* * * * *
Like millions of my race, my mother and father were born slaves, but
were not contented to live and die so. My father purchased himself in
early manhood by hard toil. Mother saw no way for herself and children
to escape the horrors of bondage but by flight. Bravely, with her four
little ones, with firm faith in God and an ardent desire to be free, she
forsook the prison-house, and succeeded, through the aid of my father,
to reach a free State. Here life had to be begun anew. The old familiar
slave names had to be changed, and others, for prudential reasons, had
to be found. This was not hard work. However, hardly months had passed
ere the keen scent of the slave-hunters had trailed them to where they
had fancied themselves secure. In those days all power was in the hands
of the oppressor, and the capture of a slave mother and her children was
attended with no great difficulty other than the crushing of freedom in
the breast of the victims. Without judge or jury, all were hurried back
to wear the yoke again. But back this mother was resolved never to stay.
She only wanted another opportunity to again strike for freedom. In a
few months after being carried back, with only two of her little ones,
she took her heart in her hand and her babes in her arms, and this trial
was a success. Freedom was gained, although not without the sad loss of
her two older children, whom she had to leave behind. Mother and father
were again reunited in freedom, while two of their little boys were in
slavery. What to do for them other than weep and pray, were questions
unanswerable. For over forty years the mother's heart never knew what it
was to be free from anxiety about her lost boys. But no tidings came in
answer to her many prayers, until one of them, to the great astonishment
of his relatives, turned up in Philadelphia, nearly fifty years of age,
seeking his long-lost parents. Being directed to the Anti-Slavery Office
for instructions as to the best plan to adopt to find out the
whereabouts of his parents, fortunately he fell into the hands of his
own brother, the writer, whom he had never heard of before, much less
seen or known. And here began revelations connected with this marvellous
coincidence, which influenced me, for years previous to Emancipation, to
preserve the matter found in the pages of this humble volume.
And in looking back now over these strange and eventful Providences, in
the light of the wonderful changes wrought by Emancipation, I am more
and more constrained to believe that the reasons, which years ago led me
to aid the bondman and preserve the records of his sufferings, are
to-day quite as potent in convincing me that the necessity of the times
requires this testimony.
And since the first advent of my book, wherever reviewed or read by
leading friends of freedom, the press, or the race more deeply
represented by it, the expressions of approval and encouragement have
been hearty and unanimous, and the thousands of volumes which have been
sold by me, on the subscription plan, with hardly any facilities for the
work, makes it obvious that it would, in the hands of a competent
publisher, have a wide circulation.
And here I may frankly state, that but for the hope I have always
cherished that this work would encourage the race in efforts for
self-elevation, its publication never would have been undertaken by me.
I believe no more strongly at this moment than I have believed ever
since the Proclamation of Emancipation was made by Abraham Lincoln, that
as a class, in this country, no small exertion will have to be put forth
before the blessings of freedom and knowledge can be fairly enjoyed by
this people; and until colored men manage by dint of hard acquisition to
enter the ranks of skilled industry, very little substantial respect
will be shown them, even with the ballot-box and musket in their hands.
Well-conducted shops and stores; lands acquired and good farms managed
in a manner to compete with any other; valuable books produced and
published on interesting and important subjects--these are some of the
fruits which the race are expected to exhibit from their newly gained
privileges.
If it is asked "how?" I answer, "through extraordinary determination and
endeavor," such as are demonstrated in hundreds of cases in the pages of
this book, in the struggles of men and women to obtain their freedom,
education and property.
These facts must never be lost sight of.
The race must not forget the rock from whence they were hewn, nor the
pit from whence, they were digged.
Like other races, this newly emancipated people will need all the
knowledge of their past condition which they can get.
The bondage and deliverance of the children of Israel will never be
allowed to sink into oblivion while the world stands.
Those scenes of suffering and martyrdom millions of Christians were
called upon to pass through in the days of the Inquisition are still
subjects of study, and have unabated interest for all enlightened minds.
The same is true of the history of this country. The struggles of the
pioneer fathers are preserved, produced and re-produced, and cherished
with undying interest by all Americans, and the day will not arrive
while the Republic exists, when these histories will not be found in
every library.
While the grand little army of abolitionists was waging its untiring
warfare for freedom, prior to the rebellion, no agency encouraged them
like the heroism of fugitives. The pulse of the four millions of slaves
and their desire for freedom, were better felt through "The Underground
Railroad," than through any other channel.
Frederick Douglass, Henry Bibb, Wm. Wells Brown, Rev. J.W. Logan, and
others, gave unmistakable evidence that the race had no more eloquent
advocates than its own self-emancipated champions.
Every step they took to rid themselves of their fetters, or to gain
education, or in pleading the cause of their fellow-bondmen in the
lecture-room, or with their pens, met with applause on every hand, and
the very argument needed was thus furnished in large measure. In those
dark days previous to emancipation, such testimony was indispensable.
The free colored men are as imperatively required now to furnish the
same manly testimony in support of the ability of the race to surmount
the remaining obstacles growing out of oppression, ignorance, and
poverty.
In the political struggles, the hopes of the race have been sadly
disappointed. From this direction no great advantage is likely to arise
very soon.
Only as desert can be proved by the acquisition of knowledge and the
exhibition of high moral character, in examples of economy and a
disposition to encourage industrial enterprises, conducted by men of
their own ranks, will it be possible to make political progress in the
face of the present public sentiment.
Here, therefore, in my judgment is the best possible reason for
vigorously pushing the circulation of this humble volume--that it may
testify for thousands and tens of thousands, as no other work can do.
WILLIAM STILL, Author.
September, 1878. Philadelphia, Pa.