ABSTRACT
Samuel Wilson was a slave to a person who resided upon the Eastern Shore of Maryland; and becoming weary of his condition as such, he adopted the following stratagem to obtain his freedom. He asked permission of his master to go a fishing, which was granted; and he left home, as his master supposed, for that purpose. As he did not return, his master, the next morning, fearing some accident might have happened to him, went to the place where Samuel usually fished, when to his astonishment and regret, he found the canoe anchored, a short distance from the land, bottom upward, and the man’s hat on the shore near it. No doubt remained in the mind of his master that he was drowned.
