The Indiana Gazette's Road to Freedom

Page 1

Path to Freedom

Page S-2 — Sunday, March 22, 2015

On the cover

The Indiana Gazette

“TO BE a slave. To be owned by another person, as a car, a house or a table is owned. To live as a piece of property that could be sold — a child sold from his mother, a wife from her husband.�

Located on the riverfront of Hart Plaza in Detroit, the Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad was sculpted by Edward Dwight and dedicated on Oct. 20, 2001. The statue features a former slave raising his arms to celebrate his emancipation while a Quaker woman offers assistance to a woman and her child as another child looks back.

Julius Lester, author of “To Be a Slave�

Locally, abolitionists helped make history By RANDY WELLS

rwells@indianagazette.net

T

he decades immediately before the American Civil War were a time of sweeping economic, social and political changes in the United States. And some of those changes drove a wedge between the predominately agricultural South and the industrializing North. A major political debate of the antebellum years centered on states’ rights, pitting those in the South who argued that individual states should have the final say in interpreting the Constitution, against those in the North who believed the federal government had authority over the states. An integral part of the states’ rights issue was the debate over slavery, arguably the most divisive crisis America had faced. The widening philosophical and political chasm between the North and South created by the states’ rights and slavery issues prompted 11 states to secede from the nation and form the Confederacy. And secession precipitated civil war. African-Americans had been enslaved since the early 17th century. But slavery became a thriving institution in America in the early 1800s, largely due to Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. The machine made separating cotton seeds from the fiber easier and more economical. Cotton production surged in the South and by the mid-19th century cotton was America’s leading export. But growing cotton remained labor intensive, and African-American slaves provided that field labor. According to Dr. Xi Wang, a professor of American history at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the disagreement over slavery was not only about whether it should continue where it was already established, but more about whether slavery should be permitted to spread into new territories in the West, land the United States had gained through the war with Mexico. Anti-slavery sentiments formed from multiple perspectives — moral and religious and eventually political and constitutional. Many Americans, Wang said, questioned how a nation that proclaimed freedom as a founding principle at the same time could tolerate slavery. Abolitionists in Indiana County were among those in the North who became more outspoken in their beliefs. An announcement in an 1837 Indiana newspaper encouraged residents to attend a meeting of the Indiana Anti-Slavery Society to discuss this topic: “Resolved, that immediate emancipation is perfectly safe, and all the objections urged against it are insufficient and unsatisfactory.� The anti-slavery movement attracted prominent county residents through the 1840s and 1850s, and in 1843 an antislavery newspaper, “The Clarion of Freedom,� first appeared in Indiana. The Rev. David Blair, who served

www.freedomcenter.org

THE NATIONAL Underground Railroad museum in Cincinnati features a pen once used to house slaves.

National UGRR museum in Ohio tells powerful story By RANDY WELLS

If you go ...

rwells@indianagazette.net

Code words and phrases, often with biblical references, were used by the operators of the clandestine Underground Railroad. The Ohio River, the dividing line between slave states and free states, was frequently referred to as the River Jordan. Situated today on the north bank of the Ohio River in Cincinnati is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Its location recognizes the significant role of Cincinnati in the history of the Underground Railroad, as thousands of slaves escaped to freedom by crossing the river there. The 158,000-square-foot museum opened in 2004. Its artifacts, displays and programming address the nature of freedom throughout human history, but especially as related to the Underground Railroad and slavery in the United States. The largest artifact in the Freedom Center is a 21-by-30 foot, two-story log slave pen built in 1830 on a farm in Mason County, Ky. It was moved from its original site and reconstructed on the second floor of the center. The slave pen was owned by Capt. John Anderson, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a slave

• The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is located at 50 E. Freedom Way, Cincinnati. • It is open TuesdaySaturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $10 for children. • For more information, call (513) 333-7500.

trader. Slaves were held in the pen for days or even months while Anderson and other traders waited for favorable market conditions and higher selling prices at slave markets in Mississippi and Louisiana. Visitors to the center can still see and touch many of the pen’s gruesome details, like a row of wrought-iron rings through which slaves were tethered by a chain. “The pen is powerful,� said Carl Westmoreland, curator and senior adviser to the museum. “It has the feeling of hallowed ground. When people stand inside, they speak in whispers.�

Westmoreland spent more than three years researching and authenticating the slave pen. “We’re just beginning to remember. There is a hidden history right below the surface, part of the unspoken vocabulary of the American historic landscape. It’s nothing but a pile of logs, yet it is everything,� he said. The center also features a theater and a gallery with information about significant figures including William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist; Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave and one of the best-known conductors on the Underground Railroad; and Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who became an abolitionist and orator. Other exhibits focus on other slavery opponents, including John Brown and President Abraham Lincoln, and on the American Civil War that ended it. The Struggle Continues is an exhibit portraying continuing challenges faced by African-Americans since the end of slavery, struggles for freedom in today’s world, and ways that the Underground Railroad in America inspired groups in India, Poland and South Africa. The center also offers a variety of experiences specifically designed for school groups.

