It was Dame Nature who decreed that the Niagara region should be
peculiarly a place of trails. When she set the great cataract midway
between two lakes, she thereby ordained that in days to come the Indian
should go around the falls, on foot. The Indian trail was a footpath;
nothing more. Here it followed the margin of a stream; there, well nigh
indiscernable, it crossed a rocky plateau; again, worn deep in yielding
loam, it led through thick woods, twisting and turning around trees and
boulders, with detours for swamps or bad ground, and long stretches
along favorable slopes or sightly ridges. Who can hazard a guess as to
the time when, or by what manner of men, these trails were first
established in our region? Immemorial in their source--akin in natural
origins to the path the deer makes in going to the salt-lick or to
drink--they were old, established, when our history begins. And when the
white man came he followed the old trails. Traveling like the Indian, by
water when he could; when lakes and rivers did not serve, he found the
footpaths ready made for him in the forest. Armies came, cutting
military roads. Settlers followed to banish forests, drain swamps, and
make new highways. And yet the horseman, the military train, the wagon
of the pioneer, the early stage-coach, the railroad, each in its day,
along many of the most direct and important thoroughfares, has but
followed the ancient ways. The thing is axiomatic. Nature for the most
part decrees where men shall walk. Her lakes and rivers and her hills
may be strewn by whim; but there are plain reasons enough for our
road-building. We go where we can, with safety and expedition. So ran
the red man. We still follow the old trails.
Other aspects of our frontier are worthy of a thought. Two nations look
across the Niagara, so that, even though its flow were placid from lake
to lake, it would still be a political barrier, a halting-place. This
fact has filled it full of trails in history. Again, as the gateway of
the West, the paths of immigration and of commerce for a century have
here converged. The early settlers of Michigan and Wisconsin went by the
old Lewiston ferry. From Buffalo by boat, and from old Suspension Bridge
by rail, who can estimate the thousands who have gone on to create the
New West? From the earliest Iroquois raid upon the Neuters, down to
yesterday's excursion, the Niagara frontier has been peculiarly a region
of passing, of coming and going, along old trails.
Now of all the paths that have led hitherward, none has greater
significance in American history than that known as the Underground
Railroad. Other paths, touching here, have led to war, to wealth, to
pleasure; but this led to Liberty. Thousands of negro slaves, gaining
after infinite hardships these shores of the lake or river, have looked
across the smiling expanse to such an elysium as only a slave can dream
of. Once the passage made, no matter how poor the passenger, freedom
became his possession and the heritage of his children. The chattel
became a man. I can never sail upon the blue lake, or down the pleasant
river, without seeing in fancy this throng of famished, frightened,
blindly hopeful blacks, for whom these waters were the gateway to new
life. The most vital part of the Underground Railroad was the over-water
ferry. Bark canoe and great steamer alike leave no lasting trail; but to
him who reads the history of our region, this fair waterway at our door
is thronged as a street; and every secret traveler thereby is worthy of
his attention. Much has been recorded of these refugees, who came,
singly or in small parties, for more than thirty years preceding the
Civil War. Indeed, runaway slaves passed this way to Canada soon after
the War of 1812. The tales of soldiers returning to Kentucky from the
Niagara frontier and other campaigns of that war, first planted in the
minds of Southern slaves the idea that Canada was a land of freedom. By
1830 many earnest people who disapproved of slavery, the Quakers
prominent among them, were giving organized aid to the escaping blacks.
In many secret ways the refugees were passed on from one friend to
another. Hiding-places were established, and routes which were found
advantageous were regularly followed.
It is no part of my present plan to enter upon a general sketch of the
Underground Railroad. That task has already been admirably performed, at
voluminous length, by careful students. My aim in this paper is to
bring together a number of incidents and narratives, particularly
illustrative of its work at the eastern end of Lake Erie and along the
Niagara frontier, in order that the student may the better appreciate
how vital this phase of the slavery issue was, even in this region, for
more than a generation preceding the Civil War. There were established
routes for the passage of fugitive slaves: From the seaboard States to
the North, by water from Newberne, S. C, and Portsmouth, Va.; or by land
routes from Washington and Philadelphia, to and through New England and
so into Quebec. There was "John Brown's route" through Eastern Kansas
and Nebraska; and there were many routes through Iowa and Illinois, most
of them leading to Chicago and other Lake Michigan ports, whence the
refugees came by boat to Canadian points, chiefly along the north shore
of Lake Erie; or even, in some cases, by water to Collingwood on
Georgian Bay, where a considerable number of runaway slaves were carried
prior to the Civil War. But the travel by these extreme East and West
routes was insignificant as compared with the number that came through
Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, to points on the south shore of
Lake Erie and the Detroit and Niagara rivers at either end. The region
bounded by the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the western border of Indiana
was a vast plexus of Underground routes. The negroes were taken across
to Canada in great numbers from Detroit and other points on that river;
from Sandusky to Point Pelee; from Ashtabula to Port Stanley; from
Conneaut to Port Burwell; from Erie to Long Point; and from all
south-shore points on Lake Erie they were brought by steamer to Buffalo.
Often, the vessel captains would put the refugees ashore between Long
Point and Buffalo. At other times, the fugitives were sent to stations
at Black Rock or Niagara Falls, whence they were soon set across the
river and were free. There were some long routes across New York State,
the chief one being up the Hudson and Mohawk valleys to Lake Ontario
ports. There was some crossing to Kingston, and some from Rochester to
Port Dalhousie or Toronto. Another route led from Harrisburg up the
Susquehanna to Williamsport, thence to Elmira, and northwesterly,
avoiding large towns, to Niagara Falls. But the most active part in the
Underground Railroad operations in New York State was borne by the
western counties. There were numerous routes through Allegany,
Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, along which the negroes were
helped; all converging at Buffalo or on the Niagara. In the old towns of
this section are still many houses and other buildings which are pointed
out to the visitor as having been former stations on the Underground.
The Pettit house at Fredonia is a distinguished example.
It is impossible to state even approximately the number of refugee
negroes who crossed by these routes to Upper Canada, now Ontario. In
1844 the number was estimated at 40,000;[50] in 1852 the Anti-Slavery
Society of Canada stated in its annual report that there were about
30,000 blacks in Canada West; in 1858 the number was estimated as high
as 75,000.[51] This figure is probably excessive; but since the negroes
continued to come, up to the hour of the Emancipation Proclamation, it
is probably within the fact to say that more than 50,000 crossed to
Upper Canada, nearly all from points on Lake Erie, the Detroit and
Niagara rivers.
Runaway slaves appeared in Buffalo at least as early as the '30's.
