A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland

by Laura S. Haviland

CHAPTER VIII.

FUGITIVES IN CANADA.

While visiting friends in Detroit and Canada previous to reopening Raisin Institute, as I designed, I was earnestly solicited by Henry Bibb, Horace Hallack, and Rev. Chas. C. Foote, the committee authorized to employ a teacher, to open a school in a new settlement of fugitives, eight miles back of Windsor, where the Refugee Association had purchased government land, on long and easy terms, for fugitive slaves.

They had erected a frame house for school and meeting purposes. The settlers had built for themselves small log-houses, and cleared from one to five acres each on their heavily timbered land, and raised corn, potatoes, and other garden vegetables. A few had put in two and three acres of wheat, and were doing well for their first year.

After prayerful consideration, I reached the conclusion to defer for another year my home work, and enter this new field.

In the Autumn of 1852 I opened school, and gave notice that at eleven o'clock the following Sunday there would be a Sabbath-school for parents and children, after which a little time would be spent in other religious exercises, pursuing the same course I did in Toledo, Ohio. This drew a number of callers who had no children to see if any could come to my Sabbath-school; and when I told them it was for every body of any age who desired to come, my school-house was filled to its utmost capacity. Many frequently came five or six miles with their ox-teams to attend these meetings, with their families. Every man, woman, and child who could read a verse in the Testament, even with assistance, took part in reading the lesson, and liberty was given to ask questions. It was not strange to listen to many crude ideas, but a more earnest, truth seeking congregation we seldom find. An aged couple, past eighty, missed very few Sabbaths during the year I spent there. The man was a fugitive slave, and his companion was an Indian woman, converted under the preaching of a missionary among the Indians. She had taken great pains to talk and understand the English language, and was an interesting woman.

As there was an increasing interest both in day and Sabbath schools, I give liberty for all who wished to enjoy a sort of class or inquiry meeting, following half an hour's service for exhortation after Sabbath school.

One couple desired a private interview with me, as they had been married only after "slave fashion." They said "It is not right to live this way in a free country. Now we wants you to marry us."

"I am not legally authorized," I said, "but I will send a note to brother Foote, and he will come at once and marry you legally."

"We thought you preached, an' made notes for us, an' could help us out in dis matter too."

Charles C. Foote came, and we called at their house at the appointed time, with a few neighbors, to witness the solemnization of the marriage that would have been accomplished three years before had they looked at these things from the same stand point they now did.

A few days after another couple came on the same errand. Said this man "We wants you an' Mr. Foote to marry us, case we's bin troubled 'bout dis many days, case we wa'nt gwine to let nobody know it, but God knows all 'bout us, an' now we's free indeed, we wants every thing straight."

"But why do you put me with Mr. Foote," I asked, "to marry you?"

"Didn't you an' Mr. Foote marry dat brother an sister week afore las'?"

"No; only brother Foote."

"Brother Foote repeated the questions," they answered; "then he pronounced them husband and wife; then they were married according to law. But he axt you to pray after he said dem words."

In all this ignorance they were like confiding grown-up children, patiently listening to every explanation.

The unbounded confidence they placed in me was surprising; for they often brought their business papers for me to examine, to see whether they were right. One man brought me a note, as the employer could not pay him for his work in money. He said it was a note for groceries; but the grocer refused to take it, and said it was not good. I told him there was neither date nor name to it. I wrote the man a letter, asking him to rectify the mistake, which he did; but he gave his employee credit for only half the days he had worked. They were so often deceived and cheated in many ways, because of their extreme ignorance, that I did not wonder at the conclusion one escaped fugitive had reached. His master was a Presbyterian minister, but he had known him to whip his sister, the cook, after coming home from Church; and he said then he never would have faith in white folks' religion. Since coming to this colony he watched me a long while before he made up his mind that white people could have a pure religion. But now he believed "that the Lord hid his Spirit in the hearts of white people at the North; but it was a make-believe in slaveholders."

