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Perspective on the Underground Railroad Movement. by Henry Robert Burke The central issue of the Underground Railroad Movement in the United States was expressing disagreement with
the enslavement of millions of African Americans and aiding African Americans in attempts to reach freedom
in Canada. The Underground Railroad was a cladestine effort to free enslaved African Americans and help abolish slavery
in the United States. Geography, laws, economy, racial attitudes, community structure, religious convictions, church organizations,
politics and human nature were major factors. Some enslaved Africans and Africa Americans had run away since 1619, when Africans were first enslaved at
the English Colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Unfortunately during that time period there were few places for these runaway slaves
to hide. From a historical prospective a distinction should be establised between enslaved persons running away
from their captors during the English Colonial Period and those who began to run away after 1812 and were aided by the Underground
Railroad. The enslavement of black Africans was legal in every English Colony in North America. With one notable exception,
only black Africans could legally be held as slaves for life. The exception was that for a relatively short time Native Americans
were enslave, but the enslavement of Native Americans generally did not work out and attempts to enslave Native Americans
was, for the most part, abandoned early on. For the duration of the slavery period in English Colonial and United States
history, the overwhelming majority of the population of African Americans were enslaved. My point here is that dark
skin color made African Americans identifiable as slaves so they were subject to be captured whenever they were seen away
from the scrutiny of their owners. The legacy of slavery, related to the dark complelion of African Americans, still
haunts society in the United States. Enslaved African Americans ran away from plantations where they were held, but they had no safe place to hide.
A few ran off to the hostile wilderness and left little record of their success. Some ran off to other Colonies and were captured
and returned or resold to other slave owners. Over time some enslaved African Americans formed a few Maroon settlements, notably
in Florida which was under the control of Spain. The main point here is that most enslaved African Americans who escaped during
the English Colonial Period in North America had no safe place to hide. An unfolding series of events made it possible for the Underground Railroad Movement to emerge. The first
of these events occurred in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, when the brand new state of New Hampshire abolished
slavery and soon after in 1780 Pennsylvania and some other Northern states. (See Slavery section on the web site for more
details). The next event occurred in 1787 with the creation of Northwest Territory in which slavery was prohibited.
This created regions where for a brief period slaves could escape to and claim freedom. The enactment of the U.S. Fugitive
Slave Laws in 1793 dashed the hopes of fugitive slaves seeking freedom in Northern States and Territories where slavery was
illegal. Fortunately in 1793, the Upper Province of Canada (Ontario) abolished slavery and was followed by the
Lower Province (Quebec) in 1803. This created a situation where fugitive slaves from the United States could cross
the International Border into Canada where the United States had no means to enforce its Fugitive Slave Laws. It appears that during the War of 1812, Britain, who controlled Canada, began to allow fugitive slaves from
the United States to settle in Canada, but fugitive slaves from the South still had to evade capture while traveling North
to Canada. After 1812 cooperative efforts to help fugitive slaves reach Canada was begun by enslaved African Americans on
plantations throughout the Southern states and “free African Americans and “white” Abolistionists in the
Northern states. This effort became the Underground Railroad Movement. A tougher version of the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850. The Fugitive Slave Laws allow slave owners
to pursue and capture fugitive slaves anyplace in the United States. Large rewards were offered for the capture of fugitive
slaves. Even some who were neutral on the issue of slavery would capture or turn in a fugitive slave to collect this reward
money. Those who participated in Underground Railroad activity were technically breaking the law and this made secrecy an
absolute. One aspect that confuses some history researchers is that the Underground Railroad seems to have operated
a little differently according to locality and demographics. To complicate matters, distortions, myths and outright lies have
detracted from the real history of the Underground Railroad. Whatever you call it or however it operated, there were some individuals of all races, both genders, various
religious beliefs, and many ethnic groups who participated in helping fugitive slaves run away to freedom. The Underground Railroad, as traditionally understood, was a loose organization of abolitionists, anti-slavery
societies, and vigilance committee located in the Northern states. Understandably this included the overwhelming majority
of "free" African Americans. In the Southern States, enslaved African Americans hid and otherwise assisted their fugitive slave brethern when
ever the situation was presented and how ever they were able to help. There is a store of mostly oral history about this aspect
of the Underground Railroad Movement that has been overlooked by most Underground Railroad history researchers This was the
way the UR operated in the South, because Abolitionist were not only banned by Southern States, but anyone caught helping
a fugitive slave was a classified as a “slave stealer”. “Slave stealers” were synonymous with “horse
thieves”, so “slave stealers” were hung just like “horse thieves“! This is one contributing
factor why few white people in the South were inclined to help slaves escape. On the other hand Abolitionists could operate more openly. Those accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Law
in the Northern States were accorded the right to legal counsel and the right to a fair trial by their peers. I also
notice that Abolitionists on trial for violating the Fugitive Slave Law in Northern States often had accessnthe best
of legal counsel and often sympathetic peers formed the juries. In the Southern states such formalities were seldom accorded to persons suspected of helping fugitive slaves.
