The anti-slavery cause, and intimate association with so many of its
enthusiastic advocates, had indeed done much for Sarah Grimké. Her
mind was rapidly becoming purified from the dross that had clogged it
so long; religious doubts and difficulties were fading away one by
one, and the wide, warm sympathies of her nature now freed, expanded
gladly to a new world of light and love and labor. As she expressed
it, she was like one coming into a clear brisk atmosphere, after
having been long shut up in a close room. Her drowsy faculties were
all stirred and invigorated, and though her disappointments had left
wounds whose pain must always remind her of them, she had no longer
time to sit down and bemoan them. There was so much to do in the
broad, fresh fields which stretched around her, and she had been idle
so long! Is it any wonder that she tried to grasp too much at first?
The affection between her and Angelina was growing daily more
tender--perhaps a little more maternal on her part. Drawn closer
together by the now complete separation from every member of their own
family, and by the disapproval and coldness of their Philadelphia
friends, they were an inexpressible solace and help to each other.
Identified in all their trials, as now in their labors, they worked
together in a sweet unity of spirit, which lessened every difficulty
and lightened every burden.
They continued to lecture almost uninterruptedly for five months, and
though the prejudice against them as women appeared but slightly
diminished, people were becoming familiarized to the idea of women
speaking in public, and the way was gradually being cleared for the
advance-guard of that noble army which has brought about so many
changes favorable to the weak and downtrodden of its own sex.
Invitations to speak came to the sisters from all parts of the State,
and not even by dividing their labors among the smaller towns could
they begin to respond to all who wished to hear them. Sometimes the
crowds around the place of meeting were so great that a second hall or
church would have to be provided, and Sarah speak in one, while
Angelina spoke in the other. At one place, where over a thousand
people crowded into a church, one of the joists gave way; it was
propped up, but soon others began to crack, and, although the people
were warned to leave that part of the building, only a few obeyed, and
it was found impossible to persuade them to go, or to consent to have
the speaking stopped.
At another place ladders were put up at all the windows, and men
crowded upon them, and tenaciously held their uncomfortable positions
through the whole meeting. In one or two places they were refused a
meeting-house, on account of strong sectarian feeling against them as
Quakers. At Worcester they had to adjourn from a large Congregational
church to a small Methodist one, because the clergyman of the former
suddenly returned from an absence, and declared that if they spoke in
his church he would never enter it again. At Bolton, notices of their
meetings were torn down, but the town hall was packed notwithstanding,
many going away, unable to get in. The church here had also been
refused them. Angelina, in the course of her lecture, seized an
opportunity to refer to their treatment, saying that if the people of
her native city could see her lecturing in that hall because every
church had been closed against the cause of God's down-trodden
creatures, they would clap their hands for joy, and say, "See what
slavery is doing for us in the town of Bolton!"
She describes very graphically going two miles to a meeting on a dark
and rainy night, when Sarah was obliged to remain at home on account
of a cold, and Abby Kelly drove her in a chaise, and how nearly they
came to being upset, and how they met men in flocks along the road,
all going to the meeting. She says:--
"It seemed as if I could not realize they were going to hear me," and
adds:--
"This was the first large meeting I ever attended without dear sister,
and I wonder I did not feel desolate, for I knew not a creature there.
Nevertheless, the Lord strengthened me, and I spoke with ease for an
hour and a quarter."
But the incessant strain upon her nervous system, together with the
fatigue and exposure of almost constant travelling, began to tell
seriously on her health. In October she frequently speaks of being "so
tired," of being "so glad to rest a day," etc., until, all these
warnings being unheeded, nature peremptorily called a halt. In the
beginning of November, after a week of unusual fatigue, having
lectured six times in as many different places, they reached Hingham
quite worn out. Sarah, though still suffering with a cold, begged to
lecture in her sister's place, but Angelina had been announced, and
she knew the people would be disappointed if she failed to appear.
When they entered the crowded hall, a lady seeing how unwell Angelina
looked, seized both her hands and exclaimed:--
"Oh, if you will only hold out to-night, I will nurse you for a week!"
