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The Story

The Story of an Escape: Flight on the Pearl

    In April 1848, a daring scheme to help a group of Washington, D.C., slaves escape to freedom brought people with varying motivations together. The plan was born when Paul Jennings, a slave owned by Senator Daniel Webster, approached Daniel Drayton and asked for his help. Drayton, a ship captain who lived in Philadelphia but who routinely sailed cargo ships to Washington, D.C., said he would assist the slaves and began looking for a ship that could carry them north. Drayton approached Edmund Sayres, captain of a schooner called the
Pearl, who agreed to its use. The contract between Drayton and Sayres stated that Drayton would bring a load of wood to Washington from Philadelphia and would then voyage out with an unnamed "cargo."

    Word of the plan spread throughout the black community and many more slaves than were initially planned for decided to make a run for freedom on the Pearl. All through the evening, slaves came quietly aboard. By 10 P.M. on April 15, 1848, when they set sail, 77 escapees hid below deck. The ship spent April 16 in Alexandria, Virginia, then sailed out for the Chesapeake Bay that evening, but a sever storm delayed the Pearl's passage. In spite of the anxiety of the captains and passengers, the Pearl was forced to wait for calmer conditions. They dropped anchor at Point Lookout, where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake Bay, and waited for the weather to improve.

    Back in Washington, influential slave owners had discovered many of their slaves were missing. Armed and angry, owners on horseback searched all neighborhoods and outlying areas. Judson Diggs, a free black who drove a hack for a living and who had carried some of the escapees to the wharf, told the owners that the slaves had escaped by ship. The Dodge family, whose slaves had escaped on the Pearl volunteered their steamship Salem for use in pursuing the slaves.   
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This story, provided by the Smithsonian Education series "Once upon a real time: Telling the Stories the Past Tells Us," serves as the case study of this project.






   
At 2 A.M. on April 17, the steamship Salem reached the anchored  Pearl. The owners climbed aboard, discovering the slaves. All passengers and crew of the Pearl were immediately turned back to the city. In Washington, an angry mob had gathered, ready to punish the slaves for attempting escape, and Drayton and Sayres for helping them. Violence began before the fugitives returned and lasted long after their arrival. The office of the National Era, an abolitionist newspaper, was attacked during the riot.

    In the end, all those involved in the escape were punished severely. Most of the slaves, now considered troublemakers, were sold to slave traders who often separated families. The Edmonson family was parted. Captains Drayton and Sayres were sentenced to life imprisonment for helping slaves escape. However, four and a half years later, in response to the nation's growing distaste for slavery, President Fillmore pardoned them and the men were set free.