Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
Essay, Freedom Marker: Knowledge, by Dr. Bryan Walls
As a descendent of travelers on the Underground Railroad, I grew up fascinated by what the “Griot” of my family told me. My Aunt Stella, the storyteller of our family, was termed the “Griot,” an African word for “keeper of the oral history.” She passed away in 1986 at 102 years of age, but her mind was sharp until the end of her life.
Aunt Stella told me that John Freeman Walls was born in 1813 in Rockingham County, North Carolina and traveled on the Underground Railroad to Maidstone, Ontario, Canada in 1846. His father Hannabal told him, “If you remember nothing else that I tell you, John, remember ‘the side of the tree that the moss grows on and the light of the North Star is the way to Canada and freedom, like my native Africa.’” I learned terms related to the Underground Railroad and came to understand that it was an informal network of safe houses and escape routes.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The Underground Railroad is considered by many to be the first great freedom movement in the Americas and the first time that people of different races and faiths worked together in harmony for freedom and justice.
However, because it was such a secretive organization and people were risking their lives for freedom, codes were used. Escaped slaves and those who assisted them needed to have quick thinking and an abundance of wisdom and knowledge. The Underground Railroad became such an effective organization that there are still people today who think there was an actual train running underground from the south to the north, carrying people to freedom. The peak time for the Underground Railroad Freedom Movement was between 1820 and 1865.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The term “Underground Railroad” is said to have arisen from an incident that took place in 1831. Legend has it that a Kentucky runaway slave by the name of Tice Davids swam across the Ohio River with slave catchers, including his old master, in hot pursuit.
After they reached the other side near the town of Ripley, Ohio (a busy “station” on the Underground Railroad) Tice eluded capture. He was probably aided by good people who were against slavery and wanted the practice ended.
These freedom sympathizers were known as “abolitionists.” The angry slave owner was heard to say, “He must have gone off on an underground railroad.”
The need for secrecy was paramount as there were severe penalties for slaves and those who helped them to freedom. Therefore, railroad terminology was used to maintain secrecy and confuse the slave catchers.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The code words often used on the Underground Railroad were:
“tracks” (routes fixed by abolitionist sympathizers);
“stations” or “depots” (hiding places);
“conductors” (guides on the Underground Railroad);
“agents” (sympathizers who helped the slaves connect to the Railroad);
“station masters” (those who hid slaves in their homes);
“passengers,” “cargo,” “fleece,” or “freight” (escaped slaves);
“tickets” (indicated that slaves were traveling on the Railroad);
“stockholders” (financial supporters who donated to the Railroad);
“Freedom Trails” (the routes of the Railroad);
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The code words often used on the Underground Railroad were:
“terminal,” “heaven,” or “Promised Land” (Canada and the northern free states); and
“the drinking gourd” (the Big Dipper constellation—a star in this constellation pointed to the North Star, located on the end of the Little Dipper’s handle).
The enslaved came from Africa with centuries-old knowledge of the stars; although the constellations can shift, the North Star remains still in the night sky. Thus, the escaped slaves would run through the woods at night and often hide by day. They would thirst for freedom so much that at times they would kneel down and drink rainwater from the hoof-prints of cattle.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The freedom seekers realized that as long as that beacon of freedom in the night sky stayed stationary as they traveled, they were on course; if the North Star drifted, their course had changed. Although the enslaved were not allowed an education, they were intelligent individuals.
They learned that the moss always grows on the north side of the tree. Maps made by former slaves, White abolitionists, and free Blacks would provide the freedom seekers with directions and geographical landmarks when travel was possible by day.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
There were four main routes that the enslaved could follow:
North along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the northern United States and Canada;
South to Florida and refuge with the Seminole Indians and to the Bahamas;
West along the Gulf of Mexico and into Mexico; and
East along the seaboard into Canada.
The routes were often not in straight lines; they zigzagged in open spaces to mix their scent and throw off the bloodhounds. Sometimes they would even double back on their routes in order to confuse the slave catchers.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
The enslaved could not carry a lot of supplies as that would slow them down. The conductors in the safe houses could provide meals, a bath, clothes, and shelter; however, in the woods and wilderness, the runaway enslaved had to hunt, forage, and use creative means to find food and sustenance.
