 | Incidents in the life of a slave girl |  |
XXXVII.
A VISIT TO ENGLAND.
In the spring, sad news came to me. Mrs. Bruce
was dead. Never again, in this world, should I see
her gentle face, or hear her sympathizing voice. I had
lost an excellent friend, and little Mary had lost a
tender mother. Mr. Bruce wished the child to visit
some of her mother's relatives in England, and he was
desirous that I should take charge of her. The little
motherless one was accustomed to me, and attached to
me, and I thought she would be happier in my care
than in that of a stranger. I could also earn more
in this way than I could by my needle. So I put
Benny to a trade, and left Ellen to remain in the house
with my friend and go to school.
We sailed from New York, and arrived in Liverpool
after a pleasant voyage of twelve days. We proceeded
directly to London, and took lodgings at the Adelaide
Hotel. The supper seemed to me less luxurious than
those I had seen in American hotels; but my situation
was indescribably more pleasant. For the first time
in my life I was in a place where I was treated according
to my deportment, without reference to my complexion.
I felt as if a great millstone had been lifted
from my breast. Ensconced in a pleasant room, with
my dear little charge, I laid my head on my pillow, for
the first time, with the delightful consciousness of
pure, unadulterated freedom.
As I had constant care of the child, I had little opportunity
to see the wonders of that great city; but I
watched the tide of life that flowed through the streets,
and found it a strange contrast to the stagnation in our
Southern towns. Mr. Bruce took his little daughter
to spend some days with friends in Oxford Crescent,
and of course it was necessary for me to accompany
her. I had heard much of the systematic method of
English education, and I was very desirous that my
dear Mary should steer straight in the midst of so
much propriety. I closely observed her little playmates
and their nurses, being ready to take any lessons
in the science of good management. The children were
more rosy than American children, but I did not see
that they differed materially in other respects. They
were like all children — sometimes docile and sometimes
wayward.
We next went to Steventon, in Berkshire. It was a
small town, said to be the poorest in the county. I saw
men working in the fields for six shillings, and seven
shillings, a week, and women for sixpence, and sevenpence,
a day, out of which they boarded themselves.
Of course they lived in the most primitive manner; it
could not be otherwise, where a woman's wages for an
entire day were not sufficient to buy a pound of meat.
They paid very low rents, and their clothes were made
of the cheapest fabrics, though much better than could
have been procured in the United States for the same
money. I had heard much about the oppression of the
poor in Europe. The people I saw around me were,
many of them, among the poorest poor. But when I
visited them in their little thatched cottages, I felt that
among them was vastly superior to the condition of the
most favored slaves in America. They labored hard;
but they were not ordered out to toil while the stars
were in the sky, and driven and slashed by an overseer,
through heat and cold, till the stars shone out
again. Their homes were very humble; but they were
protected by law. No insolent patrols could come, in
the dead of night, and flog them at their pleasure.
The father, when he closed his cottage door, felt safe
with his family around him. No master or overseer
could come and take from him his wife, or his daughter.
They must separate to earn their living; but the
parents knew where their children were going, and
could communicate with them by letters. The relations
of husband and wife, parent and child, were too
sacred for the richest noble in the land to violate with
impunity. Much was being done to enlighten these
poor people. Schools were established among them,
and benevolent societies were active in efforts to ameliorate
their condition. There was no law forbidding
them to learn to read and write; and if they helped
each other in spelling out the Bible, they were in no
danger of thirty-nine lashes, as was the case with myself
and poor, pious, old uncle Fred. I repeat that the
most ignorant and the most destitute of these peasants
was a thousand fold better off than the most pampered
American slave.
I do not deny that the poor are oppressed in Europe.
I am not disposed to paint their condition so rose-colored
as the Hon. Miss Murray paints the condition
of the slaves in the United States. A small portion
pages with anointed eyes. If she were to lay aside her
title, and, instead of visiting among the fashionable,
become domesticated, as a poor governess, on some
plantation in Louisiana or Alabama, she would see
and hear things that would make her tell quite a different
story.
My visit to England is a memorable event in my life,
from the fact of my having there received strong religious
impressions. The contemptuous manner in
which the communion had been administered to colored
people, in my native place; the church membership
of Dr. Flint, and others like him; and the buying and
selling of slaves, by professed ministers of the gospel,
had given me a prejudice against the Episcopal church.
The whole service seemed to me a mockery and a sham.
But my home in Steventon was in the family of a clergyman,
who was a true disciple of Jesus. The beauty
of his daily life inspired me with faith in the genuineness
of Christian professions. Grace entered my heart,
and I knelt at the communion table, I trust, in true
humility of soul.
I remained abroad ten months, which was much
longer than I had anticipated. During all that time,
I never saw the slightest symptom of prejudice against
color. Indeed, I entirely forgot it, till the time came
for us to return to America.
| Incidents in the life of a slave girl | |