He has many times, for many years, related the same facts, to many persons, in the same language _verbatim_; and individuals to whom the author has read some of the following incidents, have recognized the story and language, as they heard them from the hero’s lips long before the author ever heard his name. There are also persons yet living, whom I have seen and known, who witnessed many of Peter’s most awful sufferings. * * * * * Of course, the book lays no claim to the merit of _literature_, and will not be reviewed as such; but it does claim the merit of _strict verity_, which is no mean characteristic in a book, in these days. The subject, and the author, have but one object in view in bringing the book before the public:—a mutual desire to contribute as far as they can, to the freedom of enchained millions for whom Christ died. And if any heart may be made to feel one emotion of benevolence, and lift up a more earnest cry to God for the suffering slave; if one generous impulse may be awakened in a slaveholder’s bosom towards his fellow traveller to God’s bar, whose crime is, in being “born with a skin not coloured like his own;” and if it may inspire in the youthful mind, the spirit of that sweet verse, consecrated by the hallowed associations of a New-England home— “I was not born a little slave To labour in the sun, And wish I were but in my grave, And all my labor done.” it will not be in vain. * * * * * That it may hasten that glorious consummation which we know is fast approaching, when slavery shall be known only in the story of past time, is the earnest prayer of the AUTHOR. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _Certificate of the Citizens of Spencertown._ This is to certify, that we, the undersigned, are, and have been _well acquain’ted_ with Peter Wheeler, for a number of years, and that we place _full confidence in all his statements_:— ERASTUS PRATT, Justice of the Peace. CHARLES B. DUTCHER, Justice of the Peace. ABIAH W. MAYHEW, Deacon of the Presbyterian Church. CHARLES H. SKIFF, M.D. WILLIAM. A. DEAN. JOHN GROFF. DANIEL BALDWIN. ELISHA BABCOCK. PHILIP STRONG. PATRICK M. KNAPP. WILLIAM TRAVER. EPHRAIM BERNUS. SAMUEL HIGGINS. WILLIAM PARSONS. JAMES BALDWIN. FRANCIS CHAREVOY. [It may be proper to state that many of these gentlemen have known Peter more than thirteen years; likewise, that they are men of the first respectability. AUTHOR.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS. ----------