The full article is on Blogging Delaware History, the official blog of Historical and Cultural Affairs, Delaware
In a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell will issue a pardon of Samuel D. Burris, a free black man from the Willow Grove area of Kent County, Del., who was convicted on Nov. 2, 1847 of aiding slaves escaping from their owners. The program, which will also include the dedication of a new historical marker honoring the Underground Railroad conductor, will take place at The Old State House located at 25 The Green in Dover, Del. Admission is free and open to the public. For additional information, contact ceremony coordinator Beverly Laing at 302-736-7400.
The full article is on Blogging Delaware History, the official blog of Historical and Cultural Affairs, Delaware
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7 Steps to Freedom is an interpretive program about the Underground Railroad utilizing mobile technology. It is a production of the Salem County Cultural & Heritage Commission in partnership with the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting
Monday, October 26, 2015 6:30 – 8:30 pm New Castle Court House Museum, 211 Delaware Street, Old New Castle, DE The program is open to the public. October 26, Elkton Library at 6 p.m. – Stealing Freedom along the Mason Dixon Line: Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland - The debate over slave catching and kidnapping and how it was a contributing cause for the Civil War, told through the story of Elkton resident Thomas McCreary and his community. An overview of the book is given on the other pages of this website. The October 24th presentation for the Delaware Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society will be at 10: a.m. at the Brandywine Hundred Library, 1300 Foulk Road, Wilmington. The presentation is open to the public. A summary of the topic: In the eyes of Pennsylvanians, and some Marylanders, and Delawareans, Thomas McCreary was a villainous kidnapper. To his supporters, including two Maryland governors, McCreary was a heroic slave catcher. The slave catching and kidnapping controversy was a contributing cause of the Civil War, and this is the first book to examine this issue through the framework of a slave catcher (and kidnapper) and his community. This program is a variation on earlier programs based on the book, and was restructured for the DEAAHGS in order to emphasize the affect slave catching and kidnapping had on African Americans living along the Mason-Dixon line. Fifteen African Americans, including an infant, had their freedom threatened by McCreary or by slaveholders from McCreary’s home county. Some were born free, some had been legally freed, and some had seized the freedom they had been denied. Their stories are told, along with the reactions of other African Americans in Pennsylvania and Delaware who felt threatened by McCreary and others like him. The reaction of blacks and whites in communities affected by the aggressions of McCreary and other slave catchers are also important to this story. Several of the incidents are connected to New Castle County. In addition, Thomas Garrett and the editors of the Blue Hens Chicken were highly critical of McCreary, and the editors of the Cecil County did not hide their hostility to Garrett or the antislavery newspaper. The book, Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line: Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland, with be available for purchase. William Still Underground Railroad, 337; Journal C, 1856.
The post entry for September 27th discussed two men who escaped from Anthony Reybold in Maryland, their arrival in Philadelphia recorded January 30th, 1856. Still’s journal for that month reveals an earlier loss for Anthony Reybold, this one in a neighboring state. On January 10th, Isaac Stout, who changed his name from George Washington Gooseberry, and who was around age 23, arrived at Still’s office. He had taken advantage of the festive Christmas season to escape from the Reybold’s farm in New Castle County, Delaware. He told Still his main reason for leaving was to gain his freedom. ADDING LOCAL INFORMATION: Anthony Reybold property appears on the 1849 Smith & Wistar map of New Castle County, and is located between Red Lion and Delaware City, amid the farms of other family members. William Still Underground Railroad, 443-444.
