FUGITIVES IN CANADA.
While visiting friends in Detroit and Canada previous to reopening
Raisin Institute, as I designed, I was earnestly solicited by Henry
Bibb, Horace Hallack, and Rev. Chas. C. Foote, the committee authorized
to employ a teacher, to open a school in a new settlement of fugitives,
eight miles back of Windsor, where the Refugee Association had
purchased government land, on long and easy terms, for fugitive slaves.
They had erected a frame house for school and meeting purposes. The
settlers had built for themselves small log-houses, and cleared from
one to five acres each on their heavily timbered land, and raised corn,
potatoes, and other garden vegetables. A few had put in two and three
acres of wheat, and were doing well for their first year.
After prayerful consideration, I reached the conclusion to defer for
another year my home work, and enter this new field.
In the Autumn of 1852 I opened school, and gave notice that at eleven
o'clock the following Sunday there would be a Sabbath-school for
parents and children, after which a little time would be spent in other
religious exercises, pursuing the same course I did in Toledo, Ohio.
This drew a number of callers who had no children to see if any could
come to my Sabbath-school; and when I told them it was for every body
of any age who desired to come, my school-house was filled to its
utmost capacity. Many frequently came five or six miles with their
ox-teams to attend these meetings, with their families. Every man,
woman, and child who could read a verse in the Testament, even with
assistance, took part in reading the lesson, and liberty was given to
ask questions. It was not strange to listen to many crude ideas, but a
more earnest, truth seeking congregation we seldom find. An aged
couple, past eighty, missed very few Sabbaths during the year I spent
there. The man was a fugitive slave, and his companion was an Indian
woman, converted under the preaching of a missionary among the Indians.
She had taken great pains to talk and understand the English language,
and was an interesting woman.
As there was an increasing interest both in day and Sabbath schools, I
give liberty for all who wished to enjoy a sort of class or inquiry
meeting, following half an hour's service for exhortation after Sabbath
school.
One couple desired a private interview with me, as they had been
married only after "slave fashion." They said "It is not right to live
this way in a free country. Now we wants you to marry us."
"I am not legally authorized," I said, "but I will send a note to
brother Foote, and he will come at once and marry you legally."
"We thought you preached, an' made notes for us, an' could help us out
in dis matter too."
Charles C. Foote came, and we called at their house at the appointed
time, with a few neighbors, to witness the solemnization of the
marriage that would have been accomplished three years before had they
looked at these things from the same stand point they now did.
A few days after another couple came on the same errand. Said this man
"We wants you an' Mr. Foote to marry us, case we's bin troubled 'bout
dis many days, case we wa'nt gwine to let nobody know it, but God knows
all 'bout us, an' now we's free indeed, we wants every thing straight."
"But why do you put me with Mr. Foote," I asked, "to marry you?"
"Didn't you an' Mr. Foote marry dat brother an sister week afore las'?"
"No; only brother Foote."
"Brother Foote repeated the questions," they answered; "then he
pronounced them husband and wife; then they were married according to
law. But he axt you to pray after he said dem words."
In all this ignorance they were like confiding grown-up children,
patiently listening to every explanation.
The unbounded confidence they placed in me was surprising; for they
often brought their business papers for me to examine, to see whether
they were right. One man brought me a note, as the employer could not
pay him for his work in money. He said it was a note for groceries; but
the grocer refused to take it, and said it was not good. I told him
there was neither date nor name to it. I wrote the man a letter, asking
him to rectify the mistake, which he did; but he gave his employee
credit for only half the days he had worked. They were so often
deceived and cheated in many ways, because of their extreme ignorance,
that I did not wonder at the conclusion one escaped fugitive had
reached. His master was a Presbyterian minister, but he had known him
to whip his sister, the cook, after coming home from Church; and he
said then he never would have faith in white folks' religion. Since
coming to this colony he watched me a long while before he made up his
mind that white people could have a pure religion. But now he believed
"that the Lord hid his Spirit in the hearts of white people at the
North; but it was a make-believe in slaveholders."
