Sarah Saunders had been claimed as the property of Richard Gatewood, a clerk in the naval service.  According to Sarah he was a very clever slave-holder, and had never abused her.  Nor was she aware that he had ever treated any of his servants cruelly.  Sarah, however, had not lived in Gatewood’s immediate family, but had been allowed to remain with her grandmother, rather as a privileged character.  She was young, fair, and prepossessing.  Having a sister living in Philadelphia, who was known to the agent in Norfolk, Sarah was asked one day if she would not like to see her sister.  She at once answered “Yes.”  After further conversation the agent told her that if she would keep the matter entirely private, he would arrange for her to go by the Underground Rail Road.  Being willing and anxious to go, she promised due obedience to the rules; she was not told, however, how much she would have to pass through on the way, else, according to her own admission, she never would have come as she did; her heart would have failed her.  But when the goal was gained, like all others, she soon forgot her sufferings, and rejoiced heartily at getting out of Slavery, even though her condition had not been so bad as that of many others.

Sophia Gray, with her son and daughter, Henry and Mary, was from Portsmouth.  The mother was a tall, yellow woman, with well cut features, about thirty-three years of age, with manners indicative of more than ordinary intelligence.  The son and daughter were between twelve and fourteen years of age; well-developed for their age, modest, and finely-formed mulattoes.  All the material necessary for a story of great interest, might have readily been found in the story of the mother and her children.  They were sent with others to New Bedford, Massachusetts.  It was not long after being in New Bedford, before the boy was put to a trade, and the daughter was sent to Boston, where she had an aunt (a fugitive), living in the family of the Hon. George S. Hilliard.  Mr. and Mrs. Hilliard were so impressed by Mary’s intelligent countenance and her appearance generally, that they decided that she must have a chance for an education, and opened their hearts and home to her.

On a visit to Boston, in 1859, the writer found Mary at Mr. Hilliard’s, and in an article written for the “Anti-Slavery Standard,” upon the condition of fugitive slaves in Boston and New Bedford, allusion was made particularly to her and several others, under this hospitable roof, in the following paragraph: 

“On arriving in Boston, the first persons I had the pleasure to converse with, were four or five uncommonly interesting Underground Rail Road passengers, who had only been out of bondage between three and five years.  Their intelligent appearance contradicted the idea that they had ever been an hour in Slavery, or a mile on an Underground Rail Road.  Two of them were filling trustworthy posts, where they were respected and well paid for their services.  Two