Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1858-11-24
From The Atlantic Monthly for November
Courage Of the African Race.

The couIIgs Of self. devotion, lastly, is
the faculty evoked BY special eEigsnciss,
IN persons who have given no peculiar sV-
idence Of courage. Il belongs especially
to the race Of martyrs and enthusiasts,
whose personal tenors vanish in the
greatness Of the object, to that Joan Of
Arc, listening to the songs 0fAbgels, dnAs
not feel The flames. This, indeed, is the
a"cu'tomsdfOrm in which Woman's cour.
age prolaims itself 1t last, unexpected uu.
I'll the crisis comes. This has given us
the desds Of Flora Macdonald, Jane Lane
aud the Countess Of Derby the rescue Of
Lord Nithisdals BY bis wife, aud that
planned for MontTose BY Lady Margaret
DurhSm; the hsroism Of Catharine Doug
Lee thrusting her arm within the stanch.
ions Of the doorway to protect James / .
- Scotland, till his Ourderers shattered
the frail barrier; and the sublimest mar
rative Of Womsns devotion, Gertrude Van
der Wart at bsr husbands execution. It
h possible that all women may have
been timid and shrinking before the hour
OF trial; and every emergency, in peace Of
war, brings out some such instances. At
the close of the troubles of 1855, 10
Kanlas. a traveller chsncsd 10 be visiting Q
lady in Lawrence, who on opening her
work basket. accidentally let fall . small
pistol. She smiled and blushed. and
presently acknowledged, that. when she
frat pulled trigger sxpsri'nentally. six
months before, she had shut heI eyes aud
screamed, although there we're only 9 per-
cur'ion cap to explode. Yet il afterwards
appeared that she was one Of the few wo.
men who remained in their houses, to
protect them BY their preGepce, when the
town was entsr.d by the Misourisns-
aud also one Of the still smaller number
wto brought their rihss TO aid their hus,
bands in the rsdoubt, when two hundred
were ell that could be rallied against three
thousand, in September OF that svsntful
year. Thus easily is the transition ef
fsctsd.
This the courage, also, Of Africans. ae
manifest among ourselveS-ths courag-
created by desperate emergencies. Sup.
piled BY long slavery, Softened BY mixture
Of blood the black man seems to pass at
one bound. as women do, from covering
pu'illauinity to the topmost height Of
daring. The giddy laugh vsnishes, the
idle chatter is hushed, and the buffoon
becomes hero. Nothing in history sur.
paMes the brsvsry Of the Maroons Of Sur.
inamf or of thOse Of Jamsica, as dslinea.
ted by Dallas. Agents Of the Under.
ground Railroad report that the incidents
which daily come to their knowledge are
beyond all Greek, oil Roman fame
These men and women, who have tested
their courage 10 the lonely swamp sgainst
the alligator and the bloodhound, who
have starved on prairiss. hidden in holds,
clung to locomotives, ridsu hundreds Of
miles e'smped 10 boxes, head downward,
equally near to death is discovered or do
serted and who have then, after endu-
ring all this, gone voluntarily back to 'isk
il ell over again. for sake Of wife OF child,
what are We palefAOes, that We shsuld
claim arivsl espHcity with them for heroic
deeds? Whist matter If none, below the
throne Of God. can now identify that
uameless negro il the Tennessee iaon.
works, who, during the last insurectIon,
said he knew ell about the plot but would
die before be would telll' lie recsiVsd
seven hundred aud fifty lashss and died,
Yet where, amid the mAuHolOums of the
world, is there carved an epitaph like
thati