Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present CenturyGibbs, Mifflin Wistar
History
Shadow and Light: An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar
African Americans
Pennsylvania being a border State, and Philadelphia situated so near the
line separating the free and slave States, that city was utilized as the
most important adjunct or way-station of the "underground railroad," an
organization to assist runaway slaves to the English colony of Canada.
Say what you will against old England, for, like all human polity, there
is much for censure and criticism, but this we know, that when there
were but few friends responsive, and but few arms that offered to succor
when hunted at home, old England threw open her doors, reached out her
hand, and bid the wandering fugitive slave to come in and "be of good
cheer."
As one of the railroad company mentioned, many cases came under my
observation, and some under my guidance to safety in Canada. One of the
most peculiar and interesting ones that came under by notice and
attention, was that of William and Ellen Craft, fugitives from the State
of Georgia. Summoned one day to a colored boarding house, I was
presented to a person dressed in immaculate black broadcloth and silk
beaver hat, whom I supposed to be a young white man. By his side stood a
young colored man with good features and rather commanding presence. The
first was introduced to me as Mrs. Craft and the other as her husband,
two escaped slaves. They had traveled through on car and boat, paying
and receiving first-class accommodations. Mrs. Craft, being fair,
assumed the habit of young master coming north as an invalid, and as she
had never learned to write, her arm was in a sling, thereby avoiding the
usual signing of register on boat or at hotel, while her servant-husband
was as obsequious in his attentions as the most humble of slaves. They
settled in Boston, living very happily, until the passage of the
fugitive slave law in 1850, when they were compelled to flee to England.
The civil war of 1861 and proclamation of freedom followed. In 1870,
arriving in Savannah, Georgia, seeking accommodation, I was directed to
a hotel, and surprised to find the host and hostess my whilom friends of
underground railroad fame. They had returned to their old home after
emancipation. The surprise was pleasant and recognition mutual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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