USA > Ohio > Washington County > Belpre > A history of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio > Part 12
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The case seems to have been dropped after the release of these men without any effort to recover damages from Virginia for the kidnapping of Ohio citizens and holding them in an illegal imprisonment for six months. This really shows the spirit of long suffering in the North. This was probably wise as the time had not yet fully come for the Civil War.
It is very evident that the kidnapping was planned beforehand by the Virginians. Had their object been merely to retain the slaves they could easily have prevented the start from the plantation. Instead of this sixteen armed men crossed the river secretly and lay in ambush to take back the slaves, indeed, but also to kidnap and punish by the laws of Virginia citizens of Ohio, who were not guilty of any violation of the laws of their own State.
Some of those engaged in this transaction lived to see Virginia a bloody battle ground of the Civil war and African Slavery forever abolished in our country.
Mr. Joseph Smith of Vincent estimated that six hun- dred fugitives passed through Washington County between 1850 and 1860, and probably nearly or quite as many had passed through in previous years. Several very interesting books have been written reciting incidents connected with the underground railroad. Since many of the most thril- ling events occurred in the night, and were known only to the actors, it is probably true that the half of that history will never be written. Since we are each year receding farther from the days of American Slavery we have thought best to record the following representative inci- dents that those who come after us may have a better un- derstanding of the realities of slavery and of the Under- ground Railroad.
During the period of which we have treated there lived in Hockingport a man named Moses Davis who, like many in more modern days, had a decided aversion to work and made a living by hook and crook. In those days it was a common thing for slaves, who did not see the justice and pleasure of working for nothing and boarding themselves and their masters, to slyly cross the Ohio and make their way to Canada. When slaves ran away a liberal reward was often offered for their arrest and return. Davis con- ceived the idea of replenishing an empty purse by inducing
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slaves to run away and then betraying them and obtain the reward. A man named Kincheloe who lived in Vir- ginia a little below Hockingport had five Slaves a man and wife and three half grown children. Davis promised to help them on the road to freedom if they would come to this side on a certain night. The slaves not expecting treach- ery came over and Davis, under pretense that he was not ready to start that night, secreted them in a ravine oppo- site Mustapha Island. The next day men from Virginia were over, looking for the lost chattels. Davis met them easily, of course, and in answer to their inquiries intimated that he could put them in a way to capture the slaves if suitably rewarded. The slave hunters refused to pay any- thing until they got possession of their property and he was obliged to tell them where the slaves were secreted. In answer to the inquiry why they had stopped there, in- stead of getting farther away the slaves told their master that Davis had induced them to run away and promised to forward them. This perfidious act enraged the slave own- ers and they not only refused to pay any reward but sent word to Davis that he would be shot if they caught sight of him. The liberty loving citizens of Ohio were so fur- ious over the treachery of Davis that they threatened to hang him, and he fled the country never to return.
The ravine is now and probably will always be known as "Nigger Run."
Case related by A. L. Curtis.
"About the year 1820 a man named William Neal own- ed a farm opposite Newbury, and had an active intelligent Slave called Harry of whom he was very fond and it was hinted that the master and slave were very closely related. At any rate Neal did not want Harry taken South to work under the lash in the cotton fields. My father, Walter Curtis. and his brother Horace bought him. They agreed to credit him a certain amount per month against the pur- chase price which was $700 and when that was paid he was to be a free man. Harry came over and went to work on the farm but left a wife behind. The wife was a slave and liable to be sold. One night she came across the river to get away from the slave traders. Harry secreted her in the woods and built a little fire to keep her warm. The owners, suspecting she was in this vicinity, came over.
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Harry was plowing on the hill, overlooking the road and saw two men coming with a woman walking before them. Seizing a stout hickory cudgel, which he had ready, he rushed across the creek and hid by the road side. When the men came along with their captive, he sprang out, cut the cord which bound the womans hands and she ran back, while he, with his club raised, told the hunters to get on the other side of the river if they valued their lives. That night Harry and his wife started for Canada by the under- ground route and the investment in Slave property was very unprofitable to the Curtis Brothers."
The following Statement by J. W. Tuttle is furnished by Dr. F. P. Ames :
In 1850 a company of six or seven negroes were piloted from Francis Stones one night by Mr. Vickers just beyond the twin bridges. At that time Mr. Smith was building the abutment of the bridge at the mouth of Davis Creek. The next morning Mr. I. W. Putnam, noticing that Mr. Smith was late at breakfast remarked that he must have been running negroes away. Mr. P's remark was nearer truth than he knew at the time."
