Ellen, who it was charged had escaped from
service due to a Mr. D., south of Mason and Dixon's Line. She had been
arrested in accordance with a law passed by Congress in 1793, which
forbids persons owing service in one State to flee to another; and which
also obliges those receiving such service, to render to the claimant
any fugitive from labor due, &c. Poor Ellen! She had many friends and able
counsel, but nothing short of an open violation of the law of the land,
could prevent her return to the house of bondage. She was tried and given
up to him who claimed dominion over her. Hopeless and heart-broken, she
was escorted from the boasted land and village of freedom, by a company of
the "Light Horse," under the command of Capt. Curtis. One poor, persecuted
slave woman, upon whose heart had fallen a shadow darker than death's;
driving every earthly hope of liberty from her wounded spirit; helpless
and forlorn! She indeed must have required this military parade--this
show of power! And that too, by men who throw up their caps with a shout
for freedom and equal rights! Oh, "consistency, thou art a jewel!"

As I recollect but one other incident of the kind occurring in Rochester,
I will now name it.

A colored man named Davis, generally known as "Doctor Davis," with a
reputation unsullied for industry, truth and sobriety, was arrested as a
fugitive from slave labor in Kentucky. Two men came on from that State,
acting in the double capacity of agents for the claimant and witnesses
against the slave. They employed Mr. L. as counsel, and hastened on the
trial of the afflicted African. When it became generally known that Davis
was arrested, and about to be tried, the excitement grew intense among all
classes; but more particularly among the colored people. When the trial
came on, the Court room was crowded to overflowing, and every avenue
leading to it densely thronged with deeply anxious persons, assembled to
witness the result. It became evident, however, that the poor man must be
given up to his grasping master, unless some means were devised to rescue
him from the power of an unjust law. His friends were on the alert, and as
the trial proceeded, the colored men found an opportunity to get him into
a corner of the crowded apartment; where, while the officers stood at the
door, they dressed him in disguise, and otherwise so completely changed
his personal appearance, that he passed out of the Court room, undetected
by the of