The Underground Railroad
I will give the above reward if taken in this County, or
one-half of what she sells for if taken out of the County or
State. In either ease to be lodged in Cambridge Jail.
Cambridge, Oct. 21, 1857.
ALEXANDER H. BAYLY.
P.S.--For the apprehension of the above-named negro man Nat, and
delivery in Cambridge Jail, I will give $500 reward.
JOHN MUIR.
Now since Nat's master has been introduced in the above order, it seems
but appropriate that Nat should be heard too; consequently the following
letter is inserted for what it is worth:
Auburn, June 10th, 1858.
Mr. William Still:--Sir, will you be so Kind as to write a
letter to affey White in straw berry alley in Baltimore city on
the point. Say to her at nat Ambey that I wish to Know from her
the Last Letar that Joseph Ambie and Henry Ambie two Brothers
and Ann Warfield a couisin of them two boys I state above. I
would like to hear from my mother sichy Ambie you will Please
write to my mother and tell her that I am well and doing well
and state to her that I perform my Relissius dutys and I would
like to hear from her and want to know if she is performing her
Relissius dutys yet and send me word from all her children I
left behind say to affey White that I wish her to write me a
Letter in Hast my wife is well and doing well and my nephew is
doing well. Please tell affey White when she writes to me to Let
me know where Joseph and Henry Ambie is.
Mr. Still Please Look on your Book and you will find my name on
your Book. They was eleven of us children and all when we came
through and I feal interrested about my Brothers. I have never
heard from them since I Left home you will Please Be Kind
annough to attend to this Letter. When you send the answer to
this Letter you will Please send it to P.R. Freeman Auburn City
Cayuga County New York.
Yours Truly
NAT AMBIE.
William is 25, complexion brown, intellect naturally good, with no
favorable notions of the peculiar institution. He was armed with a
formidable dirk-knife, and declared he would use it if attacked, rather
than be dragged back to bondage.
Hannah is a hearty-looking young woman of 23 or 24, with a countenance
that indicated that liberty was what she wanted and was contending for,
and that she could not willingly submit to the yoke. Though she came
with the Cambridge party, she did not come from Cambridge, but from
Marshall Hope, Caroline County, where she had been owned by Charles
Peters, a man who had distinguished himself by getting "drunk,
scratching and fighting, etc.," not unfrequently in his own family even.
She had no parents that she knew of. Left because they used her "so bad,
beat and knocked" her about.
"Jack Scott." Jack is about thirty-six years of age, substantially
built, dark color, and of quiet and prepossessing manners. He was owned
by David B. Turner, Esq., a dry goods merchant of New York. By birth,
Turner was a Virginian, and a regular slave-holder. His slaves were kept
hired out by the year. As Jack had had but slight acquaintance with his
New York owner, he says but very little about him. He was moved to leave
simply because he had got tired of working for the "white people for
nothing." Fled from Richmond, Va. Jack went to Canada direct. The
following letter furnishes a clew to his whereabouts, plans, etc.
MONTREAL, September 1st 1859.
DEAR SIR:--It is with extreme pleasure that I set down to
inclose you a few lines to let you know that I am well & I hope
when these few lines come to hand they may find you & your
family in good health and prosperity I left your house Nov. 3d,
1857, for Canada I Received a letter here from James Carter in
Peters burg, saying that my wife would leave there about the
28th or the first September and that he would send her on by way
of Philadelphia to you to send on to Montreal if she come on you
be please to send her on and as there is so many boats coming
here all times a day I may not know what time she will. So you
be please to give her this direction, she can get a cab and go
to the Donegana Hotel and Edmund Turner is there he will take
you where I lives and if he is not there cabman take you to Mr
Taylors on Durham St. nearly opposite to the Methodist Church.
Nothing more at present but Remain your well wisher
JOHN SCOTT.
C. Hitchens.--This individual took his departure from Milford, Del.,
where he was owned by Wm. Hill, a farmer, who took special delight in
having "fighting done on the place." This passenger was one of our least
intelligent travelers. He was about 22.
Major Ross.--Major fled from John Jay, a farmer residing in the
neighborhood of Havre de Grace, Md. But for the mean treatment received
from Mr. Jay, Major might have been foolish enough to have remained all
his days in chains. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good."
Henry Oberne.--Henry was to be free at 28, but preferred having it at
21, especially as he was not certain that 28 would ever come. He is of
chestnut color, well made, &c., and came from Seaford, Md.
Perry Burton.--Perry is about twenty-seven years of age, decidedly
colored, medium size, and only of ordinary intellect. He acknowledged
John R. Burton, a farmer on Indian River, as his master, and escaped
because he wanted "some day for himself."
Alfred Hubert, Israel Whitney and John Thompson. Alfred is of powerful
muscular appearance and naturally of a good intellect. He is full dark
chestnut color, and would doubtless fetch a high price. He was owned by
Mrs. Matilda Niles, from whom he had hired his time, paying $110 yearly.
