Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad/Chapter V
CHAPTER V.
The plan adopted by the enterprising managers of the U. G. R. R. to mislead the owners of the fugitives, and induce them to give up the chase, was kept secret a long time, and great numbers escaped thereby without capture or accident between the Capitol city of the Nation to that of our own State. A letter containing an account of the flight of a party, with sufficient details to enable the manager at Albany to get up a “local article” for the Liberty Press, was sent by mail as soon as they left Washington.
The boys did not leave the station kept by Ben, nor the girls their hiding-place in Baltimore, until the owner had abandoned the pursuit, having learned by the aforesaid paper, what he took as positive proof, that they were beyond his reach.
There were many exciting incidents related by Jo, in connection with their passage north, but the space allotted to these sketches will not admit of their relation. I will briefly say that the boys passed through the city of Baltimore between eight and nine o’clock in the evening, passing through the most public streets, stopping two or three times to buy apples and peanuts at the fruit stands, for which purpose their guide and conductor had given them some money. He (the guide), was a sharp colored boy, not more than thirteen years old. They followed their instructions, by keeping in sight of their guide, and talking about a meeting which had been held that evening, from which they appeared to be returning home. As Jo and Harry were zealous Methodists, it was easy for them to prolong a conversation on such a topic indefinitely; “the powerful preach-in,” and “how happy that yaller gal was,” &c., they talked as loudly and as earnestly as others, who, at that hour, crowded the well-lighted streets. They reached the outskirts of the city before the hour when negroes must not be seen in the streets, where they met the girls in charge of a man, who gave further directions, and started north.
From thence to Philadelphia they traveled on foot in the night, stopping through the day at farm houses with Quakers. Jo said they never failed to find a good breakfast in readiness on their arrival, and the people expecting them before it was light.
From Philadelphia they went on a small fishing boat to Bordentown, thence to New York by railroad. The boys were stowed away among bales and boxes in a freight car, and the girls by the evening train in a firstclass car; they were dressed as ladies, with veils over their faces. A gentleman, assuming the air of a Southerner, walked between them, pushing aside a man at the door, whose business it was to detect runaway slaves; they stepped in just as the car started. Having arrived safely in New York, they were pushed forward to Albany, and Jo’s companions being provided for, we dismiss them and follow only the fortunes of Jo.
Jo was expecting that his wife, Mary, and their little boy, would come on by a route better suited to their condition, but he soon heard that her master, having de tectecl her in an attempt (as he supposed), to get away, threw her into prison until he .could sell her to be sent into the rice swamps; the worst punishment that could be inflicted on a slave. This was a terrible blow to Jo’s prospects, and having saved a few dollars by his industry, he left his friends in Albany, and started west under instructions just a year from the day he left the old plantation. He wanted to find a place where he could work for his board and go to school. I kept him on such terms, and he began to learn the alphabet at twenty-five years of age. He was faithful and attentive to his business and his books, and although naturally overflowing with mirth and music, he had frequent attacks of deep melancholy, amounting to almost despair, on account of the uncertainty of the fate of his wife and child.
Soon after Congress met in December, 1840, I learned that General Chaplin was in Washington reporting for his paper, the aforesaid Liberty Press, of which he was one of the editors, and I proposed to Jo to ask him to enquire after Mary, to which he assented, though with but little hope of success. But as soon as the letter, giving Mr. C. directions to guide him in looking for Mary, was mailed, Jo became very nervous, called at the post office two or three times a day, and began to wonder that the letter had not been answered before it could have reached Washington. In eight or ten days the answer came. Mr. Chaplin had found Mary living with Mr. Judson her old master. She had been in the jail three months, during which time another child was born and had died. Judson then proposed to forgive her, and take her again into his family on condition she would solemnly promise to never again attempt to run away, to which she agreed, and gave up all hope of ever seeing her husband. He told Mr. C. that he had just been offered $800 for her, but she was a favorite servant in his family ; moreover, he had never sold a slave, and thought he never would, but if her husband wished to redeem her and her boy, now four years of age, he would accept for both $350, if paid by March 4th, at which time Mr. C. would go home, and could take them along, provided the money could be raised. Jo laughed and cried, prayed and gave thanks to the blessed Lord all at once, but soon fell again into despair, for how could he get so much money in so short a time?
It was arranged that Jo should undertake to raise the money himself by holding meetings in school-houses in country districts, tell his own story, relate incidents in plantation life, &c., and take up collections. Accordingly, appointments were sent to nearly all the schools in the town, and in two days the work was begun. Jo went to school every day, and at night he would go from two to six miles and hold a meeting. At the first meeting we collected $6, a good beginning for a country dis_ trict. After some ten days he gave up his school, and taking letters to leading abolitionists in adjacent towns, he started off alone. On the 26th day of January, I met him by appointment at Ellicottville. I had, the day before, received another letter from Mr. Chaplin, containing an offer from Judson, to take $50 less than his first offer, provided the $300 should be paid him by the first day of February. On counting his money it amounted to only about $100 ; several gentlemen came into Esquire H———’s office, where we were, and Judge Chamberlain, now deceased, proposed to be one of ten men who were present, to give a joint note for $200, and all share alike in paying the balance after Jo had done all he could before his wife should arrive. The note was made, and T.R.Cohnan, of Dunkirk, a gentleman who is now a successful banker in Chautauqua County, advanced the money, being himself one of the signers of the note, and one of the lawyers of Ellicottville drove to Buffalo, fifty miles, in a terrible storm, bought a draft and mailed it in time to reach Washington by the date specified, so that free papers were secured for Mary and her boy.
It was agreed that Jo should send money as fast as collected to Mr. E. Shepard Colman, of Ellicottville, and if there was not enough to pay the note, he was to collect the balance from the signers and pay it. Jo then started on a “lecturing tour,” as he called it, through Wyoming, Genesee and Erie Counties, collecting small sums wherever his friends could get up a meeting, and when he arrived at my house again on the 10th day of March, I had just received a letter from Mr. Chaplin, saying that he had brought Mary and her boy to Utica, and Jo must come without delay. He gave me every dollar that he had collected, which was only about $5 short of the amount due on the note; I gave him $30 of it, and he started for Utica about sunset; although he had walked from Buffalo that day, 27 miles, he walked back in time to take an early train the next morning. A few days after, I met an old friend who resided in Syracuse, who told me that he met Jo on the train, and learning from him his story, he went to Utica with him, intending to witness the meeting, but was not present when they first met each other; however, he was well paid for going by witnessing their happiness soon after. In due time I received a line from Mr. C., of Ellicottville, acknowledging the receipt of the money, and as it fell short but $35, he had paid the whole of the note, and said, “you and I will make all right between us.” However, as it turned out, there was nothing left to be made right between us, for in a few months he received a letter containing a draft for the $35; he could not decipher much of the letter, but the signature, “Jo Norton,” was sufficiently legible to explain it all.