er they would have been apprehended. Their white
friend proceeded to the door in advance of the landlord and when asked
as to whether he had seen any slaves said that he had, that there were
six of them and that they had gone toward Detroit. The slave-hunters
at once set out in that direction. The fugitives returned to the
house, devoured their breakfast immediately and secured the assistance
of the landlord, who hearing their piteous story agreed to take them
in his boat to Canada. In the language of Henson, "Their bosoms were
swelling with inexpressible joy as they mounted the seats of the boat,
ready, eager, to spring forward, that they might touch the soil of the
freeman. And when they reached the shore, they danced and wept for joy
and kissed the earth on which they first stepped, no longer _slaves_
but _freemen_."[5]

Within a short time thereafter the boy whom they had left in dying
condition on the way reached them on the free soil of Canada in good
health. And Frank Taylor, the master of these fugitives, on recovering
from an attack of insanity which apparently resulted from the loss of
these slaves was persuaded by his friends to free the remaining
members of the Lightfoot family, an act which he finally performed,
enabling them after a few years to join their loved ones beyond the
borders of the land of the slave. In this way Henson became
instrumental in effecting the escape of as many as one hundred and
eighteen slaves.[6]

The next important work was the establishment of the British American
Manual Labor Institute in connection with Reverend Hiram Wilson. After
working out a tentative plan, Wilson wrote James O. Fuller, residing
in the State of New York, and interested him in the free Negroes of
Canada West. On a trip to England Mr. Fuller raised $1,500 for this
purpose. A convention of the leading refugees in Canada West was then
called to decide exactly how this money should be spent. Henson urged
that it be appropriated to the establishment of a manual labor school,
where children could be taught the elements of knowledge which are
usually the courses of a grammar school; and where the boys could be
given, in addition, the practice of some mechanic art and the girls
could be instructed in those domestic arts which are the proper
occupations of their sex. Such a school he though would so equip the
Negro youth as to enable him to take over much of the work then being
done by white teachers. This was the