FEMALE HEROISM,

AND

TALES OF THE WESTERN WORLD.

.I.

Female Heroism.

Breasting calmly, but firmly, the full tide of wrong,
Overwhelmed, but not borne on its surges along;
Unappalled by the danger, the shame, and the pain,
And counting each trial for truth as their gain.

WHITTIER.

E shall be glad, Papa, to have your promised tale of heroism in lowly life, which you said was worthy to be classed with those acts of Grace Darling and Florence Nightingale which have rendered their names so famous.

I will do so. But, before entering upon my narrative, I will read to you an extract from a modern writer, who, I think, has given us the true idea of heroism; a term which has often been misapplied to acts which have nothing whatever of the

heroic or the morally excellent associated with them in the slightest degree.

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The Rev. William Arthur says: 'Talent,' 'genius,' speaks of a man's abilities, the comparative stature of his mind among other minds. 'Heroism' at once calls our attention to his dispositions and his deeds. Wherever the word 'heroic' comes, it seems to bring with it this idea-greatness of soul, superiority to considerations of self. Though you cannot well adjust the terms 'heroic talent' or 'heroic genius,' you can very well adjust the terms 'heroic daring,' 'heroic sacrifice,' 'heroic endurance;' all these are pervaded by the idea of self-sacrifice. Daring in which one exposes himself so, that though he may escape he is more likely to suffer sacrifice, in which one by his own acts deprives himself of enjoyments or honours: endurance, in which one submits to repeated strokes which he might evade. The man who has never voluntarily dared, voluntarily sacrificed, or voluntarily endured, whatever his capabilities, has not arrived at the true Heroic."

Few persons would think of looking to the unpromising soil of slavedom for examples of true heroism, where every form of wickedness flourishes with giant growth, and human nature is sunk to the lowest possible depths of degradation; where the oppressed are converted into chattels and brutes, and the oppressors often become assimilated to fiends. But even here just as we sometimes meet with the most beautiful and fragrant flowers in the midst of pestilential

He.

and deadly swamps-are to be found examples of noble daring, devoted self-sacrifice, and firm, patient endurance, that may well excite the admiration of all who can appreciate what is morally beautiful and good. Among the fugitives in Canada who had escaped from the Southern slavery of the United States and found shelter and security under the shadow of the British flag, I knew one man who had suffered almost to death, and was permanently crippled in both arms by the violence and cruelty of a Southern overseer. had not only dared, with his wife and two helpless children, the perils of a stampede through the dense forests of Kentucky and Ohio to the land of freedom in Canada; but, at the risk of a precious liberty and life, he had gone back again to the slave land no less than eighteen times to rescue others from bondage, and pilot them to the better country where the curse of slavery was unknown. I also met at West Chester, in Pennsylvania, near the borders of the slave-land, a noble-minded Quaker, named Thomas Garrett, whose life was devoted to helping fugitive slaves on the "underground railroad" to the enjoyment of freedom. For this he had been fined many times, until he was well-nigh stripped of all his property: but he continued his noble and self-sacrificing toil for the good of his fellow-creatures until President Lincoln, under the pressure of the civil war which the slaveholders had provoked, proclaimed "liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," and the four millions of American bondsmen rose from the debasement of

slavery to the dignity of men. When I met with Thomas Garrett, in 1858, he showed me a list of more than two thousand fugitives to whom he had thus given aid in gaining their freedom. In both these examples there were lofty daring, self-sacrificing benevolence, and patient endurance of wrong for well-doing and the good of others, rising to true heroism.

Such examples are not confined to the sterner sex. Some years ago the world rang with praises of the heroism of Grace Darling. Since then Florence Nightingale's name has been on the lips of millions: while her bright example of self-denying love to suffering humanity prompted a host of American ladies, during the sanguinary civil war in that country, to deeds of philanthropy unparalleled in the history of the world. But the tale I have to relate refers to one in more lowly life, and to acts which the laws of the country in which they took place would have regarded and treated as criminal. It is the story of one of the wronged children of Africa, and her noble and happily successful efforts to deliver herself and her loved ones from the grasp of the cruel oppressor. The facts came

to my knowledge when I spent a few months in the United States in 1858. The great anti-slavery movement was then approaching a crisis, and the struggle was pending that was to terminate the hateful system of American chattelism, and wash out the national sin and shame in rivers of human blood.

The beginning of the narrative carries us back to one of the years between 1830 and 1840. At that