[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.They were starting to blow away.“Oh no!” I scrambled to retrieve them, but running and bending were awkward in my billowing hoop skirt.“Allow me,” he said.The angry expression smoothed from his face as he remembered his manners.He crouched on the sidewalk and began gathering my papers.But as he stood, straightening the pamphlets into a pile, he read what they were.His anger returned in an instant.“What sort of trash is this?” he demanded.His startling eyes pinned me, and my heart began to race.I wanted to run, but I also wanted to stand up for what I believed.“Y-you might benefit from reading one of them, sir.They clearly explain that slavery is a sin, and that it is abhorrent to God.It is impossible for a Christian to defend it.”“Listen now.You’re breaking the law.Don’t you know you could be arrested for distributing this propaganda?” I could see that he was growing angrier by the minute.I was afraid of him, but my own rising anger fueled my courage.“No, I’m quite certain that I still have the right to freedom of speech here in America.And freedom of the press.”“Each state has the right to enact its own laws,” he said coldly, “and in the state of Virginia, it is a felony to distribute abolitionist material.”I had no idea if he was telling the truth.My heart raced faster.“First you try to arrest a poor, starving child, and now you’re threatening to arrest me? Am I to believe that you’re a policeman, sir? Or do you make it your habit to run around Richmond taking the law into your own hands?”“It’s the duty of all law-abiding citizens to stop people who are breaking the law.I was merely trying to help the grocer recover his goods and to help you avoid arrest—not to mention help retrieve your disgusting pamphlets.It seems I’ve had nothing but abuse from you in return for my efforts.”“Well, it’s your fault the pamphlets fell out in the first place.”“Oh, I see.Is it also my fault that my shoulder was in the way when you decided to swing your bag at my head?” He shoved the tracts into my hands, then dusted off his own as if they’d become contaminated.“I wash my hands of you.If you’re arrested for distributing contraband, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”“I have not distributed a single one of these!”His brows lifted in surprise.It made his eyes appear wider still.“Excuse me, but most people don’t need a dozen copies of the same tract for their own reading purposes.”“I don’t see how it’s any of your business what I do with them.”He folded his arms across his chest.I hated it that his height enabled him to look down on me.“Your accent tells me you’re from Virginia,” he said, “but your actions speak otherwise.Listen now.If you’re visiting our fair city, I only wish to warn you, as a gentleman, that folks in Richmond don’t take kindly to such interference with our Negroes.Nor do we appreciate people spreading abolitionist propaganda.Good day.”He strode away so quickly that I would have had to either shout or run after him in order to have the last word.I began walking back to where Eli waited with the carriage.The encounter had left me too angry and shaken to continue with my shopping.Had the boy really been a thief? And was it really against the law to distribute anti-slavery pamphlets?Eli looked surprised to see me back so soon.He hurried to help me into the carriage.“Back already? Shopping all done? Hey, now.what’s wrong, Missy Caroline?” I was nearly nineteen years old, but I had a ridiculous urge to sit on Eli’s lap and cry.“Take me home, please.”“Sure thing, Missy.Right away.”He maneuvered the carriage through the crowded streets and up the hill toward home.By the time the steeple of St.John’s church came into view, I was beginning to calm down, but I still longed to talk to Eli like I used to do when I was a little girl, telling him all my troubles, listening to his gentle wisdom.When he drew the carriage to a halt beside the gate and helped me down, I hesitated, unsure of how to begin.Eli made it easy for me.“Now, Missy Caroline.anything you want to tell me, you know I listen.”“Can.can we go inside the carriage house and talk?” A cold wind was blowing up from the river, and the air had turned chilly.“Sure thing, Missy.I be going in there to unhitch these horses anyway.” He opened the double doors for me, and I watched from inside as he climbed up into the driver’s seat and drove the carriage in behind me.I was a little afraid of the horses and kept a respectful distance, but Eli treated them as if they were his children, gently patting their flanks, rubbing a favorite spot on their necks, talking quietly to them as he unhitched their harnesses.He would wait patiently for me to speak my mind.And I knew he would listen carefully to everything I said.“When I lived up north,” I began, “I met a group of people who are working hard to end slavery.One of the reasons I wanted to come home was so that I could work to abolish slavery down here.” I waved the pile of windblown pamphlets that I still clutched in my hand.“See these? They explain what the Anti-Slavery Society believes.They spell it out so clearly.If I could just get people to read them and see the truth, I know they would change their minds.”Eli examined a spot on one of the horses’ necks where the harness had rubbed.“That what you try and do today?” he finally asked.“Change folks’ minds?”“Yes.but I only talked to one person.And he threatened to throw me in jail.” I exhaled angrily at the memory.“I don’t know what I did wrong.or what to do differently next time.or how I should go about this.I need your advice, Eli [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]