® Free Press Independent reporting on today’s Underground Railroad

January, 2012 urrfreepress.com Volume 7, Issue 34

McGill Slave Cabin Overnight Stays Propel Restoration As one travels through the countryside of the difference vividly are the stark dissimilarities urrFreePress.com South, the dwindling number of plantations between a plantation's "big house" and its  remaining from a time gone by now more slave cabins if the latter still exist at all. strongly beckon tourists, writers, archeolo- gists and the curious for the hidden stories Editorial they tell. Generations of African-Americans International Underground found these places unpleasant and seldom Railroad a Modern Necessity visited but now that is changing with a rising

The Underground Railroad and age group far enough removed from , Civil War ended most but not all Jim Crow and segregation to be increasingly slavery in the United States. An inquisitive about the actual locales where estimated 27 million people live American slavery was concentrated. in slavery today, 40,000 of them As old plantations become more open to the in the United States, mainly in public, visitors see first hand the contrast be- agriculture , sweatshops and pro- tween enslaver and enslaved. Portraying the Please see McGill, page 3, column 1 stitution.

This modern horror has prison New Underground Railroad Museum Draws Thousands slaves in China producing goods By Peter Slocum, North Country Underground which feature stories of runaways who es- at zero labor cost for world mar- Railroad Historical Association caped to Canada on the Champlain Line of kets, Saharan children "bonded" the Underground Railroad. The moving saga Old hidden stories of courage and conflict — into slavery at birth because of Maryland fugitive John Thomas who pros- tales of the Underground Railroad in far their parents are slaves, Indian pered after settling in the Adirondacks is northern New York state — came to life in bridal slaves, Brazilian charcoal highlighted. One room in the museum is de- May 2011 at a new museum in Ausable slaves, Pakistani carpet weavers, voted to the conflict that wracked local Chasm, New York, near the shores of Lake 1.4 million sex slaves, and 8.4 churches when "radical" abolitionists de- Champlain. In its first six months, the North million enslaved children. manded resolutions to abolish slavery. Mu- Star Underground Railroad Museum attracted seum president Don Papson says, "The amaz- Free Press was invited to host a thousands of visitors from around the country ing stories we are sharing here are life- recent international antislavery and abroad. altering. People are discovering family and conference but deferred when A joint project of the North Country Under- community links they never knew existed.” the White House Historical Asso- ground Railroad Historical Association and the ciation offered to host at Deca- In addition to drawing nearly 4,000 visitors sTown of Chesterfield, the museum is perched tur House in Washington, DC. On since it opened last May, the Museum is at- on a hill above the Ausable Chasm, a well- November 14 a televised debate, tracting a steady stream of local community known scenic tourist destination. The Mu- Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, was members to programs that focus on regional seum also partners with nearby John Brown held with panelists Kevin Bales, anti-slavery history and the Civil War. The Farm where the famous abolitionist is buried. president of Free the Slaves; Museum's bus tours spotlighting Underground David Batstone, president of Not “Lake Champlain: Gateway to Freedom” is Railroad sites in nearby towns sell out almost for Sale; Luis C. d'Baca, US State the unifying theme of the museum's exhibits every Saturday they are offered. Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Per- Readers Invited: 2012 Free Press Prizes and Annual Survey sons; and Joy Ezeilo, UN Rappor- Each January, we ask our readers whom they also sponsors a survey of the international teur on Trafficking in Persons. believe deserves special recognition for Un- Underground Railroad community and shares The remainder of this editorial is derground Railroad work. Each fall, we then results with the community, public officials adapted from Bales' conference award the Underground Railroad Free Press and others. The surveys include some ques- article, "Slavery: Standing on the Prizes for Leadership, Preservation and Ad- tions carried forward each year to track edge of extinction?" available at vancement of Knowledge in the international trends, new questions on recent develop- aljazeera.com. Kevin Bales is Underground Railroad community. ments, and questions which readers suggest. president of Free the Slaves, pro- fessor of sociology at London's If you know someone who has done good Some of the most valuable lessons learned Roehampton University, and Pul- work in any of these three areas whom you from these surveys since the first in 2007 itzer Prize nominee for his 1999 would like to nominate, let us encourage you came from reader-suggested questions. Let book Disposable People: New to do so. It's easy. Go to urrFreePress.com, us know what you think would be good to Slavery in the Global Economy. click on Prizes, download a nomination form ask in the 2011 survey which will be admin- and email it to us. While you are there, en- istered online in May. You will be invited to The public often believes slavery joy having a look at past prize winners and participate. Survey results will be summa- ended with 19th-century cam- their accomplishments. rized in our July issue and full results will be posted on our website. Continued on page 2 Each year, Underground Railroad Free Press