She did hold out for an hour and a half, and then sank back exhausted,
and was obliged to leave the lecture unfinished. This was the
beginning of an illness which lasted, with its subsequent
convalescence, through the remainder of the year. Their good friends,
Samuel and Eliza Philbrick, brought the sisters to their beautiful
home in Brookline, and surrounded them with every care and comfort
kind hearts could suggest. Sarah then found how very weary she was
also, and how opportune was this enforced rest.
"Thus," wrote Angelina some weeks afterwards to Jane Smith, "thus
ended our summer campaign. Oh, how delightful it was to stretch my
weary limbs on a bed of ease, and roll off from my mind all the heavy
responsibilities which had so long pressed upon it, and, above all, to
feel in my soul the language, 'Well done.' It was luxury indeed, well
worth the toil of months."
Sarah, too, speaks of looking back upon the labors of the summer with
feelings of unmixed satisfaction.
That the leaven prepared in Sarah Grimké's letters on the "Province of
Woman" was beginning to work was evidenced by a public discussion on
woman's rights which took place at the Boston Lyceum on the evening of
Dec. 4, 1837. The amount of interest this first public debate on the
subject excited was shown by the fact that an audience of fifteen
hundred of the most intelligent and respectable people of Boston
crowded the hall and listened attentively to the end. Sarah and
Angelina, the latter now almost entirely recovered, were present,
accompanied by Mr. Philbrick.
"A very noble view throughout," says Angelina, and adds: "The
discussion has raised my hopes of the woman question. It was conducted
with respect, delicacy, and dignity, and many minds no doubt were
roused to reflection, though I must not forget to say it was decided
against us by acclamation, our enemies themselves being judges. It was
like a meeting of slave-holders deciding that the slaves are happier
in their present condition than they would be freed."
Soon after this, Angelina writes that some Boston women, including
Maria Chapman and Lydia M. Child, were about to start a woman's rights
paper, and she adds: "We greatly hope dear Maria Chapman will soon
commence lecturing, and that the spark we have been permitted to kindle
on the woman question will never die out."
The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was held
the latter part of January, 1838, and was notable in several respects.
On the second day, the "great Texas meeting," as it was called, was
held in Faneuil Hall, and the fact that this Cradle of Liberty was
loaned to the abolitionists was bitterly commented upon by their
opponents, while abolitionists themselves regarded it as strong
evidence of the progress their cause had made. Angelina writes Jane
Smith a graphic account of the speakers and speeches at this meeting,
but especially mentions Henry B. Stanton, who made the most powerful
speech of the whole session, and was so severe on Congress, that a
representative who was present arose to object to the "hot thunderbolts
and burning lava" that had been let loose on the heads of "the powers
that be, of those whom we were commanded to honor and obey." These
remarks were so ridiculous as to excite laughter, and the manner in
which Stanton demolished the speaker by his own arguments called forth
such repeated rounds of applause that the great orator was obliged to
_insist_ upon silence.
At this meeting, said to have been the largest ever held in Boston,
several hundred women were present, a most encouraging sign to Sarah
Grimké of the progress of _her_ ideas.
After some parleying, the hall of the House of Representatives was
granted the Society for their remaining meetings, and here Quincy,
Colver, Phelps, and Wendell Phillips spoke and made a deep impression,
so deep that a committee was appointed to take into consideration the
petitions on the subject of slavery.
Stanton, half in jest, asked Angelina if she would not like to speak
before that committee, as the names of some thousands of women were
before it as signers of petitions. She had never thought of such a
thing, but, after reflecting upon it a day, sent Stanton word that if
the friends of the cause thought well of it, she _would_ speak as he
had proposed. He was surprised and troubled, for, though he was all
right in the abstract on the woman question, he feared the
consequences of such a manifest assertion of equality.
"It seems," Angelina writes, "even the stout-hearted tremble when the
woman question is to be acted out in full. Jackson, Fuller, Phelps,
and Quincy were consulted. The first is sound to the core, and went
right up to the State House to inquire of the chairman of the
committee whether I could be heard. Wonderful to tell, he said Yes,
without the least hesitation, and actually helped to remove the
scruples of some of the timid-hearted abolitionists. Perhaps it is
best I should bear the responsibility _wholly_ myself. I feel willing
to do it, and think I shall say nothing more about it, but just let
Birney and Stanton make the speeches they expect to before the
committee this week, and when they have done, make an independent
application to the chairman as a woman, as a Southerner, as a moral
being.... I feel that this is the most important step I have ever been
called to take: important to woman, to the slave, to my country, and
to the world."
