RUNNING A THOUSAND

MILES FOR FREEDOM

BY
ELLEN CRAFT AND WILLIAM CRAFT

1860
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom By Ellen Craft and William Craft.

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CONTENTS
Preface
Part 1
Part 2
 1

PREFACE

HAVING heard while in Slavery that "God made of one blood all nations of
men," and also that the American Declaration of Independence says, that
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" we could not
understand by what right we were held as "chattels." Therefore, we felt
perfectly justified in undertaking the dan- gerous and exciting task of
"running a thousand miles" in order to obtain those rights which are so
vividly set forth in the Declaration.

I beg those who would know the particulars of our journey, to peruse these
pages.

This book is not intended as a full history of the life of my wife, nor of
myself; but merely as an account of our escape; together with other matter
which I hope may be the means of creating in some minds a deeper
abhorrence of the sinful and abominable practice of enslaving and brutifying
our fellow-creatures.

Without stopping to write a long apology for offering this little volume to
the public, I shall commence at once to pursue my simple story.

W. CRAFT.

12, CAMBRIDGE ROAD, HAMMERSMITH, LONDON.

 2

PART 1

"God gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,

Dominion absolute; that right we hold
By his donation. But man over man
He made not lord; such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free."

MILTON.

MY wife and myself were born in different towns in the State of Georgia,
which is one of the principal slave States. It is true, our condition as slaves
was not by any means the worst; but the mere idea that we were held as
chattels, and deprived of all legal rights -- the thought that we had to give up
our hard earnings to a tyrant, to enable him to live in idleness and luxury --
the thought that we could not call the bones and sinews that God gave us
our own: but above all, the fact that another man had the power to tear
from our cradle the new-born babe and sell it in the shambles like a brute,
and then scourge us if we dared to lift a finger to save it from such a fate,
haunted us for years.

But in December, 1848, a plan suggested itself that proved quite successful,
and in eight days after it was first thought of we were free from the horrible
trammels of slavery, rejoicing and praising God in the glorious sunshine of
liberty.

My wife's first master was her father, and her mother his slave, and the
latter is still the slave of his widow.

Notwithstanding my wife being of African extraction on her mother's side,

she is almost white -- in fact, she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old lady to
whom she first belonged became so annoyed, at finding her frequently
mistaken for a child of the family, that she gave her when eleven years of
age to a daughter, as a wedding present. This separated my wife from her
 3

mother, and also from several other dear friends. But the incessant cruelty
of her old mistress made the change of owners or treatment so desirable,
that she did not grumble much at this cruel separation.

It may be remembered that slavery in America is not at all confined to

persons of any particular complexion; there are a very large number of
slaves as white as any one; but as the evidence of a slave is not admitted in
court against a free white person, it is almost impossible for a white child,
after having been kidnapped and sold into or reduced to slavery, in a part of
the country where it is not known (as often is the case), ever to recover its
freedom.

I have myself conversed with several slaves who told me that their parents
were white and free; but that they were stolen away from them and sold
when quite young. As they could not tell their address, and also as the
parents did not know what had become of their lost and dear little ones, of
course all traces of each other were gone.

The following facts are sufficient to prove, that he who has the power, and
is inhuman enough to trample upon the sacred rights of the weak, cares
nothing for race or colour: --

In March, 1818, three ships arrived at New Orleans, bringing several hundred
German emigrants from the province of Alsace, on the lower Rhine. Among
them were Daniel Muller and his two daughters, Dorothea and Salomé,
whose mother had died on the passage. Soon after his arrival, Muller, taking
with him his two daughters, both young children, went up the river to
Attakapas parish, to work on the plantation of John F. Miller. A few weeks
later, his relatives, who had remained at New Orleans, learned that he had
died of the fever of the country. They immediately sent for the two girls; but
they had disappeared, and the relatives, notwithstanding repeated and
persevering inquiries and researches, could find no traces of them. They
were at length given up for dead. Dorothea was never again heard of; nor
was any thing known of Salomé from 1818 till 1843.

In the summer of that year, Madame Karl, a German woman who had come
over in the same ship with the Mullers, was passing through a street in New
Orleans, and accidentally saw Salomé in a wine-shop, belonging to Louis
 4

Belmonte, by whom she was held as a slave. Madame Karl recognised her at
once, and carried her to the house of another German woman, Mrs.
Schubert, who was Salomé's cousin and godmother, and who no sooner set
eyes on her than, without having any intimation that the discovery had been
previously made, she unhesitatingly exclaimed, "My God! here is the long-
lost Salomé Muller."

The Law Reporter, in its account of this case, says: --

"As many of the German emigrants of 1818 as be gathered together were

brought to the house of Mrs. Schubert, and every one of the number who
had any recollection of the little girl upon the passage, or any acquaintance
with her father and mother, immediately identified the woman before them
as the long-lost Salomé Muller. By all these witnesses, who appeared at the
trial, the identity was fully established. The family resemblance in every
feature was declared to be so remarkable, that some of the witnesses did
not hesitate to say that they should know her among ten thousand; that
they were as certain the plaintiff was Salomé Muller, the daughter of Daniel
and Dorothea Muller, as of their own existence."

Among the witnesses who appeared in Court was the midwife who had
assisted at the birth of Salomé. She testified to the existence of certain
peculiar marks upon the body of the child, which were found, exactly as
described, by the surgeons who were appointed by the Court to make an
examination for the purpose.

There was no trace of African descent in any feature of Salomé Muller. She
had long, straight, black hair, hazel eyes, thin lips, and a Roman nose. The
complexion of her face and neck was as dark as that of the darkest
brunette. It appears, however, that, during the twenty-five years of her
servitude, she had been exposed to the sun's rays in the hot climate of
Louisiana, with head and neck unsheltered, as is customary with the female
slaves, while labouring in the cotton or the sugar field. Those parts of her
person which had been shielded from the sun were comparatively white.

Belmonte, the pretended owner of the girl, had obtained possession of her
by an act of sale from John F. Miller, the planter in whose service Salomé's
father died. This Miller was a man of consideration and substance, owning
 5

large sugar estates, and bearing a high reputation for honour and honesty,
and for indulgent treatment of his slaves. It was testified on the trial that he
had said to Belmonte, a few weeks after the sale of Salomé, "that she was
white, and had as much right to her freedom as any one, and was only to be
retained in slavery by care and kind treatment." The broker who negotiated
the sale from Miller to Belmonte, in 1838, testified in Court that he then
thought, and still thought, that the girl was white!

The case was elaborately argued on both sides, but was at length decided in
favour of the girl, by the Supreme Court declaring that "she was free and
white, and therefore unlawfully held in bondage."

The Rev. George Bourne, of Virginia, in his Picture of Slavery, published in

1834, relates the case of a white boy who, at the age of seven, was stolen
from his home in Ohio, tanned and stained in such a way that he could not
be distinguished from a person of colour, and then sold as a slave in Virginia.
At the age of twenty, he made his escape, by running away, and happily
succeeded in rejoining his parents.

I have known worthless white people to sell their own free children into
slavery; and, as there are good-for-nothing white as well as coloured
persons everywhere, no one, perhaps, will wonder at such inhuman
transactions: particularly in the Southern States of America, where I believe
there is a greater want of humanity and high principle amongst the whites,
than among any other civilized people in the world.

I know that those who are not familiar with the working of "the peculiar
institution," can scarcely imagine any one so totally devoid of all natural
affection as to sell his own offspring into returnless bondage. But
Shakespeare, that great observer of human nature, says: --

With caution judge of probabilities.

Things deemed unlikely, e'en impossible,
Experience often shews us to be true."
 6

My wife's new mistress was decidedly more humane than the majority of
her class. My wife has always given her credit for not exposing her to many
of the worst features of slavery. For instance, it is a common practice in the
slave States for ladies, when angry with their maids, to send them to the
calybuce sugar-house, or to some other place established for the purpose of
punishing slaves, and have them severely flogged; and I am sorry it is a fact,
that the villains to whom those defenceless creatures are sent, not only flog
them as they are ordered, but frequently compel them to submit to the
greatest indignity. Oh! if there is any one thing under the wide canopy of
heaven, horrible enough to stir a man's soul, and to make his very blood
boil, it is the thought of his dear wife, his unprotected sister, or his young
and virtuous daughters, struggling to save themselves from falling a prey to
such demons!

It always appears strange to me that any one who was not born a
slaveholder, and steeped to the very core in the demoralizing atmosphere of
the Southern States, can in any way palliate slavery. It is still more surprising
to see virtuous ladies looking with patience upon, and remaining indifferent
to, the existence of a system that exposes nearly two millions of their own
sex in the manner I have mentioned, and that too in a professedly free and
Christian country. There is, however, great consolation in knowing that God
is just, and will not let the oppressor of the weak, and the spoiler of the
virtuous, escape unpunished here and hereafter.

I believe a similar retribution to that which destroyed Sodom is hanging over

the slaveholders. My sincere prayer is that they may not provoke God, by
persisting in a reckless course of wickedness, to pour out his consuming
wrath upon them.

I must now return to our history.

My old master had the reputation of being a very humane and Christian
man, but he thought nothing of selling my poor old father, and dear aged
mother, at separate times, to different persons, to be dragged off never to
behold each other again, till summoned to appear before the great tribunal
of heaven. But, oh! what a happy meeting it will be on that day for those
faithful souls. I say a happy meeting, because I never saw persons more
 7

devoted to the service of God than they. But how will the case stand with
those reckless traffickers in human flesh and blood, who plunged the
poisonous dagger of separation into those loving hearts which God had for
so many years closely joined together -- nay, sealed as it were with his own
hands for the eternal courts of heaven? It is not for me to say what will
become of those heartless tyrants. I must leave them in the hands of an all-
wise and just God, who will, in his own good time, and in his own way,
avenge the wrongs of his oppressed people.

My old master also sold a dear brother and a sister, in the same manner as
he did my father and mother. The reason he assigned for disposing of my
parents, as well as of several other aged slaves, was, that "they were getting
old, and would soon become valueless in the market, and therefore he
intended to sell off all the old stock, and buy in a young lot." A most
disgraceful conclusion for a man to come to, who made such great
professions of religion!

This shameful conduct gave me a thorough hatred, not for true Christianity,
but for slaveholding piety.

My old master, then, wishing to make the most of the rest of his slaves,
apprenticed a brother and myself out to learn trades: he to a blacksmith,
and myself to a cabinet-maker. If a slave has a good trade, he will let or sell
for more than a person without one, and many slaveholders have their
slaves taught trades on this account. But before our time expired, my old
master wanted money; so he sold my brother, and then mortgaged my
sister, a dear girl about fourteen years of age, and myself, then about
sixteen, to one of the banks, to get money to speculate in cotton. This we
knew nothing of at the moment; but time rolled on, the money became due,
my master was unable to meet his payments; so the bank had us placed
upon the auction stand and sold to the highest bidder.

My poor sister was sold first: she was knocked down to a planter who
resided at some distance in the country. Then I was called upon the stand.
While the auctioneer was crying the bids, I saw the man that had purchased
my sister getting her into a cart, to take her to his home. I at once asked a
slave friend who was standing near the platform, to run and ask the
 8

gentleman if he would please to wait till I was sold, in order that I might
have an opportunity of bidding her good-bye. He sent me word back that he
had some distance to go, and could not wait.

I then turned to the auctioneer, fell upon my knees, and humbly prayed him
to let me just step down and bid my last sister farewell. But, instead of
granting me this request, he grasped me by the neck, and in a commanding
tone of voice, and with a violent oath, exclaimed, "Get up! You can do the
wench no good; therefore there is no use in your seeing her."

On rising, I saw the cart in which she sat moving slowly off; and, as she
clasped her hands with a grasp that indicated despair, and looked pitifully
round towards me, I also saw the large silent tears trickling down her
cheeks. She made a farewell bow, and buried her face in her lap. This
seemed more than I could bear. It appeared to swell my aching heart to its
utmost. But before I could fairly recover, the poor girl was gone; -- gone, and
I have never had the good fortune to see her from that day to this! Perhaps I
should have never heard of her again, had it not been for the untiring efforts
of my good old mother, who became free a few years ago by purchase, and,
after a great deal of difficulty, found my sister residing with a family in
Mississippi. My mother at once wrote to me, informing me of the fact, and
requesting me to do something to get her free; and I am happy to say that,
partly by lecturing occasionally, and through the sale of an engraving of my
wife in the disguise in which she escaped, together with the extreme
kindness and generosity of Miss Burdett Coutts, Mr. George Richardson of
Plymouth, and a few other friends, I have nearly accomplished this. It would
be to me a great and ever-glorious achievement to restore my sister to our
dear mother, from whom she was forcibly driven in early life.

I was knocked down to the cashier of the bank to which we were

mortgaged, and ordered to return to the cabinet shop where I previously
worked.

But the thought of the harsh auctioneer not allowing me to bid my dear
sister farewell, sent red-hot indignation darting like lightning through every
vein. It quenched my tears, and appeared to set my brain on fire, and made
me crave for power to avenge our wrongs! But alas! we were only slaves,
 9

and had no legal rights; consequently we were compelled to smother our

wounded feelings, and crouch beneath the iron heel of despotism.

I must now give the account of our escape; but, before doing so, it may be
well to quote a few passages from the fundamental laws of slavery; in order
to give some idea of the legal as well as the social tyranny from which we
fled.

According to the law of Louisiana, "A slave is one who is in the power of a
master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person,
his industry, and his labour; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire
anything but what must belong to his master." -- Civil Code, art. 35.

In South Carolina it is expressed in the following language: -- "Slaves shall be

deemed, sold, taken, reputed and judged in law to be chattels personal in
the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
administrators, and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and purposes
whatsoever. -- 2 Brevard's Digest, 229.

