Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 closed that loophole and made it easier than ever for slaveholders to cross state lines in pursuit of escaped slaves. It also emboldened kidnappers to grab free African Americans, claim they were fugitives, and sell them into slavery.

In response, so-called vigilance committees sprang up in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston with the goal of protecting or rescuing imperiled African Americans and, when possible, spiriting them north to Canada. By 1861, approximately one-third of an estimated 100,000 southern black fugitives had escaped to Canada. Eighty percent of those—mostly African Americans from Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky—settled in present-day Ontario. The various individuals, groups, and methods that helped get them there eventually came to be known collectively as the Underground Railroad.

Several factors made Virginia a place where the Underground Railroad flourished. Even with the domestic slave trade forcing thousands of men, women, and children into the Deep South, it had the largest enslaved population of any state and a large free black population. It also bordered the free states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. And from the state’s northernmost point in present-day West Virginia, on the other side of the Ohio River from Wellsville, Ohio, it was only ninety miles to Lake Erie, across which lay Canada. Fugitives in Virginia, in other words, were tantalizingly close to freedom.

Virginia also boasted a number of sizable port cities, which provided avenues of escape for African Americans. In cities such as Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport News, and Hampton, many slaves worked for hire in the maritime industry and were not supervised by their actual owners.

In addition, there were black churches and free black neighborhoods where escapes could be planned and fugitives hidden. Some fugitive slaves followed the James, Elizabeth, York, Susquehanna, Rappahannock, or Potomacrivers to the Chesapeake Bay, where they attempted to board small vessels or steamships to New York or Massachusetts. Others found ships in Richmond and Alexandria. Most were able to board with aid from captains or crewmembers; in fact, certain ships’ captains became known to the underground community as sympathetic to fugitives or at least agreeable to transporting them for a price. William Still identified the City of Richmond, the Jamestown, the Pennsylvania, and the Augusta steamships, and the Kesiah and the Francis French schooners as the primary vessels aiding Virginia runaways.

Fugitives who journeyed by land traveled high into the Appalachian Mountains and then down the Ohio River or into Pennsylvania. Those who escaped through Loudounand Fauquier counties used routes that traversed the Catoctin and Bull Run mountains, Short Hill Mountain, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Others traveling from Culpeper County were assisted by free black communities that dotted that region. Culpeper’s Chinquapin Neck, the isthmus that separates the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, was another path used by escapees.

Historic Underground Railroad Safe House – Haki Shakur

The number of escapes prompted the editors of the Norfolk Southern Argus to complain, on April 22, 1854, that “the stock of our patience is below the quantity necessary for standing the outrageous thefts that are daily being committed upon us, in the running off of our slaves.” The paper assumed “that secret agencies are at work in our midst, for the purpose of offering inducements to our slaves to make their escape to the North,” and estimated that in the last year slaveholders there had lost $75,000 in the form of runaway slaves. “A man may be wealthy today,” the editors wrote, “but tomorrow his property may have vanished into empty space.” In 1856, the General Assembly sought to prevent such losses by providing for the more rigorous inspection of ships.

Enslaved Virginians fled to areas as far away as Hamilton, Canada West (later Ontario). They tended to be young, ambitious, healthy, and male. On rare occasions whole families fled, usually aboard ships or with the aid of collaborators. Most fugitives, however, were male and at the age—between their late teens and mid-thirties—when they were most valuable to slaveholders. According to the abolitionist Benjamin Drew, as early as 1824 Virginians were arriving in what later became Ontario, often without help. Only by the 1840s was a more structured system in place to aid and guide fugitives. Saint Catharines, Canada West, became a favorite destination. Located between lakes Erie and Ontario, the site was first settled in the 1780s by Richard “Captain Dick” Pierpoint, an African-born slave who had won his freedom by fighting for the British during the American Revolution. Saint Catharines is where Harriet Tubman brought her family in the 1850s and where two Virginians—a Norfolk escapee named Richard Bohm and another former slave named William Johnson—helped to establish new arrivals.

