Joseph Southwick – Abolitionist

The Southwick family members were Quaker in early Salem, even when that meant persecution from the Puritan authorities. Their children and descendants married prominent Quakers from all over New England.  In the compiled genealogy book about the Southwick family, Joseph Southwick (1791 – 1866) is described as a tanner, with three daughters. Period. With a little digging I was able to learn that Joseph Southwick was much more than a tradesman.   I was also able to find out the many ways I am related to this family (I have a few relationships described below at the end of this blog post).

Joseph Southwick founded the American Anti-Slavery Movement in 1833 and was a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  He was president of the society 1835 -1836, and vice president for many years.  He was one of the original subscribers to William Lloyd Garrison’s journal The Liberator.  He is considered one of the original abolitionists in America.  His work inspired his wife and daughters to be involved in abolitionism, at a time when women were usually not allowed to campaign for progressive causes. 

Joseph Southwick married Thankful Hussey, daughter of Quaker abolitionist Samuel Hussey.  She was a member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and of the New England Non-Resistance Society.  William Lloyd Garrison delivered the eulogy at her funeral, and Lydia Maria Child wrote her obituary.  She lived longer than her husband and was able to become even more famous as an abolitionist in New England.

The compiled Southwick genealogy book (see below) has Thankful’s obituary on pages 261 – 264

OBITUARY

Thankful Southwick, widow of Joseph Southwick, died on the 29^th of April, at her residence in Grantville [a part of the town of Wellesley], Mass., in the 75^th year of her age.

                All survivors of the old abolition band will remember her as one of the very earliest, the noblest, and the most faithful of that small army of moral combatants who fought so bravely and perseveringly for the deliverance of the downtrodden.  Mrs. Southwick was born and educated in the Society of Friends, and to their calmness of demeanor she added indomitable persistence in the path of duty.

                One of the most exciting affairs that ever occurred in Boston was known as the Baltimore Slave Case.  Two girls had escaped in a Boston vessel, and when about to be carried back, were brought out by a writ of habeas corpus.  All Boston was in a ferment for and against the fugitives.  The commercial world were determined that this Southern property should be restored to the white claimants, and the abolitionists were determined that it should remain in the possession of the original owner owners until a “bill of sale from the Almighty” could be produced.  The well-known Father Snowdon was then alive, and by his vigilance and ingenious arrangements, efficiently aided by Mrs. Southwick, the slaves were, at a given signal, spirited away from the crowded court-room, and conveyed out of the city.  The agent of the slaveholders happened to be standing near Mrs. Southwick, and while he was gazing in astonishment at the empty space where the fugitives had been an instant before,  she turned her large gray eyes upon him, and said very calmly, “Thy prey hath escaped thee.”

                Wherever working or thinking was to be done for the advancement of our righteous cause, there was Thankful Southwick, ever ready with wise counsel and energetic action.  She and her excellent husband were among the very first to sustain Garrison in his unequal contest with the strong Goliath of slavery.  At that time they were in affluent circumstances, and their money was poured freely for the unpopular cause, which had as yet found no adherents among the rich.  Their commodious and every-way comfortable house was a caravansary for fugitive slaves and for anti-slavery pilgrims from all parts of the country. At the anniversary meetings, when most of the city abolitionists were anxious to have for their guests Friend Whittier, or Angelina Grimke, or Theodore Weld, or Hon. Mr. Birney, or George Thompson, or some other lions of the cause, Joseph and Thankful Southwick were quietly looking about for such anti-slavery brothers and sisters as were too little known to be likely to receive invitations.  And through all their long and honorable lives this worthy couple retained the same characteristics. Always kindly and unpretending, clear sighted to perceive the right, and faithful in following it, wheresoever it might lead. They were upright in all their dealings with the world, tender and true in the relations of private life, and the memory they have left is a benediction. – Lydia Maria Child, in Anti-Slavery Standard [repeated in other newspapers across New England and the United States]

The Southwicks lived originally in North Vassalboro, Maine, but removed to South Danvers (now Peabody, Massachusetts) in 1834.  They were very active with the Anti-Slavery movement and eventually removed again, in 1835 to High Street in Boston for the next two years.

Abigail Southwick (1819 – 1904), their eldest daughter, attended the convention of antislavery women in 1838 and was a delegate to the London convention in 1840.  She married John Hubbard Stephenson.