I was surprised one day to meet the mother of three of my scholars, who
gave her thrilling experience in her escape from slavery; but she had
little more than commenced her story before I found her to be one for
whom I laid a plan with her sister, who had bought herself. As I named
a circumstance, she exclaimed in surprise, "Why honey! is dis possible?
God sent you here to larn my gals to read, an' we didn't know you," and
tears began to drop thicker and faster, as she recounted the blessings
that had multiplied since her arrival in Canada. She had in the three
years worked for a little home. Her two older girls were at work, and
they were all so happy in their freedom.
These fugitives often came five or six miles for me to write letters to
their friends in the South, with whom they left a secret arrangement
very frequently with white people who were their friends, but secretly,
for fear of the ruling power, as were the disciples of Christ who
feared the Jews. Their notes, or articles of agreement, were generally
brought to me to draft for them.
In six weeks of steady attendance fifteen young men and women could
read the second reader, and write a legible hand, and draft a
negotiable note. I took a specimen of a number of my scholars'
hand-writing to an anti-slavery convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, and
left a few with the Rev. John G. Fee, whose life had been threatened if
he did not desist from preaching a free gospel in his home
State--Kentucky. But the brave Cassius M. Clay told him to go on, and
he would go with him. He went to one place from whence he had received
repeated threats, and trouble was anticipated; but Cassius walked into
the church by his side, and placed the Constitution of the United
States on the Bible, and over both his brace of pistols, with which he
informed the audience he should protect free speech. At the same time
he cast a glance at the threatening group in a farther corner, who left
one by one, until the church was cleared of all but eager listeners.
Brother Fee said his object in requesting these specimens of the
fugitives writing was to exhibit to those who were constantly asserting
that negroes could not learn. He wished them to see the legible
hand-writing of those who had only six weeks' training from their
alphabet.
After spending a few days' vacation, I returned to the toiling day and
night in my school. As there were twelve heads of families anxious to
read the Bible and hymn-book, and this seemed to be the height of their
ambition, I opened an evening school for that class. It was steadily
attended four evenings in each week, and this, with one evening devoted
to prayer-meeting, filled the week, leaving only one evening free; and
frequently they came with their ox-teams to take me three miles to lead
a prayer-meeting for them in an adjoining settlement.
The Winter was quite severe, and I frequently was awakened with the
snow sifting in my face, and not unfrequently found the snow half an
inch or more deep over my bed on rising in the morning; but my health
was firm, and I often thought I never enjoyed a year of toiling better
than the one I spent here.
There were in this colony a mixed religious element--Baptist,
Methodist, Presbyterian, and Free-will Baptist--deeply interested in
Sabbath schools and class-meetings, open to all who wished to enjoy
them. An organization was proposed. The proposition came from the
Methodist element, but I did not deem it wise to organize from any one
denomination, as divergent opinions would create controversy that would
bring harm to many tender minds. Consequently I proposed to organize a
Christian Union Church, without disturbing the Church relationship of
any one. I prepared an extract from Gerrit Smith's concise plan of
organizing, on a liberal-scale, a Christian Union Church, with but
little change, and read it to them; and, after a little discussion and
explanation it was readily adopted. I think the number of new converts
was thirteen, who expressed a desire to be baptized by immersion. I
exhorted them to attend to their own religious impressions, as I was
not there to present particular religious tenets, but to present the
crucified, risen, and glorified Savior. Brother Foote came and complied
with their wish.
I closed my evening school two weeks to hold a series of meetings, in
which a young Baptist brother assisted. We all continued to work
together for the highest good of all around us.
I noticed a settled sadness in the countenance of a young man of
twenty-five years, recently from Missouri. During recess he took but
little interest in any thing outside of his book or writing lesson.
