The master's heart was moved to set her free; and, embarked in a
small vessel, with a New England captain, Tidy found herself at
twenty years of age sailing away from the land of cruel bondage,
to a home where she should know the blessings of freedom.
Her emancipation papers were put into the hands of the captain,
and money to provide for her comfort, with the assurance that while
her master lived she should never want.

At first she was sick and almost broken-hearted at the change
in her condition. Much as she longed for freedom, she had formed
new ties in her Mobile home, which it was hard for her affectionate
nature to break. She was old enough now to look forward to some
of the difficulties to be encountered in a land of strangers,
seeking employment in unaccustomed ways. But she went to her Bible
as usual in her trouble, and the words which the Angel of the Covenant
addressed to Jacob, when, exiled from his father's house, he made
the stones of Bethel his pillow, came right home refreshingly to her,--"I
am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest."
The soreness at her heart was at once healed, and she cried out,
in deep emotion, "Enough, Lord! Now I have got something to hold
on by, and I will never let it go. When I get into trouble, I shall
come and say, Lord, you remember what you said to me on board ship,
and I know you will keep your promise."

Thus fortified for her new life, Tidy arrived at New York. The sun
was just setting as she planted her foot on the soil of freedom;
and as his slanting rays fell upon her, she thought of her toiling,
suffering sisters, driven at this hour from labor to misery,
and her heart sickened at the thought. "O God," she cried,
"hasten the day when ALL shall be free."