Along the Underground Railroad journey, the enslaved used available plant life for food and healing. Knowledge of plant-based herbal remedies that had been learned in Africa and on the plantations had to at times be applied.
The enslaved learned that echinacea stimulates the immune system; mint combats indigestion; teas can be made from roots; and poultices can be made from plants even in the winter when they’re dormant.
Underground Railroad—metaphor (William Still story, PBS)
Song lyrics like, “Swing low sweet chariot, coming fore to carry me home,” informed the escaping traveler on the Underground Railroad that it was time to leave the South. These lyrics, hopefully for the Freedom Seeker, would give way to lyrics from the “Song of the Fugitive:”
I’m on my way to Canada a freeman’s right to share; the cruel wrongs of slavery I can no longer bear; my heart is crushed within me, so while I remain a slave I am resolved to strike a blow for freedom or the grave. -- I now embark for yonder shore sweet land of liberty; our vessel soon will bear me o’er and I shall than be free. No more I’ll dread the auctioneer, nor fear the Master’s frowns; No more I’ll tremble least I hear the baying of the hounds. O, Old Master, ‘tis vain to follow me; I’m just in sight of Canada where the panting slave is free.
Underground Railroad—(William Still story, PBS)
This story is available on PBS at https://www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/list/underground-railroad/stories-freedom/underground-railroad-terminology/
From the PBS site:
"It was my good fortune to lend a helping hand to the weary travelers flying from the land of bondage." William Still
William Still was just a boy when he helped the first one escape. He never knew the man's name; only that he was being hunted by slave catchers. But in the years ahead, there would be many hundreds more. And Still vowed their stories would never be forgotten.
"The heroism and desperate struggle that many of our people had to endure should be kept green in the memory of this and coming generations."
Underground Railroad—(William Still story, PBS)
And he kept his promise. His diaries tell the stories of the great slave exodus known as the Underground Railroad. . . .Impossible escapes . . . heart-breaking separations . . . and families re-united.
Underground Railroad: The William Still Story tells the dramatic story of William Still, one of the most important yet largely unheralded individuals of the Underground Railroad. Still was determined to get as many runaways as he could to "Freedom’s Land,” smuggling them across the US border to Canada. Bounty hunters could legally abduct former slaves living in the so-called free northern states, but under the protection of the British, Canada provided sanctuary for fugitive slaves.
William Still was a humble Philadelphia clerk who risked his life shepherding runaway slaves to freedom in the tumultuous years leading up to America’s Civil War.
Underground Railroad—(William Still story, PBS)
Still was the director of a complex network of abolitionists, sympathizers and safe houses that stretched from Philadelphia to what is now Southern Ontario. In his fourteen years in the service of the Underground Railroad, he helped nearly eight hundred former slaves to escape.
Still kept meticulous records of the many escaped slaves who passed through the Philadelphia "station." After the Civil War, Still published the secret notes he’d kept in diaries during those years. And to this day, his book contains some of the best evidence we have of the workings of the Underground Railroad, detailing the freedom seekers who used it, including where they came from, how they escaped and the families they left behind.
Underground Railroad: The William Still Story premiered February 6, 2012.
Underground Railroad—William Still, Amazon
William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia, by William C. Kashatus
From Amazon:
This book is the first major biography of the free Black abolitionist William Still, who coordinated the Eastern Line of the Underground Railroad and was a pillar of the Railroad as a whole.
Based in Philadelphia, Still built a reputation as a courageous leader, writer, philanthropist, and guide for fugitive enslaved people. This monumental work details Still’s life story beginning with his parents’ escape from bondage in the early nineteenth century and continuing through his youth and adulthood as one of the nation’s most important Underground Railroad agents and, later, as an early civil rights pioneer.
