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| 446 TSE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. Arriving AS usual in due time these fugitives were examined, and all found to be extra field hands. PLYMOUTH was forty-two years of age, of a light chestnut color, with keen eyes, and a good countenance, and •withal possessed of shrewdness enough to lead double the number that accompanied him. He had a strong desire to learn to read, but there was no possible way of his gaining the light; this he felt to be a great drawback. The name of the man who had made merchandise of Plymouth was Nat Horsey, of Horsey's Cross Roads. The most striking characteristic in Horsey's character, according to Plymouth's idea was, that he was very " hard to please, did not know when a slave did enough, had no idea that they could get tired or that they needed any privileges." He was the owner of six slaves, was engaged in farming and mercantile pursuits, and the postmaster of the borough in which he lived. When Plymouth parted with hia wife with a " full heart/' he bade her good-night, without intimating to her that he never expected to sec her again in tliis world ; she evidently supposed that he was going home to his master's place as usual, but instead he was leaving his companion and three children to wear the yoke as hitherto. He sympathized with them deeply, but felt that he could render them no real good by remaining; be could neither live with his wife nor could he have any command over one of his children. Slavery demanded all, but allowed nothing. Notwithstanding, Plymouth admitted that he hail been treated even more f^orably than most slaves. The family thus hound consisted of his wife Jane, and four children, as follows: Dorsey, "William Francis, Mary Ellen, and baby. HORATIO was a little in advance of Plymouth in years, being forty-four years of age. His physical outlines gave him a commanding appearance for one who had worn the yoke as he had for so many years. He was of a yellow complexion, and very tall. As a slave laborer he had been sweating and toiling to enrich a man by the name of Thomas J. Hodgson, a farmer on a large scale, and owning about a dozen slaves. HOTIATIO gave him the character of being " a man of a hidden temper," and after "the election of Buchanan he considered him a great deal worse than ever. HORATIO told of a visit which his master made to Canada, and which, on his return, lie had taken much pains to report to the slaves to the effect that he had been there the previous summer, and saw the country for himself, adding in words somewhat as follows: " Canada is the meanest jwrt of the globe that I ever found or heard of;"—did not see but one black or colored person in Canada,—inquired at the custom-bouse to know what became of all the blacks from the South, and was told that they shipped them off occasionally and gent them round Cape Horn and sold |