New Bedford (MA) Mercury, "Slave Stampede," September 21, 1849

   SLAVE STAMPEDE.––A Baltimore correspondent of the N.Y. Tribune says: -

           “I mentioned a few days since, the fact of so large a number of slaves absconding from their mosters [masters]. There appears to be regular stampede among the negroes, not only of Maryland, but Virginia also, for they are running off in droves. Scarce a country paper from this State, or northern or western Virginia, but is full of rewards from the apprehension of runaways or accounts of their recapture – in some instances not without serious rencontres [rencounters] with the pursuers, in which serious wounds have been given and received, and in one or two instances lately, lives lost. The effect of this stampede has been to cause money owners to dispose of their slaves to Southern dealers. The slave population from these two causes will greatly diminish, and I am much mistaken if the next census does not show a considerable decrease.”