"Professor Edward Orton recalls that in 1838, soon after his father
moved to Buffalo, two sleigh-loads of negroes from the Western Reserve
were brought to the house in the night-time; and Mr. Frederick Nicholson
of Warsaw, N. Y., states that the Underground work in his vicinity began
in 1840. From this time on there was apparently no cessation of
migrations of fugitives into Canada at Black Rock, Buffalo and other
points."[52] Those too were the days of much passenger travel on Lake
Erie, and certain boats came to be known as friendly to the Underground
cause. One boat which ran between Cleveland and Buffalo gave employment
to the fugitive William Wells Brown. It became known at Cleveland that
Brown would take escaped slaves under his protection without charge,
hence he rarely failed to find a little company ready to sail when he
started out from Cleveland. "In the year 1842," he says, "I conveyed
from the 1st of May to the 1st of December, sixty-nine fugitives over
Lake Erie to Canada."[53] Many anecdotes are told of the search for
runaways on the lake steamers. Lake travel in the _ante-bellum_ days was
ever liable to be enlivened by an exciting episode in a "nigger-chase";
but usually, it would seem, the negroes could rely upon the friendliness
of the captains for concealment or other assistance.
There are chronicled, too, many little histories of flights which
brought the fugitive to Buffalo. I pass over those which are readily
accessible elsewhere to the student of this phase of our home
history.[54] It is well, however, to devote a paragraph or two to one
famous affair which most if not all American writers on the Underground
Railroad appear to have overlooked.
One day in 1836 an intelligent negro, riding a thoroughbred but jaded
horse, appeared on the streets of Buffalo. His appearance must have
advertised him to all as a runaway slave. I do not know that he made any
attempt to conceal the fact. His chief concern was to sell the horse as
quickly as possible, and get across to Canada. And there, presently, we
find him, settled at historic old Niagara, near the mouth of the river.
Here, even at that date, so many negroes had made their way from the
South, that more than 400 occupied a quarter known as Negro Town. The
newcomer, whose name was Moseby, admitted that he had run away from a
plantation in Kentucky, and had used a horse that formerly belonged to
his master to make his way North. A Kentucky grand jury soon found a
true bill against him for horse-stealing, and civil officers traced him
to Niagara, and made requisition for his arrest and extradition. The
year before, Sir Francis Bond Head had succeeded Sir John Colborne as
Governor of Canada West, and before him the case was laid. Sir Francis
regarded the charge as lawful, notwithstanding the avowal of Moseby's
owners that if they could get him back to Kentucky they would "make an
example of him"; in plainer words, would whip him to death as a warning
to all slaves who dared to dream of seeking freedom in Canada.
Moseby was arrested and locked up in the Niagara jail; whereupon great
excitement arose, the blacks and many sympathizing whites declaring that
he should never be carried back South. The Governor, Sir Francis, was
petitioned not to surrender Moseby; he replied that his duty was to give
him up as a felon, "although he would have armed the province to protect
a slave." For more than a week crowds of negroes, men and women, camped
before the jail, day and night. Under the leadership of a mulatto
schoolmaster named Holmes, and of Mrs. Carter, a negress with a gift for
making fiery speeches, the mob were kept worked up to a high pitch of
excitement, although, as a contemporary writer avers, they were
unarmed, showed "good sense, forbearance and resolution," and declared
their intention not to commit any violence against the English law. They
even agreed that Moseby should remain in jail until they could raise the
price of the horse, but threatened, "if any attempt were made to take
him from the prison, and send him across to Lewiston, they would resist
it at the hazard of their lives." The order, however, came for Moseby's
delivery to the slave-hunters, and the sheriff and a party of constables
attempted to execute it. Moseby was brought out from the jail,
handcuffed and placed in a cart; whereupon the mob attacked the
officers. The military was called out to help the civil force and
ordered to fire on the assailants. Two negroes were killed, two or three
wounded, and Moseby ran off and was not pursued. The negro women played
a curiously-prominent part in the affair. "They had been most active in
the fray, throwing themselves fearlessly between the black men and the
whites, who, of course, shrank from injuring them. One woman had seized
the sheriff, and held him pinioned in her arms; another, on one of the
artillery-men presenting his piece, and swearing that he would shoot her
if she did not get out of his way, gave him only one glance of
unutterable contempt, and with one hand knocking up his piece, and
collaring him with the other, held him in such a manner as to prevent
his firing."[55]
Soon after, in the same year, the Governor of Kentucky made requisition
on the Governor of the province of Canada West for the surrender of
Jesse Happy, another runaway slave, also on a charge of horse-stealing.
Sir Francis held him in confinement in Hamilton jail, but refused to
deliver him up until he had laid the case before the Home Government. In
a most interesting report to the Colonial Secretary, under date of
Toronto, Oct. 8, 1837, he asked for instructions "as a matter of general
policy," and reviewed the Moseby case in a fair and broad spirit, highly
creditable to him alike as an administrator and a friend of the
oppressed. "I am by no means desirous," he wrote, "that this province
should become an asylum for the guilty of any color; at the same time
the documents submitted with this dispatch will I conceive show that the
subject of giving up fugitive slaves to the authorities of the adjoining
republican States is one respecting which it is highly desirable I
should receive from Her Majesty's Government specific instructions....
It may be argued that the slave escaping from bondage on his master's
horse is a vicious struggle between two guilty parties, of which the
slave-owner is not only the aggressor, but the blackest criminal of the
two. It is a case of the dealer in human flesh _versus_ the stealer of
horse-flesh; and it may be argued that, if the British Government does
not feel itself authorized to pass judgment on the plaintiff, neither
should it on the defendant." Sir Francis continues in this ingenious
strain, observing that "it is as much a theft in the slave walking from
slavery to liberty in his master's shoes as riding on his master's
horse." To give up a slave for trial to the American laws, he argued,
was in fact giving him back to his former master; and he held that,
until the State authorities could separate trial from unjust punishment,
however willing the Government of Canada might be to deliver up a man
for trial, it was justified in refusing to deliver him up for
punishment, "unless sufficient security be entered into in this
province, that the person delivered up for trial shall be brought back
to Upper Canada as soon as his trial or the punishment awarded by it
shall be concluded." And he added this final argument, begging that
instructions should be sent to him at once:
It is argued, that the republican states have no right, under the
pretext of any human treaty, to claim from the British Government,
which does not recognize slavery, beings who by slave-law are not
recognized as _men_ and who actually existed as brute beasts in
moral darkness, until on reaching British soil they suddenly heard,
for the first time in their lives, the sacred words, "Let there be
light; and there was light!" From that moment it is argued they
were created _men_, and if this be true, it is said they cannot be
held responsible for conduct prior to their existence.[56]
Sir Francis left the Home Government in no doubt as to his own feelings
in the matter; and although I have seen no further report regarding
Jesse Happy, neither do I know of any case in which a refugee in Canada
for whom requisition was thus made was permitted to go back to slavery.
It did sometimes happen, however, that refugees were enticed across the
river on one pretext or another, or grew careless and took their chances
on the American side, only to fall into the clutches of the
ever-watchful slave-hunters.
