igned, have given the
bearer, my servant, John, full liberty to go to Baltimore, to
spend the Easter holidays.
W.H.
Near St. Michael's, Talbot county, Maryland

Although we were not going to Baltimore, and were intending to land
east of North Point, in the direction where I had seen the Philadelphia
steamers go, these passes might be made useful to us in the lower part
of the bay, while steering toward Baltimore. These were not, however, to
be shown by us, until all other answers failed to satisfy the
inquirer. We were all fully alive to the importance of being calm and
self-possessed, when accosted, if accosted we should be; and we more
times than one rehearsed to each other how we should behave in the hour
of trial.

These were long, tedious days and nights. The suspense was painful, in
the extreme. To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on
the result, requires steady nerves. I panted for action, and was glad
when the day, at the close of which we were to start, dawned upon us.
Sleeping, the night before, was{222} out of the question. I probably
felt more deeply than any of my companions, because I was the instigator
of the movement. The responsibility of the whole enterprise rested on my
shoulders. The glory of success, and the shame and confusion of failure,
could not be matters of indifference to me. Our food was prepared;
our clothes were packed up; we were all ready to go, and impatient for
Saturday morning--considering that the last morning of our bondage.

I cannot describe the tempest and tumult of my brain, that morning.
The reader will please to bear in mind, that, in a slave state, an
unsuccessful runaway is not only subjected to cruel torture, and sold
away to the far south, but he is frequently execrated by the other
slaves. He is charged with making the condition of the other
slaves intolerable, by laying them all under the suspicion of their
masters--subjecting them to greater vigilance, and imposing greater
limitations on their privileges. I dreaded murmurs from this quarter.
It is difficult, too, for a slavemaster to believe that slaves escaping
have not been aided in their flight by some one of their fellow slaves.
When, therefore, a slave is missing, every slave on the place is closely
examined as to his knowledge of the undertaking; and they are sometimes
even tortured, to make them disclose what