Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/246

 383 ÏEDBBAL EEPOBTEB. �1879, her son was shipped on board said schooner, (thon em- ployed in dredging for oystera in the Chesapeake bay,) with- out her knowledge or consent, and detained in said employ- ment until the eighth of March following; that her son was, during that time, exposed to the rigor of a severe winter, en- dured great hardships, was frequently beaten and cruelly treated by said master, and allowed to sufïer for want of proper food and medicines, and that when discharged he was badly frost-bitten and sick, and is still disabled from work; that, in consequence, libellant was put to expense for his cure and medical treatment, and is still deprived of his earnings, and is advised that he will never completely recoyer his abil- ity to labor. �The libellant is a colored woman, living in Washington, and the proof shows that- her son, when shipped on respondent's vessel, was about 16 years of age, and was living with his mother, and gave to her whatever he earned at any work he could get to do. It appears that he, together with several other colored boys, were induced by a colored man in Wash- ington to leave their homes and come with him to Baltimore, and were there taken by him to the office of a man who pro- cures seamen for oyster vessels, where, the respondent Lewis being present, they signed shipping articles to serve Lewis during the oyster season at seven dollars per month on any vessel he should designate. They received seven dollars apieee advance, which was taken by the man who shipped them, and then they went at once aboard the schooner Thomas W. Moore and proceeded down the bay on her, the respond- ent Lewis being master in command. Lewis employed the schooner in connection with two other oyster vessels on the Chesapeake, each taking its turn to bring the whole catch of oysters to Baltimore, and the other two remaining to continue dredging. Johnson, the libellant's son, was transferred from one of these three beats to another during the whole oyster season, and did not get back to Baltimore for some five months after he was shipped. He then at once returned to his mother in Washington. She had known nothing of hia intention to leave his home, and, having been unable to learn ����