British love of fair play could be counted on to stand up for the rights
of the negro on British soil; but that by no means implies that this
inpouring of ignorant blacks, unfitted for many kinds of pioneer work
and ill able to withstand the climate, was welcomed by the communities
in which they settled. At best, they were tolerated. Very different from
the spirit shown in Sir Francis Bond Head's plea, is the tone of much
tourist comment, especially during the later years of the Abolition
movement. Thus, in 1854, the Hon. Amelia M. Murray wrote, just after her
Niagara visit:
"One of the evils consequent upon Southern Slavery, is the ignorant and
miserable set of coloured people who throw themselves into Canada.... I
must regret that the well-meant enthusiasm of the Abolitionists has been
without judgment."[57] Another particularly unamiable critic, W. Howard
Russell, a much-exploited English war correspondent who wrote
voluminously of the United States during the Civil War, and who showed
less good will to this country than any other man who ever wrote so
much, came to Niagara in the winter of 1862, and in sourly recording his
unpleasant impressions wrote: "There are too many free negroes and too
many Irish located in the immediate neighborhood of the American town,
to cause the doctrines of the Abolitionists to be received with much
favor by the American population; and the Irish of course are opposed to
free negroes, where they are attracted by paper mills, hotel service,
bricklaying, plastering, housebuilding, and the like--the Americans
monopolizing the higher branches of labor and money-making, including
the guide business."[58] A few pages farther on, however, describing his
sight-seeing on the Canadian side, he speaks of "our guide, a strapping
specimen of negro or mulatto." Quotations of like purport from English
writers during the years immediately preceding the Civil War, might be
multiplied. One rarely will find any opinion at all favorable to the
refugee black, and never any expression of sympathy with the
Abolitionists by English tourists who wrote books, or endorsal of the
work accomplished by the Underground Railroad.
From its importance as a terminal of the Underground, one would look to
Buffalo for a wealth of reminiscence on this subject. On the contrary,
comparatively little seems to have been gathered up regarding Buffalo
stations and workers. The Buffalo of _ante-bellum_ days was not a large
place, and many "personally-escorted" refugees were taken direct from
country stations to the river ferries, without having to be hid away in
the city. Certain houses there were, however, which served as stations.
One of these, on Ferry Street near Niagara, long since disappeared. When
the "Morris Butler house," at the corner of Utica Street and Linwood
Avenue, built about 1857, was taken down a few years ago, hiding-places
were found on either side of the front door, accessible only from the
cellar. Old residents then recalled that Mr. Butler was reputed to keep
the last station on the Underground route to Canada.[59]
Many years before Mr. Butler's time runaway slaves used to appear in
Buffalo, eagerly asking the way to Canada. Those days were recalled by
the death, on Aug. 2, 1899, in the Kent County House of Refuge, Chatham,
Ont., of "Mammy" Chadwick, reputed to be over 100 years old. She was
born a slave in Virginia; was many times sold, once at auction in New
Orleans, and later taken to Kentucky. She escaped and made her way by
the Underground to Buffalo in 1837. She always fixed her arrival at Fort
Erie as "in de year dat de Queen was crowned." She married in Fort
Erie, but after a few years went to Chatham, in the midst of a district
full of refugee blacks, and there she lived for sixty years, rejoicing
in the distinction of having nursed in their infancy many who became
Chatham's oldest and most prominent citizens.
There still lives at Fort Erie an active old woman who came to Buffalo,
a refugee from slavery, some time prior to 1837; she herself says, "a
good while before the Canadian Rebellion," and her memory is so clear
and vigorous in general that there appears no warrant for mistrusting it
on this point. This interesting woman is Mrs. Betsy Robinson, known
throughout the neighborhood as "Aunt Betsy." She lately told her story
to me at length. Robbed of all the picturesque detail with which she
invested it, the bare facts are here recorded. Her father, mother, and
their seven children were slaves on a plantation in Rockingham County,
Virginia. There came a change of ownership, and Baker (her father) heard
he was to be sold to New Orleans--the fate which the Virginia slave most
dreaded; "and yet," says Aunt Betsy, "I've seen dem slaves, in gangs
bein' sent off to New Orleans, singin' and playin' on jewsharps, lettin'
on to be that careless an' happy." But not so Baker. He made ready to
escape. For a week beforehand his wife hid food in the woods. On a dark
night the whole family stole away from the plantation, crossed a river,
probably the north fork of the Shenandoah, and pushed northward. The
father had procured three "passes," which commended them for assistance
to friends along the way. According to Aunt Betsy, there were a good
many white people in the South in those days who helped the runaway. She
was a little girl then, and she now recalls the child's vivid
impressions of the weeks they spent traveling and hiding in the
mountains, which she says were full of rattlesnakes, wolves and deer. It
was a wild country that they crossed, for they came out near Washington,
Pa. Here the Quakers helped them; and her father and brothers worked in
the coal mines for a time. Then they came on to Pittsburg. From that
city north there was no lack of help. "We walked all the way," she says.
"There was no railroads in them days, an' I don't remember's we got any
wagon-rides. You see, we was so many, nine in all. I remember we went to
Erie, and came through Fredonia. We walked through Buffalo--it was
little then, you know--and down the river road. My father missed the
Black Rock ferry an' we went away down where the bridge is now. I
remember we had to walk back up the river, and then we got brought
across to Fort Erie. That was a good while before the Canadian
Rebellion."[60]
Samuel Murray, a free-born negro, came to Buffalo from Reading, Pa., in
1852. For a time he was employed at the American Hotel, and went to
work very early in the morning. It was, he has said, a common
occurrence to meet strange negroes, who would ask him the way to Canada.
"Many a time," said Murray, "I have gone into the hotel and taken food
for them. Then I would walk out Niagara Street to the ferry and see them
on the boat bound for Canada." Mr. Murray has related the following
incidents:
"There was a free black man living in Buffalo in the '50's who made a
business of going to the South after the wives of former slaves who had
found comfortable homes, either in the Northern States or in Canada.
They paid him well for his work, and he rarely failed to accomplish his
mission.
"While connected with the Underground Railroad in Buffalo word was sent
us that a colored man from Detroit, a traitor to his color, was coming
to Buffalo. This man made a business of informing Southerners of the
whereabouts of their slaves, and was paid a good sum per head for those
that they recovered. When we heard that he was coming a meeting was held
and a committee appointed to arrange for his reception. After being here
a few days, not thinking that he was known, he was met by the committee
and taken out in the woods where the Parade House now stands. Here he
was tied to a tree, stripped and cow-hided until he was almost dead. He
lay for a time insensible in a pool of his own blood. Finally regaining
consciousness, he made his way back into Buffalo and as soon as he was
able complained to the city authorities. His assailants were identified,
arrested, and locked up in the old jail to await the result of his
injuries. After a time the excitement caused by the affair subsided and
the men were let out one day without having been tried." The sympathy of
the sheriff, and probably that of the community as a whole, was plainly
not with the renegade who got flogged.
Another celebrated Underground case was the arrest at Niagara Falls of a
slave named Sneedon, on a charge of murder, undoubtedly trumped up to
procure his return South. Sneedon is described as a fine-looking man,
with a complexion almost white. He was brought to trial in Buffalo, when
Eli Cook pleaded his case so successfully that he was acquitted. No
sooner was he released than he was spirited away _via_ the Underground
Railroad.
Niagara Falls, far more than Buffalo, was the scene of interesting
episodes in the Underground days. Not only did many refugee negroes find
employment in the vicinity, especially on the Canada side, but many
Southern planters used to visit there, bringing their retinue of blacks.
Many a time the trusted body-servant, or slave-girl, would leave master
or mistress in the discharge of some errand, and never come back.
Instances are related, too, of sudden meetings, at the Falls hotels,
between negro waiters and the former masters they had run away from. It
is recorded that when Gen. Peter B. Porter brought his Kentucky wife
home with him to Niagara Falls, she was attended by a numerous retinue
of negro servants, but that one by one they "scented freedom in the air"
and ran away, though probably not to any immediate betterment of their
condition.
Henry Clay visited Buffalo in September, 1849. When he left for
Cleveland his black servant Levi was missing, but whether he had gone
voluntarily or against his wishes Mr. Clay was uncertain. "There are
circumstances having a tendency both ways," he wrote to Lewis L. Hodges
of Buffalo, in his effort to trace the lost property. "If voluntarily, I
will take no trouble about him, as it is probable that in a reversal of
our conditions I would have done the same thing."[61] The absentee had
merely been left in Buffalo--probably he missed the boat--and reported
in due time to his master at Ashland. The incident, however, suggests
the hazards of Northern travel which in those years awaited wealthy
Southerners, who were fond of making long sojourns at Niagara Falls,
accompanied by many servants.
An "old resident of Buffalo" is to be credited with the following
reminiscence:
"I remember one attempt that was made to capture a runaway slave. It was
right up here on Niagara Street. The negro ventured out in daytime and
was seized by a couple of men who had been on the watch for him. The
slave was a muscular fellow, and fought desperately for his liberty; but
his captors began beating him over the head with their whips, and he
would have been overpowered and carried off if his cries had not
attracted the attention of two Abolitionists, who ran up and joined in
the scuffle. It was just above Ferry Street, and they pulled and hauled
at that slave and pounded him and each other until it looked as though
somebody would be killed. At last, however, the slave, with the help of
his friends, got away and ran for his life, and the slave-chasers and
the Abolitionists dropped from blows to high words, the former
threatening prosecutions and vengeance, but I presume nothing came of
it."[62]
Nowhere were the friends of the fugitive more active or more successful
than in the towns along the south shore of Lake Erie, from Erie to
Buffalo.[63] Some years ago it was my good fortune to become acquainted
with Mr. Frank Henry of Erie, who had been a very active "conductor" on
the Underground.[64] From him I had the facts of the following
experiences, which he had not in earlier years thought it prudent to
make public. These I now submit, partly in Mr. Henry's own language, as
fairly-illustrative episodes in the history of Underground trails at the
eastern end of Lake Erie.
In the year 1841 Capt. David Porter Dobbins, afterwards Superintendent
of Life Saving Stations in the Ninth U. S. District, including Lakes
Erie and Ontario, was a citizen of Erie. In politics he was one of the
sturdy, old-time Democrats, not a few of whom, in marked contrast to
their "Copperhead" neighbors, secretly sympathized with and aided the
runaway slaves. Capt. Dobbins had in his employ a black man named
William Mason, his surname being taken, as was the usual, but not
invariable, custom among slaves, from that of his first master. Now
Mason, some time before he came into the employ of Capt. Dobbins, had
apparently become tired of getting only the blows and abuse of an
overseer in return for his toil; so one night he quietly left his "old
Kentucky home," determined to gain his freedom or die in the attempt. In
good time he succeeded in getting to Detroit, then a small town; and
there he found work, took unto himself a wife, and essayed to settle
down. Instead, however, of settling, he soon found himself more badly
stirred up than ever before, for his wife proved to be a veritable
she-devil in petticoats, with a tongue keener than his master's lash.
They parted, and the unfaithful wife informed against him to the
slave-hunters. Mason fled, made his way to Erie, and was given work by
Capt. Dobbins. He was a stalwart negro, intelligent above the average,
altogether too fine a prize to let slip easily, and the professional
slave-hunters lost no time in hunting him out.
For many years prior to the Civil War a large class of men made their
living by ferreting out and recapturing fugitive slaves and returning
them to their old masters; or, as was often the case, selling them into
slavery again. Free black men, peaceful citizens of the Northern States,
were sometimes seized, to be sold to unscrupulous men who stood ever
ready to buy them. There was but little hope for the negro who found
himself carried south of Mason and Dixon's line in the clutches of these
hard men, who were generally provided with a minute description of
runaways from the border States, and received a large commission for
capturing and returning them into bondage.
One day, as Mason was cutting up a quarter of beef in Capt. Dobbins's
house, two men came in, making plausible excuses. Mason saw they were
watching him closely, and his suspicions were at once aroused.
"Is your name William?" one of them asked.
"No," said Mason curtly, pretending to be busy with his beef.
Then they told him to take off his shoe and let them see if there was a
scar on his foot. On his refusing to do so, they produced handcuffs and
called on him to surrender. Livid with desperation and fear, Mason
rushed upon them with his huge butcher-knive, and the fellows took to
their heels to save their heads. They lost no time in getting a warrant
from a magistrate on some pretext or other, and placed it in the hands
of an officer for execution.
While the little by-play with the butcher-knife was going on, Capt.
Dobbins had entered the house, and to him Mason rushed in appeal.
Swearing "by de hosts of heaben" that he would never be captured, he
piteously begged for help and the protection of his employer. And in
Capt. Dobbins he had a friend who was equal to any emergency. Calling
Mason from the room his employer hurried with him to Josiah Kellogg's
house, then one of the finest places in Erie, with a commanding view
from its high bank over lake and bay.[65] To this house Mason was
hurried, and Mrs. Kellogg comprehended the situation at a glance. The
fugitive was soon so carefully hidden that, to use the Captain's
expression, "The Devil himself couldn't have found him, sir!"
Expeditious as they were, they had been none too quick. Capt. Dobbins
had scarcely regained his own door, when the two slave-hunters came
back with the sheriff and demanded Mason.
"Search the premises at your pleasure," was the response.
The house was ransacked from cellar to garret, but, needless to say,
Mason was not to be found.
