1835 Cincinnati Slaves Purchasing Freedom

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From the Friend Newspaper dated June 20th 1835.

Liberated Slaves.— A writer in the Cincinnati Journal says: “From a recent investigation, there are, as nearly as can be ascertained, 1,129 emancipated slaves in this city; 476 of this number have purchased themselves at the total expense of $215,518.52, averaging for each $452 77. If any one wishes to know what slavery is, let him go and sit by the side of these persons, and listen to their tale of suffering and wo. If he doubts whether slaves, if liberated, can take care of themselves, let him here learn what perseverance and self-denial is, as he looks at the desperate struggles of these people to buy their own bodies and those of their children. And let it be remembered, that these efforts are made while crippled and loaded with the disabilities of slavery and negro prejudice. Many of them are now trying to buy their friends, whom they have left behind. From the same investigation, it is ascertained that the above number of individuals have 163 parents, 68 husbands and wives, 346 children, and 1,569 brothers and sisters, who are still trembling beneath the frowns of a task-master; and they appear to feel in regard to them just as other people feel.”