The Constitution of Georgia has the following (Art. 4, sec. 12): -- "Any person
who shall maliciously dismember or deprive a slave of life, shall suffer such
punishment as would be inflicted in case the like offence had been
committed on a free white person, and on the like proof, except in case of
insurrection of such slave, and unless SUCH DEATH SHOULD HAPPEN BY
ACCIDENT IN GIVING SUCH SLAVE MODERATE CORRECTION." -- Prince's
Digest, 559.

I have known slaves to be beaten to death, but as they died under

"moderate correction," it was quite lawful; and of course the murderers
were not interfered with.

"If any slave, who shall be out of the house or plantation where such slave
shall live, or shall be usually employed, or without some white person in
company with such slave, shall refuse to submit to undergo the examination
of any white person, (let him be ever so drunk or crazy), it shall be lawful for
such white person to pursue, apprehend, and moderately correct such slave;
and if such slave shall assault and strike such white person, such slave may
be lawfully killed." -- 2 Brevard's Digest, 231.
 10

"Provided always," says the law, "that such striking be not done by the
command and in the defence of the person or property of the owner, or
other person having the government of such slave; in which case the slave
shall be wholly excused."

According to this law, if a slave, by the direction of his overseer, strike a

white person who is beating said overseer's pig, "the slave shall be wholly
excused." But, should the bondman, of his own accord, fight to defend his
wife, or should his terrified daughter instinctively raise her hand and strike
the wretch who attempts to violate her chastity, he or she shall, saith the
model republican law, suffer death.

From having been myself a slave for nearly twenty-three years, I am quite
prepared to say, that the practical working of slavery is worse than the
odious laws by which it is governed.

At an early age we were taken by the persons who held us as property to

Maçon, the largest town in the interior of the State of Georgia, at which
place we became acquainted with each other for several years before our
marriage; in fact, our marriage was postponed for some time simply
because one of the unjust and worse than Pagan laws under which we lived
compelled all children of slave mothers to follow their condition. That is to
say, the father of the slave may be the President of the Republic; but if the
mother should be a slave at the infant's birth, the poor child is ever legally
doomed to the same cruel fate.

It is a common practice for gentlemen (if I may call them such), moving in
the highest circles of society, to be the fathers of children by their slaves,
whom they can and do sell with the greatest impunity; and the more pious,
beautiful, and virtuous the girls are, the greater the price they bring, and
that too for the most infamous purposes.

Any man with money (let him be ever such a rough brute), can buy a
beautiful and virtuous girl, and force her to live with him in a criminal
connexion; and as the law says a slave shall have no higher appeal than the
mere will of the master, she cannot escape, unless it be by flight or death.
 11

In endeavouring to reconcile a girl to her fate, the master sometimes says

that he would marry her if it was not unlawful. 1 However, he will always
consider her to be his wife, and will treat her as such; and she, on the other
hand, may regard him as her lawful husband; and if they have any children,
they will be free and well educated.

I am in duty bound to add, that while a great majority of such men care
nothing for the happiness of the women with whom they live, nor for the
children of whom they are the fathers, there are those to be found, even in
that heterogeneous mass of licentious monsters, who are true to their
pledges. But as the woman and her children are legally the property of the
man, who stands in the anomalous relation to them of husband and father,
as well as master, they are liable to be seized and sold for his debts, should
he become involved.

There are several cases on record where such persons have been sold and
separated for life. I know of some myself, but I have only space to glance at
one.

I knew a very humane and wealthy gentleman, that bought a woman, with
whom he lived as his wife. They brought up a family of children, among
whom were three nearly white, well educated, and beautiful girls.

On the father being suddenly killed it was found that he had not left a will;
but, as the family had always heard him say that he had no surviving
relatives, they felt that their liberty and property were quite secured to
them, and, knowing the insults to which they were exposed, now their
protector was no more, they were making preparations to leave for a free
State.

But, poor creatures, they were soon sadly undeceived. A villain residing at a
distance, hearing of the circumstance, came forward and swore that he was
a relative of the deceased; and as this man bore, or assumed, Mr. Slator's
name, the case was brought before one of those horrible tribunals, presided
over by a second Judge Jeffreys, and calling itself a court of justice, but

1
It is unlawful in the slave States for any one of purely European descent to intermarry with a person of
African extraction; though a white man may live with as many coloured women as he pleases without
materially damaging his reputation in Southern society.
 12

before whom no coloured person, nor an abolitionist, was ever known to

get his full rights.

A verdict was given in favour of the plaintiff, whom the better portion of the
community thought had wilfully conspired to cheat the family.

The heartless wretch not only took the ordinary property, but actually had
the aged and friendless widow, and all her fatherless children, except Frank,
a fine young man about twenty-two years of age, and Mary, a very nice girl,
a little younger than her brother, brought to the auction stand and sold to
the highest bidder. Mrs. Slator had cash enough, that her husband and
master left, to purchase the liberty of herself and children; but on her
attempting to do so, the pusillanimous scoundrel, who had robbed them of
their freedom, claimed the money as his property; and, poor creature, she
had to give it up. According to law, as will be seen hereafter, a slave cannot
own anything. The old lady never recovered from her sad affliction.

At the sale she was brought up first, and after being vulgarly criticised, in the
presence of all her distressed family, was sold to a cotton planter, who said
he wanted the "proud old critter to go to his plantation, to look after the
little woolly heads, while their mammies were working in the field."

When the sale was over, then came the separation, and

"O, deep was the anguish of that slave mother's heart,

When called from her darlings for ever to part;
The poor mourning mother of reason bereft,
Soon ended her sorrows, and sank cold in death."

Antoinette, the flower of the family, a girl who was much beloved by all who
knew her, for her Christ-like piety, dignity of manner, as well as her great
talents and extreme beauty, was bought by an uneducated and drunken
slave-dealer.

I cannot give a more correct description of the scene, when she was called
from her brother to the stand, than will be found in the following lines --
 13

"Why stands she near the auction stand?

That girl so young and fair;
What brings her to this dismal place?
Why stands she weeping there?

Why does she raise that bitter cry?

Why hangs her head with shame,
As now the auctioneer's rough voice
So rudely calls her name!

But see! she grasps a manly hand,

And in a voice so low,
As scarcely to be heard, she says,
"My brother, must I go?"

A moment's pause: then, midst a wail

Of agonizing woe,
His answer falls upon the ear, --
"Yes, sister, you must go!

No longer can my arm defend,

No longer can I save
My sister from the horrid fate
That waits her as a SLAVE!"

Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark

Untutored heathen see
Thy inconsistency, and lo!
 14

They scorn thy God, and thee!"

The low trader said to a kind lady who wished to purchase Antoinette out of
his hands, "I reckon I'll not sell the smart critter for ten thousand dollars; I
always wanted her for my own use." The lady, wishing to remonstrate with
him, commenced by saying, "You should remember, Sir, that there is a just
God." Hoskens not understanding Mrs. Huston, interrupted her by saying, "I
does, and guess its monstrous kind an' him to send such likely niggers for
our convenience." Mrs. Huston finding that a long course of reckless
wickedness, drunkenness, and vice, had destroyed in Hoskens every noble
impulse, left him.

Antoinette, poor girl, also seeing that there was no help for her, became
frantic. I can never forget her cries of despair, when Hoskens gave the order
for her to be taken to his house, and locked in an upper room. On Hoskens
entering the apartment, in a state of intoxication, a fearful struggle ensued.
The brave Antoinette broke loose from him, pitched herself head foremost
through the window, and fell upon the pavement below.

Her bruised but unpolluted body was soon picked up -- restoratives brought
-- doctor called in; but, alas! it was too late: her pure and noble spirit had fled
away to be at rest in those realms of endless bliss, "where the wicked cease
from troubling, and the weary are at rest."

Antoinette like many other noble women who are deprived of liberty, still

"Holds something sacred, something undefiled;

Some pledge and keepsake of their higher nature.
And, like the diamond in the dark, retains
Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light."

On Hoskens fully realizing the fact that his victim was no more, he exclaimed
"By thunder I am a used-up man!" The sudden disappointment, and the loss
of two thousand dollars, was more than he could endure: so he drank more
than ever, and in a short time died, raving mad with delirium tremens.
 15

The villain Slator said to Mrs. Huston, the kind lady who endeavoured to
purchase Antoinette from Hoskens, "Nobody needn't talk to me 'bout
buying them ar likely niggers, for I'm not going to sell em." "But Mary is
rather delicate," said Mrs. Huston, "and, being unaccustomed to hard work,
cannot do you much service on a plantation." "I don't want her for the
field," replied Slator, "but for another purpose." Mrs. Huston understood
what this meant, and instantly exclaimed, "Oh, but she is your cousin!" "The
devil she is!" said Slator; and added, "Do you mean to insult me, Madam, by
saying that I am related to niggers?" "No," replied Mrs. Huston, "I do not
wish to offend you, Sir. But wasn't Mr. Slator, Mary's father, your uncle?"
"Yes, I calculate he was," said Slator; "but I want you and everybody to
understand that I'm no kin to his niggers." "Oh, very well," said Mrs. Huston;
adding, "Now what will you take for the poor girl?" "Nothin'," he replied;
"for, as I said before, I'm not goin' to sell, so you needn't trouble yourself no
more. If the critter behaves herself, I'll do as well by her as any man."

Slator spoke up boldly, but his manner and sheepish look clearly indicated
that

"His heart within him was at strife

With such accursed gains;
For he knew whose passions gave her life,
Whose blood ran in her veins."

"The monster led her from the door,

He led her by the hand,
To be his slave and paramour
In a strange and distant land!"

Poor Frank and his sister were handcuffed together, and confined in prison.
Their dear little twin brother and sister were sold, and taken where they
knew not. But it often happens that misfortune causes those whom we
counted dearest to shrink away; while it makes friends of those whom we
least expected to take any interest in our affairs. Among the latter class
 16

Frank found two comparatively new but faithful friends to watch the
gloomy paths of the unhappy little twins.

In a day or two after the sale, Slator had two fast horses put to a large light
van, and placed in it a good many small but valuable things belonging to the
distressed family. He also took with him Frank and Mary, as well as all the
money for the spoil; and after treating all his low friends and bystanders,
and drinking deeply himself, he started in high glee for his home in South
Carolina. But they had not proceeded many miles, before Frank and his
sister discovered that Slator was too drunk to drive. But he, like most tipsy
men, thought he was all right; and as he had with him some of the ruined
family's best brandy and wine, such as he had not been accustomed to, and
being a thirsty soul, he drank till the reins fell from his fingers, and in
attempting to catch them he tumbled out of the vehicle, and was unable to
get up. Frank and Mary there and then contrived a plan by which to escape.
As they were still handcuffed by one wrist each, they alighted, took from the
drunken assassin's pocket the key, undid the iron bracelets, and placed
them upon Slator, who was better fitted to wear such ornaments. As the
demon lay unconscious of what was taking place, Frank and Mary took from
him the large sum of money that was realized at the sale, as well as that
which Slator had so very meanly obtained from their poor mother. They
then dragged him into the woods, tied him to a tree, and left the inebriated
robber to shift for himself, while they made good their escape to Savannah.
The fugitives being white, of course no one suspected that they were slaves.

Slator was not able to call any one to his rescue till late the next day; and as
there were no railroads in that part of the country at that time, it was not
until late the following day that Slator was able to get a party to join him for
the chase. A person informed Slator that he had met a man and woman, in a
trap, answering to the description of those whom he had lost, driving
furiously towards Savannah. So Slator and several slavehunters on
horseback started off in full tilt, with their bloodhounds, in pursuit of Frank
and Mary.

On arriving at Savannah, the hunters found that the fugitives had sold the
horses and trap, and embarked as free white persons, for New York. Slator's
 17

disappointment and rascality so preyed upon his base mind, that he, like
Judas, went and hanged himself.

As soon as Frank and Mary were safe, they endeavoured to redeem their
good mother. But, alas! she was gone; she had passed on to the realm of
spirit life.

In due time Frank learned from his friends in Georgia where his little brother
and sister dwelt. So he wrote at once to purchase them, but the persons
with whom they lived would not sell them. After failing in several attempts
to buy them, Frank cultivated large whiskers and moustachios, cut off his
hair, put on a wig and glasses, and went down as a white man, and stopped
in the neighbourhood where his sister was; and after seeing her and also his
little brother, arrangements were made for them to meet at a particular
place on a Sunday, which they did, and got safely off.

I saw Frank myself, when he came for the little twins. Though I was then
quite a lad, I well remember being highly delighted by hearing him tell how
nicely he and Mary had served Slator.

Frank had so completely disguised or changed his appearance that his little
sister did not know him, and would not speak till he showed their mother's
likeness; the sight of which melted her to tears, -- for she knew the face.
Frank might have said to her

"'O, Emma! O, my sister, speak to me!

Dost thou not know me, that I am thy brother?

Come to me, little Emma, thou shalt dwell

With me henceforth, and know no care or want.'
Emma was silent for a space, as if
'Twere hard to summon up a human voice."

Frank and Mary's mother was my wife's own dear aunt.

 18

After this great diversion from our narrative, which I hope dear reader, you
will excuse, I shall return at once to it.

My wife was torn from her mother's embrace in childhood, and taken to a
distant part of the country. She had seen so many other children separated
from their parents in this cruel manner, that the mere thought of her ever
becoming the mother of a child, to linger out a miserable existence under
the wretched system of American slavery, appeared to fill her very soul with
horror; and as she had taken what I felt to be an important view of her
condition, I did not, at first, press the marriage, but agreed to assist her in
trying to devise some plan by which we might escape from our unhappy
condition, and then be married.

We thought of plan after plan, but they all seemed crowded with
insurmountable difficulties. We knew it was unlawful for any public
conveyance to take us as passengers, without our master's consent. We
were also perfectly aware of the startling fact, that had we left without this
consent the professional slave-hunters would have soon had their ferocious
bloodhounds baying on our track, and in a short time we should have been
dragged back to slavery, not to fill the more favourable situations which we
had just left, but to be separated for life, and put to the very meanest and
most laborious drudgery; or else have been tortured to death as examples,
in order to strike terror into the hearts of others, and thereby prevent them
from even attempting to escape from their cruel taskmasters. It is a fact
worthy of remark, that nothing seems to give the slaveholders so much
pleasure as the catching and torturing of fugitives. They had much rather
take the keen and poisonous lash, and with it cut their poor trembling
victims to atoms, than allow one of them to escape to a free country, and
expose the infamous system from which he fled.

The greatest excitement prevails at a slave-hunt. The slaveholders and their

hired ruffians appear to take more pleasure in this inhuman pursuit than
English sportsmen do in chasing a fox or a stag. Therefore, knowing what
we should have been compelled to suffer, if caught and taken back, we
were more than anxious to hit upon a plan that would lead us safely to a
land of liberty.
 19

But, after puzzling our brains for years, we were reluctantly driven to the
sad conclusion, that it was almost impossible to escape from slavery in
Georgia, and travel 1,000 miles across the slave States. We therefore
resolved to get the consent of our owners, be married, settle down in
slavery, and endeavour to make ourselves as comfortable as possible under
that system; but at the same time ever to keep our dim eyes steadily fixed
upon the glimmering hope of liberty, and earnestly pray God mercifully to
assist us to escape from our unjust thraldom.

We were married, and prayed and toiled on till December, 1848, at which
time (as I have stated) a plan suggested itself that proved quite successful,
and in eight days after it was first thought of we were free from the horrible
trammels of slavery, and glorifying God who had brought us safely out of a
land of bondage.

Knowing that slaveholders have the privilege of taking their slaves to any
part of the country they think proper, it occurred to me that, as my wife was
nearly white, I might get her to disguise herself as an invalid gentleman, and
assume to be my master, while I could attend as his slave, and that in this
manner we might effect our escape. After I thought of the plan, I suggested
it to my wife, but at first she shrank from the idea. She thought it was
almost impossible for her to assume that disguise, and travel a distance of
1,000 miles across the slave States. However, on the other hand, she also
thought of her condition. She saw that the laws under which we lived did
not recognize her to be a woman, but a mere chattel, to be bought and sold,
or otherwise dealt with as her owner might see fit. Therefore the more she
contemplated her helpless condition, the more anxious she was to escape
from it. So she said, "I think it is almost too much for us to undertake;
however, I feel that God is on our side, and with his assistance,
notwithstanding all the difficulties, we shall be able to succeed. Therefore, if
you will purchase the disguise, I will try to carry out the plan."

But after I concluded to purchase the disguise, I was afraid to go to any one
to ask him to sell me the articles. It is unlawful in Georgia for a white man to
trade with slaves without the master's consent. But, notwithstanding this,
many persons will sell a slave any article that he can get the money to buy.
 20

Not that they sympathize with the slave, but merely because his testimony is
not admitted in court against a free white person.

Therefore, with little difficulty I went to different parts of the town, at odd
times, and purchased things piece by piece, (except the trowsers which she
found necessary to make,) and took them home to the house where my
wife resided. She being a ladies' maid, and a favourite slave in the family,
was allowed a little room to herself; and amongst other pieces of furniture
which I had made in my overtime, was a chest of drawers; so when I took
the articles home, she locked them up carefully in these drawers. No one
about the premises knew that she had anything of the kind. So when we
fancied we had everything ready the time was fixed for the flight. But we
knew it would not do to start off without first getting our master's consent
to be away for a few days. Had we left without this, they would soon have
had us back into slavery, and probably we should never have got another
fair opportunity of even attempting to escape.

Some of the best slaveholders will sometimes give their favourite slaves a
few days' holiday at Christmas time; so, after no little amount of
perseverance on my wife's part, she obtained a pass from her mistress,
allowing her to be away for a few days. The cabinet-maker with whom I
worked gave me a similar paper, but said that he needed my services very
much, and wished me to return as soon as the time granted was up. I
thanked him kindly; but somehow I have not been able to make it
convenient to return yet; and, as the free air of good old England agrees so
well with my wife and our dear little ones, as well as with myself, it is not at
all likely we shall return at present to the "peculiar institution" of chains and
stripes.

On reaching my wife's cottage she handed me her pass, and I showed mine,
but at that time neither of us were able to read them. It is not only unlawful
for slaves to be taught to read, but in some of the States there are heavy
penalties attached, such as fines and imprisonment, which will be vigorously
enforced upon any one who is humane enough to violate the so-called law.

The following case will serve to show how persons are treated in the most
enlightened slaveholding community.
 21

Grand Jurors empannelled in the body of the said County on their oath
present, that Margaret Douglass, being an evil disposed person, not having
the fear of God before her eyes, but moved and instigated by the devil,
wickedly, maliciously, and feloniously, on the fourth day of July, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, at Norfolk, in said
County, did teach a certain black girl named Kate to read in the Bible, to the
great displeasure of Almighty God, to the pernicious example of others in
like case offending, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made
and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of
Virginia.
"VICTOR VAGABOND, Prosecuting Attorney."

"On this indictment Mrs. Douglass was arraigned as a necessary matter of

form, tried, found guilty of course; and Judge Scalaway, before whom she
was tried, having consulted with Dr. Adams, ordered the sheriff to place
Mrs. Douglass in the prisoner's box, when he addressed her as follows:
'Margaret Douglass, stand up. You are guilty of one of the vilest crimes that
ever disgraced society; and the jury have found you so. You have taught a
slave girl to read in the Bible. No enlightened society can exist where such
offences go unpunished. The Court, in your case, do not feel for you one
solitary ray of sympathy, and they will inflict on you the utmost penalty of
the law. In any other civilized country you would have paid the forfeit of
your crime with your life, and the Court have only to regret that such is not
the law in this country. The sentence for your offence is, that you be
imprisoned one month in the county jail, and that you pay the costs of this
prosecution.

Sheriff, remove the prisoner to jail.' On the publication of these

proceedings, the Doctors of Divinity preached each a sermon on the
necessity of obeying the laws; the New York Observer noticed with much
pious gladness a revival of religion on Dr. Smith's plantation in Georgia,
among his slaves; while the Journal of Commerce commended this political
preaching of the Doctors of Divinity because it favoured slavery. Let us do
nothing to offend our Southern brethren."
 22

However, at first, we were highly delighted at the idea of having gained

permission to be absent for a few days; but when the thought flashed
across my wife's mind, that it was customary for travellers to register their
names in the visitors' book at hotels, as well as in the clearance or Custom-
house book at Charleston, South Carolina -- it made our spirits droop within
us.

So, while sitting in our little room upon the verge of despair, all at once my
wife raised her head, and with a smile upon her face, which was a moment
before bathed in tears, said, "I think I have it!" I asked what it was. She said,
"I think I can make a poultice and bind up my right hand in a sling, and with
propriety ask the officers to register my name for me." I thought that would
do.

It then occurred to her that the smoothness of her face might betray her; so
she decided to make another poultice, and put it in a white handkerchief to
be worn under the chin, up the cheeks, and to tie over the head. This nearly
hid the expression of the countenance, as well as the beardless chin.

The poultice is left off in the engraving, because the likeness could not have
been taken well with it on.

My wife, knowing that she would be thrown a good deal into the company
of gentlemen, fancied that she could get on better if she had something to
go over the eyes; so I went to a shop and bought a pair of green spectacles.
This was in the evening.

We sat up all night discussing the plan, and making preparations. Just before
the time arrived, in the morning, for us to leave, I cut off my wife's hair
square at the back of the head, and got her to dress in the disguise and
stand out on the floor. I found that she made a most respectable looking
gentleman.

My wife had no ambition whatever to assume this disguise, and would not
have done so had it been possible to have obtained our liberty by more
simple means; but we knew it was not customary in the South for ladies to
travel with male servants; and therefore, notwithstanding my wife's fair
complexion, it would have been a very difficult task for her to have come off
 23

as a free white lady, with me as her slave; in fact, her not being able to write
would have made this quite impossible. We knew that no public conveyance
would take us, or any other slave, as a passenger, without our master's
consent. This consent could never be obtained to pass into a free State. My
wife's being muffled in the poultices, &c., furnished a plausible excuse for
avoiding general conversation, of which most Yankee travellers are
passionately fond.

There are a large number of free negroes residing in the southern States;
but in Georgia (and I believe in all the slave States,) every coloured person's
complexion is primâ facie evidence of his being a slave; and the lowest villain
in the country, should he be a white man, has the legal power to arrest, and
question, in the most inquisitorial and insulting manner, any coloured
person, male or female, that he may find at large, particularly at night and
on Sundays, without a written pass, signed by the master or some one in
authority; or stamped free papers, certifying that the person is the rightful
owner of himself.

If the coloured person refuses to answer questions put to him, he may be

beaten, and his defending himself against this attack makes him an outlaw,
and if he be killed on the spot, the murderer will be exempted from all
blame; but after the coloured person has answered the questions put to
him, in a most humble and pointed manner, he may then be taken to prison;
and should it turn out, after further examination, that he was caught where
he had no permission or legal right to be, and that he has not given what
they term a satisfactory account of himself, the master will have to pay a
fine. On his refusing to do this, the poor slave may be legally and severely
flogged by public officers. Should the prisoner prove to be a free man, he is
most likely to be both whipped and fined.

The great majority of slaveholders hate this class of persons with a hatred
that can only be equalled by the condemned spirits of the infernal regions.
They have no mercy upon, nor sympathy for, any negro whom they cannot
enslave. They say that God made the black man to be a slave for the white,
and act as though they really believed that all free persons of colour are in
open rebellion to a direct command from heaven, and that they (the whites)
are God's chosen agents to pour out upon them unlimited vengeance. For
 24

instance, a Bill has been introduced in the Tennessee Legislature to prevent

free negroes from travelling on the railroads in that State. It has passed the
first reading. The bill provides that the President who shall permit a free
negro to travel on any road within the jurisdiction of the State under his
supervision shall pay a fine of 500 dollars; any conductor permitting a
violation of the Act shall pay 250 dollars; provided such free negro is not
under the control of a free white citizen of Tennessee, who will vouch for
the character of said free negro in a penal bond of one thousand dollars. The
State of Arkansas has passed a law to banish all free negroes from its
bounds, and it came into effect on the 1st day of January, 1860. Every free
negro found there after that date will be liable to be sold into slavery, the
crime of freedom being unpardonable. The Missouri Senate has before it a
bill providing that all free negroes above the age of eighteen years who shall
be found in the State after September, 1860, shall be sold into slavery; and
that all such negroes as shall enter the State after September, 1861, and
remain there twenty-four hours, shall also be sold into slavery for ever.
Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia, and in fact, I believe, all the slave States,
are legislating in the same manner. Thus the slaveholders make it almost
impossible for free persons of colour to get out of the slave States, in order
that they may sell them into slavery if they don't go. If no white persons
travelled upon railroads except those who could get some one to vouch for
their character in a penal bond of one thousand dollars, the railroad
companies would soon go to the "wall." Such mean legislation is too low for
comment; therefore I leave the villainous acts to speak for themselves.

But the Dred Scott decision is the crowning act of infamous Yankee
legislation. The Supreme Court, the highest tribunal of the Republic,
composed of nine Judge Jeffries's, chosen both from the free and slave
States, has decided that no coloured person, or persons of African
extraction, can ever become a citizen of the United States, or have any
rights which white men are bound to respect. That is to say, in the opinion
of this Court, robbery, rape, and murder are not crimes when committed by
a white upon a coloured person.

Judges who will sneak from their high and honourable position down into
the lowest depths of human depravity, and scrape up a decision like this, are
 25

wholly unworthy the confidence of any people. I believe such men would, if
they had the power, and were it to their temporal interest, sell their
country's independence, and barter away every man's birthright for a mess
of pottage. Well may Thomas Campbell say --

United States, your banner wears,

Two emblems, -- one of fame,
Alas, the other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame!
The white man's liberty in types
Stands blazoned by your stars;
But what's the meaning of your stripes?
They mean your Negro-scars.

When the time had arrived for us to start, we blew out the lights, knelt
down, and prayed to our Heavenly Father mercifully to assist us, as he did
his people of old, to escape from cruel bondage; and we shall ever feel that
God heard and answered our prayer. Had we not been sustained by a kind,
and I sometimes think special, providence, we could never have overcome
the mountainous difficulties which I am now about to describe.

After this we rose and stood for a few moments in breathless silence, -- we
were afraid that some one might have been about the cottage listening and
watching our movements. So I took my wife by the hand, stepped softly to
the door, raised the latch, drew it open, and peeped out. Though there were
trees all around the house, yet the foliage scarcely moved; in fact,
everything appeared to be as still as death. I then whispered to my wife,
"Come, my dear, let us make a desperate leap for liberty!" But poor thing,
she shrank back, in a state of trepidation.

I turned and asked what was the matter; she made no reply, but burst into
violent sobs, and threw her head upon my breast. This appeared to touch
my very heart, it caused me to enter into her feelings more fully than ever.
We both saw the many mountainous difficulties that rose one after the
other before our view, and knew far too well what our sad fate would have
been, were we caught and forced back into our slavish den. Therefore on my
 26

wife's fully realizing the solemn fact that we had to take our lives, as it were,
in our hands, and contest every inch of the thousand miles of slave territory
over which we had to pass, it made her heart almost sink within her, and,
had I known them at that time, I would have repeated the following
encouraging lines, which may not be out of place here --

"The hill, though high, I covet to ascend,

The difficulty will not me offend;
For I perceive the way to life lies here:
Come, pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the right way to go, --
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe."

However, the sobbing was soon over, and after a few moments of silent
prayer she recovered her self-possession, and said, "Come, William, it is
getting late, so now let us venture upon our perilous journey."

We then opened the door, and stepped as softly out as "moonlight upon the
water." I locked the door with my own key, which I now have before me,
and tiptoed across the yard into the street. I say tiptoed, because we were
like persons near a tottering avalanche, afraid to move, or even breathe
freely, for fear the sleeping tyrants should be aroused, and come down
upon us with double vengeance, for daring to attempt to escape in the
manner which we contemplated.

We shook hands, said farewell, and started in different directions for the
railway station. I took the nearest possible way to the train, for fear I should
be recognized by some one, and got into the negro car in which I knew I
should have to ride; but my master (as I will now call my wife) took a longer
way round, and only arrived there with the bulk of the passengers. He
obtained a ticket for himself and one for his slave to Savannah, the first port,
which was about two hundred miles off. My master then had the luggage
stowed away, and stepped into one of the best carriages.
 27

But just before the train moved off I peeped through the window, and, to
my great astonishment, I saw the cabinet-maker with whom I had worked so
long, on the platform. He stepped up to the ticketseller, and asked some
question, and then commenced looking rapidly through the passengers, and
into the carriages. Fully believing that we were caught, I shrank into a
corner, turned my face from the door, and expected in a moment to be
dragged out. The cabinet-maker looked into my master's carriage, but did
not know him in his new attire, and, as God would have it, before he reached
mine the bell rang, and the train moved off.

I have heard since that the cabinet-maker had a presentiment that we were
about to "make tracks for parts unknown;" but, not seeing me, his
suspicions vanished, until he received the startling intelligence that we had
arrived freely in a free State.

As soon as the train had left the platform, my master looked round in the
carriage, and was terror-stricken to find a Mr. Cray -- an old friend of my
wife's master, who dined with the family the day before, and knew my wife
from childhood -- sitting on the same seat.

The doors of the American railway carriages are at the ends. The passengers
walk up the aisle, and take seats on either side; and as my master was
engaged in looking out of the window, he did not see who came in.

My master's first impression, after seeing Mr. Cray, was, that he was there
for the purpose of securing him. However, my master thought it was not
wise to give any information respecting himself, and for fear that Mr. Cray
might draw him into conversation and recognise his voice, my master
resolved to feign deafness as the only means of self-defence.

After a little while, Mr. Cray said to my master, "It is a very fine morning, sir."
The latter took no notice, but kept looking out of the window. Mr. Cray soon
repeated this remark, in a little louder tone, but my master remained as
before. This indifference attracted the attention of the passengers near, one
of whom laughed out. This, I suppose, annoyed the old gentleman; so he
said, "I will make him hear;" and in a loud tone of voice repeated, "It is a very
fine morning, sir."
 28

My master turned his head, and with a polite bow said, "Yes," and
commenced looking out of the window again.

One of the gentlemen remarked that it was a very great deprivation to be

deaf. "Yes," replied Mr. Cray, "and I shall not trouble that fellow any more."
This enabled my master to breathe a little easier, and to feel that Mr. Cray
was not his pursuer after all.

The gentlemen then turned the conversation upon the three great topics of
discussion in first-class circles in Georgia, namely, Niggers, Cotton, and the
Abolitionists.

My master had often heard of abolitionists, but in such a connection as to

cause him to think that they were a fearful kind of wild animal. But he was
highly delighted to learn, from the gentlemen's conversation, that the
abolitionists were persons who were opposed to oppression; and therefore,
in his opinion, not the lowest, but the very highest, of God's creatures.

Without the slightest objection on my master's part, the gentlemen left the
carriage at Gordon, for Milledgeville (the capital of the State).

We arrived at Savannah early in the evening, and got into an omnibus, which
stopped at the hotel for the passengers to take tea. I stepped into the house
and brought my master something on a tray to the omnibus, which took us
in due time to the steamer, which was bound for Charleston, South Carolina.

Soon after going on board, my master turned in; and as the captain and
some of the passengers seemed to think this strange, and also questioned
me respecting him, my master thought I had better get out the flannels and
opodeldoc which we had prepared for the rheumatism, warm them quickly
by the stove in the gentleman's saloon, and bring them to his berth. We did
this as an excuse for my master's retiring to bed so early.

While at the stove one of the passengers said to me, "Buck, what have you
got there?" "Opodeldoc, sir," I replied. "I should think it's opodevil," said a
lanky swell, who was leaning back in a chair with his heels upon the back of
another, and chewing tobacco as if for a wager; "it stinks enough to kill or
cure twenty men. Away with it, or I reckon I will throw it overboard!"
 29

It was by this time warm enough, so I took it to my master's berth, remained

there a little while, and then went on deck and asked the steward where I
was to sleep. He said there was no place provided for coloured passengers,
whether slave or free. So I paced the deck till a late hour, then mounted
some cotton bags, in a warm place near the funnel, sat there till morning,
and then went and assisted my master to get ready for breakfast.

He was seated at the right hand of the captain, who, together with all the
passengers, inquired very kindly after his health. As my master had one hand
in a sling, it was my duty to carve his food. But when I went out the captain
said, "You have a very attentive boy, sir; but you had better watch him like a
hawk when you get on to the North. He seems all very well here, but he may
act quite differently there. I know several gentlemen who have lost their
valuable niggers among them d -- -- d cut-throat abolitionists."

Before my master could speak, a rough slave-dealer, who was sitting

opposite, with both elbows on the table, and with a large piece of broiled
fowl in his fingers, shook his head with emphasis, and in a deep Yankee
tone, forced through his crowded mouth the words, "Sound doctrine,
captain, very sound." He then dropped the chicken into the plate, leant
back, placed his thumbs in the armholes of his fancy waistcoat, and
continued, "I would not take a nigger to the North under no consideration. I
have had a deal to do with niggers in my time, but I never saw one who ever
had his heel upon free soil that was worth a d -- -- n." "Now stranger,"
addressing my master, "if you have made up your mind to sell that ere
nigger, I am your man; just mention your price, and if it isn't out of the way, I
will pay for him on this board with hard silver dollars." This hard-featured,
bristly-bearded, wire-headed, red-eyed monster, staring at my master as the
serpent did at Eve, said, "What do you say, stranger?" He replied,

"I don't wish to sell, sir; I cannot get on well without him."

"You will have to get on without him if you take him to the North,"
continued this man; "for I can tell ye, stranger, as a friend, I am an older cove
than you, I have seen lots of this ere world, and I reckon I have had more
dealings with niggers than any man living or dead. I was once employed by
General Wade Hampton, for ten years, in doing nothing but breaking 'em in;
 30

and everybody knows that the General would not have a man that didn't
understand his business. So I tell ye, stranger, again, you had better sell, and
let me take him down to Orleans. He will do you no good if you take him
across Mason's and Dixon's line; he is a keen nigger, and I can see from the
cut of his eye that he is certain to run away." My master said, "I think not,
sir; I have great confidence in his fidelity." "Fidevil," indignantly said the
dealer, as his fist came down upon the edge of the saucer and upset a cup of
hot coffee in a gentleman's lap. (As the scalded man jumped up the trader
quietly said, "Don't disturb yourself, neighbour; accidents will happen in the
best of families.") "It always makes me mad to hear a man talking about
fidelity in niggers. There isn't a d -- -- d one on 'em who wouldn't cut sticks, if
he had half a chance."

By this time we were near Charleston; my master thanked the captain for his
advice, and they all withdrew and went on deck, where the trader fancied
he became quite eloquent. He drew a crowd around him, and with emphasis
said, "Cap'en, if I was the President of this mighty United States of America,
the greatest and freest country under the whole universe, I would never let
no man, I don't care who he is, take a nigger into the North and bring him
back here, filled to the brim, as he is sure to be, with d -- -- d abolition vices,
to taint all quiet niggers with the hellish spirit of running away. These air,
cap'en, my flat-footed, every day, right up and down sentiments, and as this
is a free country, cap'en, I don't care who hears 'em; for I am a Southern
man, every inch on me to the backbone." "Good!" said an insignificant-
looking individual of the slave-dealer stamp. "Three cheers for John C.
Calhoun and the whole fair sunny South!" added the trader. So off went
their hats, and out burst a terrific roar of irregular but continued cheering.
My master took no more notice of the dealer. He merely said to the captain
that the air on deck was too keen for him, and he would therefore return to
the cabin.

While the trader was in the zenith of his eloquence, he might as well have
said, as one of his kit did, at a great Filibustering meeting, that "When the
great American Eagle gets one of his mighty claws upon Canada and the
other into South America, and his glorious and starry wings of liberty
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, oh! then, where will England be,
 31

ye gentlemen? I tell ye, she will only serve as a pocket-handkerchief for

Jonathan to wipe his nose with."

On my master entering the cabin he found at the breakfast-table a young

southern military officer, with whom he had travelled some distance the
previous day.

After passing the usual compliments the conversation turned upon the old
subject, -- niggers.

The officer, who was also travelling with a man-servant, said to my master,
"You will excuse me, Sir, for saying I think you are very likely to spoil your
boy by saying 'thank you' to him. I assure you, sir, nothing spoils a slave so
soon as saying, 'thank you' and 'if you please' to him. The only way to make
a nigger toe the mark, and to keep him in his place, is to storm at him like
thunder, and keep him trembling like a leaf. Don't you see, when I speak to
my Ned, he darts like lightning; and if he didn't I'd skin him."

Just then the poor dejected slave came in, and the officer swore at him
fearfully, merely to teach my master what he called the proper way to treat
me.

After he had gone out to get his master's luggage ready, the officer said,
"That is the way to speak to them. If every nigger was drilled in this manner,
they would be as humble as dogs, and never dare to run away.

The gentleman urged my master not to go to the North for the restoration
of his health, but to visit the Warm Springs in Arkansas.

My master said, he thought the air of Philadelphia would suit his complaint
best; and, not only so, he thought he could get better advice there.

The boat had now reached the wharf. The officer wished my master a safe
and pleasant journey, and left the saloon.

There were a large number of persons on the quay waiting the arrival of the
steamer: but we were afraid to venture out for fear that some one might
recognize me; or that they had heard that we were gone, and had
telegraphed to have us stopped. However, after remaining in the cabin till all
the other passengers were gone, we had our luggage placed on a fly, and I
 32

took my master by the arm, and with a little difficulty he hobbled on shore,
got in and drove off to the best hotel, which John C. Calhoun, and all the
other great southern fire-eating statesmen, made their head-quarters while
in Charleston.

On arriving at the house the landlord ran out and opened the door: but
judging, from the poultices and green glasses, that my master was an
invalid, he took him very tenderly by one arm and ordered his man to take
the other.

My master then eased himself out, and with their assistance found no
trouble in getting up the steps into the hotel. The proprietor made me stand
on one side, while he paid my master the attention and homage he thought
a gentleman of his high position merited.

My master asked for a bed-room. The servant was ordered to show a good
one, into which we helped him. The servant returned. My master then
handed me the bandages, I took them downstairs in great haste, and told
the landlord my master wanted two hot poultices as quickly as possible. He
rang the bell, the servant came in, to whom he said, "Run to the kitchen and
tell the cook to make two hot poultices right off, for there is a gentleman
upstairs very badly off indeed!"

In a few minutes the smoking poultices were brought in. I placed them in
white handkerchiefs, and hurried upstairs, went into my master's
apartment, shut the door, and laid them on the mantel-piece. As he was
alone for a little while, he thought he could rest a great deal better with the
poultices off. However, it was necessary to have them to complete the
remainder of the journey. I then ordered dinner, and took my master's boots
out to polish them. While doing so I entered into conversation with one of
the slaves. I may state here, that on the sea-coast of South Carolina and
Georgia the slaves speak worse English than in any other part of the
country. This is owing to the frequent importation, or smuggling in, of
Africans, who mingle with the natives. Consequently the language cannot
properly be called English or African, but a corruption of the two.
 33

The shrewd son of African parents to whom I referred said to me, "Say,
brudder, way you come from, and which side you goin day wid dat ar little
don up buckra" (white man)?

I replied, "To Philadelphia."

"What!" he exclaimed, with astonishment, "to Philumadelphy?"

"Yes," I said.

"By squash! I wish I was going wid you! I hears um say dat dare's no slaves
way over in dem parts; is um so?"

I quietly said, "I have heard the same thing."

"Well," continued he, as he threw down the boot and brush, and, placing his
hands in his pockets, strutted across the floor with an air of independence --
"Gorra Mighty, dem is de parts for Pompey; and I hope when you get dare
you will stay, and nebber follow dat buckra back to dis hot quarter no more,
let him be eber so good."

I thanked him; and just as I took the boots up and started off, he caught my
hand between his two, and gave it a hearty shake, and, with tears streaming
down his cheeks, said: --

"God bless you, broder, and may de Lord be wid you. When you gets de
freedom, and sitin under your own wine and fig-tree, don't forget to pray
for poor Pompey."

I was afraid to say much to him, but I shall never forget his earnest request,
nor fail to do what little I can to release the millions of unhappy bondmen,
of whom he was one.

At the proper time my master had the poultices placed on, came down, and
seated himself at a table in a very brilliant dining-room, to have his dinner. I
had to have something at the same time, in order to be ready for the boat;
so they gave me my dinner in an old broken plate, with a rusty knife and
fork, and said, "Here, boy, you go in the kitchen." I took it and went out, but
did not stay more than a few minutes, because I was in a great hurry to get
back to see how the invalid was getting on. On arriving I found two or three
 34

servants waiting on him; but as he did not feel able to make a very hearty
dinner, he soon finished, paid the bill, and gave the servants each a trifle,
which caused one of them to say to me, "Your massa is a big bug" --
meaning a gentleman of distinction -- "he is the greatest gentleman dat has
been dis way for dis six months." I said, "Yes, he is some pumpkins,"
meaning the same as "big bug."

When we left Maçon, it was our intention to take a steamer at Charleston

through to Philadelphia; but on arriving there we found that the vessels did
not run during the winter, and I have no doubt it was well for us they did
not; for on the very last voyage the steamer made that we intended to go
by, a fugitive was discovered secreted on board, and sent back to slavery.
However, as we had also heard of the Overland Mail Route, we were all
right. So I ordered a fly to the door, had the luggage placed on; we got in,
and drove down to the Custom-house Office, which was near the wharf
where we had to obtain tickets, to take a steamer for Wilmington, North
Carolina. When we reached the building, I helped my master into the office,
which was crowded with passengers. He asked for a ticket for himself and
one for his slave to Philadelphia. This caused the principal officer -- a very
mean-looking, cheese-coloured fellow, who was sitting there -- to look up at
us very suspiciously, and in a fierce tone of voice he said to me, "Boy, do you
belong to that gentleman?" I quickly replied, "Yes, sir" (which was quite
correct). The tickets were handed out, and as my master was paying for
them the chief man said to him, "I wish you to register your name here, sir,
and also the name of your nigger, and pay a dollar duty on him."

