this people. Forty, fifty, or sixty years, in some
instances elapsed, but this ardent sympathy and love continued warm and
unwavering as ever. Children left to the cruel mercy of slave-holders,
could never be forgotten. Brothers and sisters could not refrain from
weeping over the remembrance of their separation on the auction block:
of having seen innocent children, feeble and defenceless women in the
grasp of a merciless tyrant, pleading, groaning, and crying in vain for
pity. Not to remember those thus bruised and mangled, it would seem
alike unnatural, and impossible. Therefore it is a source of great
satisfaction to be able, in relating these heroic escapes, to present
the evidences of the strong affections of this greatly oppressed race.

JOHN HENRY never forgot those with whom he had been a fellow-sufferer in
Slavery; he was always fully awake to their wrongs, and longed to be
doing something to aid and encourage such as were striving to get their
Freedom. He wrote many letters in behalf of others, as well as for
himself, the tone of which, was always marked by the most zealous
devotion to the slave, a high sense of the value of Freedom, and
unshaken confidence that God was on the side of the oppressed, and a
strong hope, that the day was not far distant, when the slave power
would be "suddenly broken and that without remedy."

Notwithstanding the literary imperfections of these letters, they are
deemed well suited to these pages. Of course, slaves were not allowed
book learning. Virginia even imprisoned white women for teaching free
colored children the alphabet. Who has forgotten the imprisonment of
Mrs. Douglass for this offense? In view of these facts, no apology is
needed on account of Hill's grammar and spelling.

In these letters, may be seen, how much liberty was valued, how the
taste of Freedom moved the pen of the slave; how the thought of
fellow-bondmen, under the heel of the slave-holder, aroused the spirit
of indignation and wrath; how importunately appeals were made for help
from man and from God; how much joy was felt at the arrival of a
fugitive, and the intense sadness experienced over the news of a failure
or capture of a slave. Not only are the feelings of John Henry Hill
represented in these epistles, but the feelings of very many others
amongst the intelligent fugitives all over the country are also
represented to the letter. It is more with a view of doing justice to a
brave, intelligent cl