Authors: Betty DeRamus
The Firelands Pioneer,
New Series, Vol. V. Norwalk, Ohio: Firelands Historical Society, June 1882, “Reminiscences”
by the Honorable H. F. Paden of Clyde, Ohio; “The Underground Railroad of the Firelands”
by the Honorable Rush R. Sloane of Sandusky, Ohio; “The Ohio Fugitive Slave Law” by
G. T. Stewart, Esq., Norwalk, Ohio; and “Some Experiences in Abolition Times” by Capt.
C. Woodruff of Peru, Ohio.
The Firelands Pioneer,
New Series, Vol. III. Norwalk, Ohio: Firelands Historical Society, January 1886.
This contains an obituary with Lyman Scott’s abolitionist activities on page 113.
The Firelands Pioneer,
New Series, Vol. XII. Norwalk, Ohio: Firelands Historical Society, 1900. On page
534, the magazine mentions Elvira Dibble, who “assisted many runaway slaves on their
way to Canada.”
The Firelands Pioneer,
New Series, Vol. IX. Norwalk, Ohio: Firelands Historical Society, 1896. This mentions
that Sandusky was the end of the UGRR in Ohio.
The Firelands Pioneer,
New Series, Vol. XVII. Norwalk, Ohio: Firelands Historical Society, The American
Publisher Co., 1909. This includes a paper by Dr. A. Sheldon titled “Reminiscences
of Underground Railroads.” In it Dr. Sheldon talks about the Society of Quakers, or
Friends, in Greenwich and their activities as Underground Railroad conductors. He
also mentions the Palmers of Fitchville and a station in Hartland kept by James Lee.
Foskett, Helen R.
History of New London, Ohio, 1815–1941.
New London, Ohio: New London Public Library, 1976.
Franklin, John Hope, and Loren Schweninger.
Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1999.
Griffin, Paula Porter.
Carved Out of the Wilderness: The History of Fitchville Township, Huron County, Ohio,
1817–1987.
Norwalk, Ohio: Robert T. and Ruth E. Vogt, 1989. This tells the story of Fitchville
abolitionists, including Rouse Bly and the Palmer family.
Groene, Janet, and Gordon Groene.
Natural Wonders of Ohio: A Guide to Parks, Preserves & Wild Places.
Castine, Me.: Country Roads Press, 1994.
Hagedorn, Ann.
Beyond the River.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. The story of con artist Robert Russell appears
on pages 252–3.
Hayden, Robert C.
Eight Black American Inventors.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc., 1972.
Hill, Daniel G.
The Freedom-Seekers.
Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co., Ltd., 1992. This talks about the population of
Sandwich in 1855 and 1861.
Kimmel, Janice Martz. “Break Your Chains and Fly for Freedom.”
Michigan History,
January/February 1996, pp. 20–26. The story of Henry Bibb and his slave wife, Malinda.
Klein, Herbert S.
Slavery in the Americas.
Chicago: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1971, p. 56.
Lustig, Lillie S., S. Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel.
The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes.
Reading, Pa.: Culinary Arts Press, 1939.
Oickle, Alvin F.
Jonathan Walker: The Man with the Branded Hand.
Everett, Mass.: Lorelli Slater Publisher, 1998.
Paige, Howard.
African American Family Cookery.
Detroit: Harlo Press, 1995. This describes a typical slave diet and the role of slave
drivers.
Peacefull, Leonard, ed.
A Geography of Ohio.
Kent, Ohio, and London: Kent State University Press, 1996.
Robinson, Wilhelmena S.
Historical Negro Biographies.
International Library of Negro Life and History. New York: Publishers Company, Inc.,
1967. This book contains biographies of Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey.
Roger, Sharon A.
Slaves No More: A Study of the Buxton Settlement, Upper Canada, 1849–1861,
a dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the State University
of New York at Buffalo in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy, 1995. This talks about Canada’s identification with the land
of Canaan and how slave owners responded to that by calling Canada a “freezing sort
of Hell” where men “had to break the ice with their scythes and with wild geese so
numerous and ferocious that they would scratch a man’s eyes out” (p. 27). On page
285, Roger mentions that an unknown number of slaves “were severely disciplined and
even sold for spreading the word of God.” Services, if allowed, were usually supervised
or led by white pastors who lauded slavery. Still, as she notes, many slaves blended
Christianity with their own traditions and their own reality and prayed in secret.
Sengupta, Somini, and Larry Rohter. “Where Faith Grows, Fired by Pentecostalism.”
The New York Times,
Tuesday, October 14, 2003.
Siebert, Wilbur Henry.
The Mysteries of Ohio’s Underground Railroad.
Columbus: Long’s College Book Co., 1951.
Starobin, Robert S., ed.
Blacks in Bondage: Letters of American Slaves.
New York: New Viewpoints, 1974.
Sydnor, T. Davis, and William E. Cowen. “Ohio Trees.” Bulletin 700–00, Ohio State
University, 2000.
Timman, Henry. “Just Like Old Times,” orig. pub.
The Norwalk Reflector.
Book I, page 19, “Railroad North to Freedom,” August 11, 1972. It mentions several
underground stations in rural parts of Huron County, including the farm of Quaker
Joseph Healy of Greenwich Township, a station agent.
Ullman, Victor.
Look to the North Star: A Life of William King.
Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1994.
Underground Railroad.
Official National Park Handbook, No. 156, produced by the Division of Publications,
National Park Service, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1998, p.
58. This talks about slave escapes organized by Thomas Tilly.
Voice of the Fugitive,
“The Lost Is Found,” Sandwich, Canada West, January 15, 1852, Vol. II, No. 4, the
first installment of the James Smith story.
Voice of the Fugitive,
“The Lost Is Found No. 2,” February 26, 1852, the second installment of the James
Smith story.
