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Iowa Becomes Antislavery j J 2 How did Iowa go from being a strongly Democratic, proslavery state to hosting major stations along the underground railroad and sending money, arms, and men to fight in the mid-1850s battle over whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state and later in the Civil War? The answers lie partly in the settlement of several southern Iowa towns by people from Ohio, Illinois, New England, and New York who belonged to strongly evangelical and increasingly antislavery churches. And partly the answers lie in the decisions that individuals made when a fugitive came to them asking for help. The Underground Railroad A tap comes on the door. It’s night, several miles out of town amid a humble settler’s fields of wheat, corn, flax, and vegetables and pens holding some hogs, a horse, and a milk cow. Standing on your doorstep are three weary black runaways. They ask for food and shelter as they describe their flight from Missouri to Iowa. You have to ask yourself which direction they came from. You wonder whether the neighbors to the west spotted them, and if so, will they pass word to the slavecatchers who are, inevitably, dogging the fugitives ’ footsteps? One of the three runaways says that they crossed the creek from the south, and they came to your door because they heard you were antislavery and might help. It’s illegal to help them, and just last year the Fugitive Slave Act imposed stiff criminal penalties on those who harbor fugitives or hinder their capture. Despite liv- 22 :: chapter two ing in a free state, most Iowans, even those opposed to slavery, are highly unfriendly to abolitionists and will gladly report runaways. What happens if someone finds out that these desperate travelers are here? What decisions do you make now? Many Iowans who lived on the state’s southern border had to make such decisions in the 1850s. A growing number of them, convinced that slavery was wrong, accepted the risk thrust upon them. In many cases, such as this one, they might have nervously put some leftover biscuits, a few potatoes, and a chunk of cooked meat into a bag for the fugitives and then directed the three to hide in a nearby thicket for the night. The next day they might have given the runaways directions to the farm two miles distant that was owned by a man who, it was said, was willing to help people escaping slavery. Contrary to popular myths about the underground railroad, in Iowa fugitives were not hidden in caves or tunnels. Most records show that the people who aided runaways commonly hid them in nearby brush or timber, tall grass, a cornfield, or an adjacent­ outbuilding—­ a crib, a hay shed, or the occasional small barn.1 There are only a few examples of runaways being hidden in some spare space of a house, such as an attic or cellar. The tales of quilts containing secret codes for the journey to freedom are likewise apocryphal; all the accounts of the underground railroad in the Midwest indicate that runaways made use only of spoken directions or traveled with the people assisting them on their northward flight.2 Fugitive slaves’ prospects for a safe journey across Iowa depended heavily on their own ingenuity, on people who spontaneously befriended them along the way, and on the direct, planned help of antislavery residents who were more committed to a “higher law” than to the law of the land. Of course, before runaways even got to Iowa, they had to devise a plan of escape and summon the courage to carry it out, adjusting plans in transit, following hunches about who could be trusted, and appealing for help as needed. Typically, people fleeing from slavery took things a step at a time, having only the name of a single helpful person to inquire after based on direc- Iowa Becomes Antislavery :: 23 tions from a local black resident or abolitionist they met along the way. One contact hopefully led to another on the long, slow journey northeast toward Chicago and on to safety in Canada. Perhaps, if they were lucky, they would run into someone belonging to the loosely organized underground railroad network, who could usually make the escape a little easier. The fugitives’ flight expressed a pattern of defiance that bedeviled slaveowners and constantly belied their argument that African Americans were happy to be slaves.3 For those...

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