ldren before leaving. All were single, with the exception of James,
whose wife was free, and named Charlotte; she understood about his going
to Canada, and, of course, was true to him.

These young men had of course been reared under circumstances altogether
unfavorable to mental development. Nevertheless they had fervent
aspirations to strike for freedom.

Lewis Giles belonged, in the prison-house of bondage, in the city of
Richmond, and owed service to a Mr. Lewis Hill, who made it a business
to keep slaves expressly to hire out, just as a man keeps a livery
stable. Lewis was not satisfied with this arrangement; he could see no
fair play in it. In fact, he was utterly at variance with the entire
system of Slavery, and, a long time before he left, had plans laid with
a view of escaping. Through one of the Underground Rail Road Agents the
glad tidings were borne to him that a passage might be procured on a
schooner for twenty-five dollars. Lewis at once availed himself of this
offer, and made his arrangements accordingly. He, however, made no
mention of this contemplated movement to his wife, Louisa; and, to her
astonishment, he was soon among the missing. Lewis was a fine-looking
"article," six feet high, well proportioned, and of a dark chestnut
color, worth probably $1200, in the Richmond market. Touching his slave
life, he said that he had been treated "pretty well," except that he
"had been sold several times." Intellectually he was above the average
run of slaves. He left on the twenty-third of April, and arrived about
the second of June, having, in the meantime, encountered difficulties
and discouragements of various kinds. His safe arrival, therefore, was
attended with unusual rejoicing.

Daniel Bennett and his wife and children were the next in order. A woman
poorly clad with a babe just one month old in her arms, and a little boy
at her side, who could scarcely toddle, together with a husband who had
never dared under penalty of the laws to protect her or her little ones,
presented a most painfully touching picture. It was easy enough to see,
that they had been crushed. The husband had been owned by Captain James
Taylor--the wife and children by George Carter.

The young mother gave Carter a very bad character, affirming, that it
was a "common practice with him to flog the slaves, stripped entirely
naked"--that she had herself been so flogged, since she had been a
married woman. How the husband was