As for Jo, though defying slave-hunters and their hirelings as such, having now arrayed himself by an act of violence against the government, he took the advice of judicious friends, and soon removed to Canada, where for years he was an esteemed citizen, and a friend and adviser of those who came to his locality as fugitives.
As an index of Jo’s native quickness of perception, the following excerpts, taken from Pettit’s “Sketches of the Underground Railroad,” published some years ago by W. McKinstry & Son, are added, the only change being that the places where the events are thought to have taken place are given.
Jo was a serious, devoted Christian, yet his wit and mirthfulness were often exhibited in keen, sarcastic repartee. At Delanti the question was asked, ‘Did you work hard when you were a slave?’
‘No! I didn’t work hard when I could help it.’
‘Well, you were better off than most people are here, and you were a fool to run away.’
‘Well, now, the place I lef’ is there yet, I s’pose. Guess nobody’s never got into it, and if my frien’ here wants it, he can have it fo’ the askin’, though p’raps he better get his _member of Congress to recommend him_.’
At Westfield, a fellow asked, ‘Is the speaker in favor of amalgamation?’
‘It means whites and blacks marrying together.’
‘O dat’s it! as fo’ such things they ’pends mostly on peples’ tas’. Fo’ my part, I have a colored woman fo’ a wife,—that’s my choice,—an’ if my frien’ here wants a black wife, an’ if she is pleased with him, I’m suah I shan’t get mad about it.’
Soon after he commenced collecting funds to redeem his family from bondage, he was invited to go to a school-house in Villenova. When near the place he saw two boys chopping, and heard one of them say: ‘There’s the nigger.’
Jo stopped and said: ‘I ain’t a nigger! I allus pays my debts; my massa was a _nigger_. See here! when you chop, you be a chopper, ain’t dat so?’
‘Well, when a man _nigs_, I call him a _nigger_. Now ol’ massa nigged me out of all I earned in my life. Of course he is a nigger.’ Then Jo sang the chorus to one of Geo. W. Clark’s Liberty songs:
‘They worked me all de day, Widout one cent of pay; So I took my flight In de middle ob de night, When de moon am gone away.’