"I found a case-knife, and got up from one room to another until I got next the roof, when I cut the lath and shingles and broke through; got out and down to the roof of an adjoining house, and thence from one house to another until I came to one that was low enough, and then I jumped from it to the ground." They were taken to the wheat field and provided with blankets and food, and next night were taken by Dr. Joseph Gibbons, Daniel's son, and Thomas Peart, several miles to the house of Jesse Webster. From there they were taken to Thomas Bonsall's, thence to John Vicker's, and thus on to other stations.

The account given by the women seemed so strange and incredible that Dr. Gibbons interviewed that eccentric character "Devil-Dave" Miller, who was then sheriff, and lived in the jail. When asked how it happened that he allowed two negro women to slip through his fingers, he winked and laughed. It was afterwards discovered that he opened the jail door and let them walk out. This was the only black woman known to Daniel and his son who persisted in keeping her own

secret.

In 1832, a colored woman and her daughter came to Henry Bushong's. The back of this poor woman was a most revolting spectacle for Christian eyes to behold. It had been cut into gashes with the master's whip until it was a mass of lacerated flesh and running sores. Her owner was exasperated to this deed of cruelty on account of one of her children having successfully escaped, and she, knowing its whereabouts, refused to tell. Το compel her to reveal this secret, they bound her down in a bent position, and five hundred lashes with a cat-o

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nine-tails were inflicted upon her naked back. Yet with the faithfulness and devotion of a mother's love she endured it all. Seeing that no amount of whipping could induce her to betray her child and thus return it from freedom to slavery, and fearing her own life might be lost by further infliction, they ceased plying the lash upon that quivering back, which was now a mass of mangled flesh and jellied blood. As soon as she had sufficiently recovered she determined to risk her life in an attempt to free herself from the cruelty and tortures of a slavery like this. After being kindly and tenderly cared for in the home of Henry Bushong she was taken to a station further east.

About the same year there came two slaves, named Green Staunton and Moses Johnson, belonging to different masters. They had been sold to slave-traders and lodged in the jail at Frederick, Md., for safe-keeping during the night; their owners sleeping in an apartment above them. With pocket-knives and other small implements they commenced at once picking out mortar and removing stones, determined if possible to escape before morning. They succeeded, and both men ran to the plantation of Staunton's father, who had been his master. Mr. Staunton had not intended to sell him, but being on the brink of insolvency was compelled to do it. Having compassion for him he gave them both victuals. and assisted them on their way to Daniel Gibbons. From there Johnson went to Allen Smith's, and Staunton to George Webster's, both in Bart township. After some time Johnson removed to Thomas Jackson's, at the "Forest," in the northern part of Lancaster county, and Staunton, remaining in the neighborhood, sent to

Maryland for his wife, who was a free woman. In 1835 he removed to the tenement of Jacob Bushong. Just at daylight on the morning of August 31st, 1837, six men entered his house, tied and gagged him. His wife infuriated at this assault, seized an axe and was about to deal a blow upon the head of one of the assailants, when she was caught, thrown to the floor, and held there until her husband was borne away. He was placed in Lancaster county jail to await further action.

The news of his arrest was conveyed at once throughout the neighborhood. Several of his friends who had long known him as an honest, peaceable and industrious man, could not allow him to be carried back into slavery, deprived of the rights of manhood, to be sold and driven to work like beasts of the field, if any effort of theirs could prevent it. Accordingly Lindley Coates, George Webster, George Webster, Jr., William Rakestraw, Henry Bushong, Jacob Bushong, John Bushong, Samuel Mickle, Gainer Moore and John Kidd, Esq., agreed to contribute whatever sum might be needed to purchase his freedom. They went to Lancaster, had an interview with his master, and secured his manumission upon the payment of six hundred and seventyfive dollars. He returned to his home, and resolved to compensate his friends as far as possible for the amount they had paid for him. Shortly after this, his wife died. He married again. He remained at that place several years and then removed to Conada, and died. Before he left, he had reinbursed his friends to the amount of one hundred and forty dollars.

Moses Johnson returned from the "forest" in the spring of 1836, and was working for Henry Bushong

at the time of Staunton's capture. Hearing of it, and knowing the party was searching for him, he requested some friends to negotiate with them for his freedom. An interview was had with the slaveholders, and as he was not yet in their possession, and there was a doubt lingering in their minds as to whether or not he would be, they agreed to accept $400, which was paid. In a few years, by industry and economy, he returned the full amount, and then acquired sufficient capital to purchase a small farm with good buildings. He died in 1873.

About the year 1848 there lived in "Wolf Hollow," near Pine Grove Forge, Lancaster county, a free colored man, who had married a slave woman. They had several children. Early one morning, after he had gone to a neighbor's to work, some men drove up in a covered wagon, entered the house, dragged the wife and children out of bed, bound them, loaded them in the wagon with others they had kidnapped, some of whom were free, and drove off at a rapid rate toward Maryland, eight miles distant. Their actions were witnessed by a person near by, who immediately informed the neighbors, and Joseph C. Taylor, James Woodrow, Joseph Peirce and others mounted their horses and gave chase. Overtaking them near the Maryland line, Taylor dashed by, then wheeling his horse and facing them, he raised to his shoulder an old musket without a lock, and ordered them to surrender. Not liking the appearance of the deadly looking weapon pointed at them, they halted, and the others of the party just then coming up took the kidnappers, with the colored people they had stolen, prisoners. They locked them up in Lowe's tavern and went to Lancaster to procure legal authority to arrest them for

kidnapping free negroes. Before they returned the kidnappers had escaped, carrying with them their load of human plunder.

John Russell, Micah Whitson, Henry Carter, and Ellwood Brown are also mentioned as friends of the fugitive, whose assistance was always freely given.

JEREMIAH MOORE.

(Born Fifth mo. 12th, 1803.)

Many slaves were sent from Daniel Gibbons to Jeremiah Moore's at Christiana. They were to know his residence by its being "the first house over the bridge. where the public road crossed the railroad." He secreted them in one of the upper rooms in his house, and when they were brought down to meals the doors were bolted. He not unfrequently noticed parties whom he knew to be pro-slavery in principle and unscrupulous in character, loitering a long time in the adjacent woods under pretence of gunning, or coming to the house ostensibly on other business, when their scrutinizing looks and other actions led to a strong suspicion, and even conviction, that their object was to ascertain if slaves were there, and if so to inform on them.

From Moore's the fugitives were sent in a furniture wagon in care of a trusty colored man to James Fulton's, Ercildoun, eight miles distant.

Abraham Johnson, a young slave, belonging to a Mr. Wheeler, of Cecil county, Md., hearing that he was to be sold next day, told his mother. Early in the night they, with his sister and her child, fled to that well known colored man, on the Susquehanna, Robert Loney, who ferried fugitives across the river in the night at vari