Having assembled about the premises, they began to cry out in the most uproarious manner, “Bring him out!” “Kill the Nigger!” “Hang him!” “Tear down the house!” Shouts, groans, maledictions of all sorts and degrees followed.  No one who has not witnessed an American mob can have the slightest idea of the scene which presented itself at this point.  Had six hundred beasts of the forest been loosed together, in one promiscuous assemblage, they could scarcely have sent up howls and yells and mad noises equal to those made by these infuriated men.  There is no exaggeration in this statement.  For the sake of humanity, I only wish there was.  Nor were the members of the mob confined entirely to the rabble; far from it.  Many of its members were also members of a Christian church.  The mob occurred on a Sabbath evening, about six o’clock, so that these men absolutely deserted their pews on purpose to enjoy the fun of “hunting the nigger.”

There came with this mob a self-constituted committee of gentlemen, lawyers, merchants, and leading men of the town, who, although partaking of the general feeling of prejudice against color, did not wish, for the sake of the reputation of their town, to see bloodshed; besides also many of them, I doubt not, entertained feelings of personal friendship for myself.

This committee divided itself.  One half came up to the drawing-room, and advised that the young lady should consent to go home in the sleigh provided, and that I should consent to leave the town.  Conceding so much to the mob, they thought my life might be spared.  The other half of the committee remained below, to appease the maddened multitude, and deter them from carrying their threats into execution.

We agreed to the propositions of the committee.  The young lady was taken home in the sleigh aforesaid, about one third of the mob following on foot, for what purpose I know not.  I was then conducted by the committee through the mob, many members of which giving me, as I passed, sundry kicks and cuffs, but doing me no serious bodily harm.  I was next taken by the committee to an hotel, where arrangements had been made for my reception.  The mob followed, hooting and hallooing, the sight of their victim seeming to revive their hostile feelings.  They would have broken into the hotel, had not the proprietor held them back by his threats.  He was not a friend of mine, but he had agreed to shelter me, and he was, of course, determined to protect his property.

The committee then secured the use of two sleighs, one of which they placed at the back entrance of the hotel, and the other they caused to be driven about four miles out of the town.  Into the first sleigh I was to get when I could find my opportunity, and be driven to the other sleigh, in which I was to be finally conveyed to the town of Syracuse, about twenty-five miles distant.  I made several attempts to get into the sleigh at the back entrance of the hotel,