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CHAPTER III
THE METHODS OF THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD
Pg. 47
By the
enactment of the first Fugitive Slave Law, Feb. 12,
1793, the aiding of fugitive slaves became of penal
offence. This measure laid a fine of five hundred
dollars upon any one harboring escaped slaves, or
preventing their arrest. The provisions of the law
were of a character to stimulate resistance to its
enforcement. The master or his agent was
authorized to arrest the runaway, wherever found; to
bring him before a judge of the circuit or the district
court of the United States, or before a local magistrate
where the capture was made; and to receive, on the
display of satisfactory proof, a certificate operating
as a full warrant for taking the prisoner back to the
state from which he had fled. This summary method
of disposing of cases involving the high question of
human liberty was regarded by many persons as unjust;
they freely denounced it, and, despite the penalty
attached, many violated the law. Secrecy was the
only safeguard of these persons,
as it was of those they were attempting to succor; hence
arose the numerous artifices employed.
The uniform success of the attempts to evade this first
Fugitive Slave Law, and doubtless, also, the general
indisposition of Northern people to take part in the
return of refugees to their Southern owners, led, as
early as in 1823, to negotiations between Kentucky and
the three adjoining states across the Ohio. It is
unnecessary to trace the history of these negotiations,
or to point out the statutes in which the legislative
results are recorded. It is notable that sixteen
years elapsed before the legislature of Ohio passed a
law to secure the recovery of slave property, and that
the new enactment remained on the statute books only
four years. The penalties imposed by this law for
advising or for enticing a slave
[Pg. 48]
to leave his master, or for harboring a fugitive, were a
fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, and, at the
discretion of the court, imprisonment not to exceed
sixty days. In addition, the offender was to be
liable in an action at the suit of the party
injured.1 It can scarcely be supposed
that a state Fugitive Slave Law like this would
otherwise affect persons that were already engaged in
aiding runaways than to make them more certain than ever
that their cause was just.
The loss of slave property sustained by Southern
planters was not diminished, and the outcry of the South
for a more rigorous national law on the subject was by
no means hushed. In 1850 Congress met the case by
substituting for the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 the
measure called the second Fugitive Slave Law. The
penalties provided by this law were, of course, more
severe than those of the act of 1793. Any person
hindering the claimant from arresting the fugitive, or
attempting the rescue or concealment of the fugitive,
became "subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months," and
was liable for " civil damages to the party injured by
such illegal conduct in the sum of one thousand dollars
for each fugitive so lost." These provisions of
the new law only added fresh fuel to the fire. The
determination to prevent the recovery of escaped slaves
by their owners spread rapidly among the inhabitants of
the free states. Many of these persons, who had
hitherto refrained from acting for or against the
fugitive, were provoked into helping defeat the action
of a law commanding them "to aid and assist in the
prompt and efficient execution" of a measure that would
have set them at the miserable business of
slave-catching. Clay only expressed a wish
instead of a fact, when he maintained in 1851 that the
law was being executed in Indiana, Ohio and other
states. Another Southern senator was much nearer
the truth when he complained of the small number of
recaptures under the recent act.
The risk of suffering severe penalties by violating the
Fugitive Slave laws was less wearing, probably, on
abolitionists than was the social disdain they brought
upon themselves by acknowledging their principles.
During a generation or more
---------------
1 The date of the act is February 26, 1839.
[Pg. 49] - ABUSE SUFFERED BY
ABOLITIONISTS
they were in a minority in many
communities, and were forced to submit to the taunts and
insults of persons that did not distinguish between
abolition of slavery and fusion of the white and the
black races. "Black abolitionist," "niggerite,"
"amalgamationist" and "nigger thief " were convenient
epithets in the mouths of pro-slavery champions in many
Northern neighborhoods. The statement was not
uncommonly made about those suspected of harboring
slaves, that they did so from motives of thrift and
gain. It was said that some underground helpers
made use of the labor of runaways, especially in
harvest-time, as long as it suited their convenience,
then on the pretext of danger hurried the negroes off
without pay. Unreasoning malice alone could
concoct so absurd an explanation of a philanthropy
involving so much cost and risk.1
Abolitionists were often made uncomfortable in their
church relations by the uncomplimentary attentions they
received, or by the discovery that they were regarded as
unwelcome disturbers of the household of faith.2
Even the Society of Friends is not above the charge of
having lost sight, in some quarters, of the precepts of
Anthony Benezet and John Woolman.
Uxbridge monthly meeting is known to have disowned
Abby Kelly because she gave anti-slavery
lectures.3 The church certificate given
to Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace when she
transferred her membership from Swanzey monthly meeting
to Providence (Rhode Island) monthly meeting was without
the acknowledgment usually contained in such
certificates that the bearer "was of orderly life and
conversation."4 A popular Hicksite
minister of New York City, in commending the fugitive
Thomas Hughes for consenting to return South
with his master, said, "I had a thousand times rather be
a slave, and spend my days with slaveholders, than to
dwell in companionship with abolitionists."5
In the Methodist Church
---------------
1 See an article entitled "An Underground Railway," by
Robert W. Carroll, of Cincinnati, O., in the
Cincinnati Times-Star, Aug. 19, 1890; also Smedley,
Underground Railroad, p. 182; and J. B. Robinson,
Pictures of Slavery and Anti-Slavery, pp. 293,
294.
2 History of Henry County, Indiana, p. 126,
et seq.
3 Elizabeth Buffum Chace,
Anti-Slavery Reminiscences, p. 19.
4 Ibid., p. 18.
5 Lydia Maria Child, Life of Isaac T. Hopper,
pp. 388, 389.
[Pg. 50]
there came to be such stress of
feeling between the abolitionists and the other members,
that in many places the former withdrew and organized
little congregations apart, under the denominational
name, Wesleyan Methodist. The truth is, the mass
of the people of the free states were by no means
abolitionists; they cherished an intense prejudice
against the negro, and permitted it to extend to all
anti-slavery advocates. They were willing to let
slavery alone, and desired that others should let it
alone. In the Western states the character of
public sentiment is evidenced by the fact that generally
the political party considered to be most favorable to
slavery could command a majority, and "black laws" were
framed at the behest of Southern politicians for the
purpose of making residence in the Northern states a
disagreeable thing for the negro.1
Abolitionists were frequently subjected to espionage;
the arrival of a party of colored people at a house
after daybreak would arouse suspicion and cause the
place to be closely watched; a chance meeting with a
neighbor in the highway would perhaps be the means by
which some abolitionists' secrets would become known.
In such cases it did not always follow that the
discovery brought ruin upon the head of the offender,
even when the discoverer was a person of pro-slavery
views. Nevertheless, accidents of the kind
described served to fasten the suspicions of a locality
upon the offender. Gravner and Hannah Marsh,
Quakers, living near Downington, in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, became known to their proslavery neighbors
as agents on the Underground Road. These neighbors
were not disposed to inform against them, although one
woman, intent on finding out how many slaves they aided
in a year, with much watching counted sixty.2
The Rev. John Cross, a Presbyterian
minister living in Elba Township, Knox County, Illinois,
about the year 1840, had neighbors that insisted on his
answering to the law for the help he gave to some
fugitives. Mr. Cross made no secret
of his principles and accordingly became game for his
enemies. One of these was Jacob Kightlinger,
who observed a wagon-load of
---------------
1 See President
Fairchild's pamphlet, The Underground Railroad.
