Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/115

95 Give the bondsman this power and he is no longer a vassal. Mr. H. B. left his master in Kentucky, and found a recognition of human rights in Canada, leaving a wife and one child in slavery. Though free he was still unhappy; the remembrance of his dear wife and child would always interrupt the pleasant and smooth stream of existence. They would stand by his bedside in his nocturnal dreams; and would awake pressing his dear little one to his bosom. He went back after them a distance of four hundred miles. They met one moon-shiny night, in the shade of a spacious oak, arranged as to the time of leaving, and the place to meet. On the selected night, which she was to bid adieu to slavery, her mistress had a party of friends; it was therefore impossible for her to get away. A disappointed husband went to the place determined upon. No wife. The next evening he went to learn the cause of the delay, but poor fellow, he was betrayed by innocent little negro children, to whom no blame can be attached, exclaiming "Yonder is uncle H—." He was sold at New Orleans, one thousand miles away again from his dear wife and child. His body loaded with chains. On his arrival there, he was put in charge of the sheriff to take to gaol, there to remain till a purchaser could be found. It was necessary to take off the chains, especially in a crowded city like New Orleans. Going on to prison with the