The American Prejudice Against Color Part 6

"The remembrance of _friends.h.i.+p unbroken here_,--oh, Mary, let it not vanish as the blue hills of your father-land will dim away in the distance, while you glide eastward upon the 'free waters.' But let that bright remembrance be embodied in _spirit_-form, for ever attending you, and pointing back to those still here who hold you high in affection and in honor.

"Mary, I must close. Be firm--strong--brave--unflinching--_just like_ Mary King.

"Yours in the bonds of love, "JOHN C. PORTER."

"Fulton, March 27th, 1853.

"My dear Sister Mary:--

"Almost hourly since you left has your image been before me. And as I seat myself to write, thoughts and emotions innumerable come crowding for utterance. Gladly would I express them to you, dear Sister, but the pen is far too feeble an instrument. Oh, that I could be with you in body as in spirit. You need encouragement and strength in this hour; and I know that you will receive them,--for you are surrounded by a few of the truest and dearest of friends. And you know and have felt, that a higher and stronger power than earth can uphold us in every endeavour for the right.

"Mary, do you remember the time when you told me that I must love you better than I had ever done before; for friends would forsake you, and there would be none left to love you but P., and myself, and your father, and Julia, and J. B., and D. S., and S. T.? Our arms were twined around each other in close embrace. Your heart was full to overflowing, and words gave place to tears. I shall not forget the intense anxiety I felt for you at that moment as I tried to penetrate the future, knowing, as I did, somewhat of the cruelty of prejudice. It seems we both had a foreboding of something that would follow. I do not know that I wept, but heaven witnessed and recorded the silent, sacred promise of my heart to draw nearer and cherish you with truer fidelity as others turned away. And so shall I always feel.

"Oh, Mary, how little can we imagine the sufferings of the oppressed, while we float along on the popular current. I thank G.o.d from the depths of my soul, that we have launched our barks upon the ocean. Frail they are, yet, having right for our beacon, and humanity for our compa.s.s, I know we shall not be wrecked or go down among the raging elements.

"Now, dear Sister, farewell, and as you depart from this boasted 'land of liberty and equal rights,' and go among strangers, that you may, indeed, enjoy liberty, be not despondent, but cheerful, ever remembering the message of your angel mother.

Again, dear sister, farewell,--you know how much we love you, and that our deepest sympathies are with you wherever you may be.

"Affectionately yours, "SARAH D. PORTER."

I subjoin an extract of a letter which I received from Miss K. a few days before our marriage:--

"Dolington, Pennsylvania "March 21st, 1853.

"Professor Allen,-- "Dearest and best-loved Friend:--

"I have just received your letter of March 13th, and hasten to reply.

"You ask me if I can go with you in four weeks or thereabouts. In reply, I say yes; gladly and joyfully will I hasten with you to a land where unmolested, we can be happy in the consciousness of the love which we cherish for each other. While so far from you, I am sad, lonely, and unhappy; for I feel that I have no home but in the heart of him whom I love, and no country until I reach one where the cruel and crus.h.i.+ng hand of Republican America can no longer tear me from you.

"Professor,--I sometimes tremble when I think of the strong effort that would be put forth to keep me from you, should my brothers know our arrangements. But my determination is taken and my decision fixed; and should the public or my friends ever see fit to lay their commands upon me again, they will find that although they have but a weak, defenceless woman to contend with, still, that woman is one who will never pa.s.sively yield her rights. _They may mob me; yea, they may kill me; but they shall never crush me._

"Heaven's blessings upon all who sympathised with us. I am not discouraged. G.o.d will guide us and protect us.

"Ever yours, "MARY."

'"Thou Friend, whose presence on my wintry heart Fell like bright Spring upon some herbless plain; How beautiful and calm and free thou wert In thy young wisdom, when the mortal chain Of Custom thou did'st burst and rend in twain, And walked as free as night the clouds among."'

Some idea of the spirit of persecution by which we were pursued may be gathered from the fact, that when the mobocrats of Fulton ascertained that Miss King and myself were having an interview in Syracuse, they threatened to come down and mob us, and were only deterred from so doing by the promise of Elder King, that he would go after his daughter if she did not return in the next train.

CHAPTER VII.

CONCLUSION.

Reader,--I have but a word or two more to say.

Insignificant as this marriage may seem to you, I can a.s.sure you that nothing else has ever occurred in the history of American prejudice against color, which so startled the nation from North to South and East to West. On the announcement of the probability of the case merely, men and women were panic-stricken, deserted their principles and fled in every direction.

Indignation meetings were held in and about Fulton immediately after the mob. The following Resolution was pa.s.sed unanimously in one of them:--

"Resolved,--That Amalgamation is no part of the Free Democracy of Granby." (Town near F.)

The Editor of the Fulton newspaper, however, spoke of us with respect.

Let him be honored. He condemned the mob, opposed amalgamation, but described the parties thus,--"Miss King, a young lady of talent, education, and unblemished character," and myself, "a gentleman, a scholar, and a Christian, and a citizen against whose character nothing whatever had been urged."

I have said that some of the Papers regretted that I had not been killed outright. I give an extract from the "_Phoenix Democrat_," published in the State of New York:--

"This Professor Allen may get down on his marrow bones, and thank G.o.d that we are not related to Mary King by the ties of consanguinity."

To show that I have not exaggerated the spirit of persecution which beset us, I will state that in a few days after Mr. Porter was dismissed from his School, he called upon the pastor of the church of which he is a communicant; and though without means--the chivalrous people who turned him out of his School not having yet paid him up--and knowing not whither to go, the pastor a.s.sured him that he could not take him in, or render him any a.s.sistance, so severely did he feel that he would be censured by the public.

That Mr. Porter is still pursued by this fiendish spirit, the reader will see by the following paragraph of a letter received from him a few days since:--

"I have advertised for a School in S----. They would not tolerate me in O----, after they found out that I was the Phillipsville School-master.

I was employed in O---- three months."

Such, reader, is the character of prejudice against color,--bitter, cruel, relentless.

THE END.

A SHORT

PERSONAL NARRATIVE,

BY