THE FUGITIVE BLACKSMITH.




CHAPTER I.

MY BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.--THE TREATMENT OF SLAVES GENERALLY IN MARYLAND.


I was born in the state of Maryland, which is one of the smallest and most
northern of the slave-holding states; the products of this state are
wheat, rye, Indian corn, tobacco, with some hemp, flax, &c. By looking at
the map, it will be seen that Maryland, like Virginia her neighbour, is
divided by the Chesapeake Bay into eastern and western shores. My
birthplace was on the eastern shore, where there are seven or eight small
counties; the farms are small, and tobacco is mostly raised.

At an early period in the history of Maryland, her lands began to be
exhausted by the bad cultivation peculiar to slave states; and hence she
soon commenced the business of breeding slaves for the more southern
states. This has given an enormity to slavery, in Maryland, differing from
that which attaches to the system in Louisiana, and equalled by none of
the kind, except Virginia and Kentucky, and not by either of these in
extent.

My parents did not both belong to the same owner: my father belonged to a
man named ----; my mother belonged to a man named ----. This not only made