USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 10
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Although this was the great central station in that part of the county, and the arrival of fugitives was very frequent, he never quailed before the authority of that wicked law, was as brave as he was cautious, and no slave that came into his hands was ever captured.
On one occasion two women from Virginia, one very light colored, left their master to seek freedom in a northern home. They were pursued, captured, and placed in jail. During the night, by the assistance of
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some abolitionists and the jailor, they were enabled to escape through the roof. A reward of one thousand dollars was offered for them. They were brought in the night to John Vickers. On account of this reward, and the recent enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law im- posing a penalty of $1,000 fine for each negro found in the hands of one who was assisting them, the utmost care had to be taken for their successful transportation. They were taken to William Hall's, a retired place about one and a-half miles from the public road, and there secreted three days and nights until arrangements could be made at headquarters in Philadelphia to re- ceive and forward them without delay. J. Miller Mc- Kim and James Mott agreed to receive them at the lat- ter's house, at 8 o'clock on a specified morning. John Vickers and daughter, Abbie, supplied them with pro- visions, and then starting with them in the night to Philadelphia, a distance of thirty miles. The night was very dark and stormy and when going through a wood about half way to the city, they drove too near the side of the turnpike road and upset. The dearborn was broken, the horse kicked and disengaged himself from the harness, but was firmly held by the lines and pre- vented from getting away. The first concern of the two women was to know if " Missus was hurt." Fortunate- ly all ascaped injury. Hiding the slave woman in the woods, John and his daughter went back a mile and a half to a tavern and procured another wagon. To avoid even a suspicion of his having fugitives in case any one should come to his assistance, he ordered the women to remain quiet until he gave a particular sound of voice, as a signal that he was ready for them. This precau-
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tion proved as fortunate as it was wary. For the tavern- keeper kindly proffered his aid, took a horse, returned with them, assisted in gathering up the debris and took the broken dearborn back to his place to have it re- paired by the time John should return from Philadel- phia. After the tavern-keeper drove off the signal was given, and the two women emerged from their wet covert lively and laughing at " Massa's " artfulness and success.
With this delay they did not arrive at James Mott's until 10 o'clock-and two hours after the appointed time. James had gone to meeting, and Miller McKim was waiting, tremulous with anxiety lest the party had been captured. Agents immediately took charge of the women. The one who was so white and good looking was at once dressed up in different attire with false curls, and Isaac T. Hopper taking her by the arm went with them to the wharf, registered their names on the boat as Isaac T. Hopper, lady, and servant, accom- panied them to New York, where other agents received them and forwarded them to Canada.
" Black Pete," a one-eyed slave, lived a short time with John Vickers, in 1824. He had had a hard master, and showed the stripes upon his back where he had been whipped, and salt and pepper rubbed into the wounds. One day while breaking stone on the turnpike- road, three men came along-his master, overseer and a constable, and attempted to arrest him. Being a powerful man, he seized one of them, raised him up and with terrible force dashed him upon the solid ground. Then with the apparent ferocity and intrepidity of a tiger which dazed his antagonists he sprang upon each
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of the others, and with seemingly superhuman strength, and after a short but decisive struggle hurled them with a stunning thud upon the hard macadamized road. Leaving them bruised and almost senseless upon the ground, he ran to the house and told of his encounter. The family then secreted him in the house until night, when, with money and provisions, which they gave him, he started for Canada. He wrote them afterwards that he had arrived there safely. The slave-catchers how- ever did not pursue him further, nor were they heard of again in that neighborhood, except that all were more or less crippled from the rough handling he gave them.
" What are fifty, what a thousand slaves, Match'd to the sinew of a single arm That strikes for liberty ? "
" Black Charles and Jane," were two "runaways" who came to Jolin Vickers' in 1820. The family need- ing help, they remained two or three months and seemed perfectly happy. This was a characteristic con- dition of all the fugitives while under their care. They felt they were safe while in the hands of friends who were interested in securing their liberty. Charles was kidnapped in Africa, and was as black as pigment-cells could make him. He still longed for the home of his birth, and intended when he could save sufficient means to return to the dear native spot from which he was stolen. His wife, by that Southern custom and social abomination of relationship between slave and master, was several shades lighter than he. From John Vickers they were passed on to Canada.
