his property was seized for debt and sold, thereby throwing me out of
employment. I was arrested and taken back to Maryland, where I was placed
in prison, with a collar round my neck for eleven days.

On the twelfth day my master came to see me, and of course I begged of him
to take me home and let me go to work. No, nigger, said master--I have no
employment for a vagabond of your stamp; but I'm going to order that
collar off your neck, not because I think that you are sufficiently
punished, but because there are some gentlemen coming through the jail
to-morrow, and they want to purchase some negroes, so you had better do
your best to get a master amongst them--and mind you don't tell them that
ever you ran away, for if you do none of them will buy you. Now I will
give you a good character, notwithstanding you have done your best to
injure me, a good master, and you have even tried to rob me by running
away--still I'll do my best to get you a good master, for my bible teaches
me to do good for evil. The next day I was called out with forty other
slaves, belonging to different owners in the County, and we were marched
into the doctor's vestry for examination; here the doctor made us all
strip--men and women together naked, in the presence of each other while
the examination went on. When it was concluded, thirty-eight of us were
pronounced sound, and three unsound; certificates were made out and given
to the auctioneer to that effect. After dressing ourselves we were all
driven into the slave sty directly under the auction block, when the jail
warder came and gave to every slave a number, my number was twenty. Here,
let me explain, for the better information of the reader, that in the
inventory of the slaves to be sold all go by number--one, two, three, and
so on; and if a man and his family are to be sold in one lot, then one
number covers them all; but if separate, then they have all different
numbers. An old friend of mine, belonging to William Steel, was also with
his wife and six children in the same sty, all to be sold. The youngest