classed what thee calls ‘social position.’ In that thou art mistaken; social position is not a right of which free men can be deprived by law, it is a condition to which men attain, or fail in the attainment, by conduct, talents and energy. In no other nation except this does the attainment of high social position depend on the color of the skin, and here, secure to him his freedom and equal rights before the law and the black man in his struggle for social position will willingly bide his time.”
“Well,” said Ridgley, “I have not time now to answer all you have said, and to be honest I am constrained to acknowledge that the black man, even in slavery, does not occupy the lowest grade to which men are capable of going. We have, at the South, a class of low, white trash that Joe and Rosa would scorn to associate with.”
When the “hands” came in from the hay field, Riclgley looked among them in vain for his lost chattels, although there were among them colored men and women. “Are these all?” said Ridgley. “Jacob,” said the Quaker to his foreman, “where are Joseph and Rosa?” “They went to the city this morning,” was the reply; “they had a chance to ride, and as they wanted some clothes, I thought they had better go, and we have finished the haying without their help.” The countenances of the colored people present betrayed them. Ridgley saw at once that his chattels had been too e mart for him, and taking a hasty leave of the shrewd Quaker’s family, whom he hardly suspected of being active agents on the U. G. R. R., he hastened towards Philadelphia, but he was never so near to them again as he was the night he stayed in Chester.
Joe and Rosa passed through the old headquarters of the institution at Albany; at Syracuse Rev. J. W. Loguen gave them letters to leading men in the Wilberforce
