ity,
which brought upon him one of the greatest misfortunes of his life.
This was accompanying his master to town for protection and
deliverance when the owners of his order indulged in excessive
drinking and brawls in taverns. Sometimes in removing his master from
the midst of a fracas, he would have to handle his owner's opponent
rather roughly. On one occasion when Riley became involved in a
quarrel with his brother's overseer, Henson pushed the overseer down;
and falling while intoxicated the overseer suffered some injury. The
overseer decided to wreak vengeance on Henson for this. Finding
Henson on the way home one day the overseer assisted by three Negroes
attacked him, beating him unmercifully and left him on the ground
almost senseless with his head badly bruised and cut and with his
right arm and both shoulder blades broken. Being on a farm where no
physician or surgeon was usually called, Henson recovered with
difficulty under the kind treatment of his master's sister; but was
never able thereafter to raise his hands to his head. The culprit did
not suffer for this offense, as the court acquitted him on the grounds
of self-defense.

In the course of time Henson's master, Isaac Riley, lived so
extravagantly that he became involved in debt and lawsuits which
heralded his ruin. Seeing his estate would be seized, he intrusted to
Henson in 1825 the tremendous task of taking his 18 slaves to his
brother, Amos Riley, in Kentucky. Henson bought a one-horse wagon to
carry provisions and to relieve the women and children from time to
time. The men were compelled to walk altogether. Traveling through
Alexandria, Culpepper, Fauquier, Harper's Ferry and Cumberland, they
met on the way droves of Negroes passing in chains under the system of
the internal slave trade, while those whom Henson was conducting were
moving freely without restriction. On arriving at Wheeling, he sold
the horse and wagon and bought a boat of sufficient size to take the
whole party down the river. At Cincinnati some free Negroes came out
to greet them and urged them to avail themselves of the opportunity to
become free. Few of the slaves except Henson could appreciate this
boon offered them, but he had thought of obtaining it only by
purchase. Henson said: "Under the influence of these impressions, and
seeing that the allurements of the crowd were producing a manifest
effect, I sternly assumed the captain, and ordered the boat to be
pushed off into