In this instance, also, as in the case of "J.B.," the care and anxiety
of other souls, besides this child, crying for deliverance, weighed
heavily on the mind of Mr. Stevens, as may be inferred from certain
references in his letters. Mr. Stevens' love of humanity, and impartial
freedom, even in those dark days of Slavery, when it was both unpopular
and unsafe to allow the cries of the bondman to awaken the feeling of
humanity to assist the suffering, was constantly leading him to take
sides with the oppressed, and as he appears in this correspondence, so
it was his wont daily to aid the helpless, who were all around him.
Arrah Weems, who had the care of the child, alluded to so touchingly by
Mr. Stevens, had known, to her heart's sorrow, how intensely painful it
was to a mother's feelings to have her children torn from her by a cruel
master and sold. For Arrah had had a number of children sold, and was at
that very time striving diligently to raise money to redeem the last one
of them. And through such kind-hearted friends as Mr. Stevens, the
peculiar hardships of this interesting family of Weems' were brought to
the knowledge of thousands of philanthropists in this country and
England, and liberal contributions had already been made by friends of
the Slave on both sides of the ocean. It may now be seen, that while
this child had not been a conscious sufferer from the wicked system of
Slavery, it had been the object of very great anxiety and suffering to
several persons, who had individually perilled their own freedom for its
redemption. This child, however, was safely brought to the Vigilance
Committee, in Philadelphia, and was duly forwarded, _viâ_ friends in New
York, to its mother, in Syracuse, where she had stopped to work and wait
for her little one, left behind at the time she escaped.
* * * * *