Their middle daughter, Sarah Hussey Southwick (1821 – 1896) was the treasurer of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1842, when her mother was president. She was only thirteen years old in 1834 when she moved to South Danvers and attended the first Anti-Slavery event in Boston with her father and sisters.  You can read a very interesting chapter about Sarah's life in the book Old Anti-Slavery Days: Proceedings of the Commemorative Meeting held by the Danvers Historical Society at the Town Hall, Danvers, April 26, 1893 , pages 134 – 140 (available to read online at Google Books).

The Southwick Genealogy:

Generation 1: Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell. Immigrant ancestors to Salem, Massachusetts, arrested for being Quaker and exiled to Shelter Island in 1659 where they died of exposure.  My 9^th great grandparents.

Generation 2: Daniel Southwick, son of immigrants Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell,  born 1637 in Salem, died about 1718; married about 1663 to Esther Boyce.  He was the brother to my 8^th great grandfather, John Southwick (1625 – 1672).

Generation 3: Lawrence Southwick, (my first cousin 7 generations removed)  son of Daniel Southwick and Esther Boyce, born 1664 and died 1718 in Northampton, New Jersey; married on 24 June 1704 in Salem to Tamosen Buffum.  She was also my first cousin 8 generations removed, since I descend from her grandparents, Robert Buffum (1590 – 1669) and Tamosen Ward (1606 – 1688). 

Generation 4:  Joseph Southwick, son of Lawrence Southwick and Tamosen Buffum, born in 1716 in Salem, Massachusetts; died 1791 in Peabody, Massachusetts; married Bethia Callum, who died 1803 in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Generation 5: Edward Southwick, son of Joseph Southwick and Bethia Callum, born on 1 March 1757, died 23 January 1836; married Abigail Rowell.   She was the daughter of Jacob Rowell and Anna Buxton, born on 14 June 1764 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and died 10 February 1856.

Generation 6: Joseph Southwick, son of Edward Southwick and Abigail Rowell, born on 11 September 1791, died on 10 May 1866; married to Thankful Hussey, the daughter of Samuel Fothergill Hussey and Thankful Purington.   Joseph Southwick is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed.   Three children:

1. Abigail , born 17 September, 1819

2. Sarah Hussey, born 3 March 1821

3. Anna R., born 6 April 1823

For the truly curious:

The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison:  Let the oppressed go free, 1861 – 1867, by William Lloyd Garrison, 1979,  (available to read online at Google Books)

https://archive.org/details/lettertomydearga00john_60  The1867 Letter from Oliver Johnson to William Lloyd Garrison, wishing Garrison a “happy and prosperous journey” to Europe, and expresses his shock at the sudden death of Thankful Southwick.

The Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, by James Moore Caller and Maria A. Ober,  (available to read online at Google Books)

My relationship to Thankful Hussey, wife of Joseph Southwick:

Generation 1.  Rev. Stephen Batchelder  (1561 – 1656)  (my 11^th great grandfather)

Generation  2.  Theodate Batchelder m. Christopher Hussey (I descend from two of her siblings – Nathananiel Batchelder (1590 – 1630) and Ann Batchelder Sanborn (b. 1601)       

Generation 3.  Stephen Hussey m. Martha Bunker

Generation 4.  Batchelder Hussey m. Abigail Hall

Generation 5.  Sylvanus Hussey m. Elisabeth Varney (daughter of Joseph Varney and Abigail Robinson, and granddaughter of William Varney (1599 – 1654) and Bridge Deverell, my 10^th great grandparents)

Generation 6.  Samuel Fothergill Hussey m. Thankful Purington

Generation 7.  Thankful Hussey m. Joseph Southwick  (She is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed three different ways! )

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/joseph-southwick-abolitionist.html

Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842

The historic Old Meeting House in Pittsfield,
now the town Senior Center

In the 1840s not all of New England espoused Abolitionist beliefs, or embraced the idea that the African slaves were their brothers.  Most of New Hampshire did not follow the liberal beliefs found in Salem or Boston.  It was rural.  Most residents had never seen a black person. Remember, at this time the only president from New Hampshire was in office, and Franklin Pierce was infamous for signing the Fugitive Slave Act, and for being a copperhead.

In 1842 Frederick Douglass was sent by the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society to speak at the church in tiny Pittsfield, New Hampshire. He was only 25 years old, recently freed from slavery.  He had to ride on the roof of the stage coach because “no colored person could be allowed inside” as he stated in his autobiography.  He was not met with open arms.  The Hilles family, who was asked to board him, subscribed to the Liberator.  They felt obliged to put him up but not to treat him well.  Douglass wrote that Mr. Hilles suffered from “colorphobia”.

