Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/303

 with the whole family. To set them free here, even if there were no legal obstacles in the way, would not, in the present state of feeling towards free colored people, and the little chance they can have to rise in the world, be much of a favor. It would be too much like setting them free as the coons are, as one of them once said to me, making a sort of free vermin of them, rather than free men. And with the ignorance and incapacity which a life of slavery has engendered, and the prejudices and obstacles they would have to encounter in any of the free states, — in some respects more violent and oppressive than those felt here, — it would hardly be much of a favor to send them out by themselves, to seek their fortune at the north. To give them a fair chance, to prevent them from bringing a disgrace on the idea of emancipation, I intend to go with them, and to be the leader and founder of the colony. That is the work for which J reserve myself. I live a bachelor, as you see; nor do I ever mean to marry, so long as I live in a slave state. With all these people to settle and provide for, I have quite family enough, quite encumbrances enough on my hands, without that."

What an honest glow of enthusiasm, confidence, and self-respect kindled in Mr Mason's face as he spoke! How. the nobleness of the man grew upon me as he thus detailed his plans and intentions! Here, indeed, was the spirit of genuine Christianity. Here was a man indeed. How small a number of such men would suffice to save the southern Sodom from perdition! to make it truly a land of joy, of justice, of peace, plenty, and of hope, instead of what it now is — the stumbling-block of freedom, the opprobrium of civilization and Christianity!