not sixteen, went into the mill with his father. Susan had several
schools offered her and finally accepted one at New Rochelle. She went
down the Hudson by the steamboat American Eagle, her father going with
her as far as Troy. She speaks in her journal of several Louisiana
slaveholders being on board, the discussion which took place in the
evening and her horror at hearing them uphold the institution of
slavery. The pages of this little book show that this question and
those of religion and temperance were the principal subjects of
conversation in these days. One entry reads: "Spent the evening at Mr.
Burdick's and had a good visit with them, our chief topic being the
future state." Then she comments: "Be the future what it may, our
happiness in the present is far more complete if we live an upright
life." From the time she was seventeen is constantly expressed a
detestation of slavery and intemperance. Her life from the beginning
seems to have had a serious purpose. When asked, during the writing of
this biography, why her journals were not full of "beaux," as most
girls' were, she replied: "There were plenty of them, but I never could
bring myself to put anything about them on paper." There are many
references to their calling, escorting her to parties, etc., but
scarcely any expression of her sentiments toward them. One, of whom she
says: "He is a most noble-hearted fellow; I have respected him highly
since our first acquaintance," goes to see a rival, and she writes: "He
is at ----'s this evening. O, may he know that in me he has found a
spirit congenial with his own, and not suffer the glare of beauty to
attract both eye and heart."
Again she says: "Last night I dreamed of being married, queerly enough,
too, for it seemed as if I had married a Presbyterian priest, whom I
never before had seen. I thought I repented thoroughly before the day
had passed and my mind was much troubled." This modest Quaker maiden
writes of receiving a newspaper from a young man: "Its contents were
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