After attending my school a few days he invited me to go to his
boarding-place to spend the night, as he wished me to write a letter
for him. I found his history was a sad one. He was sold from his wife
and four little children to satisfy a heavy debt. The master tried to
reason with him, and the man he owed would not take any of his slaves
but him. He called him aside to have further conversation concerning
the proposed sale; his wife presented herself also to plead that they
might not be separated. Both knelt before him, beseeching with tears to
allow them to remain together. Said he, "I tole 'im I'd serve 'im
faithfully all the days of my life, if he'd only let us live together;
and he seemed to give way a little, and said he did not want to sell
me, as I was his foreman, and he thought he would make other
arrangements. I watched him closely as I had but little confidence in
his words, and armed myself with a dirk. One day he called me to go to
the woods with him, to show me the trees he wanted chopped. As I was
going I saw the end of a rope under his coat-skirt. I kept at a
reasonable distance all the way, and when we came to the tree he wanted
I should chop, he attempted to come near me and I stood back; then he
told me plainly I must yield. I said I never would permit myself to
leave my family, and, if he was so determined, I should never be of any
use to any one, for life to me was of no value if I am to be taken from
my wife and four little children. At this he, with the other man, who
came out of the bushes, ran towards me, but I outran them. About seven
miles distant he overtook me with a number of his slave men, and told
me I had to give up. I flourished my dirk and told them that I would
kill the first man that touched me, or they should kill me. At this
they all stood back except the master himself. He flourished his
bowie-knife and I my dirk, for the space of a few minutes, when he made
a rush upon me, and he met my dirk before I met his bowie-knife. As he
fell back I ran for the woods. In the darkness of the night I made my
last visit to my wife and little children."
Here he became convulsed with weeping. When he could command his
feelings to pursue the sad story, he said:
"Oh, that was an awful parting! The moment I entered my wife's cabin
she threw her arms around my neck, exclaiming, 'Oh, my dear Bill, don't
stay a minute, for they say you've killed Master Riggs. They say he was
dyin' this evenin', and he's dead afore this time, I reckon, an' they
swear vengeance on you. Some said they'd chop you in pieces--some said
they'd burn you alive.' I told her if God would help me to Canada I
would write after awhile to her father (he was free, having bought
himself), and may be he could manage to send her and our children to
me; and I tore her arms from my neck."
Again he was overcome with grief. I advised him not to write at
present. I never saw a more grief-stricken man. He was boarding with
Henry Bibb's mother, who said she knew he was a man of deep trouble,
"for he looked so sad and groaned so much nights; but I couldn't bear
to ask him, because I thought it would be harder for him to forget it."
Having been a slave herself, she could easily anticipate the cause of
his sadness. Notwithstanding this, he made fair progress in reading,
writing, and arithmetic in one term. During this time vigorous efforts
were put forth for his capture.
While I enjoyed my work so much with these people in the woods, in
schools, in meetings, and in their improvements generally, I do not say
I found with them perfection. There were causes for reproof as well as
of encouragement. They made great effort to improve their homes by
taking trees from their woods to the saw mills to be cut up into boards
for better floors than split logs, and for partitions to make their
little houses more comfortable. Perhaps their improvements could not
find better expression than the report of one of our neighbors, in
reply to an inquiry of a friend in Detroit, as to how they were
prospering in their refugee colony, "Fine fine we've all come to life,
an' are in a state to see who'll make the bes' house."
Frequent arrivals of their friends from slavery often produced much
excitement. At one time a company of twenty seven arrived, brought by
John Fairfield, a Virginian. He often went into the heart of slave
holding States and brought companies away, passing himself as their
owner until they reached a free State. He telegraphed some friends in
Windsor, and a dinner of reception was provided in one of the colored
churches, and a great jubilee meeting was held. One very old woman,
between eighty and ninety years old, shouted as she jumped around among
the people, "I's young again. Glory! glory! Jesus is our Master for
evermore, honey," shaking hands with the new-comers. "Glory to Jesus!
I's sixteen," and she clapped her hands as she gave another leap. Said
John Fairfield, "This pays me for all dangers, I have faced in bringing
this company, just to see these old friends meet."
Our young brother Campbell, the literate Baptist minister who had
labored with us in our series of meetings a few months previously,
returned, and with the three Baptist families in that community
conceived the idea that as I was soon to leave, they could organize a
Baptist Church, and induce nearly all in that colony to unite, and they
went to work industriously to secure the individual consent of our
Christian Union members; but the plan was, with one accord, rejected,
except by our Baptist friends. As they said nothing to me concerning
it, each day brought some complaints about their organising a Baptist
Church "over our heads," as a number expressed themselves. But I told
them "not to feel hurt over their desire to organize a Baptist Church.
