down-trodden and
long-enslaved fellow-countrymen portrayed; the deep sympathy for
the slave, and the strong abhorrence of the slave-holder,
everywhere evinced; the cordiality with which members and
ministers of various religious bodies, and of various shades of
religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent me their aid; the
kind hospitality constantly proffered me by persons of the
highest rank in society; the spirit of freedom that seems to
animate all with whom I come in contact, and the entire absence
of every thing that looked like prejudice against me, on account
of the color of my skin--contrasted so strongly with my long and
bitter experience in the United States, that I look with wonder
and amazement on the transition. In the southern part of the
United States, I was a slave, thought of and spoken of as
property; in the language of the LAW, '_held, taken, reputed, and
adjudged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners and
possessors, and their executors, administrators, and assigns, to
all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever_.' (Brev.
Digest, 224.) In the northern states, a fugitive slave, liable to
be hunted at any moment like a felon, and to be hurled into the
terrible jaws of slavery-doomed by an inveterate prejudice
against color to insult and outrage on every hand, (Massachussetts
out of the question)--denied the privileges and courtesies common
to others in the use of the most humble means of conveyance--shut
out from the cabins of steamboats--refused admission to
respectable hotels--caricatured, scorned, scoffed, mocked, and
maltreated with impunity by any one, (no matter how black his
heart,) so he has a white skin. But now behold the change! Eleven
days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of
the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under
a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of
America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald
Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel becomes a man. I gaze around
in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as
his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab--I am seated
beside white people--I reach the hotel--I enter the same door--I
am shown into the same parlor--I dine at the same table--and no