West River, Anne Arundel county, Maryland.
j13-w&s3w
Robert was too shrewd to be entrapped by the above reward. He sat down
and counted the cost before starting; then with his knowledge of
slaveholders when traveling he was cautious enough not to expose himself
by day or night where he was liable to danger.
He had reached the age of thirty, and despite the opposition he had had
to encounter, unaided he had learned to read, which with his good share
of native intelligence, he found of service.
Whilst Robert did not publish his mistress, he gave a plain statement of
where he was from, and why he was found in the city of Brotherly Love in
the dead of Winter in a state of destitution. He charged the blame upon
a woman, whose name was Richardson, who, he said, was quite a "fighter,
and was never satisfied, except when quarreling and fighting with some
of the slaves." He also spoke of a certain T.J. Richardson, a farmer and
a "very driving man" who was in the habit of oppressing poor men and
women by compelling them to work in his tobacco, corn, and wheat fields
without requiting them for their labor. Robert felt if he could get
justice out of said Richardson he would be the gainer to the amount of
more than a thousand dollars in money besides heavy damages for having
cheated him out of his education.
In this connection, he recalled the fact of Richardson's being a member
of the church, and in a sarcastic manner added that his "religious
pretensions might pass among slave-holders, but that it would do him no
good when meeting the Judge above." Being satisfied that he would there
meet his deserts Robert took a degree of comfort therefrom.
* * * * *