Rhoda of the Underground

by Florence Finch Kelly

At once Rhoda gave way to compassion, for she felt that she had gained her point. She drew her sister within her arm, patting her shoulder and kissing her forehead. “There, there, dear! Never mind. I only wanted to make sure we could trust you.”

In the afternoon when Dr. Ware was ready to make his round of visits, he asked Rhoda to go with him upon a trip he had to make into the country. As they drove through the glistening young spring he told her of his conversation with his morning’s visitor.

“Captain Brown gave me permission to talk it over with you,” he said. “I assured him you could be trusted.” Rhoda’s heart swelled with pleasure at her father’s words and at the matter-of-fact way in which he spoke them, for both words and manner made her know how habitual with him their companionship had become.

“I’ve known him for a good many years,” Dr. Ware went on, “and I’ve always believed that some day he’d strike a big blow, square on slavery’s head, do some big thing that would help immensely to get rid of it. For a man of Brown’s intelligence, character and personality can’t live half his lifetime absorbed by one idea without making something happen. He and I agree on one point, that slavery can be wiped out only by violence. We both see that its roots have gone so deep that to pull them up will make a terrible upheaval. He hasn’t the faith that I have, hasn’t any, in fact, in political measures and the Republican party. He doesn’t believe, as I do, that all this is helping to keep the roots from spreading and getting stronger, and that it will make our victory quicker and easier, when the time for violence does come.

“He thinks that time is nearly here and that he is going to bring it about. He proposes to establish himself, before long, somewhere along the free-state border, with a band of picked followers, drilled in arms, and gather into his fortified camp all the negroes from the near-by plantations. Such of these as wish to go to Canada will be passed on by the Underground, while those who prefer will stay with him and help gather in more slaves from greater distances. As the success of his forays becomes known he thinks that other men will join him from all over the North, until his army, increased also by daring spirits from among the fugitive slaves, will be so large and formidable and slave property be made so insecure that slavery will collapse like the shell of a ruined house.”

Rhoda’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes shining. “What a daring scheme, father! Do you think it will succeed?”

Dr. Ware smiled doubtfully and shook his head. “I don’t think he can carry it through to the end he feels sure of, and I told him so this morning. But his heart is set on it. He has been slowly maturing the plan for twenty-five years, and has even made a tour of the great battlefields and important fortifications of Europe, studying them in the light of this purpose. It seems to me impossible that he can succeed. But he’ll scare the South out of its wits and make it angrier and more determined than ever, and that will be a good thing. With the rising tide of public opinion in the North, it will bring the clash that’s bound to come a big notch nearer.”

“Did he want you to join him, father?”

“Yes. I knew about his plan—we’ve talked of it before. I have so much faith in the power of the one-ideaed man to achieve things that I’ve always told him he could call on me for any help it was in my power to give. I’ve contributed what I could to his Kansas campaign, and I gave him this morning for this scheme all I could spare. I told him, too,” Dr. Ware hesitated a little over his words now, “that I might join him in person somewhat later, if his first attempts prove successful, and that perhaps you would come too. For with your knowledge of nursing you would be useful. Do you think you would care to throw yourself into such a scheme as his, full of danger and sure to fail, but likely to deliver an effective blow?”

His eyes were upon her, clear and calm as usual, but brilliant now with the fires of zeal. As they searched her face her own looked back at him, as glowing with zeal as his. “You know I would, father—you did right to tell him so. I’m always ready to go anywhere or do anything that will help our cause. But—mother—what about mother?”