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• 1 media/he would climb to a noook among the cotton bales of the upper deck and busy himself in studying over his bible.jpeg media/Frying Pan Shoals.jpeg 2021-10-28T17:39:47+00:00 Water-Absconding-The Coast as a Route to Escape 29 plain 2021-12-17T20:57:59+00:00 The Coastal region seemingly offered some great opportunities for escape. If one could escape by water, even though it was not an easy journey, then it was a better predicament than taking an arduous overland path. “Coastal geography and the willingness of many local inhabitants to protect runaways compounded slaveholders the threat of the open sea and for slaves its lure” and “Remote swamps and dense forests offered ideal havens for runaway slaves who needed a long term refuge, a point for hasty reconnaissance, or a momentary way station en route to a port. Swamps, pocosins, pine savannas or tidal marshes encroached on every settlement in coastal North Carolina.” 
  
  Moreover, coastal cities such as Edenton, NewBern, and Wilmington were harbor cities, and freedom seekers fled and received shelter, help, and possibly a way of the state on a vessel near or around that area.
  
  Many of the occupations held by blacks, such as ferrymen, fishermen, pilots, and seamen, were less survived than other occupations. Part of the escape by water or over many water sources relied on fishermen or ferrymen for information about docked ships, details pertaining to who to trust, and the climate of the docks and general aid. In some cases, the runaway involved a waterman whose knowledge, access to a boat, or boat ownership would increase the odds of a successful escape. 
  
  To the point of information, “blacks sailors...informed about the political climate beyond the South and offered practical details about coastal geography, sea traffic, and sympathetic captains. A few black seamen even carried letters between Carolina slaves and Northern friends and family.” 
  
  William Singleton wrote the following about coastal space: 
  

  "So we learned little about the outside world. We did learn, however, that a man named Wendell Phillips and a man named Garrison were getting slaves into Canada and we were told that once you got into Canada they could not get you back again, that you were free. Of course the slaves as a whole wanted to be free. Many of them were not treated well and the thought of being sold was a very burdensome thing. The slaves on our plantation had been told that they were going to be free, and they were looking for what their mistress had said to come true. Then Colonel Nelson, who owned an adjoining plantation, set all his slaves free by his will when he died and they were all sent to Liberia. There were about seventy-five of them. And we were anxious to be free too."

  
  Most enslaved people escaped by the water route in North Carolina field by seeking to blend in the places where enslaved and free blacks worked on or near the harbors of “Wilmington, New Bern, Washington, and Plymouth.”
  
  The act of escaping slavery relied on planning; however, no plan was perfect. Freedom seekers had to plan for the unexpected. Developing new pathways and new strategies and changing hideouts were often necessary. Running required “spontaneity, flexibility, good fortune, deft bartering, guile, and even on the vagaries of friendships and love affairs.” 
  
  Harriet Jacobs relied on family and friends, both of whom worked on the waters of North Carolina, to help her attempt an escape through the water route. The most important and consistent help that freedom seekers received was from enslaved and free black people. Slavery, as an institution that required buying and selling, hiring out of enslaved people, and joining a plantation for labor, helped create a maroon community. This unintendedly created great networks among the enslaved people and helped cement a commonality of values and perspectives, which included helping their own and sacrificing their interests. Freedom seekers depended on the help from other blacks. 
  
  The best example of this shows up during the civil war. 
  
   This was because the true allegiance of the enslaved was to family and freedom. 
  
  “A slave woman named Juno escaped with her children by paddling a canoe down the Neuse River at night. “
  
  A slave waterman known as ‘Big Bob’ carried 16 runaways to a Union Navy vessel at Washington, North Carolina and then headed back upriver into Rebel territory for more. 
  
  
  Allen Parker offers another example of escape by boat during the civil war as follows:
  

  "One day we heard a gun fire about four o'clock in the morning and upon gathering in the morning to see what the matter was we saw a United States gunboat out in the river. As this was by no means the first we had seen of Uncle Sam's vessels we were not at all surprised and in fact for some days we had agreed that the next time a vessel came up the river we would try and get on board her. That night after it was quiet, my three friends, whose names were Joe, Arden and Dick all slaves of one Robert Felton came to see me. We talked the matter over and concluded to start that night. We waited till everything was quiet for as it happened there were no "pattie rollers" out that night; and then stole our way down to the river bank, where we knew there was a boat. We found the boat all right but it was fastened to a tree with a chain the ends being locked together. I told the other three men to get some sticks and march up and down the beach like soldiers while I took another stick with which I managed to pull out the staple that held the chain to the boat thereby leaving chain and lock fast to the tree where it may be yet for ought I know to the contrary.
  
