by him); this was the chief cause of the mistress' spite."

Ann Maria had always desired her freedom from childhood, and
although not thirteen, when first advised to escape, she
received the suggestion without hesitation, and ever after that
time waited almost daily, for more than two years, the chance to
flee. Her friends were, of course, to aid her, and make
arrangements for her escape. Her owner, fearing that she might
escape, for a long time compelled her to sleep in the chamber
with "her master and mistress;" indeed she was so kept until
about three weeks before she fled. She left her parents living
in Washington. Three of her brothers had been sold South from
their parents. Her mother had been purchased for $1,000, and one
of her sisters for $1,600 for freedom. Before Ann Maria was
thirteen years of age $700 was offered for her by a friend, who
desired to procure her freedom, but the offer was promptly
refused, as were succeeding ones repeatedly made. The only
chance of procuring her freedom, depended upon getting her away
on the Underground Rail Road. She was neatly attired in male
habiliments, and in that manner came all the way from
Washington. After passing two or three days with her new friends
in Philadelphia, she was sent on (in male attire) to Lewis
Tappan, of New York, who had likewise been deeply interested in
her case from the beginning, and who held himself ready, as was
understood, to cash a draft for three hundred dollars to
compensate the man who might risk his own liberty in bringing
her on from Washington. After having arrived safely in New York,
she found a home and kind friends in the family of the Rev. A.N.
Freeman, and received quite an ovation characteristic of an
Underground Rail Road.

After having received many tokens of esteem and kindness from
the friends of the slave in New York and Brooklyn, she was
carefully forwarded on to Canada, to be educated at the "Buxton
Settlement."

An interesting letter, however, from the mother of Ann Maria, conveying
the intelligence of her late great struggle and anxiety in laboring to
free her last child from Slavery is too important to be omitted, and
hence is inserted in connection with this narrative.

LETTER FROM THE MOTHER.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 19th, 1857.

WM. STILL, ESQ., Philadelphia, P