machine to save
labor, and make money. To Joe's great joy he heard the sound of the
Underground Rail Road bell in Richmond,--had a satisfactory interview
with the conductor,--received a favorable response, and was soon a
traveler on his way to Canada. He left his mother, a free woman, and two
sisters in chains. He had been sold twice, but he never meant to be sold
again.

* * * * *

ARRIVAL FROM RICHMOND, 1859.

CORNELIUS HENRY JOHNSON. FACE CANADA-WARD FOR YEARS.

Quite an agreeable interview took place between Cornelius and the
Committee. He gave his experience of Slavery pretty fully, and the
Committee enlightened him as to the workings of the Underground Rail
Road, the value of freedom, and the safety of Canada as a refuge.

Cornelius was a single man, thirty-six years of age, full black, medium
size, and intelligent. He stated that he had had his face set toward
Canada for a long while. Three times he had made an effort to get out of
the prison-house. "Within the last four or five years, times have gone
pretty hard with me. My mistress, Mrs. Mary F. Price, had lately put me
in charge of her brother, Samuel M. Bailey, a tobacco merchant of
Richmond. Both believed in nothing as they did in Slavery; they would
sooner see a black man dead than free. They were about second class in
society. He and his sister own well on to one hundred head, though
within the last few years he has been thinning off the number by sale. I
was allowed one dollar a week for my board; one dollar is the usual
allowance for slaves in my situation. On Christmas week he allowed me no
board money, but made me a present of seventy-five cents; my mistress
added twenty-five cents, which was the extent of their liberality. I was
well cared for. When the slaves got sick he doctored them himself, he
was too stingy to employ a physician. If they did not get well as soon
as he thought they should, he would order them to their work, and if
they did not go he would beat them. My cousin was badly beat last year
in the presence of his wife, and he was right sick. Mr. Bailey was a
member of St. James' church, on Fifth street, and my mistress was a
communicant of the First Baptist church on Broad Street. She let on to
be very good."

"I am one of a family of sixteen; my mother and eleven sisters and
brothers are now living; some have been sold to Alabama, and some to
Tennessee, the rest are held in Richmond. My