Underground Railroad—William Still story, Amazon
Still worked personally with Harriet Tubman, assisted the family of John Brown, helped Brown’s associates escape from Harper’s Ferry after their famous raid, and was a rival to Frederick Douglass among nationally prominent African American abolitionists.
Still’s life story is told in the broader context of the anti-slavery movement, Philadelphia Quaker and free black history, and the generational conflict that occurred between Still and a younger group of free black activists.
Underground Railroad—William Still story, Amazon
Unique to this book is an accessible and detailed database of the 995 fugitives Still helped escape from the South to the North and Canada between 1853 and 1861. The database contains twenty different fields―including name, age, gender, skin color, date of escape, place of origin, mode of transportation, and literacy―and serves as a valuable aid for scholars by offering the opportunity to find new information, and therefore a new perspective, on runaway enslaved people who escaped on the Eastern Line of the Underground Railroad.
Underground Railroad—William Still story, Amazon
Based on Still’s own writings and a multivariate statistical analysis of the database of the runaways he assisted on their escape to freedom, the book challenges previously accepted interpretations of the Underground Railroad. The audience for William Still is a diverse one, including scholars and general readers interested in the history of the anti-slavery movement and the operation of the Underground Railroad, as well as genealogists tracing African American ancestors.
Underground Railroad History—UD library exhibit
This exhibit, showcased from Sept. 18 to Nov. 3, 2017, is available at: https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/delaware-and-the-underground-railroad/
Despite being allied with the Union during the Civil War, Delaware remained a slave state until 1865, when the ratification of the 13th amendment to the Constitution banned slavery nationwide.
In general, the state was divided along north/south lines, with northern New Castle County being primarily anti-slavery and southern Sussex County opposing abolition. The state government saw numerous attempts to repeal slavery via legislative means, but these divides meant that none of these bills gained much traction.
Underground Railroad History—UD library exhibit
Delaware’s position as a border state also placed it directly in the lines of transit that escaped slaves would use when fleeing the South for the Northern United States and Canada.
In the period before the Civil War, the Underground Railroad operated as a series of safe houses from which sympathetic Northerners and members of the free African-American community provided refuge, shelter and support for escaped slaves.
(The system was so-named due to the fact that railroad terminology was used to describe its functions. Routes were referred to as “lines,” stopping places were “stations,” and the people aiding the escaped slaves were “conductors”).
Underground Railroad History—UD library exhibit
Those who aided escaped slaves did so in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act, which permitted authorities to cross state lines in pursuit of escaped slaves, and meted out civil and criminal penalties to anyone who aided escaped slaves.
The artifacts on display in this exhibit highlight Delaware’s role in the Underground Railroad and the movement to abolish slavery in the United States.
Underground Railroad History—UD library exhibit
One of the publications featured in the UD library exhibit is the book Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley: Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America. It was published in London by Harvey and Darton in 1825. It is available in the UD library Special Collections, non-circulating.
The website is available at https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/solomon-bayley/
A digital version is available at the North Carolina State University Library, electronically produced by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and available at https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bayley/menu.html
Underground Railroad History—UD library exhibit
The UNC library also has a digital collection of "North American Slave Narratives," a collection of books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920.
Also included are many of the biographies of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people and some significant fictionalized first-person accounts of enslavement published in English before 1920.
NOTE: Solomon Bayley’s book is also available on Amazon
Solomon Bayley
Solomon Bayley was born into slavery in Delaware. After his owner transported him to Virginia, Bayley sued for his freedom in the courts. (Delaware state law mandated that any slave who was removed from the state would automatically receive his or her freedom).
Before his case could go to trial, Bayley’s owner abducted him. Bayley escaped from his captors while in transit through Virginia. He then travelled on foot back to Delaware, sleeping by day and journeying by night.
Once in Delaware, he again sued for his freedom. The case dragged on (mainly because his owner was uncooperative) and Bayley eventually purchased his freedom outright, after which he went on to purchase his wife and son out of slavery.
Solomon Bayley
Bayley’s Narrative was written while he was living in Camden, Delaware, where he worked as a farmer. His Narrative is the only known example of a memoir written by an enslaved Delawarean.