2 Smedley, Underground
Railroad, p. 139
[Pg. 51] - ABOLITIONISTS UNDER
SURVEILLANCE
negroes being taken in the direction
of Mr. Cross's house. Investigation
by Mr. Kightlinger and several of his
friends proved their suspicions to be true, and by their
action Mr. Cross was indicted for
harboring fugitive slaves.1
Parties in pursuit of fugitives were compelled to make
careful and often long-continued search to find traces
of their wayfaring chattels. During such missions
they were, of course, inquisitive and vigilant, and when
circumstances seemed to warrant it, they set men to
watch the premises of the persons most suspicioned, and
to report any mysterious actions occurring within the
district patrolled. The houses of many noted
abolitionists along the Ohio River were frequently under
the surveillance of slave-hunters. It was not a
rare thing that towns and villages in regions adjacent
to the Southern states were terrorized by crowds of
roughs eager to find the hiding places of slaves,
recently missed by masters bent on their recovery. The
following extracts from a letter written by Mr.
William Steel to Mr. David
Putnam, Jr., of Point Harmar, Ohio, will
show the methods practised by slave-hunters when in
eager pursuit of fugitives: -
| |
|
WOODSFIELD, MONROE CO., O.
Sept. 5, 1843. |
DR. DAVID PUTNAM, JR.:
Dear Sir, - I received yours of the 26th ult.
and was very glad to hear from it that Stephen Quixot
had such good luck in getting his family from Virginia,
but we began to be very uneasy about them as we did not
hear from them again until last Saturday, . .
. . we then heard they were on the route leading
through Summerfield, but that the route from there to
Somerton was so closely watched both day and night for
some time past on account of the human cattle that have
lately escaped from Virginia, that they could not
proceed farther on that route. So we made an
arrangement with the Summerfield friends to meet them on
Sunday evening about ten miles west of this and bring
them on to this
route . . . the abolitionists of the west
part of this county have had very difficult work in
getting them all off without being caught, as the whole
of that part of the country has been filled with
Southern blood hounds upon their track, and some of the
aboli-
---------------
1 History of Konx County, Ill., pp.
213, 214. Mr. Kightlinger's account of this
affair is published under his own name.
[Pg. 52]
tionists' houses
have been watched day and night for several days in
succession. This evening a company of eight
Virginia hounds passed through this place north on the
hunt of some of their two legged chattels. . . .
Since writing the above I have understood that something
near twenty Virginians including the eight above
mentioned have just passed through town on their way to
the Somerton neighborhood, but I do not think they will
get much information about their lost chattels there. .
. .
| |
|
Yours for the
Slave,
WILLIAM STEEL1 |
A case that well illustrates the
method of search employed by pursuing parties is that of
the escape of the Nuckolls slaves through Iowa,
the incidents of which are still vivid in the memories
of some that witnessed them. Mr. Nuckolls,
of Nebraska City, Nebraska, lost two slave-girls in
December, 1858. He instituted search for them in
Tabor, an abolitionist centre, and did not neglect to
guard the crossings of two streams in the vicinity,
Silver Creek and the Nishnabotna River. As the
slaves had been promptly despatched to Chicago, this
search availed him nothing. A second and more
thorough hunt was decided on, and the aid of a score or
more fellows was secured. These men made entrance
into houses by force and violence, when bravado failed
to gain them admission.2 At one house
where the remonstrance against intrusion was unusually
strong the person remonstrating was struck over the head
and injured for life. The outcome of the whole
affair was that Mr. Nuckolls had some ten
thousand dollars to pay in damages and costs, and, after
all, failed to recover his slaves.3
Many were the inducements to practise espionage on
abolitionists.
Large sums were offered for the capture of fugitives,
and rewards were offered also for the arrest and
delivery
---------------
1 The original letter is in the possession
of the author of this book.
2 The Tabor Beacon, 1890 1891,
Chapter XXI of a series of articles by the Rev. John
Todd, on "The Early Settlement and Growth of Western
Iowa." Mr. Todd was one of the early settlers of
western Iowa. The letters were received from his
son, Professor James E. Todd, of the University of South
Dakota, Vermillion, S. Dak.
3 Letter of Mr. Sturgis Williams, Percival,
Ia., 1894. Mr. Williams was also one of the
pioneers of western Iowa.
[Pg. 53] - REWARDS FOR ABDUCTION OF
ABOLITIONISTS
south of Mason and Dixon’s line of
certain abolitionists, who were well-enough known to
have the hatred of many Southerners. “At an
anti-slavery meeting of the citizens of Sardinia and
vicinity, held on Nov. 21,1838, a committee of
respectable citizens presented a report, accompanied
with affidavits in support of its declarations, stating
that for more than a year past there had been an unusual
degree of hatred manifested by the slave-hunters and
slaveholders towards the abolitionists of Brown County,
and that rewards varying from $500 to $2,500 had been
repeatedly offered by different persons for the
abduction or assassination of the Rev. John B. Mahan;
and rewards had also been offered for Amos Pettijohn,
William A. Frazier and Dr. Isaac M. Beck,
of Sardinia, the Rev. John Rankin and Dr.
Alexander Campbell, of Ripley, William McCoy,
of Russellville, and citizens of Adams County."1
A resolution was offered in the Maryland Legislature, in
January, 1860, proposing a reward for the arrest of
Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, for "stealing"
slaves.2 It is perhaps an evidence of
the extraordinary caution and shrewdness employed by
managers of the Road generally that so many of them
escaped without suffering the penalties of the law or
the inflictions of private vengeance.
Slave-owners occasionally tried to find out the secrets
of an underground station or of a route by visiting
various localities in disguise. A Kentucky
slaveholder clad in the Friends' peculiar garb went to
the house of John Charles, a Quaker of Richmond,
Indiana, and meeting a son of Mr. Charles
accosted him with the words, "Well, sir, my little
mannie, hasn't thee father gone to Canada with some
niggers?" Young Charles quickly perceived
the disguise, and pointing his finger at the man
declared him to be a "wolf in sheep's clothing."3
About the year 1840 there came into Cass County,
Indiana, a man from Kentucky by the name of Carpenter,
who professed to be an anti-slavery lecturer and an
agent for
---------------
1
History of Brown County, Ohio, p. 314
2 The New Reign of Terror in the
Slaveholding States, for 1859-1860 (Anti-Slavery
Tracts, No. 4, New Series), pp. 49. 50.
3 Letter of Mrs. Mary C. Thorne, Selma,
Clark Co., O., Mar. 3, 1892. John Charles was an
uncle of Mrs. Thorne
[Pg. 54]
certain anti-slavery papers. He
visited the abolitionists and seemed zealous in the
cause. In this way he learned the whereabouts of
seven fugitives that had arrived in the neighborhood
from Kentucky a few weeks before. He sent word to their
masters, and in due time they were all seized, but had
not been taken far before the neighborhood was aroused,
masters and victims were overtaken and carried to the
county-seat, and trial was procured, and the slaves were
again set free.
Thus the penalties of the law, the contempt of
neighbors, and the espionage of persons interested in
returning fugitives to bondage made secrecy necessary in
the service of the Underground Railroad.
Night was the only time, of course, in which the
fugitive and his helpers could feel themselves even
partially secure. Probably most slaves that
started for Canada had learned to known the north star,
and to many of these superstitious persons its light
seemed the enduring witness of the divine interest in
their deliverance. When clouds obscured the stars
they had recourse, perhaps, to such bits of homely
knowledge as, that in forests the trunks of trees are
commonly moss-grown on their north sides. In
Kentucky and western Virginia many fugitives were guided
to free soil by the tributaries of the Ohio; while in
central and eastern Virginia the ranges of the
Appalachian chain marked the direction to be taken.
After reaching the initial station of some line of
Underground Road reaching the initial station of some
line of Underground Road the fugitive found himself
provided with such accommodations for rest and
refreshment as circumstances would allow; and after an
interval of a day or more he was conveyed, usually in
the night, to the house of the next friend.
Sometimes, however, when a guide was thought to be
unnecessary the fugitive was sent on foot to the next
station, full and minute instructions for finding it
having been given him. The faltering step, and the
light, uncertain rapping of the fugitive at the door,
was quickly recognized by the family within, and the
stranger was admitted with a welcome at once sincere and
subdued. There was a suppressed stir in the house
while the fire was building and food preparing; and
after the hunger and chill of the wayfarer had been
dispelled, he was provided with a bed in some
out-of-the-way part of the
[Pg. 55] - MIDNIGHT SERVICE
house, or under the hay in the barn
loft, according to the degree of danger. Often a
household was awakened to find a company of five or more
negroes at the door. The arrival of such a company
was sometimes announced beforehand by special messenger.
That the amount of time taken from the hours of sleep
by underground service was no small item may be seen
from the following record covering the last half of
August, 1843. The record or memorandum is that of
Mr. David Putnam, Jr., of
Point Harmar, Ohio, and is given with all the
abbreviations:
| Aug. |
13/42 |
Sunday Morn. |
2 o'clock |
arrived |
| |
|
Sunday Eve. |
8½
" |
departed for
B. |
| |
16 |
Wednesday
Morn. |
2 " |
arrived |
| |
20 |
Sunday eve. |
10 " |
departed for
N. |
| Wife &
children |
21 |
Monday morn. |
2 " |
arrived from
B. |
| |
|
" eve. |
10 " |
left for Mr.
H. |
| |
22 |
Tuesday " |
11 " |
left for W. |
| A. L. & S. J. |
28 |
Monday morn.
|
1 " |
arrived left
2 o'clock.1 |
This is plainly a schedule of arriving
and departing “trains” on the Underground Road. It
is noticeable that the schedule contains no description,
numerical or otherwise, of the parties coming and going;
nor does it indicate, except by initial, to what places
or persons the parties were despatched; further, it does
not indicate whether Mr. Putnam
accompanied them or not. It does, however, give us
a clue to the amount of night service that was done at a
station of average activity on the Ohio River as early
as the year 1848. The demands upon operators
increased, we know, from this time on till 1860.
The memorandum also shows the variation in the length of
time during which different companies of fugitives were
detained at a station; thus, the first fugitive, or
company of fugitives, as the case may have been,
departed on the evening of the day of arrival; the
second party was kept in concealment from Wednesday
morning until the Sunday night next following before it
was sent on its way; the third
---------------
1 The
original memorandum is written in pencil on a letter
received by Mr. Putnam from Mr. John Stone, of Belpre,
O., in Aug., 1843. The contents of this letter, or
message, is given on page 57. The original is in
possession of the author.
[Pg. 56]
party seems to have been divided, one
section being forwarded the night of the day of arrival,
the other the next night following; in the case of the
last company there seems to have existed some especial
reason for haste, and we find it hurried away at two
o’clock in the morning, after only an hour’s
intermission for rest and refreshment. The
memorandum of night service at the Putnam station may be
regarded as fairly representative of the night service
at many other posts or stations throughout Ohio and the
adjoining states.
Much of the communication relating to fugitive slaves
was had in guarded language. Special signals,
whispered conversations, passwords, messages couched in
figurative phrases, were the common modes of conveying
information about underground passengers, or about
parties in pursuit of fugitives. These modes of
communication constituted what abolitionists knew as the
“ grape-vine telegraph.”1 The signals
employed were of various kinds, and were local in usage.
Fugitives crossing the Ohio River in the vicinity of
Parkersburg, in western Virginia, were sometimes
announced at stations near the river by their guides by
a shrill tremolo-call like that of the owl.
Colonel John Stone and Mr.
David Putnam, Jr., of Marietta, Ohio,
made frequent use of this signal.2
Different neighborhoods had their peculiar combinations
of knocks or raps to be made upon the door or window of
a station when fugitives were awaiting admission.
In Harrison County, Ohio, around Cadiz, one of the
recognized signals was three distinct but subdued
knocks. To the in-
---------------
1 The
Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888,
p. 20; also letter of S. J. Wright, Rushville,
O., Aug. 29, 1894, and letter of Ira Thomas, Springboro,
O., Oct. 29, 1895.
2 This owl signal was mentioned in
conversation with several residents of Marietta.
Miss Martha Putnam says she has heard her father make
the “hoot-owl ” call hundreds of times. General R.
R. Dawes designates this call the “river signal.”
“When I was a hoy of eight,” he says, “I was visiting my
grandfather, Judge Ephraim Cutler.
The place was called Constitution. Somehow, in the
night I was wakened up, and a wagon came down over the
hill to the river. Then a call was given, a
hoot-owl call, and this was answered by a similar one
from the other side; then a boat went out
and brought over the crowd. My mother got out of
bed and kneeled down and prayed for them, and had me
kneel with her.” Conversation with General
Dawes, Marietta, O., Aug. 21, 1892.
[Pg. 57] - MESSAGES
 |
quiry, "Who's there?"
the reply was, "a friend with friends."1
Passwords were used on some sections of the
Road. The agents at York in
southeastern Pennsylvania made use of them,
and William Yokum, a constable of the
town, who was kindly disposed towards
runaways, was able to be most helpful in
times of emergency by his knowledge of the
watchwords, one of which was "William
Penn."2 Messages
couched in figurative language were often
sent. The following note, written by
Mr. John Stone, of Belpre, Ohio, in
August, 1843, is a good example: -
BELPRE Friday Morning
DAVID PUTNAM
Business is aranged for
Saturday night be on the lookout and if
practicable let a carriage come & meet the
carawan.
J. S.3
Mr. I. Newton Peirce forwarded a
number of fugitives from Alliance, Ohio, to
Cleveland, over the Cleveland and Western
Railroad. He sent with each company a
note to a Cleveland merchant, Mr. Joseph
Garretson, saying: "Please forward
immediately the U. G. baggage this day sent
to you. Yours truly, I. N. P."4
Mr.
---------------
1 Letter of the Rev. J. B. Lee, Franklinville,
N.Y., Oct. 21, 1895.
2 Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 46
3 See the facsimile.
4 Letter of I. Newton Peirce, Folcroft, Sharon Hill
P.O., Delaware Co., Pa., Feb. 1, 1893. |
[Pg. 58]
G. W. Weston, of Low Moor,
Iowa, was the author of similar communications addressed
to a friend, Mr. C. B. Campbell, of Clinton.
MR. C. B. C.,
Dear Sir: - By tomorrow evening's mail, you
will receive two volumes of the "Irrepressible
Conflict" bound in black. After perusal,
please forward, and oblige,
The Hon.
Thomas Mitchell, founder of Mitchellville, near Des
Moines, Iowa, forwarded fugitives to Mr. J. B.
Grinnell, after whom the town of Grinnell was
named. The latter gives the following note as a
sample of the messages that passed between them: -
Dear
Grinnell: - Uncle Tom says if the
roads are not too bad you can look for those fleeces of
wool by tomorrow. Send them on to test the market
and price, no back charges.
There were
many persons engaged in underground work that did not
always take the precaution to veil their communications.
Judge Thomas Lee, of the Western Reserve, was one
of this class, as the following letter to Mr.
Putnam, of Point Harmar, will show: -
| |
|
CADIZ, OHIO,
March 17th, 1847. |
MR. DAVID PUTNAM,
Dear Sir: - I
understand you are a friend to the poor and are willing
to obey the heavenly mandate," Hide the outcases, betray
not him that wandereth." Believing this, and at
the request of Stephen Fairfax (who has been
permitted in divine providence to enjoy for a few days
the kind of liberty which Ohio gives to the man of
colour), I would be glad if you could find out and let
me know by letter what are the prospects if any.
