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28 - Underground Railroad, Part 1 by William Still · Underground Railroad, Part 1

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of The Underground Railroad Part one. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Sherri Jordan. The Underground Railroad
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  Speaker 1: Part one by William Still, Section twenty seven A slave
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  Speaker 1: girl's narrative Cordelia, lonely slave of Missus Joseph Cahell, widow
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  Speaker 1: of the late Honorable Joseph Cahel of Virginia of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
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  Speaker 1: Cordelia's escaped from her mistress in Philadelphia. Rarely did the
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  Speaker 1: peculiar institution present the relations of mistress and maidservant in
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  Speaker 1: a light so apparently favorable as in the case of
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  Speaker 1: Missus Joseph Cahell, widow of the late Honorable Joseph Cahell
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  Speaker 1: of Virginia, and her slave Cordelia. The Vigilance Committee's first
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of either of these memorable personages was brought about
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  Speaker 1: in the following manner. About the thirtieth of March in
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  Speaker 1: the year eighteen fifty nine, a member of the Vigilance
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  Speaker 1: Committee was notified by a colored servant living at a
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  Speaker 1: fashionable boarding house on Chestnut Street, that a lady with
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  Speaker 1: a slave woman from Fredericksburg, Virginia was boarding at said house,
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  Speaker 1: and that said slave woman desired to receive counsel and
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  Speaker 1: aid from the committee, as she was anxious to secure
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  Speaker 1: her freedom before her mistress returned to the South. On
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  Speaker 1: further consultation about the matter, a suitable hour was named
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  Speaker 1: for the meeting of the committee and the slave at
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  Speaker 1: the above named boarding house. Finding that the woman was
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  Speaker 1: thoroughly reliable, the committee told her that two modes of
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  Speaker 1: deliverance were opened before her. One was to take her
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  Speaker 1: trunk and all her clothing and quietly retire. The other
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  Speaker 1: was to sue out a writ of habeas corpus and
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  Speaker 1: bring the mistress before the court, where she would be
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  Speaker 1: required under the laws of Pennsylvania to show calls while
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  Speaker 1: she restrained this woman of her freedom. Cordelia concluded to
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  Speaker 1: adopt the former expedient, provided the Committee would protect her
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  Speaker 1: without hesitation. The committee answered her that to the extent
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  Speaker 1: of their ability, she should have their aid with pleasure
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  Speaker 1: without delay. Consequently, a member of the committee was directed
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  Speaker 1: to be on hand at a given hour that evening,
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  Speaker 1: as Cordelia would certainly be ready to leave her mistress
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  Speaker 1: to take care of herself. Thus, at the appointed hour,
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  Speaker 1: Cordelia very deliberately accompanied the committee away from her kind
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  Speaker 1: hearted old mistress. In the quiet and security of the
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  Speaker 1: vigilance committee room, Cordelia related substantially the following brief story
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  Speaker 1: touching her relationship as a slave to Missus Joseph cohel
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  Speaker 1: In this case, as with thousands and tens of thousands
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  Speaker 1: of others, as the old adage fitly expresses, it all
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  Speaker 1: is not gold that glitters under this apparently pious and
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  Speaker 1: noble minded lady. It will be seen that Cordelia had
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  Speaker 1: known naught but misery and sorrow. Missus Cohele, having engaged
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  Speaker 1: Ward for a month at a fashionable private boarding house
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  Speaker 1: on Chestnut Street, took an early opportunity to caution Cordelia
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  Speaker 1: against going into the streets and having anything to say
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  Speaker 1: or do with free niggers. In particular, withal she appeared
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  Speaker 1: unusually kind, so much so that before retiring to bed
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  Speaker 1: in the evening, she would call Cordelia to her chamber,
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  Speaker 1: and by her side would take her prayer book and
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  Speaker 1: Bible and go through the forms of devotional service. She
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  Speaker 1: stood very high, both as a church communicant and a
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  Speaker 1: lady in society. For a fortnight, it seemed as though
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  Speaker 1: her prayers were to be answered. For Cordelia apparently bore
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  Speaker 1: herself as submissively as ever, and Madame received calls and
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  Speaker 1: accepted invitations from some of the elite of the city
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  Speaker 1: without suspecting any intention on the part of Cordelia to escape,
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  Speaker 1: For Cordelia could not forget how her children had all
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  Speaker 1: been sold by her mistress. Cordelia was about fifty seven
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  Speaker 1: years of age, with about an equal proportion of colored
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  Speaker 1: and white blood in her veins, very neat, respectful, and
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  Speaker 1: prepossessing in manner. From her birth to the hour of
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  Speaker 1: her escape, she had worn the yoke under missus c
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  Speaker 1: as her most efficient and reliable maid servant. She had
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  Speaker 1: been at her mistress's beck and call as seamstress, dressing maid,
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  Speaker 1: nurse in the sick room, et cetera, et cetera, under
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  Speaker 1: circumstances that might appear to the casual observer uncommonly favorable
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  Speaker 1: for a slave. Indeed, on his first interview with her,
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  Speaker 1: the committee man was so forcibly impressed with the belief
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  Speaker 1: that her condition in Virginia had been favorable that he
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  Speaker 1: hesitated to ask her if she did not desire her liberty.
