 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
| FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER. 755 She darted into a hatter's shop and out through the back buildings, springing over a dye kettle in ber way, and cleared a board fence at a bound. On her way to a place of safety she looked back to see, with keen enjoyment, " Mort Cunuingham " falling backward from tbe fence she had leaped. Secure in a garret, she looked down into the streets below, to see his vacant, dazed look as he sought, unable to find her. Her rendering of the expression of his face at this time, was irresistibly ludicrous, as was that of his whole bearing while searching for her. "Mort Cuuningham " did not get her, but whether or not she ever returned to the enjoyment of her happy home, in West Chester, we never knew, as thb sadden flight was the last we ever heard of her. She was one of the most wide-awake of human beings, and the world certainly lost in the uneducated slave, an actor of great dramatic power. FRAXCE3 ELLEX WATKINS HARPER. The narratives and labors of eminent colored men such as Banneker, Douglass, Brown, Garnet, and others, have been written and sketched very fully for the public, and doubtless with advantage to the cause of freedom. But there is not to be found in any written work portraying the Anti-Slavery struggle, (except in the form of narratives,) as we are aware of, a sketch of the labors of any eminent colored woman. We feel, therefore, not oiily glad of the opportunity to present a sketch not merely of the leading colored poet in the United States, but also of one of the most liberal contributors, as well as one of the ablest advocates of the Underground Rail Road and of the slave. No extravagant praise of any kind,—only simple facts are needed to portray the noble deeds or this faithful worker. The \yant of space forbids more than a brief reference to her early life. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (Watkins being her maiden name) was born in the City of Baltimore in 1825, not of slave parentage, but subjected of course to the oppressive influence which bond and free alike cn«-dured under slave laws. Since reaching her majority, in looking back, the following sentences from her own pen express the loneliness of her childhood days. " Have I yearned for a mother's love? The grave was my robber. Before three years bad scattered their blight around my path, death bad won my mother from me. Would the strong arm of a brother have been welcome ? I was my mother's only child." Thus she fell into the hands of an aunt, who watched over her during these early helpless years. Rev. William Watkins, an uncle, taught a school in Baltimore for free colored children, to which she was sent until she was about thirteen years of age. After this period, she was put out to work to earn her own living. |