68

220 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

then and there, my home would have been stained with blood, for these men
who had already tasted blood were well armed and prepared to sell their lives
at any expense to the lives and limbs of their probable assailants. What they
had already done at Christiana and the cool determination which showed very
plainly especially in Parker, (for that was the name of the leader,) left no doubt
on my mind that their courage was genuine and that their deeds would equal
their words. The situation was critical and dangerous. The telegraph had that
day announced their deeds at Christiana, their escape, and that the mountains
of Pennsylvania were being searched for the murderers. These men had
reached me simultaneously with this news in the New York papers.
Immediately after the occurrence at Christiana, they, instead of going into the
mountains, were placed on a train which brought them to Rochester. They
were thus almost in advance of the lightning, and much in advance of probable
pursuit, unless the telegraph had raised agents already here. The hours they
spent at my house were therefore hours of anxiety as well as activity. I dispatched
my friend Miss Julia Griffiths to the landing three miles away on the
Genesee River to ascertain if a steamer would leave that night for any port in
Canada, and remained at home myself to guard my tired, dust-covered, and
sleeping guests, for they had been harassed and traveling for two days and
nights, and needed rest. Happily for us the suspense was not long, for it turned
out, that that very night a steamer was to leave for Toronto, Canada.

This fact, however, did not end my anxiety. There was danger that
between my house and the landing or at the landing itself we might meet
with trouble. Indeed the landing was the place where trouble was likely to
occur if at all. As patiently as I could, I waited for the shades of night to come
on, and then put the men in my "Democrat carriage," and started for the
landing on the Genesee. It was an exciting ride, and somewhat speedy
withal. We reached the boat at least fifteen minutes before the time of its
departure, and that without remark or molestation. But those fifteen minutes
seemed much longer than usual. I remained on board till the order to haul in
the gang-way was given; I shook hands with my friends, received from
Parker the revolver that fell from the hand of Gorsuch when he died, presented
now as a token of gratitude and a memento of the battle for Liberty
at Christiana, and I returned to my home with a sense of relief which I cannot
stop here to describe. This affair, at Christiana, and the Jerry Rescue at
Syracuse, inflicted fatal wounds on the fugitive slave bill. It became thereafter
almost a dead letter, for slaveholders found that not only did it fail to put
them in possession of their slaves, but that the attempt to enforce it brought
odium upon themselves and weakened the slave system.