There was living in Erie at that time a big burly negro, Lemuel Gates by
name, whose strength was only surpassed by his good nature. He was
willing enough to lend himself to the cause of humanity. The Captain
owned a very fast horse, and while the officer and his disappointed and
suspicious companions were still lurking around, just at nightfall, he
harnessed his horse into the buggy and seated the Hercules by his side.
All this was quietly done in the barn with closed doors. At a given
signal, the servant-girl threw open the doors, the Captain cracked his
whip, and out they dashed at full speed. He took good care to be seen
and recognized by the spies on watch, and then laid his course for
Hamlin Russell's house at Belle Valley. Mr. Russell was a noted
Abolitionist, and lived on a cross-road between the Wattsburg and Lake
Pleasant roads. Just beyond Marvintown, at Davison's, the Lake Pleasant
road forks off from the Wattsburg road to the right. The travelers took
the Lake road. When Mr. Russell's house was reached, the Captain slipped
a half-eagle into the hand of his grinning companion, with the needless
advice that it would be well to make tracks for home as fast as
possible. Mr. Russell was told of the clever ruse, and then Capt.
Dobbins drove leisurely homeward. At the junction of the two roads he
met the officer and his comrades in hot pursuit.
"Where is Mason?" they demanded.
"Find out," was the Captain's only answer, as he drove quietly along,
chuckling to himself over the success of his strategy; while the
slave-hunters worked themselves into a passion over a fruitless search
of Mr. Russell's innocent premises.
Early one morning a few days afterward, as Capt. Dobbins was on the bank
of the lake, he saw a vessel round the point of the Peninsula, sail up
the channel, and cast anchor in Misery Bay, then, and for many years
afterwards, a favorite anchorage for wind-bound vessels. Soon a yawl was
seen to put off for the shore with the master of the vessel aboard.
Capt. Dobbins contrived to see him during the day, and was delighted to
find him an old and formerly intimate shipmate. The ship-master heartily
entered into the Captain's plans, and it was agreed to put Mason aboard
of the vessel at two o'clock the next morning.
At the time of which we write, the steamer docks and lumber-yards which
later were built along the shore at that point, were yet undreamed of,
and the waters of the bay broke unhindered at the foot of the high bank
on which stood Mrs. Kellogg's house, where Mason was hid. It would not
do openly to borrow a boat, and Capt. Dobbins had no small difficulty in
getting a craft for the conveyance of his _protege_ to the vessel. At
last, late at night, a little, leaky old skiff was temporarily
confiscated. By this time a strong breeze had sprung up, and it was
difficult to approach the shore. A tree had fallen over the bank with
its top in the water, and the Captain found precarious anchorage for his
leaky tub by clinging to its branches. With a cry like the call of the
whip-poor-will the runaway was summoned. In his hurry to get down the
bank he slipped and fell headlong into the fallen treetop; while a small
avalanche of stones and earth came crashing after and nearly swamped the
boat. When the boat had been lightened of its unexpected cargo, the
voyage across the bay began. The poor darky, however, was no sooner sure
that his neck was not broken by the tumble, than he was nearly dead with
the fear of drowning. Their boat, a little skiff just big enough for one
person, leaked like a sieve, and soon became water-logged in the seaway.
Mason's hat was a stiff "plug," a former gift of charity. It had
suffered sorely by the plunge down the bank, but its ruin was made
complete by the Captain ordering its owner to fall to and bail out the
boat with it. The brim soon vanished, but the upper part did very well
as a bucket; and the owner consoled himself that in thus sacrificing his
hat he saved his life. It was a close call for safety. The Captain
tugged away at the oars as never before, and the shivering negro scooped
away for dear life to keep the boat afloat. In after years Capt. Dobbins
experienced shipwreck more than once, but he used to say that never had
he been in greater peril than when making that memorable trip across
Presque Isle Bay in the wild darkness and storm of midnight. The vessel
was at length reached. She was loaded with staves, and a great hole was
made in the deck load, within which Mason was snugly stowed away, while
the staves were piled over him again. Capt. Dobbins reached the mainland
in safety before daylight, and during the morning had the satisfaction
of seeing the wind haul around off land, when the vessel weighed anchor
and sailed away.
Knowing that pursuit was impossible (there were no steam tugs on the bay
in those days), Capt. Dobbins quietly told the officer that he was tired
of being watched, and that if he would come along, he would show him
where Mason was. The Captain had notified some of his friends, and when
the bank of the lake was reached, a crowd had gathered, for the affair
had created quite a stir in the village.
"Do you see that sail?" said the Captain, pointing to the retreating
vessel.
"Well?" was the impatient answer.
"Mason is aboard of her," was the quiet reply. The befooled magistrate
of the law, who had taken great care to bring handcuffs for his expected
prisoner, acknowledged himself beaten; while the "nigger-chasers" were
glad to sneak off, followed by the shouts and jeers of the crowd.
"Pretty well done--for a Democrat," said Mr. Russell to the Captain a
few days afterwards. "After your conversion to our principles you will
make a good Abolitionist."
Some years after the event above narrated, as Capt. Dobbins[66] was in
the cabin of his vessel as she lay at Buffalo, a respectably-dressed
black man was shown into the cabin. It was Mason, who had come to repay
his benefactor with thanks and even with proffered money. He had settled
somewhere back of Kingston, Ontario, on land which the Canadian
Government at that time gave to actual settlers. He had married an
amiable woman, and was prosperous and happy.
* * * * *
I give the following incident substantially as it was set down for me by
Mr. Frank Henry:
In the summer of 1858 Mr. Jehiel Towner (now deceased) sent me a note
from the city of Erie, asking me to call on him that evening. When night
came I rode into town from my home in Harborcreek, and saw Mr. Towner.
"There are three 'passengers' hidden in town, Henry," said he, "and we
must land them somewhere on the Canada shore. You are just the man for
this work; will you undertake to get them across?"
You must remember that we never had anything to do with "runaway
niggers" in those days, nor even with "fugitive slaves"; we simply
"assisted passengers." I knew well enough that there was a big risk in
the present case, but I promised to do my part, and so after talking
over matters a little I drove home.
The next night just about dusk a wagon was driven into my yard. The
driver, one Hamilton Waters, was a free mulatto, known to everybody
around Erie. He had brought a little boy with him as guide, for he was
almost as blind as a bat. In his wagon were three of the
strangest-looking "passengers" I ever saw; I can remember how oddly they
looked as they clambered out of the wagon. There was a man they called
Sam, a great strapping negro, who might have been forty years old. He
was a loose-jointed fellow, with a head like a pumpkin, and a mouth like
a cavern, its vast circumference always stretched in a glorious grin;
for no matter how badly Sam might feel, or how frightened, the grin had
so grown into his black cheeks that it never vanished. I remember how, a
few nights after, when the poor fellow was scared just about out of his
wits, his grin, though a little ghastly, was as broad as ever. Sam was
one of the queerest characters I ever met. His long arms seemed all
wrists, his legs all ankles; and when he walked, his nether limbs had a
flail-like flop that made him look like a runaway windmill. The bases
upon which rested this fearfully-and wonderfully-made superstructure
were abundantly ample. On one foot he wore an old shoe--at least number
twelve in size--and on the other a heavy boot; and his trousers-legs, by
a grim fatality, were similarly unbalanced, for while the one was tucked
into the boot-top, its fellow, from the knee down, had wholly vanished.
