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3 Stories: Africa, Wisconsin, and the Civil War
Quote:
Mr. Lyman Goodnow, An abolitionist from Waukesha, Wisconsin. During slavery
times, Waukesha was named “Prairieville” by everybody except
slavery supporters
Pro-slavery people called it “that abolitionist hole!”
" In those days…we were all friends – all willing
to help one another…We were very radical, however, in our views
of right and wrong…. We opposed bad men everywhere, supported all
fugitive slaves who came to us, and worked like beavers for the right."
Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian of the Ibo people, was just
11 years old when he was kidnapped into slavery. He was taken to America
and sold. His master, a Quaker, allowed him to buy his freedom in 1766.
Olaudah spent his life working against slavery, but he never saw his family
again.
“One day, when all our people were gone out to their works
as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two
men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both; and,
without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our
mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our
hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came
on…
In
Their Own Words: personal stories
LEVI COFFIN: Station Master on the UGRR
Levi Coffin: called the “President of the Underground Railroad”
kept diaries. He wrote about people who came to their home in Cincinnati.
He wrote about using hand signals to tell other abolitionists about runaways
coming. He wrote about tricking slave catchers and staring down slave
owners. Here, he remembers the rescue of a girl by two soldiers from the
22nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment from Racine, Wisconsin:
" While they were in camp near Nicholasville, Kentucky, a
young mulatto [a person with white and African American parents] slave
girl, about eighteen years old….was sold her by master. …
As soon as the poor girl learned of the fate in store for her, she fled
from her master and making her way to the camp of the Twenty-Second Wisconsin
volunteers…told her story and asked for protection. The true-hearted
men to whom she applied for help, resolved to aid her, though the law
did not then allow Northern troops to protect fugitive slaves who came
within their lines…
Her master soon came to the camp, but …. She was dressed
in soldier’s clothes and hidden in a sutler’s [trader’s]
wagon under some hay. The two men {soldiers from Wisconsin] dressed themselves
in citizen’s clothing… and drove out of the camp about one
o’clock at night. They traveled almost without stopping …
– more than one hundred miles –….to my house ….[the
girl] looked like a mulatto soldier boy. The “soldier boy”
was given into my wife’s care, and was conducted upstairs to her
room. Next morning “he” came down transformed into a young
lady!....these brave young men telegraphed to Racine, Wisconsin and made
arrangements for their friends there to receive her. I took her one evening
in my carriage to the depot [train station], accompanied by her protectors
and put her on board the train with a through ticket for Racine, via Chicago….As
the train moved off, they lifted their hats to her and she waved her handkerchief
in good-by.
It seemed one of the happiest moments of their lives when they
saw her safely on her way to a place beyond the reach of pursuers.
The two soldiers were Jesse Berch and Frank Rockwell. They were both from
southern Wisconsin. Jesse Berth wrote Levi Coffin to let him know they
arrived back at the army camp safely..
"At five
o’clock on Friday evening, after a ride of three days, we arrived
at our camp near Nicholasville; and you would have rejoiced to hear the
loud cheering and hearty welcome that greeted us on our arrival.”…Your
humble friend, Jesse L. Berch”
After he was badly injured in the war, Jesse returned to Wisconsin. He
wrote again to tell Levi Coffin that the girl was safe. He wrote, "Afterward
she married a young barber and moved into Illinois."
Let’s Talk About It
- People tell us
that everyone decides what’s right or wrong for them. We’re
not supposed to judge or to label what people do as right or wrong.
Does that mean that owning slaves was right for the people who thought
it was right and wrong just for the people who thought slavery was wrong?
For any remarks, suggestions, or broken links:
Please email us at:
history@tds.net
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