Submitted by Nancy Piper

 December 1, 1824
A violent outrage was committed at Albion, Illinois, by some slave dealers seeking to get possession of a Negro woman, called Sally, whose right to freedom was disputed, and who had been placed under the protection of the Court.  She was under the roof of a respectable family of colored people, of the name of Burres.  The following account of the affair has been furnished in a letter to Mr. Richard Flower, of Illinois, now in Philadelphia. – Nat. Gaz.

Albion, Illinois, Oct 25, 1824.

“It was Friday evening our musical meeting was held at your son’s.  About 9 o’clock in the evening our dogs made a great noise, and all the company at my brother’s thought they heard wolves at a distance.  About an hour after black Sally burst into the room with her child in her child in her arms, covered with blood, and overcome with its loss.  Gilbert Burres a few minutes after reached the perch with another child, and there fainted from loss of blood, and heard struggles in fierce combat; he was followed by his wife with his third child.  As soon as they recovered enough, they stated, that about an hour before Burres’s house was violently attacked by five armed men, and after much banging they split the door into two pieces, and with violent blows fell on Burres, who, aided by his wife and Sally, defended themselves for a long time, until Mrs. B. wrested the rifle from one of the assailants, with which B., felled him to the ground; they called to them for a truce, and they said, “if you will give up Sally we will go away quietly,” but he answered, never, while I have a drop of blood to defend her.  The wretches dismayed at so bold a resistance, begged their hats, which had been captured in the fray, and left the house silently, one by one.  The musical party, ladies excepted, with a magistrate, started in quest of the bold marauders, who were well known, and took the whole.  These have been indicted before a jury and true bills found against them.”
Republican Compiler Newspaper (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)  December 1, 1824
Submitted by Nancy Piper