The passengers by this arrival were above the ordinary plantation or
farm hand slave, as will appear from a glance at their condition under
the yoke.
Major Latham was forty-four years of age, mulatto, very resolute, with
good natural abilities, and a decided hater of slavery. John Latham was
the man whom he addressed as "master," which was a very bitter pill for
him to swallow. He had been married twice, and at the time of his escape
he was the husband of two wives. The first one, with their three
children, in consequence of changes incident to slave life, was sold a
long distance from her old home and husband, thereby ending the
privilege of living together; he could think of them, but that was all;
he was compelled to give them up altogether. After a time he took to
himself another wife, with whom he lived several years. Three more
children owned him as father--the result of this marriage. During his
entire manhood Major had been brutally treated by his master, which
caused him a great deal of anguish and trouble of mind.
Only a few weeks before he escaped, his master, in one of his fits of
passion, flogged him most cruelly. From that time the resolution was
permanently grounded in his mind to find the way to freedom, if
possible, before many more weeks had passed. Day and night he studied,
worked and planned, with freedom uppermost in his mind. The hour of hope
arrived and with it Captain F.
William, a fellow-passenger with Major, was forty-two years of age, just
in the prime of life, and represented the mechanics in chains, being a
blacksmith by trade. Dr. Thomas Warren, who followed farming in the
neighborhood of Eatontown, was the owner of William. In speaking of his
slave life William said: "I was sold four times; twice I was separated
from my wives. I was separated from one of my wives when living in
Portsmouth, Virginia," etc.
In his simple manner of describing the trials he had been called upon to
endure, it was not to be wondered at that he was willing to forsake all
and run fearful risks in order to rid himself not only of the "load on
his back," but the load on his heart. By the very positive character of
William's testimony against slavery, the Committee felt more than ever
justified in encouraging the Underground Rail Road.
Henry Gorham was thirty-four years of age, a "prime," heavy, dark,
smart, "article," and a good carpenter. He admitted that he had never
felt the lash on his back, but, nevertheless, he had felt deeply on the
subject of slavery. For years the chief concern with him was as to how
he could safely reach a free State. Slavery he hated with a perfect
hatred. To die in the woods, live in a cave, or sacrifice himself in
some way, he was bound to do, rather than remain a slave. The more he
reflected over his condition the more determined he grew to seek his
freedom. Accordingly he left and went to the woods; there he prepared
himself a cave and resolved to live and die in it rather than return to
bondage. Before he found his way out of the prison-house eleven months
elapsed. His strong impulse for freedom, and intense aversion to
slavery, sustained him until he found an opportunity to escape by the
Underground Rail Road.
One of the tried Agents of the Underground Rail Road was alone cognizant
of his dwelling in the cave, and regarding him as a tolerably safe
passenger (having been so long secreted), secured him a passage on the
schooner, and thus he was fortunately relieved from his eleven months'
residence in his den. No rhetoric or fine scholarship was needed in his
case to make his story interesting. None but hearts of stone could have
listened without emotion.
Andrew, another fellow-passenger, was twenty-six years of age, and a
decidedly inviting-looking specimen of the peculiar institution. He
filled the situation of an engineer. He, with his wife and one child,
belonged to a small orphan girl, who lived at South End, Camden county,
N.C. His wife and child had to be left behind. While it seemed very hard
for a husband thus to leave his wife, every one that did so weakened
slavery and encouraged and strengthened anti-slavery.
Numbered with these four North Carolina passengers is found the name of
Wiley Maddison, a young man nineteen years of age, who escaped from
Petersburg on the cars as a white man. He was of promising appearance,
and found no difficulty whatever on the road. With the rest, however, he
concluded himself hardly safe this side of Canada, and it afforded the
Committee special pleasure to help them all.