Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement

565 Pages·2006·3.02 MB·English

by  Fergus M. Bordewich

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Epic Story
The of the
Underground Railroad, America’s

First Civil Rights Movement
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c
BOUND FOR
a na a n
•
FERGUS M. BORDEWICH
• •
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This book is dedicated to the countless thousands of
men and women who fled the bonds of slavery but
were recaptured or died at the hands of their
pursuers before they reached the safe embrace of the
Underground Railroad. They are not forgotten.
W
e were at times remarkably buoyant, singing
hymns, and making joyous exclamations, almost as
triumphant in their tone as if we had reached a land
of freedom and safety. A keen observer might have
detected in our repeated singing of
O Canaan, sweet Canaan
I am bound for the land of Canaan,
something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We
meant to reach the North, and the North was our
Canaan.
—Frederick Douglass

Contents

Epigraph iv
Acknowledgments viii
Preface xi
Map xv, xvi
Introduction 1
Part One
Beginnings: 1800 to 1830
1. An Evil Without Remedy 11
2. The Fate of Millions Unborn 29
3. A Gadfly in Philadelphia 46
4. The Hand of God in North Carolina 64
5. The Spreading Stain 84
Part Two
Connections: The 1830s
6. Free as Sure as the Devil 105
7. Fanatics, Disorganizers, and Disturbers of the Peace 126
vii | Contents
8. The Grandest Revolution the World Has Ever Seen 147
9. A Whole-Souled Man 166
Part Three
Confrontation: The 1840s
10. Across the Ohio 189
11. The Car of Freedom 217
12. Our Watchword Is ONWARD 241
13. The Saltwater Underground 268
Part Four
Victory: The 1850s
14. A Disease of the Body Politic 295
15. Do We Call This the Land of the Free? 320
16. General Tubman 344
17. Laboratories of Freedom 374
18. The Last Train 401
Epilogue 433
Notes 440
Selected Bibliography 501
Index 521
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Fergus M. Bordewich
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Acknowledgments
Many people have contributed to this book, in large ways and small, and
have helped to make Bound for Canaan better than it would otherwise have
been. I am especially indebted to Christopher Densmore, curator of the
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College; David Levering
Lewis; Kate Clifford Larson; Milton C. Sernett of Syracuse University;
Jill Jonnes; and Stanley Harrold of South Carolina State University at
Orangeburg. They were unfailingly generous with their time and insights
during the writing of Bound for Canaan, and offered many valuable sug-
gestions. Judith Wellman’s knowledge of the underground in upstate
New York was a resource upon which I drew many times. As always, Jack
Barschi’s provocative questions prompted me to rethink and clarify more
than a few half-rendered ideas. What flaws remain are of course my own.
In many parts of the country, historians and local researchers gen-
erously shared the wealth of Underground Railroad lore they have
collected. Diane Perrine Coon unraveled for me the intricate web of un-
derground activity around Madison, Indiana. Betty Campbell was a rich
source of information about the abolitionists of Ripley, Ohio. Caroline
Miller explained the interwoven worlds of slavery and abolitionism in
ix | Acknowledgments
Bracken County, Kentucky. Randy Mills and Les and Mark Coomer were
my guides in southwestern Indiana, an exceptionally interesting area for
the study of the Underground Railroad. John Creighton led me expertly
through Harriet Tubman country on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Paul and Mary Liz Stewart made the Albany, New York, underground
come alive. Steve Collins took me to the poignant site that was once the
town of Quindaro and filled my ears with stories of the underground in
eastern Kansas. George Nagle of the Afrolumens Project, Tracey Weis
and Leroy Hopkins of Millersville State College, and Matthew Pinsker
of Dickinson College helped me to understand the underground in
south-central Pennsylvania. Jane Williamson, curator of the Rokeby
Museum, in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, introduced me to the marvelous
world of the Robinson family.
Bryan Prince, curator of the Buxton National Historic Site, in
Ontario, was one of the first historians I interviewed in 1998, before Bound
for Canaan was even a proposal. He spent another long and productive
session with me in 2003, discussing the remarkable story of Reverend
William King and the Elgin Settlement. Also in Canada, Gwen Robinson,
director of the WISH Centre, in Chatham, was a bottomless mine of in-
formation on the fugitive community there, and on John Brown’s activi-
ties north of the border. John MacLeod of the Fort Malden National
Historic Site, and Elise Harding-Davis, curator of the North American
Black Historical Museum, provided very useful background on the black
community and the British military garrison at Amherstburg. Steven
Cook, supervisor of the Uncle Tom’s Cabin Site near Dresden, directed
me toward material on Josiah Henson’s life in Canada. Wilma Morrison
of the Norval Johnson Heritage Library welcomed me graciously in
Niagara Falls.
In Canada, my dear friend David Lipton of Toronto contributed his
time, a historian’s rigor, and best of all his company as a traveling com-
panion. The Canadian sections of Bound for Canaan were sharpened and
deepened thanks to him.
Many librarians lightened the weight of my work by adding their own
expertise to my research. Among them were Alison Gibson of the Union
Township Library, in Ripley, Ohio; Thomas D. Hamm, curator of the
Friends Historical Collection at Earlham College; David Poremba, man-
ager of the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library;