[1] Chapters VI and VII, pp. 61-86.
[2] Vol. III, p. 552, foot-note.
[3] History of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 74-77, 361, 362.
[4] Mitchell, Underground Railroad, Preface, p. vi; p. 17.
[5] Mr. Mitchell divides his little book into two chapters, one on the "Underground Railroad," occupying 124 pages, the other on the "Condition of Fugitive Slaves in Canada," occupying 48 pages.
[6] Tract No. 87, in Vol. IV, pp. 91-121, of the publications of the Society.
[7] March, 1887, pp. 672-682.
[8] July, 1888, pp. 19-88. This periodical is issued by the Firelands Historical Society of Ohio. The bulk of the number mentioned is made up of contributions in regard to the Underground Road in northwestern Ohio.
[9] February, 1895, pp. 173-180.
[10] May, 1895, pp. 9-16.
[11] April, 1896, pp. 455-463. This article is a preliminary study prepared by the author.
[12] Lillie B. C. Wyman: "Black and White," in New England Magazine, N.S., Vol. V, pp. 476-481; "Harriet Tubman," ibid., March, 1896, pp. 110-118. Nina M. Tiffany: "The Escape of William and Ellen Craft," ibid., January, 1890, p. 524 et seq.; "Shadrach," ibid., May, 1890, pp. 280-283; "Sims," ibid., June, 1890, pp. 385-388; "Anthony Burns," ibid., July, 1890, pp. 569-576. A. H. Grimké: "Anti-Slavery Boston," ibid., December, 1890, pp. 441-459.
[13] Other newspapers in which materials have been found are mentioned in the Appendix, pp. 395-398.
[14] Underground Railroad Records, pp. xxxiii, xxxiv.
[15] Ibid., p. 611, where is printed an article from the Pennsylvania Freeman, December 9, 1852, giving an account of the formation of the Committee.
[16] See pp. xxxiv, xxxv, xxxvi.
[17] The title Mr. Parker gave to this scrap-book is as follows: "Memoranda of the Troubles in Boston occasioned by the infamous Fugitive Slave Law."
[18] Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 482.
[19] Ibid., pp. 488, 489.
[20] See Chap. XI, p. 346.
[21] Conversation with Robert Purvis, Philadelphia, Pa., December 24, 1895.
[22] Smedley, Underground Railroad, pp. 56, 57.
[23] Smedley, Underground Railroad, pp. 120, 121.
[24] The value of reminiscences and memoirs is considered in an article on "Recollections as a Source of History," by the Hon. Edward L. Pierce, in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, March and April, 1896, pp. 473-490. This, with the remarks of Professor H. Morse Stephens in his article entitled "Recent Memoirs of the French Directory," American Historical Review, April, 1896, pp. 475, 476, 489, should be read as a corrective by the student that finds himself constrained to have recourse to recollections for information.
[25] The Rev. J. R. W. Sloane, D.D., was the father of Professor William M. Sloane, of Columbia University, New York City. Professor Sloane, in a letter recently received, says: "The first clear, conscious memory I have is of seeing slaves taken from our garret near midnight, and forwarded towards Sandusky. I also remember the formal, but rather friendly, visitation of the house by the sheriff's posse." Date of letter, Paris, November 19, 1896.
[26] Conversation with the Rev. R. G. Ramsey, Cadiz, Ohio, August 18, 1892.
[27] Reminiscences, p. 184.
[28] Letter of John Charles, Economy, Wayne County, Indiana, January 9, 1896. Mr. Charles is a Quaker, and took part in the underground work at Economy.
[29] Letter from Charles W. Osborn, Economy, Indiana, March 4, 1896. Mr. Osborn obtained the names of stations in conversation with Mr. Ratliff.
[30] Letter of William Hayward.
[31] Constitution of Massachusetts, Part I, Art. 1; quoted by Du Bois, Suppression of the Slave Trade, p. 225.
[32] See Appendix A, p. 359.
[33] History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 16.
[34] M. G. McDougall, Fugitive Slaves, pp. 2-11.
[35] Journals of Congress, XII, 84, 92.
[36] Constitution of the United States, Art. IV, § 2. See Revised Statutes of the United States, I, 18. See also Appendix A, p. 359.