It appears, from some scanty evidence, that white men in the South who were suspected of “slave stealing” were
severely dealt with or even assassinated. “Free African Americans” and “Enslaved African Americans”
who were caught helping fugitive slaves, were probably lynched on the spot or brutally beaten then sold. This was thought
by slave owners to act a deterrent. By law only African Americans could be held in slavery. This makes it understandable why virtually all “free"
and enslaved African Americans” were anti-slavery and why nearly all African Americans participated whole
heartedly the Abolitionists Movement. In general it was forbidden for all African Americans to learn to read and write in
the South. Consequently few enslaved African Americans could read and write. Even the African Americans who could read and
write would have been enormously stupid to write down the activity of the Underground Railroad! The result is that many persons presently researching the UR are not recognizing the clues in existing documents.
The task for researchers is to closely scrutinize slave narratives and properly interpret oral history of African American
families and the fact about the African American role on the UR emerges. As I write, there are Underground Railroad history researchers out there uncovering new facts and developing
new perceptions about what they think the Underground Railroad was. A general consensus on exactly what the term Underground
Railroad means or exactly how many fugitives escaped on the Underground Railroad may never be reached. There were possibly as many as 100,000 fugitive slaves who went to Canada between 1812 and 1861. They went
to Canada from all over the South, but because with better opportunity, geographically speaking, appear to have been the overwhelming
majority of those who successfully made it to Canada. Most fugitive slaves were from the border states of the Upper
South: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. Each of the estimated 100,000 fugitive slaves who escaped to Canada
had their own set of circumstances, but all shared one common goal and that goal was freedom! |
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Judge Ephraim Cutler and the Ohio Underground Railroad.
Judge Ephraim Cutler Greetings my friends! I have traveled from the past to tell you a little about my life and times! Here is
a listing of some major events in my life and some of the contributions I made to the development of early Ohio. I was born in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1767 to Manasseh and Jane Cutler. My father, was a
chaplain to troops in Boston during the Revolutionary War and after the War he helped write the Ordinance of 1787 that created
the Northwest Territory. Both my father and I were associates in the Ohio Company that acquired and sold land to the early
settlers who established the first permanent U.S. settlement in Northwest Territory at Marietta in 1788. In 1802 I was elected as one of three delegates from Washington County, to attend the Ohio Statehood Convention
in Chillicothe and I helped write Ohio’s Constitution. In that effort, slavery in Ohio was vetoed by a single vote.
