Page:The Story of the Jubilee Singers (7th).djvu/109

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  • chased her freedom, after their marriage, for $1,300.

Free papers could not be executed without going to a free State. Before it was convenient to make a visit to Ohio for this purpose, he became embarrassed in his business.

Having bought his wife, she was legally his property, and as liable to be seized and sold for his debts as his horses were. He learned one night, through a friend, that some of his creditors were intending to take her for this purpose. Without waiting an hour, he hurried off to an out-of-the-way railway-station in the woods, some miles distant, and placed her on board the midnight train bound for Cincinnati. Soon after, he followed with his child, leaving all the rest of his property to his creditors, and beginning life anew, without a penny of his own, in Cincinnati.

Before they left Nashville, Ella's mother returned with her master's family to the city on a visit. The day before they were to leave they gave her permission to see her child for a few minutes. But when the time for parting came, the little one clung to her till every "gather" was torn from her dress, and the mother's expressions of grief were so agonising, that they gave her notice that she should never see the child again. After the proclamation of emancipation she found her way back to Nashville, and, hearing of Ella's whereabouts, sent to Cincinnati for her to come and see her, and they spent three months together.

In Cincinnati, Ella attended a coloured school, with frequent and sometimes prolonged absences on