Thomas Garrett and the Underground Railroad
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Our Economic Past Thomas Garrett and the Underground Railroad BY BURTON FOLSOM, JR. n March 27, 1857, an elderly Quaker aboli- hardware store in Wilmington, which had a secret tionist named Thomas Garrett climbed the panel, he helped over 2,300 fugitive slaves slip through Ostairs to his office in Wilmington, Delaware, the last 20 miles of slave territory into Pennsylvania. and penned the following letter to a fellow conductor The audacious Garrett also tried to feed the often on the underground railroad: “I have been very exhausted blacks and give them each a pair of shoes anxious for some time past, to hear what has become before smuggling them toward the border. of Harriet Tubman. Has thee seen or heard His most frequent guest was Harriet Tubman, anything of her lately? It would be a who had escaped from a plantation sorrowful fact, if such a hero as she, For the Underground in Maryland and who not once should be lost from the Underground but dozens of times courageously Rail Road.” Railroad to function, crisscrossed the Delaware Pennsyl- Garrett’s words remind us of three vania border to help over 300 of her things. First, the institution of slavery black and white fellow fugitives secure freedom. directly contradicted the spirit of had to share risks Garrett, as his letter indicates, liberty that was wafting through came to care so deeply for Tubman America in the 1800s. Second, the and work together. that he was in anguish whenever she Underground Railroad was a key to was endangered. freedom for fugitive slaves. Third, for the Underground On one of her excursions she could not get to Railroad to be successful, black and white had to work Garrett’s store because the local police had been together—effectively and courageously. aroused and had posted sentries at the Wilmington Historians often neglect this last point, but it is crit- bridge into the city. Tubman had a secret note sent to ical to understanding the story of freedom in America. Garrett explaining her problem, and the imaginative Blacks, of course, risked their lives when they tried to Quaker hatched the following plan. He hired a group escape from their masters. But the white “conductors” of sympathetic bricklayers and had them leave the city on the Underground Railroad, who housed and then crossing the Wilmington bridge in two wagons, seem- transported the slaves northward, risked jail terms or ingly off for a day’s work on a farm. The police, of large fines. According to the Fugitive Slave Act, slaves course, noted the wagons and expected their return were property, economic assets; helping runaway later. Once Garrett’s henchmen were safely outside the slaves, therefore, was theft—the transporting of stolen city, they rendezvoused with Tubman and carefully hid goods across state lines. Slave owners were allowed to all the fugitives in the bottom of the wagons, go into free territory in the North, using the power of under blankets and tools. Later that day, the the state to recover their property, and to prosecute bricklayers returned to Wilmington and, with those who trafficked in stolen goods. For the gaiety and song, recrossed the bridge, ambled through Underground Railroad to function, black and white the roadblock, and fooled the unsuspecting guards. had to share risks and work together to fulfill the goals of the Declaration of Independence. Burton Folsom, Jr. ([email protected]) is the Charles Kline Professor of History and Management at Hillsdale College in Thomas Garrett was perhaps the busiest station- Michigan. He is the author of The Myth of the Robber Barons, master on the entire Underground Railroad. From his now in its fourth edition. 29 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 Burton Folsom, Jr. Once the fugitives were safely inside the city, Garrett The elusive Tubman never was caught, but emerged to direct them north to freedom. Garrett once was. The court fined him $5,000 to com- pensate the slave owner for his loss of property. Life-Threatening Dedication Such a steep fine left Garrett nearly bankrupt and arrett’s and Tubman’s decision to challenge slav- at the mercy of the local authorities. “Thomas,” Gery angered many Americans. When one enraged the sheriff admonished him after the trial, “I slave owner threatened to shoot Garrett, he boldly vis- hope you will never be caught at this again.” After a ited the man, opened his arms, and said, “Here I am, brief silence, Garrett replied, “Friend, I haven’t thee can shoot me if thee likes.” The bewildered slave a dollar in the world, but if thee knows a owner was so startled by Garrett’s demeanor that he fugitive anywhere on the face of the earth who needs a let him go. Garrett was regularly breakfast, send him to me.” watched by local police and was Garrett not only survived his fine, even denounced by U. S. Chief but rebuilt his hardware business Justice Roger Taney. and helped more slaves than ever. Meanwhile, Tubman had prob- “Esteemed friend,” he later wrote a lems of her own. Her husband had black comrade in Philadelphia, denounced her and tried to turn her “this is my 69th birthday, and I in. Had he been able to do so, he do not know any better way to might have become a wealthy celebrate it in a way to accord man because his wife’s capture, with my feelings, than to send to thee dead or alive, would have fetched a two fugitives, a man and wife.” $12,000 reward. Garrett lived to see slavery Such a sum tempted another abolished and died in 1871 at age escaped fugitive, Thomas Otwell, to Thomas Garrett 81. White and black together com- try to catch her. Tubman entrusted courtesy of the Historical Society of Delaware memorated his life, and thousands him to help sneak eight more fugitives to Garrett and lined the streets of Wilmington for half a mile to view then to freedom. Otwell almost delivered her and the the black pallbearers carry him to his church. fugitives to the police, but Tubman left the group The Thomas Garrett story is omitted from early, and when Otwell took the others to the Dover, almost all American history texts. Telling it to Delaware, jail, they managed to break out. Six of them students can instruct and inspire them about a made it safely to Garrett, who quickly rushed them to crucial chapter in the triumph of freedom in Pennsylvania before the police could stop him. American history. Just as Garrett and Tubman As these stories show, one of the most startling worked for liberty together, so blacks and whites can truths of the Underground Railroad is that much of the work together today to strike down racial barriers and conflict was black versus black and white versus white, promote racial harmony. rather than black versus white. THE FREEMAN: Ideas on Liberty 30.