The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims: Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 18May, Samuel
History
The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims: Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 18
May, Samuel
Fugitive slaves -- United States; United States -- Fugitive slave law (1850)
_A white girl_, fourteen years of age, daughter of Mr. Samuel
Godshall, of Downingtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, while
walking upon the road, was seized by two men, a plaster put
upon her mouth, and she taken in a close carriage in the
direction of Maryland. After going twelve miles, they put her
out of the carriage, "in a secluded and woody portion of the
country, threatening to kill her if she made any alarm, when
they drove away as fast as they could." Some colored people
met her, got the plaster off her mouth, and aided her
home. It was supposed the kidnappers mistook her for a
mulatto girl; but discovering their blunder dismissed
her.--_Philadelphia Ledger_, July 9, 1855.
_The Norristown (Penn.) Herald_ relates a case similar to the
preceding. Benjamin Johnson, a white lad of fifteen, on his
way from his father's, at Evansburg, to S. Jarrett's, near
Jeffersonville, was invited to ride by a man in a carriage.
The man took him by an unusual route; night coming on, the
boy was alarmed and attempted to escape, "when the villain
caught him and drove off at full speed, and by threats and
blows prevented him from making any alarm." He drove to a
distance of fifteen miles beyond Jeffersonville, when the boy
succeeded in making his escape. (July, 1855.)
JANE JOHNSON, and her two sons, (colored,) brought into
Philadelphia (on their way to New York and thence to
Nicaragua) by John H. Wheeler. Stopped to dine at Bloodgood's
Hotel. Jane there made known her desire to be free.
Information of the same was conveyed to Passmore Williamson,
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, an old
association founded by Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, and
others. Mr. Williamson went to the hotel, and found that the
party had gone to the steamboat, at the foot of Walnut
Street. He proceeded thither, found them, and told the mother
that she and her sons had been legally made free by being
brought by their master into a free State. After some delay,
Jane rose to leave the boat. Wheeler endeavored to detain
her. Williamson held Wheeler back, and the woman went on
shore, a number of colored persons taking up the boys and
carrying them from the boat. They were enabled to escape.
(July 18, 1855.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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