Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad

Eber Pettit

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781480442931
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Biographies historiques

True stories drawn from the inspirational and heartrending history of the Underground Railroad It is estimated that by 1850 over one hundred thousand slaves had escaped to freedom in the North via a network of safe houses and secret routes known collectively as the Underground Railroad. First published in 1879, Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad chronicles the perilous journeys and thrilling adventures of nearly two-dozen escaped slaves and the brave souls who helped them along the way. Compiled by a conductor on the Railroad, these sketches bring the horrors of slavery to vivid life and serve as an enduring testament to the power of the human spirit. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

CHAPTER I.

THE SLAVE COFFLE AT WHEELING, VA.—THE KIND-HEARTED LANDLORD—THE GOOD SAMARITAN—THE HUNTERS MISLED—THE ESCAPE.

Something over twenty years ago, I stopped a few days at the City Hotel in Wheeling, Va. The hotel was located on the southern border of the city, adjoining a small plantation in the rear of the garden. The landlord was a pleasant, social gentleman, well informed on all topics of interest, and preferred hiring his help rather than be the owner of a human being. Having learned this, I was less guarded in talking about their institutions than I should otherwise have been. Among the guests at the hotel was a family of Quakers on their way from Eastern Virginia to Indiana. One of the young men told me that he had never been outside of the State of Virginia; had long been disgusted with the wickedness and cruelty of slavery which he could not avoid seeing and hearing every day. The horrors of the everyday life on the plantations as described by him exceeded everything related in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and he had sold out, and the family were going to settle in a free State.

I was sitting on the piazza talking with this man, when a coffle of slaves came in front of the house and were hustled along by the driver; the men were fine looking fellows, though they were bare-footed, and most of them bare-headed; they were chained by the right wrist to a long bar of iron. The women were not fettered, some of them carried infants in their arms, and some children rode on the wagon with the corn on which they all were fed. They soon started toward a steamboat lying at the levee, and were shipped for the New Orleans market. This was the first drove of slaves I had ever seen, and being a little excited, I made a remark to the Quaker which the landlord overheard, and touching my shoulder, he beckoned me to go with him. We went aside, and he said to me, “You are going to Kentucky, and I advise you to beware how you speak of these things. There are men in this place, who, had they heard that remark, would have had you in jail in a hurry. I hope you will heed my advice.”

An incident that occurred on the U. G. R. R. not many months after, brought vividly to my remembrance the kind-hearted, unselfish landlord of the City Hotel in Wheeling. It was on a bitter cold day in December that a sleigh was driven into Fredonia, N. Y.; the driver had made some inquiries, (for this was his first trip as conductor,) and turned his team down the creek in search of a depot. It was late in the evening, and the road was badly drifted, but the train went through and made connection as usual. The passenger came out from under the driver’s seat, shook off the blankets and Buffalo robes that had hid him and kept him warm. He was not inclined to talk at first, but a hearty welcome, a warm supper, and the assurance that he was safe from his pursuers, induced him to give a brief account of his adventures. He said:

