April 1, 1859
From the New York Commercial Advertiser comes an account of the “brutal and disgraceful manner” in which a lady from Brooklyn was recently driven from Aiken, S.C. The lady is said to have been spending the winter there in a hotel, with a sick daughter, who required a warm climate. It was discovered that she was the author of a letter to a brother in western New York, in which she wrote of the evils of slavery. “The letter was published and someone sent a copy to the postmaster of Aiken. A public meeting was called, and a committee appointed to ferret out the writer…. The citizens then turned their wrath upon her, and she was peremptorily ordered to leave the place within forty-eight hours. ….. The lady pleaded for more time on behalf of her sick daughter, but the citizens of Aiken knew no such, humanity. ….the citizens of Aiken knew nothing of gallantry or courtesy…..The landlord of the hotel ordered the mother and sick child “to leave his premises in half an hour.” The husband had heard of the threat, started south, and met his wife in Columbia.
Comments are closed.