ine specimen of the peculiar
institution; color brown, well-formed, self-possessed and
intelligent. He says that he fled from master Joseph Griffiss of
Culbert county, Maryland; that he has been used to "tight work,"
"allowed no chances," and but "half fed." His reason for leaving
was partly "hard treatment," and partly because he could "get
along better in freedom than in slavery." He found fault with
his master for not permitting him to "learn to read," etc. He
referred to his master as a man of "fifty years of age, with a
wife and three children." John said that "she was a large,
portly woman, with an evil disposition, always wanted to be
quarreling and fighting, and was stingy." He said, however, that
his "master's children, Ann Rebecca, Dorcas, and Joe were not
allowed to meddle with the slaves on the farm." Thirty head of
slaves belonged on the place.

Peter Gross says that he too was owned by Joseph Griffiss. Peter
is, he thinks, thirty-nine years of age,--tall, of a dark
chestnut color, and in intellect mediocre. He left his wife and
five children behind. He could not bring them with him,
therefore he did not tell them that he was about to leave. He
was much dissatisfied with Slavery and felt that he had been
badly dealt with, and that he could do better for himself in
Canada.

Talbot Johnson, is thirty-five years of age, quite dark, and
substantially built. He says that he has been treated very
badly, and that Duke Bond was the name of the "tyrant" who held
him. He pictured his master as "a lean-faced man--not stout--of
thirty-eight or thirty-nine years of age, a member of the
Episcopal Church." "He had a wife and two children; his last
wife was right pleasant--he was a farmer, and was rich, had sold
slaves, and was severe when he flogged." Talbot had been
promised a terrible beating on the return of his master from the
Springs, whither he had gone to recruit his health, "as he was
poorly." This was the sole cause of Talbot's flight.

Sam Gross is about forty, a man of apparent vigor physically,
and wide awake mentally. He confesses that he fled from George
Island, near Port Republic, Md. He thought that times with him
had been bad enough all his life, and he would try to get away
where he could do better. In referring to his master and
mist