“I have always lived in Loudoun County, Virginia. My mother was the cook, and I worked about the house, and sometimes traveled with master,—went to Washington, Baltimore, Cumberland, and once to Wheeling, on horseback. One day, when mother gave me my dinner, she said, ‘Charley, all my children gone but you, and Massa’s done gone and sold you, and I’ll never see you ’gin.’ ‘Guess not, mother, he promised you to keep me always;’ but she said, ‘I heard him tell the trader he’ll send you to town Monday morning, and he must put you in jail.’ Well, I was afraid to tell mother what I would do, because maybe somebody would hear, so I couldn’t say good-bye to my poor old mother, but next morning master’s best horse and I were 50 miles away towards Wheeling. Hid in the woods all day, at night left the horse loose in the woods and went on as well as I could. Did not go through the towns, went round, then found the road and went on. Found corn in the fields, and some apples, and got to Wheeling in about 14 or 15 days. Was almost starved, went into the City Hotel before day-light. The landlord was up, and I asked him for some bread. He looked at me and said, ‘You are a runaway.’ I began to say ‘no,’ but he said, ‘Go with me!’ We went to the barn, and he said, ‘Do you know whose horse that is?’ Then I owned up, and begged him to let me go and not tell master. He then read to me an advertisement, offering $500 reward for me. Then I thought, it’s no use trying—must go back, sold! sold! Oh! I wanted to die; but the man said, ‘See here! you see that house beyond that lot?’ ‘Yes, master,’ I said, ‘You go there and tell them I said they must take care of you, and give you something to eat,’ Then he looked so happy, and I wanted to lie down and kiss his feet; but it was getting light. ‘Hurry,’ said he, ‘go right in the back door.’ When I got in I could see nobody but a sick woman on a bed. I told what the man said, and soon I heard horses running up the road, and looking out, saw my master and another man coming. I began to cry, but she told me to get under the bed and lie still, and when I had done so she took up her baby, and got it to screaming with all its might. Soon master opened the door and looked in, and asked if a negro boy had come in there. The baby cried and she pretended to try to stop it, and asked him what he wanted. He repeated the question. She tried to hush the baby, and finally said, ‘Husband is at the barn; he can tell you if he has been here.’ They went to the barn, and soon I heard them running their horses up the road. Then she said to me, ‘Go up the ladder and lie down on the floor,’ which I did, and when the man came in with his milk pail, he asked his wife who that man was, inquiring about a boy? She said, ‘I don’t know, but I know where the boy is.’ ‘Where is he?’ ‘He went up the ladder, and you must carry him something to eat, poor fellow, he’s starved.’ As soon as he could, he came to me with enough to eat, and then fixed a place for me to lie down, and said, ‘You are tired and sleepy. Now go to sleep, and if you wake, don’t stir nor make a noise until I come.’ Having slept little since I started, I slept all day; it was dark when he roused me up and told me to go down. I found a good supper ready, and while I was eating the man and his wife said not a word. When I had done he said, ‘Come out here.’ Following him, I saw at the door three horses; there was a man on one of them; I was told to mount one, and he mounted the other. I was between them. Not a word was spoken, and passing round the edge of the town near the hill, we came to the road leading north near the bluff above the river. I didn’t know what it all meant, but supposed they were going to give me up, and claim the $500. We rode three miles maybe, hitched the horses in some bushes, and went down the steep bluff to the Ohio River. He pulled a stake and threw it into a boat that was tied to it, and motioned me to get in. We soon got across the river, then taking a little bundle, he directed me to go forward, and we were soon on a road. He then put two loaves of bread in my hand, and said to me, ‘This is a free State, and there is the north star,’ pointing to it; ‘God bless you,’ and I soon heard the splash of his pole in the river, and started northward.”

Charley found himself alone in the road, the river on his right hand, broad fields on his left, and no house in sight; as to the north star, he looked towards it when his friend pointed towards it, but did not know which it was; his education had been neglected. Smart negroes knew that star by sight. When a slave could find the north star, and show his mother how he knew it, and by what signs he found it, he was ready to graduate—he had finished his education—but Charley, poor fellow, had been having an easy time, riding about with his master, caring for the horses, blacking his boots, and brushing his clothes, and had not thought of going north until his mother told him that he had been sold. Besides, Charley was terribly disappointed. He supposed he was to be delivered to his master; that a white man would feed him and help him on his way to freedom, when he could have $500 for less trouble and no risk, he had not supposed was possible. He began to feel dizzy and faint, went a few rods and sat down, and soon fell asleep. He dreamed that two men were putting him into jail; he struggled, and awoke up finding himself alone, and darkness all around. He soon aroused sufficiently to understand the situation, and started along the road, not knowing whether he was going north or south, but kept going until it began to be light, when he saw a paper nailed to a board fence with a picture of a negro running, and looking like the advertisement that the landlord showed him in his barn. While he stood looking at it, a man came behind him, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, what have we here? He turned to run, but the man held on to him, speaking kindly, and said, “don’t be frightened, let us see what this is about;” then he read the advertisement, and looking at Charley, said, “this means you come with me, there is no time to be lost.” He took him to a safe place far back in the woods, and seeing that he had bread with him, he said, “I will bring you more food to-night,” and left him.

When he came to bring food, he told Charley that he would have to stay a few days until the men that were looking for him were gone. He was soon taken to a comfortable place, but it was two or three weeks before his kind conductor felt safe in starting with him.

