Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada WestSteward, Austin
History
Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West
Arrived at Port Stanley, we were kindly entertained by a Mr. White, a
fugitive slave from Virginia, who owned a snug little farm on the bank of
Kettle Creek, and who appeared to be in a good and prosperous condition.
Being detained there, waiting for a boat, on which I was anxious to see
my family comfortably situated before I left them, I was aroused at an
early hour on the second morning of our stay, by a loud rapping at the
door; and hearing myself inquired for, I dressed myself immediately, and
followed Mr. White into the sitting room, where I saw two strange men,
armed with bludgeons! I soon learned, however, that one of them was the
under-sheriff, who had come to arrest me for a debt of about forty
dollars, and the other armed man had come to assist him, I assured them
I was ready to accompany them back to London, which I was obliged to do, a
prisoner, leaving my family among comparative strangers. The debt had
become due to a man who had worked for us in the building of a saw-mill. I
arranged the matter without going to jail, but before I could return to
Port Stanley, my family, kindly assisted by Mr. White, had departed for
Buffalo. The weather was cold and the lake very rough, but they safely
arrived in Rochester, after a journey of three days. During their passage
up the lake my oldest daughter took a severe cold, from which she never
recovered.
I returned to the colony to attend to the duties of my office, and to
close my business with the colony, preparatory to joining my family, who
were now settled in Rochester, but in very different circumstances from
those in which they had left it. I had deposited quite a sum of money in
the Rochester Bank; but our continual expenditures at Wilberforce, in my
journeyings for the benefit of the colony, and in the transacting of
business pertaining to its interests, had left not one dollar for
the support of my family, or to give me another start in business.
Nevertheless, I felt willing to submit the case to Him who had known the
purity of my intentions, and who had hitherto "led me through scenes dark
and drear," believing he would not forsake me now, in this time of need.
Consoling myself with these reflections, I renewed my endeavors to do my
best, leaving the event with my God.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE LAND AGENT AND THE SQUATTER.
I have named, I believe, that all the colored people, who purchased lands
of Lewis, could get no deed nor any remuneration for their improvements.
This they thought hard and unfair. Some had built a house and barn,
cleared land, &c.; but when they wished to pay for their farms, they could
get no deed, and were obliged to lose all their labor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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