One year earlier in Northfield, New Hampshire a pastor named George Storrs prayed at his pulpit for abolition.  He was arrested on a complaint of disturbing the peace!  This made national headlines.  He was arrested a second time in Pittsfield by the authority of a writ signed by the Democratic US Representative who lived in town.  The Reverend Storrs was sentenced to three months hard labor. Frederick Douglass knew he was facing a tough audience.

During Frederick Douglass’s lecture, the audience was polite, but did not applaud. During the lunch break no one invited him home, and the only tavern in town asked him to leave.  Douglass sat on a stone wall by the church in the rain to wait until the evening session of his lecture.  Finally, a gentleman passing by took pity and invited him to his home.  This was the US Representative Moses Norris, well known pro-slavery advocate who had signed the writ for Reverend George Storrs arrest!

Frederick Douglas sat on the wall or on one
of the tombstones here at the Meeting House cemetery

At the Norris home, the children ran screaming from the house when they saw a black man enter the door.  Mrs. Norris first acted cold, but then opened her heart when she saw Douglass was shivering and hungry.  By the end of the meal, Douglass quoted “from that moment I could see that her prejudices were more than half gone, and that I more than half welcome at the fireside of this Democratic Senator.  I spoke again in the evening and at the close of the meeting there was quite a contest between Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Hilles, as to which I should go home with.”

Hearts were turned in little Pittsfield, New Hampshire.  His evening lecture was a huge success and Douglass went on to become a famous speaker all over the north.  Moses Norris went on to become a US senator, succeeding Franklin Pierce. In this part of New England there are still few black residents, and few black tourists.  But Pittsfield has honored the stone wall, where a discouraged Frederick Douglas sat shivering, as part of their heritage trail with this a marker:

Transcription of the historical marker at Pittsfield, New Hampshire

1842 - Frederick Douglass' Visit
On one of these gravestones sat the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a cold, drizzling rain after giving an anti-slavery speech in the Old Meeting House. Having been refused service at a nearby hotel, he was hungry and without shelter. Pro-slavery Senator Moses Norris, Jr., in an act of humanitarian kindness, invited the disconsolate stranger into his house for the evening. Thereafter, Mr. Douglass was treated with great respect.

-------------------------

From The Nation’s Problem by Frederick Douglass, 1889

“There is still a great deal of prejudice, even in the North, against colored people; but he has found out that the only way to cure it, is to treat them kindly. This he proved by the fact that at Pittsfield, New Hampshire, forty-eight years before, Mrs. Norris had been helped, by doing him a kindness, to shake off her prejudice against his color and his views so thoroughly as to be the first to shake hands with him after his lecture.”

--------------------------------

At Hampton, New Hampshire John Greenleaf Whittier wrote this tongue-in-cheek poem in honor of the election of 1846, as a coded letter from Franklin Pierce to Moses Norris.  It mentions the anti-slavery Free Will Baptists of New Hampshire, and abolitionist John P. Hale, who was elected senator as a dissident Democrat.

“ ‘Tis over, Moses!  All is lost!

I hear the bells-a-ringing;

Of Pharoah and his Red Sea host

I hear the Free Wills singing.

We’re routed, Moses, horse and foot,

If there be truth in figures,

With Federal Whigs in hot pursuit,

And Hale and all the ‘niggers’…

The ides of June! Woe the day

When, turning all things over,

The traitor Hale shall make his hay

From Democratic clover!

Let Hale exult and Wilson scoff,

To see us southward scamper;

The slave, we know, are “better off

Than laborers in New Hampshire!”

---------------------------------

For more information:

The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, Kessinger Publishing, 2004,  see pages 530 – 534 for the description of his days in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.

A post at SeacoastNH.com by historian J. Dennis Robinson, his primary source was the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail Resource Book by Valerie Cunningham and Mark Sammons, http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please021001.html

The Pittsfield, New Hampshire Heritage Trail website, and this link takes you to the page describing Douglass’s lecture at the Old Meeting House

 http://www.pittsfield-nh.com/publicinfo/parkstrails/historical_walking_trail_2.htm

The map and trail brochure can be printed out for visitors.

Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Freedom, by Jonathan H. Earle,  University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pages 98 -99 for Whittier’s poem about Norris and Storrs.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 9, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-frederick-douglass.html: accessed [access date]).   