The route from Wheeling was supposed to be towards Detroit at that season of the year, and the hunters were able to trace Charley going that way. They met, all along the way, men who had seen him, and could describe him as well as if they had known him from his childhood. Those rascally U. G. R. R. conductors were putting him through Carroll, Starke, Wayne, Ashland, and Huron counties, toward Detroit, where he could cross over. There were plenty of men along this route that were waiting to show them the way he had gone.

Meanwhile, Charley was on the short route to Buffalo, by way of Meadville, Pa., and Westfield, N. Y., though no man saw him on the way.

At Westfield Mr. Knowlton kept the station, and it was his splendid team, that on that cold day in December, came into Fredonia and turned off at the old Pemberton stand on the West Hill, and landed Charley at the cosy little station in Cordova, from whence he was sent forward the next day to Black Rock and across the river to Canada.

In relating Charley’s escape, I have met some people who doubted that story about the landlord in Wheeling. That kind of people have found the parable of the good Samaritan a stumbling block too great to get over, and so multitudes of men have neglected the whole of the New Testament rather than believe and practice its lesson.

CHAPTER II.

DAN’S TRIP FROM DUNKIRK—SEES HIS MASTER IN THE CAR—R. R. CONDUCTOR’S ADVICE FRIENDS IN NEED—SAFE ARRIVAL IN CANADA.

On a dark night in January, 1858, about midnight, we were aroused by heavy steps on the piazza, and the signal of the express train of the U. G. R. R. On opening the door we saw the laughing face of the conductor from the second station west, and above his head, (he was a short man,) the face of a terribly frightened negro. “Here,” said the conductor, “is something to be done in a hurry; this is a valuable feller, I tell ye, and his master is close at his heels. You can’t conceal him here, for the old man will be down on you before morning. He’s a valuable feller, and they are sharp on his tracks.”

We had a live engine in the barn, with a light car on runners, and the first impulse was to fire up and run to the next station, where friend Andrew and his good wife had a way of circumventing slave catchers in a manner peculiar to themselves, of which more may be said at another time. This plan was, however, rejected as unsafe.

On consultation it was decided that he should be lodged in an old house back in a field, on the skirts of the village, the house belonging to an old sailor, who had been converted from so-called Democracy to humanity, by having, while commanding a vessel on Lake Erie, been pressed into service in connection with the U. G. R. R. The Captain had been educated to believe in the so-called Democratic doctrine, “that slavery is the chief corner-stone of free institutions,” but if I were to tell his experience in running his first train on this road, you would agree with me that the secrets of our officers would be safe in his hands. I may do so some time.

Dan had been forwarded from Corning to Dunkirk on a freight car, and on his arrival in the evening, the agent to whom he was consigned bought his ticket to Buffalo, and seated him behind the door at the rear end of the car. Just as it was starting two men came in and took seats near the other end of the car, their backs toward him. One of them was his master, and the other a celebrated slave hunter. When the conductor came for his ticket, Dan said to him, “Master, will you please stop and let me get off?” Conductor said, “are you afraid of those fellows with the red whiskers?” “Yes,” said Dan, “I know ’em.” “Do they know yon are here?” “Guess not,” said Dan. “Well, follow me, said the conductor. Taking Dan into another car, he told him to step off as soon as the train stopped, and go behind a woodpile, and the depot agent would find him as soon as the train started, and tell him where to go. The conductor told the agent, at Silver Creek, who found him as soon as the train started, so scared that he could hardly stand or speak, and sent a boy with him to a Democratic Deacon, Andrews, and he, without knowing it, put him again on the line of the U. G. R. R. in Arkwright, by giving him in charge of a colored man, John Little. The next night the wide-awake conductor, farmer Cranston, near Forestville, arrived at our station near 12 o’clock, as above stated.

Dan was warmed and fed, and secreted in the old house until it was deemed safe for him to go on, supposing the pursuers to have lost the track and abandoned the search. But not so; their spies were on the line watching every little skiff in Black Rock harbor, when friend Andrew, just at daylight, having signaled the boatmen, left his carriage in a back street, and led Dan through a narrow lane to where a boat lay hid, and out of the water. It was launched in a moment, and Dan and two boatmen were on their way to Canada before the spies watching the other boats could give the alarm.

