At the close of my school I left this field, so white to the harvest, to enter, as I supposed, upon a field of home missions. At the expiration of a year I visited Toledo, and inquired of one who occasionally employed Dutch Mary, but knew nothing of my experience with her, how she was prospering. The cheering reply was, "Splendidly; I haven't heard a disparaging word of her for months, and there used to be hard stories about her." I heard she had united with the Baptist Church, and I think she is trying to live a Christian. If she had not left town on a visit to her friends I should have seen her, but the report I heard of her was heart-cheering. May God bless her, and all who are receiving life-giving power who were dead in trespasses and sin.
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."