congregations in Indiana, Conemaugh and West Lebanon, used his sermons to denounce the “sin of slavery,� and his preaching attracted more influential citizens to the cause. Clarence Stephenson, in his “Indiana County: 175th Anniversary History,� wrote that by the 1860s it was considered futile to run for political office in Indiana County without having some anti-slavery credentials. But not all Indiana County residents were anti-slavery. Many did not want to see slavery expand into the new western territories, but neither did they believe the federal government should meddle with slavery in states where it existed. The Compromise of 1850, a package of bills passed by Congress, for a while eased sectional strife over slavery. But the argument over permitting or prohibiting slavery in the western territories continued to polarize both sides through the 1850s. Under the Compromise of 1850, part of the territory claimed by the state of Texas was transferred to the federal government to organize new territories, and the citizens there, under the principle of popular sovereignty, were to determine whether their states would be free or slave states; California was admitted as a free state; and the slave trade — but not slavery — was abolished in the District of Columbia. Another component of the compromise “hugely� affected Northerners, according to Wang. The Fugitive Slave Act required federal judicial officials in all states and territories to actively assist with the return of escaped slaves. Law officers who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave could be fined $1,000. Officers everywhere in the nation had a duty to arrest anyone suspected of being a fugitive slave, even if the only “evidence� was someone’s claim that the man or woman was a fugitive slave. That provision put some free blacks in the North at risk of being kidnapped and taken south to be sold into slavery. The arrested suspect could not ask for a jury trial or testify on his or her own behalf. According to the compromise, ordinary citizens could be summoned to join a posse and be required to assist in the capture of an alleged escaped slave. Northern citizens especially resented that requirement to aid slave catchers, and it heightened the tensions between North and South. Also under the compromise, anyone aiding a runaway slave was subject to six months’ imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Abolitionists in the North who assisted fugitive slaves in their flight north — the “conductors� of the Underground Railroad — did so by breaking a federal law. So most kept no written records of their illegal and clandestine activities. “That is the reason why today’s study of the Underground Railroad is so difficult,� Wang said. Stephenson’s research suggests Continued on Page S-3

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Path to Freedom

The Indiana Gazette

Sunday, March 22, 2015 — Page S-3

Timeline

Noteable figures The history of the Underground Railroad is a story of human courage, endurance and the belief in individual freedom. Due to the secretive nature of the railroad, it is unknown just how many freedom seekers attempted to escape or achieved a new life in freedom. Nor is it possible to document all of those individuals — sometimes called by the code name “conductors� — who opposed slavery and risked their lives and well-being to assist freedom seekers in their journey to freedom. In fact, many freedom seekers became conductors, too, once they escaped slavery. Here are stories of a few conductors along the Underground Railroad.

HARRIET TUBMAN was born into slavery in Maryland. After learning that she was to be sold and separated from her husband, Tubman made her escape to freedom. Despite the high reward for her capture, she returned south numerous HARRIET times and assisted many TUBMAN slaves to freedom. During the Civil War she served as a nurse, spy and scout for the Union Army. Tubman was known as one of the greatest conductors of the Underground Railroad. JOSIAH HENSON was born a slave in Charles County, Md. As a boy, Henson was sold to a farmer in Montgomery County, Md. As an adult, he was trusted enough by his owner to supervise other enslaved people. In 1830, Henson used his new position to escape slavery with his wife and four children. They traveled the Underground Railroad by way of the Niagara River to On-

tario. Henson worked on farms in Fort Erie and Waterloo to support his family. In 1834, Henson and several friends organized a black settlement on rented land that exJOSIAH ported black HENSON walnut lumber to the U.S. and Britain.

CAPTAIN JONATHAN WALKER was an abolitionist in Pensacola, Fla. In 1844, he attempted to rescue seven slaves by transporting them across the ocean to the Bahamas. Due to unfortunate circumstances. Walker was caught, convicted and had S.S. brandJONATHAN ed on his hand, WALKER for “slave stealer.� He was jailed for 11 months until northern abolitionists provided payment for his release. LEVI AND CATHARINE COFFIN were Quakers, a religious order that strongly opposed the institution of slavery. Originally from North Carolina, the couple moved to Newport, Ind., in the early 1820s. During the 20 years they lived in Indiana, they provided a safe haven for more than 2,000 freedom seekers. None of the LEVI slaves they assisted failed to COFFIN

reach freedom. Levi was often referred to as the “president of the Underground Railroad.�

WILLIAM STILL was born in Burlington County, N.J., to former slaves. After working on his father’s farm until age 20, Still left home and moved to Philadelphia in 1844, where he worked as a handyman. In 1847, he worked for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society office doing janitorial WILLIAM work, sorting mail and assistSTILL ing the society’s executive director. During his time in Pennsylvania, Still assisted nearly 900 fugitive slaves and recorded and maintained accounts about their rescue. He used these records to write a detailed and authentic book in 1872 titled “The Underground Railroad.� LEWIS HAYDEN was born into slavery in Lexington, Ky., in 1811. In 1844, Hayden escaped with his wife, Harriet, and son. Along the way, they were aided by the Rev. Calvin Fairbanks, a white Methodist minister. He was successful in his flight to freedom and became a prominent abolitionist who assisted many other enslaved people to freedom. In 1844, LEWIS Fairbanks was captured, tried HAYDEN and sentenced to 15 years for aiding and abetting fugitive slaves. In 1849, Hayden raised $600 as “ransom� payment for Fairbanks’ release. Source: U.S. National Park Service

Talking in code The Underground Railroad was neither literally underground nor a railroad. But it was underground figuratively in that it was hidden and secret. And the abolitionists who guided fugitive slaves north to free states or Canada shielded the secrecy of the system’s routes, safe houses and sympathizers by using a railroad terminology code. The freedom seekers were “packages� or “cargo.� “Stations� or “depots� along the way were places the slaves could hide, rest and eat. Often the stations were barns, spaces under church floors or secluded caves or holes in stream banks. “Conductors� led or transported the fugitives from one station to the next.

1820: Levi Coffin begins to establish long-distance escape routes from North Carolina to the state of Indiana. 1830s: As the railroads become popular and spread north across the states, railroad terms such as “conductors� become the coded language of the Underground Railroad.

1863: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, a statement that “all persons held as slaves� within the rebellious states “are, and hence forward shall be free.� Enslaved people in states and territories under Union Army control (West Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and the District of Columbia) were not declared free. The Emancipation Proclamation did not actually free any slaves, but it did change the course of the war. The Union Army and Navy officially accepted blacks into their ranks, and by the end of the war, approximately 209,000 black soldiers and sailors fought for the Union and for freedom.

1833: The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Philadelphia. 1840s: Ripley, Ohio, along the Ohio River, becomes one of the most active centers of Underground Railroad activity. 1841: Josiah Henson, a fugitive slave from Maryland, establishes the Dawn Institute in Chatham Ontario, whereby freedom seekers learned trades and to adjust to free society. 1850: The Fugitive Slave Act is passed. This act permitted slaveholders to recapture and return escaped slaves to their masters. Freedom seekers who had fled to free states in the north and western territories were forced to continue their freedom journey to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

1865: 13th Amendment — This amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery throughout the U.S. and the Civil War ends.

1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act passes. This further divided the nation on the issue of slavery and helped to lead to the Civil War. The fight between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in “Bleeding� Kansas increased the tension that already existed.

1868: 14th Amendment — This amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires states to provide equal protection to protect civil rights of former slaves. 1870: 15th Amendment — This amendment to the US. Constitution grants voting rights to all men regardless of race. Source: U.S. National Park Service

1856: Dred Scott, an Illinois Freedom Seeker, sues to overturn the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, but loses his case.

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And “stockholders� donated money or supplies to support the railroad’s operation. The railroad was sometimes called the “freedom train� or “Gospel train� whose ultimate destination was “the promised land� — Canada, where slavery had been abolished in 1833. It has also been suggested that certain spirituals and other songs, such as “Follow the Drinking Gourd� (another name for the Big Dipper cluster of stars that is helpful in locating the North Star for navigation) contained coded information. But some historians believe such songs merely were a comforting mantra for deliverance and had little value as a road map. — By Randy Wells

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Local abolitionists made history Continued from Page S-2 there may have been 25 conductors actively working in Indiana County, and they occasionally had close calls. One such incident happened when five fugitive slaves were hidden in woods along the Little Mahoning Creek in East Mahoning Township. Ben Warren, the conductor guiding the slaves, learned that the slave owners had arrived in the valley, aided by a bloodhound. “He (Warren) became alarmed and took Thompson Hays, of Plumville, into his confidence,� the account in Stephenson’s history recalls. “Hays, accompanied by his wife, secreted themselves in a clump of bushes some 80 rods from where the negroes had crossed the road. “In a little while, one of the slave hunters, with the bloodhound, came along the road. When the dog came to the point where the negroes had crossed, he halted and gave evidence that he had got the scent. The case was desperate, but Hays was equal to the emergency. Bringing his rifle to his shoulder, he took careful aim and shot the bloodhound down in his tracks. “The slave-hunter was

1861: In February, Southern slave states formed the Confederate States of America and declare their secession from the United States of America. In April, South Carolina Confederate troops fire on Fort Sumter and the Civil War began.

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AN EXCERPT from “The Underground Railroadâ€? by William Still. badly frightened, and fearing the same marksman would draw a bead on him, he put spurs to his horse and galloped rapidly back the road he had come. The hunt was not resumed, and the conductor got his train away safely.â€? One estimate widely accepted by historians and scholars is that 100,000 slaves escaped from southern plantations between 1810 and 1850. “First, to make one thing clear, for a slave to run away, he or she had to be very strong-willed ‌ and have courage and be able-bodied,â€?

Wang said. The routes the fugitive slaves followed often took them through communities with black churches. “Churches were very important� to the operation of the railroad, Wang said. On their journey the fugitive slaves needed shelter, food and rest, and sympathizers often also gave them disguises so they would blend in with the populations they were traveling through. For safety, they often traveled only at night, and their journey from the South to Canada could take weeks or months.

