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204 EZEKIEL COSTON.

borhood of Wilmington; where, and in that town, he has resided until the present time.

5. After relating the foregoing narrative, he was inquired of respecting the account entitled "The Good Master and his Faithful Slave"— a circumstance which took place about the time of his being liberated, and in the same family— to which he bore the following testimony, shedding many tears while the reader was pursing the theme, saying, "It is just so; poor Jem and I lived together with master, and worked together in harmony. How well I remember when Jem told me that Master Mifflin had done the same by him as he had done for me.

6. "It is all true— mistress brought a number of slaves with her into the family, after master married her— one of them was my wife— all the rest of us, making, I suppose, about thirty, were given by old master to Master Warner, who is now an angel in heaven. O! how it comforts me to believe, that after suffering a few more pains, I shall live with him for ever in communion sweet. We were brought up children together, slept together, eat at the same table, and never quarreled."

7. The dear old man seems indeed like one waiting with Christian resignation for an entrance into the heavenly kingdom. I have no doubt of the corrections of his testimony. He appears to have as perfect recollection of the days of his childhood, as though they had but just passed,

AN ANECDOTE. 205

AN ANECDOTE
Communicated to D. B. Smith and Stacy B. Collins, on the way from Charleston to Savannah, by a fellow-passenger.

A SLAVE belonging to his grandmother, was carried off when a boy by the British, in the time of the revolutionary war, to Nova Scotia, where he lived several years; but he did not forget his old home and friends, and he returned to his mistress, giving himself up as a slave. But she, not having employment for him, talking of selling him. He told her if she did, he was determined to destroy himself, for that it was nothing but his attachment to the family that brought him back. He was then suffered to work out, paying a certain part of his wages to his owner.

2. The family soon after became embarrassed; and one of the grandsons was sent to the West Indies to a relation. Just as he was embarking, the faithful black put into his hand a purse, containing all his little earnings, and insisted upon his young master's taking it, saying he had no use for the money himself, and his master might want it in a strange country, away from his friends. The black, still living in Charleston, was suffered to work for himself. He has had repeated offers of his liberty, but he prefers living in the family that brought him up.

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