USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 6
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The editors have received the following additional reminiscences from a son of Joseph Fulton:
" Among my recollections of father's connection with
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the Underground Railroad, the case of a mother and her four daughters, slaves of a man named Hall, of Mary- land, is, I think, worthy of mention. The mother and children were almost white. They ran away to escape sale and were brought to my father's place by Lindley Coates. As soon as the woman saw father she recog- nized him, having seen him at her master's in Maryland, he having been employed by Hall to build a barn. The woman, as might be expected, was much pleased to see him, knowing him to be a friend. It not being safe for them to remain at father's, he directed me to take them at night to the house of widow Marsh of Caln. I hesi- tated to do so, knowing the severity of the law, but father's answer was : 'We'll risk it.' I arrived at my destination about twelve o'clock at night. The widow Marsh took them, the same night, to Micajal Speak- man's; thence they made their way to Canada.
" Another family were brought to father's place under a load of corn-fodder in broad daylight. They were forwarded north that night. After the Christiana riot, father sheltered a great many, one of whom was secreted in the barn." * *
MOSES WHITSON.
(Born 8th mo. (August) 24th, 1789 .- Died 2d mo. (Feb.) 14th, 1853.)
Moses Whitson, Sadsbury, Chester county, was in sympathy with the Underground Railroad management, and gave assistance when it was practicable for him to do so. Being a surveyor and civil engineer, of whom there were few then in his section, he was from home much of the time. Hence his place could not conveni- ently nor with safety be made a station. He frequently employed fugitives.
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A young man, named Henry Harris, lived with him several years, was an excellent hand and trustworthy. While at work in the wheat-field one day during the absence of Moses Whitson, his master and master's brother-in-law, accompanied by the constable of Sads- bury, came suddenly upon him, caught and handcuffed him while the master held two pistols pointed at him, bore him to Penningtonville, placed him on the cars, took hini as far as Downingtown, and thence to West Chester by stage. Another man, who was at work in the field, ran to the house and gave the alarm. Moses' wife despatched a messenger for him immediately, then ran to the field just as they were taking Henry away. She asked if they expected to take him without proving that he was their property. The master said he would take him to West Chester, prove him to be his, and then take him home with him. She followed them to Penningtonville in the hope of detaining them until Moses arrived. As soon as he received information he and Caleb Brinton, of Pequea, Lancaster county, went to Penningtonville ; but too late to see them. Being on horseback they rode rapidly to West Chester, reaching there just after the party had arrived at the White Hall hotel. Moses was not satisfied with the proof they gave, as Henry said he did not know the men. He consulted a lawyer and had Henry detained until the master could furnish satifactory proof. With the means of conveyance then furnished throughout the South, this required a month.
The slave was then confined in jail in heavy irons. Moses visited him while in prison. He then acknowl- edged that one of the men was his master, and that he
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had been betrayed by persons of his own color who per- suaded him to go to a colored man who professed to tell fortunes. This fortune-teller told him if he would tell his master's name, his own nanie when in slavery, and where he came from, he would put a spell upon his mas- ter so that he couldn't touch him if he did see him. For this blessed immunity Henry paid him ten dollars. The man of "rare gift" then wrote to the master tell- ing where Henry was. In a short time there burst upon him the sad realization that for-not thirty, but ten pieces of silver, he had been betrayed by this color- ed Judas into the hands of his master, to be carried back to his former home, and in all probability to suffer the fate of the majority of remanded slaves-to be " sold to go far South."
In about a month the master returned, bringing with hin a number of witnesses who proved Henry to be his property. Moses Whitson was present at the examina- tion. He offered to buy Henry, but the master would not sell him; saying that " when he lost Jack" (which was Henry's slave name) " he lost his best nigger."
In a few weeks these same men returned to take an- other fugitive from the same neighborhood. The owner, on this visit, told Lindley Coates, he had sold Henry to a man in Natchez, for $1,800.
A colored woman named Elizabeth was sent by Daniel Gibbons to Moses Whitson's. Needing help in the house at that time, they employed her. Her master received information of where she was, and taking a man with him in a two-horse wagon started out for his property. They arrived at Mount Vernon tavern, Lan- caster county, in the evening and remained over night.
