To Mrs. . B. Shaw.
Medford, 1860.
You doubtless remember Thomas Sims, the fugitive slave, who was surrendered in Boston, in 1852.
I saw a letter from him to his sister expressing an intense longing for his freedom, and I swore “by the Eternal,” as General Jackson used to say, that as Massachusetts had sent him into slavery, Massachusetts should bring him back.
I resolved, also, that it should all be done with pro-slavery money.
They told me that I had undertaken to “hoe a very hard row.”
I laughed, and said, “It shall be done: General Jackson never retracts.”
I expected to have to write at least a hundred
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letters, and to have to station myself on the steps of the State House this winter, to besiege people.
Sims is a skilful mechanic and his master asks $1,800 for him. A large sum for an abolitionist to get out of pro-slavery purses!
But I got it!
I got it!
I got it!
Hurrah! I had written only eighteen letters, when one gentleman promised to pay the whole sum, provided I would not mention his name.