Viewing page 27 of 208

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

46. SOLOMON BAYLEY. 

comfort their declining years. If you have children, you may instruct them in piety and virtue, and in such business as will procure them a comfortable subsistence, and prepare them for usefulness in the world. 

SOLOMON BAYLEY. 
The following sketch is taken from the very interesting narrative of Solomon Bayley. The fore part was written from an apprehension of duty, the latter part, with those respecting his mother and his two daughters, at the request of Robert Hurnard, who became acquainted with the author in 1820, while he resided at Wilmington, Delaware; and after his return to England, he had it printed. The profit arising from the publication, was designed to be transmitted to America, for the benefit of this aged couple, who then lived at Camden. 
2. In the narrative of his own life, he says, "The Lord tried to teach me his fear when I was a little boy; but I delighted in vanity and foolishness, and went astray; but he found out a way to overcome me, and to cause me to desire his favor and his great help; and although I thought no one 
SOLOMON BAYLEY. 47
could be more unworthy of his favor, yet he did look on me, and pity me in my great distress.
3. "I was born a slave in the state of Delaware, and was one of those that were carried out of Delaware into the state of Virginia; and the laws of Delaware did say, that slaves carried out of that state should be free, and I asserted my right to freedom, for which I was put on board of a vessel and sent to Richmond, where I was put in jail, and in irons, and thence sent in a wagon back into the country."
4. "On the third day after we left Richmond, in the bitterness of my heart, I was induced to say, 'I am past all hope;' but it pleased the Father of mercy to look upon me, and he sent a strengthening thought into my heart -- that he that made the heavens and the earth, was able to deliver me. I looked up to the sky, and then on the trees and ground, and I believed, in a moment, that if he could make all these he was able to deliver me.
5. "Then did that Scripture come into my mind, 'They that trust in the Lord shall never be confounded.' I believed it, and got out of the wagon unperceived, and went into the bushes. There were three wagons in company; when they missed me, they looked round some time for me, but not finding me, they went on; and that night I travelled through thunder, lightning, and rain a considerable distance." 
6. His trials and difficulties in getting along

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-19 13:50:09