Dad's College Paper Part 3

In part 1 of this series of posts I included an introduction on my Father's college paper on the Underground Railroad in Massachusetts, written in 1954.  In Part 2 I included a few scanned images from the paper, with some explanations regarding the Jenkins station house in Andover, Massachusetts.  Here, in part 3, is a transcript of the college paper, submitted to Northeastern University in Boston, on 18 March 1954.

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THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN MASSACHUSETTS

John W. Wilkinson

Northeastern University
History 23-18
Professor Wallace Bishop
March 18, 1954

I’ve served my master all my days

Without a dime reward,      

And now I’m forced to run away 

To flee the lash abhorred.

The hounds are baying on my track- -

The master’s just behind,

Resolved that he will bring me back

Before I cross the line.

                Farewell old master,

                Don’t come after me,

                I’m on my way to Canada

                Where colored men are free. 1

The loosely knit organization by which fugitives made their way to Canada was spread throughout the North from Kansas to the east coast.  It was secretive in nature usually working during the night through local groups that passed the runaways from house to house.  The knowledge of freedom in Canada was probably spread by Southern soldiers returning from the War of 1812.

In New England the fugitives arrived by the sea as stowaways or befriended by a negro hand on board.  They sailed usually from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Norfolk, Virginia arriving at such ports as Portland, Salem, Marblehead, Boston, New Bedford or New Haven.2

Many found jobs here and lived undisturbed.  Not until the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was there great migration to Canada.  In the Quaker town of New Bedford about 600 were In residence in 1851.  When news was received that slave hunters were headed there from Boston, measures were taken to protect the, however the danger never precipitated.3

Frederick Douglas, who escaped through Baltimore in a sailor’s garb, was an inhabitant here.  At an anti-slavery meeting in Nantucket he made a deep impression by a speech and thus became a leading orator for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.4

North from Fall River and Norwich, routes led to Worcester County, an ardent anti-slavery area where aid could always be found.  In 1847 Stephen Foster and his wife ran a station on the outskirts of the city at their home which came to be known as “the Liberty Farm”.  His cellar contained a vault with no opening except by a trap door from above.  Here slaves were hidden in their stop overs. 5   After the capture of Anthony Burns in 1854, a meeting was held by ardent abolitionists in Concord, resolving to aid any escapee making his way from Boston.  Among the notables present were Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mr. and Mrs. John Thoreau. 6

BOSTON’S ROUTES

Aided by both whites and Negroes in the South, more slaves made their way to Boston than any other port on the Atlantic coast.   Most came as stowaways, others traveled there after landing at other ports.  The anti-slavery movement made it a famous place of refuge from 1830 on.  In 1831 the first issue of the Liberator had appeared.  Of this occasion James Russell Lowell wrote:

               

                In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,

                                Toiled o’re his types one poor,

                                Unlearned young man;

                The place was dark unfurnished and mean;

                                Yet there the freedom of a race began. 7

In 1847 a famous slave was caught by the name of George Lattimer.  A group of determined men met and planned his rescue from jail by force.  His master finally sold the slave to the group rather than have the jail stormed.  The money was raised by soliciting and George became a free man.  His fear of kidnapping caused him to hide out in Underground retreats for many years.

Sometimes the runaways did not quite make it to Boston and were returned South.  In 1846 such an incident took place.  Within view of shore a slave made a plunge to freedom.  To the outrage of those watching on shore, he was caught and hauled back aboard.  A committee was put into operation at the time making resolutions to protect and aid those seeking refuge.  Before anything could be decided however, the ship had sailed to the South.  Regarding this incident Emerson wrote that he “felt the irreparable blame to Boston for the abduction.” 8

This first committee was important in being the forerunner of the much more important Vigilance Committee.  One of the main activities of this new organization was the use of Captain Austin Bearse’s yacht the Moby Dick.   Bearse was a principal agent and his duty was the collection of fugitives from ships in Boston Harbor.  Later, the members pooled their money and bought the Wild Pigeon  also managed by Bearse.  Upon the disbandment of the committee the money from the sale of the vessel was returned to the contributors.  Most of the slaves of the early period were congregated in the section of colored people who inhabited the north side of Beacon Hill on “Nigger Hill”. 9

A reproduction of the map in Mr. Siebert’s book is hardly complete.  Many operators knew the danger of discovery by written records.  There was drastic punishment for their midnight jaunting.  At least five routes have been traced as radiating from Boston.