I was surprised one day to meet the mother of three of my scholars, who gave her thrilling experience in her escape from slavery; but she had little more than commenced her story before I found her to be one for whom I laid a plan with her sister, who had bought herself. As I named a circumstance, she exclaimed in surprise, "Why honey! is dis possible? God sent you here to larn my gals to read, an' we didn't know you," and tears began to drop thicker and faster, as she recounted the blessings that had multiplied since her arrival in Canada. She had in the three years worked for a little home. Her two older girls were at work, and they were all so happy in their freedom.

These fugitives often came five or six miles for me to write letters to their friends in the South, with whom they left a secret arrangement very frequently with white people who were their friends, but secretly, for fear of the ruling power, as were the disciples of Christ who feared the Jews. Their notes, or articles of agreement, were generally brought to me to draft for them.

In six weeks of steady attendance fifteen young men and women could read the second reader, and write a legible hand, and draft a negotiable note. I took a specimen of a number of my scholars' hand-writing to an anti-slavery convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, and left a few with the Rev. John G. Fee, whose life had been threatened if he did not desist from preaching a free gospel in his home State—Kentucky. But the brave Cassius M. Clay told him to go on, and he would go with him. He went to one place from whence he had received repeated threats, and trouble was anticipated; but Cassius walked into the church by his side, and placed the Constitution of the United States on the Bible, and over both his brace of pistols, with which he informed the audience he should protect free speech. At the same time he cast a glance at the threatening group in a farther corner, who left one by one, until the church was cleared of all but eager listeners. Brother Fee said his object in requesting these specimens of the fugitives writing was to exhibit to those who were constantly asserting that negroes could not learn. He wished them to see the legible hand-writing of those who had only six weeks' training from their alphabet.

After spending a few days' vacation, I returned to the toiling day and night in my school. As there were twelve heads of families anxious to read the Bible and hymn-book, and this seemed to be the height of their ambition, I opened an evening school for that class. It was steadily attended four evenings in each week, and this, with one evening devoted to prayer-meeting, filled the week, leaving only one evening free; and frequently they came with their ox-teams to take me three miles to lead a prayer-meeting for them in an adjoining settlement.

The Winter was quite severe, and I frequently was awakened with the snow sifting in my face, and not unfrequently found the snow half an inch or more deep over my bed on rising in the morning; but my health was firm, and I often thought I never enjoyed a year of toiling better than the one I spent here.

There were in this colony a mixed religious element—Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Free-will Baptist—deeply interested in Sabbath schools and class-meetings, open to all who wished to enjoy them. An organization was proposed. The proposition came from the Methodist element, but I did not deem it wise to organize from any one denomination, as divergent opinions would create controversy that would bring harm to many tender minds. Consequently I proposed to organize a Christian Union Church, without disturbing the Church relationship of any one. I prepared an extract from Gerrit Smith's concise plan of organizing, on a liberal-scale, a Christian Union Church, with but little change, and read it to them; and, after a little discussion and explanation it was readily adopted. I think the number of new converts was thirteen, who expressed a desire to be baptized by immersion. I exhorted them to attend to their own religious impressions, as I was not there to present particular religious tenets, but to present the crucified, risen, and glorified Savior. Brother Foote came and complied with their wish.

I closed my evening school two weeks to hold a series of meetings, in which a young Baptist brother assisted. We all continued to work together for the highest good of all around us.