At one time a company of slaves consisting of men, women and children, I do not remember how many, es- caped from Virginia not far from Marietta and reached the farm of Massa Hovey on Duck Creek, about fifteen miles from Marietta; their pursuers were so close on their track that it became absolutely necessary that they should be concealed in a deep ravine on the farm of Mr. Hovey ; a very large tree had fallen and they were concealed by that by the side of the tree. There they were kept for three weeks, while the woods in the vicinity were searched for them by their owners and the "Lick Spittle,"f hired to aid in the search. During this time friends clandestinely furnished the fugitives with food and water. Finally a way was opened by which they were moved on. Randal S. Wells, a cour- ageous and adventurous man of Middle Creek, Monroe County, was their Moses, who piloted them out of the wil- derness to the promised land. Only two Israelites reached the happy land of Canaan but the whole band of Randal L. Wells reached the happy land of Canada. While the search for these fugitives was going on, two of the "lick
¡A name then given to those willing to aid slave catchers for the reward offered.
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spittle," who were given money to buy whiskey and to- bacco by the slave hunters to do their dirty and nefarious work took their rifles and went out to hunt the runaways and also to hunt squirrels. One of the men shot a squirrel in the top of a tall tree and it fell in the midst of these slaves where they were concealed behind the fallen tree. When the man started to get his game the other hunter said : "Come on we are hunting niggers." If he had gone for the squirrel he would doubtless have discovered the fugitives for whom they were hunting. As it was we may think these were providentially preserved.
We will introduce another letter which relates occur- ences in a locality several miles from Belpre, but illustrates the conditions in southern Ohio at that time. A consid- erable number of Virginians, had settled in this part of Ohio and with those who sympathized with their pro-slav- ery sentiments were very bitter against Abolitionists. Judge D. S. Gibbs of Hutcihnson, Kansas, wrote his rem- iniscences as follows :
"From 1840 to 1855 it was very unpopular to be the friend of the slave. About 1845 H. L. Preston, a resident of Columbiana County, came into our neighborhood (Port Soakum near Dudley Station on the C. and M. R. R.) and was employed to teach our school. Soon afterwards it became known that he was a prominent Anti-Slavery man, and he had the manhood to declare his sentiments in pub- lic. An effort was made to have him discharged but it failed. My father and Gilman Dudley were directors and both Anti-Slavery men. Mr. Preston commenced to lec- ture on the subject of slavery in our school house on a cer- tain evening. A mob came in led by a Methodist class leader, all full of whiskey, and with their best and only arguments, rotten eggs and scandalous and blasphemous language, the mob took possession by force and besmeared the school room, books, and many ladies dresses with rotten eggs, and gave Mr. Preston more than his share. This outrageous conduct made the cause of freedom many friends.
During the same winter I made an appointment, through Isaac Lund, for Mr. Preston to lecture at Macks- burg. There he was again assaulted by a mob, who threw rotten eggs while he was speaking. One hit him on the
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shirt bosom, but he went on with his speech, remarking that the arguments used were not very pleasant, but as they (the mob) had no better ones to offer, he would par- don them. These accounts of the increasing animosity between the peoples of the North and South will help us to understand the causes which led to our great Civil War.
The following are samples of the advertisements for runaway slaves seen in those days.
Ten dollars for my woman Siby. Very much scarred about the ears and neck bywhipping.
BRYANT JOHNSON, Fort Valley, Ga.
Run away, a negro woman named Maria-has many scars on her back from being whipped.
JAMES NOE, Red River Landing, La.
Twenty dollars reward. Ran away from the subscrib- er, on the 14th inst, a negro named Molly. She is 17 years of age, slim, branded on the left cheek thus, "R" and a piece taken off her ear on the same side; this same letter on the inside of both her legs.
ABNER ROSS, Fairfield District, S. C.
Ran away, a negro girl called Mary. Has a small scar over her eye, a good many teeth missing. The letter A is branded on her cheek and forehead.
J. P. ASHFORD, Adams Co., Miss.
CHAPTER XIII CIVIL WAR
HE causes which led to the great Civil War can- not be fully treated in a local history for this would require an epitome of the history of this country from 1620 until the election of Abra- ham Lincoln President in 1860. What has already been given under the head of Underground Railroad will help us understand the causes of the war. The discussion of the question of slavery caused an emnity between the North and South which grew more and more acute from year to year. Compromises were made by the people of the North but instead of satisfying the South they rather incited them to demand more compromises, or rather complete sur- render. The Republican party which elected Abraham Lincoln in 1860 did not propose in their platform to abol- ish Slavery, but only to confine it within the States in which it then existed, but the politicians of the South un- derstood that when thus confined the growing Anti-Slav- ery sentiment of the country would eventually demand other restrictions.
