Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 791   Enlarge and print image (54K)

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Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 791   Enlarge and print image (54K)

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780 THE UNDEBQROIND BAIL ROAD. severance which characterized her as an advocate of her enslaved race, and at the same time show how doore everywhere opened to her: Portland, MOD mouth Centre, North Berwick, Limerick (two meetings), Springvale, Portsmouth, Elliott, Waterborough (spoke four times), Lyman, Saccarappo, Moderation, Steep Palls (twice), North Buxton, Goram, Gardner, Litchfield, twice, Monmouth Ridge twice, Monmouth Centre three times, Litchfield second tame, West Waterville twice, Livermore Temple. Her ability and labors were everywhere appreciated, and her meetings largely attended. In a subsequent letter referring to the manner that she was received, she wrote, " A short while ago when I was down this way I took breakfast with the then Governor of Maine." For a year and a half she continued in the Eastern States, speaking in most orall of them with marked success; the papere meting out to her full commendation for her efforts. The following extract clipped from the Portland Daily Press, respecting a lecture that she was invited to deliver after the war by the Mayor (Mr. Washburne) and others, is a fair sample of notices from this source: " She spote for nearly an hour and a half, her subject being ' The Mission of the War, and the Demands of the Colored Race in the Work of Eeconstrnction;' and we have seldom seen an audience more attentive, better pleased, or more enthusiastic. Mrs. Harper has a splendid articulation, uses chaste, pure language, has a pleasant voice, aid allows no one to tire of hearing her. We shall attempt no abstract of her address; none that we could make would do her justice. It was one of which any lecturer might feel proud, and her reception by a Portland audience was all that could be desired. We have seen no praises of her that were overdrawn. We have beard Miss Dichinson, and do not hesitate to award the palm to her darker colored sister." In 1856, desiring to see the fugitives in Canada, she visited the Upper Province, and in a letter dated at Niagara Falls, Sept. 12th, she unfolded her mind in the following language: " Well, I have gazed for the first time upon Free Land, and, would you believe it, tcara sprang to my eyes, and I wept. Oh, it was a glorious eight to gaze for the first tims on a land where a poor slave flying from our glorious land of liberty would in a moment find •his fetters broken, bis shackles loosed, and whatever be was in the land of Washington, beneath the sbadoy of Bunker Hill Monument or even Plymouth Rock, here be becomes a man »nd a brother. I have gazed on Harper's Ferry, or rather the rock at the Ferry; I have Keen it towering tip in simple grandeur, with the gentle Potomac gliding peacefully at ita feet, and felt that that waa God's masonry, and my soul had expanded ia gazing on its sublimity. I have seen the ocean singing its wild chorus of Bounding waves, and ec-etacy has thrilled upon the living chorda of my heart. I have since then seen the rainbow-crowned Niagara chanting the choral hymn of Omnipotence, girdled with grandeur, and robed with glory; but none of these things have melted me as the first sight of Free Land. Towering mountains lifting their hoary summits to catch the first faint flash of day when the sunbeams kiss the shadows from morning's drowsy face may expand and exalt your goul. The first view of the ocean may fill you with strange delight. Niagara—the great, the glorious Niagara—may bosh your spirit with its ceaseless thunder; it may charm you