the mother of his children. My own father and mother
lived together over sixty years. I am the fourteenth child of that
union, and I can truthfully affirm that no marriage, however made
sacred by the sanction of law, was ever more congenial and beautiful.
Thousands of like instances might be cited to the same effect. It will
always be to the credit of the colored people that almost without
exception, they adhered to their relations, illegal though they had
been, and accepted gladly the new law which put the stamp of
legitimacy upon their union and removed the brand of bastardy from the
brows of their children."
Let us now sum up the qualifications that these people possessed in
large degree, in order to determine their fitness for freedom, then so
near at hand. They had acquired the English language, and the
Christian religion, including the Christian idea of marriage, so
entirely different in spirit and form from the African marriage. They
had acquired the civilized methods of cooking their food, making and
wearing clothes, sleeping in beds, and observing Sunday. They had
acquired many of the useful arts and trades of civilization and had
imbibed the tastes and feelings, to some extent, at least, of the
country in which they lived. Becoming keen observers, shut out from
books and newspapers, they listened attentively, learned more of law
and politics than was generally supposed.
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