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| 390 TEE UNDERGROUND BAIL SOAD. was a carpenter by trade." " What kind of a looking man was he f " again inquired the Committee. " He was a large, stout man, don't swear, bat lies and cheats." Joe admitted that he had been treated very well all his life, with the exception of being deprived of his freedom. For eight years prior to his escape he had been hired out, a part of the time as porter in a grocery store, the remainder as bar-tender in a saloon. At the time of his escape he was worth twenty-two dollars per month to his master. Joe had to do overwork and thus procure clothing for himself. When a small boy he resolved, that he never would work all his days as a slave for the white people. As he advanced in years his desire for freedom increased. An offer of fifteen hundred dollars was made for Joe, so he was informed a short time before he escaped; this caused him to move promptly in die matter of carrying out his designs touching liberty. His parents and three brothers, slaves, were to be left; but when the decisive hour came lie was equal to the emergency. In company -with William Naylor secreted in a vessel, he was brought away and delivered to the Committee for aid and counsel, which he received, and thus ended his bondage. The reward offered by his piaster, Samuel Ellis, proved of no avail. ARRIVAL FKOM MARYLAND. WILLIAM SCOTT. William was about twenty-four years of age, well made, though not very heavy—stammered considerably when speaking— wide awake and sensible nevertheless. For two years the fear of being sold had not been out of his mind. To meet a security agreement, which had been contracted by his mistress—about which a law-suit had been pending for two years—was what he feared he should be sold for. About the first of May he found himself iii the hands of the sheriff. On being taken to Stafford Court-House Jail, however, the sheriff permitted him to walk a "little ways." It occurred to William that then was his only chance to strike for freedom and Canada, at all hazards. He soon decided the matter, and the sheriff saw no more of him. Susan Fox was the name of the person he was compelled to call mistress. She was described as a " largo, portly woman, very gross, with a tolerably severe temper, at times." "William's mother and one of his brothers had been sold by this woman—an outrage to be forever remembered. His grandmother, one sister, with two children, and a cousin with five children, all attached by the sheriff, for sale, were left in the hands of his mistress. He was married the previous Christmas, but in the trying hour could do nothing for his wife, but leave her to the mercy of slave-holders. The name of the sheriff that he outgeneralled was Walter Cox. William was valued at (1,000. |