ER SEVEN CHILDREN--MARY ANN, WILLIAM HENRY,
FRANCES SABRINA, WILHELMINA, JOHN EDWIN, EBENEZER THOMAS, AND WILLIAM
ALBERT.

The coming of the above named was duly announced by Thomas Garrett:

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WILMINGTON, 11th mo., 21st, 1858.

DEAR FRIENDS--McKIM AND STILL:--I write to inform you that on
the 16th of this month, we passed on four able bodied men to
Pennsylvania, and they were followed last night by a woman and
her six children, from three or four years of age, up to sixteen
years, I believe the whole belonged to the same estate, and they
were to have been sold at public sale, I was informed yesterday,
but preferred seeking their own master; we had some trouble in
getting those last safe along, as they could not travel far on
foot, and could not safely cross any of the bridges on the
canal, either on foot or in carriage. A man left here two days
since, with carriage, to meet them this side of the canal, but
owing to spies they did not reach him till 10 o'clock last
night; this morning he returned, having seen them about one or
two o'clock this morning in a second carriage, on the border of
Chester county, where I think they are all safe, if they can be
kept from Philadelphia. If you see them they can tell their own
tales, as I have seen one of them. May He, who feeds the ravens,
care for them. Yours,

THOS. GARRETT.

The fire of freedom obviously burned with no ordinary fervor in the
breast of this slave mother, or she never would have ventured with the
burden of seven children, to escape from the hell of Slavery.

Ann Maria was about forty years of age, good-looking, pleasant
countenance, and of a chestnut color, height medium, and intellect above
the average. Her bearing was humble, as might have been expected, from
the fact that she emerged from the lowest depths of Delaware Slavery.
During the Fall prior to her escape, she lost her husband under most
trying circumstances: he died in the poor-house, a raving maniac. Two of
his children had been taken from their mother by her owner, as was usual
with slave-holders, which preyed so severely on the poor father's mind
that it drove him into a state of hopeless insanity. He was a "free man"
in the eye of Delaware laws, yet he was not allowed to exercise the
least authority over his children.

Prior to the time that the two children were taken from their mother,