“Six slaves, four men and two women, fugitives from Virginia, having with them two spring wagons and four horses, came to Hood’s Mill, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, near the dividing line between Frederick and Carroll counties, on Christmas day.  After feeding their animals, one of them told a Mr. Dixon whence they came; believing them to be fugitives, he spread the alarm, and some eight or ten persons gathered round to arrest them; but the negroes drawing revolvers and bowie-knives, kept their assailants at bay, until five of the party succeeded in escaping in one of the wagons, and as the last one jumped on a horse to flee, he was fired at, the load taking effect in the small of the back.  The prisoner says he belongs to Charles W. Simpson, Esq., of Fauquier county, Va., and ran away with the others on the preceding evening.”

This report from the Examiner, while it is not wholly correct, evidently relates to the fugitives above described.  Why the reporter made such glaring mistakes, may be accounted for on the ground that the bold stand made by the fugitives was so bewildering and alarming, that the “assailants” were not in a proper condition to make correct statements.  Nevertheless the Examiner’s report was preserved with other records, and is here given for what it is worth.

These victors were individually noted on the Record thus:  Barnaby was owned by William Rogers, a farmer, who was considered a “moderate slaveholder,” although of late “addicted to intemperance.”  He was the owner of about one “dozen head of slaves,” and had besides a wife and two children.

Barnaby’s chances for making extra “change” for himself were never favorable; sometimes of “nights” he would manage to earn a “trifle.”  He was prompted to escape because he “wanted to live by the sweat of his own brow,” believing that all men ought so to live.  This was the only reason he gave for fleeing.

Mary Elizabeth had been owned by Townsend McVee (likewise a farmer), and in Mary’s judgment, he was “severe,” but she added, “his wife made him so.”  McVee owned about twenty-five slaves; “he hardly allowed them to talk—­would not allow them to raise chickens,” and “only allowed Mary three dresses a year;” the rest she had to get as she could.  Sometimes McVee would sell slaves—­last year he sold two.  Mary said that she could not say anything good of her mistress.  On the contrary, she declared that her mistress “knew no mercy nor showed any favor.”

It was on account of this “domineering spirit,” that Mary was induced to escape.

Frank was owned by Luther Sullivan, “the meanest man in Virginia,” he said; he treated his people just as bad as he could in every respect.  “Sullivan,” added Frank, “would ’lowance the slaves and stint them to save food and get rich,” and “would sell and whip,” etc.  To Frank’s knowledge, he had sold some twenty-five head.  “He sold my mother and her two children