much food as I could eat, she presented me with ten
cents, all the money then at her disposal, accompanied with a note to a
friend, a few miles further on the road. Thanking this angel of mercy
from an overflowing heart, I pushed on my way, and in three days arrived
at Cleaveland, Ohio.

Being an entire stranger in this place, it was difficult for me to find
where to stop. I had no money, and the lake being frozen, I saw that I
must remain until the opening of navigation, or go to Canada by way of
Buffalo. But believing myself to be somewhat out of danger, I secured an
engagement at the Mansion House, as a table waiter, in payment for my
board. The proprietor, however, whose name was E.M. Segur, in a short
time, hired me for twelve dollars per month; on which terms I remained
until spring, when I found good employment on board a lake steamboat.

I purchased some books, and at leisure moments perused them with
considerable advantage to myself. While at Cleaveland, I saw, for the
first time, an anti-slavery newspaper. It was the "Genius of Universal
Emancipation" published by Benjamin Lundy, and though I had no home, I
subscribed for the paper. It was my great desire, being out of slavery
myself, to do what I could for the emancipation of my brethren yet in
chains, and while on Lake Erie, I found many opportunities of "helping
their cause along."

It is well known, that a great number of fugitives make their escape to
Canada, by way of Cleaveland; and while on the lake, I always made
arrangement to carry them on the boat to Buffalo or Detroit, and thus
effect their escape to the "promised land." The friends of the slave,
knowing that I would transport them without charge, never failed to have
a delegation when the boat arrived at Cleaveland. I have sometimes had
four or five on board, at one time.

In the year 1842, I conveyed, from the first of May to the first of
December, sixty-nine fugitives over Lake Erie to Canada. In 1843, I
visited Maiden, in Upper Canada, and counted seventeen, in that small
village, who owed their escape to my humble efforts.

Soon after coming North, I subscribed for the Liberator, edited by that
champion of freedom, William Lloyd Garrison. I labored a season to
promote the temperance cause among the colored people, but for the last
three years, have been pleading for the victims of American slavery.

William Wells Brown.

Boston, Mass., June, 1847.

End of the Project Gutenber