Ohio History Journal

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

 

 

S. S. KNABENSHUE, TOLEDO.

The Underground Railroad was not under the ground, nor

was it a railway; but there was a fitness in the name which caused

its general use to express one of the most remarkable phases of

the long struggle against slavery and the Slave Power. The

term was a popular mode of referring to the various ways in

which fugitive slaves from the South were assisted in escaping to

the North, and especially to Canada. It was often humorously

abbreviated to "U. G. R. R."

The boundary between the slave and the free states began

at the mouth of the Delaware river; ran up that stream to Mason

& Dixon's line - the boundary between Pennsylvania and Mary-

land; thence westward to the end of Maryland; then north, be-

tween Pennsylvania and what was then Virginia, but is now West

Virginia, to the Ohio river; down the Ohio to its mouth; up the

Mississippi to the northern boundary of Missouri; along the

northern and western sides of that state, and thence westward

along the line of 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude--the

noted Missouri Compromise line.

Take a map of the United States, follow this line, and it

will be seen that the shortest route to British soil in Canada and,

hence to complete freedom, was across Ohio. Only a little more

than 200 miles, as the crow flies, lay between the slave and liberty

after he crossed the Ohio river. Hence this state was the fav-

orite route. Probably more fugitives found safety by the trails

of the Underground Railroad crossing Ohio than by those through

any other state. Along the Ohio which fronted slave territory

for about 375 miles, there were initial stations at some 22 or 23

river towns; and some of these, such as Cincinnati, had several

different routes leading toward the North Star and freedom.

This was necessary, for the slave-hunters were often close on the

trail of the fugitive, and it was necessary to have more than one

(396)

• 1
 

The Underground Railroad.             397

 

route, so that, if one or more were watched, the negro would

be sent by another.

It is extremely difficult to get the facts regarding these routes.

It is to be remembered that the Underground Railroad was first

established in Ohio somewhere about 1815 to 1817; and the work

of the road never ceased, but grew increasingly greater, until the

extinction of slavery by the Civil War. Thus, for fifty years, it

was one of the most traveled of states by the black fugitives. A

pro-slavery writer of 1842 declares that at this time there were

eighteen or nineteen thoroughly organized routes across Ohio.

But the greatest activity of the U. G. R. R. was after the enact-

ment of the fugitive slave law of 1850, and there were doubtless

more than twenty general routes, each with side deviations, the

paths taken thus forming a veritable network over this state.

The origin of the name "Underground Railroad," is uncer-

tain. R. C. Smedley, in a little work on "The Underground

Railroad in Chester and Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania,"

says it came into use among the slave-hunters in the neighbor-

hood of Columbia, Pa. They had little difficulty in tracking slaves

to Columbia, but at that point all trace was lost, and they are said

to have declared there must be an underground road somewhere.

As railroads were unknown until after 1830, the term must have

originated later than that year. Hon. Rush R. Sloane, of San-

dusky, who was actively engaged in underground work, says that

in 1831 a negro named Tice Davids ran away from Kentucky.

His master pursued him so closely that, when he reached the

Ohio river, near Ripley, he was obliged to plunge in and swim

across to avoid capture. His master secured a skiff and started

after Tice. He kept him in view until he reached the Ohio shore,

when the negro disappeared. After a long search his master said

he thought "the nigger must have gone off on an underground

road." This story created a great deal of amusement along the

Underground line. First, the "Underground Road," then nat-

urally the "Underground Railroad."

Gradually railway terminology was applied to different parts

of the work - all figurative, of course, like the generic name,

"Underground Railroad." Men who were very active in the

work, fearless of consequences, were "managers;" "contributing

• 2
 

398       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

members" furnished money for clothing, food, hiring vehicles,

etc., and were generally men who did not wish for social, political,

or business reasons, to be known as in sympathy with the work;

an "agent" or "conductor" piloted the slaves from one house to

another. These houses were called "stations." One man named

Levi Coffin, mentioned in the above, was for many years called

president of the Underground Railroad, because he personally

aided over three thousand slaves on their northward way, in the

thirty years he was engaged in the work.

It must be kept in mind that helping slaves to freedom was

unlawful. From 1793, there had been a fugitive slave law, which

imposed penalties of fine and imprisonment for concealing run-

away slaves, or aiding them in any way to evade capture. Hence

there was need of the utmost caution. The majority of the people

of Ohio, probably, during all the time the underground railroad

was in operation, were not in sympathy with its work. For its

efficiency and secrecy it depended upon the friendship, sympathy

and confidence existing between members of neighboring stations.

A fugitive who reached an initial station received food and cloth-

ing, if in need, and was hidden in an attic, a hay-mow, a corn-

crib, at some places in caves, until arrangements could be made.

