Ohio History Journal

A FLIGHT ACROSS OHIO: THE ESCAPE OF

WILLIAM WELLS BROWN FROM SLAVERY

 

by W. EDWARD FARRISON

Chairman, Department of English, North Carolina College

at Durham

 

It was January 1, 1834. On the previous night Captain Enoch

Price, a commission merchant and steamboat owner of St. Louis,

Missouri, had arrived on his steamer The Chester in Cincinnati.

This was a pleasure as well as a business trip, and on it the captain

had brought his family and also several of his house slaves. Among

the latter was a mulatto youth about nineteen years of age whom

the Prices called Sandford, but who called himself William.

It was already a Happy New Year for many of those around

William. Would it become that for him? It would indeed if he

could only escape from slavery, as he had planned to do on that

day. For a moment he stood beside the trunk he had brought to

the landing in order to give himself a reason for coming ashore

at that time. Then casually he made his way through the dispersing

crowd on the landing and into the neighboring street. Turning at

the first corner he reached, he began to walk a little faster, but

not fast enough to give any casual observer the impression that

he was hurrying away from anything. Within a few minutes he

was on the outskirts of the city; and what was more, not far in

the distance he saw a wood.

Many years earlier William Wordsworth, whom he was never

to see but whose home he was destined to visit seventeen years

later, had said that there was a spirit in the woods. And to be

sure, there was. But as yet the fugitive knew nothing about the

great presence in nature which for Wordsworth had turned groves

into temples. The spirit the fugitive sought in the woods was a

protecting spirit-a protector against discovery by men who would

remand him to slavery. In the woods even on this cold winter day

there were more security and peace for him than there were among

the people of the city through which he had just passed. For there

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A Flight Across Ohio                 273

 

were many in that city who would gladly return him to slavery

for a fee. He remembered all too well what had happened to a

man belonging to General Ashley of St. Louis. While en route to

Washington, D. C., with his owner, the slave had run away near

Cincinnati but had been recaptured and carried back into bondage.

William also remembered how he and his mother had been re-

captured in central Illinois when they had attempted to flee to

Canada early in the preceding year. Perhaps a similar fate now

awaited him. Lest he might be overtaken by it, he must not "be

seen by any one."¹ In order to avoid contact with either travelers

or others who might be curious, he had decided to hide in the woods

by day and travel by night, when he would have the roads to himself.

He hurried into the woods, therefore, to wait for night and the

appearance of what was to be his guide to freedom-the North

Star. He soon found himself in "a marshy woodland,"² a swamp

so uninviting that nobody was likely to look for him there, because

no one would have expected to find anybody there, especially on

a cold day.

At last night came, bringing with it a cloud that hid the North

Star. Nevertheless the fugitive was eager to be on his way.

Emerging from his hiding place, he found a main road but did

not know which way on it led to freedom, if either did. It did

not occur to him, one supposes, to feel the trunks of trees for

moss and to proceed in the direction indicated by the sides on

which it grew, for moss growing on trees faces the north. Whether

this botanical fact was known to William or not, according to the

Rev. William M. Mitchell, it soon became familiar to other fugitive

slaves traveling in Ohio as well as elsewhere.³ Mitchell, who was

of Negro-Indian parentage, was a native of Guilford County, North

Carolina. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in

Ross County and elsewhere in southern Ohio from 1843 to 1855.

As such he was a co-worker of the Rev. John Rankin of Ripley.

Among the fugitive slaves whom he said that he sheltered for a

1 Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself (Boston,

1847), 95-97.

2 "Letter from W. W. Brown," National Anti-Slavery Standard, April 21, 1855.

3 W. M. Mitchell, The Under-Ground Railroad (London, 1860), 36.

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night and then sped on to freedom were Mrs. Stowe's Eliza, whose

real name he said was Mary, and her child. In the summer of 1935

an ex-slave who had spent most of his life in the vicinity of New

Garden in Guilford County, North Carolina, told me how slaves

found directions by noting the sides on which moss grew on trees.

This ex-slave, of course, had never heard of the Rev. William M.

Mitchell. New Garden, now Guilford College, was the community

which Levi and Addison Coffin made famous as a station on the

Underground Railroad.

To return to William on a strange road on that cold New Year's

night in 1834, there was nothing much he could do, it seemed,

but pray and wait for the North Star to appear. Meanwhile he

must do something to keep himself warm. The night was much

colder than the day had been, and he was not dressed for winter

weather in Ohio. Both his suit and his shoes were old, and he had

no overcoat. He had no clothes but those he was wearing nor

any other belongings except a tinderbox and a small bag of

"provisions." In order to keep himself warm, he walked to and fro

in the road. After what seemed like hours the North Star appeared,

and at once the fugitive was on his way to freedom-in Canada,

he then hoped. Freedom was a beautiful word, he thought, but

surely it must be more than a word. Eventually he would see what

it really was.

