Quilt Code & UGRR Resource Page
Underground Railroad Previous Program Links
History Makers Oral History Project
See Links at the bottom of the page for information and fun.
Legislation that impacted Slavery
Educators: Here are pages I visit for Information and FUN!
Anti-Slavery Books, Newpapers & Societies Information
American Anti-Slavery Society's Constitution
Where the text can be found: William MacDonald's Documentary Source Book of American History (New York: Burt Franklin), pp. 304-305. Platform of the American Anti-Slavery Society and its Auxiliaries (New York, 1855), pp. 3-4.
Quilts on UGRR by Raymond Dobard
Take a trip on the Underground Railroad
UGRR Classroom Scavenger Hunt and Magazine
Information on Abolitionists and links
John Brown - Grades 9-12 Lesson Plans
Fredrick Douglass -His North Star Newspaper
Joseph and Isaac Friedman were Jewish store owners in Tuscumbia
Thomas Garrett was a Wilmington Delaware Abolitionist.
Georgia UGRR Station McVay House
Thaddeus Stevens - 2002 Archaeological Dig at His Home
John Whittier was a sea captain who transported to safety and when he returned he was branded “SS” for slave stealer. He had not been out spoken on his anti-slavery views until after the cruelty then he became an active abolitionist.
Levi & Catherine Coffin were abolitionist who got 3,000 people to freedom and not one was ever captured. The escaping people would often have to stay at the Coffin’s home up to six months until it was safe to move them on to the next safe house or station on the Underground Railroad.
John Rankin and Levi Coffin managed much of the Underground Railroad’s activities in
Kansas Abolitionist
John Brown (abolitionist) brought his four sons and surplus artillery swords for jus such a purpose, revenge and the attack on
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist, the first white abolitionist to advocate and to practice insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery. He has been called "the most controversial of all nineteenth-century Americans." [1] His attempt to start a liberation movement among enslaved blacks in Virginia in 1859 electrified the nation. He was tried for treason (to the state of Virginia) and hanged, but his behavior at the trial seemed heroic to millions of Americans.
By morning (October 18) the engine house, later known as John Brown's Fort, was surrounded by a company of U.S. Marines under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee of the United States Army. A young Army lieutenant, J.E.B. Stuart, approached under a white flag and told the raiders that their lives would be spared if they surrendered. Brown replied, "No, I prefer to die here." Stuart then gave a signal. The Marines used sledge hammers and a make-shift battering-ram to break down the engine room door. Lieutenant Israel Greene cornered Brown and struck him several times, wounding his head. In three minutes Brown and the survivors were captives. Altogether Brown's men killed four people, and wounded nine. Ten of Brown's men were killed (including his sons Watson and Oliver). Five of Brown's men escaped (including his son Owen), and seven were captured along with Brown. Imprisonment and trial
Brown and the others captured were held in the office of the armory. On October 18, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Virginia Senator James M. Mason, and Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio arrived in Harpers Ferry. Mason led the three-hour questioning session of Brown.
Although the attack had taken place on Federal property, Wise ordered that Brown and his men would be tried in Virginia (perhaps to avert Northern political pressure on the Federal government, or in the unlikely event of a presidential pardon). The trial began October 27, after a doctor pronounced Brown fit for trial. Brown was charged with murdering four whites and a black, with conspiring with slaves to rebel, and with treason against Virginia. A series of lawyers were assigned to Brown, including George Hoyt, but it was Hiram Griswold who concluded the defense on October 31. He argued that Brown could not be guilty of treason against a state to which he owed no loyalty, that Brown had not killed anyone himself, and that the failure of the raid indicated that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Andrew Hunter presented the closing arguments for the prosecution.
On November 2, after a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, the Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. Brown was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2. In response to the sentence, Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "[John Brown] will make the gallows glorious as the Cross." Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute under the leadership of Generals Francis H. Smith and Thomas J. Jackson (who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" fewer than two years later) were called into service as a security detail in the event Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.
“Had I interceded in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved, had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, sister, wife or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been right. Every man in the court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment."'-
- — John Brown, in court after conviction, [1] -
During his month in jail, Brown was allowed to send and receive correspondence. He refused to be rescued by Silas Soule, a friend from Kansas who had somehow infiltrated the prison. Brown said that he was ready to die as a martyr, and Silas left him to be executed. More importantly, many of Brown's letters exuded high tones of spirituality and conviction and, when picked up by the northern press, won increasing numbers of supporters in the North as they simultaneously infuriated many in the South. Brown may have been a prisoner, but he undoubtedly held the nation captive throughout the last quarter of 1859. On December 1, his wife joined him for his last meal. She was denied permission to stay for the night, prompting Brown to lose his composure for the only time through the ordeal.