A number of slaves were purchased in one of the Northern Slaves States and put on board a vessel to be
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taken to Louisiana. Among them was the wife of James Cummichael, a slave quite affable in his demean- or and possessing an unusual degree of cunning and sa- gacity. He resolved that his wife should not be taken to those Southern plantations of rice and cotton to work under the lash of brutal drivers. The slaves always had a horror of being "sold to go South." It was this great dread which impelled hundreds to leave their masters, and especially when they had an intimation that such sales were about to be made. Cummichael in the shrewdness of his device took money with him which he had earned by overwork, went to the men who had the vessel and cargo of slaves in charge, talked pleasantly with them about the prospects of his wife and others having a happy time " down in de souf," and said he thought he would like to go along. He pleased them with his conversation, played games with them, and like a liberal good fellow, paid for the liquor of which they drank largely at his expense until they grew stupid, when he took advantage of the besotted condition into which he had seduced them, took his wife and several others off the boat, fled to a grove, and there esconced himself and his companions until night when they started on their hazardous but determined journey northward to that section of country which had an ex- istence in reality, and not simply in song, as
"The land of the free and the home of the brave."
Having successfully made their escape, they reached Pennsylvania and were conducted along the Under- ground Railroad to John Vickers. Here they remained awhile and assisted on the farm. So grateful was James for the release of himself and wife from Southern bond-
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age, that the very utmost he could do for the family seemed in his mind but a meagre compensation for their manifold acts of kindness and generosity.
Twe men came one morning in a wagon of peculiar make belonging to their master. The horse and wagon were put in the barn, and the men sent to the tenant- house in the woods, occupied by the colored family, Robinson. Next day about noon the owners arrived at Lionville, having tracked their slaves so far. The tavern-keeper said the most probable place to hear of them would be at John Vickers', and he accompanied them to the place. The wife of Paxson Vickers, son of John, who now did most of the active work for his father, as the latter was advanced in years, told them to be seated in the house and she would send to the field for her husband who would know about them, for she had heard him say that two men drove there that morning in a peculiar-looking wagon. She entertained them by talking, and treating them to apples, nuts, etc., until Paxson arrived. Before going to the house he sent the colored man home to take the two men to a cornfield and put them under the shocks. On meet- ing the slaveholders he told them there was a horse and wagon at the barn which had been driven there by two men, but they left, and if they were about his buildings they were hidden unknown to him. But he would help look for them, being careful to not say he would help find them. He then accompanied them through his buildings and to the tenant-house-but the men were not found. The owners then returned with the horse and wagon.
Paxson Vickers was a man of sound thought, a clear
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profound analytical and synthetical reasoner, and well versed in science. He enjoyed debates upon subjects involving a wide latitude of thought, embracing scien- tific facts and political economy. He spoke upon vari- ous subjects at public meetings as occasions demanded, and his grove in which he erected a stand for speakers, was a well-known place in that part of the county for the holding of temperance, anti-slavery and political meetings.
He fulfilled various duties of a public character to which he was frequently appointed. In the fall of 1856 he was elected a member of the State Legis- lature and took an active interest in all important bills that canie before that body at its regular session in 1857, among which was an Act authorizing the sale of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He also took an active part in analyzing, and in considering the best means for adjusting the financial difficulties for which the Legis- lature was convened in extra session during the fall of that year.
At the following election, the opposite political party having obtained a majority in Chester county, he failed to be re-elected.
He died after a brief illness on the 22d of 10th mo. (Oct.) 1865, aged 48 years.
CHARLES MOORE.
Charles Moore lived near Lionville, but at such dis- tance from the main route along which slaves were gen- erally moved without much delay, that they were not very frequently sent to his place. Yet his " latch-string hung outside the door" at all times, and he was ever
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willing to give assistance when called upon. He was a remarkably quiet, modest person, humane and benevo- lent, true to his convictions, a devoted member of the Society of Friends, and moved but little outside of that society and his immediate associations.
MICAJAH AND WILLIAM A. SPEAKMAN.
