University of Virginia Library

35. XXXV. PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR.

IT was a relief to my mind to see preparations for
leaving the city. We went to Albany in the steamboat
Knickerbocker. When the gong sounded for tea, Mrs.
Bruce said, “Linda, it is late, and you and baby had
better come to the table with me.” I replied, “I know
it is time baby had her supper, but I had rather not go
with you, if you please. I am afraid of being insulted.”
“O no, not if yo are with me,” she said. I saw several
white nurses go with their ladies, and I ventured
to do the same. We were at the extreme end of the
table. I was no sooner seated, than a gruff voice said,
“Get up! You know you are not allowed to sit here.”
I looked up, and, to my astonishment and indignation,
saw that the speaker was a colored man. If his office
required him to enforce the by-laws of the boat, he
might, at least, have done it politely. I replied, “I
shall not get up, unless the captain comes and takes
me up.” No cup of tea wa offered me, but Mrs.
Bruce handed me hers and called for another. I looked
to see whether the other nurses were treated in a similar
mannar. They were all properly waited on.

Next morning, when we stopped at Troy for breakfast,
every body was making a rush for the table.
Mrs. Bruce said, “Take my arm, Linda, and we'll go
in together.” The landlord heard her, and said,
“Madam, will you allow your nurse and baby to take

breakfast with my family?” I knew this was to be
attributed to my complexion; but he spoke courteously,
and therefore I did not mind it.

At Saratoga we found the United States Hotel
crowded, and Mr. Bruce took one of the cottages belonging
to the hotel. I had thought, with gladness, of
going to the quiet of the country, where I should meet
few people, but here I found myself in the midst of
a swarm of Southerners. I looked round me with fear
and trembling, dreading to see some one who would
recognize me. I was rejoiced to find that we were to
stay but a short time.

We soon returned to New York, to make arrangements
for spending the remainder of the summer at
Rockaway. While the laundress was putting the clothes
in order, I took an opportunity to go over to Brooklyn to
see Ellen. I met her going to a grocery store, and the
first words she said, were, “O, mother, don't go to Mrs.
Hobbs's. Her brother, Mr. Thorne, has come from the
south, and may be he'll tell where you are.” I accepted
the warning. I told her I was going away with
Mrs. Bruce the next day, and would try to see her
when I came back.

Being in servitude to the Anglo-Saxon race, I was
not put into a “Jim Crow car,” on our way to Rockaway,
neither was I invited to ride through the streets
on the top of trunks in a truck; but every where I
found the same manifestations of that cruel prejudice,
which so discourages the feelings, and represses the energies
of the colored people. We reached Rockaway
before dark, and put up at the Pavilion — a large hotel,
beautifully situated by the sea-side — a great resort of

the fashionable world. Thirty or forty nurses were
there, of a great variety of nations. Some of the ladies
had colored waiting-maids and coachmen, but I was
the only nurse tinged with the blood of Africa. When
the tea bell rang, I took little Mary and followed the
other nurses. Supper was served in a long hall. A
young man, who had the ordering of things, took the
circuit of the table two or three times, and finally
pointed me to a seat at the lower end of it. As there
was but one chair, I sat down and took the child in my
lap. Whereupon the young man came to me and said,
in the blandest manner possible, “Will you please to
seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and
feed her? After they have done, you will be shown to
the kitchen, where you will have a good supper.”

This was the climax! I found it hard to preserve
my self-control, when I looked round, and saw women
who were nurses, as I was, and only one shade lighter
in complexion, eyeing me with a defiant look, as if my
presence were a contamination. However, I said
nothing. I quietly took the child in my arms, went to
our room, and refused to go to the table again. Mr.
Bruce ordered meals to be sent to the room for little
Mary and I. This answered for a few days; but the
waiters of the establishment were white, and they soon
began to complain, saying they were not hired to wait
on negroes. The landlord requested Mr. Bruce to send
me down to my meals, because his servants rebelled
against bringing them up, and the colored servants of
other boarders were dissatisfied because all were not
treated alike.

My answer was that the colored servants ought to be

dissatisfied with themselves, for not having too much
self-respect to submit to such treatment; that there was
no difference in the price of board for colored and white
servants, and there was no justification for difference
of treatment. I staid a month after this, and finding
I was resolved to stand up for my rights, they concluded
to treat me well. Let every colored man and woman
do this, and eventually we shall cease to be trampled
under foot by our oppressors.