November 18, 1835 — Third Annual Meeting, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society,  Home of Francis Jackson, Hollis Street, Boston MA

(Read aloud by the Domestic Corresponding Secretary)

Dear Sisters: Had I not been continually moving from place to place, I should sooner have taken an opportunity to thank you for the sacred volume you gave me; doubly valuable, as an unfailing source of consolation, and a continual memento of your kindness. Please to accept my warmest acknowledgments, and let us pray for each other, that our lives may be in conformity with its holy precepts.

In these times, the hearts of some wax faint; but I feel assured that it is not so with you. Did any of us ever dare to hope that the foul demon of slavery could be cast out of the nation, without tearing and rending as he departed? Violent opposition only proves the strength of existing evil; there are those, who urge this very violence as a sufficient reason for discontinuing our exertions. St. Paul, no doubt, had prudent friends who gave him similar advice, when he was seized by a mob at Corinth — when he filled the city of Ephesus with confusion — when he gave such offence to the Grecians, that they “went about to slay him” — and when he raised such a tumult at Damascus, that they were obliged to let him down over the wall in a basket.” Yet we find the apostle afterward writing to the churches, and congratulating himself, that what had” happened unto him had fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.” The history of great reformations is always nearly the same. They who take the first, and most difficult steps, are always reviled and persecuted; for principles of divine truth can never go out into the midst of a perverse generation, without exciting warfare. This was the case with divine truth manifested the flesh; for he emphatically tells us that he came not to bring peace, but a sword.

With regard to our righteous cause, the indications are already numerous, that what has happened to individuals, has’ fallen out rather to the furtherance of our principles.’ I think there never was such cause for hope — such encouragement for renewed energy, as at the present moment. The tide is rapidly turning in our favor. Before it is turned, some may suffer in reputation, property, and person; but of what consequence is it, if we do sink to untimely and dishonored graves, if the sacred cause of freedom and humanity is advanced by our humble instrumentality.

In Philadelphia, I attended an interesting meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery Society, and suggested to them the propriety of writing to the ladies of England and Scotland, as you had done. They very cordially assented to the proposition. I think you might find it profitable to open a correspondence with this society; for their vicinity to the southern states, makes them very frequently, eye-witnesses to painful scenes connected with the system of slavery. The name of the President is Mrs. Sidney Ann Lewis  the Secretary, Mrs. Lucretia Motte [sic] — both of the society of Friends. The former keeps a little shop for the sale of anti-slavery documents, and free cotton goods. The mayor called and advised her to take down the sign, which she had boldly hung up at the door. She quietly replied, ‘I thank thee for thy friendly advice, but do not feel disposed to follow thy suggestion.’

I wish this spirit were more universal among the Quakers ; but many excuse themselves, by saying they must not mix with the world — that Israel must dwell in his tents. If our way does not seem right, why can they not work in their own way? Assuredly, they would, and so would others that make similar objections, if they truly loved the work for Christ’s sake. Assuredly, they would, if they remembered those who are in bonds as bound with them.’ They do not realize the condition of the oppressed; and the spirit of the world is with them in this very fear of acting with the world. I was very much pleased with an answer made by Angelina Grimke, who was born and educated at the south. A lady told her that she suffered her heart to be too much engrossed with them subject of slavery — that the suitable time had not yet come, for action on the subject. She replied, very mildly, ‘If thou wert a slave, toiling in the fields of Carolina, I apprehend thou wouldst think the time had fully come.’

I wish I could detail to you half the affecting stories I heard in Philadelphia — some of them from the lips of runaway slaves. When I hear people talk of the happiness of slaves, these stories come up so freshly in my remembrance, that I find it hard to restrain my indignation within christian bounds. Thomas Shipley, a most benevolent and good man, told me a beautiful instance of the spirit of forgiveness. A company of Marylanders broke into the house of an honest colored man, at midnight, and carried off a slave concealed there. Several such instances had taken place, within a short period, in Philadelphia and its vicinity; and, in some instances, the outrage was committed merely upon the unfounded suspicion of harboring slaves. This was a little more than the timid north felt bound to endure from the lordly south; and some of the violent Marylanders were arrested, and imprisoned. On the occasion to which I allude, the poor re-captured slave fell upon his knees, and entreated the officers of justice not to imprison his master.

In Philadelphia, there lived a very worthy, honest couple, who had a right to their freedom, even according to our wicked laws; for they had been manumitted in their youth. But the heirs of their master, refused to carry their wills into effect, and after several years of unavailing remonstrance and entreaty, they ran away. They reached Pennsylvania in safety, and soon gained respect and confidence, by their exemplary deportment, and strong affection for each other. For several years, all went on well; but a few months ago, hired agents found the way to their quiet abode, under pretence of searching for a horse that had been lost. Soon after, a set of ruffians broke into the house at midnight, and dragged the man off, amid the shrieks of his family — beating him so cruelly that the snow was stained with his blood for a long distance. His poor wife had an infant eight or ten days old — she sprung from her bed and rushed out into the snow to plead for her husband. Alas! it was unavailing — for our laws compel us to deliver the bondman to his oppressor. The family by whose orders this monstrous outrage was committed, was the aristocratic, and highly respected family of T * * * in Baltimore. James was soon after sold, and his new master wrote to James Motte, [sic] of Philadelphia, in the most hypocritical tone, begging him to persuade the wife to follow her husband into slavery — saying he was willing to pay any price for her, merely for James’ sake; because he was such a pious, exemplary man, and had an affection for his wife as strong as he had ever seen in any human being. The woman’s friends, of course, advised her not to go, for her children’s sake; but she, poor creature, seems completely broken hearted. Yet in the face of facts like these, some will tell you that women have nothing to do with this question.

When woman’s heart is bleeding;
Shall woman’s voice be hushed?

When Bonaparte told a French lady that he did not like to hear a woman talk politics, she replied, — ‘Sire, in a country where women are beheaded, it is very natural they should like to know the reason.’ And where women are brutalized, scourged, and sold, shall we not inquire the reason? My sisters, you have not only the right, but it is your solemn duty; and may God bless you, according to the firmness with which you perform that duty.

In fullness of affection,
L.M. CHILD.

Source: Right and Wrong in Boston in 1836, Annual Report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society; Being a Concise History of the Cases of the Slave Child, Med, and of the Women Demanded as Slaves of the Supreme Judicial Court of Mass., with All the Other Proceedings of the Society, (Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1836), pp. 90-94.