Pictured is a notice concerning the outrage to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
After traveling a few miles down the road, Pony Joe heard the alarm bell sound. An alarm bell was sounded anytime there was the discovery of an escaped slave. The bell could be heard from miles around. An alarm would then be sounded by other various plantations bringing men and bounty hunters from near and far. The bounty hunters with their blood thirsty hounds were a different breed of men. They all reminded Pony Joe of Mr. Riggens, the overseer at the Buckley plantation. Pony Joe had seen what these savage hounds could do to a person. It was inhumane and barbaric. Pony Joe prayed! A few more miles down the road he met up with some men who had been sent from the Buckley Plantation to catch and search his wagon. Pony Joe pulled off to the side of the road and gladly let them search whatever they wanted. When the rag doll was found, he was questioned. Pony Joe told them he had bought it for his niece. The man in charge of the search was none other than the assistant overseer, Mr. Seymour. He gave Pony Joe a nod and a letter of safe passage so he would not have to be searched again. Pony Joe thanked him and was on his way.
It was dark when Pony Joe pulled up to the back of old Tom’s cabin. He whispered the password and slipped in through the camouflaged door. Pony Joe gave old Tom a long embrace. Pony Joe had known Tom for many years. Pony Joe had stopped on his way to the Buckley Plantation to let old Tom know of the possibility of some passengers who might be coming his way. Pony Joe ate his supper, while he relayed the story concerning the search of his wagon earlier in the day and the letter he obtained from Mr. Seymour for his safe passage. What a miracle! Pony Joe laughed! He had never received one of these before. Big John smiled. This was another first. Old Tom fed and watered Pony Joe’s team and hid them in the barn for the night.
Pony Joe was up before dawn and had wiped down the floor boards of his wagon with skunk oil just as a precaution. Big John, Eva and Cassie were stowed in the false compartment below the wagon bed. After covering them with blankets, giving them a couple canteens of water and food, he covered the floor of his wagon with his gear and hay. Before you could blink your eyes, Pony Joe had sprung up on to the wagon seat, nodded his head to old Tom and off they went into the early morning darkness.
Pony Joe was sticking to the back roads. Although he had a letter of safe passage in his pocket, he wasn’t going to take any chances. Today, they would travel all day, stop after a few hours of darkness, rest for a few hours and then head out again. Pony Joe wanted to travel as much under the cover of darkness as he could.
Soon, however, Pony Joe could hear the sound of hounds. They were so close it made the hair on his neck stand up. Pony Joe still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He stopped and quickly jumped off the wagon. He reached in the back and pulled out a cage and sprinted across the road toward the woods and fields on his left. Opening the door to the cage, Pony Joe let out the fox old Tom had given him for such an occasion. Pony Joe grabbed the cage, was back on the wagon seat and off down the road
again. Now, the sound of the hounds could only be heard faintly off in the far distance. They continued to travel all that night and the next day. Late the next night they pulled into Rev. Charlie’s place. Charlie lived on top of a what was known around the area as Look-Out Hill. Pony Joe had known Rev. Charlie since he was a boy. Everyone called Charlie, Rev. Charlie, not because he pastored a church or anything but because he was a God-fearing man. Upon arrival, Pony Joe’s precious cargo was hidden in the attic, fed and tucked in for the night.
