The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive historySiebert, Wilbur Henry
History
The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive history
Siebert, Wilbur Henry
Fugitive slaves -- United States; Underground Railroad
another route, and may even have broken a line permanently, but the
history of the Underground Railroad system in Ohio is continuous.
[89] Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, Vol. II, p.
63; Alexander Black, _The Story of Ohio_, see account of the
Underground Railroad.
[90] Letter of Col. D. W. H. Howard, Wauseon, O., Aug. 22, 1894.
[91] Conversation with Robert McCrory, Marysville, O., Sept. 30,
1898. Mr. McCrory was educated at Oberlin College, and has an
excellent memory.
[92] Howe's _Historical Collections of Ohio_, Vol. I, p. 614.
[93] Letter from Job Mullin, dictated to his son-in-law, W. H.
Newport, at Springboro, O., Sept. 9, 1895.
[94] Conversation with Mr. Eliakim H. Moore, Athens, O.
[95] Conversation with Joseph Skillgess, Urbana, O., Aug. 14,
1894.
[96] Letter of Wm. A. Johnston, Coshocton, O., Aug. 23, 1894.
[97] Letter of Hannah W. Blackburn, for her father, Mahlon
Pickrell, Zanesfield, O., March 25, 1893.
[98] Letter of R. C. Corwin, Lebanon, O., Sept. 11, 1895.
[99] _The Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 34.
[100] The _Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 34 _et seq._
In North Carolina underground methods are known to have been
employed by white persons of respectability as early as 1819. We
are informed that "Vestal Coffin organized the Underground Railroad
near the present Guilford College in 1819. Addison Coffin, his
son, entered its service as a conductor in early youth and still
survives in hale old age.... Vestal's cousin, Levi Coffin, became
an anti-slavery apostle in early youth and continued unflinching to
the end. His early years were spent in North Carolina, whence he
helped many slaves to reach the West."[101] Levi Coffin removed to
Indiana in 1826. Of his own and his cousin's activities in behalf
of slaves while still a resident of North Carolina, Mr. Coffin
writes: "Runaway slaves used frequently to conceal themselves in
the woods and thickets of New Garden, waiting opportunities to make
their escape to the North, and I generally learned their places of
concealment and rendered them all the service in my power.... These
outlying slaves knew where I lived, and, when reduced to extremity
of want or danger, often came to my room, in the silence and
darkness of the night, to obtain food or assistance. In my efforts
to aid these fugitives I had a zealous coworker in my friend and
cousin Vestal Coffin, who was then, and continued to the time of his
death--a few years later--a staunch friend to the slave."[102] When
Levi Coffin emigrated in 1826 to southeastern Indiana, he did not
give up his active interest in the fleeing slave, and his house at
Newport (now Fountain City) became a centre at which three distinct
lines of Underground Road converged. It is probable, however, that
wayfarers from bondage found aid from pioneer settlers in Indiana
before Friend Coffin's arrival. John F. Williams, of Economy,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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