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Authors: Janet Wallach
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reminded his daughter, he would turn the money over to her to do the same.
They took the case to the family’s attorney, B. F. Thomas, in Boston for arbitration. But instead of the Solomonic decision Hetty hoped for, Edward was allowed to keep everything except for a house worth $8,000 that was given to her. Hetty was devastated. Alone and adrift, she sought solace with Sylvia.
Money may have ruled discussions in the Howland and Robinson households, but it was the demands of the South that inundated conversations around the rest of the country. Not only was cotton the nation’s largest export,the South’s slaves had a dollar value far greater than the money invested in railroads or manufacturing; slavery represented 80 percent of the country’s gross national product.
Along with the continued use of slaves in the established areas and the expansion of slavery in the newer parts of the country, the Southerners had two more demands. In order to encourage the Europeans to purchase more cotton, the South was insisting on lower import dutiesto help the English and French sell their own goods in America; in addition, the South wanted to control the railroads going west. These were costly concessions for the North. But if the North would not accede to their wishes, the Southerners would not bend: they believed their strong economy would allow them to survive on their own. The southern Democrats were calling for a break with the Union. Northerners feared their own economy could not be sustained without them.
A few days after the death of Hetty’s mother, the newspapers reported a remarkable speech by Abraham Lincoln. Invited by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher to address an audience at Cooper Union, the new free college in New York, the odd-looking Westerner delivered a stinging attack on slavery. As he traveled through New England over the next few days, on his way to see his son at Exeter, he repeated his ideas again and again.
The tall and gangly “prairie orator,” as he was called by the
Times
, spoke in simple words and held the Cooper Union audience in silent awe as he told them that, without question, slavery was evil. Yet it must be tolerated in the South, he conceded, because it had been granted by the fathers of the Constitution. Nonetheless, like George Washington, he was against the expansion of slavery into the West. And like Thomas Jefferson, he hoped that white labor would slowly replace it, putting the evil condition, he said, “on the course of ultimate extinction.”
Lincoln appealed to his fellow Republicans for harmony and peace. He denounced the inflammatory actions of John Brown and his band of men who had seized the southern city of Harpers Ferry in an attempt to rally its slaves. The state of Virginia soon hanged Brown, but his mission reverberated around the country. Slavery was an issue that could not be shrugged off, Lincoln warned; we must care, and emancipation must come. “Let us have faith that right makes might,” he said. “And in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” Some men worried his words meant war.
As Lincoln addressed the crowd at Cooper Union, the city was once again enjoying prosperity. Europe’s increasing demand for cotton from the South meant that New York business had come back at a rapid pace; the most thriving business in New York was merchant shipping. More ships were steaming across the Atlantic carrying cottonto Europe, and more packets were sailing into New York carrying gold.
But boats sailed in and out of the East River harbor more frequently than New Bedford. As always, accidents occurred, like the loss of the steamer
Baltimore
, which sank in a collision, or the demise of the
Shooting Star
, a Howland & Company ship that ran aground outside Portsmouth. In addition, overzealous whaling had diminished the nearby supply and made the giant mammals harder to find, forcing vessels to travel farther and longer before they could
They took the case to the family’s attorney, B. F. Thomas, in Boston for arbitration. But instead of the Solomonic decision Hetty hoped for, Edward was allowed to keep everything except for a house worth $8,000 that was given to her. Hetty was devastated. Alone and adrift, she sought solace with Sylvia.
Money may have ruled discussions in the Howland and Robinson households, but it was the demands of the South that inundated conversations around the rest of the country. Not only was cotton the nation’s largest export,the South’s slaves had a dollar value far greater than the money invested in railroads or manufacturing; slavery represented 80 percent of the country’s gross national product.
Along with the continued use of slaves in the established areas and the expansion of slavery in the newer parts of the country, the Southerners had two more demands. In order to encourage the Europeans to purchase more cotton, the South was insisting on lower import dutiesto help the English and French sell their own goods in America; in addition, the South wanted to control the railroads going west. These were costly concessions for the North. But if the North would not accede to their wishes, the Southerners would not bend: they believed their strong economy would allow them to survive on their own. The southern Democrats were calling for a break with the Union. Northerners feared their own economy could not be sustained without them.
A few days after the death of Hetty’s mother, the newspapers reported a remarkable speech by Abraham Lincoln. Invited by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher to address an audience at Cooper Union, the new free college in New York, the odd-looking Westerner delivered a stinging attack on slavery. As he traveled through New England over the next few days, on his way to see his son at Exeter, he repeated his ideas again and again.
The tall and gangly “prairie orator,” as he was called by the
Times
, spoke in simple words and held the Cooper Union audience in silent awe as he told them that, without question, slavery was evil. Yet it must be tolerated in the South, he conceded, because it had been granted by the fathers of the Constitution. Nonetheless, like George Washington, he was against the expansion of slavery into the West. And like Thomas Jefferson, he hoped that white labor would slowly replace it, putting the evil condition, he said, “on the course of ultimate extinction.”
Lincoln appealed to his fellow Republicans for harmony and peace. He denounced the inflammatory actions of John Brown and his band of men who had seized the southern city of Harpers Ferry in an attempt to rally its slaves. The state of Virginia soon hanged Brown, but his mission reverberated around the country. Slavery was an issue that could not be shrugged off, Lincoln warned; we must care, and emancipation must come. “Let us have faith that right makes might,” he said. “And in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” Some men worried his words meant war.
As Lincoln addressed the crowd at Cooper Union, the city was once again enjoying prosperity. Europe’s increasing demand for cotton from the South meant that New York business had come back at a rapid pace; the most thriving business in New York was merchant shipping. More ships were steaming across the Atlantic carrying cottonto Europe, and more packets were sailing into New York carrying gold.
But boats sailed in and out of the East River harbor more frequently than New Bedford. As always, accidents occurred, like the loss of the steamer
Baltimore
, which sank in a collision, or the demise of the
Shooting Star
, a Howland & Company ship that ran aground outside Portsmouth. In addition, overzealous whaling had diminished the nearby supply and made the giant mammals harder to find, forcing vessels to travel farther and longer before they could
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