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had been. The poor man was, therefore, put into prison, on the charge of concealing a runaway Slave. He was fined one hundred dollars and costs, which amounted together to nearly two hundred dollars: he was kept in prison twelve months. He could well adopt the cogent language of Jacob, "Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me." The industrious habits of this Slave had won for him the sympathies of the community, who voluntarily made up the money and paid the fine, and would, had it have been possible, released him from his unjust imprisonment. The boy, Benjamin, was hurried away, with something like lightning speed, toward the North Star, and was soon beyond the possibility of recovery.
John G. Whittier, the American poet, as with a live coal dropped from Freedom's Altar, firing up his soul and enlivening his imagination, thus describes woman's condition in Slavery:—
"What, oh! our countrymen in chains!
The whip on woman's shrinking flesh;
Our soil yet reddening with the stains,
Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh.
What! mothers from their children riven!
What! God's own image bought and sold!
Americans to market driven,
And bartered, as the brute, for gold!
Speak! shall their agony of prayer
Come thrilling to our hearts in vain?
