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.
thus escorted she was taken back in safety to the house from which she had been brought.  Her title to Freedom under the laws of the State will hardly again be brought into question.”

Mr. Williamson was committed to prison by Judge Kane for contempt of Court, on the 27th day of July, 1855, and was released on the 3d day of November the same year, having gained, in the estimation of the friends of Freedom every where, a triumph and a fame which but few men in the great moral battle for Freedom could claim.

* * * * *

THE ARRIVALS OF A SINGLE MONTH.

SIXTY PASSENGERS CAME IN ONE MONTH—­TWENTY-EIGHT IN ONE ARRIVAL—­GREAT PANIC AND INDIGNATION MEETING—­INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE FROM MASTERS AND FUGITIVES.

The great number of cases to be here noticed forbids more than a brief reference to each passenger.  As they arrived in parties, their narratives will be given in due order as found on the book of records: 

William Griffen, Henry Moor, James Camper, Noah Ennells and Levin Parker.  This party came from Cambridge, Md.

William is thirty-four years of age, of medium size and substantial appearance.  He fled from James Waters, Esq., a lawyer, living in Cambridge.  He was “wealthy, close, and stingy,” and owned nine head of slaves and a farm, on which William served.  He was used very hard, which was the cause of his escape, though the idea that he was entitled to his freedom had been entertained for the previous twelve years.  On preparing to take the Underground, he armed himself with a big butcher-knife, and resolved, if attacked, to make his enemies stand back.  His master was a member of the Methodist Church.

Henry is tall, copper-colored, and about thirty years of age.  He complained not so much of bad usage as of the utter distaste he had to working all the time for the “white people for nothing.”  He was also decidedly of the opinion that every man should have his liberty.  Four years ago his wife was “sold away to Georgia” by her young master; since which time not a word had he heard of her.  She left three children, and he, in escaping, also had to leave them in the same hands that sold their mother.  He was owned by Levin Dale, a farmer near Cambridge.  Henry was armed with a six-barreled revolver, a large knife, and a determined mind.

James is twenty-four years of age, quite black, small size, keen look, and full of hope for the “best part of Canada.”  He fled from Henry Hooper, “a dashing young man and a member of the Episcopal Church.”  Left because he “did not enjoy privileges” as he wished to do.  He was armed with two pistols and a dirk to defend himself.

Noah is only nineteen, quite dark, well-proportioned, and possessed of a fair average of common sense.  He was owned by “Black-head Bill LeCount,” who “followed drinking, chewing tobacco, catching ‘runaways,’ and hanging around the court-house.”  However, he owned six head of slaves, and had a “rough wife,” who belonged to the Methodist Church.  Left because he “expected every day to be sold”—­his master being largely in “debt.”  Brought with him a butcher-knife.

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