HENRY FIELDS, CHARLES RINGGOLD, WILLIAM RINGGOLD, ISAAC NEWTON AND
JOSEPH THOMAS.
["Five other cases were attended to by Dillwyn Parish and J.C.
White"--other than this no note was made of them.]
Henry Fields took the benefit of the Underground Rail Road at the age of
eighteen. He fled from the neighborhood of Port Deposit while being
"broke in" by a man named Washington Glasby, who was wicked enough to
claim him as his property, and was also about to sell him. This chattel
was of a light yellow complexion, hearty-looking and wide awake.
Charles Ringgold took offence at being whipped like a dog, and the
prospect of being sold further South; consequently in a high state of
mental dread of the peculiar institution, he concluded that freedom was
worth suffering for, and although he was as yet under twenty years of
age, he determined not to remain in Perrymanville, Maryland, to wear the
chains of Slavery for the especial benefit of his slave-holding master
(whose name was inadvertently omitted).
William Ringgold fled from Henry Wallace, of Baltimore. A part of the
time William said he "had had it pretty rough, and a part of the time
kinder smooth," but never had had matters to his satisfaction. Just
before deciding to make an adventure on the Underground Rail Road his
owner had been talking of selling him. Under the apprehension that this
threat would prove no joke, Henry began to study what he had better do
to be saved from the jaws of hungry negro traders. It was not long
before he came to the conclusion that he had best strike out upon a
venture in a Northern direction, and do the best he could to get as far
away as possible from the impending danger threatened by Mr. Wallace.
After a long and weary travel on foot by night, he found himself at
Columbia, where friends of the Underground Rail Road assisted him on to
Philadelphia. Here his necessary wants were met, and directions given
him how to reach the land of refuge, where he would be out of the way of
all slave-holders and slave-traders. Six of his brothers had been sold;
his mother was still in bondage in Baltimore.
Isaac Newton hailed from Richmond, Virginia. He professed to be only
thirty years of age, but he seemed to be much older. While he had had an
easy time in slavery, he preferred that his master should work for
himself, as he felt that it was his bounden duty to look after number
one; so he did not hesitate about leaving his situation vacant for any
one who might desire it, whether white or black, but made a successful
"took out."
Joseph Thomas was doing the work of a so-called master in Prince
George's county, Maryland. For some cause or other the alarm of the
auction-block was sounded in his ears, which at first distracted him
greatly; upon sober reflection it worked greatly to his advantage. It
set him to thinking seriously on the subject of immediate emancipation,
and what a miserable hard lot of it he should have through life if he
did not "pick up" courage and resolution to get beyond the terror of
slave-holders; so under these reflections he found his nerves gathering
strength, his fears leaving him, and he was ready to venture on the
Underground Rail Road. He came through without any serious difficulty.
He left his father and mother, Shadrach and Lucinda Thomas.
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