On May 5^th, 1845 William King and “his fifteen slaves” boarded a steamboat bound for Cincinnati. “A crowd of spectators had gathered to see me start with my negroes (sic) to Canada. Some of the planters present had slaves there who had gone without their knowledge or consent… We had now a journey of 1500 miles through a slave country 1000 miles on the Mississippi River with slavery on both sides of the river and 500 miles on the Ohio with slavery on the south side of the river. “ (70)

During a lay-over in Cincinnati some “abolitionists called on them (the slaves) and asked where they were going. Stephen, one of my old faithful slaves said he did not know, he was going with his Master wherever he was going. The man told Stephen I was going to take them to a slave state and sell them.  Stephen replied, ‘my Master has brought me 1500 miles from New Orleans and if he had been going to sell us, he would have sold us there.’” (70)