Letter from Passmore Williamson (William J. Canby) to Isaac Roney, June 24, 1854

    Source citation
    William Still, The Underground Railroad (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1872), 556.
    Author (from)
    Canby, William J.
    Recipient (to)
    Roney, Isaac
    Type
    Letter
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Michael Blake
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as true to the original written document as possible. Spelling and other typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.

    PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 1854.

    MAJOR ISAAC RONEY:

    DEAR SIR: - Within a few days past a colored man has been traversing the streets of this city, exciting the sympathies of the benevolent by the recital of a tale of the hardships he has lately passed through. He represents himself to be Tucker White, your slave, a carpenter by trade, and that he escaped from your service last Christmas. He is quite dark in complexion, rather over the medium size, and a little lame; the latter, probably, from the effects of frost on his feet, from which, he alleges, he suffered severely.

    He seems to be well acquainted with the adjoining localities, but altogether his narrative is almost incredible, and I am therefore induced to make the inquiry whether such a man has escaped from your service or lately left your neighborhood. We are perfectly flooded with such vagrants. It would be a great relief if some measures could be resorted to to keep them under legal restraint. An answer addressed to No. 73 South 4th Street, above Walnut, will reach me, and oblige, Yours, &c. WM. J. CANBY.

    How to Cite This Page: "Letter from Passmore Williamson (William J. Canby) to Isaac Roney, June 24, 1854," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/1045.