USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 5
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John Russell, Micah Whitson, Henry Carter, and Ellwood Brown are also mentioned as friends of the fugitive, whose assistance was always freely given.
JEREMIAH MOORE. (Born Fifth mo. 12th, 1803.)
Many slaves were sent from Daniel Gibbons to Jere- miah Moore's at Christiana. They were to know his residence by its being "the first house over the bridge where the public road crossed the railroad." He se- creted them in one of the upper rooms in his house, and when they were brought down to meals the doors were bolted. He not unfrequently noticed parties whom he knew to be pro-slavery in principle and unscrupulous in character, loitering a long time in the adjacent woods under pretence of gunning, or coming to the house os- tensibly on other business, when their scrutinizing looks and other actions led to a strong suspicion, and even conviction, that their object was to ascertain if slaves were there, and if so to inform on them.
From Moore's the fugitives were sent in a furniture wagon in care of a trusty colored man to James Ful- ton's, Ercildoun, eight miles distant.
Abraham Johnson, a young slave, belonging to a Mr. Wheeler, of Cecil county, Md., hearing that he was to be sold next day, told his mother. Early in the night they, with his sister and her child, fled to that well known colored man, on the Susquehanna, Robert Loney, who ferried fugitives across the river in the night at vari-
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ous places below Columbia, and gave them into the care of William Wright, who distributed them to other agents. These came to Jeremiah Moore's. The lad hired with him five and a half years. The mother lived with Lindley Coates, and thesister with Thomas Bonsall for awhile, when she removed to Reading, and married. At the time of the Christiana riot they all went to Canada.
Some of the slave women told of their having been stripped naked to be examined upon the auction-block, and to show their muscular development and activity. Some told of their having been sold in the Northern Slave States and sent into the planting States to pick cotton. Not being accustomed to this work they could not accomplish their daily task with others, in conse- quence of which they were whipped. To escape this treatment they ran away. Some had been caught, returned, severely flogged, and were then escaping again. Their backs bore the marks where the whip lash had been plied.
This account of the shameful treatment of women at the public sales of slaves for the purpose of stimulating lively bidding and securing higher prices, was corrobo- rated by the uniform testimony of fugitives from vari- ous States of the South.
Pro-slavery men in Moore's section were wont to speak of abolitionists as "no better than horse-thieves." One Quaker preacher, sincere in his own way of think- ing, asked Jeremiah the direct question which he thought covered the whole moral ground against abo- litionism-" What would thee think if thee had a horse stolen and taken to Maryland, and the persons having
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him, and knowing him to be stolen, would refuse to give him up?"
Jeremiah simply responded by adverting to the un- just and un-Christian comparison between a man and a brute.
Clothing was furnished by himself and his anti- slavery neighbors for such fugitives as were in need of it, and if they came to his house sick they were attended to with the same care as were members of his own family.
CHAPTER VI.
JOSEPH AND CALEB C. HOOD .- Women Aided by Rev. Charles T. Torrey on His Last Trip to Maryland .- Sketch of the Life of TORREY .- Three Men Who Had Been Engaged in the Christiana Riot .- Other Incidents .- LINDLEY COATES .- Incidents .- JOSHUA BRINTON .- Incidents.
JOSEPH AND CALEB C. HOOD.
Joseph Hood (Born Twelfth month 5th, 1812 .- Died Ninth month 27th, 1866), and his brother Caleb C. (Born Fourth month 6th, 1817), of Bart township, Lan- caster county, gave assistance to fugitives at all times when called upon.
Eight, whom it was necessary to hurry along with great speed, were sent to the home of Joseph and Caleb C. Hood, one night in the spring of 1843, by Joseph Smith, of Drumore township. They were given some- thing to eat, and taken by Caleb the same night to Lindley Coates, where they were secreted until the fol- lowing night, and then taken further on.
On another occasion, Joseph Smith sent to their place an elderly colored woman with her son and daughter. Caleb took them to James Fulton's.
On their way, the woman told him they had been brought from Baltimore to a place on the Susquehanna by Rev. Charles T. Torrey. The slaveholders got on their track and nearly overtook them when they reached the river. They crossed, however, in safety, but Torrey on his return for another load, fell into the hands of his pursuers, was taken to Baltimore, tried, sentenced to
EVLS' PROCESS, PAT'D FEB. 1. LES
CALEB C. HOOD.
