A Tale of the Southern States
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William Wells Brown >> A Tale of the Southern States
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The presence of his long absent child had a soothing effect upon
Mr. Linwood, and he now recovered rapidly from the sad and almost
hopeless condition in which she had found him. When able to
converse, without danger of a relapse, he told Clotelle of his
fruitless efforts to obtain a clew to her whereabouts after old
Mrs. Miller had sold her to the slave-trader. In answer to his
daughter's inquiries about his family affairs up to the time that
he left America, he said,--
"I blamed my wife for your being sold and sent away, for I thought
she and her mother were acting in collusion; But I afterwards
found that I had blamed her wrongfully. Poor woman! she knew that
I loved your mother, and feeling herself forsaken, she grew
melancholy and died in a decline three years ago."
Here both father and daughter wept at the thought of other days.
When they had recovered their composure, Mr. Linwood went on
again:
"Old Mrs. Miller," said he, "after the death of Gertrude, aware
that she had contributed much toward her unhappiness, took to the
free use of intoxicating drinks, and became the most brutal
creature that ever lived. She whipped her slaves without the
slightest provocation, and seemed to take delight in inventing new
tortures with which to punish them. One night last winter, after
having flogged one of her slaves nearly to death, she returned to
her room, and by some means the bedding took fire, and the house
was in flames before any one was awakened. There was no one in the
building at the time but the old woman and the slaves, and
although the latter might have saved their mistress, they made no
attempt to do so. Thus, after a frightful career of many years,
this hard-hearted woman died a most miserable death, unlamented by
a single person."
Clotelle wiped the tears from her eyes, as her father finished this
story, for, although Mrs. Miller had been her greatest enemy, she
regretted to learn that her end had been such a sad one.
"My peace of mind destroyed," resumed the father, "and broke down
in health, my physician advised me to travel, with the hope o
recruiting myself, and I sailed from New York two months ago."
Being brought up in America, and having all the prejudice against
color which characterizes his white fellow-countrymen, Mr. Linwood
very much regretted that his daughter, although herself tinctured
with African blood, should have married a black man, and he did
not fail to express to her his dislike of her husband's
complexion.
"I married him," said Clotelle, "because I loved him. Why should
the white man be esteemed as better than the black? I find no
difference in men on account of their complexion. One of the
cardinal principles of Christianity and freedom is the equality
and brotherhood of man."
Every day Mr. Linwood became more and more familiar with Jerome,
and eventually they were on the most intimate terms.
Fifteen days from the time that Clotelle was introduced into her
father's room, they left Ferney for Geneva. Many were the
excursions Clotelle made under the shadows of Mont Blanc, and with
her husband and father for companions; she was now in the
enjoyment of pleasures hitherto unknown.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE FATHER'S RESOLVE.
AWARE that her father was still a slave-owner, Clotelle determined
to use all her persuasive power to induce him to set them free,
and in this effort she found a substantial supporter in her
husband.
"I have always treated my slaves well," said Mr. Linwood to
Jerome, as the latter expressed his abhorrence of the system; "and
my neighbors, too, are generally good men; for slavery in.
Virginia is not like slavery in the other States," continued the
proud son of the Old Dominion.
"Their right to be free, Mr. Linwood," said Jerome, "is taken from
them, and they have no security for their comfort, but the
humanity and generosity of men, who have been trained to regard
them not as brethren, but as mere property. Humanity and
generosity are, at best, but poor guaranties for the protection of
those who cannot assert their rights, and over whom law throws no
protection."
It was with pleasure that Clotelle obtained from her father a
promise that he would liberate all his slaves on his return to
Richmond. In a beautiful little villa, situated in a pleasant
spot, fringed with hoary rocks and thick dark woods, within sight
of the deep blue waters of Lake Leman, Mr. Linwood, his daughter,
and her husband, took up their residence for a short time. For
more than three weeks, this little party spent their time in
visiting the birth-place of Rousseau, and the former abodes of
Byron, Gibbon, Voltaire, De Stael, Shelley, and other literary
characters.
We can scarcely contemplate a visit to a more historic and
interesting place than Geneva and its vicinity. Here, Calvin, that
great luminary in the Church, lived and ruled for years; here,
Voltaire, the mighty genius, who laid the foundation of the French
Revolution, and who boasted, "When I shake my wig, I powder the
whole republic," governed in the higher walks of life.
Fame is generally the recompense, not of the living, but of the
dead,--not always do they reap and gather in the harvest who sow
the seed; the flame of its altar is too often kindled from the
ashes of the great. A distinguished critic has beautifully said,
"The sound which the stream of high thought, carried down to
future ages, makes, as it flows--deep, distant, murmuring ever
more, like the waters of the mighty ocean." No reputation can be
called great that will not endure this test. The distinguished men
who had lived in Geneva transfused their spirit, by their
writings, into the spirit of other lovers of literature and
everything that treated of great authors. Jerome and Clotelle
lingered long in and about the haunts of Geneva and Lake Leman.
An autumn sun sent down her bright rays, and bathed every object in
her glorious light, as Clotelle, accompanied by her husband and
father set out one fine morning on her return home to France.
Throughout the whole route, Mr. Linwood saw by the deference paid
to Jerome, whose black complexion excited astonishment in those
who met him, that there was no hatred to the man in Europe, on
account of his color; that what is called prejudice against color
is the offspring of the institution of slavery; and he felt
ashamed of his own countrymen, when he thought of the complexion
as distinctions, made in the United States, and resolved to
dedicate the remainder of his life to the eradication of this
unrepublican and unchristian feeling from the land of his birth,
on his return home.
After a stay of four weeks at Dunkirk, the home of the Fletchers,
Mr. Linwood set out for America, with the full determination of
freeing his slaves, and settling them in one of the Northern
States, and then to return to France to end his days in the
society of his beloved daughter.
THE END.
NOTE.--The author of the foregoing tale was formerly a Kentucky
slave. If it serves to relieve the monotony of camp-life to the
soldiers of the Union, and therefore of Liberty, and at the same
time kindles their zeal in the cause of universal emancipation,
the object both of its author and publisher will be gained. J. R.
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