Sometime around 1830, Solomon Bayley and his wife left the United States for the colony of Liberia. In his letters from Liberia, Bayley described harsh living conditions and tensions with the native population.
In this letter Bayley also writes, briefly, about his escape from enslavement, stating “I was joyfull yes to think of that goodhand of providence that appeared unto me in the wilderness when I was sent away to the back contrys to be sold from my wife and first bornd son.”
Solomon Bayley's letters to Joseph Bringhurst
Solomon Bayley was an acquaintance of the Bringhursts, a Quaker family with great influence on the social, religious and cultural life of the Wilmington area during the 19th century.
After emigrating to Africa, Bayley corresponded by letter with Dr. Joseph Bringhurst, Jr. (b.1767 - d.1834) a physician who was also appointed first Postmaster of Wilmington. Bayley's letters to Bringhurst reflect the former's time as a freedman living in Liberia with his wife, probably in partnership with the American Colonization Society (ACS).
Solomon Bayley's letters to Joseph Bringhurst
Bayley's exchanges with Bringhurst include letters, lists delineating what items he wanted to purchase, and inventories of purchased goods sent from Liberia. The letters also describe difficulties the settlers faced as they sought to establish themselves in their new homeland. For example in one letter Bayley recounts being accosted by a military officer to be made an active part of a battle, an incident he narrowly escaped on the basis of his pacifist Christian beliefs.
The letters also describe some of his experiences as a slave, including his being sent away from his wife and first-born child.
NOTE: the UD library has some of these letters.
William Lloyd Garrison (ACS)
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) joined the abolitionist movement at the age of 25, and was briefly associated with the American Colonization Society (ACS). The group was founded in 1816 by a group of American political leaders.
In 1820 the ACS organized the west African colony of Liberia and began sending free African Americans to live there. Although initially the organization seemed to promote the manumission of slaves, Garrison came to realize that the number of ACS members who opposed slavery was considerably small.
Most, in fact, had no interest in freeing enslaved people but strove to remove free blacks from the United States as a means of helping to preserve the institution of slavery by eliminating interference from the free black population. In Thoughts on African Colonization, Garrison declares that free blacks are Americans and that removing them from the US would do nothing to address the problem of slavery.
Black History Month—Wilmington Underground (WITN)
In the 1830s to 1860s, with the slave state of Maryland on one side and the free states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on the other, Delaware offered a direct route to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Spearheaded by the Underground Railroad's most famous conductor Harriet Tubman and local abolitionist stationmaster Thomas Garrett, Wilmington was the last stop before freedom for thousands of African Americans escaping slavery.
Produced for Black History Month, Wilmington Firsts, WITN, the following video briefly summarizes Delaware's role in the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, Delaware
Short video of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Delaware, 98-mile route (HTURB) produced by UD and the IPA (Institute for Public Administration. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vPG7Iea6aks
Sites include:
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in MD
Star Hill Historical Society Museum, Camden
Camden Friends Meeting House
Old State House Museum, Dover
First State Heritage Park, Dover
John Dickinson Plantation, Dover
Blackbird State Forest
Appoquinimink Meeting House, Odessa
Corbit-Sharp House, Odessa
Historic Odessa Foundation exhibit
New Castle Court House Museum
Reenactment of Thomas Garrett's 1848 trial in Old New Castle
Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park, Wilmington
Delaware History Museum's Jane and Littleton Mitchell Center for African-American Heritage, Wilmington
Delaware Historical Society
Wilmington Friends Meeting House and Cemetery
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway
For more information on this historic trail, please see Freedom: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway
Flight to Freedom: Emeline's story
Enslaved Emeline Hawkins lived in the town of Ingleside, Queen Anne’s county, Maryland, with her husband, Sam Hawkins, a free man, and their six children. Her eldest sons, Chester and Samuel, were the property of Charles W. Glanding. Her four youngest children, ages 18 months to 10 years, were the alleged property of Elizabeth Turner. Sam attempted to legally purchase Emeline’s freedom, but was unsuccessful. Fearing that Emeline and the children would be separated and sold, the family decided to escape for freedom on November 29, 1845.