He was then taken to the next station - usually a farm house.

All travel was by night, to lessen the chance of capture of the

slave, or of detection of his conductor. As a rule, when a fugitive

had been passed to the next station, the person at the initial sta-

tion never heard of him again - unless he was captured, which

very seldom happened. His exact route was not known, because

there were always alternate stations, and a negro entering Ohio

at Harmar, for instance, at the mouth of the Muskingum, might

cross to Canada from Buffalo, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, or

from a minor lake port.

The settlers of Ohio along the river, had a good sprinkling

of men from Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, who had strong

moral objections to slavery. The Quakers always were opposed

to the institution, and they were the most active in underground

work. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, Scotch Covenanters, and

Wesleyan Methodists were also notable in it. Many of these

deeply-religious men refused utterly to lift a finger to persuade

• 3
 

The Underground Railroad.             399

 

a slave to escape, or to act as abductors; but the runaway negro

who came for aid was never turned away. The majority of slaves

who reached freedom ran away of their own accord; but there

were, in the many years over which the work extended, a number

of people who devoted themselves to abduction. Harriet Tub-

man, a negro woman, was one of these, and gained the title of

"the Moses of her race." She was a Maryland slave, but escaped

to Philadelphia in 1849. The next year she went to Baltimore

and abducted her sister and two children. From then until the

Civil War, she made nineteen trips, and brought over 300 slaves

to freedom.

Very few documents relating to the Underground Railroad

are in existence. The legal penalties for rendering aid to fugi-

tives were always present in the minds of the operators; there-

fore, they avoided any written evidence of their work. Records

and dairies were kept by some, and letters passing between sta-

tion-keepers were frequent; but these were all destroyed after

the enactment of the fugitive slave law of 1850, which created

much consternation by its rigorous provisions and severe penalties.

The total number of fugitives is simply a matter of estimate.

Josiah Henson, himself a runaway slave and afterward an ab-

ductor, estimated that in 1852 there were 50,000 fugitive negroes

living in the north, exclusive of those who had gone to Canada.

This is probably overstated. Charges of bad faith against the

North in the rendition of fugitive slaves were frequently made

by Southern members on the floor of Congress. Representative

Moore, of Virginia, in 1822, declared his district lost four or

five thousand dollars' worth of negroes every year. In 1850, Sen-

ator Atchison, of Kentucky, declared that hundreds of thousands

of dollars worth were lost annually by the border slave states.

Pratt, of Maryland, said his state lost $80,000 worth each year,

and Mason of Virginia, put the loss in that state at over $100,000

per year. Clingman, of North Carolina, said the 30,000 fugitives

then estimated to be living in the North were worth, at current

prices, about $15,000,000. Claiborne, governor of Louisiana,

gave as a defect of the fugitive slave law of 1850, that it failed

to provide for the payment to the South of the $30,000,000 of

which she had been plundered by the loss of slaves in forty years.

• 4
 

400       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

He also declared that the number of slaves in the District of Co-

lumbia had been reduced from 4,694 in 1840, to 650 in 1850 by

the underground railroad.

Mention has already been made of the number of initial sta-

tions along the Ohio river. Many of the fugitives were con-

ducted to Erie and Buffalo; but every lake port in Ohio, from

Conneaut to Toledo, was a point of departure for Canada. San-

dusky and Cleveland were specially important, because, in the

last ten years of underground work, they were the termini of

railways running southward to the center of the state. In these

later years, fugitives were put on board night trains, in the bag-

gage cars, and thus taken swiftly to those cities, where they were

put on steamers bound for Canadian ports, or taken across Lake

Erie in sailboats. The steamers out of Toledo were frequently

employed also.

The list of Toledo operators of the underground railroad em-

braces the names of Richard Mott, a Quaker: Hon. James M.

Ashley, former congressman; the late Mayor Bringham; James

Conlisk, an Irish-American; William H. Merritt, a negro, and

several others. As a youth of 17 in Kentucky, Mr. Ashley helped

two groupes of fugitives across the Ohio, one of seven persons,

the other of five. He was active in the work for years in Toledo

and took many risks - not the least of which was taking a party

of fugitives in a sleigh, in midwinter, across Lake Erie on the ice

from Toledo to Amherstburg.

There was a station in Maumee, operated by A. C. Winslow,

who operated a foundry. From there, if there was no close pur-

suit, fugitives were brought either to Toledo, or taken, via Detroit

avenue, to Monroe, Michigan, and thence across to Canada. If

the pursuers were close, the negroes were taken to the Sylvania

station, kept by Daniel Harroun, jr., and from there Hall Deland,

the "night hawk," took them to the French settlers along the

Detroit river, who ferried them across that stream to Canada.