  There were some paddles in the boat, and we were not long in making use of them. Pushing out from the shore we bid goodbye to the old plantations and slave life forever. As we neared the boat we were hailed with, "Who are you?" We replied, "Friends," and received the reply, "Advance, friends, and come alongside." As we got alongside of the gunboat we were hailed again with, "Who are you?" and "where did you come from?" My friends said that they were from Rob. Felton's plantation, and I told them that I belonged to Miss Annie Parker. They then inquired if our owners were Union people or not, and we replied that they were not."
  
  "The officer who had hailed us then reported what we said to the captain, but before he went away we told him that all wanted to go on board the vessel and stay. We asked him if he could not take us on board to let us know at once, so that we could got back home before morning. When the officer came back he said he had orders from the captain to let us come aboard. We immediately accepted the invitation, and being very tired, were soon fast asleep on the deck of the vessel. In the morning we were told that we could stay on the boat. Accordingly, we let our boat drift, which, by the way, was only a cypress dugout, being made of a single log."

  Plans could change in a moment’s notice, and events such as weather, disease outbreak, and rumors of a slave plot could affect how an enslaved person adjusted their plans or how any other cases postponed or abandoned the plans. Travel by the water route was dangerous, and not everyone was able to escape the shores of North Carolina. 
  
  In 1831, 19 enslaved blacks who resided near the Plymouth region attempted to make an escape by way of water but wrecked the lighter boat and the boat started leaking. They were caught by white men on a sloop. Blacks were in dire situation, as “the negroes would in a few hours inevitably have perished but for the timely rescue afforded by the sloop weather was squally and that night blew a gale [strong wind].”
  
  Thus, not all were successful when exiting the shores of North Carolina, yet it did not mean the end of danger for those who were successful.
   
• 1 2021-10-28T18:22:38+00:00 Absconding-Escape and the Risks 10 plain 2022-01-29T18:15:10+00:00

  White Duty and Responsibility.

  For blacks, nearly all whites represented potential capturers. In truth, even though slave patrols and the sheriff had direct responsibility for capturing slaves, it was a white community's duty and responsibility. This was even more a reality in light of the 1793 and 1850 fugitive slave laws.

  It was the duty of the white public to capture escaped enslaved people. One historian found that some citizens took their private duties very seriously. "John Buford of New Hanover County and Francis Jones of Beaufort County captured runaways and duly advertised in the press." 
  
  

  Patrols.

  Enslaved people did not have much support beyond the black community and had to be very careful in trusting any unfamiliar individual, no matter whether they were black or white.

  Freedom seekers had no choice but to account for slave patrols, in particular, after 1830. They would have to account for patrols, "by 1835, the slave patrol in North Carolina had become the symbol of the day to day control and discipline of the slave population."

  Enslaved people had adapted to the majority of the routine searches. They had warning systems and created secret places inside and outside of the home for hidden items. Moreover, the patrols' and searchers' effectiveness is debatable. However, their presence certainly made a difference in the thoughts of the enslaved people seeking to travel at night or secret items or business endeavors. The effectiveness of enslaved people's ability to move around and avoid patrols shows up in maroon activity. See the petition for example HERE and HERE
  
  

  Although freedom seekers may have been familiar with the pattern of patrols in the area where they lived, once in unfamiliar areas, enslaved persons would have to either learn the patterns on the fly or find help and information. This is because the "effectiveness of patrol varied from community to community, and from county to county. In some communities, the patrol was powerful and effective, while it was weak and ineffective." As Dr. Parker notes, freedom seekers had to remain vigilant in their escape. Yet, despite the risk of patrols, "[patrols] did not completely stymie the ability of slaves to assert their humanity, nor did it crush their desire for freedom, or totally restrict their movement." 

  Death.

