My father addressed the slaves pleasantly and then asked, 'Well, boys, why do they chain you ?' One of the men whose countenance betrayed unusual intelligence and whose expression denoted the deepest sadness replied: 'They have taken us from our wives and children and they chain us lest we should make our escape and go back to them."' When Coffin was fifteen, he rendered assistance to a man in bondage.

Having an opportunity to talk with the members of a gang in the hands of a trader bound for the Southern market, he learned that one of the company, named Stephen, was a freeman who had been kidnapped and sold.

Letters were written to Northern friends of Stephen who confirmed his assertion.

Money was raised in the Quaker meeting and men were sent to recover the negro.

Stephen was found in Georgia and after six months was liberated.
During the year 1821 other incidents occurred in the Quaker community at New Garden, near Greensboro, North Carolina, which illustrate different phases of the subject.