Born into slavery near Easton, Maryland, Moses Viney heard as a child that Canada was a place where all were free. At age 23, after learning he might be sold to a new owner in the Deep South, he escaped with two friends on Easter morning in April 1840, determined to reach Canada or die trying. At the Choptank River, they tried to cross a bridge near Denton, but plantation hounds pursuing them trapped them on the west bank. Moses had prepared for this possibility by feeding the dogs and treating them kindly for months before his escape, and when they rushed at him, he greeted them and ordered them home. Recognizing him, the hounds turned back, allowing the three men to find a canoe, use fence rails as oars, cross the river safely, and continue to Philadelphia. There Moses received help from Rev. Alexander Wayman, an Underground Railroad agent and former Caroline County resident, and he eventually reached upstate New York, where he lived the rest of his life as a free man.