To see mere lads, not twenty-one years of age, smart enough to outwit
the very shrewdest and wisest slave-holders of Virginia was very
gratifying. The young men composing this arrival were of this
keen-sighted order.
James was only a little turned of twenty, of a yellow complexion, and
intelligent. A trader, by the name of George Ailer, professed to own
James. He said that he had been used tolerable well, not so bad as many
had been used. James was learning the carpenter trade; but he was
anxious to obtain his freedom, and finding his two companions true on
the main question, in conjunction with them he contrived a plan of
escape, and 'took out.' His father and mother, Harrison and Jane Taylor,
were left at Fredericksburg to mourn the absence of their son.
Albert was in his twentieth year, the picture of good health, not homely
by any means, although not of a fashionable color. He was under the
patriarchal protection of a man by the name of William Price, who
carried on farming in Cecil county, Maryland. Albert testified that he
was a bad man.
John Grinage was only twenty, a sprightly, active young man, of a brown
color. He came from Middle Neck, Cecil county, where he had served under
William Flintham, a farmer.
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