In 1810, a slave escaped from Virginia to Philadelphia.  In a few months, his master heard where he was, and caused him to be arrested.  He was a fine looking young man, apparently about thirty years old.  When he was brought before Alderman Shoemaker, that magistrate’s sympathy was so much excited, that he refused to try the case unless some one was present to defend the slave.  Isaac T. Hopper was accordingly sent for.  When he had heard a statement of the case, he asked the agent of the slaveholder to let him examine the Power of Attorney by which he had been authorized to arrest a “fugitive from labor,” and carry him to Virginia.  The agent denied his right to interfere, but Alderman Shoemaker informed him that Mr. Hopper was a member of the Emancipation Society, and had a right to be satisfied.

The Power of Attorney was correctly drawn, and had been acknowledged in Washington, before Bushrod Washington, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Friend Hopper’s keen eye could detect no available flaw in it.  When the agent had been sworn to answer truly all questions relating to the case, he inquired whether the fugitive he was in search of had been advertised; if so, he wished to see the advertisement.  It was handed to him, and he instantly noticed that it was headed “Sixty Dollars Reward.”

“Art thou to receive sixty dollars for apprehending the man mentioned in this advertisement?” said he.

The agent replied, “I am to receive that sum provided I take him home to Virginia.”

“How canst thou prove that the man thou hast arrested is the one here advertised?” inquired he.

The agent answered that he could swear to the fact.

“That may be,” rejoined Friend Hopper; “but in Philadelphia we do not allow any person, especially a stranger, to swear sixty dollars into his own pocket.  Unless there is better evidence than thy oath, the man must be set at liberty.”

The agent became extremely irritated, and said indignantly, “Do you think I would swear to a lie?”

“Thou art a stranger to me,” replied Friend Hopper.  “I don’t know whether thou wouldst swear falsely or not.  But there is one thing I do know; and that is, I am not willing to trust thee.”

The agent reiterated, “I know the man standing there as well as I know any man living.  I am perfectly sure he is the slave described in the advertisement.  I was overseer for the gentleman who owns him.  If you examine his back, you will find scars of the whip.”

“And perhaps thou art the man who made the scars, if he has any,” rejoined the Friend.

Without replying to this suggestion, the slave-hunter ordered the colored man to strip, that his back might be examined by the court.  Friend Hopper objected to such a proceeding.  “Thou hast produced no evidence that the man thou hast arrested is a slave,” said he.  “Thou and he are on the same footing before this court.  We have as good a right to examine thy back, as are have to examine his.”  He added, with a very significant tone, “In some places, they whip for kidnapping.”