regarded as far less sacred than that of a dog. There is no exaggeration
in this statement--I am not writing of exceptions. It is true there are
white people in America who, while the colored man will keep in what
they call "his place," will treat him with a show of respect even. But
even this kind of people have their offset in the multitudes and
majorities--the populace at large who would go out of their way to
inflict the most demon-like outrages upon those whose skins are not
colored like their own!

I have before me at this moment recent American papers which contain
accounts of the throttling of respectably-dressed colored men and women
for venturing no further even than into the cabins of ferry boats plying
between opposite cities; of colored ladies made to get out of the cars
in which they had found seats--in cars in which the vilest loafer,
provided his skin be white might sit unmolested; of respectable
clergymen having their clothes torn from their backs, because they
presumed to ask in a quiet manner that they might have berths in the
cabins of steamers on which they were travelling, and not be compelled
to lodge on deck; and lastly, of a colored man who was not long since
picked up and thrown over-board from a steam boat, on one of the Western
rivers, because of some affray with a white man--while all the
bye-standers stood looking on, regarding the drowning of the man with
less consideration than they would have done the drowning of a brute.

Knowing all these things, and knowing also the peculiarity of the
circumstances which surrounded me on that Sabbath evening, the reader
will not be surprised, that when I saw the dense multitude surrounding
the house of Mr. Porter, I at once came to the conclusion that I should
not be permitted to live an hour longer. I was not frightened--was never
calmer--prepared for the worst, disposed of my watch and such other