with me
about my way of getting a living. I wished to go on board the New York
and Philadelphia packets, but feared I should be troubled for my
freedom. Captain Minner thought I might venture, and I therefore
engaged myself. I continued in that employment till his death, which
happened about a year alter my return from Providence. Then I returned
to Boston; for, while he lived, I knew I could rely on his protection;
but when I lost my friend, I thought it best to go wholly to the
Northern States.

At Boston I went to work at sawing wood, sawing with the whip-saw,
laboring in the coal-yards, loading and unloading vessels, &c. After
laboring in this way for a few months, I went a voyage to St. John's,
in Porto Rico, with Captain Cobb, in the schooner _New Packet_. On the
return voyage, the vessel got ashore on Cape Cod; we left her, after
doing in vain what we could to right her: she was afterwards
recovered. I went several other voyages, and particularly two to the
Mediterranean: the last was to the East Indies, in the ship _James
Murray_, Captain Woodbury, owner Mr. Gray. My entire savings, up to
the period of my return from this voyage, amounted to $300; I sent it
to Virginia, and bought my wife. She came to me at Boston. I dared not
go myself to fetch her, lest I should be again deprived of my liberty,
as often happens to free colored people.

At the time, called the time of the Insurrection, about eight years
ago, when the whites said the colored people were going to rise, and
shot, hanged, and otherwise destroyed many of them, Mrs. Minner
thought she saw me in the street, and fainted there. The soldiers were
seizing all the blacks they could find, and she knew, if I were there,
I should be sure to suffer with the rest. She was mistaken; I was not
there.

My son's master, at Norfolk, sent a letter to me at Boston, to say,
that if I could raise $450, I might have his freedom; he was then
fifteen years old. I had again saved $300. I knew the master was a
drinking man, and was therefore very anxious to get my son out of his
hands. I went to Norfolk, running the risk of my liberty, and took my
$300 with me, to make the best bargain I could. Many gentlemen in
Boston, my friends, advised me not to go myself; but I was anxious to
get my boy's freedom, and I knew that nobody in Virginia had any cause
of complaint against me. So, notwithstanding their advice, I
determined to go.

When the vessel arrived there, they sai