JOHN EDWARD LEE, JOHN HILLIS, CHARLES ROSS, JAMES RYAN, WILLIAM
JOHNSTON, EDWARD WOOD, CORNELIUS FULLER AND HIS WIFE HARRIET, JOHN
PINKET, ANSAL CANNON, AND JAMES BROWN.
John came from Maryland, and brought with him a good degree of pluck. He
satisfied the Committee that he fully believed in freedom, and had
proved his faith by his works, as he came in contact with pursuers, whom
he put to flight by the use of an ugly-looking knife, which he plunged
into one of them, producing quite a panic; the result was that he was
left to pursue his Underground Rail Road journey without further
molestation. There was nothing in John's appearance which would lead one
to suppose that he was a blood-thirsty or bad man, although a man of
uncommon muscular powers; six feet high, and quite black, with
resolution stamped on his countenance. But when he explained how he was
enslaved by a man named John B. Slade, of Harford Co., and how, in some
way or other, he became entitled to his freedom, and just as the time
arrived for the consummation of his long prayed-for boon, said Slade was
about to sell him,--after this provocation, it was clear enough to
perceive how John came to use his knife.
John Hillis was a tiller of the ground under a widow lady (Mrs. Louisa
Le Count), of the New Market District, Maryland. He signified to the
mistress, that he loved to follow the water, and that he would be just
as safe on water as on land, and that he was discontented. The widow
heard John's plausible story, and saw nothing amiss in it, so she
consented that he should work on a schooner. The name of the craft was
"Majestic." The hopeful John endeavored to do his utmost to please, and
was doubly happy when he learned that the "Majestic" was to make a trip
to Philadelphia. On arriving John's eyes were opened to see that he owed
Mrs. Le Count nothing, but that she was largely indebted to him for
years of unrequited toil; he could not, therefore, consent to go back to
her. He was troubled to think of his poor wife and children, whom he had
left in the hands of Mrs. Harriet Dean, three quarters of a mile from
New Market; but it was easier for him to imagine plans by which he could
get them off than to incur the hazard of going back to Maryland;
therefore he remained in freedom.
Charles Ross was clearly of the opinion that he was free-born, but that
he had been illegally held in Slavery, as were all his brothers and
sisters, by a man named Rodgers, a farmer, living near Greensborough, in
Caroline county, Md. Very good reasons were given by Charles for the
charge which he made against Rodgers, and it went far towards
establishing the fact, that "colored men had no rights which white men
were bound to respect," in Maryland. Although he was only twenty-three
years of age, he had fully weighed the matter of his freedom, and
appeared firmly set against Slavery.
William Johnson was owned by a man named John Bosley, a farmer, living
near Gun Powder Neck, Maryland. One morning he, unexpectedly to William,
gave him a terrible cowhiding, which, contrary to the master's designs,
made him a firm believer in the doctrine of immediate abolition, and he
thought, that from that hour he must do something against the system--if
nothing more than to go to Canada. This determination was so strong,
that in a few weeks afterwards he found himself on the Underground Rail
Road. He left one brother and one sister; his mother was dead, and of
his father's whereabouts he knew nothing. William was nineteen years of
age, brown color, smart and good-looking.
Edward Wood was a "chattel" from Drummerstown, Accomac county, Virginia,
where he had been owned by a farmer, calling himself James White; a man
who "drank hard and was very crabbed," and before Edward left owned
eleven head of slaves. Edward left a wife and three children, but the
strong desire to be free, which had been a ruling passion of his being
from early boyhood, rendered it impossible for him to stay, although the
ties were very hard to break. Slavery was crushing him hourly, and he
felt that he could not submit any longer.
Cornelius Fuller, and his wife, Harriet, escaped together from Kent
county, Maryland. They belonged to separate masters; Cornelius, it was
said, belonged to the Diden Estate; his wife to Judge Chambers, whose
Honor lived in Chestertown. "He is no man for freedom, bless you," said
Harriet. "He owned more slaves than any other man in that part of the
country; he sells sometimes, and he hired out a great many; would hire
them to any kind of a master, if he half killed you." Cornelius and
Harriet were obliged to leave their daughter Kitty, who was thirteen
years of age.
John Pinket and Ansal Cannon took the Underground Rail Road cars at New
Market, Dorchester county, Maryland.
John was a tall young man, of twenty-seven years of age, of an active
turn of mind and of a fine black color. He was the property of Mary
Brown, a widow, firmly grounded in the love of Slavery; believing that a
slave had no business to get tired or desire his freedom. She sold one
of John's sisters to Georgia, and before John fled, had still in her
possession nine head of slaves. She was a member of the Methodist church
at East New Market. From certain movements which looked very suspicious
in John's eyes, he had been allotted to the Southern Market, he
therefore resolved to look out for a habitation in Canada. He had a
first-rate corn-field education, but no book learning. Up to the time of
his escape, John had shunned entangling himself with a wife.
Ansal was twenty-five years of age, well-colored, and seemed like a
good-natured and well-behaved article. He escaped from Kitty Cannon,
another widow, who owned nine chattels. "Sometimes she treated her
slaves pretty well," was the testimony of Ansal. He ran away because he
did not get pay for his services. In thus being deprived of his hire, he
concluded that he had no business to stay if he could get away.
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