Searching for Slavery: Fugitive Slaves in the Ohio River Valley Borderland, 1830–1860

41„ I. Ai12* St) ... I i. l 461 * PG 4 1 . r 1, 4. 2 $9 V. j 1' 4 1 . 41, f : 4, L# l A 3 S. i S I. ' I. %. 1 ' 3 1 h . f. I. I I f.. 1 k r 4 r Formerslavequarters on the Winston place,Burlington Boone County,Kentucky,1868 THE FL SON HISTOR(AL SOC ET i Searching for Slavery Fugitiue Slaues in the Ohio River Valley Borderland,18301860 Matthew Salafia I n the 18505, Richard Daly enjoyed considerable freedom for a man in bondage Daly lived in Trimble County, Kentucky, on a plantation along the Ohio River owned by two brothers, Samuel and George Ferrin Daly worked on the farm and regularly attended the market in Madison, across the river in the nominally free state of Indiana He married Kitty, a house servant from a neighboring plantation, and they had four children before Kitty died in childbirth at the age of twenty Daly protected his family as best he could and visited his children nightly According to Daly' s later description, in the 1850s he yearned to be free, 38 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY but he also recognized that despite his enslaved status he still enjoyed some opportunities and autonomy. Daly understood that he could obtain freedom whenever he wanted but he later claimed that he never thought about running awav. He did not ' accept the legitimacy of slavery nor was lie satisfied with his enslaved status; by his own estimate he helped thirty slaves escape from bondage. However, Daly did not believe that the uncertain st. itus he would hold in the " free"states w.as necessarilv better. More important, his · affection for his family oversh·adowed the advantages of freedom. Bondage conditioned his life, but love motivated Dah:He loved his family more than he wanted freedom. Only when " Slrs. Ho·agliti," tile woman who owned Daly's children, decided to give his d. lughter Mary to her own daughter in Louisville did he decide to escape slavery. For I) aly, who had not considered escape before, running away or " stealing his freedom atid the freedom of his children became the only w·ay he could keep his family int·act. In 1857, the devoted father escaped to Canada witli his four children.1 D·. 113 's story provides a Ivindow into how persolial considerations and the geographic border between slavery and freedom complicated the decisions of Afric· an Americans in the Ohio River valle. 1[ he boundarr between slavery and freedom carried special significance fi, r African Aniericans because in crossinsr it they enjoyed the possibility of escaping their enslaved status. However, rather than defining a boundarr that slavery could not penetrate, the Ohic)River marginalized freedom by weakening slavery. A centrtil inomaly of this borderland region w·as the similarity between the work regimes of racial NARRATil'E AND· WRITINGS AN 1)RE W JACKSON, 3 4 1 F KENTUCKY ; 337 r r, 7 1NNG N ACCOUbl OV . BIRTl, AND TV; ENTT SU TZARR . iS 1.$, r n W,Lt A • LA%K : 1[! 4 ESCAPE : m ¥ rARS Om L· ZT!ER .......... KS E]· 4,'...' FA'..., t'......: 3 ... S¥ RACI' SE: 1/! 1 Y INI) WEEKLY ' TAR OFFICK SMTIbhhi:, IIt7 T\ t\ e page,Narrative and Writings ofAndrew Jackson,of Kentucky ... 5yracus: Daily and Weekly Star Office, 1847). THE FILSON HISTORICALSOCIETY slavery and black wage labor. The Ohio River thus represented a periphery of both slavery and freedom, and the resulting racial and labor ambiguities both provoked violence and muddied distinctions between slave and free status. Consequently,enslaved blacks faced substantial barriers to freedom that did not end at the Ohio River. 3] lic Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and 1850 enabled slaveholders to retrieve their escaped property throughout the country, meaning th,it fugitives' legal status did not change when they escaped to a free state. Even after fleeing from their owners, moreover, runaways faced a largely hostile and suspicious white population north of the Ohio. Fear of pursuit, punishment, and death strongly discouraged slaves from esc·aping north. As the former Kentucky slave Andrew Jackson noted: If anyone wishes to know what were my feelings during...