Sam wore a weather-beaten and brimless "tile" on his head, and in his
hand carried an old-fashioned long-barreled rifle. He set great store
by his "ole smooth bo'," though he handled it in a gingerly sort of way,
that suggested a greater fear of its kicks than confidence in its aim.
Sam's companions were an intelligent-looking negro about twenty-five
years old, named Martin, and his wife, a pretty quadroon girl, with thin
lips and a pleasant voice, for all the world like _Eliza_ in "Uncle
Tom's Cabin." She carried a plump little piccaninny against her breast,
over which a thin shawl was tightly drawn. She was an uncommonly
attractive young woman, and I made up my mind then and there that she
shouldn't be carried back to slavery if I had any say in the matter.
The only persons besides myself who knew of their arrival were William
P. Trimble and Maj. F. L. Fitch. The party was conducted to the old
Methodist church in Wesleyville, which had served for a long time as a
place of rendezvous and concealment. Except for the regular Sunday
services, and a Thursday-night prayer-meeting, the church was never
opened, unless for an occasional funeral, and so it was as safe a place
as could well have been found. In case of unexpected intruders, the
fugitives could crawl up into the attic and remain as safe as if in
Liberia.
It was my plan to take the "passengers" from the mouth of Four-Mile
Creek across the lake to Long Point light-house, on the Canada shore,
but the wind hung in a bad quarter for the next two or three days, and
our party had to keep in the dark. One rainy night, however--it was a
miserable, drizzling rain, and dark as Egypt--I was suddenly notified
that a sailboat was in readiness off the mouth of Four-Mile Creek. At
first I was at a loss what to do. I didn't dare go home for provisions,
for I had good reason to believe that my house was nightly watched by a
cowardly wretch, whose only concern was to secure the $500 offered by
Sam's former master for the capture of the slaves. In the vicinity lived
a well-to-do farmer, a devoted pro-slavery Democrat. Notwithstanding his
politics, I knew the man was the soul of honor, and possessed a great
generous heart. So I marshaled my black brigade out of the church, and
marched them off, through the rain, single file, to his house. In answer
to our knock, our friend threw open the door; then, with a thousand
interrogation points frozen into his face, he stood for a minute, one
hand holding a candle above his head, the other shading his eyes, as he
stared at the wet and shivering group of darkies, the very picture of
dumfounded astonishment. In less time than it takes to tell it, however,
he grasped the situation, hustled us all into the house and shut the
door with a most expressive slam.
"What in ---- does all this mean?" was his pious ejaculation.
He saw what it meant, and it needed but few words of explanation on my
part. "They are a party of fugitives from slavery," said I, calling our
friend by name. "We are about to cross the lake to Canada; the party are
destitute and closely pursued; their only crime is a desire for freedom.
This young woman and mother has been sold from her husband and child to
a dealer in the far South, and if captured, she will be consigned to a
life of shame." The story was all too common in those days, and needed
no fine words. The young girl's eyes pleaded more forcibly than any
words I could have spoken.
"Well--what do you want of me?" demanded our host, trying hard to look
fierce and angry.
"Clothing and provisions," I replied.
"Now look here," said he, in his gruffest voice, "this is a bad job--bad
job." Then, turning to the negroes: "Better go back. Canada is full of
runaway niggers now. They're freezin' and starvin' by thousands. Was
over in Canada t'other day. Saw six niggers by the roadside, with their
heads cut off. Bones of niggers danglin' in the trees. Crows pickin'
their eyes out. _You_ better go back, d'ye _hear_?" he added, turning
suddenly towards Sam.
Poor Sam shook in his shoes, and his eyes rolled in terror. He fingered
his cherished smooth-bore as though uncertain whether to shoot his
entertainer, or save all his ammunition for Canada crows, while he cast
a helpless look of appeal upon his companions. The young woman, however,
with her keener insight, had seen through the sham brusqueness of their
host; and although she was evidently appalled by the horrible picture of
what lay before them across the lake, her heart told her it was
immeasurably to be preferred to a return to the only fate which awaited
her in the South. Her thoughts lay in her face, and our friend read
them; and not having a stone in his broad bosom, but a big, warm,
thumping old heart, was moved to pity and to aid. He set about getting a
basket of provisions. Then he skirmished around and found a blanket and
hood for the woman; all the time declaring that _he_ never would help
runaway niggers, no sir! and drawing (for Sam's especial delectation)
the most horrible pictures of Canadian hospitality that he could conjure
up. "You'll find 'em on shore waitin' for ye," said he; "they'll catch
ye and kill ye and string ye up for a scare-crow." Seeing that Sam was
coatless, he stripped off his own coat and bundled it upon the
astonished darky with the consoling remark: "When they get hold of _you_
they'll tan your black hide, stretch it for drum-heads, and beat 'God
Save the Queen' out of ye every day in the year."
All being in readiness, our benefactor plunged his hand into his pocket,
and pulling it out full of small change thrust it into the woman's
hands, still urging them to go back to the old life. At the door Sam
turned back and spoke for the first time:
"Look 'e hyar, Massa, you's good to we uns an' 'fo' de Lo'd I tank yer.
Ef enny No'then gemmen hankah fur my chances in de Souf, I' zign in dair
favo'. 'Fo' de good Lo'd I tank ye, Massa, I does, _shuah_!"
Here Sam's feelings got the better of him, and we were hurrying off,
when our entertainer said:
"See here, now, Henry, remember you were never at my house with a lot of
damned niggers in the night. Do you understand?"
"All right, sir. You are the last man who would ever be charged with
Abolitionism, and that's the reason why we came here tonight. Mum is the
word."
The rain had stopped and the stars were shining in a cheerful way as we
all trudged down the wet road to the lake shore. Our boat was found
close in shore, and Martin and his wife had waded out to it, while Sam
and I stood talking in low tones on the beach. Suddenly a crash like the
breaking of fence-boards was heard on the bank near by, and to the
westward of us. We looked up quickly and saw the form of a man climb
over the fence and then crouch down in the shadow. Up came Sam's rifle,
and with a hurried aim he fired at the moving object. His old gun was
trusty and his aim true, and had it not been for a lucky blow from my
hand, which knocked the gun upwards just as he fired, and sent the ball
whistling harmlessly over the bank, there'd have been one less mean man
in the world, and we should have had a corpse to dispose of. I scrambled
up the bank, with my heart in my mouth, I'll confess, just in time to
see the sneak scurry along in the direction of the highway. I watched a
long time at the creek after the boat left, and seeing no one astir
started for home. By the time I reached the Lake road the moon had come
up, and a fresh carriage-track could be plainly seen. I followed it down
the road a short distance, when it turned, ran across the sod, and ended
at the fence, which had been freshly gnawed by horses. It then turned
back into the highway, followed up the crossroad to Wesleyville, and
thence came to the city.
