Bound for Canaan (99 page)

“Do we call this”:
Franklin B. Sanborn,
The Life of Henry David Thoreau
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917), pp. 469, 480; Van Wyck Brooks,
The Flowering of New England 1815–1865
(New York: Dutton, 1936), pp. 286–87, 434.

Before Thoreau:
Henry David Thoreau,
Walden and Civil Disobedience
, Paul Lauter, ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 18, 24–25, 29, 36.

“We must trample”:
Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, “Confrontation and Abolition in the 1850s,”
Journal of American History
58 (1972): 923–37.

“This so-called Fugitive Slave Law”: Frederick Douglass' Paper
, December 4, 1851.

That sad honor went:
Siebert,
Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom
, p. 269.

There were captures:
Ibid., pp. 317–18; Collison,
Shadrach Minkins
, p. 107;
Voice of the Fugitive
, February 26, 1851; George F. Nagle, “Central Pennsylvania Fugitive Slave Cases,”
Bugle (Journal of the Camp Curtin Historical Society and Civil War Round Table
) 12, no. 1 (January 2002), pp. 6–16.

Daniel Webster, promised:
May,
Some Recollections on Our Anti-Slavery Conflict
, pp. 373–74; Hunter,
To Set the Captives Free
, p. 120;
Frederick Douglass' Paper
, December 16, 1851.

Fugitive slaves who had lived:
Douglass, “My Bondage and My Freedom,” p. 279; Siebert,
Underground Railroad
, pp. 194, 248–50; Campbell,
Slave Catchers
, pp. 7, 62–63;
Voice of the Fugitive,
January 1, 1851; Levy, “Sims Case.”

Columbia, Pennsylvania, one of the largest:
Leroy Hopkins, “Black Eldorado on the Susquehannah: The Emergence of Black Columbia, 1726–1861,”
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society
, 89, no. 4 (1985), pp. 110–32; Leroy Hopkins, “Bethel African Methodist Church in Lancaster: Prolegomenon to A Social History,”
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society
90, no. 4 (1986), pp. 205–31;
Columbia
(Pa.)
Spy
, January 15, 1851, March 8, 1851, and April 26, 1851;
Frederick Douglass' Paper
, November 13, 1851.
324 Reverend Jermain Loguen of Syracuse:
Loguen,
Rev. J. W. Loguen
, pp. 343–48, 351–52, 391–95; Hunter,
To Set the Captives Free
, pp. 19–21.

Edward Gorsuch was:
Thomas P. Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 4–6, 11, 14, 17–19, 44; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” p. 120; Charles D. Spotts, “The Pilgrim's Pathway: The Underground Railroad in Lancaster Country,”
Community History Annual
5, Lancaster (1966);
Lancaster Intelligencer and Journal
, September 16, 1851.

Gorsuch did not imagine:
The story of the Christiana riot is based on William Parker, “The Freedman's Story,”
Atlantic Monthly
, February 1866, pp. 152–66, and March 1866, pp. 276–88; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 108–30; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, pp. 51–74;
Lancaster Intelligencer and Journal
, September 16, 1851, and September 23, 1851;
Voice of the Fugitive
, September 24, 1851; Spotts, “Pilgrim's Pathway”; Nagle, “Central Pennsylvania Fugitive Slave Cases”; Mark C. Ebersole, “Abolition Divides the Meeting House: Quakers and Slavery in Early Lancaster County,”
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society
102, no. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 3–23; Leroy Hopkins, interview with the author, Millersville State College, Millersville, Pa., March 13, 2003.

abolitionist congressman, Thaddeus Stevens:
Hans L. Trefousse,
Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian
(Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2001), pp. 14, 73, 25; Fergus M. Bordewich, “Digging into a Historic Rivalry,”
Smithsonian Magazine
, February 2004, pp. 96–107.

William Parker had no illusions:
Parker, “Freedman's Story,” March 1866, pp. 288–90; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 223–24, 247–53, 260–68; Douglass, “Life and Times,” pp. 724–26.

If Parker's resistance:
Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 126–27; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, pp. 72–74, 86–93; Nagle, “Central Pennsylvania Fugitive Slave Cases.”

Nevertheless, William Henry:
The story of the Jerry rescue is based on Loguen,
Rev. J. W. Loguen,
pp. 398–429; May,
Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict
, pp. 363, 373–78; Earl Sperry,
The Jerry Rescue
(Syracuse: Onondaga Historical Society, 1924), pp. 41–51; Pettit,
Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad
, pp. 32–33; Hunter,
To Set the Captives Free
, pp. 114–15, 122–26; Sernett,
North Star Country
, pp. 136–41;
Voice of the Fugitive
, October 8, 1851;
Frederick Douglass' Paper
, October 16, 1851, November 13, 1851, February 4, 1853, February 11, 1853, and February 18, 1853.

Twenty-six men:
Loguen,
Rev. J. W. Loguen
, pp. 427–29, 434–43; May,
Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict
, pp. 379–83; Hunter,
To Set the Captives Free
, pp. 129, 138; Sernett,
North Star Country
, p. 143.

