The Escape of John Bennett

The Escape of John Bennett By Unknown © 2007 by http://www.HorrorMasters.com

I’ve talked to lots of them ex-slaves. John Bennett, whose boy Ed lives in Calvin now, used to tell me how he escaped; he was half white, tall and freckled, and wore his hair long. A hostler boy, a roustabout, crossed and mixed too, had a little education. He forged his own press, printed free papers, and wrote the magistrate’s name on them. Then he stole a riding horse and rode to Kelbyware, sold it there, ’cause he needed money, and set out walking to Ohio. He’d sleep in the daytime, and travel at night, following the North Star. One night he got a chicken, cooked and ate it, started on, and saw he wasn’t very far from Ohio. So he stopped in a cornfield by a spring, started to eat an ear, when he heard a dog a-barking. He knew he was on his trail. He ran and clumb a tree about one-fourth a mile off, to get away from the bloodhound. A man came along with the dog and said, “Come on down.” “Don’t shoot me.” “I won’t, but if you run you’ll bite lead.” John had an old double-barreled pistol himself. They went back to the spring together. The man set the gun down by the tree to get a gourd for a drink, and John walked around and grabbed it, and shot him with his own gun, “Pow.” Then he shot the dog. Next day he saw a colored man walking along the banks of the Ohio. He spoke to Bennett and said, “I’m a free man; I’m helping you fellows across.” He rowed him across to a little house, which was a station on the underground railway. About ten of the farmers came around and gave Bennett little presents. The colored man rowed down a ways, then cut back to the Kentucky side. When Bennett said he had shot that slavehunter, they all cheered—so John Bennett said. They sent him up to the next station, about twenty miles north. He made his way to Philadelfy, worked there while, saved $150, came to Michigan, and settled on farm across the creek, Mr. Steele. He told me that settin’ right there. He said, “I don’t care who knows I killed a man.”