The Underground Railroad
downright robbery. He left his mother, one sister, and other near kin.
After George went to Canada, his heart yearned tenderly after his mother
and sister, and, as the following letter will show, he was prepared to
make commendable exertions in their behalf:
ST. CATHARINES, JULY 19th, 1858.
DEAR SIR:--With pleasure I now inform you that I am well, and
hope this may find you and yours the same also. I hope kind sir
you will please to see Mr. Paul Hammon, to know when he will try
to get my Mother and Sister I wish him to send me word when he
will go so I may meet him in Philadelphia.
And I will Endevor to meet him there With some money to assist
him in getting them. Let me know when you start for them so I
may be able to meet you there, please after this letter passes
from you sir, give it to John Camper tell him to give it to his
Mother, so that my Mother can get it, be careful and not let no
white man get hold of it. I am now living with my cousin Leven
Parker, near Saint Catharines, $10 a month. No more at present,
from your friend,
GEORGE BALLARD.
The inquiry may arise, as to how such passengers managed to get through
Maryland and Delaware. But it cannot be expected that the manner in
which each arrival traveled should be particularly described. It might
not be prudent even now, to give the names of persons still living in
the South, who assisted their fellow-men in the dark days of Slavery. In
order, however, that some idea may be gathered as to the workings of one
branch of the road in Delaware (with names suppressed) we insert the
following original letter for what it may be worth.
CAMDEN, June 13, 1858.
MR. STILL:--I writ to inform you that we stand in need of help
if ever we wonted help it is in theas day, we have Bin trying to
rais money to By a hors but there is so few here that we can
trust our selves with for fear that they may serve us as tom
otwell served them when he got them in dover Jail. But he is dun
for ever, i wont to no if your friends can help us, we have a
Road that more than 100 past over in 1857. it is one we made for
them, 7 in march after the lions had them there is no better in
the State, we are 7 miles from Delaware Bay. you may understand
what i mean. I wrote last december to the anti Slavery Society
for James Mot and others concerning of purchasing a horse for
this Bisnes if your friends can help us the work must stil go on
for ther is much frait pases over this Road, But ther has Ben
but 3 conductors for sum time, you may no that there is but few
men, sum talks all dos nothing, there is horses owned by Collard
peopel but not for this purpose. We wont one for to go when
called for, one of our best men was nigh Cut By keeping of them
too long, By not having means to convay them tha must Be convad
if they pass over this Road safe tha go through in 2 nights to
Wilmington, for i went there with 28 in one gang last November,
tha had to ride for when thea com to us we go 15 miles, it is
hard Road to travel i had sum conversation with mr. Evens and
wos down here on a visit, pleas try what you can do for us this
is the place we need help, 12 mile i live from mason and Dixson
Line. I wod have come but cant have time, as yet there has been
some fuss about a boy ho lived near Camden, he has gone away, he
ses me and my brother nose about it but he don't.
There is but 4 slaves near us, never spoke to one of them but
wonce she never gos out pleas to tri and help, you can do much
if you will it will be the means of saving ourselves and others.
Ancer this letter.
Pleas to writ let me no if you can do anything for us. I still
remain your friend.
* * * * *
ARRIVAL FROM RICHMOND, 1858.
EBENEZER ALLISON.
"Eb" was a bright mulatto, handsome, well-made, and barely twenty years
of age. He reported that he fled from Mr. John Tilghman Foster, a
farmer, living in the vicinity of Richmond. His master, Ebenezer
unhesitatingly declared, was a first-rate man. "I had no right to leave
him in the world, but I loved freedom better than Slavery." After fully
setting forth the kind treatment he had been accustomed to receive under
his master, a member of the Committee desired to know of him if he could
read, to which he answered that he could, but he admitted that what
knowledge he had obtained in this direction was the result of efforts
made stealthily, not through any license afforded by his master. John
Tilghman Foster held deeds for about one hundred and fifty head of
slaves, and was a man of influence.
Ebenezer had served his time in the barber's shop. On escaping he
forsook his parents, and eight brothers and sisters. As he was so
intelligent, the Committee believed he would make his mark in life some
time.
* * * * *
ARRIVAL FROM RICHMOND, 1858.
JOHN THOMPSON CARR, ANN MOUNTAIN AND CHILD, AND WILLIAM BOWLER.
John was a sturdy-looking chattel, but possessed far less intelligence
than the generality of passengers. He was not too old, however, to
improve. The fact that he had spirit enough to resent the harsh
treatment of one Albert Lewis, a small farmer, who claimed to own him,
showed that he was by no means a hopeless case. With all his apparent
stupidity he knew enough to give his master the name of a "free whiskey
drinker," likewise of "beating and fighting the slaves." It was on this
account that John was compelled to escape.
