A Woman's Life-Work - free ebook by Laura S. (Laura Smith) Haviland

DEDICATION

to My two sons, and four daughters, and families; also to the Home and Foreign Missionary Society, are these pages dedicated. The Author...

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PREFACE.

In presenting the following pages to the public, without the trace of an excellent scholar or eloquent orator, I fully realize my inability to compete with writers of the nineteenth century. With this incompetency in view, I have hesitated and delayed until three-score and thirteen years are closing over me. Yet as I am still spared to toil on a little longer in the great field so white to harvest, praying the Lord of the harvest to arm and send forth more laborers, because they are too few, I a

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CHAPTER I.

Parentage—Early Impressions—Childhood Skepticism—Religious Experience—The Great Leveler—Marriage—Removal to Michigan—The Semi-Christian—The Despairing Backslider Restored—Proscription—Withdrawal from the Society of Friends—Founded "Raisin Institute,"...

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CHAPTER II.

Dream—Bereavements—Early Widowhood—Trials—Dreamy—Victory by Faith—A Fugitive Slave Escapes—Marriage of two Older Children,...

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CHAPTER III.

Baptist Deacon Convicted of the Sin of Slavery by his Slave—Willis Hamilton's Escape with his Slave-wife, Elsie, to Canada—Removal to Michigan—Whereabouts Discovered by Elsie's Master—Deeply Laid Scheme to Capture the Hamilton Family—Threats of Violence—Second Attempt and Defeat—Death of the two Slave-holders,...

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CHAPTER IV.

A Traveling Agent—Slave Claimant—John White—Threats—Visit to Jane White—Interview with William Allen—Escape of Slaves—In Suspense—Death of First-born—Comforting Dream—John White a Prisoner—His Release and Subsequent History,...

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CHAPTER V.

Two Slave Families Escape—Story of George and James—A Mother and Daughter Leave a Boat bound for the Lower Market—Sarah and two Young Men join our Party—Seven are Conducted to Canada—Raisin Institute Suspended for an Academic Year—Return to Cincinnati—Maria—Threats of her Master—The Escape of two Young Men...

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CHAPTER VI.

Clara and Three Children Rescued—Jack Betrayed and Returned to Bondage—A Little Nurse Girl taken from her Owners in Cincinnati—How Zack was Saved—Calvin Fairbanks Visited in Prison—Fugitive Slaves Forwarded...

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CHAPTER VII.

Visiting and Nursing the Sick—Nine Slaves Arrive from Kentucky—Richard Dillingham Dies in Tennessee Penitentiary—Seven Slaves Conducted to Freedom—Teach Six Months in Toledo...

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CHAPTER VIII.

Mission Among the Fugitives in Canada—Religious Revival—Organization of a Christian Union Church—Efforts of Missourians to Retake the Fugitive Slave, William Anderson, from Canada—The Kentucky Slave-owner Whipped in the Old Barracks in Windsor in his Effort to Decoy Three Young Men back to Slavery—Reopening School...

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CHAPTER IX.

Escape of a Slave Family of Six—A Slave Man Travels for a White Man and Succeeds—Trip to Arkansas—The Story of George Wilson—The Slave-daughter under Mortgage Released by her Mother—Mintie Berry Purchases her Husband—John Brown Hanged—The War Opens and takes Seventeen Students of Raisin Institute—First Trip to the Front with Supplies...

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CHAPTER X.

Cairo—Incidents Preparatory to Removing Freedmen's Camp to Island No. 10—Death of a Child—Disbursing Supplies and other Mission Work on the Island—Story of Uncle Stephen—Hospital Visiting in Memphis, Tennessee—Surgeon Powers Reported—Forty Slaves come into Camp Shiloh—Seven Slaves come from a Plantation seven miles below Memphis—First Enlistment of Colored Soldiers—Mission Work in Columbus, Kentucky—Young Colored Man Shot by his Young Master—Turning of Tables—Return Home—Our Principal, E. A. Hai

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CHAPTER XI.

Organized Freedmen's Relief Association—Solicit Supplies—Academic Year Opened for 1863-4—Sister Backus and Self leave for Fields of Suffering—Incidents on the Way—Mission Work in Natchez, Mississippi—Four Hundred Slaves Hanged and otherwise Tortured—Visit to the Calaboose—Mission Work in Baton Rouge—Arrival at New Orleans—Sketch of Persecutions...

