The Underground Railroad eBook

William Still
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,446 pages of information about The Underground Railroad.

The Underground Railroad eBook

William Still
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,446 pages of information about The Underground Railroad.

The fearless Garrett communicated through the mail, as usual, the following intelligence: 

    WILMINGTON, 8th mo. 25th, 1859.

ESTEEMED FRIEND, WM. STILL:—­The brig Alvena, of Lewistown, is in the Delaware opposite here, with four females on board.  The colored man, who has them in charge, was employed by the husband of one of them to bring his wife up.  When he arrived here, he found the man had left.  As the vessel is bound to Red Bank, I have advised him to take them there in the vessel, and to-morrow take them in the steamboat to the city, and to the Anti-slavery office.  He says they owe the captain one dollar and fifty cents for board, and I gave him three dollars, to pay the captain and take them to your office.  I have a man here, to go on to-night, that was nearly naked; shall rig him out pretty comfortably.  Poor fellow, he has lost his left hand, but he says he can take care of himself.  In haste, thy friend,

    THOS.  GARRETT.

While Father Abraham was using his utmost powers to put down the rebellion, in 1864, a young man who had “been most unrighteously sold for seven years,” desirous of enlisting, sought advice from the wise and faithful Underground Rail Road manager, who gave him the following letter, which may be looked upon in the light of a rare anecdote, as there is no doubt but that the “professed non-resistant” in this instance, hoped to see the poor fellow “snugly fixed in his regimentals” doing service for “Father Abraham.”

    WILMINGTON, 1st mo. 23d, 1864.

RESPECTED FRIEND, WILLIAM STILL:—­The bearer of this, Winlock Clark, has lately been most unrighteously sold for seven years, and is desirous of enlisting, and becoming one of Uncle Sam’s boys; I have advised him to call on thee so that no land sharks shall get any bounty for enlisting him; he has a wife and several children, and whatever bounty the government or the State allows him, will be of use to his family.  Please write me when he is snugly fixed in his regimentals, so that I may send word to his wife.  By so doing, thee will much oblige thy friend, and the friend of humanity,

    THOMAS GARRETT.

    N.B.  Am I naughty, being a professed non-resistant, to advise
    this poor fellow to serve Father Abraham?  T.G.

We have given so many of these inimitable Underground Rail Road letters from the pen of the sturdy old laborer, not only because they will be new to the readers of this work, but because they so fittingly illustrate his practical devotion to the Slave, and his cheerfulness—­in the face of danger and difficulty—­in a manner that other pens might labor in vain to describe.

DANIEL GIBBONS.

A life as uneventful as the one whose story we are about to tell, affords little scope for the genius of the biographer or the historian, but being carefully studied, it cannot fail to teach a lesson of devotion and self-sacrifice, which should be learned and remembered by every succeeding age.

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Project Gutenberg
The Underground Railroad from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.