with the immortal John Brown, he had not lost his desire for freedom.
The steady march of escaping slaves guided by the North star, with the
refrain:

"I'm on my way to Canada,
That cold but happy land;
The dire effects of slavery
I can no longer stand,"

proved that the desire to be free was becoming more extensive and
absorbing as the slave advanced in intelligence.

It is necessary again to emphasize the fact that the American slaves
were well formed and well developed physically, capable of enduring
hard labor and of subsisting upon the plainest food. Their diet for
years had been of the simplest sort, and they had been subjected to a
system of regulations very much like those which are employed in the
management of armies. They had an hour to go to bed and an hour to
rise; left their homes only upon written "passes," and when abroad at
night were often halted by the wandering patrol. "Run, nigger, run,
the patrol get you," was a song of the slave children of South
Carolina.

Strangers who saw for the first time these people as they came out of
slavery in 1865 were usually impressed with their robust appearance,
and a conference of ex-slaves, assembled soon after the war,
introduced a resolution with the following declaration: "Whereas,
Slavery has left us in possession of strong and healthy bodies." It is
probable that at least a half-million of men of proper age could then
have been found among the newly liberated capable of bearing arms.