The Story of the Life of John Anderson, the Fugitive Slave

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ...fugitive before them, but would leave that duty to some of the gentlemen who had consented to take part in the Meeting. He confessed, however, to a wish that Anderson could tell the story of his life upon every hearthstone in the Kingdom, for he felt assured that every husband, wife, and child would listen with strange and tearful earnestness while he told them of the loved ones whom he had left in sorrow and bondage, with no acknowledged rights; and who, though owned by God, were yet owned and bound and scarred by man, and might be mangled and butchered at the will of their owner. (Sensation and cheers.) He trusted the meeting would allow him a few moments' licence whilst he drew their attention to the strange anomaly, that a country like America--known as a Christian country--a country which had subscribed to the immortal Declaration of Independence--a country which is boasted of as "the land of the brave and the home of the free," should yet be steeped in the diabolical and accursed sin of slavery. The American people, he remarked, would listen with eagerness and interest to the wrongs endured by distant nations; but the ears of human sympathy were doggedly closed to the piteous cries and bitter wailings of the slave. (Cheers). The fugitive slave had no home in that great Republic, and was not even allowed to pass peaceably through the Free States to find a home in a more favoured country, where, under the sway of our own emancipating Queen, he might find equal rights and privileges, and enjoy the immunities of nationality and freedom. (Loud cheers.) Did they ask, how it was that although the soil of America had been cultivated for centuries by slaves, they should themselves be strangers and foreigners--aliens in their native land--and...