The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
A SHREWD NEGRO.--A Kentucky slave, named Jim, with the humiliation of
slavery rankling in his breast, resolved to make an effort to gain
freedom. At last the opportunity came and he started for the Ohio
River. There he told his story to a sympathetic member of his race,
offering him a part of his money, if he would row him across to the
Indiana shore. He was directed to George De Baptist, a free man of
color, who was then living in Madison but removed soon afterwards to
Detroit, Michigan. The master of the slave arrived in town with a
posse and diligently searched it for the Negro. His sympathizers
contrived, however, to avoid the slave hunters and the fugitive was
conducted through the corn fields and byways to a depot of the
Underground Railroad. He rested a few days at the station kept by
William Byrd, of Union County, Indiana. From that point he was
speedily forwarded northward until he reached Canada.
Appreciating as he had never done before the real value of freedom, he
longed to do something to confer this great boon upon his wife and
children whom he left behind him in Kentucky. He soon found a way to
solve this problem. He said to himself, "I'll go to old Massa's
plantation, and I'll make believe I am tired of freedom. I'll tell
old Massa a story that will please him; then I will go to work hard
and watch for a chance to slip away my wife and children."
His master was greatly surprised one morning to see Jim return home.
In answer to the many questions propounded to him, he gave the
explanation which he had planned. He told his master that he found
that Canada was no place for Negroes, and that it was too cold and
that they could not earn any money there. He spoke of how the Negroes
were cheated by the whites and subjected to other humiliations, which
made him tired of his freedom. His master was very much pleased with
the story, spoke pleasantly to him and permitted him to work among his
slaves and those of his neighbors as a missionary to convince the
blacks of the folly of escaping to Canada.
The slave resumed his usual labor, working during that fall and winter
but planning at the same time a second flight. In the spring he
succeeded in bringing together his wife and children and a few of his
slave friends on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. He reached the
first station of the Underground Railway with his party numbering
fourteen and hurried them from point to point until they reached the
home of Levi Coffin in Indiana. They were hotly pursued and had narrow
escapes, but by wise management they made their way through
Spartansburg, Greenville and Mercer County, Ohio, to Sandusky, from
which they crossed over to Canada.[3]
* * * * *
B. F. GRANT.[4]--I was born in the State of Pennsylvania, Little
Britain Township, Lancaster County, Sunday morning, August 12, 1838. I
am the son of the late Henry and Charlotte Grant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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