Slavery Was an Abhorrent Institution in Real Time…
A letter from Chester County, relates someone who was there.
Media, 2d Mo. 26TH, 1880
Dear Friend:
I will endeavor to give a few of the facts in relation to the operations of the Underground Railroad in Chester County, so far as they fell within my knowledge. Although I am Chester County man by birth, I only lived in that county for a few years of time when the Underground Railroad was in full operation but knew of its workings in the West and also in Philadelphia.
I do not think there were signs, grips, signals, or passes by which fugitives were known, or by which they reached in safety of the various friends of freedom and agents on the route of the Underground Railroad. They were generally too well marked by the unerring signs of slavery not to be distinguished at once by anyone that should see them on their way or hear them speak three sentences. The trains on this remarkable road nearly always ran in the night, and its success was owing to the darkness, the guidance of the North Star, and to the earnest souls of the men and women who loved freedom and recognized the rights of every man to be free, and the duty of everyone “to remember those in bonds as bound with them.”
Those were stirring times in Chester County, as elsewhere. We were surrounded by enemies; contumely and persecution were our portion; danger beset us at every step in the dark, yet there were few who bore the despised name of abolitionist that did not take up the work bravely, counting it for gain that they were able at any risk, danger, or sacrifice, “to open the prison doors to them who are bound. My heart leaps at the recollection of these earnest souls who were the fearless workers in those days and nights of peril; guiding the stricken and hunted out of Egypt into the promised land.
Read More
The movements were almost always made in the night, and the fugitives were taken from one station another by wagon and sometimes on foot; they consisted of old men and young, women, children and nursing babes. Sometimes they came singly, sometimes by the dozen. In the middle of the night there came a low knock on the door, a window was raised softly – “Who is there?” a low, well known voice in reply – “How many?” The matter is soon arranged. Hidden away in the garrets, barn, cellar, or bedroom during the next day, (or sometimes many days) and then on auspicious night forwarded to the next station. Clothing is changed where possible, fetters removed when necessary; wounds are dressed, weary limbs are rested, fainting hearts strengthened and then up again and away for Canada.
Some were brave and willing to take risks and having found friends and a home, would remain, to be undisturbed and still live in Chester County, where they found shelter thirty-five years ago. Some were hunted and traced to be moved on again; some, alas, to be overtaken and carried back from Chester County in chains!
One of the earliest cases that I saw was an old man, moving in pain and evidently very sore. It was at the house of Esther Lewis, my wife’s mother. I took him into the house and helped him remove his clothing to his hips. His back from his neck to his thighs was gridironed with seams from a recent whipping with a raw-hide, the cruel instrument of torture cutting deep into the flesh with every blow. Pressure upon the back with the end of the finger almost anywhere would cause pus to flow in a stream. His back was also scarred all over with seams and protuberances, the results of former whippings from different dates, from which one could read the history of his life of suffering as plainly as we read the Earth’s history by its convoluted strata, burnt out craters and scars on mountains of upheaval. The offence for which this poor man had received this terrible whipping was going to see his wife, who belonged to another master; he was detected in the crime, suspended by his wrists to an apple tree limb, his feet tied together and the end of a rail placed between to keep his body steady, and the fiendish raw-hide fell with brute force for a hundred times. This man secured his escape to freedom.
Sometimes the slaves would escape with iron fetters upon them placed to keep them from running away, but these generally removed by “friends by the way” before they reached Chester County. I once had in my possession a neck ornament taken from a fugitive, an iron band an inch wide and more than a quarter of an inch thick with three branches each nine inches long, turned up at the end. This trinket was riveted around a man’s neck and the prongs made it impossible for him to lie down except upon a block of wood or other hard substance. Ankle ornaments, made of heavy iron bands, riveted around the legs, were a common device, and often had prongs or chains or balls attached. These were so heavy as to wear into living flesh, and yet, thus equipped, men set of on their journey to the North Star of freedom.