---------------
1 History of Clinton County, Iowa,
article on the "Underground Railroad," pp. 413-416.
2 J. B. Grinnell, Men and Events of Forty
Years, p. 217.
[Pg. 59] - CONVEYANCE OF FUGITIVES
and. the probable time when, the
balance of the family will make the same effort to
obtain their inalienable right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Their friends who have gone
north are very anxious to have them follow, as they
think it much better to work for eight or ten dollars
per month than to work for nothing.
Yours in behalf of the millions of poor, opprest and
downtrodden in our land.
In the
conveyance of fugitives from station to station there
existed all the variety of method one would expect to
find. In the early days of the Underground Road
the fugitives were generally men. It was scarcely
thought necessary to send a guide with them unless some
special reason for so doing existed. They were,
therefore, commonly given such directions as they needed
and left to their own devices.) As the number of
refugees increased, and women and children were more
frequently seen upon the Road, and pursuit was more
common, the practice of transporting fugitives on
horseback, or by vehicle, was introduced. The
steam railroad was a new means furnished to
abolitionists by the progress of the times, and used by
them with greater or less frequency as circumstances
required, and when the safety of passengers would not be
sacrificed.
When fugitive travellers afoot or on horseback found
themselves pursued, safety lay in flight, unless indeed
the company was large enough, courageous enough, and
sufficiently well armed to give battle. The safety of
fugitives while travelling by conveyance lay mainly in
their concealment, and many were the stratagems
employed. Characteristic of the service of the
Underground Railroad were the covered wagons, closed
carriages and deep-bedded farm-wagons that hid the
passengers. There are those living who remember
special day-coaches of more peculiar construction.
Abram Allen, a Quaker of Oakland, Clinton
County, Ohio, had a large three-seated wagon, made for
the purpose of carrying fugitives. He called it
the Liberator. It was curtained all around, would
hold eight or ten persons, and had a mechanism with a
bell, invented by Mr. Allen, to
[Pg. 60]
record the number of miles travelled.1
A citizen of Troy, Ohio, a bookbinder by trade, had a
large wagon, built about with drawers in such a way as
to leave a large hiding-place in the centre of the
wagon-bed. As the bookbinder drove through the
country he found opportunity to help many a fugitive on
his way to Canada.2 Horace
Holt, of Rutland, Meigs County, Ohio, sold reeds to
his neighbors in southern Ohio. He had a box-bed
wagon with a lid that fastened with a padlock. In
this he hauled his supply of reeds; it was well
understood by a few that he also hauled fugitive slaves.3
Joseph Sider, of southern Indiana, found
his pedler wagon well adapted to the transportation of
slaves \ from Kentucky plantations.4
William Still gives instances of negroes
being placed in boxes, and shipped as freight by boat,
and also by rail, to friends in the North.
William Box Peel Jones was
boxed in Baltimore and sent to Philadelphia by way of
the Ericsson line of steamers, being seventeen hours on
the way.5 Henry Box Brown had
the same thrilling and perilous experience. His
trip consumed twenty-four hours, during which time he
was in the care of the Adams Express Company in transit
from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia.6
Abolitionists that drove wagons or carriages containing
refugees, “conductors” as they came to be called in the
terminology of the Railroad service, generally took the
precaution to have ostensible reasons for their
journeys. They sought to divest their excursions
of the air of mystery by seeming to be about legitimate
business. Hannah Marsh, of Chester
County, Pennsylvania, was in the habit of taking
---------------
1 Judge R. B.
Harlan and others, History of Clinton County, Ohio, pp.
380-383; letter of Seth Linton, Oakland, Clinton County,
O., Sept. 4, 1892; Smedley, Underground Railroad, p.
187.
2 The Miami Union, April 10,1895,
article entitled “A Reminiscence of Slave Times.”
3 Letter of Mrs. C. Grant, Pomeroy, Meigs
Co., O.
4 The Republican Leader, Mar. 16,
1894, article, “ Reminiscence of the Underground
Railroad,” by E. H. Trueblood.
5 See Underground Railroad Records,
pp. 46, 47.
6 Ibid., pp. 81-84; see also
Narrative of Henry Box Brown, who escaped from slavery
enclosed in a box 3 feet long and 2 wide, written from a
statement of facts made by himself, 1849, by Charles
Stearns.
[Pg. 61] - CONVEYANCE OF FUGITIVES
[Pg. 62]
[Pg. 63] - HIDING-PLACES
[Pg. 64]
woods; and afterwards in a rail pen
covered with straw.1 Eli F. Brown,
of Amesville, Athens County, Ohio, writes: "I
built an addition to my house in which I had a room with
its partition in pannels. One pannel could be
raised about a half inch and then slid back, so as to
permit a man to enter the room. When the pannel
was in place it appeared like its fellows . . . .
In the abutment of Zanesville bridge on the Putnam side
there was a place of concealment prepared."2
"Conductors" Levi Coffin, Edward
Harwood, and W. H. Brisbane, of Cincinnati,
Ohio, had a number of hiding-places for slaves.
"One was in the dark cellar of Coffin's store;
another was at Mr. Coffin's out-of-the-way
residence between Avondale and Walnut Hills; another was
a dark sub-cellar under the rear part of Dr. Bailey's
residence, corner of Sixth and College Streets."3
The gallery of the old First Church at Galesburg,
Illinois, was utilized as a place of concealment for
refugees by certain members of that church.4
Gabe N. Johnson, a colored man from Ironton, on
the Ohio River, sometimes hid fugitives in a coal-bank
back of his house.5 This list of
illustrations could be almost indefinitely continued.
A sufficient number has been given to show the ingenuity
necessarily used to secure safety.
In the transit from station to station some simple
disguise was often assumed. Thomas Garrett,
a Quaker of Wilmington, Delaware, kept a quantity of
garden tools on hand for this purpose. He
sometimes gave a man a scythe, rake, or some other
implement to carry through town. Having reached a
certain bridge on the way to the next station, the
pretending laborer concealed his tool under it, as he
had been directed, and journeyed on. Later the
tool was taken back to Mr. Garrett's to be used
for a similar purpose.6 Valentine
Nicholson, a station-keeper at Harveysburg, Warren
County,
---------------
1 Letter of
E. H. Trueblood, Hitchcock, Ind.
2 Letter of E. F. Brown, Amesville, O.
3 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, Feb.
11, 1894, article by W. Eldebe.
4 Letter of Professor George Churchill,
Galesburg, Jan. 29, 1896.
5 Conversation with Gabe N. Johnson,
Ironton, O., Sept. 30, 1894.
6 Smedley, Underground Railroad, p.
242.
BARN OF SEYMOUR FINNEY,
ESQ., DETROIT, MICHIGAN,
A Shelter for fugitives in Detroit, formerly standing
where the Chamber of Commerce Building now stands.
THE OLD FIRST CHURCH,
GALESBURG, ILLINOIS
Fugitive slaves were sometimes concealed in the gallery
of this church.
(From a recent photograph)
[Pg. 65] - DISGUISES
[Pg. 66]
[Pg. 67] - LACK OF FORMAL
ORGANIZATION
Harper’s Ferry by resorting to similar
means.1 Among the Quakers the woman’s
costume was a favorite disguise for fugitives. No
one attired in it was likely to be in the least degree
suspicioned of being anything else than what the garb
proclaimed. The veiled bonnet also was peculiarly
adapted to conceal the features of the person disguised.2
One incident will suffice to show the utility of the
Quaker costume. One evening Joseph G. Walker,
a Quaker of Wilmington, Delaware, was appealed to by a
slave-woman, who was closely pursued. She was
permitted to enter Mr. Walker’s house, and
a few minutes later, in the gown and bonnet of Mrs.