Of the hundreds of fugitives who passed through the hands of Micajah (1781-May 22d, 1852) and William A. Spcakman (Born 1810) in Wallace township, Ches- ter county, as in the instance of many other agents, no record was kept nor any effort made to learn of them concerning their bondage and escape. Should any that they had assisted ever be captured and they be colled upon to testify, they wished to have as little knowledge as possible to disclose. This was the policy of many others. They aided all who came, clothed those who needed, and gave especial care to the sick. Their place for sheltering them was at the barn. When they sent them to other stations on foot, specific directions were given. When it was required to take them in a vehicle, William accompanied them.
Slaves came to their place from Maryland and Vir- ginia, through the hands of Thomas Garrett, Lindley Coates, Daniel Gibbons, Thomas Whitson, Gravner Marsh and others, and were either taken or directed, chiefly to the house of Jacob Haynes.
Many were sent on branch routes to Benjamin Scho- field, Richard Janney and Dr. Fell, in Bucks county.
Three came at one time from Maryland. One hired with Micajah ; the others found places in the neighbor- hood. In about six weeks some person betrayed two of
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them. The slave-hunters came precipitately upon one, captured him, then drove to the barn of Micajah, about daylight, where the other was at work, and immediately took possession of him. They showed their warrants, which testified to their legal claim upon the man. These were the only fugitives ever known to have been captured in that neighborhood.
A man and woman with an infant came there in February, almost barefoot. The woman's feet were frozen. Micajah hired both man and wife. They proved to be good servants, and remained until next August, when they man heard a huckster, who drove up, say, that he brought these fish from Chester. This alarmed the negro, and when the huckster left, he asked, " Did dat man bring den fish from Chester, and dey not spile ?"
"Yes."
" Well, den, I am not as far from Maryland as I thought I was."
Nothing could induce him to stay longer. He wanted to go to Canada "right away." Micajah gave him a note to an agent in Bucks county, asking him to pass the man and his family on to Canada. A letter from them afterwards stated that they had arrived there safely.
Some selfish and unscrupulous individuals who were neither abolitionists nor directly opposed to them, and had not the manhood or character to be honest in their expression on either side, professed to be friends of the fugitives, and occasionally hired them in busy seasons. When the work was finished, they frightened them by a startling announcement that their masters were in rapid pursuit, and nearly there; paid them a part of their
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wages, and under that contemptible mask of pretended kindness and sympathy, either directed them northward to distant friends, or took them part way and bade them God-speed in safety.
"O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face ! -- fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven ! wolfish-ravening lamb ! Despised substance of divinest show ! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st."
Some of the neighbors, after the Fugitive State Law was enacted, were very determined that its requirements should be fully enforced. One of them, however, became so relenting as to say he would help a woman to escape, but not a man.
Another said, " the law should be enforced, and he would fight for it against the nigger."
There was then living in an adjacent town a very fine, genial, upright colored man named Bill, who kept a barber shop. Everybody liked him. One morning be- fore daylight, a noted abolitionist of the place was sum- moned to " come down quickly and save Bill; a gang of men are there in search of him." He hastily arose, got some apparel with which to disguise him, ran to where he was, and hurried him off to a place of safety. On his return, which was just after daylight, he met that pro-slavery man who " would fight for the Fugitive Slave Law against the nigger," and inquired of him, " Where are you going ?"
"Going to get shaved."
" You needn't go. He's not there. His master is after him. I want you to give us some money to help send him to Canada."
This sudden and startling announcement touched the
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finer feelings of the proslavery man's nature. He could not think of the good, honest, kind-hearted Bill being seized and carried back into slavery by a band of rough and heartless negro-hunters, if means of his would assist in preventing it. Nor did he want it known, from the position he had always assumed, that his sympathies were ever moved in that direction. He did not hesitate to ask a question, but drew from his pocket book ten dollars, and said: "Take that; but for God's sake don't tell anyone that I gave it."
