<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n[The headings and text in italics were added by the website editor. The rest is verbatim from the book. The \u201cVigilance Committee\u201d referred to below was a group of Philadelphians who ran the local station on the Underground Railroad. They include the author of the book.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbout the twenty-ninth of January, 1855, Sheridan arrived from the Old Dominion and a life of bondage, and was welcomed cordially by the Vigilance Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miss Elizabeth Brown of Portsmouth, Va. claimed Sheridan as her property. He spoke rather kindly of her, and felt that he “had not been used very hard” as a general thing, although, he wisely added, “the best usage was bad enough.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheridan had nearly reached his twenty-eighth year, was tall and well made, and possessed of a considerable share of intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not a great while before making up his mind to escape, for some trifling offence he had been “stretched up with a rope by his hands,” and “whipped unmercifully.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to this he had “got wind of the fact,” that he was to be auctioneered off; soon these things brought serious reflections to Sheridan’s mind, and among other questions, he began to ponder how he could get a ticket on the U.G.R.R., and get out of this “place of torment,” to where he might have the benefit of his own labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this state of mind, about the fourteenth day of November, he took his first and daring step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n