A Woman's Life-Work Labors and Experiences

bb, Horace Hallack, and Rev. Chas. C. Foote, the committee authorized to employ a teacher, to open a school in a new settlement of fugiti

houses, and cleared from one to five acres each on their heavily timbered land, and raised corn, potatoes, and o

the conclusion to defer for another yea

for every body of any age who desired to come, my school-house was filled to its utmost capacity. Many frequently came five or six miles with their ox-teams to attend these meetings, with their families. Every man, woman, and child who could read a verse in the Testament, even with assistance, took part in reading the lesson, and liberty was given to ask questions. It was not strange to listen to

ive liberty for all who wished to enjoy a sort of class or inquiry meeti

married only after "slave fashion." They said "It is not right

I will send a note to brother Foote, and h

made notes for us, an' could h

ighbors, to witness the solemnization of the marriage that would have been accomplished

oote to marry us, case we's bin troubled 'bout dis many days, case we wa'nt gwine to let nobod

e with Mr. Foote," I

te marry dat brother an

y brothe

e pronounced them husband and wife; then they were married acc

e confiding grown-up children, pati

t. I wrote the man a letter, asking him to rectify the mistake, which he did; but he gave his employee credit for only half the days he had worked. They were so often deceived and cheated in many ways, because of their extreme ignorance, that I did not wonder at the conclusion one escaped fugitive had reached. His master was a Presbyterian minister, but he had known him to whip his

plan with her sister, who had bought herself. As I named a circumstance, she exclaimed in surprise, "Why honey! is dis possible? God sent you here to larn my gals to read, an' we didn't know you," and tears began to drop thick

t arrangement very frequently with white people who were their friends, but secretly, for fear of the ruling power, as were the

ut the brave Cassius M. Clay told him to go on, and he would go with him. He went to one place from whence he had received repeated threats, and trouble was anticipated; but Cassius walked into the church by his side, and placed the Constitution of the United States on the Bible, and over both his brace of pistols, with which he informed the audience he should protect free speech. At the same time he cast

med to be the height of their ambition, I opened an evening school for that class. It was steadily attended four evenings in each week, and this, with one evening devoted to prayer-me

unfrequently found the snow half an inch or more deep over my bed on rising in the morning; but my he

uld create controversy that would bring harm to many tender minds. Consequently I proposed to organize a Christian Union Church, without disturbing the Church relationship of any one. I prepared an extract from Gerrit Smith's concise plan of organizing, on a liberal-scale, a Christian Union Church, with but little change, and read it to them; and, after a little discuss

tings, in which a young Baptist brother assisted. We all con

ain together. Said he, "I tole 'im I'd serve 'im faithfully all the days of my life, if he'd only let us live together; and he seemed to give way a little, and said he did not want to sell me, as I was his foreman, and he thought he would make other arrangements. I watched him closely as I had but little confidence in his words, and armed myself with a dirk. One day he called me to go to the woods with him, to show me the trees he wanted chopped. As I was going I saw the end of a rope under his coat-skirt. I kept at a reasonable distance all the way, and when we came to the tree he wanted I should chop, he attempted to come near me and I stood back; then he told me plainly I must yield. I said I never would permit myself to leave my family, and, if he was so dete

ng. When he could command his feeli

hey say he was dyin' this evenin', and he's dead afore this time, I reckon, an' they swear vengeance on you. Some said they'd chop you in pieces-some said they'd burn you alive.' I told her if God w

ouble, "for he looked so sad and groaned so much nights; but I couldn't bear to ask him, because I thought it would be harder for him to forget it." Having been a slave herself, she could easily

ort to improve their homes by taking trees from their woods to the saw mills to be cut up into boards for better floors than split logs, and for partitions to make their little houses more comfortable. Perhaps their improvements could not find bet

hed a free State. He telegraphed some friends in Windsor, and a dinner of reception was provided in one of the colored churches, and a great jubilee meeting was held. One very old woman, between eighty and ninety years old, shouted as she jumped around among the people, "I's young again. Glory

ent to work industriously to secure the individual consent of our Christian Union members; but the plan was, with one accord, rejected, except by our Baptist friends. As they said nothing to me concerning it, each day brought some complaints about their organising a Baptist Church "over our heads," as a number expressed themselves. But I

and of ordaining brother Campbell to take charge of it. I told all of our people to be sure and attend it with me. As I retired on the night pr

iritual and temporal well-being as we had heretofore done; that there was a fair understanding between the brethren and sisters that every other Sabbath was to be occupied by brother Maglothin, thus alternating with brother Campbell; and as the next Sabbath would be my last for the present with them, it would be my duty to explain th

cknowledging a qualification to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In it was granted liberty to organize a company of believers into a Church; and I presented our articles of agreement to build each ot