I noticed a settled sadness in the countenance of a young man of twenty-five years, recently from Missouri. During recess he took but little interest in any thing outside of his book or writing lesson. After attending my school a few days he invited me to go to his boarding-place to spend the night, as he wished me to write a letter for him. I found his history was a sad one. He was sold from his wife and four little children to satisfy a heavy debt. The master tried to reason with him, and the man he owed would not take any of his slaves but him. He called him aside to have further conversation concerning the proposed sale; his wife presented herself also to plead that they might not be separated. Both knelt before him, beseeching with tears to allow them to remain together. Said he, "I tole 'im I'd serve 'im faithfully all the days of my life, if he'd only let us live together; and he seemed to give way a little, and said he did not want to sell me, as I was his foreman, and he thought he would make other arrangements. I watched him closely as I had but little confidence in his words, and armed myself with a dirk. One day he called me to go to the woods with him, to show me the trees he wanted chopped. As I was going I saw the end of a rope under his coat-skirt. I kept at a reasonable distance all the way, and when we came to the tree he wanted I should chop, he attempted to come near me and I stood back; then he told me plainly I must yield. I said I never would permit myself to leave my family, and, if he was so determined, I should never be of any use to any one, for life to me was of no value if I am to be taken from my wife and four little children. At this he, with the other man, who came out of the bushes, ran towards me, but I outran them. About seven miles distant he overtook me with a number of his slave men, and told me I had to give up. I flourished my dirk and told them that I would kill the first man that touched me, or they should kill me. At this they all stood back except the master himself. He flourished his bowie-knife and I my dirk, for the space of a few minutes, when he made a rush upon me, and he met my dirk before I met his bowie-knife. As he fell back I ran for the woods. In the darkness of the night I made my last visit to my wife and little children."

Here he became convulsed with weeping. When he could command his feelings to pursue the sad story, he said:

"Oh, that was an awful parting! The moment I entered my wife's cabin she threw her arms around my neck, exclaiming, 'Oh, my dear Bill, don't stay a minute, for they say you've killed Master Riggs. They say he was dyin' this evenin', and he's dead afore this time, I reckon, an' they swear vengeance on you. Some said they'd chop you in pieces—some said they'd burn you alive.' I told her if God would help me to Canada I would write after awhile to her father (he was free, having bought himself), and may be he could manage to send her and our children to me; and I tore her arms from my neck."

Again he was overcome with grief. I advised him not to write at present. I never saw a more grief-stricken man. He was boarding with Henry Bibb's mother, who said she knew he was a man of deep trouble, "for he looked so sad and groaned so much nights; but I couldn't bear to ask him, because I thought it would be harder for him to forget it." Having been a slave herself, she could easily anticipate the cause of his sadness. Notwithstanding this, he made fair progress in reading, writing, and arithmetic in one term. During this time vigorous efforts were put forth for his capture.

While I enjoyed my work so much with these people in the woods, in schools, in meetings, and in their improvements generally, I do not say I found with them perfection. There were causes for reproof as well as of encouragement. They made great effort to improve their homes by taking trees from their woods to the saw mills to be cut up into boards for better floors than split logs, and for partitions to make their little houses more comfortable. Perhaps their improvements could not find better expression than the report of one of our neighbors, in reply to an inquiry of a friend in Detroit, as to how they were prospering in their refugee colony, "Fine fine we've all come to life, an' are in a state to see who'll make the bes' house."

Frequent arrivals of their friends from slavery often produced much excitement. At one time a company of twenty seven arrived, brought by John Fairfield, a Virginian. He often went into the heart of slave holding States and brought companies away, passing himself as their owner until they reached a free State. He telegraphed some friends in Windsor, and a dinner of reception was provided in one of the colored churches, and a great jubilee meeting was held. One very old woman, between eighty and ninety years old, shouted as she jumped around among the people, "I's young again. Glory! glory! Jesus is our Master for evermore, honey," shaking hands with the new-comers. "Glory to Jesus! I's sixteen," and she clapped her hands as she gave another leap. Said John Fairfield, "This pays me for all dangers, I have faced in bringing this company, just to see these old friends meet."

Our young brother Campbell, the literate Baptist minister who had labored with us in our series of meetings a few months previously, returned, and with the three Baptist families in that community conceived the idea that as I was soon to leave, they could organize a Baptist Church, and induce nearly all in that colony to unite, and they went to work industriously to secure the individual consent of our Christian Union members; but the plan was, with one accord, rejected, except by our Baptist friends. As they said nothing to me concerning it, each day brought some complaints about their organising a Baptist Church "over our heads," as a number expressed themselves. But I told them "not to feel hurt over their desire to organize a Baptist Church. We will give way for them to occupy half the time." Brother Maglothin, who had just come with his family from Virginia, was an earnest Christian man and a licensed Wesleyan minister, and he was ready to take my place in keeping up our Sabbath-schools and meetings.