At Sandusky still lives, full of years and honors, Hon. Rush

R. Sloane, a notable underground operator. In 1854, while he

was in the law practice, he was tried for the dismissal without

proper authority of seven fugitives from the custody of their

captors. Two suits were instituted against him by Louis F.

• 5
 

The Underground Railroad.            401

 

Weimer, the owner of three of the slaves. The case was tried

in the United States District Court at Columbus, and a verdict

for $3,000 and costs was returned against him. The costs were

$330.30. Some Sandusky friends raised $393, which paid court

and marshal's costs, but Mr. Sloane had to pay the $3,000 from

his own pocket.

New England had a number of underground railroad routes.

The fugitives sometimes came from the South through New York,

but many came hidden aboard coasting vessels which traded to

Southern ports. From New York a much-used route went up

the Hudson to Albany. From here some were sent west through

Rochester, the home of Frederick Douglass, thence to the Nia-

gara frontier; some went northward direct to Canada.

There was a network of routes leading from the South to

Philadelphia and the Quaker communities in the neighboring

counties. From thence some went to New York, and some by

routes northward to the Niagara frontier. In western Pennsyl-

vania were a number of routes, the fugitives following the val-

leys between the mountain ranges of the Alleghanies from the

South, and eventually reaching Canada through Buffalo, Erie,

Cleveland or Sandusky.

Indiana had many routes, ending at Detroit, Toledo, Michi-

gan City and Chicago. From the Mississippi, along the Mis-

souri boundary, a number of routes crossed Illinois to Chicago,

whence the fugitives were taken by lake steamer to Collingwood,

Detroit and Amherstburg. In the late '50's, there were routes

in eastern Kansas and southern Iowa, all joining the Illinois

routes, and with the same terminations.

Thousands of negroes started with no knowledge of what

to do other than to have the north star pointed out to them, with

directions to go toward it - they traveled at night, and hid dur-

ing the day - with the information that when they reached Can-

ada they were free, and could not be brought back. Many along

in the late '30's and '40's, followed the Wabash canal across In-

diana to Toledo; or the Ohio canal from Portsmouth to Cleve-

land, or the canal from Cincinnati north of Toledo. The desire

for freedom was general among the slaves, even when they were

well treated. The one thing the slaves in the northern tier of

Vol. XIV.- 26.

• 6
 

402       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

slave states most dreaded was being sold South, to labor in the

rice fields of Carolina, the cotton fields of Georgia, Alabama and

Mississippi, or the cane fields of Louisiana. And from the time

that the desire for freedom inspired slaves to run away, there

seems to have been people in the North willing to give them cor-

dial aid. The earliest mention we have of any systematic aid to

runaways is in two letters written by George Washington in 1786.

On May 24, speaking of the slave of Mr. Dalby, of Alexandria,

who had escaped to Philadelphia, he said: "A society of Quak-

ers, formed for such purposes, have attempted to liberate him."

On November 20, of the same year, he writes of one of his own

slaves, sent under an overseer to Hon. Wm. Drayton, but who

escaped in transit.  Washington writes:  "The gentleman in

whose care I sent him has promised every endeavor to apprehend

him; but it is not easy to do this, when there are numbers who

would rather facilitate the escape of slaves than apprehend them

when runaways."

This was before the formation of the national constitution.

One of the compromises of that document was the clause which

reads: "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." This clause, although it stu-

diously avoids the words "slave" and "slavery," meant runaway

slaves.

This clause remained inoperative for several years, because

Congress enacted no law on the subject. In 1791, a case of kid-

napping occurred at Washington, Pa., which directed public atten-

tion to the matter, and in 1793 the first fugitive slave law was

enacted. From that day until 1863, the aiding of runaway slaves

was illegal. But the law was ineffectual to stop it; the under-

ground railroad methods were followed, especially in Pennsyl-

vania. Several states enacted laws to aid in the rendition of

fugitive slaves within their borders, but they did not deter under-

ground operators. The national law was amended and strength-

ened somewhat about 1819; but the work of the underground

railroad increased steadily through the next three decades, until

• 7
 

The Underground Railroad.               403 in the fierce debates upon the admission of California as a free state, the compromise bill of 1850 was enacted, one of the features of which was the severe fugitive slave law of that year. This stirred up the friends of freedom to renewed activity; and when, in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealed the Missouri Com- promise, and showed the purposes of the slave power to extend the hated institution into territories, that they might be admitted as slave states, the impetus became greater. For the first time, a great political party was organized to resist the encroachments of slavery. Six years later it obtained control of the national government. Secession followed, and the war for the preser- vation of the Union destroyed slavery forever.

• 8