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  Speaker 1: A few moments conversation with her, however, convinced him of
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  Speaker 1: her good sense and decision of purpose with regard to
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  Speaker 1: this matter. For in answer to the first question he
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  Speaker 1: put to her, she answered that as many creature comforts
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  Speaker 1: and religious privileges as she had been the recipient of
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  Speaker 1: under her kind mistress, still she wanted to be free
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  Speaker 1: and was bound to leave. That she had been treated
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  Speaker 1: very cruelly, that her children had all been sold away
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  Speaker 1: from her, that she had been threatened with sale herself
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  Speaker 1: on the first insult, et cetera. She was willing to
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  Speaker 1: take the entire responsibility of taking care of herself. On
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  Speaker 1: the suggestion of a friend before leaving her mistress, she
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  Speaker 1: was disposed to sue for her freedom, but upon a
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  Speaker 1: reconsideration of the matter, she chose rather to accept the
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  Speaker 1: hospitality of the underground railroad and leave in a quiet
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  Speaker 1: way and go to Canada, where she would be free. Indeed, accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: she left her mistress and was soon a free woman.
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  Speaker 1: The following sad experience, she related calmly in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of several friends an evening or two after she left
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  Speaker 1: her mistress. Two sons and two daughters had been sold
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  Speaker 1: from her by her mistress. Within the last three years
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  Speaker 1: since the death of her master. Three of her children
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  Speaker 1: had been sold to the Richmond Market and the other
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  Speaker 1: in Nelson County. Paulina was the first sold two years
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  Speaker 1: ago last May nat was the next. He was sold
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  Speaker 1: to Abram Warwick of Richmond. Paulina was sold before it
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  Speaker 1: was named to her mother that it had entered her
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  Speaker 1: mistress's mind to dispose of her. Nancy from infancy had
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  Speaker 1: been in poor health. Nevertheless, she had been obliged to
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  Speaker 1: take her place in the field with the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the slaves of more rugged constitution until she had passed
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  Speaker 1: her twentieth year and had become a mother. Under these circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: the overseer and his wife complained to the mistress that
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  Speaker 1: her health was really too bad for a field hand,
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  Speaker 1: and begged that she might be taken where her duties
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  Speaker 1: would be less oppressive. Accordingly, she was withdrawn from the
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  Speaker 1: field and was set to spinning and weaving. When too
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  Speaker 1: sick to work, her mistress invariably took the ground that
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  Speaker 1: nothing was the matter. Notwithstanding the fact that her family physician,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Elsome, had pronounced her quite weakly and sick. In
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  Speaker 1: an angry mood, one day, missus Cahll declared she would
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  Speaker 1: cure her and again sent her to the field, with
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  Speaker 1: orders to the overseer to whip her every day and
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  Speaker 1: make her work, or kill her again. The overseer said
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  Speaker 1: it was no use to try for her help would
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  Speaker 1: not stand it, and she was forthwith returned. The mistress
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  Speaker 1: then concluded to sell her. One Sabbath evening, a nephew
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  Speaker 1: of hers, who resided in New Orleans, happened to be
