Stopping a slave sale would have been a nearly impossible challenge in Richmond, Virginia in 1845. Slave sales were legal then. Slavery was respectable. Even churches justified it. Business depended on slavery. Editors supported slavery in their papers, publishing ads for the sale of slaves or for the capture of runaways. Newspapers also published pro-slavery editorials.

If you were a white person, any mention of doubt about the rightness of slavery was dangerous. Business relationships, friendships, and family connections could end over this question.

If you were a black person, your life was at stake. As a slave, you had no freedom, no self-determination, and no protection. If you gained freedom, you could always be recaptured.

By 1845, slavery had existed in the United States for more than 200 years. Generations of blacks had been born into slavery. Generations of whites grew up knowing only a world with slavery.

However, in the twenty years to come (1845-1865), slavery would end. It would take a war to do it. It would take the combined efforts of thousands to oppose church, government, social practice, and economic greed in order to end slavery.