He had no fault to find with his mistress, except he observed she had a
young family growing up, into whose hands he feared he might unluckily
fall some day, and saw no way of avoiding it but by flight. Being only
twenty-eight, he may yet make his mark.
Israel was owned by Elijah Money. All that he could say in favor of his
master was, that he treated him "respectfully," though he "drank hard."
Israel was about thirty-six, and another excellent specimen of an
able-bodied and wide-awake man. He hired his time at the rate of $120 a
year, and had to find his wife and child in the bargain. He came from
Alexandria, Va.
INTERESTING LETTER FROM ISRAEL.
HAMILTON, Oct. 16, 1858.
WILLIAM STILL--_My Dear Friend_:--I saw Carter and his friend a
few days ago, and they told me, that you was well. On the
seventh of October my wife came to Hamilton. Mr. A. Hurberd, who
came from Virginia with me, is going to get married the 20th of
November, next. I wish you would write to me how many of my
friends you have seen since October, 1857. Montgomery Green
keeps a barber shop in Cayuga, in the State of New York. I have
not heard of Oscar Ball but once since I came here, and then he
was well and doing well. George Carroll is in Hamilton. The
times are very dull at present, and have been ever since I came
here. Please write soon. Nothing more at present, only I still
remain in Hamilton, C.W.
ISRAEL WHITNEY.
John is nineteen years of age, mulatto, spare made, but not lacking in
courage, mother wit or perseverance. He was born in Fauquier county,
Va., and, after experiencing Slavery for a number of years there--being
sold two or three times to the "highest bidder"--he was finally
purchased by a cotton planter named Hezekiah Thompson, residing at
Huntsville, Alabama. Immediately after the sale Hezekiah bundled his new
"purchase" off to Alabama, where he succeeded in keeping him only about
two years, for at the end of that time John determined to strike a blow
for liberty. The incentive to this step was the inhuman treatment he was
subjected to. Cruel indeed did he find it there. His master was a young
man, "fond of drinking and carousing, and always ready for a fight or a
knock-down." A short time before John left his master whipped him so
severely with the "bull whip" that he could not use his arm for three or
four days. Seeing but one way of escape (and that more perilous than the
way William and Ellen Craft, or Henry Box Brown traveled), he resolved
to try it. It was to get on the top of the car, instead of inside of it,
and thus ride of nights, till nearly daylight, when, at a stopping-place
on the road, he would slip off the car, and conceal himself in the woods
until under cover of the next night he could manage to get on the top of
another car. By this most hazardous mode of travel he reached Virginia.
It may be best not to attempt to describe how he suffered at the hands
of his owners in Alabama; or how severely he was pinched with hunger in
traveling; or how, when he reached his old neighborhood in Virginia, he
could not venture to inquire for his mother, brothers or sisters, to
receive from them an affectionate word, an encouraging smile, a crust of
bread, or a drink of water.
Success attended his efforts for more than two weeks; but alas, after
having got back north of Richmond, on his way home to Alexandria, he was
captured and put in prison; his master being informed of the fact, came
on and took possession of him again. At first he refused to sell him;
said he "had money enough and owned about thirty slaves;" therefore
wished to "take him back to make an example of him." However, through
the persuasion of an uncle of his, he consented to sell. Accordingly,
John was put on the auction-block and bought for $1,300 by Green
McMurray, a regular trader in Richmond. McMurray again offered him for
sale, but in consequence of hard times and the high price demanded, John
did not go off, at least not in the way the trader desired to dispose of
him, but did, nevertheless, succeed in going off on the Underground Rail
Road. Thus once more he reached his old home, Alexandria. His mother was
in one place, and his six brothers and sisters evidently scattered,
where he knew not. Since he was five years of age, not one of them had
he seen.
If such sufferings and trials were not entitled to claim for the
sufferer the honor of a hero, where in all Christendom could one be
found who could prove a better title to that appellation?
It is needless to say that the Committee extended to him brotherly
kindness, sympathized with him deeply, and sent him on his way
rejoicing.
Of his subsequent career the following extract from a letter written at
London shows that he found no rest for the soles of his feet under the
Stars and Stripes in New York:
I hope that you will remember John Thompson, who passed through
your hands, I think, in October, 1857, at the same time that Mr.
Cooper, from Charleston, South Carolina, came on. I was engaged
at New York, in the barber business, with a friend, and was
doing very well, when I was betrayed and obliged to sail for
England very suddenly, my master being in the city to arrest me.
(LONDON, December 21st, 1860.)
JEREMIAH COLBURN.--Jeremiah is a bright mulatto, of prepossessing
appearance, reads and writes, and is quite intelligent. He fled from
Charleston, where he had been owned by Mrs. E. Williamson, an old lady
about seventy-five, a member of the Episcopal Church, and opposed to
Freedom. As far as he was concerned, however, he said, she had treated
him well; but, knowing that the old lady would not be long here, he
judged it was best to look out in time. Consequently, he availed himself
of an Underground Rail Road ticket, and bade adieu to that hot-bed of
secession, South Carolina. Indeed, he was fair enough to pass for white,