om that neighborhood, or he
would shoot me down. He would not have one so dangerous as "Frederick"
tampering with his slaves. William Hamilton was not a man whose threat
might be safely disregarded. I have no doubt that he would have proved
as good as his word, had the warning given not been promptly taken. He
was furious at the thought of such a piece of high-handed _theft_, as we
were about to perpetrate the stealing of our own bodies and souls! The
feasibility of the plan, too, could the first steps have been taken, was
marvelously plain. Besides, this was a _new_ idea, this use of the
bay. Slaves escaping, until now, had taken to the woods; they had never
dreamed of profaning and abusing the waters of the noble Chesapeake, by
making them the highway from slavery to freedom. Here was a broad road
of destruction to slavery, which, before, had been looked upon as a wall
of security by slaveholders. But Master Billy could not get Mr. Freeland
to see matters precisely as he did; nor could he get Master Thomas
so excited as he was himself. The latter--I must say it to his
credit--showed much humane feeling in his part of the transaction, and
atoned for much that had been harsh, cruel{237} and unreasonable in his
former treatment of me and others. His clemency was quite unusual and
unlooked for. "Cousin Tom" told me that while I was in jail, Master
Thomas was very unhappy; and that the night before his going up to
release me, he had walked the floor nearly all night, evincing great
distress; that very tempting offers had been made to him, by the
Negro-traders, but he had rejected them all, saying that _money could
not tempt him to sell me to the far south_. All this I can easily
believe, for he seemed quite reluctant to send me away, at all. He told
me that he only consented to do so, because of the very strong prejudice
against me in the neighborhood, and that he feared for my safety if I
remained there.

Thus, after three years spent in the country, roughing it in the field,
and experiencing all sorts of hardships, I was again permitted to return
to Baltimore, the very place, of all others, short of a free state,
where I most desired to live. The three years spent in the country, had
made some difference in me, and in the household of Master Hugh. "Little
Tommy" was no longer _little_ Tommy; and I was not the slender lad
who had left for the Eastern Shore just three years before. The loving
relations between me and Mas'