ity to reply their deacon and another followed, asking pardon for what they had said, for now they saw the wrong. I replied that if feelings had been hurt by whatever had seemed unkind, they were now healed by the same love and unity that had so universally prevailed in

oice it was discontinued; and, as the majority in that community were of Methodist proclivities, it has never ceased

hey would be kept secreted until the excitement of hunting for them was over, when he proposed to take them a night's journey northward. By that time he hoped that he could travel openly, with his free papers. I replied as William requested, in his name, and forwarded both the letter and a copy of my reply to him, with a renewed caution for him not to cross the Detroit River, as it was possible that all these plans were devised by his enemies, instead of the father-in-law and his wife. They had desired him to meet them on their way, and also inquired for names of places and persons who aided him, for the purpose of passing

y letter in his hand and with the statement that I would know the where abouts of William Anderson. He said his family ha

ery glad to hear of the arrival of William Anderson's family, o

white people. Mr. Hallack gave me five dollars to pay William's fare to Detroit to meet his family, as I

ened it recognized the

ht, it is the letter

tch, "I see we'll have to hurry to get to Adrian by train time and if you'll be so kind as to tell me where to find him as they are very anxious

was a bogus coin by the index of his face. When I told him, at length, that he was working in Chatham, Canada West, and that I wrote this direction to avoid any possible scheme or plot to ret

nd the family on the first train from Windsor to Chatham, and they would meet William t

ptist to forward a dispatch to William Anderson, Chatham, Canada West, to leave that city without an hour's delay, as I was satisfied

called on Horace Hallack to inform him that he was in search of a colored man by the name of William Anderson, who was a free man, that had committed in the State of Missouri a cold-blooded murder of a Baptist deacon, for the paltry sum of five dollars, and he understood he had been quite

, giving William Anderson's experience in detail. George De Baptist told him if he had bee

at I will do; I will write to an intelligent colored man in each of the largest settlements of colored people, Chatham, Amhurstburg, and Sandwich, and wil

e man to whom I wrote in Chatham has known all about him, being well acquainted with him, and he writes that William Anderson had been talking of going to Sault St

m in case he could be decoyed over the Detroit river; if that plan did not succeed, he was to telegraph him if he found his whereabouts in Canada. If these plans failed, he left directions to arrest me with a United States warrant. But about the time I was to have been arrested Mr. Warren, the man who was empowered to arrest me, died

from me. "Oh, I am glad I've got hold of an abolitionist. It is just what I have wished for ever since I left my home in New Orleans. Now I want to give you a little advice, and, as it will cost you nothing, you may accept it freely, and I hope you will pr

introduce a d

o it; not because we cared for a few niggers; for I say, if a nigger cares enough for freedom to run for it, he ought to have it. Now we knew that was an

have never bowed the knee to your Baal of slavery, and never will. We never shall do homage to your Southern goddess, though you may cry loud and long in demanding its worship. You

you, for we know just h

serve him faithfully all the days of his life, if he will only permit them to remain together; but the master persists in the sale; the slave makes his

s given. Said he, "I think I am acquainted with that ca

e is very similar to th

reat difficulty in that case, and I will tell you we are going to have Anderson by hook or by crook; we will have him by fai

entlemen will help us. But you will never get An

month. We are confident of success in that, too, for our fleet is in good condition. We shall then take Ande

erer. He replied that, "in case of a demand for William Anderson, he should require the case to be tried in their British court; and if twelve freeholders should test

iam Anderson was lodged in jail in the city of Toronto, under charge of murder committed in the State of Missouri. He was awaiting his trial, and Gerrit Smith was one of his legal advisers. I wrote immedi

y speech in his behalf. I hope the friends will purchase his family. I have volunteered to do all I can for

our friend, G

lliam Anderson to the State of Missouri, and that Riggs the claimant was liable to succeed; but through the efforts of his friends, and the opposing judge, the case was appealed to a higher court, and Will

hire them to go back with him, promising to make over to them manumission papers as soon as they returned. But he failed to inspire Alfred and his two brothers with confidence in his promise of freedom and fair wages for

tied him with a rope in the same way the master had tied their mother, when he compelled her to be stripped, and tied her with his own hands, and whipped her until the blood ran to the ground. Alfred and his brothers applied dexterously the slave-whip, which they had provided for the occasion by borrowing a plantation slave-whip kept by Henry Bibb as a reminder of his slave life. Daniel Payne begged heartily for mercy. Alfred replied: "Yes, this is just the way my mother begged for mercy; but you had no mercy for her, and this is to show what she received at your cruel hands." They applied the lash until the forty stripes their mother had received at his hands had been given. Then they unbound him and gave him fifteen minutes to dress and leave Canada, and gave him a quarter to go with, keeping his watch and purse, whi

spent nearly three years looking after the best interests of my children, and making preparation