The road to Washington was doing about this time a marvellously large
business. "William Penn" and other friends in Washington were most
vigilant, and knew where to find passengers who were daily thirsting for
deliverance.
Rebecca Jackson was a woman of about thirty-seven years of age, of a
yellow color, and of bright intellect, prepossessing in her manners. She
had pined in bondage in Georgetown under Mrs. Margaret Dick, a lady of
wealth and far advanced in life, a firm believer in slavery and the
Presbyterian Church, of which she was a member.
Rebecca had been her chief attendant, knew all her whims and ways to
perfection. According to Rebecca's idea, "she was a peevish, fretful,
ill-natured, but kind-hearted creature." Being very tired of her old
mistress and heartily sick of bondage, and withal desiring to save her
daughter, she ascertained the doings of the Underground Rail Road,--was
told about Canada, &c. She therefore resolved to make a bold adventure.
Mrs. Dick had resided a long time in Georgetown, but owned three large
plantations in the country, over which she kept three overseers to look
after the slaves. Rebecca had a free husband, but she was not free to
serve him, as she had to be digging day and night for the "white
people." Robert, a son of the mistress lived with his mother. While
Rebecca regarded him as "a man with a very evil disposition," she
nevertheless believed that he had "sense enough to see that the present
generation of slaves would not bear so much as slaves had been made to
bear the generation past."
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