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CHAPTER XII.

Mission Work in New Orleans—Soldiers and Prisoners Visited on Ship Island—Petition of Seventy Soldier Prisoners in behalf of Three Thousand of their Fellow Prisoners—Appeal in behalf of Ship Island and Tortugas Prisoners—Mission Work at Plaquemine—Natchez—Capture of a Rebel steamer—Arrival at Home—Release of the Three Thousand Banished Union Soldiers...

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CHAPTER XIII.

Refugees in Kansas—Children of Want—Afflicted Family—Scenes of Distress—Agnes Everett—Quantrell's Raid—Poor White Trash—Hospitals—Supplies Distributed—Refugee Buildings—Orphan Children—Haviland Home—Thomas Dean a Prisoner—Petition for Pardon—Pardon Granted—A Southern Clergyman—Mission School—At Harper's Ferry and Washington....

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CHAPTER XIV.

Mission Work and Incidents in Washington—Murders—Alexandria—Richmond, Virginia—Williamsburg—Fort Magruder—Yorktown—Suicide—Gloucester Court-house—Fortress Monroe—Norfolk—Return to Washington—White Woman Whipped....

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CHAPTER XV.

A Soldier Prisoner—Interesting Statistics—Schools—Plantations—Incidents—Return to Washington—Return Home with Fifteen Orphans and Fifty Laborers—Change in Orphan Asylum—Mission Work in Covington and Newport, Kentucky—Mission Work in Memphis, Tennessee—Uncle Philip a Remarkable Man—Return Home....

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CHAPTER XVI.

Board of Directors Arrange for Closing the Home—Discouragements—Relief Comes by Sleigh-loads—Encouragements—Petitions to the State Legislature to make the Home a State Institution—Petitions Granted, and the Orphan's Home becomes the "State Public School," located at Coldwater—Work in State Public School....

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CHAPTER XVII.

Work for the Asylum—Again in Washington—Mission Work—Trial of Henry Wirtz—Inspecting Soup-houses—Incidents connected with Kendal Green Camp—Peremptory Order of J. R. Shipherd Closing Asylum—Children Scattered—Returned Home with Authority from American Missionary Association to Reopen Asylum—Dangerous Fall—Restored to Asylum Work—Overtaken with Convulsions—Answer to Prayer in being Restored....

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association—Testimony of Perry Bradley—Incidents—Persecutions—Prof. Greener—Colored Republicans—Further Testimony—Negro Woman Killed—Letter from the South—Atrocities—Refugees in Kansas—Bull-dosing—Kansas Overfull—Protection Needed—Michael Walsh—Silver Linings....

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CHAPTER XIX.

Supplies Furnished—Relief Association at Work—Northern Outrages—Prudence Crandall—Colored Schools—Freedmen's Aid Schools—Industrial and Agricultural Institute....

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STEEL PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR THE SLAVEHOLDERS' THREATS. SLAVE IRONS. CLARK UNIVERSITY FOR FREEDMEN (CHRISMAN HALL). MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE.

At the earnest solicitation of many dear friends I have consented to leave on record some of the incidents that have fallen under my personal observation during three-score and ten years. My father, Daniel Smith, was a native of Eastern New York, and for many years an approved minister in the Society of Friends. He was a man of ability and influence, of clear perceptions, and strong reasoning powers. My mother, Sene Blancher, was from Vermont; was of a gentler turn, and of a quiet spirit, benevo

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EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF SLAVERY AND RELIGION.

During the first six years in our new home, there was no school within three miles of us, and all the privilege we enjoyed of this kind was a spelling lesson given daily to three of us, the two little girls of our nearest neighbor and myself. Our mothers pronounced the words for us alternately, at their house and ours. In this way we spelled our book through a number of times. This privilege, with four months in school previous to leaving Canada, proved a great blessing. As I possessed an insati

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RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCE.

In the Autumn of my thirteenth year, with our parents' permission, brother Harvey and I attended a little prayer-meeting at our Uncle Ira Smith's house, near by. Here was singing, experiences given, with prayer and exhortations, in which young people, as well as those more advanced in years, took part. All this was new to me, having never attended any other meeting than of Friends, usually called Quakers. My father being a minister and mother an elder in that denomination, they were very conscie

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ANTI-SLAVERY WORK.

