Jabez to Frederick Douglass, April 14, 1856

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

FROM OUR CINCINNATI CORRESPONDENT.

CINCINNATI, April 14th, 1856.

DEAR FRIEND DOUGLASS:—I have just been perusing with great pleasure and peculiar interest MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM. It ought to have as wide a circulation as Uncle Tom's Cabin. Many features of American Slavery are portrayed in your early history, as only an eye-witness can describe them. Hard indeed, must be that heart, which contemplate the cruelties inflicted on you whilst under the yoke, without feeling a burning hatred against this peculiar tyranny. The blows inflicted on your back by the Slaveholder, you have returned with tenfold force on this abominable iniquity. Strike on! Strike hard! Who knows but what Kansas may become the Malakoff of Slavery. Hundreds of stalwart sons of Freedom are passing through our city for Kansas, the American Crimea; each man appears to carry with him a Sharp's rifle, which they tell us are the only arguments the Missourians will listen to.

At a recent public meeting at Masonic Hall, for aiding fugitives. Rev. N. Colver, Pastor of First Baptist Church, said, "I'm a peace man, and love peace, but if they want to fight, let them have it. If they (the invaders) won't listen to reason or revelation, give them something else." So you see we have in this Southern city, able, fearless advocates of freedom among the clergy. Perhaps H. W. Beecher was not far from the truth, when he said of the defenders of tyranny in Missouri, "You might as well read the Bible to Buffaloes." If so, reason dictates that these fools must be answered according to their folly. Ohio has sent, and is still sending her share of liberty-loving men, and whatever the present Congress may do, or neglect to do, we believe Kansas is to be the home of Freedom, and not the land of Slaves.

Margaret, the Slave-mother, who murdered her child here three months since, was sent for on a requisition of Gov. Chase, lodged in Covington Jail, and before our officers could bring her to Ohio, she was removed by Gaines, and

has been sent to the far South! What will men think hereafter of the boasted chivalry of Kentucky? Where's the comity of that State, on which our Judge Leavitt placed such reliance? Is it not crushed out by the demon of Slavery? Can justice be expected of slavebreeders? Is their word to be taken who sell their own children? Surely, the North has learned by this time the folly and wickedness of compromising with men-stealers and murderers. Gaines, the pious (?) Presbyterian owner of Margaret, has, by his last act in this fearful drama, sunk himself beneath the contempt of every upright man.

Passengers are still travelling the underground railroad. One most interesting mother, with her little boy, has reached here, and both were hospitably entertained by our worthy citizens, who were all eager to show kindness to the stranger. Her boy was the whitest child we ever saw, blue eyes, very light hair, and a complexion as clear and white as alabaster; this boy was held as a slave by his own father! Talk about amalgamation! Enslaving the black race! When men enslave their own flesh and blood, they are surely past feeling.—It is not for us to say how the fugitives reach this city; this matter ought ever to be kept a profound secret; great is the folly to publish to all the world the methods of escape from bondage; the Slaveholder reads this and redoubles his vigilance accordingly, while the poor slave, ignorant of letters, is not benefited but really injured.

The minions of the slave power at Coving ton, gratified their malicious hearts, recently, by seizing on one of our most respectable colored citizen, Fountain Lewis, who has been known here for years; the ruffianly constables dragged him from the ferry, despite of all his remonstrances; he was released, however, by the Mayor of Covington, on paying $2, adding robbery to outrage!

A Rev. Mr. Seys has been, lecturing here lately on Liberia; he is the agent of the Colonization Society, which, in Ohio, is much embarrassed for want of funds. Mr. S. is about to explore more into the interior of Africa, to find, if possible, a more healthy location for emigrants. The colored people here have no intention of going to that pestilential climate; many have located on farms in this State, some have gone to Canada, others are doing a thriving business. Many of them would be far better off by cultivating the soil than living in close, filthy alleys in our crowded cities.

Yours, &c.,

JABEZ.