Slave Life in Georgia - African American History

Slave Life in Georgia 114
24.03.2006
Society also marked their high respect for him, and their deep sympathy with his
mourning friends, in a series of resolutions embodying these sentiments, and
recording their protest against the vile and unholy system to the malignity of
which he fell a sacrifice.
Torrey's death did not, however, in the least degree affect the success of the
"underground
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railroad." From the period of its establishment to that of the passing of the
Fugitive Slave-law, the average number of passengers by it exceeded a thousand
a year. But since 1850, the number has greatly increased, not only owing to the
fact becoming known to the slave-community through various channels, that if a
fugitive only strike a certain track, he will find friends to help him on to Canada,
but also because that atrocious enactment has roused a spirit of opposition to the
power which carried it through the Senate, and which has by its means
attempted to convert the Free States into man-traps, and free citizens into manstealers
and kidnappers for the South. The escapes are at present so much on the
increase, that the slave-owners are adopting the most active measures to check
the traffic by the underground line.
It may be readily conceived that to accomplish the safe transit of a convoy,
much precaution and forethought are indispensable. Usually, means are taken to
signal, from one station to another, the arrival and the departure of each train of
passengers; (for as such we will consider the runaways:) so that the lookers-out
at the station a-head may be on the watch. The main difficulty
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is to convey the travellers across the rivers. The ordinary ferry-boats would not,
for obvious reasons, be the most eligible water-conveyance. Against this
contingency due provision is made, and "pilots" are appointed for this special
service, whose duty it is to lie in wait at or near the place which has been
signalled as the point for which the convoy will make. This service involves
much anxious and patient watching, as the safety of the fugitives wholly
depends upon their meeting with the expected "pilot" at the specified crossingplace.
We will illustrate, by two anecdotes, the danger and accidents incidental
to a trip by the underground line, and the consequences of slips by the way.
At a certain village on the Ohio river, not a hundred miles from Cincinnati, and