USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Brookville > A pioneer history of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, when my feet were bare and my cheeks were brown > Part 28
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SLAVE TRAFFIC AND TRADE.
" And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death."-Exod. xxi. 16.
In the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787 the Carolinas, Georgia, and New York wanted the slave-trade continued and more slave property. To the credit of all the other colonies, they wanted the foreign slave traffic stopped. After much wrangling and discussion a compromise was effected by which no enactment was to restrain the slave-trade before the year 1808. By this compromise the slave-trade was to continue twenty-one years. On March 2, 1807, Congress passed an act to pro- hibit the importation of any more slaves after the close of that year. But the profits from slave trading were enormous, and the foreign traffic continued in spite of all law. It was found that if one ship out of every three was captured, the profits still would be large. Out of every ten negroes stolen in Africa, seven died before they reached this market. A negro cost in Africa twenty dollars in gunpowder, old clothes, etc., and readily brought five hundred dollars in the United States. Everything connected with the trade was brutal. The daily ration of a captive on a vessel was a pint of water and a half-pint of rice. Sick negroes were simply thrown overboard. This traffic " for revolting, heartless atrocity would make the devil wonder." The profits were so large that no slave- trader was ever convicted in this country until 1861, when Nathaniel Gordon, of the slaver " Erie," was convicted in New York City and exe- cuted. It was estimated that from thirty to sixty thousand slaves were carried to the Southern States every year by New York vessels alone. A wicked practice was carried on between the slave and free States in this way. A complete description of a free colored man or woman would be sent from a free State to parties living in a slave State. This description would then be published in hand-bills, etc., as that of a runaway slave.
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These bills would be widely circulated. In a short time the person so described would be arrested, kidnapped in the night, overpowered, man- acled, carried away, and sold. He had no legal right, no friends, and was only a " nigger." Free colored men on the borders of Pennsylvania have left home to visit a neighbor and been kidnapped in broad day- light, and never heard of after. A negro man or woman would sell for from one to two thousand dollars, and this was more profitable than horse- stealing or highway robbery, and attended with but little danger. A re- port in this or any other neighborhood that kidnappers were around struck terror to the heart of every free colored man or woman. Negroes in Brookville have left their shanty homes to sleep in the stables of friends when such rumors were afloat.
Before giving any official records in this history, I must pause to present the fact that one Butler B. Amos, an all-around thief, then in this county, was, in 1834, in our jail, sentenced to " hard labor" under the law.
Early convicts were sentenced to hard labor in the county jail, and had to make split-brooms from hickory-wood, as will be seen from this agreement between the commissioners and jailer :
" Received, Brookville, Sept. 29th, 1834, of the commissioners of Jefferson county, thirty-seven broomsticks, which I am to have made into brooms by Butler B. Amos, lately convicted in the Court of Quarter Sessions of said county for larceny and sentenced to hard labour in the gaol of said county for six months, and I am also to dispose of said brooms when made as the said commissioners may direct, and account to them for the proceeds thereof as the law directs. Received also one shaving horse, one hand saw, one drawing knife and one jack knife to enable him to work the above brooms, which I am to return to the said commissioners at the expiration of said term of servitude of the said Butler B. Amos, with reasonable wear and tear.
" ARAD PEARSALL, Gaoler."
Amos had been arrested for theft, as per the following advertisement in the Jeffersonian of the annexed date :
" Commonwealth vs. Butler B. Amos. Defendant committed to September term, 1834. Charge of Larceny. And whereas the act of General Assembly requires that notice be given, I therefore hereby give notice that the following is an inventory of articles found in the posses- sion of the said Butler B. Amos and supposed to have been stolen, viz. : I canal shovel, 1 grubbing hoe, 2 hand saws, 2 bake kettles, I curry comb, 2 wolf traps, I iron bound bucket, I frow, 3 log chains, I piece of log chain, 2 drawing chains, I piece of drawing chain, I set of breast chains, I hand ax, &c. The above mentioned articles are now in pos-
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session of the subscriber, where those interested can see and examine for themselves.
" ALX. M'KNIGHT, J. P.
" BROOKVILLE, August 25th, IS34."
A few years after this sentence was complied with Amos left Brook- ville on a flat-boat for Kentucky, where he was dirked in a row and killed. Although Amos was a thief, he had a warm " heart" in him, as will be seen farther on.
The earliest official record I can find of our underground road is in the Jeffersonian of September 15, 1834, which contained these advertise- ments, -viz. :
"$150 REWARD.
