At Boston I went to work at sawing wood, sawing with the whip-saw, laboring in the coal-yards, loading and unloading vessels, &c.  After laboring in this way for a few months, I went a voyage to St. John’s, in Porto Rico, with Captain Cobb, in the schooner New Packet.  On the return voyage, the vessel got ashore on Cape Cod; we left her, after doing in vain what we could to right her:  she was afterwards recovered.  I went several other voyages, and particularly two to the Mediterranean:  the last was to the East Indies, in the ship James Murray, Captain Woodbury, owner Mr. Gray.  My entire savings, up to the period of my return from this voyage, amounted to $300; I sent it to Virginia, and bought my wife.  She came to me at Boston.  I dared not go myself to fetch her, lest I should be again deprived of my liberty, as often happens to free colored people.

At the time, called the time of the Insurrection, about eight years ago, when the whites said the colored people were going to rise, and shot, hanged, and otherwise destroyed many of them, Mrs. Minner thought she saw me in the street, and fainted there.  The soldiers were seizing all the blacks they could find, and she knew, if I were there, I should be sure to suffer with the rest.  She was mistaken; I was not there.

My son’s master, at Norfolk, sent a letter to me at Boston, to say, that if I could raise $450, I might have his freedom; he was then fifteen years old.  I had again saved $300.  I knew the master was a drinking man, and was therefore very anxious to get my son out of his hands.  I went to Norfolk, running the risk of my liberty, and took my $300 with me, to make the best bargain I could.  Many gentlemen in Boston, my friends, advised me not to go myself; but I was anxious to get my boy’s freedom, and I knew that nobody in Virginia had any cause of complaint against me.  So, notwithstanding their advice, I determined to go.

When the vessel arrived there, they said it was against the law for me to go ashore.  The mayor of the city said I had been among the cursed Yankees too long; he asked me whether I did not know that it was unlawful for me to land, to which I replied, that I did not know it, for I could neither read nor write.  The merchants for whom I had formerly done business came on board, and said they cared for neither the mare (mayor) nor the horse, and insisted that I should go ashore.  I told the mayor the business on which I came, and he gave me leave to stay nine days, telling me that if I were not gone in that time, he would sell me for the good of the state.

I offered my boy’s master the $300; he counted the money, but put it back to me, refusing to take less than $450.  I went on board to return to Boston.  We met with head winds, and put back three times to Norfolk, anchoring each time just opposite the jail.  The nine days had expired, and I feared the mayor would find me on board and sell me.  I could see the jail, full of colored people, and