The statement of Abraham Lincoln and other dis- cerning statesmen that the nation could not long exist part slave and part free, was known and understood in the South as well as North and when the sentiment for freedom had become so strong in the North that they had elected a President the politicians of the South saw a hand writing on the wall which foretold the end of slavery, if the Union of States continued, and so they determined to dissolve the union and establish a Southern Confederacy with slavery one of its foundation principles. This
brought to the front a political dogma which had long been discussed, namely that of State rights or the relation of the government of the States to that of the nation. The Re- publican party was the national party, which believed in the supremacy of the national government. This in that respect was the party which embodied the teachings of Washington and Hamilton. The Democratic party which
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held almost unanimous control of the Slave States was the States rights party which held that because the States en- tered the Union voluntarily they had the right to go out of the Union whenever they chose to do so. As was often stated in those days they commenced the word Nation with a small n and the Republicans with a capital N.
After the result of the election of November 1860 was known the Southern politicians did not wait for the in- auguration of President Lincoln but proceeded to carry their States Rights doctrine into practical operation by appointing State Conventions and securing in them (not by popular vote) votes of secession. These plans so far succeeded that in February, 1861, six states had voted to secede and had formed a new nation called the "Confed- erate States of America." Five other States afterwards joined this Confederacy.
These states, under their doctrine, that the state was superior to the Nation, took possession of the forts, arms, and munitions found within their borders and, thinking that the States still in the Union would resist them, made preparation for war. Quotations from documents in which the people of Belpre are specially interested will help in understanding the spirit of the Northern people at that time.
Governor Dennison of Ohio, reviewing the situation, in his message to the Legislature, January 7th, 1861, said : "The patriotism of the country is justly alarmed. The unity of the government is denied. Doctrines subversive of its existence are boldly advocated and made the basis of State action under the pretended right of a State to secede from the confederacy at its pleasure in peace or war. Constitutional liberty is imperiled, revolution is meditated, and treason is justified. On the occasion of my inauguration I felt it to be my duty to warn my country- men against these hostile designs against the Federal Union, but then they were in speculation only, now they are in action. Shall they be consumated? Shall national government be degraded into a mere league between inde- pendent States, existing only by their approval, subordin- ate to them and subject to be destroyed at the pleasure of any State of the Confederacy? Or shall it continue to be maintained as it has always been maintained as a govern-
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ment proper, sovereign within its prescribed sphere- founded on the adoption of the people, as were the States, and creating direct relations between itself and the indi- vidual citizens, which no State authority has power to im- pair or disturb, and which nothing can dissolve but revo- lution ?"
These sentiments of their Governor were fully endors- ed by the citizens of Washington County. Although on the border of a slave state very few members of the Demo- cratic party in this county justified their erring brothers of the South in their acts of secession but rallied loyally to the support of the Union.
January 8th, 1861 a large number of leading citizens of Washington County and Wood County, Virginia, met at the Court house in Marietta, discussed the situation, ap- pointed a Strong Committee on Resolutions and adjourned to meet again on January 12th. On that date a large as- sembly of representative citizens of the two counties met and passed very strong resolutions of which we quote the second and seventh.
II. "The doctrine of the secession of a State has no warrant in the constitution but on the contrary is in its effects fatal to the Union and subversive of all the ends of its creation, and in our judgment secession is revolution ; and while we fully admit the right of revolution for the causes set forth in the Declaration of Independence, or for others of equal force, and while we are grieved to say that the governments and citizens of the States, both North and South, have been guilty of acts of injustice towards others, yet facts do not exist which warrant a resort to this last and final remedy, revolution; and we have still an abiding faith in the capacity and adaptation of the general govern- ment to redress all grievances suffered by its citizens what ever their origin.
VII. Notwithstanding former differences of opinion on the subject, for the purpose of making a final adjust- ment of the unfortunate controversy now raging in our country, we are willing to accept as a basis of Compromise the adjustment of the Eighth Section of the Missouri Com- promise Act. Or we are willing to adopt the principle that the whole subject of Slavery in the territories shall be left to be determined by the will of bona fide residents of
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such territories provided they also be left free to elect their own officers, executive and judicial as well as legislative.
These resolutions were a fair representation of the sentiment of the North at that time. These people were so averse to war that they were willing to make any reason- able compromise to prevent it. While most of the people in the Northern States believed that it was wrong to hold a fellow man in bondage they recognized slavery as a fact and that slaves were the property of their owners. The institution had grown up in former years and both the owners and the slaves had grown into these conditions.
There was at that time no generally accepted plan for the abolition of slavery ; some argued the plan of purchas- ing the slaves, and there were various theories of gradual emancipation and deportation of the slaves to Africa. Most of the people had a kindly feeling toward slave holders and were ready to make any reasonable compromise to pre- vent a civil war. Congress appointed a peace committee of thirty-three to consider the whole matter and report what compromises could be made but the extreme seces- sionists were not willing even to consider the matter calm- ly. Some remained away from the meetings of the com- mittee entirely and others attended, as they confessed, only as spies to prevent radical measures. The violent secessionists were determined on a dissolution of the Union and the formation of a Southern Confederacy as soon as the result of the presidential election was known and they planned to carry out their doctrine of State rights and se- cure both the secession of the Slave States and the organi- zation of a Confederacy before President Lincoln was in- augurated, and they would allow nothing to prevent them from carrying out this plan. This Committee failed to ac- complish the object for which it was appointed as will appear from the following extract from a letter from the chairman Hon. Thomas Corwin to the President Elect.