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Path to Freedom

Page S-4 — Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Indiana Gazette

Take walk, drive to travel back in time By MARGARET WEAVER

mweaver@indianagazette.net

A

journey through one of the darkest yet most inspiring periods of history, the Civil War-era Underground Railroad, is just steps away in your own backyard through walking and driving tours of stops throughout Indiana County. The Blairsville Underground Railroad Passport to Freedom’s driving tour of Indiana County and walking tour of Blairsville highlight the confirmed locations in

the county that have significance with the Underground Railroad. These stops include the homes where freedom seekers were hidden along the way, sites of rescues from bounty hunters and more. But beyond that, the tours serve to keep history alive, according to volunteers at the Underground Railroad History Center in Blairsville. “That, to me, is the importance of learning the history,” said Marna Conrad. “Unless you know about it, how are you going to prevent

it from happening again?” “It’s so important to give children that educational knowledge that makes them understand what slavery is all about, and that it’s not gone yet,” said volunteer Joy Fairbanks. Conrad believes the tour highlights the lesson of involvement. “Whether it’s the Underground Railroad or something in today’s time and place, if people see that they really made a change here, they will think, ‘If we get together, we can change what-

ever we want,’” Conrad said. Many of the stops are at the homes of major contributors of the Underground Railroad effort in Indiana County. With Blairsville’s proximity to a river and major road, it was the center of the Underground Railroad in the county. The historic walking tour there journeys through the sites of the John and Alexander Graff houses and Lewis Johnston home, and sites of stores owned by George Wilkinson and Chester Davis, to name a few.

For Conrad, part of the tour’s appeal is what it shows about human nature. “That whole movement was a black and white effort,” she said. “It was the common people. And I believe it shows that when people know something is wrong, and they get together, they can fix it.” The honesty and integrity of the people involved is something that Conrad admires. It wasn’t easy to help the freedom seekers, and those involved put themselves at

risk, such as when mobs chased bounty hunters out of town in the case of Richard Newman in Blairsville, one of the tour’s stops. “These people were dedicated to what they believed in,” Conrad said. Fairbanks encourages everyone to take the tours. “It’s like a walk back in history,” she said. “They are standing on the ground where there were fugitives running. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” she said. “(Take the tours) to have that sense of history.”

Map your way along route to emancipation BLAIRSVILLE BOROUGH • 1. Underground Railroad History Center, 214 S. East Lane Travel North on South East Lane 1.5 blocks, making a left onto East Brown Street. Follow to South Liberty Street and make a left. Site is on left. • 2/3. John and Alexander Graff Houses, 195 and 216 S. Liberty St. John Graff was a prominent businessman and underground railroad conductor. A safe room was constructed in the floor of John’s carriage house to shelter escaping slaves. The room accessed an underground passage leading from the carriage house to the river. The John and Alexander Graff homes were constructed in 1835 and 1820, respectively. Continue south on Liberty, making a right at the stop sign. Loop around to next stop sign and make a left, heading north on South Liberty to the bandstand and PHMC marker at Liberty and West Market Street. • 4. PHMC Fugitive Slave Marker In the early 1850s, an enslaved Virginian named Richard Newman struck a dangerous and courageous path north to freedom. He began a new life in Blairsville with the help of UGRR conductor and African-American community leader Lewis Johnston. In 1858, a deputy U.S. marshall and a Uniontown bounty hunter came to

Blairsville with a warrant for Richard Newman. Led by Blairsville’s African-American community, a howling mob chased them out of town. Turn right and travel East on Market Street. Turn left onto North Spring Street, then left onto West Campbell Street. • 5. Site of former AME Zion Church, first African church organized in Indiana County. Head back on West Campbell Street to North Spring Street. Make a right onto North Spring. • 6. Lewis Johnston Home (reconstructed), southwest corner of North Spring and West Campbell streets Lewis was an active UGRR conductor. His mother died enslaved in Derry Township, Westmoreland County. Lewis Johnston harbored escaped slave Richard Newman while he resided in Blairsville for nearly six years. Lewis Johnston was a leader of the community. • 7. McCune Store, northeast corner of North Spring and West Market streets Pre-Civil War era building with reported ties to the UGRR. “Safe room” in basement was used to harbor escaping slaves, according to oral tradition. Turn left on West Market Street, up hill to Blairsville Cemetery on the left. • 8. Blairsville Cemetery, Old William Penn Highway Final resting place of Underground Railroad figures, Civil and Revolutionary War soldiers.

