STAMPEDE AMONG THE NEGROES.––There was considerable excitement recently among the negroes, owing to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill. A large number of them have left the city for Canada, and some of the first hotels were left very bare of servants by this sudden movement. Many, says a Pittsburg paper, have gone who were never suspected of being fugitives until the passage of the bill, and many others are preparing to join in the general stampede. The Pittsburg Gazette has the following:
A legal friend of ours was telling us yesterday that some of them who came to consult him on the subject, on Saturday. They had heard that the provisions of the law were very stringent, and wished to be informed of the true state of the case. He explained the law, and that night seventeen left the city for parts unknown. We understand that they were all armed with rifles, revolvers and bowie knives, for the use of which there will be, luckily, no occasion, inasmuch as their former masters will hardly follow them further north than Pittsburg.
Small parties have been leaving town for some time past, and we are informed that several went away yesterday. The passage of this law will have the effect of banishing the great majority of the escaped slaves to British possessions.
This stampede will afford those very sensible Southern gentlemen who have recently been exhibiting their dissatisfaction with the slave bill on account of its alleged want of stringency, an opportunity to keep up their usual run of consistency by taking the opposite tack and accusing it of being too severe in its operations. One complaint will suit them as well as another, since they are absolutely determined to be dissatisfied.
"Stampede Among the Negroes," Vicksburg (MS) Whig, October 9, 1850. p. 2