JULIUS SMITH, WIFE MARY, AND BOY JAMES, HENRY AND EDWARD SMITH, AND JACK
CHRISTY.
While this party was very respectable in regard to numbers and enlisted
much sympathy, still they had no wounds or bruises to exhibit, or very
hard reports to make relative to their bondage. The treatment that had
been meted out to them was about as tolerant as Slavery could well
afford; and the physical condition of the passengers bore evidence that
they had been used to something better than herring and corn cake for a
diet.
Julius, who was successful enough to bring his wife and boy with him,
was a wonderful specimen of muscular proportions. Although a young man,
of but twenty-five, he weighed two hundred and twenty-five pounds; he
was tall and well-formed from the crown of his head to the soles of his
feet. Nor was he all muscle by a great deal; he was well balanced as to
mother wit and shrewdness.
In looking back into the pit from whence he had been delivered he could
tell a very interesting story of what he had experienced, from which it
was evident that he had not been an idle observer of what had passed
relative to the Peculiar Institution; especially was it very certain
that he had never seen anything lovely or of good report belonging to
the system. So far as his personal relations were concerned, he
acknowledged that a man named Mr. Robert Hollan, had assumed to impose
himself upon him as master, and that this same man had also wrongfully
claimed all his time, denied him all common and special privileges;
besides he had deprived him of an education, etc., which looked badly
enough before he left Maryland, but in the light of freedom, and from a
free State stand-point, the idea that "man's inhumanity to man" should
assume such gigantic proportions as to cause him to seize his fellow-man
and hold him in perpetual bondage, was marvellous in the extreme.
Julius had been kept in the dark in Maryland, but on free soil, the
light rushed in upon his astonished vision to a degree almost
bewildering. That his master was a man of "means and pretty high
standing"--Julius thought was not much to his credit since they were
obtained from unpaid labor. In his review allusion was made not only to
his master, but also to his mistress, in which he said that she was "a
quarrelsome and crabbed woman, middling stout." In order to show a
reason why he left as he did, he stated that "there had been a fuss two
or three times" previous to the escape, and it had been rumored "that
somebody would have to be sold soon." This was what did the mischief so
far as the "running away" was concerned. Julius' color was nearly jet
black, and his speech was very good considering his lack of book
learning; his bearing was entirely self-possessed and commendable.
His wife and boy shared fully in his affections, and seemed well pleased
to have their faces turned Canada-ward. It is hardly necessary to say
more of them here.
Henry was about twenty-three years of age, of an active turn, brown
skin, and had given the question of freedom his most serious attention,
as his actions proved. While he could neither read nor write, he could
think. From the manner in which he expressed himself, with regard to
Robert Hollan, no man in the whole range of his recollections will be
longer remembered than he; his enthralment while under Hollan will
hardly ever be forgotten. Any being who had been thus deprived of his
rights, could hardly fail to command sympathy; in cases like this,
however, the sight and language of such an one was extremely impressive.
Of this party, Edward, a boy of seventeen, called forth much sympathy;
he too was claimed by Hollan. He was of a good physical make-up, and
seemed to value highly the great end he had in view, namely, a residence
in Canada.
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