Our family, with others, united with Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, who organized in our neighborhood the first anti-slavery society in our State. This was unsatisfactory to the ruling portion of our Society, as it had cleared its skirts many years ago by emancipating all slaves within its pale. Elizabeth M. Chandler was of the Hicksite division of Friends, and as Presbyterians and other religious denominations came into our anti-slavery society, meetings were frequently opened with prayer, and th

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MARRIAGE OF TWO CHILDREN.

On June 6, 1846, my oldest son, Harvey S., was married to Huldah West, of Adrian, and my oldest daughter, Esther M., was at the same hour married to Almon Camburn, of Franklin, both of our own county. The mother's earnest prayer was, that these children might prove each other's burden-sharers, thereby doubling the joys, as well as dividing the sorrows, of life. My daughter's husband was one of our students, and in some of her studies a classmate. We were fortunate in again securing brother Patch

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SECOND EFFORT TO RETAKE THE HAMILTON FAMILY.

After the passage of the famous Fugitive-slave Bill of 1850, turning the whole population of the North into slave-hunters, Thomas K. Chester, with renewed assurance, came to Lawyer Beacher's office, in Adrian, and solicited his services in capturing the Hamiltons, as he was now prepared to take legal steps in recovering his property. Said he: "I ask no favors of Adrian or Raisin, as I have my posse of thirty men within a stone's throw of this city. All I ask is legal authority from you, Mr. Beac

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DEATH OF THE CHESTERS

In the third year of the Rebellion, while in Memphis, Tennessee, on a mission to the perishing, I found myself in the city where my Tennessee correspondents lived a few years previous to their deaths. From a minister who had long been a resident of that city, and had also lived near Jonesboro, where they resided during the correspondence, I learned the following facts: A few years prior to the war John P. Chester removed with his family to Memphis, where he became a patroller. His son Thomas tra

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CHAPTER IV.

In the Autumn of 1847 a gentleman of evident culture called for early breakfast, though he had passed a public house about two miles distant. I mistrusted my stranger caller to be a counterfeit; and told him, as I had the care of an infant for a sick friend, he would find better fare at the boarding hall a few rods away. But introducing himself as an Ohio school-teacher, and accustomed to boarding around, he had not enjoyed his favorite bread and milk for a long while, and if I would be so kind

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CHAPTER V.

As my married children had charge of the farm, and the younger ones were in school, and well provided for, I spent a few months in mission work and nursing the sick. My dear friends, Levi and Catherine Coffin, had given me a very cordial invitation to make their house my home whenever I was in Cincinnati. Soon after my arrival, at early dawn, nine slaves crossed the river, and were conducted to one of our friends on Walnut Hills for safety, until arrangements could be made to forward them to Vic

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CHAPTER VI.

The exciting intelligence reached us that Clara and her three little ones were about to be captured by slave-holders in the city, on Pearl Street. I called on her at once, and found the house was surrounded the night before by strangers, who were followed to a hotel, and on the record the name of her master's son was found. Poor woman! She had passed through great suffering in making her escape with her two children; a third was born in Cincinnati—yet it too must share the anticipated fate of it

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CHAPTER VII.

Very many incidents of interest we must pass over; but, suffice to say, there was seldom a week passed without a slave or slaves leaving a boat or otherwise crossing the river in quest of freedom. I met on the street a sister White, who was much distressed about her son, who was almost gone with consumption, and yet was unwilling to see any minister or religious person, to say any thing to him about a preparation for the change. "Do, please, go with me now to see my dying son Harvey. May he'll l

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CHAPTER VIII.

While visiting friends in Detroit and Canada previous to reopening Raisin Institute, as I designed, I was earnestly solicited by Henry Bibb, Horace Hallack, and Rev. Chas. C. Foote, the committee authorized to employ a teacher, to open a school in a new settlement of fugitives, eight miles back of Windsor, where the Refugee Association had purchased government land, on long and easy terms, for fugitive slaves. They had erected a frame house for school and meeting purposes. The settlers had built

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CHAPTER IX.

A family of six left their old Kentucky home in search of freedom. A young wife who was sold had made her escape three years previously. I noticed a stranger passing through my gate, and as he was a mulatto, I went out to see where he had gone. I found him sitting in the porch, waiting to see some one of whom to inquire whether he was at the right place. He handed a paper directed to me by an under-ground railroad ticket agent, who informed me there were six fugitives in his company. "Then there

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CHAPTER X.

