Richmond, on his way home to Alexandria, he was
captured and put in prison; his master being informed of the fact, came
on and took possession of him again. At first he refused to sell him;
said he "had money enough and owned about thirty slaves;" therefore
wished to "take him back to make an example of him." However, through
the persuasion of an uncle of his, he consented to sell. Accordingly,
John was put on the auction-block and bought for $1,300 by Green
McMurray, a regular trader in Richmond. McMurray again offered him for
sale, but in consequence of hard times and the high price demanded, John
did not go off, at least not in the way the trader desired to dispose of
him, but did, nevertheless, succeed in going off on the Underground Rail
Road. Thus once more he reached his old home, Alexandria. His mother was
in one place, and his six brothers and sisters evidently scattered,
where he knew not. Since he was five years of age, not one of them had
he seen.

If such sufferings and trials were not entitled to claim for the
sufferer the honor of a hero, where in all Christendom could one be
found who could prove a better title to that appellation?

It is needless to say that the Committee extended to him brotherly
kindness, sympathized with him deeply, and sent him on his way
rejoicing.

Of his subsequent career the following extract from a letter written at
London shows that he found no rest for the soles of his feet under the
Stars and Stripes in New York:

I hope that you will remember John Thompson, who passed through
your hands, I think, in October, 1857, at the same time that Mr.
Cooper, from Charleston, South Carolina, came on. I was engaged
at New York, in the barber business, with a friend, and was
doing very well, when I was betrayed and obliged to sail for
England very suddenly, my master being in the city to arrest me.

(LONDON, December 21st, 1860.)

[Illustration: Escaping from Alabama on top of a car.]

JEREMIAH COLBURN.--Jeremiah is a bright mulatto, of prepossessing
appearance, reads and writes, and is quite intelligent. He fled from
Charleston, where he had been owned by Mrs. E. Williamson, an old lady
about seventy-five, a member of the Episcopal Church, and opposed to
Freedom. As far as he was concerned, however, he said, she had treated
him well; but, knowing that the old lady would not be long here, he
judged it was best to look out in time. Consequently, he