The fugitives reached the promised land in safety, and I heard from them
several times thereafter. The man Sam subsequently made two or three
successful trips back to the old home, once for a wife and afterwards
for other friends. He made some money in the Canada oil fields, and some
time after sent me $100, $50 for myself to invest in books, and $50 for
the fishermen who carried them safely across to Long Point and liberty.
* * * * *
Of all the places which have sheltered the fugitive slave there is none
better known, along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, than the old
Methodist church at Wesleyville, Erie Co., Pennsylvania. It stands today
much as it stood a half century since; though repairs have been made
from time to time, and of late years modern coal stoves have replaced
the capacious but fervid old wood-eaters known as box-stoves. Dedicated
to God, it has been doubly hallowed by being devoted to the cause of
humanity. To more than one wretch, worn out with the toils of a long
flight, it has proved a glorious house of refuge; and if safety lay not
within the shadow of its sacred altar, it surely did amidst the shadowy
gloom of its dingy garret.
In the year 1856 there lived in Caldwell County, in western Kentucky, a
well-to-do farmer named Wilson. He owned a large and well-stocked farm,
which he had inherited, with several slaves, from his father. Mr. Wilson
was an easy-going and indulgent master, and reaped a greater reward of
affection from his "people" than he did of pecuniary gain from his
plantation. In the autumn of the above-named year he died, and his
servants were divided among the heirs, who lived in Daviess County, in
the same State. Two of the slaves, Jack and Nannie, a young man and his
sister, fell to the lot of a hard master named Watson. The housekeeper
dying, Nannie was taken from the field to fill her place. Nothing could
have been worse for the poor girl. She was handsome, her young master a
brute. Because she defended her honor she was cruelly punished and
locked up for many hours. Her brother succeeded in freeing her, and
together they fled, only to be recaptured. They were whipped so terribly
that the girl Nannie died. Jack survived, heart-broken, quiet for a
time, but with a growing resolve in his heart. One night his master came
home from a debauch, and ordered Jack to perform some unreasonable and
impossible task. Because the poor boy failed, the master flew at him
with an open knife. It was death for one of them. The image of poor Nan,
beaten to an awful death, rose before Jack's eyes. In a moment he became
a tiger. Seizing a cart-stake, he dealt his master a blow that killed
him. The blood of his sister was avenged.
Once more Jack fled. The murder of the master had aroused the
neighborhood. Blood-hounds, both brute and human, scoured the woods and
swamps; flaming handbills offered great rewards for Jack Watson, dead or
alive. With incredible cunning, and grown wary as a wild animal, Jack
lurked in the vicinity a long time. When the excitement had somewhat
abated, he found his way to Salem, Ohio, and was for a time in the
employ of a worthy Quaker named Bonsell, whose descendants still live in
that locality. It was then a neighborhood of Friends, and Jack's life
among them brought him great good. He learned to read and write, and
became in heart and conduct a changed man. His life, however, was
haunted by two ghastly forms; and as often as the image of his murdered
master rose before him, that of Nan came also to justify the deed. These
apparitions wore upon him, and made his life unnatural and highly
sensitive. On one occasion, while in Pittsburg, he saw what he took to
be the ghost of his murdered master coming toward him in the street. He
turned and fled in abject terror, much to the astonishment of all
passers-by. Long afterward he learned that the supposed apparition was a
half-brother of his former master.
Jack now determined to devote his life to freeing his countrymen from
bondage. In due time he found his way to the house of Mr. John Young, a
noted Abolitionist of Wilmington township, in Mercer County,
Pennsylvania. Mr. Young was one of the first men in Mercer County to
proclaim his political convictions to the world, and to stand by them,
bravely and consistently, and through many a dangerous hour, until
slavery was a thing of the past. No man ever asked brave John Young for
help and was refused. His house was known among Abolitionists far and
wide as a safe station for the Underground Road.
While Jack was at Mr. Young's he fell in with a young minister, himself
a former fugitive from Kentucky, and who was at the time an earnest
Baptist preacher in Syracuse, N. Y. This friend, named Jarm W. Loguen,
promised Jack shelter if he could but reach Syracuse, and so Jack was
"forwarded" along the road.
When he reached Erie, the late Mr. Thomas Elliott, of Harborcreek,
carried him to Wesleyville. His pursuers were incidentally heard of as
being in the vicinity of Meadville, and it was necessary to proceed with
great caution; so Jack was hidden away for a few days beneath the
shelter of the old church roof.
It so happened that at this time a protracted meeting was in progress in
the church. It was a great awakening, well remembered yet in the
neighborhood. There were meetings every night, though the church was
shut up during the day. During the evening meetings Jack would stay
quietly concealed in the garret; but after the congregation dispersed
and the key was turned in the door, he would descend, stir up a rousing
fire, and make himself as comfortable as possible until the meeting-hour
came round again. It is related that Mr. David Chambers generously kept
the house supplied with fuel; and his boys, to whose lot fell the
manipulation of the wood-pile, were in constant wonder at the
disappearance of the wood. "I shan't be very sorry when this revival
winds up," said one of them confidentially to the other; "it takes an
awful lot of wood to run a red-hot revival." The meanwhile black Jack
toasted his shins by the revival fire, and found, no doubt, a deal of
comfort in the sacred atmosphere of the sheltering church.
The meetings grew in interest with every night. Scores were gathered
into the fold of the church, and the whole community, young and old,
were touched by the mysterious power. The meetings were conducted by the
Rev. John McLean, afterwards a venerable superannuate of the East Ohio
Conference, yet living (at least a few years ago) in Canfield, Mahoning
County, Ohio; by the Rev. B. Marsteller, and others. The interest came
to a climax one Sunday night. A most thrilling sermon had been preached.
Every heart was on fire with the sacred excitement, and it seemed as if
the Holy Spirit were almost tangible in their very midst. The church was
full, even to the gallery that surrounds three sides of the interior.
Methodists are not--at least were not in those days--afraid to shout;
and Jack, hidden above the ceiling, had long been a rapt listener to the
earnest exhortations. His murder, his people in bondage, all the sorrows
and sins of his eventful life, rose before his eyes. Overcome with
contrition, he knelt upon the rickety old boards, and poured out his
troubles in prayer. Meanwhile, down below, the excitement grew. The Rev.
