ABSTRACT
In the 7th month, 1802, a man by the name of David Lea went to Philadelphia to hunt up runaway slaves. He had been there but a few days before he arrested one, who was claimed by Nathan Peacock, an inhabitant of Maryland, where, it appeared, Lea belonged. The slave was taken before John Hunter, a Justice of the Peace in Moyamensing. I was sent for, and, upon arriving at the magistrate’s, I found Peacock, with his witnesses, prepared to identify the poor captive, and to prove his legal claim to him. After a thorough investigation, the poor fellow seeing no chance of escape, acknowledged that he was the slave of Peacock, and that he had left his master’s service without his consent; alledging, as a reason for doing so, that he wished to be free. He had been in Philadelphia several years, where he married. He had taken a lot of ground in the Northern Liberties, and had erected a small house on it. Rather than permit him to be separated from his wife and children, some friends concluded to make an effort to purchase his freedom, and after much entreaty, the master fixed a price; I do not now remember what the sum was, but it was very large. The man was then committed to prison.
