ere very willing that people should believe that they
were great saints. On the score of feeding and clothing John gave them
credit, saying that "the clothing was good enough, they liked to see the
house servants dressed;" he spoke too of the eating as being all right,
but added, that "very often time was not allowed them to finish their
meals." Respecting work, John bore witness that they were very sharp.

With John's intelligence, large observation, good memory, and excellent
natural abilities, with the amount of detail that he possessed, nothing
more would have been needed for a thrilling book than the facts and
incidents of slave life, as he had been conversant with it under the
Johnsons in Maryland.

As the other two companions of John Wesley were advertised in the
_Baltimore Sun_, we avail ourselves of the light thus publicly afforded:

$2000 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, living on the York
Turnpike, eight miles from Baltimore city, on Sunday, April
11th, my negro man, JACOB, aged 20 years: 5 feet 10 inches high;
chestnut color; spare made; good features. I will give $50
reward if taken in Baltimore city or county, and $200 if taken
out of the State and secured in jail so that I get him again.

[Illustration: ]

WM. J.B. PARLETT.

a13-3t*||

"Jacob," answering to the description in Mr. Wm. J.B. Parlett's
advertisement, gave his views of the man who had enslaved him. His
statement is here transferred from the record book: "My master," said
Jacob, "was a farmer, a very rough man, hard to satisfy. I never knew of
but one man who could ever please him. He worked me very hard; he wanted
to be beating me all the time." This was a luxury which Jacob had no
appetite for, consequently he could not resist signifying his
unwillingness to yield, although resistance had to be made at some
personal risk, as his master had "no more regard for a colored man than
he had for a stone under his feet." With him the following expression
was common: "The niggers are not worth a d----n." Nor was his wife any
better, in Jacob's opinion. "She was a cross woman, and as much of a
boss as he was." "She would take a club and with both hands would whack
away as long as you would stand it." "She was a large, homely woman;
they were common white people, with no reputation in the community."
Substantially this was Jacob's unvarnished description of his master and
mistress.

As to his age,