I therefore declined making an effort just at that time to escape with my little family.

Malinda managed to get me into the house of a friend that night, in the village, where I kept concealed several days seeking an opportunity to escape with Malinda and Frances to Canada.
But for some time Malinda was watched so very closely by white and by colored persons, both day and night, that it was not possible for us to escape together.

They well knew that my little family was the only object of attraction that ever had or ever would induce me to come back and risk my liberty over the threshold of slavery--therefore this point was well guarded by the watch dogs of slavery, and I was compelled again to forsake my wife for a season, or surrender, which was suicidal to the cause of freedom, in my judgment.
The next day after my arrival in Bedford, Daniel Lane came to the very house wherein I was concealed and talked in my hearing to the family about my escape from him out of the stable in Louisville.

He was near enough for me to have laid my hands on his head while in that house--and the intimidation which this produced on me was more than I could bear.

I was also aware of the great temptation of the reward offered to white or colored persons for my apprehension; I was exposed to other calamities which rendered it altogether unsafe for me to stay longer under that roof.
One morning about 2 o'clock, I took leave of my little family and started for Canada.