ABSTRACT
Phebe Numbers was a slave to Charles Buckmaster, of the State of Maryland, whose daughter married Charles Hamm, of the same place. At the time of their marriage, he gave Phebe to his daughter, with the understanding that she was to be free at his death, which took place a few years after their marriage, when she was set at liberty, agreeably with the request of her old master. Phebe married, and lived with her husband in a small house near the residence of Charles Hamm. In the course of a few years, (in 1826,) Phebe went to Philadelphia, to make a visit to her sister, who resided in that city, taking her two children with her. Both the children being born after the decease of her old master, were free. They had been in Philadelphia but a few days, when she concluded to return home, and went to Pine-st. wharf to look for a vessel, in which she might get a passage, where she met Charles Hamm. As soon as he saw her, he arrested her as his slave; but knowing that he had no legal claim upon her, she refused to go with him; in consequence of which, he fell upon and beat and shamefully abused her in the public streets, insisting upon his right to compel her to go with him. A considerable crowd had collected, and they followed Hamm and Phebe, her children being with her, until they had proceeded as far as Second-street, a few doors below Pine-street, when Phebe seeing a cellar door open, ran down the cellar with her two children. They were small–the oldest not being more than six years of age. Hamm had become alarmed, from an apprehension that the people, who had collected on the occasion, would wrest his property from him. As soon as Phebe and her children entered the cellar, Hamm shut the door and stood upon it.
