Arthur Spence also deserves a notice.  He was from North Carolina, about twenty-four years of age, and of pleasing appearance, and was heart and soul in sympathy with the cause of the Underground Rail Road.  In North Carolina he declared that he had been heavily oppressed by being compelled to pay $175 per annum for his hire.  In order to get rid of this heavy load, by shrewd management he gained access to the kind-hearted Captain and procured an Underground Rail Road ticket.  In leaving bondage, he was obliged to leave his mother, two brothers and one sister.  He appeared to be composed of just the kind of material for making a good British subject.

Ben Dickinson.  Ben was also a slave in North Carolina—­located at Eatontown, being the property of “Miss Ann Blunt, who was very hard.”  In slave property Miss Blunt was interested to the number of about “ninety head.”  She was much in the habit of hiring out servants, and in thus disposing of her slaves Ben thought she was a great deal more concerned in getting good prices for herself than good places for them.  Indeed he declared that “she did not care how mean the place was, if she could only get her price.”  For three years Ben had Canada and the Underground Rail Road in view, having been “badly treated.”  At last the long-looked for time arrived, and he conferred neither with master nor mistress, but “picked himself up” and “took out.”  Age twenty-eight, medium size, quite dark, a good carpenter, and generally intelligent.  Left two sisters, etc.

Of this heroic and promising party we can only mention, in conclusion, one more passenger, namely: 

Tom Page.  At the time of his arrival, his name only was enrolled on the book.  Yet he was not a passenger soon to be forgotten—­he was but a mere boy, probably eighteen years of age; but a more apt, ready-witted, active, intelligent and self-reliant fellow is not often seen.

Judging from his smartness, under slavery, with no chances, it was easy to imagine how creditably he might with a white boy’s chances have climbed the hill of art and science.  Obviously he had intellect enough, if properly cultivated, to fill any station within the ordinary reach of intelligent American citizens.  He could read and write remarkably well for a slave, and well did he understand his advantages in this particular; indeed if slave-holders had only been aware of the growing tendency of Tom’s mind, they would have rejoiced at hearing of his departure for Canada; he was a most dangerous piece of property to be growing up amongst slaves.

After leaving the Committee and going North his uncaged mind felt the need of more education, and at the same time he was eager to make money, and do something in life.  As he had no one to depend on, parents and relatives being left behind in Norfolk, he felt that he must rely upon himself, young as he was.  He first took up his abode in Boston, or New Bedford, where most of the party with whom he escaped went, and where he had an aunt, and perhaps some other distant kin.  There he worked and was a live young man indeed—­among the foremost in ideas and notions about freedom, etc., as many letters from him bore evidence.  After spending a year or more in Massachusetts, he had a desire to see how the fugitives were doing in Upper and Lower Canada, and if any better chances existed in these parts for men of his stamp.