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 2 paigns that brought an end to le- Waterford, Virginia gal slavery but nothing could be One of an occasional series on Underground Railroad sites further from the truth. The new It might be in the South, but the Quaker- The Loudoun Rangers were a Union Army slavery that emerged after 1945 founded village of Waterford, Virginia, has a unit mustered by Loudoun County residents. is crucially different since slaves proud heritage of , the Under- The unit was led by Captain Samuel Means, are cheaper today than at any ground Railroad and Confederate defiance in a prominent Waterford businessman person- time in history. While slaves the Civil War. ally recruited by Lincoln’s Secretary of War, were major capital purchases in Edwin Stanton. The Loudoun Rangers were the 19th century, today their ac- Founded in 1733 by the Quaker Amos Janney, the prime means of protection for freedom See Abolition, page 3, column 3 Waterford today is a small spot on the map seekers traveling through Virginia across the reached from one direction by an unpaved nearby fords of the Potomac River into Subscribe road. Eight miles from the Potomac River and Free Press subscriptions are free. To Maryland. For acting on their anti-slavery subscribe, send email addresses of Union territory, the Quaker village was well convictions, members of the Loudoun Rang- those you would like to receive Free known during Underground Railroad times for Press to [email protected]. ers had their property confiscated by the aiding freedom seekers and as the main seat Confederacy and were imprisoned if caught. View or Add to Datebook of abolitionist activity in Loudoun County, Email us about upcoming events and Virginia. The Quaker Church of America had Forgotten by time, Waterford moldered for we will add them to Datebook. Click on banned slavery in 1754. decades until preservation efforts began in Datebook at urrFreePress.com to view the 1940s. Nearly all of the homes and other a comprehensive calendar of events. In 1850, Samuel Janney, grandson of Amos, buildings in today's village date from the Send News, Letters, Articles or Ads was tried and acquitted for harboring and eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and it News, letters or articles: guiding freedom seekers. In 1857, Waterford's [email protected] is practically impossible to find one that is Advertising: [email protected] Quaker mail carrier Yardley Taylor was ac- not well kept. The Waterford Fair held the See the notice on our web site for cused of being "chief of the abolition clan in first weekend in October draws thousands specifications, rates and restrictions. Loudoun" and harboring runaways. The area who enjoy stepping back in time to glimpse was contested and held by both armies nu- Link Your Web Site or View Lynx just what freedom seekers passed through Visit urrFreePress.com to view Lynx, merous times during the Civil War. as they were ushered north. links to other organizations. To add your link, email its web address to Expelled 1840s Student Abolitionist Now Honored [email protected]. On the Colgate University campus from which central New York state's voice of abolition Free Press Prize Nominations he was expelled in 1847, George Ritchie was and reform. Visit urrfreepress.com to learn more honored this October 22 by being inducted about these annual prizes and to Before the Scottish immigrant Ritchie died download a nomination form. into the National Abolition Hall of Fame. at 33, he published continuously on slavery Rate Your Underground Railroad Site Editor of the first student newspaper at Col- and