When William escaped from slavery, the Underground Railroad

in Ohio had not yet been very well organized, and few if any of

its routes had been established. Without the assistance of any

conductors or any appreciable knowledge of the geography of the

state, he traveled about half of the way from Cincinnati to Cleveland.

Neither in his Narrative nor in any other autobiographical sketch

did he give specific information about the route he followed

across the state, perhaps because he could not give very much, or

possibly because he did not wish to disclose to slaveholders any

secrets about the ways by which fugitive slaves might get to

freedom. He did not revisit southwestern Ohio for twenty-one

years nor central Ohio for ten years after his flight; and the changes

which had taken place in those sections during those periods had

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made it very difficult, if not impossible, for him to identify ac-

curately the route along which he had fled. With regard to the

time it took him to get across the state, he was more specific;

and the record his Narrative gives of his progress northward,

principally in terms of time, indicates more or less generally the

route that he probably followed from Cincinnati to Cleveland.

When on the night of January 1st the North Star appeared,

according to William's reckoning it was almost twelve o'clock.

Having started at last in the right direction, he must have walked

very fast, for before dawn the next day he had gone, he estimated,

"twenty or twenty-five miles." The testimony of the Rev. William

M. Mitchell, to whom I have already referred, renders this distance

remarkable if not questionable. Speaking of activities on the Under-

ground Railroad in Ohio more than ten years after William escaped

from slavery and after those activities had been well organized,

Mitchell said, "I have taken them [fugitive slaves] 20 miles in a

night, but that is not a usual distance, 6 to 12 miles is more

commonly the length of each journey."⁴ Apparently William

traveled much faster without guides than fugitive slaves usually

traveled with them.

On the fourth day of his flight, while William was still in

southwestern Ohio, his "provisions" gave out. To suffering from

exposure was now added the threat of starvation. There were three

ways by which he could obtain food. He could purchase it, beg

for it, or forage for it. Even if he had had more money than he

possessed, he still would have considered buying as dangerous as

begging; for either would have necessitated direct contact with

strangers, and he was still afraid to be seen by anyone. As to

foraging, he knew that he could get no feast by that method; but

the small risk of discovery which it involved made it comparatively

safe, and just now safety from recapture was more important to

him than anything else. As he saw matters, the only way for him

to remain safe and get food was to keep away from people, as

he had done during the last four days, and forage. This he re-

solved to do and promptly put his resolution into action.

4 Ibid., 5.

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In his Narrative, page 97, he said, "On the first night after my

food was gone, I went to a barn on the road-side, and there found

some ears of corn. I took ten or twelve of them and kept on my

journey. During the next day, while in the woods, I roasted my

corn and feasted upon it, thanking God that I was so well pro-

vided for." Another of his quests for food, on which he went

presumably a night or two later, he recounted many years after-

wards as follows: "One night, while in search of corn, I came

upon what I supposed to be a hill of potatoes, buried in the

ground for want of a cellar. I obtained a sharp-pointed piece of

wood, with which I dug away for more than an hour, and on

gaining the hidden treasure, found it to be turnips. However, I

did not dig for nothing. After supplying myself with about half-

a-dozen of the turnips, I again resumed my journey. This uncooked

food was indeed a great luxury, and gave strength to my fatigued

limbs." In her Biography of an American Bondman (Boston, 1856),

page 39, Josephine Brown referred to her father's "narrative" as

the source of this story. I have not found it, however, in any of the

editions of his Narrative. The earliest version of it I have found is

the one quoted by Josephine Brown herself, and this is the one

I have quoted.

"On the fifth or sixth day," according to the Narrative, page 99,

"it rained very fast, and it froze about as fast as it fell, so that

my clothes were one glare of ice. I travelled on at night until I

became so chilled and benumbed--the wind blowing into my face--

that I found it impossible to go any further [sic], and accordingly

took shelter in a barn, where I was obliged to walk about to keep

from freezing.

"I have ever looked upon that night as the most eventful part

of my escape from slavery. Nothing but the providence of God,

and that old barn, saved me from freezing to death. I received a

very severe cold, which settled upon my lungs, and from time to

time my feet had been frost-bitten, so that it was with difficulty

I could walk." As unhappy as his plight was, he preferred it, or

even death, to being re-enslaved; so with more strength of will than

of body he walked on for two more days-or rather nights. After

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A Flight Across Ohio                   277

 

that time he must get help from somebody or die. But how could

he get help from anybody without running the risk of being re-

captured? He was uncertain but necessity made him hopeful.

Concealing himself one morning "behind some logs and brush"

beside a highway, he waited for somebody to come along on whom

he might call for aid.