While friend A. stood on the shore watching the fugitive as he landed on the Canada side, the slave hunters arrived on the spot, and seeing an honest looking face under a broad brim, inquired if he had seen a “nigger” starting from somewhere along there in a boat. Being answered in the affirmative, with a pretty good description of him, and the remark that “he is safe now, for he has just landed under the flag of Old England,” they came out on the old man with a terrible volley of oaths, threats and imprecations. His cool answer was, “Friend, inasmuch as such conversation can avail thee nothing, would it not be wise to say no more about it? Farewell;” and he went to his carriage and started homeward.

Dan came back and worked for the Captain the next summer. Afterwards he attended school, and when the 112th Regiment went to the front, from this county, Dan went as waiter for an officer.

CHAPTER III.

TOM STOWE—HIS VALUE TO HIS MASTER—HIS BOY SOLD AND HIS WIFE DIES—HE FINDS HIS BOY—HIS ESCAPE TO PITTSBURG, AND THENCE TO CANADA.

The “fugitives from labor” who took passage on the U. G. R. R., were generally of the most intelligent class, and but for their use of certain words and phrases common to both master and servant in the slave States, they would often have been rejected as having no claim to accommodations on our line. One of the most remarkable men of this class that came this way was Tom Stowe. Tom’s master was a sporting gentleman, living, when at home, on his plantation, about 18 miles from Vicksburgh, Miss., and was known from New Orleans to Baltimore as an enterprising, reckless and generally successful sporting man, but not as a common gambler. He kept from ten to twenty race horses, a half dozen fighting dogs, and never failed to buy the smartest fighting cocks, at whatever price. Tom said he had paid as high as $1,000 for a single cock. Tom was head man in his sporting establishment, managed the training, grooming, feeding and fitting of all the animals and birds, and had become so necessary and important an item in the concern, that Stowe more than once refused to sell him for $3,000, offered by rival sportsmen. They usually started north in April, by the way of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, sported some at Memphis, Louisville and Cincinnati, and leaving the steamboat at Wheeling, went up to Morgantown, where they stopped to recruit and fit the horses and fighting cocks for the June races and sporting in Baltimore. Stowe would often leave Tom in charge of the establishment while recruiting in Morgantown, and go to Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Morgantown is o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• INTRODUCTORY.
• PREFACE.
• CHAPTER I. THE SLAVE COFFLE AT WHEELING, VA.—THE KIND-HEARTED LANDLORD—THE GOOD SAMARITAN—THE HUNTERS MISLED—THE ESCAPE.
• CHAPTER II. DAN’S TRIP FROM DUNKIRK—SEES HIS MASTER IN THE CAR—R. R. CONDUCTOR’S ADVICE FRIENDS IN NEED—SAFE ARRIVAL IN CANADA.
• CHAPTER III. TOM STOWE—HIS VALUE TO HIS MASTER—HIS BOY SOLD AND HIS WIFE DIES—HE FINDS HIS BOY—HIS ESCAPE TO PITTSBURG, AND THENCE TO CANADA.
• CHAPTER IV. ORIGIN OF THE U. G. R. R. “JO NORTON.”
• CHAPTER V. JO NORTON, CONTINUED—MAKING THEIR WAY FROM WASHINGTON TO ALBANY—JO GOES TO SCHOOL—LECTURES TO BUY HIS WIFE AND CHILD—SUCCEEDS—THE HAPPY MEETING