BLAIRSVILLE

BOB VISNESKY/Gazette

BLAIRSVILLE TO CENTER TOWNSHIP Two miles from the Blairsville Cemetery, Old William Penn Highway becomes Route 119 North. Follow that 6.3 miles, and turn left onto Main Street in Homer City. Travel 1½ miles, and immediately past the Homer-Center Historical Society Caboose Museum on the right, go straight at the sharp curve onto Jacksonville Road. Follow Jacksonville Road to its intersection with Route 56 and make a right. At Smith Road, 0.4 miles along Route 56, make a left. The first UGRR site is 0.4 miles on the right, and the second an additional 0.4 miles, also on the right. • 9. Simpson Farms, Smith Road Two 19th-century farmhouses were part of the large Simpson farm. Brothers Thomas and James Simpson worked the farm with their father, John. It was at this location in 1845 that Anthony

Hollingsworth, a fugitive slave from Virginia, was captured while working, bound and taken to the county seat by agents of slave owner Garret Van Meter. Continue along Smith Road 0.6 miles, turning right onto Goral Road. Follow Goral 1.5 miles. • 10. Alexander McMullen House, Hilltop Road McMullen was the first president of the Center Township Anti-Slavery Society, established Jan. 30, 1838. Meetings were held in the small schoolhouse on this farm. Turn right onto Route 56, bearing right in 0.3 miles. Campbell homestead is at the bearing point, John B. Allison House 0.2 miles on the left. • 11. John B. Allison House Former site of the Hon. James Campbell homestead. The Allison home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Allison was the second president of the Center Township Anti-Slavery Society. At Route 56 and Rustic Lodge Road was the home of

Judge Campbell. Continue on Route 56 to a quick right onto Fitzgerald Road. Follow Fitzgerald 1 mile to Hilltop Road and make a right. At stop sign, go straight on Hilltop Road 1.2 miles and make a right onto Route 286.

INDIANA BOROUGH/ WHITE TOWNSHIP Follow Route 286/Oakland Avenue 3.8 miles, making a right onto Philadelphia Street. Go 0.2 miles on Philadelphia Street. Site is on the north corner of Sixth and Philadelphia streets. • 12. William and Elizabeth Houston House, North Sixth and Philadelphia streets Elizabeth Houston aided escaping slaves with food, clothing and temporary shelter without the knowledge of her husband in an attempt to shelter him from fugitive slave laws. • 13. Location of the former Indiana House, proprietor pro-slavery man and Sheriff David Ralston

It was on this spot that a spontaneous mob of Indiana citizens formed with the intent to free the captured Anthony Hollingsworth, who was detained in the hotel overnight and freed the following day by Judge Thomas White, citing the lack of constitutional evidence of the legality of slavery in Virginia. Turn right onto South Sixth Street. The site is less than 0.1 mile on the left. • 14. David Ralston House, 41 S. Sixth St. Residence of Sheriff Ralston, pro-slavery man who led a raid on slave cabins in eastern Indiana County in 1845. Travel 0.1 mile and bear right at the light. Pull into Historical Society of Indiana County lot on left. • 15. Memorial Park (behind historical society) In 1845, three fugitive slaves came to Indiana and “it must be remembered that they had rested all that day in the old graveyard near the residence of the late Judge Silas M. Clark, among the tombstones, secreted by the brush, without anything to eat.” These three fugitives were Charlie Brown, Anthony Hollingsworth and Jared or Garrett Harris. Out of lot, make right, return to Philadelphia Street and make a right. Site on left. • 16. Dr. Robert Mitchell House A native of Pennsylvania, Mitchell studied medicine in “Old Virginia,” where he witnessed the cruelties of slavery firsthand. Dr. Mitchell was an ardent abolitionist and UGRR conductor. Follow Philadelphia Street 0.1 mile to the site on the left, at the corner of North Fourth and Philadelphia streets. • 17. Jamison’s Eastern Inn Home of young UGRR conductor Samuel Jamison. At this site, Jamison refused a large bribe from slave catchers pursuing slaves he had just secreted into a nearby barn. Turn left on North Fourth Street. and follow 1.1 miles, making a left. Turn immediately right onto Marion Road. Site is on the left. • 18. Mr. and Mrs. David Myers House Continued on Page S-5

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Sunday, March 22, 2015 — Page S-5 Mitchell housed and fed the men before directing them, just ahead of pursuers, in Cherry Tree. Behind the home in the stand of pines was the site of a large anti-slavery picnic at which Jane Grey Swisshelm, author and abolitionist, spoke. Reportedly, deceased fugitive slaves are buried nearby.

12 William and Elizabeth Houston House, Indiana

NOLO Return on Starford Road, making a right onto Route 403. In less than 0.1 mile, turn left toward Penn Run on Spaulding Road. Travel 2.9 miles into Penn Run, turning right onto Route 553. After 0.3 miles, make a left onto North Harmony Road. Follow 1.5 miles to Route 422 and make a left. Proceed 2.9 miles on Route 422 and make a right at the top of the hill and an immediate left onto Stone House Drive. • 22. “Stone Houseâ€? This early 19th century home is reportedly an eastern Indiana County stop on the UGRR. Continue on Stone House Drive to Route 422 and turn left. Follow 422 West to the Route 954/Sixth Street exit. Make a left onto Route 954 and travel 0.5 miles to site on the left. • 23. John B. Allison Esq. Farm Across Route 954 is the farm of John B. Allison, a supporter of the UGRR. It was on this site that Absalom Hazlet, one of John Brown’s raiders, saw the blades of the oats bent over into the shape of a “B.â€? Hazlet said he knew that stood for the “Bâ€?lood that would be shed in liberation of the slaves. Hazlet was one of the last of Brown’s raiders executed. Turn right onto Lucerne Road and into parking lot of Vennard’s Convenience Store. Follow Lucerne Road to Route 119, turn left, and head back to Blairsville.

TOM PEEL/Gazette

Continued from Page S-4 David Myers, UGRR conductor, was “an ardent friend of the slaves and brave as a lion in their defense.â€? He figured prominently in many hairbreadth escapes with slave hunters, including pulling slaves into a hay mow just ahead of slave catchers. Mrs. Myers, also devoted to the cause, once baked bread and prepared a meal for hungry fugitives who had to be driven from her table when it was learned slave catchers were nearby. Follow Marion Road to the end and turn right onto Fourth Street. Head back and make a left onto Philadelphia Street. Follow Philadelphia Street 0.3 miles through the light and take the Clymer Route 286 East exit. After the cloverleaf exit, at the first intersection, down and on your left are ruins of the next site. • 19. James Hamilton’s Barn Hamilton, a pioneer of abolition in Indiana County, was involved with the two previous episodes. After the slave catchers’ unsuccessful search, the slaves in the hay mow were taken away by horseback in Cherry Tree. Hamilton concealed many slaves in this barn which, on occasion, was the target of raids by slave catchers. Follow Route 286 East, 2.9 miles to the PHMC marker on your right. Cross bridge and park in lot on your right. Location of cabins near creek, under bridge.

Source: UGRR History Center

CLYMER/DIAMONDVILLE • 20. PHMC Marker A historical marker is dedicated to Dr. Robert Mitchell, a staunch abolitionist. • 21. Robert Mitchell Jr., house and anti-slavery picnic site Homestead of Dr. Mitchell’s son, Robert, who was an active UGRR conductor. Robert guided seven “coloredâ€? men who had arrived via Mechanicsburg, directed to him by Williams, “a colored barber from Johnstown.â€?

TOM PEEL/Gazette

B. Allison House, 11 John Center Township, at left

10

Alexander McMullen House, Center Township, above

TOM PEEL/Gazette

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Path to Freedom

Page S-6 — Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Indiana Gazette

Story of struggle preserved at center By JASON L. LEVAN

jlevan@indianagazette.net

BLAIRSVILLE — Stories of the Underground Railroad are hard to come by. There are precious few written accounts of who was involved and what transpired. That’s why Indiana County is lucky to have the Blairsville Underground Railroad History Center. Its members are dedicated to researching and preserving the history of the effort to get slaves safely — and secretly — to freedom, most often in Canada. It’s clear that Blairsville, and much of the rest of Indiana County, was home to a number of safe havens on the Underground Railroad between the early part of the 1800s and the start of the Civil War. Blairsville, in particular, was a hotbed for the Underground Railroad because of its proximity to the Conemaugh River, according to Joy Fairbanks, president of the Blairsville Underground Railroad Project, which started in 2006. The history center, which has operated now for about 10 years in a nearly centuryold former Baptist church, details stories of some of these safe houses, hidden rooms and underground tunnels. The single large room has a planed wood floor with original furnishings. It includes two hands-on exhibits: “Freedom in the Airâ€? and “Day in the Life of an Enslaved Child,â€? the latter geared toward children. Many visit the center as part of a class trip. “We just hope that when kids come through that they understand the basic premise of slavery. ‌ I hope they get an idea that there’s a point where you as an individual have certain rights,â€? Fairbanks said. “And maybe that’s all we’ll get across. And maybe it’s not just history but a combination of history and attitudes. “Do you think that maybe if one in 100 people grasp that concept as a student that maybe things will start to change?â€? Last year, there were 22 tours conducted at the history center, including people from all over the United States and several from abroad.

If you go ... What: Blairsville Underground Railroad History Center Where: 214 S. East Lane, Blairsville When: Open by appointment only, May through October Admission: None, though a $3 donation is suggested Phone: (724) 459-5779 Website: www.undergroundrailroad blairsvillepa.com TOM PEEL/Gazette

THE UNDERGROUND Railroad History Center is located at 214 S. East Lane in Blairsville.

History center committee

TOM PEEL/Gazette

THE MUSEUM features exhibits about what it was like to live as a slave.

