Wagelma was a lively intelligent colored boy of ten years old, whom his
mother had bound as an apprentice to a Frenchman in Philadelphia. This
man being about to take his family to Baltimore, in the summer of 1801,
with the intention of going thence to France, put his apprentice on
board a Newcastle packet bound to Baltimore, without having the consent
of the boy or his mother, as the laws of Pennsylvania required. The
mother did not even know of his intended departure, till she heard that
her child was on board the ship. Fears that he might be sold into
slavery, either in Baltimore or the West Indies, seized upon her mind;
and even if that dreadful fate did not await him, there was great
probability that she would never see him again.
In her distress she called upon Isaac T. Hopper, immediately after
sunrise. He hastened to the wharf, where the Newcastle packet generally
lay, but had the mortification to find that she had already started, and
that a gentle breeze was wafting her down the stream. He mounted a fleet
horse, and in twenty minutes arrived at Gloucester Point, three miles
below the city. The ferry at that place was kept by a highly respectable
widow, with whom he had been long acquainted. He briefly stated the case
to her, and she at once ordered one of her ferrymen to put him on board
the Newcastle packet, which was in sight, and near the Jersey shore.
They made all speed, for there was not a moment to lose.
When they came along-side the packet, the captain, supposing him to be a
passenger for Baltimore, ordered the sailors to assist him on board.
When his business was made known, he was told that the Frenchman was in
the cabin. He sought him out, and stated that the laws of Pennsylvania
did not allow apprentices to be carried out of the state without certain
preliminaries, to which he had not attended. The Frenchman had six or
eight friends with him, and as he was going out of the country, he put
the laws at defiance. Meanwhile, the vessel was gliding down the river,
carrying friend Hopper to Newcastle. He summoned the captain, and
requested him to put the colored boy into the ferry-boat, which was
alongside ready to receive him. He was not disposed to interfere; but
when Friend Hopper drew a volume from his pocket and read to him the
laws applicable to the case, he became alarmed, and said the boy must be
given up. Whereupon, Friend Hopper directed the child to go on deck,
which he was ready enough to do; and the ferryman soon helped him on
board the boat.
The Frenchman and his friends were very noisy and violent. They
attempted to throw Friend Hopper overboard; and there were so many of
them, that they seemed likely to succeed in their efforts. But he seized
one of them fast by the coat; resolved to have company in the water, if
he were compelled to take a plunge. They struck his hand with their
canes, and pulled the coat from his grasp. Then he seized hold of
another; and so the struggle continued for some minutes. The ferryman,
who was watching the conflict, contrived to bring his boat into a
favorable position; and Friend Hopper suddenly let go the Frenchman's
coat, and tumbled in.
When he returned to Philadelphia with the boy, he found the mother
waiting at his house, in a state of intense anxiety. The meeting between
mother and son was joyful indeed; and Wagelma made them all laugh by his
animated description of his friend's encounter with the Frenchmen,
accompanied by a lively imitation of their gesticulations. In witnessing
the happiness he had imparted, their benefactor found more than
sufficient compensation for all the difficulties he had encountered.