THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

The secret routes for transporting fugitive slaves to the free States of the North and to Canada were popularly known as "underground railroads." Friends of the fleeing slaves, by systematic and co-operative efforts, aided them to elude the pursuit of the slave hunters. There were at convenient distances "stations," that is, the houses of persons who held themselves in readiness to receive fugitives, singly or in numbers, at any hour of the day or at night, to feed, shelter and clothe, if necessary, and to conceal until they could be dispatched with safety to some other station along the route. There were other persons, known as conductors who held themselves ready at all times to take the fugitives by private or public conveyance and transport them to the next station. If they went by a private conveyance, they generally trav eled in the night, by such routes and with such disguises as gave the best warrant against detection either by the slave-catchers or their many sympathizers.

As early as 1786, there are evidences of an underground road. A letter of George Washington, written in that year, speaks of a slave escaping from Virginia to Philadelphia, and being there aided by a society of Quakers formed for the purpose of assisting in liberating slaves. It was not, however, until after the War of 1812, that escaped slaves began to find their way by the underground roads in considerable numbers to Canada.

From Maine to Kansas, all the Northern States were dotted with the underground stations and covered with a network of the underground roads. It is estimated that between 1830 and 1860 over 9,000 slaves were aided to escape by way of Philadelphia. During this same period in Ohio, 40,000 fugitives are said to have escaped by way of the underground railroads. A number of slaves also escaped from Texas and the Southwest into Mexico. There is at present at Nacimiento Coahuila, Mexico, a colony of about 300 Negroes which is made up of descendants of fugitive slaves and Negro soldiers who remained in Mexico when the United States army went there to drive the French out of the country. When the American army crossed the Rio Grande it was divided into two parts. One part went to help drive out the French. The Negro soldiers, under the command of Colonel Shafter, went westward and fought against the Indians. For services which these Negroes rendered, the Mexican Government granted them 14 leagues of land which is at present held as a reservation so that it can be protected from intruders. The papers setting aside this grant were signed by representatives of the government of Mexico and of the United States.

REFERENCES: Seibert "The Underground Railroad;" Mitchell "The Underground Railroad;" William Still "Underground Railroad Records;" "The Reminiscences of Levi Coffin;" Smedley "The Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Towns of Pennsylvania."

NEGROES CONNECTED WITH ABOLITION AND UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Brown, William Wells.-Anti-slavery agitator. Agent of the underground railroad. Born a slave in St. Louis, Mo., 1816.

As a boy, Brown worked in the printing office of Elijah B. Lovejoy. In 1834 he escaped to the North and obtained a position on a Lake Erie steamer. Here he was of great service in assisting slaves to make their way to Canada. In 1843 he became a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery Society and continued in that position until 1849. He is the author of several books, the more important of which are "The Black Man," "The Rising Sun," and "Sketches of Places and People Abroad."

Douglass, Frederick.-Noted American anti-slavery agitator and journalist. Born a slave at Tuckahoe, near Easton, Maryland, February, 1817. Died February 2, 1895.

In 1838 Douglass escaped from slavery under the disguise of a sailor. He went first to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1841 he attended an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket and spoke with such power and eloquence that he was immediately sent out as a lecturer under the auspices of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He became one of the most prominent anti-slavery agitators. He received and accepted an invitation to lecture in Great Britain. In 1847 he settled at Rochester, New York, and began to publish an abolition paper, "The North Star." In 1845 he published his autobiography. In 1882 his autobiography was republished under the title, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass." He held a number of prominent political positions, the more important of which were Marshall of the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds of the District, and Minister to Haiti. Whipper, William.-Successful business man, anti-slavery agitator, editor of The National Reformer.

Mr. Whipper began the lumber business in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in partnership with Stephen Smith. In order to have a better field for their operations they moved to Philadelphia and opened one of the largest wood and coal yards in the city. The firm owned many rafts and employed many boatmen and raftsmen. In 1849, the firm was said to hold, besides many thousand bushels of coal, 250,0000 feet of lumber, 22 merchantmen cars running between Philadelphia and Baltimore, and $9,000 worth of stock in the Co

lumbia bridge. Their notes were accepted for any amount. Mr.
Whipper gave much of his time to the advocacy of the freedom of
the slave. In 1838, Mr. Whipper became editor of the National
Reformer, a monthly magazine published by the American Moral
Reform Society. This magazine was the first effort in journalism
by Philadelphia Negroes.

Forten, James.-Negro abolitionist. Born in Philadelphia, September 6, 1766; died March 4, 1842. Forten was a sail-maker by trade.

He was educated in the school of the Quaker abolitionist, Anthony Benezet. Forten acquired considerable wealth. With the assistance of Richard Allen and Absolom Jones he helped to raise 2,500 colored volunteers for the protection of the city of Philadelphia when it was threatened by the English. He was chairman of the first convention of free Negroes held in Philadelphia, 1817. He was a warm friend and supporter of William Lloyd Garrison. It is said that several times, by personal contributions, he enabled Garrison to continue the publication of the "Liberator."

Harper, Mrs. Frances E. Watkins.-Distinguished anti-slavery lecturer, writer and poet. Born of free parents, 1825, Baltimore, Maryland; died February 22, 1911.