ARRIVAL FROM MARYLAND, 1858. EDWARD CARROLL EDWARD, a youthful passenger about twenty-one years of age, slow of speech, with a stammering utterance, and apparently crushed in spirits, claimed succor and aid of the Committee. At first the Committee felt a little puzzled to understand, how one, apparently so deficient, could succeed in surmounting the usual difficulties consequent upon traveling, via the Underground Rail Road; but in conversing with him, they found him possessed of more intelligence than they had supposed; indeed, they perceived that he could read and write a little, and that what he lacked in aptness of speech, he supplied as a thinker, and although he was slow he was sure. He was owned by a man named John Lewis, who also owned about seventy head of slaves, whom he kept on farms near the mouth of the Sassafras River, in Sussex County [Those familiar with the area will find this this sentence confusing; we will come back to it]. Lewis had not only held Edward in bondage, but had actually sold him, with two of his brothers, only the Saturday before his escape, to a Georgia trader, named Durant, who was to start south with them on the subsequent Monday. Moved almost to desperation at their master's course in thus selling them, the three brothers, after reflection, determined to save themselves if possible, and without any definite knowledge of the journey, they turned their eyes towards the North Star, and under the cover of night they started for Pennsylvania, not knowing whether they would ever see the goodly land of freedom. After wandering for about two weeks, having been lost often and compelled to lie out in all weathers, a party of pursuers suddenly came upon them. Both parties were armed; the fugitives therefore resolved to give their enemies battle, before surrendering. Edward felt certain that one of the pursuers received a cut from his knife, but the extent of the injury was unknown to him. For a time the struggle was of a very serious character; by using his weapons skillfully, however, Edward managed to keep the hand-cuff off of himself, but was at this point separated from his two brothers. No further knowledge of them did he possess; nevertheless, he trusted that they succeeded in fighting their way through to freedom. How any were successful in making their escape under such discouraging circumstances is a marvel. EDWARD took occasion to review his master's conduct, and said that he "could not recommend him, as he would "drink and gamble," both of which, were enough to condemn him, in Edward's estimation, even though he were passable in other respects. But he held him doubly guilty for the way that he acted in selling him and his brothers. So privately had his master transacted business with the trader that they were within a hair's breadth of being hand-cuffed, ere they knew that they were sold. Probably no outrage will be remembered with feelings of greater bitterness, than this proceeding on the part of the master; yet, when he reflected that he was thereby prompted to strike for freedom, Edward was disposed to rejoice at the good which had come out of the evil. ADDING LOCAL INFORMATION: People who know the area would notice this sentence is puzzling— “He was owned by a man named John Lewis, who also owned about seventy head of slaves, whom he kept on farms near the mouth of the Sassafras River, in Sussex County." No section of the Sassafras River flows in, or even near, Sussex County. No tributary of the Sassafras comes from Sussex County. Sussex County is the southernmost county in Delaware, and yet the title states the arrival was from Maryland. If Carroll lived near the Sassafras and arrived from Maryland, then he either came from Kent County or Cecil County, in the northeast part of Maryland. The pieces of this puzzle don’t fit together, and the available maps showing property owners in that time period yielded no clue. Further research might answer where Carroll began his flight to freedom, but it will have to remain an open question for now. Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line is now available. See the introductory page for more detail. Upcoming presentations and book signings October 15, Rising Sun Library at 6 p.m. – Stealing Freedom along the Mason-Dixon Line- The kidnapping of the Parker Sisters and its significance in the debate over slave catching and kidnapping. October 24, The Delaware Afro-American History and Genealogical Society at the Brandywine Hundred Library, Wilmington, Delaware at 10:30 a.m. – Stealing Freedom along the Mason Dixon Line- How African Americans were affected by slave catchers and kidnappers operating along the Mason-Dixon Line. October 26, Elkton Library at 6 p.m. – Stealing Freedom along the Mason Dixon Line: Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland - The debate over slave catching and kidnapping and how it was a contributing cause for the Civil War, told through the story of Elkton resident Thomas McCreary and his community. November 7, Historical Society of Cecil County, 5 - 7 p.m. - Book signing. Sales benefit the historical society. |
Freedom Seekers and Freedom Stealers along the Mason - Dixon LineAuthorMilt Diggins, M. ed., an independent scholar, author, public historian, and public speaker. Archives
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