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Early in the morning they went to Moses Whitson's, en- tered the kitchen, seized the woman, testified to her be- longing to one of the men, and took her with thein to the tavern. Then ordering their breakfast, they sat down to it with a hearty relish and cheerful serenity after the morning's triumph. Benjamin Whipper, a colored man living with Whitson, saw the transaction, and without a moment's delay notified William Parker and other colored people in the neighborhood who at once assembled and devised means for her rescue. Four or five of the men concealed themselves by the roadside below the tavern, while Whipper watched the departure of the slave-hunters, and then, mounted on a white horse of Whitson's, rode behind the wagon containing the woman, to designate it from other wagons. As soon as the party approached these men they bounded like lions from their covert, seized the horses and turned them in the road. The slaveholder drew his pistol, but before he could fire, one of the colored men struck him upon the arm, breaking it. The other man fired, but without effect. The negroes then fell upon the slave-catchers, pummelled them severely, and then let them proceed on their way to reflect that fugitive slaves are dangerous people for negro hunters to encounter in a Free State while in the attempt to carry one of their number back to the condition of chattel property.
Not thinking it safe to return the woman to Moses Whitson's, she was taken to one of the neighbors, and thence sent to Emmor Kimber with whom she lived two years.
Some slaves belonging to a widow in Elkton, Md., ran away, and coming into Lancaster county, one hired
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with Marsh Chamberlain, near the Gap. The widow married, and her husband at once instituted search -for the absconded property, and advertised them in the newspapers. Wm. Baer, of that section, whose bent of mind was known to be in the interest of slaveholders, and who was not known to reject emoluments offered for returning slaves, saw that the description of one of the fugitives coincided with that of the man at Chamber- lain's. He corresponded with the husband who offered $200 for the colored man's return. Baer with two others went to the house of Chamberlain one evening after dusk, knocked at the door of the basement kitchen, entered, and seeing the man, made an onslaught upon him at once to secure his arrest before he could resist. He, however, made a vigorous effort to repulse them and es- cape, but was overpowered, knocked down, badly bruised and cut about the head and had his ankle dislocated. During the melee the light was put out, and they con- tinued the struggle in the dark. Chamberlain was away, the other members of the family were up-stairs, but being frightened by the sudden commotion, and knowing they could do nothing to rescue him, they did not go down. He was bound, carried to a wagon and driven off. The blood flowed so freely from his wounds, that by it the party was tracked next morning through Pennington- ville, Russelville and to Elkton. As the man was so badly injured, the husband refused to pay the stipulated reward. He succeeded, however, in selling the negro, and Baer received his portion of the price of that flesh and blood he had so ingloriously remanded back to the sad and weary life of a chattel laborer.
The consternation and shock of the occasion so pros-
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trated Chamberlain's wife that it was a long while before she recovered from it.
As soon as information of the affair was reported in the neighborhood, Moses Whitson, Samuel Whitson, Samuel Brinton, John Cain and Dr. Augustus W. Cain, held a private meeting at the house of Lindley Coates to consider the propriety of taking some action in reference to the case. They believed that the man- ner in which the man was taken would be clearly defined by law as kidnapping. Samuel Whitson and Dr. Cain were appointed a committee to visit Elkton, ascertain the particulars of the case, and if sufficient evidence could be adduced to commit Baer, they would commerce prosecution against him. On consulting Lawyer Earle of that place, he told them nothing could be done as the slave had been delivered to his legal master, although he admitted the man was not arrested precisely according to law.
Threats were now made that the barns of Samuel Whitson, Lindley Coates, and Dr. Cain would be burned. The two former fell a sacrifice to the flames, but whether in consequence of the threat or not was never ascertained. Dr. Cain kept a guard around his barn for two months and it escaped.
ABRAHAM BONSALL. (Born 1764 .- Died 1840.)
About the year 1805, John Clark, a fugitive, hired with Abraham Bonsall, then living on the farm now oc- cupied by Benjamin Johnson, in East Bradford. While in West Chester one day he became intoxicated, and was arrested by Constable Thomas Mason and lodged in jail. His owner at that time being in the neighborhood
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in search of him, heard of his arrest, proceeded to the jail, identified him and was about taking legal measures to remove him, when he deliberately walked up to his coat which was hanging in his cell, drew from it a razor and cut his throat, rather than be returned to his re- volting experience in slavery.
The owner of a fugitive slave girl living with Abra- ham Bonsall came there one day and seeing her, at once identified her and proceeded to carry her off. She ran to Abraham's wife Mary, and with piteous cries and screams clung to her, but was forcibly dragged from her side and borne away. Mary's sympathy for the poor girl, and the rough manner in which she was taken pro- duced a shock upon her nervous system from which she, never recovered.
During and subsequent to the year 1810 Elisha Tyson, of Baltimore, Md., forwarded colored people to Jacob Lindley, near Avondale, Chester county. He sent them to Philip Price, East Bradford, north of Strode's mill, and he to Abram Bonsall, who by this time had removed near to Valley creek bridge, on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Abram sent them to Isaiah Kirk, near Pughtown, or to Enoch Walker's at Moore Hall Mill, east of Valley Forge.
THOMAS BONSALL. (Born 1797 .- Died 1882.)
Thomas Bonsall, son of Abraham, settled on a pro- : A. perty near Wagontown, in West Caln, since owned by Steele, Worth and Gibbons. Fugitives were frequently sent to him by Daniel Gibbons, with a piece of paper containing his name. Pro-slavery men in the neighbor- hood were never approached by the fugitives, but they
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knew who Thomas was, and that his place was one of the stations on the road. They frequently asked: "How is it that fugitives never come to us and tell of their running away, but somehow they always get to you abolitionists?" "Oh," Thomas replied, "I suppose we look at them differently." He lived on this farm thirty- three years, during the whole of which period he was an active agent, but kept no notes of the number he passed along. His hired men frequently tried to find if any were hidden in the barn, by running a pitchfork into the hay and straw mows, hoping to plunge it into the body of a negro. But they were safely placed in the granary of his double-decker barn, and his daughter carried them food. Well did they know the approach of her footsteps, and the kind hand that gently tapped at their door as a signal that she was there. But when others were about all was quiet.
Thirteen were secreted in his barn at one time during the period of the Fugitive Slave Law when the pro- slavery men of the North were exasperated to the high- est pitch of passion against the "detested abolitionists " who opposed this law as antagonistic to humanity, and a blemish upon the escutcheon of a republic assuming to he free, and to be based upon the principle of equal rights to man.
The majority of those who stopped at Thomas Bon- sall's were passed to John Vickers, Lionville, until after his death, when they were sent to Gravner Marsh, East Caln.
At one time Lindley Coates or Thomas Whitson asked Thomas Bonsall if there could not be some means devised by which they could meet together and form a
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society for mutual consultation. Accordingly, Thomas Bonsall, Lindley Coates, Thomas Whitson, Amos Gil- bert and Moses Whitson, met in Sadsbury school-house, just over the line in Lancaster county. They could not reconcile themselves to the idea that man had any right to hold as property his fellow-man. Nor could they conscientiously sustain a law which gave him this pre- rogative.
At this meeting they prepared a bill to abolish the use of the jail in Washington, D. C., as a slave-pen. It was signed by Lindley Coates, as president of the meet- ing, and sent to John Quincy Adams, member of the House of Representatives, asking him to present it to Congress. He answered that he would introduce the bill but would not advocate it, as he thought we ought not to meddle with the subject.
This meeting was followed by others, and very soon a dozen or more anti-slavery people, among whom were Asa Walton, Thomas and Eli Hambleton and others, assembled and held meetings in a school-house where Homeville is now situated, and a general interest soon began to extend itself. They then formed a more thorough organization under the name of the Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society.