"I have been for thirty days in a committee of thirty- three. If the States are no more harmonious in their feel- ings and opinions than these thirty-three representative men, then, appalling as the idea is, we must dissolve, and a long and bloody civil war must follow. I cannot com- prehend the madness of the times. Southern men are theoretically crazy. Extreme Northern men are practical
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fools. The latter are really as mad as the former. Trea- son is in the air around us everywhere. It goes by the name of patriotism. Men in Congress boldly avow it, and the public offices are full of acknowledged secessionists. God alone, I fear, can help us. Four or five States are gone, others are driving before the gale. I have looked on this horrid picture till I have been able to gaze on it with perfect calmness. I think if you live you may take the oath."
The investigations and action of this Committee had no other effect on the extreme secessionists than to strengthen their determination to proceed with their trea- sonable actions. The effects however showed the willing- ness of the people of the Northern States to make reason- able concessions, to prevent civil war, they also caused the delay and ultimately the prevention of secession in the border states.
Led forward by their determined purpose the radical leaders of the South secured the secession of six cotton states and the organization at Montgomery, Georgia of "The Confederate States of America" on February 8th. All this, although in the name of Democracy, was done, not by the people but by conventions, who not only issued the ordinances of secession without referring them to the people but the representatives of these conventions composed the Convention of Montgomery and appointed the officers of the Confederate States.
While these radical measures were being enacted Con- gress, still anxious for peace, passed the following amend- ment to the Constitution to be referred to the states for approval.
Art. 13. No amendment shall be made to the Consti- tution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."
This Amendment was signed by President Buchanan and also approved by President Lincoln in his inaugural Address. Conditions which followed prevented subsequent action on the matter by the States but it is introduced here to show that the responsibility for the war was with the
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Southern politicians who as Mr. Corwin said were "theor- etically crazy," and that the perpetuation of slavery was the object of the war is evident from the following quota- tion from the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes which induce and justify the secession of the State of Misissippi from the Federal Union."
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institu- tion of slavery-the greatest material interest in the world. ** ** A blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civiliza- tion. That blow has long been aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin. We must either submit to degredation, and the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union."
William L. Harris, Commissioner from the State of Mississippi to the Senate and house of Representatives of Georgia used the following language. "Mississippi is firm- ly convinced that there is but one alternative. This new union with Lincoln, black republicans, and free negroes, without slavery; or slavery under our old constitutional bond of union without either Lincoln, Black Republicans, or free negroes to molest us."
It seemed strange to Christian people at that time that such fanaticism was allowed to prevail but in the light of history we may see that in the Councils of Infinite Wisdom it was time for slavery to destroy itself.
It was a common saying at the beginning of the war both by Officers and men "we did not enlist to free the slaves but to save the Union" and lest some might not understand this, for some time after the war commenced slaves who escaped into our army were sent back to their masters. After a time General Benjamin Butler, a man who had supported the candidacy of Jefferson Davis in the Democratic Convention of 1860, announced that these slaves should be retained as contraband of war for their return to their masters strengthened the enemy. As a result such negroes were called "contrabands" for several years. For the reasons already mentioned the excitement both North and South was more intense than can now be described and when Fort Sumpter, over which waved the
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Stars and Stripes, was fired upon by the authority of the Confederate States of America, the old flag had to the people a meaning which was not realized before. To attack that flag was to attack not only our nation but our liberty, our homes, our very selves, and thousands of strong men from all ranks came forward to defend that flag, with their fortunes and their lives. When the call came for soldiers the people of Belpre were more vitally interested than they had been in the war of 1812 or the Mexican war. The town had become a thriving center of agriculture with a population of 1529 by the census of 1860. The number of males was 814 of these 152 served for a longer or shorter period and 24 lost their lives. They belonged to at least thirty regiments and batteries and there were very few, if any considerable engagements in which Belpre was not represented.
But the cost of the war to the people of Belpre was not confined to those who put on the uniform and followed the flag into dangers and death. There were fathers and mothers who bade adieu with many tears to sons in whom their hopes centered and who they expected would minister to them in old age, wives who spoke words of parting to husbands whom they loved as their own lives, brothers and sisters, who sent to the front the one who bore the heaviest burden in the home circle, children who might soon be or- phaned and early compelled to assume burdens which should have been borne by a father or brother.
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