It was my great desire, being out of slavery myself, to do what I could for the emancipation of my brethren yet in chains, and while on Lake Erie, I found many opportunities of "helping their cause along." It is well known, that a great number of fugitives make their escape to Canada, by way of Cleaveland; and while on the lake, I always made arrangement to carry them on the boat to Buffalo or Detroit, and thus effect their escape to the "promised land." The friends of the slave, knowing that I would transport them without charge, never failed to have a delegation when the boat arrived at Cleaveland.

I have sometimes had four or five on board, at one time.
In the year 1842, I conveyed, from the first of May to the first of December, sixty-nine fugitives over Lake Erie to Canada.

In 1843, I visited Maiden, in Upper Canada, and counted seventeen, in that small village, who owed their escape to my humble efforts.
Soon after coming North, I subscribed for the Liberator, edited by that champion of freedom, William Lloyd Garrison.

I labored a season to promote the temperance cause among the colored people, but for the last three years, have been pleading for the victims of American slavery.
William Wells Brown.
Boston, Mass., June, 1847..