es)
were considered very rare and valuable; the best that could be produced
in Virginia.

In the meanwhile the brothers had passed safely on to New Bedford, but
Clarissa remained secluded, "waiting for the storm to subside." Keeping
up courage day by day, for seventy-five days, with the fear of being
detected and severely punished, and then sold, after all her hopes and
struggles, required the faith of a martyr. Time after time, when she
hoped to succeed in making her escape, ill luck seemed to disappoint
her, and nothing but intense suffering appeared to be in store. Like
many others, under the crushing weight of oppression, she thought she
"should have to die" ere she tasted liberty. In this state of mind, one
day, word was conveyed to her that the steamship, City of Richmond, had
arrived from Philadelphia, and that the steward on board (with whom she
was acquainted), had consented to secrete her this trip, if she could
manage to reach the ship safely, which was to start the next day. This
news to Clarissa was both cheering and painful. She had been "praying
all the time while waiting," but now she felt "that if it would only
rain right hard the next morning about three o'clock, to drive the
police officers off the street, then she could safely make her way to
the boat." Therefore she prayed anxiously all that day that it would
rain, "but no sign of rain appeared till towards midnight." The prospect
looked horribly discouraging; but she prayed on, and at the appointed
hour (three o'clock--before day), the rain descended in torrents.
Dressed in male attire, Clarissa left the miserable coop where she had
been almost without light or air for two and a half months, and
unmolested, reached the boat safely, and was secreted in a box by Wm.
Bagnal, a clever young man who sincerely sympathized with the slave,
having a wife in slavery himself; and by him she was safely delivered
into the hands of the Vigilance Committee.

Clarissa Davis here, by advice of the Committee, dropped her old name,
and was straightway christened "Mary D. Armstead." Desiring to join her
brothers and sister in New Bedford, she was duly furnished with her
U.G.R.R. passport and directed thitherward. Her father, who was left
behind when she got off, soon after made his way on North, and joined
his children. He was too old and infirm probably to be worth anything,
and had been allowed to go free, or to purchase himself for a mere
nominal sum. Slaveholder