Our last chapter left us in hospital world at Cairo. A portion of the freedmen's camp of three thousand the officers proposed to remove to Island No. 10, and wished me to take most of my supplies to that place. While waiting for their arrival I visited the United States Hospital at Mound City, a few miles up the Ohio River. Here, too, were dying soldiers, one of whom especially attracted my attention, as he was perfectly sane and rather unusually intelligent. I immediately addressed him: "My son

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CHAPTER XI.

We found a necessity for organized work, and formed a Freedmen's Relief Association, in Detroit, with Captain E. B. Ward, president; Rev. William Webb, vice-president; Benjamin C. Durfee, secretary; and Francis Raymond, treasurer. These did what they could in gathering supplies in that city for me to take South the coming Autumn. Brother Aldrich was engaged to act as principal of Raisin Institute, and this gave me leisure to hold meetings in towns and county school-houses for soliciting help for

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CHAPTER XII.

At New Orleans, where we arrived April 6, 1864, our home was a very pleasant one. Beneath the windows of our room was a grove of fig-trees. We had the kindest of friends. We visited ten colored schools in the city, filled with eager learners. One was taught by Mrs. Brice, who had in charge sixty scholars. She had been teaching here three years, under much persecution, and stemmed the torrent of opposition, sometimes in secret, before the war. Sister Brice and her husband had been struggling in t

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CHAPTER XIII.

Our Freedmen's Aid Commission was enlarged in June, 1864. Dr. George Duffield was made president; Drs. Hogarth and Chase, vice-presidents; David Preston, treasurer; and B. C. Durfee, secretary. The board of directors appointed me its agent, and allowed me a salary of forty dollars a month. This is the first remuneration I received for my labors; but seeing unfaithful officers dismissed, prisoners released, and the suffering and dying relieved, was a satisfaction far exceeding dollars and cents.

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CHAPTER XIV.

There were many sick, crippled, aged, and blind sufferers in Washington to visit and relieve, but the severest trial I endured was encountering the virus of disloyalty wherever I went. Women were more outspoken than men, because they could dare be. Men were more subtle and appeared more pliant, only to hoodwink government. They said in secret, "We'll yet gain by the ballot , with the help of Northern sympathizers, what we failed to accomplish with the bullet." By order of President Johnson the c

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CHAPTER XV.

I was told by General Armstrong, commander of the post in Elizabeth City, that twenty-five thousand inhabitants had been supplied with food, and that more whites than blacks had called for rations. There were six thousand freedmen in this district. Twenty-six hundred of their children were in schools; and thirteen hundred were half or entire orphans, that drew rations. They had had no civil court here since March 20th, and no justice was shown to freedmen. There was as much complaint here as els

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CHAPTER XVI.

After my return my health gave way, as did also that of our worthy agent, Catherine Taylor. She endured great suffering from inflammation of the sciatic nerve, and was entirely disabled from labor for months. Late in the Autumn our supplies ran very low, and our self-sacrificing president was also in poor health. She, with a few other members of the board, visited the asylum, and found nothing on hand but corn-meal and turnips, which, with a little milk that was made into a gravy, was all there

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CHAPTER XVII.

It seemed refreshing to meet with sympathizing friends after toiling for months among false brethren. It was a relief to enjoy a few days of freedom from care. After asking a few friends to sign an article of agreement to pay one dollar a year during five years for the orphan asylum, and mailing a couple of letters to Levi Coffin and Rev. E. M. Cravath, of Cincinnati, I took from the office a drop-letter from Mr. Burton Kent, County Superintendent of the Poor, containing the following notice: "M

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Our investigations have proved to the friends of the former slaves that their emigration from the South was not instituted and put into operation by their own choice, except as the force of circumstances, in their surroundings, pressed them into this remarkable movement. Monthly reports of the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association have also proved satisfactory to thousands of donors toward their relief. The increasing intelligence among the four millions and a half of slaves, declared free by the

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CHAPTER XIX.

Our last chapter contains the dark side of our picture. In this we present the brighter prospects for a long and sorely oppressed race. We first note what has been and is being done for the fifty thousand who have emigrated to Kansas As I have been a co-laborer with Elizabeth L. Comstock more than two years in rescuing the perishing in their new homes, I speak from personal knowledge. During the first Winter—1879-80—as mild as it was, more than one hundred refugees were found with frozen feet fi

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