one knows the result. The prisoners were all acquitted; and the
country was aroused to the danger of a law which allowed bad men to
incarcerate peaceful citizens for months in prison, and put them in
peril of their lives, for refusing to aid in entrapping, and sending
back to hopeless slavery, men struggling for the very same freedom we
value as the best part of our birthright.

The Freedman's narrative is now resumed.

A short time after the events narrated in the preceding number, it was
whispered about that the slaveholders intended to make an attack on my
house; but, as I had often been threatened, I gave the report little
attention. About the same time, however, two letters were found thrown
carelessly about, as if to attract notice. These letters stated that
kidnappers would be at my house on a certain night, and warned me to be
on my guard. Still I did not let the matter trouble me. But it was no
idle rumor. The bloodhounds were upon my track.

I was not at this time aware that in the city of Philadelphia there was
a band of devoted, determined men,--few in number, but strong in
purpose,--who were fully resolved to leave no means untried to thwart
the barbarous and inhuman monsters who crawled in the gloom of midnight,
like the ferocious tiger, and, stealthily springing on their
unsuspecting victims, seized, bound, and hurled them into the ever open
jaws of Slavery. Under the pretext of enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law,
the slaveholders did not hesitate to violate all other laws made for the
good government and protection of society, and converted the old State
of Pennsylvania, so long the hope of the fleeing bondman, wearied and
heartbroken, into a common hunting-ground for their human prey. But this
little band of true patriots in Philadelphia united for the purpose of
standing between the pursuer and the pursued, the kidnapper and his
victim, and, regardless of all personal considerations, were ever on the
alert, ready to sound the alarm to save their fellows from a fate far
more to be dreaded than death. In this they had frequently succeeded,
and many times had turned the hunter home bootless of his prey. They
began their operations at the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, and had
thoroughly examined all matters connected with it, and were perfectly
cognizant of the plans adopted to carry out its provisions in
Pennsylvania, and, through a correspondence with reliable persons in
various sections of the Sou