Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 82   Enlarge and print image (73K)

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Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 82   Enlarge and print image (73K)

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  << PREVIOUS   NEXT >>
70 THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. " How did you like Mr. Tyler ?" said an inquisitive member of the Vigilance Committee. " I dida't like Mr. Tyler much," was the reply. " Why ?" again inquired the member of the Committee. " Because Mr. Tyler was a poor mail. I never did like poor people. I didn't like his marrying into our family, who were considered very far Tyler's superiors." " Ou the plantation," he said, " Tyler was a very cross man, and treated the servants very cruelly; but the house servants were treated much better, owing to their having belonged to his wife, who protected them from persecution, as they had been favorite servants in her father's family." James estimated that " Tyler got about thirty-five thousand dollars and twenty-nine slaves, young and old, by his wife." What prompted James to leave such pleasant quarters ? It was this : He had become enamored of a young and respectable free girl in Richmond, with whom he could not be united in marriage solely because he was a slave, and did not own himself. The frequent sad separations of such married couples (where one or the other was a slave) could not be overlooked; consequently, the poor fellow concluded that he would stand a better chance of gaining his object in Canada than by remaining in Virginia. So he began to feel that he might himself be sold some day, and thus the resolution came home to him very forcibly to make tracks for Canada. In speaking of the good treatment he had always met with, a member of the Committee remarked, "You must be akin to some one of your master's family?" To which he replied, "I am Christian's son." Unquestionably this passenger was one of that happy class so commonly referred to by apologists for the "Patriarchal Institution." The Committee, feeling a deep interest in his story, and desiring great success to him in his Underground efforts to get rid of slavery, and at the same time possess himself of his affianced, made him heartily welcome, feeling assured that the struggles and hardships he had submitted to in escaping, as well as the luxuries he was leaving behind, were nothing to be compared with the blessings of liberty and a free wife in Canada. EDWARD MORGAN, HENRY JOHNSON, JAMES AND STEPHEN BUTLER. "Two THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD.—The above Reward will be paid for the apprehension of two blacks, who escaped on Sunday last. It is supposed they have made their way to Pennsylvania. $500 will be paid for the apprehension of either, so that we can get them again. The oldest ig named Edward Morgan, about five feet six or seven inches, heavily made—is a dark black, has rather a down look when spoken to, and is about 21 years of age. " Henry Johnson is a colored neprro, about five feet seven or eight inches, heavily made, aged nineteen years, haa a pleasant countenance, and has a mark on his neck below the ear.