ts, was informed that I could not be received on board
as a cabin passenger. American prejudice against color triumphed over
British liberality and civilization, and erected a color test and
condition for crossing the sea in the cabin of a British vessel. The
insult was keenly felt by my white friends, but to me, it was common,
expected, and therefore, a thing of no great consequence, whether I went
in the cabin or in the steerage. Moreover, I felt that if I could not go
into the first cabin, first-cabin passengers could come into the second
cabin, and the result justified my anticipations to the fullest extent.
Indeed, I soon found myself an object of more general interest than
I wished to be; and so far from being degraded by being placed in the
second cabin, that part of the ship became the scene of as much pleasure
and refinement, during the voyage, as the cabin itself. The Hutchinson
Family, celebrated vocalists--fellow-passengers--often came to my rude
forecastle deck, and sung their sweetest songs, enlivening the place
with eloquent music, as well as spirited conversation, during the
voyage. In two days after leaving Boston, one part of the ship was about
as free to me as another. My fellow-passengers not only visited me, but
invited me to visit them, on the saloon deck. My visits there, however,
were but seldom. I preferred to live within my privileges, and keep
upon my own premises. I found this quite as much in accordance with good
policy, as with my own feelings. The effect was, that with the majority
of the passengers, all color distinctions were flung to the winds, and
I found myself treated with every mark of respect, from the beginning to
the end of the voyage, except in a single instance; and in that, I came
near being mobbed, for complying with an invitation given me by the
passengers, and the captain of the "Cambria," to deliver a lecture on
slavery. Our New Orleans and Georgia passengers were pleased to regard
my lecture as an insult offered to them, and swore I should not speak.
They went so far as to threaten to throw me overboard, and but for
the firmness of Captain Judkins,{286} probably would have (under the
inspiration of _slavery_ and _brandy_) attempted to put their threats
into execution. I have no space to describe this scene, although its
tragic and comic peculiarities are well worth describing. An end was put
to the _melee_, by the captain's calling the ship's company to put the
salt water m