I went to the Ohio River, which was but a short distance from Bedford.

My excuse for wanting to go there was to get work.

High wages were offered for hands to work in a slaughter-house.

But in place of my going to work there, according to promise, when I arrived at the river I managed to find a conveyance to cross over into a free state.

I was landed in the village of Madison, Indiana, where steamboats were landing every day and night, passing up and down the river, which afforded me a good opportunity of getting a boat passage to Cincinnati.