The means are at
hand, within our reach. Are we willing to try them? Are we willing to
raise ourselves superior to the condition of slaves, or continue the
meanest underlings, subject to the beck and call of every creature
bearing a pale complexion? If we are, we had as well remained in the
South, as to have come to the North in search of more freedom. What was
the object of our parents in leaving the south, if it were not for the
purpose of attaining equality in common with others of their fellow
citizens, by giving their children access to all the advantages enjoyed
by others? Surely this was their object. They heard of liberty and
equality here, and they hastened on to enjoy it, and no people are more
astonished and disappointed than they, who for the first time, on
beholding the position we occupy here in the free north--what is called,
and what they expect to find, the free States. They at once tell us,
that they have as much liberty in the south as we have in the
north--that there as free people, they are protected in their
rights--that we have nothing more--that in other respects they have the
same opportunity, indeed the preferred opportunity, of being their
maids, servants, cooks, waiters, and menials in general, there, as we
have here--that had they known for a moment, before leaving, that such
was to be the only position they occupied here, they would have remained
where they were, and never left.
Pages:
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59