Lynchburg Virginian

From the Norfolk Herald

SUSPICION OF KIDNAPPING.

A man arrived in town yesterday morning in the Sch. Caroline, Marion, from Baltimore having with him a negro servant boy about 19 or 20 years of age, and put up at a respectable public house. His first care, it appears was to find a purchaser for his servant, and that being effected, stipulation was proposed by the seller, that the purchaser should give the negro to understand, that it was hired not sold to him; this caused a suspicion that all was not fair and above board in the transaction and the close of the bargain was suspended.

In the mean time the stranger was identified as a person of suspicious character, by one who had known somewhat of him in Richmond and Petersburg, an intimation of which being given to Mr. Nathaniel Carrington, Jailor of the Borough, and Mr. E. Guy, a peace officer, they quickly procured him and his servant an interview with the Mayor, which ended in marching the pair of them to jail, --the master for a contempt, and the servant for further examination. The former who gave in his name James McPherson, though it appears he has sundry aliases to it. (among them Jones, Goodwin and Ward) stated that the negro was bequeathed to him by a relation of the name of Somerville ; which differed from the boy's account, who said he bought him from a person of that name ;the boy, however, afterwards gave the following account of himself, viz:-- that his name was Henry McPherson--that of his mother, Celia Somerville--both of Washington, (D C.) was for some time waiter in a hotel in Washington, but being out of employ, this man hired him at 8 per month to go on with him to the South. They proceeded to Baltimore and thence to this place. he (his employer) taking his name,(McPherson,)and exacting from him a promise that he would pass as his slave. It was this latter circumstance, Henry says, which made him so long persist in his first examination before the Mayor, that he belonged to his employer. The white man, however, confessed to Carrington, that the negro was free, who thereupon finding concealment, no longer necessary, related the facts we have just stated.--It is pretty certain that it was the white man's intention to sell the negro;and not unlikely that the negro had consented to be sold, knowing that the purchaser would not be able to keep or dispose of him as a slave.

The man being unable to give security for his future appearance remains in jail for the present, and the boy is also held in custody until the truth of his story can be known.