Escape from Slavery

This is included in a two-volume collection of similar stories.

The article itself annoys me just a bit, but I guess not everyone has studied this matter
to even the limited extent I have.

As a slave, William would have been leased to the cabinetmaker he worked under,
who may have given extra money directly to William.
William may have made money on his own working "under the table"
Slave leases normally ran from early January through late December,
with the leased slaves returning to their owner for those few weeks.
Financially, William's owner would make more money over a period of years
through the lease arrangement.
If, however, he needed a large amount of money immediately,
he could get it by selling William to a trader,
who would take him to alabama or mississippi.
If he did this during the term of a lease,
the person leasing William would have to be compensated;
terms of this were normally spelled out in the lease.
The principle advantage of leasing, rather than buying, a slave
was being spared the expense of caring for old slaves.
Even though the majority of slaves were worked to death
before they could become a financial burden to their owners,
the few who survived beyond their productive years
were part of the expense of operating a plantation.
A lessee was also spared the troubles of children
and obstinate slaves.

A particular danger Ellen and William faced while still in Georgia
was the fact that a slave who could not verify who owned him
could be taken into custody, and his owner billed for his care.
If the owner was not located and identified after a length of time,
or refused to pay for the slave's time in the pen,
the slave would be auctioned.
If the "slave" were, in fact, a foreign national,
he would still be auctioned if no one came forward to identify him,
or if any who did so refused to pay for his time in the pen.
It was an outright scam/extortion racket,
and, as far as I can determine, unique to Georgia.

IIRC, Ellen explained, when necessary, that "he" had rheumatism,
and was travelling North to see a doctor who had treated the condition successfully in others.
Several people remarked on the devotion of "his" manservant
--it was not unusual for a white man to have a slave valet--
and a few remarked unkindly that the slave was "spoiled"

Although it was not documented,
it is a certainty that she was at least the third generation
of a "condition of the mother" slave--
that is, her mother, and her maternal grandmother,
were also the children of their owners.

This phenomenon made it possible for white parents
to sell their own children into slavery,
or for local governments to sell white orphans into slavery.
The extent to which this happened cannot be documented,
but such evidence as exists suggests that it was a far more common occurence
than anyone is willing to admit.

This particular case illustrates something else.
White abolitionists attempting to help slaves escape
actually made it more difficult for them to do so.