The Underground Railroad
she turned the butt end of the cowhide and struck me five or six blows
over my head as hard as she could; she then throwed the cowhide down and
told a little girl to untie me. The little girl was not able to do it;
Mr. McCaully then untied me himself. Both times that I was beat the
blood run down from my head to my feet.
"They wouldn't give you anything to eat hardly. McCaully bore the name
of coming by free colored children without buying them, and selling them
afterwards. One boy on the place always said that he was free but had
been kidnapped from Arkansas. He could tell all about how he was
kidnapped, but could not find anybody to do anything for him, so he had
to content himself.
"McCaully bought me from a man by the name of Landers. While in Landers'
hands I had the rheumatism and was not able to work. He was afraid I was
going to die, or he would lose me, and I would not be of any service to
him, so he took and traded me off for a wagon. I was something better
when he traded me off; well enough to be about. My health remained bad
for about four years, and I never got my health until Moore bought me.
Moore took me for a debt. McCaully owed Moore for wagons. I was not born
in Missouri but was born in Virginia. From my earliest memory I was
owned by Conrad Hackler; he lived in Grason County. He was a very poor
man, and had no other slave but me. He bought me before I was quite four
years old, for one hundred dollars. Hackler bought me from a man named
William Scott. I must go back by good rights to the beginning and tell
all: Scott bought me first from a young man he met one day in the road,
with a bundle in his arms. Scott, wishing to know of the young man what
he had in his bundle, was told that he had a baby. 'What are you going
to do with it?' said Scott. The young man said that he was going to take
it to his sister; that its mother was dead, and it had nobody to take
care of it. Scott offered the young man a horse for it, and the young
man took him up. This is the way I was told that Scott came by me. I
never knowed anything about my mother or father, but I have always
believed that my mother was a white woman, and that I was put away to
save her character; I have always thought this. Under Hackler I was
treated more like a brute than a human being. I was fed like the dogs;
had a trough dug out of a piece of wood for a plate. After I growed up
to ten years old they made me sleep out in an old house standing off
some distance from the main house where my master and mistress lived. A
bed of straw and old rags was made for me in a big trough called the tan
trough (a trough having been used for tanning purposes). The cats about
the place came and slept with me, and was all the company I had. I had
to work with the hoe in the field and help do everything in doors and
out in all weathers. The place was so poor that some seasons he would
not raise twenty bushels of corn and hardly three bushels of wheat. As
for shoes I never knowed what it was to have a pair of shoes until I was
grown up. After I growed up to be a woman my master thought nothing of
taking my clothes off, and would whip me until the blood would run down
to the ground. After I was twenty-five years old they did not treat me
so bad; they both professed to get religion about that time; and my
master said he would never lay the weight of his finger on me again.
Once after that mistress wanted him to whip me, but he didn't do it, nor
never whipped me any more. After awhile my master died; if they had gone
according to law I would have been hired out or sold, but my mistress
wanted to keep me to carry on the place for her support. So I was kept
for seven or eight years after his death. It was understood between my
mistress, and her children, and her friends, who all met after master
died, that I was to take care of mistress, and after mistress died I
should not serve anybody else. I done my best to keep my mistress from
suffering. After a few years they all became dissatisfied, and moved to
Missouri. They scattered, and took up government land. Without means
they lived as poor people commonly live, on small farms in the woods. I
still lived with my mistress. Some of the heirs got dissatisfied, and
sued for their rights or a settlement; then I was sold with my child, a
boy."
Thus Aunt Hannah reviewed her slave-life, showing that she had been in
the hands of six different owners, and had seen great tribulation under
each of them, except the last; that she had never known a mother's or a
father's care; that Slavery had given her one child, but no husband as a
protector or a father. The half of what she passed through in the way of
suffering has scarcely been hinted at in this sketch. Fifty-seven years
were passed in bondage before she reached Philadelphia. Under the good
Providence through which she came in possession of her freedom, she
found a kind home with a family of Abolitionists, (Mrs. Gillingham's),
whose hearts had been in deep sympathy with the slave for many years. In
this situation Aunt Hannah remained several years, honest, faithful, and
obliging, taking care of her earnings, which were put out at interest
for her by her friends. Her mind was deeply imbued with religious
feeling, and an unshaken confidence in God as her only trust; she
connected herself with the A.M.E. Bethel Church, of Philadelphia, where
she has walked, blameless and exemplary up to this day. Probably there
is not a member in that large congregation whose simple faith and whose
walk and conversation are more commendable than Aunt Hannah's. Although
she has passed through so many hardships she is a woman of good judgment
and more than average intellect; enjoys good health, vigor, and peace of
mind in her old days, with a small income just sufficient to meet her
humble wants without having to live at service. After living in
Philadelphia for several years, she was married to a man of about her
own age, possessing all her good qualities; had served a life-time in a
highly respectable Quaker family of this city, and had so won the esteem
of his kind employer that at his death he left him a comfortable house
for life, so that he was not under the necessity of serving another. The
name of the recipient of the good Quaker friend's bounty and Aunt
Hannah's companion, was Thomas Todd. After a few years of wedded life,
Aunt Hannah was called upon to be left alone again in the world by the
death of her husband, whose loss was mourned by many friends, both
colored and white, who knew and respected him.
