A writer has said that "Volumes filled with hair-breadth escapes, thrilling adventures and heroic deeds might be written concerning runaway slaves. Humanity and letters have both suffered loss for lack of a pen adequately to record the feats of noble daring achieved by the African in pursuit of freedom. All things considered, there is nothing in our revolutionary annals that surpasses such heroism. Our fathers sought liberty in company. They fought an enemy three thousand miles distant. The solitary fugitive sought freedom with an empire for his foe and himself in its midst. The very attempt has in it all the elements of the great and sublime.
I am indebted to Mr. Kean of Macksburg for the particulars of the following narrative. I shall mention no names, as the parties, or some of them, are still alive and it was known to but few until after the war.
A man whom I shall call Mr. B. lived four miles south of Stafford. While at work upon his farm, he saw a colored man running toward him, but who did not see Mr. B. until he had come within a few steps of him. The colored man was carrying a fine gun. He told Mr. B. that he was a runaway slave, that he had crossed the Ohio River near Newport the night before, that he had traveled without a guide and without food or rest, and that he was pursued by men who had been pressed into service and that his owner, or the man who had purchased him from his master, was urging on the pursuers.
He told B. that the rifle he carried was the property of his former master, that when he learned that he had been sold to a trader, he took the rifle and succeeded in making his escape. He was discovered crossing the river in a skiff that he found tied to the willows. Since he landed upon the Ohio side he had been so closely pressed that he could not stop for a moment. He offered B. his gun if he would direct him as to the best route to take to elude his pursuers. B. directed him in the direction of Summerfield and advised him to follow through large tracts of woodland and avoid certain houses, the homes of men who were not friendly to his race.
The slave took to the woods and was scarcely out of sight before two of B.'s neighbors came on the hunt, telling B. that the man who captured the runaway was to get ten dollars reward. B. was ready to join in the pursuit. He suggested that they each take a different direction, reserving for himself the one taken by the slave. He knew if the slave followed the woods as directed, he could cut him off at a certain point, which he could reach by traveling over much smoother ground.
When B. reached the place he waited but a few minutes and the slave came to him, as he was hid behind a tree. The gun was pointed at him and he commanded him to follow or be shot. The slave told him to shoot if he wished, as he could not take him alive. Before B. was aware of it, his prize had bounded away and was lost to sight.
The fugitive losing sight of B., changed his course and hid in a brush fence. He remained there until dark. After lying upon the cold ground, he became so stiff that he could not walk He worked his way to a house in which he saw a light. Nothing was left him now but power to plead for help. This power he used so effectually that he secured the sympathy of the man who was known as a most ultra pro-slavery man. The part of the story which affected him most was that of the treachery of B. He told the slave that he should have his help. He assisted him to his barn, covered him over well with hay and told him to remain there until his return.
This man had promised the use of his horse to a neighbor to go to Barnesville. He was to start before daylight and was to return the next day with a friend. Our man lost no time in seeing his friend and telling him of the meanness of B. and proposed to him that if they saw the slave they would assist him to escape. Having secured this promise, he told the story of the slave and arranged plans for his neighbor to start at midnight and take the slave as far as he could toward Guinea.
Years after, those men would tell to their most intimate friends that at midnight one of them was seated upon a very restless horse while the other was down upon his knees rubbing the stiff limbs of a slave until he could stand alone and have use of himself to enable him to ride the horse, saddled ready for his use. While the horse's hoofs were clattering away, the gate posts, trees and other objects seemed to be whispering "negro thief, woolly-head," such words as those men used when referring to Cleveland, Steele, Hughes, Markey, and others.
The next day the hunt was renewed, but no trace of the runaway could be found. B. said the ground must have swallowed him. The roads leading from certain houses were watched for several days and nights. The woods and barns were searched. No one but a well known pro-slavery man had been away from the neighborhood. He would not even allow a colored man to be in his company, so he was not suspected. B. could not understand how two men that had not even seen the slave had found out how he came in possession of the gun.
Mr. Tuttle wishes to know the name of my father. His name was Joseph H. Markey. He was a minister of the M. E. church, which he left and joined the Wesleyan Church after its organization. Many fugitives found shelter in our house. The tales of suffering told by those oppressed people deepened the impressions made upon my mind by reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was published in The National Era.
The friends of slavery asserted that the condition of the colored race was better in slavery than it would be if they were emancipated. I have often heard my father referred to in a way that caused me much trouble. I was often told that while he was preaching, he was violating the laws of the land by breaking the Fugitive Slave Law.
Since I have heard some of the messages sent to him by those fugitives after reaching a land of freedom, and learning the prosperity of many of them, I was then able to understand the words, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in." As Christ promised this blessing to all those "who have done it to one of the least of these His brethren," I know he has been rewarded for all his labors in behalf of the despised race.
M. A. W.
[Mary A. Wolfe?]
[Mary A. Wolfe?]
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