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  Speaker 1: on a visit to his aunt when it occurred to
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  Speaker 1: her that she had better get Nancy off if possible. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: Nancy was called in for examination. Being dressed in her
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  Speaker 1: Sunday best and before a poor candle light, she appeared
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  Speaker 1: to good advantage, and the nephew concluded to start with
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  Speaker 1: her on the following Tuesday morning. However, the next morning
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  Speaker 1: he happened to see her by the light of the
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  Speaker 1: sun and in her working garments, which satisfied him that
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  Speaker 1: he had been grossly deceived that she would barely live
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  Speaker 1: to reach New Orleans. He positively refused to carry out
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  Speaker 1: the previous evening's contract, thus leaving her in the hands
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  Speaker 1: of her mistress, with the advice that she should doctor
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  Speaker 1: her up. The mistress, not disposed to be defeated, obviated
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  Speaker 1: the difficulty by selecting a little boy, made a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the two, and thus made it an inducement to
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  Speaker 1: a purchaser to buy the sick woman. The boy and
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  Speaker 1: the woman brought seven hundred dollars in the sale of
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  Speaker 1: her children. Cordelia was as little regarded as if she
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  Speaker 1: had been a cow. I felt wretched, she said, with emphasis,
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  Speaker 1: when I heard that Nancy had been sold, which was
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  Speaker 1: not until after she had been removed. But she continued,
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  Speaker 1: I was not at liberty to make my grief known
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  Speaker 1: to a single white soul. I wept and couldn't help it,
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  Speaker 1: But remembering that she was liable on the first insult,
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  Speaker 1: to be sold herself, she sought no sympathy from her mistress,
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  Speaker 1: whom she describes as a woman who shows as little
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  Speaker 1: kindness towards her servants as any woman in the States
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  Speaker 1: of America. She neither likes to feed nor clothe well
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  Speaker 1: with regard to flogging. However, in days past she had
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  Speaker 1: been up to the mark. A many a slap and
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  Speaker 1: blow had Cordelia received since she arrived at womanhood directly
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  Speaker 1: from the madam's own hand. One day, smarting under cruel treatment,
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  Speaker 1: she appealed to her mistress in the following strain. I
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  Speaker 1: stood by your mother in all her sickness and nursed
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  Speaker 1: her till she died. I waited on your niece night
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  Speaker 1: and day for months till she died. I waited upon
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  Speaker 1: your husband all my life, in his sickness especially, and
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  Speaker 1: shrouded him in death, et cetera. Yet I am treated cruelly.
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  Speaker 1: It was of no avail. Her mistress, at one time
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  Speaker 1: was the owner of about five hundred slaves, but within
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  Speaker 1: the last few years she had greatly lessened the number
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  Speaker 1: by sales. She stood very high as a lady, and
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  Speaker 1: was a member of the Episcopal Church. To punish Cordelia,
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  Speaker 1: on several occasions, she had been sent to one of
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  Speaker 1: the plantations to work as a field hand. Fortunately, however,
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  Speaker 1: she found the overseers more compassionate than her mistress, though
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  Speaker 1: she received no particular favors from any of them. Asking
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  Speaker 1: her to name the overseers et cetera, she did so.
