PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 16th, 1851.
To B. McKIERNON, ESQ.: _Sir_--I have received your letter from
South Florence, Ala., under date of the 6th inst. To say that it
took me by surprise, as well as afforded me pleasure, for which
I feel to be very much indebted to you, is no more than true. In
regard to your informants of myself--Mr. Thornton, of Ala., and
Mr. Samuel Lewis, of Cincinnati--to them both I am a stranger.
However, I am the brother of Peter, referred to, and with the
fact of his having a wife and three children in your service I
am also familiar. This brother, Peter, I have only had the
pleasure of knowing for the brief space of one year and thirteen
days, although he is now past forty and I twenty-nine years of
age. Time will not allow me at present, or I should give you a
detailed account of how Peter became a slave, the forty long
years which intervened between the time he was kidnapped, when a
boy, being only six years of age, and his arrival in this city,
from Alabama, one year and fourteen days ago, when he was
re-united to his mother, five brothers and three sisters.
None but a father's heart can fathom the anguish and sorrows
felt by Peter during the many vicissitudes through which he has
passed. He looked back to his boyhood and saw himself snatched
from the tender embraces of his parents and home to be made a
slave for life.
During all his prime days he was in the faithful and constant
service of those who had no just claim upon him. In the
meanwhile he married a wife, who bore him eleven children, the
greater part of whom were emancipated from the troubles of life
by death, and three only survived. To them and his wife he was
devoted. Indeed I have never seen attachment between parents and
children, or husband and wife, more entire than was manifested
in the case of Peter.
Through these many years of servitude, Peter was sold and
resold, from one State to another, from one owner to another,
till he reached the forty-ninth year of his age, when, in a good
Providence, through the kindness of a friend and the sweat of
his brow, he regained the God-given blessings of liberty. He
eagerly sought his parents and home with all possible speed and
pains, when, to his heart's joy, he found his relatives.
Your present humble correspondent is the youngest of Peter's
brothers, and the first one of the family he saw after arriving
in this part of the country. I think you could not fail to be
interested in hearing how we became known to each other, and the
proof of our being brothers, etc., all of which I should be most
glad to relate, but time will not permit me to do so. The news
of this wonderful occurrence, of Peter finding his kindred, was
published quite extensively, shortly afterwards, in various
newspapers, in this quarter, which may account for the fact of
"Miller's" knowledge of the whereabouts of the "fugitives." Let
me say, it is my firm conviction that no one had any hand in
persuading "Miller" to go down from Cincinnati, or any other
place, after the family. As glad as I should be, and as much as
I would do for the liberation of Peter's family (now no longer
young), and his three "likely" children, in whom he prides
himself--how much, if you are a father, you can imagine; yet I
would not, and could not, think of persuading any friend to
peril his life, as would be the case, in an errand of that kind.
As regards the price fixed upon by you for the family, I must
say I do not think it possible to raise half that amount, though
Peter authorized me to say he would give you twenty-five hundred
for them. Probably he is not as well aware as I am, how
difficult it is to raise so large a sum of money from the
public. The applications for such objects are so frequent among
us in the North, and have always been so liberally met, that it
is no wonder if many get tired of being called upon. To be sure
some of us brothers own some property, but no great amount;
certainly not enough to enable us to bear so great a burden.
Mother owns a small farm in New Jersey, on which she has lived
for nearly forty years, from which she derives her support in
her old age. This small farm contains between forty and fifty
acres, and is the fruit of my father's toil. Two of my brothers
own small places also, but they have young families, and
consequently consume nearly as much as they make, with the
exception of adding some improvements to their places.
For my own part, I am employed as a clerk for a living, but my
salary is quite too limited to enable me to contribute any great
amount towards so large a sum as is demanded. Thus you see how
we are situated financially. We have plenty of friends, but
little money. Now, sir, allow me to make an appeal to your
humanity, although we are aware of your power to hold as
property those poor slaves, mother, daughter and two sons,--that
in no part of the United States could they escape and be secure
from your claim--nevertheless, would your understanding, your
heart, or your conscience reprove you, should you restore to
them, without price, that dear freedom, which is theirs by right
of nature, or would you not feel a satisfaction in so doing
which all the wealth of the world could not equal? At all
events, could you not so reduce the price as to place it in the
power of Peter's relatives and friends to raise the means for
their purchase? At first, I doubt not, but that you will think
my appeal very unreasonable; but, sir, serious reflection will
decide, whether the money demanded by you, after all, will be of
as great a benefit to you, as the satisfaction you would find in
bestowing so great a favor upon those whose entire happiness in
this life depends mainly upon your decision in the matter. If
the entire family cannot be purchased or freed, what can Vina
and her daughter be purchased for? Hoping, sir, to hear from
you, at your earliest convenience, I subscribe myself,
Your obedient servant, WM. STILL.
To B. McKiernon, Esq.
No reply to this letter was ever received from McKiernon. The cause of
his reticence can be as well conjectured by the reader as the writer.
Time will not admit of further details kindred to this narrative. The
life, struggles, and success of Peter and his family were ably brought
before the public in the "Kidnapped and the Ransomed," being the
personal recollections of Peter Still and his wife "Vina," after forty
years of slavery, by Mrs. Kate E.R. Pickard; with an introduction by
Rev. Samuel J. May, and an appendix by William H. Furness, D.D., in
1856. But, of course it was not prudent or safe, in the days of Slavery,
to publish such facts as are now brought to light; all such had to be
kept concealed in the breasts of the fugitives and their friends.
[Illustration: PETER STILL ]
[Illustration: CHARITY STILL ]
The following brief sketch, touching the separation of Peter and his
mother, will fitly illustrate this point, and at the same time explain
certain mysteries which have been hitherto kept hidden--