| | 1 | Author: | Siebert
Wilbur Henry
1866-1961 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom  | | | | Published: | 2003 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Historians who deal with the rise and culmination of the
anti-slavery movement in the United States have comparatively
little to say of one phase of it that cannot be neglected
if the movement is to be fully understood. This is the so-called
Underground Railroad, which, during, fifty years or
more, was secretly engaged in helping fugitive slaves to
reach places of security in the free states and in Canada.
Henry Wilson speaks of the romantic interest attaching to
the subject, and illustrates the coöperative efforts made by
abolitionists in behalf of colored refugees in two short chapters
of the second volume of his Rise and Fall of the Slave
Power in America.1
1 Chapters VI and VII, pp. 61–86. B
Von Hoist makes several references to
the work of the Road in his well-known History of the United
States, and predicts that "The time will yet come, even in
the South, when due recognition will be given to the touching
unselfishness, simple magnanimity and glowing love of
freedom of these law-breakers on principle, who were for the
most part people without name, money, or higher education."2
2 Vol. III, p. 552, foot-note.
Rhodes in his great work, the History of the United
States from the Compromise of 1850, mentions the system, but
considers it only as a manifestation of popular sentiment.1
1 History of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 74–77, 361, 362.
Other writers give less space to an account of this enterprise,
although it was one that extended throughout many Northern
states, and in itself supplied the reason for the enactment of
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, one of the most remarkable
measures issuing from Congress during the whole anti-slavery
struggle. 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 abolitionists'
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. . . . Business is aranged for Saturday
night be on the lookout and if practicable
let a cariage come & meet the carawan Dear Sir:—By to-morrow evening's mail, you will receive two
volumes of the "Irrepressible Conflict" bound in black. After
perusal, please forward, and oblige, Dear Grinnell:—Uncle Tom says if the roads are not too bad
you can look for those fleeces of wool by to-morrow. Send them
on to test the market and price, no back charges. Dear Sir:—I understand you are a friend to the poor and
are willing to obey the heavenly mandate, "Hide the outcasts,
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
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. Dear Friend,—The contributions of the churches in behalf of
the fugitive slaves I think have about all come in. I herewith
inclose you a schedule thereof, amounting in all to about $800,
being but little more than half as much as they contributed in 1851. . . . I have got some nice books (old ones) coming across
the water. But, alas me! such is the state of the poor fugitive
slaves, that I must attend to living men, and not to dead books,
and all this winter my time has been occupied with these poor
souls. The Vigilance Committee appointed me spiritual counsellor
of all fugitive slaves in Massachusetts while in peril. . . . The
Fugitive Slave Law has cost me some months of time already. I
have refused about sixty invitations to lecture and delayed the
printing of my book—for that! Truly the land of the pilgrims
is in great disgrace! "There was committed to the jail in Warren County, Kentucky,
as runaway slave, on the 29th September, 1862, a negro man calling
himself Jo Miner. He says he is free, but has nothing to
show to establish the fact. He is about thirty-five years of age,
very dark copper color, about five feet eight inches high, and will
weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. The owner can come forward,
prove property, and pay charges, or he will be dealt with as
the law requires. Dear Sir at the suggestion of friend Judge Conway I address
you these few hastily written lines. I see I am expected to give
you some information as to the present condition of the U.G.R.R.
in Kansas or more particularly at the Lawrence depot. In order
that you may fully understand the present condition of affairs I
shall ask your permission to relate a small bit of the early history
of this, the only paying, R. R. in Kansas. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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