Excerpt from The Life and Travels of John W. Bear, "the Buckeye Blacksmith"

We will now return to the South side of the Poto mac river. I was now in Virginia, I knew that but it was not a free country and to a free country I was de termined to make my way. Mr. Clay had said that I ought to go west, this seemed to impress itself on my mind, so I concluded to take the first road runing west and keep as much out of public roads as I could, and to go to no white peoples house if I could help it. I knew the negroes were like myself, they could not read and I did not fear any detection frcm them. The Hagans had always told me that if I ran away from them and they caught me that they could sell me the same as if I were a negro. So I had great fear of de tection ou that account in addition to the fears of being caught as I feared for killing Hagan.

The first idea that struck me when I started, was what name I should go by and what I should tell the people when questioned. I finally concluded to tell the colored people that I had ran away from a hard master and was trying to get to a free country, and promise them when I got there, and became a man, I would help them to get free too, and in this I have been very suc cessful. I also concluded to never tell white people anything, and never give them the same name nor the same place of destination. I had been so badly treated by the Hagans that I had lost all confidence in white people. The only friend I had while at Hagans was an old black woman. She often hid away a. Cake or piece of pie for me, so I had all confidence in the colored people.

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