File:History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania (1883) (14761173405).jpg

Identifier: historyofundergr00smed_0 (find matches)
Title: History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Smedley, R. C. (Robert Clemens), 1832-1883
Subjects: Underground Railroad African Americans
Publisher: Lancaster, Pa., Office of the Journal
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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dom-itable perseverance in obtaining liberty. He was rearedin Maryland or Virginia, and had been sold and takento Georgia, near the boundary line with Florida. Hewas quite a young man, but must have been gifted withextraordinary geographical powers. Undeterred by thelong distance to be traveled on foot, or the privations tobe endured and risks incurred before he could reach Mason and Dixons line, he started on his journey,determined not only to attempt the undertaking, but tosucceed in it. For his guides, he relied wholly uponthe course of railroads running northward and uponhis knowledge of the country, gained in his compulsoryjourney southward. It is probable that he then hadescape in view, and that all his faculties were bent inone direction, for so accurate w^as his memory that hecould enumerate in successive order every countythrough which he passed, as evinced by tracing hiscourse upon the map of the country. The narrative ofhis journey abounded in incidents of peril, humor, and
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JOHN COX. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 273 even romance so interesting that the friends who listenedto it intended to preserve it. This was, however, neverdone, and after leaving Dr. FusselFs, George Harrishired with Pusey Cland, near Marlborough MeetingHouse, and soon afterward died. Among active abolitionists it too often happened thatone story succeeded another with great rapidity, whilethe main thought centered upon the safety of the narra-tors. Daily life and its duties interfered to prevent awritten record of these narratives, and it is now too lateto restore them with any degree of vividness. Fre-quently the speed of transit did not admit of sufficientdelay to listen to life histories; and sometimes there waslittle to tell except the unconscious heroism of escapefrom a system of barbarity, which lifted above the com-mon level of slavery natures which had been depravedby generations of ignorance, submission, and all theother vices inherent in the system to which they hadbeen subjected.

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