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INTRODUCTIONWe’ve read how Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote about slavery. For this assignment, you will learn more about the experiences of escaping slaves. Then you will pretend that you are a journalist living in 1848, writing for Fred’s newspaper, the North Star. Your assignment is to write an article about one or more slaves who have escaped and made their way north to freedom.PROCESSStep 1Gather information from these articles:? Aboard the Underground Railroad? The Underground Railroad? Frederick Douglass? Ads for Runaway SlavesStep 2Use the information you gathered in Step 1 to write your article. You can write an article about how many slaves used the Underground Railroad to escape or you can pretend to interview and report on one slave’s story, in particular. Remember that a news story gives readers the facts by answering such questions as who, what, when, where, why and how. Be sure to answer these questions in your article. For example, you can write about such things as:- From where the slave(s) escaped- What life was like as a slave- Why the slave(s) decided to escape- How freedom has changed the slave’s life- What the former slave(s) are doing nowDon’t use any former slaves names in your article, in order to protect them from a plantation owner who may still be searching for them. Remember, your article can reveal interesting and important details, without revealing the true identities of former slaves.Step 3When your article is complete, check it for spelling and punctuation errors. Make all the necessary corrections. Step 4Add a headline, or title to your article. The headline should summarize, in just a few words, the main idea of the article, and it should grab the reader’s attention. Example headlines: Four Slaves Risk Their Lives for Freedom or Former Slave Tells His Story.-283845-21336000Aboard the Underground RailroadList of Sites KANSAS1. John Brown Cabin--Osawatomie 2. Fort Scott National Historic Site - Bourbon CountyIOWA1. Tabor Antislavery Historic District--Tabor2. George B. Hitchcock House--Lewis vicinity3. Henderson Lewelling House--Salem4. Jordan House--West Des MoinesWISCONSIN1. Milton House--MiltonILLINOIS1. Owen Lovejoy House--Princeton2. John Hossack House--Ottawa3. Dr. Richard Eells House--Quincy4. Beecher Hall--Jacksonville5. Rutherford House -- OaklandMICHIGAN1. Dr. Nathan Thomas House--Schoolcraft2. Second Baptist Church--DetroitINDIANA1. Bethel AME Church--Indianapolis2. Levi Coffin House--Fountain City3. Eleutherian College Classroom and Chapel Building--Lancaster4. Lyman and Asenath Hoyt House--Madison5. Madison Historic District--MadisonOHIO1. Harriet Beecher Stowe House--Cincinnati2. John P. Parker House--Ripley3. John Rankin House--Ripley4. Village of Mt. Pleasant Historic District--Mt. Pleasant5. Wilson Bruce Evans House--Oberlin6. Rush R. Sloane House--Sandusky7. Daniel Howell Hise House--Salem8. Col. William Hubbard House--Ashtabula9. Reuben Benedict House--Marengo10. Samuel and Sally Wilson House--Cincinnati11. James and Sophia Clemens Farmstead--Greenville12. Spring Hill--Massillon 13. Putnam Historic District--ZanesvillePENNSYLVANIA1. F. Julius LeMoyne House--Washington2. John Brown House--Chambersburg 3. Bethel AME Zion Church--Reading4. Oakdale--Chadds Ford5. White Horse Farm--Phoenixville6. Johnson House--PhiladelphiaNEW YORK1. Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence and Thompson AME Zion Church--Auburn2. St. James AME Zion Church--Ithaca3. Gerrit Smith Estate and Land Office--Peterboro4. John Brown Farm and Gravesite--Lake Placid5. Foster Memorial AME Zion Church--Tarrytown6. Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims--Brooklyn7. Asa and Caroline Wing House--Oswego8. Edwin W. and Charlotte Clarke House--Oswego9. John P. and Lydia Edwards House--Oswego10. Orson Ames House--Oswego11. Starr Clock Tinshop--MexicoVERMONT1. Rokeby--FerrisburghMAINE1. Harriet Beecher Stowe House--Brunswick2. Abyssinian Meeting House--PortlandMASSACHUSETTS1. African American National Historic Site--Boston2. William Lloyd Garrison House--Boston 3. William Ingersoll Bowditch House--Brookline4. The Wayside--Concord5. Liberty Farm--Worcester6. Nathan and Mary Johnson House--New Bedford 7. Jackson Homestead--Newton8. Ross Farm (Hill Ross Farm) Northampton9. Dorsey--Jones House -- Northampton10. Mount Auburn Cemetary--CambridgeCONNECTICUT1. Austin F. Williams Carriagehouse and House--FarmingtonNEW JERSEY1. The Grimes Homestead--Mountain Lakes2. Peter Mott House--Lawnside Borough 3. Bethel AME Church--Greenwich4. Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery--Woolwich TownshipDELAWARE1. Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House--Odessa2. Friends Meeting House--Wilmington3. New Castle County Courthouse--New CastleDISTRICT OF COLUMBIA1. Frederick Douglass National Historic Site2. Mary Ann Shadd Cary HouseMARYLAND1. John Brown's Headquarters--Sample's Manor 2. Riley-Bolten House--North BethesdaVIRGINIA1. Bruin's Slave Jail --Alexandria2. Fort Monroe--Richmond3. Moncure Conway House--Falmouth4. Theodore Roosevelt Island -- Rosslyn WEST VIRGINIA1. Jefferson County Courthouse--Charles Town2. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park--Harpers FerryFLORIDA1. British Fort--Sumatra vicinity2. Ft. Mose Site--St. John's CountyCOLORADO1. Barney L. Ford Building--DenverNEBRASKA1. Mayhew Cabin--Nebraska CityKENTUCKY1. Camp Nelson--Jessamine CountyFrederick Douglass (1818 – 1895)Frederick Douglass stood at the podium, trembling with nervousness. Before him sat abolitionists who had travelled to the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. Only 23 years old at the time, Douglass overcame his nervousness and gave a stirring, eloquent speech about his life as a slave. Douglass would continue to give speeches for the rest of his life and would become a leading spokesperson for the abolition of slavery and for racial equality.The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, "Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey" was born in February of 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. He spent his early years with his grandparents and with an aunt, seeing his mother only four or five times before her death when he was seven. (All Douglass knew of his father was that he was white.) During this time he was exposed to the degradations of slavery, witnessing firsthand brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld. There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and abolitionists. "Going to live at Baltimore," Douglass would later say, "laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity."Douglass spent seven relatively comfortable years in Baltimore before being sent back to the country, where he was hired out to a farm run by a notoriously brutal "slavebreaker" named Edward Covey. And the treatment he received was indeed brutal. Whipped daily and barely fed, Douglass was "broken in body, soul, and spirit."On January 1, 1836, Douglass made a resolution that he would be free by the end of the year. He planned an escape. But early in April he was jailed after his plan was discovered. Two years later, while living in Baltimore and working at a shipyard, Douglass would finally realize his dream: he fled the city on September 3, 1838. Travelling by train, then steamboat, then train, he arrived in New York City the following day. Several weeks later he had settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, living with his newlywed bride (whom he met in Baltimore and married in New York) under his new name, Frederick Douglass.Always striving to educate himself, Douglass continued his reading. He joined various organizations in New Bedford, including a black church. He attended Abolitionists' meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, the Liberator. In 1841, he saw Garrison speak at the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. Douglass was inspired by the speaker, later stating, "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." Garrison, too, was impressed with Douglass, mentioning him in the Liberator. Several days later Douglass gave his speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket-- the speech described at the top of this page. Of the speech, one correspondent reported, "Flinty hearts were pierced, and cold ones melted by his eloquence." Before leaving the island, Douglass was asked to become a lecturer for the Society for three years. It was the launch of a career that would continue throughout Douglass' long life.Despite apprehensions that the information might endanger his freedom, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself. The year was 1845. Three years later, after a speaking tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Douglass published the first issue of the North Star, a four-page weekly, out of Rochester, New York. Ever since he first met Garrison in 1841, the white abolitionist leader had been Douglass' mentor. But the views of Garrison and Douglass ultimately diverged. Garrison represented the radical end of the abolitionist spectrum. He denounced churches, political parties, even voting. He believed in the dissolution (break up) of the Union. He also believed that the U.S. Constitution was a pro-slavery document. After his tour of Europe and the establishment of his paper, Douglass' views began to change; he was becoming more of an independent thinker, more pragmatic. In 1851 Douglass announced at a meeting in Syracuse, New York, that he did not assume the Constitution was a pro-slavery document, and that it could even "be wielded in behalf of emancipation," especially where the federal government had exclusive jurisdiction. Douglass also did not advocate the dissolution of the Union, since it would isolate slaves in the South. This led to a bitter dispute between Garrison and Douglass that, despite the efforts of others such as Harriet Beecher Stowe to reconcile the two, would last into the Civil War. Frederick Douglass would continue his active involvement to better the lives of African Americans. He conferred with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern blacks for the Union Army. After the War he fought for the rights of women and African Americans alike. The Slave TradeResistance to lifetime servitude began with the first Africans forcibly brought to the Western Hemisphere in the 1500s, and resistance continued until the last emancipations in the Americas. For the former British colonies which became the United States, colonial-era resistance and early antislavery activities are the base on which the Underground Railroad was built. Without resistance, there would have been no need for the extensive legal codes which upheld property rights in human beings or for the brutal intimidation which always existed just beneath the surface of this coercive social system.The circumstances which gave rise to the Underground Railroad were based on the transportation of Africans to North America as part of the Atlantic slave trade. About twelve million Africans were transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere from 1619 to 1850. Of this number, only about five per cent were brought to British North America and, later, to the United States from Africa, most of them arriving between 1680 and 1808. Varied forms of bonded labor had existed in Europe and Africa, but as the need for labor grew in the New World's plantations and mines, the importation of unwilling Africans also grew. In early North America, the system of lifetime servitude, or slavery, was supported by an elaborate and severe legal code based on race. A few Africans slipped through that legal net and were free, but not many.Early AntislaveryWhile colonial North America received few slaves compared to other places in the Western Hemisphere, it was deeply involved in the slave trade and the first protests against slavery were efforts to end the slave trade. English reformers took the lead in this and were joined by Americans with varied motives. Some southerners feared slave revolts if importation continued. Religious societies stressed the moral evil of the trade, and free blacks saw the end of the slave trade as a first step toward general emancipation.In colonial North America, newly enslaved Africans often ran away in groups of men and women intending to create a new community in a remote area. For these groups, called maroons, their very numbers made them easier to discover, although bands of fugitives, primarily men, continued to live in swamps and mountains and to elude capture throughout the slavery era. Spanish Florida and Mexico were favored destinations for many enslaved in the lower South. The northern states and Canada became goals when they adopted emancipation laws.The American Revolution created more free blacks, both through those who actively supported the Patriot cause and were freed and those who took the opportunity to work for or leave with the British. The rhetoric of liberty and human rights effected a change in some slaveholders who emancipated their slaves in the years after the Revolution. But these events were more than counterbalanced by the fact that the United States Constitution, adopted in 1787, protected the rights of slaveholders to slave property throughout the union. Some actions by the new American government and the individual states did limit slavery. The Northwest Territory was forbidden to slavery and the northern states enacted gradual emancipation laws. But the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 explicitly stated that slaveholders could retrieve their slave "property" from free states and territories. That was to discourage enslaved persons from trying to reach free regions.Hundreds of slaves fled bondage each year in the decades between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Some stayed in the South, seeking family from whom they had been separated or a temporary refuge from slavery. Other fugitives stayed in southern towns and cities, often with forged "free" papers. Whether they sought free territory or remained in the south, they were primarily aided by other slaves and by free blacks while in the south. In each decade after the Revolution, the assistance of some whites became more apparent. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) was prominent in the antislavery societies which sprang up after the Revolution, and, for a while, the Baptists and Methodists were antislavery. The early antislavery societies promoted gradual emancipation and they faded from the national scene by the War of 1812. As the free black population grew, their concern for the status of the African American became the center of the antislavery movement.The debate in Congress in 1819 and 1820 over whether Missouri should enter the Union as a slave or free state made it clear to the entire nation that the slavery issue was not going to simply evaporate in the American republic. For free blacks, the formation of the national American Colonization Society persuaded them to organize for the abolition of slavery rather than act individually. The Colonization Society wanted federal government funds to pay the costs of settling free blacks in an African colony they founded and called Liberia. The threat to free African Americans that this appeared to represent called for a more organized black response and for more white allies. The era of immediate abolitionism is generally acknowledged to have begun on January 1, 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison first published his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator.Operating the Underground Railroad The debate in Congress in 1819 and 1820 over whether Missouri should enter the Union as a slave or free state made it clear to the entire nation that the slavery issue was not going to simply evaporate in the American republic. For free blacks, the formation of the national American Colonization Society persuaded them to organize for the abolition of slavery rather than act individually. The Colonization Society wanted federal government funds to pay the costs of settling free blacks in an African colony they founded and called Liberia. The threat to free African Americans that this appeared to represent called for a more organized black response and for more white allies. The era of immediate abolitionism is generally acknowledged to have begun on January 1, 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison first published his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator.The abolitionists were divided over strategy and tactics, but they were very active and very visible. Many of them were part of the organized Underground Railroad that flourished between 1830 and 1861. Not all abolitionists favored aiding fugitive slaves, and some believed that money and energy should go to political action. Even those who were not abolitionists might be willing to help when they encountered a fugitive, or they might not. It was very difficult for fugitives to know who could be trusted.Southerners were outraged that escaping slaves received assistance from so many sources and that they lived and worked in the North and Canada. As a part of the Compromise of 1850, a new Fugitive Slave Act was passed that made it both possible and profitable to hire slave catchers to find and arrest runaways. This was a disaster for the free black communities of the North, especially since the slave catchers often kidnapped legally-free blacks as well as fugitives. But these seizures and kidnappings brought the brutality of slavery into the North and persuaded many more people to assist fugitives. Vigilance Committees acted as contact points for runaways and watched out vigilantly for the rights of northern free blacks. They worked together with local abolition societies, African American churches and a variety of individuals to help fugitives move further on or to find them homes and work. Those who went to Canada in the mid-nineteenth century went primarily to what was then called Canada West, now Ontario.The Civil WarThe national argument over where slavery should be legal and where it would be prohibited spiralled the nation toward Civil War in 1861. By 1862, the Union Army occupied sections of the South from Fortress Monroe, Virginia, to New Orleans. Enslaved men, women and children found their way to Union lines and became "contraband" of war, many of them working for the Union army or beginning new lives. In the North, after initial opposition, black men formed military companies. While the Massachusetts 54th was the most famous of these units, the 180,000 African Americans who served in the Civil War came from every part of the now-disunited States. As many soldiers had their origins in the South as in the North. By the time that the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, in January, 1863, many slaves had emancipated themselves.Ads for Runaway SlavesRUNAWAYSFebruary 10, 1864100 DOLLARS Reward--Ranaway from the subscriber a Negro man named Charles, about 24 years old and about 5 feet 8 inches high, rather stout built, quick spoken and smart, and wore when he left a heavy moustache. He was probably raised in Surry, as he was carried from that county to Richmond, where I bought him in last October. When last heard from he was within 44 miles of Petersburg, and it was thought he would endeavor to cross the Appomattox above Petersburg, and the James above Richmond, on his way North; or he may be lurking about Richmond. If delivered to me or lodged in jail, I will pay all necessary expenses and give $100 reward. If he is apprehended about Richmond, report to McKinney, Depuy & Archer, commission merchants, Shockoe Slip, or to WM R GRIGG,St. Tammany PO, Mecklenburg100 DOLLARS Reward--Ran away from the farm of the subscriber, near Roxboro, NC, on Friday, the 5th. inst, a likely mulatto