engaged myself. I continued in that employment till his death, which
happened about a year alter my return from Providence. Then I returned
to Boston; for, while he lived, I knew I could rely on his protection;
but when I lost my friend, I thought it best to go wholly to the
Northern States.

At Boston I went to work at sawing wood, sawing with the whip-saw,
laboring in the coal-yards, loading and unloading vessels, &c. After
laboring in this way for a few months, I went a voyage to St. John's,
in Porto Rico, with Captain Cobb, in the schooner _New Packet_. On the
return voyage, the vessel got ashore on Cape Cod; we left her, after
doing in vain what we could to right her: she was afterwards
recovered. I went several other voyages, and particularly two to the
Mediterranean: the last was to the East Indies, in the ship _James
Murray_, Captain Woodbury, owner Mr. Gray. My entire savings, up to
the period of my return from this voyage, amounted to $300; I sent it
to Virginia, and bought my wife. She came to me at Boston. I dared not
go myself to fetch her, lest I should be again deprived of my liberty,
as often happens to free colored people.

At the time, called the time of the Insurrection, about eight years
ago, when the whites said the colored people were going to rise, and
shot, hanged, and otherwise destroyed many of them, Mrs. Minner
thought she saw me in the street, and fainted there. The soldiers were
seizing all the blacks they could find, and she knew, if I were there,
I should be sure to suffer with the rest. She was mistaken; I was not
there.

My son's master, at Norfolk, sent a letter to me at Boston, to say,
that if I could raise $450, I might have his freedom; he was then