Worcester, November 5,1859
Dearest Mother:
. . . Four days I spent in going to the Adirondacks for Mrs.
Brown and then another in Boston about her affairs.
It was a pleasant reward to be taken through that wonderful
Notch, far finer than any road through the White Mountains — the excitement of
the black gateway enhanced by the snow and ice, and by the fact that for three
miles I pursued my runaway horse and wagon, with the constant expectation of
finding them smashed on some projecting rock or over a precipice. . . . These
mountains were a fitting shrine for the family of Browns and Thompsons. . . .
When I came out through the Notch again, I felt as if that
corner of the world would tip down, as if there were not virtue enough
here to balance it. . . .
Dear Mrs. Brown — tall, erect, stately, simple, kindly,
slow, sensible creature — won my heart pretty thoroughly before we got to
Boston, and many people's there, for many visited her during the morning she
was there, bringing money, shoes, gloves, handkerchiefs, kisses, and counsel.
Amos Lawrence had a large photograph taken of her and now she has gone on to
see her husband.
I got safe home, recited to my wondering family the deeds of
the invalids and the annals of Marion, and settled down to daily life again. .
. . Mary hasn't exaggerated my interest in Harper's Ferry accounts; it is the
most formidable slave insurrection that has ever occurred, and it is evident,
through the confused and exaggerated accounts, that there are leaders of great
capacity and skill behind it. If they have such leaders, they can hold their
own for a long time against all the force likely to be brought against them, and
can at last retreat to the mountains and establish a Maroon colony there, like
those in Jamaica and Guiana. Meantime the effect will be to frighten and weaken
the slave power everywhere and discourage the slave trade. Nothing has so
strengthened slavery as the timid submission of the slaves thus far; but their
constant communication with Canada has been teaching them self-confidence and
resistance. In Missouri especially this single alarm will shorten slavery by
ten years.
SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters
and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 86-7
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