighty plenty there
now and | can't ret any body to write a pass
for us since GOOD old Miss Edwards died.
Our blessed Master knows we got mighty
few friends in this world, but it'll all be right
sometime"
swell, nanny, may | go in the morning
and stay all day; | can get home before the
toll rate shuts and then | won't need a passl"
"Yes child, you may go, and mind yon
tell your aunt Hannah 1 heard from the old
place last week, and how old Missus is dead
and Massar Jim has broken up and gone OIL
nobody don't know whar, and the old placei is
gwyne to be sold to pay his debts. It's a
mighty good thing we was set free long ago
or we'd a been sold along with the rest of
'em."
ayes ma'am, I'll tell her; and mayn't |
pick some Strawberries, to carry to little Sal
iy Fletcher! | can't never forget how that
dear child used to steal into our garden with
her book, when she come home from school,
TO learn me nv letters. I'd a soon knowed
how to read, il her sister Jane hadn't found
her out, and told her father. How sorry the
little thing looked when she said, Amy, |
cart teach you any more. Father says
mustn't, but never mind, don't cry, and if
live to be a grown up woman and have a
home of my own, I'll learn you to read and
give you a Bible too,a nice new one, for your
self. That child amt like the rest OF white
folks-she told me all about God, and the
Bible, and how | must try to be good and
respectable, if ] am %colored, for that makes
no difference with God, for he loves his col
ored children as well as his Whit ones and
wen all be alike in heav9n.
"Well, Amy, the child told the truth about
it, and that's more than some grown persons
do;-but go to work now, and mind you get
up airly in the mornln to pick the strawber-
ries; they don't look nice when they are pick
ed in the hot sum-"
Amy, a little girl OF fourteen, was living
with her mother, a tree colored woman IN
Manchester, Virginia. The city OF Rich
mond lies on the opposite side OF James
River, which is crossed by several brld-
ges connecting the two places. Colored
people, whether slaves or Tree, cannot safely
pass the night In Or indeed any
where from home, without a written permit
or pass" from their owner, or some respon-
slble white person. III uley are found out al
ter night without lhiS permit, they are taken
up and put In uie "Cage, "a small Dlrd-
shaped Duliding) Where lney are KEPT; II
slaves un'l ctaiineu ny thell o"hcl'' diI ~
ilec, uh'l pdieu out ny SoHnc iGsPohsiDio
whlte person. Eases nave occurred III winch
tley nave peen soId 10 pay 'helr jan ices, as
Ill INC Instance We nave III IcoIlu, "niop
SUBSTANTIALLY occufreu "liIlil inc last yedi a'
harly heNl morning, amy was on her way
over the BRIDGE with her basket OF strawbcr-
rles on her arm, and as she passed the green
Island una. mes pelo" tre idiis ana hedIu the
songs OF the BIRDS among the trees mlngilng
win the gehtie murhuf oil ule waters, she
ielt very haPPy' LOT she knew that "ou had
made theih all ana lhougn known ana cared
lor by lew IN earth she c9uiu ciaim MN LOT her
iather ana friend She soon passed. the
bridge, ana made her way through me city,
not forgetting TO take tne straw1errleS 10 inc
good lltue gll VINO hau SHOWN her SO mueL
kindness
Her aunt ana cousin were GLAD 10 see hel
ana sue spent tne gay very pieaSantly IN Wis
iuhg her Ola ihe"oS' anu puylhg Solle tilhSa
from the shops ior her motler. towards G.
Vehlhg sne began 10 MINK oil SIart1g 10 hel
ho"he' put 50 PledSahuy hau shc Deeh en-
pioyed' that she hau not observed a carr
cloud whlch threatened a neaVy storm, un'l
ready 10 start, her auht SAD 10 her, Amy
cniid' you Deter not go nome to-night' th'
ram WIN catch you before you get nan owe
.he prIuge, ana 1t Is gwyhe 80 ram Poweriu
hafd, l reckon you hdu oet'er NOT 60 ,
...but aunt Hannah now am 10 stay! !
amt got no pass ana mamma SAID innSh'
} stay 'thou. one hohow.
LAW, money, WHO y gWNne 10 KNOW yO|
amt got a pass; you amt told nobody ha
you!
NO. ma'am' but they mought hna IT. ou'
and NANNY says there are q heap OF kldnap