Daniel Hubert was fattening on John Wesley's earnings contrary to his,
John's, idea of right. For a long time John failed to see the remedy,
but as he grew older and wiser the scales fell from his eyes and he
perceived that the Underground Rail Road ran near his master's place,
Cambridge, Md., and by a very little effort and a large degree of
courage and perseverance he might manage to get out of Maryland and on
to Canada, where slave-holders had no more rights than other people.
These reflections came seriously into John's mind at about the age of
twenty-six; being about this time threatened with the auction-block he
bade slavery good-night, jumped into the Underground Rail Road car and
off he hurried for Pennsylvania. His mother, Betsy, one brother, and one
sister were left in the hands of Hubert. John Wesley could pray for them
and wish them well, but nothing more.
Robert Murray became troubled in mind about his freedom while living in
London county, Virginia, under the heel of Eliza Brooks, a widow woman,
who used him bad, according to his testimony. He had been "knocked about
a good deal." A short while before he fled, he stated that he had been
beat brutally, so much so that the idea of escape was beat into him. He
had never before felt as if he dared hope to try to get out of bondage,
but since then his mind had undergone such a sudden and powerful change,
he began to feel that nothing could hold him in Virginia; the place
became hateful to him. He looked upon a slave-holder as a kind of a
living, walking, talking "Satan, going about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may destroy." He left his wife, with one child; her name was
Nancy Jane, and the name of the offspring was Elizabeth. As Robert had
possessed but rare privileges to visit his wife, he felt it less a trial
to leave than if it had been otherwise. William Seedam owned the wife
and child.
Susan Stewart and Josephine Smith fled together from the District of
Columbia. Running away had been for a long time a favorite idea with
Susan, as she had suffered much at the hands of different masters. The
main cause of her flight was to keep from being sold again; for she had
been recently threatened by Henry Harley, who "followed droving," and
not being rich, at any time when he might be in want of money she felt
that she might have to go. When a girl only twelve years of age, her
young mind strongly revolted against being a slave, and at that youthful
period she tried her fortune at running away. While she was never caught
by her owners, she had the misfortune to fall into the hands of another
slaveholder no better than her old master, indeed she thought that she
found it even worse under him, so far as severe floggings were
concerned. Susan was of a bright brown color, medium size, quick and
active intellectually and physically, and although she had suffered much
from Slavery, as she was not far advanced in years, she might still do
something for herself. She left no near kin that she was aware of.
Josephine fled from Miss Anna Maria Warren, who had previously been
deranged from the effects of paralysis. Josephine regarded this period
of her mistress' sickness as her opportunity for planning to get away
before her mistress came to her senses.
* * * * *