• CHAPTER VI. “JO NORTON,” CONTINUED—HIS QUICKNESS AT REPARTEE—LECTURES IN VILLENOVA—SETTLES IN SYRACUSE—ENFORCING THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW—THE “SHADRACH” CASE IN BOSTON—EFFECT ON SYRACUSE AND THE EMPIRE STATE
• CHAPTER VII. THE “JERRY RESCUE”—JO NORTON HEADS THE PARTY THAT RESCUES JERRY—EXCITING TIMES IN SYRACUSE—THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW IN CONTEMPT—JO GOES TO CANADA
• CHAPTER VIII. GEORGE AND CLARA—THEY REACH OBERLIN—HOTLY PURSUED TAKE PASSAGE WITH CAPT. TITUS—RECOGNIZED BY THEIR OWNER—CAPT. TITUS’ EXPERIENCE—AN INCIDENT OF THE BURNING OF THE ERIE—ESCAPE OF THE FUGITIVES
• CHAPTER IX. AN OLD-FASHIONED DEMOCRAT—THE U. G. R. R. BUSINESS A MEANS OF POLITICAL CONVERSION
• CHAPTER X. TWO DEMOCRATIC NEIGHBORS VOTE FOR JAMES K. POLK—AND HAVE A VISIT THE EVENING AFTER ELECTION—THEY BECOME U. G. R. R. AGENTS—THE ESCAPE OF ROBERT
• CHAPTER XI. TRUE DEMOCRATS VERSUS COPPERHEADS—THE ESCAPE OF STATIE AND LILA—FROM WASHINGTON, D. C., TO WARSAW, N. Y., IN A BOX—PURSUERS FOILED.
• CHAPTER XII. MARGARET—BORN ON A SLAVE SHIP—CHILDHOOD IN A KIND FAMILY—ANOTHER MASTER, WICKED, CRUEL, AND A COWARD—HER HUSBAND SOLD AND SHE ESCAPES—HUNTED WITH BLOOD-HOUNDS AND RESCUED BY A MASTIFF—ARRIVES IN NEW YORK—HER SON, SAMUEL R. WARD.
• CHAPTER XIII. THE ESCAPE OF JIM AND HIS COMPANIONS—NIGHT MEETINGS AMONG THE SLAVES—AN ANGRY SOUTHERNER IN FREDONIA
• CHAPTER XIV. BLACKSMITH HENRY—WORKS HIS WAY FROM NEW ORLEANS TO BALTIMORE—WRITES HIS OWN PASS AND GETS ON TO SPRINGVILLE, N. Y.—FALLS INTO GOOD HANDS AND GETS SAFELY THROUGH—SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS EARLY LIFE—A CHRISTIAN LADY IN KENTUCKY—A PREACHER IN A TIGHT PLACE
• CHAPTER XV. JOE AND ROSA—SOLD—THE ESCAPE—THEY REACH THE SOUTHERN TERMINUS OF U. G. R. R.—DANGER SIGNALS—THE QUAKER FRIEND—THE MASTER ON THE TRACK — OUTWITTED BY THE QUAKER—SAFE IN WILBERFORCE COLONY
• CHAPTER XVI. CASSEY ESCAPES FROM BALTIMORE—RETURNS FOR HER CHILD—ESCAPES AGAIN IN SAILOR COSTUME—ELUDES THE SLAVE CATCHER, CATHCART—GOES TO CANADA—RETURNS TO NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y.—THE SLAVE CATCHER FINDS HER—A LONG RIDE AND HOW IT CAME OUT—AN INTELLIGENT IRISHMAN—WHAT MARGARET DID FOR HIM
• CHAPTER XVII. TOM HAWKINS—NEGROES AND POOR WHITES IN KENTUCKY—TOM RUNS HIS OWN TRAIN—SELLS HIS SHIRT TO PAY HIS FARE AT THE FERRY—IS BORN INTO GOD’S FREE AIR ALMOST AS NAKED AS HE WAS BORN INTO SLAVERY—HIS MODESTY, INDUSTRY, INTELLIGENCE AND PROSPERITY
• CHAPTER XVIII. WILLIAM AND MARGARET—SEVENTY YEARS OLD AND DETERMINED TO BE FREE—HALF BROTHER TO A U. S. SENATOR—ARGUMENT IN A R. R. CAR
• CHAPTER XIX. AN OLD TIME MISSIONARY AT THE SOUTH—SPEAKS HIS MIND BUT LOSES HIS SHIRTS—THE SLAVEHOLDER’S PENITENT LETTER.
• CHAPTER XX. REV. J. W. LOGUEN HIS TRIAL AND RELEASE—LECTURES IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY—UNEXPECTED CORROBORATION
• CHAPTER XXI. THE SOUTHERN U. G. R. R.—ITS USE DURING THE WAR—A UNION PRISONER’S EXPERIENCE ESCAPING FROM ANDERSONVILLE
• CHAPTER XXII. FRIGHTENED MOSES—EXPECTING TO BE KILLED AND EATEN BY ABOLITIONISTS
• CHAPTER XXIII. ONEDA LACKOW’S FLIGHT FROM ALABAMA—CAPTURE AND ESCAPE—THE FAITHFUL DOG—THE KIND-HEARTED JAILER’S WIFE—GRADUATES FROM A SEMINARY AND GOES TO ENGLAND
• APPENDIX. JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS.
• Copyright