the character of their claims to your regard. No matter, if they are called presidents of your nation, still utterly refuse to honor them; which you will most certainly do, if you are true to the Slave!
After remaining a short time in Philadelphia, it was thought expedient that I should proceed to Massachusetts, and accordingly funds sufficient to carry me there, were raised by some anti-slavery friends, and I proceeded to Boston. After remaining a short time in that city, I concluded to go to New Bedford, in which place I remained a few weeks, under the care of Mr, Joseph Rickerston of that place, who treated me very kindly, At length hearing of a large anti-slavery meeting to be held in Boston, I left New Bedford, and found myself again in that city, so famous for its devotion to liberty in the days of the American revolution; and here, in the presence of several thousand people, did I first relate in public, the story of my sufferings, since which. time I have repeated my simple tale in different parts of Massachusetts, and in the State of Maine.
I now stand before you as a free man, but since my arrival among you, I have been informed that your laws require that I should still be held as a slave; and that if my master should espy me in any nook or corner of the free states, according to the constitution of the United States, he could secure me and carry me back into Slavery; so that I am confident I am not safe, even here, if what I have heard concerning your laws is true. I cannot imagine why you should uphold such strange laws. I have been told that every timea man goes to the polls and votes, he virtually swears to sustain them, frightful as they are. It seems to me to