This set the anti-slavery trend that was followed by the other states that were formed later in the Northwest Territory. In
1804 I became a founding board member of Ohio University, a position I kept for the rest of my life. Though I had to travel
some forty miles to Athens over some pretty rough roads, I never missed an OU board meeting. In 1806, I founded the community of Constitution on the Ohio River midway between Marietta and Belpre. I moved
my family there and built a nice stone house that washed away in the Flood of 1913. At Constitution I established a prosperous
stone quarry that continued to operate until the late 1940s, long after my death. Around 1812, along with my considerable network of friends along the Ohio River, we established Ohio’s
Underground Railroad movement. My home on the banks of the Ohio River across from Virginia was an Underground Railroad Station
. I was elected first as a representative to the Ohio Legislature in 1821 and a bit later as a senator. While there I authored
bills that provided for public education and fairer property taxation based on property value. I was influential in getting
better transportation in southeastern Ohio; this included modern turnpikes, canals and railroads. I lived until age 86 and was very healthy and active until the day I was injured when the horse I was riding
stumbled. I lived four more months. I was born a British subject in the Colony of Massachusetts; I died an American citizen
in Constitution, Washington county, Ohio. In my lifetime, 18 additional states were added to the union; the final - the 34th-
was California in 1850. I knew the 1st president of the United State, George Washington and the 14th
president, Franklin Pierce, was elected the year I died. My descendants also served Ohio and the United States. Son William founded the Marietta, Athens and Cincinnati
(MAC) Railroad. My grandson Rufus Dawes was a Union general during the American Civil War. Charles Gates Dawes was a United
States congressman, an ambassador to Great Britain, wrote the Reparation Act of World War I and became vice president of the
United States under Calvin Coolidge. Beman Dawes, another son of Rufus, founded Dawes Arboretum, at Newark, Ohio. Drop by and visit the Constitution Underground Railroad Station and come on over to nearby Gravel Bank Cemetery
where I rest! I will be happy to see you! Judge Ephraim Cutler
John Stone was born in Belpre, Washington County, Ohio on June 23rd 1795. He was the son of Revolutionary
War Veteran Captain Jonathan Stone. He inherited his father’s homestead on the Ohio River at Belpre across the Ohio
River from Parkersburg, (West) Virginia. Before the Mexican War he was appointed as a Colonel in the Ohio Militia.
John Stone’s farm is located across the Ohio River from the confluence with the Kanawha River. The Kanawha River was a well used Underground Railroad trail out of (West) Virginia. Very early in
John Stone’s life he witnessed the capture of a slave from Wood County, Virginia who had crossed the Ohio River onto
his father’s. The slave’s owner was close behind and hell bent on capturing his errant slave. This incident was
very likely the catalyst that ignited John Stone hatred of slavery and slave owners alike! At that time he made vow to help
every fugitive slave he encountered continue toward freedom in Canada. Before 1820, John Stone joined the growing group of citizens who lived along the Ohio River in their practice
of helping fugitive slaves evade capture. This activity spread rapidly along the Ohio River and the Upper Mississippi River.
This practice became known as the Underground Railroad. John Stone was vocal about his anti-slavery sentiments, but he kept
details about his Underground Railroad activities confined within his close circle of associates. Slave owners in Wood County,
Virginia knew about John Stone and hated him too, but they were never able to prove a case against him. Stone worked closely with ”Aunt Jenny”, the code name for a free black woman in Parkersburg, (West)
Virginia who blew a horn to announce the arrival of riveboats. She had a set of secret notes that announced to John Stone
that a fugitive slave would soon be crossing the Ohio River and would need assistance. Based on John Stone’s outspoken distain for slavery, at one point the Virginia Militia thought he intended
to lead an invasion force of Abolitionists into Virginia to free the slaves. The Virginia Militia positioned a canon on the
Virginia shore of the Ohio River and aimed it toward John Stone’s house on the Ohio shore. Partly for the sake of annoyance
John Stone constructed a fake cannon from a length of wooden pipe and an upside down butter churn! The ruse was over when
the wind blew the makce-shift cannon apart. In 1845, this nearly caused the Civil War to get started! John Stone lived to see the end of slavery in the United States. In January 1884, Colonel John Stone died
peacefully on his farm where he was born and lived out his life.
