A Frenchman by the name of Anthony Salignac removed from St. Domingo to
New-Jersey, and brought with him several slaves; among whom was Romaine.
After remaining in New-Jersey several years, he concluded in 1802, to
send Romaine and his wife and child back to the West Indies. Finding him
extremely reluctant to go, he put them in prison some days previous,
lest they should make an attempt to escape. From prison they were put
into a carriage to be conveyed to Newcastle, under the custody of a
Frenchman and a constable. They started from Trenton late in the
evening, and arrived in Philadelphia about four o'clock in the morning.
People at the inn where they stopped remarked that Romaine and his wife
appeared deeply dejected. When food was offered they refused to eat. His
wife made some excuse to go out, and though sought for immediately
after, she was not to be found. Romaine was ordered to get into the
carriage. The Frenchman was on one side of him and the constable on the
other. "_Must_ I go?" cried he, in accents of despair. They told him he
must. "And alone?" said he. "Yes, you must," was the stern reply. The
carriage was open to receive him, and they would have pushed him in, but
he suddenly took a pruning knife from his pocket, and drew it three
times across his throat with such force that it severed the jugular vein
instantly, and he fell dead on the pavement.
As the party had travelled all night, seemed in great haste, and watched
their colored companions so closely some persons belonging to the prison
where they stopped suspected they might have nefarious business on hand;
accordingly, a message was sent to Isaac T. Hopper, as the man most
likely to right all the wrongs of the oppressed. He obeyed the summons
immediately; but when he arrived, he found the body of poor Romaine
weltering in blood on the pavement.
Speaking of this scene forty years later, he said, "My whole soul was
filled with horror, as I stood viewing the corpse. Reflecting on that
awful spectacle, I exclaimed within myself, How long, O Lord, how long
shall this abominable system of slavery be permitted to curse the land!
My mind was introduced into sympathy with the sufferer. I thought of the
agony he must have endured before he could have resolved upon that
desperate deed. He knew what he had to expect, from what he had
experienced in the West Indies before, and he was determined not to
submit to the same misery and degradation again. By his sufferings he
was driven to desperation; and he preferred launching into the unknown
regions of eternity to an endurance of slavery."
An inquest was summoned, and after a brief consultation, the coroner
brought in the following verdict: "Suicide occasioned by the dread of
slavery, to which the deceased knew himself devoted."
Romaine and his wife were very good looking. They gave indications of
considerable intelligence, and had the character of having been very
faithful servants. His violent death produced a good deal of excitement
among the people generally, and much sympathy was manifested for the
wife and child, who had escaped.
The master had procured a certificate from the mayor of Trenton
authorizing him to remove his slaves to the West Indies; but the jury of
inquest, and many others, were of opinion that his proceedings were not
fully sanctioned by law. Accordingly, Friend Hopper, and two other
members of the Abolition Society, caused him to be arrested and brought
before a magistrate; not so much with the view of punishing him, as with
the hope of procuring manumission for the wife and child. In the course
of the investigation, the friends of the Frenchman were somewhat violent
in his defence. Upon one occasion, several of them took Friend Hopper up
and put him out of the house by main force; while at the same time they
let their friend out of a back door to avoid him. However, Friend Hopper
met him a few minutes after in the street and seized him by the button.
Alarmed by the popular excitement, and by the perseverance with which he
was followed up, he exclaimed in agitated tones, "Mon Dieu! What is it
you do want? I will do anything you do want."
"I want thee to bestow freedom on that unfortunate woman and her child,"
replied Friend Hopper.
He promised that he would do so; and he soon after made out papers to
that effect, which were duly recorded.