One route strangely enough traveled some 40 miles southeast to Plymouth.  Fugitives were also sent to Boston along the same route from this port.  Another more important trail followed the tracks of the Boston to Albany Railroad to the before mentioned Worcester territory.  From there a Mr. Israel Howe Brown used his wagon filled with vegetables under which the passengers hid on their journey north to Fitchburg.  10

The next route led through Medford.  Here it split and steered either through Reading and Andover, or more westerly up to Dracut.  In Reading, Jonas Parker once frequented slaves at the corner of Ash and Cross streets.  While making a personal investigation of this station, a Mrs. Berle, who lives across the street, told me of Mr. Walter Garritson whose age dates him back to the era.  His answer to my letter for information is the following:

                                                                                    179 Ash Street
                                                                                    Waltham 54
                                                                                    Mass.
                                                                                    March 12, 1954
Dear Mr. Wilkinson

Yours recieved and I wish that I could answer all the questions but I'll do the best that I can.

What I learned was from Cyrus King Littlefield.  We always called him King.  He lived on Ash St. and he told me that about dusk some times he would see two or three negros come crawling out from under the barn and they would travel with the North Star to guide them.  All was kept as secret as possible and among as few as possible.  These things King learned as he grew older.

The barn where they were hidden day times had only a cellar under the cows and horses on the South side of the barn so the negros would have a large space on the dirt under the barn floor.  There they would find food.  The few who were running this would be notified at the next station ahead and know when to look for the new comers.  Some times there were men around trying to capture the escaped slaves.  And so there could be no traveling until they were told that the coast was clear.

I don't know [who] was the owner of the barn but it was built by Jonas Parker who lived up Ash St.  I tried to make a drawing of the barn and every one looks worse than the one before it.

There were directed where the next stopping place would be.  And who would be on the look out for them. Some times they would be fortunate to ride some of the way.  King said that they would have a stick over their shoulder with a little bundle on it.  Probably clothing and perhaps food.

                                                        Hoping that [I] may be some [help]
                                                        I am with best wishes
                                                        Yours respectfully
                                                        Walter Gerritson
Aged 93 years
                              [sketch of barn in Reading, Massachusetts]

A fourth itinerary went through Saugus, Danvers, and passed through Newburyport on the way to Exeter, New Hampshire.  Mrs. Elizabeth Bradstreet recalls her mother and father caring for several refugees.  One evening she helped her mother boil brown sugar to smear on the back of an old negro “still raw from the whippings he had received”.  Her father escorted one slave to the Canadian border and remarked “he never saw anything run so fast as that slave in his dash for freedom!”  11  At Newburyport one slave was unusually transported in a coffin.  The baggage master  set it on end and the occupant was not relieved of his head down position until an Underground agent picked it up. 12   The final route, known as the shore line, ran by means of Lynn, Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and converging with the fourth route at Newburyport.  After this city, the slaves were forwarded to Amesbury.  John Greenleaf Whittier wrote to a friend saying he had collected money to help transport a family of four fugitives. 13  [Whittier was a resident at Amesbury]

A TYPICAL  STATION

In order to observe an Underground hostel, I made a circular trip along the routes in Essex and Middlesex Counties.  Several old buildings used in the period have been torn down.  Both the house at 307 Main Street in Stoneham and the Ingalls Kitteridge’s home at the corner of Federal and Cabot streets in Beverly, mentioned in Mr. Siebert’s book, have given way to modern establishments.  By a piece of good fortune, I discovered at the Andover Historical Society that the Jenkin’s place on the old Boston to Haverhill turnpike was still occupied.  It might be noted that this is the next stop after Reading from where Mr. Garritson has mentioned slaves were sent north.

The house was built ten years before the Revolutionary War.  Handed down from his father, William and Mary Jenkins, ardent Abolitionists, used it for a station and meeting place for the Anti-Slavery Society.  George Latimer spent a long period working there as a farm hand.  In 1843 Wendall Phillips, having visited there, gave such a zealous speech on his behalf that the uproar resulted in the passage of the Personal Liberty Act of Massachusetts. 14

On one evening the house was so crowded that Mr. Jenkins was worried where he could bed Frederick Douglas.  When Mr. William Lloyd Garrison heard of the trouble he announced “I would be proud to sleep with Fred.”  Later, Fred remarked he would gladly be skinned alive if he could come out white. 15

The house is set back about three hundred yards from the turnpike connected by a long dirt driveway.  The road winds around the property past the barn and numerous chicken coops.   By construction, the rooms in the two sections surround the chimneys.  In the attic, where the chimney (at the left in the photograph on page 13) slants and grows smaller before protruding through the roof, was recently discovered a secret niche beneath some loose boards which are easily removable.  Here fugitive slaves found a safe hiding place.