We will give way for them to occupy half the time." Brother Maglothin,
who had just come with his family from Virginia, was an earnest
Christian man and a licensed Wesleyan minister, and he was ready to
take my place in keeping up our Sabbath-schools and meetings.
Rev. N. P. Colver, of Detroit, had appointed the Sabbath to meet the
friends in our school-house, for the purpose of organizing a Baptist
Church and of ordaining brother Campbell to take charge of it. I told
all of our people to be sure and attend it with me. As I retired on the
night previous to the proposed meeting, I read the sweet promise of the
loving Savior, "I will be with you to the end," with an assurance of
entire trust.
The hour arrived, and our house was well filled, but with many saddened
faces. Brother Colver gave a short discourse, and ordained brother
Campbell, who was left in charge of the Baptist branch of the little
flock. At the close of the exercises I remarked that I hoped we would
all manifest the same abiding interest in each other's spiritual and
temporal well-being as we had heretofore done; that there was a fair
understanding between the brethren and sisters that every other Sabbath
was to be occupied by brother Maglothin, thus alternating with brother
Campbell; and as the next Sabbath would be my last for the present with
them, it would be my duty to explain the basis upon which our Christian
Union Church was organized. My earnest and constant prayer was and ever
would be, whether present or absent, that the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ would ever dwell richly in each heart of his followers in that
community, with whom I had spent a year that I could class with the
most pleasant of my life.
The following-Sabbath found our house well filled. After singing an
appropriate hymn, and prayer, I read 1 Corinthians iii, with remarks;
after which I read the license from the Wesleyan Methodist Conference,
acknowledging a qualification to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In it was granted liberty to organize a company of believers
into a Church; and I presented our articles of agreement to build each
other up in the unity of the Spirit and in the bonds of peace,
regardless of name, in this "Christian Union Church." To this we all
assented without a jar, and some of our Baptist brethren present voted
in favor.
At this their minister, arose with an acknowledgment that he had not
understood the foundation of this organization before, and regretted
very much what he had said against it, and would ask pardon of all
these brethren and sisters and of myself. Before I had an opportunity
to reply their deacon and another followed, asking pardon for what they
had said, for now they saw the wrong. I replied that if feelings had
been hurt by whatever had seemed unkind, they were now healed by the
same love and unity that had so universally prevailed in our little
band, that had given courage and strength all through the year. Here
were sad faces brightened; and others followed me, manifesting the
healing power of love. The Lord was in our minds reconciling to
himself, and melting away every apparent root of bitterness.
I left them again united, but our little Baptist organization lived
only till their fourth meeting. From their own choice it was
discontinued; and, as the majority in that community were of Methodist
proclivities, it has never ceased to be of that family name, being a
few months after reorganized under the auspices of the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
I had, previous to leaving this field, written to William Anderson's
wife, Maria, directed to her father, and dated in Adrian, Michigan, and
I instructed letters from her to be sent to that city in my care. Soon
after my return a letter came from her father, as William had directed.
I opened it, and found the very plausible plan of bringing William's
wife and four children to him. Her father wrote of the loss of his own
wife; and as the size and color of Maria answered to the description of
his own wife, as recorded on his manumission papers, he proposed to
take Maria and the children a few miles away in the night, where they
would be kept secreted until the excitement of hunting for them was
over, when he proposed to take them a night's journey northward. By
that time he hoped that he could travel openly, with his free papers. I
replied as William requested, in his name, and forwarded both the
letter and a copy of my reply to him, with a renewed caution for him
not to cross the Detroit River, as it was possible that all these plans
were devised by his enemies, instead of the father-in-law and his wife.
They had desired him to meet them on their way, and also inquired for
names of places and persons who aided him, for the purpose of passing
through safely to some point where they could meet to part no more
until death itself should separate them. I wrote him to wait patiently
the result, and not allow himself to become too much elated over this
plausible plan, for I had written "that there were many friends who
assisted him, whose names he had forgotten, neither could he call to
mind the names of the many places he passed through, for he was taken
from place to place in haste. They, too, would find no lack of friends;
and if they brought his family to Adrian, Michigan, and inquired for
Mrs. Laura S. Haviland, a widow, they would learn where he could be
found."
