February 15, 1839
Notice that a Baltimore paper contains notice that a colored man named John Thomas, who says he is free, and who was born and brought up in Boston, has been committed to jail in that city as a runaway slave. Says that if he is not speedily claimed by his owner, he will be sold.
March 29, 1839
House of Representatives acts to empower the Governor to take steps to insure that citizens of the state who are charged in slave states as being runaway slaves, be given defense. The long action sites laws from slave states, and instances when Mass. Citizens have been retained. The report says, that “if this injustice were inflicted on our citizens by a foreign people, Massachusetts would be shaken from the center to the circumference. And must she quietly endure it all, merely because it chances to be done by her own sister states? Should she not, will she not, at least, lift up her voice against it. And will she not, also, do what she may to protect and preserve, the personal liberty of her citizens, however humble, even, may be the condition, of these citizens?…….”
July 23, 1841
From the Boston Post comes the story that the bark, Kazan, arrived from Mobile, with a slave who had stowed away on board without the knowledge of the crew. The owners discovered him, had him arrested, and committed to jail. Some colored people bailed him out of jail. In the meantime, S.E. Sewall, Esq., had obtained a habeus corpus writ, intending to bring his case to the Supreme Court, and have him released. But he was already free. The article concludes, “He has, therefore, nothing more to do than to railroad it and steamboat it to Canada, and become one of Queen Victoria’s loving subjects.”
September 3, 1841
Under a title, Life in New Orleans, there is a listing of six advertisements which offer rewards varying from $5 to $100, from slaveholders, for the return of slaves who have run away. Each has a description of the runaway, indicating scars, burns, wounds on the bodies which will help identify them. After copying these advertisements, the editor has this comment: ”Scars – burns – whip-marks – teeth knocked out – slit ears !! behold the march of humanity! The foregoing are copied from the New Orleans Picayune and the Bulletin. —- Philanthropist”
April 7, 1843
Here is a notice addressed to the friends of Liberty who want to help those in flight from the southern institution …”Those who can afford shelter or employment, in special cases, will please communicate with William C. Nell, 25 Cornhill Street..”
September 1, 1843
About twenty slaves, in Maryland, intended to go to Canada. They met in Baltimore County, got as far as Havre de Grace, where two of their number attempted to cross. The gate-keeper refused them. “…they built a coffin of rough boards, put it on a bier and placed one of their number in it. Then, in a solemn funeral procession, they marched up to the bridge, and asked the privilege of crossing to bury their friend on the other side. The ruse took…they took to the woods again, and resurrected their dead companion…”.
August 22, 1845
From the Granite Freeman; Tells of Washington’s slave, Ona Marie Judge, living in Greenland, N.H. and supported by the town of Rockingham. The writer is not sure of date of her “elopement”, but thinks it was probably the first of 1797. Being a waiting-maid of Mrs.Washington, she was not exposed to any peculiar hardships. If asked why she did not remain in his service, she gives two reasons, first, she wanted to be free, secondly, she understood that after the decease of her master and his mistress, she was to become the property of a grand-daughter of theirs, by the name of Custis, and that she was determined never to be her slave. After arriving in Portsmouth, she married a colored sailor by the name of Staines, and had a family of several children, but they have all been dead several years. She tells of her running away, of Mr. Bassett, whom Washington sent twice to persuade her to return. She recounts her escape, is not sure of her age, but it is probably about eighty; she is light mulatto, could easily pass for white, has been disabled by successive attacks of palsy. Of Washington, she says she never heard him pray, and does not believe he was accustomed to it. Mrs. Washington used to read prayers. She is probably connected to a church in Portsmouth. “When asked if she was not sorry she left Washington, as she has labored so much harder since than before, her reply is, ‘No, I am free, and have, I trust, been made a child of God by the means.’”
August 29, 1845
Under Refuge of Oppression, there is an item from the Barnstable (Democratic!) Patriot
The item is vitriolic in criticism of Jonathan Walker, and Mr. Loring Moody, of Harwich, who has accompanied Walker on a speaking tour. Of Walker: “…the legal punishment by which he so glorifies himself in by the exhibition of his Slave Stealers brand – do not exalt him in our estimation — nor do we think they entitle him to the extravagant sympathy in some places lavished upon him. He voluntarily transgressed the well known laws of the land in which he volunteered a residence. He knew the penalty of such transgressions, — he, with his knowledge, helped – we will not say induced – half a dozen slaves to run away from their legal masters……For this attempt to liberate, as he pretends — to steal, as the constituted authorities adjudge — these slaves, he was imprisoned and branded as he well knew the laws of that land provided he should be, if he was unsuccessful in his designs…..”
January 18, 1850
Notice of Mr. Mason’s bill, providing ‘for the more effective execution of the third clause of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States,’ is as follows: (then follows the content of the bill), then this: “Mr. Mason has given notice that he intends to prosecute the consideration of this bill, and has desired the Judiciary Committee to report it back as soon as convenient, for the action of the Senate. It is a deliberate movement to arrest the proceedings of the fugitive slave conspiracies and underground railroads in the North, for running off, harboring and aiding in the escape of the slaves of the South from their masters. It is clearly a measure based upon the Constitution, and will test the good faith of the North to that instrument.”
January 19, 1855
From the Boston Evening Transcript, the story of Jackson, an alleged fugitive, who had been in the city for eight weeks. A Capt Fox, pursues Jackson. Jackson was “taken in charge of, and in a short time was leaving, in the company of good friends, as rapidly as steam would allow, the city of Faneuil Hall, overshawdowed by Bunker’s monument.” Fox pursues him but “finds that a long distance intervenes between himself and his prey, and the hunt is up!”