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far too slowly. Minutes were hours, and hours were days during this part of my flight. After Maryland I was to pass through Delaware—another slave State, where slave catchers generally awaited their prey, for it was not in the interior of the State, but on its borders, that these human hounds were most vigilant and active. The border lines between slavery and freedom were the dangerous ones, for the fugitives. The heart of no fox or deer, with hungry hounds on his trail, in full chase, could have beaten more anxiously or noisily than did mine, from the time I left Baltimore till I reached Philadelphia. The passage of the Susquehanna river†The Susquehanna River originates at Otsego Lake, in central New York, then winds 444 miles south through the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, emptying into the Chesapeake Bay near Havre de Grace, Maryland. This shallow, rock-filled river is unsuitable for navigation throughout almost its entire length. Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer, 3:3060. at Havre de Grace was made by ferry boat at that time, on board of which I met a young colored man by the name of Nichols, who came very near betraying me. He was a "hand" on the boat, but instead of minding his business, he insisted upon knowing me, and asking me dangerous questions as to where I was going, and when I was coming back, etc. I got away from my old and inconvenient acquaintance as soon as I could decently do so, and went to another part of the boat. Once across the river I encountered a new danger. Only a few days before I had been at work on a revenue cutter, in Mr. Price's ship-yard, under the care of Captain McGowan. On the meeting at this point of the two trains, the one going south stopped on the track just opposite to the one going north, and it so happened that this Captain McGowan sat at a window where he could see me very distinctly, and would certainly have recognized me had he looked at me but for a second. Fortunately, in the hurry of the moment, he did not see me; and the trains soon passed each other on their respective ways. But this was not my only hair-breadth escape. A German blacksmith whom I knew well, was on the train with me, and looked at me very intently as if he thought he had seen me somewhere before in his travels. I really believe he knew me, but had no heart to betray me. At any rate he saw me escaping and held his peace.
The last point of imminent danger, and the one I dreaded most, was Wilmington. Here we left the train and took the steamboat for Philadelphia. In making the change here I again apprehended arrest, but no one disturbed me, and I was soon on the broad and beautiful Delaware, speeding away to the Quaker City.†Quaker City is the nickname attributed to Philadelphia. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, Philadelphia, meaning the "City of Brotherly Love," was established as a safe haven for the peace-loving Quakers. Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer, 3:2423. On reaching Philadelphia in the afternoon I inquired of a colored man how I could get on to New York. He directed me to the Willow†Editorial Emendation: Second American Edition. First Printing Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., et al., 1882: William. street depot,†The Willow Street Depot was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city's original railroad line traveled through Philadelphia from Eighth Street to Broad, up Broad to Willow, out to Fairmount and the Columbia Railroad Bridge across the Schuylkill, and then up the inclined plane to Belmont and to the West. Francis Burke Brandt and Henry Volkmar Gummere, Byways and Boulevards in and about Historic Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1925), 206. and thither I went, taking the train that night. I reached New York Tuesday morning, having completed the journey in less than twenty-four hours. Such is briefly the manner of my escape from slavery—and the end of my experience as a slave. Other chapters will tell the story of my life as a freeman.
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