ered at by the crowd which sympathized with the Negro woman.[34]

In June, 1852, three fugitives arrived in Detroit and in response to
frantic messages from Toledo were held for their pursuers. In
desperation the Negroes made a savage attack on their jailer, gained
their freedom and got across the border with the assistance of friends
in Detroit. Rewards that were offered for their recapture were
useless as the fugitives took care to remain on the Canadian side.[35]

Hiram Wilson tells of an incident that came under his notice at St.
Catharines. A beautiful young girl, 14 years of age and almost white,
was brought to Buffalo as maid for a slaveholder's daughter travelling
in the North. She was spirited off by some Buffalo abolitionists,
transferred to a steamer flying the British flag, and landed in
Canada. She was taken to St. Catharines and sheltered in the home of
Hiram Wilson. The master came over from Buffalo bringing a couple of
lawyers with him and tried to secure his property but his demands were
refused. The owner claimed that he valued the girl at $1,000. It was
later discovered that she had been sold no less than four times before
coming to Canada.[36]

The brutality of the Fugitive Slave Law was shown on more than one
occasion along the border. A case that attracted much attention at the
time was that of Daniel Davis. He was cook on the steamer _Buckeye_.
One day while the vessel was in port at Buffalo he was called up from
below. As his head appeared above the deck he was struck a heavy blow
by a slave catcher named Benjamin Rust who had a warrant from a United
States commissioner for his arrest. The Negro fell back senseless into
the hold and on top of a stove, being badly burned. He was brought
into court at once and the newspaper accounts relate in detail how he
sat during the proceedings "dozing, with blood oozing out of his mouth
and nostrils." After a trial that was rushed in a most unseemly way
the Negro was ordered delivered over to Rust, who was really agent for
one George H. Moore, of Louisville. The brutality of the whole
proceeding stirred up deep interest in Buffalo and on a writ of habeas
corpus the fugitive was brought before Judge Conkling of the United
States Court at Auburn and released. Before there could be further
steps taken to hold the Negro he was hurried into Canada, where he
remained. He was in attendance at the large Negro Convention held in
Toronto in September, 1851, and with