" ESCAPED from the jail of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, last night-a black man, called Charles Brown, a slave to the infant heirs of Richard Baylor, deceased, late of Jefferson county Virginia ; he is about 5 feet 7 inches high, and 24 years of age, of a dark complexion-pleasant look, with his upper teeth a little open before. I was removing him to the State of Virginia, by virtue of a certificate from Judges' Shippen, Irvin & M' Kee, of the Court of Common Pleas of the county of Venango, as my warrant, to return him to the place from which he fled. I will give a reward of $150 to any person who will deliver him to the Jailor of Jefferson county Virginia, and if that sum should appear to be inadequate to the expense and trouble, it shall be suitably increased.
" JOHN YATES, " Guardian of the said heirs. " Sept. 15, 1834."
"$150 REWARD !!
"ESCAPED from the Jail of Jefferson county ; Pennsylvania last night, a black man, nam'd WILLIAM PARKER alias ROBINSON a slave, belonging to the undersigned : aged about 26 years, and about 5 feet 6 inches high ; broad shoulders ; full round face, rather a grave countenance, and thick lips, particularly his upper lip, stammers a little, and rather slow in speech .- I was removing him to the State of Virginia, by virtue of a cirtificate, from Judges Shippen and Irvin, of the Court of Common Pleas, of Venango county ; as my warrant to return him to the place, from which he fled. I will give a reward of $150, to any person, who will deliver him to the Jailor of Jefferson county Virginia; and if that sum should appear to be inadequate to the expense and trouble, it shall be suitably increased.
" September 15, 1834."
" STEPHEN DELGARN.
Arad Pearsall was then our jailer, and he was a Methodist and an abolitionist.
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Our pioneer jail, as I remember it, was constructed from stone spawls, with wooden doors and big iron locks. For safety, the prisoners were usually shackled and handcuffed, and they were fed on " bread and water." When recaptured, escaped slaves were lodged in county jails and shackled for safety. These slaves had been so lodged, while their captors slept on beds " as soft as downy pillows are." Charles Brown and William Parker reached Canada. Heath and Steadman furnished augers and files to the thief Amos, who filed the shackles loose from these human beings, and with the augers he bored the locks off the doors. Pearsall, Heath, and Steadman did the rest. Some person or persons in Brookville were mean enough to inform, by letter or otherwise, Delgarn and Yates that Judge Heath, Arad Pearsall, and James Steadman had liberated and run off their slaves, whereupon legal steps were taken by these men to recover damages for the loss of property in the United States Court at Pittsburg, the minutes of which I here reproduce :
" CLERK'S OFFICE, UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, " WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, " PITTSBURG, October 9, IS97. "W. J. MCKNIGHT, Brookville, Pa.
" DEAR SIR,-Judge Buffington has referred your letter to me, and I enclose a pencil memoranda of the proceedings in the two suits against Heath and others.
" This is about as full as we can give it, except the testimony in so far as it appears in depositions filed. Most of the evidence was oral, the names of the witnesses appearing in subpoenas on file.
" Yours truly,
" H. D. GAMBLE, " Clerk United States Circuit Court."
"At No. 4 of October Term, 1835, in the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania, suit in trespass, brought July 10, 1835, by Thomas G. Baylor and Anna Maria Baylor, minors, by John Yates, Esq., their guardian, all citizens of Virginia, against Elijah Heath, James M. Steadman, and Arad Pearsall.
" At No. 5, October Term, 1835, suit in trespass by Stephen Delgarn, a citizen of Virginia, against same defendants as in No. 4, brought at same time. Burke and Metcalf, Esqs., were attorneys for the plaintiffs in each case, and Alexander M. Foster for the defendants.
"Suit, as No. 4, was tried on May 3, 4, and 5, 1836, and on May 6, 1836, verdict rendered for plaintiff for six hundred dollars.