Walker, she passed out of the front door leaning
upon the arm of the shrewd Quaker.3
It is quite apparent that the Underground Railroad was
not a formal organization with officers of different
ranks, a regular membership, and a treasury from which
to meet expenses. A terminology, it is true,
sprang up in connection with the work of the Road, and
one hears of station-keepers, agents, conductors, and
even presidents of the Underground Railroad; but these
titles were figurative terms, borrowed with other
expressions from the convenient vocabulary of steam
railways; and while they were useful among abolitionists
to save circumlocution, they commended themselves to the
friends of the slave by helping to mystify the minds of
the public. The need of organization was not felt
except in a few localities. It was only in towns
and cities that the distinctions of “managers,”
“contributing members,” and “agents” began to develop in
any significant way, and even in the case of these
places the distinctions must not be pushed far, for they
indicate merely that certain men by their sagacious
activity came to be called “managers,” while others less
bold, the contributing members, were willing to give
money towards defraying the expenses of some trusty
person, the agent, who would run the risk of piloting
fugitives.
The first reference to an organization devoted to the
busi-
---------------
1 Reminiscences of
Levi Coffin, pp. 439-442.
2 M. G. McDougall, Fugitive Slaves, p. 61.
3 Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 244.
[Pg. 68]
[Pg. 69] - LACK OF FORMAL
ORGANIZATION
[Pg. 70]
[Pg. 71] - COMMITTEES OF VIGILANCE
agents or conductors was caused by the
large number of fugitives arriving at these points, and
the extreme caution necessary. When, at length,
indignation was aroused in the minds of Northern
abolitionists by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law,
Sept. 18, 1850, the determination to resist this measure
displayed itself in certain localities in the formation
of vigilance committees. Theodore Parker
explains that it was in consequence of the enactment of
this measure that "people held indignant meetings, and
organized committees of vigilance whose duty was to
prevent a fugitive from being arrested, if possible, or
to furnish legal aid, and raise every obstacle to his
rendition. The vigilance committees," he says,
"were also the employees of the U. G. R. R. and
effectively disposed of many a casus belli by
transferring the disputed chattel to Canada.
Money, time, wariness, devotedness for months and years,
that cannot be computed, and will never be recorded,
except, perhaps, in connection with cases whose details
had peculiar interest, was nobly rendered by the true
anti-slavery men."1 Such committees of
vigilance were organized in Syracuse, New York, Boston,
Springfield and some of the smaller towns of
Massachusetts, in Philadelphia and other places.
New York City, like Philadelphia, had a Vigilance
Committee as early as 1838. About this association
of the metropolis there is scarcely any information.2
We must be content then to confine our attention to the
committees called into existence by the Fugitive Slave
Law of 1850.
Eight days after the enactment of this law citizens of
Syracuse, New York, issued a call through the newspapers
for a public meeting, and on October 4 members of all
parties crowded the city-hall to express their censure
of the law. The meeting recommended "the
appointment of a Vigilance Committee of thirteen
citizens, whose duty it shall be to see that no person
is deprived of his liberty without 'due process of law.'
And all good citizens are earnestly requested to aid
---------------
1 Weiss, Life and
Correspondence of Theodore Parker, Vol. II, pp. 92,
93.
2 Frederick Douglass
relates that when he escaped from Maryland to New York,
in 1838, he was befriended by David Ruggles, the
secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee; Life
of Frederick Douglass, 1881, p. 205.
[Pg. 72]
[Pg. 73] - BOSTON COMMITTEE OF
VIGILANCE
[Pg. 74]
necessary, and he formed, therefore,
the League of Gileadites to resist systematically the
eforcement of the law. The name of this order was
significant in that it contained a warning to those of
its members that should show themselves cowards.
"Whosoever is fearful or afraid let him return and
depart early from Mount Gilead."1 In
the "Agreement and Rules" that Brown drafted for the
order, adopted Jan. 15, 1851, the following directions
for action were laid down: "Should one of your
number be arrested, you must collect together as quickly
as possible, so as to outnumber your adversaries . . . .
Let no able bodied man appear on the ground unequipped,
or with his weapons exposed to view. . . . Your plans
must be known only to yourselves and with the
understanding that all traitors must die, wherever
caught and proven to be guilty. . . . Let the
first blow be the signal for all to engage, . . . make
clean work with your enemies, and be sure you meddle not
with any others. . . . After effecting a rescue, if you
are assailed, go into the houses of your most prominent
and influential white friends with your wives, and that
will effectually fasten upon them the suspicion of being
connected with you, and will compel them to make a
common cause with you. . . . You may make a tumult
in the court-room where a trial is going on by burning
gunpowder freely in paper packages. . . . But in
such case the prisoner will need to take the hint at
once and bestir himself; and so should his friends
improve the opportunity for a general rush. . . .
Stand by one another and by your friends while a drop of
blood remains; and be hanged, if you must, but tell no
tales out of school. Make no confession." By
adopting the Agreement and Rules forty-four colored
persons constituted themselves "a branch of the United
States League of Gileadites," and agreed "to have no
officers except a treasurer and secretary pro tem.,
until after some trial of courage," when they could
choose officers on the basis of "courage, efficiency,
and general good conduct."2 Doubtless
the Gileadites of Springfield
---------------
1 Judg. vii. 3; Deut. xx.8; referred to by
Brown in his "Agreement and rules."
2 F. B. Sanborn, in his Life and Letters
of John brown, pp. 125, 126.
WILLIAM STILL,
Chairman of the Acting Vigilance Committee in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 1852-1860
[Pg. 75] - PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEES
OF VIGILANCE
did efficient service, for it appears
that the importance of the town as a way-station on the
Underground Road increased after the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Bill.1
We have already learned that Philadelphia had a
Vigilance Committee before 1840. In a speech made
before the meeting that organized the new committee,
Dec. 2, 1852, Mr. J. Miller McKim, the secretary
of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, gave the
reason for establishing a new committee. He said
that the old committee "had become disorganized and
scattered, and that for the last two or three years the
duties of this department had been performed by
individuals on their own responsibility, and sometimes
in a very irregular manner." It was accordingly
decided to form a new committee, called the General
Vigilance Committee, with the chairman and treasurer;
and within this body an Acting Committee of four
persons, "who should have the responsibility of
attending to every case that might require their aid, as
well as the exclusive authority to raise the funds
necessary for their purpose." The General
Committee comprised nineteen members, and had as its
head Mr. Robert Purvis, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, and the first president of the old committee.
The Acting Committee had as its chairman William
Still, a colored clerk in the office of the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and a most energetic
underground helper. The Philadelphia Vigilance
Committee, thus constituted, continued intact until
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.2.
Some insight into the work accomplished by the Acting
Committee can be obtained by an examination of the book
compiled by William Still under the title
Underground Railroad Records. The Acting
Committee was required to keep a record of all its
doings. Mr. Still's volume was evidently
amassed by the
---------------
gives the agreement, rues, and signatures.
See also R. J. Hinton's John Brown and His Men,
Appendix, pp. 585, 588.
1 Mason A. Green, History of Springfield,
Massachusetts, 1636-1886, p. 506.
