Back where brutal men may trample, On her honor and her fame; And unto her lips so dusky, Press the cup of woe and shame.

There is blood upon your city, Dark and dismal is the stain; And your hands would fail to cleanse it, Though Lake Erie ye should drain.

There's a curse upon your Union, Fearful sounds are in the air; As if thunderbolts were framing, Answers to the bondsman's prayer.

Ye may offer human victims, Like the heathen priests of old; And may barter manly honor For the Union and for gold.

But ye can not stay the whirlwind, When the storm begins to break; And our God doth rise in judgment, For the poor and needy's sake.

And, your sin-cursed, guilty Union, Shall be shaken to its base, Till ye learn that simple justice, Is the right of every race.

Mrs. Harper took the deepest interest in the war, and looked with extreme anxiety for the results; and she never lost an opportunity to write, speak, or serve the cause in any way that she thought would best promote the freedom of the slave. On the proclamation of General Fremont, the passages from her pen are worthy to be long remembered:

"Well, what think you of the war? To me one of the most interesting features is Fremont's Proclamation freeing the slaves of the rebels. Is there no ray of hope in that? I should not wonder if Edward M. Davis breathed that into his ear. His proclamation looks like real earnestness; no mincing the matter with the rebels. Death to the traitors and confiscation of their slaves is no child's play. I hope that the boldness of his stand will inspire others to look the real cause of the war in the face and inspire the government with uncompromising earnestness to remove the festering curse. And yet I am not uneasy about the result of this war. We may look upon it as God's controversy with the nation; His arising to plead by fire and blood the cause of His poor and needy people. Some time since Breckinridge, in writing to Sumner, asks, if I rightly remember, What is the fate of a few negroes to me or mine? Bound up in one great bundle of humanity our fates seem linked together, our destiny entwined with theirs, and our rights are interwoven together."

Finally when the long-looked-for Emancipation Proclamation came, although Mrs. Harper was not at that time very well, she accepted an invitation to address a public meeting in Columbus, Ohio, an allusion to which we find in a letter dated at Grove City, O., which we copy with the feeling that many who may read this volume will sympathize with every word uttered relative to the Proclamation:

"I spoke in Columbus on the President's Proclamation.... But was not such an event worthy the awakening of every power—the congratulation of every faculty? What hath God wrought! We may well exclaim how event after event has paved the way for freedom. In the crucible of disaster and defeat God has stirred the nation, and permitted no permanent victory to crown her banners while she kept her hand upon the trembling slave and held him back from freedom. And even now the scale may still seem to oscillate between the contending parties, and some may say, Why does not God give us full and quick victory? My friend, do not despair if even deeper shadows gather around the fate of the nation, that truth will not ultimately triumph, and the right be established and vindicated; but the deadly gangrene has taken such deep and almost fatal hold upon the nation that the very centres of its life seem to be involved in its eradication. Just look, after all the trials deep and fiery through which the nation has waded, how mournfully suggestive was the response the proclamation received from the democratic triumphs which followed so close upon its footsteps. Well, thank God that the President did not fail us, that the fierce rumbling of democratic thunder did not shake from his hand the bolt he leveled against slavery. Oh, it would have been so sad if, after all the desolation and carnage that have dyed our plains with blood and crimsoned our borders with warfare, the pale young corpses trodden down by the hoofs of war, the dim eyes that have looked their last upon the loved and lost, had the arm of Executive power failed us in the nation's fearful crisis! For how mournful it is when the unrighted wrongs and fearful agonies of ages reach their culminating point, and events solemn, terrible and sublime marshal themselves in dread array to mould the destiny of nations, the hands appointed to hold the helm of affairs, instead of grasping the mighty occasions and stamping them with the great seals of duty and right, permit them to float along the current of circumstances without comprehending the hour of visitation or the momentous day of opportunity. Yes, we may thank God that in the hour when the nation's life was convulsed, and fearful gloom had shed its shadows over the land, the President reached out his hand through the darkness to break the chains on which the rust of centuries had gathered. Well, did you ever expect to see this day? I know that all is not accomplished; but we may rejoice in what has been already wrought,—the wondrous change in so short a time. Just a little while since the American flag to the flying bondman was an ensign of bondage; now it has become a symbol of protection and freedom. Once the slave was a despised and trampled on pariah; now he has become a useful ally to the American government. From the crimson sods of war springs the white flower of freedom, and songs of deliverance mingle with the crash and roar of war. The shadow of the American army becomes a covert for the slave, and beneath the American Eagle he grasps the key of knowledge and is lifted to a higher destiny."

This letter we had intended should complete the sketch of Mrs. Harper's Anti-Slavery labors; but in turning to another epistle dated Boston, April 19th, on the Assassination of the President, we feel that a part of it is too interesting to omit:

"Sorrow treads on the footsteps of the nation's joy. A few days since the telegraph thrilled and throbbed with a nation's joy. To-day a nation sits down beneath the shadow of its mournful grief. Oh, what a terrible lesson does this event read to us! A few years since slavery tortured, burned, hung and outraged us, and the nation passed by and said, they had nothing to do with slavery where it was, slavery would have something to do with them where they were. Oh, how fearfully the judgments of Ichabod have pressed upon the nation's life! Well, it may be in the providence of God this blow was needed to intensify the nation's hatred of slavery, to show the utter fallacy of basing national reconstruction upon the votes of returned rebels, and rejecting loyal black men; making (after all the blood poured out like water, and wealth scattered like chaff) a return to the old idea that a white rebel is better or of more account in the body politic than a loyal black man.... Moses, the meekest man on earth, led the children of Israel over the Red Sea, but was not permitted to see them settled in Canaan. Mr. Lincoln has led up through another Red Sea to the table land of triumphant victory, and God has seen fit to summon for the new era another man. It is ours then to bow to the Chastener and let our honored and loved chieftain go. Surely the everlasting arms that have hushed him so strangely to sleep are able to guide the nation through its untrod future; but in vain should be this fearful baptism of blood if from the dark bosom of slavery springs such terrible crimes. Let the whole nation resolve that the whole virus shall be eliminated from its body; that in the future slavery shall only be remembered as a thing of the past that shall never have the faintest hope of a resurrection."

Up to this point, we have spoken of Mrs. Harper as a laborer, battling for freedom under slavery and the war. She is equally earnest in laboring for Equality before the law—education, and a higher manhood, especially in the South, among the Freedmen.

For the best part of several years, since the war, she has traveled very extensively through the Southern States, going on the plantations and amongst the lowly, as well as to the cities and towns, addressing schools, Churches, meetings in Court Houses, Legislative Halls, &c., and, sometimes, under the most trying and hazardous circumstances; influenced in her labor of love, wholly by the noble impulses of her own heart, working her way along unsustained by any Society. In this mission, she has come in contact with all classes—the original slaveholders and the Freedmen, before and since the Fifteenth Amendment bill was enacted. Excepting two of the Southern States (Texas and Arkansas), she has traveled largely over all the others, and in no instance has she permitted herself, through fear, to disappoint an audience, when engagements had been made for her to speak, although frequently admonished that it would be dangerous to venture in so doing.

We first quote from a letter dated Darlington, S.C., May 13, 1867:

"You will see by this that I am in the sunny South.... I here read and see human nature under new lights and phases. I meet with a people eager to hear, ready to listen, as if they felt that the slumber of the ages had been broken, and that they were to sleep no more.... I am glad that the colored man gets his freedom and suffrage together; that he is not forced to go through the same condition of things here, that has inclined him so much to apathy, isolation, and indifference, in the North. You, perhaps, wonder why I have been so slow in writing to you, but if you knew how busy I am, just working up to or past the limit of my strength. Traveling, conversing, addressing day and Sunday-schools (picking up scraps of information, takes up a large portion of my time), besides what I give to reading. For my audiences I have both white and colored. On the cars, some find out that I am a lecturer, and then, again, I am drawn into conversation. 'What are you lecturing about?' the question comes up, and if I say, among other topics politics, then I may look for an onset. There is a sensitiveness on this subject, a dread, it may be, that some one will 'put the devil in the nigger's head,' or exert some influence inimical to them; still, I get along somewhat pleasantly. Last week I had a small congregation of listeners in the cars, where I sat. I got in conversation with a former slave dealer, and we had rather an exciting time. I was traveling alone, but it is not worth while to show any signs of fear. * * *Last Saturday I spoke in Sumter; a number of white persons were present, and I had been invited to speak there by the Mayor and editor of the paper. There had been some violence in the district, and some of my friends did not wish me to go, but I had promised, and, of course, I went. * * * * I am in Darlington, and spoke yesterday, but my congregation was so large, that I stood near the door of the church, so that I might be heard both inside and out, for a large portion, perhaps nearly half my congregation were on the outside; and this, in Darlington, where, about two years ago, a girl was hung for making a childish and indiscreet speech. Victory was perched on our banners. Our army had been through, and this poor, ill-fated girl, almost a child in years, about seventeen years of age, rejoiced over the event, and said that she was going to marry a Yankee and set up housekeeping. She was reported as having made an incendiary speech and arrested, cruelly scourged, and then brutally hung. Poor child! she had been a faithful servant—her master tried to save her, but the tide of fury swept away his efforts. * * * Oh, friend, perhaps, sometimes your heart would ache, if you were only here and heard of the wrongs and abuses to which these people have been subjected. * * * Things, I believe, are a little more hopeful; at least, I believe, some of the colored people are getting better contracts, and, I understand, that there's less murdering. While I am writing, a colored man stands here, with a tale of wrong—he has worked a whole year, year before last, and now he has been put off with fifteen bushels of corn and his food; yesterday he went to see about getting his money, and the person to whom he went, threatened to kick him off, and accused him of stealing. I don't know how the colored man will vote, but perhaps many of them will be intimidated at the polls."

From a letter dated Cheraw, June 17th, 1867, the following remarks are taken:

"Well, Carolina is an interesting place. There is not a state in the Union I prefer to Carolina. Kinder, more hospitable, warmer-hearted people perhaps you will not find anywhere. I have been to Georgia; but Carolina is my preference. * * The South is to be a great theatre for the colored man's development and progress. There is brain-power here. If any doubt it, let him come into our schools, or even converse with some of our Freedmen either in their homes or by the way-side."

A few days later she gave an account of a visit she had just made in Florence, where our poor soldiers had been prisoners; saw some of the huts where they were exposed to rain and heat and cold with only the temporary shelter they made for themselves, which was a sad sight. Then she visited the grave-yards of some thousands of Union soldiers. Here in "eastern South Carolina" she was in "one of the worst parts of the State" in the days of Slavery; but under the new order of things, instead of the lash, she saw school books, and over the ruins of slavery, education and free speech springing up, at which she was moved to exclaim, "Thank God for the wonderful change! I have lectured several nights this week, and the weather is quite warm; but I do like South Carolina. No state in the Union as far as colored people are concerned, do I like better—the land of warm welcomes and friendly hearts. God bless her and give her great peace!"

At a later period she visited Charleston and Columbia, and was well received in both places. She spoke a number of times in the different Freedmen schools and the colored churches in Charleston, once in the Legislative Hall, and also in one of the colored churches in Columbia. She received special encouragement and kindness from Hon. H. Cadoza, Secretary of State, and his family, and regarded him as a wise and upright leader of his race in that state.