abolition, preached antislavery from Go to urrfreepress.com/#Scale to use the gate, Ritchie was expelled for his editorial many pulpits, and served on local, state, Wellman Scale to rate authenticity of an Underground Railroad site claim. criticizing New York state churches and vot- and national anti-slavery committees. ers for tepid support of stronger voting rights List Your Underground Railroad Site for black men in the election of 1846. While Ritchie was nominated to the National Aboli- Go to urrfreepress.com/#Visit to link to tion Hall of Fame by publishers Nellie and leading to his brief life in ardent support of the most comprehensive map of Under- William Edmonston of Hamilton. Nellie ground Railroad sites and list yours. abolitionism, Ritchie suffered immediate Edmonston wrote the first biographical arti- public repudiation and humiliation by the ® Underground Railroad Free Press faculty of Colgate (at the time Madison Col- cle on George Ritchie in 1994 and contrib- Independent Reporting On uted a Ritchie entry in the 1995 Hamilton Today’s Underground Railroad lege). Barred from the college, Ritchie con- tinued publication of his paper in nearby Bicentennial book. Through publication of Peter H. Michael, Publisher the Civil War papers of David F. Ritchie, son [email protected] Hamilton as The Hamilton Student and Chris- 301.874.0235 tian Reformer which until his early death was of George Ritchie, the Edmonstons came to know the Ritchie family. Underground Railroad Free Press is a free news- letter published by Underground Railroad Free Press Publications, 2455 Ballenger Creek Pike, Washington, Jefferson and the Underground Railroad Adamstown, Maryland, 21710. Back issues are available free at our web site. Underground Prime examples of the United States' torn “In another letter, written to William Drayton Railroad Free Press is distributed by email. soul on slavery are found among the early on November 20, 1786, Washington complains Send email address changes and new subscriber email addresses to [email protected]. presidents. The ultimately conflicted Thomas that he had apprehended one of Drayton’s Jefferson, he of the common-law mixed-race runaway slaves, but when he sent the slave Underground Railroad Free Press welcomes news articles and letters to the editor of 800 words or wife Sally Hemings and their slave children, under guard to Baltimore to be reunited with less. All rights to submissions including email came within a single vote of abolishing slav- Drayton, the slave escaped and was aided in and letters will be treated as unconditionally as- signed to Free Press for publication and copy- ery in the nation's first government in 1784. this by some sort of escape network." right purposes, and subject to our unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially unless oth- At the time, the largest enslaver in Fairfax The source for both of Washington’s letters is erwise negotiated with authors. County, Virginia, enslaving 188 souls, was The Writings of George Washington from the Free Press accepts tasteful nonpolitical advertis- George Washington. Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, John ing and reserves the right to reject advertising which for any reason in our sole judgment is not C. Fitzpatrick, United States Government Some count as the first written reference to acceptable. Submit advertising in pdf, jpg, tiff Printing Office, volume 28. or gif format or text. Visit urrfreepress.com for what became known as the Underground rates and layout specifications. Railroad Washington’s letter of April 12, The man later to be called father of his coun-

