Underground Revelations

I've made good progress in Bound for Canaan this week. It's very well written, and full of interesting information about the Underground Railroad.  The first part of the book deals with the beginnings of the network, which was, apparently, never formally constituted.  It simply evolved, over the decades, from its beginnings as isolated pockets of people (principally in the North) who believed slavery was evil and should be resisted, into something widespread, well known and well organized.

The anti-slavery underground was more than just networks of people who helped the enslaved to escape to freedom.  People also helped the fugitives find jobs and establish lives in communities (mostly in the Northern states).  They helped with the cause of abolition, too, politically and socially.  Many of the people involved were members of religious groups who came to believe slavery was a grievous sin that must be eradicated immediately.  The Quakers were the most prominent of such groups, but the Methodists were also early advocates of resistance. Ministers would urge their congregations to join with them in helping slaves in any way they could and to convert others to the cause.

One major thing I learned from this book is that the Underground Railroad was not just a group of sympathetic northern wealthy whites. The author makes the point repeatedly that the Underground Railroad involved people of all ethnicities and socioeconomic groups who came from both the north and the south.  Many black people, both free and enslaved, helped fugitives escape and establish new lives.  Some helped through the courts, others through the media, through their churches or their businesses.

As with every history book I've read, what struck me with Bound for Canaan is the immense complexity of this period in our history.  There was an awful lot going on with this issue in the late 18th century into the 19th century.  After reading this book, there is no way anyone can say that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War.  Everyone was talking about it; everyone had an opinion about the rightness of slavery, how the enslaved should be dealt with, what to do with freed blacks, how to help the newly freed people.  Many people were frightened by the possibility of the violence that this problem and its solution seemed to bring with it.

The author also mentions the cotton gin, and how that transformed the more diverse southern economy into the cotton monoculture economy it became, and how it changed the fate of the enslaved and the formerly enslaved.  The increased value of cotton and the outlawing of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808 made slaves more valuable than ever.  Owners were very reluctant to let them go, and the Fugitive Slave Act had already made it possible for slaves to be hunted throughout the United States.  For that reason alone, many slaves traveled all the way to Canada so that they could not be caught and returned. But even freed slaves or those who had been born free were not safe from slave catchers, who stood to gain from selling any dark-skinned person they could kidnap.  And of course those kidnapped people had to be rescued, too, adding to the numbers of those in need of help and the difficulty of helping them.

One important Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist was the Reverend Rankin, whose house high on a hill overlooking the town of Ripley, Ohio and the Ohio River gave hope to slaves coming through Kentucky on their way north. His house still sits there.  You can visit it and imagine how he lived and carried out his crucial mission for over thirty years.  He was only one of many, though.  Some of the people involved in this crusade helped hundreds, even thousands of slaves escape bondage over the decades.

But I guess I've said enough for now.  And I'm not even half way through! There's much more to come next time, so stay tuned!

In Hope of Understanding

As it turns out, I didn't stick with The Women even one day longer. I started reading In Hope of Liberty, by James Oliver and Lois E. Horton, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through.  It's a scholarly history book, filled with many facts and details about African American life in the English colonies of the northern U.S., from the first settlements up to the Civil War. 

The story is told in chronological order, so I'm to the early 1800s now in the account. What I've learned so far is both surprising and not surprising.  What's surprising is how much information there is about how these folks fared in the northern colonies, and how well some of them were able to do, even as slaves.  What is not surprising is that they struggled to maintain the freedoms they gained and that many whites actively worked against their efforts.  Moreover, though slavery was outlawed in most of the northern states before the Civil War, the emancipation process was gradual in many of them, taking years, with some slaves not freed until the Emancipation Proclamation.

Nevertheless, the difference in the experiences of enslaved people living in the north versus the south is remarkable.  The smaller number of slaves in northern colonies helped to make whites less paranoid, it seems, and therefore more tolerant of blacks' freedoms.  So some slaves were allowed to become literate, to have time off, to travel to some extent, to make money of their own by hiring themselves out or selling their goods, to learn technical skills, to own property, and to buy their freedom. 

Some slaves were thought of as similar to indentured servants, and were freed after a certain number of years of service.  Some were freed in their masters' will, or freed by those who came to believe slavery was wrong.  The shipbuilding and fishing industries, an important part of the northern coastal economy, employed many blacks, both free and enslaved. They were valued workers and often treated as such by the ships' captains and other sailors, especially out at sea where different social customs could prevail.

Despite all that, though, those who were enslaved still suffered hardships, not the least of which was knowing they were not free.  But free blacks helped their enslaved brethren. There were fairly large populations of free blacks living in cities and towns during the 18th century, where some formed abolitionist societies.  Many blacks, both free and enslaved, along with sympathetic white citizens, wrote articles and petitioned their governors, constantly pressuring for changes to the law, for the abolition of slavery.  And when it was clear that a break with England was coming, blacks (along with non-blacks) made it known that a truly free and democratic society could not also be a slave-holding society.

In Hope of Liberty also talks about the many blacks, slave and free, who served in the wars fought, including the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Many volunteered, hoping to be freed.  Others were sent in place of their masters who paid for the privilege of staying out of harm's way.  Some slaves who fought well in the war were freed as a reward.  Others were not, having to return to their former status once the war was over.  Some chose to fight for Great Britain when the crown offered them freedom in exchange for their service.

There was a very interesting section on Crispus Attucks, one of the first people killed in the Revolutionary War.  It's actually a much more complex story than I've been led to believe in the little history I've heard about him.  He was a runaway slave, and apparently very active politically even before he took part in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Here is a brief account of his role in that incident: Attucks. The Hortons tell a detailed story about him and many other important African-Americans of the colonial period.

Also interesting was the authors' account of African-Americans' complex relationships with Native Americans. The Hortons portray them as mostly friendly and mutually supportive.

In Hope of Liberty is very well written, and as a result of reading it, I'm getting a much fuller picture of what life what like for northern blacks in the early years of our nation's history.  I'm looking forward to learning more in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned!