home." These preachers evidently liked
to share Master Thomas's hospitality; for while he _starved us_,
he _stuffed_ them. Three or four of these ambassadors of the
gospel--according to slavery--have been there at a time; all living on
the fat of the land, while we, in the kitchen, were nearly starving. Not
often did we get a smile of recognition from these holy men. They seemed
almost as unconcerned about our getting to heaven, as they were about
our getting out of slavery. To this general charge there was one
exception--the Rev. GEORGE COOKMAN. Unlike Rev. Messrs. Storks, Ewry,
Hickey, Humphrey and Cooper (all whom were on the St. Michael's circuit)
he kindly took an interest in our temporal and spiritual welfare. Our
souls and our bodies were all alike sacred in his sight; and he really
had a good deal of genuine anti-slavery feeling mingled with his
colonization ideas. There was not a slave in our neighborhood that did
not love, and almost venerate, Mr. Cookman. It was pretty generally
believed that he had been chiefly instrumental in bringing one of the
largest slaveholders--Mr. Samuel Harrison--in that neighborhood, to
emancipate all his slaves, and, indeed, the general impression was, that
Mr. Cookman had labored faithfully with slaveholders, whenever he met
them, to induce them to emancipate their bondmen, and that he did this
as a religious duty. When this good man was at our house, we were all
sure to be called in to prayers in the morning; and he was not slow in
making inquiries as to the state of our minds, nor in giving us a word
of exhortation and of encouragement. Great was the sorrow of all the
slaves, when this faithful preacher of the gospel was removed from the
Talbot county circuit. He was an eloquent preacher, and possessed what
few ministers, south of Mason Dixon's line, possess, or _dare_ to show,
viz: a warm and philanthropic heart. The Mr. Cookman, of whom I speak,
was an Englishman by birth, and perished while on his way to England, on
board the ill-fated "President". Could the thousands of slaves{155} in
Maryland know the fate of the good man, to whose words of comfort they
were so largely indebted, they would thank me for dropping a tear on
this page, in memory of their favorite preacher, friend and benefactor.

But, let me return to Master Thomas, and to my experience, after his
conversion. In Baltimore, I could, occasionally, get into a Sabbath
school, among the free children, and receive l