[1] _The Washington Union_, April 14, 1848.
[2] Daniel Drayton was a native of New Jersey who had spent several years
following the water. He had risen from cook to captain in the
wood-carrying business from the Maurice River to Philadelphia.
Eventually he engaged in coast traffic from Philadelphia southward.
He seemed to have drifted quite naturally from strong humane
impulses, intensified by an old-time spiritual conversion, into a
settled conviction that the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man was a reality and that it was his duty to do what he could to
assist those in bondage.
Latterly his voyages had carried him into the Chesapeake Bay and
thence up the Potomac. His first successful effort to assist the
slaves was made on an earlier trip when he agreed to take away a
woman and five children. The husband was already a free man. The
woman had under an agreement with her master more than paid for her
liberty, but when she had asked for a settlement, he had only
answered by threatening to sell her. The mother and five children
were taken aboard at night and after ten days were safely delivered
at Frenchtown, where the husband was in waiting for them. Memoir of
Daniel Drayton, Congressional Library.
[3] The only punishment meted out to Judson Diggs for his act of betrayal,
so far as is known, was that by a party of young men who, shortly
after the occurrence, took him from his cart and after considerable
rough handling, threw him into the little stream that in those days
and indeed for many years thereafter, took its way along the north
side of the old John Wesley Church, then located at a spot directly
opposite the north corner of the Convent of the Sacred Heart on
Connecticut Avenue, between L and M Streets.
A number of old citizens now living distinctly remember Judson Diggs,
who lived, despised and avoided, until late in the sixties. One of
these is Mr. Jerome A. Johnson of the Treasury Department.
[4] Memoir of Daniel Drayton, Congressional Library.
[5] The case against Drayton and Sayres was prosecuted by Philip Barton
Key, the District Attorney, before Judge Crawford, and on appeal the
prisoners were sentenced to pay a fine of $10,000 and to remain in
jail until the same should be paid.
English was absolved from all criminal responsibility and given his
liberty.
After an imprisonment of more than four years they were pardoned by
President Fillmore, to whom such application had been presented by
Charles Sumner.--Memoir of Daniel Drayton.
The fare at the jail was insufficient and of poor quality and a more
wholesome and generous diet was frequently surreptitiously furnished
by Susannah Ford, a colored woman, who sold lunches in the lobby of
the Court House.
[6] Stowe, "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin."
[7] _The National Era_, April 16, 1848.
[8] Memoir of Daniel Drayton.
[9] John Brent, the husband of Elizabeth, the oldest of the Edmondson
girls, had first bought himself, earning the money chiefly by sawing wood;
had then bought the freedom of his father, Elton Brent, for whom he paid
$800, and finally bought Elizabeth's freedom, after which they were
married. He purchased the ground at the southwest corner of 18th and L
streets, now owned by his heirs, and erected a small frame dwelling. This
was later enlarged and there the John Wesley A. M. E. Zion Church was
established. He was a laborer in the War Department during forty years and
died in 1885.--From interviews with Mr. Brent and other members of the
family.
[10] Hamilton Edmondson was sold in the New Orleans slave market about the
year 1840 and took the name of his purchaser and was thereafter known as
Hamilton Taylor. He learned the trade of cooper and was allowed a
percentage of his earnings, but was unfortunate in having his first savings
stolen. He eventually acquired his freedom through the payment of $1,000.
[11] He continued in the cooperage business, was highly respected and
became comparatively wealthy, having a place of business on Girard near
Camp street. John S. Brent, who is his nephew and the son of the John Brent
heretofore mentioned in this narrative, spent a week with his uncle,
Hamilton Taylor, in 1865, on his return from Texas, when, as a member of
the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, he was mustered out of the
service.--Interview with John S. Brent.
[12] The fame of the Edmondson children through the incident of the _Pearl_
was now wide indeed, and after the Brooklyn meeting there had been
made many suggestions looking to their education and further benefit.
The movement for the education of Emily and Mary was crystallized
into a definite proposition and they were both placed in a private
school a short distance out of New York. Miss Myrtilla Miner had
already established her school for girls at Washington and had moved
to a new location at about what is now the square bounded by 19th,
20th, N and O streets. Here, after returning from New York, Emily
assisted Miss Miner in the school and it was in one of the little
cabins on this place that the Edmondson family established their home
after moving in from the country. Miss Miner, speaking of the
establishment of her school at its new location, says: "Emily and I
lived here alone, unprotected except by God, the rowdies occasionally
stoning the house at evening and we nightly retired in the
expectation that the house would be fired before morning. Emily and I
have been seen practicing shooting with a pistol."--Myrtilla Miner,
"A Memoir," Congressional Library; "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin."
The parents of the children, however, were not yet entirely relieved
of the fears that had so long haunted them, for there were still the
two youngest children, Louisa and Joseph, whom the good mother
frequently alluded to as "the last two drops of blood in her heart,"
and although she had scarcely ever seen a railroad train, she
determined to go to New York herself to see what could be done and to
thank the good people who had already brought so much of happiness to
herself and family. While the mother was in that city the girls were
brought to see her and in later years she often delighted to tell of
their happy meeting and of the good white folks who were brought
together to hear her story. She returned to Washington at the end of
a week, carrying the assurance that the money would be provided for
the redemption of the last two of her children.
Mrs. Louisa Joy, the last of the "Edmondson Children," died only a
short while ago.
[13] _Note_.--This personal narrative of Samuel Edmondson was related by
himself at his home in Anacostia where he died several years ago.