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with the long negro whip, for no fault, till I was insensible, and could not appear before the judge who was to decide my cause. Two weeks after, it was decided that, by the law of Georgia, every negro was presumed to be a slave till he could prove his freedom, and the white man in whose custody he was found was declared to be his master. From this time life was a torment; I was whipped in the field, compelled to cut wood after field hours, and locked up at night. Even on a Sunday I was under the charge of an African negro. But fortune once more befriended

me.

Late in September much rain fell, and my door being clumsily fitted, and swelled with the damp, the overseer left it a little open, and I forced it sufficiently to get out. I set off quickly, passed through Millidgeville, gained the open country, and hid myself in a swamp. But next morning five or six men rushed upon me, crying, "Kill him! kill him!" They bound me, and carried me to their companions, who were drinking, singing, and playing cards. Among them was my master, who, after much abuse, sold me to a planter for five hundred and sixty dollars. I was taken fifty miles down the country, and eighty miles from Savannah. Here I was again a slave on a cotton plantation, twenty years after my first flight. After about a week, my master told me he never flogged, but that if I came to the house in the evening, he would show me a more effectual punishment. I saw a pump, the spout of which was about thirteen feet above the ground; the water was cold, and descended in a large stream upon the head of the poor woman who was to be punished. She had been stripped naked, and tied to a post directly under the spout. When she had been under the stream about a minute, she began to scream piteously; she then became convulsed; and in another minute her head sank upon her breast in silence. She was then removed insensible; but recovered her faculties in about an hour. Those who have endured this punishment say that at first the water is not painful; in a short time it feels like the heavy blows of large rods; and that, by degrees, becomes more and more painful, until the skull and bladebones appear to be broken in pieces. Finally, the breathing is oppressed, and sensibility ceases. This scene of torture determined me to make my escape immediately; and on the Sunday evening following, I stole softly across the cotton fields, taking with me a bag containing my allowance of food. I kept on steadily all night, and carefully avoiding every appearance of a road, I proceeded for four days, when I came to a broad highroad, near which I concealed myself, that I might judge, from the people I saw, to what country it led. By the number of horsemen, carriages, and cotton wagons, I guessed that I was near large town. I therefore descended to the road at night, and travelled it till daybreak, passing many houses, and much well-cleared country. As I was resting by the fence, a wagon

some

laden with cotton passed me, and the driver, a black man, offered me a lift to Savannah. I accepted this, and accompanied him to the wharf, where I assisted him to unload, for which he gave me a good breakfast. I then hired myself to help in loading a ship with cotton, bearing in mind the chance of thus escaping. They were three days in loading, during which time I had contrived to pack the cotton bags so as to leave a space in the centre of the hold large enough for a man to conceal himself. My wages being paid, I bought two jugs-the large one I filled with water, the small one with molasses-also twenty pounds of pilot bread; and at night I went on board, and watching an opportunity when the man on duty had gone forward, I glided down amongst the cargo with my jugs and bread. The ship sailed the next morning; and very glad was I when I felt the waves of the ocean break against her. I was in total darkness, and knew nothing of time till I heard a man call out, "That is Cape Hatteras." At length I felt the ship strike against some solid body, succeeded by much noise and bustle, and at length the hatches were opened. At night I crept up, and seeing no one about, I left the hold, and stepped upon a ship alongside. A man seized me for a thief, but I persuaded him to let me go; and stepping upon the wharf, I once more felt myself a free man. I concluded I was in Philadelphia, as I had heard the ship was bound thither. Meeting an old gentleman in the street with drab clothes on, I asked him if it were so, and he civilly answered in the affirmative. He seemed concerned for me, either because of my wretched and ragged appearance, or because I was a stranger, and did not know where I was; and he led me to the house of a black man, whom he told to take care of me till morning. He then brought me an entire suit of clothes, and gave me money for a hat and shirts. He then said, "I perceive that thou art a slave, and hast run away from thy master. Thee can now go to work for thy living; but take care that they do not catch thee again." I told him my tale. At first he seemed incredulous; but when he had heard all, he became more than ever interested in my fate. This gentleman, whose name I must not publish, has always been a kind friend to me.

After remaining in Philadelphia a few weeks, I resolved to visit my little farm in Maryland, to sell my property, and return with my wife and children to Philadelphia. On arriving at Baltimore, I went to a tavern-keeper who had bought vegetables of me; he was extremely surprised to see me, and advised me to leave Baltimore directly, showing me a handbill in his bar-room offering one hundred and fifty dollars for my apprehension. I left the house directly, and Baltimore that night.

When I reached my former residence, I found a strange white man living there, who said that a runaway slave had formerly lived there, but that his master had come the summer before and carried him off; and that the wife was also a slave; and that

her master had taken her and her children, about six weeks before, and sold them at Baltimore to a slave-dealer from the south. This man also told me that he was not in the neighbourhood when the woman and her children were carried away, but that he had received his information from a black woman who lived half a mile off. I went directly to this woman, whom I knew well: she had been set free some years before, and resided, under the protection of her former master, on his land. She could scarcely believe her sight when I entered the door; and her first words were, "Lucy and her children have all been stolen away!" At my request she gave me the following account of the manner in which my wife and children, all of whom had been free from their birth, were seized, and driven into southern slavery:

"A few weeks after they took you away," said she, "and before Lucy had sufficiently recovered to be alone with her children, I went to stay with her. We went to bed about eleven o'clock, and after some time, were awakened by a knock at the door. This being repeated, Lucy asked who was there. She was then told, in what seemed to be the voice of a woman, to get up and open the door, for that the person had something to tell her that she wished to hear. Lucy, thinking it was a black woman whom she knew, rose and opened the door, when five men rushed in, closed the door, made a light in the fireplace, and proceeded deliberately to tie Lucy with a rope. The bed was then searched for the children; and I was found, and dragged

out. This seemed to alarm the men, whose faces were all black, but whose hair and features were those of white men. A consultation was held about me, and at length it was agreed that it would be dangerous to take me, lest my old master should cause them to be pursued; but one of them said, that if I were left at liberty, I should give intelligence of the affair; and that if it were discovered by the Abolition Society before they had time to get out of Maryland, they would certainly be detained and punished. They therefore tied me with cords to one of the logs of the house, and gagged me by tying a rope on my mouth, and confining it closely at the back of my neck. They then took the children from the bed, tied the eldest boy to his mother, and drove them out of the house together; and I never saw nor heard any more of Lucy or her children. For myself, I

remained in the house, the door of which was carefully closed and fastened, until the second night after, without anything to eat or drink. On that night some unknown persons came and cut the cords that bound me, when I returned to my own cabin."

This intelligence almost deprived me of life; it was the most dreadful misfortune I had suffered. It was now clear that some slave-dealer had come in my absence, seized my wife and children as slaves, and sold them to such men as I had served in the

south. They had passed into hopeless bondage, for ever beyond my reach. I was myself advertised as a fugitive slave, liable to be arrested at any moment, and dragged back to Georgia. I rushed out of the house in despair, and returned to Pennsylvania with a broken heart.

For the last few years I have resided about fifty miles from Philadelphia, where I expect to pass the remainder of my days in working hard for a livelihood, without the least hope of again seeing my wife and children; fearful at this day to let my place of residence be known, lest, even yet, it may be supposed that, as an article of property, I am of sufficient value to be worth pursuing in my old age.*

Such are some of the horrors of slavery, described by one who had suffered deeply from this atrocious and unnatural system. The personal inflictions which the system authorises, are sufficiently dreadful to raise our horror. Some of the punishments are, as we have seen, little short of murder; ruining the constitution of the victim, and inducing disease, if not death. This goes even beyond any legal power which man may exercise towards his fellow-creatures. Hitherto, when slaves escaped from the southern to the northern or free states, they were reclaimed by law, and, as in the case above narrated, have actually been sent back to their former condition. It would appear that this at least shall not take place again in reference to the state of New York. A poor slave boy having escaped on board a vessel to New York, was reclaimed; but the case being brought before the competent tribunal, it was determined that the runaway should be set at liberty. The scene at the court-room on the release of the boy slave was very tumultuous-ladies bursting into tears, crowds huzzaing, gentlemen making congratulatory speeches to the negroes outside, &c. The newspaper which mentions this circumstance goes on to say, that in the border states the abolition spirit is so active, that slavery is gradually giving way, from the insecurity of slave property. Other circumstances tend to the same result; and it could not, in the nature of things, be otherwise. No powers which slave-owners can employ are able to prevent the spread of intelligence respecting the sentiments and movements of the northern abolitionists. The press, that marvellous engine of civilisation, has latterly also been more than usually active in impressing correct views as to the continuation of slavery within the bounds of the republic. Everything, in short, concurs in demonstrating that the days of this iniquitous system are numbered.

*This account of the Life of a Slave is abridged from a lengthy narrative published in New York in 1832.

WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE.

HE microscope of late years has claimed so much attention from almost all observers of natural history, has added so much to our knowledge of the various changes and processes going on in the organic kingdoms, that a slight glance at its history, and the wonderful phenomena revealed by its aid, may not be unacceptable to the general reader. Many persons who have had recourse to this instrument as a mere toy, to while away an idle hour, have been insensibly led, by the extraordinary wonders it revealed, to become ardent and persevering cultivators of science. Many others have been obliged to give up its use, from the want of a few plain and simple directions for preserving the different objects they may meet with for future examination and comparison. The purport of the following pages is to obviate the difficulties which the young microscopist may encounter, to instruct him in the easiest and cheapest method of procuring a good instrument, to point out some of the numerous subjects in nature which will amply repay him for the time spent in their investigation, as well as to refer him to the sources from which information may be gained; and lastly, to educate him in the best method of making preparations, so that he may readily obtain for himself-what every microscopist is anxious to possess a rich and well-filled cabinet.

The various sciences are so intimately connected, so imperceptibly merge into each other, the one serving as a stepping-stone to the next, that in process of time the student is amazed at finding himself led into the prosecution of inquiries of which, at the outset, he had never even dreamed. Thus the study of minute animalcules leads the observer to dive into the mysteries of a higher organisation, until he finds himself induceď to extend his researches into the forms and development of plants and insects; rendering himself thereby acquainted in some degree with botany and entomology, from whence he ascends to the consideration of the structure of higher animals, until at last he is made acquainted with the anatomy and physiology of the most highly endowed-Man. To arrive at this, much time and labour must be spent; many difficulties have to be overcome; but the delightful hours spent in the pursuit, independent altogether of the knowledge gained, will be found to be ample compensation. And further, to quote the words of Professor Owen, if the astronomer be led from the contemplation of the countless orbs that traverse boundless space, to the adoration of the Creator in his almightiness; so the observation of the perfections of his minutest works, which, though invisible to ordinary ken,

No. 150.

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