Harriet Jacobs escapes slavery in North Carolina and reaches New York City by boat. On the eve of the Civil War, Jacobs publishes her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, detailing the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her enslaver.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]
Pearl mass escape rattles Washington, DC slaveholders on April 15, as 77 freedom seekers attempt to flee the nation’s capital by boat. Armed whites overtake the group, and slaveholders sell many of the freedom seekers south. Later, local authorities convict two white allies, Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres, on charges of slave stealing. Unable to pay their fines, Drayton and Sayres remain in jail until President Millard Fillmore pardons them in 1852.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]
Date(s): 1849
Location(s): Richmond, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Outcome: Freedom
Summary:
Henry “Box” Brown (House Divided Project)
Henry Brown made up his mind to escape after another slaveholder sold his wife and children away to North Carolina. The freedom seeker determined to mail himself via the new Adams Express service all the way from Richmond to Philadelphia. Brown’s daring escape plan involved help from antislavery activists in both Virginia and Pennsylvania. In Richmond, Samuel Smith mailed Brown and advised Philadelphia vigilance leaders James Miller McKim and William Still to be on the lookout for the crate in Philadelphia. It took Brown 26 hours inside the box to reach Philadelphia, and he traveled with only a bladder filled with water and a few biscuits to eat. Afterwards, Brown became a highly demanded speaker on the antislavery lecture circuit, before eventually relocating to England, where he presented lectures and performed magic and hypnotism to his audiences. Importantly, Brown’s escape underscored that Underground Railroad activists in Northern states faced far fewer risks than activists in the South, where state-level slave stealing statutes proved far more punitive. None of the Philadelphia-based activists who assisted Brown were ever charged with violating the federal 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. But Virginia authorities arrested Smith and sentenced him to six years in the state penitentiary.
Philadelphia’s vigilance committee opens the box containing freedom seeker Henry Brown (House Divided Project)
Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (Auburn, NY: W.J. Moses, 1869), FULL TEXT via Documenting the American South
Harriet Tubman (House Divided Project)
The following little story was written by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford, of Geneva, with the single object of furnishing some help to the subject of the memoir. Harriet Tubman’s services and sufferings during the rebellion, which are acknowledged in the letters of Gen. Saxton, and others, it was thought by many, would justify the bestowment of a pension by the Government. But the difficulties in the way of procuring such relief, suggested other methods, and finally the present one. The narrative was prepared on the eve of the author’s departure for Europe, where she still remains. It makes no claim whatever to literary merit. Her hope was merely that the considerably numerous public already in part acquainted with Harriet’s story, would furnish purchasers enough to secure a little fund for the relief of this remarkable woman. Outside that circle she did not suppose the memoir was likely to meet with much if any sale.
In furtherance of the same benevolent scheme, and in order to secure the whole avails of the work for Harriet’s benefit, a subscription has been raised more than sufficient to defray the entire cost of publication. This has been effected by the generous exertions of Wm. G. Wise, Esq., of this city. The whole amount was contributed by citizens of Auburn, with the exception of two liberal subscriptions by Gerrit Smith, Esq., and Mr. Wendell Phillips.
Mr. Wise has also consented, at Mrs. Bradford’s request, to act as trustee for Harriet; and will receive, invest, and apply, for her benefit, whatever may accrue from the sale of this book.
Charles T. Webber’s painting “The Underground Railroad” is unveiled at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]
Professor Wilbur Siebert authors the first scholarly study of the Underground Railroad, but focuses heavily on white activists and folklore, at the expense of Black abolitionists.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]
Historian Larry Gara publishes The Liberty Line which challenges depictions of an elaborate Underground Railroad network. Instead, Gara argues that freedom seekers escaped largely on their own with little organized assistance.
[This post is still under construction, more forthcoming in 2023]
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