Bound for Canaan (87 page)

“The mode of travel:
Isaac Beck, interview with Wilbur H. Siebert, December 26, 1892, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Hudson,
Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad
, pp. 123–25.

The Rankins' operation was no secret:
Rankin, “Autobiography of Adam Lowry Rankin,” pp. 90–91, 78 ff.; Rankin,
Life of Rev. John Rankin
; Richard Calvin Rankin, interview with Wilbur H. Siebert; John Rankin Jr., interview with Wilbur H. Siebert, Rankin Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.

When Calvin Fairbank landed:
Fairbank,
Rev. Calvin Fairbank during Slavery Times
, pp. 47–48; Randolph Paul Runyon,
Delia Webster and the Underground Railroad
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), p. 10.

Lewis Hayden, who worked at:
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin; Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded
(Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1998), pp. 154–55; Runyon,
Delia Webster
, pp. 13–14.

Fairbank's collaborator was:
Fairbank,
Rev. Calvin Fairbank during Slavery Times
, pp. 48–49; Runyon,
Delia Webster
, pp. 14–21; J. Winston Coleman Jr.,
Slavery Times in Kentucky
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940), p. 143.

Fairbank was tried and convicted:
Fairbank,
Rev. Calvin Fairbank during Slavery Times
, pp. 49–56.

During her imprisonment:
Runyon,
Delia Webster
, pp. 46, 64–66.

This close to the Ohio: Philanthropist
, May 14, 1839, and June 18, 1839; Isaac Beck, interview with Wilbur H. Siebert, December 26, 1892, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Hudson,
Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad
, pp. 123–25; “Dyer Burgess of Warren, Washington County,” biography in
The History of Washington County, Ohio
, pp. 486–87, excerpt in Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.

John B. Mahan, a Methodist Minister: Philanthropist
, December 18, 1838; Rankin, “Autobiography of Adam Lowry Rankin,” pp. 81ff; Hagedorn,
Beyond the River
, pp. 155 ff.

One Sunday evening:
Rankin, “Autobiography of Adam Lowry Rankin,” pp. 105–9; Rankin,
Life of Rev. John Rankin
, p. 49; Hagedorn,
Beyond the River
, pp. 219–22.

rarely more than tantalizing shadows:
Rankin,
Life of Rev. John Rankin
, pp. 47–48.

The most famous single fugitive:
Rankin,
Life of Rev. John Rankin
, pp. 48–49; John Rankin Jr., interviews with Frank Gregg and Wilbur H. Siebert, Rankin Papers,
Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Rankin, “Autobiography of Adam Lowry Rankin”; interview with Reverend Samuel G. W. Rankin, “The Story of Eliza,”
Hartford Daily Courant
, November 23, 1895; Hagedorn,
Beyond the River
, pp. 155 ff.

C
HAPTER
11: T
HE
C
AR OF
F
REEDOM

the home of Levi and Catherine Coffin:
Levi Coffin,
Reminiscences of Levi Coffin
(Cincinnati: Western Tract Society, 1879), pp. 111–13, 147–50.

a pillar of the local establishment:
Ibid., pp. 106–7; Daniel N. Huff, “Reminiscence of Newport and Fountain City and its Environs from 1830 to 1896” (unpublished manuscript, 1896), Friends Collection, Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.; Huff, “Unnamed Anti-Slavery Heroes” (unpublished manuscript, 1905), Friends Collection, Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.; “How Fugitive Slaves Were Aided,”
Richmond Palladium,
January 1, 1931.

a fluid web:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, pp. 111, 143; Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, pp. 41–43; Hurley C. Goodall,
Underground Railroad: The Invisible Road to Freedom through Indiana as Recorded by the Works Progress Administration Writers Project
(Indianapolis: Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 2000), pp. 43–44.

a new, pivotal kind of figure:
Coffin,
Reminiscences,
pp. 113–18.

Coffin's personal feelings:
Ibid., pp. 159–60, 175, 183.

Coffin's power could be deployed:
Ibid., pp. 195–201; Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, p. 196; Huff, “Reminiscence of Newport and Fountain City.”

On another occasion:
Coffin,
Reminiscences,
pp. 193–94.

“Here is where we keep”:
Huff, “Unnamed Anti-Slavery Heroes.”

As time went on:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, pp. 224–30; Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, p. 198.

Once Frederick and Anna Douglass:
Douglass, “My Bondage and My Freedom,” pp. 359–63; McFeely,
Frederick Douglass
, pp. 81–85, 94; Grover,
Fugitive's Gibraltar
, pp. 287, 143; Stauffer,
Black Hearts of Men
, pp. 47–49.

how he had been taken from his mother in infancy:
Douglass, “My Bondage and My Freedom,” pp. 15–18, 21, 43, 74, 89; Robert F. Mooney,
The Advent of Douglass
Nantucket: Wesco Publishing, 1991).

Garrison followed Douglass:
McFeely,
Frederick Douglass
, p. 88.

benefactor David Ruggles:
Ibid., p. 97.

Douglass was not alone:
Ripley, ed.,
Black Abolitionist Papers
, vol. 3, pp. 21, 24; Speech by Peter Paul Simons, delivered before the African Clarkson Association, New York, April 23, 1839, ibid., pp. 289–90.

Douglass knew what:
Douglass, “My Bondage and My Freedom,” pp. 364–68; May,
Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict
, pp. 293–94.

an emerging generation:
Ripley,
The Black Abolitionist Papers
, vol. 3, pp. 26–33.

“opportunity to be himself”:
Quarles,
Black Abolitionists
, p. 69.