" Suit No. 5 was tried May 6 and 7, 1836, and verdict rendered May 7, 1836, for eight hundred and forty dollars. November 24, 1836, judgments and costs collected upon execution and paid to plaintiffs' attorneys.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
" In suit No. 4 the allegations as set forth in the declarations filed are : That plaintiffs, citizens of Virginia, were the owners of 'a certain negro man' named Charles Brown, otherwise ' Charles,' of great value,- to wit, of the value of one thousand dollars, -to which said negro they were lawfully entitled as a servant or slave, and to his labor and service as such, according to the laws of the State of Virginia. That on or about the Ist day of August, 1834, the said negro man absconded, and went away from and out of the custody of said plaintiffs, and afterwards went and came into the Western District of Pennsylvania ; and the said plain- tiffs, by their guardian, did, on or about the 13th day of September, 1834, pursue the said servant or slave into the said Western District of Penn- sylvania, and finding the said servant or slave in said district, and there and then claimed him as a fugitive from labor, and caused him to be ar- rested and brought before the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Venango County, in said Western District of Pennsylvania ; and it ap- pearing upon sufficient evidence before them produced in due and legal form, that the said negro man did, under the laws of Virginia, owe ser- vice and labor unto said plaintiffs, and that the said negro man had fled from the service of his said master in Virginia into Venango County, Pennsylvania, aforesaid ; and the said plaintiffs, by their guardian, did, on the said 18th day of September, 1834, obtain from the said judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Venango County aforesaid a warrant for the removal of the said negro man to Virginia aforesaid ; and the said guardian was returning and taking with him, under and by virtue of the said warrant, said servant or slave to the said plaintiffs' residence in Vir- ginia ; and while so returning-to wit, on or about the day and year last aforesaid-the said guardian at Jefferson County, in the Western Dis- trict of Pennsylvania aforesaid, did, with the assent and by the permis- sion of the person or persons having charge of the public jail or prison in and for said County of Jefferson, place the said servant or slave in said jail or prison for safe-keeping, until he, the said guardian, could reasonably proceed on his journey with the said aforesaid servant or slave to Virginia aforesaid. Yet the said defendants, well knowing the said negro man to be the servant or slave of the plaintiffs and to be their lawful property, and that they, the said plaintiffs, by their guardian aforesaid, were enti- tled to have the possession and custody of him, and to have and enjoy the profit and advantage of his labor and services ; but contriving and unlawfully intending to injure the said plaintiffs, and to deprive them of all benefits, profits, and advantages of and which would accrue to these said plaintiffs from said services, then and there, on or about the day and year aforesaid at Jefferson County aforesaid, did secretly and in the night-time unlawfully, wrongfully, and unjustly release, take, and assist in releasing and taking, or procure to be released or taken, the said negro man, then being as aforesaid the servant or slave of the said plaintiffs,
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
from and out of the said prison or jail, where said servant or slave was placed for safe-keeping by said guardian as aforesaid ; whereby said ser- vant or slave escaped, ran off, and was and is wholly lost to said plaintiffs, and said plaintiffs deprived of all the profits, benefits, and advantages which might and otherwise would have arisen and accrued to said plain- tiffs from the said services of said servant or slave.
" The allegations and declarations in No. 5 were materially the same as in No. 4."
Isaac P. Carmalt was co-operating with Heath and others at this time. Heath was a Methodist, and so was Pearsall. Heath moved away about 1846, and Pearsall died in Brookville about 1857.
Isaac P. Carmalt was a Quaker, a relative of William Penn, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1794. He learned the carpenter trade. In ISI8 he left his native city with two horses and a dearborn wagon, and in three weeks he crossed the Allegheny Mountains and located in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. In 1821 he moved to Punx- sutawney. In 1822 he bought a farm near Clayville. In 1823 he mar- ried Miss Hannah A. Gaskill, a Quakeress, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But little can be given of his great work in this direction owing to his death. His daughter, Mrs. Lowry, writes me as follows :
" The last slave that came to our house was after the insurrection at Harper's Ferry. He claimed to have been in the insurrection. He came with a colored man who lived near Grampian Hills, whose name was George Hartshorn. This one was a mulatto, and claimed to be the son of Judge Crittenden, who, I think, held some important office at Washington,-Senator or Congressman. The slave was very nervous when he came, and asked for a raw onion, which, he said, was good to quiet the nerves. He was also quite suspicious of Joe Walkup, who was working at our house at the time. He called him out and gave him his revolver, and told him he would rather he would blow his brains out than to inform on him, for if he was taken he would certainly be hung. He left during the night for Brookville. Most of the fugitives came through Centre and Clearfield Counties. One of the underground rail- road stations was in Centre County, near Bellefonte, kept by a friend by the name of Iddings, who sent them to the next station, which was Gram- pian Hills, from thence to our house, and from here to Brookville. I re- member well one Sabbath when I was coming home from church ; Lib Wilson was coming part way with me. We noticed a colored man ahead of us. I paid but little attention, but she said, ' I know that is a slave.' I knew Wilson's pro slavery sentiments, and replied very carelessly that ' there was a colored family living near Grampian Hills. I supposed he was going to our house, as we had been there a short time before, want- ing to trade horses for oxen to haul timber with.' But as soon as she left me I quickened my pace and tried to overtake him. I was afraid he