Rev. N. P. Colver, of Detroit, had appointed the Sabbath to meet the friends in our school-house, for the purpose of organizing a Baptist Church and of ordaining brother Campbell to take charge of it. I told all of our people to be sure and attend it with me. As I retired on the night previous to the proposed meeting, I read the sweet promise of the loving Savior, "I will be with you to the end," with an assurance of entire trust.

The hour arrived, and our house was well filled, but with many saddened faces. Brother Colver gave a short discourse, and ordained brother Campbell, who was left in charge of the Baptist branch of the little flock. At the close of the exercises I remarked that I hoped we would all manifest the same abiding interest in each other's spiritual and temporal well-being as we had heretofore done; that there was a fair understanding between the brethren and sisters that every other Sabbath was to be occupied by brother Maglothin, thus alternating with brother Campbell; and as the next Sabbath would be my last for the present with them, it would be my duty to explain the basis upon which our Christian Union Church was organized. My earnest and constant prayer was and ever would be, whether present or absent, that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ would ever dwell richly in each heart of his followers in that community, with whom I had spent a year that I could class with the most pleasant of my life.

The following-Sabbath found our house well filled. After singing an appropriate hymn, and prayer, I read 1 Corinthians iii, with remarks; after which I read the license from the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, acknowledging a qualification to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In it was granted liberty to organize a company of believers into a Church; and I presented our articles of agreement to build each other up in the unity of the Spirit and in the bonds of peace, regardless of name, in this "Christian Union Church." To this we all assented without a jar, and some of our Baptist brethren present voted in favor.

At this their minister, arose with an acknowledgment that he had not understood the foundation of this organization before, and regretted very much what he had said against it, and would ask pardon of all these brethren and sisters and of myself. Before I had an opportunity to reply their deacon and another followed, asking pardon for what they had said, for now they saw the wrong. I replied that if feelings had been hurt by whatever had seemed unkind, they were now healed by the same love and unity that had so universally prevailed in our little band, that had given courage and strength all through the year. Here were sad faces brightened; and others followed me, manifesting the healing power of love. The Lord was in our minds reconciling to himself, and melting away every apparent root of bitterness.

I left them again united, but our little Baptist organization lived only till their fourth meeting. From their own choice it was discontinued; and, as the majority in that community were of Methodist proclivities, it has never ceased to be of that family name, being a few months after reorganized under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

I had, previous to leaving this field, written to William Anderson's wife, Maria, directed to her father, and dated in Adrian, Michigan, and I instructed letters from her to be sent to that city in my care. Soon after my return a letter came from her father, as William had directed. I opened it, and found the very plausible plan of bringing William's wife and four children to him. Her father wrote of the loss of his own wife; and as the size and color of Maria answered to the description of his own wife, as recorded on his manumission papers, he proposed to take Maria and the children a few miles away in the night, where they would be kept secreted until the excitement of hunting for them was over, when he proposed to take them a night's journey northward. By that time he hoped that he could travel openly, with his free papers. I replied as William requested, in his name, and forwarded both the letter and a copy of my reply to him, with a renewed caution for him not to cross the Detroit River, as it was possible that all these plans were devised by his enemies, instead of the father-in-law and his wife. They had desired him to meet them on their way, and also inquired for names of places and persons who aided him, for the purpose of passing through safely to some point where they could meet to part no more until death itself should separate them. I wrote him to wait patiently the result, and not allow himself to become too much elated over this plausible plan, for I had written "that there were many friends who assisted him, whose names he had forgotten, neither could he call to mind the names of the many places he passed through, for he was taken from place to place in haste. They, too, would find no lack of friends; and if they brought his family to Adrian, Michigan, and inquired for Mrs. Laura S. Haviland, a widow, they would learn where he could be found."

