in the presence of quite a number of spectators on the first deck and on the wharf, all of whom, as far as I was able to discern, seemed to look upon the whole affair with the greatest indifference.  The woman and children were assisted, but not forced to leave.  Nor were there any violence or threatenings as I saw or heard.  The only words that I heard from any one of an objectionable character, were:  “Knock him down; knock him down!” but who uttered it or who was meant I knew not, nor have I since been informed.  However, if it was uttered by a colored man, I regret it, as there was not the slightest cause for such language, especially as the sympathies of the spectators and citizens seemed to justify the course pursued.

While passing off of the wharf and down Delaware-avenue to Dock st., and up Dock to Front, where a carriage was procured, the slaveholder and one police officer were of the party, if no more.

The youngest boy on being put in the carriage was told that he was “a fool for crying so after ‘Massa John,’ who would sell him if he ever caught him.”  Not another whine was heard on the subject.

The carriage drove down town slowly, the horses being fatigued and the weather intensely hot; the inmates were put out on Tenth street—­not at any house—­after which they soon found hospitable friends and quietude.  The excitement of the moment having passed by, the mother seemed very cheerful, and rejoiced greatly that herself and boys had been, as she thought, so “providentially delivered from the house of bondage!” For the first time in her life she could look upon herself and children and feel free!

Having felt the iron in her heart for the best half of her days—­having been sold with her children on the auction block—­having had one of her children sold far away from her without hope of her seeing him again—­she very naturally and wisely concluded to go to Canada, fearing if she remained in this city—­as some assured her she could do with entire safety—­that she might again find herself in the clutches of the tyrant from whom she had fled.

    A few items of what she related concerning the character of her
    master may be interesting to the reader—­

Within the last two years he had sold all his slaves—­between thirty and forty in number—­having purchased the present ones in that space of time.  She said that before leaving Washington, coming on the cars, and at his father-in-law’s in this city, a number of persons had told him that in bringing his slaves into Pennsylvania they would be free.  When told at his father-in-law’s, as she overheard it, that he “could not have done a worse thing,” &c., he replied that “Jane would not leave him.”

As much, however, as he affected to have such implicit confidence in Jane, he scarcely allowed her to be out of his presence a moment