The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad

6. The Fugitive Issue

Chapter Six THE FUGITIVE ISSUE I F OHIO IS ever abolitionized," wrote Samuel May, Jr., "it will be by the fugitive slaves from Kentucky; their Hight through the State, is the best lecture,-the pattering of their feet, that's the talk."l Despite differences within the movement on the value of fugitive aid work, many antislavery leaders came to recognize the dramatic potential of the fugitive as a means of reaching new converts and keeping the morale of the movement high. "There are only a few, unfortunately, who can understand an abstract idea or comprehend a general principle," wrote one of them. "To make our antislavery idea fully understood we must put legs on it."2 Levi Coffin sometimes got contributions of money from known proslavery men after showing them the fugitive who was to be aided. Once when he sheltered a well-dressed fugitive woman and her handsome son, Coffin invited several prominent people who were not abolitionists to his house to see a "curiosity from the South." The ruse worked. The visitors were greatly surprised and could hardly believe it possible that such people were slaves, liable to be bought and sold. Coffin later introduced the two fugitives to a number of persons whom he wished "to interest in behalf of the poor slaves in bondage, as well as the fugitives who escaped."3 In 1846, when a fugitive who had escaped to Boston was retaken and returned to slavery, Samuel May, Jr., reported that some of the best men in Boston, "many of them not acting as 116 The Liberty Line Abolitionists usually, being exceedingly stirred, indignant at the outrage, and scorning the base servility of a Boston merchant to the Southern Moloch, determined to call a public meeting." John Quincy Adams presided at the gathering, and strong demands were made on the Boston owners of the brig in which the slave had escaped to purchase his freedom. When slave hunters appeared in an Ohio town, the neighboring abolitionists reported that they were "glad to see indications of sympathy for the fugitives." Even those who had never been known as antislavery men appeared greatly concerned for the safety of the endangered ones.4 As the antislavery movement gained in popularity, fugitive slaves became a focal point for a number of abolitionist activities . The reformers constantly faced the problem of lagging interest and lukewarm followers. To overcome this kind of apathy, the leaders of the movement promoted antislavery meetings , petitions to Congress, the circulation of papers, tracts, and pamphlets, and activities in behalf of various related causes.5 But the movement was generally lagging in the midforties , and local groups increasingly turned to the aid of fugitives as a more tangible and satisfying expression of their antislavery convictions. "We are having glorious times here," wrote a Chicago abolitionist in 1846, "or have had for the last ten days, from the attempt to return two Fugitive Slaves." The mayor had called a meeting but the abolitionists took it over, passed resolutions, and sang stirring antislavery songs. "Everything we disliked was 1 Undated note, May Papers, Boston Public Library. 2 J. Miller McKim to Mrs. Maria W. Chapman, December 11, 1857, Weston Pa· pers, Boston Public Library. a Levi Collin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad (2d ed., Cincinnati, 1880) , 323, 325-27,411-12. 4 Samuel May, Jr., to Dr. John Bishop Estlin, September 26, 1846, May Papers; Salem, Ohio, Antz-Slavery Bugle, December 25, 1846. 5 "Why Do Abolitionists Grow Cold in Their Work?" in Salem, Ohio, AntiSlavery Bugle, February 5, 1847; Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (3 vols., Boston, 1872-1877), 2:566; Theodore Weld to Lewis Tappan, February 22, 1836, in Gilbert H. Barnes and Dwight L. Dumond , eds., Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimke Weld and Sarah GrimM; 1822-18JJ (2 vols., New York, 1934),1:263. The Fugitive Issue 117 voted down and everything we liked was voted up," he reported jubilantly. They had recently sent off "thirteen chattels," and they were confident that hundreds more were on their way and that there was a "fair prospect of plenty of business for the 'Underground Railway' for the winter.'" Obviously that kind of activity was good for group morale, but the resolutions and songs were more characteristic of the activity of these local societies than was organized...