The following are some stirring lines which she wrote upon the Fifteenth Amendment:

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Beneath the burden of our joy Tremble, O wires, from East to West! Fashion with words your tongues of fire, To tell the nation's high behest.

Outstrip the winds, and leave behind The murmur of the restless waves; Nor tarry with your glorious news, Amid the ocean's coral caves.

Ring out! ring out! your sweetest chimes, Ye bells, that call to praise; Let every heart with gladness thrill, And songs of joyful triumph raise.

Shake off the dust, O rising race! Crowned as a brother and a man; Justice to-day asserts her claim, And from thy brow fades out the ban.

With freedom's chrism upon thy head, Her precious ensign in thy hand, Go place thy once despised name Amid the noblest of the land.

O ransomed race! give God the praise, Who led thee through a crimson sea, And 'mid the storm of fire and blood, Turned out the war-cloud's light to thee.

Mrs. Harper, in writing from Kingstree, S.C., July 11th, 1867, in midsummer (laboring almost without any pecuniary reward), gave an account of a fearful catastrophe which had just occurred there in the burning of the jail with a number of colored prisoners in it. "It was a very sad affair. There was only one white prisoner and he got out. I believe there was some effort made to release some of the prisoners; but the smoke was such that the effort proved ineffectual. Well, for the credit of our common human nature we may hope that it was so. * * * Last night I had some of the 'rebs' to hear me (part of the time some of the white folks come out). Our meetings are just as quiet and as orderly on the whole in Carolina as one might desire. * * I like General Sickles as a Military Governor. 'Massa Daniel, he King of the Carolinas.' I like his Mastership. Under him we ride in the City Cars, and get first-class passage on the railroad." At this place a colored man was in prison under sentence of death for "participating in a riot;" and the next day (after the date of her letter) was fixed for his execution. With some others, Mrs. Harper called at General Sickles' Head Quarters, hoping to elicit his sympathies whereby the poor fellow's life might be saved; but he was not in. Hence they were not able to do anything.

"Next week," continued Mrs. Harper, "I am to speak in a place where one of our teachers was struck and a colored man shot, who, I believe, gave offence by some words spoken at a public meeting. I do not feel any particular fear."

Her Philadelphia correspondent had jestingly suggested to her in one of his letters, that she should be careful not to allow herself to be "bought by the rebels." To which she replied:

"Now, in reference to being bought by rebels and becoming a Johnsonite I hold that between the white people and the colored there is a community of interests, and the sooner they find it out, the better it will be for both parties; but that community of interests does not consist in increasing the privileges of one class and curtailing the rights of the other, but in getting every citizen interested in the welfare, progress and durability of the state. I do not in lecturing confine myself to the political side of the question. While I am in favor of Universal suffrage, yet I know that the colored man needs something more than a vote in his hand: he needs to know the value of a home life; to rightly appreciate and value the marriage relation; to know how and to be incited to leave behind him the old shards and shells of slavery and to rise in the scale of character, wealth and influence. Like the Nautilus outgrowing his home to build for himself more 'stately temples' of social condition. A man landless, ignorant and poor may use the vote against his interests; but with intelligence and land he holds in his hand the basis of power and elements of strength."

While contemplating the great demand for laborers, in a letter from Athens, February 1st, 1870, after referring to some who had been "discouraged from the field," she wisely added that it was "no time to be discouraged."

* * * "If those who can benefit our people will hang around places where they are not needed, they may expect to be discouraged. * * * Here is ignorance to be instructed; a race who needs to be helped up to higher planes of thought and action; and whether we are hindered or helped, we should try to be true to the commission God has written upon our souls. As far as the colored people are concerned, they are beginning to get homes for themselves and depositing money in Bank. They have hundreds of homes in Kentucky. There is progress in Tennessee, and even in this State while a number have been leaving, some who stay seem to be getting along prosperously. In Augusta colored persons are in the Revenue Office and Post Office. I have just been having some good meetings there. Some of my meetings pay me poorly; but I have a chance to instruct and visit among the people and talk to their Sunday-schools and day-schools also. Of course I do not pretend that all are saving money or getting homes. I rather think from what I hear that the interest of the grown-up people in getting education has somewhat subsided, owing, perhaps, in a measure, to the novelty having worn off and the absorption or rather direction of the mind to other matters. Still I don't think that I have visited scarcely a place since last August where there was no desire for a teacher; and Mr. Fidler, who is a Captain or Colonel, thought some time since that there were more colored than white who were learning or had learned to read. There has been quite an amount of violence and trouble in the State; but we have the military here, and if they can keep Georgia out of the Union about a year or two longer, and the colored people continue to live as they have been doing, from what I hear, perhaps these rebels will learn a little more sense. I have been in Atlanta for some time, but did not stay until the Legislature was organized; but I was there when colored members returned and took their seats. It was rather a stormy time in the House; but no blood was shed. Since then there has been some 'sticking;' but I don't think any of the colored ones were in it."

In the neighborhood of Eufaula, Ala., in December, 1870, Mrs. Harper did a good work, as may be seen from the following extract taken from a letter, dated December 9th:

"Last evening I visited one of the plantations, and had an interesting time. Oh, how warm was the welcome! I went out near dark, and between that time and attending my lecture, I was out to supper in two homes. The people are living in the old cabins of slavery; some of them have no windows, at all, that I see; in fact, I don't remember of having seen a pane of window-glass in the settlement. But, humble as their homes were, I was kindly treated, and well received; and what a chance one has for observation among these people, if one takes with her a manner that unlocks other hearts. I had quite a little gathering, after less, perhaps, than a day's notice; the minister did not know that I was coming, till he met me in the afternoon. There was no fire in the church, and so they lit fires outside, and we gathered, or at least a number of us, around the fire. To-night I am going over to Georgia to lecture. In consequence of the low price of cotton, the people may not be able to pay much, and I am giving all my lectures free. You speak of things looking dark in the South; there is no trouble here that I know of—cotton is low, but the people do not seem to be particularly depressed about it; this emigration question has been on the carpet, and I do not wonder if some of them, with their limited knowledge, lose hope in seeing full justice done to them, among their life-long oppressors; Congress has been agitating the St. Domingo question; a legitimate theme for discussion, and one that comes nearer home, is how they can give more security and strength to the government which we have established in the South—for there has been a miserable weakness in the security to human life. The man with whom I stopped, had a son who married a white woman, or girl, and was shot down, and there was, as I understand, no investigation by the jury; and a number of cases have occurred of murders, for which the punishment has been very lax, or not at all, and, it may be, never will be; however, I rather think things are somewhat quieter. A few days ago a shameful outrage occurred at this place—some men had been out fox hunting, and came to the door of a colored woman and demanded entrance, making out they wanted fire; she replied that she had none, and refused to open the door; the miserable cowards broke open the door, and shamefully beat her. I am going to see her this afternoon. It is remarkable, however, in spite of circumstances, how some of these people are getting along. Here is a woman who, with her husband, at the surrender, had a single dollar; and now they have a home of their own, and several acres attached—five altogether; but, as that was rather small, her husband has contracted for two hundred and forty acres more, and has now gone out and commenced operations."

From Columbiana, February 20th, she wrote concerning her work, and presented the "lights and shades" of affairs as they came under her notice.

"I am almost constantly either traveling or speaking. I do not think that I have missed more than one Sunday that I have not addressed some Sunday-school, and I have not missed many day-schools either. And as I am giving all my lectures free the proceeds of the collections are not often very large; still as ignorant as part of the people are perhaps a number of them would not hear at all, and may be prejudice others if I charged even ten cents, and so perhaps in the long run, even if my work is wearing, I may be of some real benefit to my race. * * I don't know but that you would laugh if you were to hear some of the remarks which my lectures call forth: 'She is a man,' again 'She is not colored, she is painted.' Both white and colored come out to hear me, and I have very fine meetings; and then part of the time I am talking in between times, and how tired I am some of the time. Still I am standing with my race on the threshold of a new era, and though some be far past me in the learning of the schools, yet to-day, with my limited and fragmentary knowledge, I may help the race forward a little. Some of our people remind me of sheep without a shepherd."



* * * * *



PRIVATE LECTURES TO FREEDWOMEN.

Desiring to speak to women who have been the objects of so much wrong and abuse under Slavery, and even since Emancipation, in a state of ignorance, not accessible always to those who would or could urge the proper kind of education respecting their morals and general improvement, Mrs. Harper has made it her business not to overlook this all important duty to her poor sisters.

The following extract taken from a letter dated "Greenville, Georgia, March 29th," will show what she was doing in this direction:

"But really my hands are almost constantly full of work; sometimes I speak twice a day. Part of my lectures are given privately to women, and for them I never make any charge, or take up any collection. But this part of the country reminds me of heathen ground, and though my work may not be recognized as part of it used to be in the North, yet never perhaps were my services more needed; and according to their intelligence and means perhaps never better appreciated than here among these lowly people. I am now going to have a private meeting with the women of this place if they will come out. I am going to talk with them about their daughters, and about things connected with the welfare of the race. Now is the time for our women to begin to try to lift up their heads and plant the roots of progress under the hearthstone. Last night I spoke in a school-house, where there was not, to my knowledge, a single window glass; to-day I write to you in a lowly cabin, where the windows in the room are formed by two apertures in the wall. There is a wide-spread and almost universal appearance of poverty in this State where I have been, but thus far I have seen no, or scarcely any, pauperism. I am not sure that I have seen any. The climate is so fine, so little cold that poor people can live off of less than they can in the North. Last night my table was adorned with roses, although I did not get one cent for my lecture." * * *

"The political heavens are getting somewhat overcast. Some of this old rebel element, I think, are in favor of taking away the colored man's vote, and if he loses it now it may be generations before he gets it again. Well, after all perhaps the colored man generally is not really developed enough to value his vote and equality with other races, so he gets enough to eat and drink, and be comfortable, perhaps the loss of his vote would not be a serious grievance to many; but his children differently educated and trained by circumstances might feel political inferiority rather a bitter cup."

"After all whether they encourage or discourage me, I belong to this race, and when it is down I belong to a down race; when it is up I belong to a risen race."

She writes thus from Montgomery, December 29th, 1870:

"Did you ever read a little poem commencing, I think, with these words:

A mother cried, Oh, give me joy, For I have born a darling boy! A darling boy! why the world is full Of the men who play at push and pull.

Well, as full as the room was of beds and tenants, on the morning of the twenty-second, there arose a wail upon the air, and this mundane sphere had another inhabitant, and my room another occupant. I left after that, and when I came back the house was fuller than it was before, and my hostess gave me to understand that she would rather I should be somewhere else, and I left again. How did I fare? Well, I had been stopping with one of our teachers and went back; but the room in which I stopped was one of those southern shells through which both light and cold enter at the same time; it had one window and perhaps more than half or one half the panes gone. I don't know that I was ever more conquered by the cold than I had been at that house, and I have lived parts of winter after winter amid the snows of New England; but if it was cold out of doors, there was warmth and light within doors; but here, if you opened the door for light, the cold would also enter, and so part of the time I sat by the fire, and that and the crevices in the house supplied me with light in one room, and we had the deficient window-sash, or perhaps it never had had any lights in it. You could put your finger through some of the apertures in the house; at least I could mine, and the water froze down to the bottom of the tumbler. From another such domicile may kind fate save me. And then the man asked me four dollars and a half a week board.

