I was born in the city of Washington, but removed at a very early age to Charleston, South Carolina; where I was subsequently married, and resided, until the year 1845, when the painful associations connected with the death of my only son induced me to remove to Norfolk, Virginia, where I led a quiet and unobtrusive life, with my only daughter, until the month of December, 1853. Having been thrown upon my own resources, and possessed of a too independent spirit to be a burden to those who might have assisted me, I supported myself and child by the labor of my hands; my business being that of vest-making. Being a superior workwoman, I always had an abundance of the best work to do; but it was necessary for me to labor incessantly, in order to maintain myself and daughter respectably. Being blessed with good health, I was enabled to do this. We lived alone, in a retired part of the city, and our circle of acquaintances, from choice, not from necessity, was rather limited. Our habits were industrious, frugal and retiring. We were respected, and led lives that were irreproachable, as was abundantly conceded by even the Judge before whom I was tried. Our only association with society was that into which we were led by the exercise of our feelings of humanity; it being our natural disposition to share the little goods we possessed with those who were in want or affliction of any sort. We now enjoy the happy satisfaction of knowing that we have left behind us, many grateful hearts, in those whose distress we have relieved, or with whose sorrows we have sympathized. This brief history of myself and my antecedents, seemed necessary, in order to show who and what I was, and to effectually put down the assertions of some of the Southern editors, that I was an Abolitionist in disguise, or, at least, was acting at the instigation of those who are enemies to the South and her institutions. I shall now proceed to relate, as succinctly as possible, the history of my personal contest with the great and dignified State of Virginia, as represented in the persons of a few men in power in the honorable city of Norfolk. Being perfectly satisfied with my daughter’s society, I craved no other, and endeavored to practice the precepts which I wished to instil into her mind, and, as she grew older, we went on hand in hand in our little benevolent duties, making allowances for the faults of others, practicing mercy and charity to all who came in our way, both black and white; and, as I am a strong advocate for the religious instruction of the whole human family, it fell to our lot to become the religious and moral instructors of a few little colored free children.