Mrs. Harper went to school to her uncle, Rev. William Watkins, who taught a school in Baltimore for free colored children. About 1851 she moved to Ohio and began teaching, but later came to Little York, Pennsylvania, where she became acquainted with the workings of the underground railroad and thereafter determined to devote her life to the anti-slavery cause. In 1854 she began career as a public lecturer, and in 1860 married Fenton Harper. By 1864 she had become known as an anti-slavery writer both in poetry and prose. After the close of the Civil War she came South, but later returned to Philadelphia and devoted her time to writing and lecturing for temperance work. For a time she had charge of the W. C. T. U. work among colored people. She published several books of poems. "Iola Leroy, or the Shadows Uplifted" is her best known prose work.

Hayden, Lewis.-Born 1815, died 1889. Runaway slave from Kentucky to Boston, Abolitionist.

Mr. Hayden's home was a common meeting place for councils affecting his race. It was also a station of the underground railroad. He himself came as a fugitive from Kentucky in 1844. Through native strength of character he soon became a dominant figure in Boston's Negro colony and so remained until his death. He was probably the only Negro office holder before the war. In 1859, he was appointed messenger to the Massachusetts secretary of State, which position he held until his death. In 1873, he was elected to the State legislature.

Lane, Lunsford.-Born a slave at Raleigh, N. C. He is placed in Prof. Bassett's "History of the Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina" among the four prominent abolitionists of that State.

It is said that Lane waited on LaFayette when he passed through Raleigh in 1824. Lane's ambition was to be free, and he began early in life to save money to purchase his freedom. He and his father manufactured a superior kind of smoking tobacco. They were at length permitted to manufacture this tobacco on their own account. At the end of eight years Lane had saved a thousand dollars with which to purchase his freedom. In 1839 he bought a home and negotiated for the purchasing of his wife and children for $2,500. Because of the laws of North Carolina, Lane was compelled to go to New York City to have the articles of his emancipation executed. When he returned he was arrested and was informed that under the law he must leave the State within twenty days. Before he could close up his business he was arrested and taken before the mayor on the charge of "delivering abolition lectures in Massachusetts." Replying to this charge Lane made a statement before the Mayor's Court which was probably the only abolition speech ever made by a Negro before a Southern audience.

REFERENCES: Bassett, Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina; Johns Hopkins University Studies; Washington, The Story of the Negro; and W. G. Hawkins, Lunsford Lane, Boston, 1863.

Purvis, Robert.-Anti-slavery agitator; chairman of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad, and member of the first Anti-slavery Convention in 1833.

Purvis was one of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments, at that time the most prominent anti-slavery man of the Negro race. In 1883 at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Anti-Slavery Convention held in Philadelphia, he was one of the three original signers present. John G. Whittier, the poet, and Elizur Wright, the anti-slavery editor, were the other two.

Remond, Charles Lenox.-Born at Salem, Massachusetts, 1810, dies 1873. First Negro to take lecture platform as an anti-slavery speaker.

He was president of the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society and was a vice-president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. In 1838 he took the field as a lecturer under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this capacity he canvassed New England. In 1840 he went to England as a delegate to the first World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. While aboard he delivered many anti-slavery lectures. On his return he brought a remarkable document, an "address from the Irish people to their countrymen and countrywomen in America." With the name of Daniel O'Connell at its head, sixty thousand names were appended to this monstrous memorial. The Irish-Americans were called

upon to treat the Negroes as brethren and everywhere to unite with
the abolitionists.

Russwurm, John Brown-Born in Jamaica, 1799; died in Liberia, 1851. Editor of the first Negro newspaper published in the United States, the "Freedmen's Journal," published in New York City, 1827.

Mr. Russwurm, one of the first Negroes to graduate from a college in the United States, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826; in 1829 he went to Liberia and became superintendent of the public schools and editor of the Liberia Herald. In 1836 he was appointed Governor of the District of Maryland in Liberia, in which position he died.

Tubman, Harriet.-Fugitive slave and one of the most famous of the underground railroad operators, died March 10, 1913.

Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland about 1849
when between twenty and twenty-five years of age, and at once
began to make trips into the South to aid others to escape. In
nineteen trips she is said to have led over three hundred fugitive
slaves into the Northern States and Canada. She was employed
during the Civil War in the secret service of the Federal Army.
After the war she founded a home at Auburn, New York, for aged
colored persons. She retained much of her vigor until she was
over eighty years old. For the two years previous to her death she
was cared for by friends and particularly the New York State Fed-
eration of Colored Women's Clubs.

REFERENCE: "Harriet, The Moses of Her People," Sarah H. Bradford, New
York, 1897.

Truth, Sojourner.-A noted anti-slavery speaker, born about 1775, in Africa. Brought, when a child, to America, she was sold as a slave in the State of New York.

After slavery was abolished in New York in 1827, Sojourner Truth became widely known in the North and was a prominent figure at anti-slavery meetings. Sojourner Truth was noted as a public speaker. She was able to "bear down an audience by a few simple words." She was greatly admired by Wendell Phillips, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and other prominent anti-slavery agitators.

REFERENCE: Narrative Sojourner Truth, Boston, 1850.

Still, William.-Secretary of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad. Born October 7, 1821, in Burlington County, New Jersey.

Still's father purchased his freedom. His mother was a fugitive slave. His brother was kidnapped and carried to Alabama. The Vigilance Committee was the directing body for all the numerous lines of the underground railroad which centered in Philadelphia.