UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

54 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
The sheriff and his daughter, beingkind,humane
CHAPTER XIII.
people,inquiredof Hawkins and wife the
facts of their case ;
THE QUAKERS.
and his daughterwrote to a
ladyhere,to request me to go to Newcastle and
The writer'ssketch of the character of inquireinto the case, as her father and self really
thispeople has heen drawn from believed theywere most of them,if not all,entitled
personal
to their freedom. Next morning I went to
observation. There are severalsettlements Newcastle : had the family of
of these people colored people
in Ohio,and the manner of brought into the parlor, and the sheriffand myself
living, the tone of sentiment, and the habits came to the conclusion that the parentsand four
of life, as represented in her book, are not at youngestchildren were by law entitled to their
freedom. I prevailedon the sheriff to show me
allexaggerated.
the commitment of the magistrate, which I found
These settlements have always been was defective, and not in due form according to
refuges for the oppressedand outlawed law. I procureda copy and handed it to a lawyer.
He
slave. The character of Rachel Halliday
pronounced the commitment irregular, and
was a real one, but she has passedaway
agreedto go next morningto Newcastle and have
the whole familytaken before JudgeBooth,Chief
to her reward. Simeon Halliday, calmlyJustice of the state,by habeas corpus, when the following
risking fine and imprisonment for his love
admission was made by Samuel Hawkins
and wife
to God and man, has had in this :
country
They admitted that the two eldest boys
were held
many counterpartsamong the by
sect.
one Charles Glaudin,of Queen Anne
County,Maryland,
The writer had in mind,at the time of
as slaves ; that after the birth
of these two children, Elizabeth Turner, also of
writing, the scenes
in the trial of Thomas
Garret,of Wilmington,Delaware,for the
crime of hiring a hack to convey a mother
and four children from Newcastle jail to
Wilmington, a distance of five miles.
The writer has received the facts in this
case in a letter from John Garret himself,
from which some extracts willbe made :
( Wilmington,Delaware,
\ 1st month 18th, 1853.
My Dear Friend,
Harriet Beecher Stowe : I have this dayreceived
a request from Charles K. Whipple, of Boston,to
or
furnish thee with a statement, authentic and
circumstantial, of the trouble and losses which
have been broughtupon myself and others of my
friends from the aid we had rendered to fugitive
slaves,in order,if thought of sufficient importance,
to be published in a work thee is now preparing
for the press.
I will now endeavor to givethee a statement of
what John Hunn and myselfsuffered by aiding a
familyof slaves, a few years since. I will give
the facts as theyoccurred,and thee may condense
and publish so much as thee may think useful in
thy work, and no more :
"
In the 12th month,year 1846,a family, of Samuel Hawkins,a freeman,his wife
Emeline,and six children, who were afterwards
proved slaves,stoppedat the house of a friend
named John Hunn, near Middletown,in this state,
in the evening about sunset, to procure food and
lodging for the night. They were seen by some
pro-slavery neighbors,
of Hunn's
who soon came
with a constable,and had them taken before a
magistrate.Hunn had left the slaves in his
of Middle-
kitchen when he went to the village
town, half a mile distant. When the officer
came with a warrant for them, he met Hunn at
the kitchen door,and asked for the blacks ; Hunn,
with truth șaid he did not know where they
were. Hunn's wife,thinkingthey would be
safer,had sent them up stairs duringhis absence,
where theywere found. Hunn made no resistance,
requested
and they were taken before the magistrate, and
the court and audience.
from his officedirect to Newcastle jail,where they
arrived about one o'clock on 7th day morning.
Queen Anne, the mistress of their mother,had set
her free,and permitted her to go and livewith her
husband, near twenty miles from her residence,
after which the four youngest children were born ;
that her mistress during all that time,eleven or
twelve years, had never contributed one dollar to
theirsupport,or come to see them. After examining
His reply,in the presence
of the sheriffand my
the commitment in their case, and consulting with
my attorney țhe judge set the whole family at
liberty Ṭhe day was wet and cold ; one of the
childrențhree years old,was a cripple from white
swelling, and could not walk a step; another,eleven
months old,at the breast ; and the parentsbeing
desirous of getting to Wilmington, fivemiles distant,
I asked the judge if there would be any risk
impropriety in my hiring a conveyance for the
mother and four young children to Wilmington.
attorney,
was there would not be any. I then requested
the sheriff to a
procure hack to take them
over to Wilmington."
The whole familyescaped.John Hunn
and John Garret were broughtup
for havingpractically
of Christ which read,"I was a stranger
and ye
took me in, I was sick and in prison
and ye
came unto me." For John Hunn's
part of this crime, he was fined two thousand
to trial
fulfilledthose words
dollars, and John Garret was
five hundred
fined five thousand four hundred. Three
thousand fivehundred of this was the fine
forhiring a hack for them, and one thousand
nine hundred was assessed on him as the
value of the slaves ! Our European friends
will infer from this that it costs something
to obey Christ in America,as well as in
Europe.
After John Garret's trial was over, and
this heavyjudgment had been givenagainst
him,he calmlyrose
in the court-room, and
leave to address a few words to
Leave beinggranted, he spoke as
follows: