Digital Bookshelf: Letters and Diaries

http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/ugrr/letter_dec1854.htm

Original Citation
Thomas Garrett to James Miller McKim , December 29, 1854, reprinted in William Still, The Underground Railroad (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), 296.

Background
Thomas Garrett was a leading Underground Railroad organizer in Delaware. James Miller McKim was a Dickinson College graduate who headed the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. McKim's organization provided the offices and support for the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, headed by William Still. Here Garrett writes about Harriet Tubman, who essentially relied on the vigilance system from Delaware through Philadelphia to support her various efforts to free slaves from Maryland.

Transcript

WILMINGTON. 12 mo. 29th, 1854.

ESTEEMED FRIEND, J. MILLER McKIM:-We made arrangements last night, and sent away Harriet Tubman, with six men and one woman to Allen Agnew's, to be forwarded across the country to the city. Harriet, and one of the men had worn their shoes off their feet, and I gave them two dollars to help fit them out, and directed a carriage to be hired at my expense, to take them out, but do not yet know the expense. I now have two more from the lowest county in Maryland, on the Peninsula, upwards of one hundred miles. I will try to get one of our trusty colored men to take them to-morrow morning to the Anti-slavery office. You can then pass them on. THOMAS GARRETT.

Citation for this page

"Thomas Garrett to James Miller McKim, December 29, 1854," Underground Railroad Digital Classroom, Dickinson College, 2008, http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/ugrr/letter_dec1854.htm.