Michael's, and Baltimore. The people looked
more able, stronger, healthier, and happier, than those of Maryland.
I was for once made glad by a view of extreme wealth, without being
saddened by seeing extreme poverty. But the most astonishing as well
as the most interesting thing to me was the condition of the colored
people, a great many of whom, like myself, had escaped thither as a
refuge from the hunters of men. I found many, who had not been seven
years out of their chains, living in finer houses, and evidently
enjoying more of the comforts of life, than the average of slaveholders
in Maryland. I will venture to assert, that my friend Mr. Nathan Johnson
(of whom I can say with a grateful heart, "I was hungry, and he gave me
meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took
me in") lived in a neater house; dined at a better table; took, paid
for, and read, more newspapers; better understood the moral, religious,
and political character of the nation,--than nine tenths of the
slaveholders in Talbot county Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was a working
man. His hands were hardened by toil, and not his alone, but those also
of Mrs. Johnson. I found the colored people much more spirited than
I had supposed they would be. I found among them a determination to
protect each other from the blood-thirsty kidnapper, at all hazards.
Soon after my arrival, I was told of a circumstance which illustrated
their spirit. A colored man and a fugitive slave were on unfriendly
terms.
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