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.)
[Illustration: Escaping from Alabama on top of a car.]
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,
and actually came the entire journey from Charleston to this city under
the garb of a white gentleman. With regard to gentlemanly bearing,
however, he was all right in this particular. Nevertheless, as he had
been a slave all his days, he found that it required no small amount of
nerve to succeed in running the gauntlet with slave-holders and
slave-catchers for so long a journey.
The following pointed epistle, from Jeremiah Colburn alias William
Cooper, beautifully illustrates the effects of Freedom on many a
passenger who received hospitalities at the Philadelphia depot--
SYRACUSE, June 9th, 1858.
MR. STILL:--_Dear Sir_:--One of your Underground R.R. Passenger
Drop you these few Lines to let you see that he have not
forgoten you one who have Done so much for him well sir I am
still in Syracuse, well in regard to what I am Doing for a
Living I no you would like to hear, I am in the Painting
Business, and have as much at that as I can do, and enough to
Last me all the Summer, I had a knolledge of Painting Before I
Left the South, the Hotell where I was working Last winter the
Proprietor fail & shot up in the Spring and I Loose evry thing
that I was working for all Last winter. I have Ritten a Letter
to my Friend P. Christianson some time a goo & have never
Received an Answer, I hope this wont Be the case with this one,
I have an idea sir, next winter iff I can this summer make
Enough to Pay Expenses, to goo to that school at McGrowville &
spend my winter their. I am going sir to try to Prepair myself
for a Lectuer, I am going sir By the Help of god to try and Do
something for the Caus to help my Poor Breathern that are
suffering under the yoke. Do give my Respect to Mrs Stills &
Perticular to Miss Julia Kelly, I supose she is still with you
yet, I am in great hast you must excuse my short letter. I hope
these few Lines may fine you as they Leave me quite well. It
will afford me much Pleasure to hear from you.
yours Truly,