SAMUEL RHOADS]

[Illustration: WILLIAM WHIPPER]

[Illustration: SAMUEL D. BURRIS]

Of course this circumstance excited the ire of many pro-slavery editors
in Maryland. I had copies of several papers sent me, wherein I was
described as a man unfit to live in a civilized community, and calling
upon the inhabitants of Middletown to expel such a dangerous person from
that neighborhood! They also told exactly where I lived, which enabled
many a poor fugitive escaping from the house of bondage, to find a
hearty welcome and a resting-place on the road to liberty. Thanks be to
God! for His goodness to me in this respect.

The trial which ensued from the above, came off before Chief Justice
Taney, at New Castle. My revered friend, Thomas Garrett, and myself,
were there convicted of harboring fugitive slaves, and were fined
accordingly, to the extent of the law; Judge Taney delivering the
sentence. A detailed account of said trial, will fully appear in the
memoirs of our deceased friend, Thomas Garrett.

* * * * *

SAMUEL RHOADS

Was born in Philadelphia, in 1806, and was through life a consistent
member of the Society of Friends. His parents were persons of great
respectability and integrity. The son early showed an ardent desire for
improvement, and was distinguished among his young companions for warm
affections, amiable disposition, and genial manners, rare purity and
refinement of feeling, and a taste for literary pursuits. Preferring as
his associates those to whom he looked for instruction and example, and
aiming at a high standard, he won a position, both mentally and
socially, superior to his early surroundings. With a keen sense of
justice and humanity, he could not fail to share in the traditional
opposition of his religious society to slavery, and to be quickened to
more intense feeling as the evils of the system were more fully revealed
in the Anti-slavery agitation which in his early manhood began to stir
the nation.

A visit to England, in 1834, brought him into connection and friendship
with many leading Friends in that country, who were actively engaged in
the Anti-slavery movement, and probably had much to do with directing
his attention specially to the subject. Once enlisted, he never wavered,
but as long as slavery existed by law in our country his influence, both
publicly and privately, was exerted against it. He was strengthened in
his course by a warm frie