After receiving this paper, the effect of which I well understood, my mind was heavily taxed as to what course I should pursue in the matter. Owing to my retired way of living and my constant employment, I had but little time to spare from my daily avocations, but a vast amount of time for reflection. My pecuniary means being limited, and having but little affection for lawyers, I determined to rely upon the justice of my cause, and plead my own case. Therefore, for four months I was engaged in hard study, hard labor, and hard living, my mind being as fully occupied as my hands. I determined to converse with no one, and when the matter would be occasionally brought up by others, I would have as little to say as possible, and few knew the course of action that I intended to pursue. In the first place, I had no quarrel with the people of Virginia, and did not wish to have, and I determined to enter into no conflict with them. I also felt certain that, if I employed counsel, many good men and women of Norfolk, who had done all that I had, would be brought into the same difficulty. Leaving self entirely out of the question, I determined not to do anything to place those engaged in Christ’s Church Sunday-school in the same difficulty with myself, for I heartily approved of what they were and had been doing. I also believed that, if I kept quiet, the matter would still amount to nothing. I could not believe that men who boasted of their talents and benevolence could be so blinded by their attachment to their peculiar institution as to farther irritate a matter that would, from beginning to end, prove disgraceful to them and to their State. I therefore took a firm stand, and was determined to maintain the principle for which I was doomed to suffer; for, as I have said before, I am a strong advocate for the religious and moral instruction of the Southern slaves. I was determined to express my views freely, should my case ever be brought before the court. During the whole of this prosecution, I did nothing, either by word or action, to irritate the people of Norfolk, and, though I might have replied to the paragraphs against me inserted in their newspapers, I did not do so; and, though extremely mortifying to my feelings to have my name brought so freely into the public prints, still I was silent, and bore my persecutions with patience.
Although I corresponded regularly with my daughter every week, I did not make known to her the condition of affairs, desiring not to mar her happiness with our northern friends, until the first of September, when I directed her to remain in New York, until I should call her home. Thus my readers will see that my daughter did not “run away” from the authorities of Norfolk, and the assertions to that effect in their papers were utterly false. She left Norfolk before the summons was served, and remained there at my instance, in ignorance of what was going on at home. Norfolk was our adopted home, and we never had the slightest idea of running away from it. No, indeed: we would not so far forget our native dignity, as to have it said that a South Carolinian ran from a Virginian. As it has since been proven, the authorities and people of Norfolk would have been very glad if we had taken this course, in order that they might at once have been relieved from the odium of pursuing the prosecution, and at the same time been enabled to brand us as fugitives from justice. The Richmond Examiner has recently said that my prison doors were open at my bidding. It is very true that they were, but for what purpose, and how would my flight have been regarded?
Believing that my lonely situation naturally called loudly for friends, I thought that in that city of churches, some one, at least among the religious part of the community, would come forward and offer me sympathy and advice without being solicited therefor; but will my readers believe me when I say, that not one solitary individual thus manifested the least interest in the matter? I determined, therefore, to ask nothing at the hands of a Virginian, for I had never done so during the eight years that I had resided among them, and I can truly say that I owe the people of Norfolk nothing: no, not even for the exercise of common humanity.
As the time drew near when I would be called upon by the attorney of the commonwealth to appear for trial, I felt myself thoroughly prepared to meet the worst, and on the first day of the November Term, I voluntarily stood before him in his office, and had a brief conversation with him, in which I informed him, that I was ready to meet the case, and that he would oblige me by bringing it on as soon as possible, as my mind was heavily taxed, and I had little time to lose. He promised to do so, and inquired who was my counsel. I told him that I was my own counsellor, and should employ no other. It was my first interview with this gentleman, and I was much pleased with his manner and conversation. He remarked that he should be placed in a rather disagreeable position, by having to plead against a lady. I replied, that I wished to be friendly with him, and hoped that he would not think me unreasonable: that I expected him to do his duty, and that I should certainly endeavor to do mine. I believe that the matter gave him some uneasiness, when he found that I was determined to plead my own case, and, after explaining a few points to him, he remarked that the matter had entirely slipped his memory, and that he had not before thought seriously about it. He promised to send for me whenever I was wanted, and soon after did so; but, another case not being concluded, I was compelled to await still another day. The day of trial came at last, and I proceeded to the Court House, unattended by any one, and, seating myself in the jury room, patiently awaited the summons to appear before the Court. I had provided myself with a neat and becoming dress, in a description of which my lady readers may be interested. It was made of black velvet, fitting closely and neatly to my form, with rich flowing lace sleeves, white kid gloves, and a plain straw bonnet, neatly trimmed with white. I had in my hand the copy of the summons, and a small red pocket Bible, which my daughter used when she visited the sick children. I had written nothing that I expected to say, preferring to depend on my own energies in whatever emergencies I might be placed. Being fully acquainted with the rules of courtesy, and the respect due from a lady to every true gentleman, as well as that required by an honorable Court, I determined not to do the slightest violence to the feelings of any one present, but to proffer all due consideration to the Court and counsellors, and I certainly expected the same in return. In my determination to plead my own case, I did not desire to step out of the natural sphere of my sex, or to force myself into the position of a counsellor, but I was the party most deeply interested; had given the matter all due reflection, and was best acquainted with its merits; had gathered together every fragment and woven them into one web, and it pleased me to unravel it myself; for I was prosecuted for violating a law that I knew nothing about. Certainly no favors had been shown to me because I was a woman, and therefore I believed that I possessed the right to defend myself in my own way.