  Freedom seekers risked death at every stage in the process of escape. Many who had to escape immediately because of a clear and present threat did not always make it off the plantation. Several were shot and some were shot and killed before the escape. For example, one enslaved plantation on the Swan plantation, who was suspected of taking a pig, attempted to flee punishment when he was ordered to discuss the theft from the fields. While in the fields, he dropped his hoe and headed for the woods, and the overseer loaded a duck shot and stopped his attempt. He did not die, but he still had "twenty-six duck shots remaining in his flesh" following a physician's visit and six weeks of recovery.
  While off the plantation, freedom seekers were often pursued by men with guns and vicious dogs. When caught, there was little one could do other than endure punishment. Nevertheless, sometimes the desperation helped the freedom seeker to fight the captors despite the odds. For example, one freedom seeker in Richmond county was ambushed by several men waiting for him in the night. After fighting off the ambushers many times with a club, he was shot and killed. 

  Risks also included being outlawed. The law of outlawing meant that the freedom seeker was deemed a danger or menace to society, and it was "lawful for any person or persons whatsoever to kill and destroy such slaves or slaves, by such ways and means as he shall think fit, without accusation or impeachment of any crime for the same." It was not possible or desirable for slaveholders to lose a laborer; therefore, slaveholders counted on patrols to find and secure enslaved persons. However, sometimes slaveholders believed outlawing was the best threat to get the enslaved person to return hopefully. Example of outlaw runaway notice HERE

  Risk of Capture and Being Returned.

  While on the journey, many enslaved people were caught in other states and sometimes at ports of the desired destination. For example, one young woman who was escaping by the Wilmington port was caught in Boston after the vessel she traveled [stowawayed] was fumigated. She was forced to reveal herself. She was captured, and the Captain desired to send her back to slavery. Many were caught and sent back to slavery. See example HERE 

  Even those who made it to free territory were not safe. The record of freedom seekers across the national record is ripe with enslaved persons being taken from free states and Canada back to the South. In addition, freedom seekers were warned by newspapers and friends while in free territory not to drop their guard and be on the lookout. For example, the National Anti-slavery Standard on September 21, 1843, warned freedom seeker Henry of North Carolina that he was being tracked by a man named Wheeler from Salisbury, North Carolina. 

  The article noted that Wheeler planned to seek Henry out in northern Vermont and then seek him out in Montreal, Canada. If found in Canada, the newspaper warned that the bounty hunter would attempt to lure Henry back to the United States to legally capture him and return him to slavery in Virginia. 

  The newspaper also indirectly asked those who knew his whereabouts to anticipate a bribe but hope that no one would fall for the trap. The "man-hunter" offered money to anyone that could have found Henry, who formerly belonged to Mr. Pope of Salisbury. Mention of the bribe in the newspaper would have also alerted Henry to be on guard against all he did not know, white or black. Vermont is not typically a place known for the Underground Railroad or a haven for freedom-seeking; there is some history there. See HERE

  Sometimes the risk of runaways had to be accounted for by whites. Not only could they face retaliation by freedom seekers, but also the desperation of whites sometimes to regain their "property" caused them to take considerable risks. 

  As was the case in 1861 when George Bower of Ashe County. To retrieve a freedom seeker, he attempted to cross a swollen Yadkin River [rivers in the higher elevation are often faster and more dangerous]. Ignoring the advice of the enslaved carriage driver that the river was too swollen to ford, George ordered him to cross the river. "The current took the carriage with its single occupant far beyond the bank. Col. Bower was drowned, but the driver and horses escaped." 

  Fighting to Stay Away.

  There was always a risk of being caught, but some enslaved people were desperate to get away or not be caught and would do whatever it took to stay away. Sometimes that desperation led to incredible feats, and sometimes, it led to the killing of potential captors. 

  In 1860, John Chapman sought to apprehend an enslaved runaway and the leader of a maroon community named Ben Soon. Along with two other men, Chapman found the camp where Ben and other freedom seekers were hiding. They were near Soon's mother's home in the area of New Bern. However, Ben was armed, and as the men tried to capture him, Ben shot John in the chest and killed him. The other two men that were with Chapman fled. The newspaper reported that the freedom seeker, Ben Soon, was of "a very bad character who has been away for several years." Ben Soon was a famous maroon in the area of New Bern, North Carolina. Following the death of John Chapman, several newspapers advertised a $400 reward to find Ben Soon and his gang. Ben Soon's Notice 

  Another case of death and self-defense occurred in Carteret county when Amos Small was killed by a freedom seeker named Daniel. Daniel had been absconding for some time before the incident. Daniel was caught at Harlow's Creek, Carteret county, and committed to the care of Amos Small, who was to take Daniel to the town of Beaufort. Daniel killed Small to continue his escape. However, he was eventually recaptured and jailed. 
  
