Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/114

94 Canada; the master who sold him came to the cabin in which he lived with his aged mother, in company with his new purchaser, with a hoe and rope in his hand, intending to knock him down and tie him, and in this condition deliver him to his new master. As the Slave passed out at the door of the cabin, the stranger struck at him; the Slave evaded the well-directed blow, and with his knife stabbed the man to death. The master, endeavouring to rescue the stranger, was also killed. The Slave escaped on the best horse his master had to the Ohio river the same night, a distance of fifty miles; on his arrival he crossed the river in a yawl, and with the bridle in his hand he travelled all day enquiring for a stray horse, until the Abolitionists took charge of him and brought him to my house, on his way to Canada. I think, however, the Slave would have been more justifiable in running away with the horse, without killing the man; perhaps he would have been without blame had he left the horse in his care: it was property stealing property. There are few such men as the above, who have in this way made manifest their capabilities of leading their brethren out of the prison-house of bondage, that there are such, none deny. The Slaveholders themselves are aware of the capabilities of the Slaves to free themselves, if they only knew their own power; hence come unrighteous laws, preventing instruction—"knowledge is power."