A NEW BOOK BY DR.

TIMOTHY D. WALKER

Focuses On The Underground

RAILROAD’S MARITIME ESCAPES.

BY SKIP FINLEY

ames DeWolf died in 1837 as the second richest man in America. His father’s importation of slaves started in 1769 and was continued by his nephew through 1820, despite their home state of Rhode Island having banned slavery in 1787. In total, the DeWolf family was responsible for enslaving 11,000 people from Africa and bringing them here on 88 such voyages.

In 1791, DeWolf captained the slave ship Polly, which sailed from Africa to Cuba with 142 slaves. Crew members reported that DeWolf ordered the quarantine of an enslaved African woman—described as a “middleaged Negro Wench”—who had contracted smallpox. The sick woman was tied to a chair above deck and DeWolf asked for a volunteer to throw her overboard. When the crew refused, DeWolf blindfolded and gagged her so the other slaves could not hear her scream. A grappling hook lowered her into the ocean. She sank immediately and drowned. According to a crewman’s testimony, DeWolf said he regretted the loss of such a good chair.

DeWolf was put on trial on St. Eustatius but was acquitted in 1794 when the judge determined that he had acted to save his men from the threat of infection. While sick slaves were routinely thrown overboard, it was technically illegal to murder a captive. DeWolf’s charge stemmed from increased public awareness about the horrors of the slave trade driven by postRevolutionary antislavery sentiment. Nevertheless, the arrest warrant was dropped in 1795. DeWolf returned home and was elected United States Senator of Rhode Island from 1821 to 1825.

1659

Nantucket’s early settlers owned slaves but, in time, Quakers represented the dominant religion on the island and promoted equality for all. The Friends (as Quakers call themselves) became the first to denounce slavery around 1716. In 1733, Elihu Coleman, a Quaker minister, published A Testimony Against That Anti-Christian Practice of Making Slaves of Men.

1743

On Martha’s Vineyard, the slave Esther was being transported from Boston to North Carolina aboard the sloop Endeavor. When the vessel was docked in Edgartown Harbor overnight, Esther—her feet bound to a crowbar and hands tied behind her back—escaped the ship’s hold and fled. Esther’s story has received federal recognition from the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.