earing if I did not stop he would shoot me down. By
this time I knew that I was betrayed.

I asked him what crime I had committed that I should be murdered.

"I will let you know, very soon," said he.

By this time there were others coming to his aid, and I could see no
way by which I could possibly escape the jaws of that hell upon earth.

All my flattering prospects of enjoying my own fire-side, with my
little family, were then blasted and gone; and I must bid farewell to
friends and freedom forever.

In vain did I look to the infamous laws of the Commonwealth of Ohio,
for that protection against violence and outrage, that even the vilest
criminal with a white skin might enjoy. But oh! the dreadful thought,
that after all my sacrifice and struggling to rescue my family from
the hands of the oppressor; that I should be dragged back into cruel
bondage to suffer the penalty of a tyrant's law, to endure stripes and
imprisonment, and to be shut out from all moral as well as
intellectual improvement, and linger out almost a living death.

When I saw a crowd of blood-thirsty, unprincipled slave hunters
rushing upon me armed with weapons of death, it was no use for me to
undertake to fight my way through against such fearful odds.

But I broke away from the man who stood by with his pistol drawn to
shoot me if I should resist, and reached the fence and attempted to
jump over it before I was overtaken; but the fence being very high I
was caught by my legs before I got over.

I kicked and struggled with all my might to get away, but without
success. I kicked a new cloth coat off of his back, while he was
holding on to my leg. I kicked another in his eye; but they never let
me go until they got more help. By this time, there was a crowd on the
out side of the fence with clubs to beat me back. Finally, they
succeeded in dragging me from the fence and overpowered me by numbers
and choked me almost to death.

These ruffians dragged me through the streets of Cincinnati, to what
was called a justice office. But it was more like an office of
injustice.

When I entered the room I was introduced to three slaveholders, one of
whom was a son of Wm. Gatewood, who claimed me as his property. They
pretended to be very glad to see me.

They asked me if I did not want to see my wife and child; but I made
no reply to any thing that was said until I was delivered up as a
slave. After they were asked a few questions by the court, the