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determined not to sell the woman on any terms.
I will take her back to Maryland, and make an example of her.’
‘I hope thou wilt find thyself disappointed,’ rejoined Friend Hopper.
The slaveholder merely answered with a malicious smile, as if perfectly sure of her triumph.
Finding himself disappointed in his attempts to purchase the woman, Friend Hopper resolved to carry the case to a higher court, and accumulate as many legal obstructions as possible.
For that purpose, he obtained a writ De homine replegiando, and when the suitable occasion arrived, he accompanied Mary Holliday to the mayor's office, with a deputy sheriff to serve the writ.
When the trial came on, he again urged the insufficiency of proof brought by the claimant.
The mayor replied, in a tone somewhat peremptory, ‘I have already decided that matter.
I shall deliver the slave to her mistress.’
Friend Hopper gave the sheriff a signal to serve the writ.
He was a novice in the business, but in obedience to the instructions given him, he laid his hand on Mary's shoulder, and said, ‘By virtue of this writ, I replevin this woman, and deliver her to Mr. Hopper.’
Her protector immediately said to her, ‘Thou canst now go home with me.’
But her mistress
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
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