It was not long before we received a letter from William.  He wrote that Mr. Sands had always treated him kindly, and that he had tried to do his duty to him faithfully.  But ever since he was a boy, he had longed to be free; and he had already gone through enough to convince him he had better not lose the chance that offered.  He concluded by saying, “Don’t worry about me, dear grandmother.  I shall think of you always; and it will spur me on to work hard and try to do right.  When I have earned money enough to give you a home, perhaps you will come to the north, and we can all live happy together.”

Mr. Sands told my uncle Phillip the particulars about William’s leaving him.  He said, “I trusted him as if he were my own brother, and treated him as kindly.  The abolitionists talked to him in several places; but I had no idea they could tempt him.  However, I don’t blame William.  He’s young and inconsiderate, and those Northern rascals decoyed him.  I must confess the scamp was very bold about it.  I met him coming down the steps of the Astor House with his trunk on his shoulder, and I asked him where he was going.  He said he was going to change his old trunk.  I told him it was rather shabby, and asked if he didn’t need some money.  He said, No, thanked me, and went off.  He did not return so soon as I expected; but I waited patiently.  At last I went to see if our trunks were packed, ready for our journey.  I found them locked, and a sealed note on the table informed me where I could find the keys.  The fellow even tried to be religious.  He wrote that he hoped God would always bless me, and reward me for my kindness; that he was not unwilling to serve me; but he wanted to be a free man; and that if I thought he did wrong, he hoped I would forgive him.  I intended to give him his freedom in five years.  He might have trusted me.  He has shown himself ungrateful; but I shall not go for him, or send for him.  I feel confident that he will soon return to me.”

I afterwards heard an account of the affair from William himself.  He had not been urged away by abolitionists.  He needed no information they could give him about slavery to stimulate his desire for freedom.  He looked at his hands, and remembered that they were once in irons.  What security had he that they would not be so again?  Mr. Sands was kind to him; but he might indefinitely postpone the promise he had made to give him his freedom.  He might come under pecuniary embarrassments, and his property be seized by creditors; or he might die, without making any arrangements in his favor.  He had too often known such accidents to happen to slaves who had kind masters, and he wisely resolved to make sure of the present opportunity to own himself.  He was scrupulous about taking any money from his master on false pretences; so he sold his best clothes to pay for his passage to Boston.  The slaveholders pronounced him a base, ungrateful wretch, for thus requiting his master’s indulgence.  What would they have done under similar circumstances?