[1] Still, The Underground Railroad, 316-319.
Captain Fountain arrived in Wilmington in July, 1856 with a passenger list that revealed a stop at the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay and near the entrance to the canal. The subtitle in Still’s book stated that Captain Fountain arrived with nine passengers, with one North Carolinian’s name missing in the text. The North Carolinians named were Peter Heines, Eatontown [Edenton?], Matthew Bodams, Plymouth, and James Morris, South End. The Virginians, all from Portsmouth, were Charles Thompson, Charity Thompson, Nathaniel Bowser, and Thomas Cooper. The last name on the list was George Anderson, Elkton, Maryland. Thomas Garrett gave the count as “four able-bodied human beings from North Carolina, and five from Virginia” in a letter he sent to William Still to inform him that the group would divide up and arrive by train and steamboat. Garrett mentioned that employment was available in abolitionist Elijah F. Pennypacker’s Phoenixville, Pennsylvania neighborhood, and North Carolinians would likely be safe there. This employment opportunity could account for the absence of the one North Carolinian name in Still’s list. Garrett must have erroneously added Anderson to the Virginia count. But significantly, among these freedom seekers from the tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina, Still identified George Anderson as coming from Elkton, Maryland. Elkton, the county seat of Cecil County, lies on the Elk River, the same river as the entrance to Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Elkton harbor and the canal entrance were approximately five miles apart.[1]
[1] Still, The Underground Railroad, 316-319.
1 Comment
3/4/2022 01:31:23 pm
This employment opportunity could account for the absence of the one North Carolinian name in Still’s list. Thank you for making this such an awesome post!
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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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