for weeks with their respective live freight on board.

The sufferings for food, which they were called upon to endure, were
beyond description. They happened to have plenty of salt fat pork, and
perhaps beans, Indian meal and some potatoes for standing dishes; the
more delicate necessaries did not probably last longer than the first or
second week of their ice-bondage.

Without a doubt, one of these Captains left Norfolk about the twentieth
of January, but did not reach Philadelphia till about the twentieth of
March, having been frozen up, of course, during the greater part of that
time. Men, women and children were alike sharers in the common struggle
for freedom--were alike an hungered, in prison, naked, and sick, but it
was a fearful thing in those days for even women and children to whisper
their sad lamentations in the city of Philadelphia, except to those
friendly to the Underground Rail Road.

Doubtless, if these mothers, with their children and partners in
tribulation, could have been seen as they arrived direct from the boats,
many hearts would have melted, and many tears would have found their way
down many cheeks. But at that time cotton was acknowledged to be
King--the Fugitive Slave Law was supreme, and the notorious decision of
Judge Taney, that "black men had no rights which white men were bound to
respect," echoed the prejudices of the masses too clearly to have made
it safe to reveal the fact of their arrival, or even the heart-rending
condition of these Fugitives.

Nevertheless, they were not turned away empty, though at a peril they
were fed, aided, and comforted, and sent away well clothed. Indeed, so
bountifully were the women and children supplied, that as they were
being conveyed to the Camden and Amboy station, they looked more like a
pleasuring party than like fugitives. Some of the good friends of the
slave sent clothing, and likewise cheered them with their presence.

[Before the close of this volume, such friends and sympathizers will be
more particularly noticed in an appropriate place.]

* * * * *

SUNDRY ARRIVALS--LATTER PART OF DECEMBER, 1855, AND BEGINNING OF
JANUARY, 1856.

JOSEPH CORNISH, Dorchester Co., Md.; LEWIS FRANCIS, _alias_ LEWIS
JOHNSON, Harford Co., Md.; ALEXANDER MUNSON, Chestertown, Md.; SAMUEL
and ANN SCOTT, Cecil Cross-Roads, Md.; WM. HENRY LAMINSON, Del.; ISAAC
STOUT, _alias_ GEORGE WASHINGTON, CAROLINE GRAVES, Md.; HENR