My master paid the dollar, and pointing to the hand that was in the poultice,
requested the officer to register his name for him. This seemed to offend
the "high-bred" South Carolinian. He jumped up, shaking his head; and,
cramming his hands almost through the bottom of his trousers pockets,
with a slave-bullying air, said, "I shan't do it."

This attracted the attention of all the passengers. Just then the young
military officer with whom my master travelled and conversed on the
steamer from Savannah stepped in, somewhat the worse for brandy; he
shook hands with my master, and pretended to know all about him. He said,
"I know his kin (friends) like a book;" and as the officer was known in
 35

Charleston, and was going to stop there with friends, the recognition was
very much in my master's favor.

The captain of the steamer, a good-looking, jovial fellow, seeing that the
gentleman appeared to know my master, and perhaps not wishing to lose
us as passengers, said in an off-hand sailor-like manner, "I will register the
gentleman's name, and take the responsibility upon myself." He asked my
master's name. He said, "William Johnson." The names were put down, I
think, "Mr. Johnson and slave." The captain said, "It's all right now, Mr.
Johnson." He thanked him kindly, and the young officer begged my master
to go with him, and have something to drink and a cigar; but as he had not
acquired these accomplishments, he excused himself, and we went on
board and came off to Wilmington, North Carolina. When the gentleman
finds out his mistake, he will, I have no doubt, be careful in future not to
pretend to have an intimate acquaintance with an entire stranger. During
the voyage the captain said, "It was rather sharp shooting this morning, Mr.
Johnson. It was not out of any disrespect to you, sir; but they make it a rule
to be very strict at Charleston. I have known families to be detained there
with their slaves till reliable information could be received respecting them.
If they were not very careful, any d -- -- d abolitionist might take off a lot of
valuable niggers."

My master said, "I suppose so," and thanked him again for helping him over
the difficulty.

We reached Wilmington the next morning, and took the train for Richmond,
Virginia. I have stated that the American railway carriages (or cars, as they
are called), are constructed differently to those in England. At one end of
some of them, in the South, there is a little apartment with a couch on both
sides for the convenience of families and invalids; and as they thought my
master was very poorly, he was allowed to enter one of these apartments at
Petersburg, Virginia, where an old gentleman and two handsome young
ladies, his daughters, also got in, and took seats in the same carriage. But
before the train started, the gentleman stepped into my car, and questioned
me respecting my master. He wished to know what was the matter with
him, where he was from, and where he was going. I told him where he came
from, and said that he was suffering from a complication of complaints, and
 36

was going to Philadelphia, where he thought he could get more suitable

advice than in Georgia.

The gentleman said my master could obtain the very best advice in
Philadelphia. Which turned out to be quite correct, though he did not
receive it from physicians, but from kind abolitionists who understood his
case much better. The gentleman also said, "I reckon your master's father
hasn't any more such faithful and smart boys as you." "O, yes, sir, he has," I
replied, "lots on 'em." Which was literally true. This seemed all he wished to
know. He thanked me, gave me a ten-cent piece, and requested me to be
attentive to my good master. I promised that I would do so, and have ever
since endeavoured to keep my pledge. During the gentleman's absence, the
ladies and my master had a little cosy chat. But on his return, he said, "You
seem to be very much afflicted, sir." "Yes, sir," replied the gentleman in the
poultices. "What seems to be the matter with you, sir; may I be allowed to
ask?" "Inflammatory rheumatism, sir." "Oh! that is very bad, sir," said the
kind gentleman: "I can sympathise with you; for I know from bitter
experience what the rheumatism is." If he did, he knew a good deal more
than Mr. Johnson.

The gentleman thought my master would feel better if he would lie down
and rest himself; and as he was anxious to avoid conversation, he at once
acted upon this suggestion. The ladies politely rose, took their extra shawls,
and made a nice pillow for the invalid's head. My master wore a fashionable
cloth cloak, which they took and covered him comfortably on the couch.
After he had been lying a little while the ladies, I suppose, thought he was
asleep; so one of them gave a long sigh, and said, in a quiet fascinating tone,
"Papa, he seems to be a very nice young gentleman." But before papa could
speak, the other lady quickly said, "Oh! dear me, I never felt so much for a
gentleman in my life!" To use an American expression, "they fell in love with
the wrong chap."

After my master had been lying a little while he got up, the gentleman
assisted him in getting on his cloak, the ladies took their shawls, and soon
they were all seated. They then insisted upon Mr. Johnson taking some of
their refreshments, which of course he did, out of courtesy to the ladies. All
went on enjoying themselves until they reached Richmond, where the ladies
 37

and their father left the train. But, before doing so, the good old Virginian
gentleman, who appeared to be much pleased with my master, presented
him with a recipe, which he said was a perfect cure for the inflammatory
rheumatism. But the invalid not being able to read it, and fearing he should
hold it upside down in pretending to do so, thanked the donor kindly, and
placed it in his waistcoat pocket. My master's new friend also gave him his
card, and requested him the next time he travelled that way to do him the
kindness to call; adding, "I shall be pleased to see you, and so will my
daughters." Mr. Johnson expressed his gratitude for the proffered
hospitality, and said he should feel glad to call on his return. I have not the
slightest doubt that he will fulfil the promise whenever that return takes
place. After changing trains we went on a little beyond Fredericksburg, and
took a steamer to Washington.

At Richmond, a stout elderly lady, whose whole demeanour indicated that

she belonged (as Mrs. Stowe's Aunt Chloe expresses it) to one of the
"firstest families," stepped into the carriage, and took a seat near my
master. Seeing me passing quickly along the platform, she sprang up as if
taken by a fit, and exclaimed, "Bless my soul! there goes my nigger, Ned!"

My master said, "No; that is my boy."

The lady paid no attention to this; she poked her head out of the window,
and bawled to me, "You Ned, come to me, sir, you runaway rascal!"

On my looking round she drew her head in, and said to my master, "I beg
your pardon, sir, I was sure it was my nigger; I never in my life saw two black
pigs more alike than your boy and my Ned."

After the disappointed lady had resumed her seat, and the train had moved
off, she closed her eyes, slightly raising her hands, and in a sanctified tone
said to my master, "Oh! I hope, sir, your boy will not turn out to be so
worthless as my Ned has. Oh! I was as kind to him as if he had been my own
son. Oh! sir, it grieves me very much to think that after all I did for him he
should go off without having any cause whatever."

"When did he leave you?" asked Mr. Johnson.

 38

"About eighteen months ago, and I have never seen hair or hide of him
since."

"Did he have a wife?" enquired a very respectable-looking young gentleman,

who was sitting near my master and opposite to the lady.

"No, sir; not when he left, though he did have one a little before that. She
was very unlike him; she was as good and as faithful a nigger as any one
need wish to have. But, poor thing! she became so ill, that she was unable to
do much work; so I thought it would be best to sell her, to go to New
Orleans, where the climate is nice and warm."

"I suppose she was very glad to go South for the restoration of her health?"
said the gentleman.

"No; she was not," replied the lady, "for niggers never know what is best for
them. She took on a great deal about leaving Ned and the little nigger; but,
as she was so weakly, I let her go."

"Was she good-looking?" asked the young passenger, who was evidently
not of the same opinion as the talkative lady, and therefore wished her to
tell all she knew.

"Yes; she was very handsome, and much whiter than I am; and therefore will
have no trouble in getting another husband. I am sure I wish her well. I
asked the speculator who bought her to sell her to a good master. Poor
thing! she has my prayers, and I know she prays for me. She was a good
Christian, and always used to pray for my soul. It was through her earliest
prayers," continued the lady, "that I was first led to seek forgiveness of my
sins, before I was converted at the great camp-meeting."

This caused the lady to snuffle and to draw from her pocket a richly
embroidered handkerchief, and apply it to the corner of her eyes. But my
master could not see that it was at all soiled.

The silence which prevailed for a few moments was broken by the
gentleman's saying, "As your 'July' was such a very good girl, and had
served you so faithfully before she lost her health, don't you think it would
have been better to have emancipated her?"
 39

"No, indeed I do not!" scornfully exclaimed the lady, as she impatiently

crammed the fine handkerchief into a little work-bag. "I have no patience
with people who set niggers at liberty. It is the very worst thing you can do
for them. My dear husband just before he died willed all his niggers free. But
I and all our friends knew very well that he was too good a man to have ever
thought of doing such an unkind and foolish thing, had he been in his right
mind, and, therefore we had the will altered as it should have been in the
first place."

"Did you mean, madam," asked my master, "that willing the slaves free was
unjust to yourself, or unkind to them?"

"I mean that it was decidedly unkind to the servants themselves. It always
seems to me such a cruel thing to turn niggers loose to shift for themselves,
when there are so many good masters to take care of them. As for myself,"
continued the considerate lady, "I thank the Lord my dear husband left me
and my son well provided for. Therefore I care nothing for the niggers, on
my own account, for they are a great deal more trouble than they are worth,
I sometimes wish that there was not one of them in the world; for the
ungrateful wretches are always running away. I have lost no less than ten
since my poor husband died. It's ruinous, sir!"

"But as you are well provided for, I suppose you do not feel the loss very
much," said the passenger.

"I don't feel it at all," haughtily continued the good soul; "but that is no
reason why property should be squandered. If my son and myself had the
money for those valuable niggers, just see what a great deal of good we
could do for the poor, and in sending missionaries abroad to the poor
heathen, who have never heard the name of our blessed Redeemer. My
dear son who is a good Christian minister has advised me not to worry and
send my soul to hell for the sake of niggers; but to sell every blessed one of
them for what they will fetch, and go and live in peace with him in New
York. This I have concluded to do. I have just been to Richmond and made
arrangements with my agent to make clean work of the forty that are left."
 40

"Your son being a good Christian minister," said the gentleman, "It's strange
he did not advise you to let the poor negroes have their liberty and go
North."

"It's not at all strange, sir; it's not at all strange. My son knows what's best
for the niggers; he has always told me that they were much better off than
the free niggers in the North. In fact, I don't believe there are any white
labouring people in the world who are as well off as the slaves."

"You are quite mistaken, madam," said the young man. "For instance, my
own widowed mother, before she died, emancipated all her slaves, and sent
them to Ohio, where they are getting along well. I saw several of them last
summer myself."

"Well," replied the lady, "freedom may do for your ma's niggers, but it will
never do for mine; and, plague them, they shall never have it; that is the
word, with the bark on it."

"If freedom will not do for your slaves," replied the passenger, "I have no
doubt your Ned and the other nine negroes will find out their mistake, and
return to their old home.

"Blast them!" exclaimed the old lady, with great emphasis, "if I ever get
them, I will cook their infernal hash, and tan their accursed black hides well
for them! God forgive me," added the old soul, "the niggers will make me
lose all my religion!"

By this time the lady had reached her destination. The gentleman got out at
the next station beyond. As soon as she was gone, the young Southerner
said to my master, "What a d -- -- d shame it is for that old whining
hypocritical humbug to cheat the poor negroes out of their liberty! If she has
religion, may the devil prevent me from ever being converted!"

For the purpose of somewhat disguising myself, I bought and wore a very
good second-hand white beaver, an article which I had never indulged in
before. So just before we arrived at Washington, an uncouth planter, who
had been watching me very closely, said to my master, "I reckon, stranger,
you are 'spiling' that ere nigger of yourn, by letting him wear such a devilish
fine hat. Just look at the quality on it; the President couldn't wear a better. I
 41

should just like to go and kick it overboard." His friend touched him, and
said, "Don't speak so to a gentleman." "Why not?" exclaimed the fellow. He
grated his short teeth, which appeared to be nearly worn away by the
incessant chewing of tobacco, and said, "It always makes me itch all over,
from head to toe, to get hold of every d -- -- d nigger I see dressed like a
white man. Washington is run away with spiled and free niggers. If I had my
way I would sell every d -- -- d rascal of 'em way down South, where the devil
would be whipped out on 'em."

This man's fierce manner made my master feel rather nervous, and
therefore he thought the less he said the better; so he walked off without
making any reply. In a few minutes we were landed at Washington, where
we took a conveyance and hurried off to the train for Baltimore.

We left our cottage on Wednesday morning, the 21st of December, 1848,

and arrived at Baltimore, Saturday evening, the 24th (Christmas Eve).
Baltimore was the last slave port of any note at which we stopped.

On arriving there we felt more anxious than ever, because we knew not
what that last dark night would bring forth. It is true we were near the goal,
but our poor hearts were still as if tossed at sea; and, as there was another
great and dangerous bar to pass, we were afraid our liberties would be
wrecked, and, like the ill-fated Royal Charter, go down for ever just off the
place we longed to reach.

