he different way-stations, of which as
previously stated, Philadelphia was the most prominent in forwarding its
patrons to Canada.

Before the passage of the fugitive slave law, in 1850, if the fugitive
was taken back it was done by stealth--kidnapped and spirited away by
clandestine means. Sometimes by the treachery of his own color, but this
was seldom and unhealthy. The agent of the owner was often caught in the
act, and by argument more emphatic than gentle, was soon conspicuous by
his absence. At others local anti-slavery friends would appeal to the
courts, and the agent would be arrested. Slavery in law being local
before the passage of the "Act of 1850," making it national, we were
generally successful in having the fugitives released. We were
extremely fortunate in having for our chief counsel David Paul Brown, a
leader of the Philadelphia bar, who, with other white friends, never
failed to respond to our call; learned in Constitutional law, eloquent
in expression, he did a yeoman's service in behalf of liberty.

The colored men of Pennsylvania, like their brethren in other Northern
States, were not content in being disfranchised. As early as 1845 a
committee of seven, consisting of Isaiah C. Wear, J. C. Bowers, and
others, including the writer, were sent to the capitol at Harrisburg to
lay a petition before the Legislature asking for enfranchisement and all
rights granted to others of the commonwealth. The grant was tardy, but
it came with the cannon's boom and musketry's iron hail, when the
imperiled status of the nation made it imperative. Thus, as ever, with
the immutable decrees of God, while battling for the freedom of the
slave, we broadened our consciousness, not only as to the inalienable
rights of human nature, but received larger conceptions of civil
liberty, coupled with a spirit of determination to defend our homes and
churches from infuriated mobs, and to contend for civil and political
justice.

They were truly a spartan band, the colored men and women. The naming of
a few would be invidious to the many who were ever keenly alive to the
proscription to which they were subject, and ever on the alert for
measures to awaken the moral sense of the border States.

Meetings were nightly held for counsel, protests and assistance to the
fugitive, who would sometimes be present to narrate the woes of slavery.
Sometimes our meetings would be attended by pro-slavery lookers-on,
usually unknown, until exc