An Englishman's Travels In America: His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States - 1857 - By J. Benwell.
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But I Never
Ventured Again - The Box Was Evidently Marked, And During The Performance
I Was Subjected To The Most Disgusting Remarks And Behaviour From The
Audience.
Indeed, this was carried so far, that I retired long before
the curtain dropped.
So intent were his fellow-citizens on annoying
this inoffensive man, that soon after he was mobbed in Maine-street by
the young desperadoes I have referred to, who, from their determined
opposition to intermixed marriages, were known in the place as
"anti-amalgamists." On this occasion poor P - - nearly lost his life,
and, but for running, would, no doubt, have done so; as it was, he was
much burnt about the head and neck, the ruffians in the scuffle having
set fire to his frock-coat, which was of linen.
It is rather remarkable that, at St. Louis, on the Missouri, some ten
months afterwards, I met this very man, he having purchased some
government land in a remote part of that state. Our meeting was quite
accidental, for I crossed the street and accosted him as he was hurrying
along. In the course of our interview he pressed me earnestly to go up
the country with him; but this I declined from motives of prudence, the
route lying through a slave-holding state, where a white and coloured
man travelling on terms of equality, would be sure to excite suspicion.
He had a small bundle of papers under his arm, and on my remarking he
appeared intent on business, he stated they were his free papers, and
that not ten minutes before he had been challenged to produce them; but
this, he said, would not have prevented his arrest and detention in the
city gaol until the authorities of Buffalo had been written to under
suspicion of his being a fugitive, had he not taken the precaution,
before he left that city, to obtain from the mayor a certificate of his
intention to proceed to the Missouri country, and the object of his
visit.
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