Not having a flashlight, I descended into the gap with a candle, probably in the same manner as many Negroes had done over a hundred years before.  Within the space, I estimated the length at then feet with a depth of two feet back from the chimney.  In the rear, behind a corner of the brickwork is a set of shelves on which provisions could be stored in case a long stay was necessary.  Five men could stand comfortably or two men could stretch out on the floor without cramping excessively.  Although I am six feet tall, I could not touch the ceiling when standing on my toes.  (See picture page 13.)

On the roof by this chimney is a skylight from which an excellent view of the neighboring countryside can be obtained.  Thus it was that in the dusk of the evening someone would signal that the road was clear and the fugitives would make their way north to Haverhill and another station on the Underground Railroad.

FOOTNOTES

1  Wilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts, Worcester, 1938, p. 4, A slave song.

2  Ibid, pp. 3-4.

3  Special to the Commonwealth, Mar. 16, 1851; History of New Bedford, Mass., 306.

4  Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, 59 – 60,  63-65, 70, 72.

5  Scrapbook in Library of the Bostonian Society, Old State House, Boston

6  John Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 11, 142.

7  Boston Evening Transcript, Sept. 1, 1897; Henry F. Jenks, Scrapbook, in the Library of the Bostonian Society, Old State House, Boston.

8  Siebert, op. cit., p. 19.

9  Ibid, p. 24.

10  Letter from Miss Marion Le Mere, March 15, 1935; Letter from Mrs. Grace M. Richard, March 1935; letter from Mrs. Diaz, n. d.; Natick Herald, March, 1930; Wellesley Townsman, same; letters from Mrs. Florence Lovell Macewen, Aug. 10 and 16, 1935; letter from Percival William Jones,  Jul. 27, 1935.

11  Historical Collections, Danvers Historical Society, Vol. 4, pp. 129 – 30.

12  Ibid, p. 37 Letter from Teresea S. Castle, of the Newburyport Public Library.

13  Siebert, op. cit., pp. 37 -38, Letter of John Greenleaf Whittier in the Public Library of Haverhill, Mass.

14 Fair and Warmer, Andover, 1928, pp. 1 -2.

15 Ibid, p. 2.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fair and Warmer, Andover, April, 1928

Siebert, Wilbur H., The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts, Worcester, 1936.

Washington, Booker T., Frederick Douglas,  Philadelphia and London, 1907.

Gerritson, Walter, Letter to author, March 12, 1954.

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Part 1 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-dads-college-paper-on-underground.html

Part 2 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-dads-college-paper-part-2.html

Part 4 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-dads-college-paper-part-4.html
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Ona Judge Staines, A Slave Runs away to New Hampshire

A story for Juneteenth

How did a runaway slave from Philadelphia come to New Hampshire? And why was she instantly recognized? Well, she belonged to George Washington, and he had served the last part of his presidency in Philadelphia. Elizabeth, daughter of Senator John Langdon, had seen this slave woman when visiting the First Lady. The Chief Secretary to Washington was Tobias Lear, a Portsmouth native, who also knew the runaway by sight.

Ona Judge Staines was the daughter of an English indentured servant, Andrew Judge, and a black slave mother for the Washington family. She had belonged to Martha Washington’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Children born to slave mothers were property of the slave holder. Ona was a seamstress, and Martha’s personal maid. She didn’t want to return to Virginia at the end of George Washington’s term, so she ran off and took passage on board a ship, the “Nancy”, bound for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This advertisement appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 24 May 1796:

Advertisement.

Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. She is of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed, about 20 years of age.
She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to be described—As there was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone, or fully, what her design is;—but as she may attempt to escape by water, all matters of vessels are cautioned against admitting her into them, although it is probable she will attempt to pass for a free woman, and has, it is said, wherewithal to pay her passage.
Ten dollars will be paid to any person who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any
vessel in the harbour;—and a reasonable additional sum if apprehended at, and brought from a greater
distance, and in proportion to the distance.
FREDERICK KITT, Steward.
May 23

Somehow word made it back to Philadelphia that Ona was in New Hampshire. In November 1796 Washington wrote to Joseph Whipple, the Portsmouth Custom Collector, about returning his slave. Whipple obviously had anti-slavery feelings when he wrote back that a slave who returned voluntarily was “infinitely more value in the estimation of her employer than one taken forcibly like a felon to punishment."

