OLD
HOMES--REASONS FOR SENDING ME AWAY--RETURN TO BALTIMORE--CONTRAST
BETWEEN TOMMY AND THAT OF HIS COLORED COMPANION--TRIALS IN GARDINER'S
SHIP YARD--DESPERATE FIGHT--ITS CAUSES--CONFLICT BETWEEN WHITE AND BLACK
LABOR--DESCRIPTION OF THE OUTRAGE--COLORED TESTIMONY NOTHING--CONDUCT OF
MASTER HUGH--SPIRIT OF SLAVERY IN BALTIMORE--MY CONDITION IMPROVES--NEW
ASSOCIATIONS--SLAVEHOLDER'S RIGHT TO TAKE HIS WAGES--HOW TO MAKE A
CONTENTED SLAVE.

Well! dear reader, I am not, as you may have already inferred, a loser
by the general upstir, described in the foregoing chapter. The little
domestic revolution, notwithstanding the sudden snub it got by the
treachery of somebody--I dare not say or think who--did not, after all,
end so disastrously, as when in the iron cage at Easton, I conceived it
would. The prospect, from that point, did look about as dark as any that
ever cast its gloom over the vision of the anxious, out-looking, human
spirit. "All is well that ends well." My affectionate comrades, Henry
and John Harris, are still with Mr. William Freeland. Charles Roberts
and Henry Baily are safe at their homes. I have not, therefore, any
thing to regret on their account. Their masters have mercifully forgiven
them, probably on the ground suggested in the spirited little speech of
Mrs. Freeland, made to me just before leaving for the jail--namely: that
they had been allured into the wicked scheme of making their escape, by
me; and that, but for me, they would never have dreamed of a thing so
shocking! My{236} friends had nothing to regret, either; for while they
were watched more closely on account of what had happened, they were,
doubtless, treated more kindly than before, and got new assurances that
they would be legally emancipated, some day, provided their behavior
should make them deserving, from that time forward. Not a blow, as I
learned, was struck any one of them. As for Master William Freeland,
good, unsuspecting soul, he did not believe that we were intending to
run away at all. Having given--as he thought--no occasion to his boys
to leave him, he could not think it probable that they had entertained a
design so grievous. This, however, was not the view taken of the matter
by "Mas' Billy," as we used to call the soft spoken, but crafty and
resolute Mr. William Hamilton. He had no doubt that the crime had been
meditated; and regarding me as the instigator of it, he frankly told
Master Thomas that he must remove me fr