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  Speaker 1: The first was Marx, a thin visaged, poor looking man,
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  Speaker 1: great for swearing. The second was Gilbert Brower, a very rash,
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  Speaker 1: portly man. The third was Buck Jung, a stout man
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  Speaker 1: and very sharp. The fourth was Lynn Powell, a tall
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  Speaker 1: man with red whiskers, very contrary and spiteful. There was
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  Speaker 1: also a fifth one, but his name was lost. Thus
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  Speaker 1: Cordelia's experience, though chiefly confined to the Great House, extended
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  Speaker 1: occasionally over the corn and tobacco fields among the overseers
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  Speaker 1: and field hands. Generally, but under no circumstances could she
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  Speaker 1: find it in her heart to be thankful for the
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  Speaker 1: privileges of slavery. After leaving her mistress, she learned with
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  Speaker 1: no little degree of pleasure, that a perplexed state of
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  Speaker 1: things existed at the boarding house, that her mistress was
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  Speaker 1: seriously puzzled to imagine how she would get her shoes
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  Speaker 1: and stockings on and off, how she would get her
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  Speaker 1: head combed, get dressed, be attended to in sickness, et cetera,
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  Speaker 1: as she Cordelia had been compelled to discharge these offices
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  Speaker 1: all her life. Most of the boarders, being slaveholders, naturally
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  Speaker 1: sympathized in her affliction, and some of them went so
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  Speaker 1: far as to offer a reward to some of the
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  Speaker 1: colored servants to gain a knowledge of her whereabouts. Some
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  Speaker 1: charged the servants with having a hand in her leaving,
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  Speaker 1: but all agreed that she had left a very kind
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  Speaker 1: and indulgent mistress, and had acted very foolishly in running
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  Speaker 1: out of slavery into freedom. A certain doctor of divinity,
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  Speaker 1: the pastor of an episcopal church in this city, and
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  Speaker 1: a friend of the mistress, hearing of her distress, by
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  Speaker 1: request or voluntarily undertook to find out Cordelia's place of seclusion.
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  Speaker 1: Hailing on the street a certain colored man with a
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  Speaker 1: familiar face, who he thought knew nearly all the colored
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  Speaker 1: people about town. He related to him the predicament of
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  Speaker 1: his lady friend from the south, remarked how kindly she
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  Speaker 1: had always treated her servants, signified that Cordelia would rule
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  Speaker 1: the change and be left to suffer among the miserable
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  Speaker 1: blacks downtown, that she would not be able to take
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  Speaker 1: care of herself, quoted scripture justifying slavery, and finally suggested
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  Speaker 1: that he, the colored man, would be doing a duty
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  Speaker 1: and a kindness to the fugitive by using his influence
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  Speaker 1: to find her and prevail upon her to return. It
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  Speaker 1: so happened that the colored man thus addressed was Thomas Dorsey,
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  Speaker 1: the well known, fashionable caterer of Philadelphia, who had had
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  Speaker 1: the experience of quite a number of years as a
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  Speaker 1: slave at the South, had himself once been pursued as
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  Speaker 1: a fugitive, and having by his industry, in the condition
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  Speaker 1: of freedom, acquired a handsome estate, he felt entirely qualified
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  Speaker 1: to reply to the reverend gentleman, which he did, though
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  Speaker 1: in not very respectful phrases, telling him that Cordelia had
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  Speaker 1: as good a right to her liberty as he had
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  Speaker 1: or her mistress, either, that God had never intended one
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  Speaker 1: man to be the slave of another, that it was
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  Speaker 1: all false about the slaves being better off than the
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  Speaker 1: free colored people, that he would find as many poor,
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  Speaker 1: miserably degraded of his own color downtown as among the
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  Speaker 1: degraded blacks, And concluded by telling him that he would
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  Speaker 1: give her a hundred dollars to help her off, than
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  Speaker 1: to do aught to make known her whereabouts if he
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  Speaker 1: knew ever so much about her. What further steps were
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  Speaker 1: taken by the discomfited divine The mistress or her boarding
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  Speaker 1: house sympathizers. The committee was not informed, but with regard
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  Speaker 1: to Cordelia, she took her departure for Canada in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of the Daniel Webster fugitive trial, with the hope
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  Speaker 1: of being permitted to enjoy the remainder of her life
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  Speaker 1: in freedom and peace. Being a member of the Baptist
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  Speaker 1: Church and professing to be a Christian, she was persuaded
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  Speaker 1: that by industry and assistance of the Lord, a way
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  Speaker 1: would be opened to the seeker of freedom, even in
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  Speaker 1: a strange land and among strangers. This story appeared in
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  Speaker 1: part in the New York Evening Post, having been furnished
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  Speaker 1: by the writer without his name to it. It is
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  Speaker 1: certainly none the less interesting now, as it may be
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  Speaker 1: read in the light of universal emancipation. End of section
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven. Recording by Sherrie Jordan.