_Richmond Enquirer, June 9, 57_.
William unquestionably possessed a fair share of common sense, and just
enough distaste to Slavery to arouse him most resolutely to seek his
freedom.
The advertisement of James G. Tyler was not altogether accurate with
regard to his description of William; but notwithstanding, in handing
William down to posterity, the description of Tyler has been adopted
instead of the one engrossed in the records by the Committee. But as a
simple matter of fair play, it seems fitting, that the description given
by William, while on the Underground Rail Road, of his master, &c.,
should come in just here.
William acknowledged that he was the property of Walter H. Tyler,
brother of EX-PRESIDENT TYLER, who was described as follows: "He
(master) was about sixty-five years of age; was a barbarous man, very
intemperate, horse racer, chicken-cock fighter and gambler. He had owned
as high as forty head of slaves, but he had gambled them all away. He
was a doctor, circulated high amongst southerners, though he never lived
agreeably with his wife, would curse her and call her all kinds of names
that he should not call a lady. From a boy of nine up to the time I was
fifteen or sixteen, I don't reckon he whipped me less than a hundred
times. He shot at me once with a double-barrelled gun.
"What made me leave was because I worked for him all my life-time and he
never gave me but two dollars and fifteen cents in all his life. I was
hired out this year for two hundred dollars, but when I would go to him
to make complaints of hard treatment from the man I was hired to, he
would say: "G----d d----n it, don't come to me, all I want is my money."
"Mr. Tyler was a thin raw-boned man, with a long nose, the picture of
the president. His wife was a tolerably well-disposed woman in some
instances--she was a tall, thin-visaged woman, and stood high in the
community. Through her I fell into the hands of Tyler. At present she
owns about fifty slaves. His own slaves, spoken of as having been
gambled away, came by his father--he has been married the second time."
Twice William had been sold and bought in, on account of his master's
creditors, and for many months had been expecting to be sold again, to
meet pressing claims in the hands of the sheriff against Tyler. He, by
the way, "now lives in Hanover county, about eighteen miles from
Richmond, and for fear of the sheriff, makes himself very scarce in that
city."
At fourteen years of age, William was sold for eight hundred dollars; he
would have brought in 1857, probably twelve hundred and fifty dollars;
he was a member of the Baptist Church in good and regular standing.
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