The government fared:
Collison,
Shadrach Minkins
, pp. 147–48, 192–95; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, pp. ix, 86–93, 132–37; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 126–27, 129–30; Paul Finkelman, “The Treason Trial of Castner Hanway,” in
American Political Trials
, Michael Belknap, ed. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), pp. 79–100.

Not surprisingly, there:
Campbell,
Slave Catchers
, pp. 148, 157, 169, 199; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, p, xi.

Isaac Tatum Hopper died:
Child,
Isaac T. Hopper
, pp. 473–77; and Bacon,
Lamb's Warrior
, pp. 182–86.

Public opinion in both North and South:
Nye,
Fettered Freedom
, pp. 175–76; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, pp. 104–5; Pease and Pease, “Confrontation and Abolition,” pp. 923–37; Frothingham,
Gerrit Smith
, pp. 118–19;
Frederick Douglass' Paper
, February 11, 1853, and February 18, 1853.

The language of abolitionism:
Campbell,
Slave Catchers
, p. 53; Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” pp. 129–30; Slaughter,
Bloody Dawn
, pp. 132–37.

the flood of refugees only grew: Voice of the Fugitive
, October 8, 1851, November 5, 1851, and December 3, 1851.

C
HAPTER
16: G
ENERAL
T
UBMAN

Kessiah Bowley:
Sarah Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
(Auburn, N. Y.: W. J. Moses, 1869), pp. 57–64; John Creighton, historian, interview with the author, Cambridge, MD, February 12, 2004; Kate Clifford Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
(New York: Random House, 2003), pp. 89 ff, and 324, nn. 11–17; Kate Clifford Larson, e-mail to author, January 21, 2004; Harkless Bowley, letter to Earl Conrad, August 8, 1939, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; Barbara Jeanne Fields,
Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century
(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 45–46; McFeely,
Frederick Douglass
, pp. 27, 59, 68.

There were others:
John P. Parker,
His Promised Land
, Stuart Seely Sprague, ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), pp. 100 ff; Coon, “Great Escapes,” p. 2; Quarles,
Black Abolitionists
, pp. 11, 14; Siebert,
Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom
, pp. 153–54.

But there was no one quite like:
Jean M. Humez,
Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), p. 25; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 78–79; Lydia Maria Child, letter to John Greenleaf Whittier, January 21, 1862, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Thomas Garrett, letter to Eliza Wigham, December 16, 1855, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.
347 General Tubman:
Oates,
To Purge This Land with Blood
, p. 242.

The fifth of at least nine children:
Statement of Harriet Tubman, in Drew,
Refugee
, p. 20; Harkless Bowley, letter to Earl Conrad, August 8, 1939, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, p. 13; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 42, 310; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, pp. 211, 342–48.

She was eleven or twelve:
Franklin B. Sanborn, “Harriet Tubman,”
Boston Commonwealth
, July 17, 1863; Mrs. William Tatlock, interview with Earl Conrad, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, pp. 54–56; Sarah Bradford,
Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People
(Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1993), pp. 15–17; Florence Carter, manuscript, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 39, 42–43; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, pp. 178–79, 210–11.

Slavery in Maryland:
Fields,
Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground
, pp. 10–15.

Ross adapted readily:
Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, pp. 75–76; Mrs. William Tatlock, interview with Earl Conrad, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Harkless Bowley, letter to Earl Conrad, August 8, 1939, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 48, 52, 56, 64, 73–79.

Tubman's mind was overcharged:
Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, pp. 13–20; Bradford,
Moses of Her People
, pp. 114–15; Sanborn,
Harriet Tubman
; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, pp. 181–84.

Characteristically, she did not leave:
Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, p. 76; Mrs. William Tatlock, interview with Earl Conrad, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, pp. 216–18; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 80–83.

“When I found I had crossed”:
Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, pp. 19–20.

For the next decade:
Ibid., pp. 13–20; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, pp. 25, 260; Thomas Garrett, letter to Eliza Wigham, December 16, 1855, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, Pa.

Emboldened by her success:
Bradford,
Moses of Her People
, p. 112; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 89–90; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, p. 183; Catherine Clinton,
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom
(Boston: Little, Brown, 2004), pp. 82–83.

Before the year was out:
Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 93–96.

Although, in legend:
Ibid., 65–66; John Creighton, interview with the author, Cambridge, Md., February 12, 2004.

She preferred to do her underground work:
Bradford,
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
, pp. 21, 25, 50; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 131–32; Humez,
Harriet Tubman
, p. 138; Siebert,
Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom
, p. 68; Robert C. Smedley, “History of the Underground Railroad in Chester,” p. 355.

She was a consummate actress:
Mrs. William Tatlock, interview with Earl Conrad, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Harkless Bowley, letter to Earl Conrad, August 8, 1939, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection.

“Hail, oh hail, ye happy spirits”:
Bradford,
Moses of Her People
, pp. 36–38.

Tubman expected her passengers:
Harkless Bowley, letter to Earl Conrad, August 8, 1939, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection, Schomburg Center, New York; Mrs. William Tatlock, interview with Earl Conrad, Earl Conrad/Harriet Tubman Collection; Still,
Underground Railroad
, pp. 305–6; Sanborn, “Harriet Tubman”; Larson,
Bound for the Promised Land
, pp. 100–3.