The controversy that was precipitated through the attempted escape, between the advance guard of abolition and the defenders of slavery, was most bitter and violent.  The storm broke furiously about the offices of The National Era.  In Congress, Mr. Giddings of Ohio moved an “inquiry into the cause of the detention at the District jail of persons merely for attempting to vindicate their inalienable rights.”  Senator Hale of New Hampshire moved a resolution of “inquiry into the necessity for additional laws for the protection of property in the District."[7] A committee consisting of such notable characters as the Channings, Samuel May, Samuel Howe, Richard Hildreth, Samuel Sewell and Robert Morris, Jr., was formed at Boston to furnish aid and defense for Drayton.  These men were empowered to employ counsel and collect money.  Horace Mann, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Fessenden of Maine volunteered to serve gratuitously.[8]

Other philanthropists directed their attention to the liberation of these slaves.  The Edmondsons were owned by an estate.  The administrator, who was approached by John Brent,[9] the husband of the oldest sister of the children, agreed to give their friends an opportunity to effect their purchase, as he was unwilling to run any further risk by keeping them.  He failed to keep this promise and when Mr. Brent went to see them the next day he was informed that they had been sold to Bruin and Hill, the slave-dealers of Alexandria and Baltimore, and had been sent to the former city.  A cash sum of $4,500 had been accepted for the six children and when taxed with the failure to keep his promise, he simply said he was unwilling to take any further risk with them.  Bruin also refused to listen to any proposals, saying he had long had his eyes on the family and could get twice what he paid for them in the New Orleans market.

They were first taken to the slave pens at Alexandria, where they remained nearly a month.  Here the girls were required to do the washing for a dozen or more men with the assistance of their brothers and were at length put aboard a steamboat and taken to Baltimore where they remained three weeks.  Through the exertions of friends at Washington, $900 was given towards their freedom by a grandson of John Jacob Astor, and this was appropriated towards the ransom of Richard, as his wife and children were said to be ill and suffering at Washington.  The money arrived on the morning they were to sail for New Orleans but they had all been put aboard the brig Union, which was ready to sail, and the trader refused to allow Richard to be taken off.  The voyage to New Orleans covered a period of seven days, during which much discomfort and suffering were experienced.  There were eleven women in the party, all of whom were forced to live in one small apartment, and the men numbering thirty-five or forty, in another not much larger.  Most of them being unaccustomed to travel by water were afflicted with all the horrors