[p. 90] eighteen. As was customary in those primitive days, they formed part of Captain Coffin's family, not going to housekeeping until a year later. After various ups and downs in business, experimental trips on horseback to Ohio and New York, James Mott settled in Philadelphia. Meantime two children had come, a girl and a boy. Their journey back to Philadelphia is in such contrast to the luxury of the present modes of travelling that I give the account from a letter:—
Our journey here was quite as comfortable as we could expect. We left the Hook about eight o'clock, found the roads pretty good till we got to Brunswick, where we dined; from there to Trenton was exceedingly rough, large stones having been laid where the poles used to be, and only two passengers besides ourselves, so that we were obliged to keep little Thomas well wedged in, that he need not be thrown against the side of the stage; the pillow added much to his comfort and our convenience, as it enabled my James to hold him part of the time; he was very quiet, slept most of the day, and was not out of the stage, except when we stopped to dine, until we arrived at Trenton at half past 7. He was then put to bed and slept quietly all night. The steamboat was quite a relief, and we reached Philadelphia at 12 o'clock the next day.
Of their little daughter, Anna, then two and a half years old, they write, ‘We have much neglected teaching our Anna until within a few weeks. She learns quickly, and begins to spell.’
It was in 1815 that they became members (or James Mott did, I fear women were not allowed) of the Abolition Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin, who was its first president, ‘for promoting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the conditions of the African race.’
Business did not prosper, so that Lucretia found it best to return to her old occupation as teacher and opened a small school with four scholars at $7 a quarter. This school enlarged to a satisfactory success, and business also changed for the better, but sorrow almost overwhelmed them in the death of the ‘darling little Thomas,’ a crushing blow to his mother, whose health suffered