Some fugitive slaves from Virginia became famous while others remained, as they likely wished it, obscure. Among the former was George Latimer, who escaped by ship from Norfolk in 1842. He traveled first to Baltimore, then to Philadelphia, and finally to Boston, where he was soon recognized and arrested. An uproar followed, and abolitionists were able to purchase Latimer’s freedom for $400. In 1849, Henry Brown, whose family had been sold south, enlisted help to box him up and ship him from Richmond to Philadelphia. He survived, barely, and spent the rest of his life working as a magician, writer, and abolitionist. In 1850, a slave called Shadrach escaped from Norfolk and, like Latimer, was arrested in Boston. There, outraged activists forcibly freed him from custody and smuggled him all the way to Montreal, where he adopted the last name Minkins. The fate of Anthony Burns, who escaped from Richmond in 1854, was less fortunate. After traveling to Boston, he, too, was arrested. An attempt to free him failed, however, and he was sold south. Although eventually manumitted, the ordeal crippled Burns. He died in Saint Catharines in 1862.

In Philadelphia, William Still recorded the relatively rare arrival, in 1858, of three female fugitives from Virginia. Mary Frances, about twenty-three years old and from Norfolk, had no complaint against her widowed mistress, whom she described as kind. Twenty-eight-year-old Eliza Henderson, however, had been beaten and subsequently escaped from Richmond. Nancy Grantham was just nineteen and fled “her master’s evil designs,” which were violent and sexual. “She was brought away secreted on a boat,” Still wrote, “but the record is silent as to which one of the two or three Underground Rail Road captains (who at that time occasionally brought passengers), helped her to escape.”

Underground Railroad Virginia – Haki Shakur

State and federal legislators tried in vain to derail the Underground Railroad. They increased rewards for slave-catchers and penalties for runaways, instituted more thorough ship inspections, and sometimes granted the state power to seize vessels. Slaveholders, meanwhile, formed committees, like the one established in December 1833 by citizens in Richmond and Henrico County, to detect and punish anyone who would aid and abet runaways. While these measures may have slowed the flow of fugitives, they did not stop them. Senator James Mason, of Virginia, who introduced the Fugitive Slave Bill on January 4, 1850, claimed that runaway slaves cost his state an average of $100,000 per year.

In the meantime, the NPS has identified four Underground Railroad–related sites in Virginia: Bruin’s Slave Jail, in Alexandria; Fort Monroe, in Hampton Roads; Theodore Roosevelt Island, in Rosslyn; and the Moncure Conway House, in Falmouth, home of the abolitionist Moncure Conway. None of them is directly related to the work of the Underground Railroad, however, which is not surprising. That work occurred in secret and across great distances. Its memory is less likely to be found in a particular place than in the stories of those who risked flight and eventually found freedom.

source:

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Underground_Railroad_in_Virginia

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Thousands of white Virginians owned enslaved African Americans in the nineteenth century. Based on a close analysis of William Still’s book, The Underground Rail Road(1872), we are compiling a list of those slaveholders whose slaves escaped in the 1850s.

To date, we have collected more than 100 narratives of Virginia escapees. The narratives are listed below — sorted by slave owner. You may find the occupation, city, slave, and date of ownership below.

To read the escape narrative presented in William Still’s book, The Underground Rail Road, please click on the page number presented in the Still column below.