All contents of this and other issues of Under- 1786, to William Morris of Philadelphia re- try, not only an enslaver but a , ground Railroad Free Press are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in whole counting Quaker assistance to a freedom would ask that his wife free his slaves after

or in part for any reason without prior written seeker escaped from Washington’s friend, his death and the comforts he had derived approval of the publisher. Underground Railroad Free Press is a registered trademark. Mr. Dalby of Alexandria, Virginia. from them. Jefferson did the same.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREE PRESS Page 3

McGill in South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, Abolition While preservation efforts at plantations Mississippi and Virginia. He uses a sleep- quisition is so inexpensive as to be have concentrated on the plantation ing bag on his stays. Most slave dwellings throwaways. In the American South in house, gardens and certain kinds of out- where McGill stays are tiny. Only one 1850, an average slave cost about buildings, slave quarters have not always cabin was in such poor condition that $1,000, equivalent to $40,000 today, a been the object of attention. In many McGill could not stay in it, sleeping in- major investment. Modern slaves are ei- cases, these humblest of structures are stead on the plantation house porch ther costless or inexpensively bought by long gone, prey to the illusion that their where slaves were sometimes lodged. their enslavers and therefore disposable. removal could somehow soften the na- McGill points out that not all slave dwell- tion's grimmest chapter of history. As ings are the country cabins most people Tripling of world population since 1945, example, all that remains of Monticello's think of and that some of his stayovers globalization, war, environmental de- slave quarters is their site beside a gar- have involved more substantial urban struction and urbanization have driven den which Thomas Jefferson's slaves slave quarters. Third World people into cities and des- used to tend. peration, a bumper crop of potential McGill relates touching experiences from slaves. Turning the vulnerable into slaves Just by walking inside, extant slave quar- his stays. During a Texas stayover, he happens only with government corrup- ters such as Sotterley Plantation's well met a slave descendant and a slave tion or sheer indifference. restored cabin shown here convey much owner descendant who themselves were of their stories. The dirt floor, the sleep- meeting for the first time in the very Slaves today are found in agriculture, ing loft, the small windows, the walk-in cabin which one ancestor had owned and brickmaking, mining, quarrying, textiles, fireplace tell of lives sacrificed for the in which the other ancestor had lived. leather working, prostitution, gem work- comforts of people of another race look- At Sotterley, McGill dined at the home of ing, jewelry making, weaving, carpet ing down from Sotterley's big house. The board president Jan Briscoe, great- making, domestic work, clearing forests, aura in a cabin like this is still palpable granddaughter of the last slave owner at making charcoal and working in shops. nearly 150 years after Maryland rewrote the plantation, and was presented with Most of their work ends up for local sale, her constitution abolishing slavery. an oil painting of the cabin there where but slave-made goods make their way McGill had spent the night. McGill has through the global economy. Slave ori- also seen the controversial side of his gins of carpets, cotton, shrimp, fish, project, as some feel that slave dwell- sugar and jewelry are clear. Slave- ings should be leveled in a mistaken at- produced cocoa from the Ivory Coast, tempt to leave the nation's experiment and rugs made by slave children in India, with slavery in the past. Pakistan and Nepal are mainly exported to Europe and the United States. "In saving these places it gives us an op- portunity to bring the stories of African But there is hope. Today's 27 million Americans off the back pages. We as Af- slaves are the smallest fraction of world rican Americans are byproducts of those population ever to live in slavery, and who endured. In telling their stories we the $40 billion they generate as profits for enslavers is the smallest proportion are honoring them," McGill says. "You get inside these walls and you think about of the global economy ever represented While a growing number of writers and that time of slavery and wonder what by slavery, so small that no national researchers are now busily uncovering went through these people’s minds be- economy or industry would suffer if slav- the lives and roles of the nation's few cause within these walls was probably ery were ended. With universal agree- remaining slave quarters, probably no the easiest time of their lives. We know ment on the human right of freedom and one is delving more deeply than Joseph that beyond those walls there was a lot slavery now illegal in every country, the McGill, Jr., a program officer at the Na- of hard work and toil." stage is set for complete eradication. tional Trust for Historic Preservation. Based in Charleston not far from where In addition to his role with the National Today we know how to get people out of he grew up in Kingstree, South Carolina, Trust for Historic Preservation, Joseph slavery. The cost of liberation for all of one of McGill's assignments took him to McGill, Jr. serves as Commissioner of the the world's slaves is estimated at $11 bil- Boone Hall Plantation in nearby Mount South Carolina African American Heri- lion over 25 to 30 years, the cost of the Pleasant to assist in the restoration of a tage Commission, founder of the South bridge Hong Kong is building across the slave cabin. There in 2010 an idea was Carolina African American Historical Alli- Pearl River or what the city of Seattle born: McGill launched the Slave Dwelling ance, member of the South Carolina Hu- has budgeted for its light-rail system. Project to identify and spend the night manities Council, and on the board of What is now spent by governments on in as many slave quarters as he could the International African American Mu- eradication of slavery ranges from pa- find in order to draw attention to the seum. Prior to coming to the National thetic to insulting, nowhere near what is need to identify and restore the nation's Trust, McGill served as Executive Direc- spent on less serious crimes. The United remaining slave dwellings. tor of the African American Historical States spends more on prosecuting rec- Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa, and On Mothers' Day 2010, McGill completed reational marijuana use than on eradica- Director of History and Culture at Penn his first overnight stay at Boone Hall and tion of slavery. We stand at a moment in Center, St. Helena Island, South Caro- since then has bedded down in twenty- history when economies, governments, lina, the state's first school built for the five more slave dwellings in eight states. understanding, moral beliefs and hearts education of freed slaves. His 2012 itinerary includes twelve more are aligned to bring slavery to an end. See McGill's Slave Dwelling Project blog at http://blog.lowcountryafricana.net.