invitation to make
them a visit, and suggested that the quickest way they could come, would
be by telegraph, which they admitted was slightly dangerous, and without
first greasing themselves, and then hanging on very fast, the journey
might not prove altogether advantageous to them. This was wormwood and
gall to the trader and oyster-house man. A most remarkable coincidence
was that, about the time this letter was received in Richmond, the
captain who brought away the three passengers, made it his business for
some reason or other, to call at the oyster-house kept by the owner of
Joe, and while there, this letter was read and commented on in torrents
of Billingsgate phrases; and the trader told the captain that he would
give him "two thousand dollars if he would get them;" finally he told
him he would "give every cent they would bring, which would be much over
$2000," as they were "so very likely." How far the captain talked
approvingly, he did not exactly tell the Committee, but they guessed he
talked strong Democratic doctrine to them under the frightful
circumstances. But he was good at concealing his feelings, and obviously
managed to avoid suspicion.

* * * * *

GEORGE SOLOMON, DANIEL NEALL, BENJAMIN R. FLETCHER AND MARIA DORSEY.

The above representatives of the unrequited laborers of the South fled
directly from Washington, D.C. Nothing remarkable was discovered in
their stories of slave life; their narratives will therefore be brief.

George Solomon was owned by Daniel Minor, of Moss Grove, Va. George was
about thirty-three years of age; mulatto, intelligent, and of
prepossessing appearance. His old master valued George's services very
highly, and had often declared to others, as well as to George himself,
that without him he should hardly know how to manage. And frequently
George was told by the old master that at his "death he was not to be a
slave any longer, as he would have provision made in his will for his
freedom." For a long time this old story was clung to pretty faithfully
by George, but his "old master hung on too long," consequently George's
patience became exhausted. And as he had heard a good deal about Canada,
U.G.R.R., and the Abolitionists, he concluded that it would do no harm
to hint to a reliable friend or two the names of these hard places and
bad people, to see what impression would be made on their minds; in
short, to see if they were ready to