The Underground Railroad in Connecticut

7. New Haven, Gateway from the Sea

C H A P T E R 7 NEW HAVEN, GATEWAY FROM THE SEA THE Fugitive Slave Law of 1850gave the Underground Railroad its greatest impetus; but the lay of the land, together with the disposition of cities and villages, determined the main routes into and through Connecticut. Unlike Pennsylvania and the states along the north bank of the Ohio River, the Nutmeg State had no common border with any territory where slavery was legal. Fugitives traveling overland had to come in through either New York from the west or Rhode Island from the east; a network of routes, entering from both directions, brought the runaway into and through Connecticut on his way northward to freedom. But the coast of Long Island Sound and the central artery of the Connecticut River offered a number of entry points for those who came by water. To any slave who could find his way to a Southern seaport, the ocean offered an opportunity for escape. As William Grimes found early in the century, many Yankee sailors and captains "forgot to be microscopic in the inspection of their craft." A runaway who could steal aboard an outbound ship and hide himself among the cotton bales might well rest undisturbed—though perhaps not unseen —for the duration of the voyage to some Northern port. 107 108 The Underground Railroad in Connecticut He might, like Grimes, find that a space had been left vacant for him when the cargo was stowed; that the crew supplied him with food and water; that they helped him get safely ashore when the journey's end was reached.1 Some of the vessels that thus transported hidden cargo were owned and sailed by Northern Negroes who had regular connectionswith the Underground Railroad. In other cases, it appears that the carrying of a fugitive was a matter of chance or of the inclination of an individual ship's officer or crew member. At any rate, organized or not, the number of escapes by sea was sufficient to arouse the South to preventive measures. Thus in 1854 South Carolina enacted a law to the effect that "all colouredmen, free-born British subjects and others, are liable to be seized on board of vessels entering, and to be imprisoned on landing in any of the ports of this State, even though they may be driven into them by stress of weather." This measure further provided that such seamen were "liable to be sold into Slavery if they were unable to pay the jail fees." 2 Slaves who fled from the South by sea might go on a vessel bound for Europe, but the greater number arrived at such Northern ports as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Connecticut's focus for this traffic was New Haven. That city housed a devoted band of abolitionists, and it became an important center of Underground Railroad activity, as both terminus and forwarding point. Inbound fugitives entered the city by sea or overland from the direction of New York. For those going farther, a principal route led eastward to Deep River; another, with alternate branches, had Farmington as its goal. But New Haven itself was journey's end for a number of fugitives, who had been coming in and settling since the days of William Grimes. NEW HAVEN, GATEWAY FROM THE SEA 109 In the decadesbefore the Civil War, the city expanded rapidly. Its population, less than 15,000 in 1840, grew to more than 20,000 by 1850 and 39,000 by I860.3 It had an interesting variety of racial groups. There were Scots weavers in the carpet mills, while English, French, Welsh, and German immigrant laborers flocked to the carriage factories. The Irish, "with bellicoseenergy," built the four railroads that entered New Haven, and there were German Jews who, with thrift and ambition, prospered in merchandising establishments.4 For the city's Negroes, for the most part just emerging from slavery either in the South or in Connecticut itself, job opportunities were not numerous.Many worked as manual laborers, many more as domestic servants. A small but notable group made their mark as barbers. Few Germans were trained in this profession, and no one would "let a wild Irishman approach his face with a razor in his hand." William Grimeshad followed this trade, and his friend "Barber" Thompson, also a fugitive slave, was known as "the greatest barber in America." Following the tradition...