They are particularly watchful at Baltimore to prevent slaves from escaping

into Pennsylvania, which is a free State. After I had seen my master into one
of the best carriages, and was just about to step into mine, an officer, a full-
blooded Yankee of the lower order, saw me. He came quickly up, and,
tapping me on the shoulder, said in his unmistakable native twang, together
with no little display of his authority, "Where are you going, boy?" "To
Philadelphia, sir," I humbly replied. "Well, what are you going there for?" "I
am travelling with my master, who is in the next carriage, sir." "Well, I
calculate you had better get him out; and be mighty quick about it, because
the train will soon be starting. It is against my rules to let any man take a
slave past here, unless he can satisfy them in the office that he has a right to
take him along."
 42

The officer then passed on and left me standing upon the platform, with my
anxious heart apparently palpitating in the throat. At first I scarcely knew
which way to turn. But it soon occurred to me that the good God, who had
been with us thus far, would not forsake us at the eleventh hour. So with
renewed hope I stepped into my master's carriage, to inform him of the
difficulty. I found him sitting at the farther end, quite alone. As soon as he
looked up and saw me, he smiled. I also tried to wear a cheerful
countenance, in order to break the shock of the sad news. I knew what
made him smile. He was aware that if we were fortunate we should reach
our destination at five o'clock the next morning, and this made it the more
painful to communicate what the officer had said; but, as there was no time
to lose, I went up to him and asked him how he felt. He said "Much better,"
and that he thanked God we were getting on so nicely. I then said we were
not getting on quite so well as we had anticipated. He anxiously and quickly
asked what was the matter. I told him. He started as if struck by lightning,
and exclaimed, "Good Heavens! William, is it possible that we are, after all,
doomed to hopeless bondage?" I could say nothing, my heart was too full to
speak, for at first I did not know what to do. However we knew it would
never do to turn back to the "City of Destruction," like
Bunyan's Mistrust and Timorous, because they saw lions in the narrow way
after ascending the hill Difficulty; but press on, like
noble Christian and Hopeful, to the great city in which dwelt a few "shining
ones." So, after a few moments, I did all I could to encourage my
companion, and we stepped out and made for the office; but how or where
my master obtained sufficient courage to face the tyrants who had power to
blast all we held dear, heaven only knows! Queen Elizabeth could not have
been more terror-stricken, on being forced to land at the traitors' gate
leading to the Tower, than we were on entering that office. We felt that our
very existence was at stake, and that we must either sink or swim. But, as
God was our present and mighty helper in this as well as in all former trials,
we were able to keep our heads up and press forwards.

On entering the room we found the principal man, to whom my master said,
"Do you wish to see me, sir?" "Yes," said this eagle-eyed officer; and he
added, "It is against our rules, sir, to allow any person to take a slave out of
Baltimore into Philadelphia, unless he can satisfy us that he has a right to
 43

take him along." "Why is that?" asked my master, with more firmness than
could be expected. "Because, sir," continued he, in a voice and manner that
almost chilled our blood, "if we should suffer any gentleman to take a slave
past here into Philadelphia; and should the gentleman with whom the slave
might be travelling turn out not to be his rightful owner; and should the
proper master come and prove that his slave escaped on our road, we shall
have him to pay for; and, therefore, we cannot let any slave pass here
without receiving security to show, and to satisfy us, that it is all right."

This conversation attracted the attention of the large number of bustling

passengers. After the officer had finished, a few of them said, "Chit, chit,
chit;" not because they thought we were slaves endeavouring to escape,
but merely because they thought my master was a slaveholder and invalid
gentleman, and therefore it was wrong to detain him. The officer, observing
that the passengers sympathised with my master, asked him if he was not
acquainted with some gentleman in Baltimore that he could get to endorse
for him, to show that I was his property, and that he had a right to take me
off. He said, "No;" and added, "I bought tickets in Charleston to pass us
through to Philadelphia, and therefore you have no right to detain us here."
"Well, sir," said the man, indignantly, "right or no right, we shan't let you
go." These sharp words fell upon our anxious hearts like the crack of doom,
and made us feel that hope only smiles to deceive.

For a few moments perfect silence prevailed. My master looked at me, and I
at him, but neither of us dared to speak a word, for fear of making some
blunder that would tend to our detection. We knew that the officers had
power to throw us into prison, and if they had done so we must have been
detected and driven back, like the vilest felons, to a life of slavery, which we
dreaded far more than sudden death.

We felt as though we had come into deep waters and were about being
overwhelmed, and that the slightest mistake would clip asunder the last
brittle thread of hope by which we were suspended, and let us down for
ever into the dark and horrible pit of misery and degradation from which we
were straining every nerve to escape. While our hearts were crying lustily
unto Him who is ever ready and able to save, the conductor of the train that
we had just left stepped in. The officer asked if we came by the train with
 44

him from Washington; he said we did, and left the room. Just then the bell
rang for the train to leave; and had it been the sudden shock of an
earthquake it could not have given us a greater thrill. The sound of the bell
caused every eye to flash with apparent interest, and to be more steadily
fixed upon us than before. But, as God would have it, the officer all at once
thrust his fingers through his hair, and in a state of great agitation said, "I
really don't know what to do; I calculate it is all right." He then told the clerk
to run and tell the conductor to "let this gentleman and slave pass;" adding,
"As he is not well, it is a pity to stop him here. We will let him go." My master
thanked him, and stepped out and hobbled across the platform as quickly as
possible. I tumbled him unceremoniously into one of the best carriages, and
leaped into mine just as the train was gliding off towards our happy
destination.

We thought of this plan about four days before we left Maçon; and as we
had our daily employment to attend to, we only saw each other at night. So
we sat up the four long nights talking over the plan and making
preparations.

We had also been four days on the journey; and as we travelled night and
day, we got but very limited opportunities for sleeping. I believe nothing in
the world could have kept us awake so long but the intense excitement,
produced by the fear of being retaken on the one hand, and the bright
anticipation of liberty on the other.

We left Baltimore about eight o'clock in the evening; and not being aware of
a stopping-place of any consequence between there and Philadelphia, and
also knowing that if we were fortunate we should be in the latter place early
the next morning, I thought I might indulge in a few minutes' sleep in the
car; but I, like Bunyan's Christian in the arbour, went to sleep at the wrong
time, and took too long a nap. So, when the train reached Havre de Grace,
all the first-class passengers had to get out of the carriages and into a ferry-
boat, to be ferried across the Susquehanna river, and take the train on the
opposite side.

The road was constructed so as to be raised or lowered to suit the tide. So

they rolled the luggage-vans on to the boat, and off on the other side; and
 45

as I was in one of the apartments adjoining a baggage-car, they considered it

unnecessary to awaken me, and tumbled me over with the luggage. But
when my master was asked to leave his seat, he found it very dark, and cold,
and raining. He missed me for the first time on the journey. On all previous
occasions, as soon as the train stopped, I was at hand to assist him. This
caused many slaveholders to praise me very much: they said they had never
before seen a slave so attentive to his master: and therefore my absence
filled him with terror and confusion; the children of Israel could not have felt
more troubled on arriving at the Red Sea. So he asked the conductor if he
had seen anything of his slave. The man being somewhat of an abolitionist,
and believing that my master was really a slaveholder, thought he would
tease him a little respecting me. So he said, "No, sir; I haven't seen anything
of him for some time: I have no doubt he has run away, and is in
Philadelphia, free, long before now." My master knew that there was
nothing in this; so he asked the conductor if he would please to see if he
could find me. The man indignantly replied, "I am no slave-hunter; and as far
as I am concerned everybody must look after their own niggers." He went
off and left the confused invalid to fancy whatever he felt inclined. My
master at first thought I must have been kidnapped into slavery by some
one, or left, or perhaps killed on the train. He also thought of stopping to
see if he could hear anything of me, but he soon remembered that he had
no money. That night all the money we had was consigned to my own
pocket, because we thought, in case there were any pickpockets about, a
slave's pocket would be the last one they would look for. However, hoping
to meet me some day in a land of liberty, and as he had the tickets, he
thought it best upon the whole to enter the boat and come off to
Philadelphia, and endeavour to make his way alone in this cold and hollow
world as best he could. The time was now up, so he went on board and
came across with feelings that can be better imagined than described.

After the train had got fairly on the way to Philadelphia, the guard came into
my car and gave me a violent shake, and bawled out at the same time, "Boy,
wake up!" I started, almost frightened out of my wits. He said, "Your master
is scared half to death about you." That frightened me still more -- I thought
they had found him out; so I anxiously inquired what was the matter. The
guard said, "He thinks you have run away from him." This made me feel
 46

quite at ease. I said, "No, sir; I am satisfied my good master doesn't think
that." So off I started to see him. He had been fearfully nervous, but on
seeing me he at once felt much better. He merely wished to know what had
become of me.

On returning to my seat, I found the conductor and two or three other

persons amusing themselves very much respecting my running away. So the
guard said, "Boy, what did your master want?" 2 I replied, "He merely wished
to know what had become of me." "No," said the man, "that was not it; he
thought you had taken French leave, for parts unknown. I never saw a
fellow so badly scared about losing his slave in my life. Now," continued the
guard, "let me give you a little friendly advice. When you get to Philadelphia,
run away and leave that cripple, and have your liberty." "No, sir," I
indifferently replied, "I can't promise to do that." "Why not?" said the
conductor, evidently much surprised; "don't you want your liberty?" "Yes,
sir," I replied; "but I shall never run away from such a good master as I have
at present."

One of the men said to the guard, "Let him alone; I guess he will open his
eyes when he gets to Philadelphia, and see things in another light." After
giving me a good deal of information, which I afterwards found to be very
useful, they left me alone.

I also met with a coloured gentleman on this train, who recommended me

to a boarding-house that was kept by an abolitionist, where he thought I
would be quite safe, if I wished to run away from my master. I thanked him
kindly, but of course did not let him know who we were. Late at night, or
rather early in the morning, I heard a fearful whistling of the steam-engine;
so I opened the window and looked out, and saw a large number of
flickering lights in the distance, and heard a passenger in the next carriage --
who also had his head out of the window -- say to his companion, "Wake up,
old horse, we are at Philadelphia!"

2
I may state here that every man slave is called boy till he is very old, then the more respectable
slaveholders call him uncle. The women are all girls till they are aged, then they are called aunts. This is the
reason why Mrs. Stowe calls her characters Uncle Tom, Aunt Chloe, Uncle Tiff, &c.
 47

The sight of those lights and that announcement made me feel almost as
happy as Bunyan's Christian must have felt when he first caught sight of the
cross. I, like him, felt that the straps that bound the heavy burden to my
back began to pop, and the load to roll off. I also looked, and looked again,
for it appeared very wonderful to me how the mere sight of our first city of
refuge should have all at once made my hitherto sad and heavy heart
become so light and happy. As the train speeded on, I rejoiced and thanked
God with all my heart and soul for his great kindness and tender mercy, in
watching over us, and bringing us safely through.

As soon as the train had reached the platform, before it had fairly stopped, I
hurried out of my carriage to my master, whom I got at once into a cab,
placed the luggage on, jumped in myself, and we drove off to the boarding-
house which was so kindly recommended to me. On leaving the station, my
master -- or rather my wife, as I may now say -- who had from the
commencement of the journey borne up in a manner that much surprised us
both, grasped me by the hand, and said, "Thank God, William, we are safe!"
and then burst into tears, leant upon me, and wept like a child. The reaction
was fearful. So when we reached the house, she was in reality so weak and
faint that she could scarcely stand alone. However, I got her into the
apartments that were pointed out, and there we knelt down, on this
Sabbath, and Christmas-day, -- a day that will ever be memorable to us, --
and poured out our heartfelt gratitude to God, for his goodness in enabling
us to overcome so many perilous difficulties, in escaping out of the jaws of
the wicked.
 48

PART 2

AFTER my wife had a little recovered herself, she threw off the disguise and
assumed her own apparel. We then stepped into the sitting-room, and
asked to see the landlord. The man came in, but he seemed thunderstruck
on finding a fugitive slave and his wife, instead of a "young cotton planter
and his nigger." As his eyes travelled round the room, he said to me, "Where
is your master?" I pointed him out. The man gravely replied, "I am not joking,
I really wish to see your master." I pointed him out again, but at first he
could not believe his eyes; he said "he knew that was not the gentleman
that came with me."

But, after some conversation, we satisfied him that we were fugitive slaves,
and had just escaped in the manner I have described. We asked him if he
thought it would be safe for us to stop in Philadelphia. He said he thought
not, but he would call in some persons who knew more about the laws than
himself. He then went out, and kindly brought in several of the leading
abolitionists of the city, who gave us a most hearty and friendly welcome
amongst them. As it was in December, and also as we had just left a very
warm climate, they advised us not to go to Canada as we had intended, but
to settle at Boston in the United States. It is true that the constitution of the
Republic has always guaranteed the slaveholders the right to come into any
of the so-called free States, and take their fugitives back to southern Egypt.
But through the untiring, uncompromising, and manly efforts of Mr.
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker, and a host of other noble
abolitionists of Boston and the neighbourhood, public opinion in
Massachusetts had become so much opposed to slavery and to kidnapping,
that it was almost impossible for any one to take a fugitive slave out of that
State.

So we took the advice of our good Philadelphia friends, and settled at

Boston. I shall have something to say about our sojourn there presently.

Among other friends we met with at Philadelphia, was Robert Purves, Esq.,
a well educated and wealthy coloured gentleman, who introduced us to Mr.
 49

Barkley Ivens, a member of the Society of Friends, and a noble and

generous-hearted farmer, who lived at some distance in the country.

This good Samaritan at once invited us to go and stop quietly with his family,
till my wife could somewhat recover from the fearful reaction of the past
journey. We most gratefully accepted the invitation, and at the time
appointed we took a steamer to a place up the Delaware river, where our
new and dear friend met us with his snug little cart, and took us to his happy
home. This was the first act of great and disinterested kindness we had ever
received from a white person.

The gentleman was not of the fairest complexion, and therefore, as my wife
was not in the room when I received the information respecting him and his
anti-slavery character, she thought of course he was a quadroon like herself.
But on arriving at the house, and finding out her mistake, she became more
nervous and timid than ever.

As the cart came into the yard, the dear good old lady, and her three
charming and affectionate daughters, all came to the door to meet us. We
got out, and the gentleman said, "Go in, and make yourselves at home; I will
see after the baggage." But my wife was afraid to approach them. She
stopped in the yard, and said to me, "William, I thought we were coming
among coloured people?" I replied, "It is all right; these are the same." "No,"
she said, "it is not all right, and I am not going to stop here; I have no
confidence whatever in white people, they are only trying to get us back to
slavery." She turned round and said, "I am going right off." The old lady then
came out, with her sweet, soft, and winning smile, shook her heartily by the
hand, and kindly said, "How art thou, my dear? We are all very glad to see
thee and thy husband. Come in, to the fire; I dare say thou art cold and
hungry after thy journey."

We went in, and the young ladies asked if she would like to go upstairs and
"fix" herself before tea. My wife said, "No, I thank you; I shall only stop a
little while." "But where art thou going this cold night?" said Mr. Ivens, who
had just stepped in. "I don't know," was the reply. "Well, then," he
continued, "I think thou hadst better take off thy things and sit near the fire;
tea will soon be ready. "Yes, come, Ellen," said Mrs. Ivens, "let me assist
 50

thee;" (as she commenced undoing my wife's bonnet-strings;) "don't be

frightened, Ellen, I shall not hurt a single hair of thy head. We have heard
with much pleasure of the marvellous escape of thee and thy husband, and
deeply sympathise with thee in all that thou hast undergone. I don't wonder
at thee, poor thing, being timid; but thou needs not fear us; we would as
soon send one of our own daughters into slavery as thee; so thou mayest
make thyself quite at ease!" These soft and soothing words fell like balm
upon my wife's unstrung nerves, and melted her to tears; her fears and
prejudices vanished, and from that day she has firmly believed that there are
good and bad persons of every shade of complexion.

After seeing Sally Ann and Jacob, two coloured domestics, my wife felt quite
at home. After partaking of what Mrs. Stowe's Mose and Pete called a
"busting supper," the ladies wished to know whether we could read. On
learning we could not, they said if we liked they would teach us. To this kind
offer, of course, there was no objection. But we looked rather knowingly at
each other, as much as to say that they would have rather a hard task to
cram anything into our thick and matured skulls.

However, all hands set to and quickly cleared away the tea-things, and the
ladies and their good brother brought out the spelling and copy books and
slates, &c., and commenced with their new and green pupils. We had, by
stratagem, learned the alphabet while in slavery, but not the writing
characters; and, as we had been such a time learning so little, we at first felt
that it was a waste of time for any one at our ages to undertake to learn to
read and write. But, as the ladies were so anxious that we should learn, and
so willing to teach us, we concluded to give our whole minds to the work,
and see what could be done. By so doing, at the end of the three weeks we
remained with the good family we could spell and write our names quite
legibly. They all begged us to stop longer; but, as we were not safe in the
State of Pennsylvania, and also as we wished to commence doing something
for a livelihood, we did not remain.

When the time arrived for us to leave for Boston, it was like parting with our
relatives. We have since met with many very kind and hospitable friends,
both in America and England; but we have never been under a roof where
we were made to feel more at home, or where the inmates took a deeper
 51

interest in our well-being, than Mr. Barkley Ivens and his dear family. May
God ever bless them, and preserve each one from every reverse of fortune!

We finally, as I have stated, settled at Boston, where we remained nearly

two years, I employed as cabinet-maker and furniture broker, and my wife at
her needle; and, as our little earnings in slavery were not all spent on the
journey, we were getting on very well, and would have made money, if we
had not been compelled by the General Government, at the bidding of the
slaveholders, to break up business, and fly from under the Stars and Stripes
to save our liberties and our lives.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Bill, an enactment too infamous
to have been thought of or tolerated by any people in the world, except the
unprincipled and tyrannical Yankees. The following are a few of the leading
features of the above law; which requires, under heavy penalties, that the
inhabitants of the free States should not only refuse food and shelter to a
starving, hunted human being, but also should assist, if called upon by the
authorities, to seize the unhappy fugitive and send him back to slavery.

In no case is a person's evidence admitted in Court, in defence of his liberty,

when arrested under this law.

If the judge decides that the prisoner is a slave, he gets ten dollars; but if he
sets him at liberty, he only receives five.

After the prisoner has been sentenced to slavery, he is handed over to the
United States Marshal, who has the power, at the expense of the General
Government, to summon a sufficient force to take the poor creature back to
slavery, and to the lash, from which he fled.

Our old masters sent agents to Boston after us. They took out warrants, and
placed them in the hands of the United States Marshal to execute. But the
following letter from our highly esteemed and faithful friend, the Rev.
Samuel May, of Boston, to our equally dear and much lamented friend, Dr.
Estlin of Bristol, will show why we were not taken into custody.

"21, Cornhill, Boston,

November 6th, 1850.
"My dear Mr Estlin,
 52

"I trust that in God's good providence this letter will be handed to you in
safety by our good friends, William and Ellen Craft. They have lived amongst
us about two years, and have proved themselves worthy, in all respects, of
our confidence and regard. The laws of this republican and Christian land
(tell it not in Moscow, nor in Constantinople) regard them only as slaves --
chattels -- personal property. But they nobly vindicated their title and right
to freedom, two years since, by winning their way to it; at least, so they
thought. But now, the slave power, with the aid of Daniel Webster and a
band of lesser traitors, has enacted a law, which puts their dearly-bought
liberties in the most imminent peril; holds out a strong temptation to every
mercenary and unprincipled ruffian to become their kidnapper; and has
stimulated the slaveholders generally to such desperate acts for the
recovery of their fugitive property, as have never before been enacted in the
history of this government.

"Within a fortnight, two fellows from Maçon, Georgia, have been in

Boston for the purpose of arresting our friends William and Ellen. A writ was
served against them from the United States District Court; but it was not
served by the United States Marshal; why not, is not certainly known:
perhaps through fear, for a general feeling of indignation, and a cool
determination not to allow this young couple to be taken from Boston into
slavery, was aroused, and pervaded the city. It is understood that one of the
judges told the Marshal that he would not be authorised in breaking the
door of Craft's house. Craft kept himself close within the house, armed
himself, and awaited with remarkable composure the event. Ellen, in the
meantime, had been taken to a retired place out of the city. The Vigilance
Committee (appointed at a late meeting in Fanueil Hall) enlarged their
numbers, held an almost permanent session, and appointed various
subcommittees to act in different ways. One of these committees called
repeatedly on Messrs. Hughes and Knight, the slave-catchers, and requested
and advised them to leave the city. At first they peremptorily refused to do
so, ''till they got hold of the niggers.' On complaint of different persons,
these two fellows were several times arrested, carried before one of our
county courts, and held to bail on charges of 'conspiracy to kidnap,' and of
'defamation,' in calling William and Ellen 'slaves.' At length, they became so
alarmed, that they left the city by an indirect route, evading the vigilance of
 53

many persons who were on the look-out for them. Hughes, at one time, was
near losing his life at the hands of an infuriated coloured man. While these
men remained in the city, a prominent whig gentleman sent word to William
Craft, that if he would submit peaceably to an arrest, he and his wife should
be bought from their owners, cost what it might. Craft replied, in effect,
that he was in a measure the representative of all the other fugitives in
Boston, some 200 or 300 in number; that, if he gave up, they would all be at
the mercy of the slave-catchers, and must fly from the city at any sacrifice;
and that, if his freedom could be bought for two cents, he would not
consent to compromise the matter in such a way. This event has stirred up
the slave spirit of the country, south and north; the United States
government is determined to try its hand in enforcing the Fugitive Slave law;
and William and Ellen Craft would be prominent objects of the slaveholders'
vengeance. Under these circumstances, it is the almost unanimous opinion
of their best friends, that they should quit America as speedily as possible,
and seek an asylum in England! Oh! shame, shame upon us, that Americans,
whose fathers fought against Great Britain, in order to be FREE, should have
to acknowledge this disgraceful fact! God gave us a fair and goodly heritage
in this land, but man has cursed it with his devices and crimes against human
souls and human rights. Is America the 'land of the free, and the home of
the brave?' God knows it is not; and we know it too. A brave young man and
a virtuous young woman must fly the American shores, and seek, under the
shadow of the British throne, the enjoyment of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.'

"But I must pursue my plain, sad story. All day long, I have been busy
planning a safe way for William and Ellen to leave Boston. We dare not allow
them to go on board a vessel, even in the port of Boston; for the writ is yet
in the Marshal's hands, and he may be waiting an opportunity to serve it; so I
am expecting to accompany them to-morrow to Portland, Maine, which is
beyond the reach of the Marshal's authority; and there I hope to see them
on board a British steamer.

"This letter is written to introduce them to you. I know your infirm health;
but I am sure, if you were stretched on your bed in your last illness, and
could lift your hand at all, you would extend it to welcome these poor
 54

hunted fellow-creatures. Henceforth, England is their nation and their home.

It is with real regret for our personal loss in their departure, as well as
burning shame for the land that is not worthy of them, that we send them
away, or rather allow them to go. But, with all the resolute courage they
have shown in a most trying hour, they themselves see it is the part of a
foolhardy rashness to attempt to stay here longer.

"I must close; and with many renewed thanks for all your kind words and
deeds towards us,
"I am, very respectfully yours,
"SAMUEL MAY, JUN."

Our old masters, having heard how their agents were treated at Boston,
wrote to Mr. Filmore, who was then President of the States, to know what
he could do to have us sent back to slavery. Mr. Filmore said that we should
be returned. He gave instructions for military force to be sent to Boston to
assist the officers in making the arrest. Therefore we, as well as our friends
(among whom was George Thompson, Esq., late M.P. for the Tower
Hamlets -- the slave's long-tried, self-sacrificing friend, and eloquent
advocate) thought it best, at any sacrifice, to leave the mock-free Republic,
and come to a country where we and our dear little ones can be truly free. --
"No one daring to molest or make us afraid." But, as the officers were
watching every vessel that left the port to prevent us from escaping, we had
to take the expensive and tedious overland route to Halifax.

We shall always cherish the deepest feelings of gratitude to the Vigilance

Committee of Boston (upon which were many of the leading abolitionists),
and also to our numerous friends, for the very kind and noble manner in
which they assisted us to preserve our liberties and to escape from Boston,
as it were like Lot from Sodom, to a place of refuge, and finally to this truly
free and glorious country; where no tyrant, let his power be ever so
absolute over his poor trembling victims at home, dare come and lay violent
hands upon us or upon our dear little boys (who had the good fortune to be
born upon British soil), and reduce us to the legal level of the beast that
perisheth. Oh! may God bless the thousands of unflinching, disinterested
abolitionists of America, who are labouring through evil as well as through
good report, to cleanse their country's escutcheon from the foul and
 55

destructive blot of slavery, and to restore to every bondman his God-given

rights; and may God ever smile upon England and upon England's good,
much-beloved, and deservedly-honoured Queen, for the generous
protection that is given to unfortunate refugees of every rank, and of every
colour and clime.

On the passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill, the following learned doctors, as
well as a host of lesser traitors, came out strongly in its defence.

The Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring, an eminent Presbyterian Clergyman of New

York, well known in this country by his religious publications, declared from
the pulpit that, "if by one prayer he could liberate every slave in the world
he would not dare to offer it."

The Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, of Philadelphia, in the course of a discussion on the
nature of Slavery, says, "What, then, are the evils inseparable from slavery?
There is not one that is not equally inseparable from depraved human
nature in other lawful relations."

The Rev. Moses Stuart, D.D., (late Professor in the Theological College of
Andover), in his vindication of this Bill, reminds his readers that "many
Southern slaveholders are true Christians." That "sending back a fugitive to
them is not like restoring one to an idolatrous people." That "though we
may pity the fugitive, yet the Mosaic Law does not authorize the rejection of
the claims of the slaveholders to their stolen or strayed property."

The Rev. Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, New York, has come forward in support
of the "Fugitive Slave Bill," by publishing a sermon entitled the "Religious
Duty of Obedience to the Laws," which has elicited the highest encomiums
from Dr. Samuel H. Cox, the Presbyterian minister of Brooklyn (notorious
both in this country and America for his sympathy with the slaveholder).

The Rev. W. M. Rogers, an orthodox minister of Boston, delivered a sermon

in which he says, "When the slave asks me to stand between him and his
master, what does he ask? He asks me to murder a nation's life; and I will not
do it, because I have a conscience, -- because there is a God." He proceeds to
affirm that if resistance to the carrying out of the "Fugitive Slave Law"
should lead the magistracy to call the citizens to arms, their duty was to
 56

obey and "if ordered to take human life, in the name of God to take it;" and
he concludes by admonishing the fugitives to "hearken to the Word of God,
and to count their own masters worthy of all honour."

The Rev. William Crowell, of Waterfield, State of Maine, printed a

Thanksgiving Sermon of the same kind, in which he calls upon his hearers
not to allow "excessive sympathies for a few hundred fugitives to blind
them so that they may risk increased suffering to the millions already in
chains."

The Rev. Dr. Taylor, an Episcopal Clergyman of New Haven, Connecticut,

made a speech at a Union Meeting, in which he deprecates the agitation on
the law, and urges obedience to it; asking, -- "Is that article in the
Constitution contrary to the law of Nature, of nations, or to the will of God?
Is it so? Is there a shadow of reason for saying it? I have not been able to
discover it. Have I not shown you it is lawful to deliver up, in compliance
with the laws, fugitive slaves, for the high, the great, the momentous
interests of those [Southern] States?"

The Right Rev. Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, in a Lecture at Lockport, says,

"It was warranted by the Old Testament;" and inquires, "What effect had
the Gospel in doing away with slavery? None whatever." Therefore he
argues, as it is expressly permitted by the Bible, it does not in itself involve
any sin; but that every Christian is authorised by the Divine Law to own
slaves, provided they were not treated with unnecessary cruelty.

The Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D., of the Unitarian connexion, maintained in his
lectures that the safety of the Union is not to be hazarded for the sake of
the African race. He declares that, for his part, he would send his own
brother or child into slavery, if needed to preserve the Union between the
free and the slaveholding States; and, counselling the slave to similar
magnanimity, thus exhorts him: -- "Your right to be free is not absolute,
unqualified, irrespective of all consequences. If my espousal of your claim is
likely to involve your race and mine together in disasters infinitely greater
than your personal servitude, then you ought not to be free. In such a case
personal rights ought to be sacrificed to the general good. You yourself
ought to see this, and be willing to suffer for a while -- one for many."
 57

If the Doctor is prepared, he is quite at liberty to sacrifice his "personal

rights to the general good." But, as I have suffered a long time in slavery, it
is hardly fair for the Doctor to advise me to go back. According to his
showing, he ought rather to take my place. That would be practically
carrying out his logic, as respects "suffering awhile -- one for many."

