Part 17 (2/2)

My anxiety noas, to escape fro discovered by any one; to accomplish which I deterht caht had disappeared, I ventured to creep to the hatchway, and raiseno one on board, I crawled out of the hold, and stepped on board a shi+p that lay alongside of that in which I had coer Here aI had come to rob his shi+p; and it ith o He at length pero on the wharf; and I once more felt myself a freeman

I did not knohat city I was in; but as the sailors had all told me, at Savannah, that their shi+p was bound to Philadelphia, I had no doubt of being in that city In going along the street, a black man met me, and I asked hier to laugh loudly; and he passed on without giving entleht of the lamps To him I propounded the same question, that had been addressed a few moments before to the blacktold that I was in Philadelphia

This gentleman seeed appearance, or because I was a stranger, and did not knohere I was Whether for one cause or the other, I knew not; but he told me to follow him, and led me to the house of a black man, not far off, who In this house I was kindly entertained all night, and when the entleht with him an entire suit of clothes, not ave me money to buy a hat and soo away, and said, ”I perceive that thee is a slave, and has run away fro; but take care that they do not catch thee again” I then told him, that I had been a slave, and had twice run away and escaped froentleman seemed a little incredulous of that which I told him; but when I explained to him the cause of the condition in which he found me, he seeentleman, whose name I shall not publish, has always been a kind friend toin Philadelphia a feeeks, I resolved to return toin Baltimore, I went to a tavern keeper, whoarden This reatly surprised to see ed to escape froia I told hiia was not my master; but had kidnapped me, and carried me away by violence The tavern keeper then told me, that I had better leave Baltimore as soon as possible, and showed ainst the wall of his bar-room, in which a hundred and fifty dollars reas offered for my apprehension I immediately left this house, and fled froht

When I reachedin it, who questioned by me, as to the time he had owned this place, and the manner in which he had obtained possession, informed me, that a black man had formerly lived here; but he was a runaway slave, and his master had come, the summer before, and carried him off That the wife of the former owner of the house was also a slave; and that her master had come about six weeks before the present time, and taken her and her children, and sold them in Baltimore to a slave-dealer from the South

This hborhood at the time the woman and her children were carried away; but that he had received his information from a black woman, who lived half a mile off

This black wohbor, and I knew her to be entlehborhood, and resided under his protection, on a part of his land, I immediately went to the house of this woman, who could scarcely believe the evidence of her own eyes, when she saw me enter her door The first word's she spoke to me were, ”Lucy and her children have all been stolen away” Ataccount of the manner in which my wife and children, all of whom had been free from their birth, were seized and driven into southern slavery

”A feeeks,” said she, ”after they took you away, and before Lucy had so far recovered from the terror produced by that event, as to reht with her children, without soht with her; a kindness that I always rendered her, if no other person came to remain with her

”It was late ent to bed, perhaps eleven o'clock; and after we had been asleep some time, ere awakened by a loud rap at the door

At first we said nothing; but upon the rap being several times repeated, Lucy asked as there She was then told, in a voice that seeet up and open the door; adding, that the person without had so the voice to be that of a black wo near, rose and opened the door; but, to our astonish in, four or five men rushed into the house and immediately closed the door; at which one of the ainst it, until the others ht in the fire-place, and proceeded deliberately to tie Lucy with a rope--Search was then ed out This see the captors, whose faces were all black, but whose hair and visages were those of whitethem, the object of which was to deter with Lucy and the children, or be left behind, on account of the interest which my reed, that as it would be very dangerous to carry me off, lest my old master should cause pursuit to be made after them, they would leave me behind, and take only Lucy and the children One of the number then said it would not do to leave ive intelligence of what I had seen; and if the affair should be discovered by the et out of Maryland, they would certainly be detected and punished for the cri

”It was finally resolved to tieit closely to the back of my neck They immediately confined me, and then took the children from the bed The oldest boy they tied to his ether The three youngest children were then taken out of bed, and carried off in the hands of theI never saw nor heard any more of Lucy or her children

”For myself, I remained in the house, the door of which was carefully closed and fastened after it was shut, until the second night afterto eat or drink On the second night some unknown persons came and cut the cords that bound ence almost deprived me of life; it was the most dreadful of all the misfortunes that I had ever suffered It was now clear that some slave-dealer had come in my absence and seized my wife and children as slaves, and sold them to such men as I had served in the South They had now passed into hopeless bondage, and were gone forever beyond itive slave, and was liable to be arrested at each ia I rushed out of my own house in despair and returned to Pennsylvania with a broken heart

For the last few years, I have resided about fiftyofhard formy wife and children;--fearful, at this day, to let my place of residence be known, lest even yet it may be supposed, that as an article of property, I ae

THE END