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
might go through Clayville, where I knew there was a perfect nest of pro- slavery men, who had made their threats of what they would do if father assisted any more slaves to gain their freedom. Among them were the Gillespies, who boasted of being overseers or slave-drivers while they were in the South. He kept ahead of me and stopped at James Minish's, and I thought it was all over with him, as they and the Gillespies were connected, and most likely were of the same sentiment in regard to slavery. But imagine my surprise when I came up, Mr. Minish handed me a slip of paper with the name of 'Carmalt' on it, and remarked that I was one of the Carmalt girls. (I suppose it was the name of a station.) But he hurried the fugitive on, and I directed him to go up over the hill through the woods. I then hurried home for father to go and meet him. But when I got home, father was not there, so I put on my sun-bonnet and went but a short distance, when I met him. There were several per- sons in the house, so I slipped him in the back way. He seemed to be in great misery and could not eat anything, but asked for something to bathe his foot in. Then he gave a short account of his escape from slavery three years previous. After escaping he stopped with a man near Harrisburg, at what he called Yellow Breeches Creek, and worked for him, during which time he married and had a little home of his own. One day when ploughing in the field he discovered his old master from whom he had escaped and two other men coming towards him. He dropped everything and ran to his benefactor's house, and told him whom he had seen. His benefactor then pulled off his coat and boots and di- rected him to put them on, as he was in his bare feet, having left his own coat and boots in the field. Being closely pursued, he ran to the barn, and the men followed him. He was then compelled to jump from a high window, and, striking a sharp stone, he received a severe cut in one heel, not having had time to put on the boots given him by his benefactor. When he came to our house he was suffering terribly, not having had an opportunity to get the wound dressed. His benefactor had charged him not to tarry on the road. But father, seeing the seriousness of his wound, persuaded him to go to bed until midnight. But the poor fellow could not sleep, but moaned with pain. We gave him his breakfast, and then father had him get on a horse, while he walked, and it was just breaking day when they arrived at Brookville. A gentleman by the name of Christopher Fogle was waiting to receive them. We heard afterwards that the poor slave succeeded in reaching Canada, but returned for his wife, and was captured and taken back to slavery.
" There is just one more incident that I will mention, which occurred at an earlier date. One morning I went to the door and saw four large colored men hurrying to the barn. I told father, and he went out and brought them in. Our breakfast was just ready. We had them sit down and eat as fast as they could, taking the precaution to lock the door, for
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
several persons came along while they were eating. Father noticed that one of the slaves looked dull and stupid, and inquired if he was sick. One of the others replied that he was only a little donsey. When they were through eating, father hurried them to the woods and hid them somewhere near the old school-house then on the farm. When father went to take their dinner to them, the one said he was still a little donsey, and then showed father his back. His shirt was sticking to his back. He had been terribly whipped, and they had rubbed salt in the gashes. They then gave a short history of their escape. They said they had a good master and mistress, but their master had died and the estate was sold. The master's two sons then sold them, and they were to be taken to the rice-swamps to toil their lives away. They were determined to make their escape, but the one who had been so terribly whipped was captured and taken back. Their old mistress planned and assisted him to make his escape by dressing him as a coachman, and with her assistance found his way to Washington, where he met his companions and friends. From Washington they were guided by the north star, travelling only by night.
" I think but few fugitives came by the way of Indiana, though I re- member of hearing father tell of one or two that he brought with him when he first came from Indiana who had escaped by way of Philadel- phia. I think most came through Baltimore, where a Quaker friend by the name of Needles assisted the runaways through this branch of the underground railroad. From Baltimore they came through the Quaker settlements in Centre and Clearfield Counties. Father was the only one who conveyed them from our house near Clayville to Brookville. This he generally did by going himself or by sending some reliable person with them. Father concealed a man from Baltimore, a German, who
used to smuggle slaves through. He had a furniture wagon, in which he concealed them, but was discovered and put in jail at York, Pennsylva- nia, but he escaped to Iddings, near Bellefonte, thence to Grampian Hills, and from there to father's, where he worked five years. He then left, and moved to Ohio. He became afraid to stay, for there were a few who had an inkling of his history and knew there was a reward of three thousand dollars for his arrest. One day in going to his work he met the sheriff from Baltimore, who knew him well, and told him to keep out of his sight, that there was a big reward offered for him. When he was first arrested he had a colored girl concealed in a bureau which he was hauling on his wagon."
