nted for the frequency with which he
changed owners, six separate sales being recorded at prices ranging
from $850 to $1200. The plantation punishments had no effect upon him
save to increase his desire for freedom.

As with many another slave the very evils of the system served a
purpose in Bibb's life. Denied education of a normal kind he became
observant and his mind was enlightened by what he saw and heard.
"Among other good trades," he says, "I learned the art of running away
to perfection. I made a regular business of it and never gave it up
until I had broken the bonds of slavery and landed myself in Canada
where I was regarded as a man and not a thing."

Ill treatment was the incentive to the first attempt of Bibb to secure
his freedom. This was in 1835 and the next few years were occupied
with repeated unsuccessful efforts to get away and to take his wife
and child with him. He had heard of Canada and his thoughts ever
turned in that direction. On several occasions his flights led him as
far as the Ohio River, the boundary of freedom, but some force seemed
always at hand to drag him back. At the end of 1837 he managed to
reach Cincinnati and spent that winter at Perrysburg with a community
of Negroes settled there. The next summer he risked his freedom in
attempting to bring his wife North, was captured, lodged in jail at
Louisville, and managed to escape within a few hours after being
locked up. A year later he renewed the attempt, was again captured,
and this time was sold, together with his wife, to a trader who dealt
in the New Orleans market. It was in the fall of 1839 that the man and
wife were exposed for sale in a slave yard on St. Joseph Street and in
the narrative there is an interesting account of the trade in this
southern city. Newly arrived blacks were taken before a city official
who inspected their backs to see if they were scarred and also
examined their limbs to see if they were sound. To determine their age
the teeth were examined and the skin pinched on the back of the hand.
In the case of old slaves the pucker would remain for some seconds.
There was also rigorous examination as to mental capacity. Slaves who
displayed unusual intelligence, who could read or write or who had
been to Canada were not wanted. Bibb notes that practically every
buyer asked him if he could read or write and if he had ever run away.
Of the slave yard itself he writes:

"All classes of slaves were kept ther