In October, 1840, Sarah A. (Born March 1st, 1813), daughter of Micajah and Phebe Speakman, (Born Au- gust 27th, 1785 .- Died March 25th, 1832), was married to James Miller McKim, of Philadelphia, one of the ablest and most prominent of the anti-slavery leaders, who was born November 14th, 1810, and died June 13th, 1874. He was connected with the Underground Railroad depot at the Anti-Slavery office in Philadel- phia, and his writings in the Anti-Slavery Standard and other papers, wielded a powerful influence throughout the entire country in advancing public sentiment in favor of abolishing human slavery. He accompanied the wife of John Brown on her sad trip to Harper's Ferry, to take final leave of her husband before his exe- cution ; and returned with the distressed widow, bearing the body of her husband to North Elba, where, joined by Wendell Phillips and others, the remains of the martyr hero were with fitting ceremonies, consigned to the earth.
Lucy McKim, daughter of J. Miller and Sarah, is married to a son of William Lloyd Garrison.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE LEWIS FAMILY .- Descent .- Labors for the Slave .- Clothing Fur- nished Fugitives by Friends .- Incidents .- DR. EDWIN FUSSELL .- Experience and Incidents.
THE LEWIS FAMILY.
An English writer has called the period during which opposition to the slave power arose and flourished, "the martyr age of America." In all history there is to be found no other conflict in which the motives of those who fought were so entirely unselfish. Even martyr- dom, when it came, was so quietly suffered, that those who witnessed it scarcely realized its sublimity, and the present generation, which is reaping where the fathers sowed, will soon, if careful record is not speedily made, lose sight of their heroic labors.
Among the little flock of heroes whose whole lives were devoted to obeying the sublime command of the Hebrew prophet : " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God," none is more deserving of gratitude and eternal remem- brance than the Lewis family of West Vincent, Chester county. John Lewis, Jr., the husband and father, was born in Vincent (now West Vincent), Third month (March) 29th, 1781. He was fourth in descent from Henry and Margaret Lewis, who, with their father, Evan Lewis, came from Narbeth, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, about the year 1682. Hon. J. J. Lewis, late of West Chester, Eli K. Price, of Philadelphia, and Bayard Taylor are descended from the same stock. The mother
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of Jolin Lewis, Jr., was Grace Meredith Lewis. The name Meredith occurs very early, in the eleventh or twelfth century, in the history of Siluria, as Wales was then called. It will thus be seen that his ancestry were mainly Welsh, but it was said of him by the late Hon. J. J. Lewis, of West Chester, who remembered him, that his face was Saxon, not Celtic. His immediate an- cestry were all Friends or Quakers. He was a member of Pikeland Preparative, Uwchlan Monthly and Caln Quarterly Meetings. Beside being a consistent Friend, he was a man far in advance of the age in which he lived, as was shown not only in his active opposition to slavery, rare at that early time, but also in his arrang- ing of his affairs, of which something will be told fur- ther on.
In the year 1818, John Lewis married Esther Fus- sell, (Born Third month 18th, 1782 .- Died Second month 8th, 1848), daughter of Bartholomew and Re- becca (Bond) Fussell, and sister of the distinguished abolitionist, Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Among her ancestors were the Bond, Jeanes, Dawson, Brewer and Long- streth families, well known in the history of Ches- ter County and Philadelphia. When only sixteen years old, being the eldest of a large family, she opened a little school for her brothers and sisters. She was so successful that her neighbors and friends were glad to place their children under her care and instruction, and she taught for many years. A person who knew her very well, writes of her as follows : "She was the source and inspiration of all contained in the home of the Lewis family. * ₭ *
H
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She was a very remarkable woman. She belonged to the type of which Phebe Wright (wife of Wil- liam Wright, of Adams county), was one. Her business ability was of the first order and was so recog- nized by all with whom she came in contact. In her own neighborhood she wielded almost unbounded influence by her force of her character. As a peace-maker, coun- sellor and friend, she stood first, not only in her own family but in the community, before the hatred of aboli- tionists began to be rife. As the head of an unusually hospitable family, she always held the position freely accorded her by all-leading as long as she lived. Her broad and capacious mind sought and retained the knowledge of the day, keeping her well informed con- cerning what was going on in foreign countries as well as in our own. Nothing of note escaped her earnest at- tention. I do not see many women of the present day who, with all their advantages, I can consider as her equal. She was the product of an age which aspired but had not obtained. The effort required developed the individual to a wonderful degree. I should like to see one such example of the age to which she belonged, pictured with fidelity. They were grand women, those mothers !"