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confinement in the penitentiary, and died during his imprisonment. He was a good sincere man, a most earnest and indefatigable worker. He was a native of Massachusetts, a graduate of Yale College, and a min- ister of the gospel. His sympathy for the oppressed slave impelled him to give up his pulpit and give his entire time and labor to the cause of anti-slavery. While full of ardor, bold and daring, he was so indis- creet and rash in his designs and movements as to keep many of the Underground Railroad agents, who re- ceived fugitives sent by him, in constant fear lest he would get himself or them into trouble. His outfit when he started on this last journey, was furnished him in Kennet, Chester county, although it was done with extreme trepidation and reluctance by most of the anti- slavery people, as his plan of going among slaves and encouraging them to leave their masters was not in accord with the general views and wishes of abolitionists, and they endeavored to dissuade him from it. But he believed that by so doing, property in slaves would be rendered so insecure that it would hasten emancipation, or the intro- duction of hired or free labor. So confident was he that his views were correct, that no argument could move him, and he died a martyr to his cherished scheme of obtaining freedom for others.
After the Christiana riot, three men who had been engaged in it, William Howard, Charles Long, and James Dawsey, formerly slaves, who were acquainted with Caleb C. Hood, came to his place about midnight to ask his advice about the best course for them to pursue. A good supper was given them, and after consultation it was decided that they shoud take shelter in the woods, as
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the premises might be searched. They wanted to pro- ceed at once to Canada ; but their clothes were at their homes, and the money due them in the hands of their employers, and they dare not return for them lest they might be captured. At their desire, Caleb went next day, collected their money and clothing and delivered it to them that night. Howard's wife sent especial re- quest for them not to attempt to leave the country then, as every place was closely watched. Taking a woman's advice, proverbial for being best in emergencies, they gave up their plans of risking an attempt to escape in the midst of so much danger. The family gave them victuals, and saw no more of them for two weeks, when they returned one dark and rainy night at 12 o'clock, and called them up. They had been secreted during that time under the floor of a colored man's house in Drumore township, and now felt the time had come for them to "strike for liberty." Caleb took them that night to Eli Hambleton's. On the following night Eli took them ten miles to the next station. In ten days they reached Canada. Howard then wrote to his wife, who immediately sold their household goods and went to him.
There was a this time a colored woman named Maria living at C. C. Hood's, who one day, when a slave, heard her master selling her to a slave-trader to go South. Horrified at the prospective change, she lost no time making her escape, and through agencies on the Underground Railroad got to William Howard's, thence to C. C. Hood's, where she had been living but a week when the Christiana riot occurred. She was the mother of nine children, eight of whom she left in
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slavery. One, a son, had preceded her, and was living with Moses Whitson. In the following winter he went to Massachusetts. Obtaining employment there by which he could support his mother, he wrote for her to come. Cyrus Burleigh was at that time at Hood's, and proposed, that if she would remain a few weeks until he was ready to return to Massachusetts, near where her son was living, he would see her safely to the placc. She assented, and at the appointed time she met him in Philadelphia, and was taken care of to the end of her journey.
In 1828 or 1829 a fugitive slave was living with Truman Cooper, in Sadsbury, Lancaster county. One day two slaveholders who had received information of him, accompanied by a guide, entered the field where he was at work, and watching the opportunity to seize him when he could not resist, bound his hands behind him and carried him off. A boy living with Cooper saw the transaction and immediately carried word to Thomas Hood's tannery, near by, when John Hood and Allen Smith started in pursuit of them. Overtaking them at John Smoker's they engaged in a kind of easy familiar conversation until they ascertaincd that the party was going to put up for the night at Quigg's tavern, Georgetown. Then riding in advance they notified the colored people of that vicinity, who as- sembled with arms after dark, and surrounded the house in ambush. While the party were at supper, Hannah Quiggs, the landlady, secretly loosened the slave's handeuffs, when, with the bound of a liberated hare, he opened the door and fled. The slaveholders and their guide rushed out to pursue him, but a dusky phalanx
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of resolute men arose before their eyes, and presented a solid front, which they knew it was death to encounter. Reaching a grove some distance off, he remained there until the following night, when by some means his pur- suers got on his track and gave chase. He, however, eluded them and found a safe retreat in a wood near the residence of Jeremiah Cooper, Sadsbury, Lancaster county, whose wife carried him victuals for a week. He was then furnished with a suit of Jeremiah's plain clothes, and sent to one of the Underground stations in Chester county, whence he made good his escape from danger.