One of the nights there was no fire in the stove, and the next time we had fires, one stove might have been a second-hand chamber stove. Now perhaps you think these people very poor, but the man with whom I stopped has no family that I saw, but himself and wife, and he would make two dollars and a half a day, and she worked out and kept a boarder. And yet, except the beds and bed clothing, I wouldn't have given fifteen dollars for all their house furniture. I should think that this has been one of the lowest down States in the South, as far as civilization has been concerned. In the future, until these people are educated, look out for Democratic victories, for here are two materials with which Democracy can work, ignorance and poverty. Men talk about missionary work among the heathen, but if any lover of Christ wants a field for civilizing work, here is a field. Part of the time I am preaching against men ill-treating their wives. I have heard though, that often during the war men hired out their wives and drew their pay."

* * * * *

"And then there is another trouble, some of our Northern men have been down this way and by some means they have not made the best impression on every mind here. One woman here has been expressing her mind very freely to me about some of our Northerners, and we are not all considered here as saints and angels, and of course in their minds I get associated with some or all the humbugs that have been before me. But I am not discouraged, my race needs me, if I will only be faithful, and in spite of suspicion and distrust, I will work on; the deeper our degradation, the louder our call for redemption. If they have little or no faith in goodness and earnestness, that is only one reason why we should be more faithful and earnest, and so I shall probably stay here in the South all winter. I am not making much money, and perhaps will hardly clear expenses this winter; but after all what matters it when I am in my grave whether I have been rich or poor, loved or hated, despised or respected, if Christ will only own me to His Father, and I be permitted a place in one of the mansions of rest."

Col. J.W. Forney, editor of "The Press," published July 12, 1871, with the brief editorial heading by his own hand, the document appended:

The following letter, written by Mrs. F.E.W. Harper, the well-known colored orator, to a friend, Mr. Wm. Still, of Philadelphia, will be read with surprise and pleasure by all classes; especially supplemented as it is by an article from the Mobile (Alabama) Register, referring to one of her addresses in that city. The Register is the organ of the fire-eaters of the South, conducted by John Forsyth, heretofore one of the most intolerant of that school. Mrs. Harper describes the manner in which the old plantation of Jefferson Davis in Mississippi was cultivated by his brother's former slave, having been a guest in the Davis mansion, now occupied by Mr. Montgomery, the aforesaid slave. She also draws a graphic picture of her own marvellous advancement from utter obscurity to the platform of a public lecturer, honored by her own race and applauded by their oppressors. While we regret, as she says, that her experience and that of Mr. Montgomery is exceptional, it is easy to anticipate the harvest of such a sowing. The same culture—the same courage on the part of the men and women who undertake to advocate Republican doctrines in the South—the same perseverance and intelligence on the part of those who are earning their bread by the cultivation of the soil, will be crowned with the same success. Violence, bloodshed, and murder cannot rule long in communities where these resistless elements are allowed to work. No scene in the unparalleled tragedy of the rebellion, or in the drama which succeeded that tragedy, can be compared to the picture outlined by Mrs. Harper herself, and filled in by the ready pen of the rebel editor of the Mobile Register:

MOBILE, July 5, 1871.

MY DEAR FRIEND:—It is said that truth is stranger than fiction; and if ten years since some one had entered my humble log house and seen me kneading bread and making butter, and said that in less than ten years you will be in the lecture field, you will be a welcome guest under the roof of the President of the Confederacy, though not by special invitation from him, that you will see his brother's former slave a man of business and influence, that hundreds of colored men will congregate on the old baronial possessions, that a school will spring up there like a well in the desert dust, that this former slave will be a magistrate upon that plantation, that labor will be organized upon a new basis, and that under the sole auspices and moulding hands of this man and his sons will be developed a business whose transactions will be numbered in hundreds of thousands of dollars, would you not have smiled incredulously? And I have lived to see the day when the plantation has passed into new hands, and these hands once wore the fetters of slavery. Mr. Montgomery, the present proprietor by contract of between five and six thousand acres of land, has one of the most interesting families that I have ever seen in the South. They are building up a future which if exceptional now I hope will become more general hereafter. Every hand of his family is adding its quota to the success of this experiment of a colored man both trading and farming on an extensive scale. Last year his wife took on her hands about 130 acres of land, and with her force she raised about 107 bales of cotton. She has a number of orphan children employed, and not only does she supervise their labor, but she works herself. One daughter, an intelligent young lady, is postmistress and I believe assistant book-keeper. One son attends to the planting interest, and another daughter attends to one of the stores. The business of this firm of Montgomery & Sons has amounted, I understand, to between three and four hundred thousand dollars in a year. I stayed on the place several days and was hospitably entertained and kindly treated. When I come, if nothing prevents, I will tell you more about them. Now for the next strange truth. Enclosed I send you a notice from one of the leading and representative papers of rebeldom. The editor has been, or is considered, one of the representative men of the South. I have given a lecture since this notice, which brought out some of the most noted rebels, among whom was Admiral Semmes. In my speech I referred to the Alabama sweeping away our commerce, and his son sat near him and seemed to receive it with much good humor. I don't know what the papers will say to-day; perhaps they will think that I dwelt upon the past too much. Oh, if you had seen the rebs I had out last night, perhaps you would have felt a little nervous for me. However, I lived through it, and gave them more gospel truth than perhaps some of them have heard for some time.



A LECTURE.



We received a polite invitation from the trustees of the State-street African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church to attend a lecture in that edifice on Thursday evening. Being told that the discourse would be delivered by a female colored lecturer from Maryland, curiosity, as well as an interest to see how the colored citizens were managing their own institutions, led us at once to accept the invitation. We found a very spacious church, gas-light, and the balustrades of the galleries copiously hung with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and a large audience of both sexes, which, both in appearance and behaviour, was respectable and decorously observant of the proprieties of the place. The services were opened, as usual, with prayer and a hymn, the latter inspired by powerful lungs, and in which the musical ear at once caught the negro talent for melody. The lecturer was then introduced as Mrs. F.E.W. Harper, from Maryland. Without a moment's hesitation she started off in the flow of her discourse, which rolled smoothly and uninterruptedly on for nearly two hours. It was very apparent that it was not a cut and dried speech, for she was as fluent and as felicitous in her allusions to circumstances immediately around her as she was when she rose to a more exalted pitch of laudation of the "Union," or of execration of the old slavery system. Her voice was remarkable—as sweet as any woman's voice we ever heard, and so clear and distinct as to pass every syllable to the most distant ear in the house.

Without any effort at attentive listening we followed the speaker to the end, not discerning a single grammatical inaccuracy of speech, or the slightest violation of good taste in manner or matter. At times the current of thoughts flowed in eloquent and poetic expression, and often her quaint humor would expose the ivory in half a thousand mouths. We confess that we began to wonder, and we asked a fine-looking man before us, "What is her color? Is she dark or light?" He answered, "She is mulatto; what they call a red mulatto." The 'red' was new to us. Our neighbor asked, "How do you like her?" We replied, "She is giving your people the best kind and the very wisest of advice." He rejoined, "I wish I had her education." To which we added, "That's just what she tells you is your great duty and your need, and if you are too old to get it yourselves, you must give it to your children."

The speaker left the impression on our mind that she was not only intelligent and educated, but—the great end of education—she was enlightened. She comprehends perfectly the situation of her people, to whose interests she seems ardently devoted. The main theme of her discourse, the one string to the harmony of which all the others were attuned, was the grand opportunity that emancipation had afforded to the black race to lift itself to the level of the duties and responsibilities enjoined by it. "You have muscle power and brain power," she said; "you must utilize them, or be content to remain forever the inferior race. Get land, every one that can, and as fast as you ean. A landless people must be dependent upon the landed people. A few acres to till for food and a roof, however bumble, over your head, are the castle of your independence, and when you have it you are fortified to act and vote independently whenever your interests are at stake." That part of her lecture (and there was much of it) that dwelt on the moral duties and domestic relations of the colored people was pitched on the highest key of sound morality. She urged the cultivation of the "home life," the sanctity of the marriage state (a happy contrast to her strong-minded, free-love, white sisters of the North), and the duties of mothers to their daughters. "Why," said she in a voice of much surprise, "I have actually heard since I have been South that sometimes colored husbands positively beat their wives! I do not mean to insinuate for a moment that such things can possibly happen in Mobile. The very appearance of this congregation forbids it; but I did hear of one terrible husband defending himself for the unmanly practice with 'Well, I have got to whip her or leave her.'"

There were parts of the lecturer's discourse that grated a little on a white Southern ear, but it was lost and forgiven in the genuine earnestness and profound good sense with which the woman spoke to her kind in words of sound advice.

On the whole, we are very glad we accepted the Zion's invitation. It gave us much food for new thought. It reminded us, perhaps, of neglected duties to these people, and it impressed strongly on our minds that these people are getting along, getting onward, and progress was a star becoming familiar to their gaze and their desires. Whatever the negroes have done in the path of advancement, they have done largely without white aid. But politics and white pride have kept the white people aloof from offering that earnest and moral assistance which would be so useful to a people just starting from infancy into a life of self-dependence.

In writing from Columbiana and Demopolis, Alabama, about the first of March, 1871, Mrs. Harper painted the state of affairs in her usually graphic manner, and diligently was she endeavoring to inspire the people with hope and encouragement.

"Oh, what a field there is here in this region! Let me give you a short account of this week's work. Sunday I addressed a Sunday-school in Taladega; on Monday afternoon a day-school. On Monday I rode several miles to a meeting; addressed it, and came back the same night. Got back about or after twelve o'clock. The next day I had a meeting of women and addressed them, and then lectured in the evening in the Court-House to both colored and white. Last night I spoke again, about ten miles from where I am now stopping, and returned the same night, and to-morrow evening probably I shall speak again. I grow quite tired part of the time. * * * And now let me give you an anecdote or two of some of our new citizens. While in Taladega I was entertained and well entertained, at the house of one of our new citizens. He is living in the house of his former master. He is a brick-maker by trade, and I rather think mason also. He was worth to his owner, it was reckoned, fifteen hundred or about that a year. He worked with him seven years; and in that seven years he remembers receiving from him fifty cents. Now mark the contrast! That man is now free, owns the home of his former master, has I think more than sixty acres of land, and his master is in the poor-house. I heard of another such case not long since: A woman was cruelly treated once, or more than once. She escaped and ran naked into town. The villain in whose clutch she found herself was trying to drag her downward to his own low level of impurity, and at last she fell. She was poorly fed, so that she was tempted to sell her person. Even scraps thrown to the dog she was hunger-bitten enough to aim for. Poor thing, was there anything in the future for her? Had not hunger and cruelty and prostitution done their work, and left her an entire wreck for life? It seems not. Freedom came, and with it dawned a new era upon that poor, overshadowed, and sin-darkened life. Freedom brought opportunity for work and wages combined. She went to work, and got ten dollars a month. She has contrived to get some education, and has since been teaching school. While her former mistress has been to her for help.