[37] Elliot's Debates. See also George Livermore's Historical Research Respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on Negroes, as Citizens and as Soldiers, 1862, p. 51 et seq.
[38] Elliot's Debates, III, 277.
[39] Appendix A, pp. 359-361.
[40] Fugitive Slaves, p. 19.
[41] See Chap. IX, pp. 259-267; also Stroud, Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States, 2d ed., pp. 220-222.
[42] Appendix A, pp. 361-366.
[43] Statutes at Large, IX, 462-465.
[44] Deut. xxiii, 15, 16.
[45] See Some Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict, by S. J. May, p. 345 et seq.; Stroud's Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States, 2d ed., 1856, pp. 271-280; Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. II, pp. 304-322.
[46] M. G. McDougall, Fugitive Slaves, p. 43; J. F. Clarke, Anti-Slavery Days, p. 92.
[47] Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 377.
[48] F. L. Olmsted, Journey in the Back Country, p. 155; Rev. W. M. Mitchell, The Underground Railroad, pp. 72, 73; M. G. McDougall, Fugitive Slaves, p. 57.
[49] Edward Ingle, Southern Side-Lights, p. 293.
[50] These reports will be dealt with in another connection. See Chap. XI, pp. 342, 343.
[51] G. M. Weston, Progress of Slavery in the United States, Washington, D.C., 1858, pp. 22, 23.
[52] Conversation with William Johnson, Windsor, Ontario, July, 1895.
[53] Conversation with Horace Washington, Windsor, Ontario, Aug. 2, 1895.
[54] The Liberator, April 10, 1846.
[55] Conversation with William Edwards, Amherstburg, Ontario, Aug. 3, 1895.
[56] Letter of H. C. Harvey, Manchester, Kan., Jan. 16, 1893.
[57] S. G. Howe, The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, pp. 11, 12.
[58] Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. II, p. 63.
[59] Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown, p. 229.
[60] Dr. A. M. Ross, Recollections and Experiences of an Abolitionist, 2d ed., 1876, pp. 10, 11, 15, 39.
[61] Conversation with White and Sidney in Canada West, August, 1895.
[62] Rufus King, Ohio, in American Commonwealths, pp. 364, 365, relates that some of these slaves were discharged from servitude "by writs of habeas corpus procured in their names," and that "numbers were abducted from the slave states and concealed, or smuggled by the 'Underground Railroad' into Canada."
[63] Dr. A. M. Ross, The Recollections and Experiences of an Abolitionist, p. 38.
[64] A. L. Benedict, Memoir of Richard Dillingham, p. 17.
[65] George W. Julian, Life of Joshua R. Giddings, p. 157.
[66] History of Brown County, Ohio, p. 313 et seq. Also letter of Dr. Isaac M. Beck, Sardinia, O., Dec. 26, 1892. Mr. Beck was born in 1807, and knew personally the clergymen named. He joined the abolition movement in 1835. His excellent letter is verified in various points by other correspondents.
[67] Letter from Professor L. F. Parker, Grinnell, Iowa, Aug. 30, 1894.
[68] Letter from President W. M. Brooks, Tabor, Iowa, Oct. 11, 1894.
[69] Sparks's Washington, IX, 158, quoted in Quakers of Pennsylvania, by Dr. A. C. Applegarth, Johns Hopkins Studies, X, p. 463.
[70] Lunt, Origin of the Late War, Vol. I, p. 20.
[71] L. Maria Child, Life of Isaac T. Hopper, 1854, p. 35.
[72] History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, R. C. Smedley's article on the "Underground Railroad," p. 426; also Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 26.
[73] The Rev. Thomas C. Oliver, born and raised in Salem, N.J., says that the work of the Underground Railroad was going on before he was born, (1818) and continued until the time of the War. Mr. Oliver was raised in the family of Thomas Clement, a member of the Society of Friends. He graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1856. As a youth he began to take part in rescues. Although seventy-five years old when visited by the author, he was vigorous in body and mind, and seemed to have a remarkably clear memory.
[74] L. Maria Child, Life of Isaac T. Hopper, p. 316.
[75] History of Florence, Mass., p. 131, Charles A. Sheffeld, Editor.
