mistress said, whether she had actually freed them or
not. Alas! when the secret was disclosed, it was ascertained that not a
fetter was broken, not a bond unloosed, and that no provision whatever
had been made looking towards freedom. In this sad case, the slaves
could imagine no other fate than soon to be torn asunder and scattered.
The fact was soon made known that the High Sheriff had administered on
the estate of the late mistress; it was therefore obvious enough to
William and the more intelligent slaves that the auction block was near
at hand.

The trader, the slave-pen, the auction-block, the coffle gang, the rice
swamp, the cotton plantation, bloodhounds, and cruel overseers loomed up
before him, as they had never done before. Without stopping to consider
the danger, he immediately made up his mind that he would make a
struggle, cost what it might. He knew of no other way of escape than the
Underground Rail Road. He was shrewd enough to find an agent, who gave
him private instructions, and to whom he indicated a desire to travel
North on said road. On examination he was deemed reliable, and a mutual
understanding was entered into between. William and one of the
accommodating Captains running on the Richmond and Philadelphia Line, to
the effect that he, William, should have a first class Underground Rail
Road berth, so perfectly private that even the law-officers could not
find him.

The first ties to be severed were those which bound him to his wife and
children, and next to the Baptist Church, to which he belonged. His
family were slaves, and bore the following names: his wife, Nancy, and
children, Simon Henry, William, Sarah, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Louis, and
Cornelius. It was no light matter to bid them farewell forever. The
separation from them was a trial such as rarely falls to the lot of
mortals; but he nerved himself for the undertaking, and when the hour
arrived his strength was sufficient for the occasion.

Thus in company with Andrew they embarked for an unknown shore, their
entire interests entrusted to a stranger who was to bring them through
difficulties and dangers seen and unseen.

Andrew was about twenty-four years of age, very tall, quite black, and
bore himself manfully. He too was of the same estate that William
belonged to. He had served on the farm as a common farm laborer. He had
had it "sometimes rough and sometimes smooth," to use his own language.
The fear of what awaited the sla