| The Cincinnati Fugitive Slaves Case | |
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A good deal of excitement was caused at Cincinnati by the examination of the runaway negroes arrested there. They were nine of them. The fugitives are claimed by William Walton, J. Gaines, J. P. Scott, and J. Chrisler, of Grant and Boone counties, Ky. We copy the following from the Cincinnati Commercial: Messrs. Pugh and Ketchum, of this city, and M. Dudley, of Covington, appeared for the claimants, and Joliffe and Gitchell for the prisoners. From the hour of opening, there was a large crowd of white and colored people, but there were no indications of the slightest attempt at violence. The forenoon was consumed by the attorneys for the claimants in amending the papers in the case, the original warrant having been issued by the commissioner on the affidavit of a single claimant that he was the owner of all nine, whereas they belonged to different individuals as above named. It appears from the statements of the fugitives and of their
claimants, that the escape was made on Sunday night last; the Ohio was
crossed at Lawrenceburg, where they fell in with a colored man named
John Gyser, alias Jones, who promised to conduct them on the way to
Canada; he brought them to the stable of Weedon Humes, some two miles
from the Brighton House, in this city, where he left them, on Wednesday
morning promising to come back at night with money and provisions.
Instead of doing this, however, he went over to Covington, found that a
reward of $1,000 had been offered for the runaways, and he immediately
gave information, so that they were surrounded and taken the same
evening. |
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