Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad/Preface
PREFACE.
In 1619 slaves were introduced into the colony of Virginia—they were Africans of pure blood, jet black, thick lips, flat noses, flat feet and crooked shins. The Virginians would have scorned the idea of enslaving a white man or woman, but the time came when the bluest blood of Virginia betrayed itself in the blush on the cheek of beautiful women standing on the auction block in Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans. Beauty of face and of form had a market value; a beautiful woman would sell for the price of ten able bodied men, and even Christianity was an article of commerce. A man stands upon the block, dignified in manner, serious countenance, and silent. “Now, gentlemen and ladies,” says the auctioneer, “I offer you a first class servant. He is honest and faithful, and moreover he is a Christian; no sham I tell you, but a genuine, conscientious Christian man. He would die rather than commit a wrong act or betray his master. How much do you offer for a servant that you can depend on every time?”
Good men in the Slave States were silent, having no means of redress; the laws and public opinion were on the side of the slave holder. The free States remonstrated and petitioned Congress to adopt measures for emancipation. The South assumed the political doctrine of State rights, which means that State laws are paramount to U. S. laws. But when the northern States enacted laws to protect their own citizens against kidnappers, it was found that “State Rights” applied only to slave States. As the free States persisted in protecting their citizens the slave States demanded the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, which was passed in 1850, establishing commissions and courts unknown to the Constitution, and was undoubtedly the most barbarous law enacted by any civilized nation in the 19th century.
The most simple act of charity to a fugitive must be kept a profound secret or a felon’s cell was the penalty. The result was a spontaneous combination of multitudes of men and women, extending from Maine to Kansas, with many a station south of Mason & Dixon’s line, which on account of its harmony of action, rapid transit and secret operation, came to be known as the “Underground Rail Road.”
The Underground R.R., extending from the interior of the slave States to Canada, and to liberty, wherever human liberty could be found, had four main lines across the State of New York, and scores of laterals. It has finished its mission, closed its operations, settled its accounts and divided the proceeds among the passengers. The immense wealth thus accumulated was invested in the purchase of large tracts of land in Canada, clearing up, stocking and cultivating farms, building dwellings, barns, churches and school houses, mills and factories.
No institution has ever existed in this country, whose business was transacted with more perfect fidelity, more profound secrecy, more harmony in the working of its complicated machinery and yet with such tremendous results.
It had, like all other rail roads, its offices and stations, engineers and conductors, ticket agents and train dispatchers, hotels and eating houses. The fugitive slave law passed by Congress in 1850, imposed a penalty of $1,000 fine and imprisonment for selling or giving a meal of victuals to one of the passengers on this road, or for helping them on their way. Disregarding these penalties, the eating houses were open day and night, and well supplied with the best food the country afforded.
The business was conducted in silence and harmony, consequently but few of the employees suffered the aforesaid penalties; yet some of the noblest and purest men that ever suffered as martyrs were victims of that horrid fugitive slave law. Rev. John Rankin, of Ohio, was fined $1,000 and imprisonment. Wm. L. Chaplin, Esq., of Mass., was imprisoned in Virginia, released on nineteen thousand dollars bail, which was paid by his friends to save his life, and Rev. C.T.Torry died in a Virginia prison.
The managers availed themselves of all manner of facilities for traveling; rail roads and steam boats, canal boats and ferry boats, stage coaches, gentlemen’s carriages and lumber wagons were pressed into active duty when needed. The large rivers were the chief obstacles in their way when not bridged with ice. In 1858 it was asserted that the slave holders had employed Douglass, (not Fred,) to advocate in Congress a bill to abolish the North Star and make it a penal offence for the Ohio river to freeze over. I do not think Douglass ever introduced such a bill, but such a proposition was no more absurd than the indirect attempt to abolish Christianity, by enacting the Fugitive Slave Law.
The writer of these brief sketches of U. G. R. R. history kept a station and eating house at one of the crossings of the Catfaraugus river, in Cattaraugus Co., N.Y., though but few of his nearest neighbors knew until the rebellion ended, its usefulness. Being at the junction of six laterals with the main line running through Buffalo, I heard many thrilling accounts from escaping fugitives while they were in my charge, and experienced some exciting times when the slave hounds were almost within striking distance. I have given comparatively few of the many incidents which came under my observation, and these only in outline, yet as giving some conception of the workings of an institution importantly pertaining to a past epoch in our history, the character of which even now this generation can scarcely realize, I am persuaded that these chapters may have both value and interest, and they are therefore respectfully submitted in this form to the public. E. M. Pettit.
Fredonia, N. Y., May, 1879.