William Still helped some 800 slaves escape to freedom, but his heroism is often overshadowed by Harriet Tubman’s.
Swarthmore CollegeWilliam Still was a loose - born opprobrious abolitionist who was polar in rescuing hundreds of black slaves through the Underground Railroad .
William Still was known as the “ Father of The Underground Railroad , ” aiding perhaps 800 fugitive slaves on their journeys to freedom and print their first - person business relationship of bondage and run in his 1872 book , The Underground Railroad Records . He wrote of the stories of the smutty serviceman and women who successfully escaped to the Freedom Land , and their journey toward liberty .
The Underground Railroad
Wikimedia CommonsThe Underground Railroad began to take shape toward the early 18th Century , allow safe routes and tending for on the loose slaves .
The Underground Railroad was an unionised internet lie in of black and white abolitionists who help runaway slaves rule food , protection , and safe enactment during their escape . There were habitation and businesses which in secret became “ station ” along the itinerary toward the north , harbor fugitive slave temporarily before they could move on to the next safe property .
Those who help escaped slaves move from place to station , likeHarriet Tubman , were know as “ conductors . ” William Still , meanwhile , was a “ station master . ”
Swarthmore CollegeWilliam Still was a free-born black abolitionist who was pivotal in rescuing hundreds of black slaves through the Underground Railroad.
It ’s difficult to pinpoint when the movement begin but scholars estimate the on the loose web of emancipationist started to take human body toward the end of the 18th 100 .
In 1786 , George Washington , who possess hundreds of slaves in his lifetime , kick about a “ high society of Quakers ” helping his runaway striver , ( many whitened Quaker abolitionists were part of the Underground Railroad ) . On November 20 of that same twelvemonth , after one of his slave get away , he publish that it “ is not easy ” to apprehend fugitive hard worker “ when there are numbers who would rather facilitate the escape of slaves than savvy them when runaways . ”
The freedom meshing became bed as the Underground Railroad decade later , in around 1831 .
Wikimedia CommonsThe Underground Railroad began to take shape toward the early 18th Century, providing safe routes and aid for escaped slaves.
The Underground Railroad was a vital asset in helping escaped slave make their way safely through the grievous route from the South to the North , where by the early 1800s most states had abolished slavery .
The journeying grow longer in 1850 , when Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act . The law required that all escaped slave be returned to their masters ; officials who go bad to return apprehended slaves faced a fine equivalent to tens of thousands of dollars today . And so the Underground Railroad was force to stretch out up to Canada , which outlawed thrall in 1834 . There was also arms of the Railroad that went from the southernmost states to Mexico and the Caribbean .
Wikimedia CommonsWilliam Still ’s first time helping a hard worker on the foot race was when he was a young boy , and stay to aid countless others since .
Wikimedia CommonsWilliam Still’s first time helping a slave on the run was when he was a young boy, and continued to aid countless others since.
“ The gallantry and dire struggle that many of our people had to run should be kept green in the computer storage of this and coming generation . ”
agree to one estimate , approximately 100,000 slaves were assist by the Underground Railroad by 1850 . The internet was an authoritative part of American story that would have likely been swallow up by sentence if it were n’t for the neatly - keep record of the meshing ’s bodily function , compose by none other than William Still .
William Still: Abolitionist
Wikimedia CommonsHe used his literacy as a manikin of resistor and later publish a script about the Underground Railroad ’s workplace .
Born complimentary on Oct. 7 , 1821 , in Burlington County , New Jersey , William Still was the youngest of 18 children .
His parents , Levin and Sidney ( who later change her name to Charity ) Still , were both escaped slaves from Maryland . His female parent had to break loose twice , after she was found and catch the first time . For her second escape attack , she was forced to pass on behind two of her four children . The two Logos she leave behind were by and by sell to slave owner in the Deep South .
Wikimedia CommonsHe used his literacy as a form of resistance and later published a book about the Underground Railroad’s work.
Library of CongressAn illustrated page from William Still ’s book .
William Still received some school , and inherited a secure work ethic and category value from his parents . In 1844 , at years 23 , he impress to Philadelphia and became a janitor for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery ( PSAS ) . In 1847 , he rise to the position of clerk , and that same class he conjoin Letitia George . They had four children .
As he grew older and more successful as a man of affairs , startinga coal delivery business organization , Still come forth as a loss leader of Philadelphia ’s black community of interests . In 1852 he became chair of PSAS ’s Vigilance Committee , assist fleeting slave passing through the metropolis on the Underground Railroad .
Library of CongressAn illustrated page from William Still’s book.
Under Still ’s oversight , the citizens committee was subservient in finance groups of former slave for their journeys up north , even fund several of Harriet Tubman ’s rescue expeditions . He in person provided food for thought and shelter to many of the runaway hard worker , too .
Historians consider Still rescued somewhere near 800 slaves through his work with the Underground Railroad , earning him the title , “ Father of the Underground Railroad . ”
Still Kept Records Of The Underground Railroad’s Activities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5KTKrvErko
One of William Still ’s most impressive achievements was teach himself to read and write . Using what little schooling he had , Still studied by reading everything under the Dominicus . His literacy proved to be a powerful weapon against American slavery and racism .
In 1859 , he penned a letter to the insistency decrying the racial favouritism in Philadelphia ’s tramcar , and in 1867 he expand on that alphabetic character in a ego - put out book title , A Brief Narrative of the Struggle for the Rights of Colored People of Philadelphia in the City Railway Cars .
Library of CongressThe Underground Railroad network was instrumental to the freedom of at least 100,000 Black slaves.
Library of CongressThe Underground Railroad connection was instrumental to the exemption of at least 100,000 Black slave .
But well before then , Still began to document the lives and calamity of the 100 of escaped slave he encountered in Philadelphia .
“ It was my good fortune to add a helping hand to the weary traveller flying from the land of bondage , ” hewroteof his service to the freedom movement .
Historical Society of PennsylvaniaWilliam Still wrote about the men and women he encountered and the secret operations of the movement in great detail in his journals.
In one peculiarly astounding lesson , he interviewed an at large hard worker name Peter who turned out to be his own brother . “ Being directed to the Anti - Slavery Office for instructions as to the near plan to adopt to get hold out the whereabouts of his parent , ” Still publish , “ fortunately he fall into the hands of his own brother , the writer , whom he had never heard of before , much less find out or known . ”
Peter lived more than 40 years in slavery before fleeing to Indiana , with the assistance of white emancipationist Seth Concklin , and then embark to find his childhood home in New Jersey . That ’s when he encountered his long - lost brother , William .
In 1872 , William Still publishedThe Underground Railroad Records . It was the only first - someone score of activities on the Underground Railroad that was written and publish by an African American . His volume was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition year later .
Historical Society of PennsylvaniaWilliam Still wrote about the hands and women he encountered and the hugger-mugger trading operations of the movement in great detail in his journals .
William Still ’s platter of the Underground Railroad have prove to be a vital germ of history , an hold out body of evidence of the perseverance of pitch-dark Americans in their battle for freedom . It is also the only existing appeal of documents about the exemption connection .
Much of his paper are now kept in the Charles L. Blockson Afro - American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia . The papers , which traverse between 1865 and 1899 , contain 140 letters and 14 photo related to the Still family . And just like the Underground Railroad , the retention of his role in the success of the freedom meshing must be never be forgotten .
Now that you ’ve hear the little - known storey of mordant emancipationist William Still , read aboutJuneteenth , the yearly celebration of African American emancipation from bondage in the U.S. Then , meet theHarlem hellfighters , the look out on black heroes of World War I.
