Nevertheless, we shall do so,
since our simple object in this hasty sketch of things, is to show that
the colored people of the country have not as has been charged upon
them, always been dregs on the community and excrescences on the body
politic, wherever they may have lived. We only desire to show that they
have been, all things considered, just like other people.
Several years ago, there lived in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, Mr.
Berry Mechum. This gentleman was very wealthy, and had at one time, two
fine steamers plying on the Mississippi, all under the command and
management of white men, to whom he trusted altogether. As late as 1836,
he sent two sons to the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, desiring that they
might become educated, in order to be able to manage his business; who,
although he could read and write, was not sufficiently qualified and
skilled in the arts of business to vie with the crafty whites of the
Valley. But before his sons were fitted for business though reputed very
wealthy, which there is no doubt he was, his whole property was seized
and taken: and as he informed the writer himself, he did not know what
for, as he had no debts that he knew of, until these suits were
entered.
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