LINDLEY COATES.
(Born 3d mo. (March) 3d, 1794 .- Died 6th mo. (June) 3d, 1856.)
Lindley Coates, of Sadsbury, Lancaster county, was one of the earliest of the active abolitionists. Possess- ing more than ordinary intellectual ability, earnest in the cause of the slave, conscientious in all his purposes, and a clear and forcible speaker, he inspired others with the same sincerity and zeal that actuated him in the anti-slavery movement. Though modest in his ambi- tions, he was a man adapted by nature to rule over men, and made a masterly presiding officer. He was noted for his clearness of thought, soundness of judg- ment, and stcadiness of nerve, and marked executive ability. Hence his counsel was sought in all matters of enterprise in the community in which he resided. By his neighbors he was called " long-headed."
He was not voluble in speech, but being a clear reasoner, very sagacious, terse and apposite in his re- marks, he was considered a sharp contestant in debate, and never failed to adduce irrefragable argument in all
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LINDLEY COATES.
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discussions upon moral reform in which he felt an active interest. One noted characteristic he possessed was a remarkable astuteness in so cross-questioning an oppo- nent as to elicit answers confuting his own argument.
Benjamin Jones, the humorous poet who portrayed the characteristics of leading abolitionists in amusing rhymes, thus pays his compliments to Lindley Coates :
Pray Lindley, don't vex one, By asking a question, That answered, upsets his own side ; 'Tis very perplexing, And shamefully vexing, For one's self to prove he has lied : 'Tis, Friend Coates ! For one's self to prove he has lied.
He was opposed to avarice, and considered it one of the greatest evils instigating men to impose one upon another.
Slaves came to his place from Maryland and con- tiguous States, from Daniel Gibbons, Thomas Whitson and others, and were taken to James Williams, Joseph Fulton, Mordecai Hayes, Emmor Kimber and to other stations, as seemed best, according to circumstances or exigences at the time. Some who were very intelligent were taken a considerable distance and then directed how and where to go. Some called who were steering for Canada, taking the North Star as their guide. These would obtain the names of the Underground Railroad agents along the route, and then proceed by themselves, taking their own chances.
Connected with the vast numbers who passed through his hands there were many exciting incidents and nar- row escapes, the particulars of which are not now re- membered. It was a custom with the family to make
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very few inquiries beyond what they felt needful to satisfy themselves that the applicants were bona fide fugitives from the South.
Extra precautionary measures were taken after the Christiana riot to prevent the arrest of any negroes about their premises. All who came at that time were taken to the cornfield and secreted under the shocks, as Lindley and his wife were expecting their house to be searched by deputized officials who were then scouting the country, searching the houses of abolitionists to see if negroes were in them, and arresting every colored person upon whom they could in any way cast a glim- mer of suspicion of having been connected with the tragedy at Christiana.
In a few days six or seven of these " special consta- bles," or persons representing themselves as such, came during the absence of Lindley and his son Simmons, (Born March 5th, 1821 .- Died October 2d, 1862,) and examined every apartment of the house from cellar to garret, notwithstanding they were told by the women that no colored persons were in it.
Isaac Slack, a carpenter, who was then working at the barn, heard that these men were at the house. He went there immediately, but they had finished their search. He asked if they had a warrant. They re- plied they had not. Incensed at the outrage of their going through the house in that manner without legal authority he told them in most emphatic language that had he known in the beginning of their being on the premises he would have prevented their unlawful search.
A colored girl living at that time with Simmons and Emmeline Coates who occupied a part of the house, was
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engaged to be married to one of the slaves whom Gor- such was after. He made his escape to Toronto, Canada, and wrote to the girl to meet him there.
On the night of the tragedy, Simmons told her and another colored girl living in the house, to go to the cornfield and remain under the shocks till morning, as it was not improbable that their house might be search- ed. They did so, and as soon as practicable started for Toronto, where the affianced couple met and were married.