"Do not the mills of God grind exceedingly fine? And she has helped that mistress, and so has the colored man given money, from what I heard, to his former master. After all, friend, do we not belong to one of the best branches of the human race? And yet, how have our people been murdered in the South, and their bones scattered at the grave's mouth! Oh, when will we have a government strong enough to make human life safe? Only yesterday I heard of a murder committed on a man for an old grudge of several years' standing. I had visited the place, but had just got away. Last summer a Mr. Luke was hung, and several other men also, I heard."

While surrounded with this state of affairs, an appeal reached her through the columns of the National Standard, setting forth a state of very great suffering and want, especially on the part of the old, blind and decrepit Freedmen of the District of Columbia. After expressing deep pity for these unfortunates, she added: "Please send ten dollars to Josephine Griffing for me for the suffering poor of the District of Columbia. Just send it by mail, and charge to my account."

Many more letters written by Mrs. Harper are before us, containing highly interesting information from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, and even poor little Delaware. Through all these States she has traveled and labored extensively, as has been already stated; but our space in this volume will admit of only one more letter:

"I have been traveling the best part of the day. * * * Can you spare a little time from your book to just take a peep at some of our Alabama people? If you would see some instances of apparent poverty and ignorance that I have seen perhaps you would not wonder very much at the conservative voting in the State. A few days since I was about to pay a woman a dollar and a quarter for some washing in ten cent (currency) notes, when she informed me that she could not count it; she must trust to my honesty—she could count forty cents. Since I left Eufaula I have seen something of plantation life. The first plantation I visited was about five or six miles from Eufaula, and I should think that the improvement in some of the cabins was not very much in advance of what it was in Slavery. The cabins are made with doors, but not, to my recollection, a single window pane or speck of plastering; and yet even in some of those lowly homes I met with hospitality. A room to myself is a luxury that I do not always enjoy. Still I live through it, and find life rather interesting. The people have much to learn. The condition of the women is not very enviable in some cases. They have had some of them a terribly hard time in Slavery, and their subjection has not ceased in freedom. * * * One man said of some women, that a man must leave them or whip them. * * * Let me introduce you to another scene: here is a gathering; a large fire is burning out of doors, and here are one or two boys with hats on. Here is a little girl with her bonnet on, and there a little boy moves off and commences to climb a tree. Do you know what the gathering means? It is a school, and the teacher, I believe, is paid from the school fund. He says he is from New Hampshire. That may be. But to look at him and to hear him teach, you would perhaps think him not very lately from the North; at least I do not think he is a model teacher. They have a church; but somehow they have burnt a hole, I understand, in the top, and so I lectured inside, and they gathered around the fire outside. Here is another—what shall I call it?—meeting-place. It is a brush arbor. And what pray is that? Shall I call it an edifice or an improvised meeting-house? Well, it is called a brush arbor. It is a kind of brush house with seats, and a kind of covering made partly, I rather think, of branches of trees, and an humble place for pulpit. I lectured in a place where they seemed to have no other church; but I spoke at a house. In Glenville, a little out-of-the-way place, I spent part of a week. There they have two unfinished churches. One has not a single pane of glass, and the same aperture that admits the light also gives ingress to the air; and the other one, I rather think, is less finished than that. I spoke in one, and then the white people gave me a hall, and quite a number attended.... I am now at Union Springs, where I shall probably room with three women. But amid all this roughing it in the bush, I find a field of work where kindness and hospitality have thrown their sunshine around my way. And Oh what a field of work is here! How much one needs the Spirit of our dear Master to make one's life a living, loving force to help men to higher planes of thought and action. I am giving all my lectures with free admission; but still I get along, and the way has been opening for me almost ever since I have been South. Oh, if some more of our young women would only consecrate their lives to the work of upbuilding the race! Oh, if I could only see our young men and women aiming to build up a future for themselves which would grandly contrast with the past—with its pain, ignorance and low social condition."

It may be well to add that Mrs. Harper's letters from which we have copied were simply private, never intended for publication; and while they bear obvious marks of truthfulness, discrimination and impartiality, it becomes us to say that a more strictly conscientious woman we have never known.

Returning to Philadelphia after many months of hard labor in the South, Mrs. Harper, instead of seeking needed rest and recreation, scarcely allows a day to pass without seeking to aid in the reformation of the outcast and degraded. The earnest advice which she gives on the subject of temperance and moral reforms generally causes some to reflect, even among adults, and induces a number of poor children to attend day and Sabbath-schools. The condition of this class, she feels, appeals loudly for a remedy to respectable and intelligent colored citizens; and whilst not discouraged, she is often quite saddened at the supineness of the better class. During the past summer when it was too warm to labor in the South she spent several months in this field without a farthing's reward. She assisted in organizing a Sabbath-school, and accepted the office of Assistant Superintendent under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association.

Mrs. Harper reads the best magazines and ablest weeklies, as well as more elaborate works, not excepting such authors as De Tocqueville, Mill, Ruskin, Buckle, Guizot, &c. In espousing the cause of the oppressed as a poet and lecturer, had she neglected to fortify her mind in the manner she did, she would have been weighed and found wanting long since. Before friends and foes, the learned and the unlearned, North and South, Mrs. Harper has pleaded the cause of her race in a manner that has commanded the greatest respect; indeed, it is hardly too much to say, that during seventeen years of public labor she has made thousands of speeches without doing herself or people discredit in a single instance, but has accomplished a great deal in the way of removing prejudice. May we not hope that the rising generation at least will take encouragement by her example and find an argument of rare force in favor of mental and moral equality, and above all be awakened to see how prejudices and difficulties may be surmounted by continual struggles, intelligence and a virtuous character?

Fifty thousand copies at least of her four small books have been sold to those who have listened to her eloquent lectures. One of those productions entitled "Moses" has been used to entertain audiences with evening readings in various parts of the country. With what effect may be seen from the two brief notices as follows:

"Mrs. F.E.W. Harper delivered a poem upon 'Moses' in Wilbraham to a large and delighted audience. She is a woman of high moral tone, with superior native powers highly cultivated, and a captivating eloquence that hold her audience in rapt attention from the beginning to the close. She will delight any intelligent audience, and those who wish first-class lecturers cannot do better than to secure her services."—Zion's Herald, Boston.



"Mrs. Frances E.W. Harper read her poem of 'Moses' last evening at Rev. Mr. Harrison's church to a good audience. It deals with the story of the Hebrew Moses from his finding in the wicker basket on the Nile to his death on Mount Nebo and his burial in an unknown grave; following closely the Scripture account. It contains about 700 lines, beginning with blank verse of the common measure, and changing to other measures, but always without rhyme; and is a pathetic and well-sustained piece. Mrs. Harper recited it with good effect, and it was well received. She is a lady of much talent, and always speaks well, particularly when her subject relates to the condition of her own people, in whose welfare, before and since the war, she has taken the deepest interest. As a lecturer Mrs. Harper is more effective than most of those who come before our lyceums; with a natural eloquence that is very moving."—Galesburgh Register, Ill.

Grace Greenwood, in the Independent in noticing a Course of Lectures in which Mrs. Harper spoke (in Philadelphia) pays this tribute to her:

"Next on the course was Mrs Harper, a colored woman; about as colored as some of the Cuban belles I have met with at Saratoga. She has a noble head, this bronze muse; a strong face, with a shadowed glow upon it, indicative of thoughtful fervor, and of a nature most femininely sensitive, but not in the least morbid. Her form is delicate, her hands daintily small. She stands quietly beside her desk, and speaks without notes, with gestures few and fitting. Her manner is marked by dignity and composure. She is never assuming, never theatrical. In the first part of her lecture she was most impressive in her pleading for the race with whom her lot is cast. There was something touching in her attitude as their representative. The woe of two hundred years sighed through her tones. Every glance of her sad eyes was a mournful remonstrance against injustice and wrong. Feeling on her soul, as she must have felt it, the chilling weight of caste, she seemed to say:

'I lift my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Eleotra her sepulchral urn.'

... As I listened to her, there swept over me, in a chill wave of horror, the realization that this noble woman had she not been rescued from her mother's condition, might have been sold on the auction-block, to the highest bidder—her intellect, fancy, eloquence, the flashing wit, that might make the delight of a Parisian saloon, and her pure, Christian character all thrown in—the recollection that women like her could be dragged out of public conveyances in our own city, or frowned out of fashionable churches by Anglo-Saxon saints."

THE END.



INDEX.



* * * * *



PREFACE, 1-6.

ILLUSTRATIONS, 7, 8.

CONTENTS, 9-21.

Anthony, Kit, and wife Leah, and three children, Adam, Mary, and Murry, 99.

Amby, Nat, 102.

Amby, Elizabeth, 102.

Augusta, John, (letter.) 110.

Anderson, Henry, alias Wm. Anderson, 137.

Amos, Stephen, alias Henry Johnson, 160.

Atkins, Wm. Henry, 211.

Atkinson, Anthony, 260.

Atkinson, John, 299.

Anderson, Geo., 316.

Anderson, Thos., 334.

Ashmead, John W., attorney of U.S., for E. Dist., Pa., 356.

Aldridge, Bazil, 392.

Aldridge, Caroline, 401.

Alexander, John, 429.

Armstead, Moses, 430.

Allen, Andrew, 435.

Allison, Ebenezer, 449.

Anderson, Joshua John, 472.

Alligood, Geo., 488.

Alligood, Jim, 488.

"A woman with two children," 503.

Archer, Sam, 526.

Alberti, Geo. F., 534.

Blow, Anthony, (alias Henry Levison,) 61.

Butler, James, and Stephen, 70.

Brinkley, Wm., 74.

Brown, Henry Box, 81.

Burton, Perry, 105.

Boyer, Mary Elizabeth, 124.

Brown, Louisa, 135.

Brit, Elizabeth, 136.

Brown, Harriet, alias Jane Wooton, 136.

Brown, Chaskey, 138.

Brown, Chas., 139.

Brown, Solomon, 163.

Brown, John, 168.

Bigelow, J., 177.

Barlow, Archer, alias Emit Robins, 203.

Bush, Sam'l, alias Wm. Oblebee, 204.

Brooks, Susan, 211.

Bird, Chas., 219.

Brown, Angeline, 219.

Brown, Albert, 219.

Brown, Chas., 219.

Burrell, James, 223.

Boggs, Alex., 223.

Bell, Harrison, and daughter Harriet Ann, 223.

Blackson, Jas. Henry, 223.

Bowlegs, Jim, alias Bill Paul, 240.

Bennett, David, and wife Martha, with their two children, 259.

Bell, Louisa, 259.

Bohm, Henry, 259.

Bailey, Josiah, 272.

Bailey, Wm., 272.

Banks, Henry, 284.

Banks, Elizabeth, 288.

Brown, Anthony, and Albert, 288.

Butcher, Wm., alias Wm. T. Mitchell, 300.

Bradley, Richard, 305.

Bennett, Dan'l, alias Henry Washington, and wife Martha, and two children, 305.

Brooks, Adam, alias Wm. Smith, 312.

Boyer, Jacob Mathias, 314.

