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ISAAC T. HOPPER
A True Life
BY
L. MARIA CHILD
1853
[Illustration: Isaac T. Hopper]
Thine was a soul with sympathy imbued,
Broad as the earth, and as the heavens sublime;
Thy godlike object, steadfastly pursued,
To save thy race from misery and crime.
Garrison.
TO
HANNAH ATTMORE HOPPER,
WIDOW OF THE LATE
ISAAC T. HOPPER,
THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, BY HERGRATEFUL AND ATTACHED FRIEND,
L. MARIA CHILD.
PREFACE.
This biography differs from most works of the kind, in embracingfragments of so many lives. Friend Hopper lived almost entirely forothers; and it is a striking illustration of the fact, that I have foundit impossible to write his biography without having it consist largelyof the adventures of other people.
I have not recounted his many good deeds for the mere purpose ofeulogizing an honored friend. I have taken pleasure in preserving themin this form, because I cherish a hope that they may fall like good seedinto many hearts, and bring forth future harvests in the great field ofhumanity.
Most of the strictly personal anecdotes fell from his lips in familiarand playful conversation with his sister, or his grand-children, or hisintimate friends, and I noted them down at the time, without hisknowledge. In this way I caught them in a much more fresh and naturalform, than I could have done if he had been conscious of the process.
The narratives and anecdotes of fugitive slaves, which form such aprominent portion of the book, were originally written by Friend Hopperhimself, and published in newspapers, under the title of "Tales ofOppression." I have re-modelled them all; partly because I wished topresent them in a more concise form, and partly because the principalactor could be spoken of more freely by a third person, than he couldspeak of himself. Moreover, he had a more dramatic way of telling astory than he had of writing it; and I have tried to embody hisunwritten style as nearly as I could remember it. Where-ever incidentsor expressions have been added to the published narratives, I have doneit from recollection.
The facts, which were continually occurring within Friend Hopper'spersonal knowledge, corroborate the pictures of slavery drawn by Mrs.Stowe. Her descriptions are no more fictitious, than the narrativeswritten by Friend Hopper. She has taken living characters and facts ofevery-day occurrence, and combined them in a connected story, radiantwith the light of genius, and warm with the glow of feeling. But is alandscape any the less real, because there is sunshine on it, to bringout every tint, and make every dew-drop sparkle?
Who that reads the account here given of Daniel Benson, and WilliamAnderson, can doubt that slaves are capable of as high moral excellence,as has ever been ascribed to them in any work of fiction? Who that readsZeke, and the Quick Witted Slave, can pronounce them a stupid race,unfit for freedom? Who that reads the adventures of the Slave Mother,and of poor Manuel, a perpetual mourner for his enslaved children, cansay that the bonds of nature