the apathy and inaction of the body to which they belong.

On the 28th we arrived at Baltimore; during a stay of two or three days,
we found several persons who were friendly to our cause. There are
computed to be five thousand slaves in this city, but of course slavery
does not obtrude itself on the casual observer. Here, as in other
countries, he who would see it as it is, must view it on the
plantations.

The free people of color in Baltimore, are alive to the importance of
education. One individual told us, that in distributing about two
hundred and fifty religious books, which had been sent to be
gratuitously supplied to the poor of this class, he found only five or
six families, in which the children were not learning to read and write.

While in Baltimore, the inquiries I made respecting Elisha Tyson, fully
confirmed the impression I have attempted to convey of his extraordinary
character; perhaps no one has so good a claim to be considered the
Granville Sharp of North America, and I have inserted in another place
some particulars drawn from his biography, which will be found full of
interest.[A] I am glad also to state, that if there is no one citizen of
Baltimore on whom his mantle rests, there are yet some who are active in
preventing the illegal detention of negroes, and of bringing such cases
before the proper tribunal. One of these related the following case of
recent occurrence. A woman, who was the wife of a free man, and the
mother of four children, and who had long believed herself legally free,
was claimed by the heir of her former master. The case was tried, and
his right of property in her and her children affirmed. He then sold the
family to a slave dealer for a thousand dollars; of whom the husband of
the woman re-purchased them, (his _own_ wife and children,) for eleven