2 Article, "Meeting to Form a Vigilance
Committee," in the Pennsylvania Freeman, Dec. 9,
1852; quoted in the Underground Railroad Records,
by William Still, pp. 610-612
[Pg. 76]
transcription of many of the incidents
that found their way under this order into the archives
of the committee. The work was limited to the
assistance of such needy fugitives as came to
Philadelphia; and was not extended, except in rare
cases, to inciting slaves to run away from their
masters, or to aiding them in so doing.1
The relief of the destitution existing among the
wayworn travellers was a matter requiring considerable
outlay of time and money on the part of abolitionists.
There was occasionally a fugitive or family of
fugitives, that, having better opportunity or possessing
greater foresight than others, made provision for the
journey and escaped to Canada with little or no
dependence on the aid of underground operators.
Asbury Parker, of Ironton, Ohio, fled from
Greenup County, Kentucky, in 1857, clad in a suit of
broadcloth, alone befitting, as he thought, the dignity
of a free man.2
The brother of Anthony Bingey, of Windsor,
Ontario, came unexpectedly into the possession of five
hundred dollars. With this money he instructed a
friend in Cincinnati to procure a team and wagon to
convey the family of Bingey to Canada. The
com pany arrived at Sandusky after being only three days
on the road.3
But the mass of fugitives were thinly clad, and had
only such food as they could forage until they reached
the Under ground Railroad. The arrival of a
company at a station would be at once followed by the
preparation, often at midnight, of a meal for the
pilgrims and their guides. It was a common thing
for a station to entertain a company of five or six; and
companies of twenty-eight or thirty are not unheard of
Levi Coffin says, “The largest company of
slaves ever seated at our table, at one time, numbered
seventeen.”4
During one month in the year 1854 or 1855 there were
sixty runaways at the house of Aaron L. Benedict,
a station in the Alum-
---------------
1 Still's
Underground Railroad Records, p. 177.
References to the action of the committee of which
Mr. Still was chairman will be found scattered
through the Records. See, for example, pp.
70, 98, 102, 131, 150, 162, 173, 176, 204, 224, 274,
275, 303, 325, 335, 388, 412, 449, 493, 500.
2 Conversation with Asbury Parker, Ironton,
O., Sept. 30 1894.
3 Conversation with Anthony Bingey, Windsor,
Ont. July 3, 1895.
4 Reminiscenses, p. 178
[Pg. 77] - SUPPLIES FOR PASSENGERS
Creek Quaker Settlement in central
Ohio. On one occasion twenty sat down to dinner in
Mr. Benedict’s house.1
It will thus be seen
that the supply of provisions alone was for the average
station-keeper no inconsiderable item of expense, and
that it was one involving much labor.
The arrangements for furnishing fugitives with
clothing, like much of the underground work done at the
stations, came within the province of the women of the
stations., While the noted fugitive. William
Wells Brown, lay sick at the house of his
benefactor, Mr. Wells Brown, in southwestern
Ohio, the family made him some clothing, and Mr.
Brown purchased him a pair of boots.2
Women’s anti-slavery societies in many places conducted
sewing-circles, as a branch of their work, for the
purpose of supplying clothes and other necessities to
fugitives. The Woman’s Anti-Slavery Society of
Ellington, Chautauqua County, New York, sent a letter to
William Still, Nov. 21, 1859, saying:
“Every year we have sent a box of clothing, bedding,
etc., to the aid of the fugitive, and wishing to send it
where it would be of the most service, we have it
suggested to us, to send to you the box we have at
present. You would confer a favor . . . by writing
us, . . . whether or not it would be more advantageous
to you than some nearer station. . . .”3
The Women's Anti-Slavery Sewing Society of Cincinnati
maintained an active interest in underground work going
on in their city by supplying clothing to needy
travellers.4 The Female Anti-Slavery
Association of Henry County, Indiana, organized a
Committee of Vigilance in 1841 "to seek out such colored
females as are not suitably provided for, who may now
be, or who shall hereafter come, within our limits, and
assist them in any way they may deem expedient, either
by advice or pecuniary means. . . ."5
---------------
1.
Conversation with M. J. Benedict, Alum Creek
Settlement, Dec. 2, 1893. See also Underground
Railroad, Smedley, pp. 56, 136, 142, 174.
2 Narrative of William W. Brown, A
Fugitive Slave, written by himself, 2d ed., 1848, p.
102.
3. The letter is printed in full, together
with others letters, in Still's Underground Railroad
Records,pp. 590, 591.
4 Levi Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 316.
5 Protectionist, Arnold Buffum,
Editor, New Garden, Ind., 7th mo., 1st 1841.
[Pg. 78]
In some of
the large centres, money as well as clothing and food
was constantly needed for the proper performance of the
underground work. Thus, for example, at
Cincinnati, Ohio, it was frequently necessary to hire
carriages in which to convey fugitives out of the city
to some neighboring station. From time to time as
the occasion arose Levi Coffin collected
the funds needed for such purposes from business
acquaintances. He called these contributors
“stock-holders ” in the Underground Railroad.1
After steam railroads be came incorporated in the
underground system money was required at different
points to purchase tickets for fugitives. The
Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia defrayed the
travelling expenses of many refugees in sending some to
New York City, some to Elmira and a few to Canada.2
Frederick Douglass, who kept a station at
Rochester, New York, received contributions of money to
pay the railroad fares of the fugitives he forwarded to
Canada and to give them a little more for pressing
necessities.3
The use of steam railroads as a means of transportation
of this class of passengers began with the completion of
lines of road to the lakes. This did not take
place till about 1850. It was, therefore, during
the last decade of the history of the Underground Road
that surface lines, as they were some times called by
abolitionists, became a part of the secret system.
There were probably more surface-lines in Ohio than in
any other state. The old Mad River Railroad, or
Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Railroad, of western
Ohio, (now a part of the “Big Four” system), began to be
used at least as early as 1852 by instructed fugitives.4
The Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad
(now the Baltimore and Ohio) from Utica, Licking County,
Ohio, to Sandusky, was sometimes used by the same class
of persons.5 After
---------------
1
Reminiscences, pp. 317, 321.
2 Still’s Underground Railroad Records, p. 613.
3 Ibid., p. 598. In the fragment of a
letter from which Mr. Still quotes, Mr. Douglass says,
“They [the fugitives] usually tarry with us only during
the night, and are forwarded to Canada by the morning
train. We give them supper, lodging, and
breakfast, pay their expenses, and give them a
half-dollar over.”
4 The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888,
p. 21.
5 Ibid., pp. 23, 57, 79.
[Pg. 79] - TRANSPORTATION OVER
STEAM RAILROADS
the construction of the Cleveland,
Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad1 as far as
Greenwich in northern Ohio, fugitives often came to that
point concealed in freight-cars. In eastern Ohio
there were two additional routes by rail sometimes
employed in underground traffic: one of these appears to
have been the Cleveland and Western Canton from
Zanesville north,2 and the other was the
Cleveland and Western between Alliance and Cleveland.3
In Indiana the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago
Railroad from Crawfordsville northward was patronized by
underground travellers until the activity of
slave-hunters caused it to be abandoned.4
Fugitives were sometimes transported across the State of
Michigan by the Michigan Central Railroad. In
Illinois there seems to have been not less than three
railroads that carried fugitives: these were the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,5 the Chicago
and Rock Island6 and the Illinois Central.7
When John Brown made his famous journey through
Iowa in the winter of 1858-1859 he shipped his company
of twelve fugitives in a stock car from West Liberty,
Iowa, to Chicago, by way of the Chicago and Rock Island
route.8 In Pennsylvania and New York
there were several lines over which runaways were sent
when circumstances permitted. At Harrisburg,
Reading and other points along the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad, fugitives were put aboard the cars for
Philadelphia.9 From Pennsylvania they
were forwarded
---------------
1 Ibid.,
p. 74. The "Tree C's" is now the Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, or "Big
Four" Route.