Between 1836 and 1846:
John R. McKivigan,
The War Against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches
,
1830–1865
(Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984), pp. 107–8; Ripley,
The Black Abolitionist Papers
, vol. 3, pp. 36–39; and 447, n. 1; Quarles,
Black Abolitionists
, p. 84; Mabee,
Black Freedom
, pp. 133 ff.

black newspapers, self-improvement societies:
Quarles,
Black Abolitionists
, pp. 101–4.

“more than a figure of speech”:
Ripley,
The Black Abolitionist Papers
, vol. 3, p. 24.

“All the other speakers seemed tame”:
McFeely,
Frederick Douglass
, p. 100.

The Douglasses, who:
Ibid., pp. 93–94.

In the Spring of 1843:
Douglass, “Life and Times,” pp. 665–75; Coffin,
Reminiscences
, p. 168; Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, pp. 41, 62, 100–3.

“This town is one”: Richmond Jeffersonian
, reprinted in
Free Labor Advocate
, January 8, 1842.

 
Palladium
sneeringly blamed: Richmond Palladium
, January 1, 1931.

even racism among Quakers:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, pp. 230–33; Quarles,
Black Abolitionists
, p. 72; Hamm,
Antislavery Movement in Henry County
, pp. 8, 12, 22; McKivigan,
War Against Proslavery Religion,
pp. 44, 105–6; Barbour et al., eds.,
Quaker Crosscurrents
, pp. 185–88; Child,
Isaac T. Hopper
, pp. 389–97.

when Frederick Douglass arrived:
Douglass, “Life and Times,” pp. 675–76; McFeely,
Frederick Douglass
, pp. 109–12; Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, p. 129; Coffin,
Reminiscences,
p. 229; Charles Remond, letter to Isaac and Amy Post, September 27, 1843, in Ripley,
The Black Abolitionist Papers
, vol. 3, pp. 416–17.

routes were always in flux:
Siebert,
Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroad
, pp. 47, 224, 180–81, 230; Coffin,
Reminiscences
, p. 119; R. S. Miller, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, April 4, 1892, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Joseph Patterson, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, December 19, 1895, Siebert Collection; Isaac Beck, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, December 26, 1892, Siebert Collection; Hamm,
Antislavery Movement in Henry County
, pp. 25, 47–48; Charles M. Cummings,
Yankee Quaker, Confedederate General: The Curious Career of Bushrod Rust Johnson
(Rutherford, N. J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1971), pp. 56–59.

At a reunion: Richmond Palladium
, January 1, 1931; Coffin,
Reminiscences
, p. 113; Huff, “Reminiscence of Newport and Fountain City.”
231 By comparison:
Diane Perrine Coon, interview with the author, Madison, Ind., October 17, 2002; Siebert, “Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroad,” pp.
226–27; Milton Kennedy, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, March 10, 1896, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.

David Putnam, an underground man:
Siebert,
Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom
, pp. 55–56.

Fugitives remained with station masters:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, pp. 113, 144, 153, 158, 168; Huff, “Reminiscence of Newport and Fountain City.”

For instance, John Todd:
Coon, “Great Escapes,” p. 4; Siebert,
Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroad
, pp. 50–51, 63, 105, 141, 202.

Although railroads, steamships:
Coon, “Great Escapes,” p. 5; “Token Used on the Underground Railroad in Indiana,”
Toledo Blade
, undated, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; Joseph Patterson, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, December 19, 1895, Siebert Collection.

Coffin tried to keep a team harnessed:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, pp. 111–13; R. C. Hansell, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, undated, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; I. E. G. Naylor, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, March 27, 1896, Siebert Collection; Joseph Patterson, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, December 19, 1895, Siebert Collection.

 
a female fugitive was dressed: Siebert,
Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroad
, pp. 141, 158.

“They were very willing:
Coffin,
Reminiscences,
p. 168.

“It often became necessary”:
Eber Pettit,
Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad
(Westfield, N. Y.: Chautauqua Regional Press, 1999), p. 41.

Isaac Beck of Sardinia:
Isaac Beck, letter to Wilbur H. Siebert, December 26, 1892, Siebert Collection, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.

while Charles Huber:
Siebert,
Mysteries of Ohio's Underground Railroad
, p. 63.

John H. Bond of Randolph:
Thornbrough,
Negro in Indiana
, p. 197; James O. Bond,
Chickamauga and the Underground Railroad: A Tale of Two Grandfathers
(Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1993), pp. 75–78, 83; Coffin, “
Reminiscences
”, pp. 178–86.

his new nickname:
Coffin,
Reminiscences
, p. 190.

a brand-new language:
Hagedorn,
Beyond the River
, p. 175; Coon, “Southeastern Indiana's Underground Railroad Routes and Operations,” pp. 20, 196; Coon, “Great Escapes,” p. 5; “Old Uncle Joe Mayo,”
Marysville
(OH)
Tribune
, April 27, 1881.

The country's first practical railroad:
George Rogers Taylor,
The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860
(New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1968), pp. 77 ff.; Buley,
Old Northwest
, vol. 1, pp. 510–12.

“I saw today”:
Mark McCutcheon,
Everyday Life in the 1800s
(Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1993), pp. 70–71.

almost certainly apocryphal legend:
Siebert,
Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom
, pp. 44–45.

Quite possibly:
Elijah Pennypacker,
Phoenixville Messenger
, August 28, 1880;
Village Record
, Kimberton, Pa., February 2, 1831; Emmor Kimber and Elijah Pennypacker files, Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pa.; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 194, 210–11.