New York (NY) Daily Herald, "Stampede Among the Negroes," August 16, 1848

   STAMPEDE AMONG THE NEGROES.––The city yesterday morning was filled with rumors and excitement on account of a concocted and well-laid scheme for a wholesale absconding of the negroes in this vicinity. Rumor states that the number ascertained to have left this neighborhood on Saturday night is between fifty and eighty. We have no certain information as to the precise number missing, but we know of at least thirty who are certainly gone. They left by the way of the Russell road, in a northern direction. It is supposed that they have been persuaded off by and are under the care of the abolitionists. One owner states that they were seen going down the Versailles road, firing pistols, whooping and singing songs and ditties. No doubt, but that white men have had a hand in this matter. $5000 reward has been offered by the owners of the runaways for their apprehension. It has been ascertained that thirty-six slaves have been missing. We learn that several have ran away from Woodford and Franklin. We also learn by a telegraphic despatch that a good many escaped from the counties of Bourbon and Mason, on Saturday night. We never heard of such wholesale running off of negroes before. It is all the work of the Abolitionists.––Lexington Atlas. 

   We understand, from the Commercial, that the slaves above alluded to, concentrated at a point (agreeably, as it is supposed, to a preconcerted plan), opposite to Ripley in this State, preparatory to a start. They were found at that place by some seventeen armed men, and a portion of the slaves being armed, a skirmish was the consequence, in which two of the white men and one of the slaves were seriously wounded. The latter succeeded in driving off their pursuers, and are now thought to be on the high road to Canada.––Cincinnati Atlas, Aug. 11.