“Some of the colored people outside, as well as in the car, were weeping most bitterly.  I learned that many families were separated.  Wives were there to take leave of their husbands, and husbands of their wives, children of their parents, brothers and sisters shaking hands perhaps for the last time, friends parting with friends, and the tenderest ties of humanity sundered at the single bid of the inhuman slave-broker before them.  A husband, in the meridian of life, begged to see the partner of his bosom.  He protested that she was free—­that she had free papers, and was torn from him, and shut up in the jail.  He clambered up to one of the windows of the car to see his wife, and, as she was reaching forward her hand to him, the black-hearted villain, Slatter, ordered him down.  He did not obey.  The husband and wife, with tears streaming down their cheeks, besought him to let them converse for a moment.  But no! a monster more hideous, hardened and savage, than the blackest spirit of the pit, knocked him down from the car, and ordered him away.  The bystanders could hardly restrain themselves from laying violent hands upon the brutes.  This is but a faint description of that scene, which took place within a few rods of the capitol, under enactments recognized by Congress.  O! what a revolting scene to a feeling heart, and what a retribution awaits the actors!  Will not these wailings of anguish reach the ears of the Most High?  ’Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’”

Of those sent off at this time, several, through the generosity of charitable persons at the north, were subsequently redeemed, among whom were the Edmundson girls, of whom an account is given in the “Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

From one of the women, who was not sold, but retained at Washington, I received a mark of kindness and remembrance for which I felt very grateful.  She obtained admission to the jail, the Sunday after our committal, to see some of her late fellow-passengers still confined there; and, as she passed the passage in which I was confined, she called to me and handed a Bible through the gratings.  I am happy to be able to add that she has since, upon a second trial, succeeded in effecting her escape, and that she is now a free woman.

The great excitement which our attempt at emancipation had produced at Washington, and the rage and fury exhibited against us, had the effect to draw attention to our case, and to secure us sympathy and assistance on the part of persons wholly unknown to us.  A public meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, on the 25th of April, at which a committee was appointed, consisting of Samuel May, Samuel G. Howe, Samuel E. Sewell, Richard Hildreth, Robert Morris, Jr., Francis Jackson, Elizur Wright, Joseph Southwick, Walter Channing,