As I sat in the jury-room, waiting to be called, that body were receiving their charge from the judge in some petty case tried the day before. When they entered, I was invited into the court-room. The Prosecuting Attorney of the Commonwealth received me at the door, and we passed in together, I taking my seat at the counsellor’s table, directly facing his Honor the learned Judge. I entered the room with a firm step, walked proudly through the dark cloud of heads that I saw around me, and when I took my seat I was perfectly calm and collected. It was some time before the court was fairly organized; for everybody present seemed to be confused, except myself. Finally, the jury were sworn, and the witnesses for the Commonwealth called.
Mr. Cherry, the City Constable, who made the original arrest, was sworn, and examined by the Prosecuting Attorney; and, as he testified merely to the facts as they really were, and knew nothing farther, I did not cross-examine him. The same may be said of officer Cox, his assistant at the time of the descent upon the school, who was next called; and also of his Honor, Mayor Stubbs, neither of whom were questioned by me. The next witness called for the prosecution was Mr. C. C. Melson, the agent of my landlord, who, although unexpectedly called upon, walked firmly to the witness stand, placed his hands behind him, fixed his eyes steadily upon the jury, and answered every question with a degree of promptness that did him credit. He testified merely that he was acquainted with me, and was the agent and collector of rents for Mr. Taylor, my landlord; that he rented me the house, but not for the purpose of keeping a negro school, and that he did not know that one was kept there; that I engaged the house when the foundation was laid, and had lived in it ever since. On being asked if he ever saw any colored children entering it, he replied that he never watched his tenants’ houses to see who went in or out. There was no necessity for cross-examining Mr. Melson; and as sufficient facts were deemed proven, and not denied by me, to substantiate the alleged violation of the letter of the law, the case for the prosecution here rested. I then informed the Prosecuting Attorney that I wished, before examining my witnesses, to make a statement to the court in reference to my daughter’s absence; and, permission being granted, I then addressed his Honor and the jury;
“I beg leave to inform your honor, and you, gentlemen of the jury, that my daughter, whose name is joined with mine in this prosecution, is at present in the city of New York, and was there at the time the summons was issued and served upon me: but, if she were in Norfolk at this time, I do not know that you have any business whatever with her. She is under age, and has been brought up in strict obedience to me in all things. I am alone responsible for any act of hers, as well as for my own. I am here to answer to any charge that may be brought against me. I have been notified to present myself this day before this court to answer to the charge of having been engaged in teaching colored children to read and to write, and I am informed that in so doing I have been acting against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth. This charge, gentlemen, I do not like, but we shall see who it is that destroys our peace and insults our dignity.”
The Prosecuting Attorney here touched me on the arm, thinking that I was about to discuss the merits of the case before the testimony was closed. This somewhat disconcerted me, but I took my seat and soon regained my calmness, and proceeded to call my witnesses.
I had but three, Mr. Walter Taylor, Mr. Sharp, a lawyer, and Mr. John Williams, also a lawyer and the Clerk of the Court in which I was being tried. All these gentlemen were members of Christ’s Church, and, together with their wives and daughters, were teachers and instructors of negroes in the Sunday-school held habitually in the lecture room of that Church. Mr. Williams had penned with his own hands the summons that had brought me then before the court, while his own daughter, Miss Eliza Williams was then teaching in that Sunday-school the same children that were in our school, and from the same books that they used with us. Among others who were also engaged in teaching in that Sunday-school, and from the same books that we used, I may mention Mrs. Dixon, Mrs. Southgate, Mrs. Pinkum, Miss Martha Taylor, Miss Jane Watson, Miss Henrietta Hunter, the Hon. Tazewell Taylor, and even some members of the family of Judge Baker who presided on the Bench at my trial, and finally fixed and passed my sentence. In giving the names of these persons, I am not actuated by any malicious feelings towards them, for I most heartily approve of all that they have done in the matter of instructing the colored people of Norfolk, but I do it merely to show the injustice to which I was subjected, while these individuals, representing the aristocracy of that town, and who had done all, and more than I had done, and because they were such aristocracy, were not only allowed to escape the punishment attached to the offence of which we were equally guilty, but also to aid in the prosecution against me, and even sit in judgment upon me. The deductions from these simple facts are so clear and simple that I need not direct the attention of my readers to them more particularly.
The excitement in the Court room, when the names of my three witnesses were called, was most intense, and when it subsided, Mr. Taylor was put upon the stand, and testified as follows:—