It was believed by many that knew Esther Lewis well, that she was peculiarly fitted to be a physician. The thought of her abilities and of the utter want of opportunity for their development stimulated her brother, Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, in his labors in founding the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia.
To John and Esther Fussell Lewis were born the fol- lowing children : Mariann Lewis, born Sixth month
GRACEANNA LEWIS.
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(June) 1st, 1819, died Ninth month (September) 3d, 1866; Rebecca Lewis Fussell, born Sixth month 10th, 1820 ; Graceanna Lewis, born Eighth month (August) 3d, 1821; Charles Lewis died in infancy ; Elizabeth R. Lewis, born First month (January) 15th, 1824, died Tenth month (October) 10th, 1863.
In 1823 and 1824 there lived near the home of the Lewis family, two colored people, who were so utterly worthless-physically, intellectually and morally-that, even had the prejudice against their race been much less violent than it was, none of their neighbors would have cared to have anything to do with them. During the winter (1823-24) they were taken with typhus fever. No one cared even to take them to the alms-house. John Lewis went to them, " ministered unto " them, nursed them carefully, even tenderly, and so constantly that he contracted the disease from them, and, despite all efforts made to save him, died-a martyr to Christian philan- thropy-Second month (February) 5th, 1824. He showed his appreciation of his wife by making her sole executrix of his will. This was such an entirely un- heard-of thing in Chester county at that time that sev- eral of Esther Lewis's neighbors instituted legal pro- ceedings to set aside the will. Before she had risen from her sick bed, her infant being but three weeks old when her husband died, the law suit began and the troubles connected with it did not end until that infant was two and a-half years old. The mother was com- pelled to leave her child for a week at a time, when it was so young that its grief at such ill usage poured itself out in inarticulate sounds for an hour at a time, as the tears poured down its cheeks. Esther Lewis came to
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forgive her persecutors, but it was a terrible ordeal through which to pass, and her family's sympathy for her knew no bounds.
From 1824 to her death in 1848, Esther Lewis held the place as head of her family that has been heretofore described. With their father's example and her train- ing it is not strange that her daughters went heart and soul into the anti-slavery cause. They were taught not only by example but by constant precept. Anti-slavery poems and other writings were read to them and their abhorrence of the enslaving of human beings "grew with their growth " as the mighty and magnificent oak grows from its tender germ, the acorn, deposited in good soil.
Their home was not merely a station where the dusky fugitive was received, fed, concealed and forwarded to other Friends, but it was a home where the sick and over- fatigued were kept and nursed with unsparing kindness until able to proceed again on their journey. This was being almost continually done for many years, and es- pecially in the case of women and children who were often so weary and sick as to require assiduous care and tender nursing for days and even weeks before they were able to resume their travel. Yet with all this at- tention the little ones occasionally succumbed to death in the arms of these kind northern strangers.
When quite young children the sisters saw two color- ed men bound with ropes and carried off to slavery. The terror of the scene and the agony depicted in the men's faces, made an ineffaceable impression on their minds and henceforward through life, their sympathies and their labors were enlisted for the unfortunate and
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suffering slaves. In this instance the betrayal came through a white woman living in the family. The two men were hired with Solomon Fussell, a brother of Esther Lewis, and an excellent man, who at that time had the charge of her farm. The incident occurred in 1827, and at that period, there lived in the neighbor- hood a well known " kidnapper," Abel Richardson by name, who was greatly dreaded by the colored people, detested by their employers, and both feared and ab- horred by all children, black and white. This man, ac- companied by the masters of the two slaves, appeared at the old farm house, and at a preconcerted signal, the arrest was attempted. One of the men, named Henry, raised an axe, but with worse than death before him, he paused, and in tones of mortal anguish, cried out, "Solomon, shall I strike ?" The kind, genial man, the Quaker and non-resistant was compelled in an instant to decide. The awful solemnity of the struggle brought a look into his face impossible even for these children to forget. It imprinted itself forever, but he answered in accordance with his life-long principles, "No." The upraised axe dropped and Henry and his friend went, passive victims, into the abyss of slavery. They were never heard of more on earth. Henry was a very kind and affectionate man, and the children of both families were greatly attached to him.
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