lead one
to suppose that he was a blood-thirsty or bad man, although a man of
uncommon muscular powers; six feet high, and quite black, with
resolution stamped on his countenance. But when he explained how he was
enslaved by a man named John B. Slade, of Harford Co., and how, in some
way or other, he became entitled to his freedom, and just as the time
arrived for the consummation of his long prayed-for boon, said Slade was
about to sell him,--after this provocation, it was clear enough to
perceive how John came to use his knife.

John Hillis was a tiller of the ground under a widow lady (Mrs. Louisa
Le Count), of the New Market District, Maryland. He signified to the
mistress, that he loved to follow the water, and that he would be just
as safe on water as on land, and that he was discontented. The widow
heard John's plausible story, and saw nothing amiss in it, so she
consented that he should work on a schooner. The name of the craft was
"Majestic." The hopeful John endeavored to do his utmost to please, and
was doubly happy when he learned that the "Majestic" was to make a trip
to Philadelphia. On arriving John's eyes were opened to see that he owed
Mrs. Le Count nothing, but that she was largely indebted to him for
years of unrequited toil; he could not, therefore, consent to go back to
her. He was troubled to think of his poor wife and children, whom he had
left in the hands of Mrs. Harriet Dean, three quarters of a mile from
New Market; but it was easier for him to imagine plans by which he could
get them off than to incur the hazard of going back to Maryland;
therefore he remained in freedom.

Charles Ross was clearly of the opinion that he was free-born, but that
he had been illegally held in Slavery, as were all his brothers and
sisters, by a man named Rodgers, a farmer, living near Greensborough, in
Caroline county, Md. Very good reasons were given by Charles for the
charge which he made against Rodgers, and it went far towards
establishing the fact, that "colored men had no rights which white men
were bound to respect," in Maryland. Although he was only twenty-three
years of age, he had fully weighed the matter of his freedom, and
appeared firmly set against Slavery.

William Johnson was owned by a man named John Bosley, a farmer, living
near Gun Powder Neck, Maryland. One morning he, unexpectedly to William,
gave him a terrible cowhiding, which, contrary to the master's designs,
made him a fir