  The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, had this to say about Daniel and freedom seekers killing captives, 

  "who, in self-defense, and to free himself from the clutch of a kidnapper, laid the wretch dead at his feet! Why not 'the heroic slave,' or 'the patriotic slave?' What say the opponents of 'non-resistance' respecting this affair? If ever a man was justified in taking the life of his merciless enemy, was not this slave? He could hope for no redress, no protection, from the laws of his country...had he been a white American...his name would have been celebrated in immortal verse, and monuments erected to perpetuate his memory. But being nothing but 'a nigger,' he of course deserves to be hanged by a republican and Christian people!" 

  For another example of an incredible feat, one enslaved person, a stowaway, on a vessel called The Brig, William Purrington, was caught aboard on the coast of North Carolina. The Captain wanted to return the freedom seeker to Wilmington but could not do so because of strong winds. The Captain was forced to dock in the Boston Harbor, and the freedom seeker was forced into the bottom of the ship and held captive there until the Captain could find a place to jail and get the enslaved person back into the South. However, the freedom seeker escaped this plight by jumping overboard into the freezing water with a wood plank, hoping to swim ashore. Eventually, he was rescued by a "passing sloop, which took him on board and brought him up to the city." After arriving in the city, he was cared for by his friends, who had to help warm his frozen hands and feet. Not long after, necessary preparations were made so that he could reach Canada.

  One freedom seeker, who had absented himself for seven years, was caught in 1860. Belonging to a slave-trading firm, he was taken out of jail and on a train to Richmond, Virginia, most likely to be sold to the deep south. While a few miles out from the city, it was recorded that while the train slowed but still moved at a rate of 25 miles an hour, the freedom seeker opened a side window and jumped out. Although the captors did not initially think he would survive, some later claimed to have witnessed the freedom-seeking man walking on the railroad after his escape. As a result, a reward of $500 dollars was issued for his capture.

  Environmental Dangers.

  Environmental dangers were always apparent for the enslaved as a part of the risk of fleeing. Some of the hideouts enslaved people chose were also very dangerous. When North Carolina was a colony, the Great Dismal Swamp was a famous hideout for runaways and other outlaws. 

  Nonetheless, swamps were dangerous, as they housed mosquitoes, yellow flies, panthers [hunted and extinct], bears, alligators, and venomous snakes. At 38 years of age, Daniel Carr, in a third escape attempt, fled to the swamp, where he dwelt for three months. He notes that he was "surrounded with wild animals and reptiles."

  Similarly, Harriet Jacobs noted that she had come to fear snakes during many attempts at running away after being bit by a venomous snake while hiding in the woods. She had to deal with her fear of snakes when she was forced to hide in a place called the "snaky swamp." There she faced mosquitoes and snakes in great quantities.

  Harriet noted:

  "Before we reached [hiding place in the swamp], we were covered with hundreds of mosquitos. In an hour's time they had so poisoned my flesh that I was a pitiful sight to behold. As the light increased, I saw snake after snake crawling round us. I had been accustomed to the sight of snakes all my life, but these were larger than any I had ever seen. To this day I shudder when I remember that morning. As evening approached, the number of snakes increased so much that we were continually obliged to thrash them with sticks to keep them from crawling over us."

  In more western parts of the state, freedom seekers during the colonial period would have to encounter Carolina panthers or cougars, bison, wolves, and severe cold in the winter months. When passing through North Carolina in his trek to free territory, Charles Ball noted he had a hard time in Western North Carolina in the winter months. After running out of food, he attempted to cross a freezing Yadkin river and was swept away by a rock, thereby believing he was going to die. The dangers of the currents in the upper regions of the state were also very dangerous.

  He noted that while trying to cross the river, he was:

  "Wholly unable to contend with the fury of the waves, and penetrated by the coldness of death, in my most vitals. I gave myself up for lost, and was commending my soul to God, whom I expected to be my immediate judge." Ball did not die, seconds after believing he would die, he was able to cling to a tree hanging over the water and pull himself out of the river."

  Despite the dangers of the environment, enslaved people remarked more than once that nothing was more terrifying than men who sought to keep them in bondage. Jacobs noted that the environment, in particular, the venomous snakes, "were less dreadful to my imagination than the white men in the community called civilized."

  Help and Aid

  Freedom seeking was typically an individual event. The onus was on the individual enslaved person to ponder the benefits and weigh the risks of absconding. Although absconding was an individual action, it was always a group effort. 

