e three weeks we remained with the
good family we could spell and write our names quite legibly. They all
begged us to stop longer; but, as we were not safe in the State of
Pennsylvania, and also as we wished to commence doing something for a
livelihood, we did not remain.

When the time arrived for us to leave for Boston, it was like parting
with our relatives. We have since met with many very kind and
hospitable friends, both in America and England; but we have never been
under a roof where we were made to feel more at home, or where the
inmates took a deeper interest in our well-being, than Mr. Barkley
Ivens and his dear family. May God ever bless them, and preserve each
one from every reverse of fortune!

We finally, as I have stated, settled at Boston, where we remained
nearly two years, I employed as cabinet-maker and furniture broker, and
my wife at her needle; and, as our little earnings in slavery were not
all spent on the journey, we were getting on very well, and would have
made money, if we had not been compelled by the General Government, at
the bidding of the slaveholders, to break up business, and fly from
under the Stars and Stripes to save our liberties and our lives.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Bill, an enactment too
infamous to have been thought of or tolerated by any people in the
world, except the unprincipled and tyrannical Yankees. The following
are a few of the leading features of the above law; which requires,
under heavy penalties, that the inhabitants of the FREE States should
not only refuse food and shelter to a starving, hunted human being, but
also should assist, if called upon by the authorities, to seize the
unhappy fugitive and send him back to slavery.

In no case is a person's evidence admitted in Court, in defence of his
liberty, when arrested under this law.

If the judge decides that the prisoner is a slave, he gets ten dollars;
but if he sets him at liberty, he only receives five.

After the prisoner has been sentenced to slavery, he is handed over to
the United States Marshal, who has the power, at the expense of the
General Government, to summon a sufficient force to take the poor
creature back to slavery, and to the lash, from which he fled.

Our old masters sent agents to Boston after us. They took out
warrants, and placed them in the hands of the United States Marshal to
execute. But the following letter from our highly esteemed and
faithful fri