Not many days elapsed before the answer came in the person of a
Southerner, accompanied by Mr. Warren, of Detroit, with my letter in
his hand and with the statement that I would know the where abouts of
William Anderson. He said his family had arrived in Detroit with his
wife's father and that they were in the family of a colored minister by
the name of Williams.
I told him I was acquainted with the Williams family, and was very glad
to hear of the arrival of William Anderson's family, over whom he had
been very anxious, and inquired when they came.
"Yesterday, about four o'clock," was the reply. "There seems to be
quite an interest in the family by the white people. Mr. Hallack gave
me five dollars to pay William's fare to Detroit to meet his family, as
I volunteered to come for him. And here's a letter he sent to his
father in law, you can read for yourself."
I took it, and as I opened it recognized the letter I wrote for him.
"Yes, this is all right, it is the letter I wrote for William."
Beginning to appear quite nervous, he said "You see in that there is a
statement that you would know where he's at work, and," taking out his
watch, "I see we'll have to hurry to get to Adrian by train time and if
you'll be so kind as to tell me where to find him as they are very
anxiously waiting for us, I shall be obliged to you. It would be a
great disappointment if we should fail to reach Detroit when the next
train goes in."
He walked to and fro across the room, first to the door, then to the
window, in a hurried, excited manner, while I was purposely detaining
him to see him tremble. I was quite satisfied that he was a bogus coin
by the index of his face. When I told him, at length, that he was
working in Chatham, Canada West, and that I wrote this direction to
avoid any possible scheme or plot to return him to hopeless bondage,
his face reddened and voice trembled as he replied "I don't know any
thing about it, only what Mr. Hallack told me. That is every thing that
I know in this matter."
I told him what Mr. Hallack had informed him was all right, and he
could tell him to send the family on the first train from Windsor to
Chatham, and they would meet William there. He bowed, "I thank you;"
but looked as if his words very much misrepresented him.
By the time he was out of sight I had my horse and buggy ready, to
follow him to Adrian, to telegraph Horace Hallack and George De Baptist
to forward a dispatch to William Anderson, Chatham, Canada West, to
leave that city without an hour's delay, as I was satisfied his enemies
from Missouri were after him, and probably would take him as a
murderer. The telegram was sent, and he obeyed its request.
Within two days my caller was there, inquiring for William, and was
told by a number that he had been at work in town some time, but left a
couple of days before, but knew not where he went. After a few days'
search and inquiries in that town, he returned to Detroit, and for the
first time called on Horace Hallack to inform him that he was in search
of a colored man by the name of William Anderson, who was a free man,
that had committed in the State of Missouri a cold-blooded murder of a
Baptist deacon, for the paltry sum of five dollars, and he understood
he had been quite recently in Chatham, Canada, but had left that city.
He, would like advice as to what course to pursue to ascertain his
whereabouts. Horace Hallack referred him to George De Baptist, who was
well acquainted with leading colored men in many localities both in
Canada and this side the river.
Our Missourian was now in good hands, as I followed my dispatch to them
with a long letter, giving William Anderson's experience in detail.
George De Baptist told him if he had been a slave, he would have taken
every measure within his reach to protect him in his freedom.
But as he said he was always free, and such a high-handed murderer as
he represented, he would go just as far to bring him to justice. "I
will tell you what I will do; I will write to an intelligent colored
man in each of the largest settlements of colored people, Chatham,
Amhurstburg, and Sandwich, and will receive replies from each within
four days, and I will give you the result of their inquiries." At the
time appointed the Missourian returned for tidings.
Said George, "I have received answers from each letter, and from
Amhurstburg and Sandwich they write they have known or heard nothing of
a man by that name; but the man to whom I wrote in Chatham has known
all about him, being well acquainted with him, and he writes that
William Anderson had been talking of going to Sault St. Marys, and that
he left two weeks ago, rather mysteriously, without telling him or any
one else where he was going; but the greater probability was he went
there."
