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 of
hospitality constantly proffered to 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 everything 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{288} 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 (Massachusetts 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 on 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 one is
offended. No delicate nose grows deformed in my presence. I find no
difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of worship,
instruction, or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as any
I ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to remind me of my
complexion. I find myself regarded and treated at every t