As I Met, On The Occasion I Have Just Referred To, An Individual Who Knew I Had Felt An Interest

In endeavouring to establish the school for the education of negro children, the result of which I have already mentioned,

I was apprehensive that the _contretemps_ would have exposed me to the unpleasantness of at least being shunned afterwards as a man entertaining principles inimical to southern interests - and, however resolute I felt to pursue an independent course while I remained in Charleston, I could not shake off a fear I vaguely entertained of a public recognition by a deeply prejudiced and ignorant populace, who, once set on, do not hesitate to proceed to disagreeable extremes. This fear was enhanced in no little degree by the operation I had witnessed, of the tarring and feathering process practised by enraged citizens in the Missouri country, which I have before described.

The most degrading phrase that can be applied in the south to those white individuals who sympathize in the wrongs inflicted on the African race, I soon found to be, that "he associates with niggers." Thus a kind-hearted individual at once "loses caste" among his fellow citizens and, invidious though it certainly is, many slave-owners are deterred by this consideration, blended with a politic regard for their own safety, from exercising that benevolence towards their dependents which they sincerely feel; placed, as it were, under a sort of social ban, such men artfully conceal their sentiments from the public, and, by a more lenient treatment of their own hands, quiet their consciences; while, at the same time, they blunt their sense of what is honest, upright, just, and manly.

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