By January 1797 Ona had married Jack Staines. Washington had asked his nephew, who was taking a trip to Portsmouth, to seize Ona and any children she might have had. The nephew, Burwell Bassett, arranged to have dinner with Senator Langdon. The Senator sent a message to Ona, who fled to Greenland, New Hampshire with her baby. She hid with a free black family, the Jacks. When Washington died three months later, she thought she was free.

In New Hampshire Ona found a marriage, religious freedom, and learned to read and paint. She had three children. She worked as a live-in maid for the Bartlett family of Portsmouth, and then removed to Greenland to live with the Jacks family, her former protectors. When she outlived her children, and could no longer work she was reduced to poverty. Ona was supported by several benevolent people of Greenland, and the town records show she received donations of firewood. She died on February 25, 1848. The Staines and Jacks family grave site is located off Dearborn Avenue in Greenland, New Hampshire.

The story of Ona Judge Staines was been made into play recently performed in Portsmouth in 2000. “Thirst for Freedom” was written by Emory Wilson. Several children’s books have been written about her, as well as a popular poem in 1900 written by poet M. O. Halls of Greenland, New Hampshire “Ona, Washington’s Runaway Slave”.

Ona, Washington's Runaway Slave

By M. O. Halls (1900)

But what I have to tell, is, how a slave was hid,
A maid of Martha Washington, a little kid,
And almost white; she had some help and found a way
To make escape upon a schooner down the bay.
The vessel came with wood; behind a pile she hid,
Until, just as the vessel sailed, she thought and did

Just what occasion prompted, slipped on board and hid
Again, and there she stayed in fear until they bid
Her to come on deck, and have no fear, for she was safe;
And all were drawn in pity to the little waif
Of fifteen years. The vessel, bound for Portsmouth, kept
Right on until she reached her port, and then she wept
For joy. Liberty is sweet (bear this in mind)
To all-to bird and beast, as well to all mankind.

A man by name of Staines took her to wife. By her
He had two daughters. 'Liza lived, and many were
The presents made to pave the way to see a slave
Of Washington. Now, when 't was known he wished to save
This chattel, she was warned and fled to this retreat.

The course pursued was very wise; he was discreet.
His letter showed the noble man he always was.
"His wife would like her back, but would not be the cause
Of any strife, take any action, give offence,"
He said, "if public feeling had become intense."
Charles Sumner, senator and statesman (this maintains,)
Was written the collector of the port 'bout Mrs. Staines.
And when the story spread, that she was wanted back,

She sought and found a shelter in the house of Jack.
The Jacks were very jealous of attentions paid
To this lone widow woman, and, when some were made
In common, took the lion's share, scoop in the whole
And treated little Staines as though she had no soul.

The ground where once the cottage stood, there by the brook,
To-day is all smoothed down, and in this garden nook,
Where once sweetwilliams, daffodils, and beds of rue,
Old fashioned flowers, perfumes mixed and drank the dew.

There's nothing left to tell the tale of daily strife,
Of constant struggle, ending only with the life.
They are all buried in a lonely, far-off spot,
Away from human kind-a lonely pasture lot.
Now let us leave this lovely, lonely, sacred dell.

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For the truly curious, more information on Ona Judge Staines:

https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/portsmouth-herald/2017/04/03/portsmouth-s-ona-judge-is/21642021007/  Ona Judge Staines from Seacoast Online, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oney_Judge from Wikipedia

http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/oneyinterview.htm Ona’s story from the website of The President’s House in Philadelphia, including an interview in 1846 that appeared in The Liberator newspaper.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Ona Judge Staines, A Slave Runs away to New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 17, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/06/ona-judge-staines-slave-runs-away-to.html: accessed [access date]).  

Black History Month- Part 3

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The American Anti-Slavery Society

1893 Reunion of the
Danvers, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society

This is the third part of my series on how Black American History influenced my family history, the first part was about slaves, the second part was on the abolitionists in my family history and their relationships with black people (mostly unknown people), and this time the American Anti-Slavery Society.