Abolitionists David Putnam Jr. Marietta, Ohio David Putnam Jr. was born May 17, 1808, at 519 Fort Street, in Harmar, (now part of Marietta, Ohio).
He was the son of David Putnam Sr. and Elizabeth (Perkins) Putnam. David Putnam Jr. was descended from a prominent New England
family. He was the great-grandson of Major General Israel Putnam, the American soldier who fought in the French and Indian
War and the American Revolution. A militant patriot, Israel Putnam reportedly left his oxen and plow standing in the field
where he had been working, and went off to fight the Revolutionary war. David Putnam Jr. was also the grandson of Col. Israel Putnam and a relative of Brigadier General Rufus Putnam,
the Revolutionary War soldier who was appointed superintendent of the Ohio Company and led the first party of settlers ) in
1788 to establish the Northwest Territory under the United States Government at Marietta. David Putnam Jr. married to Hannah M. Munson on September 26, 1833, and their marriage was blessed with seven
children, Peter Radcliff, Martha Munson, Mary Burr, Catherine Douglass, Hannah Hubbard, Rufus Browning and Elizabeth Perkins
Putnam. He operated a mercantile business in Harmar, now part of Marietta, Ohio and became a respected retailer. His home was located at the head o f Maple Street. This house was constructed in 1830 on two acres that extended
to the back of the Harmar Congregational Church. The Lydia Hale family were the last occupants of the dwelling. The house
was demolished in 1953 to make way for Fort Harmar Drive at the west end of the Washington Street Bridge in Marietta. David Putnam Jr. acquired his antislavery sentiments from growing up across the Ohio River from Wood County,
Virginia, then a part of the "Old Dominion" where slavery was not only legitimate, but was also very profitable. Both the
south side (Virginia) and the north side, (Ohio), of the Mid-Ohio River Valley began development around the same time (1780s),
with people of opposing political views about slavery, settling directly across the river from each other. In all fairness,
it must be noted that the overwhelming majority of the Virginians in "western" Virginia eventually rejected slavery and secession,
and in 1863 formed the "free", (loyal to the Union), state of West Virginia. David was born at just the right moment, in just the right place, with the necessary of amount of family prestige,
to lead the Underground Railroad in Marietta. The Underground Railroad and David Putnam Jr. literally grew up together. As
a young man, David had become personally aquatinted slavery in Wood County, Virginia, and had seen slaves - "sold down the
river" - to plantations in the Deep South. As a teenager he decided to take an active role in the fight to abolish slavery
in the United States. When I use the word fight, I mean it literally. David Putnam was a tall muscular fellow who was equally comfortable
settling his disputes either by diplomacy or his with bare knuckles. He would let his opponents choose their own poison, but
he would never compromise his anti-slavery principles. In December of 1845, he wrote in a letter to be delivered by one William
P. Cutler of Marietta, to one Mr. Guthrie in Columbus, Ohio: " If we cannot catch the kidnappers, the devil will!"; the
kidnapers he referred to were bounty hunters in pursuit of fugitive slaves. In 1847, David Putnam Jr. was sued by Virginia plantation owner George Washington Henderson, for the lose
of nine slaves, which Henderson claimed Putnam had influenced to run away. The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District
Court in Columbus, was dismissed in 1852. Historic Underground Railroad Law Suit: Henderson vs. Putnam- Filed in: U.S. CIRCUIT COURT, District of Ohio in Columbus, on June 25, 1849. Attorneys for the Plaintive: Samuel F. Vinton and Noah H. Swayne. Attorney for Defense: Salmon P. Chase [G.W. Henderson, Briar Plantation, Wood County, Virginia (Slave Owner) , charged that under provisions
of the {1793 U.S. FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW},David Putnam Jr., Harmar (Marietta< | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