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The committee behind the Underground Railroad History Center in Blairsville is made up of: • Joy Fairbanks, president • Denise JenningsDoyle, vice president and Twilight/High Noon director • Mary Ann Kuhns, treasurer • Cris Johns, secretary/ distribution • Marna Conrad, Showtime director and costume coordinator • Patti Lance, advertising director/board member • Seth Gibson, board member • Daunise Marshall, board member • Mae Nance, board member

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THE HISTORY center is filled with profiles of some of the “conductorsâ€? on the route. Fairbanks marvels at the audacity of these people who helped conceal the freedom seekers, considering they faced heavy fines and jail time if they were caught harboring a slave. “They were obsessive as any insane person. You have to have a belief that’s very, very strong,â€? she said. “One of my favorite stories is that there was a woman and her husband, who was a pastor in Indiana. She was an abolitionist. I think her husband may have been but he wasn’t practicing because he didn’t want to break the law. She would bake bread so when they did have people come through, and they needed food, she would provide it. And she never told her husband because she was afraid, as a minister, he couldn’t lie. So he didn’t know what she was doing.â€? Marna Conrad, who is heavily involved with the center, said most conductors risked their lives. “First of all, to me, history is important. ‌ These people literally were heroes,â€? Conrad said. “They didn’t give what they had. They gave what was needed — if someone needed a pair of shoes, if they needed a quilt, whatever, that’s what they gave. Because they believed that this was so wrong.â€? One of the most famous stories from this area is that of George Mitchell, one of the few physicians at the time. “Here he was, a prominent person in society, and he got fined $10,000. He was there when they burst the door down looking for the slaves,â€? Fairbanks said. “And he said he’d do it again if they took every penny,â€? Conrad said. Continued on Page S-7

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The Indiana Gazette

Story of struggle preserved Continued from Page S-6 But as bold as many of these conductors must have been, it was the slaves themselves who were the real heroes, Conrad said. “I call this the first civil rights movement. There were whites working on this, but the heroes were predominantly African-Americans because of what it would take to leave. You didn’t know where you’re going. And you had to often trust a white person. “That’s why the Underground Railroad was so important. People who decided to go on their own, they could starve to death, or they could be captured. “The thing that’s interesting is that when I first got into this I felt guilty because I’m white,� Conrad said. “What makes me feel good is I can look at the whites who were helping and the blacks who were trying to get away and I can say I would have been an abolitionist at the time. I know I would have,� she said. “There were many people from the South who could not stand this way of life and fought against it. So even though they were indoctrinated with this system since they were young, they realized it was wrong.�

VOLUNTEERS ALSO help make this part of history come to life. Actors have re-enacted the Rescue of 1858, when slave catchers came to Blairsville claiming they had a warrant for Richard Newman, who had been living in the town for six years. When the men tried to capture Newman, an angry mob pulled Newman to safety and drove the slave catchers away. The committee, which works closely with the Historical Society of the Blairsville Area, earned a National Park Service Award for the portrayal. Each year, the committee offers twilight tours of several graves in the Blairsville Cemetery where a number of Civil War-era figures are buried. Actors portray each one — in full period-correct clothing. Conrad, who makes many of the articles of clothing worn by the actors, is meticulous about their accuracy. She has made two sack coats, the forerunner of the suit jacket. “They call me the clothing Nazi,� Conrad said, “but it has to be right.� It can take her days to make a shirt and weeks to make a coat because there is a lot of hand sewing, she said. The actors are mostly amateurs and, though they’re playing chiefly African-Americans, almost all are white. “It’s very hard to get African-Americans (to participate). Maybe they want to forget about it,� Conrad said.

Path to Freedom TWILIGHT CEMETERY TOUR

Sunday, March 22, 2015 — Page S-7

Photos by Gazette photographer James J. Nestor

“I CALL this the first civil rights movement. There were whites involved in this, but the heroes were predominantly AfricanAmericans because of what it would take to leave.� Marna Conrad,

history center volunteer

County slave population

PASTOR Brad Hogue, of Blairsville, portrayed the Rev. James Davis during the Twilight Tour of the Blairsville Cemetery last fall. Actors in period-correct clothing act as various Civil War-era veterans who are buried in the cemetery, which was founded in October 1853 and has more than 350 Civil War vets.

SETH GIBSON, of Derry Township, played Lewis Johnston. RON AND ASHLEY MURPHY, of Indiana, portrayed John Cunningham and Rachel Wallace.

African-American population of Indiana County, by year Year Number 1810 14 1820 61 1830 108 1840 155 1850 254 1860 186 Source: Clarence Stephenson’s “The Anti-Slavery Issue in Indiana County� (1964)

Annual talent show Quality Tires helps keep center open at Unbeatable Prices The Blairsville Underground Railroad History Center depends heavily on donations, and its biggest fundraiser each year is its Showtime variety show. Organizers will present the fifth annual “A Musical State of Mind� at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 28, in the auditorium at Blairsville High School. The program will sing across America: “California Dreamin’,� “Route 66,� “Moonlight in Vermont� and more. The Brenizer Temple Choir will begin the show. Many of the performers are trained professionals and award-winning entertainers. Advance tickets are $9 for adults and $6 for those under 12. They are available at the Indiana County Tourist Bureau at the Indiana Mall; the Historical Society of the Blairsville Area, 116 E. Campbell St., Blairsville; and the Koffee Shoppe, 39 W. Market St., Blairsville. Tickets at the door are $11 for adults and $8 for those younger than 12. For more information, call (724) 459-5779.

