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The Rescue of Jerry

Not all the slaveholders in the South were kind masters, nor were all the slaves treated properly; sometimes they ran away to places in the North.

Then the law allowed them to be captured, and returned to their masters.

Jerry McHenry was an athletic mulatto, who had lived for a number of years in Syracuse, New York, working quietly and expertly as a cooper.

No one inquired where he came from, or how he had reached the town, or who he was. The people were content to let Jerry alone, and not ask too many questions. If he was an escaped slave, it was the duty of the officers of the law to return him to his master. And no one wanted to do that.