Some of the fugitives coming to Thomas Bonsall's wished to hire with him, " because he was an abolition- ist." All whom he did employ proved honest and faith- ful laborers. One man sent to him by Daniel Gibbons said his master died, and a dealer coming along pur- chased him from his mistress for $700, and started him with a drove of others from Norfolk. The men were handcuffed, two abreast, to a long rope to prevent their
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running away, and were thus driven along, while the women and children were conveyed in a wagon. They were kept thus uncomfortably pinioned together, both while they ate and when they slept. They travelled several weeks to some place unknown to him, and here he was sold for $2,100. Taking sick shortly afterwards he was left behind until the second lot came along, when he was sent on horseback to return to Virginia. Here he chanced to see his wife and children. Joy sprang up again in his bosom, and visions of them floated before his mind in sleep. He was permitted to talk and be with them, and was put to work at blacksmithing. Soon, however, he was again sold, handcuffed as before, separated from his wife and children, placed in another gang and driven off. They travelled several days, and were then put in a jail for safe keeping. A free negro in there suggested to him that they try to escape. He devised a plan, and told one of the women outside if she would get him a knife he would make her a corset-board. It was furnished him. With it he nicked his razor and used it to saw one of the bars of the prison window sufficiently deep to enable them to bend and break it, and the five men escaped. They travelled by night. It being moonlight and the freeman able to read, the others hoisted him up to read the directions on the handboards along the way. At one time he read a notice of $1,000 reward offered for their detection. They came to York county, and crossing the river at Wrightsville to Columbia were told by a Methodist to go down to Ches- ter county, there were Quakers there. They got to Daniel Gibbons, from there to Lindley Coates, and thence to Thomas Bonsall's who hired this man. One
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of the others hired a few miles distant; but none of them would ever reveal, except to these "agents " that they had ever been in slavery, lest they might be in- formed upon.
Two women from Alabama narrated the wretched and degrading treatment imposed upon them and others in the rice swamps and cotton plantations of the far South. During the very busy season in time of cotton picking they were compelled to work all day, and during moon- light nights until nearly morning, not being allowed time to rest, nor to eat, but had to carry a small bag of corn around their neck from which they might pick the grains and eat while at work, while the driver with his whip kept them continually going to the utmost limit of their strength. The field hands were kept in a state of nudity, and when allowed to sleep at nights they were huddled together in a pen ; and, with ball and chain at- tached to each to prevent their running off, were thus left to lie down and sleep together like so many brute beasts. These two women were assisted by a sea captain to make their escape.
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This treatment of slaves in the most Southern Slave States by some only, we can hope, of the planters, might seem incredible to us of the North who were unaccus- tomed to seeing such treatment of laborers, were the ac- counts not corroborated by others who were successful enough to escape from that section. It was a knowledge of this usage which gave the slaves of the more North- ern States such a horror of being " sold to go South."
The two women and a boy spoken of in the account of Jacob Bushong, who were arrested in his house and taken to Lancaster county jail from which they es-
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caped, and through Daniel Gibbons and others were taken to Thomas Bonsall's, were secreted by him until next night when he took them to John Vickers. The night being dark, he rode on horseback a short distance in advance of the wagon containing them. This was a hazardous ride, as their pursuers were searching the country around for them, ready not only to fasten again upon theni the chains of an ignominious servitude, but to fasten upon every abolitionist who aided them the in- exorable chains of the Fugitive Slave Law. But He who said " Whatsoever ye do unto the least of one of these my brethren ye do unto me," seemed to guide them through the darkness of night, through the perils of opposition to this law, and cheered the hearts of these pilots in their mission of love and mercy to the unfortunate ones of a race whose burden was heavy, and whose yoke was grievous to be borne.
Not only were those early anti-slavery advocates reviled by the pro-slavery portion of the community, but abusive epithets were heaped upon their children, who, even at school, were taunted on account of their parents being " abolitionists," a terni they contumeliously applied as a stigma of reproach and disgrace.
When the colored people in the vicinity of Christiana first celebrated the Emancipation proclamation the captain of the company meeting Thomas Bonsall, and knowing him to be one of the old Underground Rail- road agents, ordered three cheers for him, which were given with a zest and exuberance of spirit such as they only can feel who have known and experienced the rapture of a sudden transition from the degrading thraldoni of a slave to the enobling rights of a man.
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He has on various occasions since the war met colored people who recognized him, and reminded him of the time he helped them to freedom, when to do so imperiled the safety of his own property and his own person.