Bodams, Matthew, 316.

Bowser, Nathaniel, 316.

Brown, Wm., 339.

Brown, Chas. Henry, 339.

Brister, Nancy, 377.

Burrell, Lewis, 383.

Burrell, Peter, 383.

Bivans, Belinda, 388.

Branson, Randolph, 391.

Booze, Richard J., 393.

Ball, Oscar, D., 399.

Butler, John Alex., 416.

Belle, Jim, 420.

Benton, Sam'l, 429.

Bacon, Abe, 431.

Boile, Susan Jane, 434.

Bishop, Elizah, 441.

Ballard, Geo. Henry, 445.

Bowler, Wm., 449.

Bell, Susan, 463.

Beesly, Dick, 473.

Boldan, Chas. Andrew, 473.

Bayne, Richard, 478.

Bowling, Carter, 478.

Boize, Henry, 481.

Banks, Jim, 487.

Blockson, Jacob, 488.

Boyce, Andrew Jackson, 495.

Burton, Handy, 495.

Brown, Stepney, 497.

Brown, James, 502.

Brown, John, 504.

Bell, Sarah Jane, (with babe in arms,) 507.

Bell, Robt., (and two others,) 511.

Brown, John, 514.

Brown, Jacob, 516.

Buchanan, Jenny, 521.

Brown, Wm., 523.

Burkett. Henry, 528.

Burkett, Elizabeth, 528.

Burton, Hale, 528.

Bird, Mary, 559.

Brooks, Mrs. Dr., 590.

Burris, Sam'l D., 746-747.

Conklin, Seth, 23.

Coffin, Levi, 33.

Clayton, John, 54.

Camp, Jos. Henry, 66.

Christian, Jas. Hamilton, 69.

Camper, Jas., 97.

Cornish, Aaron, and wife, with six children, Solomon, Geo., Anthony, Jos., Ed. Jas., Perry Lake, and a nameless babe, 99.

Colburn. Jeremiah, 107.

Cooper, Wm., 108.

Collins, Nathan, and wife Mary Ellen, 108.

"Cambridge Democrat," 109.

Congo, Charles, and wife Margaret, 138.

"Child," (14 months old,) 155.

Chapman, Emeline, 157.

Carr, Dan'l, 168.

"Charles," 208.

Clayton, Louisa, 223.

Cromwell, Henry, 259.

Chase, John, alias Dan'l Floyd, 296.

Crummill, Jas., 305.

Childs, Lewis, 305.

Cooper, Thos., 316.

Cooper, Henry, 319.

Cole, David, and wife, 325.

Cornish, Joseph, 334.

Chambers, Henry, 334.

Chambers, John, 334.

Curtis, Mary, 339.

Craft. Wm., and Ellen, 368.

Cobb, Lewis, 377.

Clinton, Thos., 382.

Carroll, Geo., 391.

Clagart, John, 391.

Connor, Chas., 397.

Connor, Chas., 397.

Connor, Jas., 403.

Cary, Harrison, 406.

Cole, Wm., 418.

Cole, Bill, 419.

Cooper, Mary, 430.

Carney, Wm., 435.

Cain, James, 437.

Carroll, Edward, 443.

Carr, Robt, 444.

Cannon, Plymouth, 446.

Carr, John Thompson, 449.

Christy, Jack, 454.

Combash, John Wesley, 455.

Carpenter, Wm., 464.

Campbell, Frank, 478.

Cope, Wm. Thos., 481.

Clexton, Perry, 487.

Connor, Wm. Jas., wife and child, and four brothers, 491.

Collins, Theophilus, 495.

Carlisle, Wm., 499.

Cannon, Ansal, 500.

Chiou, Wm., and wife Emma, 519.

Casting, Edward, 526.

Cotton, Henry, 532.

Canby, Wm. J., 556.

Corson, Geo., 721-723.

Cleveland, Prof. Chas. D., 723-734.

Davis, Clarissa, 60.

Davis, Wm., 66.

Dorsey, Maria, 79.

Dutton, Marshall, 99.

Dobson, Henrietta, 102.

Dorsey, Luther, 139.

Dotson, Isaac, 208.

"David," 216.

Dorsey, Geo., 219.

Davis, Dan'l, alias David Smith, 223.

Duncans, Benj., alias Geo. Scott, 223.

Delaney, Jas. Henry, atias Stuart Stanley, 223.

Dutton, Chas., alias Wm. Rohinson, 286.

Derrickson, Peter, 309.

Dunagan, Sarah A., 313.

Davis, Isaac D., 313.

Dorsey, Anna, 319.

Dickinson, Benj., 325.

Ducket, Benj., 382.

Davis, Sam, 386.

Davis, "Old Jane," 394.

Dauphus, Etna Elizabeth, 440.

Derrix, Townsend, 442.

Diggs, Dave, 465.

Dade, John, and Henry, 469.

Davis, Enoch, 514.

Dickson, Thos. Edward, 514.

Douglass, Thos., 524.

Dunmore, Henry, 526.

Dungy, John Wm., 541.

Douglass, Frederick, 597-598.

Elliott, Thomas, 73.

Epps, Mary, (alias Emma Brown,) 74.

Ennells, Noah, 97.

Emerson, Robt., 98.

Eden, Bichard, 150.

Ennis, Mary, alias Licia Hemmin, with two children, Lydia and Louisa Caroline, 207.

Eglin, Harriet, 214.

Eglin, Charlotte, 214.

Edwards, David, 311.

Ellis, Joe, 408.

Ennis, Ephraim, 485.

Edwards, Alfred, 511.

Edwards, David, 526.

Ennets, Stephen, and wife Maria, with three children, Harriet, Amanda and babe, 530.

Forman, Isaac, 64.

Ford, Sheridan, 67.

Fletcher, Benj. R. 79.

Foster, Emily, alias Ann Wood, 124.

Frisley, Alfred Jas., 138.

F., Capt and Mayor of Norfolk, 165.

Freeman, Thos., 168.

Foster, Jas., 168.

Fleeing Girl of 15 years, in male attire, 177.

Fisher, Robt., 206.

Foreman, Ellen, alias Eliz. Young, 223.

Freeland, Geo., 223.

Foreman. Jas. H., 260.

Frances, Eliz., alias Ellen Saunders, 275.

Fowler, Arthur, alias Benj. Johnson, 305.

Francis, Lewis, alias Lewis Johnson, 334.

Fall, Sam'l, 334.

Fisher, Jonathan, 338.

Freeman, Wm. Thos., alias Ezekiel Chambers, 339.

Fidget, Isaac, 339.

Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850, 343.

Farmer, Wm. 374.

Fineer, Abe, 386.

Fuller, Cornelius, and wife Harriet, 500.

Foster, Turner, 506.

Field, Henry, 509.

Foreman, Isaac, 559.

Furness, Wm. H., D.D., 659-665.

Gilliam, Wm. H., 54.

Garrett, Thomas, 74.

Griffin, Wm., 97.

Grigby, Barnaby, alias John Boyer*, 124.

Grant, Joseph, 132.

Goulden, Alfred, 135.

Galloway, Abram, 150.

Gardner, Nathaniel, 168.

Gault, Phillis, 168.

"Green," 208.

Garrett, Lucy, alias Julia Wood, 223.

Gilbert, Chas., 235.

Green, Sam'l, alias Wesley Kennard, 246.

Green, Richard, 259.

Green, Geo., 259.

Green, Lear, 281.

Govan, Wm., 288.

Gibson, John Wesley, 301.

Giles, Lewis, 308.

Good, Beverly, 311.

Griffin, Jas., alias Thos. Brown, 314.

Green, Dan'l, alias Geo. Taylor, 319.

Graves, Caroline, 334.

Graham, Geo., and wife Jane, 337.

Gooseberry, Thos. Jervis, 339.

Gibson, Adam, 343.

Gorsuch, Edward, 350.

Gorham, Henry, 379.

Green, Zebulon, 383.

Graham, Montgomery, 399.

Green, Christopher, and wife Ann Maria, and son Nathan, 409.

Grimes, Harry, 422.

Grantham, Nancy, 459.

Gardner, Priscilla, 472.

Gross, Sam, 474.

Gross, Peter, 474.

Gray, John Boize, 481.

Gassway, Caroline, 491.

Gross, Albert, 603.

Grinage*, John, 503.

Gross, Chas. Henry, 504.

Graff, Evan, 519.

Goines, Luke, 520.

Gray, Henry, 559.

Gray, Mary, 559.

Goodwin, Abigail, 617-622.

Garrett, Thos., 623-642.

Gibbons, Dan'l, 642-648.

Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, 665-680.

Harris, Wesley, alias Robert Jackson, 48.

Hall, Romulus, 51.

Harris, Abram, 51.

Hughes, Daniel, 73.

Hill, Jos., and wife Alice, and son Henry, 99.

"Hannah," 104.

Hitchens, C., 105.

Hubert, Alfred, 105.

Henry, Thos., 108.

Hollis, Henry Chas., 139.

Hilton, Elijah, 161.

Hogg, Wm., alias, John Smith, 164.

Haines, Francis, 168.

Hill, John Henry, 189.

Hill, Hezekiah, 200.

Hill, Jas., 202.

Harris, Nathan, 206.

Haley, Harriet, alias Ann Richardson, 223.

Handy, Jas. Edward, alias Dennis Cannon, 223.

Hall, John, alias John Simpson, 223.

Hall, John, 250.

Harris, Joseph, 260.

Hodges, Henry, 260.

Handy, Joshua, alias Hamilton Hamby, 286.

Hudson, Ephraim, alias John Spry, 286.

Hilliard, Frances, 287.

Harding, Louisa, alias Rebecca Hall, 287.

Houston, Maria Jane, 287.

Hoopes, Miles, 288.

Hinson, Jas., alias David Caldwell, 288.

Hill, Simon, 288.

Holladay, Chas., 288.

Howard, Henry, 305.

Hacket, Lloyd, alias Perry Watkins, 310.

Hall, Jos., Jr., 313.

Heines, Peter, 316.

Hooper, Henry, 339.

Hall, Jacob, alias Henry Thomas, wife Henrietta, and child, 339.

Hamlet, Jas., 343.

Hanaway, Castner, 350.

Hilliard, Mrs. Geo. S., 373.

Hill, Jones, 382.

Hall, Charles, 383.

Homer, Alfred, 388.

Harper, Thos., 410.

Haines, Edward, 414.

Haines, Jos., 414.

Harris, Thos., 414.

Hipkins, Wm. Henry, 416.

Hill, Geo., 416.

Hall, Hanson, 418.

"Hanson," 419.

Hollon, Alfred, 427.

Henry, James, 429.

Harris, Darius, 441.

Henderson, Eliza, 459.

Hunt, Orlando J., 461.

Herring, Elias Jack, 471.

Harper, Ruth, 472.

Hutton, Bill, 474.

Holden, Levin, 491.

Hopkins, Sidney, 493.

Hill, Jos. Henry, 493.

Heath, Chas., 499.

Hillis, John, 500.

Hall, Edward, 502.

Hall, John, 502.

Hall, Chas., 502.

Harris, James, 516.

Hughes, Wm., 516.

Henson, James, 523.