A majority of my ancestors lived in or near Salem, Massachusetts at the time of the Underground Railroad. There were three major secret routes through Salem, heading north to New Hampshire. The first went through Danvers, to Andover and South Lawrence; the next from Danvers to Georgetown to Haverhill; and the last through Beverly, Ipswich to Newburyport (and water routes to Nova Scotia). This was a secret route, so many places are still unknown, but 33 stops have been identified in Essex County.

On April 26, 1893 there was a reunion of the abolitionists of Danvers, Massachusetts. It was a celebration of the men of the town, Isaac Winslow, Joseph Southwick and others, who had helped to form the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 in Philadelphia. By 1837 the women of Danvers had formed “The Female Anti-Slavery Society", made up of sixty members from just the town of Danvers, some of whom had survived until the reunion in 1893. Famous abolitionists, as well as regular townspeople united for the celebration at the old town hall. At the meeting Dr. Andrew Nichols remembered how as a young man he was stoned in the streets for subscribing members to the anti-slavery newspapers. I was surprised to find the name of Isaac Munroe on the list of original subscribers to the “Liberator” newspaper- he was the brother to my ancestor Luther Simonds Munroe. A letter was read to the guests from Frederick Douglass, who was still alive, but elderly, retired and living near Washington DC.

A large number of the Danvers members of the Anti-Slavery Society were part of the Underground Railroad. Their homes in Essex County were “stations” on the path north to New Hampshire and Canada. As I perused the photographs of some of the homes on the National Park Website, I recognized most of them that are still standing today. One, on 7 Central Street in Manchester-by-the-Sea, is located right across the street from my Aunt Shirley’s house! Another home was the subject of a term paper on the Underground Railroad that my father wrote as an undergraduate at Boston University in the 1950s.

Sons of these Massachusetts Abolitionists were recruited as officers for the Massachusetts 54th Regiment in the Civil War. This is the regiment made famous by the Hollywood movie “Glory.” I am a distant cousin to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw through the Perkins family, but more interesting to me was my family relationship to his fellow officer, Captain Lieutenant Luis Fenollosa Emilio, son of Spanish immigrants. My own great grandfather was Professor Caleb Rand Bill, a Salem Music professor, and Luis F. Emilio’s father was Manuel Emilo, a Salem music teacher from Spain. This story charmed my husband, who is also the son of Spaniards. Luis F. Emilio gave his age as 18, when he was really only 16, to enlist in the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to be one of the original officers of the famous 54th all black regiment (except for the officers!). He died in New York in 1918, but he is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, his place of birth. I am a distant cousin to Captain Emilio through the Kinsman family. Luis F. Emilio wrote the book “A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment”, Boston, 1894.

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By contrast, as I write this story from Londonderry, New Hampshire, I was surprised to learn that although the runaways from slavery were passing through New Hampshire, they were not very welcome in this state. Of course, rural New Hampshire was much more conservative than liberal Massachusetts, even though we are only about 45 miles from Danvers. The Anti-Slavery Societies were not well supported in New Hampshire before the Civil War.

The Reverend Parker Pillsbury in his “Anti Slavery Apostles” wrote about a visit made to West Chester, New Hampshire (now Auburn, bordering Londonderry) by the Anti Slavery orators Mr. Stephen S. Foster and the famous Lucy Stone. Lucy Stone is well known for making bloomers popular, and for keeping her maiden name after marriage (women known by their maiden names in the 19th century were known as “Lucy Stoners”). Mr. Foster said of West Chester that “No town ever more sternly or successfully resisted the anti-slavery, or other unpopular reforms.” They were locked out of the meeting house, and a mob covered their carriage with cow dung. They fled to Derry, where they were again locked out of a meeting house and another mob threatened them to leave on foot, through the snow. Lucy Stone said to Mr. Foster that her “bloomer dress and calf skin boots, like mine, would carry her safely…”

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An Event:
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 2 PM at the Salem National Park Visitor Center. Free Admission - "To Claim Justice: Charles Lenox and Sarah Parker Remond in their own words," (Two African American Abolitionist lecturers of the 19th Century.)

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For More Information:

“Anti-Slavery Apostles” by Rev. Parker Pillsbury, Concord, NH, 1883

“A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts” by Captain Luis Fenollosa Emilio, Boston, 1891.

“Old Anti-Slavery Days” by The Danvers Historical Society and Alfred Porter Putnam, pages vii- xi.
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For Part One of this Series Click Here
For Part Two Click Here
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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo