October 3, 1851
Under the title Another Shadrach Case, here is an account from Syracuse, of a man named Henry, who while on a charge of having escaped from slavery, was being examined by a Commissioner. During the examination he succeeded in making an escape. He was recaptured, and returned to the police. He was finally rescued, and “it is believed is now in safety. The latest dispatch states that the military are still under arms, and the whole city in the highest state of excitement.”
October 14, 1853
Here is a letter from Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, Delaware, who has sent three dollars to the paper. Garrison indicates that Garrett is an old man and “that many a slave owes his freedom to his good offices”. Garrison says that Mr. Garrett had his property taken from him and given to a slaveholder, to whose slaves he had given food and shelter. A letter from Garrett is included , in which he praises The Liberator for “causing alarm to the slaveholders of the South.”
August 11, 1854
The editor of the Vermont Tribune sends a story of a twenty year old female slave who was running away from her slaver-owner and father, Ruffin Gilchrist, of Easton, MD. He had sold her to a South Carolinian for $1100. She has passed through Vermont, by the U.G.R.R., and finally, “with money given her here, she went on her hurried way to the only land where she could breathe free. God protect and guide her.”
November 16, 1855
A letter to Garrison, is signed , “G.W.S.”, and tells the story of a fugitive slave from Richmond, who was sheltered in Milford overnight, then the next day sent to Worcester, “to take the underground railroad” “I trust he has reached that soil which alone is free.”
December 31, 1858
A Story from the Atlas & Bee tells of an escaped slave who was on board a boat in the harbor. Judge Russell of the Police Court issues a habeus corpus order, and proceeds with others to the vessel. The Captain of the vessel says the man is missing, it being presumed that he swam ashore with the aid of a plank which was also missing from the deck. The man’s name was Smith, and it is assumed that he had made his way to freedom in Canada.
April 8, 1859
“Three young men want places to wait and tend in public houses. Apply to the Anti-Slavery Office, or by letter to Francis Jackson.”
May 20, 1859
From the Boston Journal, a notice from the Hyannis Messenger indicates that a brig came into port on the 8th, with a fugitive slave aboard. He made himself known because of hunger, and when the ship landed in Hyannis, he was in irons, in readiness so that the US Marshall at Boston could take charge of him. A schooner, then in port, was chartered to carry the slave to Norfolk. An appended note calls for the Vigilance Committee to see to it that the United States Marshall, at Boston, be arrested and prosecuted as a kidnapper.
