Alumni Reminiscences 1878 of Anti-Slavery Rebellion

antislavery in the little Methodist church at the foot of the hill on the right hand as you go "down town." The Faculty of the Seminary & in part, nearly all to the orhodox clergymen of N. Eng. & the whole country looked with disfavor upon the anti-slavery movement & denounced Geo. Thompson as an emissary of the British Government to disturb the peace of our country & as an infidel & an atheist.

Almost every pulpit in the whole country fulminated against Geo Thompson. Wm Lloyd Garrison, Henry B. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, Wendell Phillips, et genus [?]

While Geo. Thompson was in Andover, many of the students of the Seminary & of the Academy attended his lectures in spite of the malediction of Prof. Stewart et al of Andover. Dr. Beecher of Lane Seminary

& nearly all the D.D.s throughout the land. It is quite remarkable that the younger & the less instructed the students of the Academy were more disobedient to the "powers that be" than their superiors & seniors, the students of the Seminary. I cannot tell you what proportion of the students of both institutions were detered from attending these lectures but I know there were many who took the side of loyalty to their teachers. I wish I could give you some idea of the astonishing sequence of this Demosthenes, Geo Thompson. I have known him to hold the crowded audience two hours & a half in breathless silence.

When he portrayed the condition of the American Slave & described the unbridled tyranny of the master who sold into hopeless bondage his own flesh & blood & with a

and that with a power of eloquence that admits of no comparison. We all felt that God & humanity called on us "to draw the sword against Philip."

Many of the young men who heard G.T. could often be heard giving poor imitation of the style of the orator and years after we had left Andover, when we chanced to meet, the eloquence of G.T. was a common subject of remark & of imitation.

I believe it was a common feeling among the young men who were studying for the university that possibly slavery might be abolished before they could finish their studies & have a hand in the great work of anti-slavery & abolition.

I believe the Faculty of the Seminary decided against the Antislavery movement

and they carried their opposition as far as to forbid the formation of anti-slavery societies in the institutions. In the Academy we attempted to organize an antislavery soceity. Poor M. Johnson who was a lame man (lame men & sick men are apt to be cowards) was a tool in the hands of the Faculty of the Seminary. He forbade our organization. We, some of us, joined the Anti-Slavery Society in the village, this to was forbidden. We then discussed the subject in our little society. (Philomathean I think it was called) This to was interactive. We called a meeting in the hall of the Academy to consider what was best to do. We were driven out & then we adjourned to the forest

at a place called "Indian Ridge" a "Indian Walk" or some such nae. It was not far from the "Hill," & somewhere in the direction of the bathing place in the Shawsheen River.

We assembled there in full force. I believe Batholemew Wood of Newton ^Center Mass. presided at that meeting. In the midst of our discussion a tremendous thunder storm came upon us. The shelter of the pine grove in which we were assembled saved us somewhat from the severity of the storm.

Committees wer appointed & the work laid out. At a subsequent meeting reports were made & a remonstrance was presented & generally by about fifty students.