Book Review: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad

Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in the Kentucky Borderland by J. Blain Hudson, McFarland and Company, Jefferson, NC, 2002.

This person really did their homework.  There are so many stories about slave escapes, and those who assisted the slaves that my head is spinning.  There are a couple of chapters that rely mostly on reports in the newspapers.  This includes ads from a slave holder offering reward for the return of a runaway slave.  It also includes some information from court reports or just stories of interest.  There is a chapter and the likely routes, focusing on the places where crossing were made of the Ohio.  It also talks about those that escaped via the river on river boats.  The most interesting chapter is when the author goes into greater detail talking about a few people, fugitives and helpers.

The conclusion of the author:  The slave escape routes often mirrored where there were large populations of free African Americans.  The underground railroad was not always an organized situation, in fact it very much wasn’t until the 1850s, when the Fugitive Slave Act required it to be more organized.  Not all fugitive slaves received assistance.  Those giving assistance were primarily African Americans, with also assistance from some white abolitionists.  Sometimes both fugitives and helpers paid consequences.  Several people were imprisoned for helping slaves.  There was an instance where three fugitive slaves were executed for insurrection as the result of a mass escape.

The courage of those on both sides of this issue must have truly amazing—to stand up against a law, even if you know it is a poor law, is difficult to do.  When standing up against it could result in incarceration, or death, it takes even more courage.  It wasn’t until much later that these people were recognized as heroes. 

Documentary Review: Slave Catchers and Slave Resisters

This is a presentation from The History Channel which gives a history of the means used by slave honors to keep their "property" and maintain the institution of slavery.  It points out that the reason for slavery is that it made some man very wealth even though their was the immorality of it, and even though their were slave escapes, and always the fear of slave uprising.  There was some reason for white people to be weary of this possibility.  The Stono rebellion of a group of slaves trying to make it to Florida and freedom (as offered by the Spanish who were at war with England) resulted in the execution of white people.  The revolt started with 20 men but swelled to about 100.  They were led by Jemmy.  Eventually the militia was called out and the revolt was crushed, many Blacks being killed, some gaining freedom and other executed.
Over time, the tactics used to recapture slaves changed, but finally landed on the slave catchers to pursue and bring back runaways.  All whites could be pushed into being slave catchers, but those most successful were those who did it professionally for the chance of reward. 
This movie also talks about the revolt of Nat Turner, and those who followed him.  Turner was a preacher and felt he had been called to avenge the slaves.  His was a very bloody rebellion.  They killed any white people they saw.  Eventually the rebellion was crushed, but Turner was at large for some time.  During this time of heightened alarm, many black people were executed as being complicit, or just because.  In this case the federal government and local militia were both called in.  Slavery was codified in our constitution, and the South had a great deal of political power. 
The fugitive slave act of 1850 in essence made every citizen a slave catcher.  This did not set well with abolitionist.  Although it did work to have slaves returned, it also galvanized the country.  This contributed to the final test with regards to slavery, that of the Civil War.
The Civil War was not the final say on race relations.  After the war the Klu Klux Klan sprang up which kept the struggle for white domination of blacks alive. 
Link on slave uprisings
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/did-african-american-slaves-rebel/
This movie has its strengths.  I generally do not like historical reenactment as a documentary method.  However in this case it is well done and appropriate to the story.  There is also sufficient interviews and other information to make it OK.  

Book Review: His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad

This is a fascinating book.  I had never read the word of someone who had been a slave.  This man had some fascinating stories to tell.  John P. Parker was part of the Underground Railroad in Ripley, Ohio, just across from Kentucky on the Ohio River.  But the story starts before this.  Parker was a slave.  His mother was a slave, and his father was the white owner.  He was sold down the river, to work on the plantations.  Something I learned is that the Northern states generally did not use slaves for labor, but would breed slaves, and then ship them south.  It had been illegal for sometime to import slaves.  Parker said he inherited a couple things from his father.  Intelligence and creativity; and anger.  He talked of his trip south, and the callous nature of the overseers.  Someone he was chained with almost drowned.  However he says the worst of slavery was not the physical hardship; but the humiliation of not being a person.  He was bought by a doctor.  He learned to read.  He was able to use books of the doctor, and in fact went away to school with the doctor's sons.  However this was too far north, so he was brought home again.  He did runaway, and talks about this experience.  He was caught.  However the doctor did not punish him.  He was put up for sale again, and Parker convinced a widow to buy him, and then allow him to buy his freedom from her.  He was a foundry worker, and he would work extra and make extra money to pay for his freedom.  When he bought his freedom he headed north, but not before he finished a fight with a rival.  He went to Cleveland to work in the foundry business, and eventually made his way to Ripley.  He tells several humorous stories of his involvement with helping slaves make it to freedom.  Ripley had a large population of abolitionists, but now everyone felt this way.  This activity was scary and dangerous.  Even so, he helped over 400 people make it through Ripley and to places further north.  He would take a boat across the river, and help bring people back.  Some did not have good sense to be quiet, and he would have to threaten them.  One time he went into a master's bedroom to rescue a couple's baby because the master worried the slave parents might try to runaway.  He was not directly involved in the story of Eliza from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which he knew of as she went through Ripley.  The Parker had a keen sense of humor.  However he was also a man who lived with danger.  He would always walk in the middle of the road, for fear someone might come out of an alley to get him. 
This book is edited by Stuart Seeley Prague, and is based on manuscript of interviews by Frank M Gregg with Parker conducted in the 1880s.  This presents some cause for alarm.  Could Parker have been saying what he thought his white interviewer wanted to hear, or could the years of passing effected his memory.  However, the story very likely mostly accurate.  Even with years, these type of experiences are remembers.  Parker had kept a diary of people helped rescue.  However he burned it in the foundry with over 300 names, when the Fugitive Slave Act which established serious penalties for those who helped runaway slaves.  He could have been thrown in jail and his property confiscated.
This is a fascinating story.  That men would put their own safety, property and even lives on the line for other people's freedom shows a special kind of character and courage.

Book Review: The Price of Freedom: How One Town Stood Up to Slavery

Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin (2013) A Walker Book for Young People

This tells the story between one town, Oberlin, Ohio and the Fugitive Slave Act and slave hunters.  John Price had run away from Kentucky with his cousin Dinah and a friend Frank.  They followed the underground railroad North to the town of Oberlin, which boasted Oberlin College, numerous former slaves, as well as a population against slavery, feeling there was a higher law of what was “right” than the law of the land.  John and his friend stayed in Oberlin for some time.  His cousin went a separate way to avoid recapture.  John was captured by slave hunters.  As he was being driven off, he said to a college student that he was being kidnapped.  As soon as he was out of sight of the slave hunters, he ran to Oberlin to say what was happening.  John Price was being held in the Wadsworth Hotel in Wellington, Ohio.  Anderson Jennings had been promised $500 for the slave in Kentucky.  He planned to take the railroad.  Numerous citizens from Oberlin surrounded the hotel, demanding Price’s release.  The train showed up at 5:13, but Jennings did not try to make the train.  Reportedly there were federal Marshalls due to arrive on the 8 p.m. train.  They decided to storm the room.  They did so without anyone getting hurt, and rescued John Price.  It is assumed we fled to Canada.  President Buchanan decided to make an example of the citizens of Oberlin.  37 men were charged and convicted  of violating the Fugitive Slave Act.  They were sentenced to three months in jail.  Upon their release there was a big celebration.  The town pledged, “No fugitive slave shall ever be taken from Oberlin either with or without warrant, if we have power to prevent it.”  This was one of the things that fostered poor relations between the North and the South which eventually lead to the Civil War.