Record Data
"Starving Fugitive Slaves in Canada," Charleston (SC) Mercury, August 11, 1854, p. 2.
Transcription
STARVING FUGITIVE SLAVES IN CANADA - We have received a circular calling attention to the condition of the fugitive slaves in Canada. It comes from colored people, we presume, and is signed by J.J. Rice, Amherstburgh.
It states that they are in great want and destitution - and in need of bedding, flannels, and clothing generally suited to the climate, food, medicine, and assistance in every shape. Rice states that he has lived in Canada thirteen years on incidental donations, and sometimes on scant fare. He denies that the Government does anything for the fugitives, and appeals to American abolitionists for early aid on behalf of his suffering fellows, reminding them that to furnish bedding, &c. to a destitute family, just from slavery, is what slaveholders, who work the colonization enterprise, do in Liberia.
Rice, we fear, appeals to deaf ears, and close shut purses. Negrophily prefers mass conventions, political action and double tracks for underground railroads, to caring for the passengers after they have reached their uncomfortable destination. It prefers election tickets to checks payable to fugitives in Canada. It delights rather in long speeches than in large collections. It thinks to be heard for its much speaking. So that the poor negroes across the borders may perish with cold and starvation in the fierce Canada winter, If the opponents of the Nebraska iniquity he only returned to Congress in the fall election. Great is humbug !
Albany Argus of Monday