Mar. 22^nd  Arrived Harry North
(1)

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD.
 Left my house on 10th street last evening, about 6 o’clock, to go to the City Post Office, a small negro boy, called LANEY, about 12 years of age.  He is black, well built, and rather good looking—he has a down, but pleasant look, when spoken to.  Had on boots, ray pants and round about, and a check cloth cap, with lappels.  I will give $100 reward if taken in the District, and $200 if taken out of it.
                      EDW’D C. DYER.

(22)                                                                                              Good
Mar. 25^th_  22 within 24 hours_ arrived, as follows: Rebecca Jones[1], and her daughters, Sarah Frances, Mary & Rebecca; Isaiah Robinson[2], Author Spence[3], Caroline Taylor[4] and her two Daughters, Nancy & Mary, Daniel Robinson[5], Thos. Page[6], Benjamin Dickerson[7], David Cale and wife,
Though these parties all came here about the same time, they did not come from the same State,
       Mrs Jones is about 28 yrs of age, Molato, good looking, naturally very intelligent and gives evidence of marked mind & purpose.  Years ago her Mistress died in England and designed that all her Slaves should be free but not being regularly emancipated, the administrators claimed to the right of holding her in Bondage_
       To pass many of the interesting connected with her life suffice it to add that she firmly resolved to be the slave of no other master, nor to allow her three interesting children to grow up in slavery, rather than submit she declared when they talked of selling her that she would sooner take the lives of her children and her own than that they should continue Slaves_ her sympathisers advised her to get some gentleman or frd to purchase her for herself_ No she replied_ not three cts would she give_ Nor did she want any of her frds to buy, even if they could get them all for 3 cts_ it would be of no use she contended_ This brief glance of her bravery only fairly indicates her noble character  Caroline Fay Cox is a small molato woman of genteel address, intelligent, and active_ She & her children was owned by Peter March, Insion merchant of NY City__  Formerly she had lived in Norfolk; but latterly in NY  By the way Caroline had had only fallen into the hands of Mr. March resently_ since the Fever last summer_ most of her people having died, Mr. M. being the Husbands of one of her masters. Daughters, he of course fell hier to the portion belonging to his wife.
       over two leaves_

Isaiah is about 23 years of age medium size, Molato; intelligent, & preposessing_ The thirst for liberty moved him to take the steps he did, in regard to seeking his liberty.  Through life he had had “fared very bad_  Had been “worked and treated badly”, by persons without geting any thank for his labor  Had been badly beaten &c.|
             He had been in the habit of hiring his time, for which he had paid $120_ per yr. up to the time of his escape.
             He left a wife, and two Bros. & two sisters_
              Author Spence is a young man from N.C. near 24 yrs of age genteel in appearance &c.  He left because he was heaveyily oppressed_ having to pay $175_ a year to his master, for his hire_  He left his mother, two Brothers & one Sister.
Benjamin Dickinson is also from N.C. Eatontown, where he had Miss Ann Blunt, who was “very hard indeed,”  Has about ninty five Slaves whom she forces into anything.  He had it in his head to leave for 3 yrs_  Being a hirerling he was badly treated_ placed in the service of a hard man who new no mercy__ Age 28, quite dark, medium Size, intelligent, Carpenter by trade&c.  Left 2 sisters no Brothers &c.

Brought up
Caroline Taylor_  For ten yrs she has been hiring her time_  For the greater part of her time she has been compeled to pay about $75_ per annum, the last year she was compeled to pay $84_ a year an take care of her children at the same time Her oldest girl she had to pay $24 per annum for the priviledge of having her with_  This little girl is about 11 yrs of age, nearly white, good looking and well grown_
       The other little girl is 9 yr’s of age, remarkable for her amiable traits of character_ with all good looking & interesting.
       Hard work and the fear of sale was what drove Caroline to escape_ only a short while before She left, her master had been on own from N.Y. to Sell her_ $2000 being the price Demanded, which however, he failed to get readily, consequently Caroline thought she would safe him the trouble of coming a sec’d time.
              Rebecca Jones, continued.  Her husband fled Some 6 yr’s since, in Company with Shadrach_ for a time after he left She got letters from him frequently, but latterly nothing had been heard of him.
              Her three children are remarkably fine & healthy looking, all girls_ In coming away She suffered terribly

[1] Rebecca Jones was dedicated to the freedom and advancement of her children.  Carried uncomfortably on the steamship of Captain Fountain, she refreshed herself in Philadelphia and then went on to Boston, where she had always sought to live.  Once there, she encountered her husband, who had left six years earlier, but she refused to accept him back.  By fall 1856, she had determined to move with her children to California.  The newspaper advertisement offering a reward for the recovery of Rebecca, her children, and Isaiah Robinson is reprinted in Still, Underground Rail Road, 325-28.

[2] Isaiah Robinson not only left his wife, but his two young children as well.  Still, Underground Rail Road, 328.

[3] Arthur Spence was brought to freedom on the steamship of Captain Fountain.  He likely went to Canada after leaving Philadelphia.  Still, Underground Rail Road, 331-32.

[4] Caroline Taylor had been hiring her time for several years prior to her flight.  She was able to keep her two daughters with her only because she hired out the older one—eleven years old—and had to pay for the upkeep of her younger out of the meager money remaining after paying her owner.  An attractive and intelligent young woman, Caroline feared she would be sold imminently as her owner had already offered her unsuccessfully for $2000.  The threat of sale prompted her urgency to escape with her two daughters.  Once Captain Fountain delivered them to Philadelphia, she and her children deeply impressed the agents at the station.  Her younger child, Mary, spent many hours at the bedside of a gravely wounded fugitive who was recuperating at the station.  The three of them so moved Colonel A. Cummings, a local newspaper publisher who had been unsympathetic to fugitives, that he was transformed in his thinking about the underground railroad and donated $20 to the Vigilance Committee.  Still, Underground Rail Road, 328-30.

[5] William Still failed to record the story of Daniel Robertson, the name he applies to the individual, in his book.  Yet he had received numerous letters from Daniel from his new home in the upper Hudson River Valley of New York in which he solicited Still’s assistance in retrieving his wife from slavery in Petersburg, Virginia.  Although Daniel was able to raise the $100 to pay for his wife’s passage with Captain Fountain, Still did not know if she had ever been delivered from slavery.  Still, Underground Rail Road, 330-31.

[6] Thomas Page, enslaved in Norfolk, Virginia, was a young man of about eighteen years who was extremely intelligent and resourceful.  After arriving in Philadelphia, he traveled to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he had an aunt, but then soon moved to Boston.  Later he went to New York and journeyed broadly in Canada from New Brunswick to St. Catherines.  Still, Underground Rail Road, 332-33.

[7] The life of Ben Dickinson in slavery is recounted in Still, Underground Rail Road, 332.

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