He gave the letters to him, to read for himself. Consequently he hired
Mr. Warren and another man, and took the trip to Sault St. Marys, where
he spent a week inquiring for William Anderson; but he failed to get
the least clew to his whereabouts, and returned to Detroit. He left a
power of attorney with his friend Warren to arrest him in case he could
be decoyed over the Detroit river; if that plan did not succeed, he was
to telegraph him if he found his whereabouts in Canada. If these plans
failed, he left directions to arrest me with a United States warrant.
But about the time I was to have been arrested Mr. Warren, the man who
was empowered to arrest me, died with cholera--a singular coincidence.
Mr. Warren's brother expressed deep sorrow and regret to find the
papers granting legal authority to transact such business in his
brother's possession at the time of his death. He allowed George De
Baptist to see them before they were destroyed. This was the second
time cholera defeated my arrest.
Pursuit was still continued for William Anderson. Three years after I
fell in company with D. L. Ward, attorney of New Orleans, in a stage
between Ypsilanti and Clinton, Michigan. He was making some complaints
about the North, which drew forth a few remarks from me. "Oh, I am glad
I've got hold of an abolitionist. It is just what I have wished for
ever since I left my home in New Orleans. Now I want to give you a
little advice, and, as it will cost you nothing, you may accept it
freely, and I hope you will profit by it; and that is, when you
abolitionists have another Sims case, call on Southern legal gentlemen,
and we will help you through. We would have cleared Sims, for that
Fugitive slave Law is defective, and we know it, and we know just how
to handle it."
"Why did you introduce a defective bill?"
"Because we made up our minds to bring you Northerners to our terms,
whether it was constitutional or not, and we have done it, because we
knew we could do it; not because we cared for a few niggers; for I say,
if a nigger cares enough for freedom to run for it, he ought to have
it. Now we knew that was an unconstitutional thing before we put it
before Congress; but we put it there to let you know we could drive it
down Northern throats, and we did it, too."
"I acknowledge," I replied, "that there is too much servility in our
North; there is too much crouching and cringing, but I am prepared to
say there are more than seven thousand that have never bowed the knee
to your Baal of slavery, and never will. We never shall do homage to
your Southern goddess, though you may cry loud and long in demanding
its worship. You say if we have another slave case, if we come to you
to help us through, you will do it, and that if a slave wants his
freedom bad enough to run for it, you think he ought to have it?"
"Yes, madam, we will aid you, for we know just how to handle that
thing."
"Supposing a man is about to be sold from his family, and he falls at
his master's feet, and pleads in tears to remain with his family, and
promises to serve him faithfully all the days of his life, if he will
only permit them to remain together; but the master persists in the
sale; the slave makes his escape; is overtaken by his master, yet,
severely wounding him, he succeeds in gaining his liberty. Now what do
you say in regard to this supposed case?"
Looking me full in the face, he asked my name, which was given. Said
he, "I think I am acquainted with that case. Is it not William
Anderson, a runaway from Missouri?"
"William Anderson's case is very similar to the one I have described."
"Oh yes, madam, and you are implicated in that affair, but as you are a
lady I will not disturb you; but you are liable to great difficulty in
that case, and I will tell you we are going to have Anderson by hook or
by crook; we will have him by fair means or foul; the South is
determined to have that man, and you'll find your House of Refuge will
not protect him either."
"This is the way I perceive you Southern legal gentlemen will help us.
But you will never get Anderson from Canada. Your determination will
fail."
"We shall not fail, but I will tell you after I return from our
filibustering tour, as we am going out next month. We are confident of
success in that, too, for our fleet is in good condition. We shall then
take Anderson, if not before, and let you see how much your House of
Refuge will do to hold that man from the South."
I never heard from D. L. Ward from that day. I had written previous to
this interview to the governor-general, Lord Elgin, of the first effort
to retake him as a murderer. He replied that, "in case of a demand for
William Anderson, he should require the case to be tried in their
British court; and if twelve freeholders should testify that he had
been a man of integrity since his arrival in their dominion, it should
clear him." This information, however, I did not reveal to our Southern
lawyer.