[76] The Underground Road was active in New York City at a much earlier date certainly than Lossing gives. He says, "After the Fugitive Slave Law, the Underground Railroad was established, and the city of New York became one of the most important stations on the road." History of New York, Vol. II, p. 655.
[77] Letter of Mrs. Susan L. Crane, Elmira, Sept. 14, 1896. Mrs. Crane's father, Mr. Jervis Langdon, was active in underground work at Elmira, and had a trusted co-laborer in John W. Jones, who still lives in Elmira.
[78] Conversation with Professor Orton, Ohio State University, Columbus, O., 1893.
[79] For cases of arrivals of escaped slaves over some of the western New York branches, see Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad, by Eber M. Pettit, 1879. These sketches were first published in the Fredonia Censor, the series closing Nov. 18, 1868.
[80] Letter of Mr. Aldis O. Brainerd, St. Albans, Vt., Oct. 21, 1895.
[81] Letter of Mr. Charles E. Lord, Franklin, Pa., July 6, 1896: "My maternal grandfather, James Furber, lived for several years in Canaan, N.H., where his house was one of the stations of the Underground Railway. His father-in-law, James Harris, who lived in the same house, had been engaged in helping fugitive negroes on toward Canada ever since 1830, and probably before that time."
[82] Letter of Judge Mellen Chamberlain, Chelsea, Mass., Feb. 1, 1896.
[83] Letter of Mr. Thomas P. Cheney, Ashland, N.H., March 30, 1896.
[84] Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict, p. 297.
[85] Elizabeth Buffum Chace, Anti-Slavery Reminiscences, p. 27. Mrs. Chace says: "From the time of the arrival of James Curry at Fall River, and his departure for Canada, in 1839, that town became an important station on the so-called Underground Railroad." The residence of Mrs. Chace was a place of refuge from the year named.
[86] Concerning Springfield, Mass, see Mason A. Green's History of Springfield, pp. 470, 471. For the sentiment of New Bedford, see Ellis's History of New Bedford, pp. 306, 307.
[87] Letter of the Rev. O. B. Cheney, Pawtuxet, R.I., Apr. 8, 1896.
[88] Letter of Mr. Brown Thurston, Portland, Me., Oct. 21, 1895.
[89] Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. II, p. 63; Alexander Black, The Story of Ohio, see account of the Underground Railroad.
[90] Letter of Col. D. W. H. Howard, Wauseon, O., Aug. 22, 1894.
[91] Conversation with Robert McCrory, Marysville, O., Sept. 30, 1898. Mr. McCrory was educated at Oberlin College, and has an excellent memory.
[92] Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. I, p. 614.
[93] Letter from Job Mullin, dictated to his son-in-law, W. H. Newport, at Springboro, O., Sept. 9, 1895.
[94] Conversation with Mr. Eliakim H. Moore, Athens, O.
[95] Conversation with Joseph Skillgess, Urbana, O., Aug. 14, 1894.
[96] Letter of Wm. A. Johnston, Coshocton, O., Aug. 23, 1894.
[97] Letter of Hannah W. Blackburn, for her father, Mahlon Pickrell, Zanesfield, O., March 25, 1893.
[98] Letter of R. C. Corwin, Lebanon, O., Sept. 11, 1895.
[99] The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888, p. 34.
[100] The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888, p. 34 et seq.
[101] Stephen B. Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery, p. 242.
[102] Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, 2d ed., pp. 20, 21.
[103] Letter from John F. Williams, Economy, Ind., March 21, 1893. When this letter was written, Mr. Williams was eighty-one years old. He was, he says, born in 1812. In 1820 he would have been eight years old. Children were sometimes sent to carry food to refugees in hiding, or to do other little services with which they could be safely trusted. Such experiences were apt to make deep impressions on their young memories.
[104] Letter from H. B. Leeper, Princeton, Ill., received Dec. 19, 1895. Mr. Leeper is seventy-five years of age. His letter shows a knowledge of the localities of which he writes, Bond County in southwestern Illinois, and Bureau and Putnam Counties in the central part of the state.
[105] Letter from Professor L. F. Parker, Grinnell, Iowa, Aug. 30, 1894.
[106] Letter from Professor James E. Todd, Vermillion, South Dakota, Nov. 6, 1894. Professor Todd is the son of the Rev. John Todd.
