fences within half a mile of where I lived were marked over with some kind of figures I had made, in trying to learn how to Write. I next obtained ah arithmetic, and then a grammar, and I stand here to-night, without having had a day's schooling in my life." Such were some of the efforts made by a fugitive slave to obtain for himself an education. Soon after his escape, Brown was married to a free coloured woman, by whom he has had three daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Having tasted the sweets of freedom himself, his great desire was to extend its blessing to his race, and in the language of the poet he would ask himself,
"Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake
And with leathern hearts forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
"No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And with heart and hand to be
Earnest to make others free."
While acting as a servant to one of the steamers on Lake Erie, Brown often took fugitives from Cleveland and other ports to Buffalo, or Detroit, from either of which places they could cross to Canada in an hour. During the season of 1842, this fugitive slave conveyed no loss than sixty-nine runaway slaves across Lake Erie, and placed them safe on the soil of Canada. The following interesting account of Brown's first going into business for himself, which we transcribe
