The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-02
From tie New York Graphic.
Advent ures Of q Slave Boy.
FROM A NORTH CAROLINA PLANTATION TO
THE NEW YORK PosT-oEFICE.

One warm afternoon in the summer Of 1852
half dozen little slave boys were playing
carelessly about cotton-press, sixteen miles
from Newbern, N. c., when one o. the small
est and youngest of them overheard some
thing that attracted his attention and which
had the effect to stop tie play. From the
conversation between two adult slaves he
learned that all of them were to he taken, in
few days, back into the interior part of the
State, out of tie way of the Yankee in
vaders. This set him to thinking. A coun-
Gil of war was held by the little fellows.
Then was made one of the most fervent
speeches in favor of liberty that was ever ut
tered by Southern slave. The possessor of
the sharp ears had the reputation OF a mis-
chievous aud headstrone boy among bis play
mates, but now they listened TO him with a
kind of wonder. With boyish enthusiasm
he rapidly sketched plot for an escape to
the Yankee lines. The time was fixed.
They we're to start the next afternoon. But
about three O'Clock the next morning he
heard the booming of the guns at the battle
of Newbern. He knew precisely what they
meant. Rising stealthiy, he reused his
companions in the plot, but at the last mo-
ment their hearts failed them. Nothing
daunted, the little fellow, not yet twelve
years VI aye, Will SuCA ClOtuCS dS uC udu Oil
him, and with supreme trust in himself
and in ''Massa Lincoln" started off in the
direction of the canonading. He took cir
cult around the town, and came in at the
rear of the Union lines about three O'Clock i'm
the afternoon. The distance was about
twenty miles. He says now he don't remem-
ber that he was tired. On the Journey he
was revolving in his mind magnificent
scheme of going back stealthily to organize
- no. fIo old ,,lo foft
which he proposed to join the Union forces.
He was taken on board of the gun-boat Chas-
seur, where he was soon advanced from the
position of officers mess boy to the more
honorable one of powder-bOy.
Until 1854 he was engaged in various ca
pacities as boy in the Union army and navy
Then he came North, and obtained the posi-
ton of Office boy for the late Henry j Ray
mond. While he was so employed in the
Times office he revisited the old plantation.
His father, mother, and his relatives were
dead, but an affection for the old place carri-
ed him back. He was heartily welcomed,
and by none more so than the widow OF his
former master, Col. Streets, to whom he made
a present of $25. The family was still
wealthy in land, but at that time sadly in
need Of ready cash. Col. Streets was killed
in the war.
This was the first of several visits to his
old home. During his residence at the North
he had come in contact with many public
men, and had cultivated the art OF public
speaking. This accomplishment had given
him great ascendancy over the minds Of his
old friends, On his visit in 1872 they insist
ed for long time that they would nominate
him for sheriff, and it was only his inability to
qualify on account of age that enabled him to
silence their entreaties. He is regarded by
them as patron, and scarcely colored man
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