 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
| 682 THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. among the number), doubted the propriety of engaging in such measures as were contemplated by the conductors of the " Underground Rail Road," fearing that they would not be justified in aiding slaves to escape from their masters; but reflection convinced them that it was not only right to assist men in efforts to obtain their liberty, when unjustly held in. bondage, but a DUTY. Abolitionists, white and colored, both in slave and free States, entered into extensive correspondence, set tbeir wits at work to devise various expedients for the relief from bondage and transmission to the free States and to Canada, of many of the most enterprising bondmen and bondwomen. They vied with each other iu devising means for the accomplishment of this object Those who had money contributed it freely, and those who were destitute of money, gave their time, saying with the Apostle: " Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee." 1. I recollect that one morning on reaching my office (that of the treasurer of the American Missionary Association), my assistant told me that in the inner room were eighteen fugitives, men, women and children, •who hod arrived that morning from tfre South in one company. On going into the room, I saw them lying about on the bales and boxes of clothing destined for our various missionary stations, fatigued, as they doubtless were, after their sleepless and protracted struggle for freedom. On inquiry, I learned that they had come from a southern city. After most extraordinary efforts, it seemed that they had while in Slavery, secretly banded together, and put themselves under the guidance of an intrepid conductor, whom they had hired to conduct them, without the limits of the city, in the evening, when the police force was changed. They came through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to my office. The agent of the Underground Rail Road in New York, took charge of them, and forwarded them to Albany, and by different agencies to Canada. 2. I well remember that one morning as I entered the Sabbath-school,* one of the scholars, a Mrs. Mercy Smith, beckoned to me to come to her class, and there introduced to me a young girl of about fifteen, as a fugitive, who had arrived the day before. In answer to my inquiries, this girl told me the name of the southern city, and the names of the persons who had held her aa a slave, and the mode of her escape, etc. " I was walking near the water," she said, " when a white sailor spoke to me, and after a few questions, offered to hide me on board his vessel and conduct me safely to New York, if 1 would come to him in the evening. I did BO, and was hid and fed by him, and on landing at New York, he conducted me to Mrs. Smith's bouse, •where I am now staying." * For three yeira I rapcrinUndad » B»bb»th-sohool noetly eompoMd of eolorod children and sdult*. Most of the toacbor* were wsrm-bewted abolitionist!, and the whole number taught in thU Kbool daring thii J»rio4, wx terra or eight hundred. |