uch cause for
such exultation as there had been in the case of Thomas Hughes.

Mrs. Burke of New-Orleans went to New-York to visit a relative by the
name of Morgan. She brought a slave to attend upon her, and took great
care to prevent her becoming acquainted with the colored people. I don't
know how city editors would account for this extreme caution,
consistently with their ideas of the blessedness of slavery. They might
argue that there was danger free colored people would be so attracted by
her charming pictures of bondage, that they would emigrate to the South
in larger numbers than would supply the slave-markets, and thus occasion
some depression in an honorable branch of trade in this republic.
However they might please to explain it, the simple fact was, Mrs. Burke
did not allow her slave to go into the street. Of course, she must have
had some other motive than the idea that _freedom_ could be attractive
to her. The colored people became aware of the careful constraint
imposed upon the woman, and they informed the abolitionists. Thinking it
right that slaves should be made aware of their legal claim to freedom,
when brought or sent into the free states, with knowledge and consent of
their masters, they applied to Judge Oakley for a writ of _habeas
corpus,_ by virtue of which the girl was brought before him. While she
was in waiting, Friend Hopper heard of the circumstance, and immediately
proceeded to the court-room. There he found Mr. Morgan and one of his
southern friends talking busily with the slave. The woman appeared
frightened and undecided, as is often the case, under such
circumstances. Those who wished her to return to the South plied her
with fair promises. They represented abolitionists as a set of
kidnappers, who seized colored strangers under friendly pretences, and
nobody could tell what became of them afterward. It was urged that her
condition would be most miserable with the "free niggers" of the North,
even if the abolitionists did not sell her, or spirit her away to some
unknown region.

On the other hand, the colored people, who had assembled about the
court-room, were very eager to rescue her from slavery. She did not
understand their motives, or those of the abolitionists; for they had
been diligently misrepresented to her. "What do they want to do it
_for_?" she asked, with a perplexed air. "What will they do with me?"
She was afraid there was some selfish motive concealed. She dared not