2 Conversation with Thomas Williams of
Pennsville, O.; letter of H. C. Harvey, Manchester,
Kan., Jan. 16, 1893.
3 Letter of I. Newton Peirce, Folcroft, Pa.,
Feb. 1, 1893.
4 Letter of Sidney Speed, Crawfordsville,
Ind., Mar. 6, 1896. Mr. Speed and his father were
both connected with the Crawfordsville centre.
5 Life and Poems of John Howard Bryant,
p. 30; letter of William H. Collins, Quincy, Ill.,
Jan. 13, 1896; History of Knox County, Illinois,
p. 211.
6 Letter of George L. Burroughes, Cairo,
Ill., Jan. 6, 1896.
7 Ibid.; conversation with the Rev.
R. G. Ramsey, Cadiz, O., Aug. 18, 1892.
8 J. B. Grinell, Men and Events of Forty
Years, p. 216.
9 Smedley, Underground Railroad, pp.
174, 176, 177, 365. The following letter is in
point: -
"SCHUYLKILL, 22th Mo., 7th, 1857.
WILLIAM STILL, Respected Friend: - There
are three colored friends at my house now, who will
reach the city by the Philadelphia and Reading train
this evening. Please meet them.
Thine, etc.,
E. F. PENNYPACKER."
[Pg. 80]
by the Vigilance Committee over
different lines, sometimes by "way of the Pennsylvania
Railroad to New York City; sometimes by way of the
Philadelphia and Reading and the Northern Central to
Elmira, New York, whence they were sent on by the same
line to Niagara Falls. Fugitives put aboard the
cars at Elmira were furnished with money from a fund
provided by the anti-slavery society. As a matter
of precaution they were sent out of town at four o’clock
in the morning, and were always placed by the train
officials, who knew their destination, in the
baggage-car.1 The New York Central
Railroad from Rochester west was an outlet made use of
by Frederick Douglass in passing slaves to
Canada. At Syracuse, during several years before
the beginning of the War, one of the directors of this
road, Mr. Horace White, the father
of Dr. Andrew D. White, distributed passes to
fugitives. This fact did not come to the knowledge
of Dr. White until after his father’s demise.
He relates: “Some years after . . . I met an old
‘abolitionist’ of Syracuse, who said to me that he had
often come to my father’s house, rattled at the windows,
informed my father of the passes he needed for fugitive
slaves, received them through the window, and then
departed, nobody else being the wiser. On my
asking my mother, who survived my father several years,
about it, she said: ‘Yes, such things frequently
occurred, and your father, if he was satisfied of the
genuineness of the request, always wrote off the passes
and handed them out, asking no questions.”2
In the New England states fugitives travelled, under
the instruction of friends, by way of the Providence and
Worcester Railroad from Valley Falls, Rhode Island, to
Worcester, Massachusetts, where by arrangement they were
transferred to the Vermont Road.3 The
Boston and Worcester Railroad between Newton and
Worcester, Massachusetts, as also between Boston and
Worcester, seems to have been used to some extent in
this way.4 The Grand Trunk, extending
from Port-
---------------
1 Letter of
John W. Jones, Elmira, N.Y., Jan. 18, 1897.
2 Letter of the Hon. Andrew D. White,
Ithaca, N. Y., Apr. 10, 1897.
3 Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace,
Anti-Slavery Reminiscences, pp. 28, 38.
4 Letter of William I. Bowditch, Boston,
Apr. 5, 1893. Mr. Bowditch says: "Generally I
passed them (the fugitivs) on to William Jackson, at
[Pg. 81] - TRAFFIC BY WATER
land, Maine, through the northern
parts of New Hampshire and Vermont into Canada,
occasionally gave passes to fugitives, and would always
take reduced fares for this class of passengers.1
The advantages of escape by boat were early discerned
by slaves living near the coast or along inland rivers.
Vessels engaged in our coastwise trade became more or
less involved in transporting fugitives from Southern
ports to Northern soil. Small trading vessels,
returning from their voyages to Norfolk and Portsmouth,
Virginia, landed slaves on the New England coast.2
In July, 1853, the brig Florence (Captain
Amos Hopkins, of Hallowell, Maine) from
Wilmington, North Carolina, was required, while lying in
Boston harbor, to surrender a fugitive found on board.
In September, 1854, the schooner Sally Ann
(of Belfast, Maine), from the same Southern port, was
induced to give up a slave known to be on board.
In October of the same year the brig Cameo (of Augusta,
Maine) brought a stowaway from Jacksonville, Florida,
into Boston harbor, and, as in the two preceding cases,
the slave was rescued from the danger of return to the
South through the activity and shrewdness of Captain
Austin Bearse, the agent of the Vigilance
Committee of Boston.3 The son of a
slaveholder living at Newberne, North Carolina,
forwarded slaves from that point to the Vigilance
Committee of Philadelphia on vessels engaged in the
lumber trade.4 In November, 1855,
Captain Fountain brought twenty-one fugitives
concealed on his vessel in a cargo of grain from
Norfolk, Virginia, to Philadelphia.5
The tributaries flowing into the Ohio River from
Virginia and Kentucky furnished convenient channels of
escape for
---------------
Newton. His house being on the Worcester
Railroad, he could easily forward any one."
Captain Austin Bearse, Reminiscences of
Fugitive-Slave Law Days in Boston, p. 37.
1 Letter of
Brown Thurston, Portland, Me., Oct. 21, 1895.
2 Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace,
Anti-Slavery Reminiscences, pp. 27, 30.
3 Austin Bearse, Reminiscences of
Fugitive-Slave Law Days in Boston, 1880, pp. 34-39.
4 Smedley, Underground Railroad,
letter of Robert Purvis, of Philadelphia, p. 335.
5 Still, Underground Railroad Records,
pp. 165-172. For other cases, see pp. 211,
379-381, 437, 558, 559-565.
[Pg. 82]
many slaves. The concurrent
testimony of abolitionists living along the Ohio is to
the effect that streams like the Kanawha River bore many
a boat-load of fugitives to the southern boundary of the
free states. It is not a mere coincidence that a
large number of the most important centres of activity
lie along the southern line of the Western free states
at points near or opposite the mouths of rivers and
creeks. On the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois
rivers north-bound steamboats not infrequently provided
the means of escape. Jefferson Davis
declared in the Senate that many slaves escaped from his
state into Ohio by taking passage on the boats of the
Mississippi.1
Abolitionists found it desirable to have waterway
extensions of their secret lines. Boats, the
captains of which were favorable, were therefore drafted
into the service when running on convenient routes.
Boats plying between Portland, Maine, and St. John, New
Brunswick, or other Canadian ports, often took these
passengers free of charge.2 Thomas
Garrett, of Wilmington, Delaware, sometimes sent negroes
by steamboat to Philadelphia to be cared for by the
Vigilance Committee.3 It happened on
several occasions that fugitives at Portland and Boston
were put aboard ocean steamers bound for England.4
William and Ellen Craft were sent to England
after having narrowly escaped capture in Boston.5
On the great lakes the boat service was extensive.
The boats of General Reed touching at Racine, Wisconsin,
received fugitives without fare. Among these were the
Sultana (Captain Appleby), the
Madison, the Missouri, the Niagara and the Keystone
State. Captain Steele of the
propeller Galena was a friend of fugitives, as was also
Captain Kelsey of the Chesapeake. Mr. A. P.