Not many days elapsed before the answer came in the person of a Southerner, accompanied by Mr. Warren, of Detroit, with my letter in his hand and with the statement that I would know the where abouts of William Anderson. He said his family had arrived in Detroit with his wife's father and that they were in the family of a colored minister by the name of Williams.

I told him I was acquainted with the Williams family, and was very glad to hear of the arrival of William Anderson's family, over whom he had been very anxious, and inquired when they came.

"Yesterday, about four o'clock," was the reply. "There seems to be quite an interest in the family by the white people. Mr. Hallack gave me five dollars to pay William's fare to Detroit to meet his family, as I volunteered to come for him. And here's a letter he sent to his father in law, you can read for yourself."

I took it, and as I opened it recognized the letter I wrote for him.
"Yes, this is all right, it is the letter I wrote for William."

Beginning to appear quite nervous, he said "You see in that there is a statement that you would know where he's at work, and," taking out his watch, "I see we'll have to hurry to get to Adrian by train time and if you'll be so kind as to tell me where to find him as they are very anxiously waiting for us, I shall be obliged to you. It would be a great disappointment if we should fail to reach Detroit when the next train goes in."

He walked to and fro across the room, first to the door, then to the window, in a hurried, excited manner, while I was purposely detaining him to see him tremble. I was quite satisfied that he was a bogus coin by the index of his face. When I told him, at length, that he was working in Chatham, Canada West, and that I wrote this direction to avoid any possible scheme or plot to return him to hopeless bondage, his face reddened and voice trembled as he replied "I don't know any thing about it, only what Mr. Hallack told me. That is every thing that I know in this matter."

I told him what Mr. Hallack had informed him was all right, and he could tell him to send the family on the first train from Windsor to Chatham, and they would meet William there. He bowed, "I thank you;" but looked as if his words very much misrepresented him.

By the time he was out of sight I had my horse and buggy ready, to follow him to Adrian, to telegraph Horace Hallack and George De Baptist to forward a dispatch to William Anderson, Chatham, Canada West, to leave that city without an hour's delay, as I was satisfied his enemies from Missouri were after him, and probably would take him as a murderer. The telegram was sent, and he obeyed its request.

Within two days my caller was there, inquiring for William, and was told by a number that he had been at work in town some time, but left a couple of days before, but knew not where he went. After a few days' search and inquiries in that town, he returned to Detroit, and for the first time called on Horace Hallack to inform him that he was in search of a colored man by the name of William Anderson, who was a free man, that had committed in the State of Missouri a cold-blooded murder of a Baptist deacon, for the paltry sum of five dollars, and he understood he had been quite recently in Chatham, Canada, but had left that city. He, would like advice as to what course to pursue to ascertain his whereabouts. Horace Hallack referred him to George De Baptist, who was well acquainted with leading colored men in many localities both in Canada and this side the river.

Our Missourian was now in good hands, as I followed my dispatch to them with a long letter, giving William Anderson's experience in detail. George De Baptist told him if he had been a slave, he would have taken every measure within his reach to protect him in his freedom.

But as he said he was always free, and such a high-handed murderer as he represented, he would go just as far to bring him to justice. "I will tell you what I will do; I will write to an intelligent colored man in each of the largest settlements of colored people, Chatham, Amhurstburg, and Sandwich, and will receive replies from each within four days, and I will give you the result of their inquiries." At the time appointed the Missourian returned for tidings.

Said George, "I have received answers from each letter, and from Amhurstburg and Sandwich they write they have known or heard nothing of a man by that name; but the man to whom I wrote in Chatham has known all about him, being well acquainted with him, and he writes that William Anderson had been talking of going to Sault St. Marys, and that he left two weeks ago, rather mysteriously, without telling him or any one else where he was going; but the greater probability was he went there."

