[compiled by] Billy G. Smith and Richard Wojtowicz.
ISBN
0812281454
Place of Publication
Philadelphia
Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press,
Date of Publication
1989.
Physical Description
222 p. : ill., facsims., map ; 23 cm.
Notes
Includes indexes.
Bibliography: p. [173]-178.
Summary
Reprints ads for runaway slaves in Pennsylvania. Includes a glossary, a name index that permits runaways and owners to be traced over time, a subject index that identifies specific characteristics of escapees, and a final index that notes the names of fugitives and owners who appeared in all the Gazette ads between 1728 and 1790. [from amazon.com]
xv, 540 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [440]-519) and index.
Contents
Beginnings: 1800 to 1830 -- Connections: The 1830s -- Confrontation: The 1840s -- Victory: The 1850s.
Summary
Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion, which brought together Easterners who had engaged in slavery primarily in the abstract alongside slaveholding Southerners and their slaves, arose a clash of values that evolved into a fierce fight for nothing less than the country's soul. Beginning six decades before the Civil War, freedom-seeking blacks and pious whites worked together to save tens of thousands of lives, often at the risk of great physical danger to themselves. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only subverted federal law but also went against prevailing mores.Flawlessly researched and uncommonly engaging, Bound for Canaan, shows why it was the Underground Railroad and not the Civil Rights movement that gave birth to this country's first racially-integrated, religiously-inspired movement for social change. [from the publisher]
''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.
Introduction / Dr. Leroy T. Hopkins, Jr. -- Foreword / June Burk Lloyd -- Slavery in Pennsylvania and the early abolitionist movement -- The early growth of the Underground Railroad -- Prigg v. Pennsylvania -- An open pathway for fugitives -- From discord toward dissolution -- The bloody road to emancipation -- Afterword / James McClure -- Appendix A : Reported Underground Railroad conductors in York County -- Appendix B : The slaveholder's prayer.
Originally published: Lancaster, Pa. : Office of the Journal, 1883.
Includes index.
African American resources at Lancaster County Historical Society.
Summary
This book was written in 1883 by Robert Clemons Smedley, a Chester County Pennsylvania physician who interviewed participants in the underground railroad. He was not a historian and was not unbiased. But he is considered to have been conscientious in his efforts to record the stories he was told. He wrote about events as described to him by person who themselves were involved, both those fleeing slavery and those assisting them.Topics in chapters 1 & 2 include William Wright and Columbia, PA. Chapter 8 is about the "Christiana Tragedy".
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.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-155) and index.
Contents
Lives on the frontier -- The Quaker colony -- Slavery and the Rise of South Central Pennyslvania -- Revolutionary Times -- Defying abolition -- "The General pressure of the Times" -- "No Doubt She Is Somewhere in Adams County" -- Sons of the Revolution, Fathers of Abolition -- "Come in and Take Thy Breakfast" -- Confederate Invasion -- "God Plead My Cause"
Summary
"Much like the rest of the nation, South Central Pennsyvlania struggled with slavery. The institution lingered locally for more than fifty years, although it was virtually extinct everywhere else within Pennsylvania. Gradually, antislavery views prevailed. The Appalachian Mountains and the Susquehanna River provided natural cover for fleeing slaves, causing an influx of travel along the Underground Railraod. Locals like WIlliam Wright and James McAllister assisted these runaways while publically advocating to abolish slavery." -- page [4] of cover.