Christopher Fogle was born in Baden, Germany, in ISoo. His father came with his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1817, and Christo- pher learned the tanning trade in Germantown. On June 26, 1826, he was married in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. About this time he joined the Methodist Church. In 1835 he migrated to Heathville, Jefferson
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County, Pennsylvania, and built a tannery. In 1843 he moved to Troy and had a tannery. This he afterwards sold out to Hulett Smith, when he moved to Brookville and purchased from Elijah Heath and A. Colwell what was called the David Henry tannery. Rev. Fogle was in the un- derground railroad business in Heathville, and Mrs. Jane Fogle, his second wife, who still survives him, informs me that he continued in that business until the war for the Union, and she assisted him. The points in and around Brookville where the Rev. Fogle lived and secreted fugi- tives were, first, the old tannery ; second, the K. L. Blood farm ; third, the little yellow house where Benscotter's residence now is ; and, fourth, the old house formerly owned by John J. Thompson, opposite the United Presbyterian Church. Officers frequently were close after these fugitives, and sometimes were in Brookville, while the agents had the colored people hid in the woods. The next station on this road to Canada was at the house of William Coon, in Clarington, Pennsylvania. Coon would ferry the slaves over the Clarion, feed, refresh, and start them through the wilderness for Warren, Pennsylvania, and when Canada was finally reached, the poor fugitive could sing with a broken heart at times, thinking of his wife, children, and parents yet in bonds,-
" No more master's call for me, No more, no more. No more driver's lash for me, No more, no more. No more auction-block for me, No more, no more. No more bloodhounds hunt for me, No more, no more. I'm free, I'm free at last; at last, Thank God, I'm free !"
INDENTURED APPRENTICES, WHITE SLAVERY, AND REDEMP- TIONERS.
Colored people were not the only class held in servitude by Pennsyl- vanians. Another form of slavery was carried on by speculators called Newlanders. These traders in " white people" were protected by custom and legal statutes. They ran vessels regularly to European seaports, and induced people to emigrate to Pennsylvania. By delay and expensive formalities these emigrants were systematically robbed during the trip of any money they might have, and upon their arrival at Philadelphia would be in a strange country, without money or friends to pay their passage or to lift their goods from the villanous captains and owners of these ves- sels which brought them to the wharves of Philadelphia. Imagine the destitute condition of these emigrants. Under the law of imprisonment for debt the captain or merchant either sold these people or imprisoned them.
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The Newlanders were the first German emigrants to Pennsylvania. Actuated by sinister motives, the Newlander would return to Germany, and rely on his personal appearance and flattering tongue to mislead and induce all classes, from the minister down to the lowest strata of human- ity, to migrate to the New World. The Newlanders would receive from the owner or captain of a vessel a stipulated sum per passenger. By arts and representations the Newlander ingratiated himself into the confidence of the emigrant, securing possession of his property, and before taking passage the emigrant had to subscribe to a written contract in English, which enabled the Newlander the more fully to pluck his victim, for when the vessel arrived at Philadelphia the list of passengers and their agreements were placed in the hands of merchants. The Newlander managed it so that the emigrant would be in his debt, and then the poor foreigners had to be sold for debt. The merchants advertised the cargo ; the place of sale on the ship. The purchasers had to enter the ship, make the contract, take their purchase to the merchant and pay the price, and then legally bind the transaction before a magistrate. Unmarried people and young people, of course, were more readily sold, and brought better prices. Aged and decrepit persons were poor sale ; but if they had healthy children, these children were sold at good prices for the combined debt, and to different masters and in different States, perhaps never to see each other in this world. The parents then were turned loose to beg. The time of sale was from two to seven years for about fifty dollars of our money. The poor people on board the ship were prisoners, and could neither go ashore themselves or send their baggage until they paid what they did not owe. These captains made more money out of the deaths of their passengers than they did from the living, as this gave them a chance to rob chests and sell children. This was a cruel, murdering trade. Every cruel device was resorted to in order to gain gold through the misfortune of these poor people. One John Stedman, in 1753, bought a license in Holland that no captain or merchant could load any passengers unless he had two thousand. He treated these deluded people so cruelly on ship- board that two thousand in less than one year were thrown overboard. This was monopoly.
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