The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854, 1853-02-09
Whole Number 1906


drawing en- masse. Where hundreds had been,
there was left more handful. Lane Seminary
was deserted. Fer seventeen years after this,
DIR. Beecher and Professor Stowe remained there,
endeavoring in vain TO revive its prosperity. In
1850, they returned to the Eastern States the
great project of their life defeated. After short
stay at Bowdoin College, Maine, Professor Stowe
accepted an appointment to the Chair of Biblical
Literature in the Theological Semin .ry at Ap-
dover, Massachusetts,, an institution which st nls,
to say the least, high auy in the United States
These events caused painful reaction in the
feelings of the Beechers. RepaIsed alike by the
fanaticism they had witnessed among the foes and
the brutal violence among the friends Of slavery,
they thought their time for action had not come
and gave no public expression of their adherence
of slavery They waited for the storm to subside;
aud the angel Of truth to mirror his form in tran.
quill waters. For long time they resisted all at
tempts to make them bow the knee to slavery, OF
to avow themselves abolitionsts 1t TO this peri
cd Mrs. Stowe alludes, when ehe says, in the clo
sing chapter of her book :-s For many years of
her Life, the author avoided all reading upon al
lusions to the subject of slavery considering it
too painful to be epquired into, and which ad-
| vancing light and civilization would live down.
The terrible and dramatic scenes which occur
red in Cincinnati, between 1885 aud 1887, were
calculated to increase the repugnance of lady to
mingiug actively in the melee. That city was the
| chief battle ground of Freedom and Slavery
Every month there was some event TO attract at
tention to the strife either press destroyed or
| house mobbed, or free negro kidnapped, or a tri-
al for freedom before the COURTS the confectinn
airy of an EngIish abolitionist riddIeJ, or public
discussion, or an escape of slave, armed at
tack on the negro quarter or negro school-house
rezed to the ground or slave in prison for killing
his wife and children TO prevent their being sold
| to the South. The abolition press, established
there 10 1885, by james G. Birney, whom, on ac-
count of his miidness aud firmness, Miss Mariineau
called "ihe gentleman Of The abolition cause" and
continued by DR.. Bailey the moderate editor of
| the National Era, of Washington city, in which,
Uncle Toms Cabin" FIRST appeared in weekly
numbers, was destroyed FIVE times. On one occa-
siou the mayor dismissed, at midnight, the rioters
| who had also pulled down the houses Of some COL
ored people, with the following pithy speech,
"Well boys let's go home; we've done enough"
One of these rno5s deserves particular notice, as
its victims enlisted deeply the sympa1hies of MrR.
| Stowe. In 1910, the slave-catchers backed by
tho ii rnff of the population, and urged on by
tain politicians aud merchants, attacked the quar-
ters in which the negroes reside. Some of the
houses were battered down by cannon. For sew
erai days tho city was abandoned to violence and
crime. The negro quarters were pillaged and
| cind sxx-I,o IL,
property were killed, and their mu,ilated bodies
cast into the streets; women were violated by
ruitans and some afterwards died OF the injuries
received; houses burnt; aud men women,
aud children were abducted in the confusion, and
hurried into slavery. From the brow of the hill
on which she lived, Mrs. Stowe could hear the
cries Of the victims the shouts of the ob and the
reports of the guns and cannon, and could see
the flames of the coufagration. To more than
one of the trembling fugitives she gave shelter,
and wert bitter tears with them. After the fury
OF the mob was speant. many of the colored peo-
pie gathered together the little left them Of world
~ goods, and started for Canada. Hundreds
passed in front of Mrs Stoves hoase. Some oi
them were in little wagons; some were tru5giug
along foot after their household stuff; sume led
their children by the hand; aud there were even
mothers who walked on, sucking their infants
and weeping for the dead or kidnapped husbands
they had left behind.
, Tho read which rau through Waluuts Hills aud
wthia few feet of Mrs. Stoves door, was one Of
the iavorite routes of the underground railrcad
F as often alluded to IN Uncle To,n's Cabiu.s This
name was given to line of Qaakers and o.her
1 hrHt h. l,,s.
90 miles between the Ohio River and The Northern
Lakes, had formed themselves into sort of asso
citation 10 aid fugitive slaves in their escape to Can
ada Any fugitive was taken by night OF on horse
back or in covered Wagons from station to station
uaiil he stood on free soi, aud found the folds o.
the lieu banner tloaug him, aud the arii!ierJ
OF the British, Empire between him aud slavery
r The FIRST station North of Ciueaua,i was few
4 miles up Mill Creek, at the house OF the pous an,
9 iion>hearted John Vanxandt, who figures in chap
ter nine off, Uncle TOMS Cabin" as John We,
Trompe. Mrs, Stowe must have often hee,
reused from her sleep by the quick rattle of the
cred wagons, and confused gs,oping of the horse,
of constabes aud slave-catchers in hot pursuit.
$ f" Honest John" was always ready to turn ou
with his team, and the hunters of men were MOI
often edroit enough to come up with him. He
a sleeps now in the obscure grave Of martyr. Ths
n "gigantc flamo " of which The novelist speaks
d wns worn down at last by want of sleep, expo
: sure and anxiety, and his spi,its wers depresse,
o by the prosecutions which We're accumulated OF
- him. Several slaye-ewners who had lost ttei
property by his means sued him in the Uai,e State
), Courts fer damages, aud judgements after jujs
. ment stripped him of his farm aud all his property
/ During her long residence on the frontier 9th
1t Slave States, Mrs, Stowe made several visits
L them. It was then no doubt, she made the obser
vatous which have enabled her to paiat noble, gen
erous, and humure Shareholders, in the character
q Of Wilson, the manufacturers, Mrs. Shelby aud he
it sou George, st. Clare and his daughter Eva, ia
H.