He gave the letters to him, to read for himself. Consequently he hired Mr. Warren and another man, and took the trip to Sault St. Marys, where he spent a week inquiring for William Anderson; but he failed to get the least clew to his whereabouts, and returned to Detroit. He left a power of attorney with his friend Warren to arrest him in case he could be decoyed over the Detroit river; if that plan did not succeed, he was to telegraph him if he found his whereabouts in Canada. If these plans failed, he left directions to arrest me with a United States warrant. But about the time I was to have been arrested Mr. Warren, the man who was empowered to arrest me, died with cholera—a singular coincidence. Mr. Warren's brother expressed deep sorrow and regret to find the papers granting legal authority to transact such business in his brother's possession at the time of his death. He allowed George De Baptist to see them before they were destroyed. This was the second time cholera defeated my arrest.

Pursuit was still continued for William Anderson. Three years after I fell in company with D. L. Ward, attorney of New Orleans, in a stage between Ypsilanti and Clinton, Michigan. He was making some complaints about the North, which drew forth a few remarks from me. "Oh, I am glad I've got hold of an abolitionist. It is just what I have wished for ever since I left my home in New Orleans. Now I want to give you a little advice, and, as it will cost you nothing, you may accept it freely, and I hope you will profit by it; and that is, when you abolitionists have another Sims case, call on Southern legal gentlemen, and we will help you through. We would have cleared Sims, for that Fugitive slave Law is defective, and we know it, and we know just how to handle it."

"Why did you introduce a defective bill?"

"Because we made up our minds to bring you Northerners to our terms, whether it was constitutional or not, and we have done it, because we knew we could do it; not because we cared for a few niggers; for I say, if a nigger cares enough for freedom to run for it, he ought to have it. Now we knew that was an unconstitutional thing before we put it before Congress; but we put it there to let you know we could drive it down Northern throats, and we did it, too."

"I acknowledge," I replied, "that there is too much servility in our North; there is too much crouching and cringing, but I am prepared to say there are more than seven thousand that have never bowed the knee to your Baal of slavery, and never will. We never shall do homage to your Southern goddess, though you may cry loud and long in demanding its worship. You say if we have another slave case, if we come to you to help us through, you will do it, and that if a slave wants his freedom bad enough to run for it, you think he ought to have it?"

"Yes, madam, we will aid you, for we know just how to handle that thing."

"Supposing a man is about to be sold from his family, and he falls at his master's feet, and pleads in tears to remain with his family, and promises to serve him faithfully all the days of his life, if he will only permit them to remain together; but the master persists in the sale; the slave makes his escape; is overtaken by his master, yet, severely wounding him, he succeeds in gaining his liberty. Now what do you say in regard to this supposed case?"

Looking me full in the face, he asked my name, which was given. Said he, "I think I am acquainted with that case. Is it not William Anderson, a runaway from Missouri?"

"William Anderson's case is very similar to the one I have described."

"Oh yes, madam, and you are implicated in that affair, but as you are a lady I will not disturb you; but you are liable to great difficulty in that case, and I will tell you we are going to have Anderson by hook or by crook; we will have him by fair means or foul; the South is determined to have that man, and you'll find your House of Refuge will not protect him either."

"This is the way I perceive you Southern legal gentlemen will help us. But you will never get Anderson from Canada. Your determination will fail."

"We shall not fail, but I will tell you after I return from our filibustering tour, as we am going out next month. We are confident of success in that, too, for our fleet is in good condition. We shall then take Anderson, if not before, and let you see how much your House of Refuge will do to hold that man from the South."

I never heard from D. L. Ward from that day. I had written previous to this interview to the governor-general, Lord Elgin, of the first effort to retake him as a murderer. He replied that, "in case of a demand for William Anderson, he should require the case to be tried in their British court; and if twelve freeholders should testify that he had been a man of integrity since his arrival in their dominion, it should clear him." This information, however, I did not reveal to our Southern lawyer.

