stols, and strike and
knock down men and women indiscriminately.

I was sitting one evening in a friend's house, conversing about these
marauding parties, when I remarked to him that a stop should be put to
such "didos," and declared, that, the next time a slaveholder came to a
house where I was, I would refuse to admit him. His wife replied, "It
will make a fuss." I told her, "It is time a fuss was made." She
insisted that it would cause trouble, and it was best to let them alone
and have peace. Then I told her we must have trouble before we could
have peace, "The first slaveholder that draws a pistol on me I shall
knock down."

We were interrupted, just at this stage of the conversation, by some one
rapping at the door.

"Who's there?" I asked.

"It's me! Who do you think? Open the door!" was the response, in a gruff
tone.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Without replying, the man opened the door and came in, followed by two
others.

The first one said,--

"Have you any niggers here?"

"What have we to do with your niggers?" said I.

After bandying a few words, he drew his pistol upon me. Before he could
bring the weapon to bear, I seized a pair of heavy tongs, and struck him
a violent blow across the face and neck, which knocked him down. He lay
for a few minutes senseless, but afterwards rose, and walked out of the
house without a word, followed by his comrades, who also said nothing to
us, but merely asked their leader, as they went out, if he was hurt.

The part of Lancaster County in which I lived was near Chester County.
Not far away, in the latter county, lived Moses Whitson, a well-known
Abolitionist, and a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Whitson had a
colored girl living in his family, who was pounced upon by the
slaveholders, awhile after the Dorsey arrest. About daylight three men
went to Mr. Whitson's house and told him that the girl he had living
with him was their property, and that they intended to have her. Friend
Whitson asked the girl if she knew any of the men, and if any of them
was her master. She said, "No!" One of the slaveholders said he could
prove that she was his property; and then they forcibly tied her, put
her into a carriage, and started for Maryland.

While the kidnappers were contending with Moses Whitson for the girl,
Benjamin Whipper, a colored man, who now lives in this country, sounded
the alarm, that "the kidnappers were at Whitson's, and were taking away
his