Although deprecating the condition of the enslaved negroes whose dearest rights were witheld from theni Lindley Coates never encouraged seeret means to entice then to leave their masters. But when they had left, and sought aid at his hands in their effort to be free, he assisted them with all his earnestness and ability as he claimed to be the duty of a Christian in behalf of a brother in need.
From Deborah S., widow of Lindley Coates, the editors of this history have received the following sketch, which appeared in an anti-slavery newspaper a few days after his death :
"Under our obituary head this week a death is re- corded which calls for something more than a passing notice. Lindley Coates, of Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, whose death on the 3d inst., is there announced, was no common man, and his past relations to the cause were such as to make his departure from our midst no ordinary occurrence. He was one of the earliest, ablest and most devoted friends of freedom of the State of Pennsylvania. He aided in forming the Clarkson Anti- Slavery Association before the American Society had
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an existence and was an advocate of immediate emanci- pation when the name of William Lloyd Garrison was comparatively little known. He was a man of great simplicity of character and of inflexible moral honesty, and was endowed with a mind of unusual vigor and of the strictest logical accuracy. On all the great questions of the day his views were clear and decided. He was quick to see and prompt to embrace the truth, and few had more skill than he in detecting and exposing the fallacies of error. Though not a man of liberal educa- tion, he was moderately well read and more than com- monly well informed; and, although not a fluent speaker, his high order of reasoning powers gave him a strength in debate which made him a formidable opponent and secured for him an enviable distinction among the early champions of the anti-slavery cause. His reputation was not confined to Pennsylvania; he was known and appreciated by the friends of the cause throughout all the country.
" In 1840, when the new organization schism took place at New York, he was chosen president of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and filled, creditably and satisfac- torily, the duties of that office till, upon his resignation, William Lloyd Garrison, its present incumbent, was ap- pointed to take his place. For the last few years, owing to ill health, he has taken but little part in the anti- slavery conflict; but his heart beat true to the cause.
" If he was less confident and more apprehensive as to immediate results, it was because disease had impaired his natural hopefulness ; his principles had undergone no change and his faith in their final triumph " knew no shadow of turning."
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" He died as he had lived, a true friend of freedom, and his name will be preserved in the history of the anti-slavery enterprise as one of its ablest and most worthy champions."
Lindley Coates was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837, and made the most strenuous ef- forts to prevent the insertion of the word " white " into the organic law of the State of Pennsylvania, whereby the suffrage was restricted to members of the Caucasian race. Thomas Earle and Thaddeus Stevens, also promi- nent members of the convention, worked hard against this change, but all without avail.
JOSHUA BRINTON. (Born February 28th, 1811.)
The house of Joshua Brinton, Salisbury, Lancaster county, was not on any of the direct routes, and was therefore not one of the regular stations. Yet as he was well known for his kindness, and his sympathy for the condition of the colored race, fugitives were frequently directed to his place which was called by many " a home for colored people."
Hc often hired those whom he strongly suspected to have come from the South. But when he saw they were not disposed to talk much in reference to themselves, he decmed it best to know as little as possible of their his- tory. He directed many to safe places where they found employment. They had implicit confidence in all he said and did for them, and that confidence was not misplaced.
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CHAPTER VII.
JOSEPH FULTON .- Incidents .- Assists Wives of Parker and Pinkney .- MOSES WHITSON .- Colored Man Betrayed by Fortune-Teller .- Inci- dents .- William Baer Assists in Capturing a Slave at Marsh Cham- berlain's .- ABRAHAM BONSALL .- Elisha Tyson .- THOMAS BONSALL. Meeting of Abolitionists .- Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society Formed. -Incidents .- Marriage to Susan P. Johnson.
JOSEPH FULTON.
(Born Second mo. 2d, 1782-Died Fourth mo. 11th, 1852.)
Joseph Fulton, of Sadsbury township, Chester county, began his anti-slavery labors in the days of Benjamin Lundy. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Lundy and a constant reader of his paper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation. So ardent was he in the cause that he subscribed for all the anti-slavery papers, and refused to give his patronage to the political papers of other parties "because," as he said, "they feared to speak out against the crying sin of the nation."