KIDNAPPING OF RACHEL AND ELIZABETH PARKER--MURDER OF JOSEPH C. MILLER IN
1851 AND 1852.
Those who were interested in the Anti-Slavery cause, and who kept posted
with reference to the frequent cases of kidnapping occurring in
different Free States, especially in Pennsylvania, during the twenty
years previous to emancipation, cannot fail to remember the kidnapping
of Rachel and Elizabeth Parker, and the murder of Joseph C. Miller, who
resided in West Nottingham township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in
the latter part of 1851, and the beginning of 1852.
Both the kidnapping and the murder at the time of the occurrence shocked
and excited the better thinking and humane classes largely, not only in
Pennsylvania, but to a considerable extent over the Northern States. It
may be said, without contradiction, that Chester county, at least, was
never more aroused by any one single outrage that had taken place within
her borders, than by these occurrences. For a long while the interest
was kept alive, and even as lately as the past year (1870), we find the
case still agitating the citizens of Chester county. Judge Benjamin I.
Passmore, of said county, in defence of truth in an exhaustive article
published in the "Village Record," West Chester, Oct. 12th, 1870, gives
a reliable version of the matter, from beginning to end, which we feel
constrained to give in full, as possessing great historical value,
bearing on kidnapping in general, especially in Pennsylvania.
TOM M'CREARY.
FRIEND EVANS:--I noticed in the "Village Record," a short time
since, an article taken from the Delaware "Transcript," an
obituary notice of the death of the noted character, whose name
heads this article, in which false statements were made,
relative to the outrage he committed in kidnapping Rachel and
Elizabeth Parker, two colored girls who were then, 1851,
residing in the southern portion of Chester county. In your
paper of the 13th ult., I also read an answer to the charges and
insinuations made in the "Transcript," against Joseph C. Miller,
(whose life was basely destroyed), and other citizens of Chester
county; as the occurrence took place in my immediate
neighborhood, and I was familiar with all the facts and
circumstances, I propose to give a truthful history of that vile
and wicked transaction.
In the winter of 1851, the said McCreary in some unexplained
way, took Elizabeth Parker, one of the said colored girls, from
the house of one Donally (not McDonald), in the township of East
Nottingham, where she was living; but little was said about it
by Donally, or any one else. Soon after, McCreary with two or
three others of like proclivities, called at the house of Joseph
C. Miller, in West Nottingham, where Rachel was living, and
seized her, gagged her, and placed her in a carriage and drove
off. The screams of Mrs. Miller and her children, soon brought
the husband and father to the rescue; he pursued them on foot,
and at a short distance overtook them in a narrow private road,
disputing with James Pollock, the owner of the land, whose wagon
prevented them from passing. They turned and took another road,
and came out at Stubb's Mill, making for the Maryland line with
all possible speed; they arrived at Perryville before the train
for Baltimore. Eli Haines and a young man named Wiley, who lived
near Rising Sun, Maryland, about two miles from Joseph C.
Miller's, arrived at the same place soon after, intending to go
to Philadelphia. Mr. Haines knew Rachel, and seeing McCreary
there, and her so overwhelmed in sorrow, at once guessed the
situation of affairs, and he and Wiley changed their intentions
of going to Philadelphia, and went in the same car with McCreary
and his victim, to Baltimore, and quietly watched what
disposition would be made of her, as they felt certain pursuit
would be made.
As soon as possible, after McCreary had escaped from West
Nottingham, Joseph C. Miller, William Morris, Abner Richardson,
Jesse B. Kirk, and H.G. Coates, started in pursuit on horseback;
when they arrived at Perryville, the train had gone, with the
kidnapper and the girl; they followed in the next train. Soon
after they arrived in Baltimore, they were met by Haines and
Wiley, who had been on the lookout for a pursuing party, and
they gave the information that Rachel was deposited in
Campbell's slave-pen. They were directed by an acquaintance of
one of the party, to Francis S. Cochran, a prominent member of
the Society of Friends. Francis informed them he was well
acquainted with Campbell, and he at once accompained them.
Campbell assured Friend Cochran that whilst he approved of
Slavery and catching runaway slaves, he despised kidnapping and
kidnappers; and on the arrival of McCreary, he ordered him to
remove Rachel forthwith, which he proceeded to do. Friend
Cochran insisted on going with them, and saw the girl deposited
in jail to await a legal investigation. By this time it was
evening, and the Chester county men all went home with Cochran,