Voice of the Fugitive,
“The Lost Is Found No. 3,” March 11, 1852, Vol. 2, No. 6, the third installment of
the James Smith story.
Voice of the Fugitive,
“The Lost Is Found No. 4,” April 22, 1852, Vol. II, No. 9, the fourth installment
of the James Smith story.
Voice of the Fugitive,
“The Lost Is Found No. 5,” June 3, 1852, the fifth installment of the James Smith
story.
Voice of the Fugitive,
December 3, 1851.
Voice of the Fugitive,
February 12, 1851. Stories abounded about slaves escaping from drunken slave catchers.
This issue of
VOF
contains an account of runaway slave James Madison, about 24, a former slave of John
T. Snypes, a Georgia cotton planter. After Snypes and a friend caught Madison, they
locked his hands together and chained him to the back part of their buggy, making
him walk back to the fields he had fled. However, the men reportedly stopped at numerous
taverns along the way to drink and boast about their capture. Madison, who had a nail
in his pocket, managed to pick the lock and escape.
Voice of the Fugitive,
January 1, 1851, talks about Josiah Henson and the Dawn settlement.
Walton, Jonathan Williams.
Blacks in Buxton and Chatham, Ontario, 1830–1890: Did the 49th Parallel Make a Difference?
Dissertation presented to the faculty of Princeton University in candidacy for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy, recommended for acceptance by the Department of History,
June 1979.
Williams, Juan, and Quinton Dixie.
This Far by Faith.
New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Williams, Stacy.
The Revised History of the Black Preacher and the Black Church.
Series of lectures delivered by Dr. Williams to the Council of Baptist Pastors of
Detroit and Vicinity, Detroit, January 26, 1982. The lectures tell the story of Dr.
C. T. Walker’s sermon on “The Second Coming” (typed manuscript in the author’s possession).
———. “The Black Preacher and the Black Church.” Lecture #2 on the Black Church, Council
of Baptist Pastors, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, Detroit, September 16, 1980.
African Americans, Voices of Triumph: Perseverance.
By the editors of Time-Life Books. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1993.
The Archivists’ Bulldog.
Newsletter of the Maryland State Archives, Vol. 16, No. 15 (August 26, 2002).
Armstead, Myra B. Young, Field Horne, Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, and Cara A. Sutherland,
eds.
A Heritage Uncovered: The Black Experience in Upstate New York 1800–1925.
Elmira: Chemung County Historical Society, Inc., 1988. Sorin’s piece, “The Black
Community in Elmira,” talks about the establishment of Elmira’s abolitionist church,
Park Church, and the sharp divisions in Elmira’s white community over slavery before
the Civil War. It also capsules the lives of famous black conductors such as John
Jones and the growth of the black community itself.
Blockson, Charles L.
The Underground Railroad: First-Person Narratives of Escapes to Freedom in the North.
New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987, pp. 95–99.
Bourdain, Anthony. “Eating the Best of the Rest.”
The New York Times,
June 11, 2003.
Burgess, Robert H., and H. Graham Wood.
Steamboats Out of Baltimore.
Cambridge, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1968.
Carruth, Gorton.
The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates,
9th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
Chalkley, Tom.
Mystery Train.
Baltimore City Paper Online, November 21, 2001.
———. “Native Son: On the Trail of Frederick Douglass in Baltimore.”
Baltimore City Paper,
March 15, 2000.
Clayton, Ralph.
Black Baltimore: 1820–1870.
Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1987. On page 6, Clayton verifies that James Noble’s
ad for his runaway slave, Lear Green, ran in the
Baltimore Sun
on May 26, 1857.
———.
Cash for Blood.
Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 2002.
———.
Slavery, Slaveholding, and the Free Black Population of Antebellum Baltimore.
Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 1993.
Cohen, Anthony. “A Walk on the Underground Railroad.”
American Educator,
Winter 2000–2001.
Cowan, Tom, and Jack Maguire.
Timelines of African-American History: 500 Years of Black Achievement.
New York: Roundtable Press/Perigee Books, 1994.
Curtis, Nancy C.
Black Heritage Sites: The South.
Black Heritage Sites, Vol. 2. New York: The New Press, 1996, pp. 190–91.
Daniel, Nat V. “List of Confederate Soldiers Buried in Woodlawn National Cemetery,
Elmira, New York: Emendations to Previously Published Lists, Revised and Corrected
Alphabetical List.” Elmira: Chemung County Historical Society, 1996.
Dannett, Sylvia G. L.
Profiles of Negro Womanhood, 1619–1900,
Vol. 1. Yonkers, N.Y.: Educational Heritage, Inc., 1964.
Douglass, Frederick.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.
Elmira City Directories for 1857, 1860 and 1861–62, Elmira, New York.
Federal Census. The 1860 New York Census for Chemung County, image 100 on the Ancestry-Com
database and page 492, line 26, of the New York Census for Chemung County lists Wm.
H. Adams, age 23, barber, birthplace Maryland and living with Eliza J., age 19, no
occupation given, birthplace Maryland, and Elizabeth, age 2, birthplace New York.
Federal Census for City of Baltimore, 1850.
Federal Census for City of Baltimore, 1860.
Foote, Shelby.
The Civil War, A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian,
Vol. 2. New York: Vintage Books, 1986, orig. pub. Random House, 1963. On pages 233–34,
Foote remarks that Colonel Charles F. Adams Jr. accused General Joe Hooker of running
an army headquarters that was a “combination barroom and brothel. Meanwhile, notes
Foote, Hooker’s “surname entered the language as one of the many lower-case slang
words for prostitute.”
Hunsinger, Lou, Jr. “Daniel Hughes: Giant of Freedom Road.”
Susquehanna Valley Parent Magazine,
February 2002.