From Dixie to Canada: Romances and Realities of the Underground RailroadJohnson, H. U. (Homer Uri)
History
From Dixie to Canada: Romances and Realities of the Underground Railroad
Johnson, H. U. (Homer Uri)
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Underground Railroad
“The abolition incendiaries are undermining, not only our domestic
institutions, but the very foundations of our Capitol. Our citizens
will recollect that the boy Jim, who was arrested last August, while
lurking about the Capitol, would disclose nothing until he was
subject to torture by screwing his fingers in a blacksmith’s vice,
when he acknowledged that he was to have been sent north by
railroad; was to have started near the place where he stood when
discovered by the patrol. He refused to tell who was to aid him—said
he did not know—and most likely he did not. Nothing more could be
got from him until they gave the screw another turn, when he said:
‘_The railroad goes under ground all the way to Boston_.’ Our
citizens are losing all their best servants. Some secret Yankee
arrangement has been contrived by which they ‘stampede’ from three
to eight at a time, and no trace of them can be found until they
reach the interior of New York or the New England States. They can
not have gone by railroad, as every station is closely watched by a
secret police, yet there is no other conveyance by which a man can
reach Albany in two days. That they have done so, is now clearly
demonstrated. Colonel Hardy, a tobacco planter residing in the
District, about five miles from the city, lost five more slaves last
Sunday evening. They were pursued by an expert slave catcher, but no
trace of them was discovered. The search was abandoned this morning,
the Colonel having received a paper called the _Liberty Press_,
printed in Albany, with the following article so marked as to claim
his attention:
“‘Arrived, this morning, by our fast train, three men and two women.
They were claimed as slaves by Colonel Hardy, of the District of
Columbia, but became dissatisfied with the Colonel’s ways of
_bucking_ Harry, making _love_ to Nancy and other similar displays
of _masterly_ affection, and left the old fellow’s premises last
Sunday evening, arriving at our station by the quickest passage on
record.’
“The article recites many incidents that have transpired in the
Colonel’s family, that correspond so exactly with facts that the
Colonel says: ‘Nobody but Kate could have told that story!’ Said
article closes by saying: ‘Now, Colonel H., please give yourself no
trouble about these friends of yours, for they will be safe under
the protection of the British Lion before this _meets_ your eyes.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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