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Path to Freedom

Page S-8 — Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Indiana Gazette

Dr. Mitchell stood strong By The Indiana Gazette

Submitted photo

RE-ENACTORS STAGED the Rescue of 1858 when slave catchers came to Blairsville to return Richard Newman, a former slave, to Virginia.

Townspeople defended freedom of former slave By SEAN YODER

syoder@indianagazette.net

B

lairsville townspeople defended one of the their own in 1858 when a slave catcher from Virginia came for one of the freedom seekers escaping a life of Southern bondage. The former slave, known only as Richard Newman, claimed to have lived in the southern Indiana County town for five years or more when they came for him. When the slave catcher, deputy U.S. marshal and a Uniontown man came to take him back south, a mob descended on them and pursued the outsiders until they were driven out of town. The account was well-publicized in newspapers at the time. Whether the events happened as described is another matter, but Marna Conrad, a volunteer at the Blairsville Underground Railroad History Center, said they have assembled the narrative as best they can. Unfortunately, there is no record of Newman. If he had lived in Blairsville for only five or six years, he would not have been there for the 1850 census. The UGRR Historical Society has used the narrative during its re-enactments of the event to show Blairsville as a place of abolitionist beliefs and a vital stop on the Underground Railroad’s route north. Clarence Stephenson included the story in his history of Blairsville, saying that the issue of slavery and racial

discrimination began to influence politics in Blairsville leading up to “The Rescue.� Stephenson wrote that James Clark, a Democrat from Blairsville, was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1837-1838 and opposed restricting voting to white males. There was also the legendary James Graff, who joined the Liberty Party in 1843, according to Stephenson. Newspapers reported that the deputy marshal came from Fayette County with the slave catcher, known as Stump, with the mission of taking Newman back to Virginia. Another man was with the two: a Peter Heck, of Uniontown, who was a tailor. Conrad said Newman was living with Louis Johnston at the time, a known black conductor on the Underground Railroad. Johnston lived about a block from Market Street at the time. Stump spotted Newman in a doorway on Market Street and the three people tried to subdue him, but Newman threw Heck into the middle of the street. Newman began shouting to anyone who would hear his cries for help, and many did that day in the thoroughfare. Conrad said the townspeople “became so incensed that men would come from the South that the newspapers said they became a mob.� Heck told newspapers “it was like prodding a pole into a hive of bees. A swarm of whites and negroes poured

from every direction,� according to Stephenson’s history. The three decided to run for it, with Blairsville townspeople hot on their heels as they headed for the canal towpath. And, comically, Heck said one black man pursued him and his “boots came into such violent contact with the nether part of my anatomy that I was lifted bodily off the ground.� The town was adamant about hanging the three intruders, but Chester Davis, the mayor at the time, and George Wilkinson, the high constable, intervened and convinced the townspeople to spare the intruders’ lives. Conrad reckons that Wilkinson was able to calm the mob because of his position as leader of the local militia. Heck told a Uniontown newspaper that “I would never more pursue a fugitive slave north of the fortieth degree, so help me Andrew Jackson,� according to Stephenson’s history. At the time, what the people of Blairsville did was illegal under the Fugitive Slave Act, which required that freedom-seeking slaves be returned to their masters. Further, it required that citizens cooperated with the capturing of freedom seekers in the northern states. The re-enactment was performed for four years during Blairsville’s annual Diamond Days celebration starting in 2007. The re-enactment received National Park Service Status in 2008.

Dr. James Mitchell, who settled in Indiana in 1815 as the second physician in Indiana County, became the first person in Pennsylvania to be tried under the Fugitive Slave Act. A doctor, pharmacist and politician, Mitchell was perhaps best known as an ardent abolitionist, despite growing up in Virginia, where slavery flourished. According to “History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present,� written in 1913 by Professor J.T. Stewart, “The horrors he witnessed in his youth made him vow then and there that if his life were spared he would do all in his power to accomplish the downfall of the institution (of slavery). “The spectacle of two men, slaves, working in the field with an ox yoke around their necks, fastened itself around his memory and other cruelties and unrighteous features of the system in its actual operation which he had seen in his early life led him to sympathize deeply with its victims and eventually to take an active part on behalf of those who attempt to flee from bondage. “He acted in accordance with his own ideas but in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act that existed at the time, passed by Congress in 1793. “About 1847 he was summoned to appear before the Supreme Court in Pittsburgh to answer for the crime of harboring and concealing fugitive slaves. “The judge in his charge sustained this assumption, the jury did their duty like Democrats, and Dr. Mitchell was fined $5,000 and costs, which amounted to $5,000 more,

TOM PEEL/Gazette

and his pine timber was sold to satisfy this judgment, “for feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.� Nonetheless, “Dr. Mitchell continued to support the cause, and he always stood high in the estimation of his fellow citizens, not only in his own county but throughout the State, but he died nine months before the triumph of his views and the death of the institution he so abhorred, his life ending April 14, 1862, shortly before the hand of Abraham Lincoln had been stimulated to write the Emancipation Proclamation.� Sources: “175th Anniversary of Indiana County� by Clarence Stephenson; “History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present,� by J.T. Stewart

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