The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom: A comprehensive history

by Wilbur Henry Siebert

11. Periodicals and Newspapers

In marked contrast with the legal reports and law periodicals, little can be gleaned from the popular magazines of fugitive slave days. The ethics of resistance to the laws for the recovery of runaways is discussed in the North American Review for July, 1850, and in the Democratic Review, Vol. V, 1851, and incidents typical of the experience of the underground operator and his confederates are recited in Once a Week for June, 1862. Careful and extended search has revealed nothing in the better known periodicals published during the War and the two decades following. Recently, however, abolitionists have become retrospective and reminiscent, and the tales of their midnight adventures in contravention of those laws of their country which they deemed subversive of the "higher law" begin to appear in periodicals and newspapers. For example, the first of a series of stories, which are founded upon facts, was printed in the Lake Shore and Home Magazine for July, 1887, an article on the Underground Railroad appeared in the Magazine of Western History for March, 1887, and a "symposium" of reminiscences was published in the Firelands Pioneer for July, 1888. Articles of a miscellaneous nature, in which points of interest are brought out, have been appearing in some of the monthly magazines within more recent years, for instance, in the Atlantic Monthly, the Century Magazine, and the New England Magazine.

Only vague and rare references to the Underground Railroad and its workings are made in the newspapers of ante-bellum days, and these are of little value. The Liberator was fierce in its opposition to the Fugitive Slave Laws, and contains many stories of fugitives, but in this, as in less radical newspapers, the editor observed a discreet silence concerning the secret efforts of his colaborers in emancipating the bondman. It is necessary, therefore, to rely upon the long delayed accounts contributed by operators now advanced in years to the columns of the press. In 1885, interesting articles were printed in the Western Star, of Indiana, and the New Lexington (Ohio) Tribune, and since then, especially since 1890, many others have been published. These have been patiently gathered, and form a part of the author's collections.

12. Histories of Religious Societies

Materials relative to the attitude of various religious denominations towards slavery are to be found in the histories of the different church organizations, such as William Hodgson's The Society of Friends in the Nineteenth Century, Dr. H. N. McTyeire's History of Methodism, and Dr. R. E. Thompson's History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States.

Other works, for example A. C. Applegarth's Quakers in Pennsylvania and S. B. Weeks' Southern Quakers and Slavery, which, while dealing with a single denomination, are not to be regarded as denominational histories in any strict sense, contain points of interest and value.

13. Materials Bearing on Legislation

The study of our colonial legislation supplies ample proof that the harboring of the hunted slave early became a source of annoyance to slave-owners. Laws against this misdemeanor, with curious penalties attached, are included in the collections of statutes of various colonies, for example, in the Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, the Maryland Archives (Assembly Proceedings), the Acts of the Province of New York, the Province Laws of Pennsylvania, the Laws of Virginia, etc. These statutes have been made accessible through their publication in series of volumes, a good collection of which may be found in the State Library in Boston. Among the most important editions are Leaming and Spicer's collection for New Jersey, Hening's series of Virginia Statutes at Large, Bacon's collection for Maryland, and Iredell's edition of South Carolina Statutes.

The history of our national legislation respecting fugitive slaves may be traced in outline in the Journals of the Senate and House. For the voicing of the need of this legislation, which one would naturally expect to find in the speeches of members from the Southern states, one must turn to the Annals of Congress, covering the period from 1789 to 1824, the Congressional Debates, for the period from 1824 to 1837, and the Congressional Globe from 1833 to 1864. The provisions of the Fugitive Slave laws one may find, of course, in the Statutes at Large, and some of the effects of the law of 1850 may be studied in a pamphlet entitled The Fugitive Slave Law and Its Victims, compiled by Samuel May, Jr., and first published in 1856. An enlarged edition of this pamphlet was issued in 1861.