This plan was carried out, thanks to James C. Alvord, the chairman of
the committee; and the halls of the Massachusetts Legislature were
opened for the first time to a woman. Wendell Phillips says of that
meeting:--"It gave Miss Grimké the opportunity to speak to the best
culture and character of Massachusetts; and the profound impression
then made on a class not often found in our meetings was never wholly
lost. It was not only the testimony of one most competent to speak,
but it was the profound religious experience of one who had broken out
of the charmed circle, and whose intense earnestness melted all
opposition. The converts she made needed no after-training. It was
when you saw she was opening some secret record of her own experience
that the painful silence and breathless interest told the deep effect
and lasting impression her words were making."
We have not Angelina's account of this meeting, but referring to it in
a letter to Sarah Douglass, she says: "My heart never quailed before,
but it almost died within me at that tremendous hour."
But one hearing did not satisfy her, and the committee needed no
urging to grant her another. At the second meeting, the hall was
literally packed, and hundreds went away unable to obtain seats. When
she arose to speak, there was some hissing from the doorways, but the
most profound silence reigned through the crowd within. Angelina first
stood in front of the Speaker's desk, then she was requested to occupy
the Secretary's desk on one side, and soon after, that she might be
seen as well as heard, she was invited to stand in the Speaker's
place. And from that conspicuous position she spoke over two hours
without the least interruption. She says to Sarah Douglass:--
"What the effect of these meetings is to be, I know not, nor do I feel
that _I_ have anything to do with it. This I know, that the chairman
was in tears almost the whole time I was speaking," and she adds: "We
abolition women are turning the world upside down, for during the
whole meeting there was sister seated up in the Speaker's chair of
state."
These meetings were followed by the six evening lectures at the Odeon,
to which reference has already been made. Sarah delivered the first
lecture, taking for her subject the history of the country in
reference to slavery. She spoke for two hours, fearlessly, as she
always did, and though she says Garrison told her he trembled with
apprehension, the audience of fifteen hundred people listened
respectfully and attentively, frequently applauding the utterance of
some strongly expressed truth, and showing no excitement even under
the rebukes she administered to Edward Everett, then Governor of
Massachusetts, for his speech in Congress in 1826, and to ex-Governor
Lincoln for his in 1831. Both these worthies had declared their
willingness to go down South to suppress servile insurrection.
This was the last time Sarah spoke in public. Her throat, which had
long troubled her, was now seriously affected, and entire rest was
prescribed. She did not murmur, for she had increasingly felt that
Angelina's speaking was more effective than hers, and now she believed
the Lord was showing her that this part of the work must be left to
her more gifted sister, and she gladly yielded to her the task of
delivering the five succeeding lectures. In relation to these
lectures, the son of Samuel Philbrick has kindly sent me the following
extract from a diary kept by his father. Under date of April 23, 1838,
he says:--
"In February Angelina addressed the committee of our legislature on
the subject of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia
and Florida, and the inter-state slave trade, during three sittings of
two hours each, in the Representatives' Hall in Boston, before a
crowded audience, stowed as close as they could stand in every aisle
and corner. Her addresses were listened to with profound attention and
respect, without interruption to the last. More than five hundred
people could not get seats, but stood quietly during two full hours,
in profound silence.
"During the last few weeks she has delivered five lectures, and Sarah
one at the Odeon, before an assembly of men and women from all parts
of the city. Every part of the building was crowded, every aisle
filled. Estimated number, two thousand to three thousand at each
meeting. There was great attention and silence, and the addresses were
intensely interesting."
These over, the sisters bade farewell to their most excellent
Brookline friends, in whose family they had so peacefully rested for
six months, and returned to Philadelphia, Sarah accepting a temporary
home with Jane Smith, while Angelina went to stay with Mrs. Frost, at
whose house two weeks later, that is on the 14th of May, she was
united in marriage to Theodore D. Weld.
No marriage could have been more true, more fitting in every respect.
The solemn relation was never entered upon in more holiness of purpose
or in higher resolve to hold themselves strictly to the best they were
capable of. It was a rededication of lives long consecrated to God and
humanity; of souls knowing no selfish ambition, seeking before all
things the glory of their Creator in the elevation of His creatures
everywhere. The entire unity of spirit in which they afterwards lived
and labored, the tender affection which, through a companionship of
more than forty years, knew no diminution, made a family life so
perfect and beautiful that it brightened and inspired all who were
favored to witness it. No one could be with them under the most
ordinary circumstances without feeling the force and influence of
their characters.
Invitations were sent to about eighty persons, mostly abolitionists,
of all colors, some jet black. Nearly all came; representing
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
Massachusetts. Among them were H.B. Stanton, C.C. Burleigh, William
Lloyd Garrison, Amos Dresser, H.C. Wright, Maria and Mary Chapman,
Abby Kelly, Samuel Philbrick, Jane Smith, and Sarah Douglass of
course, and Mr. Weld's older brother, the president of the asylum for
deaf mutes. Sarah Grimké's account of the wedding, written to a friend
in England, is most interesting; and one cannot but wonder if another
like it ever took place. The letter was written while the then and
ever after inseparable trio was at Manlius, New York, visiting Mr.
Weld's family. After a slight mention of other matters, she says:--
"I must now give thee some account of my dear sister's marriage, which
probably thou hast already heard of. Her precious husband is
emphatically a man of God, a member of the Presbyterian Church. Of
course Angelina will be disowned for forming this connection, and I
shall be for attending the marriage. We feel no regret at this
circumstance, believing that the discipline which cuts us off from
membership for an act so strictly in conformity with the will of God,
and so sanctioned by His word as is the marriage of the righteous,
must be anti-Christian, and I am thankful for an opportunity to
testify against it. The marriage was solemnized at the house of our
sister, Anna R. Frost, in Philadelphia, on the 14th instant. By the
law of Pennsylvania, a marriage is legal if witnessed by twelve
persons. Neither clergyman nor magistrate is required to be present.
Angelina could not conscientiously consent to be married by a
clergyman, and Theodore D. Weld cheerfully consented to have the
marriage solemnized in such manner as comported with her views. We all
felt that the presence of a magistrate, a stranger, would be
unpleasant to us at such a time, and we therefore concluded to invite
such of our friends as we desired, and have the marriage solemnized as
a religious act, in a religious and social meeting. Neither Theodore
nor Angelina felt as if they could bind themselves to any preconceived
form of words, and accordingly uttered such as the Lord gave them at
the moment. Theodore addressed Angelina in a solemn and tender manner.
He alluded to the unrighteous power vested in a husband by the laws of
the United States over the person and property of his wife, and he
abjured all authority, all government, save the influence which love
would give to them over each other as moral and immortal beings. I
would give much could I recall his words, but I cannot. Angelina's
address to him was brief but comprehensive, containing a promise to
honor him, to prefer him above herself, to love him with a pure heart
fervently. Immediately after this we knelt, and dear Theodore poured
out his soul in solemn supplication for the blessing of God on their
union, that it might be productive of enlarged usefulness, and
increased sympathy for the slave. Angelina followed in a melting
appeal to our Heavenly Father, for a blessing on them, and that their
union might glorify Him, and then asked His guidance and
over-shadowing love through the rest of their pilgrimage. A colored
Presbyterian minister then prayed, and was followed by a white one,
and then I felt as if I could not restrain the language of praise and
thanksgiving to Him who had condescended to be in the midst of this
marriage feast, and to pour forth abundantly the oil and wine of
consolation and rejoicing. The Lord Jesus was the first guest invited
to be present, and He condescended to bless us with His presence, and
to sanction and sanctify the union which was thus consummated. The
certificate was then read by William Lloyd Garrison, and was signed by
the company. The evening was spent in pleasant social intercourse.
Several colored persons were present, among them two liberated slaves,
who formerly belonged to our father, had come by inheritance to sister
Anna, and had been freed by her. They were our invited guests, and we
thus had an opportunity to bear our testimony against the horrible
prejudice which prevails against colored persons, and the equally
awful prejudice against the poor."
This unconventional but truly religious marriage ceremony was in
perfect harmony with the loyal, noble natures of Theodore Weld and
Angelina Grimké, exemplifying the simplicity of their lives and the
strength of their principles. No grand preparations preceded the
event; no wedding bells were rung on the occasion; no rare gifts were
displayed: but the blessing of the lowly and the despised, and the
heart-felt wishes of co-workers and co-sufferers were the offerings
which lent to the occasion its purest joy and brightest light.
But though so quietly and peacefully solemnized, this marriage was to
have its celebration,--one little anticipated, but according well with
the experiences which had preceded it, and serving to make it all the
more impressive and its promises more sacred.
Refused the use of churches and lecture-rooms, and denied the
privilege of hiring halls for their meetings, the abolitionists of
Philadelphia, with other friends of free discussion, formed an
association, and built, at an expense of forty thousand dollars, a
beautiful hall, to be used for free speech on any and every subject
not of an immoral character. Daniel Neall was the president of this
association, and William Dorsey the secretary. The hall, one of the
finest buildings in the city, was situated at the southwest corner of
Delaware, Sixth, and Harris streets, between Cherry and Sassafras
streets.
It was opened for the first time on Angelina Grimké's wedding-day, and
was filled with one of the largest audiences ever assembled in
Philadelphia.
As soon as the president of the association had taken his seat, the
secretary arose and explained the uses and purposes the hall was
expected to serve. He said:--
"A number of individuals of all sects, and those of no sect, of all
parties, and those of no party, being desirous that the citizens of
Philadelphia should possess a room wherein the principles of _liberty_
and _equality of civil rights_ could be freely discussed, and the
evils of slavery fearlessly portrayed, have erected this building,
which we are now about to dedicate to liberty and the rights of
man.... A majority of the stockholders are mechanics or working-men,
and (as is the case in almost every other good work) a number are
women."
The secretary then proceeded to read letters from John Quincy Adams,
Thaddeus Stevens, Gerrit Smith, Theodore Weld, and others, who had
been invited to deliver addresses, but who, from various causes, were
obliged to decline. That from Weld was characteristic of the
earnestness of the man. After stating that for a year and a half he
had been prevented from speaking in public on account of an affection
of the throat, and must therefore decline the invitation of the
committee, he adds:--
"I exult in the erection of your 'temple of freedom,' and the more, as
it is the first and only one, in a republic of fifteen millions,
consecrated to free discussion and equal rights."
"For years they have been banished from our halls of legislation and
of justice, from our churches and our pulpits. It is befitting that
the city of Benezet and of Franklin should be the first to open an
asylum where the hunted exiles may find a home. God grant that your
Pennsylvania Hall may be _free, indeed!_"
"The empty name is everywhere,--_free_ government, _free_ men, _free_
speech, _free_ people, _free_ schools, and _free_ churches. Hollow
counterfeits all! _Free!_ It is the climax of irony, and its million
echoes are hisses and jeers, even from the earth's ends. _Free! Blot
it out_. Words are the signs of _things_. The substance has gone! Let
fools and madmen clutch at shadows. The husk must rustle the more when
the kernel and the ear are gone. Rome's loudest shout for liberty was
when she murdered it, and drowned its death shrieks in her hoarse
huzzas. She never raised her hands so high to swear allegiance to
freedom as when she gave the death-stab, and madly leaped upon its
corpse; and her most delirious dance was among the clods her hands had
cast upon its coffin. _Free!_ The word and sound are omnipresent masks
and mockers. An impious lie, unless they stand for free _lynch law_
and free _murder_, for they _are_ free.
"But I'll hold. The times demand brief speech, but mighty deeds. On,
my brethren! uprear your temple. "Your brother in the sacred strife
for all,
"THEODORE D. WELD."
David Paul Brown, of Philadelphia, was invited to deliver the
dedicatory address, which, with other exercises, occupied the mornings
and evening of three days, and included addresses by Garrison, Thomas
P. Hunt, Arnold Buffum, Alanson St. Clair, and others, on slavery,
temperance, the Indians, right of free discussion, and kindred topics.
On the second day, an appropriate and soul-stirring poem by John G.
Whittier was read by C.C. Burleigh. The first lines will give an idea
of the spirit of the whole poem, one of the finest efforts Whittier
ever made:--
"Not with the splendors of the days of old,
The spoil of nations and barbaric gold,
No weapons wrested from the fields of blood,
Where dark and stern the unyielding Roman stood,
And the proud eagles of his cohorts saw
A world war-wasted, crouching to his law;
Nor blazoned car, nor banners floating gay,
Like those which swept along the Appian Way,
When, to the welcome of imperial Rome,
The victor warrior came in triumph home,
And trumpet peal, and shoutings wild and high,
Stirred the blue quiet of th' Italian sky,
But calm and grateful, prayerful, and sincere,
As Christian freemen only, gathering here,
We dedicate our fair and lofty hall,
Pillar and arch, entablature and wall,
As Virtue's shrine, as Liberty's abode,
Sacred to Freedom, and to Freedom's God."
The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was then holding a
session in the city, and among the members present were some of the
brightest and noblest women of the day, women with courage as calm and
high to dare, as with hearts tender to feel for human woe. The
Convention occupied the lecture-room of Pennsylvania Hall, under the
main saloon. A strong desire having been expressed by many citizens to
hear some of these able pleaders for the slave, notice was given that
there would be a meeting in the main saloon on the evening of the
16th, at which Angelina, E.G. Weld, Maria Chapman, and others would
speak.
Up to the time of this announcement, no apprehension of any
disturbance had been felt by the managers of the hall. So far all the
meetings had been conducted without interruption; nor could anyone
have supposed it possible that in a city renowned for its order and
law, and possessing a large and efficient police force, a public
outrage upon an assemblage of respectable citizens, many of them
women, could be perpetrated. But it was soon to be shown how deeply
the spirit of slavery had infused itself into the minds of the people
of the free States, leading them to disregard the rights of
individuals and to wantonly violate the sacred principles guaranteed
by the Constitution of the country.
During the day some threats of violence were thrown out, and _written_
placards were posted about the city inviting interference with the
proposed meeting, _forcibly if necessary_. But this was regarded only
as the expression of malice on the part of a few, or perhaps of an
individual, and occasioned no alarm. Still, the precaution was taken
to request the mayor to hold his police force in readiness to protect
the meeting in case of need. The day passed quietly. Long before the
time announced for the meeting, the hall, capable of containing three
thousand people, was thronged, and, by the time the speakers arrived,
every seat was filled, every inch of standing room was occupied, and
thousands went away from the doors unable to obtain admittance. The
audience was for the most part a highly respectable and intelligent
one, and, notwithstanding the great crowd, was exceedingly quiet.
William Lloyd Garrison opened the meeting with a short but
characteristic speech, during which he was frequently interrupted by
hisses and groans; and when he ended, some efforts were made to break
up the meeting. In the midst of the confusion, Maria W. Chapman arose,
calm, dignified, and, with a wave of her hand, as though to still the
noise, began to speak, but, before she had gone far, yells from the
outside proclaimed the arrival there of a disorderly rabble, and at
once the confusion inside became so great, that, although the brave
woman continued her speech, she was not heard except by those
immediately around her.
Sarah Grimké thus wrote of Mrs. Chapman's appearance on that occasion:
"She is the most beautiful woman I ever saw; the perfection of
sweetness and intelligence being blended in her speaking countenance.
She arose amid the yells and shouts of the infuriated mob, the crash
of windows and the hurling of stones. She looked to me like an angelic
being descended amid that tempest of passion in all the dignity of
conscious superiority."
Then Angelina Weld, the bride of three days, came forward, and so
great was the effect of her pure, beautiful presence and quiet,
graceful manner, that in a few moments the confusion within the hall
had subsided. With deep solemnity, and in words of burning eloquence,
she gave her testimony against the awful wickedness of an institution
which had no secrets from her. She was frequently interrupted by the
mob, but their yells and shouts only furnished her with metaphors
which she used with unshrinking power. More stones were thrown at the
windows, more glass crashed, but she only paused to ask:--
"What is a mob? What would the breaking of every window be? Any
evidence that we are wrong, or that slavery is a good and wholesome
institution? What if that mob should now burst in upon us, break up
our meeting, and commit violence upon our persons--would this be
anything compared with what the slaves endure? No, no: and we do not
remember them 'as bound with them,' if we shrink in the time of peril,
or feel unwilling to sacrifice ourselves, if need be, for their sake.
I thank the Lord that there is yet life enough left to feel the truth,
even though it rages at it--that conscience is not so completely
seared as to be unmoved by the truth of the living God."
