Freedom
In Salem, John was free but not safe. He worked as a leather tanner and part-time sawmill operator until the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law rekindled his fear of being returned to slavery. He escaped with help to Canada.
Once in Canada, John Andrew settled in Saint John, New Brunswick. He remarried legally and had more children.
Still seeking to purchase his family members in slavery, in 1857, he journeyed to Great Britain with his wife to solicit contributions. He lectured in Scotland and England with several others, including: David Guthrie, Rev. Thomas Candlish and Julia Griffiths.
John Andrew and his wife lived in London, England until after the American Civil War ended. Eventually they returned to live in South Carolina.
He never saw his mother, father, first wife, or children again, but his freedom was the beauty of his life, and he never regretted leaving his life of torture.
Read more about this topic: John Andrew Jackson
Famous quotes containing the word freedom:
“The child-rearing years are relatively short in our increased life span. It is hard for young women caught between diapers and formulas to believe, but there are years and years of freedom ahead. I regret my impatience to get on with my career. I wish I’d relaxed, allowed myself the luxury of watching the world through my little girl’s eyes.”
—Eda Le Shan (20th century)
“We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall;—
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There’s freedom at thy gates and rest
For Earth’s downtrodden and oppressed,”
—William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)