Part 17 (2/2)
”I do not think we ever labored more assiduously for the slave than we have done this fall and winter, and, although our work is of the kind that may be privately perfor it which we found in the public advocacy of the cause”
Referring a little later to this work, she says: ”We have been almost too busy to look out on the beautiful winter landscape, and have been wrought up by our daily researches almost to a frenzy of justice, intolerance, and enthusias out the vitals of the nation Oh, what a blessed privilege to be engaged in labor for the oppressed! We often think, if the slaves are never emancipated, we are richly rewarded by the hallowed influence of abolition principles on our own hearts”
In a recent letter tothis work I will give them in his oords:--
”The fact is, those dear souls spent sixthrough thousands upon thousands of Southern newspapers,disclosures for the book I engaged of the Superintendent of the New York Co-Room all his papers published in our Southern States and Territories These, after re upon the files one athered the raw material for the manufacture of 'Slavery As It Is' After the as finished, ere curious to kno many newspapers had been examined So ent up to our attic and took an inventory of bundles, as they were packed heap upon heap When our count had reached _twenty thousand_ newspapers, we said: 'There, let that suffice' Though the book had in it many thousand facts thus authenticated by the slave-holders themselves, yet it contained but a tiny fraction of the naathered fro occupation, the sisters busied theress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Colunatures,with patience, humility, and sweetness the frequent rebuffs of the rude and the ignorant, feeling only pity for theratitude to God who had touched and softened their own hearts and enlightened their minds
They received repeated invitations froain enter the lecture field, and great disappointment was felt by all who had once listened to them that they should have retired fro,” as, froularly, as Mr Weld was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church, and Mrs Weld and Sarah were still sound on all the funda some portion of every Sunday, Mrs Weld was in the habit of visiting a to theood will In her peculiarly tender and persuasive way, she opened to those unhappy and benighted souls the promises and hopes which supported her, and lavished upon them the treasures of an eloquence that thousands had and would still have crowded to listen to There were none to applaud in those sorrowful abodes, but her words of courage and consolation lifted many a despondent heart from the depths, while her own faith in the love and ht confidence and co soul
In December, 1839, the happiness of the little household was increased by the birth of a son, who received the nalish philanthropist, hoarded as living as near the angels as mortal man could live The advent of this child was not only an inexpressible blessing to the affectionate hearts of the father and mother, but to Sarah it see her for the horasp, and still often s as she pressed the infant in her arht ”Oh, the ecstacy and the gratitude!” she exclaiaze, with swi eyes, at my treasure, and looked upon that face forever so dear!”
For months before the birth of her child, Mrs Weld had read carefully different authors on the treatment of children, and felt herself prepared at every point with the best theories derived froe to read how systematically this baby was trained, and how little he appreciated all the wise theories; how he protested against going to sleep by rule; hoouldn't be bathed in cold water; hoas fed, a tablespoonful at a ti the twenty-four hours,--at 8, 12, 4, 8, and 3 in theat last induced his Aunt Sarah to take the responsibility of giving hiluttony, she was, at the sa ever since his birth Allowed , and beca to a friend, speaks of the blessed influence the child was exerting over the moral influence never came into my mind until I felt its power on my own heart I used to think all a parent's reward for early care and anxiety was reaped in after-life, save the enjoyht me differently, and woe be unto me if I do not profit by the instructions of this little teacher sent from God”
It was about this time that the injury referred to in the last chapter was received, which frustrated all Angelina's hopes and plans for continued public service for the slave, and condeifts, to a quiet life The sweet subreat was the peace which possessed her soul, and kept her ready for whatever it seeood for the Father to send her Henceforth, shut out fro her neighbors and a the poor and afflicted, quietly and unobtrusively she fulfilled every law of love and duty And though during the remainder of her life she was subject to frequent weakness and intense pain, all was borne with such fortitude and patience that only her husband and sister knew that she suffered
In the latter part of February, 1840, Mr Weld, having purchased a farm of fifty acres at Belleville, New Jersey, ree to Jane Smith, says:--
