CHAPTER XX.

JAMES LEWIS and JAMES T. DANNAKER.-Many Fugitives Taken to the Anti-slavery Office, Philadelphia.-ROBERT PURVIS.-The Dorsey Brothers.

JAMES LEWIS AND JAMES T. DANNAKER.

(James Lewis, Born November 8th, 1802.-Died May 25th, 1876.) (James T. Dannaker, Born March 11th, 1814.)

In the latter part of 1837, James Lewis, currier and tanner, in Marple township, Delaware county, ten miles from Philadelphia, felt constrained to give his support to the anti-slavery movement then being agitated throughout the country. He was united with in this advanced step in their neighborhood by James T. Dannaker, an intelligent, radical thinker, then residing with him, and who was his co-worker in the temperance cause. Such was the opposition to this "new departure" of James Lewis that some of his customers withdrew their patronage. But this neither changed his convictions of right nor caused him to swerve from his strictly onward course in what he felt to be a moral duty. As congenial spirits are attracted towards each other, so James Lewis soon found gathering around him new friends whose intellectual and moral worth he highly appreciated; and his feeling was reciprocated by them. Among these were the younger members of the Sellers families, in Upper Darby. They held private meetings at each other's houses for counsel and encouragement. Finally they decided to have a public meeting, and secured an able speaker. After considerable effort they obtained the privilege of using Marple school-house, No. 1. This

caused much excitement, and when the appointed time came the house was crowded with friends and foes, a large number being unable to gain admittance. A gang of twenty came for the express purpose of breaking up the meeting when anything should be said that they could use as a provocation to carrying out their plot. The speaker, Thomas Earle, arrived, accompanied by S. Sellers, and moved through the crowd to the platform. After a few moments of impressive silence, Thomas Earle arose, and in a quiet, dignified manner, said that he had come there for the purpose of talking upon the subject of American slavery, but having heard on his way that there was some opposition, he did not wish to intrude and proposed that James Lewis take the sense of the meeting whether or not he should speak. The vote was almost unanimous for him to proceed. He spoke nearly two hours, and held the audience throughout in rapt attention, as if spell-bound, by his touching appeals and persuasive oratory. He pictured the life of the unrequited laborer, of families separated at the auction-block and fond affections outraged. He brought this condition of servitude directly home to the firesides and hearts of his audience, "remembering those who were in chains as bound with them," and so effective was this portraiture that at the close of the meeting many who came to scoff remained to pray." Among the first to take the speaker by the hand and thank him for the light and the instructions given, were some of the leaders of the party who had designed to be obstreperous. This meeting was followed by others, and by debates in different parts of Delaware and Chester counties, which largely changed sentiment in favor of P*