Owner Occupation City/County Slave Year Still
Mr. Bailey Carpenter Norfolk Samuel Bush 1853 204
David Baines Owner Norfolk Harriet and Celia Paeden 1854 226
Samuel Ball Owner Richmond Richard Bradley 1855 305
John G. Beale Lawyer Fauquier Co. William Robinson 1854 225
Fleming Bibbs Farmer Richmond Charles Thompson 1857 147
Beverly Blair Owner Richmond Frances Hilliard 1855 287
Thomas Baltimore Owner Norfolk Susan Bell 1855 263
Mr. Bockover Grocer Norfolk Thomas & Frederick Nixon 1855 170
Joseph Boukley Hair Inspector Norfolk Peter Petty 1855 170
Henry L. Brooke Owner Salvington Cornelius Scott 1857 122
Elizabeth Brown Widow Portsmouth Sheridan Ford 1855 67
Mary Brown Widow Portsmouth Clarissa Davis (part owner) 1854 1850C
Margaret Burkley Housekeeper Portsmouth Clarissa Davis (part owner) 1854 1850C
Charles Bryant Owner Alexandria Joseph Viney 1857 101
Mrs. Joseph Cahell Widow Fredericksburg Cordelia Loney 1857 112
George Carter Owner Loudon Co. Martha Bennett and children 1855 259
Joseph Carter Oysterman Portsmouth John Stinger & Stebney Swan 1857 98
George Carter Owner Loudon Co. D. Bennett’s wife & children 1855 308
William H. Christian Lawyer/merchant Richmond James Hambleton Christian 1853 69
Mr. R.J. Christians Tobacco Richmond Elijah Hilton 1857 161
Dr. K. Clark Physician Richmond Joseph Henry Camp 1853 66
Nathan Clapton Owner Loudon Co. Sauney Pry 1856 382
rs. Clayton Widow Richmond John Clayton 1854 59
Edward M. Clark Owner Alexandria Lewis Burrell 1856 385
Ann Colley Widow Petersburg Jackson & Turner 1857 117
A. Judson Crane Farmer Richmond Julia Smith 1854 142
Elliot Curlett Owner Warrington David Greek 1856 319
James Cuthbert Owner Petersburg Harriet Mayo 1855 305
Benjamin Davis Negro Trader Richmond Charles Gilbert 1854 235
Daniel Delaplain Flour Inspector Richmond Charles Hall 1856 383
H.B. Dickinson Factory Owner Richmond William White 1854 211
James Dunlap Merchant Richmond John Hall 1855 250
Thomas Eckels Lawyer Norfolk Susan Brooks 1854 211
Samuel Ellis Owner Richmond Joseph Winston 1857 389
Charles Fortner Owner Hedgeville Daniel Davis ? 228
James B. Foster Owner Richmond Samuel Washington Johnson ? 159
John F. Franic Owner Martinsburg Robert Brown 1856 121
Catharine Gordon Owner Norfolk Oscar Ball & Montgomery Graham 1857 399
Mr. Grigway Timber Merchant Norfolk Emanuel White 1857 154
Mr. Hall Negro trader Norfolk Robert McCoy 1854 274
William W. Hall Owner Norfolk Rebecca Jones and Isaiah 1856 326
Alexander Hill Owner Hedgeville Adam Nicholson ? 228
Lewis Hill Owner Richmond Lewis Giles 1855 308
John & Henry Holland Oysterman Norfolk Anthony and Albert Brown 1856 292
John G. Hodgson Owner Norfolk Harriet Ann Bell 1854 228
James Hurst Owner Georgetown Sam Davis 1855 386
Mrs. Hutchinson Widow Loudon Co. Robert Stewart 1856 128
Mrs. Hutchinson Daughter of Widow Loudon Co. Betsey Smith 1856 129
Benjamin Hall Owner Alexandria Peter Burrell 1856 385
Eliza Jones Factory foreman Petersburg George Walker 1855 311
John Jones Farmer Norfolk Arthur Jones 1855 270
George W. Kemp Bank worker Norfolk Ralph Whiting 1855 268
James Kinnard Farmer Richmond Jeremiah Smith 1854 141
Eliza Lambert Owner Petersburg John Judah 1855 305
Thomas Lee Owner Petersburg Robert Jones 1855 271