 

The first person that passed was a man in a buggy-wagon. He looked too

genteel for me to hail him. Very soon, another passed on horseback. I

attempted speaking to him, but fear made my voice fail me. As he passed,

I left my hiding-place, and was approaching the road, when I observed

an old man walking towards me, leading a white horse. He had on a

broad-brimmed hat and a very long coat, and was evidently walking for

exercise.

By the same providence of God which had kept him from freezing

in the barn two or three nights earlier, William recognized the

man who was to be his Good Samaritan. When the old man got

close enough to speak to him, he asked whether William was a

fugitive slave. Without answering his question, William explained

that he was ill and asked whether the old man knew anyone who

would help him.

 

He answered that he would; but again asked, if I was not a slave. I

told him I was. He then said that I was in a very pro-slavery neighborhood,

and if I would wait until he went home, he would get a covered wagon

for me. I promised to remain. He mounted his horse, and was soon out of

sight.

After he was gone, I meditated whether to wait or not; being ap-

prehensive that he had gone for some one to arrest me. But I finally

concluded to remain until he should return; removing some few rods to

watch his movements. After a suspense of an hour and a half or more, he

returned with a two horse covered-wagon, such as are usually seen under

the shed of a Quaker meeting-house on Sundays and Thursdays; for the

old man proved to be a Quaker of the George Fox stamp.⁵

 

Upon arriving at the Friend's home with him, William hesitated

to enter it until the housewife herself urged him to do so. "I thought

 

5 Narrative, 101-102.

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278    Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

I saw something in the old lady's cap," he said in his Narrative,

"that told me I was not only safe, but welcome, in her house."

Although he had not had a decent meal for more than a week,

at first he could not eat, partly because he was not at ease and

partly because he was ill from exposure. Taking notice of his

physical condition, the housewife soon improved it with one of her

home remedies-a cupful or two of "composition," or "number

six."

By both words and deeds the Friend and his wife made it

clear to William that he need not hurry away from their home-

that certainly he must not leave them while he was ill. In spite of

their kindness, however, he was uncomfortable with them at least

for a day or two. Slavery had left its scars upon his mind no less

than upon his body. In the "peculiar institution" he had been

effectively taught that a slave was, at the very best, an inferior

human being, who could never expect to associate on equal terms

with white people of any class. And as he had observed, the fact

that he looked as much like a white person as any of his owners

was of no importance whatever. It was as much a matter of legal

and social status as of racial identity. On the contrary, here were

two white people whom he had known only a day or two and

who had not only taken him into their home but were also treating

him as if he were a member of their family. It was an experience

such as he had never had even with the white people who had

admitted that he was their relative. This transition from the un-

natural status of human property to the natural status of a human

being equal to any other human being was too sudden to be

easily made by one who had been proscribed all of his life by

the adroit and grotesque logic of American slavery. He could

not help feeling amazed at his situation. "The fact that I was a

freeman-could walk, talk, eat and sleep as a man," he remarked

in his Narrative, page 104, "and no one to stand over me with the

blood-clotted cowhide-all this made me feel that I was not myself."

But fortunately, slavery had only wounded, because it could not

kill, the freedom-loving human spirit which belonged as much to

William as to the rest of mankind; and ere long in the home of his

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A Flight Across Ohio                  279

 

newly found friends he began to feel like a normal person among

other normal persons.

The name of William's Good Samaritan was Wells Brown, and

his home was "about fifty or sixty miles from Dayton, in the

State of Ohio, and between one and two hundred miles from

Cleaveland [sic]."⁶ William did not tell what was the name of

Wells Brown's wife, and his reference to the location of his

benefactors' home is so indefinite that one might wonder whether

he did not know where it was or was vague on purpose. Because

Wells Brown had helped many fugitive slaves, perhaps William

thought that if he had told specifically where his benefactors' home

was, he would have disclosed information that might have proved

valuable to slave-catchers. In referring to Wells Brown by name,

nevertheless, William must have identified him for an appreciable

number of people. But there is another possibility to be considered.

When he succored William early in January 1834, Wells Brown

"was very old, and not in the enjoyment of good health." Ap-

parently William never saw him nor heard from him afterwards.

For all William knew, therefore, by 1847 when the first edition

of his Narrative was published, there might have been no need

to conceal any information about Wells Brown, because by that

time he might have been dead. Whether William thought he was

still alive or dead, however, he dedicated his Narrative to him.

According to William's reference to its location, Wells Brown's

home might have been anywhere in the rectangular area bounded

by Washington Court House, Marysville, Delaware, and Circleville.

Two circumstances make it probable that the Friend's home was

somewhere in the northern half of this area. First, the Cincinnati-

Cleveland road now known as United States Highway Number 42

ran in 1834, as it does now, northeastward across the northern half

of this area; and second, the road just mentioned was the more

direct and probably the more frequently traveled of the two routes

which then led from Cincinnati to Cleveland.⁷ Accordingly, it is

6 Ibid., iii-iv, 104.

7 William F. Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle

West (Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, XXXIV,

New York, 1909), map facing p. 139.