Dutton was familiar with these
---------------
1 See p. 312, Chapter X.
2 Letters of Brown Thurston, Portland, Me., Jan. 13,
1893, and Oct. 21, 1895.
3 For letters from Mr. Garrett to William Still, of the
Acting Committee of Vigilance of Philadelphia, notifying
im that fugitives had been sent by boat, see Still's
Underground Railroad Records, pp. 380, 387.
4 Letter of S. T. Pickard, Portland, Me., Nov. 18,
1893.
5 Still, Underground Railroad Records, p. 368;
Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol.
II, p. 325; New England Magazine, January, 1890,
p. 580.
[Pg. 83] - TRAFFIC BY WATER
vessels and their officers, and for
twenty years or more shipped runaway slaves as well as
cargoes of grain from his dock in Racine.1
The Illinois (Captain Blake), running
between Chicago and Detroit, was a safe boat on which to
place passengers whose destination was Canada.2
John G. Weiblen navigated the lakes in 1855 and
1856, and took many refugees from Chicago to
Collingwood, Ontario.3 The Arrow,4
the United States,5 the Bay City and the
Mayflower plying between Sandusky and Detroit, were
boats the officers of which were always willing to help
negroes reach Canadian ports. The Forest Queen,
the Morning Star and the May Queen, running between
Cleveland and Detroit, the Phoebus, a little boat plying
between Toledo and Detroit, and, finally, some scows and
sail-boats, are among the old craft of the great lakes
that carried many slaves to their land of promise.6
A clue to the number of refugees thus transported to
Canada is perhaps given by the record of the boat upon
which the fugitive, William Wells Brown,
found employment. This boat ran from Cleveland to
Buffalo and to Detroit. It quickly became known at
Cleveland that Mr. Brown would take
escaped slaves under his protection without charge,
hence he rarely failed to find a little company ready to
sail when he started out from Cleveland. “In the
year 1842,” he says, “I conveyed, from the first of May
to the first of December, sixty-nine fugitives over Lake
Erie to Canada.”7
The account of the method of the Underground Railroad
could scarcely be called complete without some notice of
the rescue of fugitives under arrest. The first
rescue occurred at the intended trial of the first
fugitive slave case in Boston in 1793. Mr.
Josiah Quincy, counsel for the fugitive, “
heard
---------------
1 Letter of A. P. Dutton, of Racine, Wis.,
Apr. 7, 1896. As a shipper of grain and an
abolitionist for twenty years in Racine, Mr. Dutton was
able to turn his dock into a place of deportation for
runaway slaves.
2 A. J. Andreas, History of Chicago,
Vol. I, p. 606.
3 Letter of Mr. Weiblen, Fairview, Erie Co.,
Pa., Nov. 26, 1895.
4 The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888,
p. 46.
5 Ibid., p. 50.
6 The names of the last six boats given, as
well as several of the others, were obtained from
freedmen in Canada, who keep them in grateful
remembrance.
7 Narrative of William W. Brown, by
himself, 1838, pp. 107, 108.
[Pg. 84]
a noise, and, turning around, saw the
constables lying sprawling on the floor, and a passage
opening through the crowd, through which the fugitive
was taking his departure without stopping to hear the
opinion of the court.”1
The prototype of deliverances thus established was, it is true more or
less deviated from in later instances, but the general
characteristics of these cases are such that they
naturally fall into one class. They are cases in
which the execution of the law was interfered with by
friends of the prisoner, who was spirited away as
quickly as possible. The deliverance in 1812 of a
supposed runaway from the hands of his captor by the New
England settlers of Worthington, Ohio, has already been
referred to in general terms.2 But some
details of the incident are necessary to bring out more
clearly the propriety of its being included in the
category of instances of violation of the constitutional
provision for the rendition of escaped slaves. It
appears that word was brought to the village of
Worthington of the capture of the fugitive at a
neighboring town, and that the villagers under the
direction of Colonel James Kilbourne
took immediate steps to release the negro, who, it was
said, was tied with ropes, and being afoot, was
compelled to keep up as best he could with his master’s
horse. On the arrival of the slave-owner and his
chattel, the latter was freed from his bonds by the use
of a butcher-knife in the hands of an active villager,
and the forms of a legal dismissal were gone through
before a court and an audience whose convictions were
ruinous to any representations the claimant was able to
make. The dispossessed master was permitted to
continue his journey southward, while the negro was
directed to get aboard a government wagon on its way
northward to Sandusky. The return of the
slave-hunter a day or two later with a process obtained
in Franklinton, authorizing the retaking of his
property, secured him a second hearing, but did not
change the result. A fugitive, Basil
Dorsey, from Liberty, Frederick County, Maryland,
was seized in Bucks County, Pennsyl-
---------------
1 Mr.
Quincy's report of the case, quoted by M. G. McDougall,
Fugitive Slaves, p. 35.
2 See p. 38.
[Pg. 85] - RESCUE OF FUGITIVES
UNDER ARREST
vania, in 1886, and carried away.
Overtaken by Mr. Robert Purvis at Doylestown, be was
brought into court, and the hearing of the case was
postponed for two weeks. When the day of trial
came the counsel for the slave succeeded in getting the
case dismissed on the ground of certain objections.
Thereupon the claimants of the slave hastened to a
magistrate for a new warrant, but just as they were
returning to rearrest the fugitive, he was hustled into
the buggy of Mr. Purvis and driven rapidly
out of the reach of the pursuers.1 In
October, 1858, the case of Louis, a fugitive from
Kentucky on trial in Cincinnati, was brought to a
conclusion in an unexpected way. The United States
commissioner was about to pronounce judgment when the
prisoner, taking advantage of a favorable opportunity,
slipped from his chair, had a good hat placed upon his
head by some friend, passed out of the court-room among
a crowd of colored visitors and made his way cautiously
to Avondale. A few minutes after the disappearance
of the fugitive his absence was discovered by the
marshal that had him in charge; and although careful
search was made for him, he escaped to Canada by means
of the Underground Railroad.2 In April,
1859, Charles Nalle, a slave from Culpeper
County, Virginia, was discovered in Troy, New York, and
taken before the United States commissioner, who
remanded him back to slavery. As the news of this
decision spread, a crowd gathered about the
commissioner’s office. In the meantime, a writ of
habeas corpus was served upon the marshal that had
arrested Nalle, commanding that officer to bring
the prisoner before a judge of the Supreme Court.
When the marshal and his deputies appeared with the
slave, the crowd made a charge upon them, and a
hand-to-hand melee resulted. Inch by inch the
progress of the officers was resisted until they were
worn out, and the slave escaped. In haste the
fugitive was ferried across the river to West Troy, only
to fall into the hands of a constable and be again taken
into custody. The mob had followed, however, and
now stormed the door behind which the prisoner rested
under guard. In the attack
---------------
1 Smedley,
Underground Railroad, pp. 356-361.
2 Levi Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 548-554.
[Pg. 86]
the door was forced open, and over the body of a negro
assailant, struck down in the fray, the slave was torn
from his guards, and sent on his way to Canada.1
Well-known cases of rescue, such as the Shadrach case,
which occurred in Boston in January, 1851, and the Jerry
rescue, which occurred in Syracuse nine months later,
may be omitted here. They, like many others that
have been less often chronicled, show clearly the temper
of resolute men in the communities where they occurred.
It was felt by these persons that the slave,
who had already paid too high a penalty for his color,
could not expect justice at the hands of the law, that
his liberty must be preserved to him, and a base statute
be thwarted at any cost.
---------------
1 This account is condensed from a report
given in the Troy Whit, April 28, 1859, and
printed in the book entitled, Harrriet the Moses of
Her people, pp. 143-149.
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