While living in Philadelphia, we had one day a visit from a young lady of our acquaintance. She was not accounted as an abolitionist, was the daughter of wealthy parents living in one of the most fashionable mansions on Arch Street. Her mother had a visit from a Southern friend who entertained her hostess with an account of her misfortune in the loss of her favorite slave who had run away from his kind mistress. She dilated upon the slaves’ virtues, his great value and her great loss, but she was consoled that all in this world is not evil, for she had just heard of his whereabouts in West Chester and expected to capture him in a few days. The exact place in West Chester and with whom he lived was detailed and the time and plan of his recovery was stated by this confiding lady. The heart of the young girl was moved; she knew no one in West Chester, but she knew my wife and me – and that we were abolitionists and Chester County people. She went to her own room as soon as she could leave the parlor, wrote down the names of persons and places, and hastened to our house, her face all aglow with excitement as she told her story. We did not know any of the persons in West Chester, but we knew Simon Bernard who lived there then, and we knew he was as true as tempered steel. A letter went to him by the next mail; all was found as described. The slave-catchers made their appearance the next day, but “but the bird had flown; it was off to freedom on the Underground Railroad and the disappointed Southern lady thought this was but a poor world after all!
One noteworthy peculiarity of these fugitive parties was that the babies never cried. Was it that slave mothers had no time to attend to infantile wants and the children found that it did not “pay” to cry, or did the timid mothers teach their little ones to tremble and be still in this horrible fear as do the mother partridges impress their young with dread of the hawk as soon as they are out of the shell?
This is a large subject, and a thousandth part of its miseries and heartbreaks can never be written, but, thanks to the Father of the poor, the horror is dead, the bloodhound is no longer on the track and the Underground Railroad is no more.
Edwin Fussell
Dr. Bartholomew Fussell
So wrote Edwin Fussell, recalling 15 years after the end of the Civil War what he witnessed as the son of William Fussell and nephew of Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, both leaders of the Underground Railroad in Chester County. His and other accounts of this monumental chapter in American history highlight the tensions and atrocities that rendered America asunder during the Civil War. Even though there were several Underground Railroad routes through the United States, Chester County, in particular, was different, owing to the fact that the County literally marked the line between freedom and enslavement.
Dozens of Agents & Stations
According to author William Switala, “No other county in Pennsylvania had as complex a system of Underground Railroad escape routes as Chester County. There were dozens of stations and agents. Though not large, the county contained many routes and sub-routes. Freedom seekers entered the county from York and Lancaster Counties and directly from Maryland and Delaware. Leaving the county, they headed to Berks, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, and to Philadelphia.”
Author Robert Smedley, the only writer besides William Still who incorporated actual interviews and letters from those who lived through the era into his work, outlined three primary escape paths traversing Chester County: a northern route, which came into the county from Columbia in Lancaster County and moved toward Phoenixville; a central route that ran north from Delaware and Maryland; and an eastern route that passed through Kennett Square and on to Philadelphia.
Chester County – The First Stop of Freedom Seekers
According to author Eric Foner, “Chester County in Southeastern Pennsylvania, often the first stop of freedom seekers, was the most enlightened county in the state. The county’s rolling hills, dense woodlands and isolated valleys provided the necessary cover for the secretive movements of both freedom seekers and conductors and the ideals espoused by the Quakers and other abolitionists in the area were in stark contrast to the attitudes in nearby slave-holding states, where the economies relied heavily on slavery.”
Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Even though the Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act of 1780 did establish a different legal environment in Pennsylvania, the Federal Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 brought fugitive cases under federal jurisdiction, with special commissioners able to summon, process, and receive $10 for each arrest that sent a slave back to an owner. The law also simplified proof of ownership and fines imposed on those who aided fugitives. African Americans were no longer safe anywhere in the United States, not even in the North, because they could be arrested as suspected runaways by the accusation of any white person. The law required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state.
Thomas Garrett Helped Thousands of Enslaved Americans Escape to Freedom
This situation made the flow of freedom seekers through Chester County even more suspenseful. Many came from Thomas Garrett, who played a pivotal role in supporting the operations of the Underground Railroad in Chester County. Born into a Quaker family in Upper Darby (then in Chester County), Garrett was raised with strong anti-slavery convictions.
He moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in the early 1820s, where he ultimately ran several successful businesses and became a man of means. Although he opened his home as a safe house, he did more than provide a haven for freedom seekers. Garrett worked tirelessly to organize escape routes, provide financial assistance, and secure transportation for thousands. As a member of the Progressive Friends Meeting in Kennett Square, he knew all of the other Quakers in the area and was confident in sending freedom seekers into their care. It is estimated that he helped 2,000-3,000 enslaved Americans escape to freedom. His correspondence and collaboration with Chester County abolitionists reflect a broader inter-state network of anti-slavery activism.
Even though he was heavily fined and lost most of his property in 1848, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 only strengthened his resolve. He famously declared that he would not pay a dollar to save his own life but would spend his last dollar to free a slave.
The Farms & Families Aiding Fugitives
The farm of Allen and Maria Agnew was one of the first reached “just over the line.”
Isaac and Dinah Mendenhall, who received many freedom seekers from Thomas Garrett, owing to the fact that Garrett’s wife, Rachel, was Isaac’s sister, built a special room at their Oakdale property in Pennsbury Township to shield freedom seekers from further capture.
The Barnards of Pocopson Township also aided hundreds of the enslaved having been forwarded from Wilmington.
At their farm in London Grove Township, the Pennock family provided shelter, food, and guidance to countless individuals seeking freedom.
According to Switala, “Esther Lewis’ (Dr. Fussell’s wife’s family) station was a family affair. Her daughters Grace Anna, Mary, and Elizabeth provided medical attention, nursing freedom seekers back to health before sending them on to the next station. They took over the effort when one of their husbands passed away after contracting typhoid fever from two freedom seekers suffering from the disease.
William Still—Father of the Underground Railroad
Most freedom seekers passing through Chester County were sent to William Still, an African American abolitionist based in Philadelphia. Often referred to as the “Father of the Underground Railroad,” Still was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, in 1821, the youngest of eighteen children. His father had purchased his freedom, while his mother, Sidney, escaping enslavement, was forced to leave two of her children behind on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Still moved to Philadelphia, then a hotbed of abolitionist activity, in 1844 and began work with the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Motivated by his own family’s situation, he opened his own home to freedom seekers he took in from multiple surrounding locations and established a boarding house in the city that he rented to residents, enabling him to provide cover to freedom seekers before sending them further north. His meticulous record-keeping became a crucial resource, documenting the stories of those he helped. These records were later published in his book “The Underground Railroad,” a seminal work that preserves the experiences and escapes of hundreds of fugitives.
One of the most heart-wrenching stories involving Still was that of a freedom seeker named Peter Gist, who had escaped from Maryland and sought help from the American Anti-Slavery Society. When Gist mentioned his mother’s name – Sidney, further conversation revealed that Gist was, in fact, Still’s long-lost brother Peter. This emotional reunion not only underscored the personal nature of Still’s work but also illustrated the tragic reality of families torn apart by slavery.
Chester County: A Symbol of Defiance Against Slavery
The significance of Chester County in the whole Underground Railroad movement cannot be overstated. It was not merely a geographical crossing point, but a symbol of defiance against the oppressive institution of slavery. The abject courage of abolitionists and conductors in Chester County remained undaunted. In the face of an abhorrent situation, they helped freedom seekers navigate a perilous landscape of resistance, outwitting slave catchers and law enforcement alike. Archaeological investigations and historical research have shed light on the specific routes used, the individuals involved, and the experiences of the freedom seekers. These efforts ensure that these very important events that shaped history in Chester County, the region, and the nation, will continue to inspire and educate future generations.