Three years later, in which time I had succeeded in finishing my Raisin
Institute building, and reopened the institution in charge of a
principal from Oberlin College, the sad tidings reached me that William
Anderson was lodged in jail in the city of Toronto, under charge of
murder committed in the State of Missouri. He was awaiting his trial,
and Gerrit Smith was one of his legal advisers. I wrote immediately
informing him of the previous efforts to search out his whereabouts,
and that his pursuers at that date (1853) alleged that he was a free
man, and had never been a slave. In reply, Gerrit Smith wrote:
"I am glad you have given me so much of his history. Poor Anderson! I
visited him in jail. I will send you my speech in his behalf. I hope
the friends will purchase his family. I have volunteered to do all I
can for the poor man. Lord Elgin is removed; the present
governor-general is a stranger to this case. God bless you.
"I am truly your friend, GERRIT SMITH."
A few days later, I received the thrilling speech of Gerrit Smith, like
the man, full of pure and soul-inspiring thought; but I trembled with
fear when two of the three judges were in favor of returning William
Anderson to the State of Missouri, and that Riggs the claimant was
liable to succeed; but through the efforts of his friends, and the
opposing judge, the case was appealed to a higher court, and William
Anderson was sent to England, where he remained in safety until the war
opened, in which time the case was adjusted in his favor. The Missouri
agent, Riggs, failed, and the friends of liberty rejoiced.
Three young men fled from Daniel Payne, Kentucky, and succeeded in
reaching Canada, where they had proven themselves worthy of their
hard-earned freedom. A few months elapsed, and their master came for
them, and tried to hire them to go back with him, promising to make
over to them manumission papers as soon as they returned. But he failed
to inspire Alfred and his two brothers with confidence in his promise
of freedom and fair wages for their work. He then secured the aid of a
colored man to invite them to a dancing party in Detroit a few days
after, but the boys mistrusted that their old master had the handling
of this invitation, and did not accept it.
As they had been annoyed two weeks by the various plans of "Master Dan
Payne," they concluded the next time he gave them a call to appear more
social, and gave their plan to forty or fifty of their friends, who
were to lie in ambush near the old barracks, where one of the brothers
was to have a chill, and appear too sick to go over the river. But two
days passed before the opportunity arrived that enabled them to carry
out their plan. When Alfred informed the ex-master of the illness of
his brother, of course he must hasten to the sick boy with a nice
brandy-sling for the chills, and he purchased a good quantity for them
all. While he was handing a glass of sweetened brandy to the sick man,
a company of men rushed in and held him, while Alfred and two brothers
stripped him of his coat, vest, boots, socks, and pants, and tied him
with a rope in the same way the master had tied their mother, when he
compelled her to be stripped, and tied her with his own hands, and
whipped her until the blood ran to the ground. Alfred and his brothers
applied dexterously the slave-whip, which they had provided for the
occasion by borrowing a plantation slave-whip kept by Henry Bibb as a
reminder of his slave life. Daniel Payne begged heartily for mercy.
Alfred replied: "Yes, this is just the way my mother begged for mercy;
but you had no mercy for her, and this is to show what she received at
your cruel hands." They applied the lash until the forty stripes their
mother had received at his hands had been given. Then they unbound him
and gave him fifteen minutes to dress and leave Canada, and gave him a
quarter to go with, keeping his watch and purse, which contained about
forty dollars. He crossed the river within the given time, and sent an
agent to call on the authorities, to whom he entered a complaint of
being robbed of a gold watch and one hundred dollars, but made no
complaint of the whipping. He affected to be too lame "with rheumatism"
to return to his Kentucky home for a number of days, in which time the
boys returned his watch, but kept the money. Alfred and his brothers
said Mr. Payne was as untruthful about the amount of money as he was in
calling his old silver watch gold. Suffice it to say, the young men
were never after troubled or annoyed by Daniel Payne, of Kentucky.
Although it was a course I would never have inaugurated, yet it was
largely in human nature to requite the cruelties heaped upon their
mother when it was beyond their power to protect her.
With very many pleasant remembrances, I left this laborious field of
labor for home work, where I spent nearly three years looking after the
best interests of my children, and making preparations to reopen Raisin
Institute, for the moral, intellectual, and spiritual improvement of
our youth.