The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1859-07-12
One Victim More.


-.
One Victim More.
Among the items which make up the
daily newspaper list of casualties, was
| found short time ago, a notice of the
death, in Canada East, Of one Jem Steele,
from " starvation and cold" Under this
brief announcement lies story and amoral.
What took Jem Steele to Canada, and
why did he perish in this miserable way:
| He was a native of a cline farther
South. He was born under the fervid sun
of cotton planting State of the Union
and his constitution was adapted to, and
had been trained TO the temperature of
South Carolina, where the very winters
are soft and baimy. He was untitled to
bear the chilling rgors of the snowy
North. He would shrink and shiver, un
der the keen blasts of what they reve in
there, as the pleasant days of spring. The
icy water pinched up his muscles and
froze his blood-Canada was no place for
him-a child Of the sunny South. How
came he there to die!
He perished-of neglect as we'll as cold.
He was starved among hospitable stran
gers. low was Thu!
He came of race unused, if even capa
Die to take care Of themselves. lie had
never known what it was to seek labor for
himselfor to take care Of himself. lie
knew nothing of the work to be done in
that alien region, if he could have got any
thing to do. From bis infancy he had
been reared to absolute dependence on
the direction of Others to absolute reliance
on their thoughtfulness for what he should
have. Superior INTEL gence directed his
habits, where they were most productive,
and charged it with his maintenance.
Whatever else troubled him, it was Meth
er cold nor hunger. IN 81 hness and in
health be was provided for-nursed and
fed and clothed-and in his age there was
a home for him. 1t is true he was subject
to restraints, but it was to the will of those
who maintained and cared for him and
had All interest in his well being. In that
genial climate he was secure at least OF
shelter and food.
He was beguiled into quitting it in pur-
suit of phantoms with which a cruel phi
lanthropy lured him from his natural home
and State. lie escaped from this condi
ton of bondage some time in 1856. The
New York journals record his arrival there
the futile attem~t 20 have MIN returned
to his master-the successful evasion III
his favor by the New York Aholtionists
of the fugitive slave law, and the eager and
iubiant haste with which they despatched
him on the "under ground Railroad" into
Canada.
Their mission was then over. They
had emancipated slave they had rob
bed slave owner Of his property; they
had succeeded in battling the execution o.
The law. 1t was enough. They returned
to their homes, with complacent thoughts
perhaps of the new evidence they bad
given Of their zeal as prop rgandsts Of free
dom, and the new atfront they had thrown
at the detestable Shareholder.
But which of them burdened his mind
with care for the future of Jem Stee!e!-
Which of them reflected beforehand where
Jem Steele was going and what was to be
come of him: what work he was fitted fol
in the sterile country to which they were
sending him? who was to take care that
he should get it, or find a sustenance fol
him while he was waiting for it, or when
he should fail? Did one of them reflect
how helpless this deuded fugitive was
now utterly ignorent he was of where he
was going or what was to befal him
what vague longings for something he
could not comprehend they had comjured
up in his imagination! Surely Il dread
full disappointment must follow, and theirs
is the moral responsibility of the evils
which should come upon him. They
lured him from plenty and quiet, to be-
come a wanderer, an outcast; they took
the helpless wretch from all upon whom
he had a claim; and not caring to burden
themselves with the custody of what had
been wied into the power they put it away
as something to be hurried out of sight as
offensive, ard dismissed from the thoughts
as case happily got rid of
But it could not always be kept out OF
sight 1t comes IN for Judgment A few
months after, the journals, not moraliziE9;
or hunting for facts with which to dis
credit mock philanthropy or a confessed
hypocracy, note the end of this enterprise
for converting a Southern slave INTO a
Northern freeman. What is left of Jem
Steele is some squalid remains flung in a
pauper's grave. lie died in Canada, OF
starvation and cold!'
The announcement should strike chill
upon every man Of all who helped to take
HIM from his sunny home and linz him to
his death among their Northern SHOWS and
pittiless men. The gaunt skeleton of poor
Jem Steele should haunt their dreams, as
perpetual punishment for cruel and cant
ing fanaticism.
! The ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH-The for