Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "The Underground Railroad," October 24, 1853

    Source citation
    "The Underground Railroad," Richmond (VA) Dispatch, October 24, 1853, p. 1: 5.
    Newspaper: Publication
    Richmond Daily Dispatch
    Newspaper: Headline
    The Underground Railroad
    Newspaper: Page(s)
    1
    Newspaper: Column
    5
    Type
    Newspaper
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Sayo Ayodele, Dickinson College
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print.  Spelling and other typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.

    THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - We see every day accounts of the successful escape of slaves from the border slave States to the territory of our honest free neighbors, and their safe transportation by the underground railroad to Canada. A short time ago we had a conversation with an intelligent gentleman of Detroit, Michigan, who informed us that scarcely a day passed in which one or more fugitives, and sometimes large parties, did not cross the ferry at that point to the Canada shore. Temporary provision is generally made for them in some old barracks on the Canada side. The gentleman to whom we refer, informs us that he hat visited the principal settlement of free blacks in Canada, and conversed freely with them upon their history, condition and prospects. He says that the general story of their grievances in the South, is pretty much the same. They say that the "old master died," and they fell into new hands, which did not treat them well, and so they ran off; but "if old master was alive, they'd be mighty glad to get back." Our informant expresses the opinon that most of them would be happy to return without any such condition. Their destitution both of food and clothing is great, and in the winter their sufferings are severe. With few exceptions, they will not work, and in the winter are in the habit of crossing the river to Detroit where they beg and steal to such an extent that the community regard them as a nuissance of the first magnitude.

    This is the Paradise which abolitionists offer to the slave. Freedom to starve and die! The men who help them escape, refuse to give them a dollar after they have escaped, to provide bread for their hunger, or a shelter from the storm. Truly, the 'tender mercies" of those fanatics are "cruel."

    How to Cite This Page: "Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "The Underground Railroad," October 24, 1853," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/839.