The Tabor Beacon, 1890, 1891, contains a series of reminiscences from the pen of the Rev. John Todd. The first of these recounts the first arrival of fugitives in July, 1854.
[107] S. G. Howe, The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, 1864, pages 11, 12.
[108] G. M. Weston, Progress of Slavery in the United States, Washington, D.C., 1858, p. 22.
[109] Some conclusions presented in the American Historical Review, April, 1896, pp. 460-462, are here repeated.
[110] R. C. Smedley, Underground Railroad, pp. 34, 35.
[111] The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888, p. 35.
[112] The Underground Railroad, pp. 4, 5.
[113] The date of the act is February 26, 1839.
[114] See an article entitled "An Underground Railway," by Robert W. Carroll, of Cincinnati, O., in the Cincinnati Times-Star, Aug. 19, 1890; also Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 182; and J. B. Robinson, Pictures of Slavery and Anti-Slavery, pp. 293, 294.
[115] History of Henry County, Indiana, p. 126 et seq.
[116] Elizabeth Buffum Chace, Anti-Slavery Reminiscences, p. 19.
[117] Ibid., p. 18.
[118] Lydia Maria Child, Life of Isaac T. Hopper, pp. 388, 389.
[119] See President Fairchild's pamphlet, The Underground Railroad.
[120] Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 139.
[121] History of Knox County, Ill., pp. 213, 214. Mr. Kightlinger's account of this affair is published under his own name.
[122] The original letter is in the possession of the author of this book.
[123] The Tabor Beacon, 1890, 1891, Chapter XXI of a series of articles by the Rev. John Todd, on "The Early Settlement and Growth of Western Iowa." Mr. Todd was one of the early settlers of western Iowa. The letters were received from his son, Professor James E. Todd, of the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S. Dak.
[124] Letter of Mr. Sturgis Williams, Percival, Ia., 1894. Mr. Williams was also one of the pioneers of western Iowa.
[125] History of Brown County, Ohio, p. 314.
[126] The New Reign of Terror in the Slaveholding States, for 1859-1860 (Anti-Slavery Tracts, No. 4, New Series), pp. 49, 50.
[127] Letter of Mrs. Mary C. Thorne, Selma, Clark Co., O., March 3, 1892. John Charles was an uncle of Mrs. Thorne.
[128] The original memorandum is written in pencil on a letter received by Mr. Putnam from Mr. John Stone, of Belpre, O., in Aug., 1843. The contents of this letter, or message, is given on page 57. The original is in possession of the author.
[129] The Firelands Pioneer, July, 1888, p. 20; also letter of S. J. Wright, Rushville, O., Aug. 29, 1894, and letter of Ira Thomas, Springboro, O., Oct. 29, 1895.
[130] This owl signal was mentioned in conversation with several residents of Marietta. Miss Martha Putnam says she has heard her father make the "hoot-owl" call hundreds of times. General R. R. Dawes designates this call the "river signal." "When I was a boy of eight," he says, "I was visiting my grandfather, Judge Ephraim Cutler. The place was called Constitution. Somehow, in the night I was wakened up, and a wagon came down over the hill to the river. Then a call was given, a hoot-owl call, and this was answered by a similar one from the other side; then a boat went out and brought over the crowd. My mother got out of bed and kneeled down and prayed for them, and had me kneel with her." Conversation with General Dawes, Marietta, O., Aug. 21, 1892.
[131] Letter of the Rev. J. B. Lee, Franklinville, N.Y., Oct. 21, 1895.
[132] Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 46.
[133] See the facsimile.
[134] Letter of I. Newton Peirce, Folcroft, Sharon Hill P.O., Delaware Co., Pa., Feb. 1, 1893.
[135] History of Clinton County, Iowa, article on the "Underground Railroad," pp. 413-416.
[136] J. B. Grinnell, Men and Events of Forty Years, p. 217.
[137] Judge R. B. Harlan and others, History of Clinton County, Ohio, pp. 380-383; letter of Seth Linton, Oakland, Clinton County, O., Sept. 4, 1892; Smedley, Underground Railroad, p. 187.
[138] The Miami Union, April 10, 1895, article entitled "A Reminiscence of Slave Times."
[139] Letter of Mrs. C. Grant, Pomeroy, Meigs Co., O.