Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (49 page)

Stearns, Charles, 104

Stephens, Alexander H., 123

Stevens, Thaddeus, 19

Still, Peter, 163

Still, William, 20, 23, 196, 229

     as agent of underground railroad, 13, 143, 151–56, 159–65, 168, 169–71, 172, 175–76, 177, 180, 182, 192–93, 200, 204, 205, 209, 210, 212, 213, 226

     during and after Civil War, 226

     failed attempts at rescue by, 205

     friction between S. H. Gay and, 175–76

     fugitive records kept by, 194, 197, 199

     journal of, 11–12, 152

     on Tubman, 191

     as writer, 163, 226

Story, Joseph, 109–10

Stringfellow, Thornton, 23

Sturge, Joseph, 57

Stuyvesant, Petrus, 30

sugar trade, 45

Sullivan, Luther, 198

Sumner, Charles, 21

Supreme Court, N.Y., 39, 71, 112, 142, 214

Supreme Court, U.S., 21, 24, 39, 108–10, 142

Supreme Court, Wis., personal liberty laws in, 216–17

Susquehanna River, 2

Syracuse, N.Y., 88, 97, 130, 134, 138, 227

     as Canada of the U.S., 179

     in metropolitan corridor, 173, 177, 178, 179–82

     as underground railroad way station, 10, 14, 105, 165, 192, 193, 204, 210

     vigilance committee in, 19

     violent fugitive rescue in, 146–47

Syracuse Fugitive Aid Society, 181

Tait, Bacon, 202

Talbot County, Md., 192

“Tales of Oppression” (I. Hopper), 58

Tallmadge, Benjamin H., 131

Tammany Hall, 132

Taney, Roger B., 110, 156

Tappan, Arthur, 55–56, 58, 60, 66, 76, 80, 82, 84, 89, 92

Tappan, Lewis, 66, 76, 86, 89

     abolitionist activities of, 8, 54–55, 58–60, 80–82, 84–85, 92, 93, 96, 97, 99–100, 129, 131, 139, 165, 167–68, 181, 191, 210, 229

     after Civil War, 227

     in rift with Ray, 170

Tappanites, 82, 99, 181

tar and feathering, 92

Taylor, Caroline, 202

Taylor, Moses, 129

Taylor, Otho, 203

Taylor, William, 202

telegraph, 17

Templeman, H. N., 197

Tennessee, 105, 227

territorial expansion, debate over slavery in, 116, 119–23, 145, 216–18, 220–21

Texas, 140

Text Book on the Origin and History of the Colored People, A
(Pennington), 19

“This Country is Our Only Home,” 54

Thomas, John, 214

Thompson, William, 158, 173

Tilton, Elizabeth, 117

Tilton, Theodore, 117, 211

tobacco, 133

Toombs, Robert, 123

Toronto, 165, 192, 200, 204, 207

Torrey, Charles T., 21, 87–88, 98, 116, 154

Trainer, Charles, 138–39

Trasker, James, 132

travel:

     hardships of, 2

     restrictions on blacks in, 1, 46, 47, 76

     
see also
slave transit, right of

Treasury Department, U.S., 196–97

Treaty of Paris (1783), 35

Trinidad, slavery abolished in, 87

Troy, N.Y., 190

True Wesleyan
, 88, 100, 181

Trumbull, Lyman, 220–21, 224–25

Tubman, Harriet, 7, 144

     during and after Civil War, 225–26

     dubbed slaves’ “Moses,” 191, 225

     fugitives aided by, 190–94, 200, 203

     marriage of, 226

Turner, Nat, rebellion of, 5

Twelfth Baptist Church, 134

Twelve Years a Slave
(Northup), 2

24th National Anti-Slavery Bazaar, 188

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
(Stowe), 155

underground railroad:

     in 1840s, 91–118

     in 1850s, 151–89, 190–215

     ad hoc nature of, 6–7, 12–15

     anti-abolitionist perspective on, 6–7

     during Civil War, 221–24

     clandestine nature of, 9, 11, 104, 126, 154–55, 171, 174

     communication network in, 205

     effectiveness of, 122

     end of, 223–25

     fate of agents after dissolution of, 225–30

     financial issues of, 106, 163, 167, 174, 178–89, 193

     flourishing of, 212–15

     focus on role of whites in accounts of, 11, 13

     heightened activity of, 163, 165, 212–15

     as interracial enterprise, 15, 19, 229–30

     lists of key agents in, 177, 179, 181, 182

     local networks in, 14–15, 19

     maritime,
see
ships, fugitive escapes on

     metropolitan corridor of, 151–89

     militancy in, 56

     myths of, 13–14, 229–30

     operating in South, 152–158, 165;
see also
specific cities and states

     origins in New York Vigilance Committees of, 63–90

     overt and open operations of, 180

     paucity of information about, 7–9, 13, 14, 171

     as quasi-public, 21–22

     reinvigorated and radicalized by Fugitive Slave Law (1850), 145–50

     resurgence of interest in, 15

     scholarly debate over, 11–15

     site maps for,
xiv
,
xv
,
157
,
201

     Southern grievances against, 90

     as threat to slaveowners, 215

     two competing New York City stations of, 100

     use of term, 6, 15, 80, 82, 89

     
see also
specfic agents, way stations and destinations

Underground Railroad, The
(Still), 11–12, 151, 226

“Underground Railroad, The” (song), 6

underground telegraph, 205

Union army, 225

     former fugitves enlisted in, 224

     fugitive escapes to, 222–23, 226

Union College, 69

Union Safety Committee, 129, 131, 138, 219

Universalists, Unitarians, 80

Upper South, 16, 52, 85, 116, 122, 132, 153

     fugitives originating in, 7, 25, 196

     secession issue in, 218

Utah, 178

Van Rensselaer, Thomas, 63

Van Zandt, John, 21

Vermont, 164

     slavery abolished in, 36

vigilance committees, 15, 19–22, 129, 186, 230

     local, 82, 145, 146, 183

     “practical” activities of, 20

     
see also
specific organizations

violence:

     anti-abolition, 9, 59–60, 92–93, 130

     antislavery, 49, 71, 72, 111, 131, 167, 181

     for colonization, 55

     condemned by genteel abolitionists, 74

     in court, 133

     in fugitive assistance, 101, 160

     in New York City draft riots, 228

     in resistance to Fugitive Slave Law (1850), 145–48

     by slaves, 29

Virginia, 28, 33, 37, 43, 46, 49, 61, 99, 105, 119, 131–32, 140–42, 174, 212, 215

     decline of slavery in, 122

     fugitives originating in, 10, 16, 23, 31, 34, 73, 84, 106, 148, 149, 150, 152–54, 156, 158, 165, 190, 195, 197, 198, 199,
201
, 202, 204, 205, 207, 208, 213–14

     rendition dispute between Pennsylvania and, 38–39

Voice of the Fugitive
, 136

voting rights:

     for blacks, 20, 225, 226

     denied to free blacks, 40, 47, 177

     denied to women, 226–27

Walker, William, 144

Wanzer, Frank, 198, 203–4

Ward, Samuel Ringgold, 159

War of 1812, 25

Warren, Thomas, 196

Washington, D.C., 143, 204, 208

     as anti-slavery capital, 222

     federal government in, 24, 25, 119, 144, 148, 219–20

     fugitives originating in, 10, 21, 82, 87, 98, 116, 124, 150, 156, 158, 160, 195, 203

     militant fugitive demonstration in, 124

     slavery abolished in, 222

     slave trade abolished in, 120

     underground railroad operations in, 154–55, 168, 177

Washington, George:

     inauguration of, 24

     as president, 38–39

     in Revolution, 34–36, 131

     as slaveowner, 35–36

Washington County, Md., 3, 203

Washington Guard, 123

Webb, James Watson, 59

Webb, Richard, 85

Webster, Daniel, 121

Webster, Daniel (fugitive slave), 218

Weed, Thurlow, 178

Weekly Advocate
, 46

Weekly Anglo-African
, 179, 187

Weeksville (later Crown Heights), Brooklyn, 166

Weems, Anna Maria, 167–68, 170

Weld, Theodore, 23

Wesleyan Seminary, 86

West, Nathaniel, 207

West Indies, fugitives originating in, 31, 84

Wheeler, John Hill, 142–44

Whig party, 78, 79, 97, 110, 125, 129, 139, 216

Whipper, William, 160, 161

White, Garland, 123

White, Jacob C., 162

White, Joseph L., 113, 114, 131

Whitehead, Charles, 131

Williams, Isaac D., 165

Williams, James, 93, 131

Williams, Peter, Jr., 53, 55, 60

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 126, 128, 133

     committee of five in, 166

Williamson, Passmore, 143–44, 162

wills, disrgarded promises of freedom in, 199, 200

Wilmington, Del., 2, 225

     in underground railroad operations in, 154–56, 158, 159, 161, 164, 192–93, 202, 205, 207, 208

Wilmington, N.C., 90

Wilson, Franklin, 198

Wilson, Henry, 172

Wilson, James, 225

Winter, John M., 214

Winthrop, John, 92

Wisconsin, 216–17

women:

     in fundraising activities, 66, 83, 168, 174, 180, 183–89

     respectable behavior for, 74, 92, 93, 185, 189

     subordinate position of, 32, 74, 96

women’s rights, 92–93, 95

     abolitionists’ opposing views of, 81, 185

     Purvis as advocate for, 226–27

women’s suffrage movement, 226–27

Wood, Fernando, 173, 211, 219

Woodgate, John H., 127

Woodhull, Caleb S., 128

Woodland, Freeman, 196

World Anti-Slavery Convention (1840), 93

Wright, Elizur, Jr., 60–61

Wright, Henry C., 65, 186

Wright, Phoebe, 3, 18, 160

Wright, Theodore S., 53, 55, 88

     abolitionist stance of, 8

     in N.Y. Vigilance Committee, 63, 75–77, 83, 86, 99, 106

     as “originator” of New York City underground railroad, 99

Wright, William, 3, 18, 160, 161

writ de homine replegiando, 51–52, 71

writ of habeas corpus, 52, 68, 69, 107, 112, 113, 115, 139, 140, 143, 211

York County, Pa., 108

York Springs, Pa., 160

Yulee, David L., 124

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