”Yes, we have left the sweet little village of Fort Lee, a spot never to be forgotten by ether, and the birthplace ofbabe, the scene of my happiest days There, too,faithfulness to my wants when sick, and there, too, I welcomed _thee_ for the first tiht the si to which they had adhered in their old one, a simplicity which, with their more commodious house, enabled theed to deny theood deeds done under this sacred na their fourteen years' residence at Belleville can never be known Few ever so diligently sought, or so cheerfully accepted, opportunities for the exercise of every good word and work Scarcely a day passed that they did not feel called upon to make some sacrifice of comfort or convenience for the comfort or convenience of others; and more than once the sacrifice involved the risk of health and life But in true hu trust in God, they looked away from themselves and beyond ordinary considerations
One of their first acts, after their removal, was to take back to their service the incoe from Fort Lee, and who had lived a precarious life afterwards They gave hies, and patiently endeavored to correct his faults A young nephew in delicate health was also added to their household; and, a fewheard that an old friend and her daughter in Charleston were in pecuniary distress and feeble health, wrote and offered them a home with her for a year
”They have no means of support, and are anxious to leave Carolina,”
wrote Angelina to Jane Smith; ”ill keep them until their health is recruited, their minds rested, and some situation found for the We know not,” she adds, ”whom else the Lord may send us, and only pray Him to help us to fulfil His will towards all whose lotus”
The visitors to the Belleville farm--chiefly old and new anti-slavery friends--were numerous, and were always received with a cordiality which left no room to doubt its sincerity
At one ti er, but of whose labors as a self-appointedthe recently emancipated slaves of the West Indies they had heard He had labored for three years, supporting himself as he could, until he was utterly broken down in health, when he came back to die His friendless situation appealed to the warht to their hospitable hoiven to him, and every attention bestowed upon him, until death cahborhood soon learned to knohere they could confidently turn for help in any kind of distress It would be difficult to tell the nureat-hearted trio responded to the suave without stint of their sy only her own conviction of duty, Angelina left her hoo and nurse a wretched colored man and his wife, ill with sht and day until they were so far recovered as to be able to help themselves
What a picture is this! That huroes--ill with a loathsohbors and friends Suddenly a fair, delicate face bends over theentle hands lift the cooling draught to their parched lips, bathe their fevered brows, el as she appears to them, stations herself beside them, to minister to them like the true sister of elina was not encouraged by her husband or sister, but it was a sacred principle with the which she conscientiously saas her duty to do When this appeared to her so plain that she felt she could not hold back from it, they committed her to the Lord, and left their doubts and anxieties with Him She never shrank froh their perforht be followed, as was often the case, by faintness and nausea She would return horateful that she had been able to help ”one of God's suffering children”
In other ways the ood works If a neighbor required a few hundred dollars to save the foreclosure of a e, the combined resources of the fa hand in his preparation for college, or for teaching, it was gladly extended to hiiven him for six months or a year--with much valuable instruction thrown in The instances of charity of this kind were many, and were performed with such a cheerful spirit that Sarah only incidentally alludes to the increase of their cares and work at such times In fact, their roof was ever a shelter for the homeless, a home for the friendless; and it is pleasant to record that the return of ingratitude, so often made for benevolence of this kind, was never their portion They always see, sooner or later, that their kindness was not throay or under-estimated
Besides the work of the farm, Mr Weld interested hiy, co improvement, while the influence of his moral and intellectual vieas felt in every household He taught the youngwomen he preached self-reliance, conte themselves independent He became superintendent of the public schools of the townshi+p, and gave to theh always ready to second Angelina in every charity, found her chief employment at home She relieved her sister almost entirely of the care of the children, for in the course of years two iven to the to household work, which would otherwise have called for another servant After a short time, Mr Weld's father, mother, sister, and brother, all invalids, ca much of their syhter of Mrs Frost, now married, and the hborhood, and Aunt Sai, as the children called her, and as almost every one else came, in time, to call her, found even fuller occupation for heart and hands Her love for children was intense, and she had the rare faculty of being able to bring her intelligence down to theirs Angelina's children were literally as her own, on whom she ever bestowed the tenderest care, and hose welfare her holiest affections were intertwined She often speaks of loving the theh them the only cordial that could have raised a heart bowed by sorrow and crushi+ng memories”
In one of her letters she says: ”I live for Theodore and Angelina and the children, those blessed co an absence fro withafter ht of those dear faces, the sound of those voices that colass, written towards the close of their residence in Belleville, she says:---