Feeling ran high and hundreds of people gathered together and declared that mother should not be returned to slavery; but fearing that Mr.Cox would wreak his vengeance upon me, my mother finally gave herself up to her captors, and returned to St.Louis.And so the mothers of Israel have been ever slain through their deepest affections! After my mother's return, she decided to sue for her freedom, and for that purpose employed a good lawyer.

She had ample testimony to prove that she was kidnapped, and it was so fully verified that the jury decided that she was a free woman, and papers were made out accordingly.
In the meanwhile, Miss Martha Berry had married Mr.Mitchell and taken me to live with her.

I had never been taught to work, as playing with the babies had been my sole occupation; therefore, when Mrs.Mitchell commanded me to do the weekly washing and ironing, I had no more idea how it was to be done than Mrs.Mitchell herself.

But I made the effort to do what she required, and my failure would have been amusing had it not been so appalling.

In those days filtering was unknown and the many ways of clearing water were to me an unsolved riddle.