Produced by the State of Delaware, this website tells the story of Emeline Hawkins' journey to freedom through Delaware, including Camden, Middletown, New Castle, and Wilmington. It's available at https://history.delaware.gov/flight-to-freedom/
The following slides contain information from this site.
Thomas Garrett
(https://history.delaware.gov/flight-to-freedom/people_garrett/)
Thomas Garrett, a birthright Quaker, was born August 21, 1789 in Upper Darby, PA. He was an iron merchant by trade. After moving to Wilmington, he married his first wife, Mary Sharpless, and the couple had five children. After Mary’s death, he married Rachael Mendenhall and they had one son.
Thomas Garrett is best known for his tireless efforts in behalf of the abolition of slavery. His first endeavor started at age 24, by rescuing a kidnapped, free Black woman who was to be sold into slavery in the South. After this episode in his life, he was determined that his life’s work must be to help and defend enslaved African Americans.
From this time forward, Garrett never failed to assist any freedom seeker and his efforts on their behalf were well known. He is credited with helping well over 2,500 fugitive slaves in their journey to freedom.
Despite being threatened, assaulted, arrested, harassed, and carrying a $10,000.00 bounty for his capture, Garrett courageously assisted all asking for his help. Garrett’s arrest, conviction and judgment in the Hawkins case only seemed to double his efforts to help all oppressed persons.
Thomas Garrett died in Wilmington at age 82 and was buried in the Wilmington Friends Meeting Cemetery. A short video on his home in Wilmington is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9N36CslLkE
Another short, non-professional video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Ef5pnebpE
New Castle Court House Museum
Located in the historic district of New Castle, the New Castle Court House Museum is administered by the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. It is one of the oldest courthouses in the US and is a registered National Historic Landmark Site.
The original 1732 court is built over the remains of Delaware’s first courthouse of 1689, with additions and modifications throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
All jurisdictions of Delaware’s courts have met in the building including the federal courts. The state courts removed to the City of Wilmington in 1881 with the changing of the county seat.
New Castle Court House Museum
The New Castle Court House was also Delaware’s first statehouse and meeting place of the colonial and first State Assembly. On June 15, 1776, the legislature passed a resolution to separate from Great Britain and Pennsylvania, creating the Delaware State. Two months later, September 20, 1776, the first Constitution for the Delaware State was adopted. In 1777 the capital moved to Dover.
Significant events took place at the New Castle Court House involving slavery and the Underground Railroad.
In 2003 the New Castle Court House Museum was designated as a National Historic Underground Railroad Site by the U.S. Department of Interior and awarded inclusion in the National Parks Service Network to Freedom Program.
New Castle Court House Museum
Delaware’s most prominent abolitionists and stationmasters on the Underground Railroad, Thomas Garrett and John Hunn, stood trial before the federal court seated at New Castle on charges of aiding fugitive slaves. The trial was presided over by United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Garett and Hunn were found guilty and fined thousands of dollars, forfeiting their homes, businesses and personal property. But here in the courtroom Garrett would defiantly proclaim that he would continue with his efforts in helping those oppressed by slavery regardless of the cost.
Harriet Tubman, National Women's History Museum (Apr 25, 2016)
The following slide show was created for the National Women's History Museum, highlighting major events in Harriet Tubman's life.
The following video, produced for CBS Sunday Morning, highlights the life of Harriet Tubman in a new movie, Harriet, produced in 2019
Next Week:
Colson Whitehead's novel
Additional Resources
There is quite a lot of information available on Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, and specifically the Byway through Delaware.
You might want to take a look at the following resources:
Article in The Guardian (reputable British publication) titled Their Stories Need to be Told: the True Story behind the Underground Railroad
An NPR interview with Colson Whitehead, podcast and transcript, titled New Novel Takes 'The Underground Railroad' Beyond The Metaphor
An article in The Smithsonian magazine, titled The True Story Behind the Harriet Tubman Movie