He is still residing at Christiana, and is now, Fifth month (May), 1882, in his 86th year. He is a member of the Society of Friends, has held the position of Clerk of the Preparative, Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in his section for a number of years, and that of over- seer, elder and member of the Representative Commit- tee between forty and fifty years. He still occupies the position of overseer and elder.
On Tenth month 16th, 1823, he married Susan P. Johnson, of London Grove. She passed from life First month 9th, 1847, in her 53d year. She was an earnest sympathizer and co-worker in the anti-slavery cause. When fugitives came, and her kind hands portioned out to them a bountiful repast as she gave them words of counsel and encouragement on their road to freedom, the large tear of gratitude were ofttimes seen to trickle down their dusky cheeks.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHRISTIANA TRAGEDY .- Sketch of Life of William Parker .- Dick- erson Gorsuch Lay Wounded, and was Cared for at the House of Levi Pownall .- Caster Hanway Tried for Treason .- Other Cases Removed to Lancaster .- Acquittal.
THE CHRISTIANA TRAGEDY.
It is not my design to give a full and detailed account of the tragedy at Christiana. An account of it was published at the time, when the whole country was in a state of excitement over this first great defense of the negroes against an armed force to capture and carry back to slavery a portion of their number, under the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Law, and has already become a part of history. Reference will only be made to some of the causes which led to it, and some of the incidents connected with it, as they come within the scope of this work, are related by private individuals in the neighborhood, and gleaned from published state- ments.
Nearly all the laboring class around Christiana at that time were negroes, many of whom had formerly been slaves. Some of these were occasionally betrayed and informed upon by persons who received a pecuniary reward for the same, kidnapped, and carried back, bound or hand-cuffed, to their masters.
There was a band of " Land Pirates" known under the familiar name of the "Gap Gang," scattered throughout a section of that country, who frequently gave descriptions of these colored people to southerners
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which led to their capture; and when opportunity offered, they assisted in kidnapping free negroes, and carrying them into the Border States to be sold. This ex- asperated the colored people against all slave-hunters, and they held meetings, assisted by their white friends, to consider and adopt means for self-protection. The man who stood prominent among their race in that vicinity as one of acknowledged intelligence and indomitable will, was William Parker. He possessed a strong social nature, and would at any time put his own body in dan- ger to protect a friend. These qualities gained for him the respect of a very large class in that community: for
"Kindness by secret sympathy is tied ; And noble souls in nature are allied."
He had repeatedly foiled the kidnappers in their un- dertakings, rushed upon them in defiance of their weapons, beaten and driven them before him out of the neighborhood, as one man may put a herd of buffaloes to flight. He was therefore the one above all others whom they wished to get rid of.
Before entering upon even a brief narrative of that tragedy, it may be due the general reader to advert to some of the earlier and the later incidents in the life of Parker, as it was to him the colored people looked up in his neighborhood as their head and leader, and around whom they gathered when armed slaveholders and their aids, headed by Edward Gorsuch, attempted to capture some of his slaves and carry them back into slavery; the resistance to which resulted in a fight, made national by a trial for treason instituted by the slaveholders, and in the death of Edward Gorsuch.
WILLIAM PARKER was born a slave in Anne Arundel
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county, Maryland. His master, who was somewhat easy with his slaves, neither very harsh nor very in- dulgent, died before Parker grew to know much about him. His mother also died while he was quite young ; and to his grandmother, he said, he was indebted for the little kindness he received in his early childhood. No mention is made as to who was his father.
After his mother's death he was sent to the "Quarters," which consisted of a number of low buildings in which slaves of both sexes were lodged and fed. One of these buildings was set apart for single people and for chil- dren whose parents had been sold or otherwise disposed of. This building was 100 feet long and 30 wide, with a fireplace at each end and a row of small rooms on each side. In this place all were huddled together. The larger and stronger children would push forward and occupy the best and warmest places, and make the smaller and weaker stand back and occupy the less desirable positions. This principle, however, is not peculiar to these little parentless negro children thrown together in one room like animals in a stock-pen, but manifests itself among far too many of the intelligent and even professedly religious class of white people whose love for lucre prompts to individual oppression, that by pushing another aside they may gain the coveted object of their desire. Alas for the injunction, "Bear ye one another's burdens!"
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