  Running away was not without help from those outside the black community. Native Americans, even though they varied according to ethnic groups, helped runaways. For instance, one white politician in the early eighteenth century noted how enslaved runaways were helped by Tuscaroras, noting, "Several slaves have made their escape and very probably were sheltered and protected by the Tuscarora Indians, in North Carolina Government, which has very evil tendencies…"

  Some enslaved persons were so heavily involved with the Tuscaroras that they fought alongside them during the Tuscaroras wars. In fact, after the Tuscarora defeat, one black, who seemed to be instrumental to the war but a particular problem to the English, noted that he was commanded to be handed over by the Tuscarora. They agreed, and he was cut into pieces. 
  Historian Wilma Dunaway noted in the mountain area that "slaves disappeared into Cherokee nation so frequently during the colonial period that the British included their [return of runaways] as one of the conditions of every major treaty with the Native Americans."

  It should be noted that some Native American groups became known as they tracked freedom seekers and received a reward for their return. Some groups were incentivized to return enslaved persons—"in 1763 whites agreed to pay Indians one musket and three blankets, the equivalent of thirty-five deerskins, for each black slave captured and returned." This increased as some groups began to embrace black slaves. In this case, enslaved people were sometimes used as political tools in the negotiations between Native Americans and Europeans. 

  Whites also helped enslaved runaways. Like some native American groups, but some white individuals and groups helped freedom seekers, albeit uncommonly. See a story map Routes to Freedom: Quaker Influence on the Underground Railroad

  The greatest support came from other blacks. Freedom seekers looked to other blacks to help them along the way. Enslaved and free Blacks aided freedom seekers in several ways, including but not limited to providing shelter, food, a welcoming environment, warning and vital information, rest and security, breaking out of jails if caught, and/or encouragement. 

  Many enslaved people who absconded and hid near a plantation had the direct assistance of enslaved people from the plantation of which they had fled or neighboring plantations. Not only did enslaved people leave food in a designated area or take food to hidden freedom seekers, but they also helped in the construction of hideouts and/or provided tools to help build temporary housing in the woods.

  It was common for enslaved people on plantations to know exactly where freedom seekers were secreted or could be secreted and kept secret. For instance, freedom seeker Harry stayed in the woods for about three months and was visited by other enslaved people at night and on Sundays. 

  Another example illustrates this, wherein William Jordan, who lived in the swamps and caves for ten months, noted that he had a friend who would bring him a meal and other things he needed to survive. His friends also kept him informed about opportunities to board a ship with a friendly captain to escape North.
  Slaveholders and patrollers knew that freedom seekers, who eluded being captured for years "could expect food, arms, shelter, and more from sedentary slave friends and strangers." Those who helped freedom seekers did so voluntarily, but often they perceived absconding as a collective action against slavery and specific slaveholders. 

  Aid also came in the way of maroon communities. Freedom seeker William Robinson noted that he fled after knocking out his slaveholder with an ax handle to shove his mother to the ground and kick her. He often heard ex-runaways slaves, men, and women narrate adventures of when they were in the woods and about their hiding places and rendezvous. He noted-

  "I heard it told so often at my father's fireside that I knew almost directly where they were…" Eventually, William was helped to the hiding place by an older black woman. He noted that the hiding place was in a "low swampy place back of thick canebrake. It was so dark and the cane so thick that I was afraid to venture when I got to the place where I had been directed to turn in. But as I stood there I imagined I could hear the baying of blood hounds, and so strong was the imagination that it drove me in. I had several things to fear, for that country was infested with bears. More than once I had seen a bear come out of a corn field with his arms full of corn, go up to the fence and throw it over, get over, pick it up like a man, and walk off. Then we had reptiles, such as water moccasins and rattle snakes. Sometimes I could walk upright, sometimes I was compelled to crawl through the cane. About three o'clock the next morning I came out of the cane brake on the banks of a large pond of almost stagnant water. I could see the rocky mound or cave that I had heard so much talk of."

  Escaping was challenging and, if seeking to make free geography, then that adventure could take months or even years in many cases. Enslaved people would have had to weigh the tremendous risks. The dangers of being away from home, potentially alone in rugged terrain, was a grim outlook. Such a reality was often an obstacle for many to fathom fleeing. Historians Cary and Kay noted, "Slaves who ran off to or formed maroon settlements best illustrate the importance of setting as well as the political dimensions of running away."