See also John Brown (Trial). Reactions in the world
Victor Hugo, from his Guernsey exile, tried to obtain grace (mercy) for John Brown: he sent an open letter that was published by the press on both sides of the Atlantic (cf. Actes et paroles). This text warned of a possible civil war:
"[...] Politically speaking, the murder of John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory. Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out, that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness, on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty itself. [...]
Let America know and ponder on this: there is something more frightening than Cain killing Abel, and that is Washington killing Spartacus."
Victor Hugo, Hauteville-House, December 2, 1859
(Original text, from fr:John Brown: "[...] Au point de vue politique, le meurtre de Brown serait une faute irréparable. Il ferait à l’Union une fissure latente qui finirait par la disloquer. Il serait possible que le supplice de Brown consolidât l’esclavage en Virginie, mais il est certain qu’il ébranlerait toute la démocratie américaine. Vous sauvez votre honte, mais vous tuez votre gloire. Au point de vue moral, il semble qu’une partie de la lumière humaine s’éclipserait, que la notion même du juste et de l’injuste s’obscurcirait, le jour où l’on verrait se consommer l’assassinat de la Délivrance par la Liberté. [...]
Oui, que l’Amérique le sache et y songe, il y a quelque chose de plus effrayant que Caïn tuant Abel, c’est Washington tuant Spartacus."
Victor Hugo, Hauteville-House, 2 décembre 1859) Death and afterwards
Idealized portrait of Brown being adored by an enslaved mother and child as he walks to his execution.
On the morning of December 2, Brown read his Bible and wrote a final letter to his wife, which included his will. At 11:00 he was escorted through a crowd of 2,000 soldiers. Among them were future Confederate general Thomas J. Jackson and John Wilkes Booth, who borrowed a militia uniform to gain admission to the execution. [4] Brown was accompanied by the sheriff and his assistants, but no minister since he had consistently rejected the ministrations of pro-slavery clergy. Since the region was in the grips of virtual hysteria, most northerners, including journalists, were run out, and it is unlikely any anti-slavery clergyman would have been safe, even if one were to have sought to visit Brown. Likely drawing strength from correspondence from northern clergy, he elected to receive no religious services in the jail or at the scaffold. He was hanged at 11:15 a.m. and pronounced dead at 11:50 a.m., and his body was dumped into a cheap wooden coffin with the noose still around his neck--a last gesture of Southern contempt.
On the day of his death he wrote "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."
In 1864, his wife Mary Ann and some of Brown's remaining children moved to Red Bluff California. At some point during their westward journey, Southern militants heard of their presence on the trail and sought to attack them, but the Browns were able to evade them.
John Brown is buried on the John Brown Farm in North Elba, New York, south of Lake Placid, near Saranac Lake. Senate investigation
On December 14, 1859, the U.S. Senate appointed a bipartisan committee to investigate the Harpers Ferry raid and to determine whether any citizens contributed arms, ammunition or money. The Democrats attempted to implicate the Republicans in the raid; the Republicans tried to disassociate themselves from Brown and his acts.
The Senate committee heard testimony from 32 witnesses, including Liam Dodson, one of the surviving abolitionists. The report, authored by chairman James M. Mason, a pro-slavery politician from Virginia, was published in June 1860. It found no direct evidence of a conspiracy, but implied that the raid was a result of Republican doctrines. The two committee Republicans published a minority report, but were apparently more concerned about denying Northern culpability than clarifying the nature of Brown's efforts. Certainly the 1860 Republican Presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, echoed his party's view when he called Brown a delusional fanatic who was justly hanged. Aftermath of the raid
The raid on Harpers Ferry is generally thought to have done much to set the nation on a course toward civil war. Southern slaveowners, fearful that other abolitionists would emulate Brown and attempt to lead slave rebellions, began to organize militias to defend their property, both land and slaves (Pre-existing Southern militias had been, for the most part, small and ineffectual). These militias, well-established by 1861, were in effect a ready-made Confederate army, making the South more prepared for secession than it otherwise might have been.
