louisa picquet, the octoroon: or inside views of - Negro Artist

Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon 27
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Q.--"Does your church commune with slaveholders?"
A.--"No, sir; they will not. The Union Baptist Church does. When white
ministers come there from the South, they let them break the bread at the
Communion; but in our church, if they come there, they don't do it, unless they
come with a lie in their mouth. They ask them if they believe in slavery, or
apologize for it, and if they do, then they don't preach there. No slave-holder, or
apologist for slavery, can preach in that church; that was the foundation when
they first started."
Q.--"Well, how did you find out where your mother was?"
A.--"Well, I have made it a business for about eleven years, to inquire of every
one I saw, almost, about my mother. If any fugitives came through, I made it my
business to get to see them, and inquire. A great many fugitives come through
Cincinnati. I have had lots of them in my house.
"One time a colored woman came there, real genteel, and ask to board. I thought
she was a runaway slave, though she tried to make me believe she was free. Her
name was Mary White. She was there two or three weeks, and I notice she never
went out only on Sunday evenin's. One afternoon she went to our church, and
heard it give out by the preacher, that if any of the friends knew of a woman by
the name of Mary White, to tell her to be on the look-out, for the hell-hounds
were after her up to one of the hotels. Then she spring up, and came to where I
was and told me. That night we darken up the house, and a Quaker friend came
there and had her fixed up; and next day she was on her way to Canada. After
that I got a couple of letters from her, returning thanks to us all for helpin' her on
her way. She was in a sheriff's family in Canada, and was doing well."
Q.--"Now tell me how you found your mother?"
A.--"I used to take in washin', and one day a gentleman, Mr. B., a good friend of
ours in Cincinnati, sent some shirts there to be done up, and said he was goin' to
Texas. Then my husband inquired, and found out that he knew Mr. Horton, in
Texas, and told us what kind of a lookin' man he was. Then I remembered how
he looked when he bought my mother in Mobile, and I knew it was the same
man. Then he told us
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24.03.2006