Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/381

Rh among the clergy, that I am not surprised at many persons being provoked by it, and being led to suspect the wells of truth, from which men will draw up lies.

The numerous assembly, however, had a keen sense, they perceived the error and preserved silence. The speaker, who had been received with demonstrations of great enthusiasm, found his audience much cooled at the close.

Ohio is, as you know, a free State, and exactly on the opposite side of the beautiful river which bears its name, lies the Slave State of Kentucky, and slaves flying across the river to reach a free shore were heard of formerly as an every-day occurrence. Now such a flight avails nothing to the poor slaves. They are pursued and recaptured as well in a free as in a Slave State.

I have heard histories of the flight of slaves which are full of the most intense interest, and I cannot conceive why these incidents do not become the subjects of romances and novels in the literature of this country. I know no subject which could furnish opportunities for more heart-rending or more picturesque descriptions and scenes. The slaves, for example, who fly “the way of the North Star,” as it is called, who know no other road to liberty than the road towards the north, who wander on by night when it shines, and conceal themselves by day in the deep forests, where sometimes gentle Friends (Quakers) carry out food to them, without which they would probably perish; this journey with its dangers and its anticipations, its natural scenery, and its nocturnal guiding star;—what subjects are here for the pen of genius! Add to this the converse, the agony or the joy of warm, loving, suffering human hearts—in short, here are subjects of a higher romantic interest than are found in Chateaubriand's “Attala.” I cannot understand how, in particular, noble-minded American women, American mothers who have hearts and genius, do not take up the