up to the window, and rapped for my mother, who sprang to it and informed me that I was betrayed by the girl who overheard our conversation the night before.  She thought that if I could keep out of the way for a few days, the white people would think that this girl was mistaken, or had lied.  She had told her old mistress that I was there that night, and had made a plot with my mother to get my wife and child there the next night, and that I was going to take them off to Canada.

I went off to a friend of mine, who rendered me all the aid that one slave could render another, under the circumstances.  Thank God he is now free from slavery, and is doing well.  He was a messenger for me to my wife and mother, until at the suggestion of my mother, I changed an old friend for a new one, who betrayed me for the sum of five dollars.

We had set the time when we were to start for Canada, which was to be on the next Saturday night.  My mother had an old friend whom she thought was true, and she got him to conceal me in a barn, not over two miles from the village.  This man brought provisions to me, sent by my mother, and would tell me the news which was in circulation about me, among the citizens.  But the poor fellow was not able to withstand the temptation of money.

My owners had about given me up, and thought the report of the slave girl was false; but they had offered a little reward among the slaves for my apprehension.  The night before I was betrayed, I met with my mother and wife, and we had set up nearly all night plotting to start on the next Saturday night.  I hid myself away in the flax in the barn, and being much rest broken I slept until the next morning about 9 o’clock.  Then I was awakened by a mob of blood thirsty slaveholders, who had come armed with all the implements of death, with a determination to reduce me again to a life of slavery, or murder me on the spot.

When I looked up and saw that I was surrounded, they were exclaiming at the top of their voices, “shoot him down! shoot him down!” “If he offers to run, or to resist, kill him!”

I saw it was no use then for me to make any resistance, as I should be murdered.  I felt confident that I had been betrayed by a slave, and all my flattering prospects of rescuing my family were gone for ever, and the grim monster slavery with all its horrors was staring me in the face.

I surrendered myself to this hostile mob at once.  The first thing done, after they had laid violent hands on me, was to bind my hands behind me with a cord, and rob me of all I possessed.

In searching my pockets, they found my certificate from the Methodist E. Church, which had been given me by my classleader, testifying to my worthiness as a member of that church.  And what made the matter look more disgraceful to me, many of this mob were members of the M.E.  Church, and they were the persons who took away my church ticket, and then robbed me also of fourteen dollars in cash, a silver watch for which I paid ten dollars, a pocket knife for which I paid seventy-five cents, and a Bible for which I paid sixty-two and one half cents.  All this they tyrannically robbed me of, and yet my owner, Wm. Gatewood, was a regular member of the same church to which I belonged.