Three years later, in which time I had succeeded in finishing my Raisin Institute building, and reopened the institution in charge of a principal from Oberlin College, the sad tidings reached me that William Anderson was lodged in jail in the city of Toronto, under charge of murder committed in the State of Missouri. He was awaiting his trial, and Gerrit Smith was one of his legal advisers. I wrote immediately informing him of the previous efforts to search out his whereabouts, and that his pursuers at that date (1853) alleged that he was a free man, and had never been a slave. In reply, Gerrit Smith wrote:

"I am glad you have given me so much of his history. Poor Anderson! I visited him in jail. I will send you my speech in his behalf. I hope the friends will purchase his family. I have volunteered to do all I can for the poor man. Lord Elgin is removed; the present governor-general is a stranger to this case. God bless you.

"I am truly your friend, GERRIT SMITH."

A few days later, I received the thrilling speech of Gerrit Smith, like the man, full of pure and soul-inspiring thought; but I trembled with fear when two of the three judges were in favor of returning William Anderson to the State of Missouri, and that Riggs the claimant was liable to succeed; but through the efforts of his friends, and the opposing judge, the case was appealed to a higher court, and William Anderson was sent to England, where he remained in safety until the war opened, in which time the case was adjusted in his favor. The Missouri agent, Riggs, failed, and the friends of liberty rejoiced.

Three young men fled from Daniel Payne, Kentucky, and succeeded in reaching Canada, where they had proven themselves worthy of their hard-earned freedom. A few months elapsed, and their master came for them, and tried to hire them to go back with him, promising to make over to them manumission papers as soon as they returned. But he failed to inspire Alfred and his two brothers with confidence in his promise of freedom and fair wages for their work. He then secured the aid of a colored man to invite them to a dancing party in Detroit a few days after, but the boys mistrusted that their old master had the handling of this invitation, and did not accept it.

As they had been annoyed two weeks by the various plans of "Master Dan Payne," they concluded the next time he gave them a call to appear more social, and gave their plan to forty or fifty of their friends, who were to lie in ambush near the old barracks, where one of the brothers was to have a chill, and appear too sick to go over the river. But two days passed before the opportunity arrived that enabled them to carry out their plan. When Alfred informed the ex-master of the illness of his brother, of course he must hasten to the sick boy with a nice brandy-sling for the chills, and he purchased a good quantity for them all. While he was handing a glass of sweetened brandy to the sick man, a company of men rushed in and held him, while Alfred and two brothers stripped him of his coat, vest, boots, socks, and pants, and tied him with a rope in the same way the master had tied their mother, when he compelled her to be stripped, and tied her with his own hands, and whipped her until the blood ran to the ground. Alfred and his brothers applied dexterously the slave-whip, which they had provided for the occasion by borrowing a plantation slave-whip kept by Henry Bibb as a reminder of his slave life. Daniel Payne begged heartily for mercy. Alfred replied: "Yes, this is just the way my mother begged for mercy; but you had no mercy for her, and this is to show what she received at your cruel hands." They applied the lash until the forty stripes their mother had received at his hands had been given. Then they unbound him and gave him fifteen minutes to dress and leave Canada, and gave him a quarter to go with, keeping his watch and purse, which contained about forty dollars. He crossed the river within the given time, and sent an agent to call on the authorities, to whom he entered a complaint of being robbed of a gold watch and one hundred dollars, but made no complaint of the whipping. He affected to be too lame "with rheumatism" to return to his Kentucky home for a number of days, in which time the boys returned his watch, but kept the money. Alfred and his brothers said Mr. Payne was as untruthful about the amount of money as he was in calling his old silver watch gold. Suffice it to say, the young men were never after troubled or annoyed by Daniel Payne, of Kentucky. Although it was a course I would never have inaugurated, yet it was largely in human nature to requite the cruelties heaped upon their mother when it was beyond their power to protect her.

With very many pleasant remembrances, I left this laborious field of labor for home work, where I spent nearly three years looking after the best interests of my children, and making preparations to reopen Raisin Institute, for the moral, intellectual, and spiritual improvement of our youth.