Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

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Slave Life in Georgia 108 show the world that a "nigger" has quite as much will, and energy, and purpose in him, as any white Page 209 man, if you only give him fair play. I also want to show my coloured brethren who are in Canada, that they might do something great for our people in the South, by turning their attention to growing cotton in the West Indies or in Africa. By so doing, they would strike slavery a hard blow, just where it is most likely to feel it. I have been to Canada, and though the coloured people there may, some of them, be doing tolerably well, snow does not agree with their complexion. They ought to look into the future. They ought to consider those they have left behind them, and how they can help them. My opinion is, they could do so better in the West Indies or in Africa, than in Canada. Cotton is the King of Slavery. So long as there is a good market for slave-grown cotton, so long will it pay slave-holders to produce it. The coloured people must do their own work. If they stand by till other folks do it for them, slavery may take a long lease yet. But only let them once come to this conclusion, that they have a work to do, and set about it in earnest, and Slavery may call in all the doctors the South can muster--including old Sam himself--but it must die, in spite of every thing they can do to keep it alive. Page 210 CHAPTER XXI. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 24.03.2006 (From the Anti-Slavery Reporter, April 1853.) No railroad in the world deserves greater encouragement than the one which bears this name, at once so peculiar and so expressive. It was originally projected to connect the Southern States of the American Union with the Northern: Slavery with Freedom. It may be said properly to commence at what is technically known as Mason and Dixon's line; that is at the junction of the Slave States with the Free States: and to terminate at the southern frontier of Canada. Its course is by no means regular, for it has to encounter the Alleghanyrange of mountains and several considerable rivers, including the
Slave Life in Georgia 109 Ohio. Lake Erie too lies in its track, nor is it altogether independent of forests. In spite, however, of all these, and numerous minor obstacles, the line has been constructed with admirable skill, as they can Page 211 testify whose circumstances have compelled them to avail themselves of this mode of transit. Travelling by it cannot strictly be said to be either pleasant or altogether safe; yet the traffic is greatly on the increase. It is exclusively a passenger traffic; the trains are all express, and strange to add, run all one way, namely, from South towards the North: there are no return tickets. The stations are numerous, but by no means conspicuous. The principal aim of the projectors having been to get the line itself into good working condition, the stations were selected for convenience more than for show. They lie from ten to fifteen miles apart, having nothing in their external appearance to distinguish them particularly, though they are never, or very rarely missed. Once the passenger is fairly on the line, he seldom fails reaching his ultimate destination. Owing to the great danger and the numerous difficulties that attend the running of a train, extreme caution is requisite in regulating the hour of its departure, and no small amount of ingenuity and dexterity is brought into play to secure the safety of the passengers. The character of the train varies according to circumstances and the exigencies of the case; but in this respect, comfort is disregarded Page 212 as a matter of trifling importance, in comparison with the principal object, which is individual security. The Underground Railroad being for the exclusive use of slaves, who are running for freedom, its managers are not known, in a general way. It is rather a point with them to evade popularity, for detection would bring with it no end of fines and imprisonment. Yet they derive no pecuniary advantage from what is called "the forwarding business." They work, like noble heroes as they are, for suffering and oppressed humanity, and for no other reward than the satisfaction of their conscience. The station-masters belong to almost every class of society, and are dispersed all over the regions through which the underground line passes: for its branches are very numerous, and require extensive and constant supervision, not only to prevent accidents, (that is, seizures,) but also to gather information. It frequently happens that a train is kept waiting several days, sometimes two or three weeks, when the "danger" signal has been made, which usually means "look out for slave- 24.03.2006
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Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

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