Ann Mountain arrived from Delaware with her child about the same time
that John did, but not in company with him; they met at the station in
Philadelphia. That Slavery had crippled her in every respect was very
discernible; this poor woman had suffered from cuffing, etc., until she
could no longer endure her oppression. Taking her child in her arms, she
sought refuge beyond the borders of slave territory. Ann was about
twenty-two years of age, her child not quite a year old. They were
considered entitled to much pity.
William was forty-one years of age, dark, ordinary size, and
intelligent. He fled from Richmond, where he had been held by Alexander
Royster, the owner of fifteen slaves, and a tobacco merchant. William
said that his master was a man of very savage temper, short, and
crabbed. As to his social relations, William said that he was "a member
of nothing now but a liquor barrel."
Knowing that his master and mistress labored under the delusion that he
was silly enough to look up to them as kind-hearted slave-holders, to
whom he should feel himself indebted for everything, William thought
that they would be sadly puzzled to conjecture what had become of him.
He was sure that they would be slow to believe that he had gone to
Canada. Until within the last five years he had enjoyed many privileges
as a slave, but he had since found it not so easy to submit to the
requirements of Slavery. He left his wife, Nancy, and two children.
* * * * *
ARRIVAL FROM BALTIMORE, 1858.
ROBERTA TAYLOR.
The subject of this sketch was a young mulatto woman, twenty-three years
of age, who fled from the City of Baltimore. Both before and after her
escape Roberta appeared to appreciate her situation most fully. Her
language concerning freedom had in it the ring of common sense, as had
her remarks touching her slave life.
In making her grievances known to the Committee she charged Mr. and Mrs.
McCoy with having done great violence to her freedom and degrading her
womanhood by holding her in bonds contrary to her wishes. Of Mr. McCoy,
however, she spoke less severely than she did of his "better half."
Indeed she spoke of some kind traits in his character, but said that his
wife was one of "the torn down, devilish dispositions, all the time
quarreling and fighting, and would swear like an old sailor." It was in
consequence of these evil propensities that her ladyship was intolerable
to Roberta. Without being indebted to her owners for any privileges, she
had managed to learn to read a little, which knowledge she valued highly
and meant to improve in Canada.
Roberta professed to be a Christian, and was a member of the Bethel
Methodist Church. Her servitude, until within four years of her escape,
had been passed in Virginia, under Mrs. McCoy's father, when to
accommodate the daughter she was transferred to Baltimore. Of her
parentage or relatives no note was made on the book. It was sad to see
such persons destitute and homeless, compelled to seek refuge among
strangers, not daring to ask the slightest favor, sympathy or prayer to
aid her, Christian as she was, from any Christian of Baltimore, wearing
a fair skin.
* * * * *
ARRIVAL FROM HIGHTSTOWN, 1858.
ROBERT THOMPSON (A PREACHER).
Slavery exempted from the yoke no man with a colored skin no matter what
his faith, talent, genius, or worth might be. The person of Christ in a
black skin would scarcely have caused it to relinquish its tyrannical
grasp; neither God nor man was regarded by men who dealt in the bodies
and souls of their fellow-men. Robert stated to the Committee that he
fled from "John R. Laten, a very harsh kind of a farmer, who drank right
smart," that on the morning he "took out," while innocent of having
committed any crime, suddenly in a desperate fit of passion, his master
took him "by the collar," at the same time calling loudly to "John" for
"ropes." This alarming assault on the part of his master made the
preacher feel as though his Satanic majesty had possession of him. In
such a crisis he evidently felt that preaching would do no good; he was,
however, constrained to make an effort. To use his own words, he said:
"I gave a sudden jerk and started off on a trot, leaving my master
calling, 'stop! stop!' but I kept on running, and was soon out of
sight."
The more he thought over the brutal conduct of his master the more
decided he became never to serve him more, and straightway he resolved
to try to reach Canada. Being in the prime of his life (thirty-nine
years of age) and having the essential qualifications for traveling over
the Underground Rail Road, he was just the man to endure the trials
consequent upon such an undertaking.
Said Robert: "I always thought slavery hard, a very dissipated life to
live. I always thought we colored people ought to work for ourselves and
wives and children like other people." The Committee saw that Robert's
views were in every word sound doctrine, and for further light asked him
some questions respecting the treatment he had received at the hands of
his mistress, not knowing but that he had received kindness from the
"weaker vessel;" while enduring suffering under his master; but Robert
assured them in answer to this inquiry that his mistress was a very
"ill, dissipated woman," and "was not calculated to sympathize with a
poor slave." Robert was next interviewed with regard to religious
matters, when it was ascertained that he bore the name of being a "local
preacher of the gospel of the Bethel Methodist denomination." Thus in
leaving slavery he had to forsake his wife and three children, kinfolks
and church, which arduous task but for the brutal conduct of the master
he might have labored in vain for strength to perform.
As he looked calmly back upon the past, and saw how he and the rest of
the slaves had been deprived of their just rights he could hardly
realize how Providence could suffer slave-holders to do as they had been
doing in trampling upon the poor and helpless slaves. Yet he had strong