Slaves came to his place chiefly through the hands of Thomas Whitson, Lindley Coates, and Daniel Gibbons, and were sent to the Pierces and Fultons, at Ercildoun, and to others.
They generally came between dusk and 10 o'clock at night. It was the policy of Joseph's family to ask but few questions, but to give them supper and comfortable lodging, either at the house or the barn.
A family of seven came from Daniel Gibbons. Among them was a fine little girl named Julia, six years of age, whom Joseph's family took quite a liking
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to, and kept until she was eighteen. The others were passed on by way of Ercildoun.
A big, strong, resolute, and rather rough man came at one time. He had an implacable hatred for his master, and would sleep nowhere except in the garret, with an axe near his hand; he declared "if marser came he would knock his brains out." He was a vindictive specimen of humanity, but was probably made so by the injustice and cruelty that he had.suffered.
The enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, in 1850, made it doubly imperative upon the Fulton family to be cautious in their proceedings, as their place, with those of many other anti-slavery people, was closely watched by those who would have gladly seen the talons of the law fixed in every abolitianist. Aside from these there was a gang of negro-informers, headed by a well- known character near the "Gap," who scoured the country with Argus eyes and Briarean arms, ready to seize upon any fugitive and remand him to the chains of a life-long slavery.
In the midst of this dangerous environment, when all was excitement in consequence of this recently passed law, a slave man came to Joseph Fulton's house and was hidden under the hay in one of their barns for nearly a week before they felt it safe for him to venture on the roads. Joseph's daughter, Mary Ann, carried food to him after dark. She was afraid to speak, lest some one might be lurking around and hear. After tapping three times on the partition, she left a basket of food for him, enough to last until next evening, and re- turned. Before his leaving she drew him a chart of the route to Binghampton, N. Y., and gave him a compass,
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with directions to travel only at night. Some time af- terward she received a letter from him stating that he had arrived there and had found employment.
About 7 o'clock on the morning after the Christiana riot two women, one carrying a child, called at the door, much excited and in great distress, and asked if " some- thing could not be done for them; they didn't know what to do, nor where to go to." On being asked who they were, they replied they were the wives of Parker and Pinkney : that they had got away from their mas- ters the afternoon before, and were endeavoring to es- cape to some place of safety. As soon as it was dark in the evening they started out, but getting bewildered they had wandered about all night, while the home they left was but five miles distant. They were asked why they came there, and replied that on the road they in- quired who lived at that house, and when told, they thought they would have friends there who would do something for them. Mary Ann, with a woman's sym- pathy and that inspiration and impulse that come in the hour of nced, took the case into her own hands at once, and ordered "Julia" to run out the carriage while she went to the field to ask her brother for one of their fleetest young horses.
" What for?" he asked.
She told him. He remonstrated with her against such a dangerous adventure, and refused her the horse, saying she would have all their property confiscated. But she persisted, and would not be put off. He told her then she might take "old blind Nance," thinking possibly she would not risk going with her. But she did. And when ready to start, the question arose in her
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mind, Where shall I take them ? She thought of some persons near Caln Friends' Meeting-house wlio were wanting help, and went there, thinking she could secure places for them until the officers had left their neighborhood. But all in vain. Every one she called upon refused to take them. Evening now came on ; and as they drove through a wood, the darkness of approaching night, with their want of success thus far, began to bring a shade of gloom over their spirits, and they halted to consider what they should do next. While thus deliberating in silence, they saw a little col- ored woman coming toward them, carrying a tub on her head. Mary Ann asked her some questions and then began to explain their situation, when the colored woman interrupted her by saying, "You need not tell me. I knows, I knows all about it. I've helped in many a scrape this. Just drive down the hill there, you'll see my house. Just go in an' set them down ; I'll be back in a little bit." They did as she directed. What this little colored woman did with them, we have not been able to find out. The last account received of them was, that they had got to Edwin H. Coates, who took them to Thomas Hopkins, and he conveyed them to Norristown on the eve of the Governor's election. They were then placed on board the cars at Bridgeport, in care of Benjamin Johnson, colored, who accompanied them to Canada where they joined their husbands. Po- litical excitement being intense that evening in Norris- town, their escape was effected without much suspicion.
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