It was a few years before the Civil War that the incident her related took place.
A large vessel in the lumbor-carrying trade was north-bound from Charlestown, South Carolina, and thereon a slave had concealed himself, hoping that when Boston was reached he would find an opportunity to gain his freedom. All went well until he was discovered by the captain, who thought that perhaps some of the ship's crew had guilty knowledge of his concealment or had even gone so far as to assist him in making his escape from a land of ceaseless toil, where there was naught for him but the lash, the slave-pen and the bloodhound.