Here a shower of stones was thrown through the windows, and there was
some disturbance in the audience, but quiet was again restored, and
Angelina proceeded, and spoke for over an hour, making no further
reference to the noise without, and only showing that she noticed it
by raising her own voice so that it could be heard throughout the
hall.
Not once was a tremor or a change of color perceptible, and though the
missiles continued to fly through the broken sashes, and the hootings
and yellings increased outside, so powerfully did her words and tones
hold that vast audience, that, imminent as seemed their peril,
scarcely a man or woman moved to depart. She sat down amid applause
that drowned all the noise outside.
Abby Kelly, then quite a young woman, next arose and said a few words,
her first public utterances. She was followed by gentle Lucretia Mott
in a short but most earnest speech, and then this memorable meeting,
the first of the kind where men and women acted together as moral
beings, closed.
There was a dense crowd in the streets around the hall as the immense
audience streamed out, but though screams and all sorts of appalling
noises were made, no violence was offered, and all reached their homes
in safety.
But the mob remained, many of its wretched members staying all night,
assaulting every belated colored man who came along. The next morning
the dregs of the populace, and some respectable _looking_ men again
assembled around the doomed hall, but the usual meetings were held,
and even the convention of women assembled in the lecture room to
finish up their business. The evening was to have been occupied by a
public meeting of the Wesleyan Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia,
but as the day waned to its close, the indications of approaching
disturbance became more and more alarming. The crowd around the
building increased, and the secret agents of slavery were busy
inflaming the passions of the rabble against the abolitionists, and
inciting it to outrage. Seeing this, and realizing the danger which
threatened, the managers of the hall gave the building over to the
protection of the mayor of the city, _at his request_. Of course the
proposed meeting was postponed. All the mayor did was to appear in
front of the hall, and, in a friendly tone, express to the mob the
hope that it would not do anything disorderly, saying that he relied
upon the men he saw before him, as his _policemen_, and he wished them
"good evening!" The mob gave "three cheers for the mayor," and, as
soon as he was out of sight, extinguished the gas lights in front of
the building. The rest is soon told. Doors and windows were broken
through, and with wild yells the reckless horde dashed in, plundered
the Repository, scattering the books in every direction, and, mounting
the stairways and entering the beautiful hall, piled combustibles on
the Speaker's forum, and applied the torch to them, shrieking like
demons,--as they were, for the time. A moment more, and the flames
roared and crackled through the building, and though it was estimated
that fifteen thousand persons were present, and though the fire
companies were early on the scene, not one effort was made to save the
structure so recently erected, at such great cost, and consecrated to
such Christian uses. In a few hours the smouldering walls alone were
left.
Angelina Weld never again appeared in public. An accident soon after
her marriage caused an injury of such a nature that her nervous system
was permanently impaired, and she was ever after obliged to avoid all
excitement or over-exertion. The period of her public labors was
short, but how fruitful, how full of blessings to the cause of the
slave and to the many who espoused it through her powerful appeals!
Great was her grief; for, knowing now her capabilities, she had looked
forward to renewed and still more successful work; but she accepted
with sweet submission the cross laid upon her. Not a murmur arose to
her lips. She was content to leave all to the Lord. He could find some
new work for her to do. She would trust Him, and patiently wait.
The loss of the services of one so richly endowed, so devoted, and so
successful, was deeply felt by the friends of emancipation, and
especially as at this important epoch efficient speakers were sorely
needed, and two of the most efficient, Weld and Burleigh, were
already, from overwork, taken from the platform.
But though denied the privilege of again raising her voice in behalf
of the oppressed, Angelina continued to plead for them through her
pen. She could never forget the cause that could never forget her, and
to her writings was transferred much of the force and eloquence of her
speaking.
Immediately after the destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, Mr. and Mrs.
Weld, accompanied by Sarah Grimké, paid a visit to Mr. Weld's parents
in Manlius, from which place, Sarah, writing to Jane Smith, says:--
"O Jane, it looks like almost too great a blessing for us three to be
together in some quiet, humble habitation, living to the glory of God,
and promoting the happiness of those around us; to be spiritually
united, and to be pursuing with increasing zeal the great work of the
abolition of slavery."
The "quiet, humble habitation" was found at Fort Lee, on the Hudson,
and there the happy trio settled down for their first housekeeping.