girl, named Lucy, aged 17 or 18 years, short, thick set, and when she left was neatly attired. It is presumed that she is making her way to Richmond--The above reward will be paid for her apprehension and delivery to me at the store of B. Ellison and Bro, corner of 17th and Franklin sts.SA ELLISON100 DOLLARS Reward--Absconded from my farm, in Greenville County, Va, on Thursday night, Feb. 4th, a mulatto man named Richard, about 35 years old and 5 1/2 feet high. He belonged until September last, to a gentleman near King George Court-House, whose name I do not remember, where he has a wife, and will doubtless try to reach that place. The above reward will be paid for the delivery of Richard to me in Greenville County, Va, or to Mr. L Grady, in Richmond.LEWIS [illegible]TWO Hundred Dollars Reward--Ran away from the subscriber, about two weeks ago, a slave calling himself Robert Davis. He is about [unclear: 30] years old, near 5 feet 10 inches high, quite dark, slightly deaf, talks rapidly, but stammers. He is supposed to have carried with him a suit of black broadcloth, a cap with a glassed cover, and a heavy pair of [illegible]. He had been employed as a dining room servant in the American Hotel; but was brought up in Petersburg, Va. The above reward will be given to anyone who will bring the above Negro to me, or secure him in the Henrico Jail.JB [unclear: JETER,]Cor. of Marshall and [illegible]TWO Hundred Dollars Reward--Will be paid for the apprehension and delivery in jail of my boy Tom, who absconded about 3 weeks ago, and is supposed to be now in or near the city of Richmond. He is about 18 years of age, brown color, and very spraghtly; had on when he left a new suit of mixed jeans, cap, and pegged shoes. Address Warren PO, Albemarle co, Va.C.L. WINGFIELD, MD.50 DOLLARS Reward--Left my residence on Monday morning, about 6 o'clock, my Negro boy Jesse. He is about 14 years of age, dark brown color, rather spare make, and grum appearance. He had on when he left a blue shaggy overcoat. He has doubtless left some military company, or is attempting to go to the Yankees east of Richmond. The above reward will be paid on his delivery to me, 203 Main St., Richmond.THOS J STARKERUNAWAYSFebruary 16, 1864200 DOLLARS Reward--Ranaway from the subscriber about the 17th of January last, two slaves named Doctor and Raleigh, commonly called Flem. Both are black, quick, active men.--Doctor is about 19 years old, had his left hand hurt in an apple mill and scarred on the outside, and has lost one or more of his nails from that hand. He had on a red flannel shirt when he left. Flem is left-handed, and is about 17 years of age. I will give $100 a piece for the delivery to me, or to some jail from which I can get them, of the said slaves, if caught out of the county of Charlotte, or $50 a piece if apprehended in the county. I believe they are passing as free men, and are trying to get employment on the Richmond and Danville, or Southside Railroad. Address, HENRY M EDMUNDS,Mossingford PO, Charlotte county, Va.25 DOLLARS Reward.--Left my house on the 30th of January my servant [unclear: Ceilna.] She is 60 years of age, has gray hair, very low forehead, and is 5 feet 6 inches high. She has a daughter hired in the city named [unclear: Chilalana.] They were seen together on the 31st of January.WM CHISWICK,Three doors above Central Depot, Broad St.100 DOLLARS Reward--Ranaway from the subscriber a Negro man named Charles, about 24 years old and about 6 foot 8 inches high, rather stout built, quick spoken and smart, and wore when he left a heavy moustache. He was probably raised in Surry, as he was carried from that county to Richmond, where I bought him in last October. When last heard from he was within 44 miles of Petersburg, and it was thought he would endeavor to cross the Appomattox above Petersburg, and the James above Richmond, on his way North; or he may be lurking about Richmond. If delivered to me or lodged in jail, I will pay all necessary expenses and give $100 reward. If he is apprehended about Richmond, report to McKinney, Depuy & Archer, commission merchants, Shockoe Slip, or toWM R GRIGG,St. Tammany PO, MecklenburgTWO Hundred Dollars Reward--Will be paid for the apprehension and delivery to jail of my boy Tom, who absconded about 3 weeks ago, and is supposed to be now in or near the city of Richmond. He is about 18 years of age, brown color, and very spraghtly; had on when he left a new suit of mixed jeans, cap, and pegged shoes. Address Warren PO, Albemarle co, Va.C.L. WINGFIELD, MD.TWO Hundred and Fifty Dollars Reward--Ran away from my place, near Richmond, a Negro man named Tom Binford, about 30 years old, dark skinned, and has a scar across his forehead. He was bought of Mr. Augustus Haxall, of Charles City county, and is no doubt endeavoring to make his way to that county. For his apprehension and delivery in Richmond the above reward will be paid.S.A. DILLIARD ................
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