Buffalo (NY) Morning Express, "Fugitive Slaves," April 22, 1853

   FUGITIVE SLAVES.––The escape of negro slaves from these slave States adjacent to the free ones, seems regularly to augment, from year to year.––The following which has just met our eye, is the last case which has come to our knowledge:

   "NEGRO STAMPEDE.––25 negroes ran away from their masters in Boone county, Ky., on the night of the 2d inst. Among those who have lost their servants are two ministers of the gospel. The Aurora Banner says that some weeks before their departure, one of the slaves procured and read to his comrades "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and it is supposed that the beauties of Canadian freedom, as pictured by Mrs. Stowe, were the inducements to run away.

    This story of the reading, &c., in this, as in all other cases, must go for what it is worth, when it is considered that the teaching of a slave to read is a crime, generally, in the slave States. The probability is there was no reading in the case since it is entirely certain that such a stimulant was not required to create the desire for freedom. 

   The truth is, these escapes are vexatious, in the last degree, to the owners, and irritate feelings have no doubt sought out this excuse for the flight of the slaves. But in fact, either with, or without Uncle Tom, this form of escaping from slavery would know no abatement so long as the opportunity of indulging in it remains. That the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, with the rest of what was called "the Compromise," has somewhat stimulated this species of escape, we may not doubt; and that it has increased the facilities for the escape of the fugitive, to a greater extent than they existed before, it seems reasonable enough to infer, from the deep-rooted displeasures which those measure established throughout so large a portion of the free States. 

   But, be that as it may, we see no end to the losses that slaveholders will continue to suffer, so long as they inhabit the frontier regions of slavery. That frontier at no distant day, and by the action of the States now composing it, maybe removed farther south perhaps; but still, wherever it is, there will the losses from escapees certainly fall; at least so long as abhorrence of slavery remains in the breast of the victim, and compassion for his lot is to be found among those whom he asks to aid his flight.