University of Virginia Library

PREFACE

This volume is the outgrowth of an investigation begun
in 1892–1893, when the writer was giving a portion of his
time to the teaching of United States history in the Ohio
State University. The search for materials was carried on
at intervals during several years until the mass of information,
written and printed, was deemed sufficient to be subjected
to the processes of analysis and generalization.

Patience and care have been required to overcome the
difficulties attaching to a subject that was in an extraordinary
sense a hidden one; and the author has constantly
tried to observe those well-known dicta of the historian;
namely, to be content with the materials discovered without
making additions of his own, and to let his conclusions be
defined by the facts, rather than seek to cast these "in the
mould of his hypothesis."

Starting without preconceptions, the writer has been constrained
to the views set forth in Chapters X and XI in
regard to the real meaning and importance of the underground
movement. And if it be found by the reader that
these views are in any measure novel, it is hoped that the
pages of this book contain evidence sufficient for their justification.
There is something mysterious and inexplicable
about the whole anti-slavery movement in the United States,
as its history is generally recounted. According to the
accepted view the anti-slavery movement of the thirties and
the later decades has been considered as altogether distinct
from the earlier abolition period in our history, both in principle
and external features, and as separated from it by a

considerable interval of time. The earlier movement is supposed
to have died a natural death, and the later to have
sprung into full life and vigor with the appearance of Garrison
and the Liberator. Issue is made with this view in
the following pages, where Macaulay's rational account of
revolutions in general may, perhaps, be thought to find
illustration. Macaulay says in one of his essays: "As the
history of states is generally written, the greatest and most
momentous revolutions seem to come upon them like supernatural
inflictions, without warning or cause. But the fact
is, that such revolutions are almost always the consequences
of moral changes, which have gradually passed on the mass
of the community, and which ordinarily proceed far before
their progress is indicated by any public measure. An intimate
knowledge of the domestic history of nations is therefore
absolutely necessary to the prognosis of political events."
Or, the essayist might have added, to a subsequent understanding
of them.

It is impossible for the author to make acknowledgments
to all who have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the
promotion of his research. A liberal use of foot-notes suffices
to reduce his obligations in part only. But, although,
the great balance of his indebtedness must stand against him,
his special acknowledgments are due in certain quarters.
The writer has to thank Professor J. Franklin Jameson of
Brown University for calling his attention to a rare and important
little book, which otherwise would almost certainly
have escaped his notice. To Professor Eugene Wambaugh
of the Harvard Law School he is indebted for the critical
perusal of Chapter IX, on the Prosecutions of Underground
Railroad Men,—a chapter based largely on reports of cases,
and involving legal points about which the layman may
easily go astray. The frequent citations of the monograph
on Fugitive Slaves by Mrs. Marion G. McDougall attest the
general usefulness of that book in the preparation of the
present work. For personal encouragement in the undertaking

after the collection of materials had begun, and for
assistance while the study was being put in manuscript, the
author is most deeply indebted to Professor Albert Bushnell
Hart, and the Seminary of American History in Harvard
University, over which he and his colleague, Professor Edward
Channing, preside. The proof-sheets of this book have
been read by Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, Massachusetts,
and, it is hardly necessary to add, have profited thereby in a
way that would have been impossible had they passed under
the eye of one less widely acquainted with anti-slavery times
and anti-slavery people. More than to all others the author's
gratitude is due to the members of his own household, without
whose abiding interest and ready assistance in many
ways this work could not have been carried to completion.
It should be said that no responsibility for the use made of
data or the conclusions drawn from them can justly be
imposed upon those whose generous offices have kept these
pages freer from discrepancies than they could have been
otherwise.

It is a fortunate circumstance that, by the kindness of the
artist, Mr. C. T. Webber, the reproduction of his painting
entitled "The Underground Railroad" can appear as the
frontispiece of this book. Mr. Webber was fitted by his
intimate acquaintance with the Coffin family of Cincinnati,
Ohio, and their remarkable record in the work of secret
emancipation, to give a sympathetic delineation of the Underground
Railroad in operation.