Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-11
For the Bugle.
FIRST OF AUGUST AT DEERCREEK.
MARLBORO, Ohio, August 9Th, 1858.

MARLBORO, Ohio, August 9th, 1858.
DEAR MAR,Us A meeting in mmemorati
Of West India Emancipation, was held yesterday
under the auspices of our colored neighbors and
friends, ut Piorce's mill near Lima. The harvest
not yet having been secured, the assemblage was
not so large rs under other circumstances might
have been expected, but was every way %respecta-
BILE in point of numbers and character of the pro-
ceedings. Benjamin Lancaster served as Presi-
dent, and Jeremiah Freeman as Secretary of the
meeting, whic vas occupied and intere sted y%ripcipal-
ly by the rem arks Of William Holiday, previous
to the adjournment to a handsome dinner in the
grove. The company was composed of about an
equal number of colored and white persons, who
passed an hour Of apparently unalloyed social en-
joyment, around a table we'll provided and taste
fully arranged, and then repaired to the speakers
stand, and the intellectual exercises were resumed.
Tho interest of the occasion was very greatly en-
HANGED by the presence among us, of four recent
ly emapcipated persons, n father, mother and two
daughters, the latter of whom that day tasted the
first sweets of the partial freedom which we enjoy
and which in the contrast to their uninitiated ma
lures must have appeared perfect and complete.
Tho father, Edward Bacchus a venerable man of
sixty years was called to the stand and gave n
thrilling narrative of his experience as a slave and
more particularly of the means by which their
freedom has been attained. 1t appears that whilst
himself a slave he raised the means to purchase
his wife who resided l6 miles from him in Ran
dolph county Virginia. Being incom petent as a
chattol to receive and hold the bill of sale q deed
for the person Of his wife, his masters son, named
Crouch, held this bill Of sale for him. After the
birth nf thpsp tvo rir1a oOn now Ii tho OfIpr IN
years of age, this man Crouch died and the guar
dian of his heirs finding this bill of sale among
his papers, c laimed the right of property in the
girls. a long course of litigation ensued which
ended in a compromise, as usual, between slavery
and justice and paying $500, he has been permit
ted to bring his children from that Sodom Of in
iquity. Having no other means to raise the money
in the time they allotted to him the parents came
to Ohio and obtained it through donations, from
the humane of our land. Bacchus himself had
been emancipated since the purchase of his wife,
so this family is now wholly free, though the moth
err still mourns for three children by former hus-
band, yet in slavery. Altogether his expenses in
the lawsui it and second purchase amounted to
$1,000. The bill fsale held by Crouch specified that
the woman was held for Edward Dacchus, and | it
was clear that the guardian had no claim, even by
Virginia law, to these persons, but the system OF
man-stealing is perfect and consistent in all its
parts, and as the victim declared, the man who
instituted this suit and extorted the $500 for the
repurchase, was q brother Methodist-a member
of the same Church with himself! How slowly
do even ~professed anti-slavery men appear to ava.
ken to the fact that the villain who will hold his
fellow man in bondage, and those who ahet them,
iriH neuer hesitate at the lesser crimes of perjury
and extortion, when the law affords an opportunity
Our friend Passmore Williamson seems likely
within the walls Of II prison, to arrive at n percep-
ton of this truth, as others have done before
him.
Late in the day, our friend James Barnaby ar
rived at tho meeting, ard interested it greatly by
an eloquent and instructive discourse. The whole
meeting passed off SO pleasantly and probably,
that those who, in the earlier part of the day, fell
discouraged at the slOwness with which the people
left their harvests to attend, felt and acknowledged
it was good for us to be there.
Yours fratcrnally,
A. BROOKE.