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280    Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

presumable that this was the route William followed northward;

and if it was, Wells Brown's home must have been near it.

The only references to Wells Brown I have found are those

made by William. His name seems not to have been recorded in

the registries of either deeds or wills in any of the counties com-

prising the area in which he probably lived, nor is it listed either

in the printed records of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society or in

William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker

Genealogy. He was, it appears, one of those who helped their un-

fortunate fellow men whenever they could do so, but with no

thought of making places for themselves in history-like the

original Good Samaritan who, in addition to doing all he could do

for the victim of the thieves, paid the innkeeper to care further

for him but did not bother to identify himself by name. Indeed, if

chance or providence had not brought to Wells Brown for aid a

fugitive slave who eventually became a prominent abolitionist and

author, his name might have been lost from the annals of the

antislavery movement in America.

William remained in his benefactors' home "about twelve or

fifteen days." And now having fully recovered from the cold he

had caught, he was eager to continue his journey northward. In

addition to helping him to revive his body, before letting him

depart, Wells Brown also helped him to revive his spirit by in-

dividualizing him with a complete name. Wells Brown asked the

fugitive what name he had in addition to William. When the

fugitive replied that as a slave he had had no surname, the Friend

remarked that since William had got out of slavery and had become

a man, he must have an additional name, because all free men

had two names. In appreciation of Wells Brown's fatherly kindness

William gave the Friend the privilege of naming him, whereupon

the Friend offered his own name. But finding that the fugitive

was unwilling to give up the name William, the Friend settled

matters by calling him William Wells Brown.⁸

With some new clothes, new shoes, a small amount of money, a

 

8 Narrative, 105-106.

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A Flight Across Ohio                   281

parcel of food, and the name of a free man-all of which he had

received from his Quaker benefactors-Brown set out again for

Canada. Within four days he had traveled half of the distance from

central Ohio to Cleveland, but by this time his supply of food and

money was exhausted, and he was beginning to suffer again from

exposure. The need for comfort having become urgent, he stopped

one day to warm himself in "a public house." While he was there

he heard some customers at the bar discussing some fugitive slaves

who, it seemed, had just passed that way. He was immediately

chilled with fear lest he might be recognized as a fugitive slave and

recaptured. As soon as he could summon enough courage to do so,

he withdrew from the public house to a forest, where he waited

until night to continue his journey.

The next day, having existed without food for almost two days,

he was impelled to beg for some at a farmhouse he was about to

pass. In response to his knock a man came to the door and asked

him several questions, refused to give him any food, and advised

him to go and work for something to eat. Finding this lecture

neither physically nor spiritually satisfying, Brown was about to

withdraw when the man's wife came to see what was happening.

When her husband hesitated to explain the situation, she questioned

Brown directly.

 

I told her that I had asked for something to eat. After a few more

questions, she told me to come in, and that she would give me something

to eat.

I walked up to the door, but the husband remained in the passage, as if

unwilling to let me enter.

She asked him two or three times to get out of the way, and let me in.

But as he did not move, she pushed him on one side, bidding me walk in!

I was never before so glad to see a woman push a man aside! Ever

since that act, I have been in favor of "woman's rights!"

After giving me as much food as I could eat, she presented me with ten

cents, all the money then at her disposal, accompanied with a note to a

friend, a few miles further [sic] on the road. Thanking this angel of mercy

from an overflowing heart, I pushed on my way, and in three days arrived

at Cleaveland [sic], Ohio.⁹

9 Ibid., 107-108.

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282     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

Probably this housewife had recognized Brown as a fugitive

slave but had refrained from asking him too many questions for

fear of frightening him unnecessarily. The dime and the note

she gave him suggest that she might have been one of the pioneer

stationmistresses on the Underground Railroad in Ohio. It is re-

grettable that Brown gave no more information about her than

he did.

Arriving in Cleveland at the end of January, Brown was dismayed

to find that there was ice in Lake Erie and that no steamboats were

running. To get to Canada he would have had to go by land

through either Buffalo or Detroit. Either way would have neces-

sitated a long trip on foot, for he had no money for stagecoach

fares; and still worse, he would have had to travel in such mid-

winter weather as he had never experienced before. He was a

stranger in Cleveland, but believing that he would be secure in that

city for a while, he decided to remain there at least until winter

ended and navigation on the lake was resumed. If he could have

foreseen the future, he would have known that he was to make

Cleveland his home for more than two years and was never to settle

in Canada. Instead he was to remain in the United States and

eventually to join in the crusade to win for others the freedom he

had won for himself.

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