s covered forty years. She grew up in an atmosphere of sincere and
deep piety and of devotion to Christian principles. Her early
educational advantages were necessarily limited, but she made the most
of them. She became very accurate in the use of language, wrote a clear
round hand and was very thorough in everything she studied. She was a
great reader of good and useful books, possessed an excellent memory
and a lively imagination and very early acquired a most interesting
style of composition.

[Illustration: AUNT JANE,
Or, The Red Song Woman.]

From her ancestors she inherited that strong sympathy for the colored
race, which was a marked characteristic of her whole life. In her young
womanhood, she taught private schools in Adams county, Ohio. The
progress made by her pupils was very rapid and her instruction was of a
high order. She sought out the children of the poor and taught them
without charge. She admitted colored pupils as well as whites. For this
cause, many threats of violence were made against her school. But she
was such an excellent teacher that her white pupils remained with her;
and a guard of volunteer riflemen frequently surrounded her school
house. She calmly pursued the even tenor of her way.

In 1820, when she was only 17 years of age, she and her brother rode on
horseback all the way from Manchester, Ohio, to South Carolina and back
again, and brought with them two slaves they had inherited. They could
have sold them in the South for $300 each, and stood in great need of
the money; but instead, they gave to these two poor colored persons the
priceless boon of liberty. Miss Williamson's slave was a young woman of
her own age, called Jemima. She was married to another slave named
Logan. She was the mother of two children. Logan was a daring man, and
rendered desperate by the loss of his young wife, he determined to be
free and follow her. He fled from South Carolina, and after passing
through many adventures of the most thrilling character, he found his
wife in Ohio, and lived and died a free man. He was fully determined to
die rather than return to slavery. Jemima lived to a great age,
surviving her husband, who was killed accidently in the fifties. They
left a family highly respected.

During all these years "Aunt Jane" was a very active worker in Sabbath
schools, prayer meetings and missionary societies. In her own day
schools, she made religious worship and Bible study a prom