In fact, so eager were they to prostrate themselves before the great idol of
slavery, and, like Balaam, to curse instead of blessing the people whom God
had brought out of bondage, that they in bring up obsolete passages from
the Old Testament to justify their downward course, overlooked, or would
not see, the following verses, which show very clearly, according to the
Doctor's own textbook, that the slaves have a right to run away, and that it
is unscriptural for any one to send them back.

In the 23rd chapter of Deuteronomy, 15th and 16th verses, it is thus written: -
- "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from
his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that
place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best:
thou shalt not oppress him."

"Hide the outcast. Bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell
with thee. Be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." -- (Isa. xvi.
3, 4.)

The great majority of the American ministers are not content with uttering
sentences similar to the above, or remaining wholly indifferent to the cries
of the poor bondman; but they do all they can to blast the reputation, and
to muzzle the mouths, of the few good men who dare to beseech the God
of mercy "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and let the oppressed go free." These reverend gentlemen pour a terrible
cannonade upon "Jonah," for refusing to carry God's message against
Nineveh, and tell us about the whale in which he was entombed; while they
utterly overlook the existence of the whales which trouble their republican
waters, and know not that they themselves are the "Jonahs" who threaten
to sink their ship of state, by steering in an unrighteous direction. We are
told that the whale vomited up the runaway prophet. This would not have
seemed so strange, had it been one of the above lukewarm Doctors of
 58

Divinity whom he had swallowed; for even a whale might find such a morsel
difficult of digestion.

"I venerate the man whose heart is warm,

Whose hands are pure; whose doctrines and whose life
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause."

"But grace abused brings forth the foulest deeds,

As richest soil the most luxuriant weeds."

I must now leave the reverend gentlemen in the hands of Him who knows
best how to deal with a recreant ministry.

I do not wish it to be understood that all the ministers of the States are of
the Balaam stamp. There are those who are as uncompromising with
slaveholders as Moses was with Pharaoh, and, like Daniel, will never bow
down before the great false God that has been set up.

On arriving at Portland, we found that the steamer we intended to take had

run into a schooner the previous night, and was lying up for repairs; so we
had to wait there, in fearful suspense, for two or three days. During this
time, we had the honour of being the guest of the late and much lamented
Daniel Oliver, Esq., one of the best and most hospitable men in the State. By
simply fulfilling the Scripture injunction, to take in the stranger, &c., he ran
the risk of incurring a penalty of 2,000 dollars, and twelve months'
imprisonment.

But neither the Fugitive Slave Law, nor any other Satanic enactment, can
ever drive the spirit of liberty and humanity out of such noble and generous-
hearted men.

May God ever bless his dear widow, and eventually unite them in His courts
above!

We finally got off to St. John's, New Brunswick, where we had to wait two
days for the steamer that conveyed us to Windsor, Nova Scotia.
 59

On going into a hotel at St. John's, we met the butler in the hall, to whom I
said, "We wish to stop here to-night." He turned round, scratching his head,
evidently much put about. But thinking that my wife was white, he replied,
"We have plenty of room for the lady, but I don't know about yourself; we
never take in coloured folks." "Oh, don't trouble about me," I said; "if you
have room for the lady, that will do; so please have the luggage taken to a
bed-room." Which was immediately done, and my wife went upstairs into
the apartment.

After taking a little walk in the town, I returned, and asked to see the "lady."
On being conducted to the little sitting-room, where she then was, I entered
without knocking, much to the surprise of the whole house. The "lady" then
rang the bell, and ordered dinner for two. "Dinner for two, mum!" exclaimed
the waiter, as he backed out of the door. "Yes, for two," said my wife. In a
little while the stout, red-nosed butler, whom we first met, knocked at the
door. I called out, "Come in." On entering, he rolled his whisky eyes at me,
and then at my wife, and said, in a very solemn tone, "Did you order dinner
for two, mum?" "Yes, for two," my wife again replied. This confused the
chubby butler more than ever; and, as the landlord was not in the house, he
seemed at a loss what to do.

When dinner was ready, the maid came in and said, "Please, mum, the Missis
wishes to know whether you will have dinner up now, or wait till your friend
arrives?" "I will have it up at once, if you please." "Thank you, mum,"
continued the maid, and out she glided.

After a good deal of giggling in the passage, some one said, "You are in for
it, butler, after all; so you had better make the best of a bad job." But before
dinner was sent up, the landlord returned, and having heard from the
steward of the steamer by which we came that we were bound for England,
the proprietor's native country, he treated us in the most respectful manner.

At the above house, the boots (whose name I forget) was a fugitive slave, a
very intelligent and active man, about forty-five years of age. Soon after his
marriage, while in slavery, his bride was sold away from him, and he could
never learn where the poor creature dwelt. So after remaining single for
many years, both before and after his escape, and never expecting to see
 60

again, nor even to hear from, his long-lost partner, he finally married a
woman at St. John's. But, poor fellow, as he was passing down the street
one day, he met a woman; at the first glance they nearly recognized each
other; they both turned round and stared, and unconsciously advanced, till
she screamed and flew into his arms. Her first words were, "Dear, are you
married?" On his answering in the affirmative, she shrank from his embrace,
hung her head, and wept. A person who witnessed this meeting told me it
was most affecting.

This couple knew nothing of each other's escape or whereabouts. The

woman had escaped a few years before to the free States, by secreting
herself in the hold of a vessel; but as they tried to get her back to bondage,
she fled to New Brunswick for that protection which her native country was
too mean to afford.

The man at once took his old wife to see his new one, who was also a
fugitive slave, and as they all knew the workings of the infamous system of
slavery, the could (as no one else can,) sympathise with each other's
misfortune.

According to the rules of slavery, the man and his first wife were already
divorced, but not morally; and therefore it was arranged between the three
that he should live only with the lastly married wife, and allow the other one
so much a week, as long as she requested his assistance.

After staying at St. John's two days, the steamer arrived, which took us to
Windsor, where we found a coach bound for Halifax. Prejudice against
colour forced me on the top in the rain. On arriving within about seven miles
of the town, the coach broke down and was upset. I fell upon the big
crotchety driver, whose head stuck in the mud; and as he "always objected
to niggers riding inside with white folks," I was not particularly sorry to see
him deeper in the mire than myself. All of us were scratched and bruised
more or less. After the passengers had crawled out as best they could, we all
set off, and paddled through the deep mud and cold and rain, to Halifax.

On leaving Boston, it was our intention to reach Halifax at least two or three
days before the steamer from Boston touched there, en route for Liverpool;
but, having been detained so long at Portland and St. John's, we had the
 61

misfortune to arrive at Halifax at dark, just two hours after the steamer had
gone; consequently we had to wait there a fortnight, for the Cambria.

The coach was patched up, and reached Halifax with the luggage, soon after
the passengers arrived. The only respectable hotel that was then in the
town had suspended business, and was closed; so we went to the inn,
opposite the market, where the coach stopped: a most miserable, dirty hole
it was.

Knowing that we were still under the influence of the low Yankee prejudice,
I sent my wife in with the other passengers, to engage a bed for herself and
husband. I stopped outside in the rain till the coach came up. If I had gone in
and asked for a bed they would have been quite full. But as they thought my
wife was white, she had no difficulty in securing apartments, into which the
luggage was afterwards carried. The landlady, observing that I took an
interest in the baggage, became somewhat uneasy, and went into my wife's
room, and said to her, "Do you know the dark man downstairs?" "Yes, he is
my husband." "Oh! I mean the black man -- the nigger?" "I quite understand
you; he is my husband." "My God!" exclaimed the woman as she flounced
out and banged to the door. On going upstairs, I heard what had taken
place: but, as we were there, and did not mean to leave that night, we did
not disturb ourselves. On our ordering tea, the landlady sent word back to
say that we must take it in the kitchen, or in our bed-room, as she had no
other room for "niggers." We replied that we were not particular, and that
they could sent it up to our room, -- which they did.

After the pro-slavery persons who were staying there heard that we were in,
the whole house became agitated, and all sorts of oaths and fearful threats
were heaped upon the "d -- -- d niggers, for coming among white folks."
Some of them said they would not stop there a minute if there was another
house to go to.

The mistress came up the next morning to know how long we wished to
stop. We said a fortnight. "Oh! dear me, it is impossible for us to
accommodate you, and I think you had better go: you must understand, I
have no prejudice myself; I think a good deal of the coloured people, and
have always been their friend; but if you stop here we shall lose all our
 62

customers, which we can't do no-how." We said we were glad to hear that

she had "no prejudice," and was such a staunch friend to the coloured
people. We also informed her that we would be sorry for her "customers" to
leave on our account; and as it was not our intention to interfere with
anyone, it was foolish for them to be frightened away. However, if she
would get us a comfortable place, we would be glad to leave. The landlady
said she would go out and try. After spending the whole morning in
canvassing the town, she came to our room and said, "I have been from one
end of the place to the other, but everybody is full." Having a little foretaste
of the vulgar prejudice of the town, we did not wonder at this result.
However, the landlady gave me the address of some respectable coloured
families, whom she thought, "under the circumstances," might be induced
to take us. And, as we were not at all comfortable -- being compelled to sit,
eat and sleep, in the same small room -- we were quite willing to change our
quarters.

I called upon the Rev. Mr. Cannady, a truly good-hearted Christian man, who
received us at a word; and both he and his kind lady treated us handsomely,
and for a nominal charge.

My wife and myself were both unwell when we left Boston, and, having
taken fresh cold on the journey to Halifax, we were laid up there under the
doctor's care, nearly the whole fortnight. I had much worry about getting
tickets, for they baffled us shamefully at the Cunard office. They at first said
that they did not book till the steamer came; which was not the fact. When I
called again, they said they knew the steamer would come full from Boston,
and therefore we had "better try to get to Liverpool by other means." Other
mean Yankee excuses were made; and it was not till an influential
gentleman, to whom Mr. Francis Jackson, of Boston, kindly gave us a letter,
went and rebuked them, that we were able to secure our tickets. So when
we went on board my wife was very poorly, and was also so ill on the
voyage that I did not believe she could live to see Liverpool.

However, I am thankful to say she arrived; and, after laying up at Liverpool

very ill for two or three weeks, gradually recovered.
 63

It was not until we stepped upon the shore at Liverpool that we were free
from every slavish fear.

We raised our thankful hearts to Heaven, and could have knelt down, like
the Neapolitan exiles, and kissed the soil; for we felt that from slavery

"Heaven sure had kept this spot of earth uncurs'd,

To show how all lthings were created first."

In a few days after we landed, the Rev. Francis Bishop and his lady came and
invited us to be their guests; to whose unlimited kindness and watchful care
my wife owes, in a great degree, her restoration to health.

We enclosed our letter from the Rev. Mr. May to Mr. Estlin, who at once
wrote to invite us to his house at Bristol. On arriving there, both Mr. and
Miss Estlin received us as cordially as did our first good Quaker friends in
Pennsylvania. It grieves me much to have to mention that he is no more.
Everyone who knew him can truthfully say --

"Peace to the memory of a man of worth,

A man of letters, and of manners too!
Of manners sweet as Virtue always wears
When gay Good-nature dresses her in smiles."

It was principally through the extreme kindness of Mr. Estlin, the Right Hon.
Lady Noel Byron, Miss Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Reid, Miss Sturch, and a few
other good friends, that my wife and myself were able to spend a short time
at a school in this country, to acquire a little of that education which we
were so shamefully deprived of while in the house of bondage. The school is
under the supervision of the Misses Lushington, D.C.L. During our stay at the
school we received the greatest attention from every one; and I am
particularly indebted to Thomas Wilson, Esq., of Bradmore House, Chiswick,
(who was then the master,) for the deep interest he took in trying to get me
on in my studies. We shall ever fondly and gratefully cherish the memory of
our endeared and departed friend, Mr. Estlin. We, as well as the Anti-Slavery
cause, lost a good friend in him. However, if departed spirits in Heaven are
 64

conscious of the wickedness of this world, and are allowed to speak, he will
never fail to plead in the presence of the angelic host, and before the great
and just Judge, for down-trodden and outraged humanity.

"Therefore I cannot think thee wholly gone;

The better part of thee is with us still;
Thy soul its hampering clay aside hath thrown,
And only freer wrestles with the ill.

"Thou livest in the life of all good things;

What words thou spak'st for Freedom shall not die;
Thou sleepest not, for now thy Love hath wings
To soar where hence thy hope could hardly fly.

"And often, from that other world, on this

Some gleams from great souls gone before may shine,
To shed on struggling hearts a clearer bliss,
And clothe the Right with lustre more divine.

"Farewell! good man, good angel now! this hand

Soon, like thine own, shall lose its cunning, too;
Soon shall this soul, like thine, bewildered stand,
Then leap to thread the free unfathomed blue."

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

-- -- -- -- --
In the preceding pages I have not dwelt upon the great barbarities which
are practised upon the slaves; because I wish to present the system in its
mildest form, and to show that the "tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."
But I do now, however, most solemnly declare, that a very large majority of
the American slaves are over-worked, under-fed, and frequently
unmercifully flogged.
 65

I have often seen slaves tortured in every conceivable manner. I have seen
him hunted down and torn by bloodhounds. I have seen them shamefully
beaten, and branded with hot irons. I have seen them hunted, and even
burned alive at the stake, frequently for offences that would be applauded if
committed by white persons for similar purposes.

In short, it is well known in England, if not all over the world, that the
Americans, as a people, are notoriously mean and cruel towards all coloured
persons, whether they are bond or free.

"Oh, tyrant, thou who sleepest

On a volcano, from whose pent-up wrath,
Already some red flashes bursting up,
Beware!"

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