CHAPTER XII.
Paekee^s Own Stoey.
The Leader of the Defenders Tells his Story of what Occurred at "the Eiot'' — The Author Gives Eeasons why He takes the Narrative with Some Allowance — A Valuable Historical Contribution.
I deem it entirely fair and proper at tMs stage of the narrative to republish entire William Parker's own account of what took place at his house during "the Riot." It is reproduced in the assurance that each reader may — as he, and especially she, will — give it such credibility as the circumstances may command for it. It is fit that it be pre¬ sented with certain qualifications to the general reader and to the increasing number who may peruse this history in the spirit in which it is written, viz., one of purely historic inquiry.
The Atlantic Monthly (Boston), for February, 1866, published the first part of what is entitled " The Freedman's Story," introduced by one who signed himself " E. K.," and said he was asked to revise it for publication " or weave its facts into a story which would show the fitness of the Southern black for the right of suffrage." The editor evades the natural inquiry whether the text is wholly Parker's or partially his own; but it is printed as that of a freedman or ex-slave and as evidence " of the manhood of his race to that impartial grand-jury, the American people."
Of course it cannot be unreservedly accepted for the pur¬ pose for which it was offered, that is: to prove the fitness of the Southern freedman for suffrage; for it is not the narra¬ tive of a man who was suddenly freed and enfranchised by the circumstances of war, but of one who became a fugitive slave many years earlier and had the advantage of IlTorthern life and Canadian experience in the intervening period.
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