covery of these captives, on their road to the dismal
_gulf_[27] of (perhaps) interminable slavery to themselves, and their
multiplying progeny; in this very accidental, unless providential
manner, filled me with a mixture of astonishment, compassion and joy.
With a view to commence immediate legal measures, for restoring them to
their liberty, I took my pencil and noted down their narratives
circumstantially.

66. I had not quite finished, before the purchaser of the mulatto man
came into the room. He seemed a little surprised to find me writing, but
made no inquiries about it, and having obtained all the information that
I wished, I continued noting it down, notwithstanding his being present,
until my memorandums were completed; when I left him in the room,
without having had any conversation with him, except answering some
questions, which he asked me relative to the wounded slave. Without
hesitation, I commenced a suit in the circuit court of the United
States, for the District of Columbia, for the restitution of their
liberty. The first attempt to secure the persons of the captives, by a
writ of habeas corpus, was ineffectual. I accompanied the deputy marshal
myself, to the house in which I found them. The landlord declared, that
"if he had known I was writing so long in the room where the Negroes
were, he should have been very angry with me; and that if I had no other
evidence of their freedom, but their stories, we should not see them."
He said he believed "Negroes were made to serve the Whites, and that
they had no more sense than horses." He stated, that the person who saw
me writing, suspected some difficulty, and had directed him to conceal
the Negroes, and that he had done it. He told me, in a sneering manner,
that if I wished to take the part of the negroes, he could find me
plenty of such business. He informed me that he had been in the way of
keeping Negroes for the Traders many years, and took better care of them
than they received in the jail.[28]

67. Notwithstanding the writ of habeas corpus was returned to the
magistrate unexecuted, I still persevered, and obtained a process of
injunction, in order to prevent the removal of the captives from the
District, until the commencement of the session of the court; by which
it was ascertained that they still remained in the same house. A second
writ of habeas corpus having been issued from the court while sitting,
they were at length produced, which, fortuna