Peter March Business Owner New York Caroline Taylor 1856 328
Seth March Owner Norfolk Henry Washington 1855 259
Dr. C.F. Martin Dentist Norfolk Sam Nixon 1855 254
McHenry & McCulloch Tobacconists Petersburg John Pettifoot 1857 153
John C. McBole Steam Mill North Carolina Daniel Carr 1855 169
Mr. McVee Farmer Loudon Co. Barnaby Grigby and Emily Foster 1855 124
Daniel Minne Farmer Alexandria William Jackson 1857 396
Daniel Minor Owner Moss Grove George Solomon 1856 79
David Morris Owner Norfolk Joseph Harris 1855 270
M.W. Morris Owner Richmond Daniel Payne 1855 305
John Mitchell Owner Petersburg John Henry 1853 191
John Mitchell Owner Richmond John Hill 1856 191
Richard Perry Owner Petersburg Beverly Good 1855 311
Mrs. Peters Deceased Norfolk Anthony Blow 1854 61
Capt. John Pollard Owner St. Stephens George Freeland ? 232
Dr. Price Owner Norfolk Edward Peaden 1854 226
Joshua Pusey Owner Leesburg David Aug. 1856 215
James Ray US Navy Yard Petersburg John Atkinson 1855 299
Littleton Reeves Owner Petersburg Mary Epps 1855 75
Joseph P. Reynolds Merchant Portsmouth William Davis 1853 66
Eliza H. Richie Owner Petersburg Eliza Jones 1855 271
William Rose Owner Fauquier Co. James Stewart ? 229
Thomas W. Quales Owner Richmond Verenea Mercer 1855 309
James Saunders Lawyer Norfolk James H. Foreman 1855 268
Mrs. Sanders Widow Nofolk Isaac Foreman 1853 64
Richard Scott Owner Norfolk Daniel Wiggins 1854 224
Sarah Shephard Owner Norfolk Elizabeth Frances 1854 275
Jacob Shuster Owner Norfolk Winnie and Elizabeth Patty 1855 387
Andrew Sigany Owner Norfolk Eliza McCoy 1854 275
Samuel Simmons Owner Norfolk Isaiah Nixon 1855 270
John J. Slater Coachmaker Petersburg David Edwards 1855 311
Nathan Skinner Farmer Loudon Co. Vincent Smith 1856 129
Slater Owner Richmond Joseph and Robert 1855 75
Smith Owner Norfolk Washington Somlor 1855 304
George Spencer Owner Georgetown Abe Fineer 1855 386
Dr. Jesse Squires Owner Petersburg Valentine Spires 1856 319
L. Stasson Confectioner Norfolk Louisa Bell 1855 264
James Snyder Owner Norfolk Harrison Bell 1854 228
Capt. James Taylor Owner Loudon Co. Daniel & David Bennett (259; 308) 1855 259
Waring Talvert Owner Richmond Anthony Loney 1857 122
Nickless Templeman Owner Richmond George Sperryman 1856 319
Hezekiah Thompson Sold to trader Richmond John Thompson 1857 106
Captain Tucker US Navy Richmond Richard Robinson 1857 123
David B. Turner Merchant Richmond Jack Scott (lived in NY with Turner) 1857 104
Margaret Tyler Widow Richmond William Taylor 1857 134
Unknown — Hired to John Stabbard Hedgeville Reuben Bowles ? 228
John Walker Manufacturer Williamsburg James Burrell 1854 223
Col. J.H. Wheeler U.S. Minister D.C. Jane Johnson 1855 86
Josiah Wells Owner Norfolk Anthony Atkinson 1855 268
Abigail Wheeler Owner Portsmouth Moses Wines ? 230
Louise E. White Widow Richomd James Mercer & Wm. Henry Gilliam 1854 55
Lovey White Widow Norfolk Alan Tatum 1855 168
Turner and White Merchants Norfolk William Nelson 1855 262
John Williams Owner Western Shore Lucy Garrett ? 231
Dr. George Wilson Physician Norfolk Archer Barlow 1853 203
S.J. Wilson Merchant Portsmouth Willis Redick 1853 64
William H. Wilson Cashier Portsmouth Robert Emerson 1857 98
James Woodhouse Farmer

 

 Plymouth, NC Henry Stewart