d
seventy-five dollars. My reply was that I will sell them for
you, and give the money to your family. He then gave me a power
of attorney to do so, and attended to all his affairs. He left
the next day, being the Sabbath, and has never returned since,
although he has lived in the City of Boston ever since, except
about six months in Canada.

I wish to notice this case a little further, as the only one out
of many to which I will refer. About the year 1831 or 1832, Mr.
Joseph Purvis, a younger brother of Robert Purvis, about
nineteen or twenty years of age, was visiting Mr. Stephen Smith,
of Columbia, and while there the claimants of Dorsey came and
secured him, and had proceeded about two miles with him on the
way to Lancaster. Young Purvis heard of it, and his natural and
instinctive love of freedom fired up his warm southern blood at
the very recital. He was one of nature's noblemen. Fierce,
fiery, and impulsive, he was as quick to decide as to perform.
He demanded an immediate rescue. Though he was advised of the
danger of such an attempt, his spirit and determination made him
invincible. He proceeded to a place where some colored men were
working. With a firm and determined look, and a herculean shout,
he called out to them, "To arms, to arms! boys, we must rescue
this man; I shall lead if you will follow." "We will," was the
immediate response. And they went and overtook them, and
dispersed his claimants. They brought Dorsey back in triumph to
Columbia.

He then gave Dorsey his pistol, with the injunction that he
should use it and die in defence of his liberty rather than
again be taken into bondage. He promised he would. I found him
with this pistol on his table, the night I called on him, and I
have every reason to believe that the promise gave to Mr. Purvis
was one of the chief causes of his obstinacy. The lesson he had
taught him had not only become incorporated in his nature, but
had become a part of his religion.

The history of this brave and noble effort of young Purvis, in
rescuing a fellow-being from the jaws of Slavery has been handed
down, in Columbia, to a generation that was born since that
event has transpired. He always exhibited the same devotion and
manly daring in the cause of the flying bondman that inspired
his youthful ardor in behalf