The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-08-13
TWO PREACHERS EXPELLED FROM NORTH
CAROLINA

From the Monroe (Michgan) Commercial. JnIv On
pdted.-GeorgeC Mendendal ESQ
OF Guiltord county, North Carolina, has ;ust
brought company of ten slaves into Ob;o IN
be liberated. This is the third COMPANY he has
brought. He originally owned about eighty
slaves, worth seventy thousand dollars. and has
already liberated fifty of them. The balance
ne designs setting free at an early day, and will
locate the whole number on farms in Logan and
Morrow counties, Ohio. He was the attorney
for Messrs. Crooks and Mcbride. the WESLEYAN
ministers who we're driven from North Carolina
some years ago by mob violence"
Our readers may not be aware of the circum
stances under which Messrs. Crooks and Nc
BRIDE went to North Carolina, and the reasons
OF their expulsion therefrom. We will give
few of them. A portion of North Carolina is
strongly Anti Slavery, and in that part above
named few classes of the Wesleyan Methodist
denomination were found and being in need of
ciergymen, they sent North for some. Messrs.
Crooks and Mcbride, who then belonged to the
Ohio Conference, responded to the call. They
were both very earnest Anti. Slavery men. but
possessed sufficient judgment not to excite the
slaves by any means whatever, or to behave in
any sense in way which ought to call upon
them the anger of any community. They preach.
ed against Slavery in a perfectly legitimate
acay, in their own congregations, where thew
had right to, and where they were allowed to
by the persons to whom they had gone to preach
the gospel. Among this number were many
men of influence and wealth, and, strange to
say, many of their hearers were shareholders
who took no exception to the question of Sls.
very being thus treated in the pulpit.
After while, the news began to spread among
the fire eaters that the Abolitionis.s were preach
ing in such and such neighborhoods, and, CON.
sequently, they must attend to vindicate their
laws Their presence made no difference in
the manner or matter of the discourses. Their
threats had no effect, otherwise than to excite
the congregations of Crooks and Mcbride to q
more determined defence oftheir chosen pastors.
They were even willing, when the Pro Slavery
fanatics came, armed and exasperated, for the
purpose of breaking up the meeting, to take up
arms, and oppose violence with violence. This
their ministers dissuaded them from doing, be-
ing perfectly conscious that they had done
nothing contrary to the letter or spirit of the
law of the State, and not anticipating the VIC.
lence to which the mob would 60. TIE mob
was composed, in part, of members of various
churches, led on by class-leader in the Method.
ist church, and stimulated by sundry deacons,
elders, &C., of other churches
They broke up the meeting, and most shame.
fully treated the ministers, made them prisoners
without any legal process, cast them into prison,
granted them no trial whatever, although thew
and their counsel demanded it, and were willing
to abide by it, and finally selec. committee
took them to the borders of the State, and told
them to leave, and never to return at the peril
of their lives. Their congregations were en-
Enthusiastically fond of them, and true to the last,
wanting to rescue them from Jail, and promis.
ing to send armed forces to protect them in their
journey to their different appointments. But
they would consent to no violence on the part
of their friends; and, thinking that, under ex-
listing circumstances, they could not be useful,
they returned to Ohio Mcbride recently died
at Leoni, in this State, partly from disease con-
tracted by exposure in North Carolina. Crooks
is preaching in Ohio. He but recently recover.
ed his library which had been preserved from
pillage and destruction by the fsithfulness of
his friends. He claims that his preaching was
perfectly open, fair, and legal, and they admit
ted it, but were bound to suppress Abolitonsm,
as they called it. The extract at the commence
ment Of our article reminds US of the facts in
the case, and we could not refrain from rela.
ting them, as nearly as we remembered them.
Mcbride had letter in reference to the subject
in Mrs. Stoves Key to Uncle Toms Cabin,
which our reaers NAV have seem