The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Underground Railroad, by
William Still This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
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Title: The Underground Railroad A Record Of Facts, Authentic
Narratives, Letters, &C., Narrating The Hardships, Hair-Breadth
Escapes And Death Struggles Of The Slaves In Their Efforts For
Freedom, As Related By Themselves And Others, Or Witnessed By
The Author.
Author: William Still
Release Date: March 5, 2005 [EBook #15263]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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UNDERGROUND RAILROAD ***

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THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD.

A RECORD OF FACTS, AUTHENTIC NARRATIVES, LETTERS,
&C.,

NARRATING THE HARDSHIPS HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPES AND
DEATH STRUGGLES
OF THE
SLAVES IN THEIR EFFORTS FOR FREEDOM,
AS RELATED
BY THEMSELVES AND OTHERS, OR WITNESSED BY THE
AUTHOR
TOGETHER WITH
SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE LARGEST STOCKHOLDERS,
AND
MOST LIBERAL AIDERS AND ADVISERS,
OF THE ROAD.
BY William Still For many years connected with the Anti-Slavery
Office in Philadelphia, and Chairman of the Acting Vigilant Committee
of the Philadelphia Branch of the Underground Rail Road.
1872
PHILADELPHIA:
PORTER & COATES, Thou shall not deliver unto his master the
servant that has escaped from his master unto thee.--_Deut._ xxiii. 16.
Illustrated with 70 fine Engravings by Bensell, Schell and others, and
Portraits from Photographs from Life.
SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION.
822, CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
W.M. STILL,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

[Illustration: W. Still]

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
* * * * *
Like millions of my race, my mother and father were born slaves, but
were not contented to live and die so. My father purchased himself in
early manhood by hard toil. Mother saw no way for herself and
children to escape the horrors of bondage but by flight. Bravely, with
her four little ones, with firm faith in God and an ardent desire to be
free, she forsook the prison-house, and succeeded, through the aid of

my father, to reach a free State. Here life had to be begun anew. The
old familiar slave names had to be changed, and others, for prudential
reasons, had to be found. This was not hard work. However, hardly
months had passed ere the keen scent of the slave-hunters had trailed
them to where they had fancied themselves secure. In those days all
power was in the hands of the oppressor, and the capture of a slave
mother and her children was attended with no great difficulty other than
the crushing of freedom in the breast of the victims. Without judge or
jury, all were hurried back to wear the yoke again. But back this mother
was resolved never to stay. She only wanted another opportunity to
again strike for freedom. In a few months after being carried back, with
only two of her little ones, she took her heart in her hand and her babes
in her arms, and this trial was a success. Freedom was gained, although
not without the sad loss of her two older children, whom she had to
leave behind. Mother and father were again reunited in freedom, while
two of their little boys were in slavery. What to do for them other than
weep and pray, were questions unanswerable. For over forty years the
mother's heart never knew what it was to be free from anxiety about her
lost boys. But no tidings came in answer to her many prayers, until one
of them, to the great astonishment of his relatives, turned up in
Philadelphia, nearly fifty years of age, seeking his long-lost parents.
Being directed to the Anti-Slavery Office for instructions as to the best
plan to adopt to find out the whereabouts of his parents, fortunately he
fell into the hands of his own brother, the writer, whom he had never
heard of before, much less seen or known. And here began revelations
connected with this marvellous coincidence, which influenced me, for
years previous to Emancipation, to preserve the matter found in the
pages of this humble volume.
And in looking back now over these strange and eventful Providences,
in the light of the wonderful changes wrought by Emancipation, I am
more and more constrained to believe that the reasons, which years ago
led me to aid the bondman and preserve the records of his sufferings,
are to-day quite as potent in convincing me that the necessity of the
times requires this testimony.
And since the first advent of