Man Hunting

MAN-HUNTING IN OHIO.—On Sunday, June 11, nine slaves left their masters in Boone Co ., Ky., taking three horses to carry their bundles. On arriving at the Ohio river near Lawrenceburg, they turned the horses homeward again, and taking a skiff, rowed themselves across to the Ohio shore about midnight. After travelling two or three miles, they hid during Monday, in a clump of bushes. When night came on they started northward. They had not proceeded far before they met a coloured man, named John Gyser, who promised to assist them in making their way north. They accompanied him to a stable about two and a half miles from Cincinnati, where they were to remain until evening, when he would return with assistance to aid them in reaching Canada. During the day Gyser visited Covington, and hearing that a reward of $1,000 was offered for their apprehension and arrest, he gave the information.

In the evening a number of Kentuckians surrounded the stable, while the United States Deputy Marshal, George Thayer, assisted by three city officers, went in and arrested them on a warrant, issued by U. S. Commissioner Pendery.

One of the Fugitives, who carried his violin with him, was playing upon it when the stable was entered by the officers. They made very little resistance, and were easily secured and taken to the city, where, after such a trial as the hellish Fugitive Slave act prescribes, they were all given up to the claimaints. The poor when tion, their, clothing being torn and ragged. They ran away because they were afraid of being sold to the traders. The coloured man who betrayed them was baser than Judas Iscariot, but he was not a whit worse than the Commissioner, the Marshal and the lawyers by whom they were consigned to a life of bondage. The papers say there was no excitement in Cincinnati in consequence of these proceedings! Then ought the people of that city to hide their heads for shame. Nine human beings plunged into life-long Slavery in the “Queen City of the West,” and “no excitement”! If Cincinnati is a Christian city, what shall we say of Sodom and Gomorrah!

National Anti-Slavery Standard, June 24, 1854. which followed up with this item:

“It was not a coloured man, but a white man with a black heart, who betrayed the nine fugitive slaves from Boone Co ., Ky., recently surrendered by Commissioner Pendery, of Cincinnati.”

National Anti-Slavery Standard, July 1, 1854