James Sullivan made an impassioned exhortation, and when he finished,
the altar was crowded with penitents. The service resolved itself into a
general prayer-meeting. Men embraced each other in the aisles, or knelt
in tearful prayer together; while shouts of victory and groans of
repentance filled the church. God bless the good old-fashioned shouting
Methodists, who shouted all the louder as the Lord drew near! Some of
the old revival hymns, sent rolling across winter fields, and throbbing
and ringing through the midnight air, would set the very universe
rejoicing, and scatter the legions of Satan in dismay. Alas that the
religion of lungs--the shouting, noisy, devout, glorious old worship, is
passing away! The whispers of the Devil too often drown the modulations
of modern prayer, and instead of glorified visions of angels and the
saints, the eyes of modern worshipers rest weariedly upon the things of
the world.
As the tide of excitement swelled higher and wilder that night, it
caught poor Jack, up in the garret. Through narrow cracks he could see
the emotions and devotions of the audience; and in his enthusiasm he
wholly forgot that he was in concealment and his presence known to only
two or three of the worshipers.
"Come up, sinners, come up to the Throne of Grace and cast your heavy
burdens down," called the pastor, his face aglow with exercise and
emotion, and his heart throbbing with exultation. "Praise be to God on
High for this glorious harvest of souls."
"Glory, glory, amen!" rose from all parts of the church.
"Glory, glory, amen!" came back a voice from the unknown above.
The hubbub was at such a pitch down stairs that Jack's unconscious
response was scarcely heard; but to those in the gallery it was plainly
audible.
"Lord God of Sabbaoth," prayed the minister, "come down upon us tonight.
Send Thy Spirit into our midst!"
"Amen! glory! hallelujah!" shouted Jack in the garret.
The people in the gallery were in holy fear. "It is Gabriel," they said.
"We come to Thee, Lord! We come, we come!" cried the repentent sinners
down stairs.
"I come, I come, glory to God, hallelujah, amen!" shouted back the
Gabriel in the garret, clapping his hands in the fervor of his ecstacy.
All at once his Abolition friends below heard him. They were struck with
consternation and looked at each other in dismay. If Jack was
discovered, there would be trouble; they must quiet him at any hazard.
"The idea of that nigger getting the power in the garret! A stop must be
put to that at once. A revival in full blast is an unusual treat for an
Underground Railroad traveler; he should take with gratitude what he
could hear, and keep still for the safety of his skin." So thought his
frightened friends, who at once cast about for means to quiet him.
Now it so happened--how fortunate that there is always a way out of a
dilemma!--that the old stove-pipe, which connected with the chimney in
the attic, frequently became disconnected; and on more than one occasion
incipient fires had started among the dry boards of the garret floor.
The people were used to seeing the boys go aloft to look after the
safety of the house; so, when Dempster M. Chambers, a son of Mr.
Stewart Chambers, inspired by a happy thought, scrambled up the ladder
and crawled through the trap-door into the gloom, those who noticed it
thought only that the old stove-pipe had slipped out, and continued to
throw their sins as fuel into the general religious blaze; or thinking
of the fires of hell, gave little heed to lesser flames. Jack was soon
quieted, and the meeting, having consumed itself with its own fervor,
broke up without further incident. There is no doubt, however, that
certain worthy people who were seated in the gallery have ever stoutly
maintained that the Angel Gabriel actually replied to the prayers of
that memorable night.[67]
In due time Jack Watson reached the home of his friend, the Rev. Jarm W.
Loguen; and during the dark days of the War he rendered valuable aid to
the Union cause along the Kentucky and Virginia borders, and in one
guerrilla skirmish he lost his left arm. A few years since he was still
living on a preempted land-claim in Rice County, Kansas.
The following incident, connected with Watson's career, will not be out
of place in closing this sketch:
Some years since the Rev. Glezen Fillmore, a famous pioneer of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Buffalo, and for more than half a century
an honored member of the Genesee Conference, was engaged in raising
funds for the Freedmen's Aid Society. One day his cousin, the late
ex-President Millard Fillmore, rode out from Buffalo to visit him.
During the conversation the venerable preacher related the story of
Watson's escape, as Watson himself had told it while at Fillmore's
Underground Railroad depot. The former President was strongly touched by
the story, and at its close he drew a check for fifty dollars for the
Freedmen. "Thank you, thank you," said the good old parson. "I was
praying that the Lord would open your heart to give ten dollars, and
here are fifty."
No study of Underground Railroad work in this region, even though, like
the present paper, it aims to be chiefly anecdotal, can neglect
recognition of the fact that it was a Buffalo man in the Presidential
chair who, by signing the Fugitive Slave act of 1850, brought upon his
head the maledictions of the Abolitionists, who were so stimulated
thereby in their humanitarian law-breaking, that the most active period
in Underground Railroad work dates from the stroke of Millard Fillmore's
pen which sought to put a stop to it. No passage in American history
displays more acrimony than this. Wherever the friends of the negro were
at work on Underground lines, Mr. Fillmore was denounced in the most
intemperate terms. In his home city of Buffalo, some who had hitherto
prided themselves upon his distinguished acquaintance, estranged
themselves from him, and on his return to Buffalo he found cold and
formal treatment from people whom he had formerly greeted as friends.
Insults were offered him; and the changed demeanor of many of his
townsmen showed itself even in the church which he attended. Certain
ardent souls there were who refused any longer to worship where he
did.[68] Mr. Fillmore met all these hostile demonstrations, as he
sustained the angry protests and denunciations of the Abolitionists in
general, in dignified impurturbability, resting his case upon the
constitutionality of his conduct. The act of 1850 reaffirmed the act of
1793, and both rested upon the explicit provision in the Constitution
which declares that "no person held to service or labor in one State
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor;
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due." Obviously, so far as this section was concerned, many
people of the North were in rebellion against the Constitution of the
United States for many years before the Civil War. That the work of the
Underground Railroad was justifiable in the humanitarian aspect needs no
argument now. But the student of that period cannot overcome the legal
stand taken by Mr. Fillmore, his advisers and sympathizers, unless he
asserts, as Mr. Seward asserted, that the provision of the Constitution
relating to the rendition of slaves was of no binding force. "The law of
nations," he declared, "disavows such compacts--the law of nature
written on the hearts and consciences of men repudiates them."[69] This
was met by the plausible assertion that "the hostility which was
directed against the law of 1850 would have been equally violent against
any law which effectually carried out the provision of the
Constitution."[70] During the years that followed, efforts were made to
recover fugitive slaves under this law. Special officers were appointed
to execute it, but in most Northern communities they were regarded with
odium, and every possible obstacle put in the way of the discharge of
their offensive duties. Many tragic affairs occurred; but the
organization of the Underground Railroad was too thorough, its operation
was in the hands of men too discreet and determined, to be seriously
disturbed by a law which found so little moral support in the
communities through which its devious trails ran. Thus the work went on,
through civil contention and bloody war, until the Emancipator came to
loose all shackles, to put an end to property in slaves, and to stop all
work, because abolishing all need, of the Underground Railroad.
Niagara and the Poets.