Chapters: The way life was // Devil's mark // Parlor school // Boot making // Bull-Baiting // Paying the piper // Making amends // Vermont assembly in session // Deliberating the issues // The sickness // Nursing assistant // The harvest festival // School for boys // The fugitives // Hatching a plan // A narrow escape // Rescued // Overcoming troubles // Moving forward // Lydia Smith's reflections
Summary
This is a fictionalized biography of Thaddeus Stevens written for young readers.
"A relationship between [Thaddeus] Stevens and...[Robert Boston] is an important counter narrative. Most traditional accounts of the local Underground Railroad activity emphasize the actions of white stationmasters such as William Wright in Columbia or Daniel Gibbons in Bird-in-Hand. African-American involvement while not ignored is generally presented as being of secondary importance. Each demonstrable piece of evidence of Black involvement in effort to combat slavery strengthens arguments for a tradition of Black agency and necessitates a reassessment of the lives and experiences of African Americans in the Antebellum Era."
Includes glossary, notes, and bibliographic references.
Summary
For young people and history-challenged adults, an easy-to-read, fictionalized bio of a re-discovered American 'hero' Thad sets out on his mission: To hold the country accountable for the primary principle of the Declaration of Independence, "All men are created equal." Along the way, he seizes opportunities, makes mistakes, rejects compromise, creates enemies, conducts on the Underground Railroad, authors amendments, and impeaches a president. [from the publisher]
Introduction: The Fugitive Slave Issue on the Edge of Freedom -- South Central Pennsylvania, Fugitive Slaves, and the Underground Railroad -- Thaddeus Stevens' Dilemma, Colonization, and the Turbulent Years of Early Antislavery in Adams County, 1835-39 -- Antislavery Petitioning in South Central Pennsylvania -- The Fugitive Slave Issue on Trial : The 1840s in South Central Pennsylvania -- Controversy and Christiana : The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1850-51 -- Interlude: Kidnapping, Kansas, and the Rise of Race-Based Partisanship : The decline of the Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1852-57 -- Revival of the Fugitive Slave Issue, 1858-61 -- Contrabands, "White Victories," and the Ultimate Slave Hunt : Recasting the Fugitive Slave Issue in Civil War South Central Pennsylvania -- After the Shooting : South Central Pennsylvania after the Civil War -- Conclusion: The Postwar Ramifications of the Fugitive Slave Issue "On the Edge of Freedom" -- Appendix A: Selected Fugitive Slave Advertisements, 1818-28 -- Appendix B: 1828 South Central Pennsylvania Petition Opposing Slavery in the District of Columbia -- Appendix C: 1847 Gettysburg African American Petition -- Appendix D: 1846 Adams County Petition -- Appendix E: 1861 Franklin County Pro-Colonization Petition -- Appendix F: 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition -- Appendix G: [Second] 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition -- Appendix H: 1861 Doylestown, Bucks County Pro-Colonization Petition -- Appendix I: 1861 Newtown, Bucks County Pro-Personal Liberty Law Petition.
''Child Heroes of the Underground Railroad illuminates the vital contributions of specific, underappreciated child activists within the extremely local circumstances of their daily work. It also provides meaningful context to the actions of these young activists within the much broader social practice of resisting slavery, and offers fresh insight into the complicated question of who was responsible for ending slavery. Through a thorough examination of these subjects, author Jonathan Shectman proves his central thesis: in many specific cases, children were the essential lifeblood of the Underground Railroad's operational workforce." ( amazon.com )
Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-208) and index.
Contents
The dictates of humanity -- Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave -- Ran away from the subscriber -- Tell them I love them all -- Let not the sun go down on your anger, my boy -- Up like bucks: the Rankin boys -- States of matter divide the states -- Deeds of bold daring -- Many years under the yoke -- The conductor was, himself, presently enslaved.
Part I. Radical, young, and quaker: child pioneers of the underground -- Part II. Up like bucks: the line through Ripley -- Part III. Taking their freedom: young free blacks and fugitive children.
Phase IB/II and data-recovery archaeological excavation at Site 36LA1494 Queen Street Station Phase II (RRTA) North Queen Street and East Chestnut Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
A railroad for the "Southern End" : Pictures, timetables, rare documents and all the news of the Little, Old & Slow, Pennsylvania's first narrow gauge railroad
A long time ago, a narrow gauge railroad was built through southern Lancaster and Chester Counties, in Pennsylvania, bringing an alternative to horses, buggies and ox carts, on muddy deeply rutted roads. "Ole Peachy," as many of the locals called it, served no major industries. Instead, it made do with poultry, eggs, butter, cattle, cream and passengers, becoming a vital link for the farmers of, and visitors to, the "Southern End ." This is the story of how , despite great odds against it, this short line managed to survive for 47 years. [from the book cover]