Henry, Joe, 526.

Helpers and Sympathizers at Home and Abroad, 584.

Hunn, John, 712-719.

Hopper, Isaac T., 740-745.

Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, 755-780.

"Isabella," 98.

Irwin, Asbury, 485.

Johnston, Rev. N.R., 31.

Jones, Wm. Box Peel, 46.

Johnson, Perry, 64.

Johnson, Henry, 70.

Johnson, Jane, and her two little boys, 86.

Jones, Thos., alias Robt. Brown, 121.

Jordan. Wm., alias Wm. Price, 129.

Johnson, W. Sam'l, 158.

Johnson, Jane Mary, alias Harriet, 160.

Johnson, Ann Rebecca, 160.

Johnson, Wm. H., 160.

Johnson, Eliz., 160.

Johnson, Mary Ellen, 160.

Johnson, Ann, 164.

Johnson, David, 168.

Jones, Alice, 168.

Johnson, Wm., 223.

Jasper, Elias, 259.

Joiner, Maria, 259.

Jones, Arthur, 260.

Jones, Robt. and wife Eliza, 260.

Jackson, Peter, alias Staunch Tilghman, 296.

Judah, John, 305.

Jones, Samuel, 305.

Jones, Tolbert, 305.

Johnson, Wm. Henry, alias John Wesley, 310.

Johnson, James, alias Wm. Gilbert, and wife Harriet, 319.

Jones, James, 325.

Jones, Rebecca, 325.

Jones, Sarah Frances, 325.

Jones, Mary, 325.

Jones, Rebecca, Jr., 325.

Jones, Fenton, 339.

Johnson, Jas., 383.

Jackson, Wm., 396.

Johnson, Geo., 413.

Johnson, Eliza Jane, 418.

Johnson, John, 430.

Jackson, "General Andrew," 437.

Jones, Catharine, and son Henry, 440.

Jones, Mary, 463.

Jones, Lew, 465.

Jake, and Mary Ann, his wife, 465.

Janney, John, 474.

Johnson, Talbot, 474.

Jackson, Jas. Henry, 474.

Jackson, Rebecca, and daughter, 477.

Johns, Lydia Ann, 485.

Johns, Robt., and wife "Sueann," 486.

Johnson, Cornelius Henry, 493.

Jackson, Robt., 495.

Johnston, Wm., 500.

Jones, Henry, 506.

Jackson, Ann Maria, 512.

Jackson, Mary Ann, 512.

Jackson, Wm. Henry, 512.

Jackson, Frances Sabina, 512.

Jackson, Wilhelmina, 512.

Jackson, John Edwin, 512.

Jackson, Ebenezer Thos., 512.

Jackson, Wm. Albert, 512.

Jackson, Andrew, 516.

Johnson, Rosanna, 516.

Johnson, Jos. C., 526.

Kneeland, Joseph, (alias Joseph Hulson,) 68.

Kane, Jane, alias Catharine Kane, 296.

Kline, Henry H., 350.

Kane, Judge, 358.

Kane, Col. T.L., 366.

Kell, Jim, 499.

Kelly, Henson, 520.

Knight, Mary, 563.

Letters, U.G.R.R., 39-46.

Light, George, 99.

Lewis, G., 111, (letter.)

Lee, Capt., 111.

Loney, Cordelia, 112.

Loney, Anthony, alias Wm. Armstead, 122.

Lee, Chas., alias Thos. Bushier, 136.

Logan, W.J., (letter,) 158.

Little, Nancy, 168.

Lewis, Laura, 288.

Laminson, Wm. Henry, 334.

Lewis, Eliza, 350.

Latham, Major, 379.

Lambert, Elizabeth, and three children, Mary, Horace, and Wm. Henry, 382.

Logan, Geo., 383.

Logan, John, 383.

Lee, Ordee, 393.

Long, Silas, 394.

Light, Solomon, 394.

Lewis, Edward, 422.

Lee, Wm., 434.

Laws, George, 470.

Lewis, Geo., 488.

Lazarus Jas., 491.

Lee, John Edward, 500.

Lee, Lewis, 514.

Langhorn, Henry, alias Wm. Scott, 536.

Lewey, Mrs., 559.

Lewis, Mariann, Grace Anna, and Elizabeth R., 748-755.

McKiernon, B., 34.

Matterson Bros., 49.

Mansfield, Rev. L.D. 54.

Mercer, Jas, 54.

Morgan, Edward, 70.

Moore, Henry, 97.

Murry, Oracy, alias Sophia Sims, 136.

Massey, James, 143.

Mahoney, Matilda, 172.

Morris, John, 260.

McCoy, Robt., alias Wm. Donor, 274.

Mitchell, Cyros, alias John Steel, 286.

Molock, Francis, alias Thos. Jackson, 286.

Mclntosh, John, 287.

Miles, Sam'l, alias Robert King, 288.

Madden, Thos., 294.

Matthews, Pete, alias Sam'l Sparrows, 295.

Mayo, Harriet, 305.

Mercer, Verenea, 309.

Mead, Zechariah, alias John Williams, 314.

Morris, James, 316.

Matthews, Tom, 324.

Munson, Alex., 334.

Maddison, Wylie, 379.

Moody, Wm. Henry, 388.

Moore, John Henry, 416.

Myers, John, 434.

Mason, James, 444.

Mitchell, Lemuel, 445.

Mitchell, Josiah, 445.

Mitchell, John, 445.

Mountain, Ann, and child, 449.

Melvin, Mary Frances, 459.

Mackey, Wm., 462.

Mills, Sarah Ann, 491.

Maxwell, Thos, 499.

Murray, Robt., 508.

Mills, Jerry, 532.

Mills, Diana, 532.

Mills, Cornelius, 532.

Mills, Margaret, 532.

Mills, Susan, 532.

Moore, Aunt Hannah, 547.

Miller, Joseph C., 551.

Millburn, Mary, alias Louisa F. Jones, 558.

Mr. McKim to Geo. Thompson, 580.

Moore, Esther, 613-616.

Mott, Lucretia, 649-654.

McKim, Jas. Miller, 654-659.

Neall, Daniel, 79.

Nixon, Thos., 168.

Nixon, Fred., 168.

Nixon, Sam, alias Dr. Thos. Bayne, 254.

Nelson, Wm., and wife Susan and son, 259.

Nixon, Isaiah, 260.

Nickless, Kit, 284.

Nelson, Peter, 463.

Nole, Chas, 487.

Newton, Isaac, 509.

Nichols, Randolph, 524.

Oberne, Henry, 105.

Oliver, William, 514.

Organization, Vigilance Committee, 610-612.

Predo, Henry, 72.

Parker, Levin, 97.

Pugh, Anthony, 98.

Peters, Hannah, 102.

Pipkins, Jefferson, alias David Jones, 136.

Pipkins, Louisa, 136.

Petty, Peter, 168.

Pennington, Dr. J.W., brother and two sons, 172.

"Perry," 208.

Peaden, Edward, and wife, 223.

Pennington, Peter, 272.

Payne, Dan'l, 305.

Purnell, Chas., 309.

Page, Thos., 325.

Purnell, Oliver, 339.

Parker, Wm., 350.

Pry, Sauney, 382.

Parker, Thos., 386.

Pattie, Winnie, and her daughter Elizabeth, 387.

Pennington, Tom, 431.

Perry, Anna, 437.

Payne, Oscar, 465.

Pinket, John, 500.

Piney, Benjamin, 516.

Peck, Lewis, 526.

Purnell, John, 528.

Pierce, Wm., 533.

Parker, Rachel, and Elizabeth, 551.

Pennypacker, Elijah F., 688-690.

Purvis, Robt., 711.

Quantence, Pascal, 421.

Quinn, Edward, 511.

Redick, Willis, 66.

Robinson, Jos., and Robt., 74.

Ross, Major, 105.

Rhoads, Geo., 143.

Rhoads, Jas., 143.

Rhoads, Eliz. Sarah, and child, 143.

Ringold, Chas. H., 217.

Richards, John Henry, 217.

Robinson, Wm., 223.

Ross, Benj., alias Jas. Stewart, 296.

Ross, Henry, alias Levin Stewart, 296.

Ross, Robert, 296.

Roberts, Emory, alias Wm. Kemp, 305.

Reed, Isaac, 319.

Robinson, Isaiah, 325.

Robinson, Dan'l, 325.

Royan, Wm., 391.

Ross, Benj., and wife Harriet, 395.

Rodgers, Geo., 427.

Rodgers, Chas. N., 427.

Rister, Amarian Lucretia, 434.

Russell, Geo., 439.

Robinson, Josephine, 486.

Ringgold, Chas., 499.

Ross, Chas., 500.

Ryan, James, 500.

Roach, John, and wife Lamby, 504.

Ringgold, Chas, 509.

Ringgold, Wm., 509.

Robinson, Miles, 539.

Roney, Major Isaac, 556.

Richardson, Mrs. Anne H, 593, 604-605-606-607-608.

Russell, Dr. Bartholomew, 695-698.

Rhoades, Sam'l, 719-721.

Solomon, Geo., 79.

Swan, Stebney, 98.

Stinger, John, 98.

Stanley, Daniel, 102.

Scott, John, 102.

Stanly, Josiah, 102.

Stanly, Caroline, 102.

Stanly, Dan'l, Jr., 102.

Stanly, John, 103.

Stanly, Miller, 103.

Scott, Jack. 104.

Scott, Cornelius, 122.

Stewart, Robt., alias Gasberry Robinson, 128.

Smith, Vincent, alias John Jackson, 128.

Smith, Betsy, alias Fanny Jackson, 128.

Speaks, John, 132.

Salter, Henry Chas., 138.

Smith, W. Jeremiah, and wife Julia, 141.

Stephenson, Eliz. Mary, 143.

Stephens, L.E. (letter,) 156.

Scott, Godfrey, 168.

Smith, John, 168.

Spencer, John, 204.

Spencer, Wm., 204.

Spencer, Jas. Albert, 204.

Scott, Hettie, alias Margaret Duncans, and daughter Priscilla, 205.

Sims, Samuel, 208.

Smith, Robt., 217.

Scott, Jane, 219.

Stater, Sam'l, 223.

Stuart, James, alias Wm. Jackson, 223.

Smith, Sarah, alias Mildreth Page, 223.

Snowden, Lewis, alias Lewis Williams, 223.

"Salt Water Fugitive," 242.

Stewart, Henry, 259.

Shepherd, Harriet, with five children, Anna Maria, Edwin, Eliz. Jane, Mary Ann and John Henry, 302.

Somler, Washington, alias James Moore, 304.

Shephard, Perry, 319.

Sperryman, Geo., alias Thos. Johnson, 319.

Spires, Valentine, 319.

Smith, Wm. Israel, 319.

Spence, Arthur, 325.

Scott, Sam'l, 334.

Stout, Isaac, alias Geo. Washington, 334.

Slave Hunting Tragedy in Lancaster Co., Pa., 348.

Shepherd, Andrew, 379.

Saunders, Henry, 386.

Scott, Wm., 390.

Smith, Thos., 413.

Smith, Adam, 413.

Sheldon, James, 414.

Stewart, Harriet, and daughter Mary Eliza, 418.

Scott, Jim, 431.

Scott, Sam, 431.

Scott, Bill, 431.

Smith, John, 439.

Smith, Julius, 454.

Smith, Mary, 454.

Smith, James, 454.

Smith, Henry Edward, 454.

Skinner, Thos. Edward, 455.

Shaw, Elijah, 458.

Smith, Sam, 474.

Shaw, Nace, 480.

Smith, Dan'l McNorton, 480.

Smith, Sam'l, 499.

Smallwood, Henry, 504.

Smith, John Wesley, 508.

Stewart, Susan, 508.

Smith, Josephine, 508.

Smith, John, 516.

Smallwood, John, 516.

Smith, Stafford, 520.

Stanton, Phillip, 524.

Snively, David, 526.

Sipple, Thos., 528.

Sipple, Mary Ann, 528.

Seymour, Wm., 559.

Saunders, Sarah, 559.

Scott, Winfield, and three children, 559.

Shipley, Thos., 698-710.

Thompson, John, 105-106.

Turner, Jackson, 117.

Turner, Isaac, 117.

Turner, Edmondson, 117.

Taylor, Wm. N., 134.

Taylor, Stephen, 139.

Trusty, Henry Perry, 143.

Thompson, Chas., 146.

Tatum, Allen, 168.

Tonnel, Rosanna, alias Maria Hyde, 207.

Tubman, Harriet, 247.

The Protection of Slave Property in Va., 277.

Tubman, Harriet, ("Moses") 296.

Thompson, Charles, 316.

Thompson, Charity, 316.

Taylor, Owen, 320.

Taylor, Otho. 320.

Taylor, Mary Ann, 320.

Taylor, Benj., 320.

Taylor, Edward, with a brother and his wife and two children, 320.

Taylor, Caroline, 325.

Taylor, Nancy, 325.

Taylor, Mary, 325.

Tubman, Harriet, 383.

Thompson, Wm. Henry, 386.

Todd, Israel, 392.

Tilison, Abram, 410.

Triplet, Wm., 410.

Turner, Samuel, 429.

Thornton, Lawrence, 430.

Thompson, Jas. Henry, 439.

Taylor, Roberta, 450.

Thompson, Robert, 451.

Thornton, Alfred S., 452.

Taylor, Jacob, 455.

Tucker, Henry, 462.

Taylor, Benj., 478.

Taylor, James, 503.

Townsend, Henry, 516.

Tudle, Henry and wife, 525.

Thomas, Miss Mary B. 583.

Thomas, Joseph, 509.

Tubman, Harriet, 530.

Taylor, Harriet, 559.

Tappan, Lewis, 680-688.

Upsher, Geo., 422.

Viney, Joseph and family, 101.

Vaughn, Michael, 168.

White, Mrs. L.E., 56.

Wilson, Hiram, (Ag't U.G.R.R.,) 80.

Williamson, Passmore, 87.

"William," 104.

Whitney, Israel, 105.

Williams, Samuel, alias John Williams, 123.

Wanzer, Frank, alias Robt. Scott, 124.

Waters, Jacob, 135.

Williams, Ed., alias Henry Johnson, 136.

Washington, Wm. Henry, 138.

Washington, Geo., 143.

White, Emanuel T., 154.

Woolfley, Levina, 164.

Wilson, Willis, 168.

Wilson, Ned, 168.

Wilson, Sarah C., 168.

Weems, Maria, alias Joe Wright, 185.

Weems, Arrow, (letter,) 187.

Waples, Hansel, 207.

White, Wm. B., 211.

Wiggins, Dan'l, 223.

Wines, Moses, 223.

Wooden, Wm., alias Wm. Nelson, 223.

White, Miles, 223.

Weaver, Mary, (Irish Girl's Devotion to Freedom,) 251.

Washington, Henry, alias Anthony Hardy, 259.

Whiting, Ralph, 260.

Williams, Isaac, 284.

Williams, Geo., 288.

Walker, Geo., alias Austin Valentine, 311.

Washington, Henry, 334.

Washington, Eliza, 334.

Wilson, Wm., 379.

Watson, Jas. Henry, 383.

Williams, Wm., and his wife, 383.

Winston, Jos., 389.

Wright, John, and wife Eliz. Ann, 397.

Wood, John, 401.

Wright, Leeds, 410.

Wise, Harry, 411.

Wooders, Abram, 412.

Williams, Elizabeth, 429.

Wells, Jack, 431.

Washington. Geo. Nelson, 440.

Williamson, Wm., 441.

Wilkinson, Horatio, 445.

Wood, Mose, 465.

Weems, John, 471.

Williams, Hansom, 480.

White, Isaac, 481.

Williams, Richard, 491.

Wheeler, Henry, 491.

Wood, Edward, 500.

Wilkins, Jas. Andy, and wife Lucinda, and son Chas., 504.

Wilson, Lewis, 511.

Waters, John, 511.

Williams, Wesley, 516.

White, Geo., 526.

White, Albert, 526.

White, Tucker, 555.

Williams, Henry, 559.

Williams, Euphemia, 566.

Wright, Wm., 691-695.

Whipper, Wm., 735-740.

Young, Murray, 473.

Yonng, Gusta, 480.

Young, Anna Elizabeth, (with babe in arms,) 507.



WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT IT



* * * * *

At the closing meeting of the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, held in Philadelphia, May 5, 1870, the following was unanimously passed:

Whereas, The position of WILLIAM STILL in the Vigilance Committee connected with the "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," as its Corresponding Secretary, and Chairman of its Active Sub-Committee, gave him peculiar facilities for collecting interesting facts pertaining to this branch of the anti-slavery service; therefore,

Resolved, That the PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY requests him to compile and publish his personal reminiscences and experiences relating to the "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."

* * * * *

HON. JOHN W. FORNEY, in a letter to the Washington Sunday Chronicle, said:

"Slavery and its mysterious inner life has never yet been described. When it is, Reality will surpass Fiction. Uncle Tom's Cabin will be rebuilt and newly garnitured. A book, detailing the operations of the 'UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,' is soon to be published in Philadelphia, by WM. STILL, Esq., an intelligent colored gentleman, which, composed entirely of facts, will supply material for indefinite dramas and romances. It will disclose a record of unparalleled courage and suffering for the right." * * * * *

And again, in a letter to the same paper, Mr. Forney says:

* * * * "A coincidence even more romantic is soon to be revealed in the pages of the remarkable book of Wm. Still, of Philadelphia, entitled 'THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,' referred to in my last. Mr. Still kept a careful memorandum of the sufferings and trials of his race during the existence of the 'Fugitive Slave Law,' in the belief that they would be instructive to his posterity, rather than from any hope of the overthrow of the revolting system of human servitude * * * he resolved to spread before the world this unprecedented experience. When his book appears, it will accomplish more than one object. Interesting to the literary world, it will undoubtedly facilitate the reunion of other colored families long divided, long sought for, and perhaps to this day strangers to each other. * * * * The volume containing this and other equally romantic yet truthful stories will soon be out, and, my word for it, no book of the times will be more eagerly read or more profitably remembered."

* * * * *

The San Francisco Elevator says:

* * * * "Mr. Still is one of the pioneers of 'THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD' in Philadelphia, where he still resides. He has aided more slaves to escape than any other man, Bishop Lougan, of Syracuse, perhaps excepted. * * * * We hope his book will have a wide circulation, as it will be a valuable addition to the history of the anti-slavery struggle such as no other man can write."

* * * * *

Having been, during many years, associated with WILLIAM STILL, in laboring for the abolition of American slavery, we heartily bear our testimony to his abundant opportunities for acquiring information relative to the subject of this book; and to his vigilance and fidelity in all the departments of anti-slavery work in which he was engaged, and especially in that department usually called "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."

We gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity to express our confidence in his ability to present to the public an authentic and interesting history of this enterprise.

Prominent Members of the Anti-Slavery Society.

LUCRETIA MOTT,

J. MILLER McKIM,

ROBERT PURVIS,

MARY GREW,

E.M. DAVIS,

SARAH PUGH,

DILLWYN PARRISH,

JOSHUA L. HALLOWELL,

HENRY M. LAING,

MARGARET J. BURLEIGH,

EDWARD HOPPER,

CHARLES WISE,

JOHN LONGSTRETH,

J.K. WILDMAN,

JAMES A. WRIGHT.



Certainly no volume ever met with higher or more extensive endorsement. From the time the author announced his intention to prepare a book from his notes and records until it was given to the public, it was the subject of favorable comment by leading minds of the country, without reference to race. Since its publication it has received the endorsement of the Press generally, and of Statesmen, Preachers, Lawyers, Doctors, Students, in fact men of all ranks.



Brief Extracts from Letters to the Author by Prominent Men.

FROM HON. HENRY WILSON, LATE VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES.

I have glanced over a few pages of your History of the Underground Railroad, and I most earnestly commend it. You have done a good work. This story of the heroic conduct of fugitives from oppression, and of the devotion of their friends, will be read with deep interest, especially by the old friends of the slave in the stern struggle through which we have passed. I hope your labors will be rewarded by a grateful public.

* * * * *

FROM HORACE GREELEY.

Dear Sir:—For most of the years I have lived, the escape of fugitives from slavery, and their efforts to baffle the human and other bloodhounds who tracked them, formed the romance of American History. That romance is now ended, and our grandchildren will hardly believe its leading incidents except on irresistible testimony. I rejoice that you are collecting and presenting that testimony, and heartily wish you a great success.

* * * * *

FROM HON. CHARLES SUMMER, LATE U.S. SENATOR FROM MASS.

The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our country. I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.

You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by benefit—the saviors and the saved. The army of the late war has had its "Roll of Honor." You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal honor—the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors. I always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws. Your book will teach us to honor both.

* * * * *

FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The story of the escaped fugitives—the perils, the terrors of pursuit and re-capture—the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds—the untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free States, are well described.

The book is more interesting than any romance. It will be of permanent value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.

I cheerfully commend it to the public favor.

* * * * *

FROM J. WHEATON SMITH, D.D.

I am happy to find that material for this interesting work exists. I had feared that much which will be here recorded, would perish with the brave and worthy men who were personally interested. These verities of history contain the interest of romance, and our children's children will read them with wonder and admiration.

* * * * *

FROM, HON. S.P. CHASE, LATE CHIEF JUSTICE U.S. SUPREME COURT.

Your book will certainly be an interesting one. No one probably has had equal opportunities with yourself of listening to the narratives of fugitive slaves. No one will repeat them more truthfully, and no stories can be more fraught with interest than theirs. Let us rejoice, that, in our country, such narratives can never be heard again.

* * * * *

FROM WM. LLOYD GARRISON.

I congratulate you that, after much patient research, careful preparation, and untiring labor, you have completed your voluminous work on "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am sure your work will be found to be one of absorbing interest, worthy of the widest patronage, and historically valuable as pertaining to the tremendous struggle for the abolition of chattel slavery in our land. No phase of that struggle was so crowded wifh thrilling incidents, heroic adventures, and self-sacrificing efforts as the one you have undertaken to portray, and with which you were so closely connected, to wit: "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." While it will be contemplated with shame, sadness, and astonishment, by posterity, it will serve vividly to illustrate the perils which everywhere confronted the fugitives from the Southern "house of bondage," and to which those who dared to give them food and shelter were also subjected.

* * * * *

FROM GEN. O.O. HOWARD.

You could not prepare a work that would afford more instruction and interest to me than a detailed history of the operations of the so-called "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am delighted at the casual examination I have been permitted to give it. Thousands will rise up to call you blessed for your faithful record of our "legalized crime," and its graphic terrible consequences set forth by you in such true pictures and plain words.

* * * * *

HON. CARL SCHURZ, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

I have no doubt you can make the narrative a very interesting contribution to the history of an important period of our national development. It will be calculated to strengthen in the whole American people a just sense of the beneficent results of the great social revolution we have achieved, and to inspire the people of your own race with a high appreciation of the blessings of liberty they now enjoy.

* * * * *

FROM HON. W.D. KELLEY, CONGRESSMAN FROM PA.

The stories you tell with admirable simplicity and directness of the suffering heroically endured by such numbers of poor fugitives, will instruct and inspire many who have regarded the American slave as a member of an inferior race.

_Office_ "THE PRESS," _Philadelphia, Pa._My Dear Sir:_—I have read most of the proof sheets of your forthcoming book, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," and have just examined the letter-press preparatory to its publication, and the accompanying engravings, and I cannot refrain from stating, that I believe it to be a consummate work of its kind. Its chief merit, of course, consists in its _extraordinary revelations_ of the injustice and cruelty of the dead system of slavery, but it is gratifying to notice that it will be printed and sent forth to the world in so complete and admirable a style, _I commend it most cheerfully as a book that every citizen should have in his library._ Very truly, yours,

JNO. W. FORNEY.

WM. STILL, Esq.

* * * * *

I join very cordially in the preceding statement and recommendation.

HON. MORTON McMICHAEL, Ex-Mayor of Phila., Editor of N.A. & U.S. Gazette.

* * * * *

I most cordially unite with Col. Forney and other gentlemen in recommending to the public Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." The thrilling narratives cannot be read, even at this day, without exciting the deepest emotion.

GEO. H. STUART.

* * * * *

I fully and heartily concur in the opinion of Col. Forney respecting Mr. Still's work, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD."

HON. CHAS. GIBBONS.

* * * * *

Mr. Still's work appears to me to be one of great interest, and I most heartily unite in recommending it to the public attention.

HON. HENRY C. CAREY.

* * * * *

FROM, J. MILLER MCKIM.

I have read your book with feelings of mingled pleasure and pride; pleasure at the valuable contribution which it furnishes to anti-slavery history and anti-slavery literature, and pride that you are the author of it.

But the chief value of the book will be found in its main narratives, which illustrate to the life the character of slavery, the spirit and temper of the men engaged for its overthrow, and the difficulties which had to be overcome by these men in the accomplishment of their purpose.

A book so unique in kind, so startling in interest, and so trustworthy in its statements, cannot fail to command a large reading now, and in generations yet to come. That you—my long tried friend and associate—are the author of this book, is to me a matter of great pride and delight.

* * * * *

FROM HON. JNO. A. BINGHAM OF OHIO.

You will please accept my thanks for the opportunity given me to examine your record of the struggle for freedom by the slave and his friends. It will doubtless be a work of great interest to many of our citizens.

FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN AND U.S. GAZETTE.

Here is an authority that cannot be questioned, competent and correct by many endorsements, that shows without argument, after the true pattern of Herodotus and the chroniclers, what slavery in America was in the decade immediately preceding its overthrow.

* * * * *

FROM THE "PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER."

"Never before has the working of the Underground Railroad been so thoroughly explained. Here we have in complete detail the various methods adopted for circumventing the enemies of freedom, and told, as it is, with great simplicity and natural feeling, the narrative is one which cannot but make a deep impression. Thrilling incidents, heroic adventures and noble deeds of self-sacrigce light up every page, and will enlist the heartiest sympathies of all generous souls. It was eminently just that such a record of one of the most remarkable phases of the struggle against slavery should be prepared, that the memory of the noble originators and supporters of the railroad might be kept green, and posterity enabled to form a true conception of the necessity that called it into existence, and of the difficulties under which its work was performed. The labor of compiling could not have fallen into more appropriate or better qualified hands."

* * * * *

FROM THE "BALTIMORE AMERICAN."

Mr. Still was one of the most courageous managers on the Underground Ralroad, and is therefore well qualified to be its historian. He speaks of his own services with modesty, and, in fact, there is no attempt at exaggeration in any one of the most wonderful series of narratives which he relates. Baltimore was one of the great depots from which the trembling fugitives set out on their trip to Canada, and Mr. Still deals freely with the names of person, yet living, who, no doubt, would be very glad if this most extraordinary book had never been published. It was their misfortune to have furnished a number of passengers for the "Underground Railroad," and now they cannot escape being named in connection with the slaves, who dared, everything for liberty.

* * * * *

FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN.

We have often longed to know how the drab-coated philanthropists of Philadelphia managed to furnish systematic assistance to the slave fugitives, and the desire is now gratified. William Still, for many years connected with the anti-slavery office in Philadelphia, and the chairman of the Acting Vigilance Committee of the Philadelphia Branch of the Underground Railroad, has written a ponderous volume, entitled "THE UNDERGROUND RALROAD." ... He has performed his work well. The volume before us, though containing nearly 800 pages, is not elaborated beyond necessity, and fairly teems with interesting sketches.

FROM BISHOP PAYNE OF THE A.M.E. CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA.

My official engagements and private duties have prevented me from reading your work on THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, throughout. But such portions as I have had time to read, convince me that as a stimulus to noble effort it has much value. It is also a grand monument of the past struggles of the Angel Spirit of Liberty with the Demon of American Slavery. It serves also as a Beacon Light for our future progress in the upward movement. It deserves a wide circulation through the Republic.

* * * * *

"I cheerfully endorse the above."

S.M.D. WARD. (Bishop A.M.E. Church.)

* * * * *

FROM LETTER OF HON. EBENEZER D. BASSETT, U.S. MINISTER TO HAITI.

The book must strike everyone who sees it as one of very commendable appearance; and to everyone who reads it, it must commend itself as one of remarkable interest. It is a work which cannot fail to reflect an unusual credit upon the care, industry and sterling ability of its author.

All hail to you, my dear fellow, for your success. When nearly four years ago you spoke often to me about your project of writing this book, I always told you I thought it would prove a success; but I tell you now, candidly, that although I never for a moment doubted your peculiar fitness to prepare such a work, yet I feared that when you came to see the time, industry, care and patience, which it would require aside from your pressing everyday business cares and perplexities, you might stop at the foot of the mountain and abandon the tedious ascent. But you have actually made the ascent and stand now on the top of the mountain. Hurrah for my old friend Still! Hurrah! Hurrah!! Hurrah!!!

* * * * *

FROM. PROF. W. HOWARD DAY, IN "OUR NATIONAL PROGRESS."

In his singularly and creditably brief preface, Mr. Still sincerely disclaims literary pretension; but creditable as is this to the author, we may say that the work is in style excellent reading, and that if it were not so, the narratives themselves are so thrilling, possess such a heart-reaching interest, that if these were literary crudities, they would be entirely placed in the background in the concentrated blaze of light which the author pours upon the bloody pathway of these victims of injustice, from 1851, when the terrors of the Fugitive Slave Law began, to the hour when Slavery and Rebellion were washed out in blood, together.

We have not space for a reprint of one of these interesting histories, but we are personally acquainted with the "facts" as related by Mr. Still, and the persons involved, and can attest the truth of the statements made. Some of these parties we have met in their flight, others in their temporary sojourn in the then so-called Free States; others we knew (Harriet Tubman and Moses among them) in their latest and safest refuge, (Canada,) under the protection of the Cross of St. George and St. Andrew. It was due to such that this book should be written. Their heroic deeds, in behalf of personal liberty of themselves and others, deserve commemorating. Their deeds of daring, winning victory at last, in the face of wily and unscrupulous men devoted to their capture, and sustained by the voice, the law and the cannon of the Government, ought to be written in unfading letters across the history of a people struggling upward to enfranchisement. It will teach the coming generations who were our fathers and our mothers; who there were in these years of agony who braved death to secure liberty and who upheld the noble banner of a dying race until their efforts, by God's blessing, made the race rise and live. All thanks to Mr. Still for thus placing this noble record of the free, and those struggling to be free, before the world.

* * * * *

FROM, THE BOSTON JOURNAL, BOSTON, MASS.

The present volume is a narrative, or rather a collection of narratives, of the adventures of slaves on their way to freedom. The style is perfectly simple and unaffected, and it is well that it is so. The facts and incidents related are themselves so full of interest and dramatic intenseness as to need no coloring. The narratives throughout have the mark of truth upon them, and are based on authentic records. American history would not be complete without some such book as this, written by one within the circle of those devoted philanthropists who were so fearless and unremitting in their efforts for human freedom.

* * * * *

FROM THE PROVIDENCE PRESS, PROVIDENCE, R.I.

This large volume is full of facts. To read its pages is to bring the past up with vividness. Many of those who fought with the worse than Ephesus' beasts encountered by Paul, to wit, the man-hunters of the South, we knew personally, and their narratives as given in this volume we can vouch for, having received their accounts at the time, from their own lips. Historically the book is valuable, because it is fact and not fiction, although fifty years from to-day it will read like fiction to the then living.

* * * * *

FROM THE NEWBURYPORT HERALD, MASS.

It is not a romance, but it is a storehouse of materials which will hereafter be used in literature, and be studied, not only by historians, dramatists and novelists, but also by those who will seek to comprehend and realize the fact, that there has been, in this country, a condition of society and law which made the Underground railroad possible.



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,



* * * * *

BY WILLIAM STILL.

* * * * *

AN AUTHENTIC RECORD OF THE WONDERFUL HARDSHIPS, HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES, AND DEATH STRUGGLES WHICH MARK THE TRACK FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES.

* * * * *

This is one of the most remarkable volumes of the century. Its publication has only been made possible by a combination of circumstances which seldom attend the birth of a book. Before emancipation, and while the bane of slavery was on the country, the thrilling facts of this volume could not have been made public. Peace and the blessing of freedom permit their publication, free circulation and unmolested reading.

Of all the thousands who favored freedom for the slaves, who gloried in the odium attached to anti-slaveryism, who witnessed the frequent efforts of the bondsmen to escape, who aided them in their quest for liberty, few dared to take notes of what they witnessed, and fewer still dared to preserve them, lest they should be turned into witnesses against them.

But one man, and that the author of this book, is known to have succeeded in preserving anything like a full account of the workings of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, as it was called before emancipation. These records grew on his hands during the years he acted as Chairman of the Philadelphia Branch of that celebrated corporation, until they reached the extent of the present volume. They are made up of letters received, of interviews held, of narratives taken down at the time, of real reminiscence and authentic biography. Nothing imaginative enters into the composition of the volume. It is simply succinct history, always startling, sometimes bloody. The annals of no time since the Inquisition are so full of daring ventures for life and liberty or heroic endurance under most trying circumstances.