Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/24

 A Slave, in the State of Kentucky, came to the conclusion that he was not a mere thing, as the law termed him, but a man with immortal destinies in common with other men: he walked upright as a man, he reasoned as a man (if not as logically as some men), therefore he saw no just cause why his master should claim a Divine right to him, his wife and children, and their labour. This claim gave his master another right, that is, to flog him when he felt disposed. At all events, he would try the strength of his reasoning powers, as to whether they were sufficient to guide him safe to Canada; if not, he could only return to slavery. He however eloped, and his master followed in hot pursuit, to the Ohio river, which divides the Slave from the Free States; here he lost the track of his escaped chattel, not knowing, or having the least idea as to the direction the Slave had probably taken; he therefore, lost all hope of his recovery. Being disappointed, and the loser of a thousand dollars, and having no object on which to vent his dirty spleen, he turned upon the poor Abolitionists, and said—"The d——d Abolitionists must have a Rail-road under the ground by which they run off Niggers." The significant term under-ground emanated from this circumstance. This Slaveholder at that time was, as the Slaveholders are at the present time, unable to locate this useful road; it is therefore as much concealed from them as though