Yet they also put forth the propaganda that Virginia's slaves were unaffected by Brown's presence, and that the majority of "their" slaves had remained staunchly loyal or firmly indifferent to Brown's program. Once more, recent scholarship has disproven this notion and shown how conventional histories of the raid have remained one-sided in describing the outcome of Harper's Ferry according to the slave master. Documentary scholars like Jean Libby and Hannah Geffert have argued quite convincingly that local blacks were far more involved in and supportive of Brown than textbook authors have realized.
Southern Democrats charged that Brown's raid was an inevitable consequence of the Republican Party's political platform, which they associated with Abolitionism. In light of the upcoming elections in November 1860, the Republican political and editorial response to John Brown tried to distance themselves as much as possible from Brown, condemning the raid and dismissing Brown as an insane fanatic.
Much of the general public in the North, however, especially in the Transcendentalists and Abolitionist circles, viewed John Brown as a martyr who had been sacrificed for the sins of the nation. Immediately after the raid, William Lloyd Garrison published a column in The Liberator, entitled "The Tragedy at Harper's Ferry", describing Brown's raid as "well-intended but sadly misguided" and "an enterprise so wild and futile as this".
Although Garrison and his circle opposed any use of violence on principle, he defended Brown's character from detractors in the Northern and Southern press, and argued that those who supported the principles of the American Revolution could not consistently oppose Brown's raid. (Garrison reiterated the point, adding that "whenever commenced, I cannot but wish success to all slave insurrections", in a speech in Boston on the day Brown was hanged.)
After the outbreak of the American Civil War, John Brown's perceived martyrdom was assured. Union soldiers marched into battle singing John Brown's Body, and church congregations sang Julia Ward Howe's new words to the song The Battle Hymn of the Republic: "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free". Brown was a zealous Christian (the "He died" refers to Jesus), and others in the North were inspired to die to make men free, either through abolutionist activities or fighting as soldiers for the Union in the Civil War.
After the Civil War, Frederick Douglass wrote, "Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him." Posthumous blackening of Brown's character
Another history yet to be written, however, is the story of how John Brown was thereafter transmogrified into a raving, violent fanatic and brigand. Undoubtedly, as the U.S. distanced itself from the cause of the former slave and wearied of "bayonet rule" in the South, its view of Brown declined in a manner parallel with the demise of Reconstruction.
In the 1880s, Brown's detractors—some of them contemporaries now embarrassed by their fervent abolitionism—began to produce virulent exposes, particularly emphasizing the Pottawatomie killings of 1856. Other intellectuals found Brown to be a forerunner of frightening anarchists, much as contemporary scholars have frequently compared him with contemporary terrorists.
Although Oswald Garrison Villard's 1911 biography of Brown was thought to be friendly, Villard being the grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, he also added fuel to the anti-Brown fire by criticizing him as a murderer. Villard himself was a pacifist and admired Brown in many respects, but his interpretation of the facts provided a paradigm for later anti-Brown writers. Along with distorted images in cinematic terms [citation needed], by the mid-20th century, most white Americans were fairly convinced that John Brown was a fanatic and killer, while most black Americans sustained a positive view of the man. [see Louis A. DeCaro Jr., "Black People's Ally, White People's Bogeyman: A John Brown Story," in Andrew Taylor and Eldrid Herrington, editors, The Afterlife of John Brown (New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005), 11-26.]
Perhaps the 21st century promises a revision of assumed thinking on John Brown. Despite the continuation of anti-Brown writing here and there, since 2002 there have been four new biographies of Brown published, in varying degrees sympathetic--reflecting that even among American scholars of European descent, traditionally anti-Brown in sentiment, there is a marked change of perspective. Nevertheless, the debate over John Brown remains vibrant, itself a tribute to his enduring presence in the collective mind of the United States. Further reading Secondary sources
[edit] Primary sources
[edit] Historical fiction
1. ^ Frederick J. Blue in American Historical Review (April 2006) v. 111 p 481-2.
2. ^ . quote from Reynolds, (2005); for historiography see Merrill D. Peterson, John Brown: The Legend Revisited (2002) and review by Aimee Lee Cheek, Journal of Southern History 70:2 (2004)pp 435-6.
3. ^ There has been some speculation that the grandfather was the same John Brown who was a Loyalist during the American Revolution and spent time in jail with the notorious Claudius Smith (1736–1779) allegedly for stealing cattle, which he and Claudius used to feed to the starving British troops. However, this runs against the grain of the Brown family history as well as the record of the Humphrey family, to which the Browns were directly related (abolitionist John Brown's maternal grandmother was a Humphrey).
4. ^ Evan Carton, Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America (2006) pp 332-333.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_%28abolitionist%29"
Categories: Articles which may contain original research | Articles which may be biased | Articles with unsourced statements | Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | Accuracy disputes | American abolitionists | Bleeding Kansas | History of Kansas | American Congregationalists | American Freemasons | People from Akron, Ohio | Kent, Ohio | People from Connecticut | People executed for treason | People executed by hanging | 1800 births | 1859 deaths
Clarina I. Howard Nichols lived in
THEODORE PARKER'S PLACARD
PLACARD WHICH WAS WRITTEN BY THEODORE PARKER AND POSTED
BY THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AFTER THE RENDITION OF THOMAS
SIMS TO SLAVERY IN APRIL, 1851
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker and George Luther Stearns, and Samuel Gridley Howe. A group of six wealthy abolitionists -- Sanborn, Higginson, Parker, Stearns, Howe, and Gerrit Smith -- agreed to offer Brown financial support for his antislavery activities; they would eventually provide most of the financial backing for the raid on Harpers Ferry, and would come to be known as the Secret Six and the Committee of Six.
William Lloyd Garrison what an abolitionist and wrote the Liberator and closed it in 1965 when he felt his work was over with the emancipation of slaves in
Wendell Phillips
Anti-Slavery Meeting on the [
In the second speech, Douglass denounces the controversial Dred Scott decision of
Two Speeches by Frederick Douglass,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS . Partly printed DS: "Fredk Douglass," 2½p, 8½x14 folded in four to 3½x8½ Bill of Sale from Charles C. Glover and his wife, Annie C. Glover, to Robert Davidson of real estate in the
William Topp, a tailor and black abolitionist from
Senator Seward and his wife would assist escaping people to freedom in
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. ALS: "William H Seward" as U.S. Senator, 2p, 4¾x7, front and verso (display is hinged to show both sides).
At the time of this letter, Seward was in the midst of campaigning for re-election to the
A spirited leader of the anti-slavery movement, by late 1855, the former
By 1860, Seward had become a leading presidential candidate, but he lost the nomination on the third ballot at the Republican National Convention (May 16-18) to Abraham Lincoln, who won the ensuing election.
Fortunately, Seward recovered, and he remained Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson. In 1867, Seward negotiated the purchase of the
DIPLOMATIC APPOINTMENT OF A FORMER PRISONER OF WAR, SEVEN MONTHS AFTER LEE'S SURRENDER.
ANDREW JOHNSON and WILLIAM H. SEWARD
Partly Printed DS: "Andrew Johnson" as 17th U.S. President and "William H. Seward" as Secretary of State, 1p, 16½x11.
New
Senator Rufus King was one of the abolitionists who inspired Denmark Vesey in his fight for black rights. Vesey most likely heard about King through
"Our Countrymen in Chains," a famous poem by Quaker author John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). Among his many anti-slavery publications was an entire volume, Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Cause in the
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Half title page Harriet Beecher Stowe Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1853 Susan B. Anthony Collection Rare Book and Special Collections Division (53)
Harriet Beecher Stowe is not often considered as an abolitionist but it was her book Uncle Toms Cabin that turned the tide of the nation against the treatment of people enslaved. She traveled extensively for a lady of this time period. We never hear very much about her husband either.
On our Underground Railroad Tour in 1999 we stopped at her home in
Members of the Philadelphia Abolitionist Society John Brown were Thaddeus Stevens, Alan Pinkerton, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and William Lloyd Garrison.
Alan Pinkerton
Samuel D Burris, a black UGRR conductor of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society who was nearly sold into slavery. He often journeyed into
Benjamin Franklin became the first president of the first abolitionist society in 1775.founded the
James Forten Sr. and his family carried on the civil right movement Sarah, Harriet and Margaretta Forten.
Issac Hopper, who along with his Quaker collaborators in Philadelphia created the country’s first operating unit of underground abolitionist in 1801 Isaac Hopper was, only about sixteen years of age
in 1787 when he helped the first of these unfortunates. A slave from
his master to work on a ship going to
Unfortunately, on his first day in
him get back home. Young Isaac Hopper saw the two as they waited for the boat to
Watching his chance, young Isaac whispered to the slave, "Do you really want to go back?" You can
count on me to be your friend and never betray you." The colored man looked at him long and earnestly.
Isaac never forgot that look of distress. Then Joe told him the truth, and Isaac set himself about doing
what he could to help him. He knew few people in
and learned of a Quaker in the country who was a good friend of the colored people. Joe was given a
letter to this Quaker, along with careful instructions how to reach him.
According to their plan, in order to avoid suspicion and pursuit, the Negro went aboard ship, but the
next day was allowed to go ashore for some clothes he had purposely left behind. Once on shore, away
from
This was Isaac's first opportunity to help a Negro to freedom. Forty years later, he had saved over a
thousand men and women. The colored people of
the laws connected with slavery so well that even lawyers found themselves no match for him. But when his knowledge of law was not enough, his mind worked like a flash, and again and again he helped
fugitives to escape from under the very hands of their former masters.
On one occasion when an escaped slave was given haven in Isaac Hopper's home, his master came and set a guard before the house to prevent him escaping to the street. But Isaac Hopper had arranged for him to flee through the back of the house and over the backyard fence. The master was literally stretching out his hand toward his property when the slave bolted through the back door, turned the key which locked the door from the outside. Before the master could find another way to the rear of. the house, the slave had climbed the fence and was out, of sight.
Often Hopper's quick wits turned the tables on slaveholders in most unexpected fashion. Once a
slave case was brought before a Judge Rush. The Judge seemed to favor the owner, and the unhappy
Negro began to despair. Just then, Isaac Hopper said to the Judge: "Hast thou not recently published a
legal opinion in which it is distinctly stated that thou wouldst never seek to sustain a human law if thou
were convinced that it conflicted with any law in the Bible?"
"Yes," answered Judge Rush. "I did publish such statement, and I am ready to abide by it; for in all
cases I consider the divine law above the human law."
Calmly, Friend Hopper drew from his pocket a small Bible, and read aloud a couple of verses from
the 23rd Chapter of Deuteronomy:
"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: He shall
dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of the gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him."
The slaveholder laughed. "Why should that old Hebrew law be brought into a modern court?" But
when the Judge asked for the book, read the passage for himself, and then adjourned the decision of the
case, the owner walked out of the courthouse muttering, "I believe in my soul the old fool will let him
off on that ground." And surely enough, the slave was discharged.
"I have never tried to make any slave discontented with his situation, because I do not consider it either
wise or kind to do so; but so long as my life is spared, I will always assist anyone who is trying to escape
from slavery, be the laws what they may."
In 1852, Isaac T. Hopper died. He had been overseer of a school for colored children; volunteer
teacher in a school for adult Negroes; lawyer and protector of slaves and colored people upon all occa-
sions. But he did far more than this. The poor were continually calling upon him to plead with hard-
hearted landlords and, creditors. In
Association, to help men and women discharged from prison to find work and lead honest lives. The Isaac
T. Hopper Home on
in
carries on the spirit of the man whom it commemorates. A friend once said of him: "The Bible requires
us to love our neighbors as well as ourselves: Friend Isaac has loved them better."
James Miller McKim had asked if William Still wanted to work with the PAS Society as a janitor and clerk.
Robert Pervis black leader of the PASS and husband of Harriet Forten.
Steven Smith a wealthy coal and lumber dealer.
Thaddeus Stevens – Part of the Radical Republicans who were considered the moral force of the Senate wanted Blacks to have equal civil rights before the Civil War, pushed for the right for their participation of joining the Union Army during the war and for equal civil and political rights after the Civil War. He was an abolition and station keeper on the Underground Railroad in
Escaped Slave Narratives
Enslaved in Alabama
Enslaved in Louisana
Enslaved in North Carolina
Enslaved in Oklahoma
Lucinda Davis -Slave of Creek Indian
Sheridan Ford
Enslaved in South Carolina
Enslaved in Virgina
Fountain Hughes - Grandson of a Slave of Thomas Jefferson
Seminole Indians - Divisons in the Freedmen, Indians and Escaped slaves
*** For Adults or Students College Level ****
Many of the details of the information below are graphic and an instructor show preview the articles for appropriateness of your class age group.
Nat Turner - The Confession of Nat Turner
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To say that someone who was kidnapped from home and forced into slavery was a fugitive from the person who enslaved them is criminal as the charges. Here are a few narratives that I will add to shortly to help you understand the wide variety of experiences that make a